Spring has sprung, finally.

For those of you that don't know me well, the Lilac is my favorite flower. I wanted to name Lily "Lila" after my said favorite flower but my choice was vetoed. If there is ever another little girl to join our family ( there won't be, but nice to dream) her name would be Lila. No vote.

Lily loves to swing. She would be outside swinging for hours if she could.

Easter at my parent's house. Lily loved these bunnies. They were just her size.

Again on the swing set........

And again.........

Soccer is a big hit too.

Chasing the ball. Good exercise, (for me).

Sophie on the trampoline. Could you imagine doing this? To be young again. Those were the days.........

My all grown up version of Gavin, in a suit. Ready to go to the theater with school for a field trip. So handsome. Can you tell he is totally annoyed with me taking his picture?

~~~

We are all still trying to heal from the great loss we have had to our family a few months ago. Getting outside and enjoying the spring weather and activities is helping some. Not a day goes by though without thoughts of Nana. Some days we go through the motions just to get through the day. We miss her. Time is healing our broken hearts but there will always be a missing piece to our family without her here....

A much needed laugh!

Lily was nicely playing with these sticky hearts yesterday while I was reading a comment from Maria after my post about my M-I-L, crying of course. I turned around to check on Lily and saw this...........

At least they were strategically placed. Smart girl.

And more to say........

After Anthony's Mom passed away I felt we were stuck in this pattern of bad luck. My sister-in-law so appropriately called this a sh*t storm. Things kept going wrong. Car breaking down that shouldn't have because it is fairly new (hundreds of $ later for repairs), nasty cold zapping everyone in the house, stomach bug zapping only a few of us (thank goodness), a scare with lice. Yup, you read that right. I say a scare because we were told one of our children was exposed from someone in class at school. In all actuality we found no lice or eggs on our child. But with this said, we took no chances and treated with the nasty hair treatment . Rooms where torn apart, vacuumed, pillows and stuffed animals bagged up. Sheets, blankets, comforters laundered. What a project. All in the throws of planning a Funeral Mass and Coalition for Anthony's Mom. There is more. The sh*t storm hasn't ended yet. Our 8 year old English Bulldog, Sampson is declining. He is going blind, has an infection in his front paw, is on antibiotics, has lost weight. Life expectancy for a bulldog is 8-10 years. I do not think we could bear the thought of anything happening to Sampson right now.....

To add to the stress in this household right now, my work is causing all sorts of issues for us. Unfortunately we are a two income family. Northeast living, and especially Cape Cod living is not cheap. I only work part time 24 hours/wk. I am a nurse and have always worked since graduating from college. I love my job. I love neonatal nursing. I have been a NICU nurse for 17 +years. Anthony's Mom always covered the time gap with the kids for us when I was working and when my husband had to leave for work. It was easy for her to do, she was just a few rooms away. I mostly work nights 7p-7a and do not get home until 8:30 am. My husband leaves at 4:30am. So for those few hours when the kids where sleeping Nickie would be here. This would happen only once or twice a week at most. Great schedule, worked perfectly. Very easy. We always new at some point Anthony's Mom would not be here. Just not this point, so soon. So now we have a huge dilemma. Who do we get to watch our kids from 4:30a-8:30a one morning a week? My sister has been sleeping over those nights I have to work during the week, which has been wonderful. She is 31 weeks pregnant though and about to have little "Carter" in a few weeks (Yeah!!). I have been trying to work weekends mostly which helps with the 4:30 am thing since my husband only works M-F and is home on the weekends. Working every weekend is not conducive to family life though. Technically my hired schedule is for three eight hour shifts, not two twelves. I have been having, lets just say, a little turmoil with management about me not being able to do three eight hour shifts anymore. Working that third shift just makes us dependant on needing child care at 4:30 am. I may be looking for a new job if I can't continue my 12 hour shifts on the weekends. Lets add a little more stress to this household.........

With all this said (and there is more but purposefully omitted) I am hoping the sh*t storm is fizzling out. We are trying to pick up the pieces and move forward. Onward and upward. I am a positive person in nature and know we will come through this. I know in life things could be much, much worse. We are fortunate to have each other, love in our hearts, our health, a beautiful roof over our heads and food on our table. No more sh*t talk. The next post will be positive, I promise.