WW: Why I Pay Bills On-Line

(If you can't read the letter, click on it to make it bigger..)

Bullet Point Monday

A friend of mine has been doing this on her blog and since short thoughts are all I'm capable of right now I'm going to try it here in an effort to at least get SOMETHING on my blog...

• Thursday Danette and I went to see Eric Hutchinson
• It was AWESOME...
• I could go to a concert like that every day and die a happy person
• I forgot how much I love music
• Friday night I met some friends at Prairie Meadows after my meeting
• I was only there for like an hour and a half but it was nice to be in good company and have good laughs although really girls... I'm kind of wondering how you would treat me if you WEREN'T my friend.... :-)
• Friday night Zack was up until 9:00 at my parent's house
• Saturday he got my BIL and my sister up at 6:00 with a lovely rendition of the ABC's
• I arrived at 9:30 to watch my nephew so they could go furniture shopping for a couple hours
• They left at 10:15
• They got back at 4:00
• A couple hours my ASS!!
• After they got back Zack decided to play in the dirt
• And then the water
• There was not a spot of exposed skin that was clean
• I stripped him in their entry way and threw him in the shower at my parents house with explicit instructions... DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!
• Jess and Shane then met us and we went for dinner
• Zack didn't get to bed until 10:00 on Saturday night
• Sunday morning I was awakened by my cell phone at 9:45 in the morning
• Zack was still asleep
• He finally got out of bed at 10:15
• It was heavenly but I got NOTHING done
• We had a family reunion so we left the house about 10:30
• We got back home at 5:00 last night
• Zack fell asleep so I let him take a little nap while I mowed the lawn
• I got the mower stuck in the front ditch on my first pass
• It sucked and I almost cried
• Luckily my neighbor came and helped me
• I was done by 6:30 and then I proceeded to try to do everything that I needed to do this weekend in a span of 3 hours
• I switched all of Zack's clothes from 2T to 3T
• I did three loads of laundry
• Then I collapsed into bed
• I got up at 5:30 with grand ambitions of finishing the rest
• I got a lot of things up into the attic
• But I also was spectacularly late this morning
• I considered just working until noon, going home and going back to bed and starting my day over about 4:00
• I stayed here instead

So, all of that excitement into one bullet pointed post... at least you got the highlights :-)

The Sky Is Falling

Morning Conversations:

****************

I want cold pizza

We are not having cold pizza for breakfast. You are going to have cereal and toast at daycare.

I want cold pizza.....

No, let's go upstairs and get dressed.

I WANT COLD PIZZA.... (tears have come.....)

One, Two......

****************

Why you eat all the Cheetos?

Because Mommy just ate them. It's ok, we don't need them now, we can get more tonight.

I WANT CHEETOS.... (tears again....)....

AHHHH!!! CHEETOS..... AHHHH!!!!

(Literally 5 minutes of me dressing him while he cries and screams about Cheetos....)

*********************

Alright, let's get your coat on it's time to go.

I want a banana.

No, you are eating at daycare.

I WANT A BANANA....(more tears....)

********************

Believe me when I tell you I did not shed any tears when I dropped him off this morning!! :-)

Emergency Situation

Mommy!! Ahhh!! Ahhh!! Sooss offf!! Sooosss Off!! Ahhhh!!!

Zackary Alan WHAT are you screaming about??

You need to take my socks off mommy!

That's it? That is what you were screaming about? Was that really worth screaming about?

Yeah!
***********
I can feel the gray hairs already!!

Blog Award

Hey... I got an award...

Lindsay over at Living Life Backwards bestowed this upon me... isn't it lovely??

I think someone might have given me one before but I'm bad... I mean REALLY bad about getting these things up... mostly because I don't ever know who to name as passing the award on to. So... here are the rules....

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

And here is me breaking the rules....

I'm going to update my blog links this weekend. If you are over there.... then I read you and in my book... YOU are a lovely blogger so feel free to consider that my notice that you have also been given this award!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!!

I can't make this stuff up

Two or three months ago the transmission went out on my car. Yeah... the car I just bought last Summer. It was under warranty so they fixed it and four days later.... (yeah... four days, no car) I got my car back.

While it was there I mentioned to them that I needed some coolant because my car seemed to be low on coolant. I ended up buying some from them and then proceeded to have to refill my coolant every 2 weeks, all the while thinking this is probably not normal, I should probably call them and get it back in..... but I didn't.... I just went about my day.....

Until Tuesday. On Tuesday I drove my car out of the driveway and headed for daycare and all of the sudden the check engine light came on... and then the automatic throttle light came on and then I freaked out a bit imagining myself as one of those people who's throttle sticks down and they are going 100 on the interstate with no way to stop their speeding car.

So, as soon as I dropped Zack off I got out the owner's manual and read exactly what that light meant. Feeling fairly confident that I would not, in fact be careening to my death while driving I headed straight for the dealership.

When I got out of the car he asked me what the issue was. Well... the check engine light is on, oh and the automatic throttle light was on, and it needs and oil change and oh yeah... it has been leaking coolant from somewhere for the last couple of months. (Thinking one had nothing to do with the other.)

I was wrong. My radiator had a hole in it. The check engine light came on because the coolant got too low. The automatic throttle light... possibly just a fluke. And then... once again... I was without a car. (Luckily only for one day)

Why does this stuff happen to me? (Jess you are not allowed to make comments about what kind of car or where I bought the car. I already realize the error of my ways... I can't change it now!! :-)

First Movie

On Sunday I took Zack to see his very first movie in the theater. I have been wanting to take him for awhile but there has been a serious lack of cartoon type movies in the theaters lately. So when I saw last week that Disney was releasing a new one I decided we would go.

Little did I know, they were releasing it in 3-D. ONLY 3-D. Now how in the world was I going to get my 2 year old to sit through an entire movie wearing 3-D glasses?

Unfortunately, by the time I realized it was in 3-D I had already asked him if he wanted to go and told him we would go on the weekend. I don't know what other two year olds are like but mine has the mind of an Elephant. This kid does not forget ANYTHING!!

On Saturday when I picked him up from my parent's house he asked if we were going to the big movie and then proceeded to cry when I told him not today. So, I lied... through my teeth and told him it was broken. Yup... definitely broken BUT... by tomorrow it would be fixed.

He seemed ok with that but first thing Sunday reminded me again that the movie wasn't broken any more. So I spent Sunday morning telling him he had to sit through the whole thing and wear glasses, like his sun glasses.

I had planned to take him to the 2:20 movie but when I went upstairs to wake him at 1:45 he told me he wanted to go later. Lo and behold... 2:35... Mommy I waked up!! I want to go to the big movie now!!

So I ended up taking him to the 4:15 show. He did AWESOME!! He sat in his own seat the whole time with his GIANT bug eyed glasses on.

He even entertained the theater with a few, "Wow... that was scary's", My kid... the comedian.

As soon as it was over, his first comment was I wanna watch it again. So I guess the next kids movie, I know where we will be.

WW: Best Friends

Day OMG are we done yet...

So I think that yesterday was day three... I'm not sure because I wanted to give up on day one so one... three... it's all the same to me. I sort of eased into this slowly so last night was my first real night of sit-ups PLUS the 30 day shred.

Yeah... I suck. 1st of all... I am HORRIBLY out of shape so the sit-up's alone take me an ungodly amount of time. Then you add in the 20 minute video and I thought I was going to die by like minute 5. It's a good damn thing that none of my windows to the street were open because people would have gotten one hell of a funny looking show!!

My only real success last night was dinner. Parmesan Crusted Pork Loin and Corn. Yeah me... so at least that is one meal. Now... about the rest of the dinners for the next 4 months.... :-)

I was going to take before and after pictures but I'm pretty sure the before pictures might break my camera and it's a nice camera and it would be a shame to break it so you'll just have to take my word for it... horribly out of shape and needing to loose about 20- 30 pounds.

Let the fun continue....

Day One...

I will never survive. This is what I thought to myself as I had oranges and water for breakfast yesterday and corn and pears for dinner.

My two Challenges:

Eat a healthy breakfast
No carbs or only Healthy carbs for dinner and it has to be before 7:00pm

As an added bonus - 45 situps per day, 45 more each time I cheat


First of all, I think I need to shop. Secondly I think I need to cook. Thirdly... who the hell talked me in to giving up ANY control of what or when I eat?

I think the situps are going to be the easy part of this challenge. I could totally do 135 situps per day!! :-)

Self Image

I suppose this could be my Friday Confessionals post but it's Saturday so we're just going to go with that title up there. Let's see... self image.

On Monday Jess and I will start a weight loss/healthier life challenge. In October we are going to Tybee Island and I would LOVE to feel better about myself and my body by then. I bought the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred tapes and some hand weights and there are also some crunches I'm supposed to do. That's 4.5 per day right Jess? As if four and a half??

Anyway, all of this has got me thinking a lot about my own self image and in turn how I judge others. All of my life I have always been attracted to the muscular, if somewhat stalky, man. In high school there were a couple of guys who may have been interested in me but they were bigger guys so I never gave them the time of day.

As I read back through my journals they are filled with guys I dated, guys I was friends with, etc. Yet everything seems so superficial to me. The guys that were actually REALLY nice to me I was not interested in because I wasn't "attracted" to. The guys I was attracted to were never really nice to me.

So, now that I'm in the process of a divorce I'm trying to dig deep and look at the things that are really important to me. At some point I would like to start dating again and I would like to think that I am a more mature, better person now. Yet, part of me still questions this. Could I date a guy who was not that physically attractive but who treated me like the Queen of England?

I think a lot of this stems back to the fact that I'm not comfortable with who I am and so therefore I'm trying to pick someone good looking to make me feel better about myself. When really, I need to be comfortable in my own skin and date someone who is comfortable in theirs.

So, here's my question to you... could you/would you/have you dated a person who you did not find physically attractive but with whom you had a lot in common with or really liked their personality? Why or why not. There are no wrong answers here and feel free to comment anonymously if you're worried about being judged.

Hey Blog!!

Hey... is anyone still out there? How have you been? I have missed you!!

I told my story at an Al-anon meeting on Tuesday and so for the last two weeks if I have been doing any writing at all it has been on that. The speech was 45 minutes and I think, at least I hope, that I helped at least a few people in the process. If in no other way than it was helpful to see that someone had been where they were. They weren't the only one that had been through things and this person in front of them had made it to the other side.

I will be writing a lot of the story over there (If you are not sure where that is drop me an e-mail) and also am considering submitting some of it to some Al-anon news letters and even trying to put it into book format. Of course I have a long way to go but it was SOO therapeutic for me to just get most of it out there that if anything I have to say can help someone else I want to do it.

So... what else is going on? My baby is getting bigger every day. He is SOO smart and he continually keeps me on my toes. Last night he continued his cooking lessons with my mom while I went out with a friend.

From what I was told when I picked him up this morning she had to put in extra chocolate chips to make up for the handfuls that he shoved in his mouth after he poured in the first cup but before she could get the second cup measured and to him to dump in.

As far as I'm concerned it's a good dang thing she is teaching him to cook because he sure as hell isn't going to learn it from mommy!!

So, speech is over, life is moving on and hopefully I will be back for good now. Sorry to be away so long!!

Success!!

I have 130 blogs in my bloglines. Some of them update daily, some weekly and some perhaps once every month or two.

In the last four months I have seen the number of unread blogs go from 0 to well over 600. I didn't want to just mark them all as read since I may actually miss something.

What can I say, I'm obsessed. So, slowly, every day I have read a few more. Trying to keep up on the ones I got caught up on and getting caught up on one or two more each day.

Today, for the first time since I believe January or February I finally have NO unread posts in my bloglines. Can you believe it??

Success people!! It feels so good!!

BFF

Zack & Sam have been friends since they were in-utero. (I'll spare you those pictures) You should see Zack's face light up every time I mention Sammy. I'm not sure if they will always be friends, but I hope so!! Katie got some great pictures of the two of them a few weeks ago and then again this weekend.

Friday Confessionals

I would LOVE to stand on a stage and look out into 10,000 chairs. To be able to see what it feels like up there looking out on all of that.


Last night Katie and I went to the Kenny Chesney concert. She got free tickets through her work and the whole time, as I looked down on that stage all I could think about was what it would feel like to stand on it. To hear my voice echo throughout the arena. It could be empty, while I LOVE to sing, I'm not sure that I'm concert worthy but it would still be pretty cool even if the chairs were empty.

WW: I'm coming

I don't have the pictures because Miss Jessica says they are too big to e-mail so I'm going to have to send you over there to visit them but please know that they are very much adorable and very much worth the time to click on the link....

Letting Go

Letting go does not mean to stop caring
it just means I can't do it for someone else.

Letting go is not to cut myself off --
it's the realization I can't control another.

Letting go is not to enable --
but to allow learning from natural consequences.

Letting to is to admit powerlessness --
which means the outcome is not in my hands.

Letting go is not to change or blame another --
it's to make the most of myself.

Letting go is not to car for -- but to care about.

Letting go is not to fix -- but to be supportive.

It is not to judge but to allow another to be a human being.

Letting go is not to be in the middle arranging the outcome --
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

Letting go is not to be protective --
it's to permit another to face reality.

Letting go is not to deny -- but to accept.

Letting go is not to nag, scold or argue --
but instead to seek out my own shortcomings and correct them.

Letting go is not to adjust everything to my own desires --
but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.

Letting go is not to criticize and regulate anybody --
but to try to become what I dream I can be.

Letting go is not to regret the past --
but to grow and live for the future.

Letting go is to fear less and live more.

**If you're looking for me... I'm hiding out over there today.**

The 1st Anniversary....

It's late and I should probably go to bed but I have just been to a movie and had WAY more Mt. Dew than one person should consume in a week, let alone one evening so I'm a little wound for sound.

Did I tell you all that today is my birthday? (For the next 19 minutes anyway) and I have been thinking a lot today about these last 29 years. How did I get here and more importantly where the hell am I going?

A friend of mine wrote a list of 29 things about herself when she turned 29 last month and since I am in a place where I am deciding who I am and who I am not, I thought I would do something a little different... but a list just the same. So here goes.....

I have never:

1) Been arrested

2) Had a one night stand

3) Been Drunk

4) Smoked anything (Cigarettes or otherwise)

5) Taken any drug that was not prescription

6) Stolen anything (although there was one incident where I picked up a grape that had fallen on the floor and my mother THOUGHT I stole it but I swear... totally just picking it up to throw away. Who would steal a grape anyway??)

7) Been to Europe

8) Been to a Rock Concert

9) Been Para sailing (Or really anything that requires my feet to be off of the ground in such a manner that I could... oh I don't know... PLUMMET TO MY DEATH!!)

10) Had a picture of me taken in less than a bathing suit


I Have:

11) Given birth

12) Been to South America

13) Loved someone so much it hurt

14) Cried so hard I threw up

15) Laughed until I peed my pants

16) Traveled to almost all of the continental 48 states

17) Graduated from College

18) Passed the CPA on the first try

19) Made friends here with people I have never met

20) Discovered more about life in the last four months than I had in the previous 344 (yes that's months... yes I used a calculator)


I am:

21) A woman

22) A mother

23) A daughter

24) A sister

25) A single parent

26) An optimist

27) An animal lover

28) A true blue country fan

29) A person who is finally learning who they are and loving every minute of it



Thank you all for being here on the 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday!! Here's to happy times ahead!!

Dish the Dirt

Miss Jessica would like your advice... she is about to make a large purchase and wants to know your thoughts.

My vacuum is an Electrolux. It was purchased second hand but it seems to do a great job when I use it. The cleaning lady, I'm not sure what she has but I'm pretty sure it is run more in my house than mine is.


We are preparing to purchase a new vacuum this weekend, replacing the hand-me-down given to us when we purchased our house from my parents.I have researched and read reviews for hours now but still can not decide. I am strongly leaning toward a Dyson D17 Animal but choke when I get to the $550 price tag.In talking to several people I am coming to the realization this is a moderate price for a good vacuum cleaner which makes handing over the cash non the less easy.If I am spending that much money I should be able to wear it, ride it, or visit it!

What kind of Dirt “Diva” do you use? What are your recommendations; the good, the bad, and the dirtiest? I would like something bag-less geared toward animals and hyper-allergenic.


Dish me the Dirt….I can take it!

Friday Confessionals

I am a horrible listener and even worse remember. I'm not sure if this makes me a horrible friend or just a person who needs to pay the F^%$ attention.

My friends tell me things they've done, places they are going, etc. I'll be damned if I can remember that when it actually happens. I have one friend who will remember that 3 weeks ago I told her I was getting my hair cut at 8:00 on Saturday morning and then she might even call and see if I need her to watch Zack.

Me... yeah not so much. She could tell me on Thursday night that she is going out of town on Friday and without fail I will call Friday night and ask her what she's up to.

I feel bad about this, I really do but I do NOT remember these things. I have a hard enough time remembering my own schedule that's why I keep it in a planner.

So if you tell me you are doing something and I call you and act all oblivious, it's not an act, I'm really that oblivious.