Hello Old Friend

 It has been quite a while since my last post. I definitely have gone through a lot of changes, losses and gains since then. 

In late March/early April of 2019 my whole world changed. One morning at work I discovered I was pregnant and I was thrilled and anxious all at the same time. Excited because it meant that I would soon have a sweet little baby of my own and yet anxious because my boyfriend, Kolton, and I were still living with his mom and had not planned to have children yet. Kolton was nervous as well when I told him but by September we were trying to live on our own on the next street over from his mom. The house was a SERIOUS fixer upper that we seriously should never have attempted to live in. The landlord expected us to renovate (she called it "repairs") her entire house AND pay $400 a month to live there. We managed to get the living room, first bedroom, second bedroom and the bathroom usable before the end of October. I cooked on a little portable stove and we had a mini fridge and, eventually, a regular size fridge we kept in the garage. On October 29th our dog, Reese, had puppies and we planned to keep 3 out of the litter of 8. After selling 5 of them we lost one dog when she was hit on the road. Then we lost another from either parvo or from eating something. The last one was the only one we still have to this day. 

        On December 23, 2019 I gave birth to my darling son, Aaron Ray. I couldn't believe how long his legs were! And he was so skinny! But he was healthy and so cute and we immediately fell in love with our little dark haired, dark eyed baby. We stayed 3 days at the hospital and came home Christmas Day. The following day was his first appointment and they checked his blood only to find his blood sugar and jaundice were at dangerous levels so we were sent back to the hospital where we stayed for a week. And then almost another week. Finally his levels evened out and stayed normal so we were allowed to go home and I was so relieved...although by that time the stress of everything and lack of sleep dried my milk supply up so Aaron had to be bottle fed from then on. 

    We had not been home more than a few days when I started having serious pains in my abdomen. I returned to the hospital New Years Eve, then again the night New Years Day with gallstones. Several days in the hospital and I finally left for good without a gallbladder and anxious to be with my baby. 

2020... well... not much good can be said about that year other than having my baby home. Covid shut down businesses and put us out of work which in turn put us behind on all our bills. We were evicted in spite of all the money and work we put in that house. In December we celebrated an entire year with our baby boy in spite of the chill and quite a few people managed to make it to our little lumberjack/buffalo plaid party.

2021... In January we took over the lease of a couple in Miamisburg, Ohio and lived there until June. It was not fancy and had plenty wrong but it was a solid place to live in and I made quite a bit of money doing Shipt shopping. In June we had to leave as the regular rent would be too much for us to afford so we were forced to move back in with Kolton's family. It was only supposed to be temporary.

2022...Remained with Kolton's family the entire year with not much changing throughout the year. I miscarried on Mother's Day and really had a hard time coming to terms with it. Kolton's relationship with his stepdad took a downhill turn towards the end of the year and I started putting things into motion to get us out. However, in November, while getting my labs done to test for different health things I realized I was late for my monthly...so I asked to get a pregnancy test. The results were exactly what I suspected. I had another little one on the way! We have done our best to keep our excitement low until we got to the third trimester due to my loss earlier in the year. 

2023 began like any other year. My dad helped locate a mobile home near my family in Indiana so we started packing and getting ready to move. Easter weekend.... Thursday night Kim had Aaron open his Easter gifts a day early and we got videos of his fun reactions. The next day my brother was supposed to come and we were going to load our belongings into a trailer. At around 12:30/1pm Kolton went into his mom's room to get something and discovered his mother had passed away in her sleep. After alerting 911 dispatchers and waiting until they arrived, I loaded Aaron up in the car and took him to the park down the road so he wouldn't be distressed by everything...though it was already too late and all he could ask was, "Mimi dead?" It was heart wrenching! Somehow we made it through that day and the next day my brother came and we loaded the trailer he brought as well as his truck. Aaron and I went down to my parents' house that night. The week following was spent unloading the trailer and truck and unpacking things in our new home. Most of the week was a blur so some of the timing of things I cannot remember but that weekend I returned to Lima to join Kolton as we said our goodbyes to Kim. It was so surreal seeing her and not having her there being the one to comfort everyone and make plans for a celebration of life. Instead we celebrated HER life after the viewing and managed to get through everything. Kolton had to remain in Lima for about two or three weeks to work for a while before he finally joined us here in our new house. 

Our first months here have been EXTREMELY rocky between the loss of Kim still heavy on our hearts and the fact now neither of us were working. We were given a lot of help from family to pay rent and I was able to do a little Shipt/Instacart shopping to keep food on the table and our other bills paid. Finally, at the beginning of this month, Kolton finally found a good paying job doing work he enjoys. Now we are slowly climbing out of the deep canyon of bills. Although we are far from being caught up and we still have a looming cloud over our head of the possibility that the bank may take back our car. We are believing together that we will get out of this okay and doing our best with what we have right now. I am still looking for a part time work from home job but mostly I have been unpacking, cleaning the house and everything I was raised to do for our home. I can't handle Instacart shopping now as the baby weighs an enormous 3 pounds already and my muscles don't allow for a lot of walking and brisk movement so I am staying home trying to keep the wild little three year old out of trouble while still putting things together here. It has NOT been easy! 

I am due August 30th but the OB says I may be induced earlier than that due to the baby's fast growing size. I'm getting more excited but definitely still have items needed! OH! And my mom did a wonderful gender reveal the weekend after Mother's Day this year with tannerite and colored smoke. IT'S A BOY! I was hoping for a girl but I'm still happy for another boy to be added to the nest. Also I'm a little relieved I can have the two little ones share a room. 

And now, dear reader, the time has come for me to begin the nightly routine of preparing supper so I must close this long update. I do hope you enjoyed it and it didn't bore you too much. 

Until Next Time, 

The River of Social Media

I sit here and contemplate the years since I joined this world of blogging and think of all the changes of the internet world. Much like a river, it is always changing, always broadening its knowledge and capabilities. Some of those changes are great but some are a little scary to be honest.

It does not seem so long ago that I jumped into the little stream of social media. At the time I was a newbie and barely knew what I was into but I hopped on my first social media site... Bebo. Does anyone remember it?

  

I loved it at the time and had a lot of fun but this generation coming will never know what it is because the site has long since died.

That stream was a short one and I was deposited into Facebook. 

In that time if you had a Facebook then you were in fashion and up to date. I find it amusing really that it was so important to me that I join. But it helped that my Grandma was already there making her presence known and creating albums full of pictures for my family and me to enjoy. I enjoyed it but it also slowly died with the coming of Instagram and Snapchat as well as the competition of Google Plus and Twitter. I never left Facebook permanently, although my friend list has been cut in half and much of my content has matured. I still have it as I keep up with 4 Instagram accounts and my Snapchat. 

Now Google Plus is shutting down...

but only a very few people even notice. It isn't popular or interesting anymore because they did not work to make it easy to limit what shows on your feed, made it too much like a million blogs coming together into one big site. 

I think with social media a few things are very important.

1. Privacy and Security

2. The range of what the site is capable of sharing 

3. The control you have over the comments made 

Those three things ought to stay in the system. Improve, not be dismissed. And if you have your settings set up, updates made to the system should not mess with those settings. I have often found Facebook precarious about their privacy and security settings. Many times people I have never met before have commented on my pictures and only then did I realize the security update Facebook had done messed up my settings. However, the ability to connect your apps to Facebook so all your friends can join your games or see your activity is a plus and I think many stay with Facebook just for that. In addition the group pages that Instagram does not have also keeps Facebook alive.

But I wonder with all this change in social media if there might be another site to start up and put another current in the water. 

I'm excited and looking forward to any new adventures. I'd love to hear if you have any other social media sites you found fun but are no more because of the ever changing world! Comment below!

P.S. If you have commented on my blog posts using Google Plus before they shut down, I will no longer see them. 

Farewell to Old Faithful

Back in 2014 my family made the great Eastward journey and it was not long before a new arrival came into the family. 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited was its name and it enabled us to go to work and shopping. My brother owned it first and I later bought it off of him. I was pleased to have my own wheels (if not the type) and I enjoyed many fun times with my friends and family, listening to music with the awesomeazing stereo system. Then I entered a new chapter in my life and my boyfriend began adding to my memories in this vehicle. We drove to lakes and rivers, through country and city and put many miles on it.
In Fall of 2017 my poor Jeep hit a semi tire and the rear axle snapped. A lot of jarring and fright but I managed to get it parked at a Speedway off of the interstate and there it sat til we came back with a trailer to tow it to my boyfriend's stepdad's shop. We began the search for a new axle but grew discouraged as I was between jobs and so was my boyfriend. So it sat until, finally, in the summer of 2018, we got the old Jeep on the road once more...not without obstacles and many headaches and greasy fingers. It just wasn't the same, however, for it's old creaky joints were groaning and popping and rather scaring me to death. The tires were cracked and bald, the transmission slipping and the taillights worked only when it suited them.

Finally, after spending hundreds in repairs in an attempt to keep Old Faithful on the road and crying many tears of frustration, the decision was made. It was time to part. The search for a new vehicle was not easy having no credit to our names and not being successful in getting a loan from any banks. Then, one day in January, my eyes were dazzled by a lightning blue Ford Mustang. I am not a Ford fan at ALL but the color and sporty look of this car was just what I wanted. So I took a ride and the smooth drive was heaven! It was not my dream vehicle but definitely an improvement from what I had. So we have begun the payments to the end of owning this beauty and in return we had to bid farewell to Old Faithful and say hello to the new Mustang.