monkey toes

what color do you think it is?

Stroman had another night terror a few nights back.

Judging by how he was screaming "Mommy hold you!" it must have been something tragic that kept me from getting to him in his nightmare.

The next morning, we discussed the episode over breakfast.

"Stroman, did you have a bad dream last night," Drew asked.

"Yeah," Stroman pouted.

"Were you scared?" Drew asked.

"Yeah," the little guy admitted. He's 2-years-old and this episode lasted close to an hour of him screaming, not waking up, just screaming.

Cyd pipes up, "Stroman, did you dream that you got eaten by an alligator? Because I dreamed that once and I was terrified."

"What did the inside of the alligator look like, Cyd?" I joke.

"It's pink," she said without skipping a beat. "Really. It is. I saw it."

tidbits

yesterday i drove to big spring, texas to pick up sniggles from her weekend with her biological father. during the brief 5-hour drive there i normally a) listen to talk radio, b) drink excessive amounts of coffee and c) consider things to blog about.

apparently the DR was good listening because i only came up with blog tidbits...

• i'm EAGERLY awaiting the arrival of my new lens...drew and i made a deal that if i were hired for the pecos prom, i could purchase a new lens for the upcoming wedding season. i'm terribly hesitant when it comes to buying new equipment for photography. thank you to drew for your encouragement. i love new toys.
• stroman's sentences are amazing me daily. when i pick him up from "school" he says things like, "I fall down on playground. I have owie on hand. Maria tiss (kiss) it for me. It get better. And I watch movie with Diego. Go Diego Go. I play with Avery and Soren and Luke."
• cyd is registered for kindergarten. she'll be going to generations and we're using it as a year to continue education and see if she's ready for public school. her august birthday gives us the option of waiting another year before she hits the big leagues. she'll have about 6 classmates and an incredible teacher.
• we had a garage sale a few weeks ago and cleaned out SO much stuff. i'm thinking we may set one up for next weekend...i have a couch that i am tired of & ready to replace.
• our next wedding is at this little dive. we can't wait to go back! have done a couple of weddings there before and it is an incredible place with terrific food and hosts.
• baby lexi is a mere 10 weeks away (or less!)... we've rearranged the kids rooms, gotten new bedding for them and for lexi. i'm a nesting fiend. cleaning, organizing, re-organizing what i've already organized, decluttering, thinking i'm totally running out of time...

have a great Tuesday!

what would you do?

we received a call late last night...about 10 p.m. on our land line, which is never good.

it was a girl who has babysat for us before.

she wanted us to cover for her because she told her mom she was here keeping the kids...i asked where she had been.

she told me she was at the movies with her boyfriend.

her mom is calling this a.m. to confirm that the girl has been at our house keeping our kids several times in the past few weeks.

she hasn't.

would you cover for the 16-year-old who is dating even though her parents don't want her to?
or would you give her up?

simply that time of year...

when coaches move.

and discuss job opportunities.

and dig out the resume to shine it up if something seems interesting.

it doesn't always mean that life isn't good. more often than not, looking at a new job is simply part of going through this time of the year.

here's my theory. coaches are constantly looking for the next challenge and when they hear about a program that needs revamping, most of the coaches think about how they could take on that challenge.

lately, drew has had some interesting options brought to the table from some different schools. and we are investigating the options.

but don't think that we won't be thrilled if we stay here. we have friends. the kids have a great school. we have a beautiful house. why wouldn't we want to stay?

the main draw is getting back to Texas. getting closer to family and being around more people who "get" us.

roswell hasn't been the MOST welcoming place i've ever lived. one man that i worked with on a project flat out told me not to try to hard to socialize with natives. "It just isn't worth the effort," he said. "If you didn't grow up with them, they won't ever let you in."

i'm a stubborn chick and didn't think that could possibly be true, but i've found that it isn't far from the truth.

example:
one night we were at a social function and a few ladies were raving about how much fun they have at book club. ignorantly, at the end of the evening i said, "next time you guys get together for book club, let me know. i'd love to come."

my vision of meeting new people was quickly shattered as it was awkwardly explained that the book club already had ten members and was, well, slightly exclusive.

i felt like an idiot. i never meant to put the woman in a strange spot by over-inviting myself. drew was dumbfounded as to what to say when i was in tears on the way home. i just felt stupid deep down in each cell of my body.

i woke the next day a bit past humiliated and was mad. i'm a decent person and damn it, a published author - of two books - and i'm not good enough for their book club? if i had any friends of my own i would have started my own club that day...not exclusive...everyone invited. i wouldn't even require them to be able to read. come one, come all!

disclaimer - i realize that not many people want to delve into a horse training book, but the point in that these people didn't know me or even care to take an hour one evening to see if i could put a sentence together.

back to today:
things are better. i have met some great people & made friends and drew & i even have couple friends that we hang out with. and, i need to give credit to those natives that i've become friends with now!

and we are 98% sure we've decided to stay put for a while.

of course, drew did get a call last night about an opportunity.

should i?

perhaps.

or maybe not.

but i did.

i started a new blog. odd, you say, she never seems to update her current blog...

true. however, i think i'll be forced to update the new one simply to survive.

we've just returned from our spring break vacation. it generated tons of info for both blogs. i'll begin the information overload this week. maybe.

because i keep meeting new people, it sometimes seems like this should be repeated...one of my first blog postings. this is from 2007. now, life is completely different. cyd is 4, stroman 2, baby lexi is due in july...and we live in a completely different state.

but here's where we were then:

where to start...or stop

what i can't seem to grasp...(totally in the blogger world, if we expanded this into regular life, dear God, i'd be typing forever. there is so much i don't understand about the world, i.e. brittney spears, the success of the 700 club and why i think hulk hogan is a good dad. )

so, back to the point - i have had lots of things happen in my life...some exhilarating, some tragic and most of them touched with a bit of humor - but how to i open up to what could be complete strangers? then my husband reminded me that i do just that every time i go to the grocery store and say something offhand to a fellow shopper.

so, here we go. my name is laren bridges. i live in alpine, texas, with my husband drew, our daughter, cydney and our son, stroman. george, mutt of the year, lives in the back yard and is now so old and lazy that he won't even chase the birds away from his food bowl. lazy bastard. he's been a good dog.

drew and i have been married a bit more than a year. love, love, love. finally found someone tough enough to stop my strong will when he needs to and yet willing to talk to me, let me be me (she who speaks without a filter) and be my best friend every day.i have some interesting tales - but most (if not all) are the antithesis of politically correct. where should i start...the day i had to shoot my dog because it was eating my pigs? or perhaps the time pigs attacked my house in canyon, texas. i've been thrown off horses, kicked by calves, president of a stellar sorority at Texas Tech University and had meetings with George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas - the second time, he called me by name.

or, do i just tell you this and see if you come back for more: what would you people want to know about me? i'm married to the love of my life, drew. we met in alpine while i was on a work trip taking photos for the ranch cutting horse association. i was out at the reata the night before my photography job and a group of guys started up some conversation...long story short, i decided that drew was quite obviously the cute one and well, at this point, who knows who fell first, but point is - we are married. we have two children. cydney is 3 years (from my previous marriage.) stroman was born feb. 12, 2007.

random info: i grew up in sweetwater, texas. attended a small (seriously, i was one of 15 graduates) six-man school near there. it was such a small school that any warm body played sports. i love to compete, so i played basketball, ran track and cross-country, tennis, golf, and during football season i was decked out in tons of sequins as a twirler.

i was raised on a working cattle ranch in west texas. love ranch life. wouldn't mind doing it again someday.

lots of horror stories - prolapsed cows, how the lamb fetus ended up in mom's freezer, getting pinned between a truck and an iron gate all alone - 10 miles from home, all sorts of random stuff while helping dad - and lots of learning.

i am a published author. i write horse-training books. i've never trained a horse. i was thrown off a horse while interviewing country music star charlie robison for an article when i worked for the American Quarter Horse Association.


i am a sahm/photographer/author. i haven't written a word in about a year. just starting to take photos again. i'm willing to post some of my college poetry...mainly b/c i think some of you might find it humorous that i thought i could be the next jewel - without the guitar, but with straighter teeth.

hmmmm...i was once shot at during an attempted carjacking in dallas. but i sped away and lived to tell the tale. that was one shitty spring break.

it took forever!

the ultrasound technician did all of the measuring, checking, etc. and baby remained extremely modest. in fact, tech told me that i was welcome to come back when i had my next ob/gyn appt. and see if her door was open to look again and see if we could find out boy or girl.

but this is the second time we'd been in and i was already concocting a plan of walking around the office for 3 minutes and finding out that day. that was our day to find out!

she noticed my distress, printed out all the other pics and finally was able to confirm...

it's a girl!

everything measured in the normal range. all organs seem to be functioning normally. and just as i told my husband within hours of telling him we were pregnant, it is a girl!

we'll call her Lexi. Short for Laren Alexandria. Laren is also my mother's middle name. Alexandria comes from Drew's sister & represents his side of the family.

cyd is psyched about having a little sister. stroman gave us some pjs last night that are too small and said, "for baby wexie" -- makes the ol' heart melt a bit, eh?