Sicky Bugs

This past weekend with S, who shall now be known as Creep, was, as always, great. But it was also sucky. He was crabby and hateful all day on Saturday. He was crabby when I picked him up and when I asked if he was tired, Creep responded hatefully with a no. I knew then that he was. Oh, well. No big deal, we'll just take it easy. Except baseball is starting and he had his first practice that afternoon. So he was creepy all morning, til time to go to practice. Then I couldn't find the ball field. Which was okay, because neither could his dad. We both ended up driving around before we found it. Then since he has not had a lick of practice since I played with him last summer after the season ended, he was understandably, um, shall we say out of practice. Really he sucked. He was having a hard time with all of it. The catching, throwing, hitting. All of it. And they can only have 12 kids on the team and they signed up 14. The two kids they "cut" go down to the "farm league", whatever the hell that is.

So, the coaches kept trying to help him and give advice on how to stand, how to hold the bat, and ways to catch and throw better. You know, all the things they are supposed to do. Wellllll, Creep bitched the whole way back to the hotel about how the coach did this, the coach did that, yada yada yada. I finally had to tell Creep that I was done talking about it. I thought the coach was giving good advice and did a good job. Of course Creep thought that I was critisizing him and reacted badly to that as well. Finally I told him I would only talk to him again if he picked a different subject.

We talked alot about Pokemon for the rest of the day. Even that though caused him to be cranky and hateful with me. I ended up telling him that he was not going to talk to me with disrespect anymore. I was him mom and an adult and he needed to treat me with respect. I was not some kid that he could be hateful to and get away with it.

He pouted for a little bit and stuck his nose in his game. After about five minutes of that, he got up and came over to the chair I was sitting in and sat next to me. We cuddled and for the rest of our visit, he was quite pleasant. I asked him a couple of times if he was still tired or if he didn't feel good, but he kept saying he was fine.

Sunday morning I picked him up, and guess what? He was not feeling good. He had a sore throat. I could look at his eyes and see that he was sick. I gave him some motrin. He told me after a bit that he was feeling better, he ate, we played, watched tv. Then he started telling me he did not feel good again. His throat was hurting again. I gave him more mortin. At that point I figured he probably had strep again. (He did) Creep has had strep at least 5-6 times in the past year, maybe year and a half. He just had it like a month ago. I don't know if he is not getting over it, if the meds aren't working, if he's not taking all of the meds. I have no way of knowing cuz his dad won't tell me and Creep doesn't know.

He did tell me last night though that he was finally feeling better. I am really glad to hear that. Creep is on spring break right now, and I would hate it if he spend the whole time being sick. What a sucky way of spending your days off school.

I really don't like it when he is sick and I am not there. And he is sick alot. I know that his dad does not baby him when he is sick, and it seems like he takes a long time to get better. And by not baby him, I mean they don't always stay home, he drags Creep out to run errands, his dad won't let him rest and get enough sleep, all those things you need to do when you are sick so your body can recouperate.

I can only hope that this is all coming to an end soon. That Creep will be back with me, and when he gets sick, he can lay around all day so he can get better. But that little slave kid better remember that when he is not sick, he gets no free pass from doing all some of the chores around the house.

What a Surprise. And a recipe.

Well, I am back from my visit with my son. And guess what? That's right, no hearing. It does not really surprise me. I did get another date on Monday from my attorney. This time the hearing is set for Tuesday, November 24th. Hopefully this time the hearing will happen. I had a great time with my son this past weekend. We played alot and spent some time just sitting together. He was feeling better, or so he said. He was a little bit more tired and a little bit less active. But all in all, he seemed to be better. He did eat really well too.

For our visit around the hearing, I will see S on the 21st and 22nd, meet with the attorney on the 23rd. Have the hearing on the 24th, hang out on the 25th, and see S again for Thanksgiving holiday on the 26th and 27th. That's a lot of living at a hotel. Not my favorite, but better than the cold wet campgrounds. Man, I can't believe how wet it has been this year. It's been hard to camp some weekends. A few times we ended up just going to the hotel because it rained so much. Other times we toughed it out and hoped we didn't get washed away.

My mom and I learned how to cook in a dutch oven over a fire this summer. That was some tasty eatin'. We made a pork stew. I found a store that carries large cans of pork. I have never had canned pork like that and thought we would give it a try since it needs no refrigeration prior to opening and that makes it handy when camping. So we took some onions, potatoes, celery and carrots to put in it. We added some spices that I always have in the camping kit (salt, pepper steak seasoning, and garlic). We also brought along a bit of cornstarch to make a thickening sauce, and dumped it all in. That was it. We put it over the fire and let it cook up and it was really good. It does not take very long to cook, and it stays warm for a long time as well.

The pork we used was not like the canned ham that I have found in the grocery stores. It was like a roasted pork loin that had been cooked and then stuck in the can. I think it would have made great BBQ as well. I do plan to try that next time. The can was a big can too. I think it was like 28 ounces or something. Enough to feed a whole bunch of us. And even better was the price. I only paid around $5 for a little over two pounds, instead of the $1 + I spend on the cans that are only around 5 ounces. If you can find some in your area, it is worth the price for the convenience of precooked ham that does not have to be kept cold.

So have you found any neat food items in your searches for good deals? Made anything tasty lately?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Stop and visit Keely over at the UN Mom to see her random Tuesday thoughts. And don't forget to check out the other links to all the randomness. So without further ado, my randomness:

I am going to have to start doing my couponing thing again because I miss it. I miss the rush of the deals.

I have been listening to Jack over at SurvivalPodcast for a couple of days. He was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I can't say that I agree with everything that he says as they are his personal views, but I can say I have enjoyed listening to his show. It has been informative and in the forum area, there is even a topic of couponing to stock up! I especially liked that!

I have also been super busy at work. Work, work work yesterday and today. Where is my slow time at work going?

I went to Victoria Secrets this weekend to get a couple of new bras. Mine were broke down, ragged out sorts of things. Old too. I found a couple of really comfy ones that were even on sale. Now I understand why people pay so much for the stuff at Victoria Secrets. All I can say is I wish I had bought bras there before. I will definitely be back for a couple more when I can afford it.

S started school yesterday. I talked to him about it last night. He was really excited because his teacher was nice to him. He said she was pretty nice to everyone, but was really nice to him. I really hope that my talk with her last week was productive and she stays this way, if it is even the reason that she was so nice to him. She is going through a similar situation with her daughter and her ex and I hope that gives her empathy for our situation.

S also has a baseball party this weekend. They are meeting at a waterworks sort of place. I don't remember the name off the top of my head, but he was really wanting to go. I made a deal that I would bring S back two hours later on Saturday and deliver him to the water park two hours earlier than my usual drop off for the party. Because let's face it, the kid is not going to want to hang out with me on the sidelines while there are a bunch of slides and pools to play in. Then S tells me that he wants me to stay. If there seems to be a need for more supervision, then I will indeed stay, but if he is having fun and there are plenty of other parents, we may go a bit early to get a head start home. My guess though is that we will be staying so that someone is there to keep an eye on S. Which means that we ultimately be getting a late start home as the party is not over until six. I just am confused on why the party is now. The ball games have been over for over a month. Almost two months I think. Those people down there just make my head hurt. I can't even think about it.

The good news is my cats are still just as destructive as always. I say good news because if they were suddenly different, I would think invasion of the cat snatchers. They also have fleas. I have been trying to rid my cats and house of fleas for a couple of days now. So far, I don't have fleas. But if I start scratching behind my ear with my feet I will let you know. I also found out that I can get frontline at the store for a whole lot cheaper than the vets office. I did not even know the stores carried it. They learnt me sumthin new -as my son say now. I am totally going to have to work on that, the little hillbilly.

I think that is about all that I have in my head at all today. Apparently my brain is not holding much. But what can I say. I thought that yesterday was the 13th. I even dated all the paperwork that went through my office as the 13th. Even worse, I didn't know any different until I got to work today and looked at a calendar. Wow. To me today is the 14th. Must be almost time for the weekend.

ETA: When I did spell check, learnt is apparently a word. Yikes. I always though it was not a real word.

Flashback Friday

This is a Flashback Friday post, hosted by none other than ScaryMommy. Go check out all the other posts for Flashback Friday.

I don't actually have a post to flash back onto. Instead I am going to flash back to yesterday. I know, I know, that is not really flashing back to far, but my son was really funny yesterday.

While playing with my son yesterday, he had me rolling with laughter. What better way to spend my birthday, right? We played star wars as soon as we got there. He had the day planned to the minute, at least he told me he did. He puts on his cape so he can be Darth Vader. Plus he just wanted to wear it. He also wanted to ride his bike with the cape on to see if it flew behind him when he went really fast. It did. I even took a picture. We also spent some time talking about donkey's, burrows, and wild asses. Which if you watch Ice Age 2, then you might know why and what I am talking about. He just had the best time ever discussing the differences and why these animals all had "ass" in the name. Good times being a nine year old boy. Then we moved on the the topic of crafting. He wanted to make a few home made light sabers. So we haul out the craft tub and got to work. He kept telling me all about the way and reasons behind his project light saber. And kept up a running commentary about the different glitters and why some were better than others. We let those dry a bit, and in the meantime went back to playing star wars. He made me Darth Vader this time and told me to put on my cooper suit. Me-My cooper suit? What is that? S-You know, that black suit that D.V. wears. Me-Why is it called that?(thinking I had missed something somewhere) S-Because that is what D.V. says every time he breathes. Cooooooo Peeeerrrrrrr. Cooooooo Peerrrrrrrr. This just struck me as super funny. I had never noticed that, but that is exactly what it sounds like. So now we have D.V. and his cooper suit.
I also got a hands on demonstration on how his dad's cat is doing, and how it attacks. Let me tell you, if you have never seen a gangly nine year old boy trying to look small like a tiny kitten, you are truly missing something funny. That boy is all arms and legs, and he was trying to curl up and be small.

Just thinking about these conversations with my son has kept a smile in my heart. I just can't wait til he gets home so I can have these moments every day.

Update

I will be back on Friday. I am going to see my son for my birthday tomorrow. I will post my What to Cook Wednesday and Thankful Thursday on Friday. I do not have time to create the blog posts today. Have a happy couple of days until I return!

Happy birthday to me!

I'm Tired, and my cats are destructive

I had my weekend with my son. I got stuck in traffic that was nearly at a standstill in Kentucky. There was construction on the interstate and I was not paying attention to my radio and missed the fact that there was a backup. I could have gone around it if I had been listening. Oh, well, I got to be amused by the truck drivers. I got down there late and conked out in the backseat for a couple of hours. I picked up S and showed him my new phone. He was not nearly as impressed to start with as I thought he would be. That eventually changed. We played hard all day. It was hot and sunny. We went swimming, played cars, star wars, all that good stuff. He did warm up to the phone after he realized that I had the bluetooth and he could talk with the earpiece. He then wanted me to show him the internet. He had a blast with it after that.
After I took him home, I took a shower to get all that icky pool water off of me. I called S to talk. While I waited for him to call me back, I read more of my Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. These books are the best. Always enough funny stuff going on to keep my laughing and bring my mood up. Thanks to my friend K for showing me this series. After a while S called back. I made my way into the tent for the night. I read by the light of the dvd player while some batman movie was in. I have never actually watched the movie, but after seeing part of it last night, I will watch the whole thing one of these days. Somewhere in the middle of the night it started raining. At first it was that gentle rain that you enjoy while slumbering. Then it started raining hard. It was really loud in a tent. Then it started raining even harder. Then harder yet. I thought my tent would collapse it was raining so hard. There was a dry creek bed next to our campsite. I could hear the water rushing through it. I was slightly worried it would make its way over to my tent. It was impossible to sleep at that point. I laid there and listened hoping it would lighten back up to that enjoyable level of rain. Nope, it just kept raining so hard I could not hear myself think. Which was a good thing because I was still wondering if I was going to float down the hill right into the river. It did finally ease up a bit by the time the sun was coming up. Course by then I needed to get up so I could start getting ready for my day with S. I climbed out of the tent to a world of soppiness. Everything, and I mean everything was soaked. Water even got into the car somehow. I dried up what I could. Thankfully I don't leave much out. So it was just a couple of plastic tubs that got wet. Everything else had been picked up before bed. I got ready and picked up S. We played in the tent while it was windy and rainy outside. Eventually I moved the gazebo over the tent so at least one thing had an opportunity to dry. Then the sun came out. OMG, talk about humid. I was dripping and it was not sweat. There was that much water in the air and the sun came out. Ugh. Thank goodness it was relatively cool out. We enjoyed our day with toys, games and water balloons. When it was time to deliver my buddy back to his dad's house, he started playing with the phone. It has a "notepad" to make notes (duh). I now have half a dozen notes. I have voice recording on the phone as well. I now have my son's voice and requests recorded to listen to anytime I want. He sure did have lots of fun with that phone.
On the way home, I ran into car wrecks with backed up traffic and again-construction with backups. It was a long ride home. I was already tired because of a lack of sleep the two previous nights. Just get home, I kept telling myself. Open the window, close the window. Find a good song to sing along with, shift around in the seat. Just don't close the eyes and we will be good. I got home, grabbed my purse, the keys and the phone. Drag up to the door, put the key in, start swinging the door open, hang on what was that? Something just brushed up against my legs. Please tell me the outdoor kitty made it in. She has been trying for weeks. Nope, it was my goofy Kitten. I grabbed the bag of food to try to get his attention. I don't leave him out for fear of him getting into a fight. Because he would start it. The heathen. I finally got him close enough to grab. The brat. I dragged his butt back into the house. I made a pit stop in the bathroom, stripped on the way to the bedroom and crashed. Next thing I know, it is about 5:30. I am dog tired and I wake up at 5:30? What is wrong with me? I lounged there for about a half hour petting the cats. More accurately getting smothered by the cats. They must have missed me. I get up and get started cleaning out the car. I can not figure out why it takes so much more time to unload than it does to load. I throw on some clothes and head off to the car rental place. I am so tired that my eye started twitching this morning. After some (un)healthy doses of caffeine, it stopped.

To get to the destruction part: My cats are destruction with fur. They are little time bombs waiting to happen. I walked into my kitchen last night and the floor was covered with fur. I swear they kidnapped a cat and plucked its fur for fun this weekend. There has to be a naked cat running around in my neighborhood. Otherwise I cannot figure out where all the fur came from. Not just a puff or two. It seriously looks like enough fur to cover an entire cat. Then I walk into the living room. From the corner of my eye I can see something big in the storage room. I turn on the light. It is something big alright. It is everything in the storage room in a big pile in the middle. Gone are my tidy stacks of tubs and boxes. Tipped are the lamps and coat tree. It looks like a bomb went off in there and all the rubble was piled up. I could not even look at it. I decided to ignore it for now. I think tonight I will close the door and not look at it again til this weekend. That seems like a good way to deal with it. Pretend it is not there. After all, when I get home I have to find the naked cat and stick some of that fur back on. Do you think if I spit on the cat and stick the fur on it that the fur will stick? Or should I break out the glue stick? I also have to get ready and repack and wash and all that for my next trip, which I leave for on Wednesday. I visit for my eight hours on Thursday, which is my birthday, come home and get Sassy to the vet by 7ish in the morning on Friday for her surgery. I was going to take the day off to sleep, but if I have to take her into town and then wait until after 3:00 to pick her up, I might as well go to work. Then I get to take her home and start cleaning the disaster zone. Hopefully there are no new ones in the mean time. I also get to watch my kitty. Apparently she is one of those cats that does not tolerate the meds well and so she is pretty loopy for a day or two after the surgery. She runs into things and falls off the couch. If it weren't so nerve racking, it would be funny. She normally is very graceful and classy. Give her a bit of anesthesia and she is a klutzy dope. She would certainly be a cheap date, one drink and she would be done.

So how was your weekend? Any excitement for your life?

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for a lot. I will still keep to my list of five however.

1. My atty is making progress. We have more filed and are getting closer to a court date.
2. Donuts. I am sitting here eating my way through six donuts. I know I will suffer all day from this, but they are donuts, they are on my desk, therefore, they are MINE!
3. I finally got rid of the camper, they picked it up and it is outta here.
4. I finally had a regular full weekend visit with my son. Those short visits are hard, especially when they happen more than one at a time.
5. My dad is going to help me with getting a new car and paying for the GAL for my son. I totally need the help financially for this. My car is dying painfully and I cannot afford an atty for my son, but he definitely needs one.

What are you thankful for this week? Take a moment and think about what makes you smile.

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.

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.

Phone Calls

According to the court order, I get a phone call to my son every day, approximately for 30 minutes. My phone call last night was frustrating and hilarious. The first part of the phone call was spent trying to get S's attention as his dad kept trying to talk to him in the background (this is a common occurence). Then I finally get his attention by talking about his birthday that is coming up and our visits. I get to see him on Sunday (8 hours) and again on Thursday (3 hours-I'd like to know who thought three hours for me on his birthday when I am the one that carried him and had to push him out after being in labor for two days was a good amount of time!). Andyway, we talk about what we are going to do on these two visits and all the stuff he wants for his b-day.
me: I am going to make some more homemade bread for this weekend, you want some?
s: yeah, and brownies.
me: I figured, I already have the stuff to make brownies.
S: and eggs. (he really loves hard boiled eggs-just the whites he won't eat the yolks.)
me: I figured that too. How many do you think I should bring?
S: 24.(giggling)
me: 24!!! are you kidding if you ate that many you would be sick
S: you can have some too.
me: I still think 24 is too many let's have less than that.
S: okay, then 12(giggling)
me: I guess I can handle 12(I will use the leftovers for egg or tuna salad for work)
S: I will eat six and you eat six.
me: So in one day you are going to eat six eggs, bread, brownies, and whatever else I bring?
S:yep.

Then there were more interruptions in the background and I had to struggle to get back his attention. Finally the word presents caught him.

me: I thought we would split the presents between the two visits.
S: presents?
me: are you listening, I thought we could do presents on both days.
S: does that mean I would get more?
me: no, I would just bring down some on Sunday and the rest on Thursday.
S: I want the ds games on Sunday, the rest on Thursday then.
me: of course you do.
S: I would also like a few little surprises.
me: what do you mean a few little surprises?! We will be lucky to be able to get all that you asked for.
S: just something small like a matchbox car or something. Just something that is a surprise.
(We tend to get him exactly what he asks for if it is something we can afford. When he lived with me we would get him surprises.)
me: I think that I can do that.
S: what will you get?
me: a surprise.

We go on about presents for a couple more minutes when his dad interrupts to harass me again. Then I lose S's attention again. Finally get him talking about his "helicopter" that he is building. He talks for a few more minutes and then get lost in the movie he is watching. I keep asking questions and eventually he answers them about his ball game, the dog and the cat. Before we know it, our time is up. I still enjoy my phone calls, just hearing him laugh and giggle, hearing his tales of life and make believe. Even with all the interference, I at least get to hear him, tell him I love him and hear it right back.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

What a Weekend

I had a really good visit with my son this weekend. We had a lot of fun together. He was also especially funny this weekend. He had a lot of jokes and also had a lot of amusing comments about our situation. He is totally looking forward to coming home. (Me too!) We played some board games, card games, and made up games. We watched a bit of tv. We played Deal or No Deal on our dvd player. He had lots of fun telling me which case to pick, then letting me pick my first six. Then he would say that I took the deal the first time around which of course meant that I won little bitty amounts of money (compared to the million that you try for). I obviously lost each game, and usually had some of the big amounts in my case that I lost out on. He just thought he was funny cuz he would play two rounds and take the deal. That means he always beat me. Usually by a lot. The turd. It was sure fun! Then when it was time to check out, I was unpleasantly surprised by how cold it was outside. We had planned on going to the park to play a bit of basketball, except it was super cold and windy. No playing outside for us. So we drove to the park and parked by the pond to watch the ducks. It was fun laying around in the back under a sleeping bag just cuddling together. I got to sit and rub his head like I used to do when he was little and trying to go to sleep, and he got to eat jelly beans and cuddle with mom. Then I told him I needed to get gas in the van, did he want to go now or we could wait and I would get gas after dropping him off. He said to get gas now. It would be just like when he was home and we would go get gas together in the mornings or on our way home from work/school. So we got gas and he stayed in the van and peeked out the window at me while I froze my butt off in the wind. Then we played more deal or no deal and of course he picked for me and I lost.

The only downside to the weekend was my total lack of sleep. I only got a few hours on Friday night from driving down there. Then I usually get a pretty good nights sleep on Saturday. This time however, I (and the whole floor of the hotel) got to be serenaded to by the lovely sounds of an angry cussing drunk. He followed a group there that plays music at a local bar a couple weekends a month. He followed them up to their room and started banging on the door, while cussing out his girlfriend. They (the band/group) let him in. Then he got even more beligerent so they made him leave the room. This drunk man proceeds to stand in the hallway and yell and cuss everyone to hell. He is so drunk however that standing alone seems to be a problem. So where does he decide to lean? At my door. Then he starts banging his head against the wall right next to my door. I was so mad I actually started looking for something to take out there and hit him with it. I had only been asleep for maybe 3 1/2 hours. Fortunately for everyone involved I had no "dangerous" objects with which I would be able to knock him out with. Then there is a huge crash. I go and look out the peephole. The chair the drunk had with him is now sideways on the floor, and what do you know? The drunk is on the floor too. Finally the cops arrive. The group/bands' room folks come out to tell the cops what had happened. They apparently did not know the drunk, just recognized him from the bar. They let him in hoping it would quiet him down so as not to wake the whole floor. The guys said at that point he became incoherent and started yelling more at his girlfriend so they told him he had to leave. He got out the door but would not go any further than that. The hotel staff asked him to leave and he was rude to her so she called the cops. At this point the drunk is passed out. The cops try to get him to stand and tell them who he is and he will not cooperate. The drunk yells at the cops, his girlfriend (who is no longer around) and anyone who will listen. Then pleads with the cops to not hurt him. Then yells and cusses them out some more. Then pleads please don't hurt me. Then cusses them out again. Finally the cops tell him all he has to do is comply and he won't get hurt. All they want him to do is stand up. I think that he was unable to stand because I eventually heard a crash against the wall then the sound of handcuffs. They drag him over to the elevator and two of them take him outside while the third cop collects the mans shoe that fell off and his wallet and asks a few more questions. I had a birds eye view of them once they got outside as they cop cars were directly beneath my windows. The cops had to sort of push the drunk into the car. I think he was so out of it he did not even know where he was at that point. He just laid there on the seat and they had to push and tuck his legs in because he was not helping them at all. After all of this, I could not get back to sleep. I was up until after five a.m. trying to wind down. I did sort of fall into that twilight sort of sleep. I was not fully asleep but did rest more at least. Then it was up to get my son. Then when I got home last night it was almost 2 am before I got to go to bed. Then at 5:02 am, the friendly neighborhood crows sat outside my windows to sing to me and my kitties.
I can't wait to go to bed tonight. (here is me nodding off at my computer........)

Just a regular old weekend

I had my weekend visit with my son. It went fairly well, no major hitches. We stayed at a hotel again. I really don't like all the dragging in and out but what's a girl to do? Especially when your little boy is looking up at you with those eyes saying how much better that is....

I did try to pack better. I had one tub that had all of our food, and everything we would need to hold it, heat it and eat it. I had one tub with all of the toys in it. I had one smallish bag with my clothes and some clothes for my son. Then I brought a bag for a magazine, my coupons and the dvd player. We are not going to take the tv/vcr into the room anymore as it is just too much to drag in. Little man did not ask for it either. And of course our pillows. I cannot sleep without my own pillow.

We went christmas shopping on Saturday. We had a good time picking out something for all of the family. I told him one present for each person which is my mom and dad, and my sis, her husband and their two kids. And of course he had to pick out something for the cats. He always wants to get something for the cats. So far he has picked really well and the cats like the toys. Which means they totally destroy it and tear it into shreds! And I am okay with that as it means that my shoes and shoestrings are left alone, at least sometimes.

Anyway the visit. We had fun and played cars, watched the movie Open Season, which is a really funny movie, and played a couple of board and card games. I took him home on Saturday night and went back to the hotel to wait for Sunday morning. Sunday morning I pick him up and we go back to the hotel. We had another day of lots of fun. The only thing we did different at the hotel was he took a bath to play with his bath toys. He has this ship that has removeable pieces so that you can put it together however you want and it will break down to make about five different ships. It also came with a diver figure, a captain figure, an oyster (although we call it the clam), and the best part according to my son-the shark. The shark actually has a fin that you depress and it opens his mouth so you can shove the diver, captain and clam in and it falls down to the shark stomach. The stomach opens so you can dig them back out when you want to. He will play in the water with the shark and ship set until I make him get out. So I guess that makes it worth the dragging all the stuff in just to watch him really enjoy the shark eating everything.

After we had to check out of the hotel, we went to walmart because little man told me he wanted to pick out some ideas for us to get him for christmas. I said okay simply because I did not have any idea of what we should go do. Instead of picking out toys he heads straight to the electronics section and starts telling me how he wishes he could have the Nintendo DS, and some of the games. Then he starts playing the different games they have out for folks to "test drive". I don't know what game station it was, but he found a game where you raced a motorcycle, monster truck, or regular car or truck. When you crash or run the boost to long it actually shows the explosion. And if you get too close to the edge and slide off, it shows you falling down into the ravine. He thought that was really funny and played the game for a long time. It was fun just watching his facial expressions when he crashed or actually finished the race. Finally I told him that we were there for him to pick out toys which of course means that he will find something he can't live without, can he please please please have it now. No you cannot have it now, these are christmas ideas. It makes him mad but I tell him he will get over it. When we are just about out of time, I tell little man it is time to go so we can grab a happy meal for him. He eats his happy meal and watches a movie on the way back to his dad's, all the while telling me how much he misses me and how much he loves me and how much he wants to come home. It just makes me want to cry, but I cannot do that cuz it will make little man cry and I certainly don't want to do that. I will just give him lots of hugs and kisses and wait for the next time. And keep hoping and wishing that he will get to come home soon so I can hug and kiss him every day. Tuck him in every day. Just see him every day. What a wonderful time that will be.