Thursday, August 30, 2012

Writer's Workshop

This week I am taking time out of my busy completely boring day to take part in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop and here are the prompts....
The Prompts:


1.) Share something your child taught YOU about parenting.
2.) What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom?
3.) Tell us about something you broke.
4.) If you could change career paths now and be anything you wanted to be…what would you be and why?
5.) Write a post about your third grade teacher.


I choose number 2.) What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom?

My older sister JaLana and I shared a room as soon as the spawn of Satan was concieved we got the joyous news that I was going to have a younger brother.(I'm kidding he's not the Spawn of Satan....at least I don't actually think that today). Our bedroom had shag carpet and this wall paper that my sister and I hated. It was yellow and had great big sunflowers on it. Need I say more?

ugh!



you can imagine how horrified we were to have a room with decor as shown above. We wanted our room to look like this


and this is more accurate potrayal of what our room looked like...bless our mom's heart.



My sister is 5 years older than me and made my life a living hell whenever my mom wasnt around loved every second of sharing a room with her adoreable sister. We'd lay in bed at night screaming, yelling, and throwing things at each other having long meaningful talks about life and love. I may or may not have gotten a few spankings for breaking her Barbie Doll house, reading her "love notes" and sneaking out onto the driveway and hiding between the family Station Wagon (nicknamed the Dragon Wagon)and my dad's Taurus so that I could listen in on conversations she tried to have with whatever boy she had a crush on at the time. I may or may not have even gotten a spanking from my dad (which hardly ever happened) for kicking said crush of the week in the you know where.....

Needless to say I spent alot of my childhood in that bedroom mostly not out of choice...

I have had asthma my whole life and another memory I have is the noise my humidifier made at night. The humming sound and misty water that came out of it was comforting. My mom would put it all the way on the other side of the room and when she would come wake me up in the morning it would be right up to the edge of my bed. I did that so I could lean over and let the water soak my face and hair during the night... still to this day in the winter I use one and think of that tiny bedroom where I lay dreaming up how my life was going to go when I grow up...I'll let you know if any of those dreams came true when I finally get around to growing up.....

I listened to New Kids on the Block, Cyndi Lauper, Heart, Roger Miller, Duran Duran, any band that had hair that locks of love would turn down because of the amount of chemicals used on it in that room. I played with my Rainbow Bright, my brothers He-Man dolls, watched Smurfs and Alf and wrote in journal after journal in that room. 

As a parent I can only pray that my children have that own comfortable, safe, feeling about the space they take up in my house. I hope they write on the walls and ding up the trim, and hide my spoons in the bushes outside their window so that when we go to move and rip up the wallpaper, have company and have to explain that no we do not have monkeys for pets my kids were just playing, or laugh at how mad I used to get when I could'nt find my silverware.... we will be reminded that we have history. we have memories and we actually lived a loud, full life instead of going through the motions of a cookie cutter, tidy life. 






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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Been There Pinned That


I love you. Next to SongPop and Dice with Buddies I waste more time visit you on a daily basis. I spend more time with you than my own family and for these reasons they don't mind sharing.....




 here is why the diva likes you,swear that kid should have been born a boy...until she does something girly proving you can't pin her to just one board.. 

Stuffed Strawberries here illustrate why the boyfriend likes you.
My yum board gets lots of revists by me, this boy likes to eat...



Keeping with our Neverland theme (that is what we call my house) we have lots of forts like this quilt tent here . My living room is NEVER completely put together anymore and the furniture is usually covered with sheets, blankets, shirts, jackets, pillowpets, and any other scrap of material he can find. I hope my little prince never out grows wanting magical places like this one.

cute hair like this keeps my teenage dreamer happy. She gets bored easily like her mama so she is constantly wanting new ways to wind up her weave :)


I just love you, not for who you are but for who I am when I am with you...sigh!!!



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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Always-Sometimes-Never






This is a fun post that I didnt get around to doing last week so I am gonna do it now... The idea came from 
here, and here, and one more.....here.  This one is work edition...here we go


~always~

Have Pandora playing somewhere (either on my phone or my computer) i hate silence, much to the chagrin of the lady in the office next to me. Me being bipolar she might be subjected to Marilyn Monroe show tunes or Marilyn Manson slasher songs...poor tolerant JoAnn
Get excited when it is office supply ordering day. There is nothing like the smell of white out or making those squiggles on a scratch piece of paper so that your brand new Sharpie pen will work and don't get me started on how I feel about the way the stamp holder looks when you only have a few stamps left. You can't just leave the empty paper hanging and if you rip it too close to the end of the roll it wont be a roll anymore it just sort of curls up there sad and ugly looking
Have some article laying around that does not belong on my desk (exhibit A..sons swim goggles from last week that i am just too lazy to take home so swamped at work that i just dont have the time to put them in my bag. I do need to remember to take his homework home though he might need that)






~sometimes~

I can see the top of my desk..not this day, but sometimes I can see it
(SEE ABOVE PICTURE FOR ILLUSTRATION OF MY POINT)

Pretend that I have been here...or that I will be here someday. This hangs on my wall (with approved tape so as to not make the paint peel) and I may or may not have posted this on my boyfriends facebook wall a time or three to remind him...lest he forget
I have been known to scream out random cuss words if I lose a round at Song Pop. Our patients prob think someone working in the back has tourettes but nope, sadly, it's just me...( think I am reigning champ in the Ultimate 90"s and Love Songs categories)






~never

Have my filing caught up on..I hate filing and I'd rather go out into the clinic and collect urine samples (well, maybe not urine samples but I am sure there is something I could have more fun doing than filing)


Thought I would be labeled the toilet paper nazi but it is a title I inherited from my predecessor. The cleaning lady steals our toilet paper therefore it stays locked up in my  office and she has to come and ask me for rolls each time we get low...

Monday, August 27, 2012

Someone Actually Got a Smile Out of Him

The BF really hates pictures. He loathes them. It's almost like dealing with a 14 yr old girl the way he picks apart how he looks, what he is wearing, his weight, you name it.

So when I suggested we go get pictures made (in his uniform which is absolutely a huge turn on in my book) I thought I would get a big loud hell no. I got an eyeroll and a very timid ok.

So I ran with that!!! Originally I had planned on it being him and the kids but the post on his ex wife is a whole seperate topic...cut to the chase no babies, just us.

and here is a couple of the finished product..not only did I get him there in his uniform. I got a smile or two :)

I heart my soldier!!!







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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

the wheels on the bus


Is it the first day of school already??



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Monday, August 20, 2012

Over You


Today is a meloncholy one for me. I never know what is going to trigger it or how it's going to manifest itself, but Last night The Linda's and I (and I will have to blog on who the Linda's are another time) started texting back and forth about the upcoming anniversay of the day we lost our friend to cancer two years ago. It reminded me of another little guy that touched my life and the five years it's been since he has been in heaven as well. and then of course my thoughts turned to Leon. How it's only been 8 months but at times it feels like 8 seconds and others its 8 years.

Does time really heal all wounds?

Tonight my bestest partner in laughs and I are going to see Miranda Lambert. While I love her and I do mean LOVE her (Gunpowder and Lead is my go to she-woman song) she also sings a song that always brings me to my knees.



When Leon died of course all the songs we used to play over and over in high school ran throuh my head. Our first song, the songs we danced to at prom, the song we played at graduation and the song that was on the radio the day he pulled over in the First National Bank parking lot to ask me to marry him (he had just bought the ring and was so excited he had to give it to me right then and there in the middle of one of his Mazzio's Pizza deliveries) young love is so powerful and even as the passing of years and the fighting and bitterness set in there is something about sharing so much history with someone that for someone like me a song brings it all back like none of the bad happened. 16 years ago I never saw the time when I would be sitting on my bed and hear this song and lose it. The song talks about December (Leon died December 1) and I heard the song for the first time in Feb (which is also in the song)  I never thought something like this would pertain to me. And I never thought my heart would rebreak each and every time I hear our 15 yr old daughter singing it in the shower crying for a whole different kind of heartbreak....




"it really sinks in, you know, when i see it....in stone"
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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Always-Sometimes-Never

While stalking reading this super cute blog I follow I stumbled upon something fun I wanted to try....It's called Always Sometimes Never, and I could bore you with the explanation but your a smart crew just keep reading you'll get the gist.......

Walmart Visa Cards
 ALWAYS-make sure the person loading the card has an IQ above your five your old
SOMETIMES- you need to have a cold beer before calling the helpline for actual help (or an English speaking/understanding operator)
NEVER- try to use a card with an expired date

GRADE SCHOOL ORIENTATIONS
ALWAYS-make sure your iphone is charged so you have something to do when the first time parent next to you starts asking asinine questions
SOMETIMES - it's a good idea to have a glass of wine before you go so you can get through the redundant episode
NEVER-bring small children. I mean it. if you get nothing out of this post please take my advice. Just because we are parents we don't want to listen to your brat super sweet bundle of joy screaming or breaking classroom toys that our tax dollars will have to replace...*true story






ANTHONY
ALWAYS- am so proud of him when he puts on his army uniform. I never saw myself as an army family but now that I am in one it's all camo and black and gold for us. 
SOMETIMES- I think we are in competition to be the next Duggar family. we have SEVEN count them SEVEN kids between us...
NEVER- will I get used to the smell of his gas. It doesn't matter what I cook it's always nauseous and I always have to ask if he needs to be seen by a doctor for any stomach ailments..




THE BABIES
ALWAYS- I have to say their names in order like a song so I won't forget or leave one out. It's like the 50 states or names of the president or the spelling of Mississippi. if you can just spout it off without thinking your a rockstar...me? I'm more like a roadie
SOMETIMES- I wonder why one or both of us didnt run like hell when we realized how many kids we have between us
NEVER- would I trade or wish away a single one of them. KAILEIGH, EMORY, AYDEN, ISAIAH, EMMA BAILEY AND AJ are our world and each one of them bring something that completes our family.
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Monday, August 13, 2012

Now she can sing Taylor Swift"s "15 and mean it

OH MY! I'm not sure where the other 14 years went but my baby is a freshmen. August 7, 1997 this is what I came home with



Very proud of the young lady she is growing up to be, and the things she is dealing with and doing it with grace and strength. Don't get me wrong, we fight in a way that is not healthy and probably should be reported to the proper authorities...But that is what you get when you have a mother and daughter who have had to grow up together (except she's moving at a faster pace than I am)

I wasn't sure how this year would go. Last year she celebrated her birthday with most of her family at the lake and this year it's just been me. Leon has been gone 8 months and this was just one of the many things he will miss out on. I didn't want her to not acknowledge how she feels missing him but I wanted her day to be special and about her and not about him being gone. So we did cry a few tears but we had more laughs and hugs then tears. I am grateful for the amazing family I have and the friends that have stepped up and surrounded her with love. I am constantly asked how I do it and I just reply I don't do anything but love my daughter...which I do with all my heart... I think she overall had a good birthday week (cause we celebrated with not one but two cakes...)





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Home Sweet Bloggy Home

It's been a busy couple of weeks in my world. I started back to work for a non-profit medical clinic that provides care to people with little or no insurance. I'm in donor relations and fundraising which is what I really enjoy doing. There is something to be said for "working" in a field where your worth is measured by how much good you can do for someone else.
It's selfish of me really but I think I get more out of my job than our patients do (although I am sure they would not agree). Our clinic is in an older part of town directly across from a place that hands out free meals for breakfast and lunch and it's heartbreaking to see so many people lined up in advance for what is prob their only meal of the day. I've seen this same lady spread out a sheet and catch a few winks on our lawn under a tree more than once.. It puts it into perspective how petty and blessed I truly am, and tugs at my heart on a daily basis. Add to the mix that our clinic is a faith based ministry so I am surrounded at all times by a calming force and a loving hand.
I find myself praying more often  now and talking to God. I've never been what you would call "church y" but I do think of myself as a religious person. I think right now if you found my "goals for myself" list at the top would be to try and be a better example.
It's also back to school time and orientation is tonight for Isaiah to start kindergarten..Emory starts fourth grade and Kaileigh being a freshmen is almost more than I can wrap my head around... Over the weekend we bought school supplies and new clothes. The kids excitement is palpable and it reminds me of that time a hundred years ago that I couldn't stop re-organizing my glue and pencils and erasers so they would fit in my wooden school supply box. I won't even post on the ridiculous items the teachers are making parents buy now...... 
I'm gonna enjoy 8:30 bedtimes again :)

I also got to see my most favorite band play on Saturday. If you tried to describe the Velcro Pygmies based on their team of hair, makeup and stylist it'd be Bon Jovi"s hair people meets the makeup artist used by Poison dressed by the person that helps Cyndi Lauper pick out clothes...It's quite a sight actually. But the songs they cover are fantastic (from Poison to Al Green followed by Prince and ending with Space Cowboy), hardly anyone stays in their seat.. and I am just a sucker for live bands. Cherry on top was the great friends I got to see and then go home to a very sweet face...GREAT weekend!!

It's taken me awhile to get back to blogging. I'm not sure what I was afraid of but it's really been painless...I created a new blog and thought I was gonna start all over and it was gonna be freeing.. But I couldn't figure out wordpress template designs and then nothing would show up even on my computer so I just said stuff it.....and here I am once again right back where I started out... home sweet bloggy home


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