Outta here

  I put a new post up yesterday.....

However, I am outta here.  Off to see my oldest son and visit with friends.  Running away from life to go play for the day (and night)...

Be back home tomorrow - Have a great weekend!

I survived

The boys are on their way home! I survived! I had some help. Sharon and Dee and I hung out on FB a bit. Both of them chatted with me on IM. And ESM emailed back and forth with me. And I lived thru it. I got to take bubble baths and read without interruption. No one complained about what I cooked...maybe because I didn't. But, hey, I ate. The house stayed clean and there aren't enough dishes to even run a load. But I am so happy that they are headed home that I am even looking forward to dishes and boots tracking across the floor.

I questioned this trip back that the boys made. I didn't think that finances were caught up enough for either boy to afford this right now. And of course, I ended up having to pitch in to get them back home. Kids! None of that matters as much as they got to spend time with both of their brothers (separately), Ruth, and Little Bit. They also got to see a few of their old friends and found out that they should listen to mom.

I had a whole nice conversation with Little Man last night that he started texting me about how it really wasn't smart for him to have made that trip. hmmmmm Seems like I had gotten yelled at a few days previously when I made the same statement. When they started planning this, I pointed out that there were a few other things that he should really be dealing with before making that trip. And he got very upset with me. And I'm a big one with my kids for letting them learn some lessons the hard way. Now, if I know that they're going out to commit murder, I'd go ahead and stop that. But, something like this- live and learn baby. Cause mama doesn't buy cigarettes or support your car. So, he took the trip. His low oil light came on and he had to add oil to the car. He's going to have to do an oil change. His head light went out and he's going to have to get that fixed and his license plate light went out and he has to get that fixed. Seems like I have parroted over and over "it takes more than gas to operate a vehicle". But, I got to hear those words that every mom dreams about last night. "I know mom, I should have listened to you". *wipes tears from her eyes* At least he's smart enough to admit when he was wrong unlike some who would try to lie their way out of it.

They got up this morning, headed out, stopped by to see Hurricane, and then hit the highway. They stopped for gas and took care of the oil situation during that time too. B called me and asked about food. Imagine that. The boys are coming home starving. Of course, with B, he's starving if he's gone more than an hour without being fed. ;) Chicken laid out and I'll have a good meal for them when they get home. Little Man works tonight so I'll just switch it up and serve the big meal during the afternoon instead of at night.

My Texas Rangers representative called me today. We are going to work out some sort of deal for tickets for a few games. I'm not even going to try to do the 16 games like we did last year. The drive is too far. Too much trouble. Too much money. We are going to go watch the Red Sox and the Yankees. If we don't go to any other games this season, we will go to those.

One last laugh. Tara has already been on twice today. Her out click at her last visit ~ was to sitemeter. Guess she is finally catching on that I know exactly when she comes to spy on me and exactly how long she stays. LOL Where she comes from and where she leaves to. Sort of really makes the joke on her and her trying to lie about not being on my site. I am so amused.

Good Christmas Eve morning all! I will say that I, personally, would prefer to still be sleeping but Little Bit had other ideas for Grandma this morning. He was unhappily up at 4:30 and has just now drifted off to sleep. He gave both Grandma and Uncle Little Man a run for our money this morn.

We are having our Christmas dinner this afternoon at Vix and Cals. We opened presents with just me and the kids on Tues night. Why Tues night u might ask? Well, we did that so that we could include Donna since she was leaving to go out of town with her family on Weds. So everyone met over here at Ice Cube and Ruth's house after Hurricane got off work. Tanner was included too and he will also be going to Christmas dinner with us tonight. I've had to say a few things to him here and there but not anything major. Just more informative as to that this or that are my rules and I will expect them to be followed now that he's been informed of them. No back talk yet. He's a bit of a redneck, even more than my boys and he needs to learn how to do what's best and not always argue what's "right or fair". Not that he's argued with me yet (and I say yet because it is only a matter of time with any 17 year old) but from some of the things he says I can see that in his personality. Present opening went well on the surface. There were some under currents there and some whispering going on and a few remarks made but no real open animosity. I was blessed enough to get to see Tara on Tues too and to give her her presents from her grandma. She and Tom opened their presents from me and my mom Tues night too and then Tara called me. It would have been nice if Tara could have been here too but it just wasn't possible.

I have my pumpkin pie in the oven now. Little Man and I made the noodles yesterday. I have the eggs boiled for the devilled eggs. I had already gotten the majority of the food before all the plans rearranging had started so I am doing any of the advance cooking over here at IC and Ruth's house and will then tote it across town to Vix and Cal's. Vix is doing the turkey.

Well I need to get off here and get some things done. No use trying to go back to sleep now with a pie in the oven. We had an issue with the car yesterday and were intending to leave to o home this evening, so if you are the praying type... Well, remember us because I would hate to get stranded on the highway. I hope to be posting from my home computer tomorrow. .

Merry Christmas Eve!!

my trip

I had such a good time back in old town with my friends. I was invited to a cocktail party Friday night. It was supposed to be an adults only party so I left mine at home. There were a few other kids there but no one under the age of 17. And I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much if mine had been there anyhow. I got to spend lots of time of Little Bit. He cut his first tooth and is working hard to get the 2nd one thru. His poor little gums are all swollen and he's running a fever and not very happy some times. Now other times, he's just as happy smiling, cooing as can be.

Old neighbor and I got all her wrapping done. I really feel for this woman. Her daughter is living there with her 2 kids and a 3rd one part of the time and 6 months ago, her son moved back home with his fiance and his fiances 2 kids. The daughter has lived at home most of the kids lives and she wouldn't really know what to do if they ever moved out as she's basically helped raise the kids. Even when daughter was married, her old man was more interested in doing drugs than paying bills so they'd move out - live somewhere else for a few months and then end up evicted. Ex has been to drug rehab at least 5 times that I know of and is still using. His parents are very wealthy and so they just keep throwing money at the problem. Attorneys to fight his possession charges, trips to rehab, and as a reward for completing the last failed rehab attempt- a trip to hawaii. Meanwhile, when she tried to file the divorce, they got an attorney to hold up the process and so its still pending. Of course, while its all pending, there is no child support. They did finally agree to help pay the day care costs for the 3 year old. Notice I said help pay. These are people that live in a million dollar home and run a multi-million dollar business. The son is on payroll with a 6 figure salary. They pay under $100/week on 2 kids. And nothing to her. They have refused to give her any cash at all and have managed to drag the divorce out for over 2 years now. The kids don't have visitation with him per se- they do go on a regular visitation schedule to his parents house. Sometimes he shows up to visit with the kids, most of the time he doesn't. The kids were so very glad to see me. The 3 year old climbed up in my lap and refused to leave her perch. She ended up falling asleep on my lap. The 8 year old ran up and hugged me and spent the time I was there trying to babble off everything he'd done since my last visit at Thanksgiving. And the oldest girl who is almost 12 sat and talked and talked to me until she was sent to bed. I have plans with her to take her to the movies next month for her birthday. The poor 3 year old is so confused. I was asking her if she wanted to go to my house and she told me "can't u house all gone". She is freaked out by the fact that my house disappeared. She doesn't quite know what to make of it all. I really need to bring her down here while she's on break from pre-school one of these days and let her see that I still have my house. The first night I was over there, she wanted to go home with me and spend the night with me. But that was the night I was heading out to the cocktail party.

I went out to lunch with some friends, went to dinner with some others. It was hectic and busy but a really good time. Things were good with Hurricane till the last day and then he had another melt down but I don't even want to think about it again. The last word I heard from him was to lose his phone number. Basically, he ordered me to listen to him and do what he says or don't talk to him. Well, bad idea on his part. I'm a scotch irish aries and a red-head to boot. I don't take well to orders or threats to begin with. Definitely not from a child who doesn't even have his own life together and really has no business trying to give anyone advice. Donna, of course, spent the visit irritating the boys. For some reason, she thinks she's their boss and just won't leave them alone. But, that was the glitch in the visit. And it all started the last day we were there. Ice Cube and Ruth are already blowing my phone up asking when we're coming back. This makes me feel good. I told them that I'd be back either tomorrow night or Weds morning with the food and presents for Christmas dinner.

I have spent the day today doing things that my neighbors probably think I'm nuts. The Christmas tree is down and out to the burn pit to be torched. The back end of my car is filled with presents. I still need to get the stocking stuffers out of my closet. My mom's last box of stuff arrived today and I still need to get that stuff in the car too. I still need to call my mom and let her know that the delivery came. The boys have spent the day outside putting a secure door on the chicken coop. Our redneck rig wasn't doing the job and the new puppy played with a chicken to death today. I am not happy with said puppy. All my Christmas decorations are down and there is no sign in this house that we even celebrate Christmas anymore. Isn't that sad? I still have to get all the food together. We will be taking very small bags of clothes as there is no room in the car for any of it. I still have to put the normal pictures and decorations up around the house. Vix and Cal are making another trip down this way the day after Christmas (?) I think. I will finalize the plans with them on Christmas Eve when we're all there.

Back to the grind. My poor vacuum got plugged up with somewhere over a million pine needles so I'm busy cussing the live tree (that only I wanted) out right now. If I'm going back to Ice Cube and Ruth's house tomorrow night, I will have a whole bunch of things to get done within the next 20 hours. I'm sorry about my lack of participation over there. They have no tv and no internet yet. All I have is my poor abused crackberry.

I'm so ready to go

Well, I'm about ready to go. As soon as I pick the boys up from school, we're hitting the highway. My partner in crime (pic) is making dinner for us for when we get there. That is so nice of her. So far today (and it's not yet 10 AM), I have swept and mopped the kitchen and both bathrooms, stocked the fridge, freezer, and cabinets with teen boy food, I made them chicken salad to hold them on the drive, cleaned the ferret cage, got the dishwasher ready to run (right before walking out the door), cleaned both bathrooms, dyed the gray out of my hair, I've gotten all their laundry done, made sure they had clothes for Monday so they don't have to worry about that Sunday night, packed the car, and I still need to finish the last load of laundry and run the vacuum. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. (Are you tired yet Vix, just from reading this as you don't even think about getting out of bed for at least an hour yet?) So, pic's dinner will be most welcome tonight as I'm going to be exhausted. And she is making us feel so very wanted coming back. I know that she's like me - excited and really to rock and roll. And for us, that means heading out to the office tomorrow to get it all set up. And I see my daughter tonight for the first time in over a year. She is leaving tomorrow to go back to their land in OK, so we will only have a very short visit but it will be good to see her after all this time. And I'm sure she is anxiously awaiting the stuff I have put together for her for her new place. I got her together some canning recipes for when she gets her garden going and also some essential recipes for things like baking bread and homemade noodles. So, that is a bonus benefit to this trip back.

Our first day open we will not usually see a lot of non-negatives. The ones who are worried about passing, usually wait till the end of the week and the last few days to come in to see us. (Side note to Mean Stepmom.... Rubber gloves are your friend!) B usually goes with us on the first couple weekends. He runs our errands, saves our tails with bringing us drinks, and makes photo copies for us when we need them. That leaves us free to work with the people and not have to worry about changing the garbage bags or getting more supplies and taking that time away when we're so busy.

For another laugh for the day. Last year, I had a young gentleman bring me his sample. And when I looked, there was no temperature showing. So, I dumped it into another cup on the off chance that we had a bad temperature strip. Well, this young gentleman was very upset when I told him that I couldn't accept his sample due to lack of a temperature reading. The rules on that are that they can retest so long as they come back the same day and they will be observed. A lot of times, they just don't come back and we never see them again. Well, as I said, this young man got a bit upset with me when I told him he'd have to come back. Then he asked me if I wanted him to go flush. (Please remember, they're not allowed to flush and you will understand why in a min). I thanked him for his offer but told him that I would take care of it. And then I went in to the mens room to dump his sample and flush. Imagine my "surprise" (not really) when I found a pin in the bottom of the urinal. Ummm, no wonder he was so eager to go back in and flush. Remember, rubber gloves are your friend during this job. I stuck my hand (in its rubber glove of course) into the urinal and pulled out the pin. Automatic failure. He was really unhappy with me then and I doubt that he liked me very much at that point, but I guess he shouldn't have tried to get one over on me. His paperwork was appropriately marked and he wasn't allowed to work.

Well, back to my long to-do list before the boys get out of school. I keep thinking that there's something I'm going to forget and that they won't have something that they need. They have money for bread and milk as needed. Little Man has a debit card to an account that I can put more money into if they need it. The house is clean, the fridge and freezer stocked, and things as organized as I can possibly get them. They may not eat as healthily as they would if I were here to cook but they won't starve. And honestly, they can cook. I taught all my boys to cook. I doubt that they will make chicken or pork chops or anything healthy though because then they would have to do dishes.

I'll post as often as I can and do my best to keep up with everyone from my laptop (already packed and in the car). Take care of yourselves!