21 years

December 18th was the 21 year anniversary of when dh asked me to be his girlfriend. TWENTY ONE years ago. Twenty one years. I can't believe we've been together 21 years, over half our lives. Wow. In case you missed it...TWENTY ONE YEARS!!!

Almost 17 years of marriage, two kids later and I still love the big oaf.

I do have to confess though when he asked me to go with him, I really didn't know what to say. We had flirted seriously in class (we were still in high school) but I didn't know if I liked him enough to "go" with him, kwim? I told him I'd have to think about it! LOL My best friend told me to just go out with him.....I could always break up with him later. I guess I still haven't gotten around to breaking up with him! I was always a procrastinator. ;)

I got nothin'

Nothing to say. Nothing going on here except Christmas preparations.

I guess I do have the newest Harry Potter book to look forward to, I finally got it from my nephew so I can read it. And NO I have no idea how it ends so DON'T TELL ME! LOL

Dh got a smaller Christmas bonus today. Small in the grand scheme of things, bigger than he usually gets. Beats the hell out of the turkey he used to get!!!

Off to wrap brothers present before he finds it. It's in a bag one foot from where he's standing! EEK

Friday Photo

My kids riding a giant bronze lizard at the zoo a few summers ago.

One day down

I managed to not go to the store on my lunch break yesterday. Ok, that's not technically true.....I did go but I was returning a pair of jeans I had bought for sister.

She has two pair of jeans that are way too big for her, falling down her butt big. So I go and buy her a pair that are a 1/2 size smaller. Makes sense right? WRONG. She can't even get the past her thighs. What the heck???!! So those are the ones I was returning yesterday.

So today I am trying to resist going. I CANNOT spend any money. Can.not.spend. I want/need to take my camera card in and get some pictures printed off. But I will resist. I can do this.

Anybody want to volunteer to come take over my check book for me. Tell me when and what I can shop for?

Thursday Thirteen #2

Thirteen Things about Why I love living where I do



Thirteen things I love about living where I live (not necessarily in order of love)

1. Wide open spaces. The land is divided in to 1 square mile sections, on the section we live on there are 3 houses.

2. Farm land. I love to watch the crops grow and to know that my dad is helping feed the world.

3. Clear skies. You can go out side at night and look up and see what seems like millions of stars!

4. Going outside at night hearing the coyotes howl. I love to hear them, such a lonely sound.

5. My family. Most of my immediate family lives close and I love it that way.

6. Small schools. My dd's school has 88 kids pre-K thru 8th grade.

7. Typical small town "everyone knows everyone".

8. Wildlife. It's not unusual to see a deer or pheasants or rabbits on my way to work. If you're really lucky you might get to see a jackrabbit.

9. Fairly low cost of living. Unfortuantley it also means lower wages, but that's ok.

10. Days with no wind. Which are few and far between here but when it's a nice day temperature wise with no wind it's the next best thing to heaven to me.

11. No traffic. No traffic jams here unless someones cows get out!

12. Sunsets. The sunsets here are awesome! Must have something to do with that wide open spaces thing I mentioned in #1 above.

13. My church. It's a very small church in a very small community. I love it, it feels like we are all family. It was founded in 1897 and I hope it's around for another 110 years so my kids and grandkids can love it like I do.


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Bragging on my girl

We recently got M's report card from school. She's in the 4th grade this year!!!! Anyway, she got a B in math and the rest of her grades were A's. Her math teacher said she has an attention problem in math which I totally believe because she hates math. So we had a talk with her and told her she really needs to start paying more attention since math is such a vital part of life.

Her teacher recently told her with her good grades she's been getting lately in math she is almost up to an A!!!!!! I'm so proud of my girlie girl!

Friday Photo

I haven't done this in a while.

This is a view out of my car on my way home a few months ago. We had been getting a huge amount of rain this spring/summer. I think we are 20 inches over our normal amount of rainfall for the year so far.

Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen Things about My spice cabinet


I recently cleaned out my spice cabinet when we moved. Below is a list of 13 spices I had no idea I even had and have no idea WHY I even had them in the first place.

1. Whole cloves

2. Poultry Seasoning (unopened)

3. Oregano leaves

4. Curry powder

5. Sesame seeds

6. Rosemary leaves

7. Orange peel

8. Smoke flavored garlic salt

9. Mustard seed

10. Poppy seed

11. Whole allspice

12. Meat tenderizer

13. Freeze dried chives

Any recipes I need to know to use up some of this stuff? Some of them I'm sure have been in my cabinet since we got married 16 plus years ago, those are going in the trash.



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I'm still trying to figure all this linking stuff out! Maybe I'll get it one of these days.

Is this a do or a don't?

Here is my fashionable boy this morning. Note the fleece jacket at least a size too big, the sweat pants, and the crowning glory......his new (hand me down) boots! Several sizes too big, red tops, black bottoms and on the wrong feet!! LOL

My birthday boy *now with a picture*

My sweet boy turned 4 on September 30th. Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital looking up in to the mirror watching my dr.s hands as he gently worked to bring my sweet boy in to the world.

We didn't know what we were having as I never had an ultrasound after about 7 weeks in to my pregnancy. I was watching the little (ok, not so little) face coming out all scrunched up and red when the fat little baby slid out. I will never forget that first glimpse of my baby. I whispered to myself "it's a boy". My god, he was perfect. 8lbs 14oz of red mad baby boy. He was born with a complete knot in his cord and the dr. said we could have easily lost him....we should name him Lucky. Thank god he was fine.

Everyday I think how close we did come to losing him or him having some sort of permanent damage from that knot. I'm so grateful for my sweet baby boy who is not a baby anymore.

He's a silly, sweet, intense, tough, ornery all boy who loves John Deere tractors, combines, round hay bales, guns, tools, Spiderman and pirates. He loves going to feed the cows with his Papa, jumping on the trampoline (but not too high, please), riding his bike and watching Spongebob cartoons.

Happy birthday sweet little guy, I love you so much.



Here he is with the cake my mom made him, he had a a pirate birthday this year. Argh matey!!

Ok now, really...

DH finally got my stove top working. We had to convert it from natural gas to propane so he had to change some stuff on the burners. He got that done last week. Man, I love having a handy husband, he rocks!!

Anyway, the stove has these burners on it called "super burners" that put out extra heat I guess. And the other two burners are about 1/2 the size, like something you would put a small sauce pan on.

Of course the big, super burners are on the front of the stove! Seriously. Why would you put those on the front? I was trying to boil some water this weekend on the back burner and it wouldn't boil because the burner was way too small for the pot I was using. So I had to change and put the huge pot of boiling water on the front burner.

Obviously whoever designed the stove was not a mother. Mothers are always thinking of what would happen if her child came by. Worse case scenario and all that.

I propose that any company designing a new product must have a mother on staff!

Painting..decorating..I have a headache

So much to do. Our house is pretty much a blank canvas, white walls everywhere I look. We definitely want to paint, but we suck at picking colors. Dh likes a certain tannish/brown which to me is pretty but not much better than white as far as being neutral goes. I want some COLOR!! in my house.

I'm posting some pictures I took with my cell phone. I took some "real" pictures with my camera but I still can't find my cord to transfer them to my computer, so I guess these will have to do for now. So any suggestions for color and/or decorating will be appreciated. Any mess you see will be blamed on the fact that we are still getting moved in. Yeah, that's it....we're still moving in. Riiiiight.

Oh and ignore the tv for now. We haven't got our entertainment center moved back in yet, that sucker is HEAVY and I'm a wimp.

Fireplace in living room



Standing in the back of living room looking towards hallway, kids rooms are down the hall.


Bar


Kitchen, I really need help with the area above the stove. The cabinets don't go all the way to the ceiling, so there's about at least 2 feet of space above.


Master bath, dh's sink/cabinet is the messy one!!


And just because......my giant bathtub! I love soaking in that thing with a good book LOL

Worst parents ever

That's how I feel most days. My kids are out of control. Brother is whiny, which I think age has a lot to do with it, but he just is a whiner. Sis is a disrespectful tween most days.

I'm feel kids are what they are because of the parents. When dd was little I thought I knew what I was doing, now I feel like I suck most of the time.

I'm feel like I'm fucking up my kids and what kind of adults are they going to be? I'm ruining them. :(

Can you tell we just had a (not so) great shopping trip?

We talked....sort of

I brought up the subject of periods and such with sister. She listened but she wasn't interested so I didn't go in to too much detail.

I told her I wasn't going to say more about it (because I could tell I was losing her attention)but if she had any questions no matter how embarrassing she thought they were to just ask me. She said "mom, you sound like a teacher" LOL!!

So anyway, she knows the basic of basics but that's it for now. It wasn't too bad and hopefully it laid some ground work for more talk later.

The talk

I think it's time to have THE PERIOD TALK with sister. She's only 9 but I really think it's time.

Ugh, I dread it and I don't really know why. It's not like it's something I didn't go through myself. I've told her we need to talk about changes that will be happening to her body and she wants no part of that! My friends and I couldn't wait to start....then I couldn't wait for menopause!

I think I need to get her prepared so she's not freaked out if she happens to start at school or something. I remember being so surprised that it didn't stop at night! LOL I looked at my mom like she was crazy and said "you mean I've got to wear these (pads) at night too??????? Got any silly stories of your own to share?


I guess I'll try to talk to her this weekend, wish me luck.

Junkie

I'm walking....happy, content. Then I hear you calling me. I try to be strong and resist. I know if I find you I will ignore my kids, neglect my husband. He knows it too.....we've done this too many times before.

I get closer... my heart racing, my lips open in anticipation, palms a little sweaty. I scan the crowd looking for you. Others tempt me but I don't want them, I want you.

Finally I see you...my hands reach for you, feeling you, caressing you. My mind races with thoughts of the pleasure you will bring me.

I lift you and gently place you in my shopping cart, racing home to read you.....my newest book.

Out with the old, in with the new

It's finally here!I'm sure my faithful readers (all what, 3 of you) will be thrilled so maybe I will talk about something else! LOL

Old House


New House



Yes, I'm still trailer trash but now I'm high falutin' trailer trash! It's not done yet and we can't move in yet but at least it's here and no more waiting/worrying about the weather. Thank goodness!

Changes

Today was brothers first day of school! He's going to a one morning a week school at a church here in the same town where I work. He was a little apprehensive this morning when he realized I would be dropping him off and then going to work. He thought I was going to stay the whole time with him.

But when we actually got there it was me who had a hard time leaving. I kept saying I had to go and he kept saying OK while playing with his Play-doh, ignoring my signals that maybe he should be a little sad that I was leaving! He had a great time except he didn't get picked for the good manners boy of the day. If you get picked you get to go up and pick a prize out of the treasure chest. Eventually each child will get to go up, today just wasn't his day. He was ok at school but when I took him back to my parents house he started thinking about it and was really upset
(read: threw a huge crying fit).

Another change is we are now officially homeless! Our old house is gone.....they came and got it yesterday. Which was really weird. We stayed and watched them haul it off. Of course the camera I was using ran out of memory at the exact moment/exact picture dh really wanted a picture of. I had 3 cameras and none of them would work!

So, we are staying at my parents for the next two weeks or so. Hopefully less.

Stuff

I'm sitting here surrounded by a sea of stuff. Junk, mostly. My whole married life reduced to a few piles/bags/boxes of stuff. How depressing.

Homeless on Wednesday

They are coming to get our current house Wednesday. So we will be moving in with my parents for a short while til our new house is set up.

Our new house is supposed to be finished being built on the 12th, so hopefully sometime soon after that we can start to move in! It's finally starting to feel real to me.

Even though we've been (ok I'VE been) packing our stuff up. Which I should be doing now, by the way. It still doesn't seem like it will actually happen. We close Tuesday afternoon......I have the down payment cashier's check ready to go. That also made it seem real!

If you would like to see the floor plan of our new house......here it is! (a pdf file)

The deal is done (almost)

We have been approved for our loan!! Mostly. It was a shorter term than we wanted but in the long run it will be a good thing. Way less money paid on interest obviously.

So now we are packing up all our junk. We did sister's room today. You would not believe the stuff that was packed in her room! She's a pack rat of epic proportions. She's a T-Rex of pack rats.

Tomorrow we are having a small family get together to celebrate her 9th birthday. I can't believe my sweet little girl is 9! I found a box today with her baby stuff in it while we were cleaning her room. A tiny little diaper that fit in the palm of my hand. The little arm band she wore at the hospital about the size of a quarter. Tiny little pink outfit she wore home from the hospital.*sob* Time goes by too fast.

Weekend wrap-up

We took the kids "camping" this weekend. I say "camping" because we were in an air conditioned cabin with a stove, fridge, microwave, table and chairs, full sized bed and a fouton. The truly awful part..........no TV for TWO WHOLE DAYS! The horror is beyond description.

We went to a state park not too far from us, about two hours away. It's east of here and to me going to that part of the state is like going back in time. There is mostly wide open prairie with gently rolling hills with herds of cattle and horses. I can just imagine the indian tribe hunting buffalo over the next hill or the pioneer in their covered wagon heading west through indian territory. I love that part of the state.

We were planning on keeping the kids entertained by swimming in the pool, but the pool was closed. Panic was had at the beginning but soon it really didn't matter. We took hikes down to the waterfalls.......that weren't really waterfalls, more like some rocks in the creek, but we waded in in the water until the kids both fell down.

The next day we hiked down to the bluffs which were some high rocks overlooking the creek. I was having a hard time with being there as there were no railings to keep you from falling over the edge, so I was very nervous about the kids falling. I made them stay way back. The hike was a killer too! It was soooooooo hot and humid we were all ready to go back before we even got there.

We saw probably 20 deer including a fawn that still had it's spots nursing from it's mom! We also saw some (I think 5) wild turkeys walking past our cabin.

It was a wonderful weekend, it was really hard to come back to the real world.


*all pictures taken with my cellphone so they are not the best quality

Still waiting....

Well, we are still waiting to hear from our finance people. So no real news yet on the house front. However, they did cash our $1,000 check we had to put down as earnest money. Is that right? I'm not sure how to spell it.

And a guy came and looked at our current house. I didn't have a lot of warning and not much time to clean. I made dh come meet with him as I would be too humiliated to be here when it was such a mess! Our closet in our bedroom is our catch-all.....it's a walk in closet and it's packed FULL. And I put some dishes in the sink and forgot to put them in the dishwasher.....and of course he took a picture of the sink. Dh said he took pictures of everything.

So now it's just a waiting game.........

So what did YOU buy today?

Well, if everything checks out.......I bought a house!! EEK

We went and filled out the paperwork tonight now we just wait and see what happens now. I'm starting to get a tiny bit excited but trying to not to just in case.

Baby Steps

It takes baby steps, right? I ate breakfast at home today instead of stopping and getting something. So money and calories saved right?

I also bought some frozen meals to bring to work the rest of this week. More calories and a little money saved.

Gotta start saving money......you know......the BIG THING that I wrote about yesterday. Must start spending less, saving more.

Go me.

Things are happening...

Big things. Exciting things. Make me puke things. My mind is racing things. Worrying things. Are we crazy things. God what if we can't make this work things. Long term things. Don't want to tell anyone in real life yet things. Jumping off the deep end things. Just going to do it things. Hyperventilating things. Happy things.

I should know more by this weekend sometime. Nails are being bitten, numbers are being crunched, stomachs are cramping LOL!


And no........no one is pregnant.

Give 'em to me

I need some money saving tips. Seriously. I spend money like I married a Rockefeller or something. And I obviously did not.

• I know I need to start brown bagging it at work, but man I just hate to. It gets so old after just a short time.

• I discovered Aldi's today. We got one just built in the town where I do all my grocery shopping. I can see buying some stuff there and saving some money.

• I have managed to go at least a month or more with out putting anything on my Penny's card! *yay me!!

• I'm not afraid to buy generic on most things. Some stuff I can't/won't buy generic on though.

• I know I need to track my money on a program like Quicken or something. I've tried but I just don't keep it up and then I quit.

I need someone to take over my checking account and only let me have so much money to spend. Any volunteers?

My money philosophy is kind of like my losing weight philosophy........ I eat and eat and eat and just don't lose any weight. I spend and spend and spend and just can't save anything. So confusing.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Life is funny

The following is a post I started on yesterday but didn't get finished because of work and not having my thoughts 100% together:

How do you know when the time is right to do something? This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

As you my faithful readers (ha!) know, we were thinking about getting a new house a few months ago. We, mostly I, decided the time wasn't right to do that so we didn't.

So as you can read, I was thinking about why we didn't get a new house and what my reasons were. I feel like sometimes I have to be "pushed" in to making a major decision. We used to live in a dumpy little rent house that neither one of us really liked. But we never did anything about moving, we just stayed there paying our rent month after month and getting nowhere.

The only reason we finally moved to where we live now is our landlord sold our house and the land it was sitting on! We HAD to move. At the time it was awful but now looking back it was the best thing that could have happened.

Anyway, we were thinking of buying a house a few months ago but decided not to. I had put the thought away....filed in my mental "to do someday" file. Right behind "going to Ireland" and "buy dh a new Dodge Charger" It was safe in its little file, not forgotten exactly but I knew I didn't have to worry about it.

Until yesterday. Yesterday I opened the file again, looking at the contents, studying each page, wondering again why I was so scared to go ahead and just do it. Yes, part of it is the money, actually a large part is the money. Part of it is I was just plain scared. Part of it is what if we regret it later. It's not like we can just take a house back if we don't want it.

I can just see me marching up to the seller. "I'd like to return this please, no, there's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't fit. But I have my receipt!!!"

So yesterday I started the above post and didn't finish it. Yesterday I got home from work and there was a message on the answering machine. "Yes Mr. Happytown, this is Paul from the home dealership, we have several houses I think you might be interested in"

What the heck?! Where did that come from? Then dh said sister had asked him earlier in the day (before the message) if we were getting a new house and they had spent 15 minutes talking about it. I think the universe is trying to tell us something.

So now I have the file open again and am thinking about leaving it out maybe to file under "things I have done" instead of "things to do someday". We'll see I guess.

Do you learn from your mistakes?

I guess I don't. I swear sometimes I am so stupid I just want to strangle my self.

I have a situation at work that I need to work out, it's happened before and I always tell myself I will handle it differently next time. I never do. I put it off because I hate confrontation and problems. I guess I think if I ignore it it will go away. Guess what? It doesn't and waiting just makes it worse.

Crap. I don't know why I didn't just get it over with months ago, it would have been better then than now obviously. Ok, I have just got to get it over with now. I'll have to compose a letter and mail it tomorrow. Crap. Anybody want to volunteer to do it for me?

Something's fishy around here.....

Ok, well, blogger won't let me put a title on this post so that was it. Strange.

Husband and I took the kids to the Oklahoma Aquarium http://www.okaquarium.org/this last weekend. We've been before but it's still really cool! Some pictures for your viewing pleasure....

Sister touching a stingray, very cool.....soft and slimey feeling


Hammerhead Shark


Some other kind of shark.....bull shark maybe?


Puffer fish that came over to say "Hi!" Don't you love his smile?



Turtles native to Oklahoma

A view of my family feeding the rays, too cool!

Some sort of ray...bat ray? or sting ray? looking for food

Brother touching a starfish

Kids actually sitting together and not fighting for 1 second

We all had a great time then we stayed the night in a hotel nearby. We went swimming in the hotel pool three times!!!! That was probably the kids favorite thing to do LOL

It's gone and won't be missed!

Before

During


After


The prize!!

Thank the good lord above her hair is finally cut!!! *a choir of angels begins singing*

She got 10 inches cut off. I'm taking it to the post office today to mail to http://www.locksoflove.org/


I'm so proud of my girl. This is an awesome thing she's doing, I don't think she realizes how awesome it really is. She just knows she wants to help other kids.

Final decision....maybe

Well, I think we have decided to wait on getting a house. Maybe next year we will do something. I just don't know what to do really, but I figure if it's that hard of a decision then it's not the right time.

We got a good faith estimate from the lender the other day and while I'm sure a lot of it we wouldn't end up actually needing it just kind of scared both of us I think. All I know is the next morning I woke up and my first thought was.......We can't do this yet.

So I talked to DH and I think he agrees. Hell, I don't even know if I agree or not! But I think we are going to wait. Maybe. Probably. Yes, we are going to wait. I think.

I'll let you know.

Super no more

A while back I changed the setting on husbands cell phone so when I call him it displays "Super Wife" instead of Kim. I think I'm going to have to change that back.

Imagine if you will.......

Loving wife goes to washing machine to wash some clothes for the next day. Notices husbands clothes in washer that need to be put in the dryer. Now, a lot of people would just throw them in the dryer, right? Not Super Wife. She knows that husband sometimes doesn't like to dry some of his clothes in the dryer but prefers to hang them up to dry. So like any Super Wife would do she goes to ask husband what he wants to do with them.

The day is over and husband and kids are already in bed..but not Super Wife. She's up late doing some things that needed done before tomorrow. Moving brothers toys out of the way so husband wouldn't be bothered with them when he was getting dressed for work, getting some money out of her purse for husband so he can eat lunch the next day, making sure the food from supper was put back in the fridge.......stuff like that.

So, Super Wife goes in to the bedroom to ask husband if she can dry all the clothes. He responds with a "yes". So all is good in Happy Town. Husbands clothes are in the dryer. Super Wife and kids clothes are washing to be put in the dryer in the morning. Super Wife heads to bed and falls in to blissful sleep.

Next morning Husband gets up at his usual 5:00 a.m. to get ready for work, comes to tell his beautiful Super Wife good-by as he always does. Super Wife brushes her hand on his leg as they are kissing good-by.

Wait......his pants feel sopping wet..........Oh no!!! Yes, Super Wife forgot to turn the dryer on last night. And loving Husband only has 2 pair of jeans and yes......both pair were in the dryer. Dammit! Poor guy had to wear wet jeans to work.

I think I'm going to have to change my title......I'm not feeling very Super today. :( I haven't talked to him since this morning I hope he's not too mad!

Harvest time (what there is of it)

Wheat harvest around these parts will be dismal this year. Late freeze, way too much rain, army worms.....we've had it all baby. My dad cut a little last night and brother got to ride along. I took some pictures with my cell phone so they aren't the best quality but I think you get the idea.

I see the light at the end of the tunnel

Thank Goodness!!! Next Thursday sister is getting her hair cut OFF. And I couldn't be happier about it. She's been growing it out so she can donate it to Locks of Love and man has it been a struggle. She is so tender headed and hates getting her hair brushed so every day is a battle.

I told her they are going to send her hair back because they won't want that tangly mess LOL

I feel like putting one of those tickers in my siggie saying how long til she gets it cut. Thursday at 5:30 pm. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

We be jammin'

We are finally in the 21st century here in Happy Town! We now own an MP3 player and are soon on our way to being a two MP3 player household. I got husband one for Father's Day and now sister thinks she needs one of her own. She's spending some of her allowance money on hers.

No they aren't iPods or anything like that but hey.......who cares! They play music and the radio and that's all that counts right?.........right?

Husband's has some Nickelback and Cross Canadian Ragweed songs on his so far. Now the hunt is on for more songs!

I'm a land baron now!

Yep, it's official. Husband and I are now the proud owners of 5 acres of this great United States of America!

Let the taxing begin!

One Step Closer

Well, we got the deed signed and notarized, now I just need to get it to the courthouse and get it recorded. I am officially freaking out. Some days I can't imagine that we will actually end up with a new house and other days I'm already imagining where the furniture will go and cooking meals in my new kitchen.

We'll see. I might get to the courthouse tomorrow. EEK.

In other news, my grandma is still hanging on. Better but not better. Physically she's not on her deathbed anymore but mentally she doesn't know anyone or know what's going on really.

There is a lady in the nursing home my grandma is in that has been in nursing homes for SEVENTY-FIVE years! That poor lady. I guess her parents gave her up when she was 10 because they couldn't take care of her anymore. She just had her 85th birthday. That is so sad to me, just think of all the love she missed out on because you know they didn't used to treat people with disabilities so great back when.

Wow, makes me really appreciate what I have now and what I had growing up.

Trying something new

I've been trying for what seems like years to get dh to understand certain things. I need a hug now and then, I need an "I love you" now and then without me saying it first. He just doesn't get it at all. He always says he will but he doesn't. I don't think he gets how important that kind of stuff is to me, how I actually need it, not just want it. He's not the lovey-dovey kind of person and I'm aware of that, I respect that. But I am and he needs to also respect that, right?

So the other night we had just went to bed and I said something about a kiss. He wasn't really paying attention to me and for some reason it just came to me! It's what Tertia has been talking about on her blog lately. The "Love Language" stuff. So I tried to remember them all and was telling him about it. He actually seemed interested and was listening to me! I need to go to the website and get some more information but I'm feeling really positive about this.

I did it. And another grandma update.

I got the paperwork filled out and sent it. Now we are just waiting for the deed to our place to be completed and we should be good to go, I think. I need to get with my dad to get the deed done but I hate to bother him with it now.

My grandma is still hanging on but not doing very well. My sister and I took our kids over yesterday to see her as she was having a good day. I think she really enjoyed seeing the kids. I was so proud of them all, they talked to her and didn't act scared at all. Brother did a little but he was shy of everyone there not just my grandma.

My mom just called and said she's not doing well at all and that my uncle is staying at the nursing home with her tonight. He said he has a bad feeling about tonight. Grandma has seen my granddad who died well over 10 years ago several times today.

Here's a story that makes you go hmmmmmmm. Tuesday night she was having a really rough time and kept calling out for her youngest daughter who died maybe 17 years ago. Finally my aunt said do you see her, is she here. My grandma nodded "yes" she's here and pointed up at the ceiling. *shiver*

Anyway, we are all just waiting to hear what's going on.

My grandma is dying

My grandma is dying. My mom called me this morning to tell me my grandma is dying, it could be anytime, anyday now. The nurse at the nursing home said in her "unofficial" opinion she probably won't make it through the week.

She's lived a good but hard life. Losing 4 of her 6 kids as adults, losing her beloved husband of 60 plus years.

She's 91 so it's not a shock that she would be at the end of her life but damn it this sucks.

See my feet....

They are dragging.

Dh and I are thinking of buying a new house. I would love to have a new house, we live in a single wide trailer now. Yes, we are trailer trash LOL. The house we would be buying would be a modular home, so basically still a trailer type house but much much better built.

Anywaaaaaaaay, I am supposed to be filling out our credit application but I just don't want to for some reason. I just don't want the hassle I guess. I feel pretty good about getting approved, we make decent money for around here and we pay all our bills on time every month. I just don't want to fill out the damn paperwork.

Happy Mother's Day

Ok, what the heck is wrong with me?! I got a super sweet card and poem from sister that she wrote herself. She fixed me breakfast in bed (toast with butter and a glass of diet dr. pepper). Dh got me a CD I wanted, Josh Turner, which is really good so far. Haven't had a chance to listen to it all yet. Brother is too little to do much but I did get a kiss and hug which is unusual for him, he hates kissing!

Am I spending the day loving on my kids? Nope, I'm spending the day wanting to hide from them. What is wrong with me? Dh is painting the house which is great, it needs to be done but does he have to do it today? On Mother's Day? I guess. It's been raining so much lately he hasn't had time to work on it.

I guess I'll go take some advil, drink some more pop and try to get in a better mood! I think chocolate might be in order. :)

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends that live in my computer!! *huge hugs to you all*

And how many times did your kids make you cry today?

Wow, what a morning! Mornings are usually hectic around here.....take one mom who hates to get up in the morning, add one sister who hates to get up even more than mom and one brother who loves to get up and play first thing. What do you get? Usually chaos about 5 minutes before the bus gets here.

Today sis was brushing her teeth, not dressed yet when I realize it's only about 10 minutes til the bus gets here. I tell her to finish up and get dressed quick. She says......I need to floss first. No time to floss right now I say.....maybe after you get dressed if you have time you can floss. She answers in a very hateful voice "yeah, like you even care" Wow. It really cut me to the bone when she said that. Yeah, I don't care, that's why I get you up, let you watch TV for a little while and get your fricking clothes ready for you every.single.day. No, I didn't say that to her but I thought it. All I said was "when you talk like that it really hurts my feelings. I guess you can get yourself ready for school now." and I walked away.

Of course I went back to help her get her hair fixed, then when she's slowly getting her shoes on like la-de-da, I have all the time in the world I tell her the bus is out there waiting on her. She freaks out and gets mad at me for telling her that and making her panic.

What a great start to the day. Hopefully the rest of the day is better. At least I'm going shopping with my sister tomorrow! We are both taking off work and going on a girls day out even though neither one of us has any money to spend LOL

Back to the Future

Have you ever caught a glimpse of your kid and been able to see the future?

Sometimes with sister it's a particular way she rolls her eyes or how she cocks her head....it's like I can see her as a mouthy, defiant teenager in the not too distant future. A little like her mom, maybe? I don't mean that in a bad way like I expect her to be a demon child or anything. When I see this glimpse I can still see the love I have for her and the fact that she is a good kid under the attitude. I hope I can still see that when she tests my limits someday. And she will test them I'm sure. I sure the heck tested my parents. Took them over the edge really, but thank God they still love me!

The other day I was following brother up our steps on the porch and glanced down and saw his ankles. He was walking up the stairs just as fast as I was, not having any problems. No longer taking them one at a time like he used to. I just got a glimpse of his future walking away, growing up and going out on his own. Not abandoning me! Just growing up. Being an athlete in high school, maybe running track. He just seemed so grown up in that split second it almost took my breath away. My vision was of a tall young man, taller than DH and I both, confident and self assured. But who still loves his mom of course *wink*

I can't wait to see how my visions pan out, I just hope we all enjoy the ride!

4 A.M.

Not the time you want to be awakened by those lovely words "mom, I puked". UGH! Sister is sick. Stomach bug. So I'm home with her and brother today. Hoping that nobody else gets it. I'm making her wash her hands like mad and my hands are so dry from washing them so much already today. It's just only about 10 am here now. She seems to be on the mend a little so I hope it continues that way.

Brother is starting to get a little whiny.....man I hope he's not getting sick! And to make things even worse....we are out of pop! The horror! I might have to venture out and go to town later. We'll have to see how long sister stays out of the bathroom.

Right now they are both watching Milo & Otis. Hopefully that will keep them occupied for a while and keep the arguing down to a minimum. They have really started arguing a lot lately. It is driving me batty!

I better go see if I can keep brother occupied. He's over the movie already.

Friday Photo

I almost missed it! But here it is....... My two goofy kids playing with lettuce. Yes lettuce, they are such wierdos, but I love 'em anyway! LOL

All Clear

We mangaged to miss the bad weather last night thank goodness. There was one tornado in the state but it was away from us. We just got a little rain last night and more this morning.

So all the stuffed animals were taken out of the cellar and all is fine now.

Always prepared

Today we have a really mean weather forecast. Pretty good chance of thunderstorms this afternoon in to this evening. Possible tornadoes, large hail, all that jazz.

My kids have heard the weather so naturally they are worried about a tornado. Brother is a little too young to fully understand how bad a tornado would be, all he knows is it's just a big wind and he's seen them on TV.

Sister on the other hand, she knows what they are and she is terrified of them. Almost to the point of making herself sick with worry. So. This morning she gathered up several of her favorite stuffed animals and made me PROMISE I would put them in our storm shelter before I left for work!

Never fear Fuzzy Wuzzy, GlowBear, Diamond, Holly Horse and whoever else was in that bag! You are safe from nature's wrath.

Now if the storms will just wait til I get home from work all will be well!

Friday Photo

This is Sister's Spongebob stuff she made with her Floam she got for her 8th b-day. That stuff is wierd! Fun to play with but such a strange texture.

Left to right....
Mr. Krabs, Squidward, some coral, SpongeBob and Patrick.

I thought she did a great job! She's very artistic, she can even draw! I would love to be able to draw. I stink at it. I'll have to scan in some of her pictures one of these days. She's even started taping her creations to our hallway by our bedroom. It's "Mallory's Art Gallery". She signs each one because when she's a "singing veterinarian who also draws" we can look back on her creations and see how talented she was. And they have to be signed to make them authentic LOL

Brother's rough weekend (now with photos!)

Poor little guy. He had a very rough weekend! Let's see.......

He fell backwards off the arm of the couch and hit his head on some shelves.

He tipped over a dining room chair and gave himself a black eye.

He fell off my bed (he was jumping on the bed after I told him to stop) and scraped his back on a plastic lid.

He fell off the side of the computer chair I was sitting in.

He was standing on two dining room chairs and they slid apart....he fell.

He fell off the couch again.

He fell off my bed again when he and his sister were playing on it.

It seems like something else happened this weekend but I can't think of it right now. I think all this is enough anyway! Hopefully this week will be better!

Here's my little black-eyed boy :(

Friday Photo

I'm going to try to post a new picture every Friday. Something just for fun!



This is Sister and Brother after one of her basketball games last winter. They were both crashed as you can see! LOL

When did this happen?

Wow. My girl is growing up. She's 8 now, will be 9 in August. She's wearing a training bra now. And she's got stinky pits! How did this happen? How did my girl go from an 8lb 2oz little thing to an almost 5ft tall girl?

She used to fit perfectly in my arms from my elbow to my wrist, now she barely fits on my lap. When did my little baby I used to love kissing between her soft little eyebrows become this grown up girl? It's not possible that the last 8 years have gone by so fast. And it's only been 8 years, what will it be like when she's 18? or 30? Is this how my mom feels looking at me and my sister and brother?

I wish I could just slow things down a little. It makes me really sad when I think about her growing up, I know I'm already forgetting stuff about her when she was little. I just want to grab on to all the memories and never let them go, store them up so I can get them out someday, take them out one by one and see her again as she was when she was a baby/toddler. Or somehow go back in time and just relive them over again so I won't forget.

I love you my beautiful girl.

What a crappy-ass mom!

Wow, what a crappy-ass mom I managed to be this weekend! I managed to NOT take a single picture this Easter. :( How could I have? I am usually the queen of pictures but I just flat out didn't think about it yesterday.

It was so fricking cold here the kids couldn't wear the new outfits I bought for them so I guess it was just like getting ready for any other Sunday church.

Sister wore her hair down and I curled the ends with my big curling iron....she looked so grown up! And I didn't take a picture. *sob*

I think brother managed to not eat a bite of real food yesterday either. Only chocolate. OK, he did eat a few bites of a roll at my mom and dad's. He was hopped up last night. At bedtime he was jumping on his bed....."watch me mama!" A 3 year old on a sugar high....not a pretty sight!

Speaking of growing up. Sister asked me the other day if she needed a bra! I guess a friend of hers said she needed a bra if she was going to wear a certain shirt. She does have some signs of getting some buds in the chest area......so we went to the store and got her a couple of sports bras. Mostly just to get her used to wearing them. She's 8 people! 8! Sigh, she's growing up so fast!

*HAHA, I ran a spell check before posting.....I had spelled managed wrong and it brought up "man gagged" as a choice!! LOL

Take this quiz

I saw this quiz today online. It's really cool, take it and see what it says about you!

Quiz

Then let me know how it went :)

I Walk The Line

I got me some new music Friday! Mr. Johnny Cash is now riding in my car with me. I got a greatest hits type album. I love Johnny Cash and my kids do too!

It's an older album but it has some great songs, I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, Boy Named Sue, Jackson. Really great. Now if I can just keep husband from stealing it!

What kind of older music do you like?

Happy Spring!

The rain has finally stopped! Hallelujah! We've had probably 7-8 inches of rain in the last week or so. It's soooo wet outside.

But today the sun is shining, the wind is NOT blowing, the grass is growing, the birds are singing, the bugs are swarming. Oh wait, we don't like bugs. But the rest is awesome!

The kids and I were outside today and I hid some eggs for them to hunt. Brother was so cute, every time he saw and egg he got so excited! After they found them all Sister decided she needed to hide them. We're still missing two eggs LOL I figure husband will find them when he mows. They were plastic eggs, btw.

Check out my cake I made last night. My first attempt at cake decorating solo. I've helped my mom before but I did this one myself. Not too bad. I see lots of stuff I should have done differently but it's still cute I think.

Do your feelings get hurt easily?

I was thinking about this today. Do your feelings get hurt easily? I can take lots of stuff the wrong way or think people are being rude to me. Especially in person, like at the check out at wal-mart or some other store. In fact I think I take stuff the wrong way A LOT.

But as far as getting my feeling hurt, I'd say dh is almost the only one that can truly hurt my feelings.

Is that because I love him and I don't give a flip about the other people I deal with? I don't know. Maybe he's just a jerk. Maybe I'm too sensitive when it comes to him.

One of the great mysteries of life I guess. But I vote for jerk.

Vacation all I ever wanted, vacation time to get away

Now I have that song stuck in my head! Who sang that anyway?

Anywaaaaaaay, I want to go on vacation! Yes, I realize I just got back from vacation less than 2 months ago....your point being? I wanna go somewhere! *foot stomping tantrum*

I think I'm going to try to convince husband we need to take the kids to Red River, New Mexico, this summer. I want to go stay in a cabin and just hike around the mountains. That seems like a good family style vacation. Plus the kids can fish, brother has been dying to try out his new Superman fishing pole. And you can drive it in one long day from where we are!

Speaking of vacation, if you told your husband he HAS to take you somewhere with castles before you die where would you go? That's what I told husband I want to do for our 25th anniversary. Hopefully that comes along before I die! I'm thinking Ireland or Scotland but I really don't know. They do have castles there right? Help me plan my trip, tell me what I must see/do!

Heaven in a bag

Meet my new love

Hershey's Kisses with Coconut. Oh my goodness, these things are sooooo good.

Supportive/catty posts

Do you ever read a post on a message board that is supposed to be supportive but you get the feeling that it's really meant to inspire feeling of fear and inadequacy? I've seen several by a person that on the surface seems really sweet and caring....but their post just rub me the wrong way.

Nothing obviously "wrong" with them, just the way they are written.

"I'm sorry you are going through this....you are so much stronger than I am. If it was me I'd be blaming my (insert dh, kids, mother, motherinlaw here) I'd be thinking how could they do such a thing and having feelings of resentment towards them. Wow, you handled that so much better than me, I'd be laying in to them for being so careless, and blaming myself that it happened."

Do you see what I mean? Or is it just me? It seems to me like they are almost purposely trying to make the person get mad at their (insert dh, kids, etc here) Trying to stir shit without acutally doing it.

I don't know maybe it's me? Maybe I'm too cynical or something..... It just strikes me as odd. Or maybe I'm just a bitch like that.

Real Mothers Are.....

I've been tagged by Robin to write what Real Mothers Are. I've thought about it for a few days and here it goes.

Real Mothers Are sticky

Yep, sticky.

Ever notice how new moms seem to always have a little patch of slobber or spit up on their shoulder? I always did anyway, it was my badge of honor and I wore it proudly. I'm a MOM!and I have a wet shoulder from holding my precious baby.

Let's not forget the lovely full milk shirt I'm sure all mothers of newborns have worn!

Then they get older and want to kiss. Not a perfect pucker of a kiss but a full open mouthed slobbery baby kiss. Is there any better kiss in the world?

Toddler years come along and it's sticky fingers wanting to share their food with you. How can you refuse?!

Little kids finding worms, bugs and flowers for mom. And a little dirt thrown in for good measure. Thanks honey, I LOVE them. And I do! Going fishing and actually putting a worm on a hook! UGH, the things moms do for their kids. Taking the fish off the hook when they land that prize catch.

Staying up with sick kids. Cleaning up after sick kids and not batting an eye, never letting them know you'd rather be anywhere but there.

Eating your daughters latest food creation because she's decided she wants to invent a new food. Powdered sugar, brown sugar, water and butter mixed together can get a little sticky.

I've only got 8 years experience being a mom but belive me I'm still sticky. And I love every sticky second of it.

Oh boy how pathetic!

Robin inspired me so I went and created a map of where I've been. Not very many places actually. I need to travel more!

'>

make your own map!

Mr. Humphries is free

RIP Mr. Humphries. I just read on MSN that the man that played Mr. Humphries on Are You Being Served died :( I love that show!

For a long time husband and I didn't have TV, all we could get was PBS so we watched a lot of it LOL! One of our favorite shows was Are You Being Served.

"Mr. Humphries are you free?"

"They will ride up with wear" "They will ride down with wear" depending if the pants were too long or too short. I still use that quote.

Young Mr. Grace, the lady with the crazy colored hair.....can't remember her name right now, all the characters were great!!!!

So RIP Mr. Humphries.........

Did you see that?

There it goes again! Did you see that blur?

It's meeeeeeeeeee! We finally decided to join the 21st century and get high speed internet. Bye bye dial up........you are gone forever!

I'm so loving this. I can finally surf the web at home. Maybe I'll even start posting here more.

Not much going on here. I had to go to T-town this last weekend for some boring meetings. I got lost on my way. Got to stay at a nice hotel by myself, had room service, went shopping (didn't buy anything for myself) and got a bunch of information shoved in my brain. It was interesting in a boring sort of way or should that be boring in an interesting sort of way?

Anyway, I'm home now and feel like I didn't have a weekend so it's back to work for me.

Dh survived with the kids and even managed to get them to a birthday party WOOHOO! I knew he could do it.

Hi-speed here I come baby!

We are getting wireless internet next week and I'm sooooo excited! This dial-up is for the birds...

Crud, gotta go get sister a cucumber for a snack. See ya!

Mama, can I hug you?

Ok, this is how to know that brother is not feeling so great. He actually asked for a hug. My little man was sick a few days ago. It was wierd, my mom called me at work that he wasn't feeling good so I went and picked him up. He wanted a hug and he wanted to go home. Ok, if he wants a hug and wants to leave Granny and Papa's house he really doesn't feel good!

I gave him some motrin-type medicine and he was instantly better. Wierd.

But at least I've figured out how to tell he's sick. He asks for a hug. Usually hugs and kisses are "ugusting" and he wants no part of them.

Happy Valentime's!

That's what brother told me this morning :) He's so dang cute sometimes I could just eat him up! Other times......not so much!

We got no big plans today. Husband and the kids are getting haircuts, I'm getting a much needed eyebrow wax. Henry Kissenger anyone? I told husband to NOT buy me flowers it's such a waste of money. Of course a tiny part of me wishes he would anyway.....but I know he won't.

I got the kids each a little stuffed animal and some candy and I got husband some candy as well. That will be the extent of our celebrations. Woo-hoo.

Worst.actor.ever.

Is the guy that plays John Black on Days of Our Lives not the worst actor ever? His eye squints, his head tilts, his voice. UGH! He drives me nuts.

And the chick that plays Marlena is just as bad.

Those two need their own show. Just those two, no one else. Then we can all avoid having to look at them.

And no I cannont just change the channel thankyouverymuch. I'd much prefer to bitch and moan about it. It's what I do best.

2 days

I managed to work a whopping 2 days last week. Monday I was off because we just got back from our trip, Tuesday and Wednesday I worked. Wednesday afternoon I was freezing cold even though the heater was on 80 and I had my coat on. Finally figured out.....I was getting sick. Thursday and Friday I was sick as a dog. Sister even had to get her self ready for school Thursday poor girl! I'm still coughing around so don't get too close.

Good thing my boss loves me.

Aloha!

We survived! We made it back home Sunday about 6 pm. It's good to be home but dang that week flew by. I took about 160 pictures and I still wish I'd taken more.

Hawaii was awesome and beautiful but also kind of sad to me. When you think of how the islands used to be and how the "white man" came and basically destroyed the way of life there and turned it into a tourist trap now it just makes me sad.

But I'm glad we got to go and see the sights. We went to a luau which was awesome, I even got on stage with about 80 other people and got a hula lesson! LOL Good thing we didn't have to wear grass skirts, no one wants to see this fat girl dancing!!! We each got 4 free drink coupons and I thought no way would we use them all, but guess what? WE DID!

I think I drank more this last week than I did in my entire life. One night Husband and I got drunk and sat on the balcony of our hotel and smoked cigars LOL It was so fun! Something we never get to do at home. Something we would never do at home.

I'll have to try to post some of our pictures one of these days. Everywhere you looked was another beautiful view to take a picture of.

Our flight home was a killer though. The flight was mostly turbulance from Honolulu to Los Angeles so no sleep for me. We ended up being up for about 36 hours with no sleep by the time we got home, got the kids from my parents and got to bed. Needless to say we both called in work the next day. I'm still tired.

The "Everything's OK Alarm"

We had an ice storm here in Oklahoma this weekend. It was way worse south and east of me, we only got about 2 inches of sleet and just a glazing of ice.

Yes, I realize it is bad to the people directly affected by the ice, we had a major ice storm here in 2002. We were out of power about 2 weeks and my parents for almost 3 weeks. It sucked. Big time. BIG TIME.

But for crying out loud! The television station had reporters outside practically 24/7 covering ICE STORM 2007

Yes, Mike, the sleet is really coming down out here. It really is painful when it hits you in the eye. Yes it's about 10 degrees with a windchill of 1. Not much traffic out today. Stay home if you don't need to be out. That's it for now, back to you Mike.

Repeat every 5 minutes or so around the clock. How about keeping your reporters in and off the streets like you are advising the rest of us to do Mike? How bout it? Do we really need to know the video stores and liquor stores are busy today? And the grocery stores are low on bread, really?

I think last I heard about 90,000 people were out of power in the south east part of the state. Hopefully they can get it back on soon. It's cold! 19 degrees (F) with a wind chill of 5 degrees (F) here today!

Weird things I've seen lately

A week or so ago I was pulling in to McDonald's (no that's not the weird part!) and noticed a Game Ranger's pickup sitting there. In the pickup was a bald eagle. Just sitting there in the seat. Waiting for the ranger to get done eating and come out to the truck. Sitting looking out the window. No cage no nothing. weird.

Day before yesterday I was driving home, turned off the highway on to the road I take home. I have about 5 miles of dirt roads to drive on after turning off the highway. Anyway in the first mile for about 1/2 a mile it looked like bananas scattered over the road. What? Why are there bananas on the road? Did someone have a grocery mishap?

Well, yesterday I figured out it wasn't bananas it was ears of corn. That makes more sense! There was a field of corn grown on that road. Someone must have been working the ground and picked up some corn on their equipment and it got scattered on the road as they left the field.



So we are all bracing for a winter storm here this weekend. Terri I think your storm is coming our way. We are going to be getting freezing rain with a 1/2 to an inch of ice possible. Not fun. At least it's coming on the weekend. We had a huge ice storm here about 5 years ago and we out of power for about 2 weeks or more. We have a generator but it was still pain. Hopefully it's not that bad this time!

Guess who's back....

Back again. Guess who's back, tell a friend. Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back.........

Ok sorry got a little distracted doing my emimen impression! LOL

Happy Kim is back. No time to post too much, sneaking this in a work (shhhhhhhhhhh!) but I'm feeling much better than last time I posted. Thanks for the hugs and chocolate, just what I needed.

Blah

That's how I feel today. Just blah. It's a grey, rainy day today and it fits my mood perfectly. I hate being broke all the time, I hate working everyday and nothing to show for it. I need someone to manage my money for me because we are sure not doing a very good job of it.

I was in a bad mood last night and didn't want to go to bed for some reason so I stayed up til almost 1 reading so that's not helping my mood any. I'm so tired! I was almost 30 mintues late for work today and of course when I get here no one else is here, so the office was not open when it should have been. But I really can't bring myself to care that much.

Thank goodness it's Friday. I don't think I could make it another day if I had to come to work tomorrow too.

Blah.

BEST.GAME.EVER

Oh my! The Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma and Boise State will surely go down as one of the best college football games ever!

Tension. Interceptions. Trick plays. Two point conversions. Fumbles. Penalties. Last minute drives. Overtime.

Man! That game had it all baby. It was worth staying up til after midnight to see it through. Wow! I really think no matter who you were rooting for you can't deny it was a great game. Just how bowl games are meant to be, not a one-sided blow out like a lot of them are. I hate games that are blow outs even if my team is the one that wins.

Yes, I'm from the Sooner state, but I'm no Sooner. I was rooting for Boise State to win. Go Broncos!!

Of course if Boise had been playing Oklahoma State it would have been a different story. Go Pokes!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! Do anything exciting? We had a quiet night at home as usual. Stayed up til midnight, drank some Smirnoff Triple Black, got a lot tipsy, kissed dh and went to bed. Woohoo, am I exciting or what?!

Today is a lazy day. Husband and I are both off work today, so we are just bumming around the house. I'm trying to get up the energy to actually get dressed (in my sweats now) and go to the store and pick up a few essentials. Yes, I'm fully aware it's 3:00 and I'm not dressed! That's why you must always, always call before coming over. You wouldn't want to see me now, it's not a pretty picture.

We cooked a pork tenderloin for lunch. OMG it was sooooo good. Sister and I sounded like Rachael Ray eating it. Mmmmmmmmm, oooooooo,mmmmmmmmm so good! LOL

Oh well, off to shower and make my self beautiful. Who am I kidding? I can't possibly improve on my natural beauty, it's kind of like trying to improve the Mona Lisa......can't be done!