Me...high maintenance? I don't think so.

A few days ago Dalan told me I was a high maintenance friend. There is nothing high maintenance about me. There were reasons for this comment but I won't go into them. I told him that is hardly the case. I just think I attract the crazies! I mean seriously! I'm the friend who if you don't e-mail, call or text for months or even a year or so I will still remember you and will be there if you need anything. As long as you have never wronged me, we're good. I'm not the type of friend who needs to have constant contact with someone to know our relationship is okay. I am just not needy like that. Hell, if I knew you or knew of you at one time, it is very rare for me to forget you. I never forget a good friend. I stated my case in the two instances he was speaking of and told him in no way was I in the wrong and he agreed. He most likely agreed only so I would be quiet though. But, whatever! Then again, he most likely knew he would get a reaction out of me by saying that and he did. Ugh!

If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done.

Trent was assigned this USA Scrapbook at the beginning of the school year that I had EVERY intention on working on with him over the Christmas break. Yeah, it didn't happen. There was family visiting and tons of running around and we just didn't get to it. That and I kept thinking, "Oh, we have 'til April." Trent is also not the type of kid to beg me to do homework, so the project got put on the back burner until about a couple weeks ago when a reminder was sent home saying it was due March 16th, not April like I orginally thought. Well, isn't that just nice. Totally my fault though. I'm always putting things off right up until the last minute. I always think I have all this time and then time mysteriously disappears. This is a big project. It consists of every letter of the alphabet and each letter has its own topic chosen by Trent. There are 5 additional people he needs to include in this so that makes 31 topics. The project also needs to have a Cover page (for the front), a Title page (for the inside), a Table of Contents and a Bibliography. WOW! I can't imagine any kid doing this on their own or even with the smallest bit of help. I couldn't even write more than two short paragraphs on panda bears when I was in 4th grade. The whole report was pathetic and needless to say, I got a big, fat, red F!! Thing is, I did my report totally on my own while I'm sure the other kids had their parents practically do theirs for them. So, am I proud of that F? At the time I wasn't but now sure! I probably could've done better but I did it on my own. I basically got an F for lack of parent involvement, which is kinda dumb. Back to Trent, this seems like mostly a parent report and it seems like this has been the case the last few years. I find myself doing most of the work. It feels that way anyway. However, I know I'm not doing all or even most because Trent walks away learning something. I try to show him how to look for information and what to pick out, take notes, put it all together and type it all out. THEN we have to print it, put it on colored cardstock and then also print out a picture to put with the info. Yeah, it's a pretty lengthy deal. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to do one letter depending on the topic he has chosen. So, we are rushing to get this thing done. I think he has 19 topics left. It has actually turned out really nice so far I think. Hopefully we can get this done and he will get a good grade on it. It's going to be a lot of work to fit into 21 days but I think we can do it.

If you love something, set it free.

You know that old saying, "If you love something set it free. If it comes back it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was." That is about as good of saying as I can come up with for the issues I have been having with someone. Thing is, I'm not the one who set said someone free, although I wish I would have been. I chose not to be the free-er only to avoid confrontation and arguements and trust me, it really was my best option in this situation. Thing is, you would think I would be upset and really I am not. Life has been so much more relaxing. So drama free. So much less stressful. Thing is, I don't know if I care if said person comes back. I've decided I 'm sick of people who bring nothing but drama to the relationship. I'm sick of people who do nothing but brag about what they have. I think I have grown and have come to realize that material things just don't matter. Well, okay, they kinda do sometimes but I have different goals in my view. I have different priorities. I think I have grown in the past year. I used to always want things RIGHT NOW but I'm starting to see that good things come to those who wait. I'm starting to see what is important and it's not the big dream house or the expensive vacations or the nice, loaded with every option car. Sure, those things would be nice to have but the world will not crumble if I don't have them. One day I will have them (thinking positively). It's only a matter of time but right now I'm thankful for what I have in my possession. I guess I have gotten to the point where I am weeding people out. I've also gotten to the point where I'm not going to sweat the small stuff. I'm over it! I'm moving on and really I think that makes me a grown up....or something.

Look what came in the mail Friday.....

We left for State Wrestles Friday right when the kids got out of school. Before we left I was so excited to find this sitting by my door....

MY SUPERBOWL GEAR!!! YAY! It was my early Valentines present to myself. I've been anxiously awaiting for this all to arrive so I'm glad it finally got here. Trent loves his hat and wore that with a pullover he already had up to State. The excitement will never wear off. Not for at least another 6 months or so. I still wish I was back in PA for the celebration. It would've been nice to be there for it. Plus, it was just another excuse to get back there and visit. I love that state and how could I not. It is where my life began.

State Wrestles was okay. I really don't get into it and pretty much stare blankly at the mats. My brother in law was beat out early :o( so there was really no one I personally knew wrestling. Delta did take State so that's cool! Early Saturday morning I had taken the kids to the lobby to get breakfast. Trent wore his Superbowl hat down. There was a guy who said, "How can you let your son wear a Pittsburgh hat?" I replied with, "Uh, I'm from there!" He kinda just said, "Oh." He then went onto to say he's a Cowboys fan and said something else and I said, "Yeah, look who won the Superbowl though." It's so funny how people can just say random comments. It was all in good fun I'm sure but geesh, why say that in front of a kid. I'm proud my kids are Steelers fans. Then later that night we were eating dinner and a guy walks in and sees Dalan's shirt and says, "Steelers? You guys!" I just laughed. It's kinda funny how people hate on them and then you can run into people who are fans and will have a conversation with you like they've known you for years.

Anyway, hope you all had a great Valentines Day. I personally am over it and don't care too much for the holiday. I don't need a holiday to remind me to tell the people in my life that I love them.

So, to end this.....GO STEELERS! I can't wait for football season to start again.

When I get my hands on you.....

I love animals...most animals. I could do without the snakes, mice and the rats of the world. And those are just a few of the animals I can do without. Anyway, there is a certain groundhog who lives in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania who I really need to have a discussion with. Not that he will be able to understand but I will make him understand. I don't know how the whole thing works as far as if he sees his shadow or doesn't but all I know is there are at least 5 more weeks of winter and looking out my window right now, I'm starting to think that groundhog is right. It is snowing. Normally from my house I can see "town" but today I can't. I mean come on! Give me a break already. I bought three, yes three new swimsuits and all I want is for it to get warm already so I can show them off. I hear all this talk about global warming and right now, I'm thinking it's a bunch of BS. On top of the snow and me not liking it or liking to be cold, I have to go grocery shopping today. It can't be put off. So, again, I will be going out and freezing my butt off just so the family can eat. Hardly seems worth it.

Oh my hail!!! 02/08/09

Two posts in one day. Yeah, I guess I'm behind.

Sunday as we were leaving Dalan's grandparents house after dinner (read below post), it was raining. Not hard but not lightly either. As I walked out into it I said, "Well, at least it's not snowing." An hour or so later, below is what started POURING out of the sky.....














So much for seeing the brighter side of things.

Happy Birthday To You Times Three

What a weekend! I can't believe the things I get myself into but they usually work out great and the kids are happy and that is all that matters.

Kaela begged and begged to have a birthday sleepover which I tried to talk her out of only because I thought she was a little young and parents may not allow their kids to go to a sleepover. Especially at someones house who they have never met. I'm not the most social person in the world and I pretty much keep to myself. It makes it so that I don't get involved in the drama/gossip here. Anyway, turns out I was wrong. We had 8 girls, one of them being Kaela and two of them were my nieces. So, all last week I cleaned and got ready for this party. It started on Friday, February 6th at 5:00 PM. One of her friends wanted to come early and I said that would be fine. She showed up at 3:30 PM. The next guest arrived at about 4:30 PM and they kept coming until around 5:30 PM. We fed the girls pizza, ice cream and cake and then Kaela opened her gifts. After that they went downstairs to watch a movie. After the movie they played Littlest Pet Shop, played the Wii and played ping pong. Most of the girls were ready for bed around 11:00 PM. A few of the girls were up playing extreme, crazy dress up. They FINALLY decided to go to bed around....ya know, I have no idea what time it was. At 4:30 AM one of her friends came in to tell me she threw up. Great! Now, a normal person without kids would freak out. I got up out of bed like I do any other morning. It was like this was routine for me. I went downstairs, grabbed the blankets and pillow, tossed them in the wash, went back downstairs to check and clean anything off the carpet, back upstairs, grabbed a bucket and took in downstairs in case she had to throw up again. I figured we would wait it out to see if she felt better in the morning. She didn't so I called her parents and they came and got her at around 9:00 AM. I thought she may have eaten too much but she had a fever, a headache and was dizzy. I made the girls waffles and tiny cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then they went back to play again. At around 10:30 AM I had them make their own visors and then they played some more. One parent was here right at noon to pick up her daughter. The last was picked up at 12:30 AM. The basement was a disaster. It looked like a tornado had gone through there. The girls all had fun and they loved their gift bags. They each got a Littlest Pet Shop, an LPS cup, LPS bracelet and LPS notebook.

Sunday...dinner at Dalan's grandparents and more cake and ice cream...ugh! I was so sick of cake by this time. We were celebrating three birthdays that were all during this week.

Monday...I had my sister and her family and my parents over for dinner. This was Kaela's actual birthday. We were sick of cake, so I made her a chocolate chip cookie. I put the batter in a cake pan and voila! We had Oven Fried Chicken, Buttered Egg Noodles and Broccoli. My mom brought over a Trifle. Then here we go again with the singing of Happy Birthday and presents. I seriously felt like I was in that movie Groundhog Day. SIGH!

To sum it up, Kaela had a pretty good birthday...over and over again..this year. She got a new Littlest Pet Shop playset, a couple Wii games and a few DS games. She is quite the spoiled Brat!