MAMA'S VENT

Terry needs to take care of her children

2010-11-08T18:23:00.005-05:00

I have found my blog and thought I would use it. It has been neglected for so long....perfect time to reinvent my vent page! I have had great progress in my life: almost debt free, everyone is healthy sans some minor issues here and there, school is going great for the kids, my working is going great and a move is coming. (Thank God in heaven, we are moving back to our home in SC)

My son had a run in this summer with some boys. They all started a shoe box on fire. Nothing was damaged minus the shoe box. In CA, fire is a big deal. Heck, any kid playing with fire is a big deal. Anyway, I had left the kids with my dh while I went for a walk at the PT (physical training) course with a friend. I come home to PMO (on base police) writing up a report for my son, as well as five other kids. My son admitted to it and was grounded up until a few weeks ago. (it had been for until we moved but he has been good) He also completed a fire safety course. All the kids involved were issued to attend. (only one other kid did)

One of the kids involved (actually all but one involved ) is a MAJOR discipline issue. It is your typical parent ignores the child, puts little effort into their child's future and the child acts out. He has ADHD issues anyway which make it much worse. Example #1. I come back from a women's weekend with some ladies and walk with my bag down the street to home and this kid is saying EVERY cuss word you can think of at the top of his lungs and destroying one of our baby trees. Example #2. He breaks a cement drain catch a our neighbor's house. Our neighbor walks him home and is out five minutes later. Example #3. He threw rocks at another neighbor's car. Neighbor brings him home. In another instance, they ask Terry if her son is the mulatto boy. She was all bent out of shape like they called him the N word.
Definition Mulatto:
1
: the first-generation offspring of a black person and a white person
2
: a person of mixed white and black ancestry

I have heard this story many times or had until our blowout. You see, we had been friends for about 8 years until the incident I am going to vent about. Our daughters were best friends during elementary school in SC. They did Girl Scouts together, even did a camp out together, slept at their house and my house....then we moved. They moved into our neighborhood almost a year ago. They were actually slotted for the townhouse connected to ours. (Thank God they begged for one with a bigger driveway!)

Her son had been little while we were in SC. He was just really hyper and seemed like he had to moving constantly. He was put on meds right before we moved and they seemed to calm him down so that school went more smoothly for him. Well, he isn't on them anymore. As soon as they moved in, he was causing problems. My dh has asked the kids to stay off the wall in front of our house a few times but he would continue and would talk back when asked to move. At one time, he was smashing our street signs with a baseball bat. He would yell, scream and cuss out there. Finally, my dh told the kid he was not allowed to play with Michael because of his behavior. After his cussing incident from my weekend, he asked why he couldn't play with my son. I told him because he cussed a lot. He let me know that he had stopped doing it.

After the fire incident, my son was grounded, as I said. All the kids were told, including this boy, MULTIPLE TIMES. They have also have been told NOT to play in front of the house because they become too loud and tear up the mulch and plants. This incident was not the first time, obviously. My dh told them to go play at the playground so they went off to play. Not five seconds later, our doorbell rings. Seriously? It is Terry's boy. "Can Michael play?" Yes, I was hot. I had already told him two other times that Michael was grounded until we moved. My response was: "He is grounded because of the fire you all started." He responded,"I didn't start the fire." My response was,"You were there. He cannot play with you or anyone. He is grounded. You need to leave."

I was angry. He had been asked REPEATEDLY not to come to our house, he was not allowed to play with my son even before the incident yet he continued to come back. Unfortunately, I hurt his feelings. I didn't mean to but was frustrated with the situation. I was mad at my son and all these kids because of the magnitude of what they had done and my son seemed to be the ONLY one to get punished properly.

Later that weekend, I sat out in front of my friend's house with another neighbor, something we have done since moving here almost three years ago. It has always been a peaceful, stress relieving thing. Terry came down to talk with us. She didn't do it often so it was a treat. Or so I thought. She went into how I had hurt her son's feelings. How he didn't understand what we meant by him not being able to play with my son or in front of the house. I apologized for hurting his feelings. She also told us about how she was about to beat her son with a spoon or something and didn't know PMO was in her driveway. (they escorted him home after the fire) She then went on to rant about how her kid got beat up at a park that is outside of our neighborhood. How her son is always being picked on and beat up. This has been her line since SC. He was getting beat up at the park at age 3 or 4. Why was a 3 or 4 year old out at the park without an adult? Why was he allowed at a park that is not even in our neighborhood? Why does she not set limits on her son? These are the questions you cannot ask her because she would be offended. It was one of those places you couldn't go for fear that it would fracture your relationship. Well, it went there and it did.

My neighbor, a friend of hers on Facebook let me know that she had posted her status as ' I am upset. my neighbor is such a liar' or something to that affect the next day. ( I deleted her after the fire) I was done, completely. I wrote her a letter. This is what I wrote:

I guess the door swings both ways. You seem to have a problem with me and don't speak to me about it. Yes, I did lie and that was to spare your feelings. I didn't tell you how it really is. You know why everyone cannot stand your child (your words not mine)? He is undisciplined and destructive. He talks back to adults when told to do something. He has been brought home after damaging someones property and out free five minutes later. I didn't come to you because you would come up with some lame excuse and try to talk your way out of it, hands over your ears and eyes. With all your online college, you would think that you would be educated enough to educate your child on how to behave in public. You act as if your sh*t don't stink and your children do no wrong. You cry about how your son had this done to him or that. Why was he even there to be in that situation? If you would truly supervise him, he would not be in half of the problems he is always in. Yes, my son did wrong and guess what? He is taking a fire safety course and does not leave my house unsupervised. How many times does it take for you to open your eyes that your son will continually be a discipline problem until you step up and quit playing the 'victim'. Consider any communication between us done. Good luck to you and your family.

She came storming to my door right as I was feeding my family dinner. She jumped down my throat about how I lied and admitted it. Yeah, I lied about how I felt about his behavior, not about what I said to him. It got very heated and then she text her dh and he flew over and then it became a mess. She wanted to know why I had a problem with her 'edumacation', her words, not mine. It became a racial thing(she is white, he is black), an education thing, my having five kids, their crappy parenting skills.... Then he drags his son out of the car, he is physically shaking because he is so scared. His dad yells at him,"Don't play here! They don't want you here!" I tried to apologize to him and then his dad yells,"Don't listen to her, she hates black people!" WTF? I think out of everything, him dragging his son out of the car and saying that of all things was what has eaten at me the most. I even tried to explain I don't know half of my family because of racism because my grandfather married an Native American woman. My dh is Polish Japanese. We aren't all white either. I have had their dd at my house and my dd has spent the night at their house. For real? I actually had to call PMO to make them leave. As I walked down to my neighbor's to sit, as planned, Terry's husband, flipped off my friend. (also her friend) The childish behavior has continued and probably will until we move.

What it really boils down to is that they are both victims. Victims of their own bigotry. They are teaching their kids that all white people are against them. Yesterday, their son shoved a girl over and choked her. (same people that asked if he was the mulatto boy) The parents called PMO on the boy. The dad came storming over calling her a racist bitch.

My son has been harassed by this kid at school. He threw a rock at him early on in the school year. I had to call the school and even had to go in and speak with the vice-principal. On top of it, this 'woman' would give my son dirty looks. Again, for real? All the education and you still behave like you are in junior high? You are going to behave like that towards a child? We were at the same function for the neighborhood. I was on the sidewalk with my kids. She actually walked into the road to avoid me. LMAO! Venting on her might be childish but at least I can speak to her child respectively. I have said hi back to him. Asked him how he is doing. Simple things to let him know that I do not hate him and that it is not his fault. He is just a kid. Apparently, so are his parents......

Deep down, he is a great kid with no positive direction. Terry asked for info for football because pop Warner is expensive. I gave her the web site for a cheaper team that everyone in our area plays with. Too expensive, again. Then downsize your car! Why would you buy a vehicle you cannot afford? If you live within your means and not be 'car poor', you would be able to put your child in sports. You could afford to give them the braces they deserve and need! I know that my daughter's self esteem has gotten so much better from hers.

Lord, please look after those kids. Let them find direction and someone that will give them positive guidance. Let someone take the time to show them that they matter in this world. I pray that You show them that there is love in the world, no matter what color.
Amen

I leave all my anger in God's hands. Thus, my vent is complete!

Where is my compass?

2010-06-20T00:51:00.002-04:00

I really don't know where life is headed right now. I feel pulled in so many directions and don't really know what I want from life. I feel like I am where I am supposed to be in a way but not fully satisfied with what cards I have been dealt. Money is tight and seems to have been since we have been married. No surprise I know, especially with five kids. The honest to God sad part is that we make a lot of money but have put most of it into paying on stupid debts like credit cards and loans. Some are unavoidable like braces. The credit cards were set up because we were broke and now we are perpetually broke. If we didn't have our house in SC still, we would not be broke, especially with me working.
Me working. I like it but wanted it to be an extra, not a nessessity. I planned it to be a quicker way to pay off our debts but it ended up being a means to keep afloat, thanks to our house not having renters. Where was the self control in NOT buying the damn house? If only housing had been as nice as it is here. Of course NOW they are renovating ALL of housing down there. Load of sh*t if you ask me.
Another thing that bothers me is my body. I am in pain 24/7 because of my extra weight. Yes, I am fat. I mean F-A-T. Lord, I have been 'obese' since the birth of my third child. I am to the point where I almost don't care anymore because I am too tired and hurt too damn much to do anything about it. I wasted a good part of the day taking a nap?@! I feel like I am falling into another depression because of all the nonsense of it all. Pain, debt, bills, no sleep, tired, working.......
I am a little green with some of my friends' lives. They live thin and beautiful. They have lived full of life and light and I feel like I am just a rung below.....I am just a step away from it but just can't seem to get my grip on everything and pull up to the next level. I am very fortunate to live the life I do, considering the other ways that life and fate could have dished out to me. Coming from a very broken home, it could have turned into not much of a life at all. Thank God for my husband who showed me the right path.
That was a good vent. I feel much, MUCH better. Sometimes just airing it out relieves some of the pressure that seems to build and build until I feel like I am going to pop. Thanks blogger~

Irritated today

2009-06-08T15:22:00.002-04:00

I am slightly irritated today. I was fine until I really got to thinking about this one thing. Memorial and All Star teams. My son didn't make either. That is not what bothers me. There are so many talented kids on our teams that I knew that he had only a small chance to make it.

First off, Memorial teams. There are two teams and usually coaches kids make up these teams, as is the case right now. That is why I am irritated. One of the kids, God bless him, made it. WHY? Oh, because is dad is a coach and brown noses like you would not believe. He is a good kid and my son liked him until this. He can't catch or throw, seriously. He makes one out of every like 20 catches or throws. He can hit ok because he uses a big barrel bat. He still strikes out at that. COME ON NOW~! There are a TON of kids better than him, including my son.

All Star teams are out and my son didn't make it. If this kid makes All Stars, I will be absolutely livid. Yeah, you could say that my I am so angry because my kid didn't make it but I would still be mad if this kid made it over a ton of others.

He is going to get slaughtered in the next league and his dad is just setting him up for it. Oh, and the Memorial Teams WERE slaughtered at their tournament. Funny how that works.....

back to my site....

2009-06-07T02:05:00.002-04:00

I am back to my old stomping ground! Things have changed drastically. We have moved to Cali and have been here for about 18 months. Lizzie has since been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, Emily has had two knee surgeries to correct her knocked knees, Michael is very active in baseball, Emma tried dance and Tball, and Matthew is HUGE compared to that last photo.

We no longer participate in Girl Scouts. After dealing with Nida, we have all had a bad taste in our mouth for it. Emma would like to do Brownies this fall. If she wants to, I will support her 100%. She is also considering gymnastics and will be doing T ball again this fall. That is a lot for one little girl.

I have had nothing to be excited about lately. I have enjoyed reading since being here. My neighbor, a friend that moved from SC just before us has a large book collection. She has been very generous in allowing me to borrow as many as I can read.

I guess our biggest news lately is Lizzie's recent diagnosis of Autism. Why it took 13 years? Ask her doctors. She has coped very well with middle school. Her support team is awesome. She is starting to have issues with a few girls being mean. Luckily, there is only one week of school left.

My body is feeling my age and my weight. I lost nearly 40 pounds last year but put about 20 back on after my dh returned from a six month deployment in November. He left recently for a 4 monther so my goal is to find a balance in my weight loss and him being here. I had hand surgery done to remove a cyst about a month ago. I am going in for a nerve study in that same hand for carpal tunnel. There are other things, aches and pains that can be fixed with weight loss. I am back on the wagon after losing my momentum. We will see how it goes this time. I would like to just lose that pesky 20 pounds that came on when he came home and go from there.

Anyway, now that I have vented a bit, I can get to bed. Plus, my hand is hurting from all the typing. I think I am almost ready to start learning the guitar. It all depends on if I need surgery again.....

MY BABY IS HERE!

2007-05-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

I had my little man! Yeah, it has been a while and I have not felt like blogging. My son was born May 4 weighing in at 8 pounds even. He has been a blessing so far, honestly. He only cries when he is hungry, dirty, or just wants to be cuddled. We planned on having him sleep in his crib but he decided that the family bed was best for him. Best part? He looks just like me!

Everyone has adjusted very well. Emma had some issues for a couple of days but we have worked it out. We have had some "us" time and cleared it all up. She just needs to be reassured that we all still love her and can give her time with us.

Another great deal: I have one pound to go to my prepregnancy weight. I feel fabulous! It took about a week for all the swelling to go down but after that ~ I was good to go. I have already set a weightloss goal but I am waiting to get to my 6 week postpartem appointment before posting it on my weightloss blog.

Off to take care of my little man! Fold laundry, take care of the kids.........

Soon to be Cali girl!

2007-04-24T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yup! We have orders to California! Warm, sunny, not so hot days are coming to us right after Christmas. We will be moving in January to Southern California. This means season passes to Disneyland! That means we get to go to Sloppa's house. (AKA Minnie Mouse in Emma's eyes) We are thinking of upgrading to a Suburban for the move. It would be great fun to travel across the country in a minivan with two hamsters, a cat and FIVE kids. Then again, our van has everything we could ever ask for, except MORE ROOM! LOL We need to just lay and wait for this to unfold. I know that Mike is excited to get back into sea work and to try another side of the Earth to travel. I am excited to try another part of the world myself. What fun would it be being in the military if you didn't take advantage of moving to places you would never live. Mind you, I went to Cali back when I was ten and even got to see carriers across the water from our restaurant. My grandparents live in Long Beach off the ninth hole of a country club. Hey, at least Mike would get to golf every once in a while off a top notch course!

Hopefully, I will be posting pics of my baby soon! Not much longer to go until my due date! One week, two days to go!!!!

It has been a LONG time

2007-04-20T11:38:00.000-04:00

I know blog....I have neglected you. See, I have this thing called a life. Not that there has not been anything to post about. I have been just TOO BUSY to get on here and write. Things that have happened, short version:
First off, I don't know where I left off. We finished cookies, earning about $24oo in sales. That means our girls get to do a LOT. I have had drama with another parent over dates of our camping trip. Needless to say, she is like best friends with Nida and the two older ladies have been gossiping and getting each others feathers in a bunch. She wrote me a letter about a change in date for a big trip which was always slated for the 14th but thought about the 21. It was slated for the 14th because we were going to do Junior Jam. We canceled that because of too much going on in that month and because we had a LARGE camp out two weeks before. We thought about moving it to the 21 but didn't because the base elementary, about 80% of our girls go there, have a carnival. Our troop has missed it the past two years. Well, she got all bent out of shape because she thought I changed it which I stuck with the original date. (Yeah, this is the short version) Needless to say, I offered her tickets for the events we were doing but she declined.

The big trip in question: We took the girls downtown Charleston for an AWESOME trip! We toured the Exchange and Provost for an hour. We then took a 40 minute scavanger pirate hunt through the city.We came back and had a picnic in Waterfront Park. We then walked the girls down and they took an hour long carriage ride. BEAUTIFUL! We then fed the girls at an elected restaurant, Sticky Fingers. MMMMM! I had quite a few BAD contractions in there. We all joked that my three other chaparones would have to have another parent watch the girls while they took me to labor and delivery. Needless to say, I am still pregnant!

The other reason we really pushed to have this activity this day and not a later date: two of our girls were supposed to transfer the first week in May. Well, one of the girls had her dad's orders pushed up and she moves this weekend! I am so glad that she was able to do this last big trip. We still have many planned until their money is gone. They will spend it because they earned it!

Our big camp out went really well! That was the weekend before Easter. The girls had a blast. One of our memorable events: Two raccoons tried to get into our food the first night. We jumped out and scared them away but I ended up getting my sons Tball bat out of the car that he forgot to remove. We told the girls the next morning that the raccoons ate all of our food. We had a large boyscout group of about 120 next to us that over heard the girls and came over to offer us food. They got a good giggle out of it too.

Another big event that has happened is my son has started his Tball and is a total star! He has had two games so far and has done so well! His second game was this weekend, our big trip so I missed it. He had a HUGE cheering section. A bunch of the boys from his AAU team (he is bat boy for a 12 and under team) came to watch as well as two of our neighbors. He had an awesome play that was totally WOW! He was playing first base, had the ball thrown to him which he caught. The boy running to first tackled him, he fell and kept his foot on base, showing the ump the ball still in his glove. He then stood making sure his feet never left the plate. He is my little Joe Mauer!

Negative news: my water pump went out on my van! It started to run warm and then the heat went out on it two weekends ago. I did a 45 minute COLD drive in shorts and sandals thinking it would keep me warm. Well, thank GOD for extended warranties! I paid my $100 deductible instead of well over $500. I was stuck there for FIVE HOURS with Emma. Luckily, no one was in the waiting room so we put cartoons on the big screen and stretched out in their leather sofas.

New drama with that mom from earlier: We had given out some badges this week during our meeting. My co leader made our transferring girl a birthday cake and had our meeting like usual. Well apparently we should have had a ceremony to give out the badges. I give up with trying to please that woman! First off, we service two schools on base. Her dd doesn't live near us or is even military. He buddy Nida is ex-military but lives in another service branch. Why don't they just scoot on down the road and start their own little group.

Anyway, I have run out of time. I will give more updates another time. A BIG UPDATE: I am now 1 week, 6 days away from my due date. I started contractions again yesterday during my son's practice. I honestly think I might go on my own with this one! Next appointment: Thursday. They will check progression.

My heart also goes out to those at VA Tech. I had a friend graduate from there a few years back. It is actually one of the schools I would like my kids to go to. They have a wonderful engineering program there. God be with those families....

Week of weeks....

2007-03-14T09:02:00.000-04:00

It has been a busy few weeks. Two weekends ago, Emily and I did two cookie booths. I have had sick kids in and out of the house for the past MONTH it seems. As we speak, I have Emily home sick. Her dr said it is a Rotovirus. All her little friends at school have had strep. I almost wish it were strep so she could get an antibiotic and then be done with this mess. She has been sick since Sunday and finally seems to be getting better. She is still running a fever but not as bad as her 104 temp two days ago. The first day it was 103. It must have been from our busy weekend.

This past weekend was very eventful. We had a ZooCamp to go to for Girl Scouts. We had 7 girls and 4 adults. On our way up, we saw a horrific accident. We were so close to being in it, it just scares me. A pick up had crossed the median and hit a Sheriff head on. We were five cars behind and saw everything go flying. When we did go around, we saw the body of the sheriff. We had all the girls close their eyes the entire time. I had four girls in my car, 3 who are 9. There was no way I was going to have them see what we saw. Come to find out, he was a K9 and was named deputy of the year last year or the year before. He and his dog were buried together yesterday. Five other cars were in the mess as well. We came so close to being in it that it is scary. Another eerie factor....we remember the deputy passing us minutes before. His wife and three children are in our prayers......

On a happier note, we had a great time at the zoo! We got to go in the elephant and giraffe pen, pet some animals and do a night hike. We slept in a reptile room which disturbed Lizzie. The next day, we toured the zoo. I am getting too pregnant to do this stuff anymore. I swole up really badly and hurt at the end. At least I came home to a clean house! I had cleaned it before I left and my two younger babies and hubby didn't make any messes. I do think I have a UTI though. I was cramping and contracting all day yesterday and the day before. I haven't been feeling good at all. I did get to tour our Labor and Delivery at the hospital I will be giving birth at. WOW! That is all I have to say! The rooms are beautiful!@! Hardwood floors, decorated beautifully and most have a jacuzzi tub in them!! I am so excited to give birth there now. I contemplated giving birth at home in my big garden tub with a midwife but decided a hospital birth would be safer. I just wanted the tub for laboring reasons so now this allows me to stick to what I wanted! I am very pleased! Anywho, off to do some dishes and wait for the nurse to call me back so I can go in and get this fixed!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2007-03-02T13:08:00.000-05:00

Yes, one more thing to complain about! LOL No, for real, it is down right painful sometimes. It has been nagging me for a while now. It had gotten so bad that I just couldn't move my hand. Sometimes at night, my left hand would do that at night. I had my routine appointment this week and they gave me two wrist splints. I wear them both at night and I wear the right one all the time. The thing is, I am left handed. I don't get how my right is worse than my left. I did suffer from tendenitis in that wrist in high school for about a year after All State Band camp. We played a total of eight hours a day for a week straight. (Not all at once but still, playing bass clarinet put strain on my wrist. I also ran into a building on my roller blades on campus the last day.) Hey, at least my hips have not been giving me as much trouble as my last pregnancy. ~knock on wood!~

Story telling catches up with you eventually......

My sister, God love her, claimed her and the ultrasound tech saw a pee pee at her first ultrasound. She then told my mom that they say 'little beans' so to speak. Well, after all that story telling....she is having a girl. I am happy she is having a girl! That means that my niece will have a baby sister to buddy up to, especially with how close they are in age. They are also looking at getting the same van that we have, same year so used. That doesn't bother me. It is the fact that they are trying to buy an $18,000 when they are stuggling to pay things as it is. I mean dang! From what she has told me, his car is in his parents name and is still being paid by them. Her car was like $6000 and they still owe $1500 on it. They will use this for the downpayment. I hope that his credit is enough to get it. From what she has told me, he screwed it up before. I just hope they aren't getting their hopes up too high or that they swamp themselves with more bills they can't handle. You would think they would learn from our early marriage mistakes. The only difference: Mike had a steady job that included health insurance. They do not.

Enough b*tching about family: Nida. Well, we have four adults going along with eight girls because why? My pregnancy according to Nida. How f*cking stupid is she? Two meetings ago, (don't remember if I blogged about it so here it is again) She yelled at the girls in my mid sentence. She has not been a participant of our troop for months and has stepped down as a leader. It was totally uncalled for. To top it off, she gave a girl a stern talking to about her heeley shoes. I had already spoke with the girl earlier and we had worked it out. I tried to get the woman's attentiong but she kept on and on with this girl. The poor girl was mortified and upset and you could see it on her face. I had to finally raise my voice because she was so focused on ignoring me. I told her to stop and that I had already spoke with her about the issue. I sent her an email knowing she would not listen to me if I tried to speak with her. I have tried many times to speak with her about other issues and what happens is, she is always right, doesn't let you get a word in and argues everything that comes out of your mouth. Now we have to have her on this sleep over trip when it is totally unnessessary to have her there. Thank GOD she is not going on our March trip! I could not deal with Miss Know it all there. I know how to camp as well as the other parents. I am camp trained and am NOT going into labor anytime soon. ~knock on wood!~ I always have to be induced and are always a week late. I know my body and will not put us in danger over a camp trip! The killer thing is this trips total, food, site, everything is $175. Her first food bill for the same amount of time was $185 and that wasn't even all of the food or the camp site!! Ridiculous! She will not be leading this troop next year if I have anything to do with it! I will not have these girls hurt because of a spitful, mean witch who obviously does not care for their feelings at all. I may be a stuck up b*tch on my blog sometimes and can be very nasty sometimes but this is my diary and my feelings and my vent spot for everything that runs through my head. I treat those girls with the utmost respect and know how to discipline without hurting their feelings. I get down to their level and try to help them grow as much as possible with the program. I want to connect with them and the other adults positively. Plus, a handful of girls don't have the chance to do certain things that Girl Scouts offers them. One of our girls has never been camping! It will be great to show her how fun it can me.

Ok, I am done now. I have to go and get my two middle kids from school. Two cookie booths this weekend, and drs appointment next week, a sleepover at the zoo, and our labor and delivery tour. It will be busy the next two weeks!

Anemia...

2007-02-15T13:02:00.000-05:00

Yup, I am anemic. I should have known that was why I have been so tired. Then again, I am in my third trimester and chalked it up to pregnancy. They have me on a three a day iron pill habit. I am sitting here, tired out of my mind. I cannot wait for this to help out!

In other news, my kids have two new pets! We have friends PCSing out (transferring) and had two hamsters they wanted to get rid of. We had gone over to their house last week just to visit and my kids got to hold them. They were totally down with getting hampsters afterwards. They offered the animals to us so we jumped on board. They came in their two seperate cages with food and everything. One is only three months old! They used shedded paper so the first day we had them, Tuesday, the whole downstairs stunk! I went the very next day, yesterday, and bought a huge bag of cedar. They love the stuff! One of the cages is the tunnel type with a nesting area at the top. She used it for her toilet before. NASTY! After washing it out, I shoved a bunch of cedar up there. She is currently snuggled up asleep in it! The other hampster, Mr. Poofy as I refer to him LOVES the excersise ball. The only bad thing? The lid pops off! I found out the hard way. He ran two laps around the house and stopped in the hall. Emma runs and tells me he got out. Sure enough, there he is on the carpet. He didn't run though. I was more worried about our cat getting him. She has been very facinated with them. No surprise there! Let's see.......little furry, smelly animals in her house. She has been good about it, pawing at the cages only a few times. She is used to them now and doesn't bother them at all anymore. The ball facinated her for a minute and then she did her own thing.

I have to go finish cleaning. I am feeling an urge to clean pop up from my insides. Right...anyway I am going to try and get my blood flowing and clean up the mess they left from me cleaning their cages yesterday. I didn't get to it with all the cookie delivering we did yesterday evening. MMMMMM! Girl Scout cookies.......

The third trimester

2007-02-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

I am finally in the last trimester. I am feeling pretty good minus some hip and groin pain here and there. I have gained a total of ten pounds. No too shabby! I have only gained inches on my waist and hips, 4 1/2 and 2 inches. I have done very well at keeping the my weight gain down. I would like to keep it at or below 20 pounds total. I have had some swelling issues so I don't know if I can manage this feat. I know though that if I gain water weight from swelling, it will come off by my six week postpartem appointment. Especially with breastfeeding and with a higher water intake. I want to repair the tire on my jogger BEFORE I give birth. That way, I am all set and ready to get walking. I am already pumped to lose after this baby is here. I know that I can get back down to my prepregnancy weight very quickly. That way I can get my butt back into ~weight loss mode~ for the summer. I want to get to my prepregnancy weight with Michael, 226, by Emma's birthday in August.

Things are going very smoothly with Girl Scouts. I do have an issue STILL with my old co leader. We had an event this weekend and she would ask me if I was ok. I am pregnant, not sick! She has made a big deal about a sleepover we are having at the zoo. Once again, I am pregnant, not sick. I mean dang! My birth buddy LIVES near the zoo. I am always a week late and have to be induced, EVERY TIME. If it is brought up for our camp trip in March, I will put her in her place. I will not be treated like a child. This is not my first go around with pregnancy. I KNOW my body. Why would I risk the health of my child or myself for a camp trip? Where is the sense in that one?

I have to get some more work done. Permission forms need printing...dang! I need to buy paper! I guess I will have to do my Wally World run sooner than expected.....

LONG 'SOAP BOX' VENT!

2007-01-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

I have to jump up on my soap box and vent this one out. Title: family

I just had my sister visit for the week. She is younger than me by 7 years so she is my baby sister. I have baby sat her, even changed a diaper or two. She married a complete douche bag. She met him on the internet the last year we were in VA. She took moved down shortly after Emma's birth. She lived with us for a while until I got sick of being her mother and she moved in with him and his parents. She got knocked up and they had a quickie wedding. The proceded to live with his parents, because he was jobless minus being in the reserves, until about a year ago. She actually worked while pregnant until she was diagnosed with preeclampsia. Mind you, he worked at a restaurant for maybe a month during this whole time!

Ok, this is the rest of the story on him: He was in the Army for a short time. He claims he got out to go to school. We believe he was kicked out for weight. He is six foot four or five but weighs close to 300 lbs. He tried to tell us he weighed around 220. At that time I was around 240 so I KNEW he wasn't lighter than me. He is a BIG person. He finally weighed in at like 280. Well, during their online wooing time, he claimed to be making all kinds of money with this mortgage brokering thing. He didn't make a dime. He made a lot of claims and still does!

Well, they got married, had their daughter, six weeks early because Angie was sick and was put in the hospital for bedrest. They lived with his parents until last year when he finally got a job. They moved about two hours away from there and still took money from his parents to make it. They still pay his car note and insurance. Mind you, he is 26 and MARRIED!

While we were trying for this baby, there was some family drama on my dh's side of the family. We decided now was not a good time to try. We stopped but had forgot to wear portection or not have him..you know. Honest, hand on the Bible. Now we are expecting, which we wanted to but were going to wait until the drama blew over. Luckily, it did. The month before we concieved, that month and the month after, they had the same thing happen. At first she said one thing and then said the exact story I did, not realizing I told her. She ended up pregnant six weeks after me. Either they are that stupid, or they were trying. The thing is, there were getting ready to move to GA from VA. They were broke as it was and then they concieve, even after saying they wanted to wait until their dd was around 2 0r 3 to even think about another. Just admit you were trying! Oh, because you knew it was a stupid idea.

They moved into a rental owned my his grandfather. That works out great for them. They have a three bedroom house for $400 a month. Great deal. Well, they move and the job he claimed to already have wasn't his. He got a job shortly after moving but come on! They had no insurance when they moved and she didn't get into an ob until last month. She will be 5 months along next week. She didn't even know when she was due until she went in. Then their dd got sick and she still doesn't have health insurance!

Now the thing that just drove me to this post. Their visit.....Things went fine for the most part. It was just the dumb stuff that built up and was just annoying. Like the fact that she claimed to be able to finance a house for $140000 at $600 a month. Our house in VA was just under$600 a month and it was $70000. Our current house is just under $200000 and we pay $1300 a month. Please. She nodded it off like I didn't know what I was talking about. Then there was our trip to BRU. We looked at everything and she was claiming Nate would buy her a $400 rocker and this bedding set that she found on line and this and that....

She didn't lift a finger really while we were here. She did brown some meat for lasagne. She used my master bath, shower and toilet which was super tacky. It made Mike irritated. You can hear her eat from across a room because she eats with her mouth open. Oh, Lord, her dd stepped on a small sliver of glass and said it looked infected a hour later. She wanted neosporin on it and kept putting bandaids on it which I found a few on my counters in my kitchen. GROSS. She brought a diaper out to the outside can, after I had to tell her not to put it in the kitchen, through the garage door. She brought up the can after Mike had just brought it out for the night and then had to go bring it back down when I told her she goofed. I had to fix it in the morning because she didn't put it back right. She whooped her dd after she got in the cat box. Her dd is not even 2. How would she know that this box with sand stuff is naughty? She yelled constantly at her for stupid things and was not consistent at all. Lord, then we got into a debate about if cheating was bad parenting. I did not agree. She went on about my sil, who did not cheat anyway. It is all on how the parents react to it. That and even if they split before they got with someone, it would still be the same. Oh, and then she ranted about the liberals....She also ranted about how badly black women treat her down there. I am sorry that your husband is a biggot but I don't want to hear it.(Oh, you should hear his mouth about other races. It is down right embarrassing) I am not a racist and never will be. I know the reason she was treated the way she was. She acts ignorant. Then she complained about how much we cuss and doesn't want her dd to learn that stuff. They listen to heavy metal type music or rock. Heck, one of the CDs she listened to on the way here talks about mens private parts and has all kinds of bad words in it. Oooh, the comparing of my husband to hers is getting old. Hers is way overweight. Nothing wrong with that at all except he has been trying to lose weight all this time. She claims 'he has lost 20 pounds' every time I see her but by now he would be down to the right weight. My dh weighs in at around 179. Do you know why? He actually works out! He is an avid runner, running a minimum of 3 miles a day. He is actually addicted to it. He was way overweight when we got here but that was because he had no time with him working 12 to 14 hour days. Lord, and when she compares their work......We make almost triple what they do. I also had to hear from Mike about how useless our Thrift Savings Plan is in Nate and Angie's eyes. She is just mad that we have over $20000 in there and will retire well PLUS provide college for our kids. Don't knock what you don't, WON'T understand. I know, stupid petty stuff but it gets on your nerves. They are just plain ignorant. I love my sister and my niece but this is gotten out of control. She doesn't take care of herself either. She is super swollen, prone to preeclampsia yet she is covering her food with salt, even her fish last night. She is as big as me pregnancy wise, if not bigger and she is not quite 5 months and I am 6 and a half. I can't explain it to her. I asked her about the salt and she says she doesn't care. How do you open her eyes to what she has become? I know that I can be a stuck up b*tch. I know I have high standards and can be a total *ss about it. I realize this. I am just refuse to become my mother.

The thing that really got it all rolling was she was only supposed to stay until Thursday. She didn't ask if she could stay until Saturday. She just assumed she could. Then there were the conversations with Nate. He was away for drill in DC. She claimed he was ready for his physical, this and that. Well, he calls aying he felt something pop when he was running and pulled something. He didn't tell her if he passed. You either made time or not. Well, he called yesterday and said he didn't pass. He also informed her that there wasn't $600 but $60 in their account after bills were paid or something. After she just went with us to Red Lobster. Oh, his excuse for not passing? They started the timer too soon. What ever!! The worst was going anywhere. Talk about an hour to get in the car! I have four and I was already buckled, including all the kids before she even had her kid in the car.

I feel much better. Mike was annoyed, I was annoyed.........She even left this morning without saying goodbye AND left a stinky diaper in my kitchen can. I came home to put a shelf together that we bought and it stunk to high heaven in there. Ok, done now, seriously. At least I know that I could not handle my mom coming for two weeks. My mom is just the same except ten times worse!

Enough of this complaining. It is over and done with. I was able to get my kitchen shelf today, my crib bedding and my car seat/stroller combo today. There goes like $700. I just need a crib mattress and a swing! Oh, I also got two cute sleepers today for my little man! Now, time to kick back and watch the movies we rented, without any babies screaming or dumb questions during the flick~!

FULL WEEKEND!

2007-01-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

It was one of those super busy, CRAZY weekends. We tailgated Saturday from 2 -6 for our hockey team, the Stingrays. I had so much fun! The kids had a blast too. We were in the back so all the kids that went were running around, having a good time. They had red neck golf and this other red neck game that my youngest loves. (You have two ramps with holes in it. You have to throw these bean bags into the hole. It is similar to horse shoes) We barbqued and just shot the sh*t pretty much with about thirty other people. The game was awesome! Emma loves hockey as well as my son. She ended up sleeping through the last half of the game. Even through all the cheering and loudness. To top it off, we won in overtime.

Yesterday was just as busy. Michael woke me up around 8 complaining that his leg hurt. He climbed in bed with me and I gave him some Motrin. He was burning up on top of it. I ended up getting up a half an hour later because my stomach was eating itself. I ended up watching about three CSIs I had Tivo'ed and not gotten to. After Mike and the kids got up, I cleaned. I cleaned so long and hard, I started having contractions. I ended up just sitting and watching the last playoff game.

My boy was sick all day yesterday, running fever and sleeping. He was running a fever this morning. Not as bad but bad enough to make him feel lousy. He is playing his Lego Star Wars game right now. Poor kid. I hate it when my kids are sick.

I really do enjoy my kids. They are all great and well behaved minus a few glitches now and again. I mean, they are kids. They all get along 95% of the time. There are those few times when they bicker but usually I can get them to work it out quickly. Like right now, Emma is laying next to Michael while he plays his game. He let her play long enough for her to get her fix and then that was it. He did get mad when she was telling R2 to shut up. I told him to be nice and that was the end of it. One thing that irks me is when people say they can't stand to be around their kids. Why have kids if you don't like them? I always get how behaved our kids are. This is what happens when you give them love and a stable home. We also discipline consistently and don't over do it. I see people go off on their kids for dumb stuff and don't follow through on other things. When you have as many as I do, you have to keep them straight, keep them on somewhat of a schedule and give them all some of your time.

Well, I have to go finish my cleaning. My sister is coming to visit for the week and arrives here today. I am very excited! She is 6 weeks behind me in pregnancy. One big plan this week is to go buy all the baby stuff! Woo hoo! I can get the crib set up. I need to do it before I grow too big. If I let Mike try to do it..........yeah he doesn't do that very well. LOL

Off to do my work!

Doing so much better!

2007-01-18T11:38:00.000-05:00

You know, I woke up not wanting to do anything. My hips were hurting, my back was still hurting and my head was pounding. After some Excedrin and moving around, I feel much better!

One of my weightloss buddies made a list of ten things to accomplish before December. I thought it was a great idea!

1. Stay under 250 for pregnancy weight gain.
So far, I have gained 5 pounds my 25 weeks of pregnancy. I know the most will be gained toward the end when he will put the most of his weight on. I just have to stay good to myself as I have to this point.

2. Drop down to around 200 by Christmas.
I started at 234 lbs at 5'9" with this pregnancy. I have a double jogger that I can use the same way I had last summer when I lost a bunch of weight.

3. Pay off a loan we have.
We will be transferring between November and January. That means selling our house and buying a new one. I need this one paid off before then. It is only around $3000. No biggie.

4. Redecorate Michael's room.
I am almost ready for this one. I just need to run in to Lowes and buy some paint. I will paint his walls and his bed. He has a full size basketball hoop I am putting up on his wall. (Saw it on Clean Sweep) Theme: NASCAR/sports

5. Paint.
We need to paint the half bath, kitchen,diningroom above chair rail, foyer, stairs and upstairs hall. The paint the builders used sucks. The color is fab but it is that nasty flat paint.

6. Purge.
Our garage needs to be cleared out of all the nonnecessary junk. We have junk like bed rails, a bunkie board, a rug, etc that Mike needs to take to the dump. I also have clothes to take to Goodwill in March for a badge for my girls. You get the idea.

7. Give birth.
Yeah, I think that is a major one! Can't avoid that one...

Well, that is all I have for now. I guess I can add more later. I have to go get some cleaning done. Kids get out in a couple hours and they need to get all their laundry to me. That means putting clean clothes away from this past weekend that I was unable to do because of my back. Lordy, that was a long sentence. Seriously though, I am still making up for being a cripple since Sunday. Off to work.....

Thrown out back

2007-01-15T20:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am a jacko bean and through my back out. We stopped off at the Dollar Store after hitting the outlet mall (I got William some onsies from the Carters store!) and Mike with my oldest ran in. Well, Emma started screaming, literally, for a movie to be put on. (We have a six disc DVD player built into our van) I went to turn and holler at her and pulled the HELL out of my back. I forgot that I am six months pregnant and my ligaments don't like this at all. I could hardly walk into the house it was so bad! Getting up has been hard. Well, that happened yesterday. I am still hurting but not quite as bad as I was. Enough to go and buy some new clothes for Lizzie and Michael today. I also did a small grocery store run with my boy. He really likes it when it is just momma and him.

My son is definitely a momma's boy. He loves every moment he gets with me. He likes to lay in bed with me right before bed, just to tell me about his day without any other kids. I thought at first it was just to lay in our bed. Well, last week I actually went to bed AFTER Mike. He had Michael in there with him and I made him move to his bed, just like Daddy has him do before he gets in bed. Well, he got upset because he just wanted to lay with me. I hope that William and I will have that closeness that Michael and I will always have. I am so happy to have two sons. I am going to make sure that my first son gets just as much attention as my second. I could have ten boys but none could ever be as cool as my Michael baby!

My Elizabeth

2007-01-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

What can I say? She is unique. She is different from all of my other children. Emily got grounded for getting two C's on her report card. She is in the ACE or gifted program. My son learned all of his letters in two months and is one of the top kids in his class. Emma recognizes almost all of her numbers and some letters. Then there is Lizzie. She just is not all there all the time. He meds help her not be so antsy but that doesn't help her comprehend things.

Anyway, we had an IEP meeting today. They are just waiting on the doctor form from her doctor and they can put her in resource. During our meeting, I brought up if she might lean toward Autism or something. They agreed and thought either Autism or Asphergers. I have an appointment for her tomorrow with her doctor to have her tested. The sooner she is tested, the better. Then we can help her accordingly. I have also decided not to home school her. With her having her issues, I think it is best to keep her in the public school system. Plus, once she is out, I don't know if she could ever go back. I know I could do it with no problem. G.S. has set me up with so many skills that I can use with her. There are also many premade programs you can purchase for around $1000 that would work and in SC, all you need is a high school diploma, which I have. If she is either of these two, it is better to get her professional help. I already know she has some issues with OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. We will find out more tomorrow. I just thank God all of my others are bright with above average intelligence. It makes it easier to give Liz more one on one help.

I am going to call up to the equine specialist next week and get her back into riding. I think that will help her out a lot. Plus, they have a new director that seems to be more in tune with the girls. Plus, I would like to take advantage of their program while we are still here. Their prices are hard to beat! Emily has some interest in riding as well but Lizzie gets dibs on this one if there is a time difference. If I can get them in within a hour of each other, they can both do it. If not, Emily can go back to her ice skating lessons or dance. Michael will start up with baseball here in two more months and Emma will start with ballet next month. I would prefer her to do gymnastics but she is insisting on "ballerina school". All I keep thinking is if we keep busy, the time will pass more quickly and the baby will come sooner. One extra curricular per child. It annoys me when people over book their kids or don't even bother to put them in anything.

SOAP BOX TIME!

This has been annoying me for a while and I might have already blogged about it. On the large family board on BBC, there was a question that was asked,"How will you pay for your kids to go to college?" There were a few, including ourselves, that have a solid plan in affect. Then there were those people that seem to just "pop" out kids that don't think of their future. These dumb *sses were like," Our parents didn't provide for us a college education and we aren't going to for our kids." One parent actually said that someone has to be the garbage man. What about trying to help your kids become the best people they can? Why would you want your kid cursed with a pay check to pay check, barely getting by life. Now in the other hand, I wouldn't want to pay for the whole thing. I think tuition would suffice and maybe a few books. They say that when you pay for it yourself, you respect it more and don't take it for granted. Then again, I don't want them to be smothered by student loans afterwards. Last word: Don't pop out babies without a plan for their future. They aren't babies for very long and when they are school age. They cost money! Just because you get 'baby fever', don't go and have a kid. Yeah, most people can afford a baby, but a child..............?

I've got a cold

2007-01-09T09:13:00.000-05:00

I feel kinda icky. I got body aches, my throat is scratchy and I just feel ick. I am not super sick, just enough to feel sick if that makes sense. I probably won't do any cleaning today. I have G.S. today and want to save my energy. We will see how it goes

Yesterday I had my ob and second ultrasound appointment. My little man would not sit still in the first one so she could not get a good pic of his face and his heart. Mike got to go this time. This is his first BIG ultrasound. He was there for this one's 3 month McNugget ultrasound and that was it. He was tickled all day that he got to see his son. We even saw him kicking me. He would bring his leg into his chest and kick as hard as he could. TOO FUNNY! He was putting his hands on his face and at one point had his arm stretched across. WE did get a good shot of his face and his heart is healthy. It seems to me he has really long legs too!

I met the 3rd ob out of four for my appointment. He is like 7 feet tall, I swear! He was really nice, very quiet but very informative. He let me know the kids could be in the room, which isn't going to happen but it is nice to know if it comes down to it, it can be done. We also discussed a tubal and what it would be like. Yeah, not going to happen. I have to come back six weeks later and go under for it. With a new baby, a nursing baby at that, no. Mike is going to have it done. It would be so much easier. We also discussed my due date which is now solid at May 3rd not the 9th. He wants to start checking me at 35 weeks because of my fast labors. He said that if my cervix is favorable at 39, he would be open to induction. The other doctor said the same thing. I would like to see how my body does before I go toward induction. I have a feeling that I will actually go right around my due date this time. We have a big camp out two weeks before and the following weekend is another event. With all that walking and working, I know I will dilate. I have made arrangements for my mom to come for two weeks to watch my kids for the delivery. If I go while they are at school, her and Emma can be there during the delivery. Luckily, Emma knows all about the blood and messiness of babies. She has watched Baby Story and other birth shows before. She has told me stories of the babies coming out and the 'bloood' and stuff.

I am going to go lay down. My back is really achy. I know I will feel better when the Tylenol kicks in! :)

CRAZY HOLIDAY~

2007-01-02T21:49:00.000-05:00

Yeah, we had a wacky, crazy Christmas! It went awesome though. The kids got all kids of cool toys, including this PS2 game my son is addicted to, Lego Star Wars. He and I played for almost two hours the other day. LOL

My son also stayed at his cousin's house for three days. I had Michael withdrawl BAD. My sil was like, "You are getting another son." Yeah, but I only have one Michael baby. Then I took his cousin for two days. I about lost my mind!! The two of them are just crazy together. Mike went golfing after work on Friday so he didn't come home until 4 or 5. I about lost my mind, seriously!! They went outside (it was in the 70's, seriously) and played with the neighbors. Then I had them PLUS the neighbor kids in and out. Michael's little buddy had Michael withdrawls too so he really wanted his buddy. Well, Michael ignores his cousin when his friend is over. I had a hard time telling the kids no, didn't want to hurt anyones feelings. On top of it, William was fussing around in my belly, so I was doubly irritated. Finally, I made everyone come in and I took a shower. I have never been so RELIEVED for Mike to come home. When Andrew went home, I had a no kid zone, other than ours, for two days plus yesterday because of the rain.

I got a LOT done yesterday. I had been having some hip pain because of our mattress so I went and bought an temperpedic pillow. Now I it under my hip, one under my head, one between my knees, PLUS my preggo pillow noodle thingy. ANYWAY, I don't hurt anymore so I did some super cleaning/organizing. We bought a large rubbermaid box for our tree. Well, it didn't fit so I went through and put all of our donation clothes in there, all out in the garage waiting for our Spring Donation time for Girl Scouts. The girls earn a patch by donating two bags of clothes to Goodwill. I also redid my main G.S. box that I bring to our meetings. I cleaned the entire kitchen minus the floor, revamped all of my G.S. notebooks, and did about 6 loads of laundry. (I have the super duper wampy dimey washer/dryer that wash about 30 large towels so one load is equal to two or three for a normal load) I am doing three right now, plus I mopped my master bath, made a kaper chart (job list) for our troop, AND got our next event lined up. OH SNAP! I also cleaned our two bins of our camping gear. Now all I need to do is shave my frigging legs!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!

2006-12-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

I found out on Wednesday that I am having a baby boy! I didn't know how to explain to my son that our baby was going to be a girl, if it was. He threatened to run away and move in with his neighbor buddy. Wouldn't you feel the same, already having THREE sisters? I honestly didn't care but I didn't want to have my son's heart broken. He was so happy when I told him. He has asked,"But what if it comes out a girl?" I felt so good being able to PROMISE it would be a boy. It was way too obvious that it was a boy. As soon as the tech got on there, he showed himself.

We are set with the name William Robert. That way we can call him Billy Bob. LOL I am totally just kidding. I went through all my baby clothes and receiving blankets last night. I didn't find many boy clothes, no surprise, but I found a lot of blankets for my little man. Once we get our taxes in, we are having a hay day! All I really need is a bedding set, mattress, stoller/car seat combo, swing, and a rocking chair. I plan on getting the real chair style so that I can use it after baby gets older.

Off to do some more laundry. I need to finish washing the baby clothes and putting them in his dresser. I am getting excited!!

Too many kids!

2006-12-17T21:36:00.000-05:00

Emily had her birthday party/sleep over this weekend. Wow.....We had them all over, four to sleep over, and then we had the neighbor kids over: Emily and Michael's best friends and their adopted brother and sister from Africa. They had pizza and then cake. After they left, it was a girl fest. We all ended up staying up until 2:30 am. They did their thing and we watched Talladega Nights. HA! Too funny. I had to get up and get one girl off to church at 10 am and the rest were gone around 1 or 2. I ended up taking a nap, that is after scrubbing a few walls (they were already dirty) mopping, dishes and vaccuuming out the fireplace. OH, I forgot. We made s'mores with the fireplace that night. MMMM! I could only do one.........too sweet. All and all, it was great fun!

I am all better if you couldn't tell. I didn't get anything done until Thursday, I think. Most of this week is a blur. I was so doped up with pain meds that days drooled into the other. I did get the rest of the kids' presents except for a book Lizzie wants. I could NOT find it. I told her I would find it, even if it took me all year to! I even squeezed in Emily's birhtday presents on Friday. I got her a complete bedding set at Target (Full size comforter, two pillow cases, two shams, and sheets), a butterfly rubbermaid bin I filled with nail polish and make up, a shirt and a large hard copy of Charlotte's Web. That was her favorite.

Back to my health...I am feeling so much better. I also lost some weight so I am three pounds under my start weight for this pregnancy. I have been feeling my little guy moving and bumping me. It has become more regular and consistant. I get to find out what s/he is on Wednesday. I am 75% sure it is a boy. We will see. I just want this pregnancy to go smoothly the rest of my time in it! LOL I will be half way done as of Wednesday too!! 20 weeks and 20 to go!!!!!

Ode to my kidney stones

2006-12-10T15:22:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have been battling kidney stones since THURSDAY. It started around noon. I took some Tylenol with Codeine and slept. They hit later that night again. Of course, dh had duty. Isn't that how it always happens? I was in total, utter pain. I was throwing up so I didn't take more meds. Once off if work, we went in to the ER. I was given something I am too doped up to remember what it was with some no puke medicine. Morphine, my bad. I am on Lor-tab right now. Last night, we went to the neighbors and played Texas hold em. They got a big kick out of my giggle fits and total lack of expression or comprehension of anything. I did win a lot at least! Well, I am hoping this passes soon. I have to be off of it to drive and do my everyday stuff. I hurt too much to do anything around here. WATER~WATER~WATER~WATER~WATER~WATER~

We're Back!! Fun in Myrtle Beach.....

2006-12-04T10:20:00.000-05:00

Yup, it was awesome fun in Myrtle! First off, the reason we went up was for a baseball tournament. My dh is the assistant coach and my son in the bat boy for an AAU 12 and under team. We headed up Friday, even took the kids out early so we could shoot up there. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then went out to eat. Our hotel was awesome by the way. It had two queens in the first room, full kitchen in the middle with brand new stainless steel appliances, and then the living room with a murphy bed and pull out couch. We had a plasma with built in DVD player in our room and the kids had a huge TV with a DVD player in theres. Our balcony faced the ocean which was wonderful to wake up to.

Anyway, we went right out to eat after that. We made reservations for all of us, including all the boys from the team at Margaritaville. That was pretty awesome! Right before our meal, a 'hurricane' hit with the ceiling breaking out in thunder and lightning. There is a spinning hurricane in the middle that had a bottle of margarita mix (tequila? I don't drink so I don't know what goes in it)Anywho, it came down and started pouring into a huge blender. The kids thought it was neat. There was also a woman on stilts that went around making balloon animals, hats and swords for the kids.

After dinner, we all headed down to the pool. They have a huge indoor pool, hot tub and lazy river. Emma and I had great fun floating around the river! We went swimming in the pool. I even got in some laps while Lizzie sat with her on the steps. The hot tub felt good on my legs and feet, seeing as that was as far in as I could go. Last year, it was like a big bathtub, just warm not hot. It was HOT this year.

The first place we hit on Saturday was the NASCAR race track. Michael baby was in HEAVEN! They had simulators that he dug. Emily and he drove these smaller gocarts. They both did awesome. Michael did a lot better than his older sister. It has to be all the driving he does in his GraveDigger powerwheels.

After skee ball and Michael coming away with some cars, we ate at the NASCAR cafe. I thought it would be expensive, crappy food. WRONG! It was $50 for all of us and it was GOOD FOOD. I can just imagine what he is telling his teacher and classmates right now!

After lunch, we headed over to the field. After a LONG warm up because of an hour game delay and a two hour game that ended in a loss, I brought the kids back to the hotel. It was cold and Emma needed a nap. She slept in the car and I took a nap while they watched Monster House. (I guess it does pay to have a 6 disc DVD player in the car. YOu always have movies with you!)

There second game that night they won! We all met over at CiCi's pizza. I LOVE CiCi's! We had them in VA. We have two in our area but one is on the ghetto side and the other is kinda far for cheap pizza. It is good and feeds us all for around $30 AND it is all you can eat! We went swimming some more with the boys afterwards.

It was COLD AND RAINY the next day. We sat in the car for the game. The boys lost bad but can you blame them? It was 53 and rained the entire two hours. They called the second set of games. Fourth place is what they ended up in with their points. We shot over to Fuddruckers for our final meal. MMMMMMMMM!

Though all of this, Emma did not have any accidents. We had a pull up on her on the way there, a diaper the first night and a diaper on the way home. She never used any of them. I am going to ask my sil if she wants the diapers we have left. I have too many to toss and too big for the next baby. I know I will find a home for them. I am just so tickled I am done with diapers.............for like five more months! Then back to the drawing board!

BIG VENT!!!!!

2006-11-30T20:42:00.000-05:00

Yeah, this one is a doozy. No, it isn't hormones at all this time. It started like two weeks ago. My coleader insisted that I agreed to charge the parents another $20 fee in January which I only agreed to a POSSIBLE fee. I put it to a vote with the parents and it was voted down, paying as we go for trips. She has been a total B*TCH to me since then. I mean the whole enchilada: snipping at me, snide comments on my remarks, you name it. Tuesday was it for me. We were locked out of our building for our Tuesday meeting. The way it works is I go to the new youth center a block away and pick the keys up at 4. Our meeting is at 4:30. The keys have to be back by 8 am the next day. No biggie because I drive the kids to school then and just drop them off on my way home. (Use of the building is free too!) We the dumb *ss that used the keys the day before never brought the keys back! I am the most absentminded person you will ever meet but I make sure that those keys are there by 8 am. Last week the kids didn't even have school yet my butt was in the car driving them up in time.

Anyway, the guy doesn't get them there so I run over to the building to meet the girls there. Well, Nida shows up in one of her huffy moods so I run up and borrow the lady who runs the place's keys. I have to lock, prop the doors and bring them back. On my way back to drop them, I try and tell her I am dropping them off, don't shut the door or they will lock. She flat out ignores me! She then procedes to be a b*tch to the girls. In the end, we had two go home in tears and a mom in tears. The girls because she told them they had to eat soup even though they didn't want it at our camp out which is NOT going to happen. The mom proceded to get mad and fire back at her. The mom that was in tears wanted to go on our camp out but was told no whereas another mom got to.

Later that day, the mom that was going came to pick up some stuff for a badge she was running at camp. She told me she didn't even volonteer and wouldn't have known how to tell Nida no if she couldn't or didn't want to go. She also had noticed how mean Nida was and how her daughter sometimes dreads going to our meetings.

I wrote her this email:
On a personal note:
Is there something going on at home? I know you all went though or are still going through some financial difficulties. The reason I ask is you have been very snippy and mean with myself and the girls. C***** brought it up when she picked the stuff up and wondered what was wrong yesterday at our meeting. You didn't even respond when I let you know that we could not close the doors on my way back with the keys. I felt very disrespected and have for the past two weeks. L**** was in tears yesterday at our meeting because you refused to let her go camping with us. She has been at every meeting and stays the entire time, even making our snacks and making sure that part is taken care of. She feels passed over even though she is there until the last girl leaves.
I don't mean to be callous but the whole reason for our troop is to help grow young women and teach them how to be well rounded adults. By being short with them and sometimes down right mean, all it does is turn them off to the program. I know you have a lot going on at home but please don't take it out on us. I don't want the girls to dread going to their meetings or on our outings.
The two girls I am afraid to lose are the ******* girls. They don't have anything other than this and can be pushed very easily, especially C******. We can work around their financial difficulties, even if we have to roll their start up fees back until January or February. I will be calling ********* and making some type of arrangement.
I apologize if I seem to harsh but there is no other way. Anything I say seems to be too much and is taken as an offense to you. I am not a very confrontational person but when it comes to these girls, someone has to speak for them. Also, I have to speak up for myself, which I rarely do.

I tried not to be disrespectful but I didn't want these girls walked on. I can handle being disrespected but the girls cannot and WILL NOT. She tried calling me like 5 times today, like one message wasn't enough, but I had a lot to do before our trip this weekend. (Go Myrtle Beach!) I also spoke with some of our parents that were involved and they are ticked off. I finally got a chance to call her after I picked up the kids. It was like debating with a wall. She didn't listen to a frigging word I said. If there is a third incident, I am going to ask her to step down. I have already talked to her about this during our J.J. prep. Three strikes, you're out.

OOH, She also had the audacity to accuse me of being mad that I had nothing to do with the camp out. I am not the one with the power trip. Everything that has to do with this troop is for the girls, not me. I let the girls have the power as it should at this level. If she wants total control, move back to Brownies!

Ok, I am done venting. I tell ya, I love to work with these girls, really. They are all wonderful young ladies! Nida actually makes me dread going to meetings sometimes.........

Potty trained in a day!

2006-11-25T17:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am proud to say it took my Emma one day to potty train herself. Of course she is over 3 years old but guess who didn't have to deal with accidents a gazzilion times. She has tried underwear here and there, just to get the idea. She pooed in them twice before and was totally grossed out by it. Well, after spending Thanksgiving over at a friend's house, that was it for her. There was a little girl there, about her size but in 1st grade and they are very good friends. Emma went in the restroom with her and saw what she was doing. Yesterday, she decided she wanted to wear underwear. She has been in them ever since! She has surprised us by going in, not even asked and using the potty chair. Today she did her poo twice! That was the one thing the just had a hard time with. She even complained her bottom hurt and needed a diaper. With coaxing, she did it once and then the second time on her own!

Emma now has her own room now! Emily decided she wanted back in the FROG but to share with Lizzie. (The FROG is our Finished Room Over Garage. It is like 15x20. HUGE and PINK) After talking extensively with all the kids and Mike about it, we decided to run with it. Now Emma has her own room! It is lavender which totally matches her Dora stuff. I just need to go and buy her curtains! She got the bigger of the two other rooms. One: Michael is a slob and we can keep in in one room Two: She has the bigger closet and dresser for her baby brother or sister's clothes. By the time the baby needs to be moved out of our room, we will be moving either to WA or VA.

Off to make dinner! What a good holiday it has been!

New due date!

2006-11-19T13:42:00.000-05:00

I went in to see my OB on Thursday. What an event that was! HA! First off, Mike has special lib, the day off, so he could come to the appointment. I was asking for it just by having him come. He is embarrassing. Entertaining, true, but even more true is he is embarrassing! LOL We were waiting to be seen and the Tyra Banks Show was on. She was giving exMeth heads makeovers. HA! You can just imagine the crap he was saying. It was funny and getting giggles but come on! These women worked hard to get where they are. Then again, why screw with that stuff to begin with?

When we got put in the room, I passed gas. Yup, I farted. It is a fact of a pregnant woman's life. Well, he let it be known what I did. Anyone in the hall could hear him. He threatened to say it out loud in the waiting room. He didn't but man, why torture me? LOL We did get to hear the HB. It was in the 150's. I LOVE my OB. He is a younger man, late 30's which doesn't bother me. He was nice and really wanted to know my well being. You know when they are sincere and faking. The reasoning? He has FOUR sisters. Large family child! I know my son will grow up to be like this man. VERY compassionate.

My due date will be kept with my cycle rather than my ultrasound. My due date is now May 9th rather than May 3rd. I told him it really didn't matter because I am always a week late. Four times now, late by a week. He said that he could induce me at 39 if I would like. I am tickled! Then again, I would like my body to take its time and go on its own. This is my last, no need to rush. I have a feeling that I will go a bit quicker, on my own anyway. We have two BIG camping trips planned two weekends in a row, three weeks before my due date. I won't miss out on them, for my girls' sake. I have 13 girls depending on me. Plus, this will push my body into labor a bit earlier. I am so much more active than I was with any of my others, minus Michael.

I got my hair cut!! It looks AWESOME. After my doctor's appointment, we headed to the mall where one of our friends is the manager of Regis. She has been doing this for way over a decade. She is good! She dyed my hair this past Spring. Well, I told her to cut it all off as long as it didn't make me look fatter than I already am or make it look like I am wearing a wig. (I had it cut short when Michael was a baby and it looked like a wig) She not only cut it awesome, but did it up again like at the Khaki ball. (she did my hair in the previous pic) It looked great when we went out for lunch at the Olive Garden. Very appreciative! It turned into a beautiful day.

I had better get to my laundry. It has been calling me all weekend. At least the kids only have two days of school this week. Thanksgiving is going to be great this year. We are having it at a friends, the one who did my hair, this year. We bring a roasted turkey, ham and real potatoes. They are frying one and making a lot of pies plus some more sides. Then her Michael, my Michael, her daughter and my #2 daughter can have some great fun!! Our dear husbands can have some beer and watch football. Maybe get a little Karaoke in there? ;)

BLAAAAAAHHHH!

2006-11-15T09:47:00.000-05:00

DUDE!! I need an escape from the BLAHS!! A nap? OOOooohhh! Sounds delish! Man, I get out of the doldrums and into the blahs. I don't think I can win at all!! I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. That should make me a bit more upbeat. Getting to hear the heartbeat is always refreshing. I bet you a hundred bucks Emma asks if it is time for them to take the baby out. LOL Everytime we have gone in there, she asks. She was naughty yesterday. I left her with Daddy during G.S. and she dumped a half empty bottle of Robitussin on my carpet and got into my shaving cream. NOT TO MENTION, some of my bathroom stuff like bug itch spray and any other thing that is under my sink. And he b*tches when she gets into stuff when I am watching her! SUGA' PLEASE!

Well, we have had a small issue come up in G.S. that has totally stumped me and pissed me off. We had a start up fee in the beginning of $20. Council suggests a start up fee of $40 but we had like $700 in the account when we started. Well, that $20 went toward a $24 photo album. DUMB! Why could I have not said anything! A lot of the parents are pissed off that we spent that much on an album and think my co leader is cashing in on our money. I would have to lean that way. I just got pressured into it. "I don't like confrontations!" -Rex, Toy Story

My co leader is insisting on ANOTHER $20 from the parents, saying that I agreed to it in our first newsletter. I THOUGHT it said we MIGHT ask for it. I really don't feel comfortable asking and let the parents in on this one. I think we should pay as we go until we can touch cookie money, around March. There are only a few events and they would end up paying for it anyway. That way, if a girl could not attend an event, she does not have to go. Her argument is that if a girl can't afford it, this helps the girl out. SHE STILL HAS TO PAY THE $20!! Please....either way, the parent is going to pay. This way, they are not obligated to pay if they can't or don't want to attend.

CAN I SAY ITCHY *SS? Yes, I am pregnant but she jumped down my thoat about this issue, on my friggin' birthday! Even if it wasn't my b-day, I had just walked in the door when she called on Thursday and starts in on me. I told her I was against it and she got really itchy *ss with me about it, being a total b*tch about the whole thing. It seems like it is just a control thing. Either way, I am going to do what is best for the girls, even if she can't seem to see past it.

We have another family in our troop that frustrates the crap out of me. They have two girls in our troop, sisters, that have a hard time paying for anything we do. They live on base so there is no expense for any utilities other than cable and phone. They don't have cable anymore and have one cell phone line. Why are they broke all the time? I really don't get it. She has no kids at home. Why not just go work at Target or Walmart for some extra cash? The thing is, I LOVE her girls! They really love Girl Scouts and NEED it. Out of all of our girls, they really could use the program. I don't want to lose them because of some hardship that their parents are obviously going through. I think their mom is angry with our first $20 fee let alone a second! She was really mad about the album that we used because of the price. Especially when you see the size of it! What if we need to get a second? I know the parents will NOT agree to pay for another if it isn't a Walmart special. How do I tell my co leader without totally pissing her off? Either way, it will, no matter how I put it and I cannot ask the parents to pay for it or the girls, AGAIN.

Much better!!

2006-11-08T08:32:00.000-05:00

I am feeling much better today! I am a bit tired still but that is from waking at 4 in the morning having to go wee and a growling stomach. I had to go down and eat a jello which really didn't work as well as I thought it would. Then I couldn't fall asleep, woke up to the cat in my face trying to steal my glass of water, and my stomach growling again! Lame!! Anyway, I did get my preggo snoogle pillow in the mail yesterday. IT ROCKS! I am still adjusting to it but it really makes me more comfortable at night. It is SO much easier to fall asleep also. I am really going to enjoy every second of the pregnancy, relish every part of it, MINUS the ill feeling times. I am so glad I don't have to do this again! I will just enjoy my neices and nephews AND grandbabies~~!

Today, I am feeling well enough to go walking. I have felt icky for too long and know that walking will make me feel so much better. It will set everything back in place and give me energy again. At least my depression has faded. THANK GOD! I usually have it for a day or two but this one was a bit longer. I plan on bringing it up at my appointment next Thursday. Mike will get to go to this one which is great. I was just glad that he was able to be there for the ultrasound. I think Emma is the one that got the biggest kick out of that. I hope she can go to my big ultrasound! That one is coming next MONTH! I really hope my little man/woman cooperate and let us know what s/he is!!

TIRED!

2006-11-06T12:26:00.000-05:00

I am so tired today. The reason? My lovely husband. See, he likes to stay up a bit later than me, which does not bother me. Well, my son likes to fall asleep with me or just lay with me until Daddy goes to bed, even if it is for five minutes. Mike usually moves him into his own bed when he goes to bed. Last night, he not only didn't move him but he turned the HEAT on. One of our vents lands right one me! (I like having the vent there for the AC) It stays cool upstairs but not cold. He set Emily into cough fits with the heat. She too can't sleep well when it is warm. I moved Michael and tried for hours to try to sleep. Yeah, all I did was fart all night. LOL That is what happens when you stick a jalapeno burger in a pregnant woman!

I am so tired and kinda hurt today. I have a pinched something or other in my back, probably from tossing and turning last night. I am hanging on by a frigging thread!! I am going to force Emma down for a nap with me. If she doesn't nap, I can't nap. What in the hell am I going to do when I get farther along? MAN!! I will have to work in naps for her from now on. NIGHTY NIGHT!

Four BLAH day in a row

2006-11-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

I have had the most melancholy this week. I mean it is really bringing me down! I need a nap or something I guess. I will bring it up at my next drs appointment. If it continues, I need to look at the possiblity that my depression is creeping back up on me. I will not allow it to ruin my pregnancy like it did with #2 and 4. I don't know how people can just suffer with it without getting medical help with it. There is this one chic on here that moans and groans about suffering from depression yet doesn't do a damn thing about it. What's worse is I KNOW that her kids are suffering for it. I will not let it catch hold of me. It would not be fair to my family OR to myself. I know if I got my *ss out to the track and walked, I would get better. It just seems like the minute I clean the house, the kids go and trash it. I worked hard on the livingroom yesterday and Emma trashed the place. I found a cool web site with chore charts on it. I am going to work in that after I get this laundry set up. Dude! I hate laundry!!! The kids are totally slacking on their end of that. I had to go dig through their rooms for their clothes. Emily has not cleaned the cat box in almost a week. I am going to start deducting money from her fee if she doesn't do something soon! They are going to have to be grounded until they get what they need DONE! NO going outside until this is fixed.

Anyway, I have to go back to work. I need some coffee...........

Feeling better!

2006-10-30T20:44:00.000-05:00

I just sat in my huge garden tub for about 45 minutes, candles aglow, kids off watching a movie..............I feel so much better! It is aMAZING what a bubble bath can do for you. Now I can sit relaxed and watch my show, go to sleep and have a wonderful new day tomorrow!!!

yuck day

2006-10-30T18:19:00.000-05:00

Today was a total YUCK day. I got sucked on the computer playing solitare and spider solitare while I watched my TiVo'ed shows from the night before. It brought me down and into the realm of "dead *ss". I didn't want to do anything, was weepy over some cutsy moments on TV. You know, the typical mood swinging pregnant woman. Then, after picking up the kids, I prompted them to wash the car with me. I had about an inch of mud caked on it from Saturday. (We had a G.S. event out at the camp and it had rained extensively most of last week. To get to camp, you have to drive up a three mile dirt road. I fishtailed the whole way up, giving the girls a good laugh. My car was so gross afterwards) Well, I got ichy *ss with them about little things. Again, go hormones. Next time, I am bringing it up to the hand wash place and pay the $30 to have it washed, detailed and waxed.

I am feeling much better now that I have vented a bit. The hormones are driving me nuts! It is the only thing that makes me feel pregnant. I have not been ill at all lately. I just get a bit tired or testy. In my mind, I can think and ease myself about everything............"this is my last!" LOL I have never been more at peace about the decision. I have waited for this feeling for a while. Plus, I can't afford to pay for college for anymore!!

Soap box time:

I have gone over this subject many times. I CANNOT stress it enough: IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD YOUR KIDS, DON'T HAVE MORE!!! I see it all too many times. "I want a baby. We can afford another BABY." Yeah, most people can afford a babies. Well, some can't even do that and still have more. Guess what happens when they get older....they cost more! They require clothes, school supplies (even home schooled kids need clothes and school supplies) High school hits and they want nicer clothes. Unless you are totally insensitive to a teenager as my parents were, you have to provide a bit more in the clothing department. Then there is college. Hardly anyone I come across thinks,"I have a realistic plan for college for my kids."
It is great that people have these 'large' families nowadays. I think it is super................if you can honestly pay for all of these kids, 4, 5, 6+ kids throughout their ENTIRE life.

OK, off my soap box. You can totally tell I am hormonal. It HAS to be another girl. ha!

I have a more serious issue that has come upon me. My sister has come up pregnant this past week. I find it hard to be happy for her because of their circumstances. Mind you I love her dearly and will totally love this child when s/he comes. Here is the story: The month that we concieved this baby, we had decided to quit trying because of drama in the family. (SIL had some issues. I vented about it on here) Well, we had one of those,"We forgot" Two seconds too late. HONESTLY! We always joked that we had given up on conceiving Emma and she was kind of an oops. She was a "wore a condom once and didn't after that" kind of thing. She was planned. Anyway, we had our oops (because was had been used to trying for the past three months.) and figured why not after that. She claimed that SAME month, the same thing happened to them. Then the following month, the same thing. THIS month, she told me about two weeks ago about them forgetting again. We then went into why they keep oopsing and why she wasn't on birth control. Mind you she was claiming up and down they were NOT trying and wanted to wait until their current child was 3. Her excuse for no BC was because she couldn't get into a dr until January. I find that a load of bull. I am so sorry. There are many dr offices in the area and even planned parenting that can hook you up if you really don't want to try. Well, she calls me up saying she is two weeks late and has a test. She then tells me a story of the condom breaking. A totally different story. What makes me irritated about all of this is that they were clearly trying. Why not just come out with it? The only reasoning is that she knows it is such a lousy time for them. Guilt over it? I mean come on! Ya think they would have learned from us about stupid times to conceive, our second as an example! We were moving, our car was broken and we were low on money. Hmmmm. They borrow money from his mom all the time just to eat, they have very little money, they are moving and don't fully know how it will all work out when they move, specifically health insurance, etc. Plus, she was on bed rest through most of her pregnancy, having to be hospitalized for the end of it and having the baby come 6 weeks early. I she saw how hard it was for us and we had a SOLID job with consistant health insurance. Why try and do it like us? I just hope that his family will be as active for them as she expects them to be. I will be too pregnant to help her and will not be there for her for the birth, even if it is to watch my niece. I pray that things work out ok for them. Especially for their dd that will pay in the end if it doesn't.

Well, I am off to get dinner ready. Got "heroes" on tonight. Woo Hoo! Love that show. I have to go over bills, budget for Christmas and plan to get my G.S and home projects in order. Ooh, and I have to get the kids scheduled in for their dental work. Yeah, can wait to pay from Emily's braces. HEY! IF the need them, you are required as a parent to provide.

It's been a while

2006-10-18T18:06:00.000-04:00

I have been very busy! Between Girl Scouts and the house, I have no real time. We took the girls to a Scientist for a Day event. What fun that was, seriously! We learned about oyster reefs and how they are building more to help the environment. We actually started our own starters. We also pulled up some old ones and had the girls pick out some sea creatures: grass shrimp, crab, sea squirts....even a fish! The girls also learned about water Ph and we measured the saltiness of the sea AND of the brackish water the ships were in. (They have a carrier, submarine, destroyer and a coast guard cutter) After our event, we had a picnic and toured the ship and the boats. After seven hours of fun, I was spent.

We also had a friend and his mom visit us for dinner from WA state. They had to eat and run because of their schedule but it was awesome to see them again! We ate at the Crab House featured on A&E that got "flipped". That was last night. This weekend I go camping............JUST ADULTS!! WOO HOO! I love to get away, even if it is just for a weekend. The following weekend, we have a G.S. event AND a party to go to. I can't wait for November to get here! We will get a break from events and take a breather. I will hopefully be able to start feeling a little from my Mcnugget by then.

ANYWAY....I will begin walking again. I am feeling a bit more energized. I am so thankful that I didn't get morning sickness this time. I was able to keep up with things minus keeping my house clean. I did get it clean in time for my friend and his mom to come visit us at least. I am going to start up a project list now that I am getting things back to normal. I need to get some painting done and things of that nature before I get too big to get up on a ladder. I have until about January before I start to really show. We will see how that all goes.

Well, until I have more time...... ciao

BIG CAMP OUT!

2006-10-01T19:25:00.000-04:00

First off, the Kkaki Ball was AWESOME. My hair was totally fab. Thank you Loni for doing my hair. It didn't budge at all. I actually slept on it and wore it during the day the next day. It is just too bad I won't be going next year. I will have a nursling to take care of.

Well, it has been a hard week and weekend. It starts on Friday. I, being the biggest preggo air head right now, scheduled my prenatal class (first visit before first ob) with Lizzie's doctor's appointment. MORON! Well, I had gotten kind of sick the night before and felt like I had swallowed thumb tacks that morning. I gutted throught two hours of my class with Emma and Liz in tow and then headed down the hall of the hospital to the pediatric office. Lizzie is offically going through puberty. Yippee... She was also put back on Adderal for her ADHD. I am really tickled with that. Lizzie is happy too. She knows she is struggling with it all. Well, after waiting in the pharmacy for about 15 minutes (worth not paying a dime for our meds) and going back to the OB to schedule my first appointment (I had to leave the class a little early for Lizzie's appointment. OH first ultrasound is on THURSDAY!), I really felt rank. I passed one of my girls' parents at the hospital and didn't even recognize him. I came home and thought I was going to die. I ate, picked up the other kids from school and took a nap. I went to bed sick, praying that I was better by morning for our Junior Jam prep. Lo and behold, God blessed me with being better! I still had a slight stomach ache but wasn't feeling sick or had to sit on the toilet for hours.

Our camp trip went great. The whole point of the weekend was to learn camping skills to go toward our Junior Jam this Spring. ( I will be 2 weeks away from my due date when we go) We learned to cook, use a compass, pitch tents, lash, tie knots and make fire. Posted is a pic of Lizzie with her fire she made all by herself! We also got to see a snake up close. No gators this weekend. Too cold I think. We also did a night hike to the DOLL HOUSE. The doll house is a small play house that has antique dolls inside. They are all really creepy looking. There are stories of the dolls moving and a little girl bleeding to death inside. All not true.

The one issue I had with the girls was with our tents. We have two HUGE tents. One is an eight man tent. We had seven girls in that tent. In our bigger tent, a cabin tent with a changing room, we had five girls. We all agreed that we would keep everyones gear in the changing room. Well, one specific girl didn't like it. She was our main trouble maker. The girls in the first tent claim that she went in their tent, messed everything up and took out a necklace from another girl from her bag and placed it neatly on the outside. It was all hearsay but I think there was some facts behind it. The girl with the necklace got yelled at for not putting it up when she did and didn't tell anyone about it. My co leader has rubbed a lot of the girls the wrong way. Two sisters tend to respond with disrespect toward her because they are not shown any respect from her, in their eyes. I tried to explain to them that she is just hard on the outside and good inside but the more she is hard on these girls, the more disrespectful they get. I spoke with the older girl about it but my co leader pushes too hard.

This one girl that was our trouble child happens to be the co leader's daughter. This girl was just an animal all weekend. She got worse and worse. My the time this morning rolled around, it was too much. She took up the changing room so the others couldn't get in, she ran around naked and declaring it to the world in the changing room and ultimately kept our girls from being on time. Of course Lizzie was last and was hollered at to get out in her jammies, a T-shirt and shorts. It was in the 60's. I stomped that one fast. OH! The worst was she was 'not feeling good' and wanted to go to bed. She threw a big fit, put on her jammies which are long (we just learned NOT to wear anything like this around the fire) to make smores after her mom said no matter what, she wouldn't get any. She whined the next day and after I said I was having my kids wash my car, she whined and pitched a fit when her mom told her she wasn't going to wash their car. I need to talk with my co leader and have a discussion about the behavior I saw this weekend. Between the catty gossip and our drama queen, we just need to gut through it and get us past it. I need to get a hard nose, tell my co leader how they feel and myself and get us back on track!

Well, other than our drama it went well. We had a first timer out there that kind of freaked when it got dark. She was going to sleep with us in our cabin and at the last minute decided to sleep in the tent. Midnight exactly, she was at our door. It was so frigging cold!!! I had to get up and move my stuff off the cot at my head and then walk down to the bathroom on the other side of camp. THANK YOU GOD for giving me a sweet sleeping bag. I bought it 3 years ago, $45 Eddie Bauer 30 degree sleeping bag, and actually got hot in the morning. Too cold to uncover but too hot to stay all zipped up. It was awesome! My van was so packed...can't wait for my 'Burban next year~!

Khaki ball tonight

2006-09-22T09:41:00.000-04:00

Tonight is the khaki ball. Yeah, I have to dress up.....I am not feeling good so maybe I can get out of it! LOL I know I will have a blast but I really don't want to go. I need to get new shoes and haven't even bothered to get some. I know my shoes will end up off my feet anyway......I just don't dig wearing a dress!! Wearing a pant suit just looks weird at these events. Not really but I would feel out of place. I don't know if I can last too long there. He would like to stay until 10. I am ready for bed at like 8! Go baby right? I am officially 8 weeks tomorrow!! Too funny right? I am still a little in shock over being pregnant but I am getting over it. I still have not gotten too sick minus feeling a bit sick here and there. Usually a nap takes care of it. Well, I have to go clean. We have family coming in town tomorrow. I have my neice and nephew for the weekend. PLUS, the baseball team is coming over to our house after their morning game. OFF TO GET THE HOUSE TOGETHER!!!!

Definitely pregnant!

2006-09-15T08:25:00.000-04:00

I went to the doctor yesterday to confirm my pregnancy and get a referral to the OB. I am definitely pregant! I don't know if I really didn't think I was or what. Maybe it is the fact that I have not gotten sick yet. ~knock on wood~ I just thought that we would be like,"Sorry, you aren't pregnant. You should get a visit from TOM soon." Not the case! I don't get why I have not gotten ill yet. I did get a bad case of gut rot yesterday but that really isn't the same. I also found out that I might have to go to an outside ob/gyn. There is limited space at the Naval Hospital so they refer you out. Either way, you don't even give birth at their hospital. They don't have a labor and delivery. I would give birth at a private hospital. I hope I get a private doctor that is closer. The Naval hospital is such a drive! If I get the Naval Hospital though I would be able to bring Emma with to my doctor's appointments.

I have a lot of work today. First off, we have a flag ceremony for the Red Hat Society tonight. Just five of our girls, two being mine. I also have to do bills, email parents on our next event, start inventorying my camp stuff for our campout at the end of the month, cleaning, laundry, etc. A LOT! I have kind of been worthless ALL WEEK. I have been so tired. That and I had two discs from the 4400 season 2 here and could not NOT watch the whole thing. LOL It is REALLY GOOD! Yeah, Zoltane! I am a dork....LOL My next set will be Veronica Mars season 2. I missed all of them and need to catch up! I think she is very cute, the actress that is. Some actresses really bother me and I cannot stand them!

In other news, I have 3 points out of 100 for my brand new Suburban! This is a game my dh and I have set up. I am so not telling the rules that we have come up with. Either way, I WILL get one. It comes down to the size of our current vehicle. I imagine how great trips would be going anywhere with the three older kids squished in the back. Lizzie is only a head shorter than me. She is also going through her 'changes' and needs her space. It would be bloody death hearing them argue all the way to Georgia and back. (my sister is moving there this Christmas) Even the fifteen minute drive to school would suck for them. Well, it just so happens that the same month I give birth will be when he finds out if he made it or not. If he makes it ~chances are he will~ we get one. New rank with more money.......yes. Even if he doesn't make it, he gets a pay raise. He hits his 12 year mark the following month so there will be a pay raise either way. Plus, EVERYONE seems to own a Caravan nowadays. I have had one since 2001: I had a 2000 first and then bought a 2005 almost two years ago. Don't get me wrong! I love my van! It has power everything, including power opening doors on both sides AND power hatch. I have a sunroof and six disc DVD player built in. It also has the stow and go feature that started the year I bought it. I couldn't imagine NOT having the stow and go now that I have had it for so long now. More storage in the Suburban would be worth it. Plus, have you seen the new redesign? I LOVE IT!
He is up for Senior Chief, as I have posted before. He is getting a letter of recommendation from his CO because of his performance with Day of Caring. He is also going to a Senior Enlisted school or something like it when he makes it so that he can become CMC somewhere when he makes Master Chief. He works so hard and it is paying off for him. He really enjoys the Navy and works hard at what he does.

Ok, enough rambling about stupid stuff, minus the rank thing, I need to go and finish laundry, clean, email, pay bills, etc, etc, etc........................

Knock on wood....

2006-09-06T19:17:00.000-04:00

I am still not ill. I have been tired but not ill.........yet. I looked in an old baby diary of mine and I was sick with both Michael and Emma by now. I believe I was with Lizzie and Emily too. I have had some wicked hot/cold flashes too. I am wearing a coat right now actually. LOL I think because I have had my activity level higher than with all of my other pregnancies, it has helped. I get up at 6:30 and stay up. I don't do the lazy way of taking a nap during the day. Weekends though are MINE. Well, not really. This weekend, we have a clean up to do for G.S. We go camping the last weekend of the month.

I am really looking forward to this event! This is our prep for Junior Jam and it is with our Service Branch. We will learn how to tie knots, lash, make fires, etc. I don't know how to lash or tie knots but all the other stuff, I am a pro. I am going to try to get the dent in my van taken care of over that weekend so I can get a truck for my rental car. We have to bring our tents, a cooler, etc. It would help out a lot.

I would really like Mike to get a truck when he makes rank again. That or get a Suburban. He has a 99% chance of making it this coming year which will add about $400 more a month to our finances. He will also go back out to sea again next year, towards the end. That will raise us another $600 at least. We will just have to see what God has planned for us!

FIFTEEN KIDS!

2006-09-04T15:43:00.000-04:00

I had fifteen kids in my house yesterday! We had a little get together yesterday with some new chief selects. Just a good ol' fashion barbque. One of the little girls there was born on the same day IN THE SAME HOSPITAL as my Emma! I kid you not! Neat, huh? The funniest part was one of the guys sat and played PS2 with them! That is the pic I have posted.

We also had my nephew over for the weekend. It was awesome seeing him again! He had a good ol' time. We went to a birthday party on Saturday and took him with. Lisa, the mom, rented a jump castle. She also gave out water guns that the kids brought home and had fun with! I really wish that his mom didn't have all her issues.....

Well, off to run some errands! I have my onion rings to munch on and paperwork to do!

scrapbooking....

2006-09-02T22:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I went to my first scrapbooking party. I absolutely love it! It can get pretty expensive but if you do it right, it is managable. Once I get my current photos done, it should really fall into place. I have a LOT of pictures in a rubbermaid container PLUS a lot on my computer. It really wasn't that hard. I think that once I really get into it, it will get better and better. I am saving my wedding photos until I get really good at it. I don't want to screw them up. I looked at my friend's wedding album.....it really does make a difference.

Our schedule for G.S. is starting to get hectic already. We have a clean up this coming weekend and the following weekend we are doing a flag ceremony for the Red Hat society. We have our first camp out the end of September and two events in October. Plus, our fall sale starts this month. I know if I keep active, my pregnancy will pass quickly. I do NOT want it to slow me down. I will NOT let it. Unless I have a medical condition, which I have never had ~KNOCK ON WOOD~ I plan to keep up with Everything.

I have to go feed seven kids. Fun right? LOL Pizza and deep fried mushrooms...MMMMM

I jinxed them!

2006-09-01T12:58:00.000-04:00

Sorry, NC, I jinxed ya! LOL For real, they got like 9 inches in Wilmington. In the same breath though, they are showing the same morons pulling a tub behind their truck in flood waters....Jack *sses!! I guess I did get that one right at least.

In happier news, I am feeling much better today. Emma and I did our two mile walk on the track today. I feel so wonderful! You can beat it....air conditioning, nice older ladies that give Emma attention...Everyone is very nice. The plan at this point is to continue to walk. I read from this one lady that working out help stave off morning sickness. I am also ordering some preggo pops and buying some yankee candles with appropriate scents, lemon or green apple. Aromatherapy works really well with me.

Off to shower. I need to get ready and get my kids from school. Ooh, I don't know if I blogged it but a woman that was my friend in the past and then all of a sudden dissappeared spoke with me two days ago. She is due in Febuary! Maybe her hormones were setting her up for it and that is why she just up and stopped talking with me. I think I will email her later!

Hurricane morons!!!

2006-08-31T19:31:00.000-04:00

I literally slept through the hurricane. (I really needed a nap. This pregnancy makes me sleepy!) Man, and all those country bumpkins from NC freaking out about the hurricane, worrying about flooding and getting supplies......I bet all their grocery stores were packed and people were going around like chickens with their heads cut off. My sister said that their governor put them under a state of emergency yesterday. A bunch of freaking morons, the whole state. That and none of them can drive. (Had to deal with NC drivers in VA all the time) The worst drivers of all.....FLORIDA. They all have their blinders on and don't pay attention. Then again, who broke the glass in her sideview mirror? LOL

Well, I have to make dinner. I am trying to figure out if I should tell my bil and sil about my pregnancy. Well, they are going to find out one way or the other.......

getting my money back

2006-08-30T12:39:00.000-04:00

I JUST got a call from my insurance agency. I get my $250 back this week!! Yippee!!! This totally feels awesome. Good payback for all the pain of dealing with that a**hole in the accident. I did break the car again though. LOL I have been scatterbrained for the past week. At least now I know why. Well, I hit a garbage can with my side mirror. I have done this three times, once at 45 and I hit an eighteen wheeler. I hit a mail box the last time. Well, the glass broke. The mirror itself and the motor were fine. I have to go up and order it. It will cost me a whopping $22. I can skip over the $40 to have them do it and I will fix it. It just pops into place. Ooh, now that I have this money coming in, I am getting my car detailed on Monday! Vaccuumed, waxed, the whole works! Thank you Mary for the helpful hint on where to go!

Well, I have told all of my family and friends. My dad was like,"Again?" LOL He was messing around and proceded to tell me one of his famous," A guy walked into a bar..." jokes. He is sending Emma ice skates for her birthday. My parents are notoriously late. As long as they notice, we don't care. Well, I have a few doulas picked out in the area. I am going to wait a month or two and then start calling and meeting them. And it begins.......................................

Guess who is pregnant?

2006-08-29T21:51:00.000-04:00

Yup. I am pregnant for the final time. This will be number FIVE. I guess we know why I have been so tired now! I have never been this tired so soon or started to get nausea either. Must be my age. Man! I am an old woman! On a serious note: my son would really like a brother. I would like a son also. My daughters would all like another boy in the house. You know, it would be cool but a girl would be neat too! Evylyn. I have had the name picked out since Emma was in my belly. This would be it either way. I have my boy so either way, I win. I would just like a happy, healthy baby.........that is quiet! LOL Kidding. Happy and healthy suit me just fine!

Kitchen remodel!

2006-08-29T11:12:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have a brand new house yet I am doing a slight remodel! First off, we have this huge kitchen with not enough cabinets or counter space. First thing when we get out bonus this October, I am getting this cool kitchen island with a 4 inch wood cutter board top. Here is a link to the one I am getting:

http://highhorseranch.net/Country_Manor_Island.htm

I plan on putting a oval chef hanging rack over it. I am also replacing the counter tops with something nicer. I don't know yet what I want....just a similar color. I need to make a Lowe's trip to get a better idea of what. Also, I am painting my kitchen RED. Yes, RED. My kitchen is very airy and bright. Everything in there is either black or red. I will definitely have to do some before and after shots. My room is almost done. I just need to find and new comforter set for my bed. Then I can go with some type of valance above the windows. I still need to get my shelf painted. Maybe I can do it during the hurricane/tropical storm that is going to run through here on Thursday. Then, I need to go in and paint Michael's room. Once his walls are done, then Jeff Gordon bed, here we come! I already have one can of glitter blue spray paint that matches perfectly. There is also a neon yellow color for the number.

I have so many ideas I want to cover during the day while the kids are at school. I can come up will mini projects for Emma to do while I am working. Plus, she loves computer games! She amazes all of our friends and family with her computer abilities. She can shut down, turn on, sign on, you name it she can do it. She signs on using the windows button on the keyboard even! We have not started with her potty training yet though. I am going to wait until SHE is ready and let her train herself. There is no need to push her into it and have all kinds of accidents. I don't want her to regress at all. I had all kinds of problems with Elizabeth with this. Emily was a breeze because I let her do it on her own. She was fully potty trained before her 3rd birthday. Michael was during the day around then but wet the bed for a while. He has to be woken up in the morning or he might again. He is a heavy sleeper. My mom wet the bed until she was 8 so it runs in the family.
Since putting myself back together so to speak, things have gotten easier. I get up, drive the kids to school, EXCERSIZE, feed and play with Emma, do G.S. business and clean. The Lord has blessed us ten fold over. We are all healthy, we have a new car, new house, and Mike and I have a wonderful marriage. I pray for those that are not there yet. I pray that everyone can be deep down happy with their lives. I have seen people try to buy their happiness one too many times. It will always fall through. You have to be happy with yourself before you can grow. I have learned this the hard way in so many different ways. Words of wisdom: You can be as showy as a peacock but it doesn't hide what is underneath all the glitz and glamour. An ugly little bird with pretty feathers. What is worse: he knows it.

Well, I am off to do some G.S. business and clean! :) Plus, Emma looks like she needs a tickle!

walkin' mama

2006-08-28T13:23:00.000-04:00

I don't know what hit me this weekend! I guess I needed to catch up with my sleep, BADLY. I am much better today. I didn't want to for my walk but did anyway. What made it worse was Emma didn't want to go either. As soon as we got rolling and she turned her Leapster on, we were good to go. It was HOT out. I mean H*O*T!! I am going to just start going to the gym from now on. The track is nice and air conditioned. You know that if the baby is sweaty and hot, it is bad. Her PegPerego stoller completely closes, all the way to the tray. Completely covered. It was THAT hot out. I was covered in sweat. I did lose a pound off of it though. SERIOUSLY! I now have five pounds to go until I hit my first goal. My goal time is my birthday, Nov 9th. I am absolutely sure I will get to it! Tom is fixin' to visit so I have some bloat going on anyway. I should be in the 220s in two weeks!! Shoot, I can have it by the end of next week if I really work!
I am very pumped to lose! I have been for about a month now. I have really worked hard. It started last year, Marchish. I was a whopping 258. I looked in an old journal and my highest was 260. Mind you, I am 5 foot 9 so it hides easier. I mean it isn't totally invisible by any means! The cool thing though is no matter how fat I had gotten to, I never had a big butt or super big legs. THANK YOU LORD FOR BLESSING ME WITH A SMALL BEHIND! He did make me a bit top heavy but nothing the military couldn't take care of. GO NAVY. I talked with a friend that went in and had it done. Once I get down to 200, I am so there! Once I am sure that I am not having anymore children, I am getting a tummy tuck. I have looked into it and it really isn't that expensive. Having my chest reduced is twice as much hence, GO NAVY! I have back pain, my bra indents my shoulders but they have shunk and inch so maybe I can get them down on my own. I have lost 1 1/2 inches on my waist, an inch on my arms........I feel so much slimmer! I am so going to lose all this baggage. I feel healthier! Now you know what will happen? I will get pregnant. I have this one covered actually. I only gained 20 with my last child. That is with little effort other than watching what I eat. If I continue to walk and keep active like I have, I should be good to go. When I keep active, it keeps the morning sickness down. The only thing that really worries me is my hip pain. I went through so much when I was pregnant with Emma. My hips would dislocate when I would roll over after sleeping on my side. If I do become pregnant, I plan on getting one of those Swedish posturpedic mattresses or a nice pillow top. We are due for a new mattress soon anyway. But then again, this is IF I get pregnant. The chances are slim to none. I would like to have one last child in like 2 0r 3 years.
Well, off to get my kids from school. Michael baby has baseball practice tonight. He is the bat boy for an AAU 12 and under team and will start is actual job of getting the bats and stuff. All the boys, including Michael, get their uniforms today plus Michael gets his helmet for his job. He LOVES getting to play with the big boys. He still has his side burns like his favorite baseball player, Joe Mauer. GO TWINS!!

Really tired

2006-08-26T19:09:00.000-04:00

Yeah, my body caught up with me today. I have been just drained lately! I don't know if it is the walking, school starting or a combo of the two. After our G.S. event today, which was awesome I might atdd, I watched a movie and took a 4 hour nap. I am ready for bed right now and it is 7 pm. I am taking in some coffee right now so I can get the days AND YESTERDAYS dishes done. It has been really rough on me getting used to our new schedule. Anyway, I will try to get out of this rut any way I can!

Our movie was so awesome! I have never been to an IMAX movie before. Yes, lame I know. Well, I have been to a IMAX style show where your chair moves along with you. Anyway, it was wild safari style. It was as if we were riding in the back of this woman's jeep. My son loved it! All the girls had a good time as well. They got to make jewelry, masks, doorhangers and get to see the prizes for the fall product sale. It was a great way to kick start the year!

I am going to go and get some work in. My coffee is kicking in and I am ready to clean my kitchen!

good workout

2006-08-25T19:11:00.000-04:00

I had a wonderful workout today! I went up to the fitness center and used the indoor track. It has been rainy for the past two days which made it almost impossible to walk outside. I had already missed everyday except for Monday, due to appointments and errands. It really did feel awesome. I had not been up there since the Spring. Emma was a pain but that was because I couldn't find her Leapster. It was a last minute thing to go up and walk. It is only open from 11:30 to 12:30 so I had to hustle to get up there. I knew it would take me like 4o minutes to get my full walk on. The best part is I ran part of it. The last six, minus my two cool down laps, I ran the back half of four laps. It didn't even hurt and I didn't feel like dying! LOL I can feel my sides really leaning and becoming stronger. OTHER FAT PEOPLE OUT THERE>>>>> GET OUT AND WALK! I am telling you, I feel so much better. I procrastinated and came up with excuses but now that I am really getting into a routine, it is getting easier and I am feeling so much better! It won't be much longer before I am at my goal!

brain fart

2006-08-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

Who do you think came up with this term? I would really love to know...I have brain farts all the time! No air escapes my head.....well....Ok, I get it. LOL
Our first meeting went so well! I think Nida and I make an awesome team! She is more strict, knows all the rules yet knows when to be easy. I am more the laid back, best friend type of person. I help smooth the waves easily. I know that all of our girls will have a BLAST this year. I also know that they will learn so much as well. I had one of our three leaders tell me she was nervous and didn't know how to react to her new responsibility. Our troop last year didn't have her doing anything that a Junior Girl Scout should be doing...AT ALL. Our last leader ran it all herself, not even asking for my help. This year, we are putting it in the hands of the girls. If they hit a snag, oviously they can ask us to help. I let her know that and KNOW she will grow with this experience. All of them will. Nida and I are on the same page with this. This is the reason I wanted to lead. I wanted them to GET IT. Learn, grow, lead. These are our future leaders......if I can help one girl become a better woman when she grows up, then I have done what I have set out to. THIS IS WHY....why I volunteer, why I do all the training, why I spend so much time on it. The best part is, my two daughters are apart of this. I did this for them, for the girls in the troop, for ME.

Ok, yes it sounds super drama~ish but it is the truth. No dramatics, just the truth. Have a great day!

Doin' my thang!

2006-08-21T11:20:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I have been walking. I only walked twice for a total of 4 miles. I did 2 miles this morning. It felt awesome.....I feel so good afterwards. I updated my Ipod with some new music to pump me up! I get rockin' and Miss Emma plays her Leapster the whole time. I even got some crunches in after my walk! I am set and determined to get back to my prepregnancy weight from ALL of my children. It is do or die at this point. I would like my final pregnancy to be easy. I know that if I get my body back in shape, I could sail through it.

In other news, I have not heard from my sil. I she threatened me with something that would never stand up so I am just not going into her dirty little world. Threats don't bother me. The only thing I regret is our kids won't see each other. Her selfishness just down right pisses me off. The only thing I can do at this point is do what I need to for my family and for myself.

Our troop is doing very well so far! The first meeting was seriously nuts! The girls goofed off half of the time. I did get a feel for how the girls really are though, and that was what I wanted out if it. This next meeting will be splitting the girls into their patrols. I will show them how things will be run for the year. Our first event is this coming weekend. We will get to see an Imax movie! Very cool~

My goals this week: get the house clean!! Get in THREE Walks, 2 miles each. Prep my shelf for paint

whacked out SIL

2006-08-12T11:28:00.000-04:00

Lots of stuff has gone down lately. This is an email I posted to some friends explaining the start of it all:

Ok, this starts out back when I was first married and just had Lizzie. We allowed Patty, my sil to live with us and get started down in Orlando. Well, we didn't have a car so we had a married friend go pick her up from the airport. She to this day thinks we tried to set them up. Well, they ended up 'getting together' despite him being married and having a boy a week older than Lizzie. I stopped talking to her and he ends up sending her home to her abusive boyfriend, the reason she was down with us. Oh, and she is 17 at the time. After the fact, we found out she got pregnant with him and had an abortion.
That is the first part. Well, when we moved to VA to his ship from SC after FL, (FL and SC were his schools) he met Matt, Patty's current dh. She came down for the summer while I was pregnant with Emily to try it again, this time with her father. Matt and her became good friends. He loaned us his car which we ended up buying eventually because yet again, we did not have a car. ( we were super poor back then) She went back to MN and her dad moved to FL, where he is originally from. The following summer after this, Mike, my dh and Matt were out for 6 months. Matt ended up being flown home because he got hit by a car overseas. Dang ol' drunken sailors! He got drunk and thought he fell off a wall but his injuries, a fractured pelvis, were conducive with getting hit by a car. She came down and they ended up hooking up and moving in.
Well, they got married, had a boy 7 months younger than Michael and now have a baby girl who is 14 mos old. Well, she has not been happy. She is high maintenance and expects every second of his attention either on her or the kids. He has not been totally wining and dining her lately and she is not happy. Nah, the brand new house, almost brand new Ford Explorer, the jet ski, four wheeler, lap top, bling bling, vacations more than once a year are not wining and dining. ANYWAY>>>>
Come to find out Isaac, the married guy from FL either contacted her or she contacted him. She got a letter from him right before she got married but didn't, or so she says didn't contact him. He divorced then remarried for the same reason, she got knocked up and now has a total of FOUR boys. He is divorced and has the younger 3 boys. We also found out she met him for lunch. She says they didn't do anything but Matt found a pregnancy test in her purse. He got his surgery after Carly was born, the baby. She is going to move in with me, with the kids. She will either commute to Columbia or work something out with her work. I will watch Miss Carly (WOO HOO!) and pick the boys up from school. Matt would get them on the weekends. Well, he is heartbroken, first love, first girlfriend, first you know.... He threatened to take the kids. He threatened to have her committed today I just found out. He wrote out a separation agreement where he gets sole custody and she has to pay like $600 a month. She makes like $2000 a month and her car note is like $600. He forged her name to get it for her in her name as it was.

That was the start. Yesterday, I went up to help try and work something out. It didn't go too well. What happened was Patty stayed the night at the house beacause he cried for her, something like that. Well, they argued in the morning, she claimed she was going to kill herself, after he said he would take the kids. (she didn't mean it literally) She locked herself in the bathroom and he pushed the door in. He filed a report on her that she was going to hit herself and make it look like he did it. She filed one about the door and that she was afraid to go home. Well, his mom and sister came down from VA. I came to help it all go ok and just stay inbetween. I got there, said my hi's and said that I was going to get Patty. I picked her up from McD's and brought her back to get her clothes. She talked to her son and held her baby, got her clothes and agreed to talk with Matt. (well, she watched her boy ride is bike and shoved her baby at me after holding her for a few minutes, telling me she has to get used to not being held by her. Then she gave in and held her fingers as the baby walked around in the garage) He was a stone as well as she and fought back and forth. He wrote up and agreement that she didn't like and he wouldn't budge. We tried working on things but she ended up throwing the papers at him, throwing crap around and taking off outside with her stuff. I followed her but she went in the garage and threw a cd player at Matt. Then she went back in the garage and threw some more stuff around. She wanted to smash in the windshield of his truck but I talked her out of it. Instead, she jumped in it and took off through the front grass. She stopped and flipped out at me, asking what can she do. She grabbed her stuff and took off. Sheriff came and went. She called me told me to F off and goodbye. Then called again to say his truck was at McDonalds. She called my dh, her brother and told him goodbye, she is taking pills and no one can stop her. She also said she was in a hotel then hung up. I hung around for a while while Matt frantically called to see if he could find the hotel she was in. I finally left after talking with Mike and his mom about a hundred times.
I got home around midnight after stopping off at Taco Bell. (I didn't eat in like 12 hours) We watched Dexters Lab and he was eating a huge burrito. Anyway.......Yesterday I was on the phone off and on with Patty and her mom. Patty called me when we were in Target asking if she could still stay at our house. I said yes as long as she didn't bring any drugs in my house or anyone over. She then said,"Oh, so I am a druggie and a Whore now." I pointed out I just wanted it known and said out loud. I really didn't want any of that crap around my kids AT ALL. She called while we were out to eat as well. (celebrating the first day of school!) Later that evening their mom called and told me that Patty told her that she was on the side of the road in GA, taking her pills and video taping herself before she died. Then the next conversation was she was getting tired and swerving on the road and was going to stop at a hotel. She told her mom in one of the conversations that I told her she was a chicken sh*t and should just take the pills. I swear I NEVER said that. I left a nasty message to the tune of, "I never said that, I am mad at you, don't call until you have cooled down." Of course there was nasty language inbetween all of that. I was pissed! Today she left a message while I was painting (WOO HOO! My room is finally done and YELLOW!) and said a lot of nasty crap like,"Oh you are mother of the year and how it is documented in VA that I would rather sleep than drive my kid to kinder." I was up at 5:30 AM every morning driving my dh to work, FORTY FIVE MINUTES AWAY and then driving the kids to school. Then she blabbed about I told Matt about her interactions with them the I wrote above in this post. I HAVE NOT TALKED TO MATT SINCE YESTERDAY! I told him yesterday that I was butting out and letting them deal with it. I told him that I would not lie about anything asked. I am done with her until she finds some help. I cannot have her around my kids and I think she shouldn't be around her own until she figures out what is up with herself.

Enough venting about that...MY KIDS START SCHOOL TOMORROW! I am so excited! Lizzie got new shoes today and Michael got a fresh haircut yesterday. Lizzie has a nervous stomach and Emily is just plain nervous. It will be just Emma and myself at home! Our plan is to walk every morning we can. On rainy days, we can go up to the rec center and use the track. I am charging my Ipod as we speak! Everything will even itself out back into place once we all get on a good schedule.

For now, we have to pray that Patty finds her way.......

evening out....

2006-08-06T17:45:00.000-04:00

Things have been evening out around here. First off, Happy Birthday Emma! She is now a three year old! We took her to a water park today. Oh, boy, we all had fun. It was about 104 out there but you really couldn't tell. I thought it would be so miserable out there. I think the humidity has come down.
Well, Emma got a Leapster Lmax, a Dora game, a charging system for it, NickJr colorbook, Dora puzzle and a pink Little Tykes golf toddler set. She asked for it, I kid you not. She has had an awesome day today. All her birthday pics are in her baa kini (bikini). What a good day. We also had my sil come with her two kids and her dh. She and the kids will live with us until they sell the house and decide what will happen. I think this will help her a ton. She just needs a little space to figure out what is going on in her head. Plus, the boys get to go to kinder together. I have always wished that could happen but under better circumstances. It will all iron itself out in the end.
I had better go and do something, like nurse my red shoulders. I got more brown than burn but it is still a bit sore. ~~ I am so at peace right now. :)

crap day

2006-08-02T18:20:00.000-04:00

If I could have just stayed in bed today and not woke up AT ALL, then it would have been a perfect day. I took all of the kids grocery shopping. OH MY LORD. Yeah, that sucked. Emma was driving me nuts the whole time. The dentist was a MILLION times worse. It took two hours to get the kids done. Ooh, to top it all off, they need like almost $1000 worth of work done. AND Emily is being sent out to an orthodontist. Yeah, having four kids is finally catching up to us. Thank goodness for our October bonus. We will still have to finance braces. Yeah, I don't have $5000 just laying around.

I have the ultimate dilemma going on. I love my sil. I really do. I like talking with her, hanging out.........I really love our friendship. Then everything that has happened has turned it into a twisted, bloody mess. She is turning into a "Noel". This goes way back to a friendship I had in VA. I bent over backwards for this girl just to be dragged through the coals. She played the one up game, CONSTANTLY. Look where it got her: 6 year old son ignored, 3 yr old with MAJOR health issues (can't see, hear, etc), a husband paralyzed from the chest down, and now has a sperm donor baby. Just to make things more interesting if taking care of two handicapped people wasn't enough. The best example is cars. Cars has always been a sore subject in our house. We went about TWO YEARS without one. We have always appreciated our vehicle. We have always talked about wanting this one or that, for fun. Well, this dumb ass goes out and buys a USED Expedition, 42,000 miles with a 7 year $500 monthly. She comes and shows it off for 5 seconds where I told her that she would get pregnant, not work and then wouldn't be able to afford it. DING, DING! What happened? She got pregnant, couldn't work IN THE 3RD MONTH, and her dh lost his truck. They couldn't afford that even so they went to get a SMALLER vehicle. Well, we went and bought a brand new van in the middle of all that. Our 3rd child needed a bigger carseat and three carseats don't fit in the back of a Calalier too well. She threw a fit literally in the front yard so they went and got the Chrysler version with more options. Mind you she had ONE child at the time. It went up to 600 a month. Well, I bought a new van almost 2 years ago, end of lease ( that is the only thing we could afford) and got nice options. Well, then she needed to get a new van because she needed the stow and go and got the SAME COLOR VAN and exact same options. LOOONG STORY SHORTer (honestly, there are more stories if you care to hear): This is a Noel

She has pretty much come out and said her and her dh think we are "shit" and "trash", etc. So we only make like $56,000 and year and they make six figures I guess combined. The one thing she said that really pissed me off is yet another car comment. She has been talking about getting one of the new Mustangs for like 2 or 3 weeks now. She then made a comment during the commotion of her little tantrum of how much I love them. Then goes on to say that all she wants is a new Ford Fusion. Yes, I like them. They are kick ass. I LIKE THE DODGE CHARGERS! If I were to buy that kind of car, kids or not, I would buy the Charger. Plus, I am not a big Ford fan. If she even listened one IOTA instead of talking about woe is me, we are hurting for money because my dh put all the money away for this or that. Then don't go on a $10,000 vacation! Don't buy jet skis and dirt bikes. Don't over indulge your son. Dang, he doesn't even play with half of the toys he has. When you have to turn your diningroom into a playroom because of toy overflow, that should be a hint. Yes, I get that he has no siblings to play with yet( the baby is too small yet) but she would have to do this anyway. Look, don't get me wrong.......I get her, this is how she is and I still love her for it. These things bother me but then I get past them because I have plenty of faults to rant about. The one thing that killed me was the lies. The lies about this dude she has been in contact with for the past month and not a word. We are supposed to be really good friends, I thought best buds. I bet Stephanie knows, her other buddy. The one her dh referred to as trailer park trash so to speak. She can put her mask on or take it off.........I can't get past it. If it isn't bipolar, it is depression. Truth in the end: it was a guy. She will never be happy. If She runs off with the guy in the sunset, it will be something else that makes her unhappy. Just like her father. You have to learn to be happy. Learn to get past the what ifs. Learn to live with what happened and can never be. If not, you will go through life unhappy and miserable. In the end, you have God and your family. That is why I will forgive.........but I will never forget. How does that saying go Hurt me once, shame on you, hurt me again, shame on me. Well, this is #2.

I feel much better now that I have that off of my chest. It has really been eating at me. All the two faced bull crap. Getting the,"so you think I am bipolar,"or"It isn't the weightloss pills THIS TIME." thing thrown in my face about a thousand times crap got old. Recalling the past month and comments that have been made or recanted have been stuck in my brain. Sorry. Plus, my weightloss blogger has been down so I can't talk to my buddies on there. I am so going walking tomorrow! I haven't gone yet this week with all the hoopla of denists and car appointments. Boy, I need the stress buster now!! Gotta go make dinner! Oh, and kudos to my baby sister who had her gall bladder removed on Monday and is home on Percocette. Rock on Goolosh! Love ya!

Worst G.S. Leader award goes to......

2006-07-31T19:15:00.000-04:00

LATISHA, COME ON DOWN!!!!!

Yes, here comes one of my vents. I took over after they transferred. First off, she was like,"Oh, there was no one else to step up." Hello! I was there too. Don't get me wrong....she did fine until Christmas. Then it went all to hell. She would not accept any help and was determined to do it all "her way". She was so consumed with cookies, because she took it all on herself I might add, that our meetings were crap. I would plan something for the Brownies and would have to switch because she didn't have anything planned for the Juniors. She wasted time on dues and attendance which was NEVER taken correctly after Christmas. (these are jobs the Juniors SHOULD have been doing) We had THREE girls leave because of this. The worst was the Bronze award. This is supposed to be worked on for 2 maybe 3 years. Michaela even brought this up nonchalantly in a Service Branch meeting. She not only squeezed it in a year but picked it herself and did most of the work. They are supposed to not only choose it but do ALL of the work. Oh, and there were two service branch events she got on just to knock down my ideas or to switch the date so my Brownies couldn't do a Try It that was hosted by our council. Seriously, the one idea I had was for Thinking day, she turned the idea down and got off the board. The other was for the She and Me which NO ONE SIGNED UP FOR. I had a planned event for the Brownies that had to be changed. To top it all off, she didn't turn in the financial report. If you don't, we don't get our paperwork and the girls cannot participate in any events. Of course, I was able to waive this rule, I am sure to her horror. She just emailed me after two weeks of no response saying she faxed the report and it must have gotten lost. WHATEVER! Then she squeezes in that her hubby is out flying right now. FAG! Oh, and enough with Krones diesease. I am so sick of sick Navy wives. Every place that we have gone, there has always been someone with this ailment or that. Can't ya''ll just be happy with being healthy? They thrive on being sick and ailing.

I feel so much better! Seriously, this has been eating at me. Miss High and Mighty is off to play high school, "I am better than thou" games. Loser! Anyway, we are going to have a fresh start. New meeting place, new leaders, new attitude. I have a treasurer set up, cookie mom, and an awesome sailing class for the girls. They will be doing a scrapbook to keep their memories of this year as well. Ooh, I should set up a mom for taking pictures of everything. I would also like to give some ideas for our new Juniors on doing their Bronze. If there is someone who doesn't want to do it, that is fine. They have 3 years to decide if they want to or not. It should be on what they want to get out of G.S. Not what the MOM wants their kids to get out of it or the leader getting credit for getting the girls their Bronze. I want the girls to have an awesome year, stress free! You know it isn't worth it when you have one of the girls come up to you in tears because the "Leader" squeezed all the filming into one day and they weren't included. She didn't feel that her Bronze was earned. Sad but true story.

Crazy LIVES!

2006-07-29T13:47:00.000-04:00

Yeah it has been crazy around here. My bil and sil have been on the verge of a divorce. She has been not her self, unhappy and just miserable. She had a past love talk to her lately and I think that is why it has gotten so out of hand. They are off on vacation together so we will see how it goes when they get back.

Anyway, we had a virus go through the computer. Luckily, a friend of a friend was able to get it back on line. Then we updated our Norton. It sucked not having a computer for 5 days. The only down side, we have no money. I mean dang, we get paid in like 3 days and have food and some gas in our car.
Emily has finished her swim classes. I think she will do fine with our sailing class. I have also been to the dealer twice and a third time next week. I had a recall on the first trip. Well, they forgot to fix my blinker. Well, a few minutes AFTER I left the second time, they realized I had ANOTHER recall. Michael had school testing this past Thursday, all but my baby go to the dentist on the 2nd, and Lizzie goes to the allergist on the 8th. I need to squeeze painting my bedroom in there. Actually, now that my sil is going on vacation and not coming here, I might as well set up to paint! I know I can get it done tomorrow.
On a lighter note, I am back on track for my weightloss. I walked 3.6 miles this week and last week I walked 6.5 miles. (I had too many appointments in the morning to walk as much this week) I am really enjoying and looking forward to my walks. I put Emma in the stroller with her water sippy and a toy, get my water bottle, my Ipod with my walking playlist and WALK. I do laps around my block. It has continuous sidewalk and one lap equals to .4 miles. If I do 4 laps, it equals to 1.6 miles. If I add just one more lap on, it totals to 2 miles. I wish I would have known about this the first week! I thought it was just the normal football field lap. WRONG! We drove the lap with our car and found out otherwise. I did the full 2 miles on Monday and Friday, Emma was whiny so I only got 4 laps in.

I have never felt better in my life! I have a bad two months lately. Depression has been trying to fight its ugly little head back into my life. The past two weeks have been just awesome! I have more energy AND my depression has been put at bay. The first week, I only missed Wednesday and that was the one day that was bad. The walking has really pushed the bad hormones away. Oh, and my sleeping patterns are getting better. I get up at 6:30 and get tired around 10 pm. Anyway, I am off! I want to go paint.

SO NEGLECTFUL!!

2006-07-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have been neglectful of my blog. I just haven't been up for blogging. Too much going on! Right now I am prepping my room for painting, dealing with early bird registration for girls, got Emily back with ice skating, got Emily registered for swim classes, prepping Michaels bed for painting and dealing with mother frigging FIRE ANTS! I HATE FIRE ANTS! They are in the inside of the house. It is driving me nuts. I have been battling them on my own and am ready to throw in the towel and get the exterminator in.
Well, my car is getting repaired as we speak up at the dealer. It had a recall for a heater coil or something to do with the rear heat in my van. I got the first year the Stow and GOs came out so it was just one of those new design flaws. My blinker is getting fixed as well. It works but doesn't pop back up after you use it. Small but annoying. We are going to replace our van with one of the new model Suburbans either next year or three years from now. It all depends on where we transfer. If we stay here and he switches to prototype, we will be here for another three years. Then we wait. If we transfer away from here, we will buy one next summer.
Well, off to do some paperwork that is due tomorrow. I have to get on the phone and get it all together! Then The "Battle of the Laundry!"

what a ride......

2006-07-07T16:43:00.000-04:00

I have not been on for awhile. It has been very busy and hectic. I also had a battle with depression for about two weeks. My hormones have been very out of wack lately. My cycle has been all over, major pms.....if it doesn't settle out soon, or I get pregnant, I am going in. I have to go in anyway for my yearly. I just have to squeeze it in with dental appointments, allergist appointment, and I have a recall on my car to get fixed. My blinker switch is messed up also, not popping up back in place after I turn. Thank goodness for warranties, right?
Other than my hormonal issues, things have been good! Bills are up to date with some left over for school clothes and supplies plus the dental cap for any extra cost after insurance. Emma has her 3rd birthday coming up and I would like to get her a swing set. I am looking into renting a bounce castle or having her birthday at an indoor jump place.
Well, Michael is off to kindergarten this year. He told me that I couldn't make him go. He has warmed up to the idea now but geez, talk about cutting the cord! He will not give me up! Emma on the other hand told me she is going to kindergarten. I think I am either going to have to send her to a half day program or maybe a mommy and me class of gymnastics.
News from Girl Scouts.....it looks like our girls are going to learn how to sail!! One of our long time friends is an instructor at our military camp area and says he will teach them for free. We just have to pay for a tank of gas and possibly for the rental, so a total of maybe $30. The only thing is the girls have to be able to swim. I am registering Emily for swim classes this coming week, maybe Liz too. She is adament that she doesn't want to do it but I think it is because we have to camp for the weekend out there and she doesn't do the outdoors. We will see how that one works.
Our fourth went very well this year! A new tradition was started in our neighborhood. We had our first annual children's parade. None of us realized how many kids were actually in our neighborhood until they all got out there. We live in a new development, going on its second year, so no one really knows everyone yet. The kids decorated their bikes, one had a power wheel bike, and Emma had her wagon that her daddy pulled. We also had our Girl Scout troop's flag that we used. We all pranced up and down our three little streets shouting "God bless America" and "Happy fourth of July!" We also got to talking about putting a pool in our neighborhood with our dues. Their is a playground being put in this fall. I can't wait for that to be put in!
Well, off to my SIX kids! HA! My four and their two cousins. I love it when I get them for the weekend! No sarcasm at all! My nephew and son are 7 months apart EXACTLY TO THE DAY. Weird, they are like Bo and Luke Duke. They get into all kinds of weird situations. Two years ago, I had them both and took a nap thinking that our buddy who was visiting was awake. Well, he wasn't and the two of them had lipstick all over their faces and wandered around into the neighbors backyard. Weird, I know.
Anyway, my neice is being silly. I am going to go play with her! :)

Go Riverdogs!!

2006-06-15T23:47:00.000-04:00

First off, they won! Both games. Don't ask why we went to a double header. They were both 7 innings each which made it more barable. It went pretty well. Get this....I actually caught a shirt! It came right for me and I caught it! HA! The bad thing is, Lizzie got hit by a ball soon after that. Right in the thigh. Luckily, she was doped up on Lortab so the pain didn't last too long. You what is sad? She really didn't want to go. This dumb ass b*tch didn't want to give up the ball that hit her. I mean come on! She is ten and in tears about getting hit and the dumb @&*#@?! Ok, yeah just a bit pissed about it. The usher had to bribe the dumb ass with another ball so that Lizzie could have the ball that hit her. F*cking childish if you ask me.

Surgery went well!

2006-06-13T19:49:00.000-04:00

Lizzie's surgery went very well minus her throwing up. It didn't take long at all. Her thoat was hurting afterwards because of the tubes they stick in for breathing. They gave her some meds to control the discomfort. She threw up a couple times while we were there, once in the car (into a bed pan) and once when we walked in the house. She has been resting ever since. I did take her up to ToysRus. I promised her this one game, Monopoly Disney, for having her surgery. She threw up all over the bathroom in there. I feel so bad for the person who has to clean that up! It was rootbeer float ice cream and water. Ew!
Another cool thing about today. I had my power shut off! Yup, my bad. Sad thing is, I had the money plus some in the account. I tried to pay it on line but they never emailed me back with a pass code or something. Then when I remember, it is late at night! Yeah, I suck I know. The worst thing is trying to tell a 12 yr old boy that I forgot to pay the bill. He did a good job baby sitting though. He is really quiet. Good kid.
Well, off to do something bad. EAT!! muahahahaaahaaa! Nah, seriously, it is dinner time.

Lots going on.

2006-06-12T18:31:00.000-04:00

Yeah, there has been a lot going on. Between the blogger not working and my grandparents being in town, there hasn't been much time for anything.
First off, my grandma and her dh came in for 4 days from TX. they parked their camper in my driveway and hung out. I took them downtown Charleston and such. It was a great visit! The kids really enjoyed it and so did our cat, well not the cat.....she didn't like their dog coming in. Mind you the dog is about the same size as the cat. Too funny, but they had a mutual,"I won't beat your *ss if you don't beat mine."
My court date happened while they were here. They actually watched all the kids which worked out great. This what happened:
I told my side of the story, THE TRUTH, after being sworn in. This is a small court room, about 7 maybe 8 rows of pews. Then he told his story. What a load of horse s*it! He tried to say I was slamming on my brakes all the way up the residential road that the whole road rage thing started on. He did ask me if I was pumping my brakes and breaking. I said no but now that I think of it, I was pumping my brakes to slow down to the church area where it drops down to 15 and to give him the hint to get off my *ss. I have prayed about it, because I really didn't mean to lie. I honestly forgot. I was NOT slamming on my brakes as he tried to say I did. Then, him and his wife tried to say I was switching lanes or something to that extent once we got on the highway. Then they were getting over to pull over with us because they thought that something was wrong being the car was full of kids. He tried to say that my dh jumped out and was cussing at him and that he came right back with it after MY dh started it. The honest story, what I told the judge and what happened: My sister and bil were in town visiting. It was Easter afternoon and I was taking them downtown to wander around and eat lunch. We pulled out of my development onto this small residential road that goes up to the highway. They were following in his little Kia. They drive slow so I made a point to go the speed limit as to not irritate my bil. It is 30. I didn't even notice that the other driver had pulled inbetween us until he was right up on my bumper. I mean UP MY *ss. (I didn't put that in but you get my point) We get up to a bump where the speed limit goes down to 15. There is a church there and people were in the parking lot so really tried to slow down. I pumped my brakes to slow down and let him know that I needed him off my butt to do so. ( wish I would have remembered that) Right after the speed drop is some nasty railroad tracks and a light. I braked going over the tracks as it was a red light. There is only room for one car but he insisted on coming over the tracks to get up on my bumper. I was in the left hand turn lane going onto a four lane road, 55 mph. I went over into the right lane, the slow lane, to encourage him to get into the left and pass me so my bil could get behind me. That didn't happen. I let off the gas and let the car slow and that didn't work. I then braked slowly to give him the hint. He swerved around me, came into my lane half way and slammed on the brakes. That is when I hit him. He jumped out and started cussing. That is when my dh jumped out and hollered back. My sister then jumped out and got inbetween them telling them to get back in the car. My bil, a large fellow got out and told them to get in the car. That is when the cop came and the rest is history. Lordy he tried to say that he had and engineering degree and if we hit like he said the whole bumper would have come off or something to that extent. I interjected and said we were only going about 25 or my airbags would have gone off, which is true. Then he tried to say that I hit him right on the ram. Well, I had pics to totally blow that one out of the water. Just look at the pic I have on this site! The judge raked him through the coals and charged him with road rage. I also had to pay my fine of $232 for following too closely. The police officer spoke with us afterward and said that even if you were in a line of cars, you get rear ended and you hit the car in front of you because of that, that you get this one or something to that extent. Oh, it gets even better. I had to make a recorded statement the week before to my insurance agency because he was desputing the claim. They took his statement also. He actually tried to use MY insurance against me in court saying that I said he side swiped me which was not what I said. I called them two days after court to tell them the result. First off, she didn't tell him anything. He actually requested my statement which she refused to give him. It would not have mattered. It was the same exact thing I told the judge. What is worse, he was getting pictures done so they could fix it. First off, he really didn't have any damage. Then to go and have ME pay for it. They are not accepting his claim AND they are suing him for my deductible back. Woo hoo.
I have to go. I will post more later!!

Go Riverdogs!!

2006-05-20T19:40:00.000-04:00

We went to a Riverdogs game (our AAA team) with Girl Scouts. We had the oportunity to sleep on the field and do some postgame activities. We ended up just staying for the game and catching the fireworks afterward. I had a blast! I was tired and worn out but had a blast. It would have been much more enjoyable but Emma is hard to handle out in public. Plus, the game went late because they SUCK! Yeah, I am sorry to say that they are a SORRY team. It was 12-1. There were so many dumb errors. Even someone who knows little about the game knows they stink. LOL I had a blast explaining the game to them. We totally annoyed the ladies in front of us. Mind you, they are G.S. leaders.....they moved down the bench so they didn't have to be by us. I sat with our girls who would scream and yell when something good happened for the team. Hello! It is a baseball game! You are SUPPOSED to yell and scream. They should expect it. ESPECIALLY Girl Scout leaders.Oh, well. Our girls minus one of my daughters had fun. My kids are all coming down with something though.
You know though, Emma had a blast. She said she had fun. Oh, the awe in her eyes when we first got there. This girl loves sports. Hockey is definitely her favorite. Shoot, she talked about going to the game all day! Mike got off early for our anniversary so we went out shopping and out to eat. She thought we were going to the game then and was a bit dissapointed when we arrived at the mall.
It was our 11th anniversary yesterday. We have always (when he hasn't been out to sea) done 'different' things for this day. We went to two battle fields, Gettysburg being my favorite. We were going to do a day trip and ended up staying the night and hanging out the next day. We plan on going up there this fall. We are thinking about camping out there. That or renting a cabin. We plan on going with another family with whom we are friends with. The mom isn't exactly the campy type though. Hotel it is~!

Awesome Weekend!

2006-05-15T08:47:00.000-04:00

Yes, I had an awesome weekend! I had my niece and nephew all day Saturday and part of Sunday. We took all the kids to a barbque at a friend's house. There were a TON of kids for all of them to play with. I hardly saw the boys at all. They were so dirty when we were done, I had to bathe them before they went to bed. (we got home at 11:30 pm so it was a bit late)
My niece is like the easiest baby in the world. She took two naps while we were there and when she wasn't sleeping, she was sitting on me contently. That and loving on one of the guys that was there. Oh, his wife would have been tickled if she had been able to come. They are currently trying.
I had fun with karoake. I get sucked in and LOVE doing it. I am not the best singer in the world but am good enough and have a BLAST. I shocked the hell out of one of our buddies with my rendition of Wind Beneath my Wings.
The only bad thing about it all.....I ate my ASS off. I gained TWO POUNDS! Yeah, I suck I know...It was so worth it though!
Mothers day went very well! I got roses and a cookie cake. Lord knows what he is thinking when he buys that garbage in the middle of my attempt to lose weight. Sheeeeit! I HAD lost more than 11 pounds this year. Not much but it is a loss. Gosh, now that I think of it, I really haven't lost that much! I need to knuckle down and get this done already!I tried to think of a way to get my walking in and not leave the two girls home alone. I am going to have to go up right after Mike gets off from work. This is when I get all my energy sucked from me so it will hopefully fix that!
Anyway, Mother's day went over pretty good. I need to go get some work done and do bills. Yeah. Super pumped. Woo hoo.

A wet willy!

2006-05-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

Really, this is what my daughter has, kinda. My eldest child, Liz, went to the doctor last fall and her doctor noticed fluid in her ear. She was sent to an audiologist about 4 months ago and found that her hearing wasn't as good as it should because she has fluid on her ears. I brought her back to her pediatrician to see if there was any change with her allergy meds. It has not gotten any better. She went and saw and Ear, Nose, and throat doctor who told us her andenoids and tonsils will be removed along with tubes put in her ears. She went to the audiologist today and her hearing has worsened a bit. WoW. Yes, I know. Not permenant, thank God. She also has a referral to go to and allergist. Yeah, I have heard they get from 20 to 100 pricks in their back for that one. I think someone will be getting her own computer out of all of this. Poor baby.
Well, I am going to go watch the Weather man. It had bad reviews. I am going to just suck it up and watch. We also have North Country in and we just got The family stone in the mail. My queue is so full right now. I need to bust through all these movies!! Heck, the kids don't have any school tomorrow. Get this, it is Confederate Memorial day. Only in South Cackalacky! Gotta love the south.

Back on track!

2006-05-08T16:12:00.000-04:00

Lordy I got off track and unmotivated there for awhile. My weightloss conquest is still on! I went up to the rec center and took advantage of my membership.
Well, Liz goes in for her audiology appointment tomorrow. I still have been unable to get through to schedule her surgery. I can't find the card now. Maybe if I cleaned the computer desk off again I could find it!
This weekend went well! We went up to my sil's house and got to see their new toys. She got a four wheeler, her dh got a dirt bike and so did their 4 yr old. (it has a training wheel device on it) I am seriously never going to hear the end of this one. My son has been nagging me for a dirt bike for quite a while now. Well, he got to ride his cousin's so now it is on. He is going to fight us tooth and nail to get one. Right...I am not spending nearly a thousand dollars on something he could potentially kill himself on. Shoot, that day alone my Patty hit a tree with her new four wheeler and got all bruised up.
This weeks goal: go walk three times. Only two more times to go!

Binge eating.....

2006-05-05T21:18:00.000-04:00

I seriously haven't really done it in a long time. I went off yesterday, seriously. Seriously, if I put Seriously in another sentence, I will seriously scream.

My sil bought my going to be 5 in two weeks nephew a dirt bike. I am never going to hear the end of it from my 5 year old son. He has been begging me for a dirt bike. After a friend of ours lost the use of his legs and almost all use of his arms in a motorcycle accident, it would probably take hell freezing over to get him even near one. We are going up tomorrow so I am bracing myself. I am looking forward to seeing them again. Patty has some size 18's for me. She has been losing as well but she is getting pills from her doctor. Shoot, if I have my way, I wouldn't be able to take anything anyway. Our window opens up next month's cycle. We are going to use 3 months for trying and after that, it is over. No more children. We will be transferring either to Washington state, Virginia or Japan. I really didn't want any more after 30.
Well, I should get off. I am in the middle of laundry STILL. I have done about 5 or 6 loads and have about 2 or 3 left. Sad thing is, I have the super duper washer and dryer, the ones that wash like 26 jeans. It does, for real, but we really have that many bodies that require clothes.....Lordy and I want to add one more to the bunch!
See ya later blogger! Until Monday or I get more time....ciao

New stroller!

2006-05-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

For anyone who knows me well, this would not be a surprise. I have a stroller fetish. Ooh, that sounds so bad, I know. I have gone through many strollers. Yes, a person who has four kids is bound to go through a number of strollers. Here are the ones I can remember:

Lizzie's travel system. (the strollers sucked so I had to get a new one after she grew out if the infant seat.
Lizzie's dinosaur print full size
Lizzie's bike trailer/jogger
Lizzie and Emily's double stroller
Emily and Michael's duo double stroller
Emily and Michael's double jogger
Michael and Emma's walk and stand stroller
Emma's green full size stroller
Emma's Silver cross stroller
Emma's $300 Peg-perego

Yes, I went and spent $300 on a stroller. I am telling you, I am addicted to strollers! I think it stems to when my brother and sister were little. They had this cool double stroller that I thought was perfect for them but my mom was way too poor for anything like that. Now I am making up for it.

The cool feature on this particular stoller is Michael can ride on the back, standing. It is pink and black, gorgous! I can switch out the pads if I need to use it for the next one. Chances are.....I will get another. LOL and another and another and another..........

home birth

2006-05-02T09:16:00.000-04:00

We have discussed having one last child. We have a very small window of oportunity to take but it is there just the same. I am on a large families site where one of our ladies gave birth to two of her children at home. I find it very inspiring. I would love to do this. I am only having one more child and have always wanted to do this. I found a woman on the web, a midwife/doula who serves our area. If I do get pregnant, I really want to see what I would need to do to do this. I really don't care to give birth in a hospital again. Although, to get a tubal, I need to go in. Maybe I can talk to my doctor about going in later to have it done. I don't know...

My weightloss is going well. I am down by two more pounds in two weeks. I am losing about a pound a week now. The funny thing is all I have done is watch what I eat and my portions. I think the biggest thing is moving off base. We have a McDonalds on base and that was our one place to go and eat if there wasn't anything to eat at the house. You know, I am almost 30 pounds under what I was at last year. Yes, it is slow and it really isn't that much but you know what? It is permanant!!! I go up during the week of my period but it usually drops back down AND goes under what I was at before that week! Now I just need to get my butt in gear and get moving!! It has just been so hectic the past oh, MONTH! Michael has been giving me crap about not going. He loves it! I should go today, no matter what. I just have to make sure my Ipod is charged.

VENT TIME!

2006-04-28T08:05:00.000-04:00

I have had the roughest week!! Our camping trip went well minus a bad storm and almost all the girls in tears. We did get to go over and taunt the Boy Scouts. It was like the Lord of the Flies over there! No shirts toting sticks and acting crazy......yup, Boy Scouts for you!
I got my car back on Monday. First thing that we got to do is take Elizabeth to the doctor. We waited for TWO HOURS. Then we found out Lizzie is having surgery in June. They are removing her andenoids, tonsils and putting tubes in her ears. Yeay for Lizzie! She will also have to be allergy tested which consists of multiple pricks on her back.
Ice skating went well. Michael and Emily passed the first two classes of theirs. I spoke with the guy in charge of the hockey program. He said that Michael is ready for the Tot hockey program. I will put him in the next session after this one.
On the way home, I thought my alignment was off. I was actually getting pissed! Then I had to brake semihard and realized, I HAD A FLAT! I drove it home, called to have my tired changed and brought it in on Tuesday, the next day. (to hell with driving around all Ghetto on the dounut!) We were there for four hours! I was ready to kill Emma afterwards! We even walked across the parking lot to Taco Bell to eat. After it all, it cost $660 for all new tires and new brakes.
Then, Girl Scouts......I had enough time to come and feed my kids lunch, go pick the girls up and go to G.S. Then, I forgot something and had to run all the way home! I then had to deal with the most pain in the ass parent EVER. She was the co leader last year, running the Brownies. She was supposed to get me a copy of her dd's try its over the weekend. That way, I could go, get them, and have her reemburse me. Not my idea but I agreed. She gets me the list on Tuesday and was a total BITCH about the whole thing. I offered to go get them the next day, even after all I had gone through plus just took the girls camping. She was like ok, so when and where would I get them from you. Then goes on about organizational problems. She doesn't even live in our service branch. Not going to go there.
I left early and went to go get three hours of training. I then went to pick up my kids at the ball field where my dh was watching them/playing softball. They were all by themselves on the playground. Then, he didn't get back until at least 12am. Jack ass sat there and drank beer after their last game.
During all of this, I have my monthly pain in my butt. The house is trashed and we have people coming over tomorrow. OOh, I also found out that my grandma is coming in June, the same week as my courtdate. Yeah, babysitters! Nah, it isn't like that. I can't wait to see her! I have to call up my HOA to ask permission for her camper to be parked in my driveway for 5 days..... ~sigh~

Oh, it is so on!

2006-04-18T08:53:00.000-04:00

Yes, it has been a while blog, my friend. I have a good vent to post and it will be long.

I was in a wreck Easter afternoon. Great time that was. It was a case of road rage. No, I didn't intentionally piss this guy off. (have done it in the past though) Our neighborhood is at the end of a residential road that leads up to the main road. There are 4 or 5 neighborhood roads that pour onto this road as well. Anyway, my sister and her family were in town for Easter so we were headed downtown Charleston to hit the marketplace. We turn onto this road, me myself MINDING my speed because my bil has a Kia and it is slow. We had already had some itchy asses over the Easter bunny coming first thing in the morning and her 1 yr old did a small hunt on her own. I really can't hide the Easter bunny much longer from my older two so it was a hard subject to get by. Anyway......

We get on the road going up the the highway type road and I notice a truck pulled out inbetween us and by sister. I slowed making sure I went the speed limit. I didn't want to rub them the wrong way with going too fast. Well, the asshole in the truck didn't like me going the speedlimit. He got right up on my butt, glued to it the whole time. Mind you it is THIRTY and it is a residential road. Oh, and I later found out he cut my bil off getting on the road.
We get up to the end of the road where there is a church and it drops down to 15. I tried to but this buttmuncher would not let me. Right after the church is harsh railroad tracks and a stop light. I have to brake and go slow over this thing or my car gets all messed up. There is even a sign nexted to the tracks stating that your trailer can get stuck on it. The hump is big.
I turn left and get into the right lane, the slow lane, thinking this guy would go around me and would squash the situation and my bil can get right behind me. Mind you they don't know their way around here. Well, this guy gets right up my butt again. I let off the gas and slow the car down. He is still behind me. Then I slowly brake the the car down to about 20. He swerves around me and slams on his brakes. I hit him. Lord, it was on then! My husband was fine until this guy jumps out of his truck screaming and yelling, saying I cut him off, I tried to get him to hit me on the tracks, etc. My dh went balistic. He jumped out and started yelling at this guy, fixin' to box. My sister jumps out of her car and gets inbetween Mike and this white trash piece of crap. Then my bil gets out of his car, end of story. My brother in law is big. He is 6'5" or something and weighs like 275. That squashed that one!
The police came and took statements. SC is a no fault state so I had the choices of working it out with hill billy buttfucker or getting a citation and taking him to court. I decided to get a $250 citation and take him to court. I was right and he was wrong. What would this teach my kids if some guy who is almost 10 years my senior acts like someone 10 years my junior and gets away with it? The cop I think honestly thought I was at fault at first until he saw I was willing to take one for the team to get this guy in trouble. That and all the damage was condusive to what I was saying. It was the principal of it! Look, I don't drive the best and am not the nicest person on the road, but this time I was trying to squash it and not piss this guy off!
Anyway, his damage was minimal, a dinge in his bumper and I guess a scratch on his fender. Well, mine was a lot more. Hello! 2005 dodge minivan against an F150. Please! I take it in today to get an estimate and schedule to get it in. I am not going to be the lesser of the two and drive around in a Ghetto car. I also live in the NICE neighborhood where as he live in the ghetto side, in the less expensive older homes. Maybe I am a snooty bitch. I guess you kind of get pissed off when someone crashes into you, with HIS family in his car and mine in mine. Yes, he had his wife, I am assuming that was what she was and a daughter in tow. He might have had more in the car but I was so upset....It is all good. When court comes, s/he will see that I am not lying and that this guy is full of beans!

I am going to kill them....

2006-04-09T19:25:00.000-04:00

My kids are going to die during Spring Break! I was in the kitchen cleaning up, had the surround blaring music and getting dinner done. I went in because I heard a commotion in the livingroom. I find my candle broken and wax all over the floor. No one bothered to tell me! The FROG is trashed and no one wants to clean it up. The laundry is a bit backed up and things are just a little unorganized. This Spring Break will either make or break them/me. I am starting up my three ring binder and getting everything back in order.

Another thing going on is our finances. We burned away our savings when our visitor was here. I will have to rebuild it up this summer. I am going to whoop some ass and ask questions later on this one. If Mike doesn't like it, he can go live somewhere else. It was his idea so he will have to pay the price. Now we aren't behind on anything, we just have nothing to back us up if anything happens. ~knock on wood~ We are going to have to take out a small loan to get ourselves a fence. We would have had to do it anyway, even if we didn't use our savings. I plan on taking enough out to get some patio furniture, a cheapy above ground pool, and a new bedding set for our room. We will only be here for another two years so one of those Walmart specials, the $300 model will do it for the pool. There is a swing at Lowe's I have my eye on. Pottery Barn has the best quilt I want! Now I just have to find a fencing company to get a nice privacy fence up.

My weight is slowly but surely coming down. I am down to an 18 now. Woo Hoo! I was a 20/22 before I got into this. I can get into one of my 16/18 pants zipped but it is a tight fit. I could sit in it but my pants went up on my legs! LOL> I want to get on the treadmill everyday or use my PS2 game everyday this week. We will see how it goes!

My sister comes into town on Thursday. Woo Hoo! I am so tickled! I get to play with my niece who will turn one while they are here. What is neat is we went up there for Easter last year and she was almost ready to have Hailey. Now they will come down and we will have her first birthday together. I haven't got her a gift yet. I figured we could go out and pick it out together. Shoot, we have no Easter stuff either. When Angie gets here, we will have to cure that one! Can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!

Much better off

2006-03-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I am better. I felt like such ass, it wasn't even funny. I think what really pushed me in the right direction was being able to sleep in. I brought the girls to school, even started dinner. (Go crock pot meal in a bag!) With our house guest here, I can leave my monkeys in bed. After a half hour in the car, Emma is wired and ready to go. I actually got to sleep in until noon!
My weightloss plans have gone to the pot for now. I am still at my current weight, not going up or down but haven't been able to go walk. I have been watching my portions but it's kinda hard when you are going out to eat every other night. I have been boxing half of my meals, eating the other half for lunch. Not the crab house though. Ick, gross.
Our thoughts are on the future right now. We will have to move in 2008. Either Virginia or Washington. We had lived in VA for 8 years before this station. We know the area, things are nice there. Then there is WA. We have visited there. BEAUtiful. How often do you get to live in another state long enough to get to enjoy the place but not really have to plant roots?
I went on an looked at their Girl Scout program. Pretty nice! I know and have been trained with the council in VA. I am just going to go with the flow, enjoy our time here and do what I need to do.
Here is a news flash........we are thinking about adding one more kid to our family. Yes, this would be the last one. I would make sure the drs made sure of it before we left the hospital. Yeah, this one is up in the air. Mike has had a few dreams about it and now he has baby fever. Yes, HE has baby fever. I get the itch every once in a while but it is mainly him now. We will see how this one pans out. You know, I honestly think this is the real reason he won't get his G-string snipped. he wants to keep me pregnant all the time! I'm a friggin baby factory! Next thing you know, I will be like those Duggars with 16 kids......
Anyway, life goes on in Redneckville. I have to break it to my 5 year old that his favorite NASCAR driver was fined yesterday and put on probation. Lord, how did my kid end up this way? Freaking Jeff Gordon fan, monster truck lover (this one from me), and wants a dirt bike or four wheeler. Mind you this is the kid that cried because he wanted to take ice skating lessons. (He cried his way out of it when he was 3) Now he cries that he wants off the ice without one of those walker things. This last week, he didn't want to, even though the week before he did awesome. (we bribed him with a Jeff Gordon Lego car) Mike told him if he skated to the other side and back during his practice time, he would get him something. He did, without any help and did it great. brat.
I need to go shower. I have s*it to do today. Groceries, laundry........start Spring Break painting plans. I want to paint my bedroom and Michael's room. Must go, I stink.

sick with vertigo....

2006-03-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was such a good day! I was sick, cough, congestion and just plain ickyness. Lizzie had her riding lessons at 11. They went very well! Her partner got bit a little, but Liz made up for it for her. They had to lead the horse around and the other little girl wasn't too good at it. I think she was a bit gun shy. She rode well, also leading the other girl around while she rode, the other girl rode that is. (leading is when they take the lead rope by the horses mouth and has the horse either walk around of stops him.) She did well but I froze! I sat in my camp chair listening to my Ipod, frozen and coughing.
After her lessons, we went downtown Charleston. We hit all the markets down at the market place. It's like a big flea market basicly. We hit the candy shop down there and got the kids some, hit a pirate ship shop where Michael got a sword, the Harley Davidson shop where Michael got a hat, and OF COURSE a painting shop where Chris, our visitor bought us a painting of the battery. It was a bit expensive! it was a similar print of this one but it shows it in the moonlight with the houses reflecting off the water. It is rather large, perfect for above my fireplace. Once I get it framed and hung I will take a pic of it.
We finished our day out with dinner and the Charleston Crab house. I don't know if anyone has ever watched the A&E show, "Flip that House", but it was featured on there last week. We have eaten there many times but not since the remodel. You know, all that work and one of the toilets in the womens restroom still doesn't work!
Today, I have had a headache with vertigo. I was up at 9 with congestion and had to go, BAD. Not to mention, my stomach was growling. I sat up alone and watched movies. It was nice not to have to deal with anyone. Well, now I am watching the race, doing laundry and making tuna salad for grilling tonight. I get filet minon tonight! I am dying and ready for a nap. If Emma is out, I am going down too!

I am sick.

2006-03-24T07:58:00.000-05:00

I have the worst cough and sour throat right now. I knew I was going to get sick! It started a few days ago.....I really didn't have a voice when we took the troop to House of Bounce. I chaparoned Emily's field trip yesterday, feeling utterly pooish. Oh, and when I got my hair done, I was miserable the entire three hours I was there. I had a headache plus I have a sensitive head. BABY! Yes, I am a baby. Nah, honestly I am not that big of a baby when I get sick. Life still goes on because I am not a baby.
The worst part about this is I have this thing on the bottom of my tongue. It is a piece of skin dangling with a white blister type thing on it. It HURTS! There were no appointments available so I will just deal. If anything, I will get in on Monday. Well, I guess I should go make coffee, do the dishes, laundry, etc......

Gone for a few days

2006-03-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

We have a friend in town for the next few days, so I will be MIA. (I hate hypocrites who b*tch about you now updating your blog when THEY don't do it either! Cow!) I am going to a dyeing clinic today so I will have a new hair color. We also have a girl scout event tonight at a indoor jump castle place. Thursday, I go to the aquarium with Emily for her field trip. Saturday, Lizzie's riding lessons start up again, now at 11 am. A little early but it will set us up for the day. Skating lessons Monday, Girl Scouts on Tuesday........OH, and the canopy netting for my bed comes tomorrow. LOTS going on, LOTS to do! :)
This past Monday, skating lessons went really well minus Emily's feet hurting, making her fall a lot. Ok, Emily didn't have a good time until we got home and her new skates arrived! They were on our front porch, of course, AFTER her lessons. Michael on ther other hand had a great time! This is the boy who quit two years ago, cried when Emily was going to go but not him. Well, he was a tee tee ( Momma's boy) the first two lessons. He had this look of distain on her face the whole time, wanting off the ice. Well, this time it was totally different. He was doing it on his own! He was turning on the ice, skating from one end to the other. He even fell twice after this one little girl who really likes him, kept tackling him, but he just got right up and kept going. Before this, he would have cried and wanted off. He really had a lot of fun! Maybe bribing him with a Jeff Gordon lego car was what did it? ~Hmmmmm~ ;) We will see on Friday. We are taking them ice skating for some more practice. Plus, Emily has to break in her new skates.
See ya later!

PIG ROAST!

2006-03-19T09:30:00.000-05:00

Yup, we went to a pig roast yesterday. I honestly couldn't eat. Seeing the pig was too much! LOL The deal was, we went to this roast, invited by the dads of one of the players on my dh's baseball team. We got there before he did. Yeah, we felt like just party crashers! tehehe It was all of this guy's family. It seriously reminded me of one of my family reunions. Guys in leather Harley Davidson jackets and long hair. I was at home! There was a playground that was behind the house. Seriously, it was behind all the backyards, even across the playground there were houses so it was enclosed. My three remaining children played out there until it was too dark.
Oh, yeah! I lost a child for the weekend. I brought Emily up to Columbia for the weekend. Her auntie is taking her on a mini shopping spree. She took Lizzie last time and now it is her turn. The one thing she really wants to get is roller shoes. Patty said she would get them if she could find them. I don't know where to get them..... If she finds them, she is a miracle worker!

another sweet weekend

2006-03-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

This weekend was kick *ss!! Yes, Friday we did go ice skating. (refer to last post) Saturday was a whole other ball game. We originally went to find Emily some ice skates. We went out and found Dick's. They don't carry ice skates but I did get a new camp chair and some roasting forks. (no ice skates in SC? Weird!) As we are driving around, Mike mentions the fact that his command was having an event at Frankie's Fun Park. He couldn't tell us this earlier? We headed down to North Charleston to check it out. We had never been there before. Well, it was $5 per person for all you can ride/play. We did a little putt-putt first. Even Miss Emma got to try! Then Michael baby and I did the go carts with two of Mike's co workers and their daughters. I have seriously found my stress releaser!! I was power sliding around turns and whooping on his 18-20 year old students rears! It was a whole lot of fun~!
The final thing we did were the bumper boats. I didn't really want to but Emma wanted to go on. I was a bit afraid after seeing all three of Mike's co workers gang up on one of them. Mind you the guy is like 6'6", with his knees up to his ears......the girls SOAKED him! Lizzie, Emily, and Michael shared a boat and Emma and I shared one. Well, needless to say, the girls got me too! Right in the ear! LOL I could hear all the dads laughing it up. LOL I was so much fun! Then all us girls ganged up on about 4 of the students. Ooh, this one moron had an Ipod on while out there. HELLO! You are going to get wet! Anyway, it turned out fabulously!
After our eventful day, we invited everyone over for cards, pizza and beer. We had about ten people over. Ooh, one family brought real, homemade lumpia over. Oh, I miss our neighbors in Virginia! The Philipino culture has WONDERFUL food!
On Sunday, we decided to decompress at the beach. Plus, we all get a kick out of Emma doing the hair thing. She moves her head back and forth in the breeze, pushing her hair back with her hand. Too cute! It was beautiful out there.....perfect day for beachcombing! The beach we go to is on Sullivan's island, lately featured in the hit show,"Surface." LOL I know, retarded right? It is the original port for incoming slaves from Africa. There is an old fort out there that you can tour. Pretty cool actually. It is the same beach we helped clean up this past fall.
Well, off to catch up on laundry and cleaning. Last night, after Michael and Emily's ice skating lessons, we had a friend and his daughter over for dinner. His daughter is in Emily's class. I have to do all the dishes still from last night still. Thank goodness for dishwashers!!

We went ice skating last night

2006-03-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

The kids were given free skate sessions to practice their skills so we took them out! Mike had a blister on his foot from running so I went out with them. First off, my skates were crap! I have been ice skating quite a bit. Hello! I am from Minnesota! They hurt my feet and the blades were weird. I totally understand Emily complaining about her feet hurting. We are going to go buy her some skates up at Dick's. I found some double bladed skates for Michael that would work. They have two blades that are close together. I am going to ask his teacher if those would be ok. If I go skating again with them, I will need a pair of my own. At least my feet won't grow so I can keep mine forever.
Man alive, I feel disconnected. I just don't feel like every thing is real sometimes Then again, I have not been getting enough sleep this week. I still end up staying up late, even with TiVo. Lord, last night I stayed up until 11 pm. Emma had me up before 9 am! I can't wait until she is older so I can get some sleep in time!!! (She is laying on the cat right now! You would know it but they are really good buddies!) I need to take a relaxing bath. Usually that resets my system. ~yawn~ I will just sit and melt my brain on the computer for awhile and watch the new Harry Potter again.

I bought an Ipod

2006-03-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I broke down and bought one. It was on sale for $150 so I jumped on it. I am going up to the fitness center today and get my walkin' groove on! Yup, today I finally have some time to go up and get my membership. Monday, I had so much laundry and yesterday was our troop meeting.
Well, ice skating went over pretty well. Emily jumped right in and had a blast. She fell a few times, once enough to make her cry. She is determined to keep on. Something like falling just doesn't hold her back from what she wants. Michael on the other hand, had a harder time getting into it. Everyone and their brother was there so it was PACKED. He got a bit overwhelmed for the first five minutes when it was his time to get on the ice. With a little pestering, he went out. Once he started working with the other kids and the two teachers for his age group, he was just fine. He had a great time except when it came to practice. There were just too many kids on the ice! I don't know why they overbooked the classes like that. Not only did they have three that were taking it the same time but there was a hockey group out there. Then during the practice, they moved them all over and started with another class. He was not the only one that got too overwhelmed. A few kids got off plus a friend of ours daughter was taking it with Emily and she got knocked down by another kid.
Lizzie starts with Saturday classes this weekend. I hope she doesn't mind getting up early for it! Oh! I am not re training for camp. The reason? Our buddy from Washington is coming to visit! Woo Hoo! Chris has been a friend of ours since Michael was a baby. I was friends with his now exwife when I was pregnant with him. I canNOT wait!!
I have to go shower. I didn't get one in yesterday so I feel pretty grubby. ISH! At least Michael and Emma get a bath out of it! What I do is put them in my big ol' tub while I use the shower. There is enough privacy behind the shower part so I can get a robe on where they can't see. This way, I can hear them and know what they are doing while I am showering.

Boy was I crabby!!

2006-03-03T12:55:00.000-05:00

I sure was crabby...Could ya tell? The last two days I didn't get enough sleep so I was crabby, tired and down. I am juiced up on coffee right now. The sad part....it is TV that is keeping me up! That is changing as of today. I had TiVo hooked up today. No more late night TV on school nights! Before I would just go back to sleep. Not anymore! One, who wants to waste away sleeping all day. All it does is get you in trouble in the depression area. Two, no house work would get done. Three, I have lost weight just on staying awake and doing what I need to do during the day. Mind you, it is minimal weight and I have cut my portions a LOT. I am thinking of doing Jenny Craig. I buy my lunches preportioned anyway, why not do the whole shabang! One of my weightloss buddies is doing very well with it. Why not give it a try?!
New news. Lizzie, my oldest, was signed up for the next session of riding lessons. She is tickled. Her one request was she doesn't want to do jumping. LOL I also signed Emily AND Michael for ice skating lessons. Michael wussed out his first year and quit. He was only 3 and just wasn't ready. He wanted to do it this past summer but had broken his arm. He sat and cried about not being able to do hockey so I caved and signed him up. He will do this and hold down his responsibility as bat boy for the AAU team.
Last night, after signing up everyone for their 'thing', Mike and Michael had baseball practice. Michael said he didn't feel go so he stayed home. About twenty minutes later, he decided he felt better so I took him up. The boys were so excited that he came. Mike thought I had pressured him to go to practice but it was all on him. He was so proud of his boy. He thought he just didn't want to do it anymore after getting his skating lessons. Here the real reason was he didn't know where his baseball pants were and thought the boys would make fun of him in normal pants. Isn't it funny how they think?
One thing that was irritating me before was nonreliable people. I let it all fester and I released it all on my blog. Shoot, what I vented about was totally off the subject of what I was mad about. My opinions are still the same but boy were they b*tched about. Lord knows I can be one here and there. ;) I have learned that the only one you can rely on is yourself. Enough said. With that I end for the weekend. I have SIX kids to handle this weekend. I am adding a 4 yr old and 9 month old for the weekend. WOO HOO! LOL Bye for now!

What is my deal?

2006-03-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, seriously done! What I really wanted to vent about is the rec center. I can use my stroller on their indoor track from 11:30 to 12:30. I really wanted to go early in the morning! I can work it in. Plus, I can get everything I need to get done finished early on.
LOL Guess what? LOL I am totally retarded I know but I downloaded a voice clip from Eurotrip. Now, when I sign in and I have mail it says,"Mail Motha Fer" I know I am seriously off my knocker. The worse part, my 2 year old tries to mimic it. ~sigh~ I might have to take it off. I think I went wrong when I laughed my butt off about it when she first did it. Then my sil did while she was on the phone with me. I think I have got her out of it. I crack up every time I sign in now! LOL

I feel much better. I think I was just really anxious. I get that way sometimes. I am over it now! THANK YOU BLOG!

Better mood!

2006-03-01T08:24:00.000-05:00

Wasn't I all high and mighty yesterday. I was very irritated in the morning. I don't even remember what set me off......one of the kids must of done something. I don't take any of it back though. People are seriously not responsible for themselves and act like children. Back when we were goofed up and did all that stuff, we were young. I can see how many people are just not educated enough so when they go out in the world, they don't know how to handle it correctly. We were under that catagory. Then WE LEARNED. Get educated. It took us the hard way but now we are good. It is so weird to go in to buy a car and not here,"there is an alternative you might qualify for" or "sorry, we can't help you." It worked when we bought this house. That one of course took longer. HELLO! It is a house. Gosh, I look back and wonder how we survived. We didn't have a car for about a year and a half. We had crazy bills. We were always a payment behind......
I have to get off. I am going up and getting a membership up at the fitness center. $25....A YEAR!! Can't beat it. Oh, I have lost 14 pounds since last year, 3 of which were this year. Not much but I haven't really worked out yet. All I have done is watch my intake. Ooh, there is another subject. People b*tching about their weight or not having any energy or hurting after doing simple things like, oh say WALKING. I am a heavy girl but have never been sore the next day from simple walking. Now if it is my abs workout, boy I tell ya what....I can feel ab muscles I didn't know I had!!

GOTTA GO AND GET OFF MY BUTT!! :)

tired

2006-02-28T08:29:00.000-05:00

I am so tired. I really need to invest in TiVo. I am a big prime time TV addict. The Olympics are done so my shows are back. Monday is Medium. Of course it ends at 11pm. I am going to call the cable company today and see how much it is extra.

After watching Oprah's debt thing, I have decided to clear our unnessesary bills. This is my financial goal for 2006: get rid of ALL of our credit cards. Mind you we only have 3. Target:600 Visa:500 Military Star:3,000
The Visa I want to keep. This is our emergency card. You know what is sad? It only has like 60 available. Nice emergency card. Target on the other hand.....We have a lot on it but it is ridiculous to keep it. I can get anything there I want with cash. The Military Star is our biggest card and most expensive. We get uniforms with it plus furniture. We pay up to $120 a month for this, depending on our balance. 80 comes right out of our pay. For this one, we can buy uniforms our of pocket. He has all of his really expensive ones so just new pants, hats, etc here and there. Furniture wise, we are about done. This one will take a while.

Wow, now that I have said them outloud, it isn't as pretty as I thought. It isn't bad as some though. The one thing I don't get is claiming bankruptcy. We know a few people that have. How do you get so out of wack that you have to do this? Shoot, half of the people that do this jump right back into the debt game! You see it on the news all the time. My SIL's inlaws have done it more than once. Come on people!! Become financially liable for what you spend and do! Come on! You budget and stick to it. We have gotten behind many times. Dang, we are military, hello! You do what you have to do. I looked at one of his LES (paystub) from the month I had my oldest....wow, we were getting paid like $400 a month....at least our housing was paid for. We have gotten behind on our house and car but you pinch and get it done. Shoot, and we wonder why half the country is in debt. People are selfish and don't think of the future. Think about it, about yourself: how are you going to support your child(ren)? How will you be able to pay for clothes,especially when they get to jr high and high school, when it matters what you wear? (it really doesn't matter but it does to them) Bigger question: How will you put them through college? How will you live when you are too old to work? Before you buy that purse you want or pop our another child, think of how you will live beyond now and how will you REALLY support that child?

Sorry, I am just a bit irritated this morning. LOL Nonresponsible parents drive me nuts!! Ooh, that reminds me....my son is so loving being the bat boy for the AAU team my husband is and pitching coach for. He wasn't ready for tee ball. Plus, tee ball screws up your hitting. He runs with them, gets all the foul balls and even gets to work the field to get some experience. He helps load up the equipment and stuff. I get he grows a foot after this season!!
I have to go in tomorrow and sign Lizzie up for more riding lessons and Emily signed up for ice skating lessons. Lessons, lessons, lessons......you know though, they love them. They beg me for them. I wish when I was little was able to do some of this stuff. I am so happy that we can provide it for them.

I am doing great!

2006-02-26T21:37:00.000-05:00

I have been doing pretty good on my food portions. Yes, I actually have!! Yeah for me!! LOL No seriously....I have done very well! I have lost 2 pounds this week so far because of it. I just need to up my water and start back with working out. I am very excited to finally get my membership to the fitness center. I cannot wait! Every morning, minus sickness, my buddy and I will go there after our kids are off to school. On nice warm mornings, I can park at her house and we can walk the trails on base. The trail runs right outside her backdoor. Very convenient!

Well, Liz is sick. I think she has strep throat. ~sigh~ She missed her riding lessons today. You know that she has to be sick not to want to ride a horse! If she is not better in the morning, (if it isn't strep) I will bring her in. Poor kid.
WELL>>>>>>
off to bed!

Oh, yeah...VENT TIME>>

2006-02-22T22:14:00.000-05:00

Yes, this will be a long, hard post. First off, I actually like the person I am going to vent about. I don't think she is doing it intentionally, but with some of the people I have dealt with in the past, who knows. Our Leader: Yes, she is working hard. I do agree. She is not asking for help! One of the things you learn at your leader training is to delegate. She doesn't AT ALL. I have been a leader before. She should USE ME. I have been a cookie mom and know how to do it. She should ask for my help. Our other co leader has offered her help, multiple times. So have I. The last event we did was so thrown together last minute because she didn't plan properly BECAUSE she was loaded with cookies and didn't ask for help! We lost a girl because of her poor planning. She could have asked me to do it. If I said anything, she would say,"Well, you didn't go!" I didn't go because I didn't even know if we were doing it. I waited until the last week to make plans during the day. I made them Monday. She made plans on Tuesday and it was that Saturday. If she would have said something, I would have made plans to go. Shoot, I was on the committee! I wasn't going to go if the troop didn't go. Then she had them make these friendship bracelets that took too long to make and had nothing to do with our country. She stayed up till all hours when I know another mom said she would help. From an outsiders perspective, it looks like she does it to say,"whoa is me, I have all this work to do. I did it all alone. Please give me credit for everything." She also refers to it as "her" troop. Yes, she is the leader, the 01, the chief but it is OUR troop. Hers, mine and mainly THE GIRLS. I am not a glory hound so I let her do that. She knocks down EVERY idea I have, good or bad. I swear she joined one just to knock down my really good idea and then she quit! She is on the committee for one and has made no effort to get the girls together on it. I made the idea of going to a ball game that the girls voted to do but she totally blew it off because it is in May. The one that really pushed me over was when we started talking about camp. I am camp cerified. I have gone camping numerous times with my family. I know camping! I suggested we have the girls wash dishes and LEARN how to camp. She wants to waste resources and use paper because it cost too much for everything they need as it is. We bought cheap, plastic walmart plates, bowls and cups for their mess kits for our first troop camp. Cheap and they learned how to do it. We would cook like I was trained to do. She asked if I had ever been camping. DUH! I am trained! I am just not going to go if it comes down to it. She can use the other co leader whom I think is camp trained. I don't understand why she has to be so negative towards me and my ideas. I want to teach the girls and experience everything with them but she just brings it all down. She has lost one girl because if it and is in the process of losing two more.
The newest is our other co leader is done with her stressing. We would plan something for the girls, mind you she worked HARD on getting this together and our leader changed it and burned our time on nothing. The juniors are out of control and get the Brownies riled up and loud. She finally came up with patrols but doesn't follow through with them. Well, our other co leader is having health issues due to stress from all of this and wants to Juliette out. Our leader went and cornered her and her daughter. She put the little girl on the spot and the girl said what the leader wanted her to. She made them both cry and twisted what she said and put words into her mouth. ~sigh~ Our leader will be leaving us this summer and I don't want to lose this parent. With her, our other helper is gone. She was already nasty with our helper about snacks. SNACKS! Come on, why be so petty? OIY VE! What kills me is she was doing a fabulous job earier on! She did great until December. Honestly, she did a fab job! She went home like the day after an event, totally avoided another cheap event the girls were all pumped to do and it snow balled from there. I know that if I bring it up, I will be the evil one. I just want things to finish up and do well. I still think she bit off more than she can chew. I am hungry!! Feed me with something to do!

Ok, I feel much better!!! I think I can talk with her without being too harsh. What will end up happening is her making me feel bad or talking me in circles. She is a great manipulator! She should become a car salesman!! ;) Like I said, I really dig her. She is a great person! I just don't know how tell her she is overloaded and I can help.

SICK..Duh right?

2006-02-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, we have many sick people in our house. I was Miss Crabby last night. I finally threw in the towel and went to bed at 8. Emma ended up in bed with us at around 12 am. At 3 am, I woke up to her shivering to death. Here she was running a fever. I went down and got the motrin and got the cough meds. On my way down, Emily was coughing up a lung so I gave her meds and then Emma. Emma fought a little so I brought her into my bathroom. She ended up vomiting a little bit of mucus up, took the meds and ended up back to sleep with me. I was in and out of sleep from then on. Oy, I am tired! Ooh!!!! I am going to go make myself a iced caramel mocciatto...MMMMmmmm......

LONG weekend.....

2006-02-20T22:16:00.000-05:00

Yes, it was long. Emily and I were very busy with cookie booths. Saturday, we did one in the morning from 10 am til about 1. We came home, had pizza and hung out with her auntie. Then, we came back and did one from 3:30 until 7. It was warm in the morning one, rain spit on us a little but not too bad. It got a bit cold in the evening one.
On Sunday, we did the early booth, 9:45 til 1:30. It was COLD......COLD.......COLD Did I mention it was cold? We also did our booth with a 1st grader. She had really mad Emily mad. The other two booths were done the same way; there are two large sidewalks that come up to the Exchange, the store we were working. One girl did one side while the other covered the opposite. Well, this little girl would come and take over Em's side or ask customers twice, even when there were sometimes people on the other side. Plus, she was trying to sit on me and kept poking at me. I am already PMSing but that made it very hard for me to keep my cool. Plus, I had to remember that this is her first time and she is very young. It was an awfully long booth for someone so young to do. It was not her fault at all.
After all the freezing at our booth, Lizzie had riding lessons. That went well. It was a little cold out there but not quite as bad as that darn booth! I actually got a little sunburn on my forehead! LOL Her lessons went over very well. She giggles the whole time she is on her horse. I am going to sign her up this week for the next session. It will be early mornings for the next one and her little buddy will not be there, but she still wants to keep on it. It will give me time to just sit childless and read. I will have to look on line for some riding gloves. Ones that don't restrict her grip on the reins.
Today, I woke up without a voice. Do you realize how hard it is for me not to talk or sing? Lord, I even woke up at 9 am. I dreamt about Harry Connick Jr. I had a crush on him back in Junior high and high school, before he was in the movies. I loved his music....Lordy he is hot.... ;)
Anyway, we went shopping today. We spent almost $100 on Bath and Body Works stuff, got some stuff at Target and bought us a new Dyson vaccuum. I can actually vaccuum my stairs now! My dh insisted that we get it because that new construction carpet is what is getting us sick. ~sigh~ We will see if this helps.
Well, I have a lot to do this week. I have to order my kids' videos from their last two dance recitals in VA, sign Michael up for Teeball, sign Emily up for ice skating and a whole list of other things. I also need to get down to Lowes for some sand paper and brush for my shelf that I want to get done next weekend. I still need to plan out our meeting for tomorrow.....Tuesday.....I better go to bed though. I really love this journal. It is such a great way for me to unwind and get things out of my head.
See ya tomorrow Blog!

Too busy this weekend...

2006-02-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I will not be on this weekend. We have three cookie booths; two tomorrow and one on Sunday. Lizzie has riding lessons on Sunday as well.
I have a new project! I have an ugly shelf that I have had since high school. I really need it for my room but this thing is just UGLY!! I plan to lightly sand it, just to get some texture. I plan on painting it sage green with the same paint I did my livingroom. It will fit my beach cottage theme in my room. I will show before and after pics when it is all done.
Off to clean and finish laundry! My sil is coming tomorrow while we are gone. See Ya!

faux broken monitor

2006-02-16T09:35:00.000-05:00

Yup, this will be a pretty dumb post. I was working at my computer two days ago, Tuesday, and the monitor went dead. I checked everything, so I thought. I didn't get too bent out of shape because I knew we actually have backup money. Well, yesterday we went and bought a beautiful flat screen. We spent a little over $300 on it before rebates. I went to take out the old monitor and noticed that it was unplugged from the back. DUH! I had been checking the wrong cord~! I was so used to our old monitor that I was checking the wrong cord!! Well, we decided to keep the nice monitor and look into buying Elizabeth a cheapy tower. Something good enough to play her cheezy games and to get on line. There are cable hookups in every bedroom upstairs so that is good. Even so, we have a wireless modem thing we haven't even set up yet.
One of the reasons we have considered giving Lizzie a computer was how well she did on her science project. Her project was do bigger seeds produce bigger plants? She jumped right in! We helped her quite a bit, especially when we helped her poster board but it all came down to her. She aced the oral report and got a 100% overall!!!! WooHoo!!! She did 90% of the work, especially the planting part. Even after her cat and baby sister got into her plants, she still managed to keep them growing.
I am going to start working with Michael on her letters and start him off on reading. I have a great reading program that is similar to hooked on phonics. I have not really used it so I figure why not Beefy? Next year he is off to kinder and Emma might be off to daycare. She is bored out of her mind here with me. Plus, I would love to go back to work. I know I have brought this up before but I really have been considering this heavily. We will see!!
Also, I am bringing my computer time down. I was spending way too much time on just puttering about playing games and ignoring my home. I have enjoyed many updates on a few of my favorite sites at least!! Glad to be back on!

What a weekend!!!

2006-02-13T08:48:00.000-05:00

This weekend was very crazy! Saturday was very eventful. Our troop picked up over 2200 boxes of cookies, in the rain. We brought them over to Latisha's house. I have been eating Girl Scout cookies ever since!! Michael insisted on delivering all of our cookies that same day with his power wheels Gravedigger. He had a box next to him in the seat and one in the trunk. I'll have to admit it made it that much easier! Boy though, I have gained a pound over all the eating I have done! We had fast food all weekend PLUS all the GS cookies. I think I have binged enough and have it out of my system. Right! LOL
Lizzie had her first riding lessons yesterday!!!!!! Oh, my gosh they went so well! My dd clams up when it comes to doing anything. I was so worried when her buddy Sunny got paired with another girl. I didn't think she would do as well. Lordy, I underestimated her!! Just as I was voicing my worries to Sunny's parents, Lizzie was coming out of the barn carrying her saddle. She went right over and did what her adult supervisor. She did everything that was asked of her PLUS she had a grin on her face the entire time!!!! I am so tickled that she has found her calling. I knew that she had something in her that she would want to do and do well at. Horses are it!!! Thank God the price is right. $60 for 4 lessons at an hour and a half a pop is very good. The only bad part is the 45 min drive out there. It is a nice country drive....just long. It is so worth it!

sick.

2006-02-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

I am sick. Yup! LOL I have a UTI and I have a stomach bug that keeps you living in the bathroom. At least I am not throwing up! We are having people over for Texas hold 'em so I have to go clean, go to the bathroom, clean, go to the bathroom.....LOL ah, yeah, you get the picture. Pepto, here I come!!

Mama's venting again!!

2006-02-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

Why does bad crap have to happen to people? This is what's up. There is a new family on base. They have been here for three weeks. Their daughter is acually in my oldest girl's class. Their house caught on fire Sunday evening, two minutes before they even left the house!! They didn't know it was on fire until they had crossed the street to the neighbors and turned around. The sad part:their dog ran inside scared and died, they lost everything and their car melted on the carport. People have been donating things to them and our PTO is donating $1000. How sad..... Another bad crap thing....
I have another UTI. Damn, I just can't NOT get one...I know it is because I don't drink enough water. I went almost the whole weekend without drinking any. Well, shoot! We were busy! We actually have a life and don't just sit around the house doing nothing. Hopefully, I will get in soon. I have Lizzie home "sick" today.(She was ill last night so I am letting her say home to rest and work on her Science project)I can't take all these kids in with me. Ooh, I also have a new weightloss journal!! I'll post more later!

What an AWESOME weekend!!!

2006-02-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

Yes, it was such a great weekend!! We took the kids up to Columbia to Monster Jams. We bought the tickets back in November and spent quite a bit on them. We were in row THREE dead center!! Yes, how red neck of us! LOL I have been watching monster trucks since I was in junior high. Shoot, the first time I saw Grave Digger was back in like '89 or '90. Now he THE monster truck! We have great photos, especially of my little 'red neck' boy. At the end, Grave Digger flipped and the driver (not Dennis Anderson) was waving to the crowd. Mike lifted Michael up, Michael gave him a thumbs up and he gave it right back to him! LOL He is still tickled about it!! Emma was a bit if a pain but she enjoyed herself. She kept on trying to take off her headphones.

Mike went to a Super Bowl party yesterday. I was NOT going. I knew there would be multiple smokers all smoking in ther house. I knew I would be sicker than a dog and super irritated. We did get the FROG cleaned up and organized. Once you organize the kids' rooms really well, they usually stay pretty clean. I still need to go and get Emma her Dora toy box. They had it at ToysRus when I went shopping the other day but the only box they had was damaged.

Ok. Mama's time to vent.
I took the car in to the dealer today. One of my fog lamps was not working. They just wanted to make sure it wasn't a warranty thing, and I would rather bring it to them anyway. We were there for TWO HOURS. Two hours for one little light! It would not have been that bad if Emma wasn't a pain. Michael even got annoying. The big screen had boring stuff he didn't want to watch. Then on top of it, there was a man who brought in his dog....Emma wanted to mess with her the whole time! At least they had great overstuffed leather couches in there. Ooh, they were comfy!! Once the kids are older, I want a nice leather set like this one. Oh! Michael got to see an $84,000 Dodge Viper in the show room. Shoot, we paid less for our starter home! Things have been going really well lately. I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Is that too negative? I guess I am just so used to having it bad. The only thing that is crazy is my Emma. My Emma keeps me going. I really think she is bored! I really think I am going to put her in half day next year. There is a program on base that is only $70 a month. If I could find something closer to the house, that would be awesome. At least we live within our means. I know so many people that cannot say the same! They try to keep up with the Joneses and sink themselves deeper. Selfish bastards..... muuaaa hahaha!!!!!

Bought a new bed!!

2006-02-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Yes, tonight we bought our very first bed in our almost 11 years of marriage!! It gets delivered next Friday. WOO HOO!! It is a gorgeous canopy style dark wood bed. It is the Cindy Crawford Malibu style bed from Rooms To Go. We also bought a nightstand for me. This fall we might go ahead and get the armoire, depending on if we decide to get another TV. Or for more storage. We did not get the dresser. We went with California closet systems for ourselves. We each have our own closets so we had plenty of room in there. It leaves us more room in our bedroom.Now once I get it in our room, I can decide on what colors to paint. I want to go with a beachside cottage theme, carrying into our master bath. I would like a vibrant blue in our room and a skyish type blue in the bathroom, painting our privacy dividing wall the same color of our room.
Now I need to find a buffet/hutch for my kitchen. We looked there but found nothing we like. This will be a hard find....We have found an island to build in our kitchen at Lowes. It has a small bar on one end that will fit two stools on one side. I want to hang a gourmet pot holder over it. That will take us all Spring to get done.
The one thing that we have got rolling is our privacy fence. Mike has talked to a parent on his baseball team. We have to choose the style and wood here in the next week. Now that the grass is almost laid in the house behind us, we can get it going! I wonder who will buy the homes built behind ours?
Well, I am off to bed! Busy day tomorrow. Then off to Monster Jam this weekend!! :)

Ooh boy! I am SORE! :)

2006-01-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

Yeah buddy! I am sore. My stomach and back muscles have been singing to me all morning. It actually feels good! It has been so long since I knew I actually had muscles back there still! This is one of the biggest reasons I decided to knuckle down and get moving. My back hurts a lot, more lately because I have been more active. Now I need to get to work and strengthen up!!

Today we go and do our taxes. We should get close to $10,000 back~! I am tickled! The reason we are getting so much back is all the taxes we paid out with our reelistment bonus. I have quite a few plans for that money, including a substantial bit going into our savings account. We have decided to actually buy ourselves a bed! Yes, we have a bed now and have always had a bed but only a mattress and boxspring. We have never had a frame for our bed. There is this gorgeous canopy at Rooms to Go I have had my eye on. Lord, king size beds get expensive though!
Another thing we plan on doing is having an island built in our kitchen. We found one we like at Lowe's that has a bar that lifts up off the opposite end for two bar stools. It would be perfect for the girls to sit and have breakfast in the morning. I really need the island for the extra space, counter and storage. Oh, I also need a china hutch but more open and countryish. There was a hutch that went with our diningroom table but it was way too formal.
One thing that was decided on last night is Michael will get a new bed. This kid sleeps in his sister's room on her futon or with her half the time. We have said that if he sleeps in his room the entire week, he gets this loft bed he has had his eye on. It has a slide going off of it on top of it and there are choices of different tents that turn the bed into a playhouse. The two I have my eye on is a firetruck one that has the ladder up in a tower, mimicking the fire pole chute. The other is a sports one which I think we will lean toward. He wants his room all Jeff Gordon. ( DON'T ASK!) There is even a Jeff Gordon ceiling fan he has his eye on. LOL

We have decided on where we are going for the summer. Disney World! Mike is a coach for AAU baseball and the team had a tournament there. They play two weekends and the week inbetween they enjoy the parks. Now I have to let my mom know what is up. She will be crushed. She really wanted us to go to MN to visit her. You know, Emily and Michael both would rather go there. I might just have him go with the rest of the team and the rest of us can go visit her. I can stop off in VA and pick up my sister maybe and the two of us can both go! Yeah, I just thought of that. I like it! I will have to bring it up to Angie.

Getting out of a rut!

2006-01-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

I need to learn how to get myself out of ruts. I am in a rut right now. Not down but anxious. I am at a crossroad where I could just sit on my bum and waste the day, or I could shut off the computer and start my workout..........

Off Goes the Computer!!
I want to work off my weekend weight and get my energy up! I know the only way to get around my rut is to get up and get moving!!!

Am I alive?

2006-01-20T08:51:00.000-05:00

I had one of my night terrors last night. I have only had once since moving into the new house. Oh that was a DOOZY too! The first one I woke up swearing that the builders had cameras in the walls and in the smoke detector. The wall was all glowy, like they had just painted over these lit walls that hid cameras. Weird, I know.
Last night, I thought there was an animal or giant spider in there. I got up, wanting to run for the door. I sat in bed and slowly woke up. In the mean time, all I could do was sit and think if this was all real, if I were dead, reliving life as a ghost. Creepy I know. I guess I should quit reading all my ghost books. I am into a new one right now, a creepy book that is and I had started rereading my Virginia Ghost volumes again. Oh, those are GOOD by the way! They are ghost stories around the state. There are about 4 or 5 compiled stories and a number of area books.
I am so struggling with not eating a lot of sweets! I read that if you allow yourself to eat some, you won't binge. This is a tough fight but I am in it for the long haul....

I've lost 3 pounds~!

2006-01-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

I have had a very good weekend! Boy, it made up for the past week, by a LOT. Lizzie is off of her meds and is doing MUCH better! She got a 100% on the first portion of her science project and her teacher actually pulled me aside to say Liz got a 100% on her reading test! She has said that Lizzie is back to normal and is even eating at lunch. I am hoping this is the turn around that she needed.
Lizzie was spoiled to death this weekend. She got to go sleep over at her auntie's house. She was bought a horse stable, some clothes, was taken to the zoo, rode a horse, got a zebra at the zoo and a pair of 'Patty' boots. (her auntie is a shoe fanatic and has very fashionable shoes) They spent about $150 on her!
Emily had a friend stay the night this weekend. That went really well! We were supposed to go to the jump place but open jump was closed. Instead I took them up and bought them lipstick and nail polish. I did their nails and they did their makeup. Her little friend is a sweet, good girl. I would take her anyday!
My best news is my weightloss! I was very active this weekend. Not surprised but I know it will go up by about 5 pounds with my cycle starting. It has been like this forever. I plan on trying to offset it as much as possible with water. I am going to go drink right now! :)

Whoa, bad day yesterday.

2006-01-11T08:42:00.000-05:00

Yup, yesterday was just a big ball of s*it. Oh, it just was an overall bad day! Got the point? ;) Seriously, Mike had a bad day first off. I guess we was SI (senior instructor) and one of his buddy's class bombed on a test. It actually was the worst postholiday test ever for their division. The guy slacked because it was his last class. Well, now he has a lot more work for the rest of this week to do.

Mine started out just blah. I didn't get enough sleep the night before so I didn't do anything around the house. It got really messy really fast. Then Girl Scouts. I had to bring Emma and Michael. Michael was good but at the end Emma started up. Neither of them have been getting enough sleep. They aren't used to waking up in the morning and staying up. Anyway, Latisha had to talk to some parents so I lead. It went well, thank goodness, until closing circle. Lizzie, my daughter, squeezed another girls hand and made her cry. Lord this girl had been acting up the entire time, even screaming at another girl.
As we were leaving, Emma was freaking out and tipped the stroller. My sunglasses fell our and got all d*cked up. They are under warranty but bringing them in will be time consuming.
~I am going to kill the cat! I am trying to write on here and she is spazzing out!! LOL~
Anyway,
I am much better today, even missing a good nights sleep. I was up coughing and had no cough medicine. I had some cough drops which helped. I need NYQUIL!!! LOL I am going to shut the computer off so I don't get sucked into it like yesterday.

Off subject, there was a story about a woman that was left in her chair after she had died and had mummified. Family members still lived on the first floor of the house while she was upstairs. Creepy!!

My pet peeves...

2006-01-10T09:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am a woman. There are a few of us out there not playing with a full deck, seriously. Two examples:
There is a leader out there that is OUT there. She yells at her girls and dips into the troop fund. She alllegedly had a miscarriage but has had many in the past. Is it true? Not likely. This is from what I have heard from another mom that I steered into her direction. She is oviously overwhelmed and is asking for MORE GIRLS! What sad is that the reason she needs more is she is losing girls because of her crappy leadership skills.

I know another mom who just recently moved, spends all this money they don't have on dumb stuff, yet their kids don't have enough beds. On top of it, she complains about not getting to go out. I am sure she could find stuff to do at home. Clean, workout and lose the weight she complains about all the time, Oh, here is one....play with the kids that are still at home! Go for a walk if it is that bad! The little ones will love it and you get exercize in it too!

Here is another complaint I have. We have been guilty of this one!!! If you are having a problem with money, don't go out and buy stuff and go out to eat! For one meal out, that can go for almost a week of groceries. We have done this ourselves in the past. We have stopped of course. That is how we can afford our $200,000 home, a brand new car, and different programs ie, ice skating lessons, horse backriding lessons, dance, etc. If only I knew how to budget they way I know now. You have to figure, both of our parents were pay check to pay check kind of people. They never had a savings plan set up. Neither of us had an example to learn from. Yes, the 'hard' way sucks bad but we learned and it has paid off.

Ooh, another peeve I have is people that hardly can support themselves yet have more children. There is a couple on base that have a 17 yr old with a baby, a 12 year old, an 18 month old and are pregnant again. They JUST got a car a few months ago! Of course, we have been guilty of this one too. Mind you it was when we were 19 and 20. These people are in their mid 30s. Shoot, I would LOVE to have one more but we can't afford it. Clothes, toys, COLLEGE......We will be pushing it with our four for college but we can afford it. We have a great TSP in place for them.

Ok, here is another peeve. People that OVERindulge their kids. I recently read that kids that get everything and have no dissappointments don't learn how to deal with it when they are older. Shoot, you can only buy them so much! It won't buy their love and affection.

The trouble is finding a middle ground. Ok, I am climbing off of my soap box. Sorry, I was just irritated with some of the things that I have been seeing the past month. Too many dumb events just got to me. I mean people can do what they wish but when they drag their kids down with them, it angers me. Worse, when they drag other peoples' kids down too!

Sewing on patches sucks!

2006-01-08T22:19:00.000-05:00

Seriously, sewing on G.S. patches sucks. A lot of them are odd shaped. I also match the colors perfectly and have to change the color for a lot of them. The easiest ones are the Try-its. They are Triangles with straight edges.
One of the biggest pains is my girls are out of room. They have earned so many fun patches that there is hardly any space left. I need to do what other girls do and overlap them, just sewing the top of it. Luckily, the girls bridge this year and we get to start from scratch. The one thing I don't dig about Junior badges is, they are round. Square and triangle shapes are so much easier to stick together and just get even.
I am now moving up along with the girls. I will become the Junior leader next year. I am quite nervous about it. I have been a co-leader for about three years. I like being the side kick! No pressure. I guess I will have to step up my game and get it done. Latisha has done such a good job, I am definately going to miss her.Plus, it is nice to talk with her. I connect more with Elisabeth and have more in common with her. Both grew up in Texas, both were in band at one point, etc. Great gal! She is very eager and ready to go!
Off to bed!! I am so tired....See ya later!

Emily now has a bike!

2006-01-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

Well, we were outside today, Michael, Emily and I, enjoying our 78 degree weather. Michael was enjoying his Grave Digger power wheel toy, myself cleaning out the car and Emily on her rollerblades. She tried riding on Michael's big wheel bike but was a little too big for it. She begged and pleaded for a bike. After bribing her to clean her room, I took her out and bought one for her.
She is a total teetee about it. Cried about not being able to do it and actually jumped off mid ride nearly tipping me over the bike. I am going to go out and buy her training wheels tomorrow. Yes, eight years old and she needs them but this has been the only oportunity for any of them to have one. In Virginia, there was no place at all for them to ride. On base, there was no secure and weatherfree place to put them. Now we have our two car garage with all this extra room. Hopefully soon we will be able to actually park the car in it. We wouldn't now anyway because the garage door opener is still in the box! LOL Lowes comes next week to put it in.
Lord, my two year old is a handful. See dumped pop all over the floor in the kitchen today. She also got into her Daddy's gummy bears. I got her up way too early this morning and it sure showed! She was actually pretty good at Best Buy this morning. She did play the 'you can't catch me' game once. I need to put her stroller back in the car now that we are finished moving. It needs a good washing though first.
I should go and get my sewing together. Emily got her new bed yesterday. It is GORGEOUS! It is a honey oak bunk bed. There is a twin bed on top and a futon on the bottom. The mattress, including the cover are ten years old. It has come unsewn and needs a little stitching. I have to sew on some Girl Scout patches for three girls anyway. The cover is sitting in the dryer just waiting. ~sigh~ I should put the kids to bed first though......School is back on this Thursday. Back on schedule soon!!

I LOVE my new house!!

2006-01-01T22:17:00.000-05:00

I am so in love with our new house! Everything brand new....I worked my butt off getting the place painted. I painted the livingroom sage green, the diningroom dark green just below the chair rail, Lizzie's room lavender and Emily's room is pink with the gabled windows lavender. We bought a gorgeous formal diningroom table. The cloth seats match the paint purrfectly. Sarah, our cat loves to sit under the table on the seats.
The other thing we did was put up faux wood plantation blinds throughout the house. I still need to buy two more for Emily's room and a large one for the kitchen. Ooh and cleaning is so easy in this house! The kitchen just comes together! The only thing that is bad is we don't have enough counter space. In February, we are putting in an island with a mini bar counter. Then I get more counter space AND more storage.
You know what is really relaxing? My bathroom....I took TWO baths today in my garden tub. I don't think I have ever taken two baths in one day. Even when I was a kid! The decor in there is so perfect and peaceful. I am going with a beach retreat in there and in my bedroom. There is a bed we will be getting this February from the Cindy Crawford line that will fit it perfectly.
I feel mighty spoiled. You know what though...after so much hardship in the past, I think we all deserve it. I am going to conquer the weight monster this year as well.I am back in my motivated state. I am gun ho about it once again! Mike bought me this new game for the PS2 that I want to try. It is a workout game that keeps track of your progress. Between that and my AOL journal, I think I can do it! If I don't, I am not that worried about it. I am so at peace and happy right now that it just wouldn't bother me. It would be a plus though!!