Catching up

So what was on your menu for dinner tonight? I wasn't sure what we were having and then it came to me:

We were having cat soup. This is Lilly and it doesn't matter what it is, a box, bag, or my soup pot if she can get to it, she is in it. I keep this in the basement on a shelf and it was waiting at the top of the step to be carried back downstairs. She loves to hide in the case of water in the kitchen and jump out when you walk by or stick your hand in trying to get a bottle.

We've been pretty busy around here. Blake finally got to have his Valentine's party at school. I took the afternoon off from work and went to help out his party. They all had a great time and got way too much candy. One of the nice things was the teacher had asked for fruit and vegetables also. There were alot of kids eating that also. I'm not saying they weren't flying high on sugar but they were eating something else also. Blake took his teddy bear to give to Alexis and the whole time I was there I kept asking him "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" He would just look at me and say "No! I will do it myself." When he came home I asked him if he gave it to her and he said yes but that she had given it back and said she didn't like it. Oh, you want to talk about a mad mom. I was hot, I was going out to track down this little spoiled 8 year old who had hurt my baby. She was so going down. I didn't let him know how much it upset me, I just kept telling him not to worry about it. Later on Wayne told me he thought that Blake had gotten scared and never tried to give it to her. I asked Blake about it and he finally confessed that he hadn't taken it to her because "I was too nervous." He was worried I would be mad at him. My baby is still a baby, thank you God. I told him I would never be mad at him because of something like that. So, Ashleigh is now the proud owner of a new very soft pink teddy bear.

We woke up Sunday to a winter wonderland. It was beautiful!! All in all we got 9 inches of snow and the kids had the time of their lives, even Ashleigh got out there and went sledding. Blake will stay outside until his hands turn black and fall off. Wayne helped him build a nice size snowman in the front yard.

Wayne ordered his class ring on Monday. ACCCKKKK. I don't know if I am ready to start getting another one ready to graduate. I haven't made it through Ashleigh yet. I thought she was going to have a meltdown last week. I single handedly was ruining her senior year. I really didn't know I had that kind of power, bwahahah. She wanted to go to Myrtle Beach for a week the week after graduation with a bunch of friends. No adults, don't you know they are adults, they are 18 now, no supervision and it would be boys and girls. Rusty and I talked about it, I talked about it with my Mom ( thanks Mom, she always has good advice) and we told her no. We didn't like the idea of any of that. She was so upset. Mom suggested she take a friend to their house. It's on the beach, there is alot to do and it's free. At first she didn't like the idea, that would be boring, but she called me the next day and asked if I thought they would let her take 3 friends with her. Mom said that would be fine, so now Ashleigh is happy again. My parents will be taking Ashleigh on a cruise in September for graduation to the Virgin Islands. She is definitely not deprived.

Wayne is wanting to go to Steven's for spring break. They are really close and Wayne is dying to get spend some time with him, he has really missed him since he moved. I've really missed him, I was so used to having him and my parents here, but no whining tonight. I got to spend all day with my parents on Saturday helping them pack and go through things. They ended up leaving Saturday night to go home though because of the threat of snow later that night. It was good that they left early but it did cut in on my time with them.

Well, I guess that's about enough from me for tonight, I have to go vote for American Idol. Yes, I am an American Idol junkie. Has anyone watched the show after it "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" ? I can tell you I might need to go back to school, those kids scare me.

Good night.

Who Knew....

I did not know that you could buy frozen vegetables that are specifically for stew. Did you? Well, now tell the truth, did you really? We've tried a couple new recipes around here this week and they have turned out wonderful. Like I've said before, we love to eat around here. Monday we had Parmesan pork chops, they were incredible. Tonight we had chicken stew. It was really good and so easy and simple. It called for a bag (in our family you use 3 bags and triple the recipe) of frozen vegetables for stew. I had never heard of that before, but off to the grocery store Wayne and I went to search these out. Well, guess what? We found them, I didn't even know they existed. How very cool is that? So we had chicken, frozen vegetables for stew, a little dried thryme, some rubbed sage and wala, chicken stew.
We are finally starting to thaw out. It's about time. The snow was beautiful but the ice we could have done without. Last Wednesday I told Blake that he could not go outside Thursday because the ice was dangerous and it was going to be too cold. When I got home he was outside, in his snowsuit, but no hat. As cold as it was and the child is outside with no hat. I wanted to strangle him. I got out of the car and told him to get his butt in the house and that I couldn't believe he was out there after being told he had to stay in and he wan't wearing a hat. He looked at me and started crying. I said "What are you crying about?" He said he had fallen and hit his head before I got home. I am normally a very sympathetic person, but this was obviously a play to make me forget about the fact that he wasn't supposed to be out there at all. I told him to go in the house and we would put some ice on it, then he looked at me like I was crazy. The next thing out of his mouth was "Ice, I fell on the ice, ice isn't going to help. You don't even care that I got hurt." I told him he wouldn't have gotten hurt if he'd stayed in the house like I told him to. Like I said I am a very sympathetic person but I also know that this little 8 year old can be very good at changing the subject to keep himself out of trouble. My brother was like that when we were growing up, God help me.
I am headed to bed, good night and God Bless.

Back to Work

Well, we still have a lot of ice but Rusty and I did make it to work today. He went in early so he could take me and not worry about me. It was really nice, with 3 kids we don't get many times when it's just the 2 of us. To have each other's undivided attention was a real treat. School has once again been canceled for tomorrow. The kids are enjoying the break but Blake is a little upset. My little romeo has a Valentine for his girlfriend, Alexis,
and he is dying to give it to her. Isn't it cute? That purple wall behind the bear, yes that is in our house, actually it's in the bedroom. When I picked that color, Rusty said only a married man could have that color in his house, especially the bedroom. I like it.



I met Rusty my junior year of high school in Spanish class and the first thing he ever bought me was a beautiful white teddy bear with a pink ribbon around it's neck. I still have it. Rusty really is a romantic at heart, he loves to tell people that he can remember exactly what I was wearing the first time he saw me. I had just transferred to from a very small Christian School to a very large public high school. Talk about a culture shock. I was scared to death. I walked into that class and the teacher told me to find an empty seat. Rusty stood up and said "There's a seat right here in front of me". The rest is history. Our senior year he brought me a single red rose everyday and sent me a dozen long stem red roses every month. His friends used to give him a hard time about it but he never cared. Here was this big football player waiting every morning for me with that rose. He was such an sweetie and he still is. So, I'm pretty sure my youngest had inherited this romantic heart from his Dad. I just hope this little girl appreciates him. They are both 8 and if she breaks his little heart I might just have to have a talk with her. ha ha ha Blake asked me yesterday if Daddy had asked me to be his Valentine yet. I told him I was always Daddy's Valentine and Blake informed me that because it was Valentine's Day Daddy had to ask me.
My family is very excitedly awaiting the arrival of a new member of the family. Tomorrow we will be getting Tivo. You would think we were adopting a baby or something. Actually, I think the kids wouldn't be this excited about a baby. They keep talking about what they want to record. I'm excited because I can record Lost and not sit up so late.
My Mom and Dad were supposed to come up this way this weekend and we were going to help them pack and go through things at the house but they are calling for possible snow Saturday and Sunday so I'm not sure if they will be here or not. I hope they will be able to make it but the mountain they have to cross could be dangerous and considering all the ice from this week it may not be safe this weekend. Maybe next weekend.
Have a great night!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. What do you plan to do today for your sweetie? We are iced in here at our house so we really don't have alot planned for the day. It's fun to be stuck in the house, for a while anyway. You know, a day, possibly 2 days but I think by the end of the second day everyone is just trying to keep out of everyone else's way. We got the kids each a card and some candy. We don't buy presents or anything like that for them. They were thrilled with the candy, they each got their favorite. I got Rusty 2 cards, 1 funny and 1 sweet and serious and also candy. He also was very excited about the candy, but that's his reaction any time he gets candy. Rusty was worried about not getting out today so he brought me candy and a dozen roses home yesterday. Isn't he sweet?
Yesterday we got snow and it was so pretty, but then the ice had to follow and ruin it. We had about 3/4 of an inch of ice on top of the snow. I will drive in the snow but I am not driving in the ice. I came home from work early and Rusty got home about 2:30. Rusty knows if it is snowing it's his job to make chili. He makes the best chili. He really is a great cook. He also makes wonderful vegetable soup. So we had chili with cheese and sour cream and cornbread. Today we woke up with ice on everything. It really is beautiful but I am not driving in it, so I got a day off from work. Rusty went last night and picked up Ashleigh's friend Lauren to spend the night, so we have a full house today. There's been laundry today and not alot of anything else. It's been really nice, but back to work tomorrow for all of us. I seriously doubt that the kids will be back to school though, there's alot of back roads that I know will still be bad.
Have a great day and if you have snow or ice enjoy your day off.

Monday

Well, Monday is Monday. Back to the old grind and all that. We are supposed to be getting snow and ice starting after midnight tonight. The snow I can handle, the ice, well that's another story. The kids are geared up to stay home tomorrow, I hope they aren't disappointed. I have been playing around over at myheritage.com. Have you been there? They have a place where you can upload your picture, it scans it and then it tells you what celebrity you look like. That has been so much fun. I think we have done everyone we have a picture of. It said I look like Nicky Hilton, do you see it? Come on now, admit it, no me neither. I'd like to have her money, but I really don't think I would like the life she leads.
Rusty is watching 24, you would think it is real life, he is so addicted to that show. We have to have complete silence in the house while it's on. He keeps looking over here at me, I think I must be typing too loud. Actually, he's watching it in between running to the sliding glass doors to see if it's snowing yet. He really is worse than the kids about snow.
My Uncle Larry, my Dad's oldest brother passed away this past week. He had gone in for surgery, he needed 4 bypasses I think they said, and he chose to have the surgery. It was one of those rock and a hard place kind of decisions. He did not do well afterwards, he had a heart attack and passed away. My Dad flew to Tennessee for the service. Why is it that we only make time to visit family when there has been a tragedy? We did go down to see them right after they had moved back from California, but that was 4 years ago. It really is sad, but it seems that's the way it is for most families unless they live close. I guess we all get busy and we assume that we will have time but reality has a way of slapping us in the face and making us realize that people aren't going to be around forever. I really learned that will my Mawmaw this past summer. She had been such a huge part of my life, all my life, that I just assumed she would always be there and now she's not. I miss her every day and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her and wish I had just picked up the phone a little more and called her. She used to email me everyday, whether it was a forward or an actual letter. I have over 700 emails from her on my computer at work alone. I am going to save them on a disc, they are something I don't want to lose and I could never get back. If you have someone in your life, I think everyone does, that you love dearly and you don't take that extra time to just pick up the phone, don't put it off. It doesn't take long and it will mean alot to you in the long run and to them also. Take it from me, I wish I could have one more day to spend with her, even if it was just talking to her on the phone. Sorry, I didn't mean for this to be so sad, I guess it just kind of happened.
Good night.

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Happy 18th Birthday Ashleigh

Yes, today the very young me had a child turn 18. For those of you who don't know me, I am 38 (very young, verrrrrryyyyy young) so it's not like I was giving birth at 15 or anything like that. The time has just gone so fast. The only thing she asked from us for her birthday was for us to pay her deposit on a new cell phone. She has had a phone on our plan for a long time but she lost that privilege about a year ago, so every once in a while we would let her take one of ours with her when she is out. Well, then we had that slight issue with text mesages, does anyone know how many messages you have to send and recieve to get a bill for $268.00 for messages alone? Just a little clue, they are $.10 a piece, anyway now that she is 18 she can get her own plan but because she doesn't have any credit she had to put down a deposit. So, we did that for her and she was thrilled. It doesn't seen like much of a present to me but that's what she wanted. She asked my parents for a cd player for her Jeep, so they bought it at Circuit City in Wilmington, along with installation and she will take the order number to our Circuit City and it will all be done here. How cool is that. She asked Steven for new speakers for her Jeep and he did the same thing, it will all be installed tomorrow. Horray for Circuit City, they made it so easy. Rusty has sent her flowers for her birthday a couple times before, they are from him only, that is his special thing to do for her. Today he took them to school, and he had gotten her 9 pink (her favorite color) and 9 white. She loved that. She has had a really nice birthday and it will continue until tomorrow, she will be shopping with her Granny for her birthday and next Saturday we will be having her party. We are very proud of her and we love her so much. Happy Birthday Ashleigh, you are an incredible young woman.

I'M BACK!!!

Whoo Hoo, I am finally back. I have tried to log onto blogger for so long and every time I would get an error telling me that the server was having a problem and a technician would be notified. I have just one question, "WHERE IN THE HELL HAS THE TECHNICIAN BEEN ALL THIS TIME?!" Deep breath, deep breath, ok, I'm better now.
What has been going on with us? I think my parents have finally decided that they are definitely going to sell their house here, while it is incredibly depressing for me because as long as they still owned it they were still here just kind of away visiting for a while, I really do understand why they are doing it. Steven is going to settlement on his new home tomorrow, we are all so excited for him. It has been a long road for him but he has made it and he really deserves it, now if we could only work on finding a girl. Opps, better get back on track, sorry Steven. The kids are doing great, baseball is getting ready to start up and Blake is really excited. Ashleigh will turn 18 this Friday, oh the horrors of that. Just kidding, I can't believe I have a child that is almost 18, Mom I finally know how you feel. Wayne is doing great in school and has completely healed from his surgery. We've gotten snow a couple times and that has been really nice. But, oh my gosh, it is so cold. It was 14 degrees here today. Rusty grows a beard in the winter, and today water froze on it in little ice crystals. Today, well today I was off from work which was great but there was to be no sleeping in for me. Rusty and I had taken off to go to Harrisburg, PA to the Great Outdoor Show. We have been a couple times and we really do have a good time, in a kind of redneck country kind of way. I go to look in campers, at boats and to see what kind of wild animals they bring this year. Rusty goes to look at anything and everything he can drag me to. At the last minute he decided he wanted to skip it this year and drive another 45 minutes to Cabela's. Now, if you've never been to Cabela's you really should go, it's not just about hunting, fishing and all that, it really is a pretty neat place to go. They have alot and I mean alot, of animals. Of course they aren't alive, except the fish, but they really are very interesting. Rusty is so funny and he has a way of making things funny that sometimes really shouldn't be funny but that is part of his charm. He also makes you laugh when he really didn't mean to make you laugh. As we came around the corner to Cabela's, we've never been before today, he looked at this huge store and just said "WOW". And it wasn't a loud kind of excited wow it was a very soft kind of reverant kind of wow. I started to laugh, he looked at me and said "I really didn't say that out loud, did I?" I just laughed. When we got inside he acted like a kid who needed ritalin but had run out. He didn't know where to go first or what to look at first. I just followed behind him and shook my head. We really did had a great time, we got to spend the day together, just the 2 of us and we don't get many days like that. I love my kids and we take them everywhere with us, but sometimes you just need that time with each other. We were gone all day and got home around 6:30 tonight.
Rusty is also a huge sports freak, it doesn't matter what kind of sports it is, he loves it. Well, with the exception of soccer, he's never been able to get into that. So of course with the Super Bowl yesterday, the tv has been set on ESPN since Friday. All sports, all day, all the time. He was all decked out in his Peyton Manning University of Tennessee jersey yesterday waiting for the game. He love UT, so he loves Peyton Manning, so of course we were cheering on the Colts. We had our Super Bowl food, hot wings, bacon wrapped smokies, taco dip, chipolte dip and chips and we were ready to go. I love the commercials during the Super Bowl. The Colts won so all in all it was a good night.
Now back to the old grind tomorrow and having to cook regular food. I will leave you with 2 pictures that I took the other night of Wayne and Blake. I love to read so this thrilled me when I walked into their room.






Good night.