It happens in Threes

They say deaths happen in threes....and I know this to be true. It has happened at my house in the past week. My life is not the same.

The life of Mr. Vacuum Cleaner was brought to an abrupt end when he was viciously attacked and murdered by the family dog, Maggie Mae. The suspect in question saw fit to chew off Mr. Vacuum's life source, his plug, and end his magical electric power.
No more pushy sucky for this young appliance. The perpetrator was caught and punished. In her defense, she barked that that she was just doing it for me, b/c she knows how much I've always hated Mr. Vacuum Cleaner.

Another life was cut short when Mr. Shower Head leaped to his death late last night. Upon feeling the thrust of water pouring into his body, Mr. Shower Head just took the plunge and fell off to the shower floor below, leaving water to just pour out and not be dispersed in the proper way. He will be replaced, but not without great effort.

And another sad but true loss in the household this week...Mr. Hairdryer. When turned on to perform his usual duty, nothing but a "click click click" was heard from him. No air, no blowing.....and to make matters worse, it seems to be a contagious virus, because the neighboring hairdryer that lives in the kids' bathroom is showing signs of giving up the ghost as well. While she is still blowing air, she is no longer the young hot thing she use to be. Lukewarm would describe her efforts....not good for drying the massive amounts of hair on the master of this house!

Yes...it's been sad around this house this week.
Too many losses.

A murder, a suicide, and an unexpected death.

RIP my dear appliances. You will be missed..but not for long.
I'm off to Walmart to find replacements!

Facebook Friends

A couple people here have mentioned something about adding me on Facebook, but I didn't have my info on here for them to find me.
So.....I made one of those little widgits or badges or whatever they are, for my Facebook and put it over there. ------>

If you want to follow me over there, that would be great...but if you do a friend request, send me a message letting me know who you are!! If I don't recognize the name, I don't add!

There was a bad experience with an online predator several years back, so now I am very paranoid about who sees my online life. I'm friends only everywhere but here...and would be here if there were a way to do it!

Anyway...just wanted to put that out there for anyone interested.
I'm also on twitter. There's a link over there for that, too. ------>

Ok....I'm through begging for friends now! LOL
Have a great night.

My week in pics

On this quiet Saturday morning, while the linens are washing, and before I make a batch of pancakes and curl up on the couch to watch my dvr'd shows from teh week, I thought I'd share my week...in pictures.

Monday
Rain Rain Go Away--
flooding, tornados..it's been a wet week:
*the neighbor's yard...street in front for reference


*my front yard


Tuesday:
The ever mischievous Maggie Mae
*Hey..I want my Gizmo!


*Must.protect.my kid.from these.wretched bunny slippers!!!


*sure sure....she looks cute now...but not so much when she's chewing the plug off the vacuum cleaner cord.

Wednesday:
Molly's Honor Roll assembly

*all A's but 1 (a B in Reading, first time ever...having trouble with comprehension questions)....Citizenship Award...Accelerated Reader award
(and I have to say...I'm a pretty proud momma....between all 3 of my kids, there were only 2 B's and all the rest of their combined grades were A's!! )

Thursday:
Red Ribbon Week-crazy hat day (Hat's Off to a drug free life)


Friday:
Carving the pumpkin at school:
*the kid that took one look at the pumpkin guts and said, "Shit man, that's gross!"


*Jack*



And now for the weekend...
the kids are at their dad's, Greg and I will be hiding out at the Outback during the candy giving hours (he lives in the most popular neighborhood in town for trick-or-treating, and I kid you not, it's nothing to go through $200 worth of candy in one hour....so we are bypassing it. Besides, tonight is the 5 year anniversary of his 1st heart attack, so we are celebrating life!)


I plan for a little Bloomin' Onion gnoshing and some Wallaby Darneds!


And with that all said...I shall now go flip the laundry, make my breakfast, and enjoy the quiet morning!

It was written in the stars

While I don't actually "believe" that horoscopes predict the future, or anything like that, I do find their occasional coincidences something to smile at sometimes.

October 28, 2009
Aries (3/21-4/19)
Getting through the workday will be a bit of a battle -- not because you're fighting with anyone, though. You just won't want to be there. You'd much prefer to be home, either alone or with the one person on the planet you feel comfortable enough to be completely silent with. It's not that you're tired -- you're just drained. You've been burning the candle at both ends lately. It's okay. Even you need to rest every now and then.
________________________________________________________________
I took the afternoon off.
Molly has her Honor Roll assembly at 2:00.
I still need to pick up her report card since I couldn't make it to parent/teacher conferences.
I have things to take the post office, which closes before I get out of tutoring in the afternoons.
Church dinner starts at 5:30.

I needed some time.

Memory Lane...

I haven't done a "memory lane" entry in quite awhile. I use to do them for each of my three kids on their birthdays, but then, after a few years, I decided that my friends had seen all my favorite pictures of my kids, so I stopped and just posted pics of them from that year. A new friend posted a "memory lane" post a week or so ago, and enouraged others to do the same...so, with this being Trey's 16th birthday weekend, WHY NOT?

Welcome to my walk down memory lane...remembering the fun parts, (and maybe some not so fun parts) of the past 16 years with my firstborn child.

On October 22, 1993, God blessed our lives with John William III (or "Trey", as we call him.)

*3 days old

He was such a precious little guy..

*2 months old, his first Christmas


*6 months old, first Easter


*destined to play basketball


*1 yr old, and ready to rodeo

always curious...



and into mischief....


but still a good boy!

*2 yrs old and still rodeoing!


*and still curious!

He was soon ready to do big boy things...

fishing:

*first fish caught

hunting:


and t-ball.


And just like all boys do...he started growing up.
getting a dog:


impressing the girls:


becoming a big brother for the first time:


and a second time:


and graduating kindergarten.


The next several years just flew by....
*1st grade


*2nd grade


*a trip to Florida


*11 yrs old


*being on a swim team


*playin ball


*low rider


*getting to fly a plane


*another year of basketball


*scarfin' down mudbugs


*getting highlights


*getting glasses


*getting the driver's permit


*getting academic awards


and getting a new gun


It's been a fun-filled ride....with ups and downs along the way, but it's been a good ride.
This is one amazing kid...from his gentle spirit, wise understanding, Christian heart and service, and academic brilliance to his inheritance of his mom's klutziness and his father's love of picking on people...
this is one all around good kid.

I love him...with all my heart. He may be 16 years old, but he is still, and will always be, my babyboy.




Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

Blogging vs Journaling

I was thinking in the shower tonight....as I usually do...it's really the only place I ever have my "deep thougths"....about my "blogging".

I started keeping an online diary/journal in the summer of 2000 at freeopendiary.com. Several of my online friends started writing there, so I did, too. It was a way of documenting what was going on in my life at the time...as a married woman, a mother of 3 young children (Trey was 6 1/2, Matt had just turned 2 and Molly was about to be 1.) My marriage was about to come to an end, or at least it was the beginning of the end, and I needed friends and support, and I needed a place to vent and express myself. I didn't have any "real life friends" to talk to. I was new to the internet, involved in a chatroom, and meeting lots of new people there. We had a pretty tight group there for several years.

I wrote about the kids, I wrote about my husband, I wrote about the separations, and new people entering my life. When my family turned on me for "destroying my life and damaging my kids", I sought solace and support from friends I only knew through online.
A lot of those friends are still with me today. Patrea has been there since my very first diary entry, and we've gone through a lot together. Several others soon followed and have been my "best friends" ever since. We've shared each others' lives, watched the rise and fall of relationships, celebrated milestones and triumphs, consoled each other in losses and tribulations. We've watched each others' children grow up. Some of us have even carried our friendships over to the "real world" and get together periodically for "real life gatherings".

When freeopendiary crashed, we migrated to inthewire.com. Then we lost it and found bloopdiary. Some of us went to journalcommunity, and some back to opendiary when it returned. I shared a private diary with a boyfriend for awhile at some site I can't even remember the name of, and was at DearDiary.com for a bit as well. Some of my friends are now back at the new bloop, and now I've discovered this place. Blogger.com, or blogspot, or whatever it's called.

But I've noticed a difference here (which I guess is what my main point of this entry is). This is not really a "journaling" community.
It's not a place to share a lot of personal things.
I've been reading a lot more people on here lately. I've found a group of women on here that I can relate to, that seem to be more like me, that have some of the same interests or life roles I do. I am thoroughly enjoying reading their blogs.
But I've noticed that it's not as "personal" here.
I guess that's the difference between blogging and journaling.

I don't think I'm a blogger.
I don't have craftsy things that I make and can share with others.
I don't rant and rave about my perceived injustices in the world.
I don't carry on about the "idiots" of the world who don't share my same opinions on things.
I don't have quirky stories to share.
I don't have things to give away.
I can't keep entries short.
I don't know how to create cute backgrounds and boxes to liven up my page.

I just write about my life.
I write about the things I'm doing.
I write about my family.
I post schedules to keep myself organized.
I share pics of my family.
I document our lives as a way of preserving memories.
I use to write TMI entries when life was wilder and I was sewing my oats.
I like getting comments on my entries. It feels like communication. It's validation that my life is important to someone, that someone cares enough to check on me.
I like the personal feel of sharing my life with others, as if we were neighbors, although we may be a thousand miles (or more) apart.

Maybe that's why I don't get as many readers and comments here at blogger/blogspot.
I guess I'm not following the rules, or proper blogging etiquette.
I have my circle of friends at bloop and opendiary....and most of them have been with me for 8 or more years. They are my "homies". (LOL)

I'm hoping to make more friends here...regular readers. I like the women I've started reading over here. They are very fascinating and brilliant in their own ways, and funny and insightful!
I wish I could be more like that. I wish my "blogs" were more like that.
But I guess I'm just a journaler.
And that is ok.
And you are welcome to read all about it.

Homecoming and a Birthday (lots of pic)

My 2 sisters graduated high school the same year- 1989. (Jeanette is not my biological sister..she came to live with us her senior year and has been part of our family ever since)
Friday night was their 20th reunion. Since Shelli was flying in from Phoenix w/o her hub, I got to be her date! It was a lot of fun, even tho we didn't see many alumni at the game, and left at halftime........and since my alma mater was playing against my current school of employment, and beating them!

Jeanette brought her baby to the game with us, but her hubby took him home while we headed to the gathering at a local semi-famous pizza establishment.


**me and my favorite baby nephew**

It got to be kinda funny at the gathering. I'm 4 years older than the girls, and never in the same school building with them (they were still in the middle school when I was a senior, so I really didn't know many of their classmates, unless they had siblings my age.) When people would come up to us, they either recognized me first and looked for Shelli (b/c I guess they didn't recognize her), or they'd recognize Shelli and Jeanette, and then study my face and point and say, "and you are....???????" lol
I had fun....but the girls wanted to leave about 10pm. The Wusses!!
In all fairness tho..Shelli HAD been on a plane all day, and Jeanette does have a 4 month old at home that doesn't sleep all night!

They had more reunion stuff Saturday night, but I wasn't invited to that!

Saturday morning we all gathered back at my mom's for a family brunch. We decided to use that time to also celebrate my son Trey's 16th birthday. It's not til this Thursday, but since we were all together..why not?
My brother and his wife and daughter were there, too, along with our "aunt" Laura.

Lots of good food and fun as always.

**me and my baby sister Shelli**


**the birthday boy**


**Jeanette, her hubby, and Shelli--waiting to eat**


**my brother and his wife, playing with Max...we're hoping it gave them baby fever so that Mary won't be an only child!**


**Mary plays with the baby toy**


**Molly and Max**


**my Matthew, and Jeanette's Dalton, taste testing before we eat**


**family funtime together**

We know how to make the most of an opportunity and milk it for all it's worth, that's for sure! Not often are we all together since none of us live in the same town. Wish Shelli's hubby and stepkids (and grandkids) could've been there, too....maybe this summer!