Another year older

I had a birthday on Wednesday. Yup, older. More gray hair (my crowining glory). My family and I went to Red Lobster for dinner .....mmm crab legs!!! The closest we are going to get to real seafood in Tennessee. Nothing like crab legs in Florida though....they were my first.

As I got a little older you would think that I can get over the fact that nobody makes me a birthday cake for my birthday. Why is this. In my mind, it is WRONG to have to make your own birthday cake. RL did give me a cute little scoop of ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, but dudeee......how bout the yummy looking vanilla cheesecake???? MB enjoyed the ice cream.

I did blow out the candle and make a wish. What did I wish for you may ask. I have always been told if you tell it does not happen, but since I don't believe that, dear blogger friend, let me tell you what I wished for:

I wished for a year of healthy family members. With all that my mom has been through in the last year, she called and told me a few weeks ago that the doctors did mammograms, ultrasounds, bloodwork, sonograms and everything just shy of cracking her in half to see if she is really human and determined that she does not have a recurrent breast cancer, at least not in her breast, but all they could find was a cyst. She is not sure of the lung situation, because she just had pneumonia, but it seems to be better too. God is good!

Then MB started school. He is in a class with 16 other kids. Praying for health and safety for him.

I have my own issues....and who knows what else can be thrown our way.

I also wished for comfort in the lack of peace in the world around us.

Then I find myself THANKFUL that I'm upper 30-something years old and was excited that I can look back and see good and look forward to more good. My father wished me a HB yesterday and said just wait till you're 60. I said I can't wait. That means I got an additional 20+ years to live! He does not understand my acceptance with this concept. He is not a happy man....I AM a thankful, try to be happy woman.

I am thankful that though I was born 2 months early I am alive in a time where that was harder than usual.

I am grateful that in 1996 I survived a blood clot in my lung that almost killed me. ALMOST.

I am grateful that there are people who love me.

I am grateful for my husband and all he does.

I am grateful for my little MB who got up first thing in the morning on my BD and said "mommy, I have to sing Happy Birthday to you" and then proceeded to sing. Warmed my heart!!!

I am grateful that my sister is here with us and celebrated my birthday with me.

I'm just thankful for life on my birthday, today and everyday. It is my favorite birthday gift.

If you are not from Nashville this probably won't mean anything to you.

Today I am happy for an odd kind of reason. A person I never met was murdered, presumbably, 10 years ago. Today her killer was brought to justice. Now I'm not talking about Jon Benette Ramsey, thought I'm glad they found her killer and he confessed. I'm talking about a woman named Janet Levine. Her husband, Perry March, was (thankfully and with long overdue justice) found guilty of murder, tampering with the evidence and abuse of a corpse in her death. Her body has never been found.

The really really really sad part of this is that 2 children now have to live without either of their parents. One because she was threatening divorce and the other because he was callous and cowardly enough to murder her for it. After Mrs. Levine-March went missing 10 years ago a local TV station interviewed one of the children who said he could remember his mom leaving in her car, with her suitcase, and she thought to look up at his window and wave as she left. The problem with this was this was a couple of years after his mom went missing. Shortly AFTER the lawyer picks up his kids and moves to Mexico where he marries another woman and HIDES for 10 years.

The man's father moved to Mexico too. They both had to be extradited back to the US when formal charges were FINALLY made.

On this point I want to praise the police investigators and all the hard work they did on this case. I can not imagine the roadblocks that were thrown in their way. We have been told some of them, but I'm sure not all of them. In addition to running off to another country, Perry March was found guilty of trying to hire a hitman to kill his in-laws, Janet's parents. He was found guilty of stealing from the clients at the law firm he worked at. Charging thousands of dollars in fees and the billing the clients again for the firm....the clients got stuck paying legal bills twice. I don't care how much money you have, that sucks. Being a lawyer, he knew how to play the game and play he did. He tried to offer up deals on his way back to the U.S. "If I confess can you get me less time or time served" kind of crap. Not the words of an innocent man.

The MOST frustrating thing, aside from OBVIOUSLY feeding his son a lie about the day his mother disappeared for so long that the child really believes it to be true, is the fact that his lawyers actually tried to say because there was no body she was not really dead.

come on.....seriously. WHO did you think was going to buy THAT???

1. They were known to be fighting.
2. Friends and family say Janet was divorcing him and threatening to blow the whistle on his money scheme at work and take EVERYTHING.
3. Suddenly she's gone...while your daddy's construction business is laying a concrete foundation or driveway.
4. Your obviously ailing father confesses on video that HE HELPED YOU bury the body, but he can not recollect exactly where.
5. YOU begged for a deal on an airplane ride back to the U.S. before you stood trial for murder, conspiracy to commit murder, on and on....
6. Your son begs to not be put on the stand. (you think he's not gonna need a little help??)

Come on Perry, the best you deserve is the death sentance. Unfortunately, because it was 2nd degree murder you will get 12 to 25 years. I pray it's closer to 25 in a maximum security prison. You deserve at least that.

Your children deserve the truth.

Your children deserve to live with Janet's parents who can love them, share memories of their mother and help them get the help they need now that they too know you MURDERED THEIR MOTHER.

yeah, 25 years is too easy for you.

You know what I wish right now...?

I wish I could remember my password to pay the phone bill.

Lets see..
I have 5 bill log-in's with different passwords and IDs to remember
My email password and log in.
My Blog password and log in.
the bank log in and password
6 different passwords and log-ins at work, wait, 7 if you count the time card log in.
3 password/log in's to remember for my sister.
the PIN on my ATM card.
The login, password and phone number for the homework hotline we check every night.

is it any wonder my memory is cached out?

The sick part of it all, with all of this password crap, somebody still stole my credit card number.
HAH on them....we were almost at the limit anyway and you are BUSTED!

oh...hey, I forgot the login for my cell phone's voice mail...can't forget that....

now...where did I store that phone bill logon before we get cut off.????

And so it begins

This morning was the second full day of school for MB and you know what I heard.

"I LOVE school mommy, can we go now?"

bwhahahahahhahaha....yeah, right.

no, I heard "Mommy, I don't want to go to school today. I want to stay home with you all day."

Day TWO people!

I looked squarely at my son and said..
"Angel boy, I know you really are tired because you hem and haw at bed time and really have a hard time going to sleep by 8 and getting up for school at 6:15. You go back and lay down and mommy will make you a nice bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I'll call off work and we can both just play on the computer all day."


man...you are easy to fool aren't you. Maybe not.

You KNOW what I REALLY said???

First I broke into a fit of laughter and then said : "BOY, you have at least 16 more years of school ahead of you. Get your little butt dressed and eat before I have to put wooden spoon to your little butt."

Then I got sassy pans attitude and told him to go back to bed and come out with a better attitude.

It worked.

Got him to school . He had a great day.

You know, life is a lot like my son's attitude. When you really don't want to do something or you don't get enough sleep, I don't know about you kind blog friend, but I get a little grumpy. I pray that I allow God to send me to my room (or at least my knees) till I get my attitude adjustment.

Just another deep though from a common day. Kids. They teach you something every day.

I see you peeking...waiting....wondering

Yes, MB went to Kindergarten on Monday for his first 1/2 day. I was fine. No weeping, puddling or tugging at his little body to come back with me to the safety and security of his own home. I didn't even cry when we (DH and I) walked out of the school after dropping him off. NOPE. None of that. I did well up a bit when I called my mom and said "My baby is in school!" but my mom is not a softie...not at all. She was kind of like "so what" so I sucked it up and went to work. I did get my Dreamer to bring MB and the brothers to work so we could have lunch together and debrief the day.

He did fine. He even liked it.

Now today was the first full day of Kindergarten. I dropped him off. Told the PALS committee I was intersted in joining (the PTA here is PALS) and walked out of the school. Got in my van and started off to work.....and

wait for it......

wait for it...

cried my freaking eyes out! It's a good thing I don't wear much makeup or I would have looked like my face melted.

I left my baby...excuse me....big boy, little man, sweet kiddo in the care of a capable Christian lady (in a public school, but when a teacher gets happy when you tell her you pray for her every day, you know where she stands). I know he will love her. She loves the kids so much. There are new friends...etc.

MY BABY IS ALL GROWN UP!! (well not all grown up. I still pick his clothes so he will match and make sure he drinks some milk).

Ok, I'm over it for now. Why does my mind go all kinds of crazy places when I step away from my boy? I know I'm over protective and God is in charge of this kid, but man....my imagination is over active.......very very overactive.

So we have our new teacher, new school, new routine (which I abhore, but we will discuss the craziness of that later) and now, let the fundraisers begin. We ALREADY have a fundraiser...yeah, first full day, I've been indoctrinated.

anybody want to buy some school junk??

happy Anniversary

My hunny bunny and I recently celebrated our 7th anniversary. (Lets see how many pet names I can call my precious during this post. Love you schmookins). Since we are trying to get the financial thing together in a better way we decided we would not spend a lot of money on gifts for each other. BUT we did decide on one gift we both wanted and share it.

We discovered our ideal gift while watching television one evening. No, it was not a housekeeper from the Brady Bunch (but if anybody wants to send one over we'd take the housekeeper), it was not a new and improved shampoo or new diet plan. It has to do with a band. My favorite band of all time to be exact. We happened upon a video of Pink Floyd live in concert. I don't know why I love their music so much, but I always have. Since I was like 10 or maybe even younger. I dreamed of seeing Pink Floyd live in concert. Never happened. Then the band broke up when Roger Waters and David Gilmore had some kind of artistic disagreement and that was the end of the Pink.

I was bummed. Then I found out they toured in 1999 and I MISSED IT???? what was wrong with me in 1999. So I missed my opportunity to see my fav band live. Then I MISSED the reunion on MTV for psunami relief (which I heard was annoying at best since MTV thought it best to TALK all over the performace of a lifetime. Punks.

So we spied with our little eyes the PULSE dvd. I looked at my sugar bits, who I have exposed to the viral quality of Pink Floyd's music, and he said "order it". To which I said..."it can be our anniversary gift" knowing he loves it too. We never did order it. Nope.

But you see, my sweetie works with other music lovers and caught sight of the DVD in the hands of one of his co-workers and asked "Hey man where did you get that?" The reply.....Best Buy (shameless plug of Best Buy). My darling then, on his way home from work, stopped and got the DVD for our anniversary...

wait, it gets better.

He not only got it, but about at 1/2 of what we would have paid if we got it from the TV ad (there, now go save money yourselves if you love Pink Floyd).

So my soul mate and I watched Pink Floyd in all it's 2 disk concerted glory (and it is FANTASTIC!!!) over the course of 2 nights. Oh goodness, LOVED IT. It made me really feel like a jerk for missing the show. The little bass player, though a cutie, can NOT sing. Thank goodness he only attempts it once. I LOVED it. So did the daddy. but he fell asleep 1/2 through the 2nd disc. That's ok. I rocked enough for us both.

So, Babe, thank you for getting this for us for our anniversary. I love you pookie.

Oh soo very HOT

Ok, it's just barely August now and it is HOT.......HOT.

No, not just summer hot but wicked disgusting "do I have to step outside?" hot. I write this at 6:30 in the morning and it is already 82 degrees outside. Yeah, 82 is not bad, but add the humidity and it already feels oppressively hot at 6:30 in the morning.

We have 2 auto manufacturing plants near here and they actually SUSPEND PRODUCTION during the day so we commoners can have AC in our houses.

How hot (and humid) is it where you are? We are due for another 105 degree day with the humidity factored in. This is about the 3rd week of this now. With this heat, ask yourselves this:

If you create a HUGE parking lot, why not concrete instead of blacktop or why not paint the blacktop white with black lines??? The walk across the parking lot at work is enough to dehydrate a girl.

Why does lake water get so warm so fast? Going to the lake to cool off is like swimming in a warm tub. It's just not worth the walk across the blacktop again.

and finally

how do you keep a kitchen cool when you need to cook dinner? There are only so many salads a family like mine is willing to eat before they want FOOOOOOD and that means an oven. I can not eat another egg sanndwich in an attempt to keep the oven/stove off.

Share your coping tips here!