I got to spend Christmas day with my son. We had a good time. He asked for a nerf blaster gun. The big one of course. We got it for him and wrapped it up. It comes in a huge box. Creepy got into the van and was really excited about the present as "big as China". We got him a couple of other smaller presents. He was pretty excited about them. We did not stay at the hotel because I didn't have enough money to stay at the hotel that many times this month. Creepy did not seem to care in the slightest. We went to the park for him to open his presents. I made him open the present as big as China last. Then he tore into the box and got it all together and the darts all loaded up. And we discovered that it needed batteries. What the hell? It's a nerf gun. Batteries? So we head back into town only to discover that everything is closed. Which is great for all the store workers who got to spend the day with their families. It's about time that businesses got some of their priorities straight. We did find a gas station open, so I ran in to get batteries. We loaded the batteries in the nerf gun, and he shot me! Fortunately, they don't hurt, so he could keep shooting at me.
I would put my hand up between the seats, and he sat in the back, I would wave my hand all over. He always hit my hand. He is quite the shot. He loved it.
Late in the day, my mom called while at my sister's house. My sister put her girls on speaker phone, and I put Creepy on speaker phone, and they talked about the presents they got. They talked about how much fun they had been having all day. They giggled. They laughed. They played with each other over the phone. There is nothing in the world quite as wonderful as listening to the children you love laughing together. It was a wonderful day. Those are the days that keep me going in this journey. Just looking back and remembering the joy on his face, the smiles while talking and playing on the phone with his cousins. The laughing and giggling of my child. He is the joy of my life. He is the love of my life.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Not Christmas Weekend
Due to all the bad weather we have been having here in the south, my son has been out of school all week. I have called him every day to talk. Usually he is "busy" and can't talk for long.
Monday when I called, though, I had some bad news. I went home to visit my mom and sister for a day. I left Thursday afternoon. I arrived right around nine pm. About 9:30 I called my mom's cell phone to say "I've arrived! I made it!", except some guy answered her phone. I knew she was at her book club, so I wasn't all that surprised. Figured she was in the bathroom or something and that she told them to answer when I called. Alas, nothing so simple. The guy on the phone said he was just trying to figure out how to get a hold of me. My mom was on her way to the hospital, an ambulance was on the way. She had fallen on the ice outside on her way to her car. They were not sure if she hit her head or not, but that she was a bit confused.
My sister called her father-in-law to come and watch the girls and we set off to meet them at the hospital. It was bad weather again. We had to drive a bit, well a lot slower, than I wanted to, but obviously we needed to get there in one piece.
We arrived and she was in the hallway on the gurney from the ambulance. She was in quite a bit of pain. She said she was certain she didn't hit her head, but was also certain she had broken her wrist. It pretty much looked like it, too. The nurse arrived to give her a pain med shot, and I left with a couple of the members of her book club to get her car. When I returned, she was sleeping. Or unconscious from the meds. And the wine and champagne and eggnog that she had consumed at the book club meeting. They were a bit slow that night. The nurse finally returned and said it was broken. They were going to splint it, and have the orthopod call her in the next few days to set up an appointment for setting it. Though, he would probably have to do surgery to fix it.
Sure enough, they called the next morning, did a CT scan, set up another appointment Monday to read it and go over her options. Which was not an option so much as telling her that she would have surgery. The next day.
All this meant that she doesn't get to come down here this weekend. We planned on doing our Christmas visit this weekend, tree and all. Creepy was all excited about it. And I had to tell him, that not only did Grammy break her wrist, she had to have surgery, and there was no way of knowing when she would even be able to drive, let alone come down for celebrating the holidays. So I told him Monday. He was really upset. He suggested I go get her presents to him so that we could still celebrate. I tried to tell him that I couldn't just bop over there to pick them up, it was too far away. He was still upset. Then decided he was too upset to really talk.
The next night, he asked if anything had changed, was Grammy coming. I told him no, that we were still going to have to put it off. And told him that Grammy had surgery that morning. He was upset by that too. He even told me I should go and finish shopping for her and bring the presents anyway. He didn't talk very long. And Wednesday, he didn't want to talk at all. It seems sad to me that he is more concerned about the fact that he isn't getting his presents this weekend than he is about Grammy. I know that his dad is very materialistic, and I know it's rubbing off. I see it on every visit. This just seems like it has gone too far. Hopefully it's just stress about being stuck at home all week with his dad because of the weather. We shall see this weekend when I pick him up, whether he is more concerned with the lack of presents, which I plan on taking on Christmas day when I visit him, or if he even asks about my mom.
He has two games this weekend, so hopefully that keeps him busy and too occupied to think about the presents not being there.
Monday when I called, though, I had some bad news. I went home to visit my mom and sister for a day. I left Thursday afternoon. I arrived right around nine pm. About 9:30 I called my mom's cell phone to say "I've arrived! I made it!", except some guy answered her phone. I knew she was at her book club, so I wasn't all that surprised. Figured she was in the bathroom or something and that she told them to answer when I called. Alas, nothing so simple. The guy on the phone said he was just trying to figure out how to get a hold of me. My mom was on her way to the hospital, an ambulance was on the way. She had fallen on the ice outside on her way to her car. They were not sure if she hit her head or not, but that she was a bit confused.
My sister called her father-in-law to come and watch the girls and we set off to meet them at the hospital. It was bad weather again. We had to drive a bit, well a lot slower, than I wanted to, but obviously we needed to get there in one piece.
We arrived and she was in the hallway on the gurney from the ambulance. She was in quite a bit of pain. She said she was certain she didn't hit her head, but was also certain she had broken her wrist. It pretty much looked like it, too. The nurse arrived to give her a pain med shot, and I left with a couple of the members of her book club to get her car. When I returned, she was sleeping. Or unconscious from the meds. And the wine and champagne and eggnog that she had consumed at the book club meeting. They were a bit slow that night. The nurse finally returned and said it was broken. They were going to splint it, and have the orthopod call her in the next few days to set up an appointment for setting it. Though, he would probably have to do surgery to fix it.
Sure enough, they called the next morning, did a CT scan, set up another appointment Monday to read it and go over her options. Which was not an option so much as telling her that she would have surgery. The next day.
All this meant that she doesn't get to come down here this weekend. We planned on doing our Christmas visit this weekend, tree and all. Creepy was all excited about it. And I had to tell him, that not only did Grammy break her wrist, she had to have surgery, and there was no way of knowing when she would even be able to drive, let alone come down for celebrating the holidays. So I told him Monday. He was really upset. He suggested I go get her presents to him so that we could still celebrate. I tried to tell him that I couldn't just bop over there to pick them up, it was too far away. He was still upset. Then decided he was too upset to really talk.
The next night, he asked if anything had changed, was Grammy coming. I told him no, that we were still going to have to put it off. And told him that Grammy had surgery that morning. He was upset by that too. He even told me I should go and finish shopping for her and bring the presents anyway. He didn't talk very long. And Wednesday, he didn't want to talk at all. It seems sad to me that he is more concerned about the fact that he isn't getting his presents this weekend than he is about Grammy. I know that his dad is very materialistic, and I know it's rubbing off. I see it on every visit. This just seems like it has gone too far. Hopefully it's just stress about being stuck at home all week with his dad because of the weather. We shall see this weekend when I pick him up, whether he is more concerned with the lack of presents, which I plan on taking on Christmas day when I visit him, or if he even asks about my mom.
He has two games this weekend, so hopefully that keeps him busy and too occupied to think about the presents not being there.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Yet Another Thankful Post, Just Like All the Others Your Already Read
I know that everyone is posting their thanks today, but I am going to add mine.
I don't have my son home like I feel he should be. However, I got to talk to him for a while today and for that I'm thankful. I still get to see him, which his dad would liked to have prevented. I am thankful that I still get to have visits.
I talked to my mom today. She was home alone and we enjoyed our conversation. I couldn't be there today, my sister was working, and she didn't have the money or desire to try to drive a ways to visit her mom. However, we both got to talk to each other, she talked to her mom, she talked to my sister. We are all okay and alive. For that I am thankful.
I obviously am thankful for many other things, but those are the important ones. I still get to see my son and I still have my loved ones in my life. Even if I can't go see them, I can still talk to them and hear their voices. Thanks to the powers that be.
I don't have my son home like I feel he should be. However, I got to talk to him for a while today and for that I'm thankful. I still get to see him, which his dad would liked to have prevented. I am thankful that I still get to have visits.
I talked to my mom today. She was home alone and we enjoyed our conversation. I couldn't be there today, my sister was working, and she didn't have the money or desire to try to drive a ways to visit her mom. However, we both got to talk to each other, she talked to her mom, she talked to my sister. We are all okay and alive. For that I am thankful.
I obviously am thankful for many other things, but those are the important ones. I still get to see my son and I still have my loved ones in my life. Even if I can't go see them, I can still talk to them and hear their voices. Thanks to the powers that be.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thankful Thrusday
Thankful Thursday..... Hmmm, what am I thankful for this week. I am feeling really sarcastic today so I am having a hard time coming up with things that I am truly thankful for. So here is my sarcastic list for today:
1. My mom never listens. I tell her something and the next day she totally has forgotten it. I swear she has dementia.
2. My atty is always so prompt at returning my calls. I have been calling and waiting for over a week now....ugh.
3. My sister is a scatterbrain. She and her husband both actually. I don't know how they keep track of their kids let alone their keys...
4. Work--by golly I just work with the most efficient and knowledgeable folks ever. I really don't know how some of these people don't get lost on the way to work.
5. The stray outdoor female cat is in heat. Let me tell you, I have heard enough growling, hissing, yowling and cat noises for a lifetime. Hurry up and get knocked up. I've had enough. Although that seems to be the attitude that the female cat has. She doesn't want anything to do with those randy little basta***. I can't say as I blame her.
So that's it for today's edition of Thankful Thursday. What are you thankful for. Even if it is a bit (okay a lot) sarcastic.
1. My mom never listens. I tell her something and the next day she totally has forgotten it. I swear she has dementia.
2. My atty is always so prompt at returning my calls. I have been calling and waiting for over a week now....ugh.
3. My sister is a scatterbrain. She and her husband both actually. I don't know how they keep track of their kids let alone their keys...
4. Work--by golly I just work with the most efficient and knowledgeable folks ever. I really don't know how some of these people don't get lost on the way to work.
5. The stray outdoor female cat is in heat. Let me tell you, I have heard enough growling, hissing, yowling and cat noises for a lifetime. Hurry up and get knocked up. I've had enough. Although that seems to be the attitude that the female cat has. She doesn't want anything to do with those randy little basta***. I can't say as I blame her.
So that's it for today's edition of Thankful Thursday. What are you thankful for. Even if it is a bit (okay a lot) sarcastic.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Lots of family drama.
This weekend was fun, but I am not sure I want to do it again. My family from the north did not arrive until after 3 o'clock. We picked up the family from the south at 10:30 am . We all went, my mom, sis and her two girls and me. It was not too unpleasant considering neither of them got a nap. That part all in all was a good time. Most of Saturday evening was pretty good. I missed that there were snarky comments made from one cousin to another. We also had a choking episode from my oldest cousin, we actually had to give her the heimlich to get her breating again. No more celery for her. The adrenilin rush was big and we were really upset by this. Although it would be nothing compared to what happened the next day. We, meaning us "original girls"-my mom and her sister, me and my sister and my aunt's two girls all stayed up together until about 1 am. Then the "old ladies" went to bed. My sister and older cousin were grouped together and my cousin that is my age and I grouped together. Then we dualed on American Idol. We had a blast and were up until after 2 am. Then I drove home and showered. It had been a long day, but mostly fun. I returned the next morning about 8. I did not want to get over to my sister's house any earlier cuz I figured they would just be getting up, and I was right. I had gotten up at 7 but waited so I did not wake everyone trying to get in. That is when the real nastiness began. My "step" cousin started being a pest about what time they were leaving. Now mind you, they got in around three the day before and there she was wanting to leave by 9 am. She was complaining about the drive home and how long it would take. My sister was yelling at her girls who were still tired from the day before and were now being cranky. The kids were having a lot of tears and screaming. My aunt and one of her daughter's were discussing that she would make a deposit for my cousin since there is no branch of her bank in her town and there is for my aunt. Then my "step" cousin started hollering about how she said she would give some money and she will, why is it a big deal. So my cousin came to tell her to chill out, she was just discussing a deposit, not making a deal out of it, and really did her financial situation need to be shouted throughout the whole house. At this point I very very loudly pronounced that I was so glad I came over, every one is so pleasant this morning. That got me some stares, but come on, we were supposed to be having fun and everyone was snarking at each other. I could easily just go back home. Everyone stopped loudly arguing but it continued throughout the morning........Until we had a very BIG BIG problem. We could not find one of the babies. He is about 22 months old and no one knew where he was. We searched the house and no one found him. We went outside and searched and eventually realized the bike was gone. No bike and no baby. We frantically took off in all directions yelling as loudly as we could hoping for an answer. I got around the corner and a few houses up and found the bike in a front yard but no baby.....We kept yelling and looking and as I made my way towards the end of the block I realized someone was waving at me. They were at the intersection of the road I am on the highway. The baby was by the highway. I started running as fast as I could and then my mom went flying around me in her car. I was so intent on the person waving at me, I did not even hear the car coming up behind me. By the time I got to the end of the block, my cousin (the one that is my age but not the mom) had already arrived from the other side of the block. My aunt snatched him to get him back to his mom who we think is walking around my sister's house looking for him. We got there and her car was gone. No one could call her and tell her we had her child because she had loaded the cars already from "step" cousin complaining about leaving and all their purses and phones were in the car. I had my phone, my new one by the way, but did not have her number. And since everyone programs their phones, they did not really know the number either. Then my cousin S (my age) arrived back and found her phone. She is the one that came on the train so her phone thankfully was in the house. My mom is also out driving around looking for the baby's mom. S called her sister to tell her we found the baby and I tried calling mom and discovered she had left her phone in my sister's house. So, now we had no way to contact her to tell her that we called the baby's mom and she was on her way back. Fortunately, she happened to see my cousin drive back to the house and she pulled into the yard and came around the house to where we all gathered. In the meantime, baby was smiling and laughing as if nothing had happened. We were all trying to recover from the heart attacks we were having. That was pretty awful. Based on where the bike was and where he was found, we were figuring he had been gone for at least 20 minutes before anyone realized he was gone. It was one of those everyone is in and out, loading the car, and the folks inside thought he was outside and the folks outside thought he was inside. Most of us were assuming he was with my sister's kids as they had been playing so well all weekend. It was an awful feeling and he was not even my kid. They folks from the north left then. Us gals that were left finished cleaning up the dishes and helped pick up a bit with the toys. Then we watched a movie. Well, the baby napped and Drama Girl watched a movie, I read a book, and my sister, mom and cousin all napped. I really wanted a nap was there was no chance in hell that I was going to close my eyes with Drama Girl still up. If she had napped I might have rested too, but I was not taking any chances. My sister's girls have never pulled anything like that before so it's not likely, but it ain't happenin' on my watch!
So while it was a good time and I am glad to have seen my aunt and at least two of my cousins, I do not want to relive any of that drama again. It was just kind of a sour ending to a morning that had been unpleasant. I am super glad to have found him safe and sound though. We will see if there is going to be another weekend.....And if I have the fortitude to attend.
So while it was a good time and I am glad to have seen my aunt and at least two of my cousins, I do not want to relive any of that drama again. It was just kind of a sour ending to a morning that had been unpleasant. I am super glad to have found him safe and sound though. We will see if there is going to be another weekend.....And if I have the fortitude to attend.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Ramblings, Again
Today I am just going to post some random thoughts. I am excited for tonight, but slightly annoyed at the same time for a completely unrelated reason...
We (as in my family) are supposed to have a get together this weekend. We have been planning it for about 4 months total. Then we found out on Wednesday that one of the gals coming down, who is driving two of the other gals mind you, made some other plans and won't be able to leave until late. They won't arrive until after 3:00. We had been planning on an arrival in the morning. So now that screws up the plans that we made for Saturday. Then one of the gals that was going to ride decided to take a train and we would pick her up at the same time we were picking up our pal coming from the south. No can do, apparently she has been volunteered to babysit for the gal driving and can't leave now. But didn't get told she was babysitting until last night. So still only one person coming in out of the four in the morning. We've decided that us three local gals will go pick our southern friend up at the train station and spend the day shopping and end the day by going to the winery. We'll get back when we get back.
Then I've been waiting oh-so-(un)patiently for my atty to call and give me some news from his Tuesday meeting, only to be met with......silence....ugghhh.
On the flip side, I got to have a good conversation with my son the last two nights. On Sunday and Monday he was really moping on the call, well so was I, and they were just sad calls. On Tuesday, he was working on some project. He said he wanted to talk, but he wanted to finish his project before it got dark. I told him I would call him on Wednesday and we could talk longer then if that was what he wanted. He said what he wanted was to talk but he could not get his project done if he did. We only talked for about 5 minutes. But Wednesday and Thursday, the phone calls were fun and enjoyable.
Tonight is the night. This is the night I go to "bargain" for a better cell phone deal and new phones. I will be so glad to have internet access, even if it is on a screen that is 2 inches! At least I can check the weather and movie times if my son wants to see a movie. And get on facebook and twitter. I will have at least a bit of contact with the outside world after work and on the weekends. I am aware of the fact that it will not be the same as a computer, but that is out of my means at the moment. Someday I hope to have a laptop with an aircard to have internet access where ever I go. At this point, I believe that day is far in the future. I wish that I could afford it now. I think my son would love that too. He will think the phone is neat enough. I will just be glad for a phone that is no longer possessed. And does not drop calls. That will be just peachy.
I think that is about all I have for today. What is going on in your world?
We (as in my family) are supposed to have a get together this weekend. We have been planning it for about 4 months total. Then we found out on Wednesday that one of the gals coming down, who is driving two of the other gals mind you, made some other plans and won't be able to leave until late. They won't arrive until after 3:00. We had been planning on an arrival in the morning. So now that screws up the plans that we made for Saturday. Then one of the gals that was going to ride decided to take a train and we would pick her up at the same time we were picking up our pal coming from the south. No can do, apparently she has been volunteered to babysit for the gal driving and can't leave now. But didn't get told she was babysitting until last night. So still only one person coming in out of the four in the morning. We've decided that us three local gals will go pick our southern friend up at the train station and spend the day shopping and end the day by going to the winery. We'll get back when we get back.
Then I've been waiting oh-so-(un)patiently for my atty to call and give me some news from his Tuesday meeting, only to be met with......silence....ugghhh.
On the flip side, I got to have a good conversation with my son the last two nights. On Sunday and Monday he was really moping on the call, well so was I, and they were just sad calls. On Tuesday, he was working on some project. He said he wanted to talk, but he wanted to finish his project before it got dark. I told him I would call him on Wednesday and we could talk longer then if that was what he wanted. He said what he wanted was to talk but he could not get his project done if he did. We only talked for about 5 minutes. But Wednesday and Thursday, the phone calls were fun and enjoyable.
Tonight is the night. This is the night I go to "bargain" for a better cell phone deal and new phones. I will be so glad to have internet access, even if it is on a screen that is 2 inches! At least I can check the weather and movie times if my son wants to see a movie. And get on facebook and twitter. I will have at least a bit of contact with the outside world after work and on the weekends. I am aware of the fact that it will not be the same as a computer, but that is out of my means at the moment. Someday I hope to have a laptop with an aircard to have internet access where ever I go. At this point, I believe that day is far in the future. I wish that I could afford it now. I think my son would love that too. He will think the phone is neat enough. I will just be glad for a phone that is no longer possessed. And does not drop calls. That will be just peachy.
I think that is about all I have for today. What is going on in your world?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Another Great Weekend AKA: The Best Weekend Ever
I went down to see my son again this weekend. It started Friday afternoon on a bad note. I was renting a car and was supposed to be picked up at 3:30. At 3:40, I called to see where the ride was. They were running late, but sorry we forgot to call. So, I continue to wait impatiently. My ride finally got there and the driver said he was sorry and did the guys call? I said no, I had to call them when you weren't here. He was not surprised. Then when I walk inside to rent the car, I kept getting excuses, you know, they were busy. Then I find out that the car that I was supposed to rent was given out and the car they have is not clean, I have to wait while they vacuum it out. That all made me not happy. Plus the car is not very big. I asked for a full size car because they keep giving me small cars that don't have enough room for all the stuff I take for my trips. This one was no different. I like the car and if I did not need it to be packed full for the trip it would have been great. As it was, it was nice to drive, handled well and was overall just pretty nice.
The drive was not too bad. But we did get a late start. I left my mom at the campgrounds while I went to get S for the day on Saturday. The first thing he did was start asking about the car and opening all the little doors and cubby holes. A few minutes later he told me he wants me to not go to court right now and that he does not want to talk to an atty. "Someone" has told him that the atty will go and tell everyone what S tells him. I have already told him that won't happen, but now he is scared. Great. Without S's help, I can't bring him home. I started to tell him all that same stuff again. We continued on that path for a few minutes until he changed the subject. I let him. I basically just encouraged him all day to play and have fun, with a time or two of reminders that he needed to talk to the atty and that he would be safe even if he did. It must have worked because on Sunday morning he informed me that he would talk to an atty and how long before he got one? I had no idea. I told him I would work on it. During the course of the day, he made my mom and I pinkie swear that we would not tell all the stuff he told us. Towards the end of the day he was making us pinkie swear not to tell again, but that time he added that he wanted to be the one to tell. He asked again when he got an atty. On the way to his dad's house he told me that his dad told him to write some stuff down about visits. He told S to write down that S wanted to come home only two times a year for a regular visit like we have now. S told me that he needed to find it and get rid of it because it was not what he wanted. His dad told him to write it. Oh, that is just super for the case. I did not say anything to S because I did not want him to stress about it any more than he apparently already was. He looked like he was crying when we dropped him off. Sunday night when I called him, he sounded like he was crying at the start of the phone call. He told me he did not know how he could keep doing all this. He was tired. He did not think he could do it anymore. I told him not to give up, we can do this one day at a time just like we have been doing it all along. Just one day, I will call him, and then we will mark another day off on the calendar, counting down to our next visit. He did seem to cheer up some by the time the phone call was over. At least he was no longer crying.
I called my atty the next day and told him what S had been telling me, about the letter, being tired, not wanting to talk anymore. Asked what could be done now to help S out. We are going to try to get the atty for S today. I hope that is accomplished while he can still remember what we talked about this weekend. I told him that the atty was his, could not tell anyone what S told him, and that S could tell the atty anything that was bothering him, no matter what or who it was about. This atty would be for S and S alone, not me and not his dad. He would be safe talking to him. I hope he remembers and does talk to him. I hope that my atty gets it accomplished today. He also is going to work on getting a court date. I hope that tomorrow I can post on here that we have a new atty for my son and an upcoming court date.
As for the visit part of the weekend, it was great. As usual S declared it the best visit ever. Every time we have a visit, it is the best one ever. We bought a tent to put up and the directions were awful. Not to mention that it was hard to put together. It was supposed to be one of those pop up tents, but they don't tell you on the outside of the box that you have to be he-man to pop some of the pieces in place. I did finally get it in place. S loved the tent. It had a "doggie door" in it and he had a blast crawling in and out of it. We played in the tent and he set it all up for us to sleep in it. Then we played cars. We had all the race cars and fast cars out so we could race. We took pictures of the winners in the winners circle that he created. We played Star Wars. We made hamburgers that he got to put the seasoning on....A lot of seasoning. They were tasty. We also had fried potatoes and brownies that my mom made. We went for a walk. We played video games. On Sunday, we watched a dvd, played more cars, played more Star Wars. S always wins of course. More video games. More tent playing. That doggie door was a big hit. S informed me that our tent was the best tent there was. Even better than the really big ones. We also played "baseball" in the tent with a little bitty ball of aluminum foil. Then S took two more pieces of aluminum foil and "made" a tannning bed. I have no idea why a tanning bed, but that is what he said. We just had a lot of fun playing on the best visit ever with the best tent ever and the best toys ever. S is just too funny with his best ever's. I personally can't wait for the best ever day - the one where he gets to come home.
The drive was not too bad. But we did get a late start. I left my mom at the campgrounds while I went to get S for the day on Saturday. The first thing he did was start asking about the car and opening all the little doors and cubby holes. A few minutes later he told me he wants me to not go to court right now and that he does not want to talk to an atty. "Someone" has told him that the atty will go and tell everyone what S tells him. I have already told him that won't happen, but now he is scared. Great. Without S's help, I can't bring him home. I started to tell him all that same stuff again. We continued on that path for a few minutes until he changed the subject. I let him. I basically just encouraged him all day to play and have fun, with a time or two of reminders that he needed to talk to the atty and that he would be safe even if he did. It must have worked because on Sunday morning he informed me that he would talk to an atty and how long before he got one? I had no idea. I told him I would work on it. During the course of the day, he made my mom and I pinkie swear that we would not tell all the stuff he told us. Towards the end of the day he was making us pinkie swear not to tell again, but that time he added that he wanted to be the one to tell. He asked again when he got an atty. On the way to his dad's house he told me that his dad told him to write some stuff down about visits. He told S to write down that S wanted to come home only two times a year for a regular visit like we have now. S told me that he needed to find it and get rid of it because it was not what he wanted. His dad told him to write it. Oh, that is just super for the case. I did not say anything to S because I did not want him to stress about it any more than he apparently already was. He looked like he was crying when we dropped him off. Sunday night when I called him, he sounded like he was crying at the start of the phone call. He told me he did not know how he could keep doing all this. He was tired. He did not think he could do it anymore. I told him not to give up, we can do this one day at a time just like we have been doing it all along. Just one day, I will call him, and then we will mark another day off on the calendar, counting down to our next visit. He did seem to cheer up some by the time the phone call was over. At least he was no longer crying.
I called my atty the next day and told him what S had been telling me, about the letter, being tired, not wanting to talk anymore. Asked what could be done now to help S out. We are going to try to get the atty for S today. I hope that is accomplished while he can still remember what we talked about this weekend. I told him that the atty was his, could not tell anyone what S told him, and that S could tell the atty anything that was bothering him, no matter what or who it was about. This atty would be for S and S alone, not me and not his dad. He would be safe talking to him. I hope he remembers and does talk to him. I hope that my atty gets it accomplished today. He also is going to work on getting a court date. I hope that tomorrow I can post on here that we have a new atty for my son and an upcoming court date.
As for the visit part of the weekend, it was great. As usual S declared it the best visit ever. Every time we have a visit, it is the best one ever. We bought a tent to put up and the directions were awful. Not to mention that it was hard to put together. It was supposed to be one of those pop up tents, but they don't tell you on the outside of the box that you have to be he-man to pop some of the pieces in place. I did finally get it in place. S loved the tent. It had a "doggie door" in it and he had a blast crawling in and out of it. We played in the tent and he set it all up for us to sleep in it. Then we played cars. We had all the race cars and fast cars out so we could race. We took pictures of the winners in the winners circle that he created. We played Star Wars. We made hamburgers that he got to put the seasoning on....A lot of seasoning. They were tasty. We also had fried potatoes and brownies that my mom made. We went for a walk. We played video games. On Sunday, we watched a dvd, played more cars, played more Star Wars. S always wins of course. More video games. More tent playing. That doggie door was a big hit. S informed me that our tent was the best tent there was. Even better than the really big ones. We also played "baseball" in the tent with a little bitty ball of aluminum foil. Then S took two more pieces of aluminum foil and "made" a tannning bed. I have no idea why a tanning bed, but that is what he said. We just had a lot of fun playing on the best visit ever with the best tent ever and the best toys ever. S is just too funny with his best ever's. I personally can't wait for the best ever day - the one where he gets to come home.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wow, My Weekend and Some Rambling
That is all I can say about my weekend. I was home this weekend. I did not go visit my son for the weekend. I went last weekend for just Sunday. Then I also went to see him on Thursday for a few hours for his birthday. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with presents and brownies. He does not like cake, only the icing. So, we had brownies. It is all a chocolate-y goodness, so makes no difference to me. We had a blast. We pretty much just played all day.
Then I think Thursday was my undoing. I totally enjoyed my time with my son. I saved a couple of cards and one present for his actual birthday. We went to the river and the park to play as well. Of course I had to drop him off after just a couple of hours and it was really sad. Not enough time. He did tell me I was the first to sing him Happy Birthday on his birthday, and he said it with the sweetest little smile. Then as I was dropping him off, he said he liked the big van better than all the different cars I've been driving (two rentals and my moms explorer). When I asked why he had the funniest answer. Because the big van has two side doors that open and he feels like a king when we open both doors to let him out. In all the cars, there is just one door and he's just a regular kid. I laughed a lot at that one. I may have to get another full size van to replace my old one just to make my kid feel like a king again!
I also sold the camper (I hope). I am waiting on the title to arrive to my house. A couple came and looked at it on Sunday and said consider it sold, call them when the title comes in and they will come and get it. I was doing the happy dance for hours. I thought I would never sell it. At least for what I wanted to get out of it. I am actually getting more than I paid for it, but not more than I spent on it. I will recoup everything I have had out of pocket from it. That is super news, and more money to put towards the hearing and the court costs if they are soon or a new car if it is going to be months before we get to court.
Back to the undoing. When I had to leave S this past Thursday, it was all I could do to hold my tears in. I am not usually happy to drop him off, but am pretty good at keeping my emotions in check. I think it was kind of a combination of two short visits in a row followed by his birthday. He just keeps getting older, and he is still not home. This is really hard. I am really tired of waiting. I think that it is part of the bad guy team plan (my ex and his atty). Part of MSBP is that the mom's start to get more emotional and stressed the longer it takes to get their children back. Oh, yes cause all mom's would start to relax and get calmer as the time passes without their kids. (can you see the sarcasm dripping off that comment?) Craziness I tell you. I think they are hoping that I go nuts and start raving like a lunatic if they keep dragging it out and make it so they are not available to get dates and times set up. Nope, I will just calmly rip him a new one the first chance I get. Hopefully right after court....Right after the court (hopefully-keeping my fingers crossed) terminates all his rights.
Anyway, I think I am sad about my son getting older and I am missing it. Yes, I realize I do get to see him. But I am missing the day to day things. The discoveries, the playing, the interacting with the pets and other children. The interacting with me. Even the arguing. So I came home from my visit and decided this weekend was as good as any to start getting the house cleaned up. I actually plug in the tv and put in a movie. Now I do not have any new movies. All my movies are either about 10 years old (or older) or Disney movies. I just put it on in the background and by the end of the movie, I had been crying for at least four different scenes and through the whole ending. Not just the sad stuff, at all the mushy stuff and happy stuff too. So I watched a different movie with the same results. The second movie, BTW, was Harry Potter, the first one-Sorcerer's Stone- and has absolutely no reason to cry. At least it did not used to have any reason to cry for me in the past. I got done cleaning in the front half of my house and moved on to the kitchen. I plugged in the tv/vcr combo. I just needed the noise, and usually I don't need that either. I was just weird all weekend. I watched Homeward Bound. That movie is from ages ago, and I have watched it a billion times, I know all the animals make it home. Instead at the point you think one of the dogs is going to die, I cried for the whole rest of the movie, right through the end where he lives and makes it home. I'm talking sobbing, nose running and all.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really do wish I knew exactly what is going on with me this weekend. I am feeling better today, albeit catty. I am not really sure what is wrong with that though. Sometimes a gal just needs to be catty and let it all out. I just don't know if I had been holding it all in for too long, and it burst out, or if I am just lonely, or if I am just stressed because I don't like my job, I don't like my ex, and I want my kid back. I am just confused. But at least this week I know which day it is! :)
Here is a pic of us on his birthday, when he did not feel like a king, but did feel special that I sang Happy Birthday to him. Me with my shiny face and S playing his new DS game.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
One of Those.....
Ever had one of those days? That turns into one of those couple of days, that turns into one of those weeks, and then one of those couple of weeks? That is where I am.
Three weeks ago, my mom and I went to look at a motor home. I have been looking for one since I started making my trips. My mom started thinking it would be a good idea as well when I told her I was going to start camping because I could not afford the cost of the hotel every time. I got this full size van with a seat that lays down into a "bed", why not use it? She agreed that it was a good idea, until she went down in the summer and she was too hot. I continued to camp and we brought fans with us to plug in and blow on us. We made it through the summer last year, although my said she would rather have a camper. So we have been looking since the middle of last year. We found one about 150 miles from our house(there are no decent ones locally). We went and looked at it. It drove nicely, has nice tires, not really any rust, it just looked really good. It needed new exhaust, but that usually is not too expensive. The guy that was selling it told us that they took it down to Florida and Texas every year for the winter. They were selling it because he had knee surgery and could no longer climb into the bunk above the cab. He told us how everything worked and where to put the settings for all the stuff. I was not super happy with the camper, but was not totally disappointed either. It was old, and some of it was ugly, but that is cosmetic. I talked to mom and we decided to go for it. I paid the guy for it and started home. About 30 miles from their house it died in the middle of the road when I slowed down for the railroad track crossing. It started right back up, but I had to drive with two feet to get it home. This is when the bad feeling started. We stopped at a Meijer on the way home for a few groceries. It died in the parking lot when I stopped. I was not too happy about that. When I did finally get home, it died again. So every time I slowed down too much or tried to just idle it would die.
I took it to my mechanic and asked him to check everything over. I told him I was not planning on taking it on my trip that weekend (it was Wednesday) and that he could take whatever time he needed. I went down that weekend to see my son. My poor van was having some serious problems by the time I got into the mountains. It kept missing and not shifting properly, and it was running a little hotter than usual. My visit itself was nice. I don't know why my van is running so awful, so I do not put into overdrive and drive about 55. It keeps missing and chugging and just having a rough time. Then about 2/3 of the way home we have to take a detour because there was a vehicle fire on the interstate. Fortunately I have a CB radio and knew about it miles before hand and could exit early. I followed a state route north. I was shortly joined by the other interstate traffic. I was chatting with the truck drivers. We were only running about 35. I was okay with that though. If we are on an unfamiliar road (I wasn't-I had been detoured to this road multiple times before), then take your time rather than crash and cause another delay. Then some of the truck drivers say to take a certain turn-off. I say I am going straight, I know that it is faster. So three truck drivers say they are following me. We get back to the interstate and we are ahead of all the rest of the traffic. They thanked me and took off. They lost me pretty quickly from site although I have about a 6 mile range on my radio so we could chat a little longer. By the time I make it home, my car is driving just fine. Uuugggghhhh. How am I supposed to have it looked at if it won't do anything when I take it in?
I get home and my mom is out of state for work. I have to keep going to her house to check on her cat and house, pick up her papers and mail, and just keep an eye on things. I also had to get the motor home back to my house-which needs new exhaust, and the carburetor adjusted, but other wise ran okay for him, clean my car out from my trip, try to figure out if I would be able to watch my sisters girls and get ready for my weekend trip to Paducah to visit my cousin. all in four days, after work. All this while hoping to do a hounding deal or two. Boy was I frazzled by the end of the week. I went to bed early Friday night as I was planning on leaving around 6 am on Saturday. I get into the car, get gas and a breakfast sandwich and I'm off. Of course I am driving 55 with out overdrive again just to be sure.
Four hours later and with only about 15 minutes left in my trip, my van overheats. I pull of the side of the interstate, and the van is steaming like crazy. I call my cousin to let her know and tell her where I am so she can come and wait with me. I then call the help line on my cell phone to have them tow me to her house. My cousin arrives, the tow truck arrives, and off we go. Later that afternoon, I go out to see if the motor is cool enough for me to take a look at things. It is, so we get a pitcher of water to fill the radiator to see if I can see where the leak is, or if it is just the normal leak I always have. I fill it up and turn on the van.
No leaks. I am feeling pretty good. Til we go inside and I can't find my keys. They are still in the van.....which is now locked...UUuggghgghhghg. So I have to figure out how to break into my van, as I do not have lockout service on my cell plan or car insurance. Finally I get a window open to reach the lock and open the doors. I go back out about 2 hours later to see if the van will leak now when I start it. Yep it does. It pours out the bottom. I turn the van off and we go to the U-haul dealer to rent a truck and tow dolly or trailer to pull the van home. My cousin has only lived there a couple of months and so had no idea where to call for a mechanic. The uhaul folks don't have anything to pull my van home. So we ask if they know of anywhere that can fix my car reasonably, and not try to pull the wool over my eyes. They both recommend the same place so we go outside and call them. They could look at it, but they close in about 30 minutes. They will reopen on Monday, I can bring it in then. Great another missed day of work because I have a broke down vehicle. Oh well, I will just enjoy the day away.
We take it in Sunday night for them to look at first thing Monday. They finally call and say they can't get the part in until the next day. But they can rig it up to work for a while so that I can get home and have it fixed my my mechanic. Works for me. So I have my cousin come and get me and take my to my van. I pay and leave for home. It of course takes me hours because I am afraid to drive fast for fear of something else breaking. I do make it thank goodness.
Tuesday I spent catching up at work, since I had left early on Friday and then missed Monday. I go home and clean the camper out. It was not really dirty at all, just needed a bit of cleaning. I was bummed because I found a spot where water leaked in. Not majorly, but still some water damage. This makes me not happy as the guy made sure he sat on that particular seat while we were looking at it.
Wednesday I am still trying to catch up at work. Everybody was apparently busy while I was gone. Wednesday night I plug in the camper at my house and start loading it. All the outlets work, the air works, the microwave works. The fridge doesn't. At least on electricity. I don't panic just yet as the guy said they used it with the gas. I just keep loading it. All the while having this really bad feeling about it.
Thursday, I keep loading it, but the bad feeling just keeps getting worse. Friday morning at work, I wait for my mom in the parking garage to tell her I think we should take her car, as I have this feeling that if we take the motor home I won't make it in time to see my son. She pulls up in my sisters car. Hers would not start. Ooohhhhhh this is bad. Now we have no car to take down. We decide to leave work really early to get a head start so that we have plenty of time. We load ourselves into the motor home and start driving. I just have this awful clenching feeling in my gut telling me this was a mistake we should not be driving it. We make it out of town, then out of the state, then through the first leg of the trip. We keep going and make it through the second leg of the trip. Then we hit really bad traffic and a backup just outside of Louisville. The motor home is doing okay. Then just as we start to pull out of the backup, it starts smoking. I check all the gauges and everything looks okay. We pull off at the next exit and go to the gas station. I see smoke coming out the back the whole way.
At the gas station, I crawl under the motor home and see that it is leaking transmission fluid. I check the level and it still says that it is okay. We decide to get gas and some more tranny fluid. They don't have any. Okay, let's start driving and see what happens. there is a truck stop not too far down the road, I am certain they would have some. We only get about two miles down the road when it starts smoking big time. I pull off the side of the road and want to cry. It is after 6 so the chances of a rental place being open is slim. Same with a repair shop. Fortunately, mom thinks of the airport. We turn around and go to the airport, park the camper and go find the rental cars. I had called ahead to reserve a car. We check it out and go back to the parking area to get our stuff out of the camper. We have to get in, load and get out in less than 10 minutes or pay the daily parking fee. We made it!
We get back on the road. I call to reserve a hotel room for two nights. We get down there safely. We enjoy our single day with my son. One day is totally not enough. I want to start out as early as possible on Sunday while sleeping in just a bit from the exhaustion of my stress. Off we go back to the airport. We load our stuff back into the camper in the 10 minutes and do not have to pay the parking fee. We return the rental and hike back to the camper. Now to just make it home. The stinking camper did not smoke a single time on the way home. I decided on the way home the camper was going bye-bye. I do not want it. I will now sell the camper and try to sell my van, which is starting to need a gob of repairs if I want to keep driving it. I still owe on it so if I cannot get at least that much I will just keep it and use it for local trips. It seems to do fine here where there are no hills and mountains. I am going to take the money I get from the camper and buy a small vehicle that is really good on gas. I will still camp out, it will just be in a tent. In the meantime, I will rent cars to make it down there. I figured the amount of gas and wear and tear on my moms car which already has 200,000 miles on it compared to renting a car and the gas it would use. It will be about $25 more expensive to rent a car. The wear and tear on my mom's car would cost me that much. Her suv is a gas hog so the rental fee and gas would only be about $25 extra dollars-to drive a new car that most likely will not break down anywhere. I will take it. I just won't be able to do that and pay for a hotel every time. So I would like to have a small cheap car before I have to start staying at a hotel again.
In the meantime with all of this going on, I lost my flash drive for work with all my documents for work saved on it; My phone broke, I can still use it, but it really needs replaced now; I lost my umbrella and of course it has been raining a lot. I also misplaced several more items at home that I have no idea where they went.
Today, things are turning around. I found two people already that want to look at the camper, I found my flash drive, I found my umbrella, and I have managed to finally get caught up at work! I think this may be the end of the "one of those days"! And it is about time, is all I can say!
So that is why I have been out of commission lately. So how are you doing?
Three weeks ago, my mom and I went to look at a motor home. I have been looking for one since I started making my trips. My mom started thinking it would be a good idea as well when I told her I was going to start camping because I could not afford the cost of the hotel every time. I got this full size van with a seat that lays down into a "bed", why not use it? She agreed that it was a good idea, until she went down in the summer and she was too hot. I continued to camp and we brought fans with us to plug in and blow on us. We made it through the summer last year, although my said she would rather have a camper. So we have been looking since the middle of last year. We found one about 150 miles from our house(there are no decent ones locally). We went and looked at it. It drove nicely, has nice tires, not really any rust, it just looked really good. It needed new exhaust, but that usually is not too expensive. The guy that was selling it told us that they took it down to Florida and Texas every year for the winter. They were selling it because he had knee surgery and could no longer climb into the bunk above the cab. He told us how everything worked and where to put the settings for all the stuff. I was not super happy with the camper, but was not totally disappointed either. It was old, and some of it was ugly, but that is cosmetic. I talked to mom and we decided to go for it. I paid the guy for it and started home. About 30 miles from their house it died in the middle of the road when I slowed down for the railroad track crossing. It started right back up, but I had to drive with two feet to get it home. This is when the bad feeling started. We stopped at a Meijer on the way home for a few groceries. It died in the parking lot when I stopped. I was not too happy about that. When I did finally get home, it died again. So every time I slowed down too much or tried to just idle it would die.
I took it to my mechanic and asked him to check everything over. I told him I was not planning on taking it on my trip that weekend (it was Wednesday) and that he could take whatever time he needed. I went down that weekend to see my son. My poor van was having some serious problems by the time I got into the mountains. It kept missing and not shifting properly, and it was running a little hotter than usual. My visit itself was nice. I don't know why my van is running so awful, so I do not put into overdrive and drive about 55. It keeps missing and chugging and just having a rough time. Then about 2/3 of the way home we have to take a detour because there was a vehicle fire on the interstate. Fortunately I have a CB radio and knew about it miles before hand and could exit early. I followed a state route north. I was shortly joined by the other interstate traffic. I was chatting with the truck drivers. We were only running about 35. I was okay with that though. If we are on an unfamiliar road (I wasn't-I had been detoured to this road multiple times before), then take your time rather than crash and cause another delay. Then some of the truck drivers say to take a certain turn-off. I say I am going straight, I know that it is faster. So three truck drivers say they are following me. We get back to the interstate and we are ahead of all the rest of the traffic. They thanked me and took off. They lost me pretty quickly from site although I have about a 6 mile range on my radio so we could chat a little longer. By the time I make it home, my car is driving just fine. Uuugggghhhh. How am I supposed to have it looked at if it won't do anything when I take it in?
I get home and my mom is out of state for work. I have to keep going to her house to check on her cat and house, pick up her papers and mail, and just keep an eye on things. I also had to get the motor home back to my house-which needs new exhaust, and the carburetor adjusted, but other wise ran okay for him, clean my car out from my trip, try to figure out if I would be able to watch my sisters girls and get ready for my weekend trip to Paducah to visit my cousin. all in four days, after work. All this while hoping to do a hounding deal or two. Boy was I frazzled by the end of the week. I went to bed early Friday night as I was planning on leaving around 6 am on Saturday. I get into the car, get gas and a breakfast sandwich and I'm off. Of course I am driving 55 with out overdrive again just to be sure.
Four hours later and with only about 15 minutes left in my trip, my van overheats. I pull of the side of the interstate, and the van is steaming like crazy. I call my cousin to let her know and tell her where I am so she can come and wait with me. I then call the help line on my cell phone to have them tow me to her house. My cousin arrives, the tow truck arrives, and off we go. Later that afternoon, I go out to see if the motor is cool enough for me to take a look at things. It is, so we get a pitcher of water to fill the radiator to see if I can see where the leak is, or if it is just the normal leak I always have. I fill it up and turn on the van.
No leaks. I am feeling pretty good. Til we go inside and I can't find my keys. They are still in the van.....which is now locked...UUuggghgghhghg. So I have to figure out how to break into my van, as I do not have lockout service on my cell plan or car insurance. Finally I get a window open to reach the lock and open the doors. I go back out about 2 hours later to see if the van will leak now when I start it. Yep it does. It pours out the bottom. I turn the van off and we go to the U-haul dealer to rent a truck and tow dolly or trailer to pull the van home. My cousin has only lived there a couple of months and so had no idea where to call for a mechanic. The uhaul folks don't have anything to pull my van home. So we ask if they know of anywhere that can fix my car reasonably, and not try to pull the wool over my eyes. They both recommend the same place so we go outside and call them. They could look at it, but they close in about 30 minutes. They will reopen on Monday, I can bring it in then. Great another missed day of work because I have a broke down vehicle. Oh well, I will just enjoy the day away.
We take it in Sunday night for them to look at first thing Monday. They finally call and say they can't get the part in until the next day. But they can rig it up to work for a while so that I can get home and have it fixed my my mechanic. Works for me. So I have my cousin come and get me and take my to my van. I pay and leave for home. It of course takes me hours because I am afraid to drive fast for fear of something else breaking. I do make it thank goodness.
Tuesday I spent catching up at work, since I had left early on Friday and then missed Monday. I go home and clean the camper out. It was not really dirty at all, just needed a bit of cleaning. I was bummed because I found a spot where water leaked in. Not majorly, but still some water damage. This makes me not happy as the guy made sure he sat on that particular seat while we were looking at it.
Wednesday I am still trying to catch up at work. Everybody was apparently busy while I was gone. Wednesday night I plug in the camper at my house and start loading it. All the outlets work, the air works, the microwave works. The fridge doesn't. At least on electricity. I don't panic just yet as the guy said they used it with the gas. I just keep loading it. All the while having this really bad feeling about it.
Thursday, I keep loading it, but the bad feeling just keeps getting worse. Friday morning at work, I wait for my mom in the parking garage to tell her I think we should take her car, as I have this feeling that if we take the motor home I won't make it in time to see my son. She pulls up in my sisters car. Hers would not start. Ooohhhhhh this is bad. Now we have no car to take down. We decide to leave work really early to get a head start so that we have plenty of time. We load ourselves into the motor home and start driving. I just have this awful clenching feeling in my gut telling me this was a mistake we should not be driving it. We make it out of town, then out of the state, then through the first leg of the trip. We keep going and make it through the second leg of the trip. Then we hit really bad traffic and a backup just outside of Louisville. The motor home is doing okay. Then just as we start to pull out of the backup, it starts smoking. I check all the gauges and everything looks okay. We pull off at the next exit and go to the gas station. I see smoke coming out the back the whole way.
At the gas station, I crawl under the motor home and see that it is leaking transmission fluid. I check the level and it still says that it is okay. We decide to get gas and some more tranny fluid. They don't have any. Okay, let's start driving and see what happens. there is a truck stop not too far down the road, I am certain they would have some. We only get about two miles down the road when it starts smoking big time. I pull off the side of the road and want to cry. It is after 6 so the chances of a rental place being open is slim. Same with a repair shop. Fortunately, mom thinks of the airport. We turn around and go to the airport, park the camper and go find the rental cars. I had called ahead to reserve a car. We check it out and go back to the parking area to get our stuff out of the camper. We have to get in, load and get out in less than 10 minutes or pay the daily parking fee. We made it!
We get back on the road. I call to reserve a hotel room for two nights. We get down there safely. We enjoy our single day with my son. One day is totally not enough. I want to start out as early as possible on Sunday while sleeping in just a bit from the exhaustion of my stress. Off we go back to the airport. We load our stuff back into the camper in the 10 minutes and do not have to pay the parking fee. We return the rental and hike back to the camper. Now to just make it home. The stinking camper did not smoke a single time on the way home. I decided on the way home the camper was going bye-bye. I do not want it. I will now sell the camper and try to sell my van, which is starting to need a gob of repairs if I want to keep driving it. I still owe on it so if I cannot get at least that much I will just keep it and use it for local trips. It seems to do fine here where there are no hills and mountains. I am going to take the money I get from the camper and buy a small vehicle that is really good on gas. I will still camp out, it will just be in a tent. In the meantime, I will rent cars to make it down there. I figured the amount of gas and wear and tear on my moms car which already has 200,000 miles on it compared to renting a car and the gas it would use. It will be about $25 more expensive to rent a car. The wear and tear on my mom's car would cost me that much. Her suv is a gas hog so the rental fee and gas would only be about $25 extra dollars-to drive a new car that most likely will not break down anywhere. I will take it. I just won't be able to do that and pay for a hotel every time. So I would like to have a small cheap car before I have to start staying at a hotel again.
In the meantime with all of this going on, I lost my flash drive for work with all my documents for work saved on it; My phone broke, I can still use it, but it really needs replaced now; I lost my umbrella and of course it has been raining a lot. I also misplaced several more items at home that I have no idea where they went.
Today, things are turning around. I found two people already that want to look at the camper, I found my flash drive, I found my umbrella, and I have managed to finally get caught up at work! I think this may be the end of the "one of those days"! And it is about time, is all I can say!
So that is why I have been out of commission lately. So how are you doing?
Monday, June 8, 2009
My Relatively Cheap Weekend
I am glad to say that I only spent about $260 this weekend. That is really cheap! I splurged-I did buy my son a new ds game-he wanted star wars(we got the kids lego version). I don't mind getting him something once in a while that stays with me. I do get tired of buying things that he wants to take back to his dad's. I realize that he just wants to have his toys, but why should I spend my hard earned money on something that I will never see again. I spent almost $22 on the game. High but not as high as if we had purchased it new. We bought it used.
We also went on the waterslide again. Boy am I sore from that. My son wanted to go down the slide backwards like one of the other boys did. He does not like to go down alone, so we are riding together face to face and right after we start, he panics. He grabs a hold of me and knocks me over, so I am crashing into the side of the slide trying to keep him from getting hurt. We both wound up with scraped elbows. On another trip down he wanted to go behind me and he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards on top of him. I was so worried that I was going to drown him when we got to the bottom. On yet another trip down, he was in front of me and we really had some speed going down and when we get to the bottom, we both lose our footing, I am under the water trying to hold him above the water. Well, he doesn't put his feet down so we both went under. Not a big deal to me, but it really bothers S. I finally was able to stand up and get him up on his feet and he just keeps goofing off like he is drowning. Goofy boy. Then this other boy wants to ride down with us and S is okay with that. I try to hang onto the mats and still hold on to S but not run into the boy. S has got his legs locked so I know that he will kick the boy in the head if he doesn't pull his legs up. I pull them up for him, and we still ended up with S's knees plowing into the back of this boy. (I never did ask his name) We tried all sorts of ways with S in front, me in front, and this other boy in front. Inevitably, someone got a bump or a bruise. I have ended up with sore arms from holding S up out of the water at the end of the slide, a sore back where I got plowed into and from hitting the side in some of our more daring tries. I also have bruised and scraped elbows (both) and knees (both again), and had a head ache all day yesterday from plowing into S and hitting my jaw on his head. He had a headache too. Even the bottoms of my feet are sore. I have blisters and bruises from walking up the concrete path to get to the top of the slide. But boy was it fun! I will however be buying sandals of some sort to wear so my feet don't get torn up again.
I only ate out once this weekend on the way down. Around dinnertime, I realized I did not pack anything that I could just eat that would be a meal. I only had snacks that did not have to be cooked. I stopped at Subway to try a sandwich I had heard advertised on the radio. It was the Tuscan chicken melt. It was very good. I am not usually a fan of subway really, but I will definitely consider this sandwich again if I need sustenance on a trip...That is already cooked anyway.
It was the last trip for my poor old van. I am just really glad to have made it home. I think the transmission is ready to go and I am not sure what else is wrong with it, but it just was not running well. Thank goodness---I FOUND A MOTOR HOME FINALLY!!!!!! I have it at my mechanics being checked out so I did not take it this weekend until I get his blessing. I hope it is A-OK so I can take it to see my son next time. I bought it about 150 miles from where I live and it drove pretty much okay on the way back. A few little things, but it is an older model so it will be cheaper and easier than my van to work on and get parts for. It is a 1976, so there is not really any electronics to go bad. Either it will run or it won't. I can't wait to take it down and show my son, he will be just as excited as me!
We also went on the waterslide again. Boy am I sore from that. My son wanted to go down the slide backwards like one of the other boys did. He does not like to go down alone, so we are riding together face to face and right after we start, he panics. He grabs a hold of me and knocks me over, so I am crashing into the side of the slide trying to keep him from getting hurt. We both wound up with scraped elbows. On another trip down he wanted to go behind me and he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards on top of him. I was so worried that I was going to drown him when we got to the bottom. On yet another trip down, he was in front of me and we really had some speed going down and when we get to the bottom, we both lose our footing, I am under the water trying to hold him above the water. Well, he doesn't put his feet down so we both went under. Not a big deal to me, but it really bothers S. I finally was able to stand up and get him up on his feet and he just keeps goofing off like he is drowning. Goofy boy. Then this other boy wants to ride down with us and S is okay with that. I try to hang onto the mats and still hold on to S but not run into the boy. S has got his legs locked so I know that he will kick the boy in the head if he doesn't pull his legs up. I pull them up for him, and we still ended up with S's knees plowing into the back of this boy. (I never did ask his name) We tried all sorts of ways with S in front, me in front, and this other boy in front. Inevitably, someone got a bump or a bruise. I have ended up with sore arms from holding S up out of the water at the end of the slide, a sore back where I got plowed into and from hitting the side in some of our more daring tries. I also have bruised and scraped elbows (both) and knees (both again), and had a head ache all day yesterday from plowing into S and hitting my jaw on his head. He had a headache too. Even the bottoms of my feet are sore. I have blisters and bruises from walking up the concrete path to get to the top of the slide. But boy was it fun! I will however be buying sandals of some sort to wear so my feet don't get torn up again.
I only ate out once this weekend on the way down. Around dinnertime, I realized I did not pack anything that I could just eat that would be a meal. I only had snacks that did not have to be cooked. I stopped at Subway to try a sandwich I had heard advertised on the radio. It was the Tuscan chicken melt. It was very good. I am not usually a fan of subway really, but I will definitely consider this sandwich again if I need sustenance on a trip...That is already cooked anyway.
It was the last trip for my poor old van. I am just really glad to have made it home. I think the transmission is ready to go and I am not sure what else is wrong with it, but it just was not running well. Thank goodness---I FOUND A MOTOR HOME FINALLY!!!!!! I have it at my mechanics being checked out so I did not take it this weekend until I get his blessing. I hope it is A-OK so I can take it to see my son next time. I bought it about 150 miles from where I live and it drove pretty much okay on the way back. A few little things, but it is an older model so it will be cheaper and easier than my van to work on and get parts for. It is a 1976, so there is not really any electronics to go bad. Either it will run or it won't. I can't wait to take it down and show my son, he will be just as excited as me!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
What I did not do this weekend:
I did not get sunburned-oh woohoo, you have no idea how happy that makes me!
I did not stay at a hotel-saved me some money
I did not miss any days with my son
I did not buy water balloons-my son has asked for these for weeks now
I did not bring very much money home
What I DID do this weekend
I did HAVE A BLAST WITH MY SON!!!!!
I did go down the water slide
I did buy a water gun- to have a water fight cuz we already had one water gun
I did stay at the campgrounds
I did cook on the campfire
I did have an extra day with my son
I did play all day
I did wear a hat to keep my face out of the sun
I did play games with my son - bakugan and pokemon and nintendo(gameboy and ds)
I did watch a movie
I did walk with my son
I did take several pictures
I did spend every available minute as close as possible to my boy. We sat next to each other for nearly the whole time.
This was a pretty costly weekend. I had three days with my son. I went down on Friday afternoon. I left work a little early. Thank goodness I got gas the day before because gas rocketed up on Friday. It cost me about $15 more to fill up the night before than it has for several trips. I stopped to get gas again later and prepayed to $50. I did not quite get a full tank and I was not even out! Then we had to check into the campground on Friday night. That cost an extra $10 because my mom went. I do not need to check in on the Friday night. I can sleep anywhere. My mom however has to plug in for her sleep apnea machine, so from now on when she goes I guess I will be paying for an extra night. We got to the campgrounds only to find that someone was parking their vehicles in our spot. They got up the next morning and left in one of their cars so we took that opportunity to start unloading since they vacated our campsite. Then they come back and the guy tells us that it is his campsite. I sort-of-in-a-nice-way argued with him that I have been staying on this campsite for nearly a year now for every other weekend and am pretty sure I know which one is which. He tries to tell me that he was told he was in the wrong spot and he was supposed to be where we were setting up, but that since we are all unloaded and he was already unloaded the day before it was all okay and he did not worry about so neither should we. There was plenty of room for all of us. No shit!? Well, good thing since I had that site reserved for over a month. I spend a lot of time there, I know where all the sites are. But, whatever! I did not plan on moving my stuff anyway. So we just smile and say that's all right. We'll be fine. We go get cleaned up to go get my son. No problems with that. I take S straight back to the campgrounds. We finish setting up the site, S rides his bike a bit, we play a couple of games on the nintendo's. Then he wants to ride his bike more, but with me following to go all the way down to the ball field. Now going to the ball field is easy. It's all downhill. Coming back would then all be uphill, ya know? So S cannot ride up a hill yet. It is too hard he says. So I have to push the bike. Then he tells me it is too hard to walk up the hill, he cannot go any further. (Drama anyone?) I am trying to be nice to him, and let him sit on the bike while I am pushing as long as he helps. HOWEVER, I will not do it again. If he rides his bike somewhere it is his responsibility. He can bring it back. If it is too hard to ride up hill and too hard to push uphill, then leave it at the site. S begins to tell me I am mean and his dad is right about all the stuff he says about me and that I am mean (notice he is repeating himself?), and this is all just not nice of me. Except I am still pushing the bike. I did make him get off of it because it was too heavy with the bike and him going uphill for this fat-out-of-shape mom. (I discovered this past weekend that I definitely need to start working out or something!) We kind of get into an argument about him even saying that, it is not acceptable, and if he feels that way and does not really want to come home, why does he tell me he wants to come home. He does not really answer me just says now he wants to go play mini golf. I told him no, we were not playing anything if he thought it was appropriate to talk to me like that. He pouted for a minute and said he was sorry. I informed him I was not pushing his bike back and we were not driving across the park since we could cut across the tennis courts and grass to get there faster than driving all the way around the park. He insisted he would push his bike back. So off the three of us go to play golf, with S riding his bike. We get down there and pay our fee and pick which color of ball we want. This goes really well with all of us with the same score for about three holes. Then S starts making some really really good shots, he got a hole in one, he got several in two shots. Yeah, then there was me, and there was my mom. We never got a hole in one and the first couple that we managed to get in two must have been a fluke. I think we both had scores of over 50 when we were done, to S's 38. I think, it might have been 35 because I think he miscounted a few times to go against his favor. He was just really bouncy and silly when he discovered he was beating the pants off us. We wander up to the office so I can pay for the campsite. It was a lot cooler in the office so S and mom come in with me. S wants to play air hockey and pool. I play a game of air hockey with him, and mom plays a game of pool with him. The games only cost 50 cents each so this part is no big spendy part of the weekend. Time to go back to the site. I tell S lets cut across the field because it will be faster. He cannot ride his bike up the road anyway, he will have to push it because it is a hill. Let's take the short cut. I offer to help him push a bit since pushing through the grass is much harder than the road. I tell him when we get to the gravel, he can take over pushing. He tells me how tired he is and that he cannot possibly push the bike. So leave it here. I told you I was not pushing it all over the place for you. He starts getting mouthy and hateful again. I smack his arm and tell him to watch his mouth and he hits me back. I grab his arm and he starts howling and crying about how I am hurting him, that is his hurt arm. Of which I know nothing about. I ask mom to take the bike, we are going to find a little privacy in the bathroom which was fortuitously right there. I drag him into the bathroom and tell him he needs to talk to me and explain what the hell is going on, why is acting this way, saying these things and being hateful to me in general. He starts sobbing on how tired he is, his dad kept him out late last night, kept him up late when they got back, and how come I did not come to his game the night before. AAHHHH, now we are getting somewhere. I explain that I was driving and I cannot go to the games when they are not on my days unless I take off work, and I am saving my days for court and when he comes home. He stops crying so hard, and we talk for a minute or so about does he still want to come home. He says he does. I ask why he says things like that about me being mean. I tell him if he is telling everyone that I am mean that the judge will not let him come home. He apparently only tells me I am mean. His dad tells him I am mean and he tells his dad that I am not mean. He only says that to me. Because he was mad and tired. We hug and put a cool wet paper towel on his arm which he holds in place like a badge of honor, he's so tough because he was able to stop crying and his arm was all better. It did not even hurt now. We spend some down time watching a movie and playing video games. I get him to lay down for a bit. He did not actually nap, but he did rest. After which he was a new boy. He was quite cheerful again, and did not say anymore mean things.
After taking him back to his dad's house, my mom and I discussed how much bad behavior my son is learning down here. He is learning how to lie, to cheat and to be manipulative. When I confront S on his behavior that is like what he displayed for a couple of hours on Saturday, I basically get told that is how he behaves down there. Everyone behaves like that. The kids at school, his dad, everyone. I wonder how this is going to go when he gets to come home. It will be a whole new world to him to be around people that won't tolerate that kind of behavior out of anyone.
I did not say this in front of my mom, and I am not sure that I would want to, but I have also noticed that this piss-poor attitude and behavior is almost always worse when she comes down. I don't know if it is coincidence or what. He does want to see my mom, but he always has a bad day on Saturday when she comes. The Sunday visit usually is just fine, it's just the Saturday. We (S and I) have many visits where he may have a bit of attitude, but no other displays of hatefulness. Just sometimes he is down-right mean when it is just the two of us. Of course since we had three days this time, once we got past the Saturday readjusting, Sunday and Monday were just fine.
On Sunday and Monday, we had good days. We played and goofed off. S had some money to spend, so he wanted to go to walwart on Monday morning after I picked him up. He bought a couple of toys, and I bought cheese, the water gun and donuts for my mom. We had a water fight on Sunday and Monday. We went on the water slide on Monday. We just really enjoyed ourselves. We spend a lot of time just being together which is the best part. When it is time to pack up, S really likes to help take the gazebo down. It is much easier than the one from last year and he is able to help with all of it. I think it makes him feel useful and helpful. He likes to feel like a big boy. Which he is, just was hard to do anything with the last gazebo. Plus it keeps him busy until it is time to go. Neither of us wants to dwell on the fact that the end of the visit is nearing. We get everything loaded and S climbs in the van and off we go to his dad's. The end is here.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for a speedy court date and a satisfactory ending. I am ready for all of this to be over.
I did not get sunburned-oh woohoo, you have no idea how happy that makes me!
I did not stay at a hotel-saved me some money
I did not miss any days with my son
I did not buy water balloons-my son has asked for these for weeks now
I did not bring very much money home
What I DID do this weekend
I did HAVE A BLAST WITH MY SON!!!!!
I did go down the water slide
I did buy a water gun- to have a water fight cuz we already had one water gun
I did stay at the campgrounds
I did cook on the campfire
I did have an extra day with my son
I did play all day
I did wear a hat to keep my face out of the sun
I did play games with my son - bakugan and pokemon and nintendo(gameboy and ds)
I did watch a movie
I did walk with my son
I did take several pictures
I did spend every available minute as close as possible to my boy. We sat next to each other for nearly the whole time.
This was a pretty costly weekend. I had three days with my son. I went down on Friday afternoon. I left work a little early. Thank goodness I got gas the day before because gas rocketed up on Friday. It cost me about $15 more to fill up the night before than it has for several trips. I stopped to get gas again later and prepayed to $50. I did not quite get a full tank and I was not even out! Then we had to check into the campground on Friday night. That cost an extra $10 because my mom went. I do not need to check in on the Friday night. I can sleep anywhere. My mom however has to plug in for her sleep apnea machine, so from now on when she goes I guess I will be paying for an extra night. We got to the campgrounds only to find that someone was parking their vehicles in our spot. They got up the next morning and left in one of their cars so we took that opportunity to start unloading since they vacated our campsite. Then they come back and the guy tells us that it is his campsite. I sort-of-in-a-nice-way argued with him that I have been staying on this campsite for nearly a year now for every other weekend and am pretty sure I know which one is which. He tries to tell me that he was told he was in the wrong spot and he was supposed to be where we were setting up, but that since we are all unloaded and he was already unloaded the day before it was all okay and he did not worry about so neither should we. There was plenty of room for all of us. No shit!? Well, good thing since I had that site reserved for over a month. I spend a lot of time there, I know where all the sites are. But, whatever! I did not plan on moving my stuff anyway. So we just smile and say that's all right. We'll be fine. We go get cleaned up to go get my son. No problems with that. I take S straight back to the campgrounds. We finish setting up the site, S rides his bike a bit, we play a couple of games on the nintendo's. Then he wants to ride his bike more, but with me following to go all the way down to the ball field. Now going to the ball field is easy. It's all downhill. Coming back would then all be uphill, ya know? So S cannot ride up a hill yet. It is too hard he says. So I have to push the bike. Then he tells me it is too hard to walk up the hill, he cannot go any further. (Drama anyone?) I am trying to be nice to him, and let him sit on the bike while I am pushing as long as he helps. HOWEVER, I will not do it again. If he rides his bike somewhere it is his responsibility. He can bring it back. If it is too hard to ride up hill and too hard to push uphill, then leave it at the site. S begins to tell me I am mean and his dad is right about all the stuff he says about me and that I am mean (notice he is repeating himself?), and this is all just not nice of me. Except I am still pushing the bike. I did make him get off of it because it was too heavy with the bike and him going uphill for this fat-out-of-shape mom. (I discovered this past weekend that I definitely need to start working out or something!) We kind of get into an argument about him even saying that, it is not acceptable, and if he feels that way and does not really want to come home, why does he tell me he wants to come home. He does not really answer me just says now he wants to go play mini golf. I told him no, we were not playing anything if he thought it was appropriate to talk to me like that. He pouted for a minute and said he was sorry. I informed him I was not pushing his bike back and we were not driving across the park since we could cut across the tennis courts and grass to get there faster than driving all the way around the park. He insisted he would push his bike back. So off the three of us go to play golf, with S riding his bike. We get down there and pay our fee and pick which color of ball we want. This goes really well with all of us with the same score for about three holes. Then S starts making some really really good shots, he got a hole in one, he got several in two shots. Yeah, then there was me, and there was my mom. We never got a hole in one and the first couple that we managed to get in two must have been a fluke. I think we both had scores of over 50 when we were done, to S's 38. I think, it might have been 35 because I think he miscounted a few times to go against his favor. He was just really bouncy and silly when he discovered he was beating the pants off us. We wander up to the office so I can pay for the campsite. It was a lot cooler in the office so S and mom come in with me. S wants to play air hockey and pool. I play a game of air hockey with him, and mom plays a game of pool with him. The games only cost 50 cents each so this part is no big spendy part of the weekend. Time to go back to the site. I tell S lets cut across the field because it will be faster. He cannot ride his bike up the road anyway, he will have to push it because it is a hill. Let's take the short cut. I offer to help him push a bit since pushing through the grass is much harder than the road. I tell him when we get to the gravel, he can take over pushing. He tells me how tired he is and that he cannot possibly push the bike. So leave it here. I told you I was not pushing it all over the place for you. He starts getting mouthy and hateful again. I smack his arm and tell him to watch his mouth and he hits me back. I grab his arm and he starts howling and crying about how I am hurting him, that is his hurt arm. Of which I know nothing about. I ask mom to take the bike, we are going to find a little privacy in the bathroom which was fortuitously right there. I drag him into the bathroom and tell him he needs to talk to me and explain what the hell is going on, why is acting this way, saying these things and being hateful to me in general. He starts sobbing on how tired he is, his dad kept him out late last night, kept him up late when they got back, and how come I did not come to his game the night before. AAHHHH, now we are getting somewhere. I explain that I was driving and I cannot go to the games when they are not on my days unless I take off work, and I am saving my days for court and when he comes home. He stops crying so hard, and we talk for a minute or so about does he still want to come home. He says he does. I ask why he says things like that about me being mean. I tell him if he is telling everyone that I am mean that the judge will not let him come home. He apparently only tells me I am mean. His dad tells him I am mean and he tells his dad that I am not mean. He only says that to me. Because he was mad and tired. We hug and put a cool wet paper towel on his arm which he holds in place like a badge of honor, he's so tough because he was able to stop crying and his arm was all better. It did not even hurt now. We spend some down time watching a movie and playing video games. I get him to lay down for a bit. He did not actually nap, but he did rest. After which he was a new boy. He was quite cheerful again, and did not say anymore mean things.
After taking him back to his dad's house, my mom and I discussed how much bad behavior my son is learning down here. He is learning how to lie, to cheat and to be manipulative. When I confront S on his behavior that is like what he displayed for a couple of hours on Saturday, I basically get told that is how he behaves down there. Everyone behaves like that. The kids at school, his dad, everyone. I wonder how this is going to go when he gets to come home. It will be a whole new world to him to be around people that won't tolerate that kind of behavior out of anyone.
I did not say this in front of my mom, and I am not sure that I would want to, but I have also noticed that this piss-poor attitude and behavior is almost always worse when she comes down. I don't know if it is coincidence or what. He does want to see my mom, but he always has a bad day on Saturday when she comes. The Sunday visit usually is just fine, it's just the Saturday. We (S and I) have many visits where he may have a bit of attitude, but no other displays of hatefulness. Just sometimes he is down-right mean when it is just the two of us. Of course since we had three days this time, once we got past the Saturday readjusting, Sunday and Monday were just fine.
On Sunday and Monday, we had good days. We played and goofed off. S had some money to spend, so he wanted to go to walwart on Monday morning after I picked him up. He bought a couple of toys, and I bought cheese, the water gun and donuts for my mom. We had a water fight on Sunday and Monday. We went on the water slide on Monday. We just really enjoyed ourselves. We spend a lot of time just being together which is the best part. When it is time to pack up, S really likes to help take the gazebo down. It is much easier than the one from last year and he is able to help with all of it. I think it makes him feel useful and helpful. He likes to feel like a big boy. Which he is, just was hard to do anything with the last gazebo. Plus it keeps him busy until it is time to go. Neither of us wants to dwell on the fact that the end of the visit is nearing. We get everything loaded and S climbs in the van and off we go to his dad's. The end is here.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for a speedy court date and a satisfactory ending. I am ready for all of this to be over.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Flashback Friday
I am going to try to remember to participate every Friday in Flashback Friday, hosted by Jill over at ScaryMommy. Now my blog has not been around long enough to have flashbacks from the blog. I also have only had a digital camera for a short while. I do have a picture to share though. My son has had a camera for about three years now. This picture represents about half of all the pictures that I have from my son S.
I mostly throw these pictures away after a while, when I think that S won't notice that they are missing. Now I can keep them forever on a disc because what fun to show S the super photographer he used to be! I do have to admit however, he is getting better. I swear I have not seen an up and close eye ball shot for a couple of months! Or the ever popular "Up the Nose See all My Nose Hairs" type of shot.
Gee, what will I do with no more nose hair shots?
Monday, May 18, 2009
Just about me.
I can't wait for this weekend. I am really excited to go see my son this weekend. I get to see him for three days! I get to have for the holiday on Monday! YIPPEEEEEE! I always love to have extra days, especially this year as we have so many weekends that are getting cut short. I am pretty sure that I will get sunburned this weekend again! I have camped out two weekend visits in a row, and have been sunburned two visits in a row. I did get a hat from my dad, so hopefully that will keep my face from being burned again. I will also make sure to wear my sunblock.
I like it when we have extra days as well for the "vacation" feel of it. My mom is also going this weekend. When we drive down after work on Friday, it is usually around 2 or 3 in the morning when we stop. I have to get up and finish the drive which is about one hour and be there by nine am. So I try to get up around 7 or quarter after to make sure I can leave the "stopping spot" by 8. We get up and clean up in the bathroom, get some breakfast, get gas and just stretch our legs seeing as we've been in the car for about 12-15 hours or more at that point. We do get a bit of sleep though. Well, I get more when my mom does not go because she snores like a chainsaw when she does not have her sleep apnea machine on. This weekend will be the first time she has gone down with the sleep apnea machine while we are camping, and we are both curious how this will all work. I say it has to be an improvement, as I am the one that has to listen to her snore all night! Normally when we only have the two days, Saturday night is an early one as we are so tired. We drop my son "S" off and go back, take showers, sometimes eat then go to bed. It is pretty much the same on the long weekends too! But, ooohhhh, Sunday is such a nice day. We have no sadness as the day is the last, we have no moodiness as I have to go and leave him yet again. No, we don't have that stress on the Sunday visit because the visit is not over yet! There is one more day! Sunday we just get to play all day. No unpacking and setting up camp like on Saturday, no packing up like a regular Sunday visit. Just a whole day to play. Well, eight hours. But that is better than a poke in the eye! Monday will be stressful when the time comes to pack up, but what a blast those extra hours are. Then on Sunday evening we can sit around the campfire. We will probably have one while S is there as I am planning on having S'mores this weekend. He has been wanting to make them for the last two visits, but I did not get the "stuff" yet. I will pick the goodies up this week at cvs. We will also have hot dogs cooked over the fire. My mom is going to bring her dutch oven and we will make peach cobbler in the fire as well. And, I think this is the weekend that the ice cream man starts coming around! He drives an old fashioned ice cream truck and sells the ice cream treats every weekend in the summer. This is also the weekend that the pool and water slide open, along with the putt-putt. The game room is open the whole time the park is open. Mostly we swim or just play outside. Eat some ice cream, have a fire, ride bikes, play ball. I love my visits. I can't wait for this weekend.
I like it when we have extra days as well for the "vacation" feel of it. My mom is also going this weekend. When we drive down after work on Friday, it is usually around 2 or 3 in the morning when we stop. I have to get up and finish the drive which is about one hour and be there by nine am. So I try to get up around 7 or quarter after to make sure I can leave the "stopping spot" by 8. We get up and clean up in the bathroom, get some breakfast, get gas and just stretch our legs seeing as we've been in the car for about 12-15 hours or more at that point. We do get a bit of sleep though. Well, I get more when my mom does not go because she snores like a chainsaw when she does not have her sleep apnea machine on. This weekend will be the first time she has gone down with the sleep apnea machine while we are camping, and we are both curious how this will all work. I say it has to be an improvement, as I am the one that has to listen to her snore all night! Normally when we only have the two days, Saturday night is an early one as we are so tired. We drop my son "S" off and go back, take showers, sometimes eat then go to bed. It is pretty much the same on the long weekends too! But, ooohhhh, Sunday is such a nice day. We have no sadness as the day is the last, we have no moodiness as I have to go and leave him yet again. No, we don't have that stress on the Sunday visit because the visit is not over yet! There is one more day! Sunday we just get to play all day. No unpacking and setting up camp like on Saturday, no packing up like a regular Sunday visit. Just a whole day to play. Well, eight hours. But that is better than a poke in the eye! Monday will be stressful when the time comes to pack up, but what a blast those extra hours are. Then on Sunday evening we can sit around the campfire. We will probably have one while S is there as I am planning on having S'mores this weekend. He has been wanting to make them for the last two visits, but I did not get the "stuff" yet. I will pick the goodies up this week at cvs. We will also have hot dogs cooked over the fire. My mom is going to bring her dutch oven and we will make peach cobbler in the fire as well. And, I think this is the weekend that the ice cream man starts coming around! He drives an old fashioned ice cream truck and sells the ice cream treats every weekend in the summer. This is also the weekend that the pool and water slide open, along with the putt-putt. The game room is open the whole time the park is open. Mostly we swim or just play outside. Eat some ice cream, have a fire, ride bikes, play ball. I love my visits. I can't wait for this weekend.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Happy Mother's Day
Now I do realize that yesterday was Mother's Day, but as I was visiting my son, I was not able to get to any computers. No offense to any of you, but I would much rather spend the day with my son! And what a day it was! We had a blast.
I went down for my visit and on Saturday my son had a ball game. I watched him play and then we went to the campgrounds. Just about the time we pulled into the park it started raining. Since it is quite a-ways back into the park to the campgrounds, I was hoping it was not raining there. It was not raining as we checked in for our site, but my son wanted to play a game of pool. We played a game pretty quickly, and by the time we were done it was raining. No surprise. I hoped it would stop quickly, but the van is plenty big enough to crawl into the back and play. We opened the windows to let the breeze come through and played Pokemon, bakugan, and watched a bit of a movie. Then I realized it was no longer raining. I have no idea how long it had not been raining, but we got out to play my son's version of laser tag and set up the gazebo. My son's version of laser tag is basically what we used to call cops and robbers and the previous generation called cowboys and indians. It is so interesting how the names of games change but the actual game stays the same? I made him change his clothes to get out of his ball uniform. He put on some clothes that I bring for him. A good thing too! My son wanted to ride his bike and me walk with him. And he found the only mud puddle in the whole park! So he played in it. He had tons of fun and got totally soaked! After a while I made him go back up to the camp site as it looked like another storm was rolling in. We then played in the water more by dumping water on each other. It was really too cold for that, though. I told him I was cold and done playing in the water and I was going to change my clothes. He was not done. He was not cold, he was going to keep playing in the water. I told him that he could wash the dishes that we had if he wanted to keep playing in the water. So he did, and served me food with bubbles (which he called the good tasting chemicals!) So I had a chemical lunch! Before we knew it our time was almost up, and I had planned on taking him to McDonalds for dinner. We packed up and drove to the restaurant and got our happy meals. They did not have the KidzBop cd that my son wanted, but he got two more, one from each happy meal and the staff was kind enough to let us have two different ones. Then it was time to take him back. That is one crappy time of day. At least when it is Saturday, I know that we have another day.
Then here comes Sunday morning. Yea! Time for the next visit. I go and get him and we drive in to get gas and ice for the cooler. He tells me he is still hungry even though he already ate breakfast, can he have eggs. My son love hard boiled eggs, but only the egg white. So we boil some eggs, I make scrambled eggs and toast for me, adding a hot dog. My son ate a hot dog and jelly beans while waiting for the eggs. Then he is not hungry anymore when the eggs are done. That is fine, I can stick them in the cooler. He changes into some play clothes that I have for him while I put away the dishes and food. Then off to the ball field to practice some ball. We go back cuz we are tired. I was so happy that my knee is feeling better because I was actually able to run the bases some and chase him to try to get him out! Back up to the camp site to get drinks and play laser tag again. Now it was time to get out the bike and race back down to the mud puddle. I took my camera with me this time so that I could get a few pictures of our visit and the mud puddle adventure. After a pit stop in the bathrooms, we play at the playground. I take several pictures again because my little man tells me he wants more pictures of the day because he wants to make a cd and call it the best times of his childhood, his days with his mom! I wanted to cry, but I managed to hold my tears. He said that he was not happy down there but he sure had fun on our weekends together. They were the best times ever since he was down there. So we talk a bit while swinging of what he wants to put on his cd, how he wants to title them and store them on the disc. Then we take a few more pictures and then go sit under a tree to look at them. He was really pleased with his idea. I think it was the best Mother's day present EVER! To hear that my son cherishes our time together just as much as me....That is the best. After looking at the pictures and talking a bit more on his disc ideas, we go play a little more. Finally I tell him he is going to have to push my up the hill on his bike if we don't go pretty soon, I will be too tired to walk. We go, except I end up pushing him and his bike up the hill! He was too tired! It is a pretty steep hill though. We played some more, laid around and watched more t.v., played more Pokemon, and ate lunch until it was time to pack up. My son and I both hate that part of the visit. Sunday afternoon when it is time to pack up and go. He does however like to help take the gazebo down, he pretty much took the whole thing down by himself! We load everything into the van, make one last potty break, and start the awful drive. I try hard not to, but invariably I get crabby, and he gets whiny. We try not to, but it happens, then we say we are sorry and try to hold in the tears. I don't linger while dropping him off, because the longer I linger saying bye, the harder it is on both of us. As I back out of the driveway, he stands on the porch and we wave at each other, I flash the headlights and honk the horn. We do this until we can no longer see each other.
When I call him later Sunday evening, and I ask how he is, he tells me he is being strong. That is what we tell each other to do until we make it through this. Be strong. We talk for a bit, but his dog starts coughing, and he wants to get off the phone to keep an eye on her. Then she hacks up whatever she was choking on and he changed his mind and wants to stay on the phone. We talk for a bit until our time is up. We say our bye's and hang up. I finish my drive home.
The only other exciting thing is that I stop to get a couple of papers in Indy. I stop at a couple of truck stops and get the paper. While I was there this time, I took the coupon inserts out of the papers that were still in the machine. I am not sure if this is something that I should do or not, but it is usually after one a.m. when I stop and I figure if anyone wanted the Sunday paper, they would have gotten it on Sunday, not go looking for it on Monday morning. I was just pleased to get a couple of extra coupons! Especially since the ones in my area are so crappy. Now to wait for the sales so I can use my q's.
I went down for my visit and on Saturday my son had a ball game. I watched him play and then we went to the campgrounds. Just about the time we pulled into the park it started raining. Since it is quite a-ways back into the park to the campgrounds, I was hoping it was not raining there. It was not raining as we checked in for our site, but my son wanted to play a game of pool. We played a game pretty quickly, and by the time we were done it was raining. No surprise. I hoped it would stop quickly, but the van is plenty big enough to crawl into the back and play. We opened the windows to let the breeze come through and played Pokemon, bakugan, and watched a bit of a movie. Then I realized it was no longer raining. I have no idea how long it had not been raining, but we got out to play my son's version of laser tag and set up the gazebo. My son's version of laser tag is basically what we used to call cops and robbers and the previous generation called cowboys and indians. It is so interesting how the names of games change but the actual game stays the same? I made him change his clothes to get out of his ball uniform. He put on some clothes that I bring for him. A good thing too! My son wanted to ride his bike and me walk with him. And he found the only mud puddle in the whole park! So he played in it. He had tons of fun and got totally soaked! After a while I made him go back up to the camp site as it looked like another storm was rolling in. We then played in the water more by dumping water on each other. It was really too cold for that, though. I told him I was cold and done playing in the water and I was going to change my clothes. He was not done. He was not cold, he was going to keep playing in the water. I told him that he could wash the dishes that we had if he wanted to keep playing in the water. So he did, and served me food with bubbles (which he called the good tasting chemicals!) So I had a chemical lunch! Before we knew it our time was almost up, and I had planned on taking him to McDonalds for dinner. We packed up and drove to the restaurant and got our happy meals. They did not have the KidzBop cd that my son wanted, but he got two more, one from each happy meal and the staff was kind enough to let us have two different ones. Then it was time to take him back. That is one crappy time of day. At least when it is Saturday, I know that we have another day.
Then here comes Sunday morning. Yea! Time for the next visit. I go and get him and we drive in to get gas and ice for the cooler. He tells me he is still hungry even though he already ate breakfast, can he have eggs. My son love hard boiled eggs, but only the egg white. So we boil some eggs, I make scrambled eggs and toast for me, adding a hot dog. My son ate a hot dog and jelly beans while waiting for the eggs. Then he is not hungry anymore when the eggs are done. That is fine, I can stick them in the cooler. He changes into some play clothes that I have for him while I put away the dishes and food. Then off to the ball field to practice some ball. We go back cuz we are tired. I was so happy that my knee is feeling better because I was actually able to run the bases some and chase him to try to get him out! Back up to the camp site to get drinks and play laser tag again. Now it was time to get out the bike and race back down to the mud puddle. I took my camera with me this time so that I could get a few pictures of our visit and the mud puddle adventure. After a pit stop in the bathrooms, we play at the playground. I take several pictures again because my little man tells me he wants more pictures of the day because he wants to make a cd and call it the best times of his childhood, his days with his mom! I wanted to cry, but I managed to hold my tears. He said that he was not happy down there but he sure had fun on our weekends together. They were the best times ever since he was down there. So we talk a bit while swinging of what he wants to put on his cd, how he wants to title them and store them on the disc. Then we take a few more pictures and then go sit under a tree to look at them. He was really pleased with his idea. I think it was the best Mother's day present EVER! To hear that my son cherishes our time together just as much as me....That is the best. After looking at the pictures and talking a bit more on his disc ideas, we go play a little more. Finally I tell him he is going to have to push my up the hill on his bike if we don't go pretty soon, I will be too tired to walk. We go, except I end up pushing him and his bike up the hill! He was too tired! It is a pretty steep hill though. We played some more, laid around and watched more t.v., played more Pokemon, and ate lunch until it was time to pack up. My son and I both hate that part of the visit. Sunday afternoon when it is time to pack up and go. He does however like to help take the gazebo down, he pretty much took the whole thing down by himself! We load everything into the van, make one last potty break, and start the awful drive. I try hard not to, but invariably I get crabby, and he gets whiny. We try not to, but it happens, then we say we are sorry and try to hold in the tears. I don't linger while dropping him off, because the longer I linger saying bye, the harder it is on both of us. As I back out of the driveway, he stands on the porch and we wave at each other, I flash the headlights and honk the horn. We do this until we can no longer see each other.
When I call him later Sunday evening, and I ask how he is, he tells me he is being strong. That is what we tell each other to do until we make it through this. Be strong. We talk for a bit, but his dog starts coughing, and he wants to get off the phone to keep an eye on her. Then she hacks up whatever she was choking on and he changed his mind and wants to stay on the phone. We talk for a bit until our time is up. We say our bye's and hang up. I finish my drive home.
The only other exciting thing is that I stop to get a couple of papers in Indy. I stop at a couple of truck stops and get the paper. While I was there this time, I took the coupon inserts out of the papers that were still in the machine. I am not sure if this is something that I should do or not, but it is usually after one a.m. when I stop and I figure if anyone wanted the Sunday paper, they would have gotten it on Sunday, not go looking for it on Monday morning. I was just pleased to get a couple of extra coupons! Especially since the ones in my area are so crappy. Now to wait for the sales so I can use my q's.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Challenge Update and My Weekend
I did not spend money on a hotel this weekend so that saved me about $65 dollars. Then we went to walmart and bought a gazeebo. Total spent was $76. About the cost of one night at a hotel. Fortunately I do not have to spend this money again. I had one last year as well, but I only paid about $25 for it and I totally got what I paid for. This new one is pretty nice and should hold up much better. We did also get some McDonalds after the ball game on Saturday because my son was starving. The game was almost 40 minutes late starting and although they did not play the whole game (the ump called the game cuz my son's team was slautering the other team), it was later than expected and so we grabbed some food on the way back to the campgrounds. I also got a burger and a milkshake on my way home. It was super hot (over 90-it's only April!), and since I try to not run the air conditioner in my van while I am driving in the mountains, I needed something to cool me off. I was just going to get the shake but figured I should eat some food as well. So all in all not terrible, but not really any savings this weekend. Next time there will be a whole lot more savings because I will be more prepared by having a gazeebo for some shade and shelter and having some sandwiches in the cooler premade.
I also got sunburned pretty bad on my forehead. My arms got burned a bit, but they did not really hurt and are already turning brown. My forehead already has that bumpy feel to it that tells me it is going to peel. EEEEEWWWWW! Peeling, and on my face! Groooosssss! Since it does not hurt I may try to help it along when it actually starts peeling. I am also going to get a hat from my dad! I used to have a straw hat, but between the girls and the cats, sadly it is no more. I also planned on being out in the sun before my next visit to help prevent sunburn. Except it is supposed to rain every day this week, and be cloudy this weekend. I want sun!!!
I have also discovered that while the games on Saturday are okay, I will not do any more practices on Sundays. It really felt like it cut into our day. All in all it was a good trip. We had a nice time playing together, just being together. It felt like it had been a long time since I had visited with my son since last time was only for one day. I am hoping this gets resolved soon, I have three visits this summer that get shortened to one day due to the holiday schedule. One in June, one in July and one that already happened in April. I don't like only one day. I want my whole weekend. I feel like I am pouting here, but I also feel like I have been cheated out of enough of my son's life, I should get all days for my visits. Not to metion how long I have to drive just to see him for a few hours. Of course, other than my son, no one down there really cares about that. My son cares and last time we had a short visit, he had lots of things to say about it. It obviously doesn't change anything, but does allow him to vent. I told him this weekend that we had a couple more short visits just to prepare him.
As far as the camping goes, I let my son pick whichever spot that he wanted and then reserved it through July to make sure that we would have a spot, especially Memorial Day weekend. They are usually filled to the brim with campers even in the parking lot, and tents just everywhere in the field next to the parking lot. It was crazy last year how many people were out there. I also get my son for Labor Day but I will wait a little longer for that reservation with the hope that he is already home.
I also restarted my diet today. I realized that the pool will be opening soon and my son will want to swim. They also have a water slide that he enjoys but does not like to go down it by himself. I am going to have to lose a few pounds before I put on a bathing suit! I plan to weigh myself tonight at my mom's. I am not even sure my suit would fit if I don't lose some weight. I will follow my diet that I used a couple of years ago that I did well on. It is supposed to be a change in eating habits when you are done with the actual diet. However, I like food, especially sugar-y chocolate-y tasty goodness. Really, just all treats. I am a junk food junkie. I really hope to fix that and be able to follow the changes the diet plan recommends long term. We will see.
I also got sunburned pretty bad on my forehead. My arms got burned a bit, but they did not really hurt and are already turning brown. My forehead already has that bumpy feel to it that tells me it is going to peel. EEEEEWWWWW! Peeling, and on my face! Groooosssss! Since it does not hurt I may try to help it along when it actually starts peeling. I am also going to get a hat from my dad! I used to have a straw hat, but between the girls and the cats, sadly it is no more. I also planned on being out in the sun before my next visit to help prevent sunburn. Except it is supposed to rain every day this week, and be cloudy this weekend. I want sun!!!
I have also discovered that while the games on Saturday are okay, I will not do any more practices on Sundays. It really felt like it cut into our day. All in all it was a good trip. We had a nice time playing together, just being together. It felt like it had been a long time since I had visited with my son since last time was only for one day. I am hoping this gets resolved soon, I have three visits this summer that get shortened to one day due to the holiday schedule. One in June, one in July and one that already happened in April. I don't like only one day. I want my whole weekend. I feel like I am pouting here, but I also feel like I have been cheated out of enough of my son's life, I should get all days for my visits. Not to metion how long I have to drive just to see him for a few hours. Of course, other than my son, no one down there really cares about that. My son cares and last time we had a short visit, he had lots of things to say about it. It obviously doesn't change anything, but does allow him to vent. I told him this weekend that we had a couple more short visits just to prepare him.
As far as the camping goes, I let my son pick whichever spot that he wanted and then reserved it through July to make sure that we would have a spot, especially Memorial Day weekend. They are usually filled to the brim with campers even in the parking lot, and tents just everywhere in the field next to the parking lot. It was crazy last year how many people were out there. I also get my son for Labor Day but I will wait a little longer for that reservation with the hope that he is already home.
I also restarted my diet today. I realized that the pool will be opening soon and my son will want to swim. They also have a water slide that he enjoys but does not like to go down it by himself. I am going to have to lose a few pounds before I put on a bathing suit! I plan to weigh myself tonight at my mom's. I am not even sure my suit would fit if I don't lose some weight. I will follow my diet that I used a couple of years ago that I did well on. It is supposed to be a change in eating habits when you are done with the actual diet. However, I like food, especially sugar-y chocolate-y tasty goodness. Really, just all treats. I am a junk food junkie. I really hope to fix that and be able to follow the changes the diet plan recommends long term. We will see.
Friday, April 24, 2009
My furbabies
Here are some photos of my indoor furbabies.
This one is Sassy. We have had her the longest. She is the only female kitty. She is the Boss. She sure looks pleased, don't you think!
This is Kitten. He got this oh-so-original name because when we got him we called him kitten. My son took forever to decide on a name for him, but by then it was too late. He would only respond to Kitten. This is the nosy, gotta be in everything, be in the way cat.
This is the baby. He is also the biggest. You can't really tell from the pic but he out-weighs Sassy by about 5 pounds and out-weighs Kitten by only a pound or two. He is also the shyest. When we got him he had been abandoned and brought in by my ex who told my son he could have him for christmas. Then my ex told me that he gave my son a cat, but he could not keep it down there. Either I took the cat home with my son and me or my son would not get to keep him. Isn't that nice. I do love the kitty though. My son named him Tiger Crisp.
This is Kitten. He got this oh-so-original name because when we got him we called him kitten. My son took forever to decide on a name for him, but by then it was too late. He would only respond to Kitten. This is the nosy, gotta be in everything, be in the way cat.
This is the baby. He is also the biggest. You can't really tell from the pic but he out-weighs Sassy by about 5 pounds and out-weighs Kitten by only a pound or two. He is also the shyest. When we got him he had been abandoned and brought in by my ex who told my son he could have him for christmas. Then my ex told me that he gave my son a cat, but he could not keep it down there. Either I took the cat home with my son and me or my son would not get to keep him. Isn't that nice. I do love the kitty though. My son named him Tiger Crisp.Thursday, April 23, 2009
Challenge - Update April 23,2009
I did not go to Kfart yesterday. They are not doing doubles. I looked at the online ad and it said they were according to the front page of the ad. Something told me to call before I drove clear to the other side of town. I called and they are not participating. Dang and double dang. I guess it means I did not spend any money again though.
I did go and see my dad, which is free of course. Then I went on home. I was going to go to wags and get something really cheap so I could get my free bag, but I lost my q I had printed off. I was really not having to organized of a day yesterday. I did get my van ready for this weekend. I have a couple of things to add tonight and that's it.
I also played with Sharktooth, my outside kitty. My son named her. Yes, I said her. She is preggers right now. I do not know when we will have kittens, but I am sure she will bring them to me. My house is where she eats. She is not really my cat, I found her outside but she is cute so she can stay. I have been careful about just putting food out all the time and am trying to just feed the kitties when they show up. I do not want to keep feeding the dogs. These dogs have homes, they are just piggies. I feed and pet all the feral cats in the neighborhood. They are friendly for the most part. There is only one cat that won't let me pet him. I figure all kitties need someone to care for them. I am going to try to TNR some of the kitties if I can get my son home soon. I do not need even more kitties to feed. I am sure they will not be too happy about that, but the neighborhood will. Less cats to get into crawlspaces, pee on the flowers, and have more babies.
Other than that I did not spend any money but I did not save any either.
How are you doing on your challenge?
I did go and see my dad, which is free of course. Then I went on home. I was going to go to wags and get something really cheap so I could get my free bag, but I lost my q I had printed off. I was really not having to organized of a day yesterday. I did get my van ready for this weekend. I have a couple of things to add tonight and that's it.
I also played with Sharktooth, my outside kitty. My son named her. Yes, I said her. She is preggers right now. I do not know when we will have kittens, but I am sure she will bring them to me. My house is where she eats. She is not really my cat, I found her outside but she is cute so she can stay. I have been careful about just putting food out all the time and am trying to just feed the kitties when they show up. I do not want to keep feeding the dogs. These dogs have homes, they are just piggies. I feed and pet all the feral cats in the neighborhood. They are friendly for the most part. There is only one cat that won't let me pet him. I figure all kitties need someone to care for them. I am going to try to TNR some of the kitties if I can get my son home soon. I do not need even more kitties to feed. I am sure they will not be too happy about that, but the neighborhood will. Less cats to get into crawlspaces, pee on the flowers, and have more babies.
Other than that I did not spend any money but I did not save any either.
How are you doing on your challenge?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Challenge-Update 3 April 18-19
I did go to my cousin's baby shower in Wisconsin this weekend with my mom. My sister decided to go and bring her older daughter (Drama Girl). Mom wanted to leave originally no later than 7 from her house. When my sister said she wanted to go, we knew we would never be able to leave that early. The latest my mom would leave? 7:30 Fine with me, it's a long drive. My sister picked me up at my house and we went to my mom's. I packed snacks with me so I would not have to buy anything on the way. We had a blast at the shower. Lots of good food and good times. We then drove back to my aunt's house which was about 45 minutes south of my cousin's house. We all gathered there to have a few drinks (although my knee had been killing me all day and I had taken several doses of pain killers so I drank nothing) and play on the WII. One of my cousins (M)brought over American Idol. She and my other cousin (S)that was there apparently have played before. They talked my, mom and my sister into playing. I usually don't sing in front of anyone cuz I don't think that I can sing, but in the spirit of fun I went ahead and joined in. M challenged my sister first then me and won both times. Then we did a group thing where someone gets eliminated each round. You sing the first two short songs, then full songs for the rest. I actually won both times. Then we paired up and sang duets. I sang with S and we won both times. My sister and I sang together one time and got the highest score possible. I think we did pretty good!
We played this until like one a.m. Then I could not sleep and basically napped a couple of times that night. I am not used to all the noise that goes on in my aunt's house, everything stays plugged in and runs all the time!
I got up as early as I dared figuring I would wake people up when I got into the bathroom to take a shower. Then as everyone started waking up we were discussing what we planned on doing for the day. I met a wonderful hound-friend, Chi-Annie, and we went shopping at Target. I had a blast. Even with the coupon hater cashier! I wish we lived closer so that we could go shopping more often!
Alas I did have to return to the regular world and go back to my aunt's house for lunch. Turns out they did not have any lunch plans as previously indicated. So my cousin S said she wanted to go to Red Lobster. We got pizza the night before and she missed out on the Red Lobster and really wanted some. So off we went. Well, we loaded the car first. Then we went to eat. Not too bad considering that we had three babies with us. And they were all really tired. Not to mention some of the adults were really tired. The food was alright. I personally am not a huge fan of Red Lobster, but of course I do not eat seafood, so my options are limited. Then it was finally time to go home. I always have a good time, but my cousins and their children are much more boisterous than my son or nieces. It is always good to go home anyway, no matter where you are coming from. The ride home was not too bad. My sister and Drama Girl fell asleep, so mom and I chatted. I called my son and waited on him to call back. We unloaded my mom's car into my sister's and started back to home. My son called about 2-3 minutes away from my house and it was raining, so I had to unload my stuff in the rain while trying to talk on a cell phone. Figures. But it was good to talk to him.
Overall, I spent almost $40 this weekend. I spent $14.78 at Target and gave my mom $20 since she was driving and she and my aunt are the ones who paid for the Red Lobster total that remained after all of our giftcards. I think she also paid a big portion of the pizza with my aunt, but I did not really eat pizza. I had half of one piece. I will probably also buy my mom some lunch in the next week or two. Or take her to CVS or something....
We played this until like one a.m. Then I could not sleep and basically napped a couple of times that night. I am not used to all the noise that goes on in my aunt's house, everything stays plugged in and runs all the time!
I got up as early as I dared figuring I would wake people up when I got into the bathroom to take a shower. Then as everyone started waking up we were discussing what we planned on doing for the day. I met a wonderful hound-friend, Chi-Annie, and we went shopping at Target. I had a blast. Even with the coupon hater cashier! I wish we lived closer so that we could go shopping more often!
Alas I did have to return to the regular world and go back to my aunt's house for lunch. Turns out they did not have any lunch plans as previously indicated. So my cousin S said she wanted to go to Red Lobster. We got pizza the night before and she missed out on the Red Lobster and really wanted some. So off we went. Well, we loaded the car first. Then we went to eat. Not too bad considering that we had three babies with us. And they were all really tired. Not to mention some of the adults were really tired. The food was alright. I personally am not a huge fan of Red Lobster, but of course I do not eat seafood, so my options are limited. Then it was finally time to go home. I always have a good time, but my cousins and their children are much more boisterous than my son or nieces. It is always good to go home anyway, no matter where you are coming from. The ride home was not too bad. My sister and Drama Girl fell asleep, so mom and I chatted. I called my son and waited on him to call back. We unloaded my mom's car into my sister's and started back to home. My son called about 2-3 minutes away from my house and it was raining, so I had to unload my stuff in the rain while trying to talk on a cell phone. Figures. But it was good to talk to him.
Overall, I spent almost $40 this weekend. I spent $14.78 at Target and gave my mom $20 since she was driving and she and my aunt are the ones who paid for the Red Lobster total that remained after all of our giftcards. I think she also paid a big portion of the pizza with my aunt, but I did not really eat pizza. I had half of one piece. I will probably also buy my mom some lunch in the next week or two. Or take her to CVS or something....
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