I'M ALIVE!! (sorta...)

So, I've been UA (for you non-military folk that's Unauthorized Absence) for a while. I apologize. I really do. But... life has been getting in the way of my blogging time! Quite a few things have happened since my last blog post!

1) I did, in fact, start C25K! Tho, I did skip this morning and now I feel like a total poop for not going. I did 3 weeks of the program and didn't skip any days, and then I miss this morning! *pout* To be honest, I THOUGHT I was going to be sick this morning. Not like, throwing up sick, but stuffy nose, sore throat sick. It turns out that it was only because of sleeping all night that my nose was stuffy and my throat hurt. As I lay there saying to myself "I'm sick... I hate being sick!" trying to battle dogs and hubby for bed space and blankets, I realized that I really wasn't sick and I was starting to feel much better, but, by that time it was getting to late to go running. :-( If it's not raining in the morning I will go, if it is, it looks like Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I will have back to back running days! ACK!

2) Monkey got a cell phone and we cut the house phone. Who really needs a house phone anyways? Other than Bug... who now doesn't have a phone number for her friends to call her at.. other than my cell phone. Oh well, I guess I don't mind too much. Does it make me question whether she should have her own phone? Sure! Does the thought of my 7 (almost 8) year old having a cell phone make my eye twitch and question my sanity? Absolutely!

3) We got a free paint sample from Valspar, and I chose a color close to the one that we will be using to paint Bugs room. It's really pretty up on the wall, but we've got a LOT to do before we can paint her room. I do have plans to put up a cork board so she can hang all of her papers and whatnot and not have tiny holes all over her walls. There are a few other things that I would like to do for her room as well, like put up a chandelier and other things, but, that's not in the budget right now.

4) My sister and her girlfriend are coming down to visit us in about 2 weeks! I'm SO excited!! I haven't seen them since Christmas 08, which was right before Sam and I got married, and the kids haven't seen them since summer of 09! Wow... crazy to think that I've gone that long without seeing parts of my family. I seen my mom and my other sister just this past summer, but I haven't seen my brother since December of 08 either. I guess at some point in time we're going to have to go to Ohio for a visit.

5) I have no idea which days are which on my P365. I'm a terrible photo taker, and I feel like a failure. :-( I'm going to restart it today

6) I'm a thief, but it's okay, I was told to steal by the original owner. (Yes... that sounds strange... LOL) We live at the end of a cul de sac. There are 19 houses on our street. We have the neighbors with the giant house, and then Mr Toms old place. Mr Tom lived across the cul de sac from us, and right beside our neighbor, which would make him our neighbor as well. Well, Mr Tom is an older gentleman, and he sold his house (which was GORGEOUS and I wish we would have bought it instead of ours) and moved into a nursing home. Mr Toms wife passed away right before we moved in (I think). Mr Toms wife always planted beautiful flowers all over the place. The new owners aren't taking very good care of the place, and currently aren't living there because there is no electric or water. Well, Mr Tom told our neighbor to go ahead and take any of the plants that she wants because they're going to waste because nobody is taking care of them. So, my neighbor and I went over there and pulled up quite a few flowers and a couple of Forsythia (I think... LOL) and planted them in MY yard! So... that makes me a thief. :-/

7) I still haven't finished trimming the Crepe Myrtle. I dunno how the heck I'm gonna reach the branches way at the top without tromping all the flowers underneath! I guess I will have to see if someone has a ladder I can borrow. Oh the joys of not having a shed! We're going to have to remedy that very soon! I'm tired of my lawn mower being outside under a tarp, and my gardening tools being in my laundry room! *grumble*

8) I am a parent of a Pee-Wee Football cheerleader. Bug BEGGED us to let her be on the squad this year. So, after a talk with Grammy and Panpaw Punkin-head, she had a check in the mail for the cheerleading fee. (Yes, we're poor... but we're working on that!) We signed her up on Saturday, and she even seen one of the girls in one of the other 2nd grade classes from her school signing up as well! She's very excited to get started. Maybe when we get all our debt paid off we can afford to send her to some tumbling and cheerleading classes! I'm sure she would love that.

9) We've started a "Family SOP" system here in our house. We just implemented it on Saturday, but, so far it's working well. My living room and dining room are spotlessly clean, and the kids rooms are pretty clean as well, and the kids/guest bathroom is rather clean to boot! That just never seems to happen, but it is! The only thing left to perfect is that kitchen. It will get there. I gave Sam the task of putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and I get to hand wash all the pots and pans.

10) I don't know what else to write about right now... but I will think of something, hopefully tomorrow, and be back! :-D

Yes... I suck... I'm sorry!!

So.. I know I missed P365... and I've been terrible about taking pictures this past week as well. It's so close to P365 for THIS week that I'm just going to wait and post them all together. I'm sorry guys!

There has been quite a bit going on, but it seems like nothing at the same time!! I always feel like I'm busy, but it never seems like much of anything gets done! *sigh!*

Well, I'll just drop a little update down for everyone. After the news of Sam going to Wounded Warrior barracks was handed out, he gave me a little more info. He's not sure that they're even going to approve it, and even if they do, it's only for 90 days at first. If it takes longer than 90 days to get him out of the Marine Corps they can either ship him back to his unit, or keep him at the WW until he is out. Either way, he will be able to focus more on getting out of the Marine Corps and finding employment and whatnot.

A new development for me is, on Monday 14March2011, I'm going to start the Couch 2 5K program. It's basically a running "program" that helps get you in shape to run a 5K (or approximately 3 miles). You can find out more about it here. I downloaded a program on my phone that helps time you. It gives audible beeps for when you're supposed to switch from walking to running. It's quite the nifty little gadget! It essentially gets you from couch potato to 5K runner in a matter of 9 weeks by only working 3 days a week! Of course, I would really like to run MORE than 3 days a week, ideally I would like to run every day!!

The reason why I decided that I wanted to start the C25K program (Couch 2 5K for those that weren't paying attention) is because there is a 1 mile, 5k, 10k, and half marathon here in Jacksonville for the Wounded Warriors. It's called Hope For The Warriors and I would REALLY like to run it! It's only $20 for a single person, but, there is an option for the entire family, which is $65. There is a discount for Sam since he is a Wounded Warrior, tho I'm not sure what that would be. Monkey is on board for doing it. I figure Monkey and I could probably run the 5k, and Bug and Sam could walk the mile.

On another note. The weather here is icky!!

{via wunderground}

That red circle is where we are. Tho it's not as bad as it could have been! Holy moly! It starts pouring, then it stops, pours, stops... etc etc!! It really doesn't impact me all that much, other than I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV all day... more so than usual that is... *shifty eyes*

Speaking of watchign TV! I did find more than one channel on our bunny ears finally!! Tho we don't watch much TV, we have been stuck with only ABC for live TV for quite some time because we turned the cable off to save a little bit of money. It didn't really bother me that much, other than not being able to watch a couple things that I wanted because we didn't have that channel any more (Hello!! Classic Nickelodeon cartoons!! {Random fact: A nickelodeon is also known as a jukebox or as an early movie theatre [yes, I know it's spelled theater in America]}) I was TRYING to watch The Bachelor : The Women Tell All and it wouldn't come in very good so I started messing with the bunny ears. Wednesday I decided that I was going to go thru the channels again and see if we got any of the other ones since I moved the ears. Wouldn't you know it... we now get all the major ones... including FOX! Wooo!! (Hello!! House! {Random Fact: I don't have one for FOX})

Our Life In Pictures - Project365 Week 4

So, things are going to look a little strange this week. I'm having to use old fashioned HTML to do this! For some reason Picasa wouldn't load for me, and I can't get "compose" to pull up the picture loader either!! *sigh* Just been that kinda week for me!!

Sunday 23 January - Sam didn't cook this week. :-( It's okay tho. I made lemon pepper chicken, and green beans with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread! It was a GIANT hit! :-) I make lemon pepper chicken quite often tho. Maybe I should have made maple chicken instead. Oh well. It was good! :-D

Monday and Tuesday 24 & 25 January - I'm not going to lie. I didn't even attempt to take pictures these 2 days. I spent them curled in a ball in my bedroom trying not to move think or breath because I had a HORRIBLE migraine! At one point I called my friend Keona and told her to come kill me because I couldn't handle the pain any more. :-/ It was a rough couple of days. I would basically get up in the morning to get Monkey ready for school and go back to my bedroom. Bug stayed home both days because she didn't feel well at all. She basically stayed in my room with me and watched Netflix on the laptop and would wake me up when she wanted or needed something.

Wednesday 26 January - I feel better this day. I decide that I'm going to make it worth while and get up and make dinner for everyone. I just realized that I made lemon pepper something twice this week! Crazy!!

Thursday 27 January - I felt a little crafty today, and decided that I was going to make a "container" to hold all of our storage container lids. Basically I took a USPS large flat rate box and cut the top off and taped the bottom closed. Looking back I PROBABLY should have mod podged it closed, but, I wasn't thinking about the paint not sticking to the tape! As you can see, it holds all of the lids quite nicely. I'm thinking about making a liner for it in blue and green fabric. We've already planned how we want to decorate the house, and it's basically all blues and greens other than the bedrooms. I think I want to do the dining and kitchen in a light seafoamy blue. I'm not sure yet tho.

Friday 28 January - This is Monkeys castle that he made for his math project. He had to make the castle, take measurements, and make a journal and spreadsheet. This turned out to be one of the crappiest days of the week. I had to drive Monkey to school because he couldn't take his castle on the bus. So, I had to wake Bug up and take her with me. We didn't get back until it was almost time for her to get on the bus. So, she had to get dressed and eat breakfast and then I had to drive HER to school. Then I started dinner, started laundry. and then did some work on the computer. I was tooling around on facebook, and I find out that one of the guys that I used to play cards with while Sam played poker lost his battle with cancer. His funeral is on Monday. :-( RIP Marc. We lost a great man, but Heaven gained a beautiful angel.

Saturday 29 January - Bug and I got up early this morning and went to World Thinking Day for Girl Scouts. Of COURSE I forgot my camera so I only had my cell phone to take pictures with. I got a couple of good pictures, but I don't know that they are good enough to share on here. I'll try to upload them and post one later if they turn out any good. Of course, they look good on my cell phone, but, who knows what they will look like on the screen! I made gumbo today. Shrimp, chicken, and sausage gumbo, with some French bread! It was really good!! Bug has one of her friends staying the night with her as well. Tomorrow we will all go to church together. :-)

Day 2....

So... I'm taking some new medication... and yesterday started a migraine. Coincidence or just a weather change in the near future? It IS supposed to rain ALL DAY LONG today... so here's to hoping that's what it is and not these new medications. :-/

Yesterday my head hurt so badly that all I had to eat all day was a couple of slices of bread. As soon as I heard Sam pull into the driveway I took 2 Vicodin and went to lay in my dark room. I woke up one time from a crazy dream where my dog had gotten out of the fence and gotten hit on the road. Out of bed I came, still groggy and wobbly from the drugs and flung open the door to find her laying right in front of my door. I pulled her in my room and shut the door again. Sam also made the dinner that I laid out. Bowtie Lasagna. I took a couple bites and I couldn't eat any more. It tasted delicious but I had absolutely no appetite at all. I took another Vicodin and went back to bed.

Bug also didn't feel well yesterday. She was all snotty and stuffy so I let her stay home to rest. She complained about not feeling well and not being able to move almost all day. Monkey had a friend come over, and she felt well enough to play with them! She climbed in bed with me and felt a little warm so I took her temp. 98.9 just slightly elevated, but, nothing really to worry about. I hope she feels better today tho. I woke up in the middle of the night and Monkey was sleeping on my side of the bed. He's such a tender hearted boy. Always making sure that I'm okay. I had a warm gel pad (the kind that can be used for heat or cold) and when Monk came home he heated it up again, wrapped it back up, and brought it back to me so it would stay warm longer. Such a good kid.

In other news! Charwood Candle Co is almost ready to launch!! Got just a few small details to work out, and the funding to finalize, and we will be rockin' and rollin'!! I can't wait!

Anyways, I already got one kid off to school, I need to wake the other up and see how she feels.

Our Life in Pictures - Project 365 Week 2

This past week has been a real roller coaster!!! I'll just let the pictures explain it!

Sunday 09 January - The tradition continues!! Sam made his "Poppa Sams' Famous Soup" for dinner on Sunday! It's basically veggie beef soup, but the kids love it, and he likes to make it, so I don't say any different. Today I had a sore throat, but went to church anyways. I felt better after church.

Monday 10 January - SNOW!!!! I guess Mother Nature decided that North Carolina needed more than one snow this winter. Our first snow was the day AFTER Christmas! (Way to be Mother Nature! Sheesh!) The kids had a blast playing in the snow, and having THREE days off of school! Sam got time off work as well. Fun was had by all. Except for me. My body decided that it wanted to ache everywhere that day.

Tuesday 11 January - Yet another day off of work and school. For Monkeys' birthday he got a big whopping 86 bones, so, he went and bought a bunch of legos, and Buggy wanted to buy a board game for the family with her savings. It turned out that the coupons we had weren't valid any longer (even tho they expired that day) and Monkey gave the rest of his money to his sister so she could buy UBuild Mouse Trap. It's a pretty fun game! Not much like the original tho. This day my ears started feeling clogged up.

Wednesday 12 January - What a better day to celebrate than our xBox/DVD player to go out! :-| I'm NOT a happy camper about this! Now, we can only play the Wii and watch Netflix. I'm hoping that taxes will come in soon and we will be able to get a new xBox. Either that or we can call Microsoft and they will send us a new one. We've had it for a while, but, it's not like we ever go online with it or anything. We use it for playing games and watching movies... that's it! Today, my sinuses felt like they were ready to explode. I just wanted to lay on the couch and do nothing. Sam slept almost all day. He finally got up when dinner was done and as soon as I was done with dinner I went to bed.

Thursday 13 January - The laundry my husband did while I was sleeping Wednesday night. He sort of instructed me that I needed to have it all folded and put away. I sort of told him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine, and even that I had to squeak out. Thursday I woke up with a squeaky door mouse voice. Sam got Monkey up and mostly ready for school while I was still sleeping. Sam got ready for work and left. I got Bug up for school and she came and laid down with me before she had to leave for school. Today I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck and I stayed in bed all day. I called and got a doctors appointment for 5pm. I was going to drive myself, but, when it came time to walk out the door, I felt very weak and light headed and asked Sam if he would take me. They were out of flu tests because of the storm we had earlier in the week. One of my two favorite doctors was there and he guessed that I more than likely had the flu, as well as both a sinus infection and ear infection!! I was given 4 prescriptions and shot of antibiotics in the booty and instructed to stay in bed until at least Monday. Turns out I'm not a very good listener.

Friday 14 January - Today was pretty boring. Sam got off early because of MLK Day on Monday. He spent the majority of the time that he could have been at home enjoying being off early running around getting medication for me. I felt pretty good, so I decided that I was going to make dinner and participate in our Family Meeting. This turned out to be a very bad idea. I did make dinner, and it was pretty darn good! I sat down while I was waiting for dinner to cook and tried to participate in the meeting. My mind was severely clouded by snot and I couldn't concentrate AT ALL! By the time I had dinner out of the oven, my body said "Hey! You're supposed to be in bed lady!" and started to wear out. I overdid it. I ate my dinner, took a dose of my cough medicine and was back in bed and asleep by 7:30!

Saturday 15 January - I must have been sleeping really well, because I woke up with Bug and Sam in bed with me, and Monkey laying on my side of the bed in his sleeping bag! Sam had also folded the laundry and put it away while I was sleeping! I didn't hear a sound! I tried to get out of bed and make breakfast, but, I only got as far as making my own breakfast and I had some angry tiny humans ushering me back to my bedroom. Every time I tried to come out of the bedroom someone would give me the stink eye and tell me to get back in bed. Sam and the kids cleaned the majority of the house today! We had told Bug that she could go spend the night with her friend, but, she wasn't there at the time she told her to come over, so, while Sam and Monkey went to watch Tron: The Legacy in 3D. Bug was pretty upset that she didn't get to go, but we didn't buy her a ticket because she was supposed to be spending the night with her friend!!

So, that brings me to the end of this week! I notice in my Saturday picture that Monkey is starting to really look like a young adult. *tear* Before too long, I'm not even going to get hugs in public any more!! *gasp* I'm sure that someone is going to try and keep me from going to church tomorrow, but, I don't think a wild heard of bandicoots could keep me away! Bed rest or no bed rest, I'm not missing church! (Okay, really, it depends on how I feel in the morning.)

I just want to get out of bed!!

So, you may not know this, but, I've been stuck in bed since Thursday. I started feeling a little under the weather last Saturday, but, didn't really think that it was that big of a deal. It was REALLY cold on Saturday while we were selling cookies so I just thought that I was achy because of that and walking around for what seemed like 11 thousand hours while Bug sold Girl Scout cookies. Monday my throat just hurt, Tuesday my head started hurting, Wednesday I felt pretty icky, and then by Thursday I felt like I had been run over by a Mack Truck! I spent almost all day Thursday in bed, only getting up to go potty, get food, or let the dogs out. I was finally convinced that I should go to the doctor, so, I called the doctors office to make an appointment. By this time I had almost completely lost my voice and I could barely speak above a scratchy whisper. My favorite receptionist answers and I squeek out who I am, and she tells me I sound terrible, and that she was assuming I was calling for an appointment. I told her that I was and she gave me a 5 o'clock appointment time. (There was one at 3, but that would leave Monkey here by himself until who knows when!) Sam got home JUST in time to change over and drive me there because I was feeling very faint and dizzy. We ended up showing up about 20 minutes late to the appointment, which stunk because then we had to wait quite a bit. One of my two favorite doctors was there and he said I didn't have strep, but my throat was completely raw, that he thought I had the flu, but they were out of tests because of the snow storm we had earlier in the week. I also have an ear infection AND a sinus infection. So, he put me on 4 different prescriptions, a shot of antibiotics in the booty, and mandatory bed rest until Monday, and possibly longer! I felt okay yesterday, but I stayed in bed anyways. Sam came home about 1 and had to pick up the rest of my meds for me. He finally got back about 3 and Monkey came home as well. Monkey and I then laid in bed for a while and watched a movie called Dragon Hunters. What we got to watch of it was a pretty good movie! We will have to see the rest of it so I can write up a lil ditty on it! My best friend J and her husband had borrowed my car because he needed to get on base, but couldn't find his registration for his car to get a temp base pass to turn all of his stuff in. No big deal, I was on bed rest, not going anywhere! Last night, I felt pretty good, so, I got up and made meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I felt okay still, but then we started our family meeting and it quickly went down hill from there. I couldn't concentrate because my head was so full of gunk. I ended up eating dinner, taking my meds, and going back to bed around 7:30. I woke up this morning to the entire family in our bedroom. I must been sleeping REALLY well! Today, I'm taking it easy again, tho I really don't want to! I want to be out there helping everyone clean... wait... what?!

Our Life in Pictures- Project 365

So, inspired by Rebecca Jo, I decided that I would start doing a picture a day. I wasn't that successful this past week, completely forgetting 2 of those days to take a photo, but, I'm going to work harder this upcoming week!

Sunday 02January2011
I think I really like the idea of Sam making dinner for us all on Sunday! It gives me a much needed day off from cooking! Not that I have a whole day off tho, because I usually still make breakfast and lunch. But it's the thought that counts, right? :-) He made chicken salad, and man oh man, was it good!!

Monday 03January2011-
Yes, this was one of the days that I forgot to take a picture! It's not exactly my fault tho. My best friend J was having surgery in the "big city" which is about an hour and a half or so away. So, her surgery was at 6, which means that I needed to be up NO LATER than 3:30AM to be at her house by 4:20, which is when she wanted me to pick her up. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't get out of bed until about 3:55, and I was at her house by 4:15. Yeah, I was slacking, but I did brush my teeth and hair! The rest of the day was filled with going to Krispy Kreme (we don't have one here in Jacksonville), dropping off prescriptions, driving home, picking up prescriptions, making sure that J is comfortable at home, coming back to MY home, and taking a nap before the kids got home. It was a day, lemme tell ya! :-)

Tuesday 04January2011
Tuesday, my friend Keona and I went thrifting. It was a good day had by all! We found some really cool stuff, but, only ended up buying a little bit. I bought a book for Sam that we had been wanting for $1, and Keona bought a pyrex pie dish (For $1 might I add!!!) and some TV trays for her living room. While we were at one of the little flea market/thrift stores I found a PeeWee Herman talking doll. Sadly, he didn't talk any more, but I got the biggest laugh from seeing it.

Wednesday 05January2011
This was another day that I forgot to take a picture. Jillian had pink eye! (YIKES!!) She ended up snuggling with "Mr Stuffy" for the majority of the day, and lounged in her pajamas as well. Mr Stuffy is a pink and purple dragon that I made for her a couple of years ago for Christmas. She loves that thing, and I can honestly say that I don't mind at all that she named it "Mister" even tho it's pink and purple.

Thursday 06January2011
This was a very sad day for me. I finished off the last of the home made beef stew that I had made. My goodness was it delish! So tender and tasty! I was very sad that I had eaten it all. :-(

Friday 07January2011
We have taken to reading the Bible as a family in the evenings around here. Both of the kids got new NLT Bibles for Christmas. Monkey has never ASKED to be able to read a book, not that we ever prevent him from reading any time that he wants, but, when he asks to read his Bible after he has already completed his reading assignment for school, I know that I'm on the right track. Even tho he got a mohawk for his birthday, I think that he's an alright kid anyways.

Saturday 08January2011
Saturday Family Funday!! We normally do something on Saturday as a family. Sam was feeling a bit under the weather, so the kids and I went to Lowes for their Build And Grow! Both of the kids LOVE doing Build And Grow, but Bug was a little less than willing to go because she wanted to start selling Girl Scout Cookies immediately at 9AM! unfortunately, I was unable to clone myself to be in both places, so, we made a compromise. Go to Lowes for Build and Grow and we would spend the rest of the day selling cookies. She sold 62 boxes on Saturday.

Eye crusties and Mr Stuffy

So, last night I noticed that Bugs eye looked rather red after she got home from school. I thought maybe she had been rubbing it or got something in it. As the evening went on, it seemed to get worse! So, this morning we get up and go to the doctor as a walk in. Apparently it was a bad day to have a situation such as this. We waited for about 2 hours before we even get we even get back to see the doctor. After that, we have waited for a little while longer.
While we were waiting, I discovered that Bug had pushed the backs of her earrings all the way into her earlobes and they had cut into her ears! Ugh!! Of course, they hurt a lot, and when I asked her why she didn't tell me that her ears hurt, she said that she didn't really feel it. *sigh*
We went to Wal*Mart to get her 3 prescriptions because I needed to pick up a couple of things. I picked up the noodles for our Chicken Noodle Soup later in our menu, along with coconut for Coconut Chicken tonight. It took another 45 minutes to get the medicines. Basically today has just been an absolute day of waiting at every single stop. It's just been murder on my schedule.
We came home and got the chicken out of the freezer so it would be thawed for tonight. I did something very unlike me while we were at Wal*Mart. I got a bag of pizza rolls for Bug and I to share. When we got home I took the earrings out if Bugs ears. It was really bad. I felt terrible for her. It was a very bad thing. Now we have to keep her hair pulled up for a while, and keep it super clean until it heals. This is going to be a long process... I can tell!
Okay, Monk is now home from school, Bug wants to play some games, so, I'm going to cut this short! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

So, for Thanksgiving we made a GIANT decision. It was, again, going to be just us 4 for Thanksgiving, so while doing our grocery shopping, I ask Sam if we should invite our friends Bob, Keona, and kiddos over for Thanksgiving if they're not having one of their own. So, I make a quick call and they were just going to go to the USO for dinner, so, I tell them they're coming over to our house. Next comings selecting the bird. I'd never cooked Thanksgiving dinner for anyone! Last year I wouldn't really call it a "feast" but more of a larger than average meal with a turkey breast, not a turkey. So, since I had never selected a turkey to cook, I asked the other women that were gathered at the floor freezer that had all the frozen turkeys. One of the women asks how many people I'm cooking for, I tell her 4 adults and 4 children. She then says to me "OH! I would go with AT LEAST 20 pounds!" So, I, being the naive Thanksgiving dinner maker, select a 22.8 pound turkey for 8 people. We then get 2 boxes of stuffing, green beans, and potatoes to round out the dinner. I tell Keona she's in charge of dessert.

This past Saturday, I check the turkey to see how long it needs to be in the fridge to thaw. It was a good thing that I did! It needed to go in THAT DAY! Shew!! Glad I checked!! I then made sure I had all of my supplies and put them all in my roasting pan on top of the fridge, save the produce that I was going to put in the stuffing.

Wednesday I spent the day cleaning my kitchen, making it a mess, and cleaning it again. (Multiple times might I add!) I made the deviled eggs, and Bug and I made the Parker House Rolls from scratch. She used some of the left over dough and made "Bug Truffles"  I only used half of the dough for rolls, I had an entire sheet of rolls and still lots of dough! So what do I do? Make Cinnamon rolls for breakfast!! Hooray!!

Thanksgiving morning I wake up and get everything ready to put in the oven. Man oh man was it a process!! I brought the turkey out to soak for just a few minutes and rest from being in the fridge. Of course, but this time I'm freaking out because.... well... I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm just sort of winging it!! I mix the onions, mushrooms, carrots, and garlic into the stuffing and toss it into the bird. I would have added celery as well, but Sam ate it all... LOL I stuff the bird and I say "What am I supposed to put on the OUTSIDE of the bird?" A few frantic, unanswered, phone call to my Momma, I decided that I would just put some Olive oil on the skin and then cover it in Garlic and Herb mix and throw it in the oven at 325. After some more frantic cleaning and Monkey brushing the dog and both the kids making a few last minute touches to the bathroom and us running the sweeper (Len is allergic to dogs, so we try to make sure there is as little dog hair as possible for her).

Unfortunately, I COMPLETELY forgot to take a picture of the food, or any of us enjoying the food, but, everyone chowed down. The turkey came out beautifully! When Sam went to carve it, he couldn't, simply because every time I put the knife to the bird it started to flake off! Here are a few pictures

Sam and Bob enjoying a pre-dinner movie

Bug and Len cheesing for the camera!

Monkey and D rolling on the ground

Bug and D waiting for food

A little after dinner game of Monopoly Deal

The baby is tired!!

She wasn't exactly happy to have her picture taken

Keona twisted my arm really hard to go with her for some Black Friday shopping. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to purchase much of anything, if at all because we don't have much money in the bank, and we're trying to pay off our credit cards. It was okay tho. I wasn't exactly doing anything and Sam does tell me that I need to get out more often! So, I took a 2 hour power nap and Keona came and picked me up at 10:30 and off we went to WalMart to catch a few sales. It was CRAZY!

 But not near as crazy as waiting 4 hours outside of Target!! When we got there at about 12:30 there were about 50 people outside waiting in front of us. That number kept getting bigger, and bigger! Around 1:30, a fight broke out towards the front of the line and the cops were called. A short woman was apparently using some foul language and a very large man asked her to contain herself and I guess she wasn't willing to accept his request. It was a bit crazy. I think my favorite quote of the night came from the Target security worker. Right before 4, a BUNCH of people started to congregate directly across from the doors, and of course, the people that had been there since the beginning of time (at least it felt like it at times... LOL) were getting a bit testy! While we were walking in he's screaming to the people that are inching ever closer to the ONE entrance they have open and roped off "If you line cut, you will be banned from Target!" This made me laugh. It's not that serious!! It's only shopping! I only went because I didn't have anything else to do and my friend asked me to go with her. I wasn't buying anything. 

Apparently it was much worse at Toys R Us, which opened at 10PM. When we drove by at 11, the line to get in the door was wrapped almost completely around the parking lot!! It was CRAZY! I guess they were actually doing it in a pseudo-rational manner. They were letting 50 people in the door at a time. I can COMPLETELY understand their thinking behind this. After seeing a woman at WalMart almost attack another woman because she thought that she was trying to cut in the check out line (she was really just trying to get thru!) and women at Target threaten physical harm to another woman for bumping into her with a cart, I can totally understand! I was rather upset when we found the $3 sandwich makers! A woman loaded her cart with about 10 of them! I understand wanting to get a great deal, but, let others take advantage of the deal as well!! I was tempted to take one from her cart while she was picking up the last one from the floor. 

I made it back home around 5:30, told Sam about all of the funny things that had happened over the night (including cat calling the 2 very handsome police officers that were there), and fell asleep about 6. Sam let me sleep in, took care of the kiddos, made them breakfast, and cleaned the kitchen! SHEW!! What a good day it's been so far!! :-D

Boozhoo!

Yes, so, I missed the 2 year anniversary for my blog! It was yesterday. *sigh*

We have been SO busy here lately!! I know, I know! It's not excuse! I should MAKE time to at least write a little blurb on here every once in a while to let you that I'm alive! Well, I am alive and doing quite well.

Saturday started the big prep for Thanksgiving! I put the bird in the fridge to thaw, did a run down and made sure that I had all the necessities. It also started the "cleaning season" as well!! Monkey and Bug cleaned and organized their rooms.

Bug's room is SO clean and organized now! We took the 208972934823 posters of Miley Cyrus off of her walls. She now has 1 up, which is fine. Her walls look a little bare, so, we're going to have to figure out what to do about that.  We relocated her backpack and winter coat inside of her closet on some Command strips, and even put her Lowe's Build and Grow workshop apron and goggles on, and another one for her hats. We also moved her bed and netting as well. We switched out her lighter bed clothes for her heavier winter ones. We went from girly flower quilt type bed clothes to yellow gingham and a solid yellow comforter. Her shoes and toys got a re-organization as well!!

Monkeys room got a re-working as well! We didn't move anything around other than in his closet. I'm sure that his will get some more TLC while they're off of school for Turkey Day. In his closet we cleaned out a bunch of the old toys that he no longer plays with and changed moved around the things that were sitting on his closet shelves. We also hung his Indian wall covering in his closet as well. He's got SO much stuff on his walls that there's no room for it in his actual bedroom.

We came up with a way for the kids to be able to make a little extra money! We have a local craigslist sort of website called LeJeune Yard Sales. They picked out things that they no longer need, want, or don't fit any longer. For being willing to get rid of these things, they will get half of the monies earned. They both are in love with this idea, and I am as well. It puts a little more money into the Christmas pot, which *I* like a lot, and they're trying to decide what to spend their few dollars on. Monkey has decided that he wants to buy some Christmas presents with his money. What a great kid.

Feeling better

Greggs passing hit me very hard, but I'm trying to take it in stride. I didn't cry at all yesterday, but I did still feel a bit down. One day at a time!

Today, Monkey has a therapy appointment at 8. Normally his school bus picks him up at around 6:40, but today we woke up at 6:30. He FREAKED out and jumped out of bed and said "MOM! WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP!" *giggle* Wouldn't you know it, I had the opportunity to sleep in this morning and I woke up at 5:30 anyways, even tho I set the alarm clock for 6 so I could take an early shower. Oh well.

Bug has "dress up" day today at school. They were either supposed to wear something to show what they want to be when they grow up, or dress up nicely. Bug did both, because she wants to be a Princess/model when she grows up! She even took the little tiara from when we had her hair done for the father daughter dance and stuck it in her hair. She is SO funny!

Yeah yea yeah.... I know! Sheesh!!

So, as some of you have noticed, I haven't posted in a while. I can explain! It's a legit reason I swear!!

Last week it rained every day (no joke) for almost an entire week! It started on Monday and didn't end until about Saturday. It was terrible!! No joke!

I did get a bit of a night out with the girls tho. (I had written a nice blog entry about all of this, but, it disappeared!! :-( )My favorite Nicole graciously invited me and a bunch of other girls to join her at Chili's for a girls night. Of course, I ended up going to APPLEBEES and then couldn't understand why I couldn't get checked into Chili's on foursquare. (DUH!!!) I got to meet a bunch of fantastic ladies and I got to have some adult conversation with someone other than my husband. It was fantastic I say!! I ended up having Salmon with broccoli and brown rice. It was super yummy, but I couldn't eat it all, so, I brought it home. Of course Bug decided that what I brought home was for her, and she stole all of the broccoli. It's okay. I don't mind sharing broccoli with my little picky eaters! :-)

Monkey got $40 from the Tooth Fairy for his very last tooth, and it has been BURNING a hole is his pocket for some time now. He did spend a little bit of money at his school book fair. I got very excited when he told me that he wanted to take some money to buy something. I thought just maybe he would buy a book! Alas, it was not meant to be. He bought a calculator that looks and smells like chocolate and a pencil sharpener. *sigh* He decided last week, when we went to pick up a bag of dog food that he just simply couldn't live without an African Dwarfed Frog. Now, don't get me wrong. They are incredibly adorable and docile. He picks out the smallest frog in the tank, and carry's his new prize to the register. He plops down $5, and even got some change back! He was very thankful that I bought his new pet, Hopper, some yummy food as well as some weekend feeders for the snails. (Which are getting REALLY big by the way!!)

Monday (the 4th) Monkey woke up and said "My throat hurts." That was all it took. He never complains about things like that. The last time he said something like that his blood pressure was thru the roof and he didn't have a bowl movement for 3 days! (It was terrible and he missed a WEEK of school!!) So, we went to the Doctors and wouldn't you know it, he had the flu!! So, one pack of Tamilfu later, and a note to go back to school the next day, and we were off and running! Of course, then on Friday, he decided to tell me that he's had diarrhea for 3 days! SHEW! This kid is killin me! LOL

Well, we decided that we were going to trade in our Pleco that we bought back in July for something that wouldn't poop as much. (Seriously... Spike pooped.... A LOT!!!!) So, we put him in a 1 gallon ice cream bucket and took him to our local pet/fish store and traded him in on a Corydora Catfish (Cory Cat) whom Monkey named Cory. I think I might have inadvertently caused Cory some harm today. The filter was running really slow and I decided that I would clean it and put it all back together, so I took about a half a gallon of water out and cleaned everything up, and then I put some rather warm water back in the tank. I didn't think it was THAT warm, but poor Cory came barreling out of his little hidey-hole and didn't look like he was doing so well. He floated for a little bit, and didn't move for about a minute, and then he went down to the bottom of the tank where he stayed for quite some time. I thought he was going to die!! I thought I had done Cory in! Nope! He's back in his hidey-hole after a bit of normal swimming. I just hope that in the morning I don't find half eaten bits of Cory in the tank.... :-/

I also have been a bit under the weather. On Wednesday I went to wake Sam up for work and I walked in the bedroom and felt like someone had skewered my from back to front. It was terrible! I couldn't breath in very much. I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle, took some Ibuprofen and laid down for a while after the kids went to school. Of course my wonderful 68 year old Philippine neighbor told me she could come over and rub some liniment on my back and I would feel better in no time! I love this lady to death, but I don't know that I want her rubbing some chicken poop on my back that she brought from the the Philippines!! (Okay, I don't know that it's chicken poop... but I have no idea WHAT it is, tho it's probably better for me than the meds the Dr prescribed!) So, I go to the Doctors (I joke with them that I deserve my own parking spot there.) and meet this fantastic guy! He, of course, was my very capable Dr. Perry! I think I now want to follow this man to whatever office that he is practicing in. He was that great! FANTASTIC guy! I wanted to pick him up, put him in my pocket, and drive home. I love him! Anyways! He said he thinks I have Pleurisy. What that is, is that at some point in time I had some sort of infection or something in my lung, and that my Pleura are rubbing together and they hurt. (I would make a wonderful Doctor wouldn't I?!) I have a follow up appointment with Dr Hotty (Or at least that's what the receptionist and the office manager and I have named him. His real name is Dr. Jones. Dr. Hotty is a better name tho.).

On a happier note!! I have a WONDERFUL person making over my blog!! It will be the first time that this blog has seen a new layout, background, anything, since it's birth! How terrible is that?? I'm such a bad blog-mom I swear! I can't wait to reveal it to you guys!! As most of you know, I'm not a very girly girl, but, she's doing a fantastic job of everything so far! I sent her about 2397234983 pictures for her to use. I just know that what she comes up with, you all will love, but even if you don't, I will and really that's all that matters!! ;-)

Anyways! It's 9PM and Sam and the kiddos are watching Wackos' Wish on Netflix and I can hear Pinky and The Brain planning to take over the world, so I should probably go spend some time with them before my

Not having a good day!

My day started out fantastic. It really did! I got up, I got the kids off to school with no hitches. Everything was going fantastic! I worked out to my new workout video Turbo Jam (which is FANTASTICALLY fun btw!). Things were still good. Still doin my thing. Still be-boppin along being my happy go lucky self! I ask my work out partner if she still wants to work out this morning. Yup! She sure does! Things start going down-hill from here.

I call the DMV to make sure they have transfered my plates from my old car, to my new car. The car that I've had for going on 3 weeks now. The car that I've fallen completely, madly, deeply in love with. (It has a CD player!) Wouldn't you know it, my plates are still registered to old car. So I ask the lady if I get pulled over, I'm in big trouble, yes? She says, "Yup!" My next move is to call the dealership we got it from. I ask them if they've done anything to get my tags switched over because I needed the new registration to get my base sticker. I REALLY didn't feel like getting a new little slip of paper all the time because they were too lazy to do their job. They tell me that it will be fine, that a cop isn't going to give me a ticket because I have 30 days to get the tags changed over, blah blah blah. Well, I'm not sure how things work where we bought the car from, but here, cops can be real jerks. The fact of the matter is, my tags say they belong to a '05 Hyundai Elantra, but they are ON an '09 Kia Sportage. It's illegal, and they CAN write me a ticket for it, even if I have the papers showing them that I just bought the car less than a month ago. I then tell them that I didn't mean to be a #$)&^#( but if I got a ticket, I was sending all the paperwork and whatnot straight to their office and they were going to pay all of it, and get me a lawyer. It probably meant nothing to them, but in that moment I felt very powerful.

While on the way to my w.o.p.'s house, I'm on the phone with my Momma. Momma is always fun to talk to! Well, I keep feeling like I need to itch my leg, so I scratch, still itches, so I look down (yes, I'm driving, yes I know it was bad...) at my knee area to see if something was under my steering wheel scratching me or something. Wouldn't you know it... it's a tiny little brown TICK!!!! Yes. A tick. I'm not normally a person that freaks out about bugs, or snakes, or "creepy crawlies" in general, but, there are a couple that freak me out beyond belief.

One is the June Bug (or June beetle... whatever). I think that the reason I hate them so much was because I was staying at my Dads one summer, and he had one of those electric bug zappers, (Yes... I'm old... thanks for reminding me!!) and one of them caught a June bug. OMG! It took it FOREVER to zap that lil thing! And it was smokin and and zapping and making all that noise and light. It was terrible. So, from then on, I always thought of them as these extremely tough  bugs. Bugs that take forever to kill. And the FLY!!!! (We'll go into that another day...) How could you NOT get creeped out by them. LOOK AT 'EM! EEEEEEW! (Okay... I'm done...)

The other is the tick. Not just any tick tho. I can handle them when they're on other people or on animals, but it was ON ME!! ON ME!!!!!!!!!!! Oh God. I'm so lucky it was just a tiny little thing. I'm so lucky that it wasn't sucking the life blood out of me because I would have put my brand new car into another car trying to get it off of me. I'm SO lucky that I picked it off, rolled down my automatic window (if it woulda been a crank, I woulda died!!) and flicked it out. UGH! *shiver* Now, every time I have an itch, I'm expecting there to be a tiny tick there. *shudder* 

Work out goes well. Her cat scratches my leg, not a huge deal. I get back into my car (after checking for ticks...) and drive back home.  I take my shower, which kinda sucked because I got this FANTASTIC shower head that has several different sprays and a massage spray... man... it's fantastic, BUT!! Now when I go to wash my hair, I can't move it to spray on the back wall of my TINY stand up shower stall! How am I supposed to put conditioner in my hair? Or shave my legs? STINKS!

The last thing that happened to me today (so far.....) is that hubs calls and tells me that he thinks I need to get a part time job. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against having a job. A job pays you with money. Money is good. I like money. Money can buy me new socks! (Oh how I love new socks!) But I also love being able to stay home, and make bread, and exercise, and work on prospecting for my Beachbody business, and be here when the kids get home and help them with their homework. If I'm working outside the home, I can't do those things. Oh yes... I know... millions of people do it all the time... blah blah blah. I just don't want to. *very sad face* I was getting used to being able to take a nap at 11:30 if I wanted to. Not that I ever did... okay maybe once or twice... but! The point is, if I WANTED to..... I COULD! 

Why can't I just win the Powerball and never have to worry about working again? Why must it be so difficult to be comfortable these days?? Maybe I should just sell a kidney or something.....

A-Quiltin' We Will Go!

So, it's no secret that I read a TON of blogs (82 and counting!)! Usually my morning routine, after getting the kids off to school is to read thru all of the blogs that have posted over the night, and periodically throughout the day. That's a lot of blogs I say, but each and every one of them has something that I want to learn, or improve upon, (Well, except for those few that are family and friends!) I added one yesterday about how to improve your marriage. Sam and I have a pretty good marriage these days, but, it NEVER hurts to find ways to improve things!

So, the other day, I found this FANTASTIC site called Cluck Cluck Sew, and she had this really cute quilt on there, and talked about Charm Packs and all kinds of things that I had NO IDEA existed. Allison is really nice too! Anyways! I was talking with Sam last night, and I told him that I would like for us to MAKE a quilt TOGETHER! So that way, we are spending time together, he gets to use his fantastic artistic ability, (who knew a colorblind guy could be so great at art?!), and we get a new comforter for our bed (which we REALLY need)! Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I'll be getting to use the fantastic sewing machine that he bought me last year! (Sadly, I've only used it a handful of times!) He thought it was a FANTASTIC idea! HOORAY! So, I guess that only leaves us to plan the pattern (anybody have any ideas for simpler quilt patterns??), pick the colors, buy the fabric, make the blocks, sew all the blocks together, get batting, and find someone to teach me the rest!! LOL

I think that this will be a fantastic adventure that Sam and I are about to embark upon. Never know, maybe I'll do so well at it, that I'll make one for Monkey and Buggy! I thought about making a Purple and Gold quilt for Monkey, maybe with some ECU Pirates fabric thrown in there as well. Never know! I think Momma has something up her sleeve for Monkey with purple and gold. I have no idea what, but I think she does. (I could be wrong tho!) For Buggy, it would be super simple... pink and purple. She's ALL girl! I'm not exactly sure WHERE she gets it from. I'm almost the opposite of girlie! I don't wear make up that often, I love t-shirt and jeans, heels are very uncomfortable to me, and I HATE doing my hair, but every once in a while, I like to get dressed up, look really nice, and be girlie (like, once or twice a year, seriously.).

Okay! Well, I'm stalking the UPS man today. My new workout video in on his truck! I'm off to do some recruiting, clean the house, figure out what I'm makin for dinner, work out, and have a hot shower with my new shower head! YAY! (Yes, the simple things really do bring me the greatest pleasure!)

Thursday 5

Okay, I'm a thief. Yup, call the Blog Police now. I have committed the worst possible offense in bloggerdom!

 I STOLE this post from Nicole. I think it's a fantastic idea! (Yes, I've seen it many many times Nicole... just never stole it from you before.... LOL) 

Basically what it is, you say what in the past week has made you thankful, giddy, happy, excited, and adored. So! Here we go!!

I was Thankful this week that Sam and I finally worked out our issues with personal transparency. 

I was Giddy when I ordered my new workout video! (If Kristy can lose 90 pounds using it, I can lose too!)

I was Happy Sam told me that he changed one of our magazines (that we never read) to a subscription to Boys Life for Monkey.

I'm really Excited that Sam told me that we're going to go to the Gator Ball in the Spring! (If he's still in) Which means I don't get to go to the MC Ball in November (which kinda stinks), but I'll be in much better shape this spring! :-D (Silver lining people!!)

And I felt really Adored when Sam, Monkey, and Bug all told me that I looked really pretty. :-D

Happy Labor Day!

So, this morning has been quite the morning! Sam and I stayed up late last night and watched Stargate SG1 and went to bed around midnight. I specifically told the dogs "We are sleeping in tomorrow! No barking and waking us up until at least 8!" But they didn't listen, barking started at 7. They never listen! They're worse than babies, I swear!

I decided that I would be a nice wife, and let Sam sleep in. It's 9:17, and I've not decided yet that I'm going to go wake him up. The last couple days I let him sleep till around lunch time and then went and bombarded him with kisses and told him to get up for lunch. We have been having meals a little backwards for the last couple of days. Breakfast is still our normal cereal or toast (Shakeology for me!), but lunch seems to be the big meal of the day. It's strange, but, oddly it's been working for us! I know it won't stay like that. Today it's going to be a light lunch, and a bigger dinner.

The kids are enjoying the day off today. As much as they love (or dislike) school, they're both glad to have the day off to lounge around and watch TV or play video games. Currently, at (almost) 10AM, (Yes, I realize almost an hour has passed since the last paragraph) they're playing Super Mario Galaxy. It's a cute game, plus, they have to work together! It's a glorious thing to see my two kiddos getting along!

As I said yesterday, I have started a new blog about diet & exercising. Here's the link. I would love to get more followers on there. Later today I'm going to post my "mini-meatloaf burgers" on there!

It's been a while

Okay, so, I've been a bad blogger! Sorry about that.

I've been pretty busy since we came home from vacation!
Lets see, there was getting the kids ready to go back to school, which went pretty well! Monkey started 6th grade, and has 6 classes that he has to "commute" to. He even has a locker this year. It's not that big of a deal, he had one when he was in 4th grade as well when he went to school in Ohio. He really isn't too fond of going to school, but, he always says he's had a good day when he comes home. He's usually not all that excited about doing homework, but, he can usually get it done pretty quickly, at least for now. Bug loves school. She's in 2nd grade this year. She loves her teacher and classmates already. She's also found a little girl that rides the bus with her that she really likes. Most days she comes home, does her 15 minutes of reading and what little homework she has, and hops right on the phone to call her friend and stays on there for most of the evening. It seems like it has started already!

I recently became a Beachbody Coach. If you don't know who (or what) that is, it's the same company that does P90X. It's really a fantastic company. Their products are excellent! I've been using the Shakeology for not quite a month, and I've lost almost 10 pounds! I'll admit that I've not been working out as much as I should be, but I'm still losing weight! Soon, I think I'm going to get Slim In 6, which is a home workout that helps you reshape your body in 6 weeks! I'm really excited about this company! They give so much back as well! The company recently hit 30,000 coaches, and they donated $150,000 to Raincatcher for providing rain catching systems to 10 schools in Kenya & Uganda! That will provide clean drinking water to over 100,000 people!! That's not all though! Beachbody will also be donating $5 for every active coach the company has on December 31, 2010! This company really cares about people! I'm so proud to be a part of this company!

I'm going to start another blog soon to recount my weight loss journey and business as well! I'll let you all know when I think of a good name for the blog! You guys can make some suggestions as well. :-)

Sick Lil Bug

So, on Thursday I woke up to Bug throwing up. She got sick a few times, rolling around, writhing in pain. "Mom! I don't feel good! My tummy hurts! I feel like I'm going to throw up!" I did a lot of hair stroking and holding until she fell asleep. At that point in time she had a tiny spot on her cheek. Nothing to really worry about, it was just a small red spot on her cheek. I thought it was something from her getting sick. She took a nap for about an hour and a half and I noticed the spot was getting bigger. I was trying to look at it without waking her up, unsuccessfully. She started complaining that it itched, so I put some calamine lotion on her face and then she started crying, saying that it burned and she wanted it off. During that time, the rash was spreading more. A trip to the doctors office was in order. We get to the office and they're closed for lunch, so, we went to get some ourselves. When we came back we were seen right away. Our favorite Doctor was on duty, he also reminds me of Dr. Burke from Season 1 of Greys Anatomy as well. He thought that she was having some sort of allergic reaction. She had a shot of cortisone and a script. He said that if she wasn't dramatically better by Saturday, that he wanted to see her back on Saturday. With that I made an appointment for my physical, grabbed Bugs scripts and headed to the pharmacy. For the remainder of the day, I dealt with "Mom it itcheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssss!!" and trying to keep cool compresses on it because the Calamine lotion just made her face burn. The more time passed, the more that the rash spread. It was just a small spot on her face, and then it was almost her entire face, then it started to spread to her neck, arms, trunk, and legs.

The next day, Friday, it was MUCH worse, and so I took her back to the doctors office. That Dr wanted to give her a shot of Augmentin, and she's allergic to Penicillin!! So, needless to say, I didn't trust anything that he had to say, and decided that I was going to take the nurses advice, and go to the Emergency Room. While sitting there, she developed a spontaneous nose bleed, and it was bad! We finally get in and from there we wait for about 4 hours for the Doctor to come in and see us. I'm not blaming the Doctor for not being able to see us faster, but, if the hospital had more Doctors in the ER, we might not have had to wait that long. I know that it wasn't a true emergency, but, she was listed as a level 3 emergency, not a 4! I could only imagine how long we would have waited if she was a 4! (For those that don't know, Emergency rooms have "levels" and depending on the Emergency room, you might have to go somewhere else! A level 1 emergency is pretty much you're hanging on to life by a thread, and a level 4 is them saying "You should have went to a regular doctor.") The Doctor did give us a script for a medication that would help her stop itching, and it worked better than just regular Benadryl. We figured out that it works better than Benadryl because she would fall asleep about 30-40 minutes after she took it! How's that for itch relief?!

Saturday began at 6AM with Bug waking me up (she slept with us) saying "I have a headache, and I'm really itchy!" and she woke up with the entire side of her face being swollen and puffy! Alrighty! She's going to see the Dr again with me. I get up and get ready to go about 8:45, pulling Bug out of bed. I asked her if she wanted to put on some clothes and she said no. So, off to the Doctors office we go, with her in her jammies and unbrushed hair. (She has a very sensitive head and all the writhing in pain had left her with a knot in her hair that took me 25 minutes to brush out) Our favorite Dr was there again, and he was very concerned about Bug. He ordered some blood tests for her (and for me to check my cholesterol) to see if anything would show up in her blood. When we got to the hospital (again) for our blood tests, Bug decided that she had to pee, so, I let her, not thinking about the urine sample that they might need! (They did need one) From there we had to bribe her with "hospital dollars" and cake to let the nurse take her blood. She watched the Phlebotimist draw my blood, and of course she had trouble finding the vein, so it was a lot of hunting and rooting around in my arm with the needle! Then it was her turn. She did a fantastic job! Then, "Here's a cup, we need a sample" YIKES! It took an hour to get the urine sample. After we came home, we had lunch and took meds. It was a good thing, because she was starting to get itchy again. We watched some "old skool" cartoons (Aahh!!! Real Monsters, Rocko's Modern Life, and Rugrats... ahhh the memories!) for a while, and then a movie. Bug started getting itchy again around 6:15, which was time for her meds again anyways. She started saying that her head hurt, and so we went to go lay down in our bedroom. I had a massive headache as well, so we finally fell asleep around 7, and woke up this morning around 8. What a weekend!

Today, we're making a banner for my best friends husband! He will be home late Monday night and she's decorating their home fence like you see all the fence in front of Camp LeJeune decorated. We're all making one to say "Welcome Home!" I'm so glad that we're making these. I know some people that won't be able to make these. It breaks my heart. I think that we'll make a big one, and paint "Welcome home!" And then all put our hand prints on it, and sign it as well. I think that's all for today. I'm going to go into the office tomorrow and hopefully have some test results for Bug!

Home From Vacation!!

So, we had a great time on vacation. Tho it was a crazy crazy ride I tell you!

Thursday(22July) Mom called and said that because of Tropical Storm Bonnie, that she thought that we should leave on Friday (23July) instead of Saturday like we had originally planned. While this was a fantastic idea, it was sort of last minute for me. I was going to do a bunch of laundry on Friday and leave on Saturday. This left me in quite the predicament! That meant that I needed to go home (we were out having dinner) and pack for our entire family!

We get on the road after I couldn't sleep all night and finally went to bed at 3AM. We drive all day, and get to Montgomery Alabama about 9 that night in th pouring rain. needless to say I crashed and burned that night in my discounted (plus free upgrade!) LaQuinta room! I don't remember much of the room, other than the kids jumping all over the beds while watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars until my eyelids closed and then there was peaceful darkness!

The next day we get back on the road for another 10-12 hours of driving. I must say, the drivers in Texas are CRAZY! The road conditions are FANTASTIC! I just couldn't get over how their lane markers were the little reflectors! Then it started raining when I was pulling into my moms town. I was not exactly happy! I WAS happy to finally be off the road for a while.

We got to visit with family which was totally awesome. We went to the Houston Space Center which was also awesome. We got to go swimming every day in Moms pool. We all got tans. Some of us more than others. Sam and Bug are darker complected than Monkey and I, so, they totally got darker than us! Monkey and Sam both got Swimmers Ear, tho Sams' was MUCH worse! I think one of my favorite days of the trip was when we all went to IKEA! Sam has decided that he likes it, which makes me about the happiest person in the entire universe! Why, might you ask? Because IKEA is just about my favorite place to be. I could spend an entire years salary there and not blink an eye! (Which isn't exactly a good thing...) I've found all kinds of things that I want to do with the house now! (More on that another day!) Bug lost 2 teeth, and the Tooth Fairy brought her $9 in total. (Inflation is CRAZY these days!!)

We then drove from Houston to the Memphis area to visit my sister. There Kris and I chatted, and picked up some steaks for dinner that night. Kris told me that my steak was too rare and I thought that it was just perfect! The kids got to go to the skating rink. Monkey and Bug weren't exactly graceful, but, Bug had fun but her "tooshie" hurt afterwards!

From there we left to drive home. We finally got home around 2AM. We walked in and had a small reunion with the doggies and fell asleep snuggled in our own beds. I'm sure that I'm missing HUGE chunks of what happened, but there will be more another time!

Day 19: A talent of yours

Well, I don't really consider myself a very talented person, but, I guess to some I might seem so.

From the time I was young, I always wanted a horse. I remember the first moment that I decided that I wanted one. We lived out in the country, and one of the neighbors horses had gotten lose and made it's way to our house. My sister caught it and had it in the front yard. I remember seeing her out there with the horse, and how beautiful that it looked. I was in awe. Some time later, after growing up my tomboy self and always wanting to play with horse figurines instead of any Barbie or other doll, my wonderful Mom decided that maybe I should take some lessons. I took lessons on a wonderful little horse named Rags. I loved that horse to DEATH! She was bombproof! I also took lessons with another girl named Holly. She had Dusty. I always had my eye on other horses tho. Mom decided that it would be a nice thing to get me my very own horse. I did this for several years, and if we could afford it, I would still have them now. I think it's a fantastic idea for a kid to have responsibilities like that. I guess I was a pretty good rider. I never did horrible at shows or anything.

Another talent I have is musical instruments. I'm not the only person in my family that has this talent, tho I'm not near as talented as my cousin Robin is! He's an instrumental genius! I started in 5th grade playing the Flute. I pretty much played the Flute until about Sophomore year of high school. My Junior year, we had a new band instructor. So, when we all showed up to meet the "new guy" and learn about different things that we would be doing and whatnot, he asked me if I would be willing to switch instruments. Why not! I was already the best Flute player in our school, not that it was a big accomplishment to be better than 5 or 6 other flute players that haven't been playing as long as you in a band of approximately 23, which included flags! So, I started to learn the Tenor Saxophone. I played that for Marching Band, and then for Concert Band I would play the Baritone Saxophone. I like the Baritone a WHOLE lot better than the Tenor! It was HUGE!!! I didn't even need a neck strap! I could just put my foot on it's side and set it on there. Boy did that make my instructor mad! "Jacque! That's not proper form! Where's your neck strap!?!" Of course, it's hard to take a guy serious when he's only a few years older than you are. When I graduated high school, I kept my gorgeous Gemeinhardt Flute because I wanted to be able to give it to MY little girl when she was old enough to learn. Alas, it was not meant to be. (That, in and of itself, is another story.) I picked it back up a few years later when I played the flute for the church band. I also picked up the Clarinet then as well.

A talent that I'm just recently starting to cultivate is home domestication. I've started to be more creative and crafty. I've picked up sewing! I haven't really made a lot yet, but I'm hoping that very soon I will be able to pick up some more fabric and make some more things. I've already planned on making my own Ball gown. We will see how that goes!! I can also crochet a little bit. I can honestly say I'm not very good at that. Anything other that "stitch, stitch, turn and go again" I can't do! So, if you want a fancy scarf or something made, don't ask me!! ;-) Cross stitch! I used to LOVE to cross stitch. It's been a while since I've done it, but I'm sure I could pick it back up and do okay. I used to do cross stitch to help me with my concentration. It worked pretty well... I just never managed to FINISH anything! Cooking is coming along quite nicely. I can say that I've always been a decent cook, but I'm getting better! I find recipes that look good, change them a bit to make them how we like them. It works for us. Of course, there are still some of my family favorites that Sam can't stand. Like, soup beans, corn bread, and fried taters! C'mon! How can you not LOVE that?! I guess it's just a Southern thing. (Yes yes, I know I'm from Ohio, but my Momma grew up in the South, so we ate Southern food a lot!)

Other than that, I think I'm pretty untalented. I'm not a great Mathematician, I can't do simple math in my head, a trait that I've, unfortunately, passed on to Monkey. I'm not a History Buff, tho I do find history interesting, I just have never been able to remember when this important battle happened, or that important treaty was signed. So, I just like to go and learn things and even though I will probably not remember who was involved, what made it significant, or why it happened, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy going!