I LOVE EBAY

I have a love/hate affair with EBAY. I love to win and I hate to lose. I started collecting the jadeite depression pieces and winning on ebay and I absolutely LOVE them. I won the bid on saucers, salad plates, cream and sugar set. So I have a long way to go but that's a good start I guess. It wasn't that expensive but the shipping costs just as much as the merchandise. That's where they get you. Well, must go ebay, must go ebay..... smile!

Also, the new RADAR is out in the newsstands so check it out. Another one of my favorite things.... my Radar magazine. Hope you get one soon and check it out. Must have sense of humor or else it probably won't seem that great to you.

Totally Pooped...

Have you ever felt like that? Totally worn out mentally and physically. I can't even think if anything witty to say or talk about because I'm so tired. Since last Monday my little momma has been in the hospital and it's been very stressful. We've all been (I take that back; not ALL of us but that's a different, boring, long story about my self-absorbed brother) going up there every day and sitting with her and keeping her company. I usually go all day while the boys are in school but we went back Wednesday night so Liam could visit with her and then I brought Ian up there Thursday night. Just one at a time is all she can handle right now ... hell, it's all I can handle right now. Ian stayed with Granny while we went and she said he was so sad because he kept asking for us and that he wanted to go too. Poor thing. So I felt back and took him back Thursday evening after his game. Brent and his parents went on to Liam's game but we went back up to the hospital. Ian was so good; of course my almost 16 year old nephew was a tee-total little shit but Ian really tried to be good for his Nana. Me and Tricia went up there today and we're going back this evening. Liam had two swimming birthday parties today and then he's skipping batting cages to stay and swim. It's their last game but oh well. Then he has a game tonight at 7:30pm. In the meantime we're trying to get Brent ready for his big trip on Monday. He's going to Denver for a week and it's the last week of school and with momma being in the hospital I'm sure it's going to be one helluva week. When they get out of school on Thursday me and some friends and all our kids are going to hit the nearest cantina and I will thoroughly be enjoying a mango margarita by 2:00 pm. How 'bout starting that countdown now?

On Thursday Liam had his end of the year program at school. He did really well and made the all A Honor Roll. We were really proud of him because out of the whole sixth grade which is about 120+ kids, there were only 21 with averages above 95. Ian has his program on Tuesday so Brent won't be here to make it, but I told him I'd video it and we'll show his daddy when he gets back home. That seemed to appease him for the time being. Liam has placement tests starting on Tuesday and Wednesday of this next week to find out his placement for seventh grade. The school will put them on a projected 5 year plan that brings them all the way through high school to see if they are stronger in the language arts, math or science. It seems that Liam's strongest area is math and then science so hopefully since those were his highest averages that will be his academic track. I still need to get teacher gifts for the end of the year for all of Liam's teachers. Ian's teacher and her high school helper are getting gift certificates for massages. I know ... boring and not very original but at this point in time they are lucky to be getting that. I still haven't put together anything for the take home bags in Ian's class. Each child has to contribute something so I think I'm going to get them beach balls and just put a cute summer tag on it and some curly ribbon. Not very original either but my kids love those damn beach balls so I'm sure 17 other kids may just feel the same way.

Poppie (Brent's daddy) came and brought one of the machines over and started on the motorcross track for the dirt bike stunt boy in our family. It seems Ian is learning how to pull up the front and do wheelies. Pretty good for a 7 year old. Liam really tries and he's 12 but he's just not big enough to do it. He doesn't have the upper body strength Ian has and his dirt bike weighs a lot more. Ian is actually very good at it. We took some pics and video last weekend when he was learning how to do it. I swear that child has no fear whatsoever. In some ways it's good and in some ways it's bad, really bad. It's been so long since I've blogged that now it just keep coming even though I didn't feel like doing this at all. We're going shopping tomorrow for Brent's last minute things. He wants some new swim shorts but I don't think he'll be needing them considering just a week ago it was still snowing in some places in Colorado. He's bringing his laptop from work so I told him while he's in class and supposed to be learning I'll be emailing him nasty messages and pictures. He was just laughing so I decided that's one of my goals is to find some nasty pics and email them to him. Of course they'll be laughable like a shriveled up old couple or something like that. He said he won't open anything from me in class and I was just cracking up cuz now he's "scerded." LOL

Did I mention that I cannot wait until school gets out. AAAAAHHHH Trying to plan something for Brent's birthday. God I hope he doesn't run across this before then. Hell, I never thought of that until just now. OK, I won't say what we're planning only that we ARE planning. I have to call and make sure the plans are finalized. Still on the lookout for a new car. I really, really want a Honda so we're going to look when he gets back. My sister has had an excellent experience with them and although I truly love Nissan, I've heard a lot of bad things lately so I'm steering towards a Honda. Haven't decided on what but while the Expedition was at the dealers service dept. this week getting all the work done and the tune-up Brent had to pay $400 for, they gave me a Ford Edge for a rental. It was ok, nothing great but it's just so small. I think once you get used to all the room from a big SUV it's hard to give it up. But at almost $4 a gallon, I'm willing to do whatever needs to be done. I do so much running the roads that we need something a lot smaller with better gas mileage than 15 mpg if we want to keep up that pace. Brent's gonna drive the Expedition and then I can have my "get-around-go-g0 car" again. Used to have one a long time ago, our Nissan Sentra which I LOVED and to this day I miss that car. I remember when I used to fill up and it was $13 and I was pissed because it was costing about $10-$11 bucks to fill up. Is that not crazy? I couldn't do with anything that small, but I think a mid-sized Honda would do the trick. We'll have two car notes for awhile but Brent's overtime is going to pay off the Expedition and the money that we have going directly into savings will make up the new note hopefully. But that's our thinking this week; which of course I'm wishy-washy so that may change. I'd love to not have a car note for awhile so we'll see. I love my Expedition but at $82 for a fill-up I'm beginning to see the end of my love affair.

Last weekend Brent spent all weekend building a deck around the pool. Well, not all around it for now but at least 12 foot at the front. He was going to finish the sides this weekend but with all the work on the track out in the back and then packing him up tomorrow he'll be worn out. They cut the grass and got the yard all done so all we have to worry with next week is keeping up the chemicals in the pool and shocking it twice. I forgot when, but he's supposed to write it down for us so we don't forget. I have so much housework to get caught up on when he leaves so when the kids go to bed every night I'll be cleaning until the wee hours of the morning like I always do when he's gone. Better go pick up my child at the swimming party and bring him to his baseball game. Please keep my mom in your prayers. I realized this week that although your family may get on your nerves, blood really is thicker than water. Just an old saying my daddy used to tell me all the time and now I know what he meant by that. Gosh, I miss him. And I'm going to miss Brent this week but I should have more time to post while he's gone. Have a good rest of the weekend.

P.S. I LOVE EBAY because I'm a bitch and I LOVE winning and the others did not win!

I'll post about my ebay wins tomorrow. I am sooo excited. I think I've won four so far and two bids are for this evening. Wish me luck. I LOVE EBAY! I love winning and I don't care how much more it costs me to win, I will win it because I love the adrenaline rush when it's down to the wire and I had like 8 seconds and I got my last bid in and WON! Yeah, so for a**n who tried to outbid me, take that! I'll post about that tomorrow. Have to go to the roadside farmer guy who sells fresh fruits and veggies 'cause my boys want a watermelon. Ciao!

Scrub Your Boobs & Get A Mini Crock-Pot

I have got to post some pics of the boys and update you all on what's been going on. Baseball games last night and tonight so while the boys are cutting grass and doing the yard today I'll be making my all organic spaghetti and meatballs. For some reason they love it more than any other recipe I've ever made. Hopefully everything will be ready before Liam has to go to the batting cages at 5:15. I've got plenty of time so I shouldn't have any excuses. I cannot wait until we have our weekends back and go take the boys to do fun stuff on Saturday nights, well I guess baseball is fun to them but NOT to me!! LOL Anywho, I'm read this article in this months RADAR magazine about all the hoopla surrounding the Church of Scientology and then I visited some of the websites they listed in the article. It is VERY interesting. These people are psychotic. Kind of reminds me of another church we've had to deal with lately. Don't drink the jungle juice! So, if you see a RADAR pick it up; they have some great articles in there and they are hilarious. I need to get a subscription because its so hard to find them. Once they put them on the shelves they are usually gone in a few days so Barnes & Noble is always out or the only one they have left is all fingered up and I will not buy one that all the others have touched their disgusting amoeba'd hands all over. OK, that was funny. Is that how you spell "amoeba?" YUP, I just checked and the spelling is correct but I don't think there is a past tense for amoeba? Oh well I just made it up. So that one that is all germed up can stay right there for the poor unsuspecting sucker to buy it because I won't.

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/02/not-too-spicy-bean-dip-crockpot-recipe.html

So I bought this itty bitty crock-pot which is hopefully all I'll need for small stuff. It's not as small as the picture; it's 2 quart and I think the pic is a 1 qt. I'm going to put cheese dip with taco meat in there today and then tomorrow I'm going to try this dip that the crockpot lady put on her site. I've never used or owned one this small but it's so damn cute even if I don't use it, it looks super cute like a bunch of little people could use it as a regular crock-pot. Tricia said she needs one like it for food because it's just her and Drake and that's all they would need. I told her to go get one then and stop eyeballing mine. I'll let you know how they turn out. I'm tired of having cheese dip leftover after they eat and then having to throw it out because no one wants it again and again.

OK, so I've been researching this MiniMax air purifier and I think I'm going to invest in one. My friend has one and it makes her office smell great and it seems to have cut down considerably on the dust accumulation. I know, boring shit but oh well if you keep reading you have to read about it for a short time. So, the scent that she adds make it smell wonderful and since my family cannot stand the smell of cooked bacon in the house or meat that is browning, I think it may be a wise investment. Plus, some days I just walk in and you know how every house a "smell." Well, at least I want mine to smell good. When friends and family let me borrow things, I can smell their house on their things. I know it's weird but my house does have a smell and after a day of being gone all day and then walking in after it has been closed up without any activity, that's when you can smell the smell of your house. Try it and see if when you first walk in if you like it. If you do like it, then great, if not, get one of these little daddy-o's or that lamp thing that I have and you pour in the oil fragrance and let it burn for like a minute and then blow it out and the smell permeates everything. Well, that works a little too good. All the scents are really strong and sometimes I have to open the doors and windows to air it out. This little minimax looks like a bug so that's what I call it. It will be called the "bug deodorizer" on this blog from now on. Actually I didn't even know the real name until I started pricing them. But Vacuum City in Nederland has them and I've been eyeballing them for about four months so I'll mosey on over there later and get one. Oh, and my friend with the jewelry shop and purses just went to market so I'm going to her house to see if I can find some new purses and sunglasses. Knock-offs but they're still great for me. We're having a shrimp boil tomorrow so the kids should enjoy that. Brent is going to start building the deck for the pool so that by the time school's out and he's off on another training excursion they'll be able to frolic and play without me. My friend went to New Orleans yesterday and they stopped at some mall and the Disney store was having a blowout on all their beach towels and beach wear and things like that so I had to put in my order. I got Ian a few things and then several others for upcoming birthdays and such. I like to have a nice supply on hand. Ian has about four more parties before the end of the year and then family birthdays this summer. My friend that I put this order in with was telling me about the MAC store and how big it is and I'm like whatever biotch. She was just cracking up because I'll spend more money on makeup and shampoo and hairspray and she buys all of her stuff at Walmart. I tell her that's why she's going to be old and wrinkly. Which reminds me I did my facial with the Mary Kay lady and bought a bunch of that and the microderm abrasion pack seems to be working. Well, let's see I've used it twice and I really like the way it makes my skin feel. I even did my butt and boobs. Careful not to let it seep into orifices but you know what I mean. Do we ever really think about scrubbing our butts and boobs to make them soft or to just get all of the sweat and grime off? Well, try it. This other body scrub has these little pellet rock things in it and that's great for the shower for your whole body. I hope my boobs don't peel or anything. Try and take care of ALL of your body parts, you never know when you're going to be in a bank and a robber comes in and makes everybody strip down naked so no one will run after him and the general public is now critiquing your body. They may say it's large but it will never be bumpy, pimply, scaly or in need of exfoliation that's for sure! And when I say they can kiss my shiny ass, well, it'll be the truth.

Yes, I'm Actually Posting Today...

We had a great weekend! Hope everyone's Mother's Day was quiet and relaxing ... I envy you because mine was not! However, we all had a great time. Did the games and graduation party on Saturday. Got to see everyone in town and no major disagreements or anything. Actually, I can't think of one person that pissed me off. It's only when I get around little babies that I realize how big my own boys have gotten lately and how much they've matured. Well, we were exhausted Saturday night. The boys and Brent went to the fishing tournament Saturday morning before the game started at 9:30am but we made it. Ian and I went to Tricia's to hang out with her and Christene while Liam and Brent went to Liam's game Saturday night. Oh my God we laughed and cracked up the entire time. Christene was snoring and pushing me off the couch and we were making fun of her. I hate having to be out there twice in one day. For some reason that just aggravates me. I CANNOT wait until baseball is over. With each game and story of chaos that all the other moms seem to impose on each other, the last game cannot come fast enough. I have never heard of such turmoil for the parents of 7 year olds. For some weird reason, I am not even in any of it. It seems that psychotic moms can make their own chaos and don't need help from us little people. Gosh, I think their medications need to be stabilized. However, Ian did great and had a hit that was was "beautiful" to quote his daddy.

Mom's Day was fun actually. They woke me up with two new beads or charms for my Chamilia bracelet. I love that thing and there are thousands of different beads. Brent gave me the yen/yang one and the boys got me a pretty one with hearts and my birthstone. It was really sweet. All the boys got in the kitchen and helped their daddy make blueberry/banana pancakes which if I have to eat pancakes, then they have to be blueberry and banana combined. They were great! Then we headed out to Lowe's and bought plants and things for the garden. Brent bought his mom an oleander. He loves them because they remind him of growing up and staying at his grandparents beach cabin. We just call them beach trees because they are everywhere on the Gulf. I guess that's why he planted three in our yard. So we headed over to our Mexican meat market where they have this great tasting chicken that has been marinated in this red marinade. I have no idea what it is but we got some of those and some fajitas that were marinated in the same stuff. So then we headed over to Granny's to give her the boys gifts and plant and a really sweet letter Ian wrote. He is so precise. When he knows he has to give it out or someone else is going to be looking at his work, he is a perfectionist. I think she liked the plant then we headed home to grill all the chickens and fajitas. Tricia and Drake came over to eat, swim and ride 4-wheelers all afternoon. I was so happy to be getting my marinated chicken that we completely forgot about dessert so me and Tricia took the kids to Dairy Queen. Then it was home to clean up and get all the stuff ready for school. Needless to say it was 9:30 and I just gave up and went and took a long, hot bubble bath. It was heavenly and all was quiet. I can truly say that although it was busy as ever, it was just what I wanted.

What I'm Reading: The Nanny Diaries, great for endless hours of baseball practice, baseball games when your child is not at bat, waiting in the carpool line and if you're not reading then THEY come to your car to TALK so look busy, even if you have to play a "Paris" as I call it and pick up my cell phone and ACT like I'm talking and really into the conversation and then when they approach the car, turn to them so they can see that you are indeed on the phone, smile politely and do the parade wave. THEY will turn around, then you can put down your cell phone and get back to this book, which seems to be pretty good so far.

Things are really gearing up for the end of the year parties and programs. Trying to find stuff along the rock star theme but so far haven't come up with too much that's cheap enough to get 19 of them for Ian's class. Liam has some kind of band concert tonight so Brent's going to that with him and I'm taking Ian to his game. His coach does not want him to miss this game and I don't know them well enough to just let him go home with them so one of us has to go. I'd rather do the game so Brent has to deal with all the other parents pushing you out of the way to get a picture/video of their beloved, adored little sweeties. yeah right. So I'd rather sit outside and smell fresh air and he is soooo not looking forward to this. Even poor Liam doesn't want to go. He wanted me to call his band director and tell him that we have an emergency out of town. But I didn't. nope, he wanted to be in the band, well here you go buddy it's band time. He opted out for next year so I told him you tried it and didn't like it, so now you know. He's doing athletics next year and soccer outside of school so he won't have time for that and be able to do sports. After all, that child lives for soccer. My friend wanted me to go to Houston with her today but Brent couldn't get off early to pick up the boys so I had to back out. Guess I'll go start on my Mexican chicken casserole. No, it's not left-overs, I have to boil some chicken that's been defrosting and I want something I can put in the oven and be done with because it's going to be so busy after school. Hope your day is halfway decent. Stop and smell the flowers, just watch out for the bugs that lurk inside!! A little Marianism for you today.

Does It Ever Slow Down??

Brent's At WORK and I miss him!

I know, I know, it's immature. But when he calls early in the morning and says he'll be working overtime really late, it makes the day just drag and drag. Well, we had a great weekend. Friday night we had back to back baseball games and they both did really well. Liam had a good infield hit and Ian, well, he really puts them out there. We were busy with games and in the last two weekends we've been to five birthday parties. Ian has fun but it gets really old, really fast to me. So we headed out to Colorado Canyon and then Brent had to order some stuff at Cowboy Harley for his motorcycle. We found the cutest motorcycle helmet for the boys to wear when they ride with their daddy so I may go back and get it for them for part of their end of the year gifts. We try and do something big on the last day of school so I thought the new helmets would be pretty cool. Still thinking about that. Well, we had lunch and then hit the mall. Went back to MAC (again) and bought the prettiest colors and some funky colors too. That's what makes it all fun and not boring. Sunday went shopping with my friends and left all our kids here with Brent. They swam and rode the dirt bikes. Brent said they were excellent and didn't give him a big of trouble. That was good because I was kind of sweating it but not for long. Liam was a big help and kept the three little boys busy swimming and playing baseball. We had fun and then hit Sams and did some down and dirty warehouse grocery shopping. Bought two new Gooseberry cookbooks. I just have to say that I pay $16.95 each for them at Cracker Barrel and they are $10.82 at Sams so I got two for almost the price of one. Found some really quick, sounds good recipes that hopefully I'll be trying pretty soon.

First Grade School Field Trip (YIKES) is tomorrow. Off to the Julie Rogers for Cinderella or something ? cannot remember and then to the park to let the children play and have a picnic. The weather was horrible today and it literally rained all day so hopefully tomorrow will be better but if it rains, they are going to have their picnic in their classrooms. That sounds boring. So hopefully for their little hearts, we get to get out and have fun. I wanted Brent to take off and come with us but he's so bogged down and trying to learn all this new stuff he's a little stressed. But he's doing great. We have ball games Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week and Brent has a meeting tomorrow night with the "elders" and he's supposed to work overtime tomorrow night but he may have to postpone it until Wednesday night. He does not need to miss any meetings right now that have to do with our neighborhood. He called a little bit ago and said he's going to try and get it postponed. Graduation parties this weekend for Jesse from Lamar and Holli from the college for her nursing degree. I have no idea what the name of it is, something like Panola or anywho it's up north close to Canton. So we have an officers fishing derby at Brent's work at 7am Saturday morning, baseball game at 9:30am, cannot make the actual graduation at Lamar at 9:00am so we'll just head out to the party about 1pm and then Liam has to be at the batting cages at 5pm for his 7:30pm game. So I think Saturday is going to be pretty busy and Sunday is Mother's Day. I think I'll just want to recoup and relax. I think Brent's taking me to Galveston but it depends on the weather. If it's really rainy I would rather go to Houston but who knows. As long as I don't have to cook the food or clean the house I'll be extremely happy. He always gets me something to add to my bracelet that he just got me on Valentine's Day so that would be pretty cool. They have some really cool ones for the Chameleon bracelets and I want the ones with all of our birthstones. However, I'd be in heaven with my new KitchenAid mixer. I've been talking nonstop about it and he's like go get it and I'm like no, you go. Basically if he gets it then he can't gripe about how much I spent and if I don't use it every day then he can't say anything. Whereas if I go get it myself, then he'll say stuff like "You wanted it, you need to use it." Uh huh. So I learned a long time ago if it's something like that and costs more than I'm willing to pay, then he can go buy it for me and he doesn't bitch about it so much because then that would be rude. See, I've learned something in the last 25 years of being together.

So what kind of plans does everybody else have for Mother's Day? To tell you the truth I would just like to spend some quality time with all my boys, without any fighting. If they could promise me they wouldn't fight at all on Mother's Day, that would all be worth it to me. Peace and Quiet, now that would be SPECIAL.

Well, my sweetie just drove up so I guess I'll go say Hi to him and see how his really long day was and brief him on the happenings around here. Gosh I missed him today. Ciao!

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.

Did ya miss me??

Sorry for the absence, I guess life happens when we least expect it.

Hope everyone's Easter was great and family-oriented. We had a nice day and the boys loved playing at their uncle's house all day. It felt good to get away and forget about the daily grind, even though the boys had to go back to school on Monday. What's up with that? We have always had the Monday after Easter off, except for this year. I really missed that. It's been so long that I think I actually forgot about blogging. Too many things going on that interrupt my daily life and keeping us very busy. Two boys in baseball is just about killing me. Different practices on different days in different locations now and then CCD two nights a week along with trying to fight this horrible situation going on in our small community. It is taking up all my time. I haven't done any billing in almost two weeks and it was spring break before that so I need to get off my ass and get some work done. Hopefully we are making progress with our campaign but who knows --- it is way too detailed and boring to go into right now. Needless to say we have personally met and became friends with all of our neighbors and over 85 people came to our meeting last week. In the midst of all this and the legal decisions we've all had to make, we made a unanimous decision to form a neighborhood/community association and try and revive some of the things the community voted on and did in the 50's, 60's and 70's. I think this could be a good thing if we decide to stay here, but Brent went and looked at four acres in Labelle and then me and Brent went and looked at two houses on Thursday when he was off work. He won't compromise on the land with acreage, so hell, for all I know we may be renting a beach cabin if we cannot stop this and have to move sooner than we planned. We already decided to not talk about building anymore until we know what's going to happen in our area. He is working so much overtime and with practices and games I'm going to be really busy and then he's scheduled to go to Atlanta, South Carolina and Colorado for training so that's going to be real fun -- being a married single mom again.

On a better note, Ian's first game was yesterday and he did really well. I was kind of nervous for him but that kid seems to take it all in stride. His coach was really impressed with him and so far he seems to really like it. Liam's first game is tomorrow night and I really want to go with him and Brent but we have a neighborhood meeting so one of us has to go to that to give our updates -- too much activity. Ian has practice too so I guess I really need to start relying on the crockpot and quick fix meals and doing some meal planning and casseroles (as much as Brent doesn't like them) because he'll be working and we usually bring him supper too. Geez Louise!! Anywho, haven't caught up on any of my blogs lately. Seem to be really disappointed in humanity lately and very critical of religions that condemn people, communities, or other religions. As a Catholic we have a set pattern to our mass and it leaves really no room for deviation except during the homily where the priest can try to make you understand the reading from the Gospel and how to incorporate God's words and wisdom into your everyday life. In all my years of being a Catholic, I have never heard a priest speak to the parishioners condemning other religions, people in the community, the community itself or for that matter, anyone outside of our religion. However, we witnessed first-hand a preacher (I guess he's supposed to be a man of God however he was far from it) condemn our community and told his congregation that because of our controversy and not wanting to help with his "vision" we would be sentenced to "Hell." Ummm, what you old, old freak???? I have never witnessed a man use the Bible for his own gain, to twist the words to accomodate his "vision", to use the Bible as an evil tool. It was ghastly, just disgusting. Because we (the whole community) do not agree with his "vision" in our small area, we will suffer and be sentenced to the pits of hell according to your Bible. I wanted sooo badly to go off but Brent said he's heard it millions of time. I just get so upset because as a strong, confident, intelligent woman, I would never let a man/preacher/priest tell my children which race, religion, community to condemn. I thought we were all equal in Christ's eyes. I thought that's how everyone feels. Whatever. I told my neighbors this church has some kind of hypnotic hold on its congregation. You know, now we just refer to him as "Jim Jones" and that the congregation "drank the punch." They were dying laughing when I made that inference but its really weird. Anyway, don't drink the jungle juice if you are offered any... we didn't and we were actually offered punch. My sister, Tricia, said "don't forget because you get all thirsty and parched and take the punch and drink it and then next thing you know you're missing." I laughed because I do forget easily and if I would have been thirsty at the time, hell who knows where I'd be right now! So, have a great week and enjoy this spring air. It's been beautiful here. Try and take time to enjoy the small stuff. I know I've been trying to do that lately even though all faith in humanity has just about diminished. It's really sad to see evil at work. Ciao!