*cracks knuckles* Black Friday ;)

Been a busy week and I'm worn out already!  Kaitlynne got 2nd place out of her entire school on the turkey coloring contest *smiling big*!  It made her entire week!  Thanksgiving went very well, I was relieved.  I cooked turkey, gravy, green bean casserole, corn, cherry cheesecake and pumpkin pie.  My sister-in-law (next door) cooked ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, and apple pie (we both pitched in on appetizers of deviled eggs, shrimp dip, spinach dip, and a pickle/olive tray).  We had both of our families there, and our father-in-law and brother-in-law came out.  Granted, I can't stand that particular BIL, but I let it slide for the day...still family, no matter.  Everyone was in a good mood, kids played, guys watched football, my mom slept (lol), and Sandra and I got our Black Friday lists ready. 

Which leads me to Friday.  We met up at 330am at her house (yes, folks...I went to bed at 1am, got up at 230am...people that know me, pick up your jaws), then headed for Walmart.  We got there at 4am, and got our cozy space next to our prize purchase-the portable dvd players.  I was getting one for our car, and she was getting two for her kids.  One lady asked if she could get by me with her cart, so I moved a bit...she and 2 of her *bleeping* friends stopped right in front of me.  She then turned and started talking to about 10 more people...Sandra and I put ourselves close together and didn't let a damn one of them up there...assheads.  We were both a bit nervous about when the plastic was going to come off of the pallet..we knew it would be chaos.  At 455am, a couple of women in front of us said they'd peel it back so it would be ready at 5am.  Well, the beyotch that cut in front of me said, "Oh it's on now" and made a DIVE into the pallet!!  I said, "oh shit" as the mass suddenly lunged forward...it was INSANE!  LOL!  I grabbed 3 cases, and Sandra (while cussing at people squishing her) just <barely> grabbed the 3 dvd players.  She hollered to me she had them and we made a quick and much-needed escape from the mass of clammering shoppers.  We laughed, high-fived (yes, we're nerds), and I then noticed she had a big scratch and bruise across her chin...war wounds!  LOL!

After that, we made our way around the store to grab the other things we wanted (no where NEAR as dangerous as the dvd player).  I got a couple Fisher Price toys (one for Brandon, one for Kim's twins), each of our girls the 4-piece pajama sets, and a few dvd's.  Sandra got her soccer table, but couldn't find the air hockey table (told her we'd find it somewhere else...btw, I went to Walmart today and saw they had 6 more air hockey tables out at the same BF price...LOL), a pillow that has speakers that plugs into an mp3 player, and a few movies.  Then we went to go to Target...OMG!  The line was around the front of the building, down the main road!  We just looked at each other and said, "hell no", and headed to Kmart (we knew they wouldn't be as busy..lol).  Sandra got her air hockey table there, both got a couple more dvd's, I picked up quite a few 12 packs of Pepsi products (2.00/12pk...can't beat that!) for our soda machine, and a Bratz doll.  Ran into a friend of an acquaintenance and said hey...she was a royal beyotch (like she usually is, I hear), so that started to turn my mood sour.  I got over it, tho, as we headed to ToysRUs.  The lines were INSANE in there, but they (the employees) had it very organized..I'll give them credit for that.  I got a Bratz styling head, and Spongebob inflatable boxing thing.  She got a guitar, a huge transformer, a football kind of game, and we both got a couple other things (can't remember...lol).  Then we headed back to Target (much calmer then).  We headed to electronics and both got a couple more dvd's (ended up with like 10 movies each..lol), each got a Spongebob GBA game, each got our hubbies something similar (not saying what, cuz Alex reads this...sometimes, anyway), and a few other things.  I ran into Kim there (she gave me a big hug..we haven't seen each other in awhile...she's been sick, as have the babies), said we'd get together soon.  Then Sandra and I headed out to lunch to end the extravaganza.  We had planned for 2 weeks to go to Kotobuki.  I couldn't believe it, tho...they were closed!  Ugh...so we ended up at Ale House (had a spinach dip appetizer that was SO good...I bought some goodies to try and make it tomorrow...lol).  Then she dropped me off at the hotel and I got a room to catch a little nap before Alex came for work with the kids.  All-in-all it went well, and I had a good time.  I came home, did dishes, used what little energy I had left to play with the kids, then crashed hard when Alex got home...LOL! 

I put up my decorations today...bought some to put outside, too.  Looks cute.  I haven't done the tree yet, tho I have it on the porch.  I want to clean my carpets in there first.  My brother called and said he is indeed coming back for Christmas (they had gone to Springfield to work).  I was pretty happy to hear that (maybe my harping finally worked...Petey's family sees them way more then we do and they live in another state!).  He should be back Tuesday or so...I'm excited :)

Anywho, that's about it.  I'm still tired today (blah).  Next Saturday is the Christmas parade-I can't wait!  Hope all had a good Thanksgiving...and saved plenty of energy...December's right around the corner :)

"Hell Yeah" it was a Happy Birthday for dh :)

Happy (now belated) Birthday to my honey :)  He had to work it, but I tried to make the best of it for him.  I got him a couple pairs of shorts and a baseball cap that says 'England' on it.  Kinda boring, huh?  I made up for it...got him (and myself) tickets to go see Gretchen Wilson/Blake Shelton next month!!!  Hell yeahhhh!!!  For the man who doesn't like country music, but likes Gretchen Wilson...LOL!  I do, too, as well as Blake Shelton...I can't wait!  I also brought him ribs from a kickbutt place down the road from him (for y'all local...Roosevelts...mmmmmmmmmmm).  He deserves all he wants, and more.  He never asks me for anything anyway...but he had mentioned the concert, so I'm happy I could get them for him (and the seats rock!). 

Brandon's been battling something for the last couple of days.  I was worried it was RSV (tho he's getting the vaccine, but they aren't always 100% effective at warding it off...and thanks to Lissa for talking to me the other night!), but he seems to have bounced back.  Still coughing a bit, but seems better.  Perhaps an allergic reaction to something?  I don't know...but keeping a close eye on him anyway...definitely had us scared!  I gave him a nebulizer treatment and put him in bed with us the other night...not much sleep for mommy and daddy, but he woke up a bit better...and today has been much better.

Kaitlynne seems to be snapping out of her funky mood...really rough week last week, I hope it's done with.  She's been doing so well!

That's about it...tty'all later :)

A *real* entry now...

Real quick, let me say thanks to the couple of folks that signed up on the Netwinner!  It's been down for maintenance off/on today, but it's worth it!  I keep it minimized, play as I can.  Anywho, thanks again :)

Now for *real* news...lol.  Brandon had his 6 month appt yesterday.  He's such a big boy!  He weighed in at 21lbs 10ozs (granted, they don't undress, so off a few ounces), and 27 inches long!  He's the light of our family...when any of us are having a bad day, we just look at him and he gives us that big toothless smile-it's amazing :*)

Kaitlynne got her progress report, and she's doing so well!  She brought her math grade up to a C (started out an F...it's by far her hardest subject), and the rest was all A's, B's and E's and S's!  My mom kept her overnight Saturday and they had fun together as a reward...we're going to do something with her this weekend (I'm thinking we'll go see Happy Feet).  I have started having her pulled out for added help in math, but I'm happy to see her put forth her best effort on her own...definitely proud of her!  She's had a rough few days this week with her behaviors/moods, but today she seemed to try a bit harder to control them.  She should be starting her new counseling soon, as soon as I stop playing phone tag with them.

Other then that, we're just plugging along like everyone else.  I cleaned out the closet in the baby's room the other day (going to sell some of Brandon's clothes, since he's outgrowing everything so quickly).  I was doing fine, going thru this and that...using all the energy I had to avoid the left side of the closet.  The left side has a large garbage bag of baby girl clothes...I remember buying each and every item in that bag.  I remember picturing her wearing it when I did.  The left side has a box of keepsakes...all that's left of a shattered dream.  I only held it off for so long, before I broke down...hard.  I haven't cried like that for her in some time...usually have a little boy smiling at me to remind of the gift she gave us.  This time, I didn't.  I had nothing but a clean right side, and an untouched left side.  2 years later, and the pain is still just as fresh as the day we found out...

Warning: Shameless Plug Ahead

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That is NOT black cat...

Just a quick update.  We had the celebration for Girl Scouts last Saturday.  My sister-in-law and I volunteered to HELP with our troops booth...ended up we ran it entirely-our troops 'leader' never came back.  Sandra and I just took turns going around to the other booths with our troop so we could get pics with the kids.  At one point, I had to leave our booth unattended because Kaitlynne got very sick.  She was fine afterwards, tho.  I could go into more 'Girl Scout Drama', but I won't...LOL!  She had a good time, for the most part.  I did, too...was fun playing with the other girls.  My friend, Cindy, runs a troop so we got to see her and her daughter, too.

Sunday was apparantly 'zoo day' at our house.  Kaitlynne went outside to play and came back in the house with a damn SNAKE!  Now granted, I like snakes...had them as pets...but I do NOT want her grabbing wild snakes and thinking it's ok!  I got so mad because I was so scared that she had done that...I'm still not positive what kind it was!  Our cat, Butters, had caught it and she went and grabbed it.  It was about a foot long or so (young).  She dropped it by the shoe pile, and it went behind it.  My husband (not-so-much a snake person...lol) called me, so I got it out with the litterbox scoop!  LOL!  Ended well, thank God.  Later that evening, I went out to the back porch and opened the screen door for the cats to come in and eat.  I went back inside, and then back out to the porch to look for something.  Alex asked me which cats were out there eating, so I say, "Butters, the 2 kittens, and black cat".  Just as I say it, what I thought was black cat turned around and it was a possum!  LOL!  I was like Holy Sh*t, there's a possum out here!  I knew we had one (I've seen it out eating in the yard before..and we do live in the sticks, afterall), but not on the porch!  The dang cats were just standing there like nothing!  I'd shew them out the door, and they'd run back in.  Anyway, ended up that we had to move a bunch of stuff off the porch to open the pathway to the door again to get him out.  After doing that, he just walked away (after he had tried to eat my broom and showed me some WICKED looking teeth!).  Of course I had to get a pic ofit first, tho!  All turned out well again, but it was an adventure! 

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful, I guess...hard to remember all the things that go on :)  I went to the school this a.m. for an IEP meeting I called-I wanted Kaitlynne to start receiving extra services for math.  Luckily, the staff agreed w/out too much fight (hard to schedule it in there when they spend 95% of their day doing required FCAT preperation...I'm still pissed Crist got elected governor-he loves the way the education system is running.  He's obviously an idiot...).  Kaitlynne made me proud today (yet again).  Altho she is struggling so much with math, she has brought her grade up from an F at the beginning of the year, to a C now!  She doesn't know that yet, so I'm going to surprise her with doing something special this weekend with her.  I think we'll go see 'Happy Feet' :)

Anywho, not much else happening.  Did get to talk to my friend, Steph, yesterday (after 2 years of no more then the occasional email).  I hope things work out for her soon...she deserves to be happy and treated like the good person that she is.

Alex is behind me playing with Brandon and saying, "Dear Journal:  I have the greatest husband ever...".  He thinks he's joking, but he's right...I do.  I love you, honey!

I see you in him...

Forgot to mention something.  Kim and I were out today, Brandon stayed home with Daddy for bit, but she had her twins.  I commented on how much Austin looks like her oldest son, Danny.  She agreed, then got quiet for a minute.  She said, "I've never said this to anyone, but I have thought about what if we lost Danny that day in the pool...and then we were to have Austin with him looking just like him...how ironic, or maybe that's not the right word."  I said, "First, thankfully that's not something you need to dwell on.  Secondly, everytime I look at Brandon sleeping, I see Marissa.  She had the same big blue eyes...same little lips...big hands...they could have been twins, too."  She said, "Yes...she was a beautiful girl."  It was all I could do not to cry.  I'm crying now just writing it.  Gone, but never forgotten, babygirl.  We love you more then words can say. 

Trick-or-Treat, Smell my feet...

Hello again, I hope all had a happy and safe Halloween.  Yesterday was busy!  I took a bunch of goodies to Kaitlynne's class and had a small party with them (it was kind of sad...the kids were all so shocked that anyone was doing anything for them...I don't mean as far as the teacher, but that a parent was involved.  Hard to explain, but an odd feeling).  Kaitlynne is good friends with the girl she was having problems with, so that was nice to see.  She was such a goofball while I was there, it was cute.  I checked her out from there so we could go home and start getting her and Brandon ready.  As you can see from the above pics, she turned out SO cute...I can see a glimpse of the woman she'll become...how beautiful she is and will be...wow.  We ran a few errands, stop and saw Grandpa and Nana, then went to Kim's mom's house to meet-up.  We went our usual route, but I was surprised at how many houses weren't participating this year...also heard there weren't as many kids out...really wierd.  The kids had a blast, tho.  Kaitlynne was so tired when we got home, but I had to shower her (lol)...that stuff came right out, surprisingly!

For the most part, I think she's been really trying to be better with me.  The reward/chore chart seems to be working.  She has a "checking" and "savings" account going...earns money, as well as loses it.  I gave her a dollar free-and-clear today as a surprise...told her it was because she was so good last night and hasn't been fighting with me in the mornings.  She was surprised, and politely said thank you.  I asked her if it was nice to earn something...not have to fight with me to try and get it...she agreed.  We tie-dyed some shirts the other day, had a blast with it...we, for once, did something together with no fighting and enjoyed it!   It's a start, and I'll take it :) 

She has an appt next week to start new counseling/psych care.  She's being discharged from her current care (I don't agree with, but they "claim" it's beyond their control), as tho she's "cured".  Anyway...we'll see how this goes.  I have my reservations, but hopefull.

Brandon has another appointment tomorrow for his latest round of the RSV vaccine.  I hate seeing him get a shot, but I know it's worth it in the long run.  He's doing wonderful, he's such a joy...and so big!  Everyone can't wait to hear his current weight/height :)

Quick note to my honey...I love you, thank you for every day we have together as a family!

Take care all...I'm off to read journals (HINT HINT).