Pieces of Us...

- Friday, December 31, 2004

Chase's New Pooh

Monica; 4:37 PM 0 comments

Lil Miss Claus

Monica; 4:36 PM 0 comments

Princess

Monica; 4:35 PM 0 comments

An Old Friend Found -

Its hard to believe that today is the last day of 2004. This year has really flown by. Of course the most exciting moment for me was the birth of our second child, Chase. I still can't believe he is here with us, happy and healthy. Well currently he is sick, poor baby. I have been out of work all week with him. He has had a fever for days now, running in between 101.5 and 104.2. Its pretty scary. The other night we were on the phone with the doctor's office at 3:00 a.m. When his fever went up over 104 it totally freaked us out. I don't remember Skyler's fever ever going that high. But maybe I just have a bad memory. I took him to the doctor and they said it was an ear infection and a common cold. But when one is so little, its just pitiful to see them sick. I just hope he gets better in the next few days. I don't think my bosses at work will appreciate me missing any more work.

The other day I met up (via email) with an old friend of mine. We will call her "Maggie". She and I first met as Army wives in Germany. Her hubby and my hubby were roommates in the barracks before we married our men. Anyway, she and her hubby had a beautiful baby girl when they were both very young and once he was in the Army and stationed in Germany, he decided they should marry. Now check this out, they were married over the phone! How wild is that. I remember though because Jonathan was in attendance at their wedding. Maggie was in the States and her hubby to be was there in Germany with Jonathan and the ceremony was performed via phone. Now the reason for this was obviously it was expensive and time-consuming for her hubby to return to the States... It was during the time of Desert Storm and was really hard for the guys to get back stateside.... And he wanted to get married and have his wife move to Germany as soon as possible. So they decided on a phone ceremony. Believe it or not, Jonathan and I considered doing the same thing, but ended up waiting until Desert Storm was over and he could return to the States for an "in person" wedding. Not to mention I actually checked into it and it was legal to be married over the phone in TN anyway.

Anyway, she and I were great friends while in Germany and we kept in touch for quite a few years after we were all stationed in other places. I had lost touch with her in recent years, but had sent her a Christmas card this year and she emailed me. Imagine my surprise to find out that my wonderful friend is now a published author! How absolutely cool is that?!?! Imagine my even more surprise when I found out she was an author of "erotic" literature. He he he You go girl! I haven't read any of her material yet, but I look forward to it. I haven't had much time to do any reading since Chase was born. As a matter of a fact, I think I have only read one book since he has been born. Anyway, if you'd like to check her out, here is a link to her website:

Maggie Casper

So best of luck Maggie and I hope you do great things with your writing and become a big time millionaire so I can say, "I knew Maggie way back when..." Oh yeah, did I also mention that Maggie is the proud mom of 4 beautiful daughters. How the woman is a mom of 4 and works for the fire department and has time to write when I can barely function with my 2, I will never know. Anyway, I'm glad to hear from her and I'm really excited to hear about her writing. I wish we could find more of our old friends from the military.

I know one friend Jonathan would really love to hear from was an old friend at Fort Stewart named Matt Lang from Ohio. Matt, if your out there somewhere, please contact us! I've tried many ways to find him, but I haven't been able to so far. Maggie said the way she found me was to just type my name into Google and boom, there I was. Now I wish it were that simple to find everyone. Of course, I have a pretty unusual name, so it wasn't too hard to find me. Maggie's husband works for the prison system, so she is very aware of how she needs to keep her life and name more private and confidential.

One of these days I am going to have to scan in some of the photos of our travels around the world and add them to some posts. I wish I had kept a journal on all of our travels. If the Internet had been around when we were living overseas in the early 90's, I can only imagine the difference it would have made. We didn't even know what email was back then. We could only call our families once a month because it was so expensive. Now they have all these special calling plans, email, instant messaging, etc. Its so much easier to keep in touch with family. I'm glad though, especially for our men and women who are serving in Iraq and other hostile areas. I can only imagine how hard it is for them being away from friends and families, especially during the holiday season.

I am still in search of how to improve my blog. I really want to get a new skin and start messing around with it. But I fear that may never happen. I signed up for Typepad today and messed around with it, but I wasn't really thrilled. Blogger is free and easy to use, but I wish I could add photos more easily and I want to get my own domain, etc. I even considered having a web design done by a professional, but $179.00 is a lot of money when I can do a lot of it myself.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Jonathan did buy me the Tiffany necklace I was wanting? The only bad thing is he bought the 15 inch chain (which he said he asked for the 18 inch one) and the damn thing barely reaches around my neck. So I must make a trip to Tiffany's in Charlotte this weekend to exchange the necklace. Its a bummer to have to drive all the way to Charlotte, but form what Jonathan says, the mall down there is pretty spectacular. I tried and tried to find a website for the Southpark Mall, but couldn't find anything other than stuff on yahoo. Oh well.

Jonathan is gearing himself up for "bowl day" tomorrow. Wohoo, an entire day of nothing but football games. How boring is that. The man comes home from work and turns on the tube and sits in the recliner all night. On Saturdays he gets up with Skyler around 8:00 a.m. and sits in the recliner from 8:00 a.m. until midnight watching ballgames. The leaves from the trees from this past fall are still on the grass in our yard. The man helps me with the kids, but that's basically it. Damn, I could strangle him sometimes. I would love nothing more than to burn our 55 inch television to the ground. I remember the good ole days in Germany when all we had was the one AFN channel (Armed Forces Network). There was never any fighting over the television or sitting in front of the tv for hours on end then. No, now we have digital cable with 150 channels to choose from. Geeze.

Anyway, let me get off my high horse and get dressed. Yes its 4:30 in the afternoon and I'm still in my pajamas. I guess I need to put my clothes on and go get my little girl. Today she is having a "reunion" with her old babysitter and two of the little girls she used to stay with. She hasn't seen them in months, so I'm sure she is having a good ole time playing with them today. I will probably have to drag her out the door this evening. Fun, fun.

Until we meet again....

An Old Friend Found Monica; 3:46 PM 0 comments

- Tuesday, December 28, 2004

We're Having Fun

Monica; 11:10 AM 0 comments

Christmas is Over... -

Well its December 28th and Christmas is over. We made it back safely from TN. I really think next year we should stay here in NC and celebrate Christmas. Dragging the kids, all of the baby equipment, 200 presents, etc. all the way to TN is just a pain in the a--! Not to mention that I am the one who has to pack everything up. Jonathan loads the van, but the packing and unpacking is the biggest bear! At least the kids are really good on the trip. All I can say is whoever invented the DVD player in cars, God bless you. Chase is really good to, even if he isn't old enough to watch tv. I just hope he travels well when he gets older.

Christmas was great. We all racked up as usual, especially the kids. It was great being with family and friends for the holidays. And Skyler finally got her Christmas tree at Mamaw & Papaw's house. We still felt really bad for not putting one up, but it was just too much trouble and we weren't going to be here for Christmas anyway.

On Christmas Eve we went to my dad and stepmom's house and visited with my sister, her husband and their daughter, Sienna. Skyler loves her cousin Sienna. They were all dressed really cute and had a great time opening up their presents.

On Christmas morning we opened up presents at my mother and stepdad's house. That's where we had also taken all of the presents we had bought the kids. Well shall I say "I" bought the kids, because Jonathan doesn't do any Christmas shopping. I think he is a Scrooge. Maybe Christmas wasn't a big deal for him when he was growing up, but he definitely doesn't have the Christmas spirit. The only thing I hate about going home to TN for Christmas is we have to wrap everything up so the kids can't see the stuff. When I was growing up, Santa Clause came and those presents weren't wrapped up. It was great fun to wake up in the morning and run into the living room to see what Santa Clause had brought. I think that's another reason why we should stay in our own home next year. I don't know though, it would really suck not to see my dad and everybody for Christmas though.

Not much going on now. I didn't have any vacation left because of this year's maternity leave, so I couldn't spend the week in TN after Christmas like we normally do. But last night Chase woke up with a fever around 3:30 a.m., so I just stayed home from work anyway. He is very fussy and doesn't feel good. I guess I need to call and make him a doctor appointment. I have been to the pediatrician office no less than 5 times within the last month and a half. Between Skyler and her colds and Chase and his colds.... Its just a mess. Its a good thing I have double insurance coverage and don't have to pay the co-payments, because those could really add up.

I'm going to be gone next month for about 3 days. I'm anxious to see how Jonathan handles both kids by himself for several days. I am sure he isn't looking forward to it.

I need to get caught up on some of my journal reading. As I've mentioned before, I have three favorites. However, one of them has gone back to work and doesn't get to write very much anymore and another one of them is looking for a job and hasn't been keeping up with her journal as much either. I hope they don't ever stop writing. I wish I had a talent for writing like they did. I basically just talk about our lives, I can't make it interesting like they do.

Anyway, I better end for now and call the pediatrician office. I'll add some photos from Christmas just for fun. I KNOW you just LOVE seeing the kids' photos! Ha!

Christmas is Over... Monica; 10:48 AM 1 comments

- Monday, December 20, 2004

Chillin

Monica; 6:15 PM 0 comments

Chase

Monica; 6:13 PM 0 comments

Kids? What Kids? -

My babies are gone!!! Well they are gone for a few days anyway. Jonathan took them to meet my parents on Friday. He drove them half way to VA where my parents met him and took them on to TN. We had such a mess to clean up after the painters left last week. Our house was TRASHED and I do mean T-R-A-S-H-E-D! We spent the entire weekend cleaning, moving things around, getting rid of things, etc. I think this has been the most organized our house has been since before Skyler was born. Its unbelievable to look around and not see clutter for once. Hmmm, but I wonder how long it is going to stay this way. Not long I'm sure. I'm going to have to take some photos of the un-clutter and put up here to remind myself what it looks like. Because I know when the kids return, its going to be back to the disaster area!

I do miss them, but God its nice to have peace and quiet every once in awhile. I just don't know what to do with myself when they are gone though. There are so many things I need to get caught up on. I've been reading this one book I got from the library several weeks ago called Hissy Fit and was hoping I would finish it up, but I haven't so far.

I wrapped Christmas presents all night last night. I finally found my dad a present. I have thought long and hard and I couldn't figure out what in the world to buy him. I don't see him that often since he lives in TN and has only been to visit me twice since we have lived here (which is since 1999). And I really don't know what he does have.... Anyway, he raises cattle and is out on the farm a lot dealing with the cows, so I thought I would buy him one of those coolers that you can plug up in your car/truck. That way when he is out bailing hay or whatever he will have a nice cool drink. I just suck at buying presents for men. My step dad makes it easy. He just gives you a list from Sears or Wal-Mart or where ever with what he wants and you just go buy what he wants. Much simpler. Wish Lists are THE best. I made one for Skyler this year, but I think it was confusing for the grandparents. They haven't gotten the idea down that you print the list out and when you buy something from it, you have it taken off the list. They ended up buying her some things twice. And taking things back after Christmas, as we all know, is a nightmare. Not that the poor child doesn't have enough toys/clothes, etc. anyway.

I didn't go to work today. I won't go into the details, because they aren't pretty, but I'm having problems with my leg and also some cysts. So now I get to go back to the doctor for a sono on Wednesday. Oh fun. I thought I was done with sonos after I had Chase. But I guess not. I just hope I don't have to have some kind of weird surgery or anything. I am not fond of hospitals and doctors.

It has turned absolutely freezing here in NC. When I went out for my doctor's appointment today I thought I was going to die. It felt like we were living in Alaska or something. I just hope it doesn't snow before I go home to TN on Thursday. My kids are in TN, we are here in NC and if it snowed and we couldn't get to TN. Now how bad would that suck! Jonathan says we need to start having Christmas at our own house. I kind of agree in a way. I mean we didn't even put up a Christmas tree this year and Skyler was worried that Santa wouldn't be able to find her at Mamaw and Papaw's house. Now where do kids come up with this stuff? It kind of blows because we have to wrap everything up, transport it to TN, unwrap it and then hall the sh-- back to NC again. What a waste, huh? But I figured as long as my mother and father are alive, we should go home. My entire family is there, including my sister, my niece, step mom, step dad, etc. So its hard not to go home. We missed so many holidays being overseas, etc. Its nice to go home for Christmas.

Well I guess I have blabbed on enough for one day. I'll leave with a couple of boring pics of the kids. Until we meet again.....

Kids? What Kids? Monica; 5:52 PM 2 comments

- Thursday, December 16, 2004

Baby Dolls

Monica; 6:10 PM 0 comments

Momma's Angel

Monica; 6:10 PM 0 comments

Lil Miss Claus

Monica; 6:10 PM 0 comments

Busy, Busy Busy... -

I can't believe I haven't updated this thing since December 4th! This month is just FLYING by! I can't believe Christmas is next weekend! Hell, I don't even have half of my crap wrapped!

Also, we are such BAD parents! Can you believe we haven't even put up a Christmas tree this year? I know, I know, it sounds horrible. But I promise we have a good excuse. We were having the entire interior of our house painted and we knew they would end up knocking the tree over and busting half of the ornaments, so we figured we would just not put one up this year. Not to mention the fact we are going home to Tennessee for Christmas, so what does it matter anyway? I did start feeling bad that we hadn't put one up and I went out and bought Skyler a Barbie Christmas tree with some Dora the Explorer and Strawberry Shortcake ornaments. I'll try and remember to take a picture of the tree so you can see how cute it is.

But them I made the mistake of telling her something.... Before we go to bed at night we turn out the lights on her little Christmas tree. Well she started waking up at night and hollering for us to turn the tree lights back on. So I explained to her that Daddy has to turn them off at night so the tree doesn't catch on fire. Well that did it! Miss Priss is petrified of fire and now she refuses to let us turn the little pink lights on. Go figure, huh?

Moving on to other things... Having the interior of the house painted was a nightmare. We have so much crap in our house. We need to just light a match to the place or have a REALLY large garage sale either one. It was a pain in the ass to move everything around. We have these 27 foot high ceilings in the living room and painting the walls was a mess! Our house is totally trashed. We had to spend the entire weekend at a motel. Which, needless to say, wasn't much fun. So last weekend I got no clothes washed and no housework done. We haven't even moved all of the furniture back in place yet. The house is a DISASTER area and I mean that seriously.

Sunday we took Chase and Skyler to have their pictures made. They turned out really cute. I'll put a few of them up here. They are such doll babies! Jonathan is on his way to take Skyler to dance class tonight. Normally I take her, but I have a class at the local college tonight, so he is on dance duty tonight. It should be interesting how that turns out because he had to take Chase along with him to.

Tomorrow Jonathan is driving the kids to TN so they can spend a few days with their grandparents. I'm driving to TN next Thursday, so we will have almost an entire week without the kids! Woohoo!! I am going to miss them terribly, but you know, sometimes it just feels good as hell to be kidless for a few days! I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the last month. It sems there are never enough hours in the day for anything. I haven't even been keeping up with some of my favorite online journalers. Hell, I have been saying for months I was going to try and fix this journal with a good skin, links, etc. But I haven't done that either. I just blow!

Well hate to cut it short since it has been almost two weeks since I updated, but I must get ready for my class. Until we meet again....

Busy, Busy Busy... Monica; 5:58 PM 1 comments

Monica; 5:58 PM 0 comments

- Saturday, December 04, 2004

Snoozing

Monica; 2:34 PM 0 comments

Christmas Already? -

Can you believe that Christmas is almost here? I can't frigging believe it. Jonathan and I were never really any of these "Christmas Freaks". Hell, we didn't even put up a Christmas tree most years. But now that we have kids, we can't be Scrooges anymore I guess. Poor Skyler has already been asking, "Mommy, are we going to have a Christmas tree?" Now how can you tell your three year old daughter that she isn't getting a Christmas tree in your already over-crowded house? Well you just can't! My husband doesn't want to put one up because we always end up going to Tennessee to have Christmas with our family. But we still need a tree I say!

He is supposed to put the Christmas tree up tomorrow. You know, today is championship games in college football, so he is nowhere in sight. Never mind that I have had yard people and carpenters in the house all day today. Where the hell is my husband? Well at Hooters watching the ballgame and drinking beer, of course!

After 14 years of marriage, I have pretty much given up on my husband doing much of anything around the house. I can depend on him to work, help take care of the kids and he basically gives me free reign with our finances, but that's basically all he does. Take it or leave it, I guess, huh? I have to take care of anything that has to do with the household. Including insurances, finances, taxes, grocery shopping, clothes shopping (he doesn't even buy his own clothes or shoes) and pretty much anything to do with the kids. And men wonder why women are depressed so often and have nervous breakdowns! I know, bitch, moan, groan. But, after all, this is MY journal, so I can basically bitch and moan all I want!

So we are getting ready to do about $3,000 worth of painting and refurbishing inside the house. We are basically repainting the entire interior of the house. Who had to do all the contracting, meeting, negotiating and picking out colors, etc.? Why ME of course! I finally have everything pretty much laid out for the contractors. We have this stupid window that's in our master bedroom that looks down onto the dining and living room areas. Now who in their right mind wanted this frigging window, I shall never know. It is the most annoying thing I have ever seen. Jonathan stays downstairs at night and has his "manly alone time" and watches television. His lights and the television blares in through the window (its glass) and bothers the immortal crap out of me. You can hear everything that is said from downstairs and you basically have ZERO privacy with the window there. Everything you do in the master bedroom can also be heard downstairs. So, me and my big bright self decided to have the frigging nuisance sheet rocked in. So window, be gone! So, of course, I had to find a carpenter to come and do it. Because you KNOW we aren't going to get Jonathan in on this game. So Vernon the carpenter is, as we speak, sheet rocking the damn window in. ThankyaJesus! So tonight, for the first time in five years that we have lived in this house, I will not have to hear Jonathan's television... I will not have to see the light blaring in through the window in my eyes... And I won't have to hear Jonathan chattering the night away to his friends on his frigging cell phone! Yeah!!!!!

Also this morning, I hired a gardner to come and re-do our front flower beds. It had been several years since anything had been done to them and they were pretty much out of control. I have finally given in that my husband isn't going to do "jack shi-", so I'll just HIRE somebody to do it for me. I have enough to take care of with the kids, finances, household stuff, housework, etc. so if I have to pay someone else to do it while Jonathan sits on his a-- and watches ballgames, then so be it. At least it gets done, right?

So I had my work Christmas party at a restaurant last night. It went really well. I pretty much enjoy everyone I work with, so I'm lucky in that retrospect. I read other people's journals and listen to them moan and groan about work, so at least I don't have any gripes there. However, I also read other people's journals who tell how WONDERFUL their husbands are who does everything for them, mows the yard, is Mr. Handyman himself, etc. and I want to puke! Well lucky you ladies! I guess no one is married to "Mr. Perfect". But I sure as he-- ain't anywhere close!

Well moving on from my bit-- session... Jonathan's biological father isn't doing so hot. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this or not, but he and his brother Randy were raised by their grandparents. Their mom left when Jonathan was 2 and Randy was 1. She just took Jonathan to the neighbor's house and said she was going to the grocery store to pick up some stuff and was pretty much never seen nor heard from again. I could write novels on Jonathan's life, but that's pretty much the jist of how he came to live with his grandparents. Anyway, his dad didn't raise him and he really doesn't see him that much. I guess he has really bad heart problems and Jonathan's grandmother wants him to call him, but Jonathan pretty much doesn't care. I can't say that I blame him really. He has basically never done anything for Jonathan or Randy. And when Randy passed away two years ago with no insurance, no money and leaving behind two small children. Jonathan's dad stepped up to the plate and signed to pay for Randy's funeral. Jonathan was very proud of his father and said, "Well he sure as he-- didn't do anything for us in life, but at least he is going to take care of Randy in death." Well that didn't happen. He signed the paperwork and paid $600 to have Randy's grave opened and closed, but never paid another red cent. It took Jonathan's grandmother another 2 years to pay for Randy's funeral. Now, I know, your going to say, "Well why didn't you and Jonathan step up to the plate and pay for it." Well for this reason, Jonathan's grandmother didn't sign the paperwork, so she was in no way responsible for paying it. Jonathan's father signed it and if he didn't make the payments, well then he should be the one to pay the consequences. Right? Well Jonathan's poor grandmother doesn't want her precious son to get in trouble. So she did without and made the monthly payments to pay it off. I refused to allow Jonathan to pay much of anything towards the funeral, because my opinion was, it was his father's responsibility. Randy left two young sons and a girlfriend with basically nothing. Jonathan really hasn't been the same since his brother died.

Well I could go on for days, but I have bored you enough for one day. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Until we meet again....

Christmas Already? Monica; 2:04 PM 0 comments

about me
name: Monica
Home: Somewhere in NC
About: The life and times of a working mom with two kids who needs a break!

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