Eleven Years of Bliss

Life has been so good to me and I just wanted to take the time to put a few words on here to my husband. Today it's been 11 years that we were married. Sure it's had a few little bumps (as any relationship does) but it's been 11 truly wonderful years. I never dreamed that I'd have the family that I have today. I am a blessed woman. Troll, you are a wonderful man. Through thick and thin you've helped me become the woman I am today. You've helped me overcome fears, held my hand through tears and made me laugh when I had no desire to do so. Everything about our family comes from you being the man that you are. I couldn't have asked for a better man to spend the rest of my life with. My dream is to grow old together; falling deeper in love than we could imagine possible. Thank-you for these past years. I'm looking forward to the next umpteen years with you by my side. I love you....always and forever.

OK??

Some of you know that I'm not very fond of the dark. Never have been...never will be. I don't do well in the dark and things freak me out pretty easily. Sunday night everyone was in bed and all the lights were out. I was walking through the hallway to our room when I remembered that I hadn't changed Bia's diaper before putting her in bed. So I walked back to the girls' room and grabbed a diaper then put Bia up on our bed to change her diaper. I took it off, folded it up like I do and then winged it down the hall into the kitchen. I had just turned around to put her clean diaper back on her when the dirty diaper came flying back at me and landed right behind me. Now I don't know about you but when a diaper comes flying out of darkness from where you just threw it... it kinda has a way of making you wish you had a diaper on!!! Let me tell you...my heart did some strange things in that split second. I quakingly peered out into the darkness to see a little blond head peering around the corner. There stood Ethan - the projectile operator. Took me a little bit to get calmed down. Can't remember what he needed but evidently he'd been standing there and I never saw him. Psych!!

Good-bye

Today I've done the hardest thing I think I've had to do in my lifetime. I had to say good-bye to one loyal friend. Over the past month and a half Quazar has been failing in more ways than one. We made the decision, a very hard one, to have a vet come today to the house. He's been suffering so badly with pain and tumors that we could no longer be selfish and keep him as a part of this family. He'll always be a part of our family; someone that will never be forgotten.

I can remember when Troll brought him home I was astounded at how tiny he was. I exclaimed, that is not a Great Dane!! That statement faded in a few short weeks as he grew in leaps and bounds....literally. He loved sleeping right across my neck those first few weeks. Then I had to make a trip to PA and he became and remained Troll's right hand man. He knew I ruled the house and tolerated me with an affection only he could give but Troll was the one that he had wrapped right around himself. He became a part of our family when Reagan was only 9 months old. The kids would sit on him as he laid on the floor and had a hoot as he'd drag them around the house while they held onto a toy in his mouth. Oh yes, there were times I'd threaten to get rid of him as he'd drive me totally insane. I remember one Sunday we came home from church to find he'd backed up to Troll's recliner and dumped a huge load. I was so livid I could have shot him but then he would come up to me and give me one of his stupid faces and I'd fall in love with him all over again. A better guard I couldn't have asked for. Through the long years of Troll being gone 13 hours a day I felt totally safe. I couldn't even open the door for the mail as Quazar would get so upset. I'd have to drag him off to the bedroom and lock the door before the postman could get the mail handed to me.

He didn't overly like people. However, he immediately fell in love with my mom. Who for some reason just couldn't quite handle him! She climbed up on our couch one time behind my dad to get away from him as he knew she didn't care for him. Guess what he did? Got right up there on the couch as my dad just sat there laughing! Troll's parents were favorites on his list as were my Grandpa and uncle. Let me tell you...once you got on his list....you never came off.

Thank-you, Quazar, for all the laughs, hollers and tears you gave to us. I never dreamed my life would become so wrapped around someone so annoyingly ridiculous. You've left a big hole in our hearts that won't be filled very easily. We're sorry it had to come down to us making a decision; I wish nature could have just taken it's course. Enjoy life with all your other canine friends... wherever that is. We love you so much.
From the one that couldn't stand you so much....I didn't want to be separated from you......
Mom

He made it!!

Reagan Meade Tolley

The Three Stooges?

Pastor Matt, Reagan, Pastor Dad, Bia and Ethan's backside

Reagan and one proud mommy

Miss Thomas and the kindergarten class of 2008!

Wow! Reagan made it. We are so proud of him. He was salutatorian of his kindergarten class. We wanted to share with the rest of you out there just how proud we are of him. Good job, buddy. We love you so much!

Sometimes I wonder.

Have you ever sat and wondered what goes through little people's minds? No, I'm not talking about little people that you look at in Walmart and wonder how they can drive because they are so short. I'm talking about the age bracket of little people. There were/are times Troll and I look at each other when our kids were/are toddling about doing different things and we'd say, I wonder what is going through their mind. Recently I've had a few of those incidents and I thought I'd share them. So if you're bored already... then stop reading.

Ambria has quickly followed in her brother's footsteps. Unfortunately it hasn't been the precise, analytical, do things the same way Austin or the mild mannered, slightly hyperactive, in love with a 4th grader Reagan. It's been her daring, not follow through with sane thought brother - Ethan! But that's OK. I wouldn't want all our kids to be the same way. He's been challenging to say the least. Thankfully she's not become quite what he was/is in the daring aspect but I can see the tendencies. Sometimes I quake thinking of what she'll try to do that she sees him do and since she's smaller in stature than he...could really hurt her. She's already jumped out of the top of the swing set to follow him as he is the love of her life. I am thankful to say she didn't see him last Saturday when he took his bike to the top of their slide. I turned around from the shrub I was trimming just in time to see him positioning it for his would-have-been wild ride down. He was none too happy I saw him and ended up kicking his bike off the back part of the slide! Anyway, that's not what I came on here to say. Evidently this Saturday with nothing to do (a first in ages) has left me slightly mental and I can't stop blabbering.

What little people have going through their minds is probably something we'll never understand. However, when you come home from an outing and you see black marks all over you're bedroom carpet in front of your dresser you wonder where your husband's mind was during you're departure. I noticed this one evening and didn't give it much thought other than wondering what Troll had been doing during this obvious spill of some type of oil. I put it out of my mind until one day, a couple weeks later, Ethan brought me a box of matches and told me there were candles in it. When I opened up the match box I figured out where those black marks on my carpet had come from. Evidently he figured he would light a host of matches and drop them on the carpet when they told his fingers they were hot. He then put them all back into the box. All I can say is thank the Lord that they didn't burn. Could you imagine trying to explain that to Bro. Zechman?!! I guess we could say we were going for the smudged look. As our bedroom is done in the politically incorrect Indian theme we could just say we were attempting for smoke signals and just got smudges!! I'm sure he'd be impressed.

Kids Komments

So ya ready for another laugh? Here goes...

Thursday night Troll had to work at auction and wouldn't be home until 12 or after so I mowed the lawn, had the kids get early showers and then told them they could watch a DVD. They were probably a good half way through it when I heard Austin yell at Ethan. I said, "Austin, watch your attitude!" Ethan came out to the kitchen where I was and said, "It's not 'Your Attitude', mommy, it's 'Meet the Robinsons'!" He thought I was telling Austin to watch the movie "Your Attitude" when they were watching the movie called "Meet the Robinsons"!! Too cute, too cute!!!

What a jolly!

Let me tell you...this child has become so goofy that sometimes I wonder if we'll survive the laughs she gives us. The other day I heard the snapping shut sound of my cell phone and knew she had it. I leaned out from my chair in the kitchen and saw her sitting in her daddy's chair playing with my cell phone. I got up and started walking to her telling her she knew she wasn't to have my phone. I hadn't gotten three or four steps when she held the phone out to me and started belting out her favorite song, "I love you, you love me...we're a happy family" from her favorite being - Barney! Of course I cracked up. What would you have done? Stick in the mud if you didn't say you'd have laughed. She's so ornery. Any time she thinks she might get in trouble she starts singing this song.