Ok weird...it is not letting me put in titles!
I am back and up to no good, obviously.

Some fun stuff happened while I was gone. I had a blast with my family on vacation. It was a well needed rest. The combination of my health problems, my dad's work stress, and my husband's work stress made for a great time just relaxing.

My stepdaughter had a blast. Although I don't think that she was at all used to going on a vacation that was designed for everyone to do NOTHING. We rent a house that is directly in front of the beach. So everyone is welcome to just come and go on the beach at their own personal schedule! Yasmine really liked this as it meant she had some autonomy as far as what she wanted to do. We missed our doggies who had to stay home!

Some interesting vacation notes. We took Yasmine to eat at Lambert’s. She was excited about the rolls that were thrown to her! She loved catching the hot buttered rolls. At first she was kind of scared to catch them, but she quickly caught on and enjoyed it. I also had them tell her happy birthday over the loudspeaker at the restaurant! In the announcement they said “Give her some dollars she saving for college!” It was funny because 15 people came and gave her dollars. She was really excited.

The real estate has just exploded down there. Houses that should be 500k are selling for 1.5 million. If you were driving around down there you wouldn’t believe there was a real estate slump. 

Anyway, it was a great vacation! DH caught TONS of fish. Yasmine got to really relax, and I got to spend time with my dad and mom. We were sad that my sister couldn’t make it. She had to work and could not get away.

Yasmine’s birthday was Sunday! She is 10 years old. I didn’t meet Yasmine until she was 5. So I have officially known her more than half her life now. That is exciting for me in and of itself. To let you know how excited I am Yasmine…Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!


Whenever I meet new people I show them pictures that her daddy took of us when she was five. I always tell them “Here are the newborn baby pictures of when I first got Yasmine!” It is a silly joke, but I like it. 

One thing I have noticed this summer is Yasmine doesn’t sleep late anymore. She used to sleep forever. Now she doesn’t. She gets up whenever someone else does. This can be bad because she stays up late with her daddy and me. The combination of staying up late and getting up early can make for a grumpy kid!

Now that I am officially out of my old department and into my new department I feel so much better. I had my first class yesterday, and I was so excited. The professor was nice KIND even. He promised to mentor me. It was an exciting feeling. I can’t describe how much I am looking forward to this. I was hesitant to make the change unsure of what I should and would be doing. But actually doing it, and going through with it was really exhilarating.

I guess I am just going to be honest here. I don’t want Yasmine to go home. I know she has a great life in Arizona. She is one spoiled kid all around. She has people that love her in Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, California, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania. That is awfully fortunate for one little kid. I look forward to our summers together all year. They get here and fly by so quickly. Then I have to wait 10 more months for them to come around again. Don’t get me wrong…I am not one of those conceited people that believe Yasmine would be better off with us than her mother. I do not mean I or we want to take her away from Arizona. She has a great life in Arizona. She is well loved, and well cared for in Phoenix. In fact I firmly believe children should in almost all cases be with their mother. This has nothing to do with Phoenix. It has to do with her father and me. We love her, and miss her when she is gone. It is heartbreaking putting her on the plane at the end of summer, and knowing we won’t have her with us for that long period again for 10 months. I know that her mother and stepfather feel the same way when she is gone over the summer. But I have to stop worrying about this now. I have her for another month before she goes home. There is no sense in borrowing trouble from tomorrow.