Its been awhile.

So, I've been kinda busy lately and have found I've neglected my blog so I'm going to update ya'll on whats all been going on in my little world the past month or so.

I now have 2 kids in Jr. High. Chad is in 7th grade and Whit is in 8th. You never realize how much they baby kids in elementary until they hit reality in Jr. High. In 6th grade Chad rarely had homework, and when he did have homework and he didn't do it his teacher would let him do it and turn it in whenever. In elementary they could also re-do all bad grade assignments any time before term ended and get a better score to raise their grade. I told both of them to take advantage of that while it lasts because in Jr. High they don't let you do that. But what do I know huh? Low and behold I think they are SLOWLY realizing that I was once a kid too and I know a few things. They are both learning that they need to keep on track on things and not get behind because many of their teachers don't allow make up work at all. So needless to say, they both struggle with bringing homework home and their grades show it.

My uncle on my dads side (married to my dads sister) Vince Black died suddenly in September. It his everyone hard because Vince had never been sick. My aunt Carol has been sick for years and so if anyone was going to go we all thought it was going to be Carol but all of a sudden we lost Vince. Out of this tragedy I was able to reconnect with my cousin whom I haven't seen in years and I was able to meet her 2 beautiful daughters. We were reunited with family we all haven't seen in so long. Its sad that it takes a funeral to get everyone together. Just a few weeks ago we were beginning to plan Thanksgiving with Carol and the family because we weren't sure how long Carol was going to be with us and unfortunately she passed away last the beginning of Nov. Carol is in a much better place with no suffering and now reunited with her love of her life so we were all able to accept her passing and laugh about memories we all had growing up.

During these funerals we really had no choice but to take Karter. I wasn't sure how I was going to talk to him about death and such and before I could try to explain where we were and why, my dad had Karter up looking in the coffin. I figured if anyone was going to be good about explaining that kind of stuff it would be with my dad so I just let him do his thing. Karter being 3 was confused as to why they wouldn't wake up but I told him they were going to go up to heaven and they wouldn't be sick anymore.

These 2 losses that my family has experienced and a few losses we've experienced the last few years has really opened my eyes and helped me realize that life isn't guaranteed. Tomorrow isn't either. And we have to live each day like its our last and enjoy everything we do and tell those close to us that we love them because nothing is guaranteed except right now. Sometimes we get busy with day activities and stress in our lives so its hard to treat everyone the best all the time. And these are things I'm trying to teach Chad and Whit as they are rude to each other or snap at the other kids, Yesterday is history, Today is here and Tomorrow may never come.