Thursday, March 31, 2011

Leaving Amarillo

Pops, Kami, and Jenna
Nana, Kami, Claire Marie, and Jenna
Always sad to leave my Dad...but we are off to Santa Fe New Mexico...here are the girls with my Dad and Peggy this morning before we left.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Pick up line...

Wow...just found out my Dads pick up line to my step mom Peggy was "If you will dance with me, it'll blow the fuzz right out of my navel"...speechless...

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Boots!

Jenna, Claire Marie, and Kami
I took the girls out for some cowgirl boots today!

Freezing in Texas

Claire Marie, Kami, Jenna, TJ, and Charlie
It is so cold here...not even 40 degrees...thank goodness there is a heated indoor pool at the RV park! Now...the trip from the pool back to the RV...that won't be fun!

Monday, March 28, 2011

The Big Texan

All the kids at dinner!
Casey and me
Jackie and Pops
T and me
Honey, I shrunk the kids...
Here we r with the family at The Big Texan for my Dad's birthday!

We made it!

We finally made it to Texas! We arrived around 3:45 Texas time today!

Yesterday was a great day! We left Arizona around 10 am and drove to Albuquerque New Mexico and stayed at the Sheraton. The kids were stoked because they were able to go in the heated indoor pool! T and I were stoked because we were able to sneak out for a quiet dinner alone after the kids swam...Jackie stayed in the room with them so we could get away...and believe me, after 2 days in an RV with them....we needed the escape. A funny thing about that though...we had decided to let the kids swim first...and went to the rooms to change...well, I thought T meant for us to change into our bathing suits...so Jackie and I went in our room and put on our cute new suits....only to open the door to T and find him dressed to take me to dinner....lol...too funny!

Today another funny thing happened...T said he was going to get up at 6:30 am to go down in the lobby and do some work....well, I decided to surprise him and be up, showered and dressed by 8 am so we could get on the road....well....at 8 am I arrived at their room, only to find them all still asleep! So...let the record show....I was ready before T! And those that know him know exactly why this is a big deal to me! :)

We had a great breakfast at the cracker barrel and got on the road right after. Tonight we had dinner at The Big Texan with my dad, Peggy, and my Texas family! So fun! I will upload some pictures....but they will be in a separate post because I can't sinc them with my iPad
post....technology isn't quite perfect yet.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

New Mexico Bound

Kami, TJ, and Charlie in the top bunk
Claire Marie and Jenna at the table
We are on the road again!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Our Day in AZ

We had a great first day filled with shopping, pedicures, family, and good food...
Lesson #1 learned about an RV...things slide off of the table, counters, etc...especially when the need to slam the brakes arrises...
Jackie, Jenna, Kami & Monica at the mall
Kami and Jenna with their shopping finds!
Pedicure time...
Kids having fun in the back yard
Awesome food!
Tena, Jeff, T, and Me
Jackie, Brett and Monica

Thursday, March 24, 2011

New York to California...T is back!

T left for New York on business this past Monday morning (and returned early this morning).  I offered to watch all five of the kids.  He has gone out of town before, but he has always made other arrangements...this time I decided to just jump in with both feet and do it.

It went great...was a breeze.  However, let me just say...T needs some rules in that house...not that the kids are misbehaved or anything, they were actually awesome!  But man, let's just say I would change a few things, or as T would say "Mom things".  ;)

One funny thing that happened...because we have so many kids, I forgot who was sleeping where and accidentally woke Claire Marie up at 6:30am instead of my oldest daughter Jenna.  Hahahahaha, poor  thing was so confused as to why I was telling her to wake up and it was still very dark outside.  Luckily she fell back asleep and didn't even remember it that evening.  By the next morning, I made sure I knew who was where.

Here are a few pics from the evenings...dinner was always served before 6pm...I think they liked our routine.    :)
Day One - Taco's
Day 2 - Hamburgers
Day 3 - Spaghetti

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Meet the kids

The five youngest...
On the far left is Kami, age 9. Sweet, sensitive, and goofy.  She loves to dance, cheer, and ride her bike.  She has the attitude of she can do anything boys can do, but she can do it better.

Second from the left is Claire Marie, age 5.  She is as cute as she is smart.  She loves to read books, sing, dance, play games, and spend time hanging with her Daddy.

In the middle is Charlie, age 8.  He is bright and funny, and has a lot of friends.  He loves to play video games and usually finds a way to get out of doing his homework.

Second from the right is Jenna, age 11.  She is sweet and young at  heart.  She loves to play her iPod, watch a DVD, and play on the computer all at the same time.  I'm thinking she may be the queen of multitasking!  Jenna loves to swim and hang out in the hot tub.

On the right is TJ, age 10. He is one of the most easy going of all the kids.  He loves to play his iPod, watch TV shows that I say no to, but his dad says yes to...and he loves to play video games too.

Joey
Here is Joey, age 20.  Joey is fun to be around and always on the scene.  He lives with his dad, but I'm convinced he is at my house or T's more than he is there.

He helps us out tremendously and not only that, we actually enjoy hanging out with him too.  He has a sweet girlfriend named Rosy who we like very much and are happy they met!

Jackie & hubby JP
And lastly is Jackie, age 22...along with her husband JP (who was her high school sweetheart).  She has been married for almost 3 years and they are expecting their first baby on September 8th.

Jackie is funny, sweet, and always making us laugh.  We are looking forward to watching her become a mother.  I'm super excited to be a grandparent?  Can't wait to add that to the mix!

So there you have the 7 that keep us so very busy and on our toes!

How I met T

T & Me on Halloween 2010
I'm Karla, single mom to 4 wonderful, smart, adorable, and amazing kids (and no, I'm not biased) - Jackie, age 22, married and pregnant with my first grandchild;  Joey, age 20;  Jenna, age 11;  and Kami, age 9....I also have a German Shepherd named Maggie and a cat named Mack.    So, I guess one could say I have my hands full.

Now, what more could be added to my already crazy life?  Well, it has been 6 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days since Terance (aka: T) and my paths crossed at the pool in Seacoast Village.  At the time, I was 8 months into a very traumatic divorce, and T had recently lost his beautiful wife Christina to cancer.  While I was definitely hoping to meet someone, I certainly wasn't expecting to meet anyone that day!

I will not get into the details of my divorce, as that is over and done...I will just say it was very difficult and painful, and I did everything I could to save my marriage for several years.

Now, on to where the story picks up and my new life begins!  One of my best friends, Julie, had been inviting my girls and me over to swim at her housing complex for months.  It seemed every time she asked me I was either busy already, or the girls were with their dad.  However, on this particular Labor Day weekend, I had the girls and actually had zero plans.  So off to the pool we went.  I am not a swimmer...I can dog paddle and float, but swimming is not on my list of things I like to do...so hanging out under the umbrella with a cold beer was my plan for that afternoon.

That is exactly what Julie and I were doing when she said "here comes Terance"...and quickly explained to me who he was.  I had remembered the story of his wife passing and how upset Julie had been, however I had never met the family.  He came into the pool with 3 kids following behind him...TJ who was 9 at the time, Charlie who was 7, and Claire Marie who was 4.   After the proper introductions of everyone...we all begin to hang out and talk.  I remember feeling so comfortable with him, almost like we had been friends for years.  After the pool time was over, T invited Julie and I over for a BBQ and we of course accepted...only for us to all end up hanging out in the hot tub.  It was a lot of fun and I was super excited to just be hanging and laughing with friends, and best of all, all of the kids were running around and having so much fun together.

T and Julie started talking about a rib cookoff they were having with some friends the next day (Labor Day), and I casually invited myself and the girls (ha ha) and promised to bring a pot of my famous chili beans...over the next few weeks this led to more group bbq's, hanging out in the hot tub, and even a concert in the park in Montecito.  The best part about all of this was that T had become my friend...a good friend.  A friend I could tell about my match.com emails...a friend I could tell about my funny dates that resulted from those emails...and a friend I could even talk about girly issues in front of.  Oh what fun we were having.

About two weeks after we had met, he was going to Vegas with a friend from college.  Well, I didn't have my girls that weekend and my best friend Gina happened to live in Vegas...I'll never forget him saying "hey why don't you come to Vegas with my buddy and me this weekend"...and my answering..."why not, I don't have to ask anyone, I can be spontaneous"...So I went.  What a fun weekend...I was able to get to know T a little better, hang with my friend Gina, and it was just awesome.  On the last evening of the trip, he told me he would like to date me when we returned.  The gears were quickly switching from friendship to dating...I wanted to see what happened...so of course I said yes.

For the first month things moved pretty slow...I was pretty sure he wasn't ready to date....he was pretty sure he was.  I also wasn't sure if I myself was ready to get serious, and for some reason my gut told me if I decided to date T...it was going to be exclusive and serious.  We went to dinner, lunch, hung out...but I was still taking it pretty slow and was a bit "non-committal".  Well, by early October, after a lot of thought, I decided to take the plunge and commit to dating T and only T.

By December 10th, I became his next door neighbor...which leads us to today.  Between the two of us we have 7 kids, a dog and a cat...we live next door to each other...and we are getting ready to take a road trip to Texas in an RV with 6 of those kids!  Our life has already had some very funny moments...it is filled with a lot of laughter, noise, toys, and craziness.  In an effort to document the moments that may have already happened, or will for sure happen in our future, I have created this blog.

So, welcome to T and Me plus 7!  I hope you enjoy following our journey to happiness that is sure to be filled with lots of love, laughter, and blessings!