October - bought my son some black cords for Christmas photos/get togethers/etc. - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

December - bought myself a nice wallet - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

January - bought party supplies for my daughter’s 5th birthday party - they shipped USPS - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

January - someone bought something from me, I shipped - scanned in Atlanta - nothing since.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Obviously they have an internal theft issue and what are they doing about? How are they compensating customers? B is going to take ALL my stuff and meet with our postmaster. I am just so flippin’ mad. Maybe emotional too, this morning I almost started crying over my daughter’s lost party supplies. Thank goodness I shop early and have time to re-purchase or try to get the company to re-ship. (I thought they were shipping UPS as it stated on my email receipt)

Anyway - word of caution - ship UPS instead….at least then you can track your package with RELIABLE tracking and KNOW when it’s delivered.

Mommy woke up at 6:45 in the morning to get ready for work, but she felt like she had peed in the bed. She stood up and realized her water broke. (that meant it was time for you to come out of mommy’s tummy) Daddy was in the shower so I told him what happened, we called the doctor and headed to the hospital. Mommy went up to a nice room and changed into a hospital gown. The nurses put a monitor on my belly so I could hear your beautiful heartbeat. I got some medicine to make me feel better and continued to wait to meet you. You were born at 7:12 that evening.  You were 6 pounds and 12 ounces, 21.5 inches long, blue eyes, hardly any hair. It was the happiest day of my life, we are so very Blessed.

I watched you learn to crawl, learn to walk, learn to talk. You first said “mama” in the bathtub when you were just 6 months old. We celebrated your 1st Birthday at home with a Winnie the Pooh party. You started walking when you were 14 months old.  You helped us welcome Ellis into the world when you were 18 months old. You are such a great big sister!! I love watching you play with Ellis, help him and teach him.

We’ve had so much fun together, going to the Zoo, The Wiggles concerts, Elmo concert, Diego concert, the Aquarium, playing at the park. You celebrated your second birthday at home with Elmo. You celebrated your third birthday at the rec center with Diego. I have enjoyed watching you grow into the gorgeous, smart, witty, funny, sometimes stubborn 4 year old you are today.

Peyton, I love you with every piece of my heart, every fiber of my being. You mean the world to me and I am SO PROUD that God Blessed me with you as a daughter. I hope that you continue to enjoy your precious life and that I can always help to make it more fun, more inspiring, more challenging as you continue to grow.

Mommy loves you so very much. Happy 4th Birthday my Honey Pot!!

Ellis, you are such a blessing to us, named after your paternal grandfather, Ellis Kirby Burroughs and of course after your daddy and Pawpaw. (for the Michael part of your name) I love watching you grow and learn new things. I can’t wait to observe and help you learn and grow over the next year. Mommy loves you very much.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my chunky monkey man!

Ommy lived with my then bf (now DH) and I in an apartment where he grew from the size of a beanie baby to the size of me. He got too big for our apartment and I had a fence built in my grandmother’s backyard for him.

We bought out house in December 2003 and Ommy came home with us in a fence I built for him in our backyard. He’s such a puppy, always acted so enthusiastic, once literally lifted me off the front steps of my grandmother’s house b/c he was so ready to bolt outside for a walk. (yes, it hurt when I finally hit the ground) He was a great dog who learned to sit and lie down for me on my command.

In March 2006 we bought him a little friend, a new black labrador retriever. At first as she got older she would get a little feisty guarding her food, but the two soon became good friends.

Ommy had what I believed to be an abscess on his side a couple months ago and I took him into the vet. They surgically removed it and found it to be cancerous. The outlying tissue had no cancer cells so they were pretty sure they got it all. About 2-3 weeks ago I noticed the tumor was re-growing in the same area and there were also about 2-3 small growths all on his right side, but they weren’t getting too large so I just continued to keep an eye on him. Over this past weekend Ommy did something to his toe, it had become swollen so I called yesterday to take him into the vet. I dropped him off this morning, I was in a hurry b/c I had to drop DD off at preschool and get to a dermatologist appt for myself and was running late. I hurriedly left him, just telling him to go with the girl who picked him up. He didn’t really seem to want to turn his head, I wonder if he knew he wasn’t going to see me again.

I went in to check on him later and was told they hadn’t gotten to him yet. We got a phone call after 6pm that his toe was infected up to the bone and that they needed to remove his entire toe to get out the infection. That news was followed by the news that in addition to the re-growths on his side he also had a large growth on his stomach. DH got off the phone with the vet to talk to me and the vet ran tests, called back and said the toe was not cancerous, but both the stomach and side masses were cancer. The stomach mass was the size of a softball and was inoperable. It was also quite possibly why Ommy hasn’t really eaten the past 3 days. (dogs generally have smaller appetites in the heat of summer so I didn’t give it too much thought)

So here I sat with a decision to make…he was still under anesthesia from the prep for surgery on his toe. I had a cat once who had leukemia and I did treat her with chemotherapy which seemed to just prolong her pain. The vet said if Ommy made it 6 more months he’d be surprised. I decided to let them put him to sleep b/c I didn’t want him to suffer anymore from not eating or if the cancer was in his bone or organs. The vet agreed it was a wise choice, but why the hell does it hurt so much?? I couldn’t bear the thought of being there while they did it so I didn’t go in. I didn’t want them to wake him up from the anesthesia just to put him back to sleep and my mom couldn’t make it there in time to be with him either…not before the anesthesia wore off…so my poor baby passed away alone, surrounded by strangers.

Tomorrow morning I go to pick him up and bury him in my mom’s Pet Sematary on her property.

Ommy —— 8/25/99 - 7/26/07

Brandon and I bought out his old business partner and have been husband/wife teaming 2BigFeet.com since that time. We decided to open a storefront and warehouse our own inventory so we’ve moved it all back to LaGrange and that’s where Ellis and I go every morning after dropping Peyton off for preschool. So between that and spending time with the kids (aside from Brandon’s FT job) we are busy, busy, busy!

We attended a wedding this past weekend, CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Lance & Diana who are hopefully enjoying an awesome honeymoon right now. We had the DJ play our song…our first dance song from our wedding…’Amazed’ by Lonestar. For a brief 3 minutes it was like no one else was in the room but us…we were just lost in each other’s arms. It’s amazing to still be so in love after 9 years of dating and 5.5 years of marriage. He truly is my soul mate.

So, in short, life is just awesome for us. We’re looking to finally get my Honda Pilot in the coming months and will likely move into a bigger house within the next 2-3 years. We need a guest room again for Aunt Tonia & Uncle Paul.

I’m sure we’ll update again soon as Ellis’ 2nd birthday is quickly approaching and we’ll have yet another Wiggles concert!

Hope you’re all doing well!!

Peyton turned 3 on March 10th. She had a family celebration on her birthday at our home then a big party on the 11th. She had so much fun! Her first birthday party of really having a bunch of friends and playing. Ellis had a blast too and now they’re both helping me plan Ellis’ 2nd birthday party. Her theme was Diego and she wore an awesome custom Diego outfit. If you missed her party you really missed out, she had a blast!

We just had another birthday pass…my grandfather was born April 4, 1918. He passed away July 3, 2001, but we still miss him and think about him often. He practically raised me so he was more like a dad to me than a grandfather. I miss that my kids will never get to meet him, he was an awesome man.

In other news, 2BigFeet is keeping me very busy! Peyton is in a Christian Church Pre-school program 2 days a week and is loving it!! Ellis stays home as he isn’t quite ready to leave mommy yet. My grandmother comes over and plays with him while I work from our home office. Brandon is busy working for a web design firm in town. We’re discussing getting our house ready to sell over the next year…we really need a 4 bedroom. We also plan to trade in the truck in the next few months to get me a new Honda Pilot. I can’t wait to have 3 rows of seats!!

So now onto other things…Brandon is currently test driving a mini cooper which means I will be driving the truck and we’ll sell our car. If things go well we will aquire full ownership of one of his businesses and trade the truck in for my new Honda Pilot. I need more room and would LOVE to get a Pilot, even a 2006 is fine. Anyone? Late Christmas gift? No? Oh well.

So since my grandmother can’t even turn on a computer it’s safe to post that we are planning a SURPRISE 70th birthday party for her so SHHHHHH keep it a secret!! So I’m into planning that right now as well as Peyton’s 3rd birthday party. Her party is a zoo/safari animal theme so I’m looking into having it at a local farm so we can have a petting zoo and pony rides. It’ll be so much fun! (for the kids of course)

That’s about it from our world. I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and Happy New Year to all!! May we all have peace, joy, love, happiness, health and a little green in 2007!