Valentines Day Weekend 2011

Eh, it was just like any other weekend around out house.

Friday I took C and her friend to skate, AND to pick them up. Apparently *I* am also a taxi driver. Never mind the fact that the adult in the house that share DNA with the child couldn't be bothered to change out of his pajama's. C came home and ended up staying the night at her friends house who lives three doors down from us. Poor little man was still sick and came home and slept right after school. He was out by 4pm and slept solid right through until 7:30am the next day.

Saturday I made breakfast and we lounged around the house. Bee and I decided we needed to go to the store and deposit his check and pick up a few things. While we were out, we went ahead and picked up this

Why yes! That IS a 60' DCP TV. Or D-C something or other. I don't know. But Bee wanted it, the price was right, and so we came home with it. We both paid for it, so I guess you could say it's for both of us. Let's be honest though, it's HIS tv. Last time I watched a program of my choosing on the living room TV while he was there, was well....I don't know if it's ever happened. I'm not complaining, but lest you think this was my Valentines Day present. It also came with a fight. That was caused by Bee being impatient while setting the TV up. However, it's resolved, we're over it. Fineto. After all that, Bee had his flag game. They won, and then we stopped in the field house bar and had 2 beers with one of the refs Bee knows.

Sunday, we went to church and then had some friends over. All in all, it was a good weekend, other than the fact that now I'm sick with this stupid cough and slightly snotty nose. Oh yay. I am only working half a day today because I have little man's party today :) I'll leave you all with pictures of last night's sunset!

Things I've come to realize...

Little Man woke up this morning feeling sick. We're pretty hard core in our house and usually make them go to school and if they are truly sick, the school will send them home. However, today, he had a fever so I let him stay home.

It's only 9:30am and I have already learned a few things...

1. One little man has never looked so pathetic. Poor little guy.
2. Ginger ale, even the cheap stuff from Walmart makes everything better
3. The cartoons these days have a lot to be desired and just because they are cartoons and on a cartoon channel named so because they only show cartoons, doesn't mean they are all for kids. *shudders*
4. Commericals on the real kid channels are loud, obnoxious, and often do not make sense. However, they are colorful, flashy, and make whatever they are selling look like something that YOU.HAVE.TO.HAVE.IT.RIGHT.NOW.OMG.I.HAVE.TO.HAVE.IT!
5. Full House runs almost all day on Nick at Night. That show is so cheesy that is surprises me the kids adore it. They were totally amused when they saw pictures of the people on the show now adays. They really thought it was a "current" show.
6. Letting an 8 year old control the remote will give you a seizure. It will also make you wonder if they have ADD. We are currently watching 6 shows at the same time. Every time a commercial comes on, the channel gets changed, and its a new show until it's in commercial. The cycle repeats.
7. Sponge Bob shouldn't really be for kids...but the fact he is So.Annoying. makes him their favorite.

One last thing I heard today...

C asked me "Who was that guy with the guitar and the hair who came out of the ground at the Superbowl?"

Um, that would be Slash. But, that's right, You wouldn't know nothing about that....because we're OLD!

How did I ever make it?

Between failing ART! ART! of all things, and American Government, Bee and I have been on J about her grades. She has been warned more than once that we were going to be checking her online profile for school and if she is not turning in her work, she is going to lose privileges one by one until she finally gets it. Well, after all that, she didn't do two large assignments in English because she didn't "get what she was supposed to do". So, instead of, you know, asking her teacher/classmates/us, she just didn't do the assignment. So, Bee and I grounded her. I told him to pick which privilege she was going to lose.

He decided she was going to lose the use of her Nintendo DSI which has totally seemed to consume her attention and every free second of her life due to the fact that she can access the internet through it. So, after a brief lecture, he asked for the DSI. She brought it down to him and then went back upstairs. Bee was going through it because he was trying to figure out how to block the internet for when she did earn it back. While looking for the function that would allow him to do that, he found her "favorites" and in there was a whole list of um...."adult" sites. We were blown away.

Ok, here's the thing. Ok, the "30 year old woman" part of me is like she is 17 and curious. Every kid gets curious and weather it's dirty magazines under the mattress, or websites that they shouldn't be looking at, they are going to look. I would rather have her look at it instead of you know, doing it. The "Mommy" part of me is all like "WHAT THE FURK?! YOU ARE JUST A BABY AND THAT IS TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE"

Then I think about myself as a teenager. I didn't have the Internet like kids now a days do. You had to dial each website you wanted to visit individually and if other people were tying up the connection, you waited....sometimes hours. We also didn't have cell phones or cell phones with texting (Not that J does, because she does not). There was no facebook or myspace, or social networking. In fact, our Social Networking was called "The Mall", and I was FAR FAR FAR worse than J. I did things that were so stupid that the "mommy" part of me shudders and the fact that I am even still alive.  In fact, I think about all the crap I did to my mother and I wonder how she didn't kill me because really? There are days when I want to grab J and shake her until the sense drops into her head!

I just hope she learns from my and Bee's mistakes. At the very least the big ones.

Tires and Muffins

It's was a crappy day yesterday. I am "M.S'ing" (There is no need for the "P" right now. That was last week..) and a tad bit sensitive to everything. I was feeling a wee bit depressed with my brother calling me to unload his craptastic life upon me, and my sister calling me last night crying because she has to get rid of her evil little dog because apparently it attacked my old geriatric dog. This is nothing new. That spawn of Satan has been attacking my dog for the last 4 years, but I guess this last time it was baad. There was blood everywhere my sister said. Apparently, Gypsy is ok, but it was the last straw. Katie always barks at my dad, and pretty much every other male who has the audacity to come into the house or go near my mom or sister. I felt bad for my dog and bad for my sister. I even felt a little bit bad for Katie. She was a rescue from a home where she was abused. And she watched her abuser abuse his wife, too. Could be why she wants to rip the face off any male who comes near her or the females in the house.

Add to the fact that Bee had the "worstest, baddest, day ever" and as his partner in life, it's my duty (And I wouldn't have it any other way) to listen to him unload as well. Then, we went to get me a tire for my car to replace the one that blew out over a week ago. We don't have the money for this. When I say that, I mean it. We are not like most people who say that, but then charge it to a credit card and just pay it off later. A minor inconvenience sure, but it all works out. Bee and I don't believe in credit cards. It's cash (or you know, our debit cards) or nothing. If the money isn't physically there, we can't spend it. However, we were just going to have to be VERY tight until pay day. I guess the kids will eat toast instead of cereal because there won't be any milk. When we got to the NTB, Bee just went ahead and paid for two NEW tires for me (I chipped in the $50 I had).

The bill came to $200. The tires were only $140 for two, but by the time they get done raping you with taxes and fee's, it's $200. I literally cried because while I need 4 new tires, only 1 was an emergency. I had planned on just buying one a pay day until they were all new. Bee may fuss about things, and he may drag his feet doing them (we were supposed to get the new tire on Saturday..a week ago), but I can say this over any other man I have known, other than my father, He will come through. He has never NOT done something he told me he would do. He has never let me down, left me stranded, or let a situation get the best of me, even if it means he will be stressed all week until we get paid again. That to me is true love. For all the sweet nothings I have had whispered in my ears over the years by different men, he is the only one who has followed through on any of them. He might not be the type who will bring me fresh flowers "just because" or write me sonnets, (I would call him gay anyway if he did) , he is the type who just sacrificed 4 brand new NFL sanctioned footballs for the team so that I could have two new tires. And tires will do more for me than flowers will any day.

Yesterday can eat a dick.

However, today started out brighter. For one thing, the sun is out, and that makes most things better in itself. But the other was the fact that today was the day Bee and I took C to school and eat breakfast with her. The school was having an awards breakfast for the students and their families of those who made the honor roll! It was nice! My guy got to sleep in and we all left the house together! We took Little Man to Latch Key, and then headed over to the school where we had coffee (she had juice), muffins, banana's, go-gurts, and granola bars. Then, when school started, we waived goodbye and Bee and I walked to our cars where I got a kiss goodbye while I was awake enough to enjoy it! haha! We both were in MUCH better moods today because we figured, yesterday was so bad that things can only go up from here! :)

 

Superbowl 45

Sunday was a strange day. It started out with such promise! Bee and I woke up, got ready for church and headed out. It was a wonderful service and God really spoke to me through Pastor Mike. And the music. God always talks to me through music. Which is funny, because outside church, I can't stand most Christian music. We shook hands with many Steelers fans, and got playful jabs from Packers fans. It was nice. Bee even is starting to feel comfortable enough to sing along. He's cute too, because he tells his friends how he's a Baptist now. Hehehe.

After church, we went to the store to get the items needed for Buffalo Chicken dip and a few things we were out of that we needed for the kids such as cereal and bread. Darn kids. You have to like, feed them and junk. Then, we went and got the two small ones who spent the night with the Grandparents of The Year. They had gone to see their Mother of the Year, the day before, so you can tell how AWESOME I was feeling about this whole thing. Anyway, we left to go watch the Super Bowl.

It was from the moment that we pulled up to get the kids that the evening turned to less than desirable. Starting with listening to the kids talk about how awesome Grandma and Grandpa's was. How they got a HUGE cookie ("Cookie cake") just for them, and how super cool "Uncle" came in for a quick visit too. Then, the Superbowl. My Steelers couldn't quite get ahead. I can't handle the rejection or the hurt feelings. Then, 15 minutes in my Brother starts texting me.

I love my brother, and I should state that we are super close. Like best friends, but he is not really emotionally stable and considering him and the mother of his little girl, just broke up, for the second time. As per usual when you fight with someone you love, you say things to hurt them that you mostly do not mean. However, you are angry and feel the need to lash out. His girlfriend did that to him, and he felt the need to do it to me. He spent the evening going back and forth with ragging on me because of my team, and verbally assaulting me as to where I live (and hour away from HIM) Who I choose to be with (he doesn't like Bee. Mainly because he feels he's not good enough and me being with him requires I sacrifice things like my freedom and money for him and his kids while not sacrificing anything. He also doesn't like the way he talks to me. These things are from his skewed perception though) How I chose to ignore him and the rest of the family and abandon him in his time of need. How he is alone, so very alone, and no one cares, but it's ok because he's used to it. Boy how I have changed.

Needless to say, it was all a little over dramatic. Note, he did seem to forget the fact that when he was in the height of his happiness with his ex, no one in our family, including me, threw a fit when he opted out of family dinners/holidays/affairs due to spending time with HER family. No one seemed to cry and kick their feet when  he didn't call all the time or go out every weekend with us like old times.

But we forget the things WE do.

So, eventually, I ignored his text messages and went about my despair watching the game and the lame ass commercials.  Then Bee decided to get the mail on his way back from the gas station. He, like me, is pure laziness, so he pulled up alongside our mailbox, which is on a post that we share with our neighbors across the street, to retrieve the mail. Only problem was, he hit the mailboxes with his mirror because he was too close and got stuck in the snow. In order to get out, he had to gun it while alternating between drive and reverse, and "rock it out" which utterly DESTROYED both mailboxes. Our neighbor's didn't fair as well as ours being that it was made of thin metal. It was all bent to hell, and combine that with frustration, and the loss of our beloved team and Bee was filled with rage, yelling at the "DAGUM FARGEN PIECE OF TARP MAILBOX!" And it's makers of Asian decent. In the middle of my amusement from the Mailbox Showdown of '11, my brother called, which was unfortunate as I was about to go to bed, but since I made a big deal of "YOU KNOW, YOU COULD CALL ME SOMETIMES! I'M ALWAYS HERE!" I felt it best to answer.

We were on the phone until almost one. He did a lot of laughing, a lot of crying, a lot of unintelligible ranting , and then discussions of death in such a calm and percise  manner, it was like he was reading an instruction manual. But not a REAL instruction manual, for he was speaking in English. I swear, he's losing his marbles. I think he just may be loonier than a toon. When I finally got him off the phone and went to bed, it was almost one am. I laid down and got all comfortable and my Murther Fargen tooth started hurting. I got up and took three advil, and went back to bed where I lay, miserable for 3 hours.

And That could be why I can't stay away today :(

Let me tell you about a girl I know...

C never ceases to surprise me. There are times when I look at her and I can just see the light of God in her. She is going to do great things in life, that one.  They may not be the types of things that get you famous. They might even go unnoticed to most people. I don't really know for sure. However, she will mean the WORLD to someone. She will make a DIFFERENCE to someone. And not just to her family.

Ever since I have know her, she has always been willing to help. With anything. You need a hand bringing in the groceries? C's there, carrying 17 bags, and managing just fine, thank you. You need the grass cut? C's there, with a push mower, no less. If you are making dinner, she is right there, every night, asking "Do you need any help?" In fact, most every task I do, if she sees me doing it, she'll ask if I need any help. MOST of the time. (Why she can't remember her chores, is beyond me..)

When C started school out here in our new city, she came home and told me about this club that was starting up, and could she join. It was called "Kids Care Club" and once or twice a month they would stay after school and do little service projects in and around the school and just catch a ride home on Little Man's Bus. They've sang for the elderly. They've raked leaves both after school and on days when they didn't have school. They made cookies for poor kids, and collected can goods for the needy. Currently, they are having a recycling drive and the money raised from turning in all their bottles and bottle caps will go to some Charity and so far "C" is in the lead! (Doesn't hurt that they made it a tad competitive by offering a prize and C loves her some competition...though she would have done it anyway)

There is a girl in C's glass who is severely mentally handicapped. This little girl is often laughed at, teased, and whispered about by the other kids. Not C. From day one, she went up and introduced herself, offered to let this little girl sit with her at lunch, and even not gotten mad when the little girl makes a scene and starts to announce loudly while pointing at C screaming "BEST FRIEND!" or when the little girl hugs her. She just smiles, hugs her back and says "Yes, we ARE best friends!" This all coming from a girl who was new this year. Most kids, even adults, when you are new, just want to blend in and not be noticed for fear of being labeled. My little C just didn't care. :)

Now, Kids Care Club is having an event at the school. They are staying after school to walk a mile on the track at the high school to raise money and awareness about different mental health disease. Then, they are cooking dinner for the handicapped kids, sitting with them and sharing a meal, reading stories, and then staying after to clean up. She won't be home until 7:30 at night. Because it was going to be late (that's C's self imposed bed time!), they needed parental permission. She BEGGED Bee and I to let her attend. Not, that we would have said no, but she begged before we even knew about it! When we said yes, you would have thought we just told her she could get a cell phone or something. She started doing a happy dance and "bragging" to her brother and sister what it was she was going to get to do.

It just makes my heart smile to see her that genuinely interested in human kind. I hope she retains that passion forever! 

YES!

Sunshine on my face, makes me happy!

Well, the storm is over. WINTER BLAST 2011 has come and gone, and while they are predicting another snow storm on the horizon, I am enjoying the break. The sun came out this morning! The sky was blue, and the big white puffy clouds of summer were with it. The steam from the cooling towers at the power plant (it's such a prominent thing in Perry, that it's on our city logo.) had a pretty pink and purple hue to the white cotton looking steam. It was a beautiful morning. Even if it was 9 degrees.

Like I said yesterday, I picked up my glasses on my way into work. I didn't want to change out of my contacts and into my glasses here at work because I did not have a contact case with me. While I am definitely throwing my current contacts away, I wasn't sure when my new contacts were coming in, and since I ordered everything online, I had yet to try any of them out to see if they were correct and I didn't want to strand myself at work with no way to see to drive home if something was incorrect.




Blond Hair, New Glasses, and No Makeup haha!


When I got home, I checked the mail and my contacts came too! So, I went inside, took out my contacts and threw them away and put on my glasses. I could SEE! And, they look cute on me :) Bee spent the whole night just staring at me and telling me how much he liked my glasses and how he thought I looked extra hot in them. Haha! Boys are silly :) I have yet to try my new contacts, but I am trusting that they are right because before they ship, they call your doctor to verify your prescription. If they are not right, then I at least have my glasses until I can get them fixed.

It feels weird wearing glasses. I haven't worn them in over 11 years. There was an occasion or two when I had gotten pink eye or ripped a contact and was forced to don a pair of spectacles but, since being on my own financially, I could never afford glasses, so they were always an old pair or someone else's, and therefore I could never really see. It was just enough to not kill myself. I forgot about the adjustment period of everything being "hilly" at not having perfect "360" vision. The parts outside of my lenses are blurry. Ha!

Everyone seems to like me with glasses as well, so I think they are keepers! For $56.00 (I had to bump up my lens quality because they would have been so thick they would have stuck way out of my frames, hence why they went from $39 to $56. Still, it's a steal. When I got my exam, Pearl was  running a HUGE special, and they would have still cost me $300). I HIGHLY recommend myglasses.com to buy your glasses. They have designer frames for cheap too, if you want fancy ones. They don't qualify for the free frames with purchase of lens, but it's still a lot cheaper. If you decide to order a pair, let me know. I have a code for $10 off or 10%  or something of that nature. I just may even buy another pair or two, just to have in case!

ICE STORM 2011!!

Not to take away from the nastiness, but whereas I expected a "10" because of all the hype over the storm, it was maybe a "7". It is crappy out there, no doubt, but it's not "state of emergency, oh-my-God-the-Mayans-were-right" kind of bad like they said it would be. Then again, maybe there was enough notice we were just prepare so it didn't seem as bad.

I will tell you there are tons of people without power today. So many, that a lot will be without power still by the weekend. About 60 miles south of us, they opened up a shelter at the Red Cross for those without power and it was filling up quickly. So, maybe I should shut my hole and be thankful my little city wasn't hit as bad. Although, I would have been ok if the city in which I worked declared a state of Emergency...

I must give mad props to Perry, Perry Village, North Perry, and Perry Township. Way to be on the ball! They started at 7pm last night and every hour on the hour, they went down my street and dumped a metric ton of salt down my street. By morning, once I managed to get out of my 17 mile long driveway, the roads were great. Even the little side streets! I didn't really hit bad roads until about 5 miles outside of where I work. It didn't stop me from doing 25 the whole way (Ok, I did like, 45, until I got closer to work).

Today's good news is my glasses came! Well, they actually arrived on Monday, but someone had to sign for them and no one was home to do so. I asked Bee to go when he got home from work, but he was late getting home from work yesterday and they were closed. I went in late to work today so I can stop off and pick them up. What post office only works 8:30-4:30? A small town one, that's who!

Now, I just need my contacts to arrive, and Bee's presents and I'll have all my stuff I ordered! His presents shipped yesterday. I can't wait for him to open them!

I'd like to state for the record...

*taps the microphone*

Ahem. EFF SNOW!

Thank you, that is all.

I almost died this morning, ya'll. I'm not even kidding. I almost died, while my kids were at home enjoying their snow day. Thank God I had Bee's truck. I must have something important to do here on this Earth because this makes about the 490754875th time in what seems like just the last week that God was lookin out for me and sent his angels to surround my vehicle. (I guess Bee was right, I do drive bad. :(   )

I left for work this morning feeling confident! No snowmegeddon was going to keep me down! I'm used to sliding all the way to work in a Honda civic with bald tires, so the fact I was going to be driving Bee's truck which weights a bajillion pounds, it also has 4-wheel drive because we're fancy. I was going to make it to work on time and NOT stressed out as I drove because, um, hello?! 4-WHEEL DRIVE! I might have even made my facebook status something to the tune of "4 Wheel drive, bitches! WINTER STORM 2011 ain't got NOTHIN on me!"

I was on the highway, cruising at a good 35mph clip, I even behaved myself and had my belt buckled, cell phone IN my purse, and instead of tailgating, I was leaving 4 car lengths between me and the car ahead. That's when it happened. I'm not really sure exactly what, because it happened so fast, but the guy in front of me hit his brakes, which caused me to hit my brakes, as another guy came flying past me on the right hand side. As that happened, he skidded and started to fish tail. I swerved to miss him, which put me into a spin. I was doing 360's across all lanes of the highway and hit the shoulder where I slid to a hard stop off in the ditch. What I can tell you is as I was spinning, two things went through my mind: One: Bee is going to kill me. He said when he handed me his keys, "Don't wreck it. It's all we really have right now.". Two: I am going to flip this bitch. Stupid Ford and your Stupid Exploders that want to flip every chance they get. Always buy Chevy!.

Well, since God finds it necessary to surround my and my vehicle with his angels every time I leave the house, I did NOT wreck the truck and I did NOT flip it. However, I WAS in a ditch, that DID have about 2-3 feet of snow in it. I panicked for all of 2.5 seconds, and then the control freak I-Will-Take-Care-Of-Myself-Damnit, mommy in me came out. I rolled down my windows so I could see the traffic perpendicular to me. I cranked the 4 wheel drive, straightened my wheels, and popped that bad boy in to reverse and hit the gas. I was propelled about 2 feet backwards, then the wheels spun. So, I put it in drive and went forward. Then, back in reverse. Hit the gas. Boom! The 2 feet from before and another foot and a half. I did this for about five minutes, getting farther and farther mind you. I would like to point out how bad society sucks. No one pulled over to help. No one who saw it happen (there were about 20 cars around me) stopped to see if I was ok. People Suck.

But God is always faithful. He sent me an angel. One gentleman stopped. He could see the tracks and the progress I had made and seemed impressed. I told him I was almost there! We waited for a break in traffic, and then he gave me one big old push on the front end as I hit the gas in reverse, and just like a new born baby, I popped out and started crying. I thanked him profusely and continued on my way. Shaken and pissed off that I couldn't turn around and go the 3 miles back to my warm, safe house, and be with the kids, but had to battle my way to work.

It's supposed to be worse tonight when I go home. Then, in the morning, they are calling for everything to be covered in 1/4 of ice. I wish my boss would close the office. I'd stay home, but I have already burned through 4 vacation days and have one and a half more scheduled off. I want to save my time. This totally makes me wish I was in fact moving to a warm climate!

And Now...Some pictures from Detroit! (Sorry for the bad quality of most of them. Our friend took them on his camera phone and apparently has the "Shakes" )

W and I in the elevator at the hotel. We "stole" a baggage cart and Bee pushed me through the halls, up the elevator, and to our room on it. It was funny

W, Bee, and I havind a few drinks

Oo! Crazy time!

This wasn't Detroit. This was yesterday, two driveways down from where I work. Bee was delivering drywall. He's in the red shirt working the boom on the truck!