Hoping for a wonderful New Year!

I got this in an email and thought it would be great for a hello to the New Year!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and stress free Christmas. I know that i have been reading wonderful things on those blogs that i read daily!

As always my family had a wonderful holiday. Everyone has got what they asked for. My son is in love with his new flat screen t.v., my daughter is enjoying her portable dvd player. She is enjoying her spending money. She went with me to get our hair done. New haircuts and highlights, we feel all refreshed.

Today i purchased my very own digital camera! Now i have a brand new toy! Hopefully soon i will be taking my own pictures and posting them to my blog. Mom has promised to help if i need it. It's a Nikon L11 and seems to be pretty easy to use, which is exactly what i was looking for.

I'm not completely computer illiterate but i am no scholar at it either. This is a pic of my new camera.

This is a family portrait that my mother took with her camera on Christmas Day. I think it turned out nice. Although i can see the tired in my face.

New Years Day is my last day with Blockbuster's. I have mixed feelings about leaving. I have worked for them 6 years and it was a wonderful job compared to the 16 years working at McDonald's. But i feel the need to move on to hopefully better things without killing myself with working too much.

I forgot to mention how i tricked the kids this year. Everything that they had specifically asked for i hid in my room, so everything underneath the tree was things that they could care less about. When they were done opening them i asked "did you get everything that you asked for?" they obviously said "NO!" I laughed and said "Ya'll must have been some bad kids!" lol

I had a great laugh at their expense hehe...then i got up said i had to use the bathroom and came out with the other gifts... The look on their faces was priceless!!!

Well i gotta run.

Everyone have a Wonderful New Year!!! See you next year :)

Merry Christmas

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

I normally don't go shopping on Christmas Eve, I try to avoid it if at all possible, but i found myself running out really quick for one more gift that i had forgotten. Luckily i knew what i wanted, grabbed it and ran like the dickens to get out!

I luckily had Christmas Eve off and I don't have to work until 4pm. on Christmas Day. Enough time to be with the kids and family before going to work for a couple of hours.

________________________

Yesterday i made a huge decision! I talked with my husband and he agreed that I should put in my 2 weeks notice to Blockbuster! I am working way to much. I find myself on my feet sometimes 16 hours in a day. I'm always complaining of how much my body is aching. I will miss that money, but I have to go with faith that working at the hospital will be better for me and less stressful. My boss at Blockbuster told me that i could always come back if i wanted, even as a csr. I don't think that i could do that. Especially if they pulled a manager from another store and started barking orders to me. I'm too old for that.

I love the thought that i will be home more for my kids. I won't be coming home in the middle of the night anymore, the latest i will ever work is maybe 9:30 pm and that's on a really bad night.

Well I'm off to bed soon because I know the kids will be up really early!
MERRY X-MAS!

SCHOOL PICS ARE IN

Is it me or does Darin look really happy to have his picture taken? Geesh, with all the money you spend on school pics is it too much to ask for a smile? Amber, what can i say, I hate how she did her hair! Makes her face look pudgy! And then i look at her chest region and think my god that's a 12 year old? Once i look past all that i see two beautiful children and they are mine :)

Thanksgiving was excellent! It was really nice in the fact that i only had to work 3 hours the whole day. We spent our Thanksgiving with my mom, dad, sister, Aunt, Uncle and cousins. The food turned out really good other than the stuffing. I usually gobble alot of that, but for some reason mom strayed from her normal stuffing and it just did not hit the spot as usual. She agreed that it was just not the same.

Frank spent two weekends up north trying to hunt for deer. Of course he did not get anything, he said he saw lots of deer and actually shot at one but missed. He also told me that him and his buddies got yelled at for being on private property. According to them they were on a very fine line of private and public property. Oh well, i just call it some time for male bonding.

Last weekend after i got off work, my daughter and I went into the garage and pulled down everything that i needed for Christmas decorating. I started with the outside because i knew it will get colder soon and i still had some daylight left. Then i worked on the inside, once i get into decorating i work until i am done. I have to say that my daughter was a great big help!!!!!! She always has been a great helper! She put bulbs on the tree, she helped with putting decorations in the windows. I had to move our entertainment center to another wall, so she helped me with that.

When i tell people what i do in one single day people are amazed. Employees at the hospital thing i am a work-a-holic. I tell them if i could figure out a way to get paid for staying home i would! Or for that matter to get things done without actually doing them, i would be the first to sign up.

Well i'm off to finish laundry and get ready for work.

Pre-holiday wishes

If i don't get to tell you this before the holiday, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Everything around here is pretty uneventful. I went to the Darin and Amber's parent teacher conferences. I CAN tell you that they did survive. Darin did push his grades up...but not so well that he was on the honor roll. I am a little disappointed, only knowing that he could have done it if he just applied himself. He was lazy starting into the year is all i can say. But now that i have talked to all his teachers and told them what an excellent student he was last year, all the teachers are expecting much more from him... Is/was that bad of me? I just think i kicked him into gear a bit. Because lately when he does his homework, he seems a bit more into it.

Amber did very well, her grades are exactly what i thought she was going to get. Except in Band...(yeh the class that i thought would be a waste of time)but i gave her the benefit of the doubt and let her give it a try. She got an F. I from the beginning did not think it was a class that she would be devoted to. So before anymore damage was caused i pulled her from the class. She agreed with me on taking her out of band and seeing what other class she could try. She is now in computers...(this class i know she will excel in).

But on a lighter note...both kids are liked by the teachers...they went on and on about how well behaved they are in class. It always amazes me when they tell me that.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is so close...and Christmas is just around the corner! Has anyone else started Christmas shopping? I have gotten a few things set aside for the kids, just a couple of items for them to open ...then i might stick some money in a package to let them get whatever they choose to go and get.

I'm trying to talk my husband in just purchasing a small tree to put on top of a table so that our big tree will not take so much space!
Also the fact that i work so much that i don't have alot of time to decorate the house to the hilt. The kids are older now and they know that there is no such thing as you-know-who, so i don't see the point for all of it.

anyhoo...

Frank is off doing that male bonding thing...Hunting...dumb! But if he wants to go sit out in the cold and freeze for hours...let him.

Also everyone needs to visit my mothers site and ask why she hasn't posted my kids school pictures yet! lol my sister's kids have been posted for weeks!

well time to go to bed...work as usual in the morning.
Insert sleep here!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN(in the spirit of Halloween)

face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" style='color:black; font-size: 14pt;'>You Are A VampireYou have a real thirst for bliss, and you consider yourself a true hedonist.And you're not afraid to walk alone in life, if it means getting what you truly crave.You truly enjoy entrancing people. Not to mention the ensuing pleasures of the flesh. Your tastes have been called decadent and bizarre. You usually give in to your temptations, no matter how primal
Your greatest power: Your flawless ability to seduce and charm
Your greatest weakness: Human flesh
You play well with: Werewolves

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofmonsterareyouquiz/">What Kind of Monster Are You?

Routine

That's what life is starting to feel like. If you asked "what did you do yesterday, the day before, the day before that?" I would answer "worked, worked, worked." My body is starting to take a toll with all the walking.

Today i don't have to work till 4 pm so what do i do?! I work on my house, cleaning my daughters room, which she keeps tidy, but once in a while i like to get in there and really clean it.
My son keeps his room nice and everything is in it's place. Isn't it amazing how kids are different?

forgot to mention

I forgot to mention that when i saw my doctor about being sick, i found out that i had lost 4 pounds in two weeks. From being so busy working and all the walking i have been doing. Also my blood pressure was the best that i ever had! 105 over 85, i usually run about 130 over 90.
I was very excited that all the exercise I was getting was actually working...yahoo!

I just got back from the haunted hayride with the kids and it was so much fun! It was a great night for it, not too cold and no rain in sight. It was about an hours drive to Armada and the hayride took you deep into some woods. People were popping out at you constantly ...right at the beginning they were headless horsemen riding on horses with long swords. I did not anticipate horses jumping out in front of me. Characters jumping onto the wagon scaring the crap out of everyone. It was a nice family day for us all.

Now its back to the grindstone with work.

HEY ALL

Hope everyone is healthy and well rested, cuz i'm NOT!
Folks i have been sick since Saturday. Started off just feeling blah, then the stuffed up feeling in the head and by Monday it was in my chest. I had to work both jobs feeling like crap with a capital CRAP! On Monday i did get to see my doctor with wonderful news that i had an upper respitory infection and he asked me how many days off work i wanted. Of course i told none because number (1) I just started working for one of them and (2)Cuz i need the money! Just give me the drugs and off to work i go!

Last week alone i worked 75 1/2 hours but this week will not be that bad. In fact after 3 weeks solid of working everyday, this Saturday i actually have a day completely off! I am going to try and do something fun with hubby and the kids. I really want to go on a haunted hayride. I told hubby i don't want to walk thru anything! I walk all the time! Some days i am on my feet fifteen to 16 hours.

I can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner, can you? I have no idea what to get the kids.....They say they want money, so that they can buy what they want. But you know as well as i do that i like watching the suprise in their eyes. I will probably buy a few small gifts and give them some money.
Well folks this is about all i can get done today..i'm off to bed...

just a quick note

Well since i wrote last Darin had strep, followed by Amber. Frank was suffering from sinuses and now i am officially not feeling good. It's all in my sinuses also, i'm sitting here trying to figure out if i am ready to go to the doctors. I'm thinking right now i probably can get away with over the counter drugs. We'll see.

Amber did talk to the vice principal and he talked to the boy that was threatening her. She says the boy is being nicer to her now. I'm glad that's taken care of.

Amber joined band this year and goes today to see what instrument she is going to pick to play. We are going to rent the instrument until we know that she is fully into doing it.

I'm going to be working a whole lot of hours at the hospital in the next 2 weeks which is good.
take care

A THURSDAY AT MY HOUSE

My job's are going great. But the more i work at the hospital, the more i hate working for Blockbuster. The stress to get the sales there are just killing me. What do they expect when most of the people working there are only getting an average of 10 to at most 20 hours a week. My job there seems 3 times as hard as ever. Today i did about a million things and time dragged like no other. I stocked the pop and candy to the hilt today because it seems that no managers that are working the night shift think that this is part of their job or to deligate this job to any crew members because it must be a sin. I am not kidding when i say i emptied about 70 boxes of candy out of our storage room. I felt like i worked on this what seemed like eternity, but ended up only being 3 hours. Then i cleaned up the backroom emptying more boxes, since i was back there i decided that the bathroom could use a good cleaning. Well since i cleaned the bathroom i guess i better mop the floors, so now i am sweeping and mopping and pulling out all kinds of garbage.

Time just never moved, the more i did the more i found myself finding other things to do. It was like yesterday at home, I was doing laundry when i started to see things that needed to get done in the laundry room. Like dusting the tops of the hot water tank and the furnace. Washing the washing machine and dryer, and the front of the furnace. I'm really starting to get anal with keeping things neat and clean. I have the worst habit of hopping out of bed and starting right away with cleaning things. Before i leave the house things have to be a certain way or it bugs me to no end. Do you think i might be a little OCD? Even when i say i am not going to clean this or that, in my mind it's tearing me up, because i know it's not done, so i get up and do it. Geez i need help..lol

Anyhooo...yesterday Darin woke up for school, got dressed, ate his breakfast, and sometimes he will lay back down till we have to leave for school. Well when i woke him back up he said "mom i don't feel very well, my stomach hurts" of course i am thinking "yeh right, already starting with wanting to stay home" of course i said "no fever, no throwing up, your going to school" they know my rules! NOOOOOO sooner than i said that he said mommmmmmm and runs to the bathroom and projectile vomiting everywhere. It came out of him like a volcanoe! Then after the vomiting he sits for a minute and says " mommmmmm, my throat is hurting really bad" so i start to look for a fricken flashlight that works, because i am thinking if it's an infection it will be red in his throat and if that's the case i have to bring him today because on Friday i am practically working 12 hours and i can't go then or he will suffer the weekend with an inflamed throat....so when i saw pink in the throat i call the doctors....rush him over there to find out he has strep! NICE!

Come home to pick up my daughter from school only to find out that some boy at school is threatening to beat her up. She is taking apropriate actions with talking to the vice principal about it in the morning. Does anyone disagree with me when i tell my daughter if someone throws the first punch at her, she needs to defend herself even if it means she might get suspended? I will only get mad if i find out she was the bully and started it. Anyways, this now becomes a huge fight between my daughter and I and i'm ready to shove a sock in her mouth..lol
I think it has alot to do with how tired i am, how tired she is because Amber has not regulated her bed time with school yet. And we both are really close to starting...she gets emotional a week before she starts and I get "pissy" (everyone and everything bugs the crap out of me. )

Well anyway, I hope that the vice principal can do something with the punk little boy that thinks threatening girls with violence is the right thing to do.
Well now that i am officially exhausted and you know i am because i am rambling on and on.
gnight

FITTING RIGHT IN

I don't know how to explain how relaxed my new job is. Relaxed is the only word that can explain my feeling. I don't have a boss constantly nagging, the only expectation is to keep coming down from the floors and grab some more food trays.

At the hospital I am working at they have what they call "room service". You call your breakfast, lunch and dinner down everyday. Within an hour of your phone call you should have your meals. You can call all day for anything to eat or drink and we devliver it to you. There are 4 traypassers constantly deliver food to different rooms and different floors. It's actually kinda fun. You can talk to employees and patients and visitors all over the hospital.

There are 2 people that their job is to go from floor to floor picking up the dirty trays. You get alot more walking done with this job because you have to go into every room and all the "soiled rooms" on every floor.

Then their are a ton of people that work in the kitchen area and dishroom and what they call "the line"(this is the people that make up your tray). It's very organized and most of the patients are impressed with how fast they recieve their food or how tasty everything was.

I should have weighed myself after the first day after i realized how much walking I would be doing, then weigh myself in a couple of weeks and see if i lose weight. Since I have started this job I have noticed that i am not eating as much as i have in the past. Alot of it has to do with i really don't have alot of time to, and I also think that i am not as depressed as i was also. Alot of my overeating was contributed to depression and boredom. As long as i am busy I don't think about food.

I go and see the doctor today, after seeing doctors all day long, I decided that i need to visit my very own. I hope he has good news with all my other test i took last time i was there.
Take care all..

FIRST DAY

First day on the job and i have to say that i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new job!

It's still a little confusing to find some of the rooms, but i really enjoyed my first day. Everyone i worked with were very patient and helped me in every way possible. The girl that i was hooked up with all day was the greatest trainer ever! She had a really hard name (Artamesia) this is probably not how to spell it but at least maybe you can sound it out like it supposed to be. I politely asked her if they called her by a nickname, and thank god she said i can call her Me-me.

I'm really excited about this job and hope that i can work with both my jobs.

Next week i have a couple of 6 in the morning starts...This does not excite me! I am not a morning person. But as much as they are paying me...i will do anything :p.

Friday i have the day off at both of my jobs and i have been thinking if all goes well maybe i will take the hubby and kids to the State fair.
take care everyone

I GOT IT!

I have officially passed my physical for my new job. I start working at the hospital on Monday. I'm very excited about doing something different, also the fact that it's in a great hospital. It's in a great neighborhood and it's very close to my house.

I am also very nervous about starting over in a new job. I'm still not sure what they will be having me to do. From what gathered from the interview, it could be anything dealing with deliver the trays of food to the patients or retrieving trays to working in the cafeteria or cooking.

I will know more about my job on Monday after my orientation.

I AM THE MOTHER OF A TEENAGER!!! ACK!

BIRTHDAY BOY DARIN!

He is so excited to finally be a teenager! We had a very small birthday party. Most of the people that we would invite are on vacations.

We did some shopping, took him out bowling and enjoyed some delicious birthday cake.

The boy is towering over all of us! Mind you he stood on his toes just too make that a little more noticeable.

I don't know why i did not smile for this pic, maybe tired from the whole day of doing this, that and the other thing.

Don't we look like an odd family...lol

In other news......On Thursday I got an offer on the hospital job! Yep, i do have the job depending if i pass my physical on Tuesday. I'm praying, and the church that i have started recently are praying that all goes well with my physical and nothing stops me from getting to keep this job. The money they offered me is more that i had anticipated and I am praying that all will go well and see a future in working in a well established hospital. (if you got a minute, can you say a prayer that all will be well )

Since Amber had decided to start going to church, I had to go and get her some dresses. Amber has really never shown an interest in wearing dresses, so i never got her any, ok...maybe one or two in hopes that she would dress up every now and then, but they just occupied space in her closet. So i took her to the Salvation Army and found her 3 perfect dresses. I absolutely love one of them...it looks fantastic on her, i got them for a real bargain....i paid $2.50 for one and $1.00 for another and one cost me $5.00. On my budget it's the best i could do. And only her and i know how much i saved :).

Well people...I'm getting tired....

I will let you know if i passed my physical :)

Still hoping for that job!

I went on that interview on Friday and on Monday my boss told me that the hospital called checking on my references. I asked her what they had asked and what she had said, but unfornately all she could tell them was that i was an employee there and that i have been with the company for 5 years and what position i held. I feel as long as you have something good to say about that person it should be said. But according to "blockbuster policy" that's all she was allowed to say. To say the least that discouraged me a bit, until i got a phone call from the hospital asking me for the phone number of my other employer(i did not have it at the time i went for my interview, and i could not remember a number from almost 6 years past). I talked to a St. John's worker and I told her that i was trying to get into the hospital and she said that you have to know someone to get in there. But after i told her that they were checking my references she said that it was looking good for me.

So it's sounds very promising and i am still praying that i get this job. Speaking of praying, A week ago i visited the kids Nanny and my long time friend that took me to church when i was a little girl, she invited us to church again. It's really close to my home and Amber really showed an interest to go(She has never been in a church before). Not that we don't believe in God or anything, just my crazy fast paced life and work schedule has just been hectic! But if Amber really wants to go, i will either go with her or drop her off on Sunday mornings. It will be good for her, plus she can spend time with the lady that raised her for almost 3 years. On Sunday Amber and I went to church, her for the first time in her life and for me it has been 13 years since i went to some kind of service. The last was my wedding day.

A blast from the past came into me. People that i had changed diapers on, were there with their babies. It was great, many people remembered me, and welcomed me back. The preacher that married Frank and I was glad to see me and see my child, I really wish they could have seen my husband and my son. I am not going to force them to go, but if they ever want to, we will go as a family.

_________________________
My poor dog, she went to the vets to get all the stitches and staples taken out and ended up with fresh staples on the side and was told to wait another week. We took her all the way to my mothers house and as soon as she got out of the car i noticed that her leg did not look right. Her incision on her leg had popped open and i could see her leg bone and muscles and everything. GROSS! I had to put her back in the car and drive all the way back for them to re-staple her leg. So now she has another 2 weeks of antibiotics and and has to go back and get them removed. She has started to lick on them and even removed a few, so i went and got some self adhesive tape to wrap around the sores so that she don't pull the rest out.

Well my kid is bothering me to get off so he can get on here and play a game...
take care all
and if you can, a small prayer for me to get that job. Thanks

I want to work :)

I went on both interviews last week and i am hopeful on either one of them to offer me a job. The hospital job promises more hours than the kroger job. I really need for my life to get on a better track. I really hate the questions that they ask at an interview. I get so nervous that i am not sure exactly what i am saying, after all it's been 15 years since i hade to have an actual interview. But after the interview i think of better answers than what i had given...I wish you get to look at the questions before the interview so you can at least sound smart on them.
(insert prayers for the hospital job here)

The past week my sister and I devoted alot of time over my mother and father's house trying to get her house back to normal. We painted her humongous house, her bedroom, living room, the huge rec room and a front bedroom. The construction company painted her new addition bedroom and her HUGE kitchen/dining room. They will also be painting her bathroom when they finish that project. I can't wait to see the finished product, trim sticks, curtains, floors, carpenting. God it's going to look gorgeous in there.

Mini seems to be doing alot better, she goes to the vet on Thursday to have all her stitches and staples removed.
take care all....i am tired, i have been up early everyday for the past week.

Updates

Where do i wanna start.

Amber is doing better...I still sleep with the phones nearby in my bedroom. I monitor my minutes on the phone all the time. So far, so good.

Last week the kids decided that they wanted to switch their bedrooms around. I like the way Amber has her set up, it actually looks like their is some room in there now. Darin's room is just flipped. He has the smallest bedroom and Frankly unless i get him a smaller stand up dresser there isn't much else you can do. After they moved their rooms i had them go thru their dressers for clothes that no longer fit or clothes they will not wear. So now i have a better idea of what they need for school clothes.

I started some shopping for clothes this week. I got them shoes for school, Amber at 11 is wearing a size 9,and my son freaked me out! My 12 year old boy is in a size 12 shoe!!!!!!! He will never sink in those boats!!! lol I got some basic essentials, socks, bras, underwear. Looks like Amber is not in bad shape at all just needs a few new things to be a little different for school, and Darin needs pants! He is sporting a size 40 waist! Thank god he grew upward, otherwise he would look like a weeble wobble..lol He's hovering over me now, he makes fun of me for being so short..(Jerk).

Ok..now some hopeful news. As you all know i have been looking for another job since mine has knocked me all the way down to 18 and 20 hours. I have been looking for what seems like a year. All of a sudden i have 2 interviews this week! One for Kroger's on Tuesday and on Friday i have an interview to work in a hospital! I hope that one of them will offer me a job. I really want the hospital job, but at this point anything is in there.

I had to take my big dog Mini to the vets on Friday and she had to have surgery on some masses. I thought that she had 2 relatives big masses but when the doctor took a look at her there was 5 in total. They were all removed, she is in alot of pain and she has some good meds in her. She takes her pain pills and if you have never seen a dog high before, it's the most hilarious thing i have seen in awhile. Her eyes are small slits when she looks at you and she gets confused of where she wants to be. I feel bad for her....I feel bad for me also because that was not another expense that i needed...but pets are like family right? And she has given us 11 wonderful years. They did some test to see if it may be cancer and from what they could see she was cancer free. They sent off some specimens and i won't know for certain until next week...but what from what they did do it was safe to say she was safe.

I finally got Frank's car hooked up with a hitch so that he can take his boat out. What good is having a boat when it's only decorating your backyard, right?
He's so excited about being able to finally use his boat.

Well it's getting late and i have been up early everyday.
take care all

DEPRESSION IS SO DEPRESSING!

What is there to write about? Lately all i can write about is my deep depression. In the last few days i have cried all i can cry, i have fried my brains in thinking on how i went wrong. But it's not my wrong.

Money seems to be the issue, of course that is half of Michigan these days. I was 2 mortgage payments behind and thought i could deal with it. The thing that put me right over the edge was my daughter. My lovely 11 year old daughter, threw in a bill that no one should have to deal with. I'm just going to say it was $700.00 dollars and a cell phone bill. You can piece the rest.

I don't understand why, she don't understand how much i give up for my kids. I don't get my much needed pills and insulin, because i feel feeding the kids should come first! I don't get new clothes, because i don't need to impress anyone and the kids need it more than i. The kids have more than i ever had at their age. I never had a t.v. with cable in my room. And guess what...I still don't! I had a small boom box in my bedroom...my kids have stereo systems with a 5 disc cd changer. I never had game systems....my kids have nds's, ps2's, gameboy advance's...

I hate that i feel this way...i can't trust her and i really hate that feeling! I have yelled, i have cried, i have talked to her and i have almost come close to really physically hurting her. I have punished her, she is not allowed to have any friends over all summer, she is not to be near a phone at all! ABSOLUTELY no computer. I've threatened that i would send her away.

I've prayed for guidance, patience a second job. I am starting to face that i may have to go back to work for Mcdonald's, it will give me the hours that i want to work.

just a rough time, and thought if i wrote it down i might feel better. I just want to know when life will be worth living for me?!

TRIP

We did get to go up north to visit my friend. We got a little bit of a late start and then got stuck in some traffic for about 20 minutes. We arrived around 10:30 pm, so all we were able to do was play some cards and chat. The kids talked and talked to each other and played games. Frank and I got kinda tired so we went to sleep around 2:30 am, the kids stayed up all night! Frank woke up around 6:30 am and thought it was a good idea to wake me up that early. Well then everyone woke up, and it was off to visit her little zoo and feed all the animals. There was more animals than i thought she had. What i could not believe is that she had some goats that just wondered the property without running away!

Frank had planned on going fishing on Saturday but some clouds came in and rained on his excitement. So when the rain stopped we took a walk up a hill to a small cemetary and walked and looked at the old stones up there. There was a lady that had about 12 children that all died at birth or only lived a few days, the oldest was about a month old. Makes you wonder what happened! I know i would have given up long ago. I saw a stone that i know if anyone buries me better get! It was heart shaped!

After our walk and playing with the animals Barb cooked up some ribs from her freshly slaughtered hog. They were pretty good, Frank was going crazy over them. Barb had some errands to run and when we got back we made smores on the deck in back of her house. Yummy Yummy,

Saturday night we slept in her camper in her drive way. It got really cold outside! I love the cold, but could have used one more blanket..lol But at least we had more sleep than the night before.

Sunday morning i was woke up to my friend jumping around in the camper saying it's time to go canoeing! Mind you that i have never been on a canoeing trip in my life. But for Frank, and Barb's sake i was willing to try. We drove about 45 minutes to travel down Rifle River. You pay for your canoe and they drive you 26 mile down the road and drop you off and you have to canoe back to where you paid for the canoe.

Yep, my fat butt paddle 26 miles of river. Let me tell you that the first hour and a half i was ready to shove a paddle up Frank's butt! He can't steer a canoe if his life depended on it. We kept getting stuck in rocks and hitting everything that was in the river. At one point we actually hit a rock head on and i ended up pushing the sides of my knees so hard into the canoe that they are very badly bruised! After about a hour and a half that's when we flipped our canoe. That's when i decided enough is enough and i tried to steer. Guess what! Things went a whole lot better, the next 5 hours was beautiful, proving yet again that my husband can't drive.lol
I can tell you tho that my body feels every bit of pain from my knees and feet to my shoulders from paddling.

All and all i went from saying "I will never do this again in my life" to "I will do it again as long as i steer and have the proper shoes". My feet were taking a beating from the rocks in the river. Also i will need a hat! The top of my head is on fire! I put sun screen all over my face so that i would not look like a radish when i was done. OH MY GOD tho, you should see Frank's legs! They have never seen the light of day, (he rarely wears shorts, only to swim in) he is fried! I've had to hear him whine about his legs for a few days now. Poor guy, next time he will put sun screen on them..lol.

It was fun like i said after i took over. Totally out of character for me, and a great new adventure...At least i know i can do it.
So after our great trip we went back to the house to check on the kids, and decided that the grown ups would go out to dinner. We went to a very country looking place called "Gee's", there was stuffed dead animals everywhere. But they served some very nice food. The men shared a special pizza and i tried a chicken sandwich. After dinner it was really late, and ended up packing up and leaving for home around 8:30 pm. We had to stop real quick and pick up the kids something to eat and off we went on the way home.

As soon as we got close to home i had to stop for some gas and ended up in traffic again because apparently Troy was just letting out after finishing their fireworks. So after we arrived home around midnight, i unpacked, cleaned up the mess in the car, changed the turtle filter, got a load of clothes in the washing machine, i finally passed out around 2:30 in the morning.

When i woke up i was in so much pain that i could barely walk. My knees, my shoulders, everything hurt! I managed not to baby the pain and finished laundry and cleaned up my house and cooked dinner, then going to work.

Well that was my trip in a nutshell.
I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July. Mine was great, I finally got to sleep in and then my neighbor invited us for a barbeque. Any day i don't have to cook is great!
Take care

SUMMER HAPPENINGS

My son has been asking me to bring him to the mall every week to get the next addition of the Shaman King books that he is reading. With his allowance and money that he makes working with his grandpa he has almost all of them. I'm glad that he has an interest in any kind of reading during the summer vacation.

My daughter visits the "cool" Hot Topics store at the mall. She saw a pair of pants with all the zippers and chains and many pockets, that she just had to have them! Better yet they were on sale. She had to earn the money for them! Grandpa gave her the money to get them now but she owes jobs to work off the money. She already started by cleaning grandma's and grandpa's cars and what ever else they wanted done. She still owes him a few more jobs but she is in her glory that she got some really cool pants.

Since school let out my dauhter has virtually had someone at our house spending the night or she has spent the night away from home. I like most of her friends, they are pretty quiet, nice, polite. Amber tho has been in quite of bit of trouble with the phone, typical teenage crap. I was not expecting that yet.

My son is just content with going outside with the boys and playing on his scooter or "razor". He never asks anyone to spend the night or he never asks to stay with others, which is nice because Amber does it enough for the both of them.


Today was a really hot day! My house is really nice with the central air but when i went to work today I found out that all of our air conditioning was broken! HOT!
I was miserable the whole night! Made worse with customers asking a dumb question. "Your air conditioner not working?" DUH! Sometimes we said "NO, we like it like this!" or we would say "We watched Inconvenient Truth and We are doing our part for global warming" if it was just a few customers asking it would not have made me so mad. But it was every single customer that had to say something about it! Our store manager was awesome tho....She went and bought bottled water and gatorade for us to drink for free.

I have decided that I am going to visit my friend up North in Lupton. It will merely cost me gas money for this trip. The kids will have fun playing with the animals. Barb had gotten several new additions to her zoo since the last time we were there. The kids are dying to see the horses! They will have fun feeding those in the morning! Hopefully it won't rain the whole trip this time. It put a damper on our fun the last time we went there. I really miss her.
Well I'm getting tired.