Additions to Carter's Name Gallery

I have a collection of pictures that have Carter's name in various different places. I have already put them into a book. Some of you have seen it and have made compliments about how sweet, thoughtful, and cute that it is. I would definitely like to have new pictures in it though. This is just a real quick post to let everyone know that your photos are welcome. It can be a photo similar to the ones that we already have, or it can be something totally different. It can be a creative, artistic way of writing it, or...anything.

Help us contribute to the memory of Carter and allow us to look as these photos everyday as they sit in a book on our coffee table.

You can send them to my email address- kimberly_shaw89@ymail.com or if you have my number, you can text them to me.

Here is the link for the gallery that I have on Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1738091645791.2096133.1043615285&type=3


Thank y'all so much!!

Passion...

I have never felt so at home with a job since I started working where I am now. I didn't believe that it was possible to love coming to work everyday... EVERYDAY!!! I didn't think it was possible to love so many people as much as I love my family and friends. I didn't think it was possible to laugh about something, even if it's a little laugh, everyday. I have always said that nursing and working with children are two jobs that someone has to have a strong passion for. I have both of those passions in my life (mom- nursing, me-child care). I will admit that I was a little iffy at first when I started this job. I was going through a lot in my life and had so much stress built up that I couldn't focus on the kids that I was working with. But I feel like I have come a long way since I started. My passion for working with children grows stronger everyday that I get to spend time with them. It's such a comforting feeling when you see the look on their little faces when they learn something new. It's heart warming to know that they have so much trust for someone when they don't even understand what the word trust means yet. I could go on and on about the joys that I get to experience everyday with these kids. I have so many people to thank for supporting my passion.

Shantell Kelly and Brandy Ray for giving me this job.

My husband for supporting my love for kids.

The parents for trusting me to care for and nurture their child(ren).

The ladies I work with for making the atmosphere so fun.

And last but certainly not least, the Lord for guiding me in the direction I have chosen to take and blessing me with such a rewarding passion.

We got creative this time

I was on Pinterest the other day and I saw a drinking game that someone had come up with to go with The Big Bang Theory. Well, I don't watch it that much so I wouldn't be too good at that one. So Tyler and I laid down Sunday night and came up with a game for Two and a Half Men (our favorite). Having 6 seasons on DVD we have seen enough of them to come up with a game.

If you have anymore suggestions, don't be afraid to let me know. This is just all we could think of so far.

1. When Berta calls Alan "Zippy".
2. When a gay reference is made about Alan.
3. When Jake refers to food.
4. When Charlie tries to get rid of a woman.
5. When Jake is a smartass to Alan.
6. Everytime Charlie has sex.
7. Everytime Judith asks Alan for money.
8. Anytime Evelyn makes a remark about her mother status.
9. Everytime Alan gets rejected by a woman
10. Anytime Alan and Charlie are sitting on the deck together.
11. Anytime Rose climbs on or jumps off of the deck.
12. When Jake doesn't understand a joke.

If there are anymore that you can think of, feel free to add them.

Hope you try this and have fun.

Busy Day!!

We had a very productive day today. We finally rearranged the living room for the first time since we had moved in. I made a joke to Tyler the other day about moving the furniture around to confuse Tucker so he wouldn't poop in the spot he normally would. We had been talking about rearranging for a while but never took the time to do it. We have so much crap plugged into the TV that it was going to be too big of a pain to move it all. Well after it was all said and done, we are happy with the outcome and we love the way that it looks. We kind of closed in the room to make it more homey.

We took Tucker for his first walk on his leash today. We wasn't too sure about it when I took him on the walk this morning, but on his second walk with Tyler, he had someone to walk him and someone to chase. Let me just tell y'all, he has way more energy and endurance than Tyler and I combined. He needed to get out and run. He loves being outside. Too bad we are going to have him as an inside dog (providing he doesn't chew the house up).

Okay, well I said it was a busy day. That was only two events, but it seems like it took up most of the day. I am one tired girl.

Life Goes On..

My thoughts are all over the place right now. I was feeling all sorts of negative emotions yesterday. I still have a little bit of them lingering into today. I was angry, hurt, heartbroken, offended, PISSED OFF!!! It was way less than what I expected it to be. But like I said, life goes on. I will keep on doing what I do to keep Carter's memory alive...for Tyler. He is my husband and that is my role as his wife...to protect him, to take care of him, to support him. I have done just that. Everyone in this town and beyond knows that is the deal. They have their opinions of us and we clearly have our opinions of them. Neither really matter in the end. We can't send each other to Heaven or Hell. We know that they will get what is coming to them. We are just waiting patiently...and impatiently...for that something to happen.

We love you, Carter Greyson. Watch over all of us and try to keep us in line and help this all end and be about you forever. I want the drama and persecution to stop!!!

Oh Busy Days

Tucker has kept us so busy lately. I feel like this past week I have lost so many hours of sleep. I feel like I have a newborn in the house. After the 3rd time of him peeing in our bed, I was so mad that I wanted to get rid of him. But today we did much better. We started taking him outside to potty. He loves being able to run around, chase leaves, eat acorns, listen to the birds and other neighborhood dogs, etc.

He and JJ are finally getting along. They chase each other. Pretty much, they can stand to be a foot away from each other. I am glad that JJ is warming up to him. Although he does love it when Tucker sleeps in the bathroom because he can come cuddle with me like old times.

I can't wait for Tucker to grow up and start learning how to shake, stay, sit, and obey other commands. We are having to go one day at a time right now. It's hard when you are an impatient person. When I get frustrated with Tucker, I have to think of him as a baby. He doesn't understand what he is doing. But Tyler is going to try to use him to be his hunting dog.

I love my boys.

Razorback Clipboard

I am so glad I have some artistic ability. I made a girl I work with so happy today with her Razorback clipboard and t-shirt scarf. I wish I would have taken a picture of that. I enjoy painting. I enjoy seeing the reaction of people when I give them the finished product. I don't do it for the extra money really. I don't make a huge profit off of what I do. I just like to paint. It is good therapy for me.

The front of the board

The back of the board

Where would we be?!

There is a special little boy that I first got the pleasure of working with whenever I worked at The Learning Center. He was about 4 or 5 months at the time. All I remember whenever I first saw him was "Wow, he looks so much like Carter." Well, during the time that I was working at TLC, we were going through Carter being in the hospital with SBS. I left the hospital July 30 to come get my paycheck and I asked my boss if I could go see the babies (I worked in the baby room). All I wanted to do was see smiling faces. I hugged them, loved on them, hoped that soon Carter would wake up and we would be able to do the same for him. I remember sitting down and holding Baylor and just crying. I felt like I holding Carter for a second.

Months passed. I started a new job. Baylor was at the daycare that I was starting at. I was excited to have seen him grow so much since the last time I saw him. I got to see this boy, a month and a day younger than Carter, laugh, grow, and run around full of energy.

I was talking to him mom today about how it's crazy he is about to be 2 years old. I wish Carter could be here to celebrate his 2nd birthday with us. It has got me to thinking again, where would we be if he was here. How would things be? What would be know? Questions....Questions....Questions!!!!!!

The list goes on and on of what I wish I knew. Only God and dreams can give me comfort. 

I am blessed everyday to be able to work with such beautiful children than keep me going and make me stronger for the mother that I am going to become. They are my little comedians. My little lessons. My little loves.

Life Makes Love Look Hard

One of my pet peeves used to be that people use song lyrics as their statuses on Facebook. I have learned to let that go because there is so much truth in songs. It is life with music and rhyming words. So the title of this post- "Life makes love look hard" - comes from Taylor Swift's song "Ours." I don't like Taylor Swift too much, but I do love this song very much.

Anyway, the point of this post is... life really does make love look hard. We always here about the divorce rates growing, the fights that people have in their marriages, and not even just marriages but relationships in general. It is not hard to love someone. It is a feeling that you cannot control and a feeling that is very desirable, but it is very hard to love someone so much and to see them go through pain. To see them struggle. To have to tell them the hard truth. Tyler and I are very very happy. I don't want anyone to think anything different. But we have our problems just like everyone else. We have a lot of learning to do. We have lessons that are still waiting to be learned. We have to experience things that we haven't had the chance to yet. Loving someone the way that you should and making (and holding onto) the committments that come with saying those vows can be difficult sometimes. I don't believe in "I will never do anything to hurt you." Things happen that we cannot control. You can't predict the future. Don't promise that you will never hurt me. I am so sensitive. There is no telling what will hurt me at any given time.

Life is hard. Money is tight. But we make it work. And we smile while we do it. We love each other unconditionally. We are a young couple. We stand very little chance of making it to 50 years. So the world wants to think. We made that promise to each other. We didn't get married with the intention of getting divorced on down the road. We are in it for the long haul. We are ready for anything that comes our way. We have already been through more than most young couples (even older couples than us). It has only made us stronger.

Life might make love look hard... but this love is definitely ours!!

Truth of Mature Adults

I found these on a picture that I saw on Pinterest. I omitted some of them that I didn't like, but the rest of the them I think are true and pretty funny. Enjoy.

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realized you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. I can't remember the last time I wasn't all least kind of tired.
9. Bad decisions make good stories.
10. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
11. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
12. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
13. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" mean I will never wash this - ever.
14. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
15. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
16. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
17. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
18. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
19. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
20. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
21. I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
22. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.
23. How many time is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
24. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,a nd you can wear them forever.
25. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber and dumber every year?
26. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little to far.
27. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists.
28. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey- but I'd get my ass everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.57 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!!