Why?, Amen, Bugs, Jeep, Anniversary

I was reading a couple of news articles online earlier and let me just say - this is why I don't read the news. It is so depressing! I first came across the story of the apparent murder suicide of a family of four in Ohio. Everyone thought this was the "perfect family". This man was recently laid off from work but had just gotten his job back. His wife was a stay at home mom. Their kids were home from school on a snow day. Apparently he killed them all and then himself. The next story was a another murder suicide in California. The mom and dad PLANNED it... you heard me... PLANNED! They were both recently laid off from their jobs at the hospital and decided to kill their three kids and themselves. Then I read about the dad in Australia who threw his four year old over a bridge and had his two boys in the car. The paramedics worked on her for almost an hour and she is in critical condition now. It was over a custody battle.


Why? I just don't understand. I have not had any experience with someone close to me committing suicide and for that I know that I am blessed beyond belief. I know that there are people out there who have nothing and nobody to turn to. While I do not condone suicide in any way, shape, or form, I think if you want to kill yourself, go right ahead... but your kids? And to PLAN it? It is and always has been beyond me how anyone could harm their child much less kill them. I understand that some people are mentally unstable but how can you not recognize the signs of that before it gets bad and do something about it? It just makes me so incredibly sad. And how can people blame the economy for the increased suicide numbers? Does one really think it's better to take away their child's future because they won't be able to make ends meet? How many examples have you seen of people who were raised dirt poor and came out of it on top - and stronger? I was at Wal Mart on my lunch break and this lady walked up to me with a note in the parking lot. I read the first line - I have to younger brothers... and I stopped. I told her "No" and she said "Please?". It is unfortunate that as much as I want to help someone I don't know who to trust. I don't want to be heartless but I also don't want to be dumb. How did I know she wasn't going to try and take me somewhere or some man wasn't going to come grab me from behind? You just never know. And you know what? I still don't feel bad if it was a real situation and she needed money or whatever she was asking for. You don't go sneaking through parking lots hitting people up for money - you just don't. Wow, I'm on a roll today!


This morning we were saying our prayers on the way to daycare and usually I'll say... "Did you say Amen?" to Garrison. This morning we got to daycare and I opened his door to get him out of his carseat and he still had his little hands folded. I asked what he was doing and he said, "I didn't say Amen Mama!"... how cute is that? So he said... "Aaaaaamen!" and his morning was complete. It's funny how something we do every day out of habit is a necessity for him now. I love that about kids. We get so caught up in our daily lives that everything just becomes routine. Not for him - he really thinks about what we pray about every morning which is how it should be. He always reminds me to pray for the brave firemen (and Godpapa Tony) when we pass the fire station. Too cute!


Garrett FINALLY got a car. A Jeep to be exact. I am SOOOOOOO glad. He has a work truck but can't drive it to school or on the weekends. I will no longer be a prisoner on the nights he has school nor will I have to plan my weekends around if/when he needs the car. YAY!!! I'll have to take a picture and post it on here. I have to say I love Jeeps. He's had about three of them and I stressed (Lordy did I ever stress) that this is NOT one of his old Jeeps that was a toy (when we were living the military life and just had money to go buy another one). He used to love to go mudding. I think we went through two while in the military. haha!


My mom and dad are celebrating their 30th Anniversary on Feb 3rd. My sister and her family are coming in town to celebrate this weekend. How incredible is that? 30 years! And they are still (truly) as happy as they were the day they got married. I hope it will be like that for me and Garrett. Marriage is damn hard - no lie. It takes compromise and sacrifices. But hopefully with good communication, laughter, and God we will get there one day too! By the way, we are celebrating our 6th in February also. I'll leave you with a picture of the Happy Couple - didn't I tell you they were just as happy as the day they married?




Jewels*

Waiting, Waiting, and Waiting

It seems like all I have done the last three days is... you guessed it... wait! So I had an appointment at 6 on Friday to get my hair fixed and had just enough time to make it to the bank before hand. Long story short I needed to open an account with the credit union so we could get Garrett a car. The girl told me to go to the location on LBJ so I headed over there only to find out they closed at 2:00... awesome. So then I went to my hair appointment and apparently it was worse than I thought - because I was there 4 hours. If you count the time I "waited" I was actually there 4 1/2 hours. Ugh! But as you can see at least it's all one color now. I won't even tell you what all this girl had to do to accomplish that but I'm just glad I'm back to a somewhat normal color.



By the way, that second picture cracks me up. It reminds me of those sexy faces that girls try to make for profile pictures on facebook or myspace. I love it when you can see the girls' arms holding the camera out and a lot of times they just "happen" to be pointing downward to show a bit of cleavage - purely accidental I'm sure. HAHA! I try to avoid that at all costs - as Garrett tells me, I can have cleavage in a t-shirt. HA!

Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah... waiting! Saturday I was supposed to go with my best friend to look at a florist and then maybe a bridal shop. I was so excited to have a bit of girl time. Well, Garrison got sick on Friday night and had a fever. So I decided to just go to the florist but we had to go to the bank first. So I go out to the Richardson branch of the credit union to open that account. We make it out there at 9 sharp and of course that branch doesn't open accounts on Saturday - even though the CSR told me to go there. Long story short I wasn't able to go with my friend to look at a florist. So I spent my Saturday at a bank with a foreign lady who by the way kept assuring me she had her eye on Garrison when he kept wondering out of her office into the lobby (riiiiight... thanks but no thanks lady - don't really trust strangers to keep an eye on my 3 year old while I open my bank account). He peed in his pants, she took an hour and a half to open my account, and I head a sinus headache like nobody's business. Garrett and I ended up opening the account just in the nick of time and went looking at cars Saturday. Good news is I think we found one but we won't know until later this week if it will all be finalized.

So today I took Garrison to Pediatric After Hours (an "after hours" doctor for kids in Plano). We go right at 11 when they open and we had to wait in a line that went out the door. Apparently everyone is sick right now... if you live in Texas and you're reading this without (1) coughing (2) runny nose (3) sore throat or (4) sneezing you are the healthiest person I know and I want to know what vitamins you're taking! Anyways, he has a viral infection aka cold with a fever so this should be a fun week. I love letting it "run its course" and just praying the 8 hr motrin lasts all day at daycare. I feel like such an awful mom giving my kid Motrin and taking him to school but really - am I supposed to keep him home with a runny nose and cough? I told him we were going to the doc this AM and he said, "Am I sick mommy?" What a trooper! He doesn't even know he's sick. By the way when we left the doctor Garrison opened his sucker and asked me if there was a bug in it. If you read my previous post about my dad getting him the "bug sucker" you'll see the humor in that. Poor kid will probably fear suckers for the rest of his life!

I'm hitting the gym tomorrow morning at 5 AM so I'll be heading off to bed now!
I will leave you a picture of my cutie patootie with his Oreo face!

What does it take?

Let me preface this blog by saying I have NEVER had an eating disorder, never been insecure about myself (any more so than the average woman), and never taken diet pills before. I just wanted to get that out there before I start my story. And the only reason I'm blogging about this is (1) therapeutic for me and (2) maybe someone else will take something away from this.

Last year around May or June I was just really tired of not being motivated enough to stay on a "diet" or work out regularly so I started looking into diet pills. I have NEVER taken a diet pill before. I wasn't looking for anything hard core - just something to help surpress my appetite. I went to this nutrition store by my work and they told me about this supplement. I left and did a lot of research and found nothing negative or critical (harmful) about it. So I started taking it. It gave me so much energy and surpressed my appetite completely! I wasn't even shaky or jittery on it. It was like a miracle pill. It started to cause some side effects like headaches and having to pee every 15 minutes, etc. I stopped taking for a while and started back up a couple weeks ago. I went to reorder the pill and it and it had been recalled by the FDA. There was some dangerous ingredient found in it and they had to "reformulate" it. All websites are saying this new formula sucks. No wonder the old one worked so well. You should have seen me though - even though I knew this had a dangerous ingredient I had never had any problems with it before. So here I am looking to see if anyone still sells it and I had this revelation - WHAT is wrong with me? I just read how dangerous this pill is and I want to keep taking it anyways just because it makes me not hungry? Is what I look like more important than my health? Is what I look like more important than my family? My 3 year old? I was ashamed!!! I have been working out regularly now and I plan on just eating healthy. (As a side note I lost a lot of initial baby weight by just doing a weight watchers type plan and working out so I know it works.) I realized that I have enough respect for myself and my family to have some more self discipline and do it the right way.

I just wanted to share that with anyone out there who might be struggling with staying healthy or losing weight.

Jewels*

TAG, Jesus Poops?, Hair Mishap, Deer Carcass, Gym

Long title I know but it's been a while since I posted...

Here is a little "tag" project I read on Katy's blog. (Katy I have no idea how you do that fancy thing where they can click on your name and go right to your blog - do I sound like an old woman?)

Here were the instructions:

1. Go to the place where you store all of your pictures on your computer and open up the 4th folder

2. Open the 4th picture

3. Post the picture and give an explanation

4. Tag 4 people (sad part is while many of you read my blog I only have one "follower" - wow that sounds very cult like - so I will leave the tagging part out of this.)

Here is my picture:

This is Garrison holding his first carved pumpkin taken in October of '08. I told him not to lift the top off again and that I was going to get a picture of him but of course he took the top off while I was taking the picture. I love how well 3 year olds listen!

Last week I was in the bathroom with Garrison while he was going poo poo. (I love how my words stay three year old words when I retell the story.) Out of nowhere he asked me if Jesus poo poos... okay, I am usually really really good about answering questions but..... I had nothing... nothing! I said, well.... still nothing. So I said, "I know! Let's call KiKi!" (my sister who has all the Jesus question answers) So we call KiKi and she starts giving me this looooooong explanation about why Jesus doesn't poo poo - because Jesus died and is in heaven and now he is a spirit and he doesn't poo poo but so much more detailed then that. As cowardly as it was I didn't have the patience to explain the specifics of Jesus' death and resurrection to a three year old so thank the Lord (literally) when I got off the phone with her he started talking about his toys... whew! Close call.

So if any of you are on facebook I'm sure you have heard about my hair mishap. I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it because I'm tired of talking about it. I'm getting it fixed Friday so I'm excited about thatThe pictures say it all - here are a few:

My mom, Garrison, and I went to Houston last weekend. It was a short trip - drove in Saturday and came back Sunday - but nice to see KiKi and the kiddos... and Chris of course! (Isn't it funny how the dads and usually the moms get left out once kids come along - ha!) Anyways, on our trip home my mom was driving on 45 and we ended up behind these two hunters that had something in the bed of their truck that we couldn't quite identify. We got a little closer and realized it was in fact a deer carcass (I was about to say dead deer carcass but that's a little redundant now isn't it?). The deer was clean but sliced open down the middle and the meat had obviously been pulled out. As a side note I did not grow up in a hunting family but have come to understand the sport of hunting. I am completely and totally 100% against animal cruelty but I think as long as you are going to eat it the sport of hunting is fine and doesn't bother me in the least. (And I could NEVER do it myself.) Obviously since I didn't grow up that way my mom doesn't think the same way... haha! So... what does she do? She pulls up next to the truck (with two rednecks) and they speed up a little and she speeds up a little and gets in front of them. They were laughing hysterically in the rearview mirror. While I do not condone them driving down the highway with a deer carcass in their truck I can see the humor in it. My mom didn't. So they came around us and got right back in front of us again... so here we are (well not "we" but my mom as I was reading my book) staring at a deer carcass for a good 15 minutes until they exited into Redneckville! Sorry, mom but I just had to tell it. Now that brings me to a question for all of you. When do you think is an appropriate age to introduce hunting? Or do you think it's wrong all together?

I'm so proud of myself for getting back on track with the gym. I went every day last week (up at 4:40 am) to do my cardio. This week I didn't go Monday but I went yesterday and today. I'm also doing weights at the gym by my work on my lunch break. Feeling great (sore but great) so that's a good sign. Is it frustrating to anyone else though that when you start working out you get hungrier? What a vicious cycle! Oh well... off I go!

Jewels*

White Trash Date Night, FOCA, Ammunition Accountability Act, Urine or You're Out

You read that right! It's White Trash Date night! We are headed to the shooting range (my idea surprisingly enough) and then to dinner. I am convinced that I can shoot better than Garrett (although the only gun I've ever shot is a beebee gun). I will update you on what I am sure will by my success! :)

I have come across several "acts" and ideas lately that I want to share with you and comment briefly on:

FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act) - here is a link to what it is about and how it can affect you, the taxpayer : http://www.christianliferesources.com/?/foca/focaprimer.php
I'm not trying ot argue the subject of abortion but it disturbs me that even though I adamantly disagree with it my tax dollars could (and probably will) one day be funding it. That is frustrating on so many levels.

Ammunition Accountability Act - this is being pushed in several states right now. Obama said he won't take our guns but he's going to take our ammo??? They are attempting to "code" all ammunition so they can "track" it. How will they fund this? By taxing ammunition. So it will now be at least $2 more per box. The plan is to keep increasing taxes until it is not affordable for anyone anymore. So hunters, gun enthusiasts look out! They ARE coming for your guns. I'm sure all those "law abiding criminals" out there will be so disappointed they won't be able to go buy ammunition at their local gun store after they have thrown out all of their "illegal ammo". That should really take care of the problem. http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm

I love this article that I came across. The slogan is "Urine or You're Out"! I think it makes complete sense! My husband, who was in the Navy for three years, had to take random urine tests to keep his government job fighting for Americans' freedom but not the drug dealer who qualifies for welfare. I'm NOT saying that Welfare is not a good idea. There are a lot of people out there who deserve to be on it but there are also a lot MORE who completely take advantage of it and I don't think it's fair that the hard working honest citizens have to follow the rules and fund the welfare system when the welfare recipients do not have to do the same. I'm just sayin'.
http://www.sodahead.com/question/196961/welfare-reform-urine-or-youre-out-what-do-you-think-of-this-program/

That's my political talk for today. I'm done now! Have a great weekend!

Jewels*

PSYCHO! Christmas, Cell, Marley and Me, Twilight, Sleep Deprived

I just had an encounter with the world's biggest PSYCHO on my lunch break! Seriously...

I was going to the bank on my lunch break and I was pulling out of a parking lot going left onto a main road. There was a very wide section between the turn lanes going in both directions off the main road so I had plenty of room to pull out to turn left while all others coming the same direction still would have plenty of room to turn as well. That doesn't really make sense but trust me - it was not unsafe or illegal what I did - completely normal for this road. Apparently the guy BEHIND the guy that was turning left off the main road didn't like that I did that - why I have no idea - and so he pulled AROUND the guy he was behind (into trafic) and sped up like he was going to hit me and slammed on his brakes about 2 inches from my car. He started YELLING "F YOU F YOU F YOU" and flipping me off. (of course he wasn't really saying "F" You... just trying to keep it clean here). It was this guy in a business suit driving a Durango. I wasn't scared and the first reaction that came to me was to laugh. So I started laughing at him and looking at him like, "Are you SERIOUS?" Not a good idea- that pissed him off even more apparently. So as he's blocking my view (and traffic... and the cars that he was behind that are trying to turn left) he starts telling me to go... GO GO GO he says... I started laughing again and pointed at his car and mouthed, "I CAN'T". He was too dumb to realize that he had now blocked my view to turn as well as all others. So I just sat there looking at him because I couldn't go. Then he puts his car in reverse and all jerky like backs up (into traffic yet again) and then forward just barely missing my car and drives off, but not without a final flip off and F YOU to me!... awesome. The funniest part of it all was that I looked at the guy's face behind him (who was once in front of him) and he was in as much shock as I was. That's my story... I just hope that guy gets laid or whatever it is he needs to do to make him happy. Yikes!

So our Christmas was good. Garrison got lots of stuff and we spent lots of family time, yadayadayada. It was nice to have the time off but hard to get back into a routine for all of us I think. I have been staying up late EVERY night this week and it's my own fault mostly. Sunday night my dog threw up poop (you read that right) EVERYWHERE so I spent half an hour cleaning that up and then realized I washed my cell phone in the washer. I just renewed my cell contract for 2 years a month ago just to get this free phone (pathetic I know, but I'm cheap). So I was pretty pissed. Not to mention I use my phone as my alarm clock. So I had to set Garrett's phone as my alarm and then wake him up the next morning. (I could blog about waking him up in an entireley different blog but let's just say he is the WORST person to have to wake up.) Monday night I was so excited about the Bachelor premiere. I know, I know... but Garrett watched the Texas game and it wasn't over until 11 so I started watching the 2 hour show at 11 and then went to bed at 1. Last night I went to see Marley and Me and to dinner with one of my best friend's. I'm going to bed early tonight. By the way, if you haven't seen Marley and Me - GO SEE IT!!! It's soooooo good. It makes me completely appreciate my dogs and want to spend so much more time with them. Sorry this is so long and it prob makes no sense. I'm so sleep deprived. Oh and I'm obsessed with the Twilight series! Love it, Love it, Love it! On the third book now and I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish the 4th and final book. So sad. I will leave you some pictures of Christmas compliments of my Uncle Tony! By the way, he's an awesome photographer and if you ever need someone (family pics, sports team pics, engagement pics, etc.) you should check out his website: http://www.firehousephotographer.com/