Monday, May 31, 2010

This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions. I have been high, low, and everything in between! I'm going to go back and attempt to explain this in chronological order, so, it's going to start about the time Sam and I started dating. (I'm not going to give you a day by day... calm down!)

Sam and I actually started dating for a couple of reasons, but, one of those was because I had called him one night because my male roommate was acting like a crazy person, and I asked if he would stay with me that night to make sure everything was okay. Well, once I got the male roommate (AKA Crazy-bastard) moved out, and a female roommate, who was the daughter of a co-worker, moved in, things were good to go! It was like a girls house actually. There were knick-knacks here and there, you know... the whole works! Well, my roommate, Moo as I called her, had a lot of friends that I didn't have. One of those friends, I met just once. Her name was Anneka. Now, some bad things happened at the place that Moo and I were living at, and we decided to move out. Moo and I were supposed to move into a bigger place, but it wasn't meant to be, and Moo and I parted ways amicably. I ended up staying with another co-worker named Steph for a while, and one of our friends (and co-worker) came over a lot. Now, a few times, she brought her sister.... Anneka, who also worked at the same place that I did, but left the company right before I got hired.

Now you know the back story. Let me fast forward to Sunday 23May. So, my former manager, and friend, Meridith, sends me a text and tells me Anneka hasn't been home since Saturday, and nobody has heard from her, and that they were going to report her missing. So, this week we made and passed out fliers to many local businesses. Meridith and I had high hopes, but as the days passed on, we knew that something was terribly wrong. On Thursday 27May, they found Annekas' body beside a drainage ditch in a rural field in a different county. She was killed by a 24 year old Marine and her body dumped there and covered with brush.

My heart stopped at that moment. I may not have known Anneka very well, but, I knew her sister pretty well. We shared some friends. We shared motherhood. I couldn't fathom how someone could do this to another person. How someones life is worth so little that it can be taken in an instant. I don't understand how people can just not care! She had a little boy! How could you take a mother away from a child? What sort of monster does that?!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Wordless Wednesday!

We adopted Doc in September of last year. Doc is a Retired Greyhound, who would have had a very successful career if he wouldn't have had an injury (or so his former owner told us! LOL). We adopted him from Greyhound Crossroads, which we still are affiliated with. Great group of people! Recently Doc celebrated his 3rd birthday, and we had a nice little party for him. Here is one of the only pictures I got.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Schools almost out!

Well, the kids have 14 days of school left this year, and then will be out of school until late August. Ten weeks of bliss for the kids, or so they think! This summer is going to be a little different. As most of my readers know, Monkey is dyslexic, and cannot read very well. He has brought his reading level up during this school year, but, he is still a couple grade levels behind. This summer we are going "back to basics."

I had a friend of mine that home schools her children help me with some sites that I can print off worksheets to have a summer school of my own. I have signed both of the kids up for the summer reading program. We've got flashcards galore for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! We've got "summer workbooks" from previous years. I have educational "field trips" planned. This summer is going to be all about catching up! I know that we can do it!!

This weekend, we were a bit low on funds, and so we took time to go to Lowes to take part in their Build & Grow program. The kids absolutely love going to these! Monkey has been doing it for some time, but Bug just recently decided that she wants to be a construction worker. This week they made small catapults! It was quite the site to see Bug in her pink dress with goggles and a hammer! We spent in total about 2 hours at Lowes. We were daydreaming of what we would buy when we win the lottery. Bug has big plans for her bedroom and bathroom. She wants an antique looking bathtub with the little hand held shower sprayer. She also wants a corner shower with a frosted sliding glass door, oh, and marble counter tops! She wants her bedroom to be pink (who would have thunk it?!). Monkey says that he wants an all in one shower, but he wants it to be more modern. He wants to have a bedroom that looks like a jungle with a bed that's "in a tree." Sam and I and a large whirlpool bath and a walk in shower in our bathroom, and of course, marble counter tops. We also looked at some back yard furniture. We settled on a really nice outdoor wicker set that was actually quite comfortable! They had really neat outdoor fire places as well, tho we would want something more of a fire pit to be able to roast marshmallows and hot dogs on occasion. Outside, we spied enough trees to make our own fruit orchard! Everything from apples and pears to bananas! Along with wonderful water features, they had some gorgeous roses! If I had it my way, our whole yard would be full of roses! Finally we had enough day dreaming, and headed home.

While we were at Lowes, we also passed out some flyers for my best friends' fund raiser for her mission trip to Spain. We, unfortunately, we not able to attend because of the low cash flow. We will be donating some things to her yard sale tho! I'm sure that we have alot of things laying around that we can donate to a good cause. Of course, if we win the lottery by then, we will just donate whatever she needs, possibly what everyone needs, to be able to go.

Of course, another friend and I have decided that the aquatic snail business is where we want to be, so, we would just have to build additions to our homes to set up tanks for breeding snails and selling them! They are quite cute, and have lovely personalities! I told Sam that I would want to buy everyones house, and sell it back to them for $1. We would also donate our current home to a family that is in need. Also buy more books for the kids school, so each child can have a book, and be able to bring it home. That was one of the things that we noticed was strange about school this year. The only book Monkey every brought home was his math book! Apparently the schools just don't have the funding to be able to buy every child a book, so they share. For kids like Monkey, that just doesn't work.

See! We really deserve to win the lottery! We want to help other people, not just ourselves! I guess we will just have to continue day dreaming for now. I've got to pull myself back to reality, the buzzer on the dryer went off, and the maid hasn't materialized yet, so, I guess I should go fold clothes!

Monday, May 17, 2010

It's Magic!

Okay, so nothing overly exciting has happpened for a while. Sorry, I'm boring! ;-)

This past weekend, I got a call from my good friend Bill from Frost Magic Productions and told me that he was doing a show in a nearby town and invited all of us as his guest. I have known Bill for about 3 years now
(Wow! Has it really been that long?!) and would consider him a good friend. He's a great guy, with a lot of talents. He is a magician (Frost Magic Productions) and also has a martial arts school (United Martial Arts). He's very good at what he does. Like I said, I've known Bill for about 3 years now, and only recently have I been able to call him anything but "Master Frost." If you are looking for a great martial arts school, learn some self defense, or a magician for a party, he's your man!!

Anyways, enough of my shameless plugs for Bill! *Sorry Bill!! ;-)* Sam and I decided that it would be good for the kids to have a little fun, and the drive was only about 45 minutes, so it wasn't too horrible. Of course, I was told the time was 2:30 and 6 P.M., and it was actually 2 and 6:30 P.M.! So, we showed up just after 2:30, and were told that we could go in, but he was about half done with his show. So, we decided that we would go get something to eat, and hang out for a couple of hours. Not a big deal! We ended up driving to Surf City, which is on Topsail Island, about 15 miles up the road. It was nice to get out to the beach and smell the ocean *Did I just say that?! The ocean smells like dead fish! Ew!* and feel the nice breeze. We had lunch at a little place off the main road called Long Island Pizza. Great place! The food was great, reasonably priced, and the staff was extremely friendly! They brought out coloring books and crayons for Monkey and Bug, who happily colored a few pictures while waiting for our pie to show up. We all had a slice or two (or half in Bugs case) of pizza and dessert. Sam and I (I shared with Bug) got the Tiramisu, and Monkey had a Cannoli. Boy was Monkey in Heaven! Little crunchy dough wrapped around creamy sugar frosting and mini chocolate chips drizzled with chocolate?! What more could an 11 year old sugar addicted ADHD kid want or need?! After that, we drove up the coast looking at all the houses and talked about how we would buy one if we ever won the lottery. Monkey and Bug thought that was a FANTASTIC idea, I thought about all the wonderful nights sleep I would get listening to the ocean, and Sam thought about how high the Home Owners Insurance would be! *giggle* We can dream can't we?!

We finally drove back to the high school that the magic show was at and Sam finally got to meet Bill, after months of "Bill this," and "Bill that." He was amazes at how much the kiddos look like me, and how tall they are. I don't find them that tall, but as a 5'8" tall female, I'm not exactly short either. (Not to say that Bill is short... he's just... not as tall as others!!) We chatted for a little bit and then we took our seats. The schools Jazz band was playing. They were pretty good for a high school band! I did think that the one saxophonist was getting a little too much love in the solo department tho.

When the magic show started, the kids were AMAZED! He magically exchanged places with his assistant who was handcuffed in a box, cut a woman in half, and many other things, along with some comedy, which had us all laughing. Bug still asks me how "Mr. Bill" cut the woman in half! Monkey wants to know how he got the balloon dog back together and into the bag. Though they were a bit disappointed that they weren't called on stage, I told them that there were a lot of other boys and girls there that may not get another chance to see Bill perform and we would, so, there would be other times that they could get called on stage. They seemed satisfied by that. Bill invited Monkey and Bug to come out to the martial arts school and take a couple classes. Monkey thinks that's a FANTASTIC idea, and Sam thinks it would be good for Bug for when she gets older. (I think mostly so she can take care of herself a little better and he can stay out of jail for trying to kill some boy who thinks it's okay to put his hands on her... LOL) Overall, we all had a fantastic time watching Bills show, hanging out at the beach, and doing a little day dreaming.

Yesterday, we were pretty much bums. Monkey and Sam played Lego Star Wars for a big part of the day because of a pretty good Thunderstorm that came rolling through in the afternoon. Bug helped me make garlic and herb chicken with smashed potatoes and corn. We watched a show called "Wreckreation Nation" which was pretty good. They were racing lawnmowers, which the boys thought was super awesome, and wrestling alligators, which we all thought was super cool, until one of the participants got bit in the face, then I was the only one who thought it was cool. Bug and I did the laundry together. Most the time she got in the way, but, she wanted to help, so, she helped me sort the clothes into piles, put the detergent in, dropped the fabric softner ball in, and put the clothes in the washer. She did her best, and that's all I could ask for. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Bugs tooth!!

So, Bug had a couple of her adult teeth come in behind her teeth on the bottom because she absolutely refuses to wiggle, or try to pull her teeth at all. When we were at the Dentist a few weeks ago, they told her that she needed to pull them out and that if she hadn't pulled them by the next time she came in that they were going to have to pull them out for her. This sort of scared her a bit. It just so happened that she had Poison Ivy at that time and they weren't able to do her cleaning. So, we went back on Wednesday for her cleaning and she was SO worried that they were going to pull her teeth! I told her that they weren't going to pull them and that they would give her a little more time. She was still a bit worried though. Well yesterday Sam picked the kids up from school because I had a little more running around to do, and when I got home she runs up to me with a little baggy and says "Mom! I pulled my tooth at school today!" We then had dinner while we watched The Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson in it. It was a really cute movie! Then the Tooth Fairy gave her $2 for her tooth and she was very happy that he didn't just leave $1 like in the movie!

Yesterday was an okay day. I went to Sams therapist with him. He gave us some good ideas for communicating better and whatnot. We, of course, started talking while we were in bed, and I told him that I didn't completely trust him yet. I KNOW that he's not going to do anything, but, to have been treated the same way that I was in just about every previous relationship really has me flummoxed. I never thought that my wonderful husband would be capable of anything like that. He has such strong ethics and values, which is one of the things that I love so much about him, and to just blatantly disregard them is just mind boggling! He ended up pretty upset because I can't completely trust him right now. I told him that it would take some time and effort on his part to regain that trust. He completely disagreed. He thinks trust is something that I have to work towards on my own, like forgiveness. I told him that wasn't the case. He was the one that did the damage, and he needed to make efforts to repair it. I guess maybe I should have asked him if I set a wooden bridge on fire, but put it out voluntarily, if I should expect it to repair itself. Sam ended up sleeping on the couch last night because he was upset. We didn't fight, or argue, he was just upset that I told him that I couldn't trust him completely yet.

Today, I'm watching my friend Keonas' lil boy! He's such a little cutie!! Every time he sees me he gets all excited and squishes up his little face. Keona is going to her little girls class tea party. Who was I to come in between a mother-daughter tea party?! Besides, I really like watching lil man. It gives me enough "baby time" to not want another one, which is something I'm sure my mother is thankful for!  I've started to think that I'm just getting to "old" to have more kids. Monkey is 11, and Bug is almost 7. They're both in school all day, can feed themselves, no bottles or dirty diapers to deal with. I don't think I want to start all over again! I'll be 30 in just over a month. I really didn't want kids in the first place, but I'm glad that I do have them and I'm glad that I had them young. I don't know how my Dad stayed sane when he found out Mom was having me. He was getting ready to turn 50 when I was born! Sheesh!

Today is also Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I can still claim this title for that time being. If you are a Military Spouse I want to thank you for "standing by your man (or woman)", and if you know one, make sure they know that you appreciate them today.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

My Momma

So, we had a good visit with Momma and Kevin. Their flight landed right on time at our tiny airport, though it took off late from Atlanta. Bug and I were driving to the airport and seen their plane coming in for a landing, so we drove a little faster and got there right before they stepped off the plane. Bug was really excited to see "Garmmy and Pampa Punkin-head!" I had asked Monkey if he would pick up the living room and sweep, since sweeping is one of his most favorite things to do on the planet. Well, he did a really good job of picking up the living room, but when we came back from the airport he was picking Lilly fur off the floor. I asked him why he didn't vacuum and Sam said that when we walked out of the bedroom, he had picked up the living room, but had gone right back to playing his Star Wars game! LOL Poor guy. That night we had Beef Burgundy and homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream. It was the first time I'd actually made apple pie, and it turned out FANTASTIC! Sam also made Frybread and we had Frybread tacos one night as well!

Bug got over her rash from the allergic reaction, but we didn't get to go to the beach because she was still a little bit splotchy. We got to go to base and look for a patch for my step-dads brother. They had initially wanted to get him a hat that said Navy Veteran. You would think in a town that is full of Navy and Marines you would be able to find that. NOPE! We settled for a patch that said it instead. Then came the daunting task of finding a plain blue hat to put it on. Do you know how hard it is to find just a plain navy blue ball cap?! We had to go to the mall and find a (not so inexpensive) one at a little vendor called Lids. Of course Kevin couldn't help but get Bug a cute little plaid fedora hat. She looks really cute in it too!! She said she looks like Michael Jackson.

We also discovered how great the NetFlix streaming to the Wii is as well!! My parents, being the intelligent people that they are, introduced us to a series call Torchwood. It's kinda sorta like a spin off of Doctor Who, which is the other show they got us watching! We watched some really good shows, the kids don't particularly like either show, they think they're both scary. I mean, if you think about it from a kids point of view, I guess aliens that come to Earth in the for of mannequins is sort of scary! I think if I seen a real mannequin pop down it's fingers and expose a gun I would be pretty freaked out!! Monkey got a new East Carolina University hat. He LOVES it! He tried to wear it to school yesterday, but I wouldn't let him. He was quite saddened by this.

It turns out that his therapist went to school at ECU and is very excited that he's thinking about going there. Mt best friend J, she will also be going there starting the Spring Semester. (At least that's what I think she said!) Monkey wants to be an Architect. We've talked to him, at length, about how math and reading are important in Architecture, and he has agreed to buckle down this summer and work hard to get up to speed. He's doing pretty well though, in spite of everything that has been thrown his way. He works pretty hard to try and keep up.

Bug had a Dentist appointment today as well. All was well with that. She has 2 teeth that have grown in on the bottom behind her other teeth. The Dentist told her that she needed to pull them out, and also said that if she ate an apple that one of them would probably come right out. She eats all the time, trouble is, she never tries to actually take a bite out of an apple the way most people would. She will try to take it off with the SIDE of her teeth!! Strange kid, but, look who her Momma is!! LOL