Momma's Happy 'cause Daddy's Home!

Brent's BACK!! and boy is momma HAPPY!

It's back to the same ole, same ole. Brent's back and it was soooo great to see him get off that plane Friday night. We took my sister and her son with us to eat and shop after Ian's 5:00 baseball game (yuk!) and then went shopping until it was time to go to the airport. The boys were so excited. We went early so we could see his little jet land and Ian started crying when he saw his daddy's plane. Needless to say, we went to bed really late and he brought the boys back some goodies and a tote bag for me. Saturday was busy, busy. We had two birthday parties and a baseball game Saturday night. Ian stayed with his granny because he hates Liam's games because they last so long and he loses interest really fast, so after the game it was really quiet and Liam passed out after playing so hard. We stayed up really late talking and then slept pretty late Sunday. We picked up Ian pretty early as he had another birthday party (a total of 3 in one weekend) so I went shopping and doing the Walmart grocery thing while he was there and Brent built a new picnic table. He's so funny sometimes. I found one I liked off the internet that this guy makes locally and he looked and said he could do better. And guess what? He did. It turned out great and it should last for a long time. He thinks everybody else takes short-cuts to save money so he doesn't trust anyone. I'm happy and the picnic table is great. We just really enjoyed the afternoon and invited some friends over to eat BBQ and the boys swam. The water has been too cold but they braved it and made the best of it as the cool front blew in. We didn't get any rain but the wind turned cool really quickly so they came out pretty fast after that. Brent and Liam went to Liam's game on Monday night and they won so he was pretty stoked, which just happened to be the night before his first day of TAKS testing for the state of Texas. Don't even get me started on this stupid freakin' test. But he said he did well and today they are taking their Math TAKS so I'm sure he'll do well. He didn't miss any on math last year and only missed one on the Reading and Science last year so I hope he does just as well this year.

I really, really wanted to win the Kitchen Aid mixer that the Pioneer Woman was giving away. Well, I didn't win -- which isn't too much of a stretch considering I didn't realize it had a time limit and didn't even bother after I found that out. But I still wanted to win. So I've been doing research and that's what I want for Mother's Day. The professional series Kitchen Aid mixer with the pasta attachments so if my sweetie reads this, that's what I want. I really want pink (hot pink) but not sure if they make it in hot pink in the professional series but the chrome would match all my other appliances. So we'll see. He asked why I wanted one and I said to make homemade pasta of course. Well, of course. I'd have to LEARN how but that's the fun part. While he was out of town I did some major throwing-out and bought all new stuff for me and the boys: underwear, socks (a total of 40 pairs of socks, I bet they'll never say that they cannot find any now, right!) and some new iron skillets, pots, enamel iron pots. They come in the prettiest colors. The Lodge Logic or something like that: already seasoned and the big red one is actually being used to the roast au jus today. I hope it turns out pretty good. And me and the boys decided we needed new towels so that was another big mistake. They couldn't decide which ones felt better so we went to JCPenney's and they helped me and then when we got home I hated the colors (bright) and decided I wanted more neutral, muted colors so I went to Sam's and decided I liked the ones there better so I took the other ones back to JCPenney. That was an ordeal in itself but at least they were good and it kept them pretty busy. So, haven't made it back to Sam's yet to get more but those towels seem to be the best buy for the money. I can always rely on Sam's to have what I need. Why should I ever doubt and shop anywhere else first? I LOVE SAM'S. I could go at least twice a week, I actually go about 3 times a month and I have to control it. Between Sam's and Target, I don't think I would ever need another store. Trying out one of the recipes off of PW recipe contest. She had over 5000 entries and they all look so good.

Next week is going to be really busy. Will I ever have time to do billing? I guess I could be doing that now instead of blogging but NAH, I choose not to. Going on a field trip on Tuesday and then Liam has a field trip this Friday and next Friday. Ian is really excited I'm going with his class. I'm not too excited but it's for my baby, I don't have to enjoy it, just grin and bear it right? Right. Having to help the other moms out is one thing I don't mind in the least, however, having to deal with 18 other kids besides my own takes the patience of Mother Theresa. Hopefully, they won't be too bad. They all seem really well behaved when I go to the class to do Phonics and Vocabuary on Thursday, but you never know when you let them out of their confined space. Say a prayer for me. I am going to have to control my tongue and try not to call any of them names. This other mom just cracks up when I tell her what I'd call them if I could. Well, I guess I better check on my simmering stove and get rid of my "throw away" "shred" and "file" piles I have going all over my bed. I have gone through all of our papers and piles and finished all that today. So it's been a good and I've already accomplished a lot. Cleaned out the washroom in the garage yesterday. It was so beautiful and nice outside and now it looks pretty clean and organized in that area. Thinking about painting the cement floor in the garage. Going to go online and look into that. Any ideas on how to spruce up a garage cement floor?? Must go check on supper.... later.

This is the map we keep on the wall in the hall and mark where Brent is and where we are so Ian can see that he's only six states away this time. It helps him to feel closer to his daddy and each time Brent leaves, we pull out...... drum roll........ "THE MAP." Isn't that sad. I get all excited and we try to figure out the map scale and add up all the miles. I know, pitiful. What can I say? Ian has an unnatural attachment to his daddy. My friend tells me "that's 'cause he's cut right out of his asshole." YUK I think that means because they look so much alike but I really hated to ask.

I cannot believe it's been soooo long since I blogged. We have been really busy, I'm sick, Brent's been sick and we've got this whole other thing going on and every day it's getting out there with our community and trying to get the word out about our cause. It's been great getting to know everyone and how tight knit our small piece in the big picture really is. I can honestly say that I really like all of them out here. I've met over 100 families and they are just hard-working Christians who want to raise their families and live a peaceful existence. My heart goes out to them.

HOWEVER, yup, the the big however, some of them are really weird. They mean well and I just crack up anytime I'm around them, but seriously these people need medication. One day gung-ho, the next down in the dumps. A little big of advice: Stop living off of Diet Coke, go see a psychiatrist and get properly diagnosed for your Bipolar I, Most Recent Episode, Depressed w/Psychotic Features or Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent, Severe w/ Psychotic Features, take the meds EVERYDAY, and be happy. I cannot understand these people who tell you they are depressed all the time, but won't take medication. Hell, give it to me and I'll take it just so I can stand to be around you. LOL I thought that was funny. Not really but my neighbors really are hilarious. And it's amazing how when you start talking about family and what you like/hate about yours and they have the same feelings toward their dysfunctional families also. Nothing like bonding over a cup of tea and the transgender cousin who wants to sue his employer for not having an "it" bathroom, I guess. LOL I crack myself up sometimes. On with that to this....

My baby daddy (or would that be "babies" daddy since we have two children?) oh hell, my baby daddy is still away on training and we cannot wait for him to come back home!!!???. The boys are just sick everyday and counting down the days until he comes back. His plane lands around 11pm Friday night and they are ecstatic. Every morning this week they have cried because they get up to a really quiet house when their daddy's not here. Then he calls before they go to school and I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not, but they sure do love talking to him and then the whole ride to school we have the conversation about how safe airplanes are and how they don't ever really fall out of the sky anymore. Ian seems to be obsessed with the fact that planes crash and are there any tall buildings where his Daddy is? It's so sad so I just tell them that God is watching out for Daddy and he'll bring him home safe to us. That's when I can really tell how much older Ian has gotten because he's become very philosophical and everything involves how long am I going to live? How long are you going to live? Why do we have to die? And, "Momma, you hate dirt and worms and bugs so when you die are you doing to like it?" I responded with "I'm going to be cremated" which lead into a whole other discussion about the process of cremation and where I'd like my ashes scattered and I told them I've been to the crematorium and toured it a long time ago when I worked at a funeral home. Very interesting by the way.


So, we've been busy with baseball every night. Liam had a game tonight and they won. He was ecstatic because they called the game for the 10 point rule or something. Didn't understand that but I just nodded, smiled, hugged him and got really excited about it for him. Granny and Poppie (Brent's mom/dad) took him to the game so I could do Ian's practice with him. I've just felt so run-down lately and I want to feel 100% better before Brent gets home. Liam was really happy about that and couldn't wait to get home to call and share every play of the game with his daddy. Cannot wait for my baby daddy to come home. We were talking this morning about how we cannot describe how we feel when we're apart and I said I've been thinking about it and here's my thought: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." And I believe it with all my heart. Every day you go through life with people's little eccentricities and then when they're not there, you miss those same little eccentricities. I miss Brent and the way he talks to me when I'm not in the room like I was and then the whole time I'm going "huh, huh?" until he gets up and walks back into our bedroom and then I just start dying laughing because I heard him the whole time. Now that's pretty funny but now it's like really funny because I've been doing it forever and he still gets up to come and make sure I heard his very, very important statement. So, guess that's it for now. Haven't cooked once. YUP, proud of that. But we did do Pei Wei with my sistas on Sunday and took the boys shopping and to the MAC counter (way yeah for me) and then I did Luby's take-out which is just like real food with veggies and salad one night and then last night Drake and Tricia took us to IHOP for breakfast for supper. The boys love it when we do that and now it's a tradition that every time Brent's traveling for work, we take them there for supper. We laughed and cracked up the whole time. Tricia has whatever I had. I guess I gave it to her but that's what she gets for drinking out of my drinks all the time. So, going to try to work on blogging more but tomorrow I'll be especially busy because I have a church thing in the morning and then I really need to get the house all tidied up for Brent's return. Ian has a game tomorrow night so that will keep us busy until Brent lands. Say a prayer for all the air travelers tomorrow and I'll keep all of you in my prayers.

Family First

It's official -- the JJ's have officially pissed me off! I guess that's not too hard to do but I've been trying really hard to keep my cool. See, JJ stands for our code word for this so-called church and "men of God" we are having a community controversy with. JJ stands for the followers "Jim Jonesers." Get it. They drank the punch, the jungle juice and so now they are with "the others." Anywho, it's really getting old. These people are psychotic. We had signs made up to protest and the one that was down at the park for our neighborhood yesterday mysteriously came up missing this morning. OK, if you are supposed to be Bible-toting Christians, why would you steal from a neighborhood park of which you are not a part of our community. The pastor said the "olive branch" that he extended to us has now be rescinded -- ewwww we're so scared you freakin' old pervert. I am so tired of people, I guess all people in general, who use the Bible to their advantage in whatever situation they see fit. It is a disgusting display of an overly big ego from an aged and decrepit old man. Things have been crazy this past week. I'm actually going to do billing today which I haven't done in over a month. I feel sorry for my friend since I haven't gotten any of her billing done and this is what she counts on for an income. Sorry for the rant but evidently our signs are getting under the man's skin and he wants them down. Sorry Charlie -- they are on private property and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. There's this thing called an Amendment and we have the right to express ourselves and use our freedom of speech to make our point also. You aren't the only who can quote the Bible when needed. So drink some more punch you old FART!!! Haw yew doin'??

YUMMY: Doesn't that look delish? Chicken Bacon Sami from Pioneer Woman is the best. And all the boys in my life love it too. Thinking this and some fresh veggies with dip would be a good supper -- need something quick and not too complicated on practice nights. Visit her website for the ingredients. It's yum!

Crazy baseball games, batting practice and birthday parties all day Saturday. Brent worked overtime all week and 14 hours Saturday but he made it to Liam's game Saturday night. Me and the boys left our house at 9:15am to go to Target and pick up birthday presents for friends and between all the activities, parties, practice and games we didn't make it home until 9:45 pm. I was sooo exhausted and so was Brent from working. He really enjoyed Liam's game. It was the first one I watched and I felt like throwing up. I get so nervous for him so I probably won't be going to any until Brent has to go out of town on business at the end of the month. I think he feeds off my nervousness because he said he could feel me staring at him and being scared for him. Two kids got hurt (hit by the ball) at this game and at his first game the pitcher on the other team got hit in the leg by the biggest and hardest hitter on our team and he went out in an ambulance. I believe he broke his shin bone (or whatever bone that's actually called) so Liam is so little and with absolutely no meat on him I'm just afraid if he gets hit by one of these big oafs he'll suffer the same fate. Poor little man. Brent took him and bought him a two hundred dollar bat and a new pitching machine. YUP, we already had both but he thinks he'll do better with the bat Liam wanted in the first place. Whatever. Liam's team is the Astros so I bought Brent all this Astros stuff to wear to Liam's games and I bought red shirts for us and a red hat for Liam to support Ian's team. I know, I know, Dave wouldn't agree with those unneedy purchases but sometimes you just have to show you care and support them. I bought what I thought was the cutest baseball ring at Gaudie & Co. the other day but my friends and Brent said it was the ugliest thing they had ever seen. Brent asked how much it was but I wasn't about to confess so he said "if you paid more than what it cost to get it out of a gumball machine you got screwed." I responded with "move the decimal over and now you know." WTF> it was pretty funny. I love my ring and they can laugh if they want, it's beautiful. Or whatever.

Sunday we really enjoyed our day together. Ian stayed the night with my neighbor and her kids after Hunter's skating party so the morning was really quiet because Liam slept pretty late. We drank coffee out on the porch and watched the sun come up. Still exhausted from all the action this weekend. We took about 5 boys down to the baseball park at the end of the road to play baseball. I didn't really play, I just picked up all the foul balls. But they had to try out the new pitching machine and bat and then before we (the adults) were ready to go the kids were whining because they were hot, hungry, thirsty. We even skipped our class and boiled some spicy shrimp. They were so good with a cold coronas. Needless to say, Ian went to his grandparents for awhile then he came in and took a shower and went straight to bed. It was after 11 before I had everything cleaned and back in its original place and backpacks ready for school. The alarm going off at 5:20 this morning was way too early for me. Brent's getting ready for his trip to North Carolina and then he'll be going to Atlanta after that. Not sure when that trip will be, but hopefully before school gets out, and not the last few days when I'll need help with end of the year parties. But his birthday is in June so I definitely need to be thinking/planning. It just seems like this other stuff is taking up way too much of my time, and my family's time. Time to get back to what matters - them. If the neighborhood goes up in flames, I'll say I told you so as we back out the driveway to head out of town. Liam seems to be worried because we don't like what we're hearing about the future of the school district with all the low-income section 8 housing and apartments that are going up in the future so I visited several schools and got packets and tuition information. I told Liam he may end up in Catholic school and he was not happy but I told him it's only if all this comes to fruition. I went to Catholic school for 9 years, wore uniforms and prayed and went to mass and guess what? I'm still alive and probably a better person for it. The future holds the answers. I can only pray for the boys' sake that it doesn't end up like I think it will. That land in Fannett is looking better and better. After school today we have two practices at the same time in different locations and a meeting. Wonder how I'm going to pull this off? Busy, busy. Any advice, just let me hear it. Ciao for now.