10 Years Ago Today

My Lindsey Ann came into this world! Happy 10th Birthday Lindsey Lu!! I love you will all my soul!

Growing older

In 4 months I will be turning 40. I have to say I am a little excited about it. I can’t explain why but I am. I have loved my thirties. I feel I have done a lot of growing up in the past ten years.

I remember very clearly my 25th birthday. It was the hardest birthday for me. I felt I had not accomplished anything with my life and turning another year older was hard. I had always thought by the time I was 25 I would be a professional in a field with solid roots in a community.

Instead I was an Army wife who had just quit a job in the only field I was every any good. Apartment rental. I con rent anything. The only problem was the company I was working for. Their main goal it seemed to me was to rip off as many military families as they could and once I had enough proof of this I turned them in. So I was out of the game. My morals intact, which I have to say, felt good about. However still out of the game.

I tried other fields but nothing seemed to fit. I felt lost and worthless. Dh was on order to Germany and they had been changed to unaccompanied because of the Berlin Wall crisis. So I was going home to my parents.

There I was 25 and going home to mom and dad. I love my parents but you know at 25 you should be living somewhere other then their house. I had also gained a great deal of weight due to depression. Just a month before the move I had lost a baby at almost 30 weeks. It was hard.

I look back at that time in my life and I can honestly say I never felt my early twenties were the best.

Now here I am almost 40 and I can’t be happier. I have two beautiful daughters (which the doctors said would probably never happen), a husband I love deeply and a wonderful home.

The only sad note on turning 40 is Rob won’t be here to share it with me. Then again he thinks I am insane for wanting to. Rob is not one of those who grow old gracefully!


I’m planning a party. It maybe tacky to give your self a party but I feel-turning 40 is something I want to celebrate and I can’t wait!

Let me end with this:

Many people think old age is a disease, something to be thwarted if possible. But someone has said that if any period is a disease, it is youth Age is recovering from it. --T. C. Myers

Looking for Comfort?

I was once asked by a very nosey neighbor “what I do for comfort” when my husband is gone. At first I just looked at her in disbelief, one because for some reason she felt it was ok to ask me that and two because HELLO she asked me that!

Now if you know me you know my natural sarcastic side. My first thought was to say “well you know I am glad you brought this up because I thought I would ask if you could share your Plummer(yes his actual trade) husband with me complete with beer belly and hairy butt crack!” (Sorry I guess a visual warning would have been nice uh?) Instead I said” well you know I do Tae Kwon Do and it helps relieve the stress”. To this day I wish I had said my first thought. Think about it the look on her face would have been priceless.

As you know (you being loyal readers :) )I have been sick and not able to do TKD. I think you know where this is headed. (Sure you do trying to hide from it won’t make it go away!) Anyway, I have been feeling a STRONG need for ”comfort” and no solutions.

Now I did once look at a website that displayed items to help women ”comfort” themselves. But I have to confess I am afraid of these items. Just browsing around the site almost made ALL the hair on my body stand up.

They have Anal beads and they come in various sizes. Just looking at the x-small
made my butt pucker and run for cover. They also have a silicon penis, in bright blue with the vibrating option, and the butterfly effect. First who in their right mind thought a blue penis was attractive. Honestly, there is not such thing as an attractive penis! Making it bright blue isn’t the answer. And the all famous ( I say this because I have heard it mentioned while talking with others that the butterfly feature was heaven sent)butterfly attached to it. To me and hey it could just be me it looks a lot like that thing that came out of the guys chest in Alien only baby size. Hmm… NO THANKS!

So the question remains what will I do for comfort. To be honest I am a very easy girl to please (ok I know I am asking for it here but please just hold that thought) and I like sex. However I like it with my Rob and not a toy, and not someone else’s toy( wink) so I will have to settle for cheesecake and country music videos. Have you seen these guys! Chris Cagle, Allan Jackson, (drooling) Tim McGraw. You know I may need more cheesecake!

A Prayer For Friends

I have a few friends that I think really could use extra prayers so, last night, once the girls where asleep, I got up and said a rosary for them.

I would appreciate it if you could just say a prayer for “ Gail’s Friends” I am sure god will know whom you are speaking of and listen.

After all we all need a little something every now and again .

43 weeks :O)

We have 43 weeks before Rob comes home, I like that better then 301 days. Has a great deal to do with the smaller number makes it seem like less time to me.

Time, well that is something I keep saying if I had more of I would…you can fill in the blank with anything. I just don’t seem to have enough time. Of course it’s now spring break and I have a WHOLE week! What will I do with myself?

Yes that was rhetorical, I plan to CLEAN my house and quilt till I drop! And I plan to do it in that exact order! Once Rob left I went into a little depression, it was nothing major I just couldn’t bring myself to clean anything. Those of you who know Rob know that this would in fact send him to the physic ward!

I will start and then I would go lay down take a little nap and wham next thing I know it’s time for dinner then bed. I started Lindsey’s room because I had to get something done. It looks great and I am very proud of it and sad to say the only truly clean room in my house!

The time has come to end this cycle and to be me again with my clean house. Yes the pity party must end. This is me kicking my self in the butt to get going!I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

Oh and while I am cleaning I will be looking the part of my mind I seem to have lost. See I just got a call from my favorite store Wally World seems they have my wallet waiting for me at the Customer service desk I left is last night !! God help me!!!!

43 weeks till Rob gets home lets hope I have the house clean and my mind back by then!

My week?

How was my week?

My well thanks for asking. It sucked! I know but beating around the bush is just not going to happen for me this weekend.

My week started off like any other week actually, took the buss of kids (bus being my mini-van) to school. See I take 3 middle and 3 elementary to school everyday. And my Alyssa who is in middle school gets picked up at the end of the day for me. And I take 2 back from elementary. Anyway it works great unless someone gets sick. That is a post for another day.

I taught 5th grade all week. I actually like 5th grade the kids can be a lot of fun but they also can have lots of attitude. Either way I tend to really enjoy being with them. I also woke up with the worst part of my cold in full bloom! I came home Tuesday after school came to check my email ( looking for anything from Rob) and it says which monitor do you wish to open too? Hello thought I only had one! I hit one…it says I need to reboot to apply I say ok. And that ladies and gents was that! It rebooted and rebooted, and rebooted, you get the picture.

So I call the people we built the computer with explain my problem and they spend at least an hour trying to help me on the phone finally they say just bring your tower in.

Now all I wanted to do was check my email and go lay down. I don’t feel good and dammit I wasn’t in the mood to go out in rush hour traffic. But I did.

Get down there they hook it up and it did the same thing there! So they say they will look at it and it will take 5-6 for diagnosis and 5 more days to fix once they know what is wrong! (Yeah I know)

I laid it all out…my computer is really my only source of contact with dh and blah, blah, blah, again you get the picture! So they put me at the top of the list and the next day (Wednesday) I get a call at school…this is what is wrong this is how much we will try to get it to you by Monday.

I was happy they had answers and a date. I can’t stand the “no date” thing. Thursday I have a message when we return from our field trip my computer is waiting for me! :O) (Life is good again right? Yeah you hold on to that thought.) I pick up my computer and it was $40.00 dollars cheaper then they thought! (Life is good again right? Always the optimists aren’t you!) I take it home.(mind you I still have my lovely cold the now has me wearing A depends from the constant coughing!) I hook everything up. IT DOESN”T WORK!!!!


I call them up, “ IT ISN’T WORKING”!! They say well maybe your surge protector has gone bad. We take everything off the surge and plug it into the wall…still doesn’t work. Did I hook up the mouse and keyboard right? Yup! They say well bring it back with the mouse and keyboard. I ask do you want the monitor too? Nope, your monitor won’t cause a problem like that. (Something about one signal sent thing don’t ask me!)

Take it all down (rush hour again thank you!) they hook it all up and it works! I didn’t know what to say. It reminded me of when you take your car to the mechanic and say “ it’s making a noise like this when I start it” and you start if for him and it doesn’t make that noise. ( You know what I mean). So they pack me up with new cords( for free, I like them) and tell me to plug everything in another room it could be the outlet my computer is now on is going bad.

So I move everything. (Still feeling like crap my cold is killing me) and I start it and it doesn’t work. Yes I know I said I would give up sex and cussing for lent but you know what…God should understand that I can only take so much. (Look at me I am a 39 year old woman with asthma wearing a depends because I cough so hard I can’t control my bladder and my computer is the exorcist!)

I call them back Friday, “ HI yeah me again it doesn’t work!” LONG sigh from the nice computer people. Then nothing. More nothing. Finally I say” do you think it is the monitor?” Another, long sigh from the nice computer people. Finally, “NO we told you your monitor couldn’t do this”. Bring everything back. ( yeah rush hour traffic) take cold pill pack up everything this time I took the monitor too!

Get there I hook it up for them…after all we are all good friends now. And guess what . IT DIDN’T FREAKING WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( hell yes I was doing my own little dance and singing too I might add) “ It doesn’t work, do you see that!! I told you I wasn’t crazy!!! It doesn’t WORK!

All nice computer guys staring at my monitor saying” it’s the monitor!?!?!?!? I think some actually called other computer guys just to tell them. You know even my cold felt better at that moment! So I buy an new monitor, take my computer and ALL it’s parts home hook it up and guess what? IT WORKED!

What have I learned…I was right…but of course I am always right! ( Listen it’s my journal I can play in it any way I want to!)

I bet your wondering about the money aren’t you. Well the charges were for backing up all my files so they could reload my system. So my word advice would be…back your stuff!

So, if suddenly your asked which monitor do you want and you only have one…you might take monitor # 2 and see what happens or you might just go out and buy a new monitor before you hit the “ yes restart my computer now”.

Cindy Adams

Most days I can take her or leave her but every once in a while she just crackes me up! Today she cracked me up DON'T GRIPE ABOUT MY GRIPING

Also down with these dumb research surveys. Coffee is bad for you but a little's good. Red wine is healthy for you but too much is bad. Every 20 minutes another scientific study. One out of Sweden now determines hairy men are more intelligent. So what's that mean? If the guy leaves a furball between the sheets, he's a keeper?

GROSS!!But dam funny!

Wait. What about this newie where we're eating ourselves to death. Suddenly, food is worse for us than cigarettes. Bloomberg will outlaw Wendy's. He'll put Denny's on the felons list. He'll stick barbed wire around Arbee's. Guards with guns will be posted in front of Mister Softee. Metal detectors at Mickey D's. Kiddies, it's not the cow's fault. It's the pigs stuffing in the tripleburgers with the cheese with the buns with the fries with the ketchup with the sodas with the desserts. And I should know. I'm one of them.

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!!!

Last one honest...

Let it be known I am personally against . . . against . . . wildly maniacally against gyms and exercise and personal trainers. I hate everybody telling me to keep in touch with my body. I tried to keep in touch with it this morning. I said to it: "Want to try for some push-ups, aerobics and maybe half a pilate?" and my body said: "Listen, bitch - do it and you die!"

Ok that one I almost pee my pants...I swear that is the same response I get from my body!!

Today's Quote

There are four basic food groups, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.
--Unknown

Can I get an AMEN!!!

Totally Bragging!

Yup, this entry is solely for bragging about my girls. For those of you who do not me well my daughter and I compete in the sport of Tae Kwon Do. It’s a great way for me to get a good work out and it is a sure stopper for bullies and want-to-be boyfriends (in the future) who can’t take NO for an answer and lets face it freaks run-a-muck in today’s world!!

Ok back to the bragging. Two weeks ago they compete in a tournament and Kicked butt. My oldest having to spare in the boys category since there where no girls in her class. To quote her” She kicked serious boy butt!” :O)
Yes, we are very proud! Youngest daughter a green belt had to move up a class and spare a blue belt and WON!

So today my girls tested for their blue belts ( 3 steps away from a black belt) and passed. They were promoted and now proudly sport their new BLUE BELTS!!! Those are MY GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mrs. Cleaver where did you go?

I read an article today in the NYC Times Want to Volunteer in Schools? Be Ready for a Security Check. I have no problem with this. I find it comforting to know that some measure is being taken to keep children safe.

We have long pasted the times when we knew little Johnnies mom and dad along with his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and other family members. Today’s families are more complicated. Stepparents, boyfriends, and girlfriends, live-ins whose status is still undetermined, and just some friend of mom or dad’s from work.

It would make your toes curled if you knew how many parents will let anyone “help” in their child’s class. Once while subbing in a Kindergarten class we were prepared to leave for a morning field trip. One little girl started to cry and when I asked her why she replied” because my mommy’s new friend is suppose to go with me!” When I asked her what he looked like her reply made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up: “ I don’t know she just meet him last night and said he was coming.”

Seems the mom had promised to come and then had to work so she was going to send anyone just to make sure there was a body in her place.

Need I say more?

And before you ask no he did not come on the trip.

To be honest I have never know a Mrs. Cleaver...being a military brat myself, strangers often became family. That isn't how it is anymore and as a mother and a teacher I want to know who is "volunteering" in the classrooms!

A little caution is a good thing!

Including Ashley

What do you think?

I work with “Special Needs Children” as a matter of fact I taught speech today and several of my students were “special” their needs ranging from mild to serve. And I cannot tell you how rewarding it is when you hear them say just one syllable.

Personally, I think there is a very good side to “Inclusion” not just for the special needs children but also for the regular Ed children. I think it teaches children not to be afraid of others with Down syndrome, Autism, and Asperger’s just to mention a few of the syndromes there are. It also teaches the special Ed children that regular Ed students are warm, loving and willing to learn about them.

It strikes me as a great lesson giving both groups for children the opportunity to see how each other works and to experience all differences they have as well as all of the similarities. Yes I said similarities after all most 6, 7, 8, and 9 years olds are the same in spirit. You can count on that I see it every day!

Quotes

I love quotes. They just seem to express exactly what I am thinking in very few words! This is the one I really felt today. I just feel that we are such a nation of "it's not my fault, not my responsibility". I am in no way a fool to believe that things were always "BETTER" in the past but I do believe that some family values have been lost over time.

Such as, respecting each other and our elderly, caring for your neighborhood, and those around you. (I am not going into detail about my neighbor who seems to think his trash in my yard is OK!)

Raising our children to be responsible for their actions. I am a substitute teacher and I am here to tell you that the children of today have no idea what it means to be responsible for their actions.

Then again why should they after all somewhere out there is a lawyer who will find 10 reasons it isn't their fault. Let me just stop on that topic right now...I have very little respect for our legal system as a whole. And someday whey I have a great deal of time I will get into my reasons. Responsibility for actions being a huge one!

So having said all that here is the quote that touched me today I hope you enjoy it!

"In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die, and the choices that we make are ultimately our responsibility. "--Eleanor Roosevelt

Ah there we go!

Now it is starting to feel like home! All I need now is cheesecake I know just who to call!

Please be patient

I'm playing if you know me well you know I love to play with designs and pictures!

49 and A Wake-Up!!

That’s right 49 weeks left till hubby returns home!! The good news on this is the girls and I have settled in. I thought it would never happen! I think starting our projects helped but you never know.

Sleeping has been a chore lately, I honestly thought well with hubby gone I will be able to spread out. Nope, no suck luck. Seems somewhere along the line the girls had a secret meeting and I only get Wednesdays alone. How did that happen?? I thought I was in charge??

I have one daughter who is all of 4 and ½ feet and I swear to you when she sleeps she is a linebacker! How does some one so small take up so much bed? The oldest is 5’2 and is a human radiator! Tell me who can sleep like that?

I miss my husband; I miss the smell after his shower and the way he just has to have his feet on my leg to go to sleep. I miss the way he will just walk up and give me a look that cracks me up. No one can make me crack up like he can with just a look. I think most of all I miss looking in my room on Saturday nights seeing him and the girls snuggled up watching a movie and eating popcorn.

Did I say we only have 49 weeks to go! God I hope they go fast and he stays safe!

How does this happen?

I spend what seems hours cleaning. No it's true and I hate it!

I have to be honest here today I can't stand other people. It's just little things I guess. I sent out MANY emails to family and friends who just had to see pictures of my girls in action (action being Tae Kwondo tournament). Do you know not one of those rude bastards could send a response? Maybe it is me, if someone sends me an email of their children ...that I asked for. I try to respond with in 24 hours saying thanks with comments. Rude people piss me off!!!


Ok that has been said maybe I will be able to let it go now.

Welcome to "Life Happens". Don't ask me why I chose that name it's just been my saying the last few days.
I'm honestly not sure what I will have to say but whatever comes to mind I will be happy to share it.