Mother's Day

I have been thinking a lot lately about what Mother’s Day means to me. It is probably my favorite “me” day. By that I mean that I like it better than my birthday or anniversary or Valentine’s Day. I didn’t realize this until last year when Jayme told me that he thought I felt that way. At first I said to myself, “Better than my birthday…I LOVE my birthday!” But now I see he is right. I guess it is because I have wanted to be a Mom for most of my life and it is the only thing I want to do now. And I’m pretty lucky about it too! Most of this blog will sound like bragging, but I think my family is brag-worthy. Let’s take them one at a time in chronological order:

Jayme-aka-World’s Greatest Husband: Jayme and I met our senior year of high school (yep, that’s right, high school sweethearts!). We had 2 classes together and I watched him very closely. He was new to our school, so he stood out. I watched as he dated a string of girls and had my ideas about what he was after based on that string. But I kept watching! He was VERY flirty too! Of course his idea of flirting was to try to run me over with his car…seriously he did that. Anyway, we went on our first date on Halloween night 1993 and the rest is history. I probably would not have gone to college if I wasn’t dating him. We went to college together at Sam Houston State and married in August 1997 just as we began our senior year. Jayme was on scholarship with the ROTC so that meant we would be an Army family for a while. We were very excited to get our first choice of duty assignments…Germany! We left the States in November 1998 and were in Germany until October 2001. It was during our time there that we started our family with Raley.

Ah, Raley! We decided it was time to try for a baby in May of 1999. It took us a couple months to get it right and we learned Raley was coming on my birthday…best…present…ever! A funny side note is he was conceived on our 2nd anniversary. I gained 72 pounds with Raley and loved every second of it. While I was pregnant I worked as a tutor and substitute teacher at the American middle school on our base. I don’t remember much morning sickness, but I did have some. If I ate an English muffin with peanut butter as soon as I got up I was usually okay but I had to carry apple juice and pop tarts with me everywhere after I passed out one day. My Mom came to Germany the day I went into labor. I had been having on and off contractions with no real pattern for a while. We went to Jayme’s unit softball game that evening, much to the surprise of most of the crowd! We left for the hospital just after midnight and Raley was born at 8:30 am. No gory details here, so don’t worry. Suffice it to say it was not an easy time. No drugs!! Our family had grown with a beautiful, healthy little boy we named Raley (after Jayme’s step-dad) Michael (after my dad). What can I say about Raley? He is great! He is so smart it’s scary, all his teachers love him. He is just an all around wonderful kid and we are so lucky to have him.

In September 2002 we decided it was time to try again. I was a little frustrated come November with no baby yet until I heard Jayme say, “I have really been enjoying the sauna after my workouts.” “SAUNA??!!” I shrieked at him. “You can’t go to the sauna when I’m trying to get pregnant. You’re cooking my children!!” A little melodramatic perhaps, but he got the point and voila in early January we found out we were expecting again. (Merry Christmas to me!) When an ultrasound in May showed another boy, there was none of the disappointment I had expected. We had already picked out a girl name, and a boy name seemed impossible until we were at a family reunion and heard the name Clayton. We both really liked it, but could not agree on a middle name. I wanted Robert (my maiden name being Roberts). Jayme said both names should not have two syllables. I said, “Oh, like RALEY MICHAEL?” He wanted James but, just to be difficult, I said, “No, it can’t end in S or it will be difficult to say together like my name is.” So we each made list of single- syllable-non-s-ending names and the only one we both came up with was Wayne. After gaining 83 pounds (one time the midwife said, “Try eating an apple, not an apple pie.”) and going all the way through a Texas summer with mild pre-eclampsia, Clayton Wayne Sims was born 3 days late on September 17, 2003 (two days after my own birthday). Also no drugs!! Clay is an awesome kid. He is very excited about starting Kindergarten in August and I’m not sure how I would have managed taking care of Pattie without him. He is my helper. Well, actually, “Mystery Man” is my helper. Clay describes him as “a spirit who lives inside me”. One time I asked him who the spirit was and he said, “Probably Grandpa” (Jayme’s father who passed away just a month before Clay was born).

When Clay was 4 months old, Jayme left for Iraq. Enter the year from hell! We decided before he got back that our Army days were done. Jayme got back home 3 days after Christmas 2004. By February he was out of the Army and in at Target Distribution. We moved to Lindale and have been very happy here. But, we always wanted three kids so we felt the time was right in 2006 to try again. Took a couple months this time due to what I termed (jokingly) “my aging eggs”. Nevertheless, a week before Christmas 2006 we were preggo again.

I behaved myself slightly better this time only gaining 30 pounds. We still had the girl name we didn’t use for Clay, but no ideas for a boy other than I was going to insist on Robert as the middle name this time. No need…just after Easter we found out there was a little girl cooking in me and we were all ecstatic! Clay was adamant it was a girl, and I think I was more worried about his disappointment if it wasn’t than my own. Pattie was due the day before our 10th anniversary. She ended up waiting a few more days. I like to say that she wanted Sapphires for her birthstone and not Peridot. September 1, 2007 Pattie (after my mom) Lynn (after Jayme’s mom Lynda) was born…you guessed it…NO DRUGS! Our family was complete. Pattie is not the princess…she is the QUEEN. I have officially been usurped! The old saying “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” needs to be rewritten for sure. It only took her about 5 seconds to have Jayme firmly entwined around her tiniest finger. If you don’t believe me look at the pics from the hospital. She also is the ruler of her big brothers. We are all, quite seriously, putty in her hands. And that’s how it should be.

I know this is long, but I hope you have enjoyed this insight into our family. We are just about the happiest bunch I know!