Ashley's Prom

Ashley went to her first formal this month. It was her boyfriend's Junior Prom. It is amazing how extremely fast time is rushing by. It reminds me of an everlasting flow of water. We planned on taking pictures at a park, but the unforeseen rain put a damper on that idea. The pics were taken at the mall.

The Eleven Rules of Life

Give this to all the teenagers in your life

RULE 1
Life is not fair - get used to it.

RULE 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The worldwill expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with fancy car* until you earn both.

RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get aboss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Yourgrandparents had a different word for
burger-flipping. They called it Opportunity.

RULE 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’twhine about your mistakes: learn from them.

RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring asthey are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk abouthow cool you are. So before you save the rain forestfrom the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers,but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times asyou want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear theslightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off, and very few employers are interested inhelping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually go to jobs.

RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

From Charles Sykes book, Dumbing Down our Kids.

Busy Days

I haven't wrote for quite some time. Each day is full and very busy. I experienced kidney stones and intestinal issues this last month. I have had to confront and face discipline issues with my children. I am starting to read the "Strong Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson. I have to get my hands around all these concerns right away, for it will determine me and my family's future. I am focusing on a healthy family and body at this time. Here is a idea of what has been happening with me lately.

• Kidney Stones (Yes, they hurt!)
• A hospital visit (For the kidney stones)
• Intestinal problems
• A cold Sore (right on my lip)
• Sammy attempting to control the home
• Anger issues with the boys
• A chase with the daughter (Not literally, well maybe actually yeah?)
• Building my website
• Church
• Cub Scouts with Ronnie
• Ashley and Joshua dance class
• Signed the boys up for basketball (It starts in January)
• We go to the library each week. watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" for the first time.
• We took a trip up to Big Trees and my transmission messed up.
• Lost fifteen pounds.
• Stopped drinking soda.
• Still working
• Got health insurance.
• Teeth getting straighter with these braces.
• Decorated for Harvest that includes a haystack, scarecrows, and orange lights
• Storage got broken into.Kids' dad is being nicer and easier to get along with
• My neighbors annoy me with the base on there radio.
• Got custody of the Red Ear Sliders after 18 months with the ex. Well, I actually think that he abandoned them and now I know why. They just stink and their tank has to be cleaned out every week just to tolerate them.
• The ex got married last month after 17 months of separation and three months after our divorce.
• The new wife is nice to the kids. She has been around since the separation and the kids like her. That is a great blessing to have a nice step-mom for the kids.
• I haven't changed any of my clocks back yet.
• I like my daughter's boyfriend and I think my daughter is pretty awesome.
• I am getting new living room furniture from my mom.
• I have a great complexion.
• I turned 35 this month.

Is that too much information? Until next time, I am outta here.

Thank God for Starbucks

Ashley and her friend, Danny went to a harvest party last night. They almost won the cutest couple, but the judges gave 1st place to the smaller kids that were there. It took us hours to find their costumes and then we had to go to five stores just to find Danny some flip flops. It was easy to find women's, but men's flip flops are rare this time of year.

The boys are at their dad's house this weekend and I have had a really bad two weeks. I don't know if it is the weather change or what, but I am feeling so depressed lately. Thank God for Starbucks because the Cafe' Mocha I just had made my day!

A few days ago I was listening to the radio and discovered that Mervyns is going out of business. Wow! that was a shocker. I guess they announced it in August, but I just now heard of it in a campaign commercial. I looked it up online and read that they will clearance their merchandise out through the end of the year and then they will close. So instead of the little phrase " Open Open" we will being saying "Closed Closed" or at least that is what the commercial said.

I have been questioning how fast time goes by. Basically when time passed by Earth where does it go? My birthday is coming around very shortly. On November 3rd I will turn 35 and I think that is contributing to the reason why I feel so depressed. I never imagned that I would be raising four kids alone at this time in my life, but really thank God for Starbucks.

Finances aren't good and now they are affecting me. Ron isn't working and is taking me back to court to change the child support order. This is not a good thing for the kids and me. I bet Mervyn's feels the same way...

This last Thursday my family had a BBQ. My Uncle Dwayne came down from Nevada. We hadn't seen him in sixteen years. It was great and we caught up on time quickly. The guys all played the guitars and sang just like we use to do years ago. That was a great night and brought back a lot of memories. All good ones. It did however, remind my of Nanny who passed away two years ago this January. I miss her very much. She used to sing along to all the songs and it wasn't really a pleasant tune. I thought to myself as I was humming along "Wow! I am taking over Nanny's place." As the people who know me would agree that sometimes it better just to move my lips and act as if I am singing. It all makes for a better evening.

Come Again??

Sometimes I question just what Samuel is thinking. The other day Sam was hugging his teddy bear. Let’s just call him “Teddy”. Teddy appeared to be enjoying the affections of Sammy. I am sure Sam felt like wise. I was just taking a moment of leisure as I watched them together. In just a blink of an eye, Sam attacked Teddy. He bit him right on the nose. I scolded Sam and made clear to him that we do not hurt our friends. I then placed a small Scooby Doo Band aid on Teddy’s nose. I warned Sammy that I better not here from Teddy that he had wounded the poor bear again. A few minutes later this is what I found…Come again?? I beg your pardon?? Am I seeing what I think I am seeing?

My theory is that Sam thought he would shut Teddy up while he colored on him a bit, or Maybe just maybe he was being loving and just bandaging another wound that somehow miraculously appeared. Sam might have been just fixing his hair and giving him free highlights. Who’s to know?