April Fools

Did any of your kids "get you"? Apparently Disney channel has been giving kids ideas on how to prank their families. Sunshine switched the bag of cereal in the boxes so when I went to get Apple Jacks, Cheerios were in the box; she removed the TP from the holder thing so when I went to the bathroom this morning, I had to call for her to bring me some TP and she removed the soap from the shower...I washed my hair and went to squirt some body wash on my scrunchie thingy and the bottle was gone. She got me good :)

What I think of my mom - by Sunshine, Age 7

What I think of my mom
By Sunshine, age 7

This is a cute idea. Copy this note, ask your child the questions and write them down exactly how they respond. [If you are a dad, change mom to dad]

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"you're a freak" to which she replies "ya gotta love the freaks" LOL

2. What makes mom happy?
"when I have a big smile on my face"

3. What makes mom sad?
"when I broke my arm"

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"when she burps" (ok....)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
"I don't know"

6. How old is your mom?
"38"

7. How tall is your mom?
"5 feet" (for the record I'm 5'3")

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"tell me my feet stink" AND Boy do they!!!!

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"drink beer" (nice, thanks Sunshine... for the record I don't drink that much beer)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
"telling the most funniest jokes" (I don't know where that came from)

11. What is your mom really good at?
"bowling on the Wii"

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"Tennis on the Wii" (I'm actually pretty good a tennis)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
"work for the State"

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
"Steak"

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
"when she got the Wii" hhmmmm....

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"Spongebob" (again, for record, I really can't stand Spongebob)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
"play games"

18. How are you and your mom the same?
"we both have our ears peirced"

19. How are you and your mom different?
"my mom has greens eyes and mine are brown"

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
"She says it all the time"

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
"in her bedroom and sleep"

Finish the sentence

I stole this from Just a Girl: (http://justagirl34.blogspot.com/)

Finish This Sentence
Your turn...Share
1. My ex... is NUTS
2. Maybe I should... work harder on my budget
3. I love.... my child!!!
4. People would say that I'm... jaded
5. I don't understand why... life is so complicated
6. When I wake up in the morning... I think "Do I HAVE to get up?!?"
7. I lost my... mind YEARS ago LOL
8. Life is full of.... unanswered questions.
9. My past is... just that, my past!
10. I get annoyed... with stupidity.
11. Parties are.... great with the right company.
12. I wish... for peace, happiness and love
13. Dogs… are great but NO we will not be getting a new one, Lil Miss Sunshine.
14. Cats.... SUCK, STINK.... Don't like them
15. Tomorrow.... is Hump Day
16. I have low tolerance....for STUPID people
17. If I had a million dollars... I would buy a new big house, pay off my folk's house and my brothers
18. I'm totally terrified... ?????
19. My spouse is.... someone I hope is out there for me.
20. My life is... filled with great friends and family

its been a while

Not much to "report". My life is pretty boring.
Sunshine lost another tooth... that's pretty much the "BIG" news for us. I hope to have something more exciting to blog about soon.

My dark day

Saturday, January 29, 2000

It was about 12:30AM and the phone in the apartment I was renting while separated from Randy rang. It was Randy. We had been separated but talking daily... or at least every few days. He was supposed to meet me out at a bar for the birthday party of a friend of a friend that night but he didn't show up. Randy was drunk and hardly coherent. He wasn't very nice... in fact, quite mean to me on the phone. But that was par for the course when he had been drinking. He said something extremely mean, hateful and hurtful to me and hung up the phone.

Twelve hours later, those words echoed in my head - I thought I'd NEVER forget them... 9 years later, I have. I remember thinking to my self that Randy & I were to get together Saturday afternoon after he got off work to cuss and discuss our marriage, but maybe I should just head out to our house "now", talk to him, spend the night and talk some more when he got off work. But I decided against it. I had been drinking and it had just started snowing and it was a 20 minute drive. AND I was going to see him Saturday afternoon, so... I stayed at my apt.

The next morning, it was snowing pretty good. My sis was staying with me and at about 10AM, she and I decided to go the to video store and rent some movies for the rest of the weekend. We put our shoes and coats on and were getting ready to head out, but I couldn't find my car keys. I was CERTAIN I had left them in my coat pocket but I could not find them for anything. Finally, after about 15 - 20 minutes of searching, I told my sister, "Let's just take your car, I'll find my keys when we get back". We were just about to walk out the door when my phone rang. The caller ID showed my mother in law's number. Ianswered the phone expecting it to be my MIL... it was her sister. She said, "Sharon [MIL] wants you to come out today." I told her that I'd be out there when Randy got off work. She said she needed me to come out there now. I said, "ok... what's going on?" She said, "Randy's dead" I said "NO WAY!! I just spoke to him around 12:30 this morning"

I don't really remember how the phone called ended. I do remember my sister's eyes getting really big and asking me what was going on when I yelled "no way" into the phone. She later told me she thought someone was messing with me - playing some awful joke...

After I hung up, I told her that Aunt Karla said that Randy was dead... she knew it wasn't a joke. We got in her car. I called my parents and said "Randy's dead. Get to Sharon and Larry's as soon as you can." I didn't realize at the time how long it would take them to get there. They lived 55 miles from my ILs and with the snow falling... I had NO information on what happened so who knows what my parents were thinking during their drive. I remember I was thinking, "why am I driving to Athens? Why didn't they tell me to go to the hospital?" I was sure that there was some mistake. That he couldn't be dead.

What should have been a 20 minute drive for my sis and I, took about 45 minutes due to the snow. I remember when we finally pulled into my ILs driveway, I just jumped out of the car. Sis hadn't even stopped all the way much less put it in park. I went running towards the door. I ran inside and someone grabbed me in a bear hug. At the time, I didn't even know who it was - it was my SIL, Camile. I was crying and I kept saying, "what happened?!? Someone tell me what happened?" The entire drive to Athens, I kept thinking that there was an accident at work. He was a mechanic. I kept thinking that the hydraulic lift collapsed and killed him... I just had no idea.

Hours later at my ILs, I went out to the garage to smoke a cigarette. It was cold, my hands were cold, so I put my hands in my coat pockets. Guess what I found... my car keys. They had been there the entire time. Personally, I believe that God didn't want me to find my keys; He didn't "let" me find my keys. For if I had found them, I would've been at the video store when my phong rang that morning. He was making sure I was home to get the phone call.

What did happen was... Randy didn't show up for work that morning. Around 9:00 his co-worker and good friend, Dave came by the shop. Their boss mentioned that Randy hadn't shown up - that was SO not like him, Randy had the best work ethics of anyone I've known - so Dave said he'd run by the house. Dave told me later that he knew Randy was supposed to meet up with me Friday night, so he figured that Randy just stayed at my apt with me. When Dave got to our house, he noticed the service door to our unattached garage was ajar. He went into the garage... and found Randy in my Camaro. He thoughtRandy was sleeping. He said he slammed his hand on the hood to scare Randy. But he didn't budge... he then opened the door... Randy still didn't move. He told me he had to reach accoss Randy to get the keys out of the ignition so he could go inside to call... he didn't even know who. I went inside and dialed the operator. He told me after he hung up the phone, he noticed a coat on the couch.. one he didn't recognize as being Randy's. He thought that I was in the bedroom asleep. He was freaking out about having to tell me what he found. The coat WAS Randy's... his dress coat. Dave was used to seeing Randyin his Carhart (sp) work coat which Randy was wearing in the car.

The story the police pieced together is this: after he and I spoke, he called some guys we went to HS with and left a message on their answering machine that he was coming over to do some shots. The garage door opener in my Camaro didn't always open the door the first time you hit the button... we think that Randy got in the car, hit the garage door opener and started the car. The garage door didn't open and Randy passed out. There was a bottle of Rum sitting on the passanger seat.

To Randy: You had your problems... WE had our problems... who knows what would have been... But you will always be in my heart. Until we meet again, I love you.

What's on my mind....

I had lunch with an old HS friend yesterday. She's been married for 7 years and has a 2 yr old daughter and a 13 yr old step son. As you know, I'm single (widowed) with a 7 yr old daughter. We got to talking about my life "adventures" lately. I admit, I have been having fun the last 2 months with my singledom and she was loving my stories. She actually said to me that she was jealous. Jealous of my being single and fun things I've been doing. And I have had some fun lately flirting, being flited with... but, I've been the married girl too and I'm thinking... I preferred being married. I prefer having someone there for me... whenever. And I know I'd certainly LOVE to have a partner in parenting. It'd be SO nice to NOT be the only one to dole out discipline; the only one to deal with the attitude of a 7 year old girl.
I was just talking with another friend and she is single like me only without a child. I'm actually kind of jealous of her. She is free to do what she wants when she wants. If she feels like running out and meeting a friend (guy, whatever) at 9pm, she goes... Unless I pay a sitter, my "free" time is limited to every other weekend for 48 hours. She was telling me about how she met a guy she'd been chatting with last night... she told him she just wanted to be friends and he wants more and we lamented together about our situations. What is it with us… the one’s that want us, we don’t want and the ones we want, don’t want us?!?! That’s just SO wrong!! I think, I’m deciding this RIGHT NOW, that I’m going to accept any and all dates and just have fun… not even think about where it could go. Just be a dating gal… No relationship.. unless one develops. THAT’s my New Year’s resolution.
So... that kind of didn't go in the direction I intended but... I have a question.. Which do you prefer? Being single or being married?

2008 Year End Meme

Stolen from http://arewethereyet2.wordpress.com/

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before? Got involved with a boy 16 years younger than me

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? No, I really didn’t and I don't think I will make one this year

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? my co-worker

4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thank God

5. What countries did you visit? I went to Mexico with the ACC on a mission trip... Amazing trip!! Can't wait to go again... when Sunshine is older

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? A relationship. I'm tired of being alone against the world

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 10/26 - hooked up with Nick. My life turned upside down for a while after that and I enjoyed it while it lasted

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I took Dave Ramsey's financial Peace and although I have a lot of work ahead of me, I'm psyched to put everything I learned into practice.

9. What was your biggest failure? Still fat and very low activity level and I fell off the No Smoking wagon

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? nothing too bad

11. What was the best thing you bought? nothing comes to mind

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? ???

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? George W. Bush and IL Gov. Blagojevich

14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Nick...

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? well, Sugarland's Already Gone is on now so that's all I can think of

17. Compared to this time last year are you a) happier or sadder b) thinner or fatter c) richer or poorer? about the same on all fronts

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Saving

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Worrying

20. How did you spend Christmas? Xmas Day I was alone... went to see The Curious Case of Bengamin Buttin

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? I did... :(

22. What was your favorite TV program? Too many to count... to name a few: Grey's Anatomy, Life on Mars, The Secret Life of the American Teenager

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No, still hate the same people LOL

24. What was the best book you read? ?? I read a lot but nothing sticks out

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Nick (he's quite a talented musician) LOL

26. What did you want and get? I don't recall wanting anything really so I don't know if I got "it"

27. What did you want and not get? a lasting relatioship... something's wrong with who I pick I think

28. What was your favorite film of this year? ??? I liked Forgetting Sarah Marshall

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went to dinner with friends then to listen to my friend Mike play I turned 38

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? things working out with a certain someone, but....

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? a “fashion concept?” I dress for comfort and hope I look good in whatever it is

32. What kept you sane? who says I'm sane LOL

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Barack Obama

34. What political issue stirred you the most? The presidential election

35. Who did you miss? Randy always

36. Who was the best new person you met? Nick

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. "Credit Cards Suck" Dave Ramsey

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up the year. For me personally I'll go with this from Sugarland's Take me as I am:

"I'm slow to trust, but I'm quick to love; I push too hard and I give too much. I ain't saying I'm perfect but I promise I'm worth it. I'm standing here in front of you Tell me boy, what you gonna do?"

"If you want it, come and get it but understand, you take me as I am"

Crazy B!tch

Just when I thought I finally weeded all the crazies from my life, one comes back from the past. For those who don't know, I was married... Randy... He passed away. It'll be 9 years this month (1/29) We had known each other since we were like 10 years old. Right after HS, he joined the Navy and ended up marrying a crazy bitch from a neighboring town. That marriage obviously didn't last but it did produce a son, Derek.
Randy and I got together when Derek was 15 months old. I love that child as my own. He is now 16. Granted, his mother refused me any contact with him after Randy passed... she didn't even let the boy come to his father's funeral. But I digress... I've sent my step-son b-day cards and have kept up with his life through Randy's parents.
Well, just tonight I got a notice from Classmates.com that I had a message... the message was sent in November and it was from the psycho first wife. I won't go into details but the crazy bitch has been hanging on to hatred for me ever since Randy and I got together in 1994 and it just came spewing out at me. INSANE!!!
I just thank God she doesn't know where I live because she really is crazy. Shorty after Randy passed, the crazy bitch tried breaking into my house. CRAZY!!!
Thanks for "listening" Just had to vent a bit.