life is but a vapor....

the Bible teaches us that life is but a vapor...so many times we especially myself take that for granted....i think oh i am just 34 years old i have plenty of time left on this earth...or there will always be tomorrow...over the past couple of weeks it has been layed on my heart that we are not promised tomorrow and that things can change in a blink of an eye...two weeks ago i buried a sweet friend of mine who was like a niece to me...yes she had fought cancer for 14 years but she was only 19 years old...in a moment her life and her family's life changed forever...this young lady did not like to be told that she was an "inspiration"...she would say "what choice did i have?" but she was an encouragment...she was a light to this dark world...she was always concerned for others....i also buried a dear friend of mine that i went to high school with...his death was very unexpected...he left a family behind and so many friends....he was ever the practical joker and could always make you smile....this past friday night our head football coach who was one of my teachers when i was in school died suddenly of a massive heart attack...he got to feeling bad during the game...ambulance took him to the hospital but before he got there he died...i used to go to church with coach...he would practice the boys until 6 on wednesday night bring them to church in his truck...stinking to the high heavens...he did not smell that good either...they would eat dinner at church and then go to class...he was a Christian first and a coach second...he lived the talk everyday....he was only 48 years old...the older i get the younger that seems...he was the only dad some of these kids have ever had...it is just really sad that such positive people's lives are cut short...and yesterday we buried a fine Christian man who helped build the church where i grew up...quiet but strong...he left a grandson who loved him so much...he is beside himself and sad...but we know that they are in heaven with the other angelsmy hope is that i can remember that we are not promised tomorrow...

life is good....

i am so blessed...i am so excited...i have had a pretty rough week with just various work related junk...but i have a job...anyway...had i known that things were going to work out the way have this week i could be sitting in atlanta, ga, with some girlfriends at the women of faith conference...but you see God knows so much more than i do...one of my favorite sisters...becky...called me and said, do you remember talking about going to see beth moore in memphis, tn, in october...i said yes...she says would you still like to go...i said yes...i don't know what changed and i am not asking any questions, but me and my "siesta" are booked to go see her, booked at the holiday inn and are ready for a road trip....we were college roommates...we met one night and became roommates the same night...i know beck is reading this but i must tell everyone if you need someone to pray for you or just get you straight beck is the one...she has been my rock through so many things...now don't get me wrong..all of my other "siestas" are special too...in your own way...becky is special to me just as you all are....i am in need of some God time, some beck time and some rejuvination time...i think that is a word....and to top it off...

i have tickets to the university of alabama homecoming game against south carolina...life is good....

i need deoderant....

ok so we are all in the back to school swing of things....we were at walmart sunday night battling the gangs of people in pell city....yes i said gangs...i really think they would fit in nicely on some street in la...anyway...my son, aka opie, says, "mom, i need to tell you something"...that sounds innocent enough..he says, "i need some deoderant"...ok, he is 10 years old, so i was not totally caught off guard...it was the next statement that got me, "i want dad to help me"...i have been bumped..,dethroned...ok...so i suck it up and say ok...so i tell my hubby the situation...he lovingly takes opie to the "smell good" aisle...by the time we left walmart we had every flavor of axe product you can think of...as my dad would say, "he was going to smell like a siagon street walker"....ok so anyway we buy the products and go home...

i was not prepared for the next series of events...we get home and opie says, "i am ready to take my shower"...please remember this is my own personal pigpen...you know the character from peanuts...i said, "excuse me"..."yes i am ready to take my shower...tomorrow is the first day of school and i have to smell good for dana"...now dana is a little girl that he has been infatuated with for a couple of years...ok...so we get the shower and we get "axed" up... he gets out of the shower and is so excited...he wants me to smell him...oh he smelled so good...do you know how long it has been since my little boy smelled good...yes we bathe him but he has had this "male smell" for about a year...

so the first day of school went off without a hitch...he came home to tell me that he "almost caught that fish" referring to dana...after i explained to him how ladies do not like to be called names..he informed me that he needs to take a shower in the morning so that he "is fresh"...i thought i would fall in the floor...sure enough he geets up tuesday morning and takes a shower and gets all "axed up" again...he comes home to tell me, "momma, i caught that fish today"...of course i laughed but again reminded him how ladies do not like to be referred to as animals...so he is now convinced that if he smells good then dana will forever be his girl....now for the finale....

last night i asked him, "jacob, did you ask dana to go with you?" he says, "go where?" there you go folks modern day mayberry with a real live opie...

happy anniversary to us....

12 years ago today i was married to the most wonderful man left on the face of the earth...now for those of you who don't know the story here it is...we met on a blind date...the first words out of his mouth were, "i have been married once and i am not going down that road again." that was in january, we were engaged in february and married in august - all of the same year...i suddenly was a wife and a mother to a beautiful little girl named jamie...truth be known i fell in love with her before i fell in love with her dad....we have been through alot in 12 years...we have had a little boy who keeps us on our toes, we have watched our beautiful daughter grow up into a beautiful young lady, we have made so many memories together....words can never describe the joy that stephen has brought to me nor how much he has taught me...he has not knocked my teeth out for my smart mouth...he lets me do whatever i want...he supports me in every hairbrained idea i have...i hope that he loves me as much as i love him...i hope we have many many more years together...i love you stephen....

it does not get better than this....

i guess me posting on blogspot and facebook is redundent...but some of the people who answer or follow my blog are not on facebook and vice versa...with that said i feel a bit abandoned...several people who read facebook answer or comment on my notes but i feel like i have stalkers on blogspot with no commenters...ok maybe i don't have anything better to do....or think about it...so my strategy is to see how many people i can make jealous once i tell how wonderful of a day i had today....ok i know that is not a real Christian thing to do but a woman is forced to take drastic measures....so here goes...

i worked 2 hours today and got paid for a whole day...now i worked saturday as manager on duty but i had to leave early because of children but anyway...i worked 2 hours this morning and went to the doctor...now not a great visit but i did find out why my shoulder hurts...i have torn my labrum which is the tissue that anchors the tendons and ligaments in place as well as keeping your shoulder in the socket...please do not ask me how i did it because it is VERY stupid....probably going to have to have surgery but oh well that is not new for me...now on to the good stuff...

i went to have lunch with a very good looking man...i asked him not to tell his wife and he asked that i not tell my husband...mmmmm they are the same people...lol.....then i went to the galleria and did some school shopping....got my nails done...something i don't ever do...came home and my hubby...that same guy i had lunch with...cooked supper....chicken fettucini alfredo....it was delicious....it has been a good day....no it has been a great day.....

it's over till next year!!!!!

whew!!!! i have survived another state survey! it is over thank goodness....it has been a long week...they finally left the building about 9pm on thursday night...we finished with 7 tags and we are going to dispute one of them...one of the tags i totally disagree with, but i am not going to discuss that...we did not get any "F" tags...this is HUGE....the good thing is that because they stay so long and there is down time for those of us who are not on the firing line...i was able to get caught up on alot of paperwork, filing and such that has been piling up on my desk...of course then it was my turn to be on the firing line...we have a new administrator who is AWESOME...bless her heart....her first full week on the job and the state walks in the building...i have high hopes for us and i think we are a great LIVING CENTER....i feel like i have the potential to grow both personally and professionally...i am super excited...i have been down and doubtful over the past couple of months but i am refreshed now...hope everyone has a great week!!!!!

2 down 1 to go...

sorry i have been mia for a while...it has been a crazy crazy couple of weeks...i have been so busy at work sometimes i have to remind myself to go to the bathroom...ok maybe tmi but that is the truth...i am much happier now...we have a new administrator who seems to be a big team player and does not criticize everything we do...we have gone through alot of changes lately....i know this may bore some of you to tears, but maybe it will make someone kind of understand what i do...

i was asked to go work in another building two days a week...this was in march...this was one of our sister facilities that was having problems...i might add it was pretty cool that the director of operations specifically asked for me....ok i know i should not brag but it made me feel good...so i went on march 17 and about 2 hours later the state walked in at that building...so i survive that survey...then the social worker at that building quit as well as their administrator....so my administrator from pell city was asked to go to boaz - "temporarily"...

so kim and i are in boaz and trying to hire a sw with half a brain...we finally get that accomplished and guess what...state comes back...this time it is for the annual survey...can you say big kahuna...so i go through all this again...new social worker did not start until after survey - remember she has no long term care experience so i have to start at scratch to train her...it is very hard to find social workers who have long term care experience...for some reason people think the elderly are ooey gooey stinky or something.....

so then may 19th rolls around when i decided it would be fun to pass out at work...this begins my whole medical drama...so i finally go back to work on july 1 to find out that kim is not coming back to pell city....so we have this interim administrator that i am not even going to discuss...let's just say we did not gee haw...i was disappointed that kim did not come back...but things work out the way they are intended to....so we had an interim administrator for about three months....those were very trying three months...finally they hired a permanent administrator...

now if you are still reading you are a dear friend or you are just bored and have nothing better to do...

so now that you are up to speed - like you really cared - this week is her second week officially on the job; however, today was her 5th day in the building....so on tuesday morning the state walked in for our annual survey and she had been in our building for a grand total of three days...but i work for a great company and they sent in the calvary...i think survey is going well...it is just long days...i think our new administrator is the breath of fresh air we have been looking for and needing...the coolest thing about it is that she is a preceptor for the administrator in training program through the alabama nursing home association...so what does that mean...that means that she is going to help me get my administrator's license....i am so excited...

so these surveyors have left at about 6 or 630 each night...they are not staying as late as the ones in boaz did...can you say 11 pm and i had an hour drive home...anyway tomorrow is the last day barring any major catastrophies....and we will be done for another year.....yeah....thanks for reading....

to my son - i love you

it is hard for me to believe that you are 10 years old...you will be starting the 5th grade this year...you are a miracle for me...i was told i would never have children and if i did it could be harmful to me...well guess what..God gave me you...i knew from the very first weeks that you would be a boy...i knew your name would be jacob...i never picked out a girl name...when i would go to the grocery store i would tell your daddy, "me and jacob are going to the store"...or if i was going to take a bath i would say, "me and jacob are going to take a bath.."or if i was going to bed, "daddy, me and jacob are going to bed..."of course there was the time when i was pregnant with you that my back hurt really bad and i thought a hot bath would be nice...well your fat momma got stuck in the bathtub...this is not a lie...it truly happened...

when you were born, it was LONG day...your Aubie paced the hallway, my epidural would not take...they kept telling me i was having "ligament pains"..i never understood why they would not let me see you...they let me touch you for a brief moment...they whisked you away to nicu...you were not breathing and your lungs were full of fluid...i thought that i was going to lose you...i cried...i did not want anything to be wrong with you...i did not get to see you again until the next day...dad did not warn me that they had put an iv in your head...so i walk in and there is my little boy with needles in his head...needless to say i had the docs cornered like a rabid dog...the docs told us your lungs were under developed and you would always be sick...boy if they could see you now...

you are so smart, funny, witty and everything i could ever hope for in a boy...like when your teacher wanted you to read for fluency and you said, "i can read...you can read...what's the point?"...or when you told the preacher that, "me and poppa are going to drink coffee and chase women"...or walking out of the bathroom swinging your sister's underclothes from your light saber...there is never a dull moment with you in my life...i love you so much...i hope you have many more happy birthdays...

a quick trip to the beach....

we have been trying all summer to go to the beach...so we just said forget planning...let's go...so we left on friday to go to pensacola...our favorite place...we have had so much fun..stephen took jacob fishing today off of the pensacola pier...jacob caught three big fish but only landed one...it was a spanish mackrel..the other two were so big his line broke both times..the coolest thing though was we saw a sea turtle in the gulf...it was huge..it weighed at least 300 pounds...we could not get a picture because it came up quickly and then went back down pluse it was at sunset...pic may not have developed...anyway...it was cool...something we all saw...here are some pics.. my sweet angel girl

me and my hubby

sunset at pensacola...most beautiful one ever

my sweet demons i mean angels

look what i caught

not sure what we were doing but the expressions are priceless...

sand angel

my diva...

this was the most still he was the whole trip

the way i spent my first day off....

this should be of great enjoyment to anyone who reads this...i woke up this morning to no water...now before i go any further...you must understand that we have more utility problems than the common citizen...we have a power company whose CEO is Mickey Mouse (we have lost power 6 times this summer - all were transformers that had been hit by lightening) ...we have a phone company that is run by The Wiggles (if anything wiggles in the atmosphere the phone and internet go out) and our local water department is run by Barney Fife...(if you should have a water problem good luck getting anyone out here to look out...and if they come out then they pull up in the yard honk the horn and holler "what's the problem?" to which i have responded numerous times, "that is what i called you for!" ok so on to the story...so i call the water department...this is the conversation...lincoln water department...yes has anyone reported a water problem off of ridge drive...no...well we have no water...no one has called and if it was our problem we would have received more calls...well i still don't have water...have you checked your pressure regulator...no what is that...a mechanism on your turn on / off valve...no...well you need to go check it before you call us...so you are not going to send anyone out to check it...i did not say we were not going to send anyone out but you still need to check your pressure regulator...

ok so by this time i am furious...i go outside to see if i can find the on/off valve to check this infamous pressure regulator...like i really know what i am looking for...only to discover my yard is full of water and continues to pour out from under the house like niagra falls...ok so at this point it is not the pressure regulator nor is it the water department's problem...so i have to call them back to tell them not to send anyone out...yes this was embarrassing but let the fact remain they were ugly....so i tell them it appears to be a broken pipe...hang up the phone...go out to again find this valve...find it and cut if off...

so i call the plumber we have used before...no return call...called another guy that i went to high school with...no return phone call and then i hear someone honking in the yard...i go to the door to find the local water department...they roll their window down and say "what's the problem?" I tell them that i called and told them not to send anyone out...well the other genius in the truck says, "There is your problem water is coming out from under your house." i wanted to say, "really sherlock" honestly, there were other thoughts that were going through my mind...

so they leave and i call a third plumbing company...they will get all of my future business...why because they called me back and had someone out here within 2 hours...you would think as tight as money is right now people would do a better job at customer service...so these two guys come out who looked like i needed to make them sit down and do their homework and fix them some cookies and kool aid....come out in the rain...they come in to tell me that a pipe had come loose under the house and the reason it did was because it looked like it had been repaired before but whoever repaired it only glued one side...that person would be the plumber we had used before...note to self...don't use him again...anyway they got it fixed and i have water....

i don't do domestic problems well...if you really want to see me mad let a "machine" break...such as no air conditioning...car problems..dishwasher...now let's add water...i deal with personal emotional problems not machines...

so hopefully the rest of my time off will be spent relaxing while we are at the beach...we leave in the morning...i am so excited...just to get away....

secrets revealed....

many of my dear loyal readers have been asking about my new "food plan"...so here it is...i was told in may that if i did not lose 100 pounds i would be dead in five years from cirrhosis...this is due to the fact that my liver is "excessively fat due to diabetes." the doctors suggested to have a "forced weight loss" by having lap band surgery...for those of you who know me you know that i do not do well with pain meds or anesthesia...i like to quit breathing...well the other night i was at books a million looking at the clearance rack...i have a love affair with clearance...anyway i found "dr. phil's ultimate weight loss solutions" book and food guide for $3.97!!!!! i was so pumped...i love dr phil cause he just puts it out there...thing is people are accepting of him when he does it but when i put it out there it does not go over so well...oh well!!! anyway so i begin reading the self help book...it is so good and sensible...he has very good points...he has it broken down into seven keys...he is adament that you do not skip forward...he equates going through this program like a college course...follow the syllabus...anyway...my favorite thing so far is that he said if "you eat something that slides down your throat it will slide on to your butt"...his piont is that you need to eat foods that you actually have to chew and work for...raw veggies for example...then there is the food guide that has the menus made out for you...now if you are like me...if you are told what to eat and how much you will do it...i fail when i have to come up with things to cook...i will post some of the menus over the weekend...so then he talks about water, water, water, ....i drink one cup of coffee in the morning and the rest of the day is water...he does say it is okay to put some of the sugar free kool aid packs in the water....on in the self help book he actually has behavioral audits...this shows you what triggers you to eat...like for me...it is at night because i am bored...i work all day and don't slow down to eat but because i am so tired when i get home i don't feel like doing anything else...

with all of this said, i have lost 25 pounds since june 1 and am walking 1 - 2 miles a day...i am very focused...the other key is that i have put my family pretty much on their own...they are not on board with me with this plan so they can find something to eat on their own...i should say my daughter wants to do it with me but she has been out of town...

when i hit 30 pounds i am going to put before and after pics on here...if you have any more questions, please let me know...this is the best plan i have ever done....

why is it...

let me forwarn you that this may turn out to be a rant about a couple of things...i have wanted for a long time to say the things that i am about to say...i may hurt a few people's feelings and i may just tick some people off...but i have to say this...why is it that every religion thinks their religion is the best...work with me here...for years the church of christ has been stereotyped of "you are the ones who don't have music"..yes we do we sing every time the doors are open...or "you think you are the only ones going to heaven" well unfortunately there are few of them who do truly believe that...all i have to say to that is glad you are making God's decisions...or "yall believe that you got to go all the way under the water to be saved"...well Jesus did so why don't you...He was immersed you know...that came straight from the good book...or "yall are the ones who take the Lord's Supper every Sunday"...why yes we do...anywho...on we shall go with the churches i have run into who have resorted to calling other common denominations "occults", or those who will not let you partake of the Lord's Supper, if it should be on that one particular sunday of the quarter, unless you are a member of that church, or to those churches that have a committee for forming committees...or those churches who have human leaders that they equate to the good Lord Almighty...or those who feel it is ok to drink like a fish during the week and don't mind buying their case of beer at walmart on saturday so they can drink it after the sermon on sunday...here is the bottom line...I AM SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT GOD...IF IT IS WRITTEN HE HAS TOLD YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW...IF WE SPENT HALF THE TIME WE SPEND ON FINDING FAULTS WITH OTHERS ON STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD...I WOULD NOT BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION....AND THIS GOES FOR ME TOO!

here is the scoop...

first of all i want to thank everyone for all the prayers that were sent up for me during this long illness...i truly felt the prayers everyday...my favorite part is that my dear friend miranda sent out emails to our high school classmates asking for prayer and to give them an update on my condition...it was very hard for me to ask people for help....i don't like to ask for anything....you do not realize how much you can't do for yourself until you are faced with it...so here is the scoop...after three hospitalizations since may 19, deciding to quit breathing and having my pj's cut off of me in front of my mother, and being told i had a broken rib, i underwent an ercp which revealed the problem...my pancreatic duct was 1/4 the size it should have been so the doc put a stint in place and my duodenum was 95% blocked...both of these were full of gallstones...the doc said that when he drained both of these it looked like what comes out of a car after you change the oil...YUCK..he said that no food could go down or come up hence the reason i was in so much pain...basically the food had been sitting there for over a month...doc said, "it was gross"...i am doing better...have gone back to work...am learning to take care of me rather than pleasing everyone else...for example, this was my first week back at work and on friday morning i woke up sick, we will not go into the details, i did not go to work...no second thoughts, no going in late, no feeling guilty, i did not go to work...i rested all day...still not feeling great...but i am alive....we are now looking at lap band surgery...i was told my dear doctor who i trust with my life...told me that i would be dead within five years of cirrhosis if i did not have lap band surgery to reverse the fatty liver...so here is the deal...i did not have fatty liver in september...but we have linked the fatty liver to the new insulin that i started in september...it is a LONG story....but anyway, i will have a liver biopsy when i have the lapband surgery....but most importantly...THANK YOU for all the prayers, cards, visits, food and everything else....love to you all.....

who is betty crocker.....

i have recently ordered this easy bake bundt cake pan...it is totally AWESOME...it is made of some sort of plastic and it cooks in the oven on the rack up to 450 degrees...so here is the process and the end result...granted i know the cake is not beautifully iced...but hey those of you who know me know that this is a major accomplishment.....

i am not as dumb as i look....

many of you know that my one thing in life that frustrates me more than anything else is my HOUSE!!! Lord knows i try to work, raise kids, raise my husband, go to church and be the superwoman that i want to be...but my house is usually the last on the list - i let it slide because i tell myself that nobody ever comes to my house because i live so far out in the woods....anyway, my daughter finished her junior year and she has never had to work any type of job or anything...momma and daddy have always given her what she wanted...well i told her she could either get a job at a fast food resturant or be my maid...to my surprise she chose to be my maid...now i am blessed in the fact that jamie is very good at cleaning...she is quick and thorough...so instead of worrying myself to death over the house...she is my maid and she gets paid...now we are not talking about washing the dishes...we are talking deep cleaning...this first week has been awesome...i will post pictures as soon as i can...with me being sick over the past couple of weeks, this has allowed me to heal much quicker...hope everyone has a great weekend....

boys were born on mars.....

ok gang, if i could have burned my son's room down without burning the rest of the house i would have...it was so bad that i am utterly ashamed to even have a before and after picture...what got me inspired was a blog that i found, i think on becky's blog, about a tour of children's rooms and nurseries...so we jumped into cleaning up his room for the millionth time....actually my great and wonderful husband headed up this adventure...anyway, when it was done jacob came to me and said, "i am never messing my room up again...daddy has broke me"...ok that was funny...but that is not the best part....my children have chores for the summer...one of jacob's chores this summer is to make his bed everyday...now i am not a stickler for stuff but i am trying to show jacob that it is alot of hard work to keep a space clean...so anyway, i went into his room and helped him make up his bed so that he would know what i expected when i came home from work everyday...so the bed is made...it is so pretty and he wants to put his spiderman blanket at the end of this bed...ok...innocent enough huh...well i get up this morning to check on him..and what did i find????? jacob is asleep under spiderman and on top of his made bed from last night....i am telling you that the male species is weird...but we love them anyway.....

where do we go from here?

this is a question i have been asking myself for several days ...especially while laying in icu...i have alot of decisions to make on many levels in the next few weeks...i ask that you all pray for me to make the right decisions for my physical health and more importantly my spiritual health...i am so happy to be back in the land of the living...however i have a ways to go...here is the reader's digest condensed version of what has been going on over the past two weeks...on may 20th, i passed out at work...had not been feeling great but hey you got to keep working right...bp was sky high and pulse was in the 150 range...well they send me to the hospital via ambulance...yeah.....and i stayed in the er for four hours to be told that i had an asthma attack...the kicker is that i don't have asthma...did i mention that they stuck me 8 times to get an iv, two failed arterial sticks for abg's and then a femoral artery stick...omg...it hurt...anyway they sent me home...wednesday i went back to my regular doctor who decided to put me in the hospital and see what was going on cause now i had blood in my urine and lots of other stuff...so we go to the hospital, get a picc line, some iv antibiotics and pain meds...cause you see my back is killing me but i am also having upper left quadrant pain...i did ok for wed and thurs night but friday night was a different story...evidently...my respiratory system gave in to the pain meds i was on and i quit breathing...all i know is that i woke up in icu with everyone standing over me screaming at me...i was on oxygen for several days...puked my guts out for about six hours...it was horrible...while in icu we did several more tests including three ct scans...these revealed that i have severe fatty liver disease...what does this mean you may ask...well your liver processes everything in your body...well i am diabetic so my body does not use the insulin that i produce...what littile it is...so i inject myself with insulin...my body uses what it can and the rest of it is stored in my liver and turns to fat...therefore, it is a relentless cycle that my body goes through when trying to lose weight, manage diabetes and everything else...so prolonged fatty liver disease will cause cirrhosis...i thought that was only for drunks...anyway...so my doc...who is absolutely wonderful might i add...told me that if we did not get a handle on this now...i would be dead in five years of cirrhosis...hello...did you wake up cause i sure did...so his solution is for me to have a liver biopsy to make sure there is nothing else going on and then have lap band surgery...he states that if lose 100 or so pounds then the fatty liver can be reversed...for many reasons...one the forced weight loss will require me to use less insulin and the weight loss in and of it self will help...i am not one to be easily defeated but i have tried numerous times to lose weight and it only gets worse because various factors...so that is the long and short of where i have been...please keep me and my family in your prayers as we go through this journey together...also pray that i will be able to keep my job...we all know that jobs are few and far between right now....

where oh where have i been?

let's see...it seems like i have been around the world in not 80 days but maybe 14...it has been a whirlwind...i am still working in boaz two days a week...in pell city three days a week...oh i'm sorry make that the other 5 days of the week - yes that includes weekends...i am tired and oh so weary...ok enough of that...

it has been busy...stephen has had viral pink eye...my aunt had brain surgery again...kids have been sick with everyday crud....jamie went to a friend's house and had a run in with a scooter and an incline...guess who won...i am tired or rain and thunder...oh and did i mention that some days we have power and some days we don't...

but the best part of the past two weeks? i should put this on a blog of its own, but my team at golden living raised over $800 for relay for life...it was GREAT...and i got to have dinner with some of my closest friends from high school last night at top of the river...some of them i had not seen in 15 years...it was great...

i guess i should quit fussing and whining because i am alive, my child is cancer free and i have a job....

blogging is therapeutic...

the abc's of me

In case you did not know....

A - Age: 33

B - Bed Size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: all

D - Dog's name: which one - jake, charlie, dude, sparkles, harley and roxie

E - Essential start your day item: coffee

F - Favorite color(s):purple

G - Gold or Silver: gold

H - Height: 5'8"

I - Instruments you play: trumpet, clarinet, french horn, melaphone and some piano

J - Job title: Director of Social Services

K - Kids- two - great - aka earthquake and tsunami

L - Living arrangements- house full - hubs, two kids and 4 cats

M - Mom's name: Audrey

N - Nicknames: Gin

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: too many to count

P - Pet Peeve: people

Q - Quote from a movie: If you lose one more brain cell you will be a walking talking monkey" Summer School

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: one sister

T - Time you wake up: 5:30 am

U - Underwear: Omar the tent maker

V - Vegetable you dislike: hominy

W - Workout style: have you seen me lately

X - X-rays you've had: again too many to count

Y - Yesterday's best moment: eating supper with my granny

Z - Zoo favorite: all but the snakes

Cinderella...aka Jamie

i don't think there are any words that i can use to describe how proud i was last night when my baby walked out of her room to leave for her junior prom....i know that many of you have small children and they are a handful...but what i would give for jamie to be little again...they will be grown up before you know it...hope you enjoy the pics...