Tuesday, March 30, 2004
I must thank each and everyone of you for your prayers, emails and support! I have never felt such an outpouring of love before, and there are no words that could even begin to tell you how very much I appreciate each prayer, kind word and every special heart!
I was reading emails while Greg was getting ready for work and I was trying to hide the tears from Chantaye but she snuck up on me and asked why I was crying and I told her because I had such wonderful friends, and that they were praying for her, and that made her cry and she asked me to tell everyone thank you for her, so ladies, thank you from Chantaye!! It's so hard to keep things from her, but I keep telling her to let me do all the worrying for her because she's too young to have gray hair. lol
Monday was a somewhat difficult day for her at school, I'll try to keep the temper down here..this lil boy, or snot as I call him lol, has apparently made it his mission in life to torment her, today alone he shoved her down 3 times! the last time was just as they were getting on the bus to come home and he knocked her in the mud, when she came home her new shirt was covered in mud and it was all over her face too! (insert bad language here when she's telling me about it) She told her twit of a teacher when it happened in the cafeteria and in the classroom, well she didn't see it!*grrrrr* "but if he does it again he may go to the principal's office" if? maybe? I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the teacher is nipping on a bottle or something here..
Anyway..I'm rambling again, sorry bout that..
I guess it kinda shows I haven't slept huh? I got tired of beating myself half to death tossing and turning after about 2 hours so I got back up and figured I might as well redecorate the blog and make some visits and reply to emails. Pretty shocking me doing something constructive with my time huh? ;)
If you haven't gotten an email or blog visit from me yet, I promise you will!
Thank you all again from the bottom of my heart!!!
Posted by Aretha @ 04:44 AM CST [Link]
Monday, March 29, 2004
I'm sorry for not posting or visiting in a few days, but my mind has been elsewhere.
I found a lump on Chantaye's neck last week, and I am worried out of my mind. We took her to the dr. on Friday and they put her on some antibiotics because she has a sinus infection and they think the lump could possibly be related to that. We were told that if the lump doesn't go away within 10 days we should take her to an oncologist. I personally don't want to wait that long, but we can't get an appointment until the 10 days are up. how stupid is this? that's one of the main questions that keeps running thru my head! I mean if it was their child they wouldn't want to wait. I have no patience for this waiting, but I am hoping and praying with all my might that they could be right and I'm over-reacting or something. There is a history of cancer on my side of the family, at least 6 that I know of so of course I am gonna think the worst possible thing anyway, that's what everyone says anyway.
We took Chantaye out Saturday and just spent the day totally devoted to her and we had to spoil her a little too. (she doesn't know what I am thinking as far as the lump is concerned, we are down-playing it for now) We took her to the arcade and mall down in Nashville and stayed and played for hours, and she got enough tickets to get her a little ring that looks like my sapphire and diamond ring, needless to say she was pretty proud that she had a ring just like mommy's now :) then we did some shopping both in and outside the mall. There was a little carnival in Smyrna so we stopped of there and rode a few rides, played a few more games and she finally managed to win a stuffed Scooby wizard there, I swear the games at carnivals are soo not meant for kids to win. When she decided she was getting tired at 10:40 we headed out and stopped off at Fazoli's to grab a bite, ran over to Wal-Mart where I found her some cute t-shirts. I found one that says, I didn't ask to be princess, but hey if the crown fits...she has decided that one is her favorite, it was a tough choice for her tho, because she really liked the 100% angel shirt I found. (I know these shirts are against the dress code, but can ya tell I'm not real impressed with it now? lol) We rode around Smyrna for just a bit and when she dozed off at almost 1am we decided to head on home lol she couldn't believe it was like 2:30 when we got home and she woke up, it was so funny the way she looked so confused, scratched her head and asked me if it was in the afternoon lol
I know I am rambling on and on without saying alot, I don't know what to do with myself tho. I kinda half-way tried to get her to stay home today since the TCAPS don't start again until tomorrow, but she said no she felt fine, was just tired, and wanted to go.
We got her several books at the library Friday night and she is really enjoying having like a reading race with me lol The book she is reading now is 7th grade level according to Book Adventure (an online quiz site) and she is even more determined now that she knows what level it is (can ya tell I'm proud? lol) She is trying to read all 4 of her books before I can read my latest lol I picked up Emma by Jane Austen at the library, so she's convinced since it looks almost twice as big as Pride and Prejudice that she can win lol We haven't decided on a "prize" yet if she is the winner, she keeps telling me she will let me know when she decides, apparently this requires some real serious thought ;) lol
I'm gonna shush, I've rambled more than enough ;) here is a pic I took of her this morning before school since we had time to fiddle with her hair a bit lol
Please keep my baby in your prayers!
Posted by Aretha @ 07:21 AM CST [Link]
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
I finished Pride and Prejudice a few hours ago! (yeah me! lol) and I am hungry for more "real" literature! I am having trouble getting into one of the few remaining new titles on my shelf, I am fairly shocked at myself for not diving right back into my usual murder mystery/horror preference. I have been shopping online at Bamm, but am gonna hold off and see if we go anywhere this weekend before I actually order, shopping at home is so much easier, but it doesn't bring quite the satisfaction of having book in hand lol
I really should be doing more laundry and housework that I didn't finish last night, thanks to a vicious migraine, but I'm determined to visit at least a few of my blogging buddies before I get busy, I am such a procrastinator when it comes to housework lol.
Here are the pics I promised.. Angela finally held still long enough the other day for me to put her hair up in pigtails and I thought it was just so cute I had to share :) (I'm not prejudiced at all rofl)
below that is the new shot of my hair after the cut, it's not the best shot in the world, but it's the best I could get Greg to do since he wasn't really in the mood to brush my hair out straight for me lol
Posted by Aretha @ 02:33 AM CST [Link]
Monday, March 22, 2004
Brr! It is mighty cold here, it dropped down in the 20's last night, add to that a windchill, and it's supposed to do it again tonight! I can't believe it was like 70 last week, or was it week before? anyway it feels like an eternity! We went out to breakfast Sunday morning and it was so cold we had to put the kids in sweatshirts and the big jackets again *sigh* perfect timing too, I'm sure one of them will end up sick and they start the TCAP tests tomorrow.
It was a pretty quiet weekend here, mom agreed to keep Angela for me so Greg took her Saturday morning then we cooked and went to bed and I slept until 11:30 that night! had a snack and went back to bed and slept until they all woke me up at like 8:30 Sunday morning. I guess the exhaustion just caught up with me, Greg was up in a couple hours tho taking care of the kids when they got up from their naps, I swear I don't understand why I'm so tired when he's the one that goes to work 5 & 6 days a week!
After breakfast on Sunday we went and did a lil shopping at Wal-Mart and put a few things in layaway, I saw some t-shirts that I just had to have with some funny sayings on them, I can't remember all of them but one was an Eeyore that says "It's been one of those days all week long!" how many times have I said that? ;) we found a few shirts for Angela so we went ahead and got those since she is outgrowing all of hers, the ones we found for the other kids were put in layaway tho since they have sayings and stuff on them and those are strictly against dress code, and if we don't have them here they can't argue with me over wanting to wear them to school lol
Oh! I keep forgetting to tell ya'll, I have finally started on one of my resolutions from the homework assignment, I am now reading Pride and Prejudice! I'm up to about chapter 15, I think, and while it's hard to get into because the language was so different I am proud of myself for getting this far this fast, and am determined to get it finished, hopefully soon! I get annoyed with myself pretty easily when it comes to reading because I get too anxious to find out what happens next, I mean I read pretty fast anyway, but never fast enough to suit myself lol
Well, enough of that rambling, I was gonna post a few pics, but I need to finish the housework I didn't get done last night, I spent hours cleaning and doing laundry and still have more to do, guess I'm too slow at that too lol
Posted by Aretha @ 06:29 PM CST [Link]
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
My homework is finally up!
Well here I am slacking again, tsk tsk I keep telling myself I will do better, but I am just useless I reckon. I went to the dentist again today, and 2 of the 3 crowns are now permanent! yeah!!! the third one I kept bumping somehow so it has to be re-made, and of course this is the one that keeps coming off too, enough of that tho.
Mom came out this morning to go to the dentist with me so she could keep an eye on Angela, so we headed out early for a little shopping. We hit Wal-Mart so I could get some new polish and nail guide thingies for my french manicure. I picked up a few things for Bradley's teacher's new baby too, she was a preemie, and is still in the hospital but we got a note that she is doing really well and should be home in a few weeks. I had been itching to get some baby gifts but wasn't sure how to get the gifts to Mrs. "W." until she came back to school a few days a week. Bradley is so tickled she's back! the poor lil guy has been so pitiful and sad while she was gone, but he's back to being his funny playful self now :)
Little Angela is growing up so fast! I called her "Mommy's little pet" the other night when she demanded "mommy, rocky baby!" and now she is running around telling anyone and everyone "mommy's pet" with such a sweet little grin :) Today when I finished brushing her hair she was walking around preening and saying, "pretty Mimi" lol and of course she had to tell half of wal-mart too lol she cracks me up! after we dropped mom off we were just driving along, and of course looking for "me-mews" (cows) and horses ;), when she just out of the blue started singing along with the radio, now of course I'm not bragging, or partial ;) rofl but she sounded soo cute! and she was keeping perfect rhythm and didn't flub one single word!
Chantaye has really surprised me the past couple of weeks. I started pushing her to read more instead of watching so much tv and she fought me a little at first, she likes to read but it wasn't a passion, key word there being "wasn't" she has read 7 books that I can remember and is asking for more! they are all pretty decent size too, they are averaging 12 chapters each, give or take a few on each side. I'm really proud of her for diving in like she has! She keeps asking me how much longer until she can try reading one of my books lol I told her they would scare the willies out of her, but I'm starting to think I might be wrong, she has been choosing at least once mystery type from the library each week, and seems to really enjoy them.
I have a question for you moms...do you think Goosebumps books are ok for the kids? I haven't read one myself, I've skimmed a bit but that's all so far, but Greg was reading over her shoulder last week and he said the characters were calling people names like stupid or fat. I've told her she needs to read other things until I can be sure these are ok, granted she wasn't real thrilled with that, but I gave her the names of 2 authors I read when I was her age so I know they are safe and that seemed to satisfy her at least for the moment. I really would appreciate some input ladies :)
Have a wonderful Wednesday, and if you're in the north stay warm!
Posted by Aretha @ 08:52 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, March 11, 2004
What a day! To say this has been a bad day would be an understatement. I can't think of anything that has went according to plan. There is something wrong with my laptop, I don't know what the deal is, I've run virus scan at least once a day, sometimes more, for the past week because of an unusually high number of pop-ups and then today it was trying to install something that I had never downloaded, it wouldn't go to any of the urls I tried, it would only go to something called incredifind, I did a restore thingy and told it to go back the way it was 2 days ago and that helped, but bless my silly soul if that install thing didn't pop right back up *sigh*. I am burning cd's left and right now, it is behaving like it should for the moment, *knock wood*, but I can't be sure how long that will last so I'm trying to get prepared in case I have to do a total reformat, and I hate those with a passion, of course it just wouldn't be right if the cd part was easy, at least today..I've had to scrap a couple of cd's already because something went goofy, and now the cd I'm working on keeps telling me that one image is like out of bounds or something, I know that makes no sense, but it makes no sense to me either lol To top off the computer crud, Greg & I have argued at least 4 times today for no apparent reason. I wish I could blame the arguing on the computer mess but I can't because he doesn't even know anything is wrong, I learned a long time ago to handle the computers myself unless I need hardware because he is totally lost on everything! and to think he's the one that hemmed and hawed to get computers and taught me the basics and now he can't do anything other than surf without help lol
I'm off to work on the computer some more, do more laundry in between spells and probably blow the diet! lol Have a great Friday ladies! and please forgive me for not visiting like I should this week, I've been wrapped up in books, graphics and crochet since I finally picked the hook back up ;)
Posted by Aretha @ 09:35 PM CST [Link]
Monday, March 8, 2004
I tell ya we have the strangest weather in the south! After being in the upper 60's, possibly even hitting 70 last week, and then the tornado watches and such we are now expecting snow! Yep, you read that right lol there was a winter weather statement posted earlier, that has been taken down now but they are calling for as much as 2 inches here. I tell ya I'm really starting to wonder if there is anyplace that has "normal" weather, whatever happened to regular seasons instead of everything being all mixed in together? I apologize for being in ramble mode here, but this latest forecast has really thrown me for a loop.
There isn't much to tell here, all I've done the last few days is lay around like third base and be totally useless and read. I did get my order from BAMM today with more new books lol I think I've almost got Greg convinced that we will have to have an actual library when we find a spot to build. The upshot to all the reading tho is it is cutting down on my munching which is helping the diet! I haven't gotten back on the scale yet tho, I know I blew it a bit because we couldn't sleep the other night so Greg went out around 11:30 or so Saturday night and we both ended up eating too much lol but hey there's always gonna be slips right? now as long as we can keep those slips from being slips that cause me to fall over ;) lol
Posted by Aretha @ 07:26 PM CST [Link]
Friday, March 5, 2004
Greetings from Laundry Lane in Tornado Town lol There are tornado watches & warnings popping up all over Tennessee tonight, according to reports there are lots of roads that are flooded pretty bad and have been totally closed, the winds and rain have been pretty bad here and are expected to get worse, we haven't had much thunder to speak of so far, but my whole front yard is already covered with limbs and branches. (I think I jinxed myself, it is starting to thunder quite a bit and I'm seeing the first flashes of lightning now too) I can't see over to where my truck is parked to see if there is a mess or damage over there tho and that has me a lil flustered, Greg's truck is pretty safe it's parked here by the house on the side where there are no trees, and he drove the car to work tonight so unless a hail storm hits down there both his vehicles should weather the storm fine, I'm kinda wishing my truck was small enough to park over here away from the trees tho since I'm stuck between 2. I guess you could say it's the kind of night that's not fit for anything other than laundry and a good book lol Storms give me the heebie-jeebies and I must find something to do with myself or I will go batty, I feel like a big chicken when the kids look at me with that, "geez, what's her problem" look, but I can't explain to them almost being struck by lightning and then being alone in a tornado when I was roughly 15..anyhow...
Update on the pic, Greg took a couple of quick shots this evening before he left for work, but my hair is all curled and frizzed because of the rain (I'm a walking weather forcast lol) so we will have to try again when my hair is "behaving" lol
Oh, I almost forgot! a little update on my "diet" I weighed myself last night and I have lost 3 pounds in like a week!!! I am still in shock, but I'm so tickled I just had to tell ya'll :)
What was...
1. ...your first grade teacher's name? Ms. Lynn
2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? I had so many, but I've always been partial to The Smurfs lol
3. ...the name of your very first best friend? Christy
4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal? Cocoa Pebbles (still is lol)
5. ...your favorite thing to do after school? usually I grabbed a book and started reading
Posted by Aretha @ 09:49 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Ever notice how being tired makes a single week feel like a month? that's how it has been for me this week, I haven't slept very much this week, just a nap here and there but it has felt like the days have drug by so slowly.
I spent about 2 hours in the dentist chair again today, this is now my 3rd temp crown on one tooth! I don't know who's more frustrated me or Dr. K. I must admit I had a pretty good time while I was there tho lol sounds crazy coming from me I know, but he was in a pretty good mood today and was telling lots of lil jokes and stuff, I even heard the guy in the next room asking if it was normal for someone to laugh so much while having work done lol
I've never had what you might call a normal conversation with Dr. K, but today we talked about all sorts of things, my graphic site and stuff, I don't think he even know I did graphics until today, and even talked about me going to college, what I had planned to study and such, he gave me some advice on which he thought would be the best and which I would probably enjoy more in the long run.
Anyhow, enough about that since I don't really want to start college until Angela starts school.
Oh, Kathy asked how long my hair is, well...it's roughly half way down my back right now, I will do my best to get Greg to take a snapshot since showing is so much easier than telling lol I must admit tho it feels a little funny when I'm washing and brushing my hair, I'm still having a hard time shortening the brush strokes now that I've lost those precious few inches lol
I'm actually gonna do my tattle on time this week. Shocker huh? ;) and then I'm off to settle in for a night of tv, and hopefully a nap.
Do you always tag or leave a comment when you visit someone's blog?
I try to, but if I get interrupted, which happens alot, I often forget to
Do you feel you get a lot of tags and or comments from your visitors?
not really
Have you had days where no one tags you or leaves any comments?
sure, lots of times
Do you feel bad when those days occur?
yeah, sometimes I do
Have your feelings ever been hurt to see you have been removed from someone's reads?
honestly, yes at the time
Do you feel you visit your reads enough?
no, probably not
Do you feel like you are the one who is always tagging and or leaving comments and you are not getting any in return?
alot of the time yes I do
Do you feel some of the tags you getting are standard and they didn't really read your blog?
yeah, sometimes, but at least they thought of me lol
Do you have your blog for your own reasons and if people tag you that's fine and if they don't that is fine too?
yeah pretty much, depends on my mood tho lol
Do you ever have days where you wonder why you even have a blog to begin with?
oh yeah I wonder that alot
Have you ever had an unkind tag by an anonymous person?
not that I can remember
Do you feel pressured to blog every night so as you don't loose your blog friends?
not really
How often do you visit your reads?
some I visit a few times a week
Do you feel you at least visit your whole list of reads once a week?
usually (I think)
Have you ever added someone to your reads because you didn't want to hurt there feelings?
no
Do you feel your list of reads is out of control and there is no way you would have enough time to visit them all on a regular basis?
nope, my list is on the small side
Do you feel you are a good blog friend or do you think you can be a better blog friend?
I know I've become a major slacker so yes, I could do better
Posted by Aretha @ 07:37 PM CST [Link]
Monday, March 1, 2004
Today has been a resting day for me, I had a major migraine this morning so darkness has been my friend lol I overslept this morning, for some reason the stupid alarm didn't go off so I had to take the kids to school, guess I just got lucky that the bus made enough noise to rouse me up a bit when it went thru.
I went back to the dentist Friday, the stupid crown was loose again so we fixed that and Pam told me not to eat for at least an hour, but when I got up from my nap at like 5 it was loose again *sigh* but it's still there for now, course I expect it to go flying at any moment lol how's that for a mental image ;)
I finally got my haircut Friday! I figured I might as well since I had to be in town anyway, I ended up getting maybe 3-4 inches taken off the back, I couldn't believe that I actually told the girl to go ahead lol we talked about coloring my hair then but I want to wait becuase I literally change my mind at least twice a week on that idea.
We stopped off and picked out a new fridge on the way home, and then at 4:30 they called and said they couldn't deliver it til Saturday, and that just wouldn't work so Greg went and picked it up so we spent the rest of the night getting the old one out, moving the one in the kitchen, bringing in the new one and then getting them both loaded back up with everything.
Saturday we headed to Knoxville, first stop was Olive Garden, where I ate way too much lol but I told myself since I had been so good thru the week about watching what I ate that I deserved it :) oh, and we got the recipe for the frozen tiramisu too! so now we have to find the Italian Liqueur and then hopefully we can make them ourselves! call me crazy, but 75 miles is an awfully long way to drive for a drink lol We did a bit of shopping, and spent alot of time trying to find a car for Greg that fits him, will work for carpool, and a dozen other things, we only found 1 possibility after weeding out all the ones that had little things that bothered one of us, course after spending all that time he decided he wasn't happy with anything lol men! they can never make up their minds.
We stopped off at O'Charley's on the way back for a snack, we split an appetizer and had some of the delicious potato soup, but I still ate too much yet again! so I guess I will have to make up for it this week and be extra careful about what I eat. I am determined to lose some weight, even if it's not alot just a few pounds would probably make a huge difference, well to me anyway.
The winds are getting pretty high here and Greg says it's coming a flood almost all the way to work and headed this way so if I don't get to make any visits tonight you'll know that we are having some oddball storm or something. Have a great week ladies!