Friday, January 27, 2006

Date Night

Rusty and I had a deal that once a month we would go out, just the 2 of us, to dinner and a movie. We call it date night. We get to talk about adult things (as much "adult" as you can get with my husband who is like a 5 year old in an adult body) and just spend time together. Over the last few months we had gotten away from that with all the chaos in our family and with the holidays it just wasn't happening. Today he called me at work and asked me out on a date. He said we needed to get back our together time. So we raced home from work to get an early start. Wayne had gone to my parents and Ashleigh was going to watch Blake. Now, with us it's always a major decision where to go to eat. That's a very important decision. We finally decided on Glory Days Grill, we've never been there and we like to try out new places on date night. We got there and there wasn't a parking spot to be had. We drove around and around and still nothing. So, we decided to go to old faithful, Chili's. It was wonderful, as usual. Rusty is really boring about his food, he's not into trying anything new. So as usual, he ordered a steak. I had fajitas. We were going to go to the movies, but there isn't anything playing that we could go to without feeling guilty because the kids want to see the same movies. So we went window shopping, bought a couple things because what good is window shopping if you don't buy at least one thing. We did make a stop at the Books A Million to pick up a couple books, Linens and Things (Rusty is into anything that is a kitchen gadget, so it is very dangerous to take him in there, he is always finding one more "As Seen On TV" item that he just has to have), bought some baby things for my nephew's wife's baby shower on Sunday and Rusty found a new Under Armour shirt at T.J. Maxx. He loves that material and wears it all the time. If you can find them at T.J. Maxx you can get them for $20.00 verses the $50.00 they normally cost, so I consider that a good deal. We had a good time just being together. When we got home Ashleigh was watching The Princess Diaries. I love that movie.
We are making our trip to Waldorf, MD. tomorrow to pick up the dining room chairs I bought off e-bay. I can't wait to get them.
I'm glad this week is over, the last 2 weeks have been horrible at work and I am hoping next week will start out better. I guess it has to, it couldn't get much worse.
Have a great night.
Bridget

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Men

What is it about men that the thought of going to the dentist turns them into whining little boys? Rusty hates the dentist, I mean absolutely loathes the dentist. I don't understand it, it has never bothered me, but when you mention the "d" word to him his voice gets high and it's "Whyyyyy, I don't need to go to the dentist." Now, Rusty had a total knee replacement in December 2004 and he has to go to the dentist every 6 months (like he's supposed to anyway) because if he gets any kind of infection it could go to his replacement and cause him alot of problems. This is my 6'1" husband who kills my spiders for me (I hate spiders), takes me to scary movies so I can watch through my fingers, even though he hates scary movies but he doesn't have to do that much anymore because my brother and my 2 older kids go with me, he will walk the dog in the rain, drive 2 hours, 1 way, to pick up chairs I bought on ebay (I got a great deal) but he has to be beat to make him go to the dentist. I don't think I will ever understand that.
There's not alot going on around here right now. Ashleigh and Wayne had exams the last 2 days but they both thought they did really good so now they have the next 2 days off. They are both looking forward to that. Blake is just looking forward to sleeping in. Ashleigh is in the middle of begging me to let her take Blake with her and her friend Candace tomorrow to pick up their paychecks, get their hair trimmed and go out to lunch. That child drives me crazy sometimes, but this crazy is much better than the crazy from 4 months ago. 4 months doesn't sound like a long time but to me it seems like forever ago. It truly is "but for the grace of God" that we are at this place in our lives with her now. I thank God everyday for his blessings and love. We have found another church to try. It's not that far from our house and we had talked about trying it but we never had. Ashleigh went there last Sunday with a friend and loved it. She said we absolutely have to go there this Sunday. So, we will try it. We have tried a bunch of churches around here but just couldn't find one that felt like home. Maybe this will be "our" church. I hope so, I really miss being part of a church family. We had found a church that we liked but it just didn't have that home feeling we were looking for. The kids liked it, they had an early service 8:00 (which I loved) and it was a contemporary service with a band. That was different than what I grew up with. We were very involved with church, visitation (teen and bus) and we were there every day the doors were open. But it was so strict, sometimes I think that was good but it was also very bad (your convictions should be yours and you should not force them onto other people). So....maybe this will be that home church we are both longing for. Rusty grew up in a church just like I did and he wants a preacher that is going to scare him into being good. ha ha Pray for us and our renewed search for our church.
Well, I am headed to bed, good night and have a great day.
Bridget

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Help

I think I am going to be buried under all of the stuff that we have pulled from Ashleigh's room. How did one person get so much stuff in one room? You can't even get to our dining room. Rusty is sanding the walls and getting white dust on everything. Actually, he looks quite cute covered in dust. He worked on her room most of the day. We bought the paint last night, if you happen to be in Home Depot (Rusty's toy store, he is only allowed in there if I am there to guard the credit card), take a trip over to the paint samples and look at "Sleeping Beauty Pink", "Tigger's tummy", and "Orange Blast". It is going to be quite colorful. The pink is on top, then chair rail with the yellow (Tiggers tummy), and then the orange on the bottom. We went and she picked out her new furniture. She wants white so she picked out a bed with the storage drawers under it and an entertainment center that also holds clothes. When we get it done it will look really good. At least I will continue to tell Rusty how good it looks because he is really against all the colors.
Before we went to get paint we went to Texas for dinner. That is a trip in it's own on a Friday night. There was a wait of about 30 minutes, which wasn't actually too bad, but what amazes me is that people, with children, waiting for their tables will take their children into the bar area to wait. Why would you take a child into a bar? I really do not understand that. We finally get seated, we order our food and we are just sitting there talking and having a good time. All of a sudden, Blake says "I'm not going to do it." We look at him and ask him what is he talking about. He says "Toot, I have to but I'm not going to." (We don't say fart in our house, Rusty absolutely hates that word, that was a bad word in his house when he was growing up, it doesn't stop him from doing it just calling it that.) I thought Rusty and Ashleigh were going to fall off their chairs laughing. I kept looking around trying to figure out if anyone had heard him.
Ashleigh and I escaped all the dust today and hit Kohl's for a little shopping. She needed some new pants for work and I still had some money left on my gift cards I got for Christmas. I picked up a great skirt and sweater, $5.00 for the skirt and $12.00 for the sweater. There were having a great sale.
Tomorrow it will be more painting and sanding and lots and lots of laundry, I have fallen behind on that this week. Oh well, we haven't run out of clean clothes yet so we are still good.
Have a great night.
Bridget

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

American Idol

Is anyone else as addicted to American Idol as I am? I am ashamed to admit it but I can't move from in front of the tv when it is on. I love Simon, he is so mean but he makes me laugh so much. I'm not quite sure what that says about me, but it is funny.
Ashleigh went out Friday night with the "hot" guy from Wal-Mart. He is a really cute boy and he's very polite. That's a plus to me, he could be butt kissing but that's ok I like a kid that is going to at least try to make me like him. He is home schooled which, while mine aren't, I consider that a plus. He is 18, but according to Rusty he looks older. I told Rusty he looked older when he was 18 also and he needed to remember that. I can't believe she is going on dates with an 18 year old, but she is going to be 17 in February. I can't believe I have a child that old, I can't be that much older than 18 myself. ha ha ha Ok, you can stop laughing, it's not that funny. They went to a basketball game at Ashleigh's school, he took her out to dinner and then she came home. Her curfew was 11 and she was home by 9:30. I think that is incredible considering all that we have gone through the past 5 months. God really does answer your prayers and even when you think you are at the darkest point He is always there leading you out.
My parents and brother came over Saturday to watch the Redskins game. They lost, it was a sad time at our house. We had a horrible wind storm during the game and ........ the electricity went out, right after halftime. Now you have to know my husband, I thought the man was going to cry. It was off for 4 hours, so needless to say we missed the last half of the game. He kept running out, in the 60 mile an hour wind, to the car to listen to his satallite radio. We did have good food though before the electricity went out, homemade chili, cornbread and chicken wings.
Friday night Wayne and I went to see the movie Hostel. If you like scary movies, it's scary. But, it's "real" scary, if you know what I mean. It wasn't alot of blood and guts, it was based on true events so that made it "real". I have never had a movie affect me the way this one did and I have seen them all. I've been watching scary movies for as long as I can remember and I have raised all 3 kids on scary movies. I know I am a bad parent for that but I do have to say they love them. Ashleigh, Steven and I went to see Wolf Creek the week before and that was pretty good too.
Sunday was nice, Ashleigh was at work, Wayne was with Steven and Rusty took Blake and went to visit his Mom for the day. I was home by myself and that doesn't happen very often. I did some laundry, read a book and played a game on the computer. Alot of nothing but it was nice nothing.
Well, I am headed to bed, have a great night.
Bridget

Thursday, January 12, 2006

10 items or less

Can anyone tell me what 10 items or less means? Does it mean 10 carts full of stuff or less? NNNOOOOO. Does it mean 1 cart full of stuff? Again, NNOOOOOOO. It means 10 physical items in your cart or less. What is so hard about the meaning of this statement and what makes some people so incredible stupid, ignorant or just plain indifferent to the fact that they have way too many items in their cart for this line? Also, why does Wal-Mart (and I love Wal-Mart) make the 1 10 items or less aisle open tonight the only aisle you can buy tobacco products? I go in, drop Ashleigh off to work and get the things I need. I had a full cart so of course I used common sense and went through the correct line. Stupid me, I forgot something and did not remember until I was loading the car. So I run back in, grab it and get in line. I swear to you they had 4 lines open, they are all forever long with people that look like they have been standing there since yesterday (and I know they weren't there when I checked out, so I am still trying to figure out where they came from), so I head to the "10 items or less with my 1 item and there are 4 people in front of me and 2 of them have carts that I am not sure how they pushed them through the store. I stand there for a few minutes glancing at the sign stating these 2 people are clearing in the wrong line and the woman 2 people in front of me sees me looking at the sign, she looks at the woman in front of her and says "I didn't realize this was a 10 item or less line". The woman looks at her and says "I did but I want cigarettes." The 1 woman says "I don't think the people behind us are very happy with us" to which the 2nd woman answers "I really don't care what they aren't happy with, they are going to have to wait." WHAT???!!!! How rude is that?! I gave her the evil eye, and ask Rusty I am really good at that, and I turned and walked away. I really do not understand people and bad behavior. Be couteous to people around you and treat people the way you want them to treat you.
Well, it's almost time for baseball signups. The boys are getting excited and digging their equipment out. It has been a nice break from all the running but I have missed seeing the other parents at practice and games. This will be Wayne's 7th year playing and some of the boys he has been with since the beginning. It really is a lot of fun.
We are starting to really get geared up for our cruise. The plans have changed a little because of the hurricanes that hit out there. We are going to Mexico. This will be our 2nd cruise, the first with my parents and brother. We went almost 2 years ago with Rusty's 2 brothers and their wives. We went to Nassau, Key West (been there before it wasn't that big a deal but Rusty hadn't been there so he enjoyed it) and Freeport. We swam with dolphins, snorkeled with stingrays and went parasailing. The parasailing was incredible. We had so much fun, I can't wait to go on this one. We will be going in April. We have to get passports, something we've never had to do before, so that will be a new experience. If you have never been on a cruise, go, run, book one as fast as you can. It it an awesome experience. The casino was incredible. The first day we were at sea everyone I was traveling with was laid up in bed sick. Rusty's middle brother wasn't quite as sick but he wasn't feeling well. I was the only one that was not affected by sea sickness, so I spent the better part of the day in the casino. I had a great day and won over $100. I thought that was pretty good, I didn't fair quite as good the rest of the week, but I had a great time playing. I'm a small time gambler, quarter slots. Big spender, huh? Oh, and the drinks, oh the drinks. They are constantly walking around serving you drinks and you don't hand them any money, you just give them your "fun card" and they charge it to that. It's like not spending money at all, right? WRONG!!!! You can check your account on the interactive tv in your room and you would be surprised to find how fast that sweet little drinks add up. But anyway, it is a great vacation and it comes highly recommended.
Well, I think I am headed to bed. Have a great night.
Bridget

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Kids rooms

Rusty has started the long tedious ordeal of painting Ashleigh's room. This is quite the undertaking as Ashleigh has had probably thousands of posters, pictures and other things taped, thumb tacked and stuck to the wall by any means possible. We made her take all of that down but we had to get a huge bucket of mud to cover the walls with. Rusty said he came across glow in the dark stickers that spelled out her name and the name of one of her friends. You couldn't see them until you touched the wall in that spot. I just stood there, laughed at him and ducked as he threw things at me. She wants the room painted pink on the top half of the wall, orange on the bottom and chair rail painted yellow in the middle. It is going to be very colorful but I guess it could be worse. I did get a new digital camera for Christmas (I love it, it's wonderful) but our computer has a problem and it won't load the pictures. We are looking into a new computer in the next couple weeks so hopefully I will be able to post some pictures of the progress or at least the end result.
I work in an extremely busy 6 doctor pediatrician office. Please, if you have little children who have just gotten shots and are crying, please, please pick them up, hug them and love them. I walked by an exam room the other day and I could hear the baby crying in there. I glanced in as I walked by (I always look it, I love the little babies) and the baby was lying on the exam table with the mom standing by just looking at the baby. She was just standing there staring at the baby. I wanted to go in, push her aside and pick that baby up. It was a 2 month old who had just gotten shots for the first time. How a parent could stand there and watch a little baby just cry is beyond me. But I don't understand alot of the things some of the parents in our office do to their children. People are really mean to children and the way they yell at them and talk to them is unbelievable. I really just don't get it.
I need prayers for a friend of mine at work. Her granddaughter is in the hospital, she has asthma really bad, and she needs all the prayers she can get. She has a really bad home life also.
Well, I am headed to bed, have a great evening.
Bridget

Monday, January 09, 2006

Back to the grind

Christmas and New year's are over and it's back to a regular work week. You know, does anyone find that depressing? I feel like the holidays, sometimes, are a let down when it is all over. There is such a build up, and now before Halloween there are Christmas decorations, and everyone is so excited and then it's over. We have such a wonderful holiday season with family and friends and then it's over. People have forgotten what Christmas is all about and the true meaning. Some of the stores this year changed signs so they didn't read "Merry Christmas" because they don't want to offend anyone. Why isn't anyone concerned with the fact that they might be offending Christians by doing that? It really makes me angry.
We have an incredibly busy Christmas day. We get up at the crack of dawn (even if we didn't have anywhere to be we would be up early, Rusty is the worst of the kids), have Christmas at home, load up the car and go to my parents to have Christmas with them. My Grandparents were here this year so that was really nice, my Grandfather is 80 and my Grandmother is 75 so they don't do alot of traveling. We really enjoyed visiting with them. Then we all piled into the cars and went to Steven's. Normally, Steven is at my parents but he had to work Christmas Eve and then go back to work Christmas night so we went to his house. After leaving Steven's we came home, unloaded the car, reloaded it with presents for Rusty's side of the family and headed to his Mom's. When you get all of us there the house is bursting at the seams but we wouldn't have it any other way. She makes a huge breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausage, gravy and papa bread (this is fried bread that Rusty's Grandfather ate everyday of his life), fresh fruit, country ham and fried oysters. YUCK The fried oysters are tradition for them, I just can't stomach them. We got Blake to try one this year and he liked it. He's the only one of my 3 kids that we have been able to con into trying one and he actually liked it. Everyone then gathers in the living room and dining room and we open presents. It's alot of fun. We then load the car again, go back to our house and unload and head back to my Mom and Dad's to have dinner. It is a very long day but what would a holiday be without family.
New year's eve is fun, my parents and brother come over, once again there is lots of food and we play games. This year we got my Dad to play Twister. That was quite a sight. There was alot of laughing and falling down.
We have had 1 sick kid after another in this house. Last Thursday it was Blake, Friday it was Wayne and then today was Ashleigh. Thank God there was no vomiting. Ashleigh was the only one that really had it bother her stomach, the other 2 had the fever, headache and sore throat. I think everyone is healthy and on the mend.
Ashleigh started her new job last weekend and she loves it. She is working at Wal-Mart and that is the perfect job for her. She is such a people person and loves to talk. I wonder where she got that from? (grin) She has already picked out the "hot" guys and she is having a great time. It is so nice to see her acting like a teenager and not some pod person that I thought had taken her place a couple months ago.
Melissa, sorry I've been gone for a little while, I promise not to let that happen again. ha ha
Have a great evening.
Bridget