We're GOING!!!

Yep yep we sure are! I got a phone call way too early this morning from Scot telling me that his boss told him he needs to put in vacation time now. They instituted a new policy as of today stating that no employee would be eligible for vacation between the months of June and November due to the busy season for deck and sun room work.
So, I got on the phone to my parents and woke my poor Mom up from a sound sleep to tell her to pick a weekend in May when we can come visit. We settled on Memorial Day weekend! I guess we'll be leaving very late on Thursday night, driving the 8 hours to Massachusetts with toddler in tow, spending three days and then driving back. It's not long enough, but I'll take what I can get at this point.
I've never traveled with a toddler for a distance that long and am a bit apprehensive about it. I'm of two mind sets right now:
Find a portable DVD player and all of her Blues Clues shows, or just have her tough it out in the back seat with a few toys, which is what I did when I was a kid. And BOY did I get bored sometimes. I guess I need to get the player, but they are super pricey. Maybe someone has one on freecycle I can have, or on craigslist.
More later! I'm off to see what I can pack. Memorial Day is only a few months away you know!

The Dead Horse

This is the image of the day. For me, it's pretty significant. What does this mean to you? Do you continue beating the dead horse? It's dead, put the remains in a box and let them rest in peace. Don't dig them back up, they'll just smell nasty and make you ill. My goal for the week is to put things to rest, to let what is stay that way, and pray that what will be is better than what I'm dealing with. I'm done beating the dead horse.
Today is a beautiful day! We have 70 degrees, a little wind, and some good sunshine. Bonnie and I went for an early walk to the grocery store, stopped by the pond and fed the ducks. Then we came home, made lunch and relaxed and played. Right now she's down for a nap. I have all my windows open to air the place out too! I can't wait til Spring gets here. Winter be banished!!

What I Do On Saturday

That's the name of the song our friend Steve from Blues Clues sings. I've seen the lighter side of Steve, you know the one where he's goofy, hugs bunnies and trees and dances like a little kid? Well this is the ... "Dark Steve". In this video he's got a bit of a beard, a black eye, and a semi-decent voice. Who'da thunk that the guy from Blues Clues could have sex appeal? Certainly not I! So here's the link, and I hope you get just as much of a kick out of it as I did!

What I Do on Saturday

Since this is the first thing I saw this morning, I thought I'd take a page from it and write down what I plan to do this Saturday. Right now my sweet girl is sitting in the livingroom eating strawberry jello and chattering to herself about Franklin. You know who Franklin is right? "Hey it's Fraaanklin... comin' over to plaaaayy.." Anyway, that seems to be her newest addiction along side Blues Clues and jello. Guaranteed I'm going to find little blotches of the stuff all over the floor when I go to vacuum the place later on, but you know what? It's a very very small price to pay for her being so happy in the moment.

Today I will clean my kitchen. Not just any old type of clean either. A really good deep cleaning. I started getting these great emails from Flylady
and figured that my place is ... frigging DIRTY! So today I'm going to empty all my cabinets, de-clutter the top of my fridge and counter, sweep, scub, mop, and the nuke the antique food collection from the fridge. If it starts growing legs and trying to get out on it's own you just gotta know it's time to let it move on peacefully.

Scot has to work today. My poor sick Scot who came home last night looking like death warmed over and complaining that his head was going to pop off his shoulders and roll around on the ground. Apparently working out in the cold weather for 12-14 hours a day isn't doing well for his health. I worry about him too. He's going to be 38 this month, and he likes to think he's still 25. Fact is, he's not! His job is givinghim the shaft lately with the jobs they are makinghim work, and yesterday he only got paid 30% for a job he was supposed to make almost $1500 on. They'll straighten it out, but at this rate we won't get out to Massachusetts this Spring to visit my side of the family who I haven't seen in almost TWO YEARS.

They don't have the money to come visit us either. Dad's overtime got cut and Mom's unemployment ran out at the end of January, and she's been job hunting faithfully every day of the week. Unfortunately no one wants to hire a 53 year old lady who is reliable, honest, hardworking, and puts her all into anything she does. Instead these morons want some teenager who will be happy to work for minimum wage, show up when they feel like it, and that they can just fire to hire another one of the same ilk to take their place. Yes, I'm angry. And I miss my parents horribly.

On that note, I'm going to drink the rest of my coffee, and then get busy with the cleaning of my kitchen.

'Love Never Ends'

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

What a Week

So this week has just been odd. Between losing a friend, making amends with an old friend, trying to get friends to make amends with one another, I'm drained. I'm drained emotionally and mentally. I really wish there weren't so much crap going on right now. I've been incredibly tempted to just say the heck with everything and every one who annoys me and walk away from anything having to do with the internet and online communities. I've been the victim of backstabbing, lies, other peoples rage and issues, followed by relentless attacks via phone and email. I'm sick of it. And I'm done.

I have a toddler who needs me, I have a home that needs my attention (and a good cleaning!), I have a boyfriend who is wondering why I'm so cranky and I have persistent heartburn. Did I mention that I've been having referred shoulder pain again and I'm afraid that my man made bile ducts may be scarring over AGAIN? That's pretty darned scary. I can't handle spending more time in the hospital and coming home with more tubes in my body and a bili bag hanging from it. I don't want to spend the three days before Bonnie's birthday stressing about how I need to get things done and can't because I'm in too much pain.

The message board I created for support seems to be going down the crapper quick, and I'm not happy. I wanted it to be drama free. Instead it ended up a repeat of the one I had to leave because it was shut down due to the same damned thing.

On the up side of things, my daughter can now count to 12 and sing her ABC's. Where did she learn this stuff? She can identify shapes like "crescent" and "octagon" too. Yay for Blues Clues! Blues Clues has become her absolute favorite show these days. She would watch it from dawn til dusk if we allowed it, and frequently runs around yelling "A clue! I found it!" and "Hanny danny noboot!" (handy dandy notebook).

Bonnie now weighs in at 28 pounds and is 34 inches tall. My little peanut who I swore was going to starve herself is now chowing down almost anything and everything she can get her hands on.

I'm An IDIOT!

I owe some people some apologies because I was blind and stupid. I let myself get sucked into things that just weren't right and I am so sorry. There's not a better way to put it. Pam and Stacie, I am truly so sorry for being a jerk. Please forgive me. Tangie, I owe you an apology as well. I've been foolish.

Friends, Moon Sand and Soda

Yesterday my best friend came over to play with her son. I haven't them since October because either she's sick, I'm sick, the kids are sick or we're both flat broke. We took the little ones to the playground and for the first time ever they actually played together instead of beside each other. They played on the jungle gyms, went down the slides, clapped and yelled and ran all over the place like maniacs, and thoroughly loved it. It wore them out and made us very happy. We got some good exercise chasing them, that's for sure!

We ended up getting Chinese food for lunch and making the kids veggies and chicken nuggets, but they were too excited to actually eat. Every time my friend would ask her son a question, Bonnie would answer instead before he could even open his mouth! We ended up joking that if they ended up married someday that he'd never get a word in edgewise.

I firmly believe in arranged marriages these days, by the way. With all the weirdos the people end up getting involved with it seems just a little bit safer. Especially since I don't want my beautiful daughter ending up with someone who treats her like dirt, or is irresponsible. I suppose I would want her to end up with someone a lot like my Dad. My Dad is what I term as a "real Man". He treats my Mom well, loves God, always worked (and still does) hard, serves his church and his family, gives without taking, and is loving and kind. He also has a great sense of compassion, sense of humor, and is able to maintain a balance between firm and fair without compromising his Christian values.

Yep arranged marriage can be a good thing.

Moon Sand! Yesterday Bonnie got moon sand as a gift from our friend. This stuff is awesome. If you've never played with moon sand, you really should go get yourself some. It's squishy and soft, and mold into neat shapes easily. The best part? My toddler played with it for over an hour this morning while I cleaned my kitchen. We ended up with pink and yellow for the colors and some neat farm animals and a rake, a barn and a haystack. She was so quiet, that I had to check on her at least a billion times to make sure she was alright, and each time I did, she would wave her hands in the air and say joyfully "Moo sans mommy! Soft!" So to my dear friend who brought us this wonderful new stuff, thank you!

Soda is evil. Even if it's diet, it's still evil. It's bubbly goodness comes in hundreds of flavors and colors. Orange being a particular favorite of mine. This morning I sat on the sofa with my nice glass of orange soda to read a book. I had been looking forward to it and was juuuuuust relaxing into the couch, when BAM! The cat attacked. I jumped a mile, the cat ran back over my lap, and the soda (and glass) flew into the air. It rained little drops and a few big splashes all over me, the couch, the cat, the floor, and Bonnie's Dora sofa. The end result? I cleaned for an hour and a half. There's still soda stains on Bonnie's little Dora couch, and my couch is wet. VERY wet. I'm not happy with the cat either. The cat who I chased for 20 minutes so that I could wipe her off, only to find my hands looking like the were ravaged by a scalpel.

Damn cat.