How I came to be part of the Brady Bunch

Hiya :) My name is Dawn. I grew up in New Mexico (mostly) and then moved away to join the Navy, get married a couple of times, have kids, see a ton of the world and learn more than I expected to learn from hardships. If I learned anything it is to enjoy life and your own company. I came back to Albuquerque and the family that lives here after almost 17 years of being away in 1997. A divorce and some pretty rough times had my two boys, Logan (almost nine at the time) and David (just about two years old) had to learn to start again. There were many big bumps, but we grew very close, very tough, and very independant.

I am a very outgoing personality. I am a woman capable of supporting herself and her family, and I found I loved the role of single mom. When I came to Albuquerque I worked my way through several jobs, started payments on a mobile home, and focused being a good mom. I settled into the life of relative obscurity in a mobile home park, and found ways to make ends meet, to be both mom and dad, and to convince myself that that liking my lifestyle and being satisfied with who I am was the same thing as not being lonely.

I knew I didn't need to be married to be happy. But I forgot what it was like to have a true friend in my life.

And then came my prince charming....

Work and parenting, when you are single, can leave you little time to get out and have much of a life of your own. It is easy to under-estimate the importance of adult company when you've been away from it for awhile.

In the summer of 2003 my sister and a few friends began to coax me out on an occasional weekend to go dancing, go to the lake now and again, to try and date a little more. I met a lot of guys, many of them very nice. But nothing clicked. My nights out went from once in awhile to rarely. School started back again, and my free time diminished dramatically. Halloween was approaching (one of my favorite events) and I began planning our costumes. Ah. Life is good. I love my children soooo much. I didn't regret anything.

Then one evening my kids went to spend the night at Grammies house and I had too much free time on my hands. I decided to go down the street to a Tavern I had been to very few times, and never alone. I figured I'd relax for a bit then go home and watch a movie on TV. Somehow I got into this conversation with a waitress, and before I knew it a bunch of us were taling as if we'd been lifelong friends. Suddenly I noticed a guy standing nearby, not taling, just kinda watching and listening. Oh Lawdy, was he handsome! I would have had some hope, but he was wayyyyy out of my league. I noticed he has a shirt on that meant he worked at the Tavern. I watched him all night, doing that deep-wishful-sigh-thing that we sometimes do when it's hopeless. One of the waitresses (Tracy... awesome girl) and I ended up hanging out that night and I disclosed my sudden crush, and (yes, I admit it) infatuation with this hunk of a man that I knew was beyond my means. Tracy let me in on a secret... that tall handsome fellow I'd been drooling over had been eyeing me as well.

It's a long story from there... and it involves me waiintg for hours on end until 4 am to go on dates for coffee with him when the bar closed. Our first real dates, (movie and dinner) included our kids... my two boys and his two boys and one girl. After three weeks I begged him to drive to Mississippi with me to meet my dad. He went. When we got back it was another two weeks before he asked us to move in with him. We did. (Yeah, I know how that sounds.) We spent our first Thanksgiving together in the same home, less than five weeks after we met. That was over almost two years ago and I am more in love today than I have ever been in my life. He's a great guy. We've got awesome kids. We are a good team, all of us together. Sometimes life throws ya curve balls....

And sometimes you hit the ball and get a home run.

Photos from the forth

Wow, the last couple of days we've had rain. Not a lot of news for some places, but it is here. There is a local joke that says "YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM NEW MEXICO IF: it starts to rain and you stop to stare." :)

I have always loved rain here in the Land of Enchantment. You can smell rain long before it arrives. It is this amazing fresh scent that lingers in the air, a promise of things to come. Of course, where we live rain means mud, and mud means difficulty driving down the roads. But it is very worth it. The wild sunflowers are preparing to blossom. The kids worked all last weekend mowing and pulling and cleaning the property, and it is almost looking pretty good these days.

Mitchel worked on mowing the most, he is the one we can usually count on to be the most helpful around the house. He is the middle kid so he is in a state of constant in between. He is between being a teenager and a kid. Logan and Keri are about the same age, and so is David and Patrick, so Mitchel is between the two groups of kids and doesn't hang easily with either set. He is struggling between wanting to be adult and responsible, and wanting to be a boy and have fun. He has so many choices to make, and naturally he becomes a handful at times. As frustrating as it can be it is great to watch him grow and imagine what kind of adult he might become.

Keri is still sick, and has been a recluse in her room most of the time. She's been working a little here and there trying to prepare for Aude, her visitor from France. Aude arrives July 9th. Keri wanted a job this summer but has decided to wait so she can spend quality time with her guest. Keri is less in between and more on the cusp. She will be getting her drivers license soon. (what we call a provisional here, it lets her drive without an adult, but with restrictions.) She will be celebrating her 16th birthday this July, and is at that frightening stage where she looks like she's eighteen and as a parent you desperately want her to be 7 again. Keri is also this great mix of sophistication and hard driving athlete. She participates in school sports and ROTC in school, and took a medal on the rifle team this year. She is the first ROTC student to ever be awarded this medal by the American Legion. :) As a veteran I was so proud, as a parent I practically grinned myself to death when they presented it to her.

Logan has been helping off and on during the day, he is the kid with the drivers license and a car right now, and he is the gofer, the sitter, and the errand boy more often than not. He leaves Monday morning for the national AAU Tae kwon do championships in Florida. He is hard to describe. He's funny (the Jim Carey kind of funny that catches you by surprise) he's deeply introspective, he wants the world, and doesn't have the organization skills or the motivation to do most of what he needs to do to get where he wants to go. He is so bright I am sometimes afraid of the day when I can't keep up with him in a conversation. He's been my best friend since he was about four. :)

Patrick is cool. He used to drive me bananas, I woulda swore he wanted to be a lawyer for all the arguing he did, just for the sake of it. I think that for awhile he and I were at battle lines with one another. These days Pat is easy going, quick to help, fast to flash a smile, thoughtful, and usually one of the few that cause problems. He is definitely a young man. He strangely reminds me of Woody Haroldson.

David is the youngest. He has the misfortune to be held to the same standards as the older kids, who didn't have to do the same chores at his age, but he has the luck to be allowed more privileges than we let the same kids have at his age. (Like staying up later and making some of the choices he can make.) David wants to be funny, but has a sense of humor that often gets him in fights at school. He doesn't know what "back down" means, so he almost always ends up being the one to get called in the office for pummeling some kid, even kids four and five years older than him. Other than that, he is affectionate, and he's the one I can count on for true hugs and kisses, and someone to snuggle with for Saturday night movies on the couch.Brian and I are a story for another day. :)

So, it's Wednesday, and hump day as it goes. One more day and Yann gets here, Logan's French visitor who will stay with Logan at my sister Kimberly's home. Kimberly is the hardest working person I know, and a single Mom of the cutest most active little girl in the southwest. She is very brave to be taking on two teenage boys. :)

Possible rain for the weekend... cross your fingers!

Whoopie! It's Friday! ::Does a little dance:: The weekend has come and it's family time. Family time at our house often means house and yard work. Seven people can make an awful mess and weekends we play catch-up. Plus, with guests coming we are trying to make it tip top. I bought this cheesy cheap little pool for the kids to play in, perhaps the dogs as well if that's how it works out. It's all of eight feet wide and 18" deep, so it is more of a cooling area than a swimming hole. But water is water around here.

Logan and Keri have a car wash tomorrow, both of the are in ROTC in High school and the fund raisers have already started. The rest of 'em will probably hang with us for most the day. Maybe we'll get some time for a hike in the mountains, or a paintball fight.

Rain

Wow, the last couple of days we've had rain. Not a lot of news for some places, but it is here. There is a local joke that says "YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM NEW MEXICO IF: it starts to rain and you stop to stare." :)

I have always loved rain here in the Land of Enchantment. You can smell rain long before it arrives. It is this amazing fresh scent that lingers in the air, a promise of things to come. Of course, where we live rain means mud, and mud means difficulty driving down the roads. But it is very worth it. The wild sunflowers are preparing to blossom. The kids worked all last weekend mowing and pulling and cleaning the property, and it is almost looking pretty good these days.

Mitchel worked on mowing the most, he is the one we can usually count on to be the most helpful around the house. He is the middle kid so he is in a state of constant in between. He is between being a teenager and a kid. Logan and Keri are about the same age, and so is David and Patrick, so Mitchel is between the two groups of kids and doesn't hang easily with either set. He is struggling between wanting to be adult and responsible, and wanting to be a boy and have fun. He has so many choices to make, and naturally he becomes a handful at times. As frustrating as it can be it is great to watch him grow and imagine what kind of adult he might become.

Keri is still sick, and has been a recluse in her room most of the time. She's been working a little here and there trying to prepare for Aude, her visitor from France. Aude arrives July 9th. Keri wanted a job this summer but has decided to wait so she can spend quality time with her guest. Keri is less in between and more on the cusp. She will be getting her drivers license soon. (what we call a provisional here, it lets her drive without an adult, but with restrictions.) She will be celebrating her 16th birthday this July, and is at that frightening stage where she looks like she's eighteen and as a parent you desperately want her to be 7 again. Keri is also this great mix of sophistication and hard driving athlete. She participates in school sports and ROTC in school, and took a medal on the rifle team this year. She is the first ROTC student to ever be awarded this medal by the American Legion. :) As a veteran I was so proud, as a parent I practically grinned myself to death when they presented it to her.

Logan has been helping off and on during the day, he is the kid with the drivers license and a car right now, and he is the gofer, the sitter, and the errand boy more often than not. He leaves Monday morning for the national AAU Tae kwon do championships in Florida. He is hard to describe. He's funny (the Jim Carey kind of funny that catches you by surprise) he's deeply introspective, he wants the world, and doesn't have the organization skills or the motivation to do most of what he needs to do to get where he wants to go. He is so bright I am sometimes afraid of the day when I can't keep up with him in a conversation. He's been my best friend since he was about four. :)

Patrick is cool. He used to drive me bananas, I woulda swore he wanted to be a lawyer for all the arguing he did, just for the sake of it. I think that for awhile he and I were at battle lines with one another. These days Pat is easy going, quick to help, fast to flash a smile, thoughtful, and usually one of the few that cause problems. He is definitely a young man. He strangely reminds me of Woody Haroldson.

David is the youngest. He has the misfortune to be held to the same standards as the older kids, who didn't have to do the same chores at his age, but he has the luck to be allowed more privileges than we let the same kids have at his age. (Like staying up later and making some of the choices he can make.) David wants to be funny, but has a sense of humor that often gets him in fights at school. He doesn't know what "back down" means, so he almost always ends up being the one to get called in the office for pummeling some kid, even kids four and five years older than him. Other than that, he is affectionate, and he's the one I can count on for true hugs and kisses, and someone to snuggle with for Saturday night movies on the couch.Brian and I are a story for another day. :)

So, it's Wednesday, and hump day as it goes. One more day and Yann gets here, Logan's French visitor who will stay with Logan at my sister Kimberly's home. Kimberly is the hardest working person I know, and a single Mom of the cutest most active little girl in the southwest. She is very brave to be taking on two teenage boys. :)

Possible rain for the weekend... cross your fingers!

Whoopie! It's Friday! ::Does a little dance:: The weekend has come and it's family time. Family time at our house often means house and yard work. Seven people can make an awful mess and weekends we play catch-up. Plus, with guests coming we are trying to make it tip top. I bought this cheesy cheap little pool for the kids to play in, perhaps the dogs as well if that's how it works out. It's all of eight feet wide and 18" deep, so it is more of a cooling area than a swimming hole. But water is water around here.

Logan and Keri have a car wash tomorrow, both of the are in ROTC in High school and the fund raisers have already started. The rest of 'em will probably hang with us for most the day. Maybe we'll get some time for a hike in the mountains, or a paintball fight.

The Brady Bunch Portrait

I had two boys, Logan, 14, and David, 7.

Brian had two boys and a girl. Keri, 14, Mitchel, 11, and Patrick, 9.

We moved into his home with our pets and his, and suddenly became a unit. A family.

An incredibly good thing.

Baseball, the Caveman way...

On the second day of camping I woke at an amazing 7 am, despite trying to bury myself deeper into my sleeping bag for an extra couple of hours of rest. The outdoors just called to me. The sounds of birds chirping, the breeze in the pines, and the lack of human activity pulled me from the tent and into the world.

I made hot tea over the fire, pulled out the broken cookies I had saved, and sat back wrapped in a blanket with my book. It wasn't long before the chipmunks decided that something in my vicinity smelled good. The first of my little visitors wouldn't venture too close, but after awhile they were sitting on my shoes and even on my lap. :) I couldn't believe how many there were, across the meadow I could see hundreds hopping and dashing to-and-fro!

The rest of the brood woke up at about 9am, and dragged out like zombies. Some of them didn't sleep as well as I did during the night it seems. :)

We enjoyed pancakes and eggs for breakfast, did a group clean-up, and went our seperate ways. The day was spent in blissful laziness. David, Patrick, Mitchel and Yann were absorbed in carving and whittling. Yann had a huge branch, and nobody knew what he was making until later, and it turned out to be a baseball bat! And what a great bat! Later that day Kimberly and Jordan arrived and we decided to play Neanderthal Stickball. We hacked out a huge ball from wood, used our homemade bats, chose tree stumps for plates, and re-wrote the rules so we could play. What a great game!

The day came to a close, and we enjoyed a light rain under the tarp. It was surprisingly fun to sit by the fire with the rain drizzeling around us. Another day gone, the last day ahead of us, and so far it has been great.

Camping at Jacks Creek

Wow what a camping trip! I have so many photos that I am going to have to dedicate several entries to them, I think. We started out Friday and went the back way and up into the Sangre de Cristo Mountians. (Which is spanish for Blood of Christ) ThroughPecos (small town in the Pecos Wilderness) , past the Benadictine Monastary and the Fish Hatchery, up past the small general store that stands where the road splits to go to Holy Ghost or to Jack's Creek, through Cowels. From Cowels it wasn't twenty minutes until we found the campground, and a great campsite. Ten dollars per car per night gave a us a site where we had more room than we knew what to do with, nestled under Ponderosa and Blue Fir Pines, Aspens and other gorgeous trees. Two thick and large picnic tables sat near the road, but we put our tents up the hill overlooking much of the campground, but giving us a modicum of privacy. The woods stretched wide and deep in every direction.

There was so much to do... hiking, playing in the water, praticing knife throwing and carving skills. I read books and took photos, Brian prowled the woods searching for wildlife. The boys enjoyed the woods for the sake of running and being wild. Keri and Aude took long lazy walks and naps. We played a Neanderthal Stickball (more about that tomorrow) and tag in the woods at night with glowsticks. We cooked good meals, annd enjoyed each others company. It was wonderful. :)

I'll leave ya to the photos for today, and will follow up with more pics tomorrow and day after. Enjoy!