New Job

I started a new job this week. It's only part-time, but I never realized how much I missed working. I guess having four kids, and going to school made me forget the freedom you feel when your away from home. My job is not hard or stressful...that will come later, but a chance for me to communicate with adults without interrupting my conversation with "if you don't sit down and be quiet for 5 minutes, your gonna get it!"

People who drive me insane.

What is it with people that feel the need to point out your more unflattering aspects? As though I don't already know that I've put on weight and have grey hairs. :(

I realize that when I got married in '96 I weighed a healthy 122lbs and now I weigh an unhealthy 185lbs, but I don't carry around that extra weight with pride. On the contrary, it upsets me everyday that I don't have strong enough faith in myself to give 100% effort to my weight loss attempts. I'm trying not to fall into a diet routine, because they ultimately fail, I just want to try to eat healthier foods and portions, without giving up the stuff I like. Just a couple of weeks ago I was in our local Walmart looking at diet aids (don't freak, I didn't buy any), and the lady next to me asked which one I thought would be the best. I told her honestly that I didn't know, in which she replied, "well you don't have as much chunk to lose as I do." What??? A complete stranger is telling me that I have "Chunk." How on earth do you reply to that? I just shut my gaping mouth and walked away. I won't lie, it hurts every time someone refers to me as chubby, fat, overweight, pudgy or stocky, but unlike them I don't come back with a snappy retort of degrading comments.

It's the same with my grey hair, so friggin what! It's a gene thing, nothing I can do about that. (Thanks Rubery's) But I dye my hair (sometimes), but I don't waste $30 on it. Because I see that's as ridiculous and vain. I have more important things to spend $30 on other than my hair. Normally it wouldn't bother me, but I am so sick and tired of people who feel the need to point it out. I have mirrors people, I see the grey strands every morning when I comb my hair. There's an old saying out there that goes: If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all." some people really need to take that to heart and think about how what they say may effect the person before they blab it out of their mouths. I realize that they don't mean it to hurt a persons feelings, but what else can it possibly do!

Well I'm done venting!! I'm learning to write down the crazy thoughts in my head instead of letting them rot my brain. It's healthier than constantly letting them run around in there. Write it down and forget about it...that's my new philosophy.

Oh my goodness. I didn't realize that I have not posted anything on here for over a year. I blame it on Facebook. I really do need to get back into my blogging.

Facebook and old Friends

I just wanted to write about a very old friend that found me on Facebook. There has been times when I've used the excuse of "wow I spent longer on Facebook than I wanted to" and didn't get any of my chores done, so pondered with the thought of just not logging on there anymore, but then something happens to make me change my mind -- like old friends popping up!
When my parents lived in Gibraltar, they had good friends by the name of Keith and Sheila Cohen who had 2 girls, one of which was my age. Her name was Corrina (or Carrie as we all called her) and we stuck together like glue. After the families moved back to England, her family moved to Essex near London and my parents went back to Yorkshire. We'd travel down to see them every couple of years or so when my dad drove long distance, but the friendship faded. In high school pen pals became a big trend and though I already had two (one in Wales and the other in Italy) my mum suggested that I write to Corrina, so I did! I was about 13 when I started and we kept it up until I moved to the States, we lost contact after I got married and moved from Swartz Creek, but I always thought of her. Well to my surprise she found me on Facebook. I got all excited and cut Win off in the middle of his conversation so I could log on to Facebook and accept her as my friend. Poor Win!! He already knows I have a few screws loose, so he just shook his head and listened to me ramble on about our history. Though we haven't spoke to each other in over 10 years, we started back up like it was just last week. It was freaky that we both have son's named Brandon, even spelled the same way, who are 2 yrs apart, but of course she has to have 2 more kids to catch up with me. I remember how we both would worry about not getting married, and the time I embarrassed her by going up to a guy she liked at a bar on one of our visits down to Chelmsford to ask him if he would go on a date with her. He's not the guy she married though. I thought she'd be the 1st but it ended up being me. I don't have too many best friends from my childhood, but I'm glad I got this one back. I miss all my family and friends in England constantly and so I guess Facebook's future on my computer is a long one.

Family Vacation

It's been a while since we've had a chance to go on a real vacation, so last week we finally got to go on one. We visited my cousin Sharon in Indiana and drove down to Louisville, Kentucky to visit Six Flags. What a blast we had!! We arrived just in time for the city of Carmel's CarmelFest, which is their 4th of July celebration. We watched the parade (in the rain) and later in the day went down to city center to prepare for the music and fireworks. There was musical entertainment (ladies barbershop and the Carmel Symphonic Orchestra, who did a beautiful tribute to the Armed Forces), rides, booths, lots and lots of food and of course the fireworks, which were fantastic. Though we got sprinkled on a little more throughout the night the kids had a blast.

The next morning we headed out for Kentucky and Six Flags. First we hit the waterpark, swimming in the wavepool, having a huge tub of water dumped on our heads, riding in the lazy river and catching some rays. The kids had never really been to a waterpark, so they really enjoyed themselves. Then it was time to hit the rollercoasters. I went on a few kiddie rides with Daniel and that was enough for my stomach to start churning. (it's been over 10 yrs since I was on any of the big stuff). The kids went on anything they could see and despite their disappointment it was time to head home.

We visited downtown Indianapolis the next day and saw the Colts new stadium, where the Pacers play and the beautiful war memorial. We also hit the zoo and got to see dolphins, pet sharks, watch seals, polarbears, penguins and a walrus from behind a glass wall, there were desert creatures and cute little meerkats. They also had some sprinklers at the zoo to keep the kids cool, so we spent considerable time in there too, so long that the zoo closed before we got to see the elephants and so on. We then headed out to Chuck E Cheese and let them burn off more energy. I know that the parents were ready to collapse, but the kids played and played and then played some more. (I don't think I'd ever have that kind of energy anymore). Then it was back to Michigan, yeah!!!

Phew, it was an action packed 4 days, filled with sun, fun and lots of memories.

RIP Geico

I'm a bad mom! On Sunday, June 8th Brandon received an Anole (lizard) for his 8th birthday which he named Geico (Yeah after the one on the commercials) and exactly one week later I killed it. We put him out in the sun to bask in the warm sun for a while and then took off to the beach and forgot to make sure he was in the shade with some water so he wouldn't dehydrate. Well he had dehydrated big time when we got back home and poor Brandon was crying in the pool. What do you say to your son when he knows that your the one who killed his precious lizard?? He was very forgiving when we told him we'd get a new one the very next day, and just like a kid, he soon forgot about Geico and started to wrangle a $28 Leopard Gecko from us. It's not happening, but we are getting the new lizard a better setup, so he won't have to be put out in the sun and forgot about. Here's a couple of pictures in memory of dear Geico.

Rachel Graduates Pre-School

It's official, Miss Rachel graduated pre-school. Yeah!! They seem to graduate from everything, but at least the only expensive one is their high school graduation. Still, we got her a pretty dress and put "pretties" in her hair, and took some poser shots before we headed down to Owosso Middle School for the ceremony. They all looked so cute in their fancy dresses and shirts and ties and of course the night was topped off with a gift of a graduation smiley face plush toy, a free ice-cream courtesy of the Cone Zone and cookies. She's a big girl now, heading out to Kindergarten, which in her words "is in the big school her brothers go to". Of course they are not looking forward to her being close enough to irritate and embarass them, but they'll survive.