Pieces of Us...

Now I Know Why I Drive a Honda.....

2007-05-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

I posted this on my local mommy board today. I just had to share here to.

This is a long story, but I just have to tell you guys about it.

I have a 2002 Honda Odyssey with 103,000 miles on it. I have driven a Honda since 1987. Love em, they usually last us over 200,000 miles.

Last week my drive light started flashing on my Odyssey. We called the Honda dealership in Burlington and they said that normally means something is going on with your transmission. We all know how expensive a transmission can be.

So we take it to the dealership in Burlington and they say the transmission is going out and will need to be replaced/rebuilt. It will be $3200!!!! I just paid the van off in April!!!!

Well I don't want to take only one person's word for it, so we take it to the dealership in Greensboro and they say the same thing. :-(

What are we going to do? We don't have $3500 lying around? I'm upset, crying, etc. So I decided to call my hometown dealership back in TN where I used to buy my Honda and spoke to the service manager there. He was so nice and talked to me for about 20 minutes about the situation.

He said a transmission should not be going out on a Honda at 100,000 miles. He suggested I contact Honda Customer Service and tell them I am a long standing Honda customer, that my Hondas have always lasted over 200,000 miles, that I knew some of the 99-01 Odysseys had problems, etc. (a long list of things I should say). He said sometimes Honda will pay 10-50% to have something like this fixed.

So I called and was super nice and sweet and said all the things he suggested. That was last night at about 7:00 p.m. They opened up a case file and said they looked at these situations on a case-by-case basis. She spent about 45 minutes on the phone with me while I explained everything and she asked dozens of questions.

So this morning I get a call from the dealership in Burlington. Honda is paying to replace our transmission!!!! Now that's what I call customer service!!! Now I remember why I drive a Honda......

IF the guy in TN hadn't told me to do this, then we would have never thought about it. I called him back today to thank him. I asked for his supervisor's name and plan on writing a really nice note about how helpful he was.

I just had to share... sorry it was so long!!!!

Just Another Day...

2007-05-16T19:55:00.000-04:00

I can't figure out what in the world is wrong with this thing. For some reason it isn't remembering the paragraphs. It is driving me bonkers. I really only use blogger and then repost in myspace. Its easier to type up in blogger, but it looks better in myspace. I'm to lazy to try and figure out what is wrong with it. I'm lucky to sit down long enough to post much anyway.

Tonight Jonathan is in Charlotte. One of his corporate sponsors (Sprint) gave him tickets to the NASCAR Pitt Crew Challenge. Here is a link. Only my husband could score some tickets like that. I wish we had a babysitter tonight and I would have went with him. Although I wasn't fond of driving all the way to Charlotte and then having to go to work in the morning. He ended up taking a friend who has a condo down in Charlotte. They are going to spend the night there and then drive home in the morning.

Tomorrow night I am meeting some of my mommy group at a place called The Melting Pot. Its a fondue restaurant. Remember how popular fondue was back in the 70's? Of course I was just a kid and never really experienced it. I've only had fondue once and that was at a friends' house on New Year's Eve. I'm excited to go. I think it will be fun. And best of all....they have chocolate fondue! Woohoo!

Tonight the kids and I went out to eat and then to get ice cream. We do things like that when Jonathan is out of town. Also when Jonathan is out of town, Skyler sleeps with me. Shhhhh, don't tell Jonathan. Skyler and I pretend its a secret. Jonathan knows she sleeps with me every time he goes out of town. But we pretend its something exciting. She secretly wishes for him to go out of town sometimes so we can be "snuggle bunnies."

The kids have had their baths, Chase is in bed and Skyler is watching cartoons. So I have a few minutes to myself. Oh those minutes are few and far between and so precious.

Did I mention I got a new 42 inch plasma television for my bedroom? Jonathan has this huge 55 inch television down in the living room. My birthday is next month and Jonathan never buys Christmas, anniversary, Valentines, birthday gifts, etc. So I decided to treat myself to a "all rolled into one" present. Happy Birthday, Christmas, anniversary, Valentines Day, etc. to myself. Hmph!

Its hard to believe that school is almost out and summer is almost here. The water park will be opening up here in a few weeks. Jonathan still hasn't cleaned up the boat or "unwinterized" it yet. I really wish we would just sell it. He is too lazy to keep it up and we barely have time to use it anyway. Not to mention that gas is a freaking fortune right now and the nearest lake is probably 45 minutes to an hour's drive away. Its a lot of fun, but a big hassle to.

Oh what to say. I guess I just haven't been that talkative lately. At least not online. And I know I still need to finish my story of how Jonathan and I got together. I've even taken my laptop with me when I've traveled for work. But by the end of the day, I'm just too bushed to even worry about the Internet. Luckily I'm one traveling until September. The first few months of this year were just a whirlwind at work. Things will be slowing down for me a bit here after July 1st. I can't wait until then. Its just been crazy at work. Enjoyable, but crazy nonetheless.

Well enough rambling for one day. I can't believe I have two posts in two days. I haven't posted since April. Anyway, until next time....

Yes We Are Still Alive...

2007-05-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

I know, I know.... You have pretty much given up on me ever updating again. I tell you what, our lives have been so hectic, I barely have time to breath. Much less update this blog. I haven't read my friends' blogs in ages.... Work has been hectic, the kids' schedules have been hectic. I think you get the idea.

Yes we are still alive and kicking (although sometimes I think its just barely). I wonder what we are going to do when the kids get more active in sports and school. I will probably just completely keel over from complete exhaustion. I think I'm about to do that now!

Let's see, where shall I begin... Well I will say one good thing. Two weekends ago my friends Lynn, Sam and I had a "Girl's Weekend" at Myrtle Beach. No kids, no husbands, just girls having some fun. We had to be the most BORING of all girls in Myrtle Beach. I guess that's what happens when your a married mom in your 30's. Lynn and I were just glad for the break away from the kids and a chance to sleep in until 9:00 a.m. Ahhh, heaven..... Sam likes to get up "at the butt crack of dawn" as Lynn and I like to say. But she was nice enough to not bother us when she got up. It was wonderful.

The only bad part of the trip is the weather decided not to cooperate. It wasn't real cold or anything, but it definitely wasn't sunny and wonderful either. We didn't even walk out on the beach! We laid out by the pool one afternoon, but not once did our toes touch the sand. Hard to believe, eh? I told you we were boring!

In other news, Skyler has started playing t-ball. Although I'm not sure why they call it "t-ball" because they don't actually use a "tee." They pitch to the kids until they get tired of it and then finally pull out the tee. That's not the way it worked when I was a kid, but whatever. She has practice once a week and two games a week, so that is keeping us busy for now. Luckily its only going to last until the end of June (if we make it that long).

We have been more places and done more things these last two months. But I guess I'm not in the mood to really talk about it today. I did want to just update and let you know we are still alive and kicking!

Hope everyone is having a great spring and I hope to update again before Christmas! Take care.....

Here I Go Getting Slack Again....

2007-03-15T21:48:00.001-04:00

Here I go again getting slack about posting to this blog. I get on a roll for a few days and then it falls to the wayside. And I really wanted to finish my story on Jonathan and I... Alas, I am not inspired to do so at this time. So we will leave it at that for now.

As usual, we have been so busy my head is still spinning. It seems we never get a break around here. The good thing is we are going to have some free time to ourselves next weekend.

Next weekend Jonathan and I will celebrate our 16th anniversary. It is so hard to believe we have been married that long. God we are old. So we asked Jonathan's friend who owns the house at Myrtle Beach if we could use his house and he graciously agreed. (Thanks sooooooo much Steve, your a lifesaver). I've never even met his friend. But I love him dearly for his graciousness.

So tomorrow we are heading back to Kingsport to drop Chase off at my parents' house. I'm sure it won't be much of a restful weekend because my mom just had a shot in her spine and isn't feeling very well. Not to mention Jonathan will most likely be glued to the television most of the weekend watching the college basketball playoffs...yawn, sigh, boring...... I will never understand this man's obsession for sports.

The good news is I have asked (well not really “asked”), we’ll say I have “demanded” that next weekend on our 4 day weekend to Myrtle Beach there will be NO television. Yes, no basketball games, races, golf tournaments, etc. This weekend is all about US. I was surprised when Jonathan was all for it. He wasn’t exactly happy about it, but he graciously agreed. Later on in the week he did whine a bit about it. He informed me that if I fell asleep he was sneaking into the living room to catch up on the games. Geeze…

Well enough bitching. Like I said before, we have been so busy these last few weeks. Not just at home, but at work also. My work is in total drama mode. People leaving, quitting, coming. It has just been wild. We went like 3 years with no turnover and then all of a sudden its total chaos.

I have been so busy with work these past few weeks. This is my busiest time of the entire year. All of my forms committees are in full swing and I’m getting ready to travel for most of my programs. I will be gone quite a bit over the next month or so. I actually like traveling for my programs. I enjoy getting out and mingling with the members. I love my instructor. He has been instructing for us for about 6 years. And not to mention that I get to stay at really nice hotels. Its usually long days, but very fulfilling.

Last weekend we took Chase and Skyler to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. It is a totally awesome museum. They have this exhibit called Magic Wings Butterfly House. It is so cool. Its this huge building that is about 80 degrees year round and has thousands of butterflies flying around in gorgeous vegetation. The kids absolutely loved it. However, as usual, I can’t get many pictures of Chase. He just doesn’t like having his photo taken. You can view all of our pics here.

When I picked Chase up from daycare today his teacher was very excited to inform me that Chase had pooped in the potty for the very first time!! Woohooo!!! We are well on our way to potty training. He has been peeing in the potty full time now for about 2 months. But not once has he pooped in the potty (don’t you just love hearing about stuff like this). This is quite a breakthrough for us. I commenced to jumping up and down and clapping and making a general fool out of myself. Luckily my only audience was the teacher and a group of about 15 two year olds who commenced to clap and jump up and down with me. Hopefully he is getting the general concept down of crapping in the pot instead of in his pants. Keep your fingers crossed for me please. I think he is doing fairly well to only be 2 ½ and be of the male persuasion. I won’t get too excited though because we still have quite a long road ahead of us.

Well hate to cut it short tonight, but Grey’s Anatomy is on and I must run upstairs and watch it. Its been a rerun for weeks. Oh the things that get you excited when you are my age….

In the Beginning

2007-02-26T20:44:00.000-05:00

We did absolutely NOTHING this past weekend. Saturday we stayed home and worked on cleaning the house and washing clothes. Fun (not).

Sunday we had full intentions of getting the kids out of the house. Just like us, they get a bit stir crazy if they stay cooped up in the house for more than a day or so. What can I say, none of us have ever been "homebodies" that's for sure.

We really had full intentions of taking them to the park, the science center, children's museum or something. But no, Sunday morning it was peedle pouring outside and cold and wet and just plain ole yucky outside. So it was another day of hanging around the house being bored. Fun. Like I should bitch after just spending a week in the Caribbean and then a weekend at home in Tennessee. I'm never satisfied.

Sundays are my days to sleep in. I slept in until 9:30 a.m. It was sheer heaven. For some reason I had a hard time falling asleep Saturday night and then I couldn't seem to drag my butt out of bed Sunday morning. The kids weren't screaming, yelling and fighting like normal. Jonathan had fed them and all was well with the world. But if I had slept any later, I definitely would have felt guilty. So I drug myself out of bed.

Jonathan and I watched You, Me and Dupree Saturday night. It was the longest and dullest comedy we have seen in awhile. For some reason I had also put Donnie Darko on my Netflix list. I knew going into it that it was a pretty weird movie, but 20 minutes or so into it, we just shut the thing off. It was S-T-U-P-I-D. Maybe we should have given it more time, but we just couldn't. So we ended up watching last night's episode of the Amazing Race on the DVR. Such an exciting weekend.

Again last night I couldn't fall asleep. Jonathan was snoring logs beside of me in his blissful sleep, and I was laying there thinking utterly stupid thoughts.

I was thinking, "You know, we've lead a pretty interesting life." "I really wish I had kept a journal of our history together." "Maybe I should start writing our history down or something...."

Don't even ask me where this stuff is coming from. But as I was laying there I got about 15 chapters into my thoughts. I know no one really gives a crap about my life, but still it might be interesting to write it down. I'm very interested in my family's history and I have always loved hearing stories from my grandmother, father, aunts and uncles, etc. I really wish that someone would have taken the time to write some of our family stories down. Most of them are probably forever lost as each relative passes on.

I'm sentimental in ways. I have every single letter that Jonathan has ever written me. The letters start in the fall of 1989, the month that Jonathan went into the Army. I have them in chronological order from 1989 to 1999. After that we didn't use "snail mail" anymore. No one actually writes letters in this day and age. Its a thing of the past.

But anyway, the letters start in 1989 when Jonathan first went into the military. The two of us were just friends. We had tried dating (for about 2 weeks) way back in high school. But for some reason, we had just always been friends. Very close friends mind you. But only friends.

We spent a lot of time together in the last few weeks before he left for the Army. But he met this girl right before he went in and fell madly in love (well lust). So the letters start out in a friendly kind of way talking about this girl he met and how basic training is going and what not. Just general stuff.

But as the letters progress we grew closer. I only have his letters to go by. I used to write him NOVELS. I mean like 10 and 15 pages of typed letters. I'm sure he probably took my letters with him to the john to read, they were really that long. His letters are just a couple of pages. Sometimes he would write really big just to fill up more pages because I fussed that his letters were so short.

As time moved on we talked about our lives. I discussed my current boyfriend at the time and he told me he was going to be stationed in Germany. I was sad because I knew we probably wouldn't be seeing each other for a very long time. I made plans to visit him at his basic graduation, but one thing lead to another and I didn't make it down there. (My mistake).

He ended up meeting someone when he was in AIT (the training you take after basic to learn your military specialty. Its usually about 10 to 12 weeks long). Its funny, he never really mentioned her in his letters. It was an "AIT Romance." You know your missing home, you find someone who you have something in common with and you latch on to that person.

So as the time drew closer and closer for him to ship out to Germany, I kept promising myself I was going to drive down to South Carolina to see him. I wasn't quite as adventurous in those days. I was afraid I would get lost going down there, it was a long drive to make by myself. You know excuses.... So I never made it down there to visit him before he left for Germany sometime in early 1990.

Once he got to Germany the letters continued. We grew closer and closer through letters and phone calls. I had met someone new and been dating them for about 6 months. The two of us became engaged....

All through high school Jonathan was my person who I told all my secrets to. He was the person I talked to all the time about my boyfriends, my life, my dreams, etc. He always listened and never judged. And best of all, he agreed with everything I said (he still does that to this day to keep peace in the house). ;-)

So when things went bad with my boyfriend and we were on the verge of splitting up, I picked up the phone and called Jonathan in Germany. It was 3:00 a.m here in the States, but it was early morning in Germany. Jonathan picked up the phone and I began sobbing and telling him about my current mess. He was like, "Oh come on over and Huck will make it all better." "I'll give you a hug and you can tell me all your problems and we'll work it out."

And I was like, you know what, I might just do that. He kind of laughed and told me to come on. I know he thought I wasn't serious. But we hung up the phone and I made a few phone calls and found a flight for $300 round trip. I was going to Germany to visit my buddy.....

TO BE CONTINUED........

Boring Weekend

2007-02-24T16:02:00.000-05:00

Nothing much going on this weekend. I was so far behind on laundry, I've spent most of today working down the massive piles of it.

The weather was actually pretty nice today. I think its around 56 degrees now. The kids spent about an hour and a half playing in the backyard on their swingset and playhouse. Me, I was still in my pajamas at 3:00 in the afternoon. No reason to get dressed up to do laundry. After walking outside to see what the kids were screaming about and seeing neighbors walk by, I figured it was time to haul my ass back inside and put some clothes on.

The picture on this post is actually a photo of The Caribbean Princess. Its the ship Sam and I cruised on a few weeks ago. Its their newest ship and was quite lovely. But I wasn't as impressed with it as I was Carnival's Liberty.

This photo was taken while we were on Princess Caye. They tendered us in from the ship. Sam and I stayed on the ship until late morning. We didn't want to stand in line to get a tender from the ship. I love the beach, but can't handle more than a few hours of it. The water was ICE cold, so we really didn't swim very much. Of course you couldn't tell it was cold by all the people in the water. But it was definitely too cold for me. Princess Caye is somewhere in the Bahamas.

This is a picture of Megan's Bay in St. Thomas. Its one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Jonathan and I spent 4 days in St. Thomas back in 2005, and we went here almost every day. This photo was taken from the mountaintop. There is a small restaurant and gift shop there that sells "world famous" banana daiquiris. Since neither Sam nor myself are really drinkers. We passed on the alcohol and just enjoyed the view.

The water in Megan's Bay is just gorgeous. Can you imagine having a house up here looking down at the ocean. It would be wonderful.
This is a view of Princess Caye. I thought I had some photos of Coki Beach, in St. Thomas, but I guess I don't.
This is pretty much the extent of my picture taking on our cruise. I do have one additional photo of Sam sunning in her bikini. But I think if I posted it, she would probably disown me as a friend and possibly kick my ass. Therefore, I will refrain from posting it at this time. However, should she ever piss me off.... (jk Sam)

That's pretty sad that I only took like 4 pictures on my trip. I think Sam and I would have a lot better time if there had been a group of us going. Next time we will try and get some other girls to go with us. I know there will be a "next time" because Jonathan is already planning another weekend trip to our friend's beach house with the boys. He takes 3 or 4 weekend trips with his buddies and I add them up to my week long trip with Sam. Of course it may take us another couple of years to save up the money to take another cruise. But we can start pre-planning.

Speaking of pre-planning. Our 16th Anniversary is next month. We usually don't do very much for our anniversary. Reason number one is we don't have any family near to babysit the kids. Reason number 2, well we've been married 16 years and we have pretty much seen and done it all. Reason number 3, Jonathan is pretty slack when it comes to anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, etc.

However, this year, I think we will try and go out of town to celebrate our anniversary. It will be nice to have a couple of alone days away from the kids. Not that we didn't just have an entire alone weekend in January when I won the trip to Charlotte. I guess I didn't blog about that, but I won a 2-night stay at the Hilton in Charlotte and suite tickets to a Bobcats game. It was pretty sweet. We had a great time and it was a lot of fun. However, babysitting for the weekend set us back about $100. If we had family that lived by, we wouldn't have to spend the extra money. But again, that's the price you pay with no family near. Oh well, bitch, moan, groan....

Well anyway, its getting late and I need to get supper started. Its pork chops tonight. How much do you wanna bet that the kids won't take two bites and will ask for hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

What Another Update?!?!?

2007-02-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

One of Jonathan's high school buddies sent him this picture. Its of Jonathan way back in high school. Just thought I would share. Jonathan has very few pictures from his younger years. So it was nice to see one. Thanks Richie!

I know, I can’t believe it myself. I’m updating again and its not been six months! I sat back and I thought, “You know, I really miss my blogging.” Blogging on my own personal website was refreshing sometimes. Just getting it out there and talking with other moms and acquaintances about family/child problems. I even started posting most of my (well a trimmed down version) of my posts on my personal myspace page. I miss the girls I used to talk and blog with. I know we all get so busy with work, kids, family, etc. its hard to stay in touch sometimes. Not to mention sometimes you just don’t feel like blogging or listening to your own problems, much less anyone else’s. But sometimes its therapeutic to write things out and get them out of your system. Not to mention its nice to have someone who can relate to what your going through. I think that’s what was so much fun about blogging for me. And when your gone for so long, you kind of lose touch with those girls you kept in touch with before.

But anyway, this has been a pretty crappy week. This week I was fortunate to have the dreaded Norovirus. Oh the joys of that one, let me tell you. Having your bodily fluids spill out of both ends is not fun, let me tell you. Poor Jonathan just had a whole week of single fatherhood while Sam and I were on our joyous Caribbean “girl’s only” vacation. It started about 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Its funny as Jonathan and I went to bed Tuesday night, we were laying there and I said to him, “I have a feeling of dread.” He was like, “Oh hell, you and your “feelings.” Little did I know that feeling of dread was about to hit me in about 5 ½ hours. Oh the horror of a stomach bug. Nothing can be worse. The bad thing was I had eaten Hummus and some pita bread for dinner. I think I will never ever eat Hummus again. You know how you just can’t get something like that out of your mind. It is not lovely coming back up, let me tell you. Like you want to hear about that.

So I was down for two days. Jonathan just started his new position this week and here he was having to take care of both kids, by himself once again. Speaking of Jonathan’s new position. I know I originally wrote about it on my last post. But I had to go back and remove it. I was so excited about it that I put it up on my blog, but then realized that it hadn’t been announced yet, so I pulled it back down. Nothing like one of his employees reading it on my blog before the district manager had made any announcements or anything yet. Doh! Me and my big mouth. But everyone is in the know now, so we are good to go.

Last weekend Jonathan, the kids and I packed up and headed home to Tennessee to see family. We hadn’t been home since Christmas and Jonathan really wanted to see his grandmother. Not to mention our trips home are the only time Jonathan and I get to have much “alone time” or going out to dinner time or anything. I’m thinking this is where I probably picked up my lovely virus. Mom came down with something Saturday afternoon. So Jonathan and I went out to dinner on Friday night and Saturday night. Sometimes its nice to just get away without the kids. But the funny thing is, we end up talking about work and the kids anyway.

Poor Little Man is still in shock over me leaving him for a whole week with Daddy. He won’t let me out of his sight. Every time I step out of the room he is like, “Mommy pease don’t weave me!” “Momma, where are you going?” I know he loves his Daddy deeply. But he is definitely a “Momma’s Boy” right now. I think it hurts Jonathan’s feelings just a wee bit that he is constantly wanting me. I told Jonathan its just a phase, that eventually it will be Daddy and Son. But he is most definitely a momma’s boy right now. Sometimes he’ll just turn his head and completely ignore Jonathan. He wants “Momma to do it!” I think it all suits Jonathan just the same. Since he is constantly asking me for stuff, its just one less thing Jonathan has to deal with. I will give Jonathan credit, where credit is due. He loves his kids more than anything else on this earth.

We have absolutely no plans for this weekend. I am so far behind on laundry, it isn’t even funny. And the sad thing is I took all of the kids’ laundry home with me to my parents’ house last weekend. How pitiful is that? But since I was gone two weekends in a row with my trip with Sam, I was already so far behind. And then us going home last weekend, it put me even further behind. Laundry. I hate that word. It never ends. I have a never ending laundry pile! I see dirty clothes in my dreams at night! I’ve pretty much given up on ever having a tidy and clean house again. I think sometimes you just have to prioritize. Hmm, playing in the floor with my kids or mopping the kitchen. Why playing with the kids of course comes first!

I’m sorry I don’t have anything more exciting to talk about this week besides stomach bugs and dirty laundry. Its just the ever boring life a working mom and mother. I would update with a bunch of pictures of my trip. But I only took like 4 pictures on our entire trip. So nothing exciting there. I can’t wait until its warm weather again so we can get the kids out and do some stuff. Staying cooped up in the house is for the birds. I hate winter.

So anyway, enough boring stuff for today. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Maybe I’ll have something more exciting to talk about next week.

Its Been So Long....

2007-02-15T09:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm not sure what is wrong with blogger, but I can't get the paragraphs to separate. Forgive me for the way this post looks....

I know, I haven't blogged in like 6 months. Things have just been so hectic here in our household that blogging wasn't a priority. I couldn't even begin to catch you up on what has been going on in our household, but I will at least try. I haven't even had much of a chance to read my favorite blogs like Carolyn, Jess, Nance, Robyn, Krista, etc.

But anyway... I do have one good piece of news. Jonathan was promoted yesterday. He is now the General Manager of the entire truck stop. Woohoo! Its been 7 years in the making. I know he is excited about finally being able to make GM. I was excited for him, but was also a bit nervous. In the last year he has got things so nailed down in the shop that he could leave every day at 5:00 or 5:30. No more working the 16 hour shifts. Its been so nice to have him home in time for dinner and to help me with the kids.

Jonathan normally picks up Skyler from school and I pick up Chase. Then we eat together as a family (on the days that I cook) and then its homework time, bath time and bed time. He is such a huge help with the kids. Sometimes I sit back and think of how single parents do it. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must be. I think kids are hard and my husband is there to help. So if you are a single parents, more power to you baby. Kudos to you!

I just returned from another cruise a few weeks ago. My girlfriend Sam and I did a "girl's only" cruise to St. Thomas, St. Maarten and the Bahamas. It was so nice and relaxing. But really the whole time I was on the cruise, I was thinking about Jonathan and the kids. Especially Jonathan because he normally always goes with me. I really enjoyed myself with Sam, but I missed Jonathan so much.

I don't have any photos to share with you from my trip. I think after the 3rd or 4th cruise, basically everything was the same and photos just weren't as much fun. I do have a totally awesome tan. Which is great in the middle of January. I'm sure it won't last long though.

This time we took Princess instead of Carnival. I was really disappointed. Not that there is anything wrong with Princess or anything. But the age of the crowd was so much older. Not to mention it was more "refined" and "laid back" than Carnival. Now I know most people say that Carnival is the "Wal-Mart" of cruising and that only rednecks and partiers choose Carnival. Well place me in there with the rednecks and partiers then because I prefer Carnival to Princess any day. I like the hairy chest contest, the busy discos,the wild and crazy shows, and the midnight vulgar comedians. Give me that over Bingo and ballroom dancing any day.

Jonathan and I will be married 16 years next month. Sixteen years people! That's like a lifetime it seems. We were so young when we got married. I see people now who don't marry until their early 30's. We married when we were 20. Just young pups. Sometimes I look back at the photos over the years and wonder where all the time has gone. Before I know it our kids will be in high school and graduating college.... Time really does fly by as you get older.

I've ran into a lot of old friends on myspace here lately to. One of my elementary classmates was telling me how amazed he was that Jonathan and I were still married. He said most people in our graduating class married young, divorced, remarried someone else and have divorced again. So I guess we must be doing fairly well compared to others. He said he thought he had "missed the boat" when it comes to marriage. He wasn't ready for marriage at 19 or 20 and by the time he was mature enough and ready to marry, all of the older women won't have anything to do with him and the younger women are just plain ole dumb. I thought that was pretty funny.

I know I'm just rambling on about nothing in this post. But it has been so long since I have blogged, I don't even know where to begin.

Skyler and Chase are doing great. Chase just started a new daycare this week. We have had the same home baby sitter since Skyler was born. But a few weeks ago she decided she was going to finally retire for good. She keeps her own grandchild now and Chase and that was it. But she felt it was time to retire. So we enrolled Chase in the daycare where I attend MOPS meetings. Its a Presbyterian Church near our home.

The first day was hell. I have tried to take him to MOPS several times. But whenever I left him at the daycare and left, he would run screaming up and down the halls, "Mommy where are you? Mommy come help me!" He is such a momma's boy. Jonathan is really getting upset with this "Momma's Boy" thing to. Ever since I returned from my trip, he has like been attached to my hip. I think its really hurting Jonathan's feelings. I'm sure its a phase and he will get over it soon though.

Jonathan kept both of the kids by himself while we were gone. I was so proud of him. I know some husbands who wouldn't even spend an evening along with the kids, much less an entire week.

Anyway, back to my daycare story... So we took Chase to daycare on the first day and I took him into his classroom. He immediately started screaming bloody murder. He was so upset the Director asked me to bring him into her office for a bit so he wouldn't upset the other children. So we went in there and I finished filling out the final paperwork. He was playing with a little Thomas the Train set and he kept looking back at me and saying, "Momma don't weeve me." "Momma, pease don't weeve me here."

It was finally time for me to leave and so I was trying to sneak out the door without being seen. No such luck. He came screaming out the door. The Director took him back into her office and told me to go on to work. About an hour or so later she gave me a call at my office and told me that he had cried for about 2 minutes and then he was perfectly fine. Go figure.

So that afternoon when I picked him up from daycare I asked his teacher how he had been. She said he was great. The only problem she had from him was when they laid him down for his nap they play music. She said he kept saying, "Turn that off!" "That's too woud!!" "I can't sweep with that music, its too woud!" That cracked me up. We have always put him down with a fan for background noise, but never music or a tv. We learned our lesson in that department with Skyler, that's for sure!

She also said she was amazed at his verbal skills. She said he talked better than most 4 year olds. My reply to that comment was, "Well he has a 5 1/2 year old sister who never shuts up." So I guess he must have learned how to yap his jaws from me and Skyler. :-)

Skyler is doing great in school. Although we did have one little incident out of her last week. Apparently there is this one little girl that Skyler doesn't get along with very well. My personal opinion is they are both dominant and just happen to bump heads over everything. The teacher had mentioned to me in our first conference how they had been sat together in the beginning, but they just couldn't get along. Anyway, Skyler said that the little girl kept "staring" at her during their drama class. Now does this not sound like something from high school or what. Ever since Skyler was a baby if you stared at her, pointed at her or laughed at her she would get really angry. I think she gets the temper thing form Jonathan.

Anyway, so after class I guess Skyler walked over to the other little girl and asked her why she staring at her. I don't know what the little girl said to her, but Skyler said the other little girl pushed her and apparently it ticked Skyler off and she back slapped the little girl. So Sklyer got into deep doo doo over that one. Luckily the teacher didn't tell the principal or anything, but Skyler wasn't allowed to participate in Fun Friday at the school (which is a big deal to her). We had to sit Skyler down and explain to her

that we NEVER hit anyone, no matter what the situation. Oh the joy of children....

Ok, enough rambling. Maybe I will get back in the swing of things with this blogging.

Hoping to catch up on all my blogs I read. I really have read some on occasion, I just haven't had the chance to comment. Back at ya soon!

Oh Where to Begin...

2006-10-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I really think I just need to give up this blogging thing. It seems I never have enough time. I know, I'm no worse than any other busy mom who works full time. But I just think that some of us take it harder than others. I'm not one of those moms who has their stuff together. Mine is lost all over the place.

Today is Saturday and Jonathan had to help out a friend and will be gone most of the afternoon. I've been tooling around the house, trying to wash some clothes, list a few things on craigslist, etc.

Chase has just been weepy and crying for days. Today he is just beside himself. Nothing seems to be going his way. I've laid him down for a nap twice because he has been so whiny. He sleeps for about 20 minutes and then he is back up. I hope he isn't getting an ear infection or anything.

Last weekend we took the kids to Tweetsie Railroad. They had an absolute blast. You can view all the pictures of our trip by clicking on the photo below:

The last picture is my favorite. He was so pooped after a few hours that he couldn't stand himself and we couldn't stand him. He was whiny and weepy (kind of like today) and nothing was going his way. We had taken our wagon to pull them around in, so I laid him down in the wagon and made him take a nap. I took a picture and it is too cute.

They really loved riding the train. We had a wonderful time. Tweetsie is still in limbo. They had a 50 year land lease which runs out next year. I'm not sure if there has been a decision yet on what is going to happen. I certainly hope they don't shut it down. I remember going to Tweetsie when I was a little girl. Boone and the mountains are so gorgeous this time of year.

Then on Sunday we took the kids to the Goat Lady Dairy Farm down in Climax. I only took a few pictures. They were too interested in looking at the goats and pigs to stand and let me take pictures of them. There was this little wooden swing hanging from a tree that Skyler loved swinging on. Click on the picture below to view the pics:

This weekend the weather has turned colder than crap. Its like 50 degrees outside. Now I know that isn't that cold, but its the coldest it has been here so far this fall. Not to mention its wet, rainy and yucky. I hate being stuck in the house all day. Not to mention the kids also hate it to. Hence why they are driving me bonkers today.

I am so far behind on reading my journals. I apologize. As always, things have just been crazy. I think we try and cram too much stuff into our week.

I've also become active in a local mommy's internet board. I hope to be able to do some more things with them. The only bad thing is I work full time and a lot of their activities are during the day. A lot of the mothers are SAHM, but they also have a group called "Moms on the Clock" which is made up of working moms. That is very cool because it is so hard to find other working moms to do playgroups and things with. Click on the link below to view the site. Make sure you go to "Community" to read the boards.

Well now its Sunday. I started this post yesterday, but never got around to finishing it. We had full intentions of going to the Dixie Classic Fair this weekend, but its still wet, cold and rainy outside. Bummer. I think we might go to Concord Mills or something instead today. We love going down there to shop and go to Razoo's.

I listed about 5 lots of things on www.craigslist.org yesterday. For those of you have never used craigslist, you don't know what your missing. I made over $100 this week on there just selling little stuff.

My friend Sam and I are going to do a cruise in January with Princess, so I'm selling off some of our junk in order to get money for our cruise. Sam has never been on a cruise before, so it should be interesting for her. I think she will love cruising. Its so much fun.

Well I hate to cut it short, but my house is a wreck, so I need to get some things done around here. Hope to catch up on everyone's blogs soon!

Oh yeah, I did want to mention one thing. Thanks to everyone for letting me know about the recall on the tool bench I bought Chase. Luckily we didn't give it to him for his birthday. He had so much other stuff, we were just holding it until Christmas. But I've already contacted Playskool and sent the nails back and they are giving us a $50 gift certificate. Considering I only paid $15 for the toy, I'd say that was a pretty good deal.

Skyler & Sienna's "Make Over" at Libby Lu

2006-09-22T21:16:00.000-04:00

So for Skyler and Sienna's birthdays my sister and I decided to take them to Libby Lu in Johnson City, TN to have "make overs." They had an absolute blast. They had their hair, face and nails done. They got into costume and then were taught a dance. It was so much fun.

Unfortunately, there are no Libby Lu's around us. But there are two in Charlotte. Maybe one day we will take a day trip.

Here is a short video after they had their make over. Enjoy!

I'm Finally Back

2006-09-20T13:05:00.000-04:00

Oh where to begin… I know you probably thought I was never going to return. Things have just been CRAZY! I can’t believe it has been almost two whole months since I have posted to my blog. Geeze, I am such a slacker. No, I take that back. I’m not a slacker, I’m just too busy to stop for a few moments and write!

Well first there was our wonderful vacation in Myrtle Beach. It was so great to have the whole family together. My mom, step dad, brother, Jonathan and the wee ones. We had an absolute blast. It wasn’t a relaxing vacation like when Jonathan and I take our cruises. But it was a great family vacation.

As you know, Jonathan’s friend let us use his wonderful beach house. Free of charge. Can’t ask for much more than that. It was beautiful and spotless. Which, of course, was mighty scary with a 5 year old and 2 year old. But we managed to not break anything. Whew. A few handprints on the mirrored wall and one pee pee accident on the hardwood floor, but other than that, we were good to go.

The kids absolutely loved the beach. Chase learned how to jump in the pool and swim around with his swimmies on. It was hard to keep Skyler away from the pool. I will say the kids actually preferred the pool more than the beach though. Go figure.

We went to Broadway at the Beach a couple of times. One night they had an awesome fireworks show. There were so many cool shops and things to do there. If your ever in MB, you must visit Broadway at the Beach. We went to the Pavilion one night. Its so sad to know that this time next year it will no longer be there. Fifty years it has stood at that very spot. Very sad.

All in all we had a wonderful time. We ate most of our meals at the beach house. We went out to dinner a few times, but most of our meals we cooked. So it was a very economical vacation. Just the way I like it!

If you would like to view some of our beach pictures. Just click here.

Things were just chaotic after we returned from the beach. By the time we turned around it was time to go home for Labor Day for the family reunion and the kids’ birthday party. Since Skyler and Chase’s birthdays are so close together, we have just had their birthday parties together. I know we won’t be able to do that once they are bigger, but for now it works out fine.

They received so many presents that I still haven’t even unpacked them. When we got home from Tennessee, we just carried everything (boxes and all) up to Chase’s room and put them on his bed (he still sleeps in his baby bed). That’s where they still sit.

If you would like to check out some of the pictures from their party. You can find them here. As usual, I’m running around helping them open presents and stuff, so I only got a few pictures. I can never get Jonathan to take pictures.

We left Chase with my parents in Tennessee because the following weekend I was leaving for Savannah for our convention. I left early on Saturday morning and Sam and I drove to Savannah. The next four days were just a blur. I worked about 13 hours a day while at convention. I was exhausted by Wednesday. It was an awesome convention though. Our members loved Savannah. Hopefully we will get to go back there again in the next few years. Next year’s convention will be in Myrtle Beach.

Then on Wednesday I drove from Savannah back to Tennessee. I had Thursday and Friday off because I had so many hours from convention. Jonathan spent an entire week alone with Skyler. It was good daddy/daughter bonding time. I think it also made Jonathan appreciate what I go through every day. And he was only dealing with one and not both of them!

I spent Wednesday through Sunday at my parents’ house in Tennessee. My mom and I took Chase to the Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg on Thursday. I wanted to spend some special mommy/son time with him since I don’t get to do that very often. We had a wonderful time and even did a bit of shopping at the outlets.

Jonathan and Skyler came to Tennessee on Friday. Saturday morning Jonathan went to Knoxville to watch Tennessee get beat by the Gators. Oh joy. And by one point no less.

Saturday evening I took Chase and Skyler to my dad and step mom’s house for a visit. They played outside for awhile on the swing set. Chase was swinging on the swing set and just let go. He did flip and landed face first in the grass. He jumped up and went about his business. It almost gave me a heart attack. When he fell, I looked over at my step mom and said,

“You know, he really scares me sometimes. He can fall and hurt himself and not cry a bit. I know he really gets hurt sometimes, but he hardly ever cries from pain.”

I would later be eating those words…

About two hours later we were in the house watching the Tennessee game on television. Chase was climbing up on the bench seat to the piano and all of a sudden I heard a thud, followed by a piercing scream. Chase had fallen backwards off of the piano seat. I ran over to pick him up and he was holding his arm funny and he was crying. I was worried he had hurt his arm.

After about 10 minutes or so he stopped crying. I was holding him trying to decide whether or not to take him to the doctor. He started using his arm again, but was favoring it. I told my dad I was going to go ahead and take him to the emergency room since the clinics were closed. Dad told me he thought Chase was fine, but I went with my gut instinct. Little Man hardly ever cries when he gets hurt.

So I called my mom and step dad and told them what was going on and that I was taking Chase to the emergency room. I tried over and over again to call Jonathan, but could never get in touch with him. So we head to the hospital where my entire family meets me. Me, Chase, Skyler, dad, step mom, mom, step dad and I go traipsing into the emergency room. Luckily they took Chase straight back.

We’re all sitting back in the emergency room and Skyler and Chase are climbing all over the gurney. I’m thinking, “He is fine, I’m just being a worry wart.” The doctor came back and poked and prodded on his arm. Chase didn’t make a sound. Then the doctor told me to sit him on the floor and ask him to walk. He said he noticed he was holding it a bit funny and kind of favoring it, so he ordered some x-rays.

A few minutes later an x-ray technician came back and told Chase we were going to go have his picture made. Chase was a champ and stood still and did everything she told him.

After the doctor came back with the x-rays, he told us Chase had a fracture on his arm. It was a really high fracture and they didn’t put a cast on it. He said it would heal in about 4 to 6 weeks. Well that just freaked my mom out. She had never heard of not putting a cast on an arm that is fractured. Its not broken, just “cracked.”

So when we returned to North Carolina on Sunday, I called first thing Monday morning and made Chase an appointment with an orthopedist. I was thoughtful enough to ask the emergency room in Tennessee to give me copies of Chase’s x-rays so I could bring them to NC. The orthopedist looked at the x-rays and at Chase and said the same thing.

Poor little guy. You wouldn’t know a thing was wrong with him. He can use his arm just like always, except he can’t put any weight on it.

So Monday we took Chase to the doctor, on Tuesday I had a doctor’s appointment and today Chase and Skyler have their yearly checkup with their pediatrician. So you can see how busy we have been over the last month and a half. I can’t even think about it.

I have so much more to talk about. But I think I have rambled on enough for one day. I really hope I can get caught up on everyone’s journals. I miss reading them. Hope everyone has had a great month. We’ll all catch up soon!

One More Day!

2006-08-09T15:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I only have one more day of work before vacation! Yippee!! I'm getting excited. Our first "official" family vacation. Should be an experience. Now if I just don't forget the camcorder and digital camera. Gotta get those beach shots of the kiddies.

Wow, I had 7 comments on my last post. That has to be one of my all time records. It makes me feel loved!

Not much has been going on this week. I will say one thing, I've been reading Nance's journal for several years and I've seen her mention a site called craigslist several times. Craigslist is like a Penny Saver or classifieds/eBay like website. The only thing is, its FREE! Yes Free! How cool is that. So I was browsing through some of the listings in my hometown when I came across a Lil Power Wheels Race Car for $15.00! This little race car retailed for over $60.00. It was a couple of years old and they don't make them anymore, but that was a great deal. The ad was a couple of weeks old, so I was sure that it had been sold by now. So I sent an email through craigslist and the next morning the owner emailed me and said she still had the car. So we set up a time and I met her husband that afternoon and bought it. We had originally planned to buy Chase a battery powered motorcycle for his birthday, but they are so expensive (over $100). Now we get him a little race car for 1-3 year olds that fits him perfectly. I'm so happy. I just love a bargain.

So I did a bit of birthday shopping the other day. Does anyone else have problems finding toys for toddler boys? I just can't seem to find anything interesting. Chase has bookoos of cars and trucks. So I was stumped on what to get him for his birthday. He is obsessed with Disney's Cars. He loves the movie and he thinks Lightning McQueen and Mater are the best things ever. But that stuff is sooo expensive. I did find him a pair of Cars light up tennis shoes that are just adorable. The bottoms look like little wheels and they light up. I wish I could find a picture of them to show you.

So I did come across one thing that I thought he would like. It originally retails for $34.99, but was on sale for $14.99. Its a Playskool Cool Crew Talking Tool Bench. Adorable.

Jonathan finally got the suitcase out of the storage building last night. He must really be looking forward to this vacation because he has already packed his clothes. Now this is coming from the man who usually waits until the night before we leave on a cruise to pack. So him packing several days early is unheard of. Heck, I haven't even started packing my own stuff. I'm still in the process of washing up the kids' clothes for the trip. How the heck do kids mess up so many clothes people?!?!

I totally had something I wanted to mention here and as I was typing that last paragraph I completely forgot what the he-- it was. Do you ever do stuff like that? From the moment I hit 30, my mind/memory has gone to sheer pot.

I wish I was talented and could actually write things and make them sound funny like Nance and Jane. Alas, I'm just a country bumpkin from Tennessee with no writing capabilities whatsoever. Oh well. I guess we are all talented at something or another. But writing is definitely not one of my talents.

Speaking of writing and fellow bloggers. Krista's daughter was again featured on Armed Forces Network (AFN). She has such a wonderful story. Go check it out for yourself. You can find it here. I don't know what my problem was, but the other day when I watched the video, I just cried like a baby. Chase was playing beside me in the floor and he looked at me like I was a total mental case.

I know I'm all over the place with this post today. I guess I just don't have very much in the way of excitement going on this week. My life is currently pretty boring. So enough rambling for now. I'm assuming this will be my last post until we get back from vacation. So you won't see me on here for a week or so. Stalker don't get any ideas about an empty house or anything, we have a house/dog sitter coming. So there! Hope you guys have a great week! See you in a week or so!

Counting Down the Days....

2006-08-07T09:49:00.000-04:00

I can't believe its just 4 more days until we leave for the beach. Woohoo! This will be our first "Family Vacation" ever. Should be interesting....

The good news is my parents are going with us, so we will at least have some help with Little Man. He is such a little destroyer right now. At what age do boys calm down? Please don't tell me never.

I tried to get caught up on a couple of your blogs over the weekend. Since we are trying to save money for our trip, we have kind of just been hanging out at the house. Saturday was a lazy stay at home day. Jonathan did go out with one of his friends on the boat. He had a couple of things he wanted to get fixed on it. So he was gone most of the morning and part of the afternoon.

Friday Jonathan picked up the kids from daycare and I went to dinner with my friend Sam. We went to my favorite Italian restaurant. As I was eating my dinner I was just savoring the taste. It was so yummy. We even had a couple of glasses of wine with our dinner. On the house, of course. I was home by about 7:30, about the usual time Jonathan comes rolling in from work. Jonathan had fed the kids, given Chase a bath and was putting him to bed when I arrived. He said he didn't have any problems with the kids other than the usual fighting and a bit of arguing with each other. So it gave him some time alone with the kids and gave me a break.

Yesterday we went to the water park. Skyler took swimming lessons at her daycare and she must have learned quite a bit. Maybe too much. She really thinks she can swim on her own now. And don't get me wrong, she is doing very well, but she can only swim about 8 to 10 feet or so. She has no fear and will jump into the deep end willy nilly without thinking about it. Can I just say one thing... Frightening. Neither one of the kids has any fear. Chase is doing the same thing. Fortunately we still keep Chase in his lifejacket. I think one day when he jumps in without it on and realizes he sinks, he will have a problem. We had to be really careful and keep an eye on Skyler. You would turn your back to mess with Chase and Skyler would just jump right on in. Sometimes I think its better if your child has at last a "wee bit" of fear.

Here is an update on Jonathan's weight loss... So far he has lost 25 pounds. Woohoo! Way to go hubby! Me, I've lost 4. Ugh... Of course, I don't think I am motivated like Jonathan. I don't know what my problem is. I guess its kind of like him, you have to be ready, willing and desiring it before you can make it work. I really want it, but I just don't have as much motivation as he has right now. Shoot me please. But I am very proud of Jonathan. He is doing so good. I think he has hit a point where he is going to have to start exercising regularly. He lost 20 pounds like in the first two weeks. But those 5 additional pounds have been really hard to get off. I also know he is getting sick and tired of eating chicken.

I'm really excited to see how things go at his next doctor's appointment this month. I think his doctor is going to be really surprised at the weight he has lost. Hopefully this will also help his liver enzymes to come down.

I'm really looking forward to going on vacation this weekend. But you know the one thing I hate the most is packing. Packing blows. And since we really haven't taken both kids on a vacation before, this is going to be interesting. We go home all the time to visit my parents in Tennessee. But they have a lot of the baby stuff so we don't have to carry everything. They have a baby bed, high chair, stroller, etc. already at their house. So we don't have to pack very much when we go. Basically throw some of his clothes and some diapers in a bag and we are ready to go. She has sassies (pacifiers), the highchair, forks, sippy cups, etc. This time I am going to have to try and remember to bring everything. I guess its times like this that I'm thankful we have a mini van. Because trust me, I'm not thankful all the time. I swore to myself when I was a teenager I would NEVER drive a mini van. But look at me now baby.

Last night I watched a movie from Netflix. It was an older movie called Head Over Heels with Freddie Prinz, Jr. and Monica Potter. It was cute, but not one of my favorites. The bathroom scene where the models were in the shower and Jim was taking a dump on the toilet was pretty hilarious. But it definitely wasn't one of my all time favorites. I still have Fever Pitch to watch.

I tried to get Jonathan to watch it with me last night, but he didn't want to watch a movie. He watched Big Brother instead. I guess I'm glad he did, because the DVR didn't record it for some reason. I had already went online and found out who won HOH and who was nominated. So it kind of spoiled it for me. I was going to watch it, but after the movie went off and I realized it hadn't recorded it. Oh well. It was time for bed anyway.

Well I guess I have rambled on long enough for one day. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Take care!

Getting Slack Again...

2006-08-02T09:06:00.000-04:00

Not much going on this week. Because we are trying to save some money, we haven't done much other than hang out at the house.

Last weekend was a blow out. For about three days last week, I had been having this pain in my left ear. You know me, I ignore it until it gets so bad I can't stand it.

So Friday I picked up the kids from daycare and headed to the house. They were their usual screaming and yelling selves. Fighting, pushing, pulling each other's hair out. Fun. So by the time Jonathan came rolling into the house at around 6:30, my ear/head was killing me.

He walked in the door and I was like, "My ear is killing me, I'm going to the doctor. Now." I think he thought I was full of crap when I first said it. He even looked at me like I was lying and was really going on a secret rendezvous with my friends or something. But my ear was bugging the hell out of me and I had to do something about it before I went bonkers.

I had thoughts of some bean or some bug stuck in my ear. Perhaps it was growing sprouts or something. One of the girls I work with had recently brought in a really gross popcorn kernel that had just been surgically removed from her son's ear. Yuck! I had thoughts of something like that in my ear.

So I headed to the local emergency care clinic. Because it definitely wasn't bad enough to go to go to the emergency room or anything. And this is exactly the type of situation those clinics were made for.

The last time I was at this place was when I had to take Chase in on a Sunday afternoon when the pediatrician's office is closed. That was the day of all days I was driving Jonathan's SUV and some lady slammed into his car while I was in the clinic and she didn't even bother to tell anyone. Geeze, you wonder about people sometimes.

Anyway, so I went into the clinic and filled out all the boring paperwork. And waited. And waited and waited and waited... I kept on seeing all these (and not to be too stuck up or anything) "seedy" looking people coming through. And they were all drinking gobs of water, Gatorade, etc. I'm thinking, "Is everyone dehydrated from the heat or something?" Then as I was waiting, other people would check in after me, wait a few minutes, get called to the back and then come out and go on their merry way. After seeing about 10 people do this, I was thinking, "Ok, what the hell is going on here? I've been here longer than these people!"

So finally I walked up to the reception area and asked if and when I was going to be seen and how come all these other people were bypassing me. She looked at me like I was a complete fool and informed me that all the people who had been coming in were there for drug tests. Doh!

So when I finally got in to see the doctor, he took one look at my ears and said it was one of the worst ear infections he had seen in a long time. To my knowledge I have never had an ear infection in my life. But now at least I can appreciate how Little Man and Skyler must feel when they have ear infections. Poor babies.

So pretty much the rest of the weekend I didn't feel like doing much of anything. I got absolutely no housework done. I pretty much stayed in my nightgown all weekend. Fun.

Sunday I was feeling pretty bad for the kids being stuck in the house all weekend, so Jonathan took Skyler to the water park. She had just recently completed her second round of swimming lessons and Jonathan was proud to come home and tell me that she had learned quite a bit. She can now jump off the boards/boat without a lifejacket and swim approximately 10 feet. She can also swim pretty far under water. So we are very proud of her. Now we just have to work on Little Man's swimming abilities. He isn't afraid of water at least.

This week has been really busy at work. So busy in fact when I had a small hearing yesterday, I actually had to put my small group in a very small empty office. We have this absolutely gorgeous conference room that seats approx. 30 with top knotch AV equipment. We also have a huge training classroom upstairs and we have a small conference room that seats about 6. So we have all this space and every room was in use. I felt really bad placing them in basically a closet, but what could I do. They just laughed it off.

Today we have our Executive Committee in the building. So since we have had a group in house every day this week we have had free food. We have catering brought in for our big meetings. And after the meetings are over, staff gets to eat the leftovers. Yum!

I can't believe its almost time for our vacation. One more week! I don't even want to start thinking about packing. I always end up forgetting something. And I know, I am starting a packing list. But I inevitably forget something or another. Especially since I am responsible for packing for the entire family. I do make Jonathan pack his own clothes though. He can at least do that.

So yesterday I came home after a 9 1/2 hour shift at work. I was bone tired and the kids were fighting, yelling, slapping each other...you get the general drift. Jonathan doesn't usually come home until 7:00 or 7:30 each night. By that time I've already fed, played with and bathed the kids. So then he called and said he was going to go help someone move some furniture (it just so happened to be the same guy who is allowing us to use his beach house). So he did that and he called about 8:30 and said he was going to go out to dinner with his boss. And I kind of lost it. I went on my little tirade about how I'm always home by myself all during the week with the kids.

So I decided right then and there that one day a week Jonathan is going to pick the kids up from daycare (on time), feed them dinner and bathe them. And I said I didn't want to have to call him and remind him. He should know it his day and be responsible and do it without being reminded. So there.

I think he was stunned for a few moments, but then he agreed! I mean he is the parent to. So he chose Fridays to pick the kids up. So now on Fridays I can do whatever I want until 7:00 or 7:30. Yippee! We'll see how long this lasts, huh? ;-)

So I guess I have rambled on long enough for one day. Hope everyone is having a good Hump Day! The weekend is almost here...... Until next time...

Another Week Gone By....

2006-07-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

Fellow blogger Jess suggested that I blog. So Jess, here you go.

I really don't have a whole lot to talk about. Of course the other day I said the same thing to Caroline. She hadn't blogged in quite a few weeks and I missed reading her posts. So she finally blogged and said she didn't have anything to talk about. Seven or eight paragraphs later I think she realized she had more to talk about than she thought. He he he I think I left her a comment that was probably longer than her post!

Anyway, so not much going on this way. Just lots of stress at home. You know what most everyone's problem is nowadays... Money. Daycare is absolutely killing us. And fellow blogger Jane says she hates to hear blogging mommies go on about money, so I'll just keep my mouth mum on the situation for now. I think we all have financial problems at one time or another. Jonathan and I have been through this before. We do really well, then something comes up and things go bad.

I will say one thing though, we are really lucky that Jonathan's client is letting us use his beach house for free, or there would be no vacation for us this summer. I called my parents today and told them that we would have to eat 99% of our meals at the house. We wouldn't be able to go out to dinner every night with them. So I guess we will have to pack lots of groceries! I'll also need to research some "economical" things for us to do while we are at the beach. Does anyone have any ideas on things to do "for free" at Myrtle Beach? Ha, thats a laugh isn't it? I'm sure we'll come up with some things. The beach is free at least and we will be spending lots of time there. But my mother can't really stay out in the sun very much, so I was hoping we could find some other things to maybe do in the evening or even a few things indoor.

We have decided to sell our boat and pay off both of our cars. We don't owe very much on either of them. But the two car payments together are $600 a month. So if we sold the boat, then that would be $600 a month off of our monthly budget. What a relief. I just hope and pray my van lasts us a few more years. Doesn't the old saying go, as soon as you pay something off, something goes wrong with it. I certainly hope not. Its a Honda and they are usually pretty reliable.

Ok, I just said I wasn't going to talk about money, so moving on. We had some passes to go to BounceU the other day, so we decided to take Chase. Jonathan had never been, so he was pretty surprised at how much fun it was. I think we got more exercise that night than we have had in the last 6 months. Chase was fearless. My only regret is I didn't take the camera. I used to keep the camera in the car and would have it ready for just such occasions. But I took it in a few months ago and keep forgetting to put it back out in the car.

I took Chase up the first large slide and slid down with him. He had never done anything like that before. Jonathan said I should have seen his face as he was coming down the slide. Another regret at not having the camera. The only problem is he isn't big enough to climb up the rope ladders and stuff to get to the top of the slide. And I could barely climb up it myself while holding onto him. He had so much fun. When we got home that night he was exhausted.

Skyler and I didn't do much of anything last weekend. Jonathan left on Friday to visit his buddy in Asheville. Then Saturday morning he got up to go to TN to pick up Chase. He spent Saturday afternoon at his grandmother's house helping her do some things around the house. Then Sunday he got up and went to my parents' house to pick Little Man up.

Skyler and I hung around the house most of the weekend. After three nights at Pump It Up and BounceU, I was pretty much exhausted. Things are so much quieter around the house when you only have one child. Skyler can pretty much take care of herself. She watches cartoons, plays with her Barbies or colors and draws. We played games, colored and just hung out. Its so much more peaceful when there is just one in the house.

As soon as Chase got home Sunday evening, things turned chaotic in the house. At least there wasn't any arguments between them that first evening. They were so excited to see each other. Lots of hugging and saying they missed each other. But come Monday afternoon....the fights begun. Does it ever get any better between siblings? I certainly hope so. My brother and I didn't fight and argue like that. Of course, there 11 years difference between us so I was pretty much a built in babysitter.

Lets see what else is going on.... The other night I watched Failure to Launch with Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew McConaughey. It was pretty good. Not one of my favorite movies or anything. Then last night we watched She's the Man with Amanda Bynes. Now that movie was cute. Skyler started watching it with us and we ended up letting her stay up past her bedtime to finish watching it. She and I sat and snuggled on the recliner watching it. It was quite cute and funny.

We have absolutely no plans for this weekend. We are having to cut back on our spending and be thrifty. Medical bills have completely wiped us out. The good thing is we have water park season passes, so we can go to the water park. Its lots of fun and the kids really enjoy it. Can you believe summer is almost over with? Geeze it has like flown by this year.

I can't belive Skyler will be starting kindergarten next year. When they say your kids grow up right before your eyes, they aren't kidding.

Since this post is already pretty long, I'll get more into that over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

BounceU, BounceMe, Bounce Everybody!

2006-07-20T11:14:00.000-04:00

Tuesday after work Skyler and I decided to try out the new BounceU. Its just like Pump It Up, except they have a few more inflatables. The place was PACKED! I'm talking wall-to-wall kids and parents.

The funny thing about this place was the parents were playing almost as much as the kids. They had the tug-o-war where you hook this harness around you and another person and each of you are pulling in opposite directions to try and put a ball in a goal. They had the monster boxing (see side picture).

Skyler decided she would try the boxing. Now mind you, the child has never learned how to punch. No surprise there since she is only 4. But she really wanted to try it. She got in the ring with another little girl who was a bit older than her. That little girl was punching right and left. Skyler took it all in stride, and even went another round with another little girl later.

BounceU was a lot of fun and even though they actually had more things to do there, I still think I enjoyed Pump It Up better. The rooms were much larger at PIU and they played music. Really good music for the kids. It wasn't half as crowded and the place even smelled better. BounceU is only open one evening a week for open bounce, so the crowd was horrendous. And the parents were horrible. So many parents were like practically pushing little kids out of the way to get to the top of a slide. It was pretty bad. You wonder about people sometimes.

So after I spoke with my brother the other night, he decided he wanted to go to Pump It Up. So here we are going again tonight so my 24 year old brother can go play to! Three nights this week at a bounce place has been too much

We are so lucky we have so many fun things for kids to do here. I try and think of fun things for the kids and I to do at least a couple of times a week. I'm a working mother, so sometimes I feel guilty I don't spend enough time with my kids. I'm sure most working moms feel like that at some point or another

Yesterday morning I told Skyler we were staying home for an evening. She was okay with that. We all need to rest and relax sometimes. So I picked her up from daycare and noticed that she had her name on the board for misbehaving. After speaking with the teacher, she informed me that out of the 17 kids in Skyler's class, only 4 didn't get their name put on the board for that day. So evidently it was a bad day all the way around.

So I asked the teacher what had happened and she explained that Skyler and another little girl had been arguing and yelling at each other. So I made Skyler apologize to the teacher and the other little girl. Skyler started to get upset and kept on saying, "Your going to be so made at me." I explained to her that I wasn't angry with her, I was just disappointed. I also made her call her daddy and tell her what had happened. Well when I said that all he-- broke loose. She commenced to crying and whimpering and snot was flying. She was saying, "I'm a bad girl. I'm a baby!!!". I'm thinking, "Where the he-- is this coming from?"

She went on her little tyrade for almost an entire hour! No amount of talking, coaxing or anything would get her to calm down. Finally I started losing it. We got home and I ended up yelling at her. Then I took away her television privileges for the night. I don't know what her problem was. It was the first time she has had a temper tantrum like that in quite some time. But it was a doozy.

Little Man seems to be doing pretty well camping with my parents. I called a couple of times each day to check on him. The only problem they seem to be is the mosquitos are eating him alive. He has my skin and for some reason bugs just think we taste delicious. She said his little legs are covered in bug bites. She is afraid to let him go outside and play because he has so many. Poor little guy, I know he will drive them insane if they keep him cooped up in the camper. He doesn't like to stay at home, much less be cooped up in a small space. He is just like his sister, the first thing he says in the morning when he opens his eyes is, "Bye-bye!"

Well I guess I should end for now. I was trying to post a short video of Skyler at BounceU, but for some reason Youtube is not cooperating! Dang it. I think it is getting as bad as myspace. Geeze. Anyway, the weekend is almost upon us. Hope every is having a great week!

Pump It Up Baby!

2006-07-18T11:09:00.000-04:00

I am really missing the Little Man right now. As I mentioned before, he is spending the week with Mamaw & Papaw. As a matter of a fact, they should be leaving for their camping trip about right now. I hope he isn't a mean little booger while they are camping.

When I talked to mom last night she said he had been awesome. Its like night and day when he and Skyler aren't together. I think siblings must just bring out the worst in each other or something.

We went home over the weekend to drop Chase off at my parents' house. Jonathan and I went out to dinner alone Friday evening. Its always nice when we go home to go out for a bit by ourselves. Its a treat we don't really get to do much of while we are at home. We have friends that would babysit, but sometimes it seems its more trouble than its worth.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Jonathan has decided to go on a diet. We both need to diet and I have been trying right along with him, but I haven't had the success he has had so far. We have both stopped drinking sodas all together and we are only drinking water. We have cut out all junk food and sugar and major carbs. Jonathan has been eating lots of grilled chicken and vegetables and snacking frequently on fruits. We started this last Monday and as of yesterday (one week), Jonathan had lost 16 pounds in one week! Me, I've only lost 4 pounds. But I knew Jonathan would lost weight much faster than me anyway.

Please wish us luck. The weight loss is going to help Jonathan's health tremendously. I can tell he is really excited and he is going at it with 100% commitment. Me, I don't have the willpower that Jonathan has. I think I like my food too much. But I am at least going to give it a try.

I had plans of doing some things around the house while Little Man was gone. It seems I can never get anything accomplished with him the house. He is Mr. Destroyer. He pulls out every toy in the house and the house always looks like a cyclone ran through it. When its just Skyler, the house stays clean and neat. She picks up her own toys, puts her dirty clothes away, helps me pick up, etc. I had plans of cleaning out my nasty closet; of getting some of the kids' old clothes together and taking them to the consignment. I had lots of plans. But you know how that goes... Plans just get kicked to the curb sometimes.

Instead I decided that Skyler and I would have a fun filled week of doing new stuff. So our agenda for yesterday was going to a place called Pump it Up. I'd heard about it before. I knew it was a place to holds kids' birthday parties and what not. But they also have open "bounce days." I have just one thing to say about Pump It Up. It was awesome! Skyler and I both had a blast. Its this huge building with a bunch of those blow up bouncy castles, slides, obstacle courses, fighting rings, etc. Skyler had herself a time. I even got involved and slid down the slide a few times, bounced in the HUGE bouncy castle a bit and even bravely did the obstacle course one time. I hate I didn't take my camera.

It was a two hour session. Skyler and I were the first ones in the building at exactly 5:30 when the session began. You had to watch this safety video on things you can and cannot do in the arena and then we were off. We stayed almost the entire time. With about 15 minutes in the session to go, I see Skyler coming down the slide with blood pouring out of her knee and crying like a banshee. I jump up and run over to her and ask her what happened. Now only my child could do this, but she hit her knee on her tooth. Yes her knee on her tooth. Don't ask me how, but that's what happened.

So I took Skyler out to the front of the building and we asked for some band-aids. I then took her in the bathroom and get her cleaned and bandaged up and away she went. No complaining about the knee injury or anything while it was play time. But afterwards when we left, the complaining commenced.

"Oh mommy my knee is killing me. I can't stand it mommy, it hurts sooooo bad!" Sniff, sniff, cry, cry.....

Oh the agony and angst of a four year old girl with a boo-boo. No sir, it didn't bother her a bit while it was play time but when its time to sit down and have a nice dinner, thats when the pain begins. So I politely told her if it hurt that badly then I guess she wouldn't be able to do swimming lessons with her daycare the next day. That shut her up real fast. She was still cranky and what not, but the uncontrollable whining at least ended for a bit.

So today we are going to go to a similar place like Pump It Up. Its a new place that just opened and I don't know anyone that has been there. Its called BounceU. So we will compare the two and see which one is best. I think Little Man will have a blast at one of these places. The only bad thing is when they have "open bounce" they mix the itty bitty kids with the big kids. They have special times and days set aside for preschoolers, but guess what? Of course its on stay at home mommy time. A week day in the morning.

Do companies not realize that working mothers have preschoolers to? Hello people! Not everyone has the pleasure of staying home full time with their child. That was always the problem in trying to find a mother's group. There are no mommy groups that meet in the evenings. Very far and few between anyway. I was finally lucky enough to find a MOPS meeting that met in the evenings very close to where I live. I LOVE it. I wish there were more things like that for working moms.

Anyway, so I have rambled on long enough. Hope everyone is doing well. Its almost hump day! The weekend is just around the corner. Yippee!

The Puke Parade

2006-07-13T12:39:00.000-04:00

Oh yesterday was a doozy. I'm lucky (knock on wood), I've never had a cavity, root canal, etc. My teeth are still 100% mine. No fillings, etc. Anyway, now that I'm getting older, my teeth like the rest of my family's have started to spread a bit. Once upon a time my front teeth were perfectly shaped with no space between them. But now I have a slight space between them and another tooth is starting to creep behind my front tooth. So after a recent visit to the doctor, I asked about getting a retainer or something I could sleep in to keep my teeth from spreading any further.

So yesterday was my appointment to go back to the dentist to be fitted for my retainer. Now mind you, I am a gagger. And when I say gagger I mean GAGGER. I cannot stand anything in my mouth. It takes forever to get my x-rays because I keep gagging. I know the old rule, "Keep breathing through your nose." But for me, it just doesn't work.

So when I went in for my appointment I warned the technician,

"This is my first time ever having anything done to my teeth. And I want to warn you, I'm a really bad gagger."

She said, "No problem, I'm sure you'll be fine."

I'm like, "No seriously, I have some really bad gag reflexes."

So she shoves this huge piece of metal into mouth and says, "Yes, that should fit." I'm like on no it doesn't! It was huge. Then she commences to applying this nasty paste onto the metal thingy. And then she places it in my mouth and tells me to bite down hard. Oh the agony! That was the nastiest thing I have ever tasted in my life. So I do really good for about 15 seconds and then the gagging begins. Meanwhile I am gagging and the lady has a death grip on my mouth. She will not let me open my mouth for the life of me. I'm humming and hawing and gagging and trying to get her to take it out of my mouth. But she says, "Trust me, you won't want to do this again. It will be over in about 30 seconds." But I can't hack it. Unfortunately, I had a late lunch of vegetable soup and it is not wanting to stay down.

So after a few more seconds and chickie is still not letting me open my mouth, my lunch came up. Yuck! And what does the technician do? Does she release my mouth so I can spew my lunch all over her? Oh heck no! She still keeps my mouth closed in her death-like vice grip! Luckily it was only a teaspoon full and not a full spewing load or anything. But oh the embarrassment.

Chase has been doing the weirdest thing here lately. For some reason Mr. Muscleman thinks its fun to move the couch and play behind it. How many 2 year olds do you know who can move the couch 2 1/2 feet out from the wall? It is driving me absolutely bonkers. He will even try and move the couch with me sitting on it. His cars keep on rolling under the couch and instead of laying down on the floor and trying to reach under the couch, he just pushes the couch out to reach his cars. He is so funny.

Last night was a bad night for Chase. For some reason he woke up at about 12:30 a.m. and thought it was time to get up. He kept hollering at me, "Momma lets go bye-bye!" My son is a go go go boy, just like my daughter is. I went in there 3 times and told him to lay back down, that it was still dark outside and it wasn't time to get up. I have no idea what his problem was. He has been so good about going to bed and sleeping through the night. I really hope he isn't changing his sleeping habits. Skyler was really good about going to bed and sleeping until she hit about 3 years old. After that it was like 1 1/2 years of pure hell. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it was just a one time deal and not going to be a habit.

Tomorrow we are going back to Tennessee to pick up the boat and drop Chase off at my parents' house. They are taking Chase camping with them to Pigeon Forge for a week. I kind of feel bad because they aren't taking Skyler. I know she is going to be upset that we are leaving her "Bubbie" behind. If she knew they were going camping, she would absolutely have a hissy fit. But she has been camping with them several times before and they really can't handle both of them at the same time while they are camping. So she isn't going this time. I promised her we would do lots of girl things like shopping, going to the water park, going to the movies, etc. She seemed to be satisfied with that for now. But I don't know what she will say when it comes Sunday and we are pulling out of the driveway without Bubbie. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Last weekend Jonathan went down to Myrtle Beach with the guy who is going to let us use his beach house. So by the time he came back on Sunday I was ready for a break to get away for the kids for a few moments. So my friend Sam and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. It was really a great movie, but the ending sucked. It definitely was a "To Be Continued" kind of movie. So much so that it actually kind of ticked me off. The special effects in the movie were mind boggling and the characters were awesome. But it definitely isn't a movie to take the little ones to see. Some of those characters even freaked me out. Skyler wanted to see the movie, but I know she would have nightmares for weeks if she saw it. So no pirates for Punk.

It was great just to get out of the house for awhile. Jonathan bathed and fed the kids that night so Sam and I could go out to dinner and the movies. Its nice to get out and have an adult night out without the kiddies every once in awhile.

Well I guess I should end for now and get a few things done around the house. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Taking a Break...

2006-07-11T10:13:00.000-04:00

I know, I totally blow. I think I just decided to take a small break from blogging for awhile. I'm so bad, I haven't even read any blogs. But summer is always busy for most people. The kids are out of school, there are so many things to do and see. Oh the excuses, the excuses....

Seriously though, things have been going okay. It just seems we have been so busy this summer, it is making my head spin! The good thing is I'm not real busy at work. Now that I only work in the Legal Dept. and not Events, things are pretty slow in the summer. I know, I complain because I am too busy and now I'm complaining because I'm not busy enough. Typical woman, you can never please em.

I am making a promise to try and sit down this week and get caught up on all my blogs. I miss reading them. If I were a "slacker" I'd just read them from work. But you don't want to anger the employer Gods or anything. I'm lucky that I even work at a place that has Internet access and doesn't monitor the heck out of you. I know a lot of people, including my husband, don't have that pleasure. At least I can ocassionally check my personal email and read a bit of news or something in the mornings.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July. We went home for about 5 days to Tennessee. We took the boat with us and took it out on the lake a couple of times. Some friends of ours came down from Knoxville and went with us. We took Skyler and they have a 3 year old son. We had a great time, but everyone (except the kids) got pretty sunburned. At least I have enough common sense to put sunblock on the kids, but not myself. Other than that, we didn't really do much but sleep in and relax and play for the 4th.

I have some great news on the vacation front though. We are going to take our first official "Family Vacation" next month. We are so bad. We've taken several cruises without the kids, but never officially been on a family vacation. Little Man is just so wild and he is so young he probably doesn't know the difference anyway. But we are lucky that Jonathan has a client who has a 4 bedroom house in North Myrtle Beach and he is going to let us use it FOR FREE!!! You can't beat that can you?

Jonathan actually went down with the guy last weekend so he could show him how to turn on the electricity & water, charge up the golf cart, etc. He doesn't rent his property out, he uses it for business purposes and his family and he is very particular about how it is cleaned. He is going to give Jonathan like a 3 pages of things that needs to be cleaned and straightened before we leave. We are just so excited and appreciative that he is allowing us to use his home. Otherwise, we would never be able to afford to go to the beach. I mean have you looked at the cost of hotels at the beach here lately? Your average American family can't afford to even go. $160 a night to stay at the Days Inn. Are they crazy!

Since its such a huge house, we decided to take my parents along with us. They don't really enjoy the beach very much, but it will be nice to have the whole family together. The kids have never really been to the beach. Skyler has been a couple of times to Atlantic Beach, but it was too cold to swim. And even when we went on the cruise and were in the Bahamas back in February, it was really too cold to swim. So this will be their first real experience at the beach.

I haven't been to Myrtle Beach (other than for a day or so) since Sun Fun Week 1988. God, that really ages me doesn't it? Myrtle Beach was where all the high schoolers went when they graduated. I remember we stayed at a hotel right on the beach for $35 a night. So from $35 a night to $160 a night for a cheap motel. Somebody somewhere is sure as heck getting rich.

I was also just reading the other day that they are closing down the Myrtle Beach Pavilion to build condos! How sad is that. The Pavilion has been there for over 50 years! I remember being a young teenager and going to The Attic. It was a teen club for kids under 18. My cousin and I would go and we thought we were hot stuff! Oh the memories. Its sad to see something like that disappear.

A few weeks ago I finally got permission from my boss to go to the national meeting in New Orleans. We will have 35,000 members going to New Orleans at once. We will be the biggest group to return to New Orleans since Katrina. It should be interesting. I have been trying to talk Jonathan into going with me. All he would have to pay for would be his ticket and his food. New Orleans is such a great city. I know it will be sad to see some of the outlying areas so devestated.

Before I end for the day, I found this on Special K's blog. I thought it was pretty cool. I've pretty much been all over the U.S. thanks to a 3 week road trip I took with my dad, stepsister and stepmom back when I was younger out West. Not to mention all the small trips we have taken since then.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Well I guess I should end for now. I'm hoping to catch up on some blogs this week. Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Here We Go Again.....

2006-06-10T11:15:00.000-04:00

Here we go again... Every time I think I am back in the groove of keeping up with this blog, time just seems to get away from me. Let's see, what all has been going on since I last wrote.

Last weekend my parents came over to bring Chase home and to spend a weekend with us. They hadn't been for a visit since we went on our cruise back in November of last year. They were getting slack! I think they don't like coming over so much anymore because when they come they boot Chase out of his room. We have to put up the port-a-crib and put him in our room. But I don't think Chase minds and we definitely don't mind.

So they came over on Friday and we all went out to dinner. On Saturday we had planned on taking them to the Lazy 5 Ranch so they could see it. So we got in our car and headed towards Mooresville. I thought, "Well I'll call and make an appointment to ride a wagon." So I called the ranch and the girl said the horses weren't taking out anymore wagons that afternoon because they were too tired. It was only noon! I guess since it was so hot, they must have wore themselves out or something. But who wants go to if you can't actually ride in one of the wagons. Going through the ranch in your car just isn't as much fun. In my opinion anyway. Not to mention we have a mini van and the windows don't roll down for the kids or anything, so it would really blow for them.

So we were almost there by the time I called. We decided we wouldn't go to the ranch but go to the North Carolina Transportation Museum instead to ride the train. Skyler has always loved trains and Chase is pretty keen on them to. So we headed to Spencer to ride the train. We walked around the exhibits for a bit and then went on our train ride. As usual, Skyler got a bit mouthy while we were there and we ended up not staying as long as I would have liked. Sometimes I wonder about this child. She has the mouth of a 15 year old on her and she is only 4. I can only imagine what she is going to be like when actually is 15!

After we left the Transportation Museum it was still pretty early so I asked Jonathan if we could drive on down to Concord Mills to do a bit of shopping and let Skyler and Chase play at Jillians. Jillians is a place that has food and rides, kind of like a larger Chuck-E-Cheese or something. You can buy a wristband and the kids can ride all of the rides all day. They have an indoor miniature roller coaster, swings, etc. It's kind of cool. It had been a really long time since we had been to Concord Mills so we were really surprised when we got there and saw they had opened up a Dave & Busters. Unfortunately by the end of the day the kids were pretty exhausted so we didn't even get a chance to go in D&B's and see it.

By that time we were all starving, so we decided to eat at Razoo's Cajun Cafe. Yum! I love Razzoos. Their stuffed shrimp is to die for. Chase loved everything and stuffed himself silly. Their menu is quite creative with things like fried pickles and "rat toes." I think the menu kind of freaked out my mom when she first looked at it. After dinner everyone was exhausted and we headed back home.

Sunday Jonathan had to go in to work for awhile and then that afternoon my parents kept Chase while Jonathan, Skyler and I went to the water park. It was the first time we had been this year. It was pretty warm outside, the water was still pretty cold. Of course that didn't deter Skyler in the least little bit.

Then on Monday Skyler had her orientation at the new performing arts school. My parents were still kind of unsure about this whole "open school" thing. So I asked them to come over and go with me to the parent/child orientation to find out more about how they do things at the school and also give them a bit of a tour. I won't go into great detail about everything, but as they were explaining things to the parents I kept looking over at my mom and she just had this dumbfounded expression on her face. I was about to crack up! I still think she doesn't quite "get it."

Nonetheless, Skyler is so excited and she can't wait to start school. I don't think she quite understands that she won't be going there until August. She still has no concept of time whatsoever. When you say "tonight" or "tomorrow" she gets agitated and doesn't understand.

Thursday was Skyler's last day of pre-k. We have put her in a local church daycare for the summer. Evidently she really likes it because when I went to pick her up yesterday around 3:00 p.m. to go to the movies to see Cars, she pretty much threw a fit and didn't want to leave! She kept saying, "But mom, I want to stay!!!" It took me a good 15 minutes to get her out of there. By that time we were almost late for the movie. Luckily we made it just as the movie was coming on. I have to say I really enjoyed the movie. It was pretty funny. It had a lot of adult humor in it to. And I'm sure if your a Nascar fan, you would definitely recognize a lot of the voices of the cars. I watch a bit of Nascar once in a blue moon if Jonathan has it on. But I really don't know any of the drivers by name, car or number or anything. Except maybe Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Oh God, does that make me a redneck?!?

Then last night one of Jonathan's old Army buddies he was stationed with in Korea came up to spend the night. His name is Steve and he used to live in Florida, but a few months ago they have moved to Asheville. So Asheville is not too far away so he decided to come for a visit. He and Jonathan cleaned up the boat and got it started and are on their way to Lake Norman as we speak. Meanwhile I'm stuck here at home with the kids today. Oh joy, happy, happy, joy, joy.... Nah, they aren't too bad. Chase is napping and Skyler is in her room playing with her Barbies. Hence why I have a few moments to write an entry.

I actually got up this morning and made breakfast for everyone. I made biscuits and gravy, sausage and bacon. We had some of Jonathan's grandmother's applebutter and homemade strawberry jam. Yum. I'm still not an expert on the making gravy, but I'm still practicing! After Jonathan and Steve left to go out on the boat I even put a roast into the oven. I just feel like a total domestic diva today. he he he

I also spent sometime on myspace this weekend. I've had a myspace profile for years now. But I never really used it. I think the only friend I had was "Tom." And for all of those who use myspace, you will know it is not cool to have Tom as your only friend! A couple of fellow bloggers I read had mentioned they now had spots on myspace, so I went to check them out. I got to messing around and looking up people from my old high school in Tennessee. In less than a couple of hours, I had gotten in touch with 3 long lost classmates. Now how cool was that!

Unfortunately I did receive a bit of bad news from one of them though. Her brother, whom I had actually been friends with and gone out with a couple of times, had died of a brain aneurysm in 2002. I didn't even know he had passed. She and her brothers lived in the same subidvision as I did growing up. But how cool was it catching up with a couple of old classmates. Now I'm on a quest to add more friends. Here is a link to my myspace profile:

http://www.myspace.com/monicahuck

Don't laugh or anything because I have absolutely hardly any friends and I really haven't figured out how to "pimp" my page yet. But I'm learning!!! If any of you guys have myspace profiles, please, please, please friend me so I don't feel like a dork! he he he

Well I better end for now before I put you to sleep from boredom. I'm hoping I'll have a few moments to catch up on your blogs today. Keep in touch girls! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Never Enough Time....

2006-06-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

Things have just been absolutely CRAZY this week. You take a nice 4 day weekend and what do you get when you return to work.... Slammed! Ugh. I love taking vacations, but it seems when you get back things have just piled up. And I was only gone two days. Geeze.

The real reason I was so busy this week is I was moving my office. They have finally hired a new person to work in events and education, so I'm back to legal full time. I don't mind. I really enjoyed working in events much better than legal, but it had come a time where I couldn't handle both jobs. It was too much. I was constantly stressed and worried about how much I had to do. So I am at least grateful they took some of my work off of me. But I will definitely miss working in events. I will still do all the legal events. Just not all the big meetings we have throughout the year. Although they will still depend on me to be the "AV person." Still not sure how I acquired that job. I mean come on people, it's not that hard to hook up an LCD projector. It only has two cords.

Anyway, so I was basically moving all week. I am known at the office as the "pig pen." I keep my office looking like a total wreck. Not sure why I do it, but I always have papers and boxes and files strewn about. I'm sure they will be glad I am gone with my messiness. I always get gigged on my messiness on my evaluation. But each year I just let them know it's never going to change. That just happens to be how I work. They laugh it off. After 7 years, I think they have pretty much figured out I'm never going to have a neat office.

So I had like 5 years of build up in this particular office. I started cleaning up and I think I trashed about 60% of my office. I was throwing away files and registrations. You name it, it went into the dipsty dumpster. After I was finished my old office looked clean. I even vacuumed and dusted. The new girl should be happy. She has a clean office to start in.

So I just rolled everything on carts over to my new office. I put a few things away. But for the most part, all my junk is still on the carts. I had a few things that I needed to attend to that were pretty important. And straightening out my new office was not at the top of my list. Then yesterday I had an all day computer class. My friend Sam and I took Outlook 2003, Level 2. You think you know absolutely everything there is to know about Outlook, but you don't. We learned quite a bit. I don't think I'll go back and take Level 3, I think I can figure the rest of it out on my own.

My parents came over this weekend to bring Chase back. They are really coming over to check out Skyler's new school. On Monday she has her kindergarten orientation at the new performing arts school. School doesn't actually start until August, but I think they want to bring the kindergarteners in so they can see what school is like while the other kids are there. My mom is kind of freaking out about the whole "open school" thing. Whenever I tried to explain it to her, it horrified her. But I think once she sees what it's like, she will understand it a bit more.

Right now I'm sitting here listening to Skyler cry. Skyler has no concept of privacy or minding what her parent say sometime. She thinks if your in the bathroom taking a shower or using the bathroom, she can just waltz on in and do whatever she likes. If you look the door, she totally freaks out. I've tried explaining to her that you need privacy when your taking a shower and using the restroom, but she freaks out. She will stand outside the door and beat and kick on the door. You can talk to her, put her in time out, spank her... But she doesn't listen. Sometimes I don't know what to do with her. Mom is in there taking a shower and Skyler is so mad because someone has locked the door.

I'm not sure what we are going to do this weekend. I was thinking about taking my parents down to the Lazy 5 Ranch. But it has been kind of wet and rainy today. It's not actually raining right now though so we might go on. I know I definitely don't want to be cooped up in the house with the kids all weekend. I have to get out of the house or I go bonkers.

Well I better end for now and get ready to go. Little Man is down for a nap at the moment and Skyler is lying naked in her bed crying because I got on to her for beating on the bathroom door. Just a normal day in our household.....

Vacation Post

2006-05-29T11:48:00.000-04:00

I decided to bring my laptop from work so I could get a bit done while on vacation at my parents' house. My parents have a computer and a cable modem, but the computer is almost 10 years old and it is slower than Christmas. I unhooked their cable and hooked up my laptop and I'm speeding away now. I don't know how in the world they use that ancient computer. The monitor is so bad you can barely even read the text.

Anyway, the weekend has been going pretty good so far. We got here Friday evening and went out to eat at a restaurant called Cootie Browns. It's a pretty strange restaurant that has garage doors that they can roll up when the weather is warm. They have pretty good food to. After dinner we decided to walk across the parking lot and get some ice cream. When I picked Chase up out of his high chair he was soaked. He had pee'd so much in his diaper that he was practically dripping. So I had to take him back to the van and change his clothes. The only thing I could reach very well out of his suitcase was a pair of pajamas. Now they kind of look like shorts, but they are really pajamas. So I dressed him in his pajamas and we walked over to get some ice cream. Now how redneck was that! At least he was all ready to go to bed when we got home. Tee hee.

The next day we kind of hung around the house (and slept in, of course). Then that afternoon Jonathan's uncle called to invite us to his daughter's graduation party. We had completely forgotten about Jerica's graduation. I felt really bad because if I had remembered, then Skyler and I would have gotten up and went to the graduation. Not to mention it would have been nice to see my old high school. So we ran to Wal-Mart to get a graduation card and some cash, then we drove to Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up a bucket of chicken to take to the party. Jonathan's grandmother and dad were also there.

The cousin who was graduating was also one of our flower girls in our wedding 15 long years ago. She was 3 and her sister (the one who just got married last month and Skyler was her flower girl) was 7 at the time. It makes me feel so old that they are so big now. They were just babies when we got married!

We had a great time at the party. Skyler ran around with some of the other kids. The party was actually for Jerica and two of her best friends, so there were quite a few people there. When it was time to cut the cake they commenced to having a cake fight. Their high school colors are blue and orange, so you can imagine the blue and orange cake icing. It stains! I got a few pics, but only with my camera phone. I never seem to remember to bring my camera.

After the cake fight we went down to play softball. Of course Skyler and I were just spectators. I couldn't play softball if my life depended on it at my old age. After that Skyler and I went to the playground for a bit. By the time we walked back to where the party was being held, it was after 9:00 p.m. Skyler was too pooped to party and was getting very grouchy. So we headed home and I put Skyler to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and did a few things around the house. That afternoon Skyler and I decided to go eat at this Chinese restaurant I used to work at as a teenager. The same people still own it and still remember me.

After lunch we decided to go to a local park called Bays Mountain. It's a really beautiful nature sanctuary on top of a mountain. They have a planetarium, animals outdoors, a lake with a barge and great hiking. Of course we couldn't do much hiking with Little Man. But we pushed him in his stroller a bit and then let Skyler ride in the stroller a bit. We walked on some of the nature trails and came within about 10 feet of some deer. They were very tame and obviously were very used to being around people. All in all it was a great day.

After the park I took my mom home and then I took Skyler and Chase down to visit with my dad and my stepmom. My dad started up the tractor and was going to take Chase for a ride. But Chase has never been on such a large and loud tractor, so he kind of lost it and started crying and screaming. I think it partly had to do with he hadn't had a nap all afternoon and he was just cranky. But they played outside and had a good ole time. Then I packed them up and we headed back to my mom's house. I fed them, gave their baths and put them to bed.

Sometimes vacation is more work than rest and relaxation. At least my mom gets up early with Chase so Skyler and I can sleep in. The weird thing is Chase gets up at 6:45 to 7:00 a.m. at our house. But when we come to my mom's house he sleeps in until 9:00 a.m. What's the deal with that!?!?

Skyler's new school has an open house this coming Monday, so my parents were going to come to NC so they could go see her school. Since they were going to be driving over anyway, they are just going to keep Chase with them and bring him back next weekend. So it will just be me, Skyler and Jonathan at the house for the rest of the week. If Skyler was already out of school I would leave her here to. But she doesn't get out of school until June 8th.

I can't believe summer is almost here. This year has just flown by. Skyler will be 5 in August and Chase will be 2. They are growing up right before our eyes and are getting more and more self sufficient by the day. Before you know it they will be teenagers. God help us then.

Well I guess I better end for now. Chase is down for his afternoon nap and Skyler is getting ready to go somewhere with her mamaw and papaw. Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. I'm outta here!

Quick Post

2006-05-26T11:19:00.000-04:00

This will probably be a quick post. Today the kids and I are leaving to go home to Tennessee to visit with my parents. I can't believe it's Memorial Day Weekend already. Where the heck has this year gone? Skyler gets out of school next week. The kids back home where my parents live got out around the middle of May. I'm not sure why our schools go so much longer. They didn't miss any days for snow this year either. Oh well. I guess it's just a shorter time that I have to pay for daycare.

I don't know how we are going to stretch our budget to pay for the extra full time daycare through the summer. I am paying out over $800 a month in daycare right now. Now that may not sound like much to those people who live somewhere like CA or NY, but it's a real hardship on our budget. Not to mention Chase's babysitter just asked for a $20 per week raise. Not saying she didn't deserve it. We were still paying her the same amount that we have paid for the last 5 years when she kept Skyler. But when you add an additional $20 per week, that adds up.

So anyway, just wanted to shot off an entry before we left. We'll be back on Tuesday. I might take my laptop from work so I can do some work and maybe put up an entry while we are gone. Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend. Take care!

Long Weekend Coming....

2006-05-23T08:26:00.000-04:00

I haven't had a chance to post in a couple of days. Sunday was really busy because we took the kids to have their picture taken at Portrait Innovations. If you have never used them before, I highly recommend them. They took 65 poses of the kids. Of course we only purchased a couple of the poses, but they provided us with a CD of all the poses. I loaded a bunch of them on my flickr account. So if you would like to see them, click on their picture on the right and it will take you directly to the photos. Some of them are so cute. They had a really good time posing. They are such hams.

For those of you who have been asking about how I post the videos. It's so simple. The website is: www.youtube.com You just make yourself an account and upload your video. The account is free. Once you have uploaded your video, it will take you to a page that already has the code for you. It gives you a choice of a URL and also a code to embed the video into your blog, an email, etc. Its so simple. I have a digital camera that takes video, so I just have to upload my videos. I'm not taking them from a camcorder or anything. So simple even a child can do it. So I encourage you guys to upload some of your own videos. I used to use another program called DropShots, but the You Tube is easier and it allows you to store more. So now you know. :-)

So Saturday night I took my hubby's suggestion and went out with my friend Sam. Two nights in a row away from the kids. Woo-Hoo! We decided to do the usual, dinner and a movie. We are such boring girls. We decided to see the DaVinci Code. Now I haven't read the book or anything, so I was a little unsure about it. I mean I have seen all the articles in the news about the book, but I just don't have much time to read anymore. My friend Sam had read the book. So I was a little concerned since I hadn't read the book that I may not get the movie. But we decided to see it anyway. The first movie we were going to see was sold out. So we went to see a later one. I have just one thing to say about the movie. It was great! I know it's fiction and all, but it really made you think.

Yesterday was a really busy day at work. I had a committee meeting all day. It basically takes me an hour and a half to get ready for the meeting. I have to make the coffee, put up all the equipment (two computers, LCD, screen, AV cart, etc.). Prepare the room, put out the name tents for the committee members, etc. Then after a 5 hour meeting I have to clean up their mess. Fun.

It's been about a year since I first took on this new role as staff liaison for some of the committees. When I first started doing it, it totally freaked me out. I would lay in bed at night just fretting over the meetings. It has taken me a good year to learn how to do things. I am just now finally getting used to it. It's hard to take minutes and be staff liaison for something you don't totally understand yourself. But I'm finally getting the hang of it. Thank God.

This weekend the kids and I are going home to Tennessee to visit with my parents. Jonathan is staying behind because he is acting GM and he is letting his shop manager go away for vacation. So he is going to be pretty busy. Not to mention that he is going to be cleaning out the entire garage by himself. I told him I didn't care if his building (at work) was burning to the ground, he better make the time to get that garage cleaned out! I'm normally not so bossy, but I have been asking him to help m clean it out for two years and his excuse is always, "We can't do it with the kids here." So when he was trying to get out of going to Tennessee with us for Memorial Day, I threw in the cleaning out the garage as his chore to do while we are gone. I'm so mean.

Well I guess I better end for now and actually get some work done around here. Last night I downloaded the latest version of Diner Dash 2 and I got hooked on it after the kids went to bed. Like I should be doing lots of other things besides playing a computer game. But hey, we all need to do something a little enjoyable every once in awhile. I love that game. It's so simple and easy. That's the way I like my games. But anyway, hope everyone is having a good week. I got caught up on most of your journals this morning. Talk to ya soon! I'm outta here....

Changes

2006-05-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

So not much going on around here this week. Jonathan has hired himself a new assistant manager. This one was "hand picked" by corporate. A recruiter from the corporate office whom Jonathan greatly admires and trusts called him up and asked him if he could hand pick one of Jonathan's new managers. Since Jonathan trusts him completely, he said, "Sure." We were very surprised when Jonathan found out his newest assistant manager was a girl. You would just have to know in Jonathan's line of business, there aren't that many females. So he was pretty surprised.

No problem, Jonathan has worked with females before. He doesn't have any problems working with girls. In fact, when he worked the store, he said he would rather work with females because they didn't give him as much crap, they were much more dependable and they listened better. (Seems he has learned a thing or two in his old age).

Then Jonathan finds out this girl is fresh out of college. She is 22 years old. No problem, Jonathan has someone he can "mold." He figures she will work with him for 18 months or so and then she will probably move on somewhere else in the company on her way as she climbs the "corporate ladder."

Well she and her parents were coming down this weekend to look for an apartment. So Jonathan finally met her. He was really surprised when he met her and found out she was very attractive. All of the guys in the shop just kind of stopped and stared. So not only is she a beautiful girl, but she was really nice. Me being the nice person that I am had gone to several real estate companies and gathered up "relocation packets" and stuff for her. She was very nice and very thankful. Then last night we had dinner with her and her parents. They seemed like really nice down home people.

Normally I don't get all up in Jonathan's business at work, but sometimes you just have to check things out for yourself. I'm nosy, what can I say. Sue me.

So since Jonathan is acting GM right now while his manager is in the hospital, he has been really, really busy. I've basically had the kids every night by myself (except for last night when my friend Sam came to babysit the kids while we had dinner with his new manager). And then today Jonathan is going to be gone all day with the auditors and then traveling to Duke to visit with his boss.

When Jonathan got up this morning I was feeding the kids their breakfast. I made them some strawberry muffins and scrambled eggs for breakfast. He came down and started cleaning up the kitchen and washing up the dishes, so I wouldn't have to. Very nice. He was just leading in to how he was going to be gone all day. But it was at least nice for him to clean up the kitchen so I didn't have to.

So after he tells me he is going to be gone pretty much all day today and pretty much all day on Sunday. He's then like, "Why don't you call Sam and ask her to go out to dinner and maybe the movies tonight." I'm like, "You sure as heck don't have to ask me twice. I'm all over that." So after I got the kids cleaned up after breakfast, I was on the phone calling Sam. I have no idea where we are going to go tonight or what movie we are going to see, but it will be good to at least get out of the house.

Chase has been a grouchy baby here lately. He just screams and screams if things don't go his way. And I'm not talking about a little whine. He screams like a banshee. It gives me a headache. I don't know what his problem is. I'm going to say teething. Because if this is how he is going to be permanently, God help me.

Click on Chase's photo for pics of the kids at the Lazy 5 Ranch

So I finally had a few minutes to put a few of the Lazy 5 Ranch pictures up. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pics of the kids actually feeding some of the animals. It's kind of hard to take pictures and make sure that your kids aren't falling over the side into a pack of animals at the same time.

Well I guess I better end for now and actually get some work done around the house. Little Man is taking his morning nap at the moment. And Skyler is in her room playing with her bazillion Polly Pockets. Catch up with you guys real soon. I'm outta here.

We are the Movie Queens

2006-05-17T12:25:00.000-04:00

On Monday one of the girls I work with gave me two free movie passes to see a "sneak preview" of Over the Hedge. I have one thing to say about this new kid's movie by DreamWorks... AWESOME!!! It was so funny, the animation was unbelievable. It was an absolute joy. Loved it. If you have kids, you must take them to see it.

They also showed a preview of this other movie that will be coming out in November called Flushed Away. It is also made by DreamWorks and it looked really cute. Skyler is already talking about going to see it. It's hard to explain to a 4 year old that something isn't going to happen for like 6 months.

Skyler and I go to practically every kids movie that comes out. It's our "girl's night out" together. Now that Chase is getting older, I need to start doing something alone with him. I want us to do things as a family, but I also want to be able to spend alone time with both of my children. I think that's important that each of them have my undivided attention for a bit each week. I know if you had 3 or 4 kids, something like that might be impossible, but with 2, I think I can still swing it.

When I was growing up and my mother remarried. I almost never had alone time with my mom. Everything we did, my stepdad was always there. I think it hurt me in a lot of ways that I never got to spend much time alone with my mother. I don't really blame my mom or my stepdad. My stepdad was just of the belief that you should do everything together as a family. But daughters need time alone with their mothers sometimes. Especially to talk about personal things, ask advice, etc. I'm definately not going to make that mistake with Skyler. I want her to know she can talk to me about anything and that I will always take time for her.

So Chase has started a very BAD habit. A couple of weekends ago we were downstairs playing in the living room and I smelled poop. So I told Chase I would be back in a moment with a fresh diapie. I ran into the kitchen, grabbed a diaper and some wipes and went back in to change him. In the 45 seconds that I had been away, Chase had pulled off his diaper and was smeering poop on the floor! Yuck! I gagged and freaked. I finally got him all cleaned up and tried to tell him that was not nice, etc. So I thought it was a one time thing.

So yesterday I went to pick up Chase from the babysitter's and when I walked in she had this pissed off look on her face and she was beside herself. She said that Chase had woken up from his nap and took his diaper off and smeared poop all over the bed. He had it in his hair, in his ears, everywhere! And she said he did it twice that day. Both times he took a nap! Me thinks this might be a sign that it's time for Little Man to start using a regular potty! Skyler never did anything like that. I guess it's just another one of those "Boy Things" huh? Ugh.

Jonathan didn't get home from work last night until after 10:00 p.m. He is having some major stress from his job. The General Manager has to have surgery and will be out for about 6 to 8 weeks. So Jonathan is acting GM. No problem, he can handle that. But then the District Manager shows up. Ok, he can handle that. But then yesterday auditors showed up! Talk about stress. He is not a happy camper right now. When it rains, it pours I guess.

I'm lucky myself this week. About 70% of my co-workers are off for mid-year meetings in DC. So the office is pretty quiet. Us girls left behind made an executive decision that it was dress down the rest of the week. So I'm in jeans, a t-shirt and my Rainbows today. Wish I could dress like this every day. How cool would that be. I can't complain, we are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays.

No big plans so far for this weekend. I'm sure Jonathan will be working quite a few hours. I hope it's nice that we can go outside and do something. I have tons and tons of clothes to wash. I should wash a load each night instead of keeping everything until the weekend. Then I have like 12 loads of laundry. I still wash the kids' clothes seperate from our's. But I wonder if I should just start washing everyone's together now. I liked to wash them seperately when they were babies, but I guess they are big enough now that it really doesn't matter.

Well I guess I have rambled on long enough for one day. I need to actually get some work done. I'm outta here.

Skyler as a "Princess" (aka a Flower Girl)

2006-05-16T15:06:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day Weekend

2006-05-15T16:19:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a very Happy Mother's Day. Mine was pretty good. As expected, no card, flowers or gifts, but at least I have happy healthy children. Jonathan did suggest we go out to eat. I was feeling in the mood for some steak, so we headed to the Outback last night. It was yummy as always. They even handed out carnations to all the moms. So I did get one flower! Although Skyler had broke it before we even left the table. Poor baby, she was so upset she broke momma's flower.

Little Man is a total flirt. He flashes his big baby blues to the ladies and they just swoon. He also has this habit of hitting women on the booty. He doesn't hit men, only the girls. I fear this habit may be my fault because I am constantly patting and squeezing his butt as I say, "Momma is going to eat you up!" He laughs and giggles and thinks it's funny. It's all good right now, but hopefully he still won't be in the habit of doing it when he is 25!

We had a really great weekend. Saturday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. I was sitting in the recliner and said to Jonathan,

"You know, it's such a nice day, we should get out and do something with the kids. I'm tired of sitting in the house."

Jonathan said, "What the heck are we supposed to do?"

So I got out this book I had bought a couple of years ago, titled Fun with the Family North Carolina. It's a pretty cool book that lists places to go and things to do in NC. I turned to our area and saw a place called The Lazy 5 Ranch. Here is their advertisement:

The Lazy 5 Ranch is a privately owned exotic animal drive-thru park that offers a 3.5 mile safari through the gently sloping pasturelands of Piedmont, North Carolina. While visiting at the Lazy 5 Ranch you will have the opportunity to view over 750 animals from six different continents. You can see these animals from the safety of your own car or call for reservations on our horse drawn wagons. And be sure to bring your camera. This is a drive-thru experience unique in North Carolina. There is no other collection of animals like this in the Southeast.

Other areas of interest at the Lazy 5 Ranch include petting areas, a black smith shop, gift store, horse barn, play ground and picnic areas.

I just have one thing to say. We had an absolute blast! The kids loved it. How many people can say they have pet and hand fed a giraffe!?! We took the horse drawn wagons and got up close and personal with some of the animals. A little too close sometimes. I'll be sure and put up some of the pics when I get a chance.

Jess, I know this is in your neck of the woods to, so if you ever get a chance to take Madison go for it! As a matter of a fact, email me and I'll meet you there.

The kids loved it. Even Jonathan had a bit of fun for once. Normally when I drag him somewhere with the kids and I he hates it. He mopes and makes us all miserable. But I actually think he had a pretty good time himself. Other than he got a bit perturbed at Chase because he didn't want to sit still. Go figure, a two year old boy who doesn't want to sit still. Chase wanted in on the action, he would have hopped on the backs of some of those animals and rode off into the sunset if we would have let him.

It was such a fun day and we all had a blast. Afterwards we went to this farm down the street called Patterson Farm and had some hand-dipped ice cream and picked some strawberries. It was great. And it is such beautiful country out that way. Rolling hills, lush green fields. Just beautiful. It totally reminded me of my home in Tennessee.

And now it's Monday and back to the ole grind at work. Don't you just hate Mondays. The weekends just seem to fly by. They are over and done with before you even know it.

So I got a bit of good news from Jonathan today. We had been planning on taking the family to Myrtle Beach for a 4 day weekend or something. But when I started checking on the prices of hotels and found out it was like $150 a night to stay there in the summer (and this is like the Days Inn, Motel 8, etc.), I almost had a cow! Please tell me how normal families afford to take their children to the beach. I mean who the hell can afford that? I guess your average family can't afford to take much of a vacation anymore. Now I remember why we cruise so often. It's cheaper than even paying for a hotel room at the beach!

So anyway, Jonathan has a client with his work who has a half a million dollar 4 bedroom home on the beach in Myrtle Beach. He doesn't use it that often and doesn't rent it out. So Jonathan just casually asked him if he rents his home out and he said no way, he was too picky about who he would want to stay there. So Jonathan was just going to let it be when the guy said, "But your more than welcome to use it any time you like. You just have to clean the place back up when you leave." Score!!!! How cool is that? So now we are making plans to go stay in his house for a week in June. What a super nice guy!

Our only fear is that Chase might break something. I told Jonathan with 4 bedrooms when we got there we could just do a run through of the house and put anything breakable at Chase's height in one of the extra bedrooms. I would hate for my toddler to break something when someone was nice enough to let us use their for free. This will be Chase's first time to the beach. Should be fun to watch.

I just got an email from fellow blogger Krista. She has a wonderful story on the adoption of her daughter. Krista and her husband live in Germany. The story is on AFN (Armed Forces Network) Click on the link below to view her video. What a great story Krista!

http://images.radcity.net/5765/1434508.wmv

Drama

2006-05-13T10:50:00.000-04:00

This has been an awful week. I had some major drama at work. I won't even bother to go into too much detail because, hey, this thing isn't password protected. We'll just put it this way, I now know that my 7 years of hard work, loyalty and busting my ass means absolutely nothing. You ask for one little thing that is perfectly plausible and you get shot down. It's either live with it and move on, or find another job. Oh well.

After this "thing" happened at work, I couldn't sleep for two nights. It's not even that major of a deal. It was just the point. I asked for something simple and I was told, "It's not going to happen. Get over it." And I was dismissed. Makes me feel like a valuable employee. Not.

Anyway, moving on. Not much else going on this week. The kids are good. A little drama at the house this week with Jonathan over him going to the race in SC. He ended up not going. I didn't ask him not to go, but he just springs things on you at the last minute. He had mentioned going last weekend and then I kept asking him if he was going and he kept saying, "Probably not." And then on Friday he says he wants go to again. Geeze! He was going to be gone the whole weekend and I had asked him all week about it. Can't men ever make up their minds until the last minute?

Not to mention it's Mother's Day weekend. Of course that doesn't mean anything around here. The first year after Skyler was born I was all excited thinking I was going to get a present or maybe a card or something for Mother's Day. And when I didn't, I asked Jonathan about it and he said, "Why would I get you a card? Your not MY momma." Yeah the love and appreciation that goes on at my house. I got Jonathan a Father's Day card and a present the first couple of years, but when he never bothered to get me anything from Skyler, I just kind of stopped. We don't exchange birthday presents, anniversary presents or even Christmas presents most of the time. A few times he has bought me a Christmas present or two. But not often. I got him a few things this year, but not one single present from him. His excuse is, "You handle the finances, so you can go buy yourself anything you want whenever you want to." It's just the point I guess. Kind of like the job, accept it and move on....

Does it ever seem as you get older you have less and less to look forward to. I mean there is the occasional vacation and a month or so before it happens I get really excited about going. But I just don't have much of anything to look forward to or feel excited about. I remember when I was younger when I would live for the weekend. It would be like Wednesday and you would start getting so excited because it was almost the weekend when you could go out, sleep late and hang out with your friends. Or when you were looking forward to summer vacation. Two and a half months of no school, just sleeping in and doing whatever you wanted. Too bad when you are a grownup and in the real world, we don't get to take a 2 1/2 month vacation.

Last night we went to eat at this Asian restaurant that was a total knock-off of PF Chang's. I mean the decorating, the menu, the food, even the booths were exactly like PF Chang's. The only problem was, the food wasn't like PF Chang's. Wasn't even close. We've always had to drive to The Streets at Southpoint or to Raleigh to eat at a PF Chang's. But now we are getting one here. Woohoo! It won't open up until next month. But I am soooo excited. I love me some PF Chang's!

What was so surprising is we couldn't figure out what Skyler and Chase were going to eat. Neither one of them really likes rice all that much. We eat at those Japanese steakhouses all the time, but they really just like the shrimp and chicken. So I ordered them a child's portion of chicken lo mein. They absolutely loved it. Chase chowed it down like it was his last meal or something.

One of the problems I have with Chase is you can't sit anything in front of him when your at a table. Whether it be a glass, plate, napkin, straw, menu, etc. if you set it in front of him he swipes it off into the floor. It drives me absolutely batty! For this reason I have to put his food directly on the table. I know, I'm a bad mom, think of all the germs and what not there. But hey, if I put his food on a plate, he swipes the plate in the floor! No matter how much I talk to him or scold him, he still does it. When we eat at home I just have to put his food directly on the highchair tray. He does the same thing at home. It's pretty funny when we go out to eat because we have to clear everything out of the way in front of Chase and then cram everything close to us.

My question to you mothers is, is this something he is going to grow out of? Hopefully it won't be when he is like 5 or something. It is driving me absolutely batty! Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to stop? If so, please let me know.

Another thing I have noticed about boys are they are soooo destructive. Boys don't play with their toys, they destroy them. I mean he doesn't really tear much up, but he just throws everything. Our house was never trashed with toys when Skyler was a baby. Now you can't even walk in our house. And it doesn't do you any good to pick them up. Not until he has gone to bed at night anyway. Because you can pick them up and he just throws them right back out. We have started to make him put his own toys away now. We kind of make a game out of it by singing, "Toys away, toys away, it's time to put your toys away." We also make Skyler help us, but she whines and moans and says, "But Mom! I didn't make this mess, why do I have to help pick them up. Bubbie did it!" She's right, but it won't kill her to help pick up to.

Skyler got up at 6:45 a.m. Ugh. Chase slept in until 8:10! It sure would be nice if they would both sleep in at the same time one day. I don't really mind getting up early because Jonathan lets me sleep in on Sundays and he sleeps in on Saturdays. He got up about 9:15 this morning.

So as you know, I totally can't cook. But for few months now I have been trying to learn how to make gravy. Skyler absolutely loves biscuits and gravy. Each time I try it doesn't really turn out very well. It's okay, but not like what my stepdad makes. It's either too white, too runny, lumpy or something. So I've been making it like 2 or 3 times a month and each time it improved a bit and I got closer and closer to it turning out. Well today it finally turned out! It was brown, it wasn't lumpy and it was great! Skyler ate 3 biscuits and gravy! Woohoo! Now we'll just have to wait and see if it was a one time fluke or if I have finally figured it out. I mean how hard is it to put grease, flower and milk together anyway?

Well I guess I have rambled on enough for one day. I have a lot of things I need to get started on. Little Man has gone down for a morning nap. Oh yeah, I have one more question. Can someone please tell me how to keep the damn birds off of the kids' swingset? Jonathan hoses the bird crap off and by the next day it's covered again and I mean covered! It is driving me absolutely insane. They can't even enjoy their swingset! Geeze! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Pee Your Pants Funny...

2006-05-11T15:47:00.000-04:00

I saw this online and Skyler and I were laughing so hard we almost pee'd our pants. It starts out slow, but it is hilarious. You MUST have speakers to enjoy this. How sad is it that I know every single song.....

A Day Trapped In The House

2006-05-07T12:22:00.000-04:00

Don't you just hate wet and rainy days. It was absolutely gorgeous outside yesterday and today... Blah! Don't get me wrong, we sure as heck need the rain. Jonathan is attempting to actually grow some grass this year. We have a new neighbor who keeps his yard so gorgeous and here we are right beside him, with no grass, just weeds and weird purple flowers.

So last weekend Jonathan got out the Weed & Feed that had been sitting in our garage for a couple of years now and we went to Wal-Mart and got a spreader and he actually put the stuff down in the front yard. Woo-hoo! My husband did some yard work (other than mowing). I was amazed. And then for 4 or 5 days afterwards, he actually came home and watered the yard. Will wonders never cease. I'm sure it will be weeks before we see any results, but I'll keep my fingers crossed until then. And yeah to Jonathan for attempting to grow some grass this year!

So getting back to yesterday, we got up early and headed to a local carnival. From 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. the kids could ride all the rides for free. Now I don't now about you, but if something is free, then I'm all over it. I figured the place would be so crowded you would have to stand in line and feel like you were at DisneyWorld or something. But when we got there, it was surprisingly empty. This is only the second year they have had the "free hour" so I guess not a lot of people still know about it. So for an hour we ran from ride to ride letting Skyler ride the carnival rides. Believe it or not, she rode quite a few. I just have one thing to say about this child, she has no fear whatsoever of any of the rides. We rode a couple of rides that I know she probably shouldn't have been on at her age (nothing that went upside down or anything), but she just loves the wild rides. Jonathan and I always have loved the wild ones to, but as we get older things just aren't the same. Just chalk up another reason why we should have had our kids earlier I guess.

That evening I took Little Man to the mall to get his haircut. I knew Jonathan wouldn't want to go with me, so I thought just Chase and I would go alone. He is so good and easy to handle when it's just the two of us. I had mentioned it to Skyler earlier in the afternoon that Chase and I were going out to get a haircut and I figured she would have heart failure because I wasn't taking her. But when she protested, I just reminded her how often the two of us go out to the movies, dinner, etc. without Little Man. So when it came time to go, I just threw on Chase's shoes and we headed out the door. We got his hair cut and walked around the mall a bit and then picked up a pizza for supper. We were probably gone less than 2 hours. So when we got home I asked Jonathan how she had reacted when she found out we were gone. He said she had never even come out of her room and even noticed we were gone!

Friday night Skyler and I went to the movies to see The Wild. Believe it or not, it was pretty good. She enjoyed it and so did I. Afterwards we met Jonathan and Little Man at our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner. Obviously Little Man had not had a very good day because he was fussy and whiny and wouldn't eat hardly anything. So since Jonathan and Chase rode separately, they hurried up and hauled ass to the house. Chase is normally pretty good when we go out to dinner, but I guess everyone has their days.

Sunday totally blew. It was wet, rainy and downright cold. Saturday afternoon the temperature was in the eighties and then on Sunday it was in the upper fifties and lower sixties. What the heck gives with that. We spent a good part of Saturday afternoon out in the backyard with the kids. And then Sunday we were cooped up in the house all day. We didn't even get out of our pajamas all day!

Jonathan and I watched Batman Begins while Chase was taking a nap. We hardly ever get to watch a movie anymore. I love Netflix. Having the movies delivered directly to the house and then being able to keep them as long as we need is so awesome. If you rent more than 2 or 3 movies a month, I highly recommend Netflix.

Last week I also received the first season of the Brady Bunch. I absolutely loved the Brady Bunch growing up and I thought Skyler might like it. So I stuck it in the DVD player in the van while we were running about town and she absolutely loved it. I bet she has watched all seven episodes through about 3 times. She loves it and she can already sing the theme song.

So since it was such a wet and rainy day on Sunday, I finally had some time to upload some of the wedding pics and a few new pics of the kids. You can find the wedding pics of Skyler as the flower girl here. And a few new pics of the kids here.

Well I guess I better end for now. I really want to get caught up on reading some of my favorite journals. Take care!

Can You Believe Two Posts In a Row?!?!

2006-05-05T11:37:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can't believe I am actually posting two days in a row! It seems like it has been forever. It is so nice to finally have a wee bit of time on my hands again. The job is finally calming down a bit. My busiest time is the first portion of the year. Of course, things are about to pick up again here really soon in the next few weeks, but at least for now, things are calm.

I was trying to make some plans for the family and I to go to Atlantic Beach for a few nights. One of our members who serves as a Vice-Chair on one of my committees owns a nice little hotel in Atlantic Beach and every year he gives me a coupon to spend two nights at his hotel for free! How cool is that? Normally I have to use the coupon before the end of May because summer is, of course, their busy season. But this year he didn't put a time limit on it, so I thought how cool! We can go during the summer when the weather is warm. So I had planned on us using the coupon for the two free nights and then spending an additional two nights and paying for the hotel. So I called the hotel to make the reservations, but when she quoted me $160 per night for the additional nights, I almost had a heart attack! I mean it's just a little motor lodge and it's Atlantic Beach, not the Caribbean. Geeze! So needless to say, we won't be able to afford to stay the two extra nights during the high season. I remember back in the good ole days when you could go to Myrtle Beach during the summer and it was like $35 a night. Not anymore! My how times have changed.

I guess we will go back to our original plans and either go before the end of May when it's only an additional $100 per night or maybe just still go in the summer and stay only one additional night instead of two. It just seems when you have little ones to carry with you and pack up for, staying a couple of nights almost isn't even worth it. We've never taken Little Man on vacation before, so this will be a first. Skyler has been to the beach with us a couple of times (when we used the coupons from my friend), but this will be Little Man's first vacation. I'm anxious to see how he does. He is such a wild man. I mean this child never stops. He is on the go from the moment he wakes up until his cute little head hits the pillow every night. Maybe that is just the nature of boys, I'm not sure. Such a huge difference between him and Skyler. Skyler is more laid back and takes things in. He just runs around like a wild man. I knew we should have had kids when we were younger!

Skyler and I are doing a girl's night out this weekend. Tonight we are going to see The Wild. My personal opinion from the synopsis of the movie is it sounds exactly like Madagasgar. And I mean exactly! But Skyler could care less. She likes going to the movies. Maybe some day Little Man will be able to start going to the movies. Although I'm unsure if he will ever be able to sit still long enough to watch an entire movie. After the movie we are going to our favorite Italian restaurant. I am soooo looking forward to some of Sal's yummy fettucini alfredo. Yum!

Tomorrow I was trying to find something for us to do and there is a farm a town away from here that is having "Farm Days." And it's free, so we are there. Something to get the kids out of the house and get us together as a family. Chase is finally getting big enough to go out and about with the family and have some fun. We took them to the NC Zoo a few weeks ago and they had a blast. The only problem is it was in the 80's and all the animals were laying down in the shade. You definitely should visit the zoo on days when it's not so hot because so many of the animals are "chillin" on hot days.

Jonathan is doing pretty good. He is finally getting around to hiring himself some more assistant managers. He is hiring a female assistant for the first time. She is a college graduate and fresh from college. Should be interesting to say the least. I think Jonathan prefers working with females. They listen more and don't give him so much crap. You know how men can be sometimes!

Well I guess I have rambled on long enough for one day. It feels good to start writing again. Sometimes putting things down in writing makes me feel better. Until we meet again....

Long Time No Hear From Me.......

2006-05-04T11:55:00.000-04:00

Oh God, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I know everyone probably figured me off for good. Things have been so busy that I just kind of had to put the blog on the back burner for awhile. Work and the kids became so chaotic that I seriously considered going to the doctor to get some kind of anxiety medication or something. Work was just unbearable... The good news is, they finally saw that I was about to crack and have changed my job back to my original one. I was working for two departments and now I'm back to only one. So I am so relieved and thankful for that.
I wouldn't even know where to begin to catch up on what has been going on in my life these past few months. I haven't read any of the journals I normally read. But now that things are beginning to calm down, I really hope I can get back into the swing of things. This journal/blog or whatever you want to call it was a great release for me. So I think it kind of blows that I haven't had the time to actually even do something I enjoy.

Anyway, moving on.... Remember a few months ago when I was talking about possibly applying for Skyler to go to the school for the performing arts? Well we did apply and she was accepted!!! We are so excited. I took Skyler by the school last week to register her and we asked if we could walk around. Skyler absolutely loved the school. We also met her drama teacher and I have just one thing to say about him... He is HOT!! He is awfully young, but what a cutie! He took Skyler around and showed her the music room, dance studio, drama studio, etc. Skyler is beside herself with excitement. I just hope that we aren't making a mistake by not sending her to regular public school. I think she is really going to love this school, but I worry about her transitioning back to normal school when she hits middle school. I guess we all worry about the decisions we make for our children. That's part of life.

Skyler was a flower girl in a relative's wedding a few weeks ago. I'll put some pics up here in a few days. She absolutely loved it. Of course she thought she was hot stuff. I think she was trying to outdo the bride! I was really proud of her, she did an excellent job, even if she did sit down on the steps for a moment while they were having the ceremony. One look from me and she jumped right back up though. I guess she was getting tired of standing up there for so long.

They played Adam Sandler's song "I Wanna Grow Old With You" after they had said their vows. I thought that was pretty funny. It was a very non-traditional wedding. There was no cake, but a Krispy Kreme doughnut tree instead. To each is their own. I thought it was quite funny.

Ok, so I have ran out of things to talk about today. Have some things to finish up, but hopefully I'll be back soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed anyway.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions....

2006-02-28T14:57:00.000-05:00

Oh the pain of trying to make life decisions for your children. Today I had an appointment with the Spanish Immersion Magnet School here in our area. I was very impressed with their program. I won't go into all this boring detail or anything, but I thought it was great. The only problem I have with magnet schools are they are in very poor/under privileged neighborhoods. The classrooms were pretty diverse though. It isn't the neighborhood children that go to the magnet schools, the kids are bused in from other areas. But if the school is located in such a neighborhood, they get more funding from the state. No biggie I guess.

It was amazing to see the Kindergartners at the school speaking perfect Spanish. I think it would be a great asset for Skyler to be bi-lingual. Imagine the doors it could open up for her when she is older.

The whole thing is freaking my mother out. She doesn't think I should send Skyler to a school where they only speak Spanish. They don't even teach the children to read or write in English until they are in 2nd grade. One thing you must agree to is to read every night to your child in English. Because the kids spean Spanish 6 to 7 hours a day, they begin to think and even dream in Spanish. Not that they are going to forget how to speak English or anything. But it is freaking my mom out. But the good thing is, Skyler isn't her kid, so she doesn't really get an opinion anyway.

We have an appointment with one other Magnet school this Friday. As I mentioned before, this is the performing arts school. But I try and think of it this way, would Skyler be a better child/adult learning piano and drama or to learn a second language?

*******

Work has just been exhausting. I don't know how much longer I can keep up the pace I have been keeping. I want to do a good job, but do you ever get to the point where you have so much to do that you just think you aren't doing anything well? That's kind of where I'm at right now.

I guess we all get frustrated with our jobs. No one has the "perfect" job or anything. And there is always jealousy, cattiness, etc. that goes on in an office. Any time you get a bunch of women together day in and day out, there is always going to be trouble. Why is it men don't seem to be as bad as women when it comes to getting along?

*****

Tonight I am planning on attending another MOPS meeting. I had such a great time at the last one. I highly recommend the MOPS groups for any mother of a pre-schooler.

I really promised myself that I would try to get back into writing in this journal and reading all the journals I enjoy so much. But sometimes you just don't really have a whole lot to say. Nothing exciting has been going on in our lives here these past few weeks. I know we are just anxious for winter to be over. It's actually pretty nice out today, but I'm so tired I don't even feel like taking the kids outside. And the bad thing is I only worked like 5 hours today since I had the appointment at the magnet school. Sometimes I wonder if I don't have something wrong with me because I am so tired all the time.

Anyway, I think I will spend the next hour or so getting caught up on some of your journals. I really don't have much else to talk about today. Until next time.....

I'm Back!

2006-02-20T12:16:00.000-05:00

I told you I sucked at updating. Oh the pain of not having enough time to even go to the restroom alone in the house. I'm sure most of you working mothers know where I'm coming from.

Anyway, a bit about the cruise. As expected, it pretty much sucked. I know, I shouldn't complain. After all, I was off an entire week from work and I was on a cruise. But hello, the ship was ancient, and I mean A-N-C-I-E-N-T. If I had taken that as my first cruise, I probably would have never cruised again. After being on the big superliners with all the new stuff and then going back to the ancient Celebration... Well it just plain ole sucked. I know your probably thinking I'm such a princess for thinking that.

Let's just count the ways why this cruise sucked...

1. The boat was so old and so not taken care of. I truly hope Carnival is retiring her VERY soon.

2. Two major meltdowns by the real "Princess." I'm talking knock down, drag out, make a scene, carry her screaming down the hall kind of meltdown. Oh the horror and embaressment of having an unruly child.

3. The grandmother. Love her soul, I didn't realize she was in as bad of shape as she is. I mean we see her quite often, but it's only at her house where she walks from the kitchen to the chair and back. Bless her heart she could barely walk to the dining room without getting out of breath and passing out. And she did practically pass out getting on and off the boat. We begged, pleaded, begged some more to get her a wheelchair, but she refused. She did finally let someone take her from the ship to the car in a golf cart at the end of the cruise. Also she wasn't able to get off the ship in any of the ports because she couldn't walk very much. And once again, absolutely REFUSED a wheelchair.

4. It was colder than crap. And I mean cold! It was 60 degrees in Key West and 65 in Bahamas. I know that doesn't sound cold to most people, but trust me, it was cold for those places. How cold was it you ask? Well it was so cold in the Bahamas that the natives were wearing big winter coats and ski masks! Pretty funny to see us stupid Americans in our swimsuits at the beach. I know they thought we were crazy. But you can't go to the Bahamas without at least attempting to get a tan!

I've updated the ole Flickr account with some of the photos from the cruise. You can find them here.

Skyler really enjoyed the cruise. I think the thing she liked best was dressing up in her party dress and wearing her "heels." She thought she was hot stuff! I even had her "pigs" done in a French pedicure before we left. She really enjoyed that. It was only like $3.00 to have them painted. It was so worth it. She sat back in the chair while the lady worked on her and just acted like she had been doing it all her life.

*******

Well I actually started this post like two weeks ago. But things have just been so crazy around this house that I haven't even had time to think about my blog, or anyone else's for that matter. I am so behind in reading my favorite blogs. Even on the weekends we are all just running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things done around this house. And the bad thing is, the place still looks like a train ran through it. Oh well, I give up.

This morning was my morning to sleep in. The kids didn't get up until about 7:50 a.m. That's not fair! Yesterday when it was Jonathan's morning to sleep in they were up at 6:30 a.m. He is always the lucky one. Anyway, I stayed in bed until about 9:00 a.m. I was awake the whole time, but it was just nice to lie in bed that extra hour doing absolutely nothing. Jonathan fed the kids and was watching videos with them on the digital cable.

Skyler has become obsessed with this one song. It's "She's Beautiful" by James Blunt. I bet we have played that video like 50 times in the last two days. She knows every word of the song by heart. I actually really like the song myself. But after you've heard it 50 times in a two day period, well I'm pretty much burnt out on it at the moment.

Yesterday we also took the kids out and went to the Magnet School Fair. I am thinking about putting Skyler into a Magnet School for elementary. The one I have chosen is a performing arts school. It's an "open school" meaning that there aren't specific grades. They kind of mix the kids all together. They learn dance, violin, piano, drama, performing arts, etc. I think it would be right up Skyler's alley. She is so into music. My second choice is a Spanish Immersion school. They start from the very beginning only speaking Spanish to the children. All of their lessons are taught in Spanish. They are able to understand Spanish by the first semester of Kindergarten. And by the time they are in 5th grade, they can speak, read and write fluent Spanish. What a bonus it would be if Skyler were bilingual. Of course the performing arts school is my first choice, but if she doesn't get in that one, the Spanish immersion school would be great to.

Today we are just picking up around the house and watching some movies we received from Netflix. Well actually we watched them all weekend. Each one was pretty good.

1. Domino - I really liked this movie. It was a wee bit violent, but I thought it was pretty good. The only complaint I had was the way the movie was filmed. It's really jumpy, weird lighting and too many flashes from one scene to another. If they had filmed it differently, I would have liked it much better. You'll understand what I'm talking about if you ever watch it.

2. Million Dollar Baby - We had been waiting forever to see this movie. I will say this is an excellent movie. We really weren't expecting the ending though. I won't ruin it for you if you haven't seen the movie, but it was just really unexpected. I think Hillary Swank is a brilliant actress and, of course, Clint Eastwood is just the bomb.

3. Four Brothers - I'm not actually watching this movie. Jonathan is laying on the couch watching it as I'm writing this entry. Basically the only time we have any free time is if one or both of the kids are taking a nap or after they have gone to bed. So I'm spending my free time writing this entry instead.

Today we have gathered up all of the baby stuff and cleaned it up in preparation for taking it to the consignment shop. I can't believe my babies aren't babies anymore. We have one of those really cool aquarium swings an exersaucer, and a Sesame Street highchair that was Skyler's. Chase has a new highchair, so this one was just sitting around in our storage shed. I know we will never get around to having a yard sale, so at least by taking it to the consignment shop we will get a little money out of it. Chase needs summer clothes, so I'll just take the money and turn around and spend it there on summer clothes for him. Skyler is pretty much stocked up for summer clothes. All of her stuff from last year still fits her this year.

So anyway, I guess I have jabbered on enough for now. I promise to get caught up with everyone's blogs. Hope to hear from some of you guys real soon!

Throw In the Towel...

2006-01-25T15:28:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I wonder if I should just throw in the towel on this blogging thing. Things have just been so crazy around here I can't even keep my mind straight.

Work has just been exhausting. It's one committee meeting after another and I am just going crazy. I'm still learning about all this committee stuff. Especially learning about taking minutes. Let me just say one thing, my minute taking experience is pretty non-existent. I'm learning, but good God, it's going to take me forever! As soon as things calm down in the legal department, they will then pick up in the events department, so it's a never ending cycle. I just do my best and keep on trucking.

Anyway, let me tell you one thing. I went to the mailbox yesterday to get the mail. I was nonchalantly going through the mail and opened up the gas bill. I almost shit a brick people. Excuse the French, but good God almighty what the hell are these natural gas people thinking! My gas bill was $415.00! You have got to be kidding me! Last month it was $150 and this month its $415.00! Oh hell no. Someone is screwing us people. They have to be. I mean I know we all read the news reports talking about how high heating bills were going to be this year, but please. It hasn't even been that cold here in North Carolina. We have hit 60 degrees probably like 10 days out of this month. So after opening the bill I got my happy butt on the telephone to call and figure out what is going on. Well I was on hold for over an hour people! Yes, 65 minutes and no one ever answered. I'm not stupid here, but evidently they were being bombarded with very unhappy customers. Then this morning they are actually talking about the gas bills on my favorite radio station.

What really sucks is we are leaving on another cruise next weekend. I'm sure I mentioned it here before. We are taking Skyler on a 5 day cruise out of Jacksonville. Well then we got the big bright idea to ask Jonathan's grandmother along. I didn't realize Jonathan was going to tell her we would pay for it. I figured he would ask, but if she wanted to go, she would pay her own way. But anyway, we are paying for it. But what he NEGLECTED to tell me was she is a horrendous snorer and gets up 6 to 7 times a night to use the restroom. Now we can't afford two cabin rooms, so we will all be sharing a teeny tiny room. And all of you know how difficult it is for me to fall asleep and even once I get to sleep to STAY asleep is not possible without my best friend Mr. Ambien..... So I'm not sure how well this cruise is going to go over. But I shouldn't bitch. I know lots of people who have never been on a cruise. Jonathan actually won this cruise again through work for the two of us. We just had to pay for Skyler and now, Jonathan's grandmother. So wish me luck on that one.

Last night I did something really fun. I went to a MOPS meeting. Now for those of you who have never hard of MOPS, it's actually a group for Mothers of Preschoolers. I had searched for a group ever since Skyler had been born. But they always seemed to be geared towards SAHM (stay-at-home mothers). The group meetings were always held on a weekday during the work day, so I was never able to join one. So a few months ago I found a group that met at a local church and it met in the evenings from 6:30 to 8:30. I thought, "How cool is that?" So I had put it on my calendar for the last two months, but things just always seemed to come up and I couldn't go. But last night for the first time I went. They actually have childcare so you can attend. But Little Man goes to bed at 7:30, so keeping him out until 8:30 wasn't such a good idea.

Anyway, so Jonathan kept Little Man and Skyler and I went to the meeting. Let me just say that was probably the best time I have had with other women in like forever. Everyone was great, the meeting was fun. I highly recommend a MOPS group if you have one in your area! What a great way to meet other moms.

I am so behind on reading everyone else's journals. What a bummer. How do people who have 3 or 4 kids and work full time do it? I sure as hell don't know how they do it. If your one of those people, I bow down to you! How do you keep from losing your sanity?

I have really sucked at taking pictures here lately. Chase changes so much every day and I have been a horrible mother by not taking photos. I haven't had their picture made since he was 9 months old. I am such a bad mom.

I know, I'm all over the place with this entry today. I just wanted to get something up so you would at least know I'm still alive. I promise to try and get caught up on some of your journals. I really miss reading them.

Anyway, enough rambling for today. I know this entry is just all over the place. Gotta run and pick up Little Man early today! Tootles!

What Is Your Animal Personality?

2006-01-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

Fellow blogger Caroline had this on her site. I hate to say it, but it pretty much describes me. Jonathan tells me all the time I am too nosey! And everyone knows how much I like to travel!

What Is Your Animal Personality?
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Meme from Fellow Blogger...

2006-01-08T11:06:00.000-05:00

I don't usually like doing these things, but three of the blogs I read, Robyn, Jane and Nance all had such interesting answers, I thought I would do it. Here we go...

1. Four jobs you have had:

a. Waitress - Ok, admit it. We have all done this at one time or another haven't we? My career as a waitress actually started when I was 16 years old and I started working for a Chinese restaurant my current boyfriend worked at as a dishwasher. I only worked on Sundays and usually only made $35. But hey, that was enough to get me through the week back when gas was only $.70 a gallon and I didn't have many other expenses. I still eat at this restaurant to this day whenever I return home to TN. The same people still own it and still remember me.

b. Legal Secretary - I guess my first "real" job was as a legal secretary when I was fresh out of high school and only 17 years old. To this day I still remember my interview. The attorney asked me some various questions (it wasn't like I had a lot of experience or anything being as I had only just graduated from high school days earlier.). He said he liked secretaries who were young and "fresh" so he could "mold" them to what he wanted them to be. (Now that I look back on that, it sounds kind of scary, huh?)

So after all the questions, he asked me if I could type. He took me to a back office and told me to show him I could type. This was back in the day before most offices had computers. So I had to revert back to an ancient electric typewriter. I know some of you younger readers out there might say, "What the hell is a typewriter." Please don't make me feel old. So I stuck the paper in and typed approximately 5 words and he reached from behind me and ripped out the paper from the typewriter and said, "Yes, looks like you can type fine!" And thus began my wonderful career (with no college mind you) in the legal field....

c. Paralegal - I also worked as a legal assistant/paralegal for the Department of Defense in Europe. We handled all of the medical malpractice claims against the military. You didn't have a right to sue if you were maimed or killed by a military doctor because you weren't bound by U.S. law. There were 4 people in my office. We made the decision whether or not you would receive any payment for your injuries/death. After working here, I never visited another military doctor. I always kept my own insurance and never set foot in another military hospital.

d. Programs Coordinator - my current position. I basically plan continuing education and events for a non-profit association. I alsoassist the events department in our convention and various other major meetings throughout the year. Definately the coolest and best job I have ever had. I still work for an attorney, but it's not the same as litigation!

I've had quite a few other jobs, mostly as a legal assistant, but those are just a touch of what I've done over the last 18 years or so.

2. Four movies you would watch over and over:

a. Forrest Gump
b. Legends of the Fall
c. Fried Green Tomatoes
d. Believe it or not, no other movies come to mind. I guess you can tell I haven't watched too many movies in the last few years!

3. Four places you have lived:

a. Ludwigshafen/Edigheim, Germany
b. Tongduchon, South Korea
c. Savannah, Georgia
d. Kingsport, Tennessee

4. Four TV shows you love to watch:

a. Lost
b. Desperate Housewives
c. Ghost Whisperer
d. Medium

5. Four places you have been on vacation:

a. Barcelona, Spain
b. Moscow, Russia/Soviet Union
c. Chejudo, South Korea
d. Hawaii, Caribbean, Thailand, Australia, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Spain, Denmark, Czech, etc.

Traveling with the military, we have had lots of really great vacations!

6. Four websites you visit daily:

a. www.abcnews.com (gotta get my news fix since I don't actually watch it on television.

b. Some of my favorite blogs, Robyn, Nance, Jane, Caroline, Jess, Krista and lots of others. But those are just to name a few.

c. www.timesnews.net - My hometown newspaper. I used to check the wedding section daily. But now it seems I am checking the obituaries! Does that mean I am getting old?

d. www.cruisemates.com - Gotta keep up-to-date on the latest cruises!

7. Four of your favorite foods:

a. Spaghetti
b. Pizza
c. Lobster Tails
d. Soup (just about any kind that doesn't have a lot of meat in it)

8. Four places you would rather be right now:

a. On a cruise!!
b. At home with my parents in TN.
c. Shopping (with lots of money, of course)
d. Any tropical island somewhere

I Just "Thought" I Was Back...

2006-01-06T18:01:00.000-05:00

I was all set for the new year to start blogging again. But, of course, things just got out of control again this week. We are preparing for a really big meeting next week in Charlotte and things are just CRAZY at work. It's nice to be busy sometimes to pass the time, but when your so busy that you start screwing things up... Well that just isn't fun.

Things are so busy that one day this week I had to run and pick Skyler up from school and bring her back to work with me. Luckily we have this totally awesome conference room with a huge tv/movie screen in there that is hooked up to digital cable, DVD player, etc.. I told her we were going to go back to Mommy's work and she was going to watch a movie/cartoons on our movie screen. We had received one of those huge barrels of popcorn from someone for Christmas, so I poured some popcorn in a cup for her and took her in the conference room and parked her little bootie on a chair and turned on Noggin on the big screen. She sat in there and didn't move or make a peep for over 2 hours! There for a bit I almost forgot that she was even there! I kept telling everyone to make sure I didn't walk out of the office and forget to take her home! That's how crazy it was that day. So I was very proud that she acted so good while she as at my work. That is the first time I have ever actually taken her back to the office and worked. A few of the girls have brought their kids in there once or twice in an emergency situation. Again, I'm lucky to have a workplace that is so laid back and understanding. Thankya Jesus for that one.

Right now I'm sitting at my parents' house in Tennessee on their ANCIENT computer. This is an old computer I bought back in 1998 that should totally be taken out to pasture. They have a cable modem, but when you pair that with an ancient computer, well it doesn't do you much good. The reason why I'm back in TN again after we just left last weekend is because we had a death in the family. My aunt passed away on Wednesday and her funeral is tonight. She was very sick and had Alzheimer's for years. Anyone who has ever lived with a family member who has Alzheimers knows how difficult it is. My mother's mother died and had severe Alzheimers (although they didn't really call it that when she died back in 1974). One other aunt has it and then this one had it. So I would say that may not sound like good odds for my mother. She already takes lots of medication and what not for various reasons.

Although my grandmother died when I was only 4 years old, I still have faint memories of her. At the time I didn't understand that there was really something wrong with her. I just thought she was a little crazy. I can remember my cousin and I (who was 2 years older than I) would go into the bathroom and if mamaw tried to come out, we would yell at her and tell her she was on an elevator and to not step out or she would fall! How cruel was that one! She would push the light switch on the wall and call out various floors. We were mean kids. It's horrible to look back on it now, but it was quite funny at the time.

Anyway, this is going to be Skyler's first experience with death. She has never attended a funeral before. I've tried explaining things to her. I told her how Mommy's aunt had gone to heaven, but her body was still here and we were going to place her in the earth. I did'nt say a whole lot. I did tell her teacher this morning that I would pick her up early from school because we were returning to TN for a funeral. I don't know if the teacher said something to the class about it or what. But when I picked up Skyler from school and we had dinner this evening she said, "Mommy are we going to go see a dead person in a vase?" I was like, "What did you say?" And she said, "Well are we going to see a dead person in a vase?" I'm assuming she heard that from school. Because I never even said the word "dead" and I sure as hell don't know what she is talking about in a vase. Now that I think of it, maybe she meant someone who had been cremated. Anyway, where do kids come up with this stuff?

The bad thing is, I still don't have their toys and things put away from Christmas. I have so much crap that I need to do back at home. But you hate not to go to a loved one's funerl. We got back late last weekend and we just took all of the toys to Chase' room and piled them on his twin bed (he still sleeps in a baby bed). Sunday afternoon we went through all their toys and took a lot of them to the babysitter's. I didn't want to add all the new toys to the mess until we had cleared out some old. We have been so busy this week, that I got all of their new clothes put away, but not the toys. You know it's sad when 60% of the toys they received are still in their boxes and haven't been played with. Can you say "spoiled brats?" The kids don't play with half that stuff. Chase just likes to tear through the house knocking everything down and Skyler just likes to watch tv, play with her Leapster and color. Why everyone buys them all those toys I will never know. Not that I'm not guilty of it either mind you.

Well I guess I better end this for now. I need to get myself and Skyler dressed and head to the funeral. It's been quite some time since I have attended a funeral. Come to think of it, it was probably Jonathan's brother back in 2003. I guess we have been pretty lucky that no one in our family has died recently.

Hope everyone is having a great New Year!

I'm Back!

2006-01-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

I bet you thought I was gone for good. Heck, I thought I was gone for good. My ole computer crashed. The sucky part is, I had bought a backup drive and had everything backed up. All the pictures, web pages, videos, etc. So I thought I was doing good... But when I sent the computer out to a friend I stupidly also sent him the backup drive thinking he could restore all my stuff if he fixed the computer. Well evidently he crashed the backup drive to. So I lost 99% of my stuff. I was so upset, I cried for an hour. I had 85% of my pictures printed out. But I didn't any of the small clip videos backed up anywhere else or anything. My hubby thought I was stupid for crying and maybe I was. But I was just upset.

Anyhoo, I actually bought a new computer just a week or so after my old one crashed. But I have been so busy with the holidays, the kids, Christmas shopping, wrapping, etc. that I haven't had a chance to even think about this website. I also admit I haven't even had a chance to read any of my blogs that I keep up with. So sorry to you guys. I hope to get caught up to each of you real soon. I really miss reading everyone's blogs and hearing your advice on all my problems.

So much has happened since I did an entry, I wouldn't even know where the heck to begin. So I'll just highlight and then hopefully just start from the today. Quite appropriate since it's the first day in a brand new year. Happy New Year's to everyone!

I know I never even commented on our cruise. I had uploaded about 50% of the photos to Flickr. But I lost the rest. Bummer. But if you want to check out any of our photos from the cruise, you can just click on my Flickr banner. I won't even go into detail about the vacation but to say it was GREAT! It was AWESOME! But two weeks was definitely too long to be gone. It was also freaky driving in St. Thomas because they drive on the left side of the road. Now that was an experience. I let Jonathan do all the driving the 4 days we were there.

And we enjoyed our vacation and our cruise so much that we already have another cruise planned for February. This time we are only taking a short 5 day cruise and we are taking Skyler with us. I figured we would take her on a short one first to see how she does. I know your probably wondering how the heck we have the money for all these cruises... Well don't get excited or anything, we definitely aren't rich. But Jonathan wins these contests at work all the time and he receives these points that you can turn in for Carnival Cruise Ship Dollars. Kinda cool, huh? I'm just really lucky that I have 5 weeks vacation at work so I can go on the vacations.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Our's was great. The kids got entirely too many toys, as always. Today we spent a couple of hours going through the old toys and packing them up to take to the consignment shop. I thought it would be a struggle and Skyler would resist saying, "I want to keep that one Mommy" or "You can't take this one away Mommy!" But surprisingly, I told her we were taking the toys to "needy children" and she was okay with that. Actually we are going to consign the really nice ones and take the rest to Goodwill. And whatever the consignment shop doesn't take, we'll take those to Goodwill to.

I wish s0me of you moms lived near me so we could exchange toys or something. I hate just giving them away. But I don't know anyone who needs them or anything. Actually, Jess doesn't live really far away from me. Maybe she and I can get together sometime and I can take all of Skyler's old toys to her daughter! I'm sure her daughter is like mine and probably has everything she needs. I wish we had some kind of orphanage or something where I could take Skyler and she could give the toys to the kids and actually see them or something.

Jonathan and I didn't exchange gifts with each other. We just bought for the kids and counted our vacations as our Christmas presents to each other. It kind of sucked in a way because we really didn't have anything to open up on Christmas. I actually bought Jonathan a couple of things so he would have something to open up on Christmas. But he didn't buy me anything and I think he kind of felt guilty afterwards. He was like, "But you said we weren't going to buy each other anything!" And I was like, "Women always say that. But you should know better." Men.

So Chase has been sick for about a week or so. It started out with a runny nose but then yesterday he got all croupy and sounded really congested in his chest. Poor little thing was so bad off he couldn't even cry this morning, he just made this hoarse little croaking sound. So instead of waiting until tomorrow to take him to the pediatrician, I took him to one of those urgent care facilities.

The doctor said I was very lucky because we had just caught him in time. He was very congested in his lungs and she said if we hadn't given him some antibiotics pretty soon, it would probably have turned into pneumonia. He acts like he is feeling fine, but he sounds horrible. Poor little guy still wants to play and run around like a wild man. But he sounds just awful.

I was driving Jonathan's little SUV today because he and Skyler were planning on going grocery shopping and they were going to take the van. So as I'm coming out of the doctor's office, I see this huge scratch and dent down the side of Jonathan's SUV. I'm like, "Shit! Someone hit Jonathan's car." Secretly I was thanking God it wasn't my car. He he he I was so pissed. I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Well there goes a couple of hundred dollars. " Knowing that whoever hit it was long gone. Then this nice gentleman comes over and looks at it and then looks at the car sitting beside me and he says, "Look here. I think this is the car that hit you. See the dent and paint on this mirror." I was like, hello! Thank you very much. I probably wouldn't have had the good common sense to even think that the car was still there.

So I called the police department and while I was sitting there waiting on them, I took out the good ole camera cell phone and took pictures of the damage, of the other car's tag, the full car, etc. The police came and went inside and found the person who had hit my car. It was this poor little old lady who was sicker than a dog. I kind of felt sorry for her, but you would have thought she could have come inside and asked who the car belonged to. But at least she didn't move her car! So the good news is, I got her insurance info and I'll turn it into my insurance company tomorrow. Just another wonderful thing to deal with in the new year.

Well since I have so much to get caught up, I'm not even going to attempt to do it today. I do want to catch up on some of your journals. So I think I will spend my next few minutes (while Skyler is peacefully watching television and Chase is taking a short nap) to catch up on your journals. Can't wait to get caught up!

Bad News...

2005-11-29T09:16:00.000-05:00

My computer crashed!!! And I didn't have the last couple of months of photos backed up yet. Including my vacation photos!!!! Damn! I had uploaded quite a few of them to Flickr. So I still have a few. But until I get my computer at home up and running again or buy a new one, I won't be able to do much updating. Not to mention I was sick all weekend and missed work yesterday. Not fun. I guess that's what I get for being gone for two weeks on vacation. At least I wasn't sick while we were on vacation.

Anyway, I'll update soon. My computer is at a friend's house and he is trying to salvage some of my stuff. Luckily I had bought a second hard drive to back up my music and pictures, but I hadn't backed anything up since September. So I've lost quite a bit. Hate to have to buy a new computer before Christmas. We'll see.

Anyway, I'm at work, so I better end for now. Hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Quick Note

2005-11-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to say we are back safe and sound. We had an AWESOME time. Things are crazy at work and at home at the moment. I plan on writing a longer entry over the holiday weekend. I'm too pooped to head home to TN with the kids by myself for the holiday. So I should hopefully have plenty of time to put some pics up and write a detailed account of our trip over the weekend.

Hope you guys are doing great and I can't wait to get caught up on your journals!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

We're Off!

2005-11-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

Kids are gone, I am packed, passports are packed.... We are ready to go! Yippee!! I didn't even get teary-eyed when I left the kids at the babysitters. I hate to admit it, but I was even a bit relieved. I'm such a bad mom. I know I am going to miss them terribly, but damn if I'm not looking forward to no melt downs, dirty diapers or cooking for two weeks.
Good news, I called our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and their power and water is back on. She said no cable, but I think we can live 2 days without cable tv. Well at least I know I can. Not too sure about the hubby though. We won't get to Ft. Lauderdale until Thursday anyway, so hopefully things will be even better by then.

I did some last minute shopping today at the new Wal-Mart. Jonathan got a hair cut and I got a pedicure. Nothing like a fresh French manicure for your trip to the beach.

After that I went to Toys-R-Us and finished up my Christmas shopping for the kids. Aren't you jealous? Don't get excited though, because I haven't bought a single thing for anyone else besides the kids. They are the only ones that matter any way though, right?

Skyler and I went to see Chicken Little last night. I just have one thing to say... Awesome! It was a great kid's movie. Skyler loved it, I loved it, we both laughed our booties off. What more can you ask for. It was great.

I don't even know what to do with myself this evening. Everything is packed, all the clothes are washed up, the house is picked up, the kids are gone....the house is empty. It sure is quiet around here.

Well I think I will go upstairs and go through my packing list one more time to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. St. Thomas, Ft. Lauderdale, San Juan, Tortola, Antigua, Bahamas, here we come! We'll see you in two weeks!

Oh the Torture....

2005-11-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

These next few days are just going to DRAG by. I can't believe we are leaving for our vacation on Sunday. Good God, I thought this day is never going to come.

Things have been going pretty crappy this week. Jonathan had another follow-up appointment with the doctor about his liver. Things aren't looking better. As a matter of a fact, they are a wee bit worse. Not much, but a wee bit. And then we found out some other news.... I'm not quite ready to share that one yet, but it just seems like more and more comes up each time we go to the doctor.

Jonathan is STILL in denial that ANYTHING is wrong with him. If I try and talk to him about it he gets all defensive and screams at me to shut up. I don't know if this is normal or what. I'm assuming a lot of men don't handle sickness/their health well, but he is really being weird about it. Maybe he thinks the more he denies it, then it will go away. I don't know. I told him I seriously think he needs to see a counselor about it. Because he won't even speak to me about it.

I picked up his new medicine last night and read most of the pamphlet about how he is supposed to use it. But he refused to even look at it. Finally this morning, I just had to explain it to him and tell him he needed to start taking it immediately. I feel like I am going to have to "hover over him" to get him to take the medicine. I mean if men don't want to be treated like a child, why do they act like a child sometimes? Geeze.

But I am going to put this out of my mind while we are on vacation. I don't want to even discuss all of this for the next couple of weeks. I know, be in denial, but I guess we have to deal with it somehow. Right now the only thing I want to think about is spending some quality time with my husband.

Jonathan has said he isn't even going to take his cell phone on vacation with him. He doesn't want his work to call him one single time. I mean if the place burns down, he'll find out when he gets home. So we are going to give his cell phone to my mom to keep while she has the kids. Of course, I will still have my cell phone (have to keep tabs on the kids). So if anyone calls for Jonathan on my cell phone, they will promptly be hung up on. It's not a problem while we are on the cruise. Our cell phones don't pick up anyway. But we have full service while in St. Thomas, so if Jonathan takes his cell phone, he will probably end up spending hours a day on the phone with his managers back at work.

I'm lucky, I don't have a job where I have to check in all the time. I should be fine until I get back. A couple of the girls at work will keep some of my things up while I'm gone. The rest of the stuff will just wait until I get back. I'm glad I don't have as much pressure at my job as Jonathan does. He needs this break worse than me, that's for sure.

Moving on to the kids. Skyler was sick yesterday. She woke up about 5:30 a.m. with a PIERCING scream. I mean it was so loud I jumped up out of bed like someone was abducting her or something. We both ran downstairs and were rewarded with a sight vomit all over her. In her hair, on her bed, running down her bed. It was not a pretty sight.

Now I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I have a very weak stomach. Skyler has also inherited this wonderful trait. So as soon as I smelled the puke, I was running for the bathroom myself. Now you may ask, "How can you be a good mom when you can't even stomach the sight of your own child's vomit?" Well just let me tell you people, I can't. If Jonathan is in the house, he normally handles this kind of situation (thank you Jesus for that). But he had a hard time himself with this one. He pulled her clothes off and I took her into the bathroom and started washing her down. After I had lost my dinner in the toilet, of course. And then I hear him in there gagging and going on. So he had to run to the bathroom and lose his cookies.

Luckily Chase slept through all of this. We never heard a peep out of him. So I took Skyler to Chase's babysitter and left her there. The babysitter said she felt pretty bad most of the day, but didn't throw up any more. So hopefully it was something she ate and not a virus coming on. We are hoping and praying. Nothing like leaving your sick children with a babysitter for two weeks while you go off cavorting around the world. I feel guilty enough as it is for leaving them for so long. I definitely hope they don't get sick while we are gone.

I must confess something.... I didn't take one single picture of Skyler in her Halloween costume. Oh dear Lord, shoot me now. What a horrible mom I am! It's just we went to Jonathan's doctor, got the news, ended up staying there like 3 hours. So it was already dark by the time we picked up the kids at the babysitters. We were having friends come over with their little boy to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, so it was a mad dash to get home and get her dressed and out the door. I didn't even think about taking a picture. Is this going to scar her forever, her mother forgot to take a picture of her in her Cinderella costume? I certainly hope not! ;-)

Today is just dragging by. I don't know if I'm going to make it through one more day of work. Did I mention we haven't even begun our packing yet? Hell, we haven't even washed up the clothes yet. Nothing like waiting to the last minute to pack for a two week vacation. I do have my packing list all typed up though. So hopefully we will be alright. I guess we will wait and pack on Saturday after we have dropped the kids off at the babysitter's. You can't get anything done with them running around. I would put things into the suitcase and Skyler and Chase would probably pull them out. So we'll just wait until the house is all quiet to get things done. But I definitely need to start washing up the clothes. I do at least have the kids' suitcases all packed and ready to go.

I promised Skyler I would take her to see Chicken Little tomorrow night. I'm even kind of excited about going to see this movie. It looks really cute.

I'm not sure if I'll have time to do another entry before we leave Sunday morning. Our flight leaves at 7:25 a.m. So that means we will have to leave the house at like 5:00 a.m. to get to the airport in time for check-in, security, etc. Fun! We were originally flying out at 10:30 a.m., but when Jonathan won the trip to St. Thomas his company made our flights and have us flying out at 7:30 a.m. Yikes! Neither of us are morning people. Then not to mention we don't actually get to St. Thomas until 4:30 p.m. We have TWO layovers. Yes TWO! One in Orlando then another in Miami. Geeze. I guess that's what you get when your company makes your reservations.

Anyway, I've ran out of things to say. So hopefully if you don't hear from me this weekend, I will be back with lots of pics from our trip!

Monica Needs....

2005-10-31T07:45:00.000-05:00

Well since we have all been exchanging ideas and making lists and what not with each other, I thought I would try something that new reader Krista suggested on her blog the other day.

After reading this, type "your name needs" into a search engine and find out what YOU need. Some of them are funny and some of them are just plain ole weird. And a couple of them are probably true!

This is what Monica needs:

Google
Monica needs a bicycle master plan.
Monica needs a job.
Monica needs another dress washed.
Monica needs her own board damnit!!
Monica needs to move in a new direction.
Monica needs to inspire with her pluck.

Yahoo
Monica needs some serious TLC.
Monica needs to be in counseling.
Monica needs some refinement.
Monica needs a break!!!
Monica needs some serious direction.

Dogpile
Monica needs a hug from US President Bill Clinton. (too funny!)
Monica needs to act more feminine.
Monica needs a nap.
Monica needs a distraction.

One More Week!

2005-10-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but by this time next week (Sunday afternoon), I will be in St. Thomas!!!! I have been looking forward to this vacation for such a long time. I wonder what I will have to look forward to after it's over.

I think I pretty much have my Packing List for the trip. If I don't write crap down, then I always forget something. My list has become quite extensive. I just hope we will be able to get everything into our suitcases!

Not much going on this way. Skyler has actually been pretty decent for the most part this week. No major blow ups. So that's good. Chase has been Chase. You know how one year old boys are...into everything. I never knew one child could drag out so many toys! We just pretty much leave the house trashed until he goes to bed at night. Then the three of us (Skyler included, of course) walk around the house picking up all the toys. You just wait until Little Man is walking and can understand. We are going to start making him pick up his mess! Skyler always asks why she has to help pick up the mess because Bubby is the one who made it. I have to explain to her that Bubby is too little to pick up the toys on his own, but he will soon!

Things were really slow at work this week. Most people from the office were in San Francisco for a meeting. There were only about 10 of us left behind. Since everyone else was gone, we decided to have lunch on the company on Friday as a treat to ourselves. Of course we "ok'd" it with the boss man beforehand. But it was nice to have lunch with everyone from work. We ordered sandwiches and soups from the Bear Rock Cafe. Yum!

I really think I won't be worth much at work this week either because I am looking forward to the trip. I'll be counting the hours here before you know it.

Yesterday I had a "girl's night out" with my friend Sam. We went to Durham to shop at The Streets at Southpoint. Love the shopping there. It is so awesome. I had a $65 credit at the Apple Store where I had returned something. So I wanted to get Jonathan an iPod Shuffle to take with us on our trip. It's 1 GB and holds about 240 songs. Nothing like my iPod Photo which holds 5,000 songs. But it's all Jonathan really needs.

The only problem is Jonathan listens to Hip/Hop and Rap and I don't really listen to that crap. Maybe a bit of Hip/Hop if it has a beat, but I definitely don't like Rap. And you can only run one iTunes at once. So it means I'll have to put some of his cruddy music in my iTunes. Oh well, I'll live. I can always fast forward through the stuff.

I have a wide range of music on my iPod. Everything from 70's to Hip/Hop to the Rolling Stones. I really like a lot of music. I currently have over 1,000 songs on my iPod and climbing. Finding and downloading the music is a pain in the butt sometimes though.

So anyway, getting back to our "girl's night out." After we went to buy the shuffle we went to Penney's to see if we could find some new clothes. Of course I didn't find anything for myself, but I did manage to find Skyler two outfits for Christmas. I'm finished with Skyler's Christmas shopping, but I have hardly even begun on Chase's. It's so hard to buy for 1 1/2 year old boys! If anyone has any ideas, I'm definitely open to suggestions.

After Penney's we went to the movies. We saw Domino. I have to say I really liked it. It was really loud and pretty gory, but it was actually very good. The only thing I didn't like about it was the way they filmed the movie. It's hard to explain, but it gave me a headache. The movie is actually based on a true story (although I'm sure 90% of it isn't true). The girl who the movie is based on was named Domino Harvey. She just recently died. But if your looking for a good action movie, it's not too bad.

After the movie we had plans to eat at one of my all time favorite restaurants, PF Chang's. I was really looking forward to some chicken lettuce wraps and Kung Pau Shrimp. But after we parked and went in they informed us it would be a 90 minutes wait. Um no thank you. So we headed back towards the house and ended up eating at The Outback. I was pretty disappointed, but after a couple of lobster tails, I was over it.

Skyler is upstairs taking a nap. I don't think the time change is going to bother the kids too much. I should have gotten to sleep in an extra hour this morning since it was my morning to sleep in, but I didn't really feel like sleeping in, so I got up around 7:15. Actually it was 8:15, so I guess I "kind of" slept in.

After I got up we decided to go eat breakfast at The Cracker barrel that they just built by our house and then go shopping at the dreaded Wal-Mart. So we had done all that and were back home by 11:00 a.m. That's good for us because we normally don't even get out of our pajamas on the weekends sometimes. So to have done all that by 11:00 a.m., we were doing pretty good. None of us are really morning people, that's for sure.

Well I guess I have rambled on long enough for one day. I hope everyone had a great weekend and can't wait to get caught up on everyone's blogs.

Things I'm Afraid Of....

2005-10-28T08:59:00.000-04:00

I think Caroline is trying to pay me back for making her do a list of things she has done in her life. But she has asked her readers to a list of things that they are afraid of. This one is kind of tough. I've always thought of myself as the "adventurous type" when it comes to things like sky diving (tandem of course); riding on airplanes, race cars, etc. So I'm going to have to think about this one for a bit...

I will tell you one thing I am afraid of is kind of stupid. They aren't even real, but if they were real at one time or another, I must have been killed by one or been one myself, not really sure. But the one thing I am afraid of is VAMPIRES! I know, it's ridiculous. There is no such thing as VAMPIRES, but they freak me out so bad if I even catch a glimpse of one on the television, say advertising a movie or something, it freaks me out and I scream like a little girl. And then I think about them all night when I lay down. So I definitely have a huge dislike for anything to do with VAMPIRES.

So anyway, here is my list:

1. Vampires

2. Death of a Family Member. Of course, losing anyone in my family, especially my kids, hubby, parents, etc. That one is a no brainer there.

3. Gory/Scary Movies. I have never liked scary movies. I'm one of those people if I'm watching a scary movie and something jumps out of the closet or something, I jump out of my seat, scream like a little girl and almost pee myself. So you don't see me watching too many scary movies. Especially ones with VAMPIRES!!!

4. Speaking in Front of Large Crowd. I'm with Caroline on the giving speeches thing. I hate standing up in front of a crowd. The bad thing is, I have to do it quite often with my job. Most of the time I try and pass it off to someone else if I can. I especially freak out when my boss is trying to be nice and recognize me in front of a few hundred people for the good job your doing, and then you have to go stand up there like a fool. It's nice of him to recognize me, but its also really embarrassing.

5. Failing at raising my children to be good/productive adults. We've had such a hard time with Skyler here lately. I definitely feel sometimes like we are both bad parents. I guess it's a learning process, but we haven't been doing a very good job here lately.

6. Failing to do a good job for my employer. I've been given some new duties at my job recently and I feel like I'm doing a horrible job sometimes. I've always tried to do a good job at whatever task I have been given, but here lately, things just don't seem to be coming together like I wish they would. Maybe it's just a learning process for me.

7. Marriage failing. Jonathan and I have both been through some rough times in the 15 years we have been together. When we first married in 1991, our family and friends all said it wouldn't last two years. So I guess we kind of showed them, huh? But there are still times when I wonder if we are going to make it. There are definitely more good than bad times though. I guess everyone has problems/rocky times in their marriage, so we make it work and move on.

Those are the only things that come to mind at the moment. It's weird... I'm not afraid of normal things like spiders, snakes, heights, etc. I've always pretty much been fearless in so many ways. My daughter is the same way. She isn't afraid to try or do anything at least once. Not saying we don't learn our lessons sometimes after doing something stupid, but for the most part, I'll try anything once.

So there you have it. Now how bout you?

Things I Have Done in My Lifetime....

2005-10-25T08:57:00.000-04:00

As I was laying in bed last night unable to fall asleep, my mind was racing with the craziest thoughts. I was lying there thinking about all the things I have done in my 35 years.

As you already know, my husband and I married young (20 years old) and he served in the Army for 10 years. While he was in the Army and afterwards, we have done so many things, it's just incredible. I decided I was going to try and make a list of all the exciting things I have done in my lifetime. This list will be ongoing and this weekend I'm going to make a link of the list under the "About Me" section of the blog. My long term goal will be to scan in some of the photos of these things we have done and add it to the list.

Of course, this is not a complete list and it's just some of the things that came to mind as I was lying in bed unable to sleep last night (even after taking my Ambien no less).

Anyway, my challenge to you is to make your own list and let's share. We all know we have done exciting things in our life. So please make your own list and share it with me.

Here is the beginning of mine:

THINGS I HAVE DONE IN MY LIFETIME

1. Stepped over the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the JAS building into North Korea (before stepping over said line, had to sign a U.S. Dept. of Defense document stating that if I were apprehended, the United States and South Korea would not be responsible for my well-being). I bet there are not many people out there who can say they have been to North Korea!

2. Had my picture taken by North Korean soldiers who were standing outside of the JAS building at the DMZ.

3. Had a gun drawn on me on the Russian/Polish border after pulling out my instant camera to take a picture of the border guard (guess they had never seen a Polaroid before). After they realized what it was, they commenced to asking me to use my entire roll of film taking pictures of them (which they kept). However, they did reward me with 3 bottles of Vodka (which I still have to this day).

4. Swam with the dolphins in Cozumel, Mexico.

5. Walked the streets of some of World War II's most notorious concentration camps, Auschwitz and Dachau. Somberly viewed the gas chambers were hundreds of thousands of lives were senselessly lost. (The gas chambers were not actually used at Dachau.)

6. Swam the coral reefs in Hawaii's Hanama Bay.

7. Snorkeled with and held the stingrays in Grand Cayman.

8. Visited Hitler's summer retreat, The Eagle's Nest.

9. Walked the bomb shelters/tunnels of World War II under a famous German hotel.

10. Stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

11. Sailed the Rhein River.

12. Visited the "cave room" in Crazy King Ludwig's Neuswanstein Castle (the model for Disney's Cinderella's Castle and also the ballroom floor of the dance scene in Beauty & the Beast).

13. Survived the 500-year flood in South Korea in 1998. Saw tens of dead floating in the streets. Watched mothers leave their small children at a local daycare, never to return to pick them up. Spent weeks working in a water-logged office during clean up. No one came to help, just us.

14. Swam at one of the world's most beautiful beaches, Megan's Bay in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

15. Paid $6.00 for a Coke in Tokyo, Japan.

16. Ate Kimchi in South Korea.

17. Visited the volcanic island of Chejudo in South Korea.

18. Danced with a beer stein on a table at Munich's Oktoberfest.

19. Rode a Segway along the levies and in Jackson Square in New Orleans.

20. Watched Old Faithful spew.

21. Saw a grizzly bear with her cubs in Yellowstone Park.

22. Viewed The Mona Lisa in France.

23. Walked along the pebble beaches of Loret De Mar, Spain.

24. Cried for the bull at the bullfights in Barcelona, Spain.

25. Read a "drug menu" in Amsterdam, Holland where drugs are actually on drink menus and are legal! (Did NOT purchase any drugs, of course).

26. Walked the streets of the "red light district" in Amsterdam where prostitution is legal.

27. Crossed over the Czech border not long after communism was ousted.

28. Stood beside and touched the Berlin Wall (a couple of years after it had fallen).

29. Got into a fist fight with a French girl while on a boat in Spain (I have not had respect for the French since said fight and also my visit to France. The French do not like Americans AT ALL).

30. Played in the snow in the Austrian mountains (in April no less).

31. Swam naked in the schwimbads of Germany (everybody has to get bootie naked after 6:00 p.m. or leave).

32. Watched fireworks while sitting on a river boat in front of the famous Heidelberg Castle.

33. Drove over 100 m.p.h. on Germany's world famous Autobahn (and it’s legal!!).

34. Visited the Badlands of South Dakota (was young and wanted to dig for dinosaur fossils while I was there).

35. Walked in the snow (in July) on the Grand Teton Mountains.

36. Crashed a mini boat while in Cancun, Mexico (Actually, my hubby was driving. Luckily they didn’t charge us for the damage!).

37. Sailed down the Martha Brae on a wooden raft in Jamaica.

38. Stood at the base of Trummelbach Falls in Switzerland.

39. Visited one of the world's smallest countries, Liechtenstein (its only 62 square miles and lies between Austria and Switzerland).

40. Walked the streets of Bangkok, Thailand.

41. Crawled through the tunnels the North Koreans had dug underground while trying to dig their way to Seoul. (The tunnels extend from the North Korean border to 50 meters inside South Korea).

42. Stood beside Freedom Bridge (also known as "The Bridge of No Return" in between North & South Korea. It is also the site of the famous ax murders of Captain Bonifas and Lieutenant Barrett as they tried to cut down a “supposed” favorite tree of the North Korean President).

43. Stood at the top of the tallest building in South Korea. Building Number 63.

44. Gave birth to two of the most beautiful children in the world!

So how bout you? Are you up for the challenge to make your own list!?!?! Let me know!

Two Weeks & Counting!!!

2005-10-21T12:42:00.000-04:00

First off, just wanted to let you know the videos are down because jusspress is switching over to new servers. So forgive the way the posts with the videos look. They should be back up by Monday. So no new videos for today! I know, you can't stand it right? Not!

Anyway, two weeks and counting people!!! Yes, two weeks until the big ole vacation! I know you are just plain ole sick of hearing me talk about this damn vacation. But I am so excited I can't even think straight. The thought of relaxing on a gorgeous beach in the Caribbean, lounging on the deck of the Carnival Liberty. Oh heaven.

Today I spent over 45 minutes just preparing paperwork for the babysitter and my parents. After working as a Legal Assistant for so long, I am so anal about crap. I prepared two medical powers of attorneys. One for my mom and one for the babysitter. This way if anything happens to the kids while we are out of the country, things will be all set. I then made copies (front and back of course) of our medical insurance cards. Then I made a list of important phone numbers, i.e., school, doctors, etc. After that I wrote out a list of things to remember, i.e., when school releases early, when homework is due, procedure for signing Skyler in and out of school, etc. And finally I prepared a list of all the places and phone numbers where will be staying during our vacation. Btw, did you know it costs $9.50 per minute to call a ship! Dang people!

Then I put everything neatly into little folders and appropriately labeled them. I may be disorganized in some things, but in others, well you just can't be disorganized when it comes to your kids! So, can you say "anal bit--?" Yup, that's me.

Jonathan has no clue all the ground work it takes just to plan a frigging vacation. He basically just sits back and let's me make all the decisions and do all the work. The day before we leave, he drags out the suitcases from the storage barn and brings them in and then packs his own stuff. That's basically his entire preparation for the trip.

He is clueless to all the work I have done just getting ready for this vacation. Airline tickets, rental cars in St. Thomas and Florida, hotel reservations, cruise tickets, withdrawing money, traveler's checks... Well you get the point. Not to mention all the stuff that needs to be done for the kids. It must be nice to have a spouse who does everything and you just get to show up on the day and go.

The only downside to him not helping in any preparations is I have complete control of his days. He is a prisoner held hostage to my plans once we leave on vacation. You don't want to help in the planning buddy? Well then you must pay the consequences! The good news about this trip is, well I don't have any plans! Can you believe that crap? Normally I have an activity planned for each day and every port. Not this time. I'm just looking forward to some rest and relaxation. Some lounging around reading and listening to the ole iPod. I don't know if we will do any organized tours in the ports. We might just get off and walk around. We are just going to play it by ear this time. Hmm, now that I've started talking about it, it sounds frightening. Maybe I need to start making some plans.... Not!

Things have gone pretty good this week. Skyler has had her moments. But no major blow-ups. It's just the mouth. The mouth people. Where does this kid get her mouth from? She lost tv privileges 3 times this week. That's usually the first thing we take away from her when she gives us lip and attitude. You just can't tell the child "No." You tell her "No" and she freaks out.

Last night it started when Jonathan got home from work. She was yelling and screaming and carrying on (playing with Chase) and he was trying to talk to work on the phone. I couldn't get her to calm down while he was on the phone, so Jonathan stepped outside to use the phone. So then she goes outside and starts playing on the swingset while he is sitting on the back deck. After he got off the phone she asked him to swing her on the swing and he told her it was getting a bit late and she needed to get on in the house and get ready for bed. Well she just lost her stuff. She commenced to screaming and yelling and carrying on. So he hauled her butt back in the house and we aent her to her room. When you send her to her room she stands at the door and screams, "Please let me out!! Please, please, please let me out!" Now we don't even have the door closed. We just tell her she can't come out of her room until she calms down. It usually takes her a good 20 minutes or so to stop screaming. This is like an every other night occurrence. I just don't know what to do with this child sometimes. She really tries both our patience.

Another thing is she can't stand for you to give Chase any attention whatsoever. If I pick him up and start playing with him, she jumps up on my lap to. If I'm trying to take a photo of him, she HAS to get in front of him. It is really frustrating because she requires 10 times more attention than he does. And the bad thing is I spend a lot more time with her. I really think I am not spending enough time with Chase. If she is in the room, she has to be the center of attention.

Another thing that really bothers me about her is she is always interrupting when Jonathan and I are trying to talk. We always include her in our conversations, especially at the dinner table. But sometimes we are trying to discuss things between ourselves. She just keeps butting in and if you ask her to please wait until you finish and then she can talk, well again she just loses it. We are just at our witts end with her. If Chase turns out as difficult as Skyler is. I think we may both lose our minds!

Anyway, moving on to other things. I must confess something. I bought myself a Game Boy Advance. I'm kidding myself saying I'm buying it for Skyler, but I secretly wanted it for myself. I know, sue me. One of the girls at work was selling her daughter's Game Boy and games and I bought it. She still has the original boxes and everything. I've played the thing for two hours at night instead of watching tv or doing something around the house that really needs to be done. That's pretty bad when a 35 year old is playing the ole Game Boy. They didn't have such things when I was a kid, so maybe I'm making up for my lost childhood.

We're hoping the weather will hold out and we can attend the Lexington Barbecue Festival on Saturday. If you've never heard of good ole North Carolina Lexington Barbecue, then you don't even know what your missing. I don't even like barbecue, but I do like the Lexington Barbecue. And for some reason doesn't it taste better when your starving at a festival and you sit down on the grass and eat your sandwich. Yum. The bad news is there is a 60% chance of rain for tomorrow. We won't go if it's raining. Definately don't want anyone getting sick when vacation is so near.

Well I guess I better end for now. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Where Has the Weekend Gone?

2005-10-17T07:32:00.000-04:00

Ugh, it's Monday. Don't you hate how fast the weekend goes by. It seems I have all these plans of things to accomplish over the weekend and before I know it "poof" it's Monday again. I didn't get much accomplished this weekend. But at least we pretty much had a "temper tantrum free" weekend. It's kind of scary because I am starting to see the same things in Chase that Skyler has.... The temper, the "If I can't have my way I'm going to throw myself on the ground and scream." Yikes. My life isn't going to get any better any time soon. Oh well, we will forge on and pray for when they are older. I guess I'll have worse things to think about then. Like sex, drugs, getting into college, etc. Ugh! Why did we ever have kids! Nah, I'm just kidding. I love my kids more than anything, but damn can't they be challenging little hellions sometimes?

So Skyler and I went to a birthday party this weekend. It went pretty well. Skyler played with several of her schoolmates. They had one of those big bouncy castles. The first thing Skyler did was climb up into the bouncy castle and she was politely "body slammed" by the birthday boy. I think it took her by surprise because she isn't used to being rough housed too much. But she was the only girl in the bouncy castle and all the little boys decided to throw one down on her. Girlfriend was stunned at first, but then she bounced up and commenced to body slamming him right back. Well as best as she could. The birthday boy just turned 5 and he pretty much is twice the size of Skyler. But she held her own.

I felt I was right at home. It was kind of a "redneck heaven" at the birthday party. This family owns about 20 acres and they have like four 4-wheelers, 5 motorcycles, etc. that they right all around the property. I guess with 3 boys, you want to give them something to occupy their time and get them out of the house. I would freak out turning my kids loose on those 4-wheelers, but hey, to each is their own. The five year old can also ride this little bitty dirt bike. Skyler can barely ride her bike with the training wheels. I guess having two older brothers helped and motivated him a lot to learn how to ride. But it was pretty funny seeing a little five year old zooming around on a dirt bike.

After the party I dropped Skyler back off at home and headed to Wal-Mart to do the grocery shopping. Don't you just hate how you go into Wal-Mart thinking your going to spend like $50 and you end up coming out of there spending more like $150! Dang! I'm counting the days until they open the doors of this new Wal-Mart right by our house. No more driving 12 miles. No sirreee, I'm going to have a Wal-Mart less than 2 miles from the ole house. Sam Walton would be proud to hear me say that wouldn't he?

As I was checking out at Wal-Mart, I realized that Jonathan had taken my debit card and he also had the checkbook. As I was sitting there mentally cussing his ass out and thinking to myself, what am I going to do? Then I realized I had the ole Target Visa. So I pulled it out and was going to pay for purchases with the Visa. The girl gave me this really snotty look and said,

"Your kidding right?

I'm like, "Excuse me"

She said, "Your not REALLY going to pay for your purchase at Wal-Mart with a TARGET card are you?"

I'm like, "Um, well it is a Target Visa, and basically yes. Because I don't have anything else to pay with seeing as how my husband confiscated my debit card this morning."

I was sitting there thinking, "B---- step back and let me pay for my frigging food why don't ya!" Geeze! It wasn't like she was saying it in a cute or funny way. She was being a real smart ass about it.

And while I'm on the subject of Wal-Mart, I don't know if it's just here in my area or what, but the cashiers don't put your merchandise in the buggy. They just keep on turning the little thing with the bags on it and even if you try and be smart and not start loading the buggy yourself. When it gets full, they will start putting your bags in the floor. Um hello, what happened to the good ole days of customer service where they could at least walk their lazy butts 2 feet and put your bags into the buggy! I guess it's just as well because they end up squashing half your stuff anyway. I have noticed that back home in TN the cashiers are friendlier and nicer and do put your stuff in the buggy. Must just be where we live or something I guess. People just aren't as outgoing and friendly as they are in TN.

Ok, enough bitching about Wal-Mart. I just had to get that off my chest. So yesterday Skyler and I headed to JCPenneys. My husband and I are so lazy (or forgetful either one) that we only get our mail like 2 or 3 times a week. So I had gotten the mail a day or so earlier and there was this coupon for Penney's for 30% off. They were having a sale on Sunday from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. So I'm thinking, "Cool, I can finally break down and buy that microsuede comforter set I have been wanting." And Chase also needed some winter pajamas and I haven't been able to find very much at the consignment shop.

So we head to Penney's and they are having a really good sale and I'm thinking by using my 30% off coupon, I'll save a ton. So I get like 3 pair of pants, two shirts for myself, 2 pairs of pajamas for Chase and my much coveted microsuede comforter set and I take it up to the cashier. She rings it up and it's well over $200 and I'm like, yikes! But I have my 30% off coupon here, so not so bad. So I hand her the coupon and she looks at me and then she looks at my coupon and she says, "Um I'm sorry, but this coupon was for last weekend." I'm like, "What? No surely your mistaken, I just got it in the mail this week." She said, "No, it's for last week." So dangit! I didn't get to use my coupon.

Well there was no way in hell I was going to be able to buy all that crap without the coupon, so I had to put pretty much everything back. Except for Chase's pajamas and my microsuede down comforter. It was actually on sale. So I finally got it! Woohooo! I put it on the bed last night and it was heaven. I highly recommend it if your looking for a new comforter. So that was my stupid moment for the weekend. I guess it should teach my butt to check my mail more often, huh?

So if your ever wondering why sometimes you might see more photos of Skyler here than Chase.... I think I finally figured it out last night. Girlfriend is a picture hog! I was trying my best to get a picture of Chase yesterday and for the life of me, she kept on jumping into the photo. I either got her totally in front of Chase. Or somewhere in the photo was one of her body parts. Geeze. Poor Little Man can't have a decent photo taken for nothing. I guess that's just part of growing up with a brother/sister. But I keep warning her.... You just wait until he starts walking and talking girlfriend, your goose is cooked! She torments him a lot right now. She'll sit on him and pin him down where he can't move. Those days are coming to an end real soon. I have a feeling as soon as he is mobile, she is going to get a run for her money.

Well I need to get some work done. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Can't wait to get caught up on all your blogs!

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Let's Get Organized, Organized...

2005-10-14T08:18:00.000-04:00

Did I ever mention that here lately my mind has gone to pot! I have so much going through my mind with work, the kids, appointments, bills, shopping, etc. Jonathan is great at helping me with the kids, but that is basically where it ends with him. I'm responsible for everyone's appointments (including his); paying all the bills; doing all of the grocery shopping; clothes shopping (including buying his clothes and shoes); vacation planning; house cleaning; laundry washing.... Well you get the point. So anyway, I think at some point moms just hit their "breaking point." Well I think I have hit mine! I seriously think I need some kind of medication or something.

So anyway, I was freaking out about remembering everything a mom has to remember, i.e., which bill to pay when, doctor visits, school closings, teacher conferences, when homework is due, etc. So yesterday I decided to get off my ass and go out and get some calendars. Now I have a PDA, I have an Outlook calendar at work and at home, but none of that helps Jonathan help me remember things. So my first purchase was this Family Organizer I bought at Border's. I figured this was something I could carry around with me at all times to keep up with the appointments, meetings, school conferences, half days of school, etc. Well you get the idea. And then I purchased the Mom's Plan It! (Not the Christian version). So it has taken me HOURS to fill out these calendars by combining things I have on my work calendar, my PDA, Skyler's school calendar, Jonathan's calendar etc. I plan on putting the Mom's Plant It! on the refrigerator at home so Jonathan can also look at it daily and help me remember things and also maybe assist in doing things. So wish me luck! Maybe we can get a bit more organized and I can actually start sleeping better at night.

When I lay down to sleep at night I just have so much crap running through my mind that I can't fall asleep. What needs to be done tomorrow, what do I need from the grocery store, does someone have an appointment tomororw, does Skyler need to be picked up early. I just lay there and my mind races and I can't go to sleep. The doctor prescribed me Ambien and it has helped, but I don't want to use it long term or anything. I've told the doctor I'm definately not "depressed" or anything, I think maybe I'm just too anxious. I fret over too much crap that isn't necessary. It pisses Jonathan off to no end. But someone has to take charge! He can literally lay his head on the pillow and is snoring in less than 2 minutes. Must be nice! I think Skyler is going to have my "I can't seem to fall asleep" problems. That really sucks.

I guess you other moms must just be better at handling things than I am. And I know there are other moms out there who have husbands who don't help with the kids very much. I'm really glad that Jonathan is so helpful with the kids, but I wish he would help me in other areas to. He basically comes home around 6:30 or 7:00 after the kids have had dinner and had their baths. So he plays with them a bit and then it's off to bed. I will say he is responsible for getting Skyler to sleep at night. He started all of these "rituals" with her that they have to do every night. It's funny though because if he is out of town, Sklyer knows that "Mommy don't play that game." I don't go through all those rituals the two of them have. It's a bedtime story, a couple of kisses and hugs and then I'm outta there.

Skyler is invited to her first "friend" birthday party tomorrow. Yesterday we went to ToysRUs to buy the kid a gift. He is a 5 year old boy.... I hate to say it, but I suck at buying boys gifts. There are so many cute and fun things for girls, but for boys... Well I just can't relate. I know I better get my ass in gear because um hello, I have a son now, but I still just really suck in the boy department.

So when I called up the little boy's mom to RSVP, I asked her if she wouldn't mind giving me a call back and letting me know if he needed anything in particular or what his likes were. So she gives me a call back and says he doesn't need anything in particular and hasn't really asked for anything. (Surprising to me because Skyler asks for something daily). So I mentioned to her that I'm not the best at buying a boy a birthday present. She kind of laughed and said that she wasn't either and she has 3 boys! She said she loves when they get invited to a girl's birthday party because she can go out and have some fun buying something cute. So at least I'm not the only one out there that has problems buying boy gifts!

Three weeks and counting to our vacation. I think Caroline mentioned in the comments that we were leaving really soon. But we actually don't leave until November 6th. We will return on November 20th. We fly down to St. Thomas on the 6th, then back to Ft. Lauderdale on the 10th. Spend two days in Ft. Laudedale and then on the 12th we are off on our 8 day cruise.

Stalkers, don't get any bright ideas about coming to rob our house or anything because my brother is staying here the first week and then my parents will be here the second. Not to mention that I have 3 police officers on my street and the neighbor right next to me is the retired Sheriff and we have a security system. So robbers beware! Hell, if a robber came into our house and seen the mess, he would probably turn and high tail it right back out the door! Can you say "toy disaster area?"

The next thing I really need to work on is organizing our house. But I barely have enough time to get stuff down now, so the organization of the house will have to wait. Hey, I can add that to my "To Do List" in my new Family Organizer. snarf

Ok, so I have ran out of things to talk about for today. I need to get caught up on all your journals. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll try and report soon on the birthday party. Hope Skyler acts decent at the party. Wish me luck!

I'm a Survivor....

2005-10-10T18:37:00.000-04:00

I'm glad to say I survived a weekend alone with Skyler. I know that's horrible of me to say. Y ou think I can't handle my own kid, right? But heck fire, girlfriend was a mess on Friday. You already know about the temper tantrum she threw. I'm happy to say we made it through the rest of the weekend without another "major" blowup. Don't get me wrong, she had her moments, but no more knock down drag out moments, thank God. But the mouth... I have never seen a toddler with such a mouth on her. My mom and her babysitter both say the same thing. Where does she get the attitude from? Heck if I know. I guess she is cursed with my attitude and Jonathan's temper. Poor child.

Because we had such a bad night Friday, we ended up staying in the whole weekend. Of course the rainy days didn't make matters much better. It pretty much rained the entire weekend. Who wants to get out when it's gray and raining? I was definitely ready for Jonathan and Little Man to get home last night.

Tonight Skyler and I are going to a book fair at her school. She was kind enough to remind me this evening when we got home. Wouldn't know what to do without my 4 year old reminding me of our appointments.

Well I didn't get around to finishing this post yesterday, so I guess I will finish it today. I only worked like 2 1/2 hours today because both kids had a doctor's appointment with their pediatrician. I FINALLY got Chase in to see Dr. B after more than two months of calling almost daily. Good gosh what is wrong with these people. The poor child is 14 months old and is just now getting his 12 month shots. And then our appointment is at 10:00 a.m. and we don't walk out of there until 12:15. Two hours and 15 minutes is too long to be in a doctor's office for a check up and two flu shots. I mean it's not like we walked in without an appointment or anything. You try and schedule the early morning appointments, but they are always filled up. Doctor's offices don't mind to cancel your appointment if your 10 minutes late, but they run an hour and a half behind all the time and don't mind keeping YOU waiting. Doctors just overbook too much nowadays.

Skyler and I enjoyed ourselves at the book fair last night. We ended up getting this really cool craft kit called "Melty Beads." How cool is that! Skyler made the fire engine last night and I ironed it to melt the beads. We definitely have to keep this stuff away from Chase, but it was a lot of fun for Skyler and I.

Ok, that was my little bitch session about the pediatrician. So I had to pick Chase up from the babysitters today at 1:15 anyway, so by the time we got out of the doctor's office at noon, there was no sense in taking him back to the babysitters. So here I sit with an afternoon home with the kids. Skyler has already had a little "episode" this afternoon. It seems to be getting worse. I keep proscratinating about going to a doctor, i.e, psychiatrist, etc. I mean you hate to start taking your kid at the age of 4, but it's looking more and more like it is going to be a have to situation real soon. Heck, it may not even be Skyler that needs the psychiatrist, it's probably us who needs some parenting classes just to learn how to handle her better. But when your co-payment for a specialist is $50.00, that can add up really quickly. But if it would work, I would gladly sacrifice other things to be able to afford it.

Well Skyler is absolutely starving, so I better get off here and fix her some dinner. Hope all is well with everyone else. Until next time....

This video was taken at the fair a couple of weeks ago. Sklyer begged to do this and after much moaning and groaning, I finally let her. Too bad I was holding the camera sideways to get a better shot without realizing I couldn't turn the video. Oh well. Did I mention that Skyler was fearless?

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It's Never Going to End....

2005-10-08T10:11:00.000-04:00

Well it happened again last night. Skyler threw an unbelievable tantrum. I'm so tired of all of this. Either I need medication or she needs medication, because one of us isn't going to make it. I just don't know what to do with her anymore. Sometimes I think some people in life aren't meant to be parents and I really think Jonathan and I fall into that category. I know it's horrible to say, but neither one of us are handling her very well. It's been about a year now. The littlest things just set her off.

Last night it started after we got home from the movies. She was actually pretty good at the movies. We also went to Best Buy, she stayed in the buggy, no fits or anything, so I was feeling pretty lucky. So then we get home and we play for awhile. I pick up the house a bit. Read a few journals online while she plays with her Leapster. Then it's time to go upstairs and go to bed. I change her into her gown and we head upstairs. I had bought her a new book at the consignment shop yesterday after I had taken some of the kids' clothes to be consigned. So I told her we would read the book after she brushed her teeth.

She said she wanted to read the book first and didn't want to brush her teeth. I said, "Sorry honey, we have to brush our teeth. We want to keep clean fresh teeth and not get any cavities." And then it turned into a power struggle. Skyler said, "I'm NOT GOING to brush my teeth, I said!!" And then it was all out war. She started screaming and yelling and I'm just sitting there looking at her dumbfounded. If you tell the child No or any variation thereof that she can't do something she wants at that exact second, she just completely loses her shit. I mean she totally freaked out. It turned into an hour and a half scream fest. As it was still going on the babysitter called. I was just in tears. I finally shut my bedroom door and just locked it. I knew if I didn't walk away, I was going to regret it. So she beat on my door for about 15 minutes while I calmed down. I'm just at my whit's end. We all need psychiatric help in this house.

It's really bad because my dad and stepmom won't keep her. My mom and my stepdad used to keep her for us occasionally while we went on vacation and what not. But now they really don't even want her to come home unless we come with her. I'm really afraid how she is going to act while we are on vacation. Not to mention two weeks is a long time for us to be gone. I think my mom will go bonkers while we are gone. I have this feeling that this may be the last time we go on vacation and get to leave the kids with my parents. I've already told my mom if Skyler starts acting completely out of control to take her to the babysitter's house. The babysitter has been keeping kids for 35 years and she is one of the only people who can set Skyler's ass straight. How sad is it when your child's grandparents don't even want to be around her sometimes? They love her dearly, but they just can't cope with her. Jonathan and I aren't doing too good of a job of it ourselves.

It's like she is Sybil with two or more personalities. She can be a perfect angel one minute (like she has been in school here for the last few weeks, thank G0d) and then the next minute she just flips her lid. She gets so angry sometimes and starts throwing things and breaking things.

I'm just at the end of my rope. I really don't know what to do. I've called the pediatrician's office dozens of times and sometimes literally in tears. And just like I said the other day, I get the "She'll grow out of it eventually speech." Please people! That is now what I need to hear.

I tried sending her to her room, sitting her in time out, talking calmly to her, talking loudly to her, holding her, ignoring her. I tried it all last night. Her fit lasted for over an hour. I tried and tried and tried to call Jonathan, but he must have been somewhere where his phone didn't work or he couldn't hear it ringing. I'm not sure.

I guess as they say the good times usually outweigh the bad times, but it just seems the bad times are getting more and more frequent here lately. I talk with my friends about it and they all just look at me like my child has two heads or something. I guess none of their kids have fits like this. But at least it's comforting to talk with some of you and hear your kind words. It's nice to know I'm not the ONLY mom out there with a difficult child. And I know my child isn't by no means the worst. But maybe some parents can handle things better than Jonathan and I can. The kids have been a huge strain on our marriage for the last couple of years. I couldn't tell you the times I thought Jonathan was just going to pack up his bags and hit the road. And here lately, I hate to say it, but I've kind of felt the same way.

Jonathan's mom left him and his brother when he was 2 and was never heard from again. Then the cycle continued when Jonathan's brother died and his girlfriend left their 3 kids behind after he had been gone for two years. They are now being adopted by some family members. I thank God that they are being well taken care of and I know now that we would have never made it if we had taken the boys. Our marriage is having a hard time surviving our own kids. If we had added 3 more boys to the mix, we both would probably be in our graves right now. But you don't know how guilty I feel at times thinking about them and how we didn't take them. But I know they are in really good hands and being well taken care of. As a matter of a fact, we are going to go see them while we are in Florida next month. They probably won't even remember who we are. I know the baby won't. But maybe the oldest one will.

Anyway, thanks for lending me your ear. You guys have really helped me deal with this a little better. Thanks for your words of comfort and advise. It's always nice to talk to other moms. I better get off here now and get some housework done and hope and pray that Skyler has a good day. I don't know if I can handle it again today.

I should have known we were in for trouble when Skyler was young. Hence the little scream fest we had here when she was about 10 months old. The temper was already flaring at this tender age...

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Video Test

2005-10-07T19:34:00.000-04:00

I'm still in the process of finding a good video host site. Please let me know if you can view this short video. Thanks!! Don't forget to read today's post below the video!

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Where Has All The Time Gone?

2005-10-06T13:07:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, here I go again with the sparse updates. As fellow blogger Mallard sometimes says.... "At least your not chained to your blog..." Or something along the lines of that... No, I'm not chained to my blog, I'm chained to my kids! But at least I will be getting a break from that here soon with the upcoming vacation. I know, I'm a horrible mom looking forward to being away from my precious "angels." Ha! Well just call me a horrible mom then, because I'm really looking forward to the break!

Skyler is still driving us absolutely bonkers. At least the school thing is still going well though. But the temper. Good, God! If this child makes it to the age of 18, well she will just be lucky. I thought Jonathan was going to strangle her last night. If you tell the child "No," she jut totally freaks out. Jonathan wanted to watch a television program last night and Skyler wanted to watch Tom & Jerry. Jonathan politely told Skyler that his favorite program was coming on and if she wanted to watch tv, she could go to her room and watch it there. Skyler starts in with her, "Please, please, please..." And she just keeps on and on and on and on. No matter how nicely you say it and even if you don't use the word "No," she can't take the hint. It ended up the two of them getting into an argument, him sending her to her room and a crying and kicking and screaming fit commenced. It's a good thing that Little Man is such a good sleeper, because he always sleeps through the drama that is a 4 year old girl. Lucky ducky.

It took me a good 15 minutes of talking smoothly to her to get her calmed back down. I know Jonathan has been stressed with work here lately and Skyler has been a pain. Please tell me that at some point in her life she will outgrow this?!? Please, please tell me it isn't going to last forever!

***

Things have been super crazy at work here to. I wonder if things will ever calm down. There used to be lulls in the work, but for the last year or so, it just seems things never really calm down. I guess that is to be expected when you basically work for 3 different departments.

Yesterday we had this political program. If I can tell you one thing, it is I am NOT interested in politics. My boss would strangle me if he heard me say that, but politics is just something that doesn't float my boat. So I had to sit in this program all day long running PowerPoint programs. I will have to say that some of it did slightly interest me. And my boss was kind enough to even say a thank you and the audience gave me a round of applause for my AV techniques, so it was kind of nice. Not to mention I had a fabulous lunch at a gorgeous hotel.

***

Jonathan and Chase are leaving Friday to go to the Tennessee/South Carolina game in Knoxville. Actually Jonathan will be dropping Little Man off with my parents at their campground. They have been camping for the last week or so and getting ready to take the camper down for the winter. So at least I will only have to deal with Skyler for the weekend. Not that I can't handle both of them or anything, but if he is going to be near my parents, why not send one of them off to Mamaw & Papaws. Skyler and I are planning on going to see W&G. We are still waiting on Chicken Little. Skyler can't wait until that comes out.

***

You know I'm sitting here thinking, and for the life of me, I can't remember what we did last weekend. It seems like the day I hit 30, my brain went to pot. I started having short-term memory losses, things started getting confusing and my prioritizing ability just plain ole disappeared. Geeze, what is going to happen when I hit 40 in a few years? Will my brain be totally fried?

Oh yeah, now I remember what I did! Saturday I went to a women's show at the coliseum with my friend Sam. It wasn't half as good as last year. Neither one of us bought a single thing. Afterwards we had dinner at one of those Japanese steakhouses. And then we went to see Just Like Heaven with Reece Witherspoon. I will have to say I enjoyed it. It is definitely a good "chick flick" to go see with your girlfriends. As Sam said as we were leaving the movie, "But I wouldn't want to take a guy on a first date to see that movie." Well I enjoyed it. So if you like "chick flicks" rent the DVD when it comes out.

That's pretty bad when it took me a few minutes to remember that I had a REAL girl's night out with my friend this weekend. Skyler and I have girl's nights out at least twice a month, but I very seldom go out with my own friends.

***

I haven't had a chance to get caught up on my blog reading. Hopefully I can do some of that this weekend. I just dread trying to put Skyler to bed. So far we haven't mentioned to her that Little Man and Daddy are going to be gone this weekend. I know she is going to freak out when she finds out. I'll deal with that tonight I guess.

This morning I was going to take her to school and let Jonathan take Little Man, but she commenced to throwing one hellacious fit because she wanted Bubbie to go to school with her and watch her wash her hands and pick out her lunch. Jonathan takes both kids in the mornings and I pick them up in the evenings. He takes Skyler to school first and just takes Little Man into the classroom with him. If he took Little Man first then he would have to come back through some massive school traffic.

So fit number one came this morning when it was time to put on her clothes. She whined and screamed and made scenes. And when she is screaming, she makes no sense whatsoever. It finally boiled down to Jonathan had put her shirt on first instead of her hairbow. Good God! What the hell does it matter! Four year old girls and their "rituals." What is the deal? My pediatrician says it's perfectly normal and both of his daughters were like that. I've actually called the pediatrician's office in tears before. But they just kind of laugh at me and say "She'll grow out of it eventually." That's not what the hell I want to hear! What about now! It's a good thing I'm not a child beater or anything because the pediatrician's office sure as heck isn't very much help!

Not to mention it has taken me 10 weeks to get Little Man a well baby visit for his one year old appointment. Um, hello, he turned 1 back in August and I have called 3 to 4 times a week to try and get his appointment since the end of July. We finally got an appointment for October 10th. So I'm sitting in lunch on Wednesday at the hotel during the political program and my cell phone rings. It's the pediatrician's office. The lady is like, "Ms. ___, we need to reschedule Chase's appt. Dr. B. will not be in on Monday." I'm like, "Your kidding!" These people know me by name because I have harassed them almost daily for 10 weeks! She is like "I'll have to call you back tomorrow with the new appointment." I'm like, "Oh hell no, you need to give me a new appointment RIGHT now." This is how we got into this the first time around. When I took him in for his 9 month appointment they are supposed to give you their next appointment right then. But they had already cut off their computers, so they said they needed to call me the next day with the appointment. Well they never did and then look what happened.

So she put me on hold FOREVER and then finally came back and rescheduled it for the 11th. Which is good because I have a committee meeting on the 10th and couldn't have gone with him. Jonathan was going ot take him. So now at least I get to go. And let me tell you, I am going to give this pediatrician a piece of my mind!

I know, you ask "Why don't you just switch pediatricians?" It's because Skyler LOVES her pediatrician. She ASKS to go see him! How often does that happen? But the man is so popular, it takes an act of congress to get an appointment.

***

So anyway, enough rambling for today. Hopefully I can update again this weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I took one of those silly online tests. Hmm, guess I'm not a nerd after all! I borrowed this from The State of Indiana:

Things Are Getting Better...

2005-09-30T07:45:00.000-04:00

So things are getting better with Skyler going to school. I guess it's just that "adjustment period" or something. So far this week, no kicking and screaming and having to physically drag her into school. So that's a good sign! And this entire week, she hasn't received one single "frowny face" on her chart. Woohooo! Things are looking up in the world in the school department.

I thought things were going so well this week until we had another blow up at McDonald's the other day. Since Skyler has been doing so well in school and going to bed for the last week or so, I thought I would take her and Chase to McDonald's for dinner and to play at the Playplace. Things went great at first. She ate her dinner before getting up to play. We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours (way too long) and she played with various kids. Then when it was time to go she walked out with no problems. She was sweating pretty badly and was asking for a drink of water. So I got her a glass of water and we headed towards the door. I asked her if she was finished with the water and she said yes, so I threw it into the trash can as we were going out the door.

When we got outside she learned her back up against the wall of the building and refused to move. So for about 3 minutes or so I spoke quietly to her asking her to please come on. Various cars were stopping to let us cross. But Skyler wouldn't budge. She also had the arms folded across her chest in the "I'm not budging, no matter what you say" stance. So after about 3 or 4 minutes of trying nicely, I just picked her up underneath her arms and threw her under my shoulder and hauled her a-- to the van with her kicking and screaming the entire way of course.

So after we get in the car she just totally loses it. She is kicking and screaming in her booster. As I drive down the road she is yelling at me to stop. She then takes her shoes off and hits me in the back of the hea with her shoes (luckily they were flip-flops and not tennis shoes). So I pulled the car off on the side of the road and opened her door and smacked her leg. (Yes I know I SPANK my child. Forgive me). She just lost her sh--. I tried talking calmly to her but she was screaming, so I got back in the van and started on my way home.

Then she starts yelling, "Stop the car Mommy and spank me!" "I WANT you to stop this car RIGHT NOW and spank my bottom!!"

I'm like what the ----? Girlfriend is going psycho on me. I very seldom spank her and it's not like I beat the ever living daylights out of her. I just smacked her leg to get her to stop kicking the back of my seat. I know by now that spanking doesn't solve anything with her. It just makes her angrier. So when we got home Jonathan and I tried talking to her, but she was so worked up, we just had to have her sit down until she calmed down which took about 30 minutes for her to stop screaming and carrying on. After she had calmed down we discussed how she acted and told her that she had lost various privileges.

Ah the wonders of raising pre-schoolers. And to think we have to go through this all over again with Chase in just a year or so. I don't know if my mind can stand it. I really hope we don't have to deal with some of this stuff with Chase. I'm sure Chase will have different issues. But Skyler just turns absolutely psycho sometimes. It really upsets my mom to no end. Neither me or my brother acted like she does. And sometimes it just seems the more you try and do for her, the meaner she is.

So anyway. That's how my day went. Nothing much else going on. Jonathan has been working pretty late all this week because it's the end of the month. So really it's just been me and the kids at home doing absolutely nothing. A little homework, some play time, dinner, more play time. How exciting is that? I will say that this new schedule of mine at work has been wonderful. I feel like I actually get to spend some time with my kids in the evening and I can actually get a few things done. Instead of leaving everything until the weekend and then trying to cram it all in at once.

Moving on to other matters, we received our confirmations from Jonathan's work on our flights and everything for our trip to St. Thomas. We leave Raleigh at 7:30 a.m. and have two stops! Yuck! We fly from Raleigh to Orlando, from Orlando to Miami and then from Miami to St. Thomas. We don't arrive in St. Thomas until 4:30 p.m. Ugh! That's traveling all day long. But I can't bitch. It is free... Well I won't say it's "free". We just got a letter in the mail from his employer saying that we were responsible for all taxes for the trip. Geeze! They get over somehow don't they? The bad thing is they tax you at like 45% on the cash portion of the prize. They say it's "special pay."

So we stay in St. Thomas from Sunday until Thursday and then on Thursday we fly from St. Thomas to Ft. Lauderdale. We spend two nights in Ft. Lauderdale and then on Saturday we are off on our 8 day cruise! I secured our room in Ft. Lauderdale from Priceline.com. I had originally won the Sheraton Airport location for $45.oo for one night back in May on Priceline and when I called to try and add a night they wanted $229.00 for the extra night! Yikes! So I just went back online and tried to get another room. I knew I may not get the same hotel because you don't get to actually choose your hotel when you bid for a hotel on Priceline. But I was lucky and got the Sheraton again. So $90.00 for two nights instead of like $500. Um, hello, that is an awesome deal. This was my first experience with Priceline, so I'll have to tell you how it went after we actually stay there. Do you think they might put us in the basement with the laundry or something? ;-)

We've decided to rent a car while we are in St. Thomas. I just hate being stuck at a hotel. When I travel, I like to get out and see the towns and the locals. St. Thomas is a very small island, but I still like to have my own transportation and cabs are pretty expensive. Just wish us luck as they drive on the opposite side of the road. Jonathan says he won't have a problem with it, but I don't think I will be doing any driving while we are there. I'll just be the "backseat driver."

They have a Tiffany store on the island, so I am picking out several pieces that I like and hopefully will be able to find one at their store. One of the girls from work is also going to give me some money to bring her a piece back. It's about 25% cheaper in St. Thomas than the Tiffany stores on the mainland.

Well I guess I better get some things done. Hope everybody has a great weekend!

2005-09-27T08:42:00.000-04:00

*TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey*
Name:	Monica
Birthday:	June 22
Birthplace:	Kingsport, Tennessee
Current Location:	North Carolina
Eye Color:	Blue
Hair Color:	Depends on the month - currently reddish blonde
Height:	5'4"
Right Handed or Left Handed:	Right
Your Heritage:	German (way back)
The Shoes You Wore Today:	Clark's Sandals
Your Weakness:	Prioritizing
Your Fears:	Not having enough money
Your Perfect Pizza:	Pepperoni, hamburger, sausage, onions & extra cheese
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	Spend more time with my kids
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	Don't use IM that much.
Thoughts First Waking Up:	What all do I need to get done today?
Your Best Physical Feature:	Eyes
Your Bedtime:	11:00 p.m.
Your Most Missed Memory:	My grandmother
Pepsi or Coke:	Pepsi
MacDonalds or Burger King:	Burger King
Single or Group Dates:	Single
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	Nestea
Chocolate or Vanilla:	Chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee:	Neither
Do you Smoke:	NO!
Do you Swear:	All the time.
Do you Sing:	Not in front of anyone
Do you Shower Daily:	Uh yeah!
Have you Been in Love:	Yes
Do you want to go to College:	No
Do you want to get Married:	Already am
Do you belive in yourself:	Sometimes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	No
Do you think you are Attractive:	Not really
Are you a Health Freak:	No
Do you get along with your Parents:	Yes
Do you like Thunderstorms:	Yes
Do you play an Instrument:	Piano
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	No
In the past month have you Smoked:	No
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	No
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	No
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	Yes
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	No
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	No
In the past month have you been on Stage:	No
In the past month have you been Dumped:	No
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	No
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	No
Ever been Drunk:	Yes
Ever been called a Tease:	No
Ever been Beaten up:	No
Ever Shoplifted:	No
How do you want to Die:	Peacefully in my sleep
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	A better person
What country would you most like to Visit:	Australia
*In a Boy/Girl..*
Favourite Eye Color:	Blue
Favourite Hair Color:	Black
Short or Long Hair:	Short
Height:	6'0"
Weight:	Doesn't matter
Best Clothing Style:	Casual
Number of Drugs I have taken:	Not many
Number of CDs I own:	200
Number of Piercings:	1
Number of Tattoos:	0
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	Too many to list
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

I borrowed this from Mary

Not Much Going On...

2005-09-26T07:31:00.000-04:00

Not much going on around here this past weekend. I have started cooking more. I made meatloaf for dinner last night. Of course Skyler won't touch it with a 10 foot pole, but Chase ate it like there was no tomorrow. Of course, he eats pretty much anything. For now he does anyway. I'm sure as time goes on he will become pickier like his sister. Let's hope not! You may think, making a meatloaf is no big deal. But this is from a sister who doesn't know how to cook. I mean I've never enjoyed cooking and I'm so picky there isn't much I even like to eat. My step dad did all of the cooking while I was growing up. And since he and I didn't see eye-to-eye while I was a teenager, I basically never learned to cook. So websites with recipes have become my best friend. I'm "trying" to learn. But it's just too much damn trouble people! But I am trying.
Anyway, on Saturday we decided to head to Concord Mills to do some shopping. It's a massive mall with lots of outlets. I got the kids a few clothes (like they really needed anymore). Chase didn't get a single pair of "plain" overalls for his birthday. So I went to the Osh Kosh outlet and they were having a massive sale. I got a pair of Osh Kosh overalls for $7.95. Not bad. Heck, I would have probably paid more than that for them from the consignment shop I usually go to. That consignment shop has gone sky high! What is their deal! I think they have become so popular they think they can just charge whatever they want.

We also wanted to take Skyler to this place called Jeepers in the mall. It's like this indoor entertainment complex with rides and little roller coaster, games, etc. She loves it. So she and Jonathan spent a couple of hours in there while Little Man and I hit the mall. Not buying much or anything, but mostly just browsing. Little Man has this habit of grabbing onto everything he can reach as he strolls by. It drives me absolutely bonkers. Skyler never did that. She just cruised along. Difference between girls and boys I guess.

After that we headed to a restaurant across the street called Razzoos. They have Cajun food and that stuff will tear your stomach up! Skyler didn't eat hardly anything as usual. However, Little Man commenced to tearing some Cajun food up! He had a whole piece of catfish, a chicken tender, 3 shrimp, countless french fries and even some of my dessert! I tell you that child will eat almost anything you put in his mouth and keep screaming for more. The only thing I hate is you can't stop and take a bite yourself. He barely breathes in between bites. And if you put some food on a plate for him, he just ends up swiping the plate off the table onto the floor. It's very frustrating. I'm hoping he will outgrow it soon.

We didn't do jack squat yesterday. Little Man and I went to return some headphones for the DVD system in the car. Then I came home and made the meatloaf for dinner.

Skyler is still giving Jonathan a hard time when he drops her off for pre-school. I'm hoping she will get over it soon. But we are going on week 4 of school. At least he didn't have to drag her in kicking and screaming this morning. He said she just cried, but walked in on her own free will. I guess that's a step forward anyway. The teacher did tell Jonathan this morning that after he is gone she is pretty good the rest of the day. I just don't understand. Girlfriend goes to bed at night fretting about getting up and going to school the next morning. Last night she told Jonathan she wanted to go back to her old school. It's kind of pitiful really. But we don't always get what we want in life and the sooner she learns that, the better off she will be. But that's kind of hard to explain to a 4 year old.

Skyler decided last night that she wanted to get started on her "Santa Claus List." Um, hello! We just had a birthday where both kids received entirely too much! Girlfriend is already thinking ahead to Christmas?!? I just want to know where in the world we are supposed to put any more toys! She has decided she wants a guitar. Like she will probably play all of 3 minutes with that one.

Well enough for today. I've got a lot to take care of. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Pre-School Blues....

2005-09-23T07:26:00.000-04:00

Ah the wonders of starting pre-school. As everyone knows from my journal, Skyler has been going to a private Christian school for almost two years. So when I signed her up for the county pre-school program, I just automatically assumed that it would be a smooth transition. I mean she has never been with me 24/7 or anything and she adapted to the Christian school so well. She actually loved going 99% of the time. There was the occasional morning when girlfriend threw a fit and didn't want to go to school. But that is kind of expected from a 3 year old. But all-in-all, she did a really good job going to school and behaved pretty well.

Unfortunately, I was actually at convention when her first day of school rolled around. I was able to take her to a "test" day the week before. And she seemed to like it well enough. She was excited to be going to the "new school" as she calls it and to make new friends. Well just let me tell you, things are not going so well.Well things aren't going so well at the "new school." As a matter of a fact, Jonathan just now called and said that he had to physically drag her into school this morning. She hates it. And I mean she hates it with a passion. She hates the teacher, she doesn't like the other kids, she doesn't like the assistant. She just plain ole doesn't like it at all.

I think I know one of the reasons she doesn't like it is because basically at her old school it was still kind of like daycare. I mean they had some things they had to do, but for the most part, it was all play. Now at the new school they are really trying to prepare the kids for kindergarten. It is so structured. I won't even begin to go into details of how structured this program is. And it seems Skyler isn't adjusting very well.

The teacher has this reward system where she gives the kids frowny faces every time they do something they aren't supposed to. I.e., talking out of term, etc. So if you get 3 or more frowny faces in a day, you don't get your afternoon treat and sticker. Well so far, Skyler hasn't come home with a treat or sticker yet! It's all very puzzling to me considering she was so good at the other school. And I'm not sure why she is getting frowny faces. The thing is, your not allowed to speak to the teacher when you pick her up or drop her off. The teacher says she is too busy to talk to parents. If we have any questions, we must write them down on a note. Well first of all I think this is ridiculous. I think we should be able to ask a few questions about our kids. Or she should at least allow us to set up an appointment to discuss the matter. I'm just not really happy. And obviously Skyler isn't happy.

She hates it so much that she feigns sickness at night and in the mornings. She will even try and make herself throw up! Geeze, the things I have to look forward as girlfriend grows up, huh? I think she still isn't comprehending that there are consequences for her actions. She is really upset that every single day she doesn't get a sticker or a treat like the rest of the kids. But she isn't putting two-and-two together that it's because of her own actions that she isn't getting the treat. She just thinks that the teacher doesn't like her or something.

I just hope things get better soon because Jonathan is not taking it well. Since I now have to be at work at 7:00 a.m., he has to take Skyler to school and Chase to the babysitter. I used to take Skyler to school and then pick both of them up. So all he had to do was take Chase to the babysitters. So he isn't handling having to take her to school very well. He has to get Chase out of his carseat and take him in with him. Well this morning he had to physically drag Skyler into school while carrying Chase. He said we are going to have to think of something else. I explained to him that he could take Chase first and then drop off Skyler, but he doesn't want to get stuck in the school traffic. He just doesn't deal with things very well.

He thinks I am supposed to solve everything. He can't figure things out for himself. I explained to him that I cannot drop off Chase because I have to be at work at 7:00 a.m. and the babysitter won't let us bring him until 7:30 because she goes to work out at the YMCA. So he just gets pissed off and hangs up on me. This is his answer every time he gets pissed off at me. It's not "Let's discuss this." It's just "click." Does that not totally piss you off? It's pretty bad when your 35 year old husband acts like his 4 year old. So when I tried to call him back, he doesn't answer his phone. Geeze.

Moving on to other matters. We finally found out where we will be staying on our trip to St. Thomas. It's the Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort. It looks really nice. But you know me and my pre-planning... As soon as I found out where we were staying I started doing my research. I.e., looking the place up on tripadvisor.com, etc. It seems it's VERY expensive to eat there. I'm not sure yet if it's an all-inclusive that he has won or if we are going to have to pay for our own food. But most reviews said it was basically $100 to eat dinner. Yikes! They also said that a soda was $3.25 and a bag of doritos from the little market was $5.95!!! So now we will probably starve while we are on our trip.

I think we will rent a car while we are there. This way we could make little runs to a local market that is a few miles away to stock up on snacks and maybe bread and sandwich meat. Not to mention I hate nothing more than being stuck at a hotel with no way to go places other than cabs. I've also already found out it's an approximate $40 cab ride round trip to go into town to do any shopping. The only thing that scares me about driving in St Thomas is they drive on the opposite side of the road and I heard the drivers are absolutely crazy. It couldn't be worse than Korea I'm sure.

I also must head to Borders to purchase my travel book on St. Thomas. I never go anywhere without a Lonely Planet or Frommers. I'm such a nerd. I just want to make sure I don't miss something really exciting while we are on our travels. My Lonely Planet Korea book was like our Bible while we were living in Korea. I still have it. It is so worn and torn and dog-eared. But I used it almost daily while we were there. It had the subway routes, places to eat, places to stay, things to see, info on cabs, etc. It was just great!

After the way Jonathan has been acting here lately, I'm not sure if I want to spend two whole weeks, 24 hours a day with him. He has just been plain ole pissy here lately. I know things are stressful at work, but he just seems to come home and take it out on us sometimes. And there is no reasoning with the man. If you try and talk to him he is all "We know your the PERFECT mother..." Um oh hell no, I don't think that and I never say that. As a matter of a fact, I think both of us are pretty crappy parents most of the time. And that's sad to say. But some people are just better parents than others I guess. I seriously think we both need some counseling in the parenting department.

Well enough bitching and moaning and groaning for one day. That's how my day went. How bout yours? Hope it was better than mine.

Bet Gone Bad...

2005-09-21T12:25:00.000-04:00

I just had to put up this photo of Jonathan and some of his co-workers... Apparently they are all into this "male competition" thing and love making bets against other locations. Seems Jonathan is in a little competition with one of the Virginia locations. They had this bet that one would hit a certain sales number before the other one. So whoever lost the bet would have to wear a pink "Loser" shirt and wash the other one's truck. Now call me crazy, but how crazy is that! Men and their bets and competitiveness! Geeze!

So anyway, the Virginia location beat Jonathan out by a few thousand dollars, so Jonathan's location lost the bet! He and his General Manager had to travel to Virginia (on one of the days I was at convention no less) and partake in a pig-picking (paid for by the NC location of course), wash the Virginia location's service truck and basically muddle in their loss. He he he he

Jonathan actually took it all in stride and proudly wears his pink "Loser" shirt as you can see. I guess that might teach him to make any more bets, huh? Not! They already have another one going on. Men and their male egos!

I can't remember if I've mentioned this or not, but now that Skyler is in public school, they do not have a daycare service for the Pre-K students. So she gets out of school every day at 2:15. My work was graciously kind enough to allow me to change my hours (yeah for my work helping out a working mom). I now work 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Tues.-Fri. and work 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday. This allows me time to get in my hours (without a lunch though) and still leave early enough to pick up my daughter from school. On Mondays Little Man's babysitter picks her up since she only lives a couple of miles away from the school.

So yesterday was my first day of picking her up. I didn't walk out the door until 2:04 and was booking it to get to the school on time. Luckily, I found out it only takes me approximately 10 minutes to get to her school, so I made it on time. Whew!

It was so weird to get off so early. She and I headed to the grocery store and did our shopping. Then we came home and I gave her a bath and she watched a few minutes of cartoons. I then thought out supper plans and we headed to pick Chase up. We were back at the house by about 4:45. How wonderful is this!?!?! No more rushing home and arriving at 6:15 p.m. to a screaming and whaling 1 year old and 4 year old because they are starving. I am so happy! I really hope this works out and kudos to my work for allowing me to do it! Did I fail to mention I LOVE my job? Only on almost every post here. I know your tired of hearing it. But hey, "I LOVE MY JOB!!"

So today I think I am going to break down and go buy that micro-suede comforter I was wanting. I haven't bought a new comforter since Skyler was born and it was so comfy and luxurious. I think I deserve a new comforter. Don't you!?! I know Jonathan is going to be like, "What the hell do we need a new comforter for? The old one is perfectly fine." Men just don't understand women and their household needs sometimes. Not to mention most people spend 8 hours a day/night in their beds. So you gotta be comfy!

Speaking of comfy, do you know my lazy a-- still hasn't put those darned 500 thread count sheets on the bed yet. Where are they you ask? Why they are still in the dryer from their Sunday washing.

So we are 52 days away from our cruise! Woohoo! And now we also have the St. Thomas trip to look forward to. Seems that Jonathan deleted the original email from the company that came back in June where it originally told where we would actually be going. So we still don't know where the hell we are staying. Now this is bothersome to a pre-planner like me. I want to know exactly where we are staying and I want to know NOW so I can pre-plan people! I mean I need to make decisions like if we want to get a rental car for the trip, where we might dine, where I want to shop. I just want to KNOW!!! I don't sound anal here do I? Uh, don't answer that please. :-)

I do think it is funny that we will be in St. Thomas one week and then on our cruise the next week one of our stops is.... why St. Thomas! So we will be there twice in two weeks. I think that on the day our ship docks in St. Thomas we'll just stay on board and partake in an empty ship. We never stay on board on port days. We always get off. The spas and other areas have specials on those days because 95% of the people get off. So this will be cool to kind of have the entire boat to roam with not so many people.

Did I fail to mention that Jonathan also won another certificate for another cruise next year? It's only for one person, we'll have to pay for the other. But who can argue with that, huh? So poor us, looks like we will soon start making plans for another cruise in late winter. I just say this because someone I know kind of made fun of Jonathan's job. I mean he isn't an executive or anything and some would consider his profession a bit "redneck" considering where he works. But I work in an office situation and we don't win nice vacations like this. And neither do any of our hoity-toity members. So there!

I once heard someone in my work field say, "There are two kinds of people in this world. You have your NASCAR folks and you have your people who enjoy a good game of golf." Well my husband does both, so where does that leave him? Don't you just hate uppity people who think others are beneath them?

Ok, how I got off on that I don't know. But anyway enough yakking for today. Later!

Back to the Grind

2005-09-19T07:22:00.000-04:00

Ugh, I can't believe I have to go back to work today. It was nice having a 3 day weekend. Chase went home with my parents since Jonathan was going to be away all weekend. And I kept Skyler here with me. On Friday we had a "girl's night out" and went to see March of the Penguins. Let me just say one thing about the movie. It was not really a movie, it was a documentary. Skyler was totally bored after about 15 minutes. I mean we could have watched the same thing at home on the Discovery Channel instead of paying $15.00 to see it at the movies. It was cute and if I had seen it at home for free, then it would have been great. But it definately wasn't what I expected. Skyler was bored and kept on asking questions. She usually doesn't talk during movies, but this one did not hold her interest. At least she was asking questions about the movie. But it was still annyoing. If I take her to see a Disney movie or a cartoon or something, she sits there staring at the screen. But this one definately didn't hold her attention. Can't say that I blame her really. I had read so many reviews about it. I really didn't want to take Skyler to see it, but we had basically seen everythng else. Skyler really wants to see Chicken Little. But it doesn't come out until November 4th.

On Saturday we went out to eat with my friend Sam to Outback. And then we ran over to the mall to pick up some Clinique as they were having their "Clinique Bonus Time." I have no idea why I still buy the expensive makeup. I'm sure I would be just as well off with something from Cover Girl, etc. I just started buying Clinique when I was about 15 because my cousin wore it. And I've kind of been wearing it ever since.

Then yesterday we went to the mall AGAIN because dang JCPenney's didn't have their white sale until Sunday, no not Saturday, but it didn't start until Sunday. I have always wanted a set of 400 thread count sheets. I have a set of 300 and they are really nice, so I thought a set of 400 would just be luxurious. Well we get there and they have a set of 500 thread count! So we bought the sheets and sat there and wondered whether or not to buy a micro suede comforter. It was so nice and fluffy and I haven't bought a new comforter in about 5 years. We pondered and decided we would think about it. By the time we went to eat and then go back and get it, Penney's was already closed. So I guess that was my cue that I didn't need it after all. I washed my new sheets last night, but was too lazy to put them on the bed. So maybe today I'll get around to putting them on the bed.

So sounds like I had an exciting weekend, how about you?

Jonathan got home last night around 9:00 with Little Man. Little Man was too pooped to party, so after giving him massive amounts of hugs and smooches, I took him on up to bed. Skyler was excited to see her daddy. She hadn't seen him since Wednesday morning. Chase didn't seem to really care whether or not to see me. But I had just seen him on Friday morning. I think he was just excited to see his Sissy and he wanted to get down in the floor and wrestle with her.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning and everyone is already off to work and school, so I had a few minutes to myself and thought I would update the ole journal.

I received a message on myspace the other day from a fellow graduate from my old high school. I'm originally from Church Hill, Tennessee. This guy graduated in 1985, a few years before me. But how cool is it to hear from someone from your old hometown. He also has a website:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/kyandalf/

I would love to hear from some old high school buddies. I actually belong to classmates.com and have come across a few old friends. But it seems whenever I send someone a message they either don't get it or don't respond. That really sucks. I also ran across an old Army family/friends we had met in Germany. So how cool was that! We have emailed each other a few times, but I can't never seem to sit down and give her a call. I really thought I would call my old high school friend and our friends from Germany while I was at convention and had some evening time to myself. But I'll be damned if my frigging phone didn't work way up there in the mountains. Piss on Sprint! No, Verizon, Alltell, etc. everybody worked except for Sprint! Dangit!

Anyway, enough bitching for one day. I've gotta get my butt outta here and on to the doctor's office. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of updating the ole journal again. Later!

I'm Back!

2005-09-17T12:25:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, I bet you can't believe I am finally back! Heck, I can't believe I'm finally back! The last few weeks have just been an absolute blur!! I am sooooo glad convention is finally over with. We prepare all year for this one big hellacious event. And when it's finally over... It's just relief. I took a few photos of the hotel. It was absolutely gorgeous. Let me tell you how out of place I felt at this place. I mean they had "afternoon tea." Now please tell me when is the last time you have visited a hotel who has "afternoon tea." I hate to tell you but the local Days Inn that Jonathan and I usually stay at, barely has cable. Much less "afternoon tea." The hotel was built in 1766 and is ancient. The interior is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures. Anyway, you can check out the photos of the hotel here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88301815@N00/sets/963806/

Lord, I don't even know where to begin on the updating the journal here. So much stuff has happened since I last wrote. I guess I'll just have to remember it as I go along. Convention was fun. It was a lot of work, but there was some fun thrown in there to. I'm just really thankful that I enjoy my job. So many people don't. Now don't get me wrong, there are times when I'm not too happy with it. But for the most part, I'm pretty darn lucky! I mean come one now.... I get to stay at places like that! How the heck can you complain about that!

The only sad moment of the convention was when some of our members from Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle, the Outer Banks, etc. had to leave because of hurricane Ophelia. I know some of our members lost a lot of possessions and had some damage to their homes and businesses. But at least everyone is alive and well, unlike the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The kids are doing well. We had their birthday parties at the first of the month over Labor Day Weekend. I've uploaded some pics to the flickr account of the birthday party. So please feel free to click on the link on the right to view them. I've just opened a pro account, so hopefully after my paypal payment clears, I can organize my flickr account better.

Anyway, the kids totally racked up at their birthday party. I mean these spoiled rotten younguns received so many clothes and toys that we couldn't bring it all home at once. Geeze, they are so spoiled. I counted the outfits Chase got for his birthday and I stopped at 17! Yes 17 outfits! At least I won't have to worry about buying him any clothes this winter. Skyler received more toys than clothes. Everyone knows she has enough clothes to clothe an Army.

Skyler received her most wanted gift. The Dora the Explorer Casa. Just let me tell you one thing, $60 for a house with NO furniture is a rip off! They make you pay $10 for each set of furniture. By the time we get that small thing fully furnished, we will be $150 into it. Dang it!

They received so many gifts, I can't even begin listing them. Skyler also received a Barbie bicycle. She was a little afraid of it at first because it wobbles back and forth. But once she got the hang of it, she was off. Chase really likes cars and trucks that make noise. So he received several of those. And of course, lots and lots of clothes. Lots more toys. They just got too much stuff! I don't have anywhere to put it all.

Right now, as we speak, Jonathan is in Florida preparing to go see the University of Tennessee battle it out with the Florida Gators. I personally think Florida is going to win, but I'm still holding out hope. He drove all the way to Florida with a high school buddy of his to see a 3 hour football game. The man can't drive 2 miles down the street for a loaf of bread, but he can drive 12 hours to see a 3 hour football game! Men!!! He is staying at the house of an old Army buddy we met while we were living in Korea. He just left the keys to his house for Jonathan and his friend to stay there. Pretty cool and trusting, huh? I can't say I would have probably done the same for anyone. But he is a really nice guy.

On other news, Jonathan won the tire sale at work and won a 6 days all expense paid vacation for us to St. Thomas!! Woohoo!!! The only bad thing is it's the week before our cruise. So it looks like we will be taking a 2 week vacation instead of 1. Boo hoo, I'm gonna cry. NOT! The St. Thomas trip returns the day before we were to fly out for our cruise. So 6 days in St. Thomas, fly back and then the next morning we leave for Fort Lauderdale for our 8 day cruise. We are going to be vacationed out by the time we return that's for dang sure. I'm not really happy about leaving the kids for two whole weeks and the babysitter thinks we are horrible parents for leaving them that long. But you know what, they will survive! They are going to spend one week with the babysitter and one week with my parents. They will be spoiled rotten even worse than they already are by the time we return.

Another funny thing is we were also going to be visiting St. Thomas while we were on our cruise. So now we will visit it twice in two weeks. Aren't we just deprived?!? I just wish they weren't back-to-back. But we can't get our money back on the cruise and I'm sure as hell not turning down a 6 day all expense paid vacation to St. Thomas. So two weeks of vacation, here we come.

Well enough rambling for one day. I know I have lots and lots of stuff to get caught up with. And I need to read Mary's, Caroline's, Mallard's, Allison, etc. journals to get caught up with you guys. But I did want to just drop a line to let everyone know I'm back! Can't wait to get caught up with everyone really soon! Take care!

No Updates Till Mid September

2005-09-06T20:27:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, where have I been.... This is just a quick update to let you know we are still alive and well. And.... BUSY. So busy that I probably won't have a chance to update until sometime in mid September.

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day and may God be with the people in New Orleans and Mississippi. I'll try and update later on in the month.

Monica

Revenge....

2005-08-23T09:45:00.000-04:00

Ok ladies, do you ever just get absolutely sick and tired of your hubby's endless crap? I know, it can be one of the stupidest, simplest things that just bugs the immortal he-- out of you. It's nothing really, but then one do you just SNAP!

Well mine came last night when I went upstairs to see 12, yes, 12 pairs of socks laying in the floor RIGHT IN FRONT of the hamper! Not IN the hamper, not ON the hamper, but IN FRONT OF the hamper. I mean come on men, can you not just lift the lid off of the hamper and dispose of your socks IN the hamper! How much more energy does it take to bend your lazy as- down two feet and pick the frigging socks up!

When Jonathan takes his socks off, he doesn't even bend down to take them off. No, he sticks his foot, out puts the other foot on the toe of the other sock and then commences to stretch the he-- out of it while pulling it off. Then he does the same with the other one. And he wonders why his socks are so stretched and he keeps getting holes in the toes! Duh! Well one reason they are so stretched is because Mr. Big Foot wears a size 13 1/2, but that's another story in itself.

So anyway, last night Skyler and I went upstairs for our nightly toothbrushing and girl-time together. And she looked down and said, "Why doesn't daddy put his socks in the hamper?" I was like, "That's a good question honey." So after I put her to bed I thought to myself. There is no sense in asking hubby to put his socks in the hamper. He might comply for a couple of days, but then it's back to leaving the nasty filthy socks right in front of the hamper again. So I got a bright idea that would at least make him "think" the next time he took off his nasty socks and left them lying on my beautiful white tile floor....

I had a high school moment ladies.... I picked up every single pair of socks and stuffed them into his work clothes he was going to wear the next day. I did it where he wouldn't notice it first. I stuffed a couple of nasty socks in each pocket. Then I stuffed a couple in his back pockets. Then I filled up the legs with nasty, stinky, dirty, on the floor socks. He he he he Yes, I know it was childish, it was stupid, it was uncalled for. But you know what? It made me feel good as hell!

I went to bed smiling to myself thinking, "Ha! Your going to be PO'd at me in the morning, but maybe you'll think the next time you throw your nasty socks on the floor."

I couldn't contain my excitement this morning as Jonathan got up to take his shower. As he was all nice and clean and began putting on his pants, I was secretly giggling down deep inside. Skyler was looking at me like I was crazy or something. So he sticks one leg down his pants and pulls out a sock. He doesn't think much of it. Maybe one just got caught in there or something. Then he sticks his other leg in and pulls out several socks and then he finds them in his pockets. And then do you know what he said? He took all the fun out of my little prank. "Monica, you must really have a lot of time on your hands." Damn him!!!

So anyway, you can see what an exciting life I'm leading right now. He he he My fun for the day was stuffing socks down my husband's pants to teach him a lesson. Do you think he will learn said lesson? Probably not.

Another Update!!

2005-08-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

I bet you can't beeeliiiieeeevveee I am updating again! No not me, never! I have probably spent more time on this computer in the last couple of days than I have in months! I don't know what has gotten into me. I know one thing, I need to get my a-- doing something around the house, i.e., picking up, doing laundry, etc. But I'm just 'not in the mood'. Oh well, so what if my house stays dirty for one week. At least I'm enjoying myself.

Speaking of enjoying myself... Like I mentioned yesterday, Jonathan was gone all day to Wytheville, VA to pick up some tires to sell so he could attempt to win the contest. Yippee!!! As soon as he made it back with the tires, he sold 6 right there and then. So I am hoping we are still in the running! St. Thomas here we come. I am going to be so disappointed if he doesn't win. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Anyway, after he got back, I went to dinner with two of my friends, Sam and Lynn. Today is Sam's birthday, so we thought we would go out and celebrate her birthday the typical boring, married lady way... Dinner, of course. So we went to Outback. I had two delicious lobster tails annndddd yes, a fuzzy navel!!! I couldn' tell you the last time I have had an alcoholic drink. It was heaven. But you know me, I've never been much of a drinker, so one was all I could handle. I had to drive myself home and since I've been taking this medication, I thought one was enough. Now that Jonathan can't drink anymore I definitely don't want to drink in front of him or anything. I may only have 3 drinks in an entire year anyway, so it's not like I'm an alcoholic or anything. I've just never really enjoyed drinking. Go figure. I guess that's a good thing, right?

Being home all day cooped up in the house with both kids almost drove me bonkers. Normally Jonathan is here to help. I KNOW there is no way in he-- that I could be a SAHM. Sorry girls. I really don't know how you do it. By 6:15 p.m. when Jonathan walked in the door, I was ready to pull my hair out. I was feeding Chase his supper and as soon as Jonathan walked in the door, I handed the bowl to him, told him and Chase goodbye and I was outta there. I didn't even tell Skyler goodbye because I figured she might throw a fit and want to go with me. I don't go anywhere very often without her, so she would not have taken too kindly to me walking out the door without her. Most my my "girls' nights out" include me and Skyler going to dinner and a movie.

I guess we will head to the waterpark today. It's pretty sad that we only have a few more weeks before it closes. This summer has gone by so fast. I can't believe Chase is one year old and Skyler will be 4 on Tuesday. It seems like both of them were just born yesterday. They really grow up before you know it. I know everyone always says that, but until you have your own kids, you really don't realize how fast they grow. I know before we know it, Skyler will be dating and Chase will be driving. The thoughts of that just sends shivers down my spine. Yikes!

Well this is going to be a short one today. I need to get the old bathing suit on and get Punk ready for the water park. Until we meet again...

Finally an Update....

2005-08-20T10:19:00.000-04:00

Where have I been? I've been so busy my head is spinning like a top! Things are just absolutely crazy at work. It always gets this way before convention, but it's been extra bad this year becasue one of the events girls is out on maternity leave. Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode!!

Things have gotten so bad that I haven't been able to sleep. For 3 weeks I've been going on like 3 hours of sleep a night. I lay down at 10:30 or 11:00 and it's 2:00 or so before I fall asleep. You can only take so much of that before you go over the edge. I couldn't think straight at work. My mind would race and then I'd just draw a blank. It got so bad I finally went to the doctor. He prescribed me Ambien. Now as you may know, I'm not a person who likes to take medication. My parents are on so much medication, I don't know how they function. But I was just going crazy!

So I came home the first night and took the pill right before going to bed. The directions say to take it and immediately lay down because they act fast. I'm thinking, nothing acts fast on me. I've got awhile. So I took it about 9:30 p.m. after getting Skyler in bed. After about 10 minutes as I was sitting there watching The Young and the Restless on the DVR, Nicholas had 2 heads.... And Sharon had 8 eyes!!! I was freaking out! So I stood up to go to the bathroom and I was like banging into the walls and feeling light headed. I felt like I was stoned!! But I'll tell you one thing, I slept like a baby. Even Jonathan's snoring didn't wake me up. He said I remained in the same position all night. That's unheard of becasue I normally toss and turn like you wouldn't believe.

And the good thing was, I woke up the next morning at 5:30 a.m. with no problems. It was WONDERFUL. I just don't want to get hooked on anything. But then yesteday I looked at the paperwork from the pharmacist on the drug and it said it was a halucanagenic! Geeze! I'm a druggie! I don't care, I can be a druggie who gets some sleep and can actually function!

As you probably know, I get Friday afternoons off at work. I work enough hours during the first 4 days and I leave early on Fridays to run errands. I.e., grocery shopping, paying bills, buying clothes for the kids, etc. It's just nice to get off work at noon on Friday and get all of my running done so I can come home on the weekend and not have to worry about taking the kids with me. So anyway, yesteday I decided I wasn't going to do squat, but come home and have some "me time."

So I came home and got on the computer. I downloaded a program called "Skype" and I commenced to chat with two people for about 5 hours! Geeze, I haven't chatted with anyone in AGES. I mean like since 1999. I found a really nice guy from Italy and a really nice girl from India who is living in Canada. We all chatted for hours. It was really cool. I've forgotten how much fun it was to chat. You just have to be careful. Back in the mid 90's I was chatting a couple of hours a night. I guess it's no worse than watching television. But then after we returned from Korea and moved to NC, I never really chat again. And then after the kids came... Well chatting was the last thing on my mind. But after chatting with a couple of people today and yesterday, I realized how much fun it was.

Ok, I spoke too soon about how much fun chatting was. I was just skyped by someone and you know how your picture can come up when chatting, well this was a picture of someone's private parts! Yuck!!!!

Anyway, things have just been crazy around here this week. I don't know if I mentioned to you or not, but Jonathan is in the running at work to win an all expense paid vacation for 5 days to St. Thomas. Last month he was 11th (they are taking 10), but as of yesterday he was number 6!!!! So if things keep going well, we may be going to St. Thomas in the near future!!! How fun would that be? So he has gone to Wytheville, VA to pick up some more tires to sell over the weekend so he can win the contest. Keep your fingers crossed that he will win! I could sure as heck use a vacation right now. And we've been to St. Thomas on a cruise before, so going there and staying at a resort for a few days would certainly be refreshing. So keep your fingers crossed that he will win!

The kids are driving me absolutely batty. I guess it's just been tougher because of the no sleep thing. I took another pill last night and slept like a baby. At least Skyler is sleeping through the night again. I just know that soon Chase will start this waking up crap, like Skyler did. Hopefully she is finished with the waking up phase for awhile. I think they were getting on my nerves a little more because of the lack of sleep. I have been catching myself about to lose it on more than one occasion.

Even yesterday Jonathan, Skyler, Chase and I went out to eat dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. It was the first time we had ever put Chase in a highchair while we were eating out. We are horrible and still have the poor little thing in his infant car seat. So anyway, we took him to the restaurant and put him in his highchair. He is one of these babies that if he gets his hands on anything, he slings it to the floor. So we moved everything out of his reach. But he wasn't very happy. He squealed and carried on the entire time. I guess it's going to be a lot different with him than it was with Skyler. She was always so calm and so nice at dinner when we ate out. He is going to be hell on wheels. He is definately "all boy."

If you could see my house right now. There is probably 2000 small pieces of toys laying around on the floor. Skyler has this play kitchen with two tons of play food and Chase has managed to drag out every single piece of food Skyler owns. It is a t-total mess. I can't even think about picking it up at the moment though.

Tonight I am going out with the girls!! Yippeee!! Jonathan is the one who said I should call up my friends and ask them if they wanted to go out. But I never seem to have the energy, so I didn't. But then this afternoon, one of them called and asked me. So I thought, "Well Jonathan has already suggested it. So why not!" I'm not even sure what we are going to do. We are all so boring. We normally go out to eat, maybe a movie or go shopping at the mall. We are such exciting girls! Tonight's plan is eating at The Outback. Yum.... I love Outback's lobster tails. They are delicious! Not sure what we will do afterwards. There isn't any particular movie we want to see or anything. But at least it's a night out of the house and away from the kids.

Well I think I have run out of things to say. My life is so boring. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Be safe!

Testing Video

2005-08-12T18:21:00.000-04:00

I'm trying out a video site. Please see if you guys can view this short video of Skyler on the boat. Let me know in the comments if you can see it! Thanks! Please ignore my extremely loud and obnoxious laugh!

Click here to watch 'Copy-of-MOV01000'

Summer's Almost Over...

2005-08-10T10:13:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe summer is almost over. I have been so busy at work and in the evenings, as usual, I haven't had time to update my journal. Not to mention we are on the go every weekend.

Yesterday was Little Man's 1st Birthday! We didn't do anything special. We are going to have him a birthday party in TN on Sept. 4th. Since he doesn't know the difference, we figured we would just wait and celebrate then. We are actually having both of them a birthday party at home in TN because their birthdays are so close together. I realize when they get older that we will definitely need to do separate parties, but for now it will have to do. We are going to have Skyler a party here in NC with her friends, but not until mid September some time.

We are still trying to figure out what school she is going to go to. I ended up having to pay her tuition at her private school for this month because she is on the waiting list for the county's Pre-K program. That really sucks. It takes an act of Congress to get into Pre-K around here. They say they take the "slowest" and "kids with the most needs" first, so I guess it's a good sign that she isn't ranked in that category. Then if they have any spots left over, they let the other kids in. The last time I called, Skyler was number 5 on the list to get into her school. I looked her school's report card up and can you believe her elementary school has 14 Kindergarten classes! Good God! We must breed like rabbits around here or something, huh? It sucks because I have already paid a $140 registration fee for her private school and now I've paid $300 for the first month's tuition. But if I do get her in Pre-K, at least I won't have to pay the $300 per month tuition. I'll only have to pay for after-school care. That would be a huge relief off our monthly budget. Kids are expensive!!! Daycare is just eating us alive right now.

We had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday we took the boat to a local lake. Jonathan has been there twice, but he was still kind of unsure how to get there. It's way out in the "boonies" and the way he had been taken before was lots and lots of turns. I looked up the directions on mapquest and we made it there with no problems. Skyler had an absolute blast. She started standing on the back of the boat and just falling backwards into the water. It was really funny to watch. I actually got a short video clip of it on my camera. If I could figure out how to post video clips on the journal, that would be pretty cool. It was a good day and we all had a lot of fun.

So after our afternoon on the lake, Jonathan decided he wanted to try and find his way back the original way he had come with his buddies. I was like,

"Um, Jonathan, are you sure you know your way back?"

He said, "No, but I think I can figure it out."

I said, "Ok, but it's pretty late and Chase is really hungry. Maybe we should just go back the way we came."

He said, "Nah, we'll find our way, no problem."

I should have listened to my little voice in the back of my mind telling me to make him take the frigging way we knew! We traveled on some back ass country roads for over two hours! Yes people, two hours before we ever saw any road signs that we recognized or even had a number on it! Geeze! We ended up about 3 towns over from where we were trying to get to. I never realized NC had so many back ass country roads like TN has! So after we had stopped to eat dinner, it was like 10:00 p.m. before we got home. Little Man was completely zonked out. He normally goes to bed around 8:00 p.m.
It was all pretty funny, but at the time I was thinking we were never going to get home. And the whole time we were on those country roads, we didn't see one single gas station. There were churches every 50 feet, but not one single gas station! I'm glad I had a full tank of gas when we started out that morning. I told Jonathan afterwards that from now on we were going to take the way we knew!

Sunday I took Skyler to the water park. She is getting so bold in the water. She climbed up on the pirate ship, all the way to the tippy, tippy top and jumped off. It's higher than a diving board. I think the lifeguard was going to freak out when he first saw her, but after she jumped down and swam around to the back of the boat and ran up there to do it again, he was laughing. Girlfriend is now fearless of the water. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

It's hard to believe the water park will be closing in a few weeks and it will soon be too chilly to go out on the lake. I love spring and summer. Fall is okay, but I hate winter. I'm just not a cold weather person. I don't like the 95 degree summer heat either, but I can tolerate it better than snow! I'm glad we don't live somewhere where it snows all the time. I couldn't handle that. Even living in Germany for 4 years, we hardly ever saw snow where we lived. We lived in between two mountain ranges and most of the time the snow passed right over us.

Well I want to get this post up, because I haven't posted since last week. Hope everyone had a great week! Good luck to all the kids heading back to school to!