Welcome to the world!

Please welcome my beautiful grandson, Grady Lee! 

After two days of induction, he finally entered the world Saturday, the 23rd, at 12:15am. It was his actual due date, as well. I was on video chat with my daughter for those two days and was lucky enough to be able to see my grandson born. I wish I could have been there in person, but at least we had that much.

What a stubborn little boy we have here. However, is quite the cutie pie! :)

I think he looks so much like his mommy when she was a baby. A lot of friends and family are saying the same thing, so I guess he will be just as adorable.

In the meantime, you may not hear too much from me over the next week or two. I'm spending a lot of time helping my daughter with her little man and making sure she's eating and drinking without too much effort on her part. I've been cleaning, sweeping, doing laundry, showing her little tricks to newborn life, and anything else she asks for.

Grady Lee is named after his father's grandfather (Grady) and my hubby and his father (Lee). It's a nice tribute to both sides of Grady's family.

Once I held that little boy in my arms all the quarantine, mask wearing, hand sanitizing was more than worth it to make sure I could hold him the day he came home. He has my heart and always will!

Army BCT Graduation

Or for those who don't know, my oldest daughter has graduated Army Basic Combat Training!

She surprised me one day late last year by coming to me and informing me that, at the age of 21, she would be joining the US Army. As a shocked mom of said child who has never been interested, even remotely, in anything physically strenuous, all I could say was, "Excuse me?"

She had already spent four years in three different colleges (two years as a dual enrollment high school student), and changed her major no less than three times. I understood that she was lost and didn't really know what she wanted to do with her adult life. Not to mention, she was extremely overwhelmed by simply BEING an adult. And me, trying to be the supportive mom, asked all the "Are you sure," questions, and even threw out the, "I'll stand by you in whatever you choose to do, even if I don't like it."

Nonetheless, I cried on May 15th as I watched my eldest daughter walk out of the MEPs office and toward the bus that would take her to the plane that would eventually land her 14 hours away from home for no less than two months.

Over the course of those two months, my daughter and I wrote letters to each other, with the random quick phone call about once every three weeks. In those first few letters, she told me of her trials, pains, disruptions, and unhappiness. Then the mood of her words improved and she was telling me about her triumphs, the friends she was making, and the fun she was having (leave it to my kid to say she was having fun at basic training! LOL!) while learning new skills that would take her far in her newly chosen career.

After months of planning, waiting, tears, worry, tracking my mail deliveries daily to see if she had sent a new letter... graduation day finally arrived!

My husband and I left at 3am on Wednesday morning to drive 14 hours from Georgia to Oklahoma in order to spend a total of 19 hours over the course of two days with our daughter to celebrate her graduation.

She looks so spiffy in her uniform! :D

It was an amazing experience, and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip, but that didn't stop the tears again once I had to tell her good-bye again so the Army could ship her off to her next station for more training and education. She is truly happy, especially now that basic training is over and her body is starting to heal from all the pain it was put through, and I know she will be a great success in her new career choice.

She has been at her new station for over a week now and it has been so much easier on both of us. She's finally able to keep her phone at all times and texts me every single day now. It makes this mom's heart happy to hear from her babies, and especially when they are happy with their choices!

I hope all of my wonderful readers are having a great weekend, and make sure you hug those loved ones even closer.

Off to College We Go

Today is move-in day for my oldest daughter. We're heading out in a few minutes with two car loads of her stuff, driving an hour south, and hoping it won't take too long to get her settled into her dorm room. I get to meet her roommate today, and hopefully her roommate's parents. Phone numbers will be exchanged and there will be lots of pictures before I leave her there.

I find it reminiscent of her first day of kindergarten. Lots of smiles, laughter, hugs, talking it up, and then saying good-bye. On that day, I made it all the way to my car before the tears began to flow. I'm anticipating the same scenario today. *Sniff, Sniff*

I don't know where the last 18 years have gone. It seems they flew by in the blink of an eye. When they're little you never think they'll be grown so quickly. All you worry about then is if they're eating enough, are they wet, why are they crying this time. You don't really think that the years will be gone in no time at all and you'll be driving them to college.  Eek!

I'm grateful she's ambitious enough to know what she wants to do with her life, and I have no doubt my determined, stubborn child will accomplish anything she wants to do.  I'm also thankful she's only moving an hour away! LOL. Mommy can go visit any darn time she wants to! :P

She's giving me that look now, so I better get off here and start driving. I'll come back this evening and update this post with pictures, as well as on my Facebook page.

Happy Friday!


EDITED TO ADD PIC 8/16:

One happy momma!

Yesterday my oldest came home full of excitement.  She'd been invited to attend the Billy Lancaster Forestry Youth Camp.  Turns out that only two students from her entire school are invited each year, and she was one of them.  How can a proud mommy say no to that?  Ultimately, I filled out the paperwork and wrote the check.  LOL.
This will be her first summer camp away from home... four nights away!  But, she's a teenager now and she's very excited about it.

On the note of excitement, this is my 600th blog entry!  When I started this blog I never would've imagined I'd reach 600 entries.  Much less have enough to talk about to fill 600 entries.  LOL.  Sure, many of my posts are simply rambling family stuff (which has been pointed out to me recently that others do enjoy reading), but in reality I wanted people to see the real me.

There are so many authors out there who only write blog entries when they have book information to share.  While that's good and fine, I like to see more from my favorites.  I think a reader can feel more connected with an author when they can see that your day to day life is just as hectic as theirs. 

We aren't confined to a little room cranking out sentence after sentence (though some of us would like to be).  *Raises Hand*  Nope, we have families, spouses, children, pets, other obligations, errands, bills, trials and tribulations just like everyone else.  Heck, sometimes I find myself envying the writers who CAN lock themselves away for hours at a time to work, with no interruptions.  But I wouldn't trade the time with my kiddos for anything in the world.  Soon enough I'll be able to work how I want to, and then I'll probably miss being interrupted by little ones.  :-)

Okay, before this rambling entry ends I want to let everyone know that if you aren't a member of my Facebook Fan Page now is the time to join.  When the page reaches 500 members I'll be giving away 1 of my Alex & Fiona e-books (winner's choice).

Oh, and I uploaded more pictures of our puppies to my Facebook album yesterday.  They're now 2wks old and have eyes.  LOL.  Check out the Fudge's Puppies album for some lovable cuteness that'll make you go, "Awwwwwwww!"