The Sleepover

It's that time of the week again.Actually there is no specific time of the week.It really doesn't matter the day. It's an inevitable question that I hear nearly every week no matter what the day. "Can I have Becky spend the night Friday?". The name could be left blank and any name could be inserted in it's place. Name or names that is. Although I tend to silently cringe when more than one name is used.
I should be used to this time honored activity in my childrens lives. It started about 29 years ago with my son. I had friends with kids the same age so we would always trade children for a night here and there. Of coarse I was thirty years younger.I'm what you would call an older mom now.
The boys,bless their hearts were pretty quiet as a whole. They would get into the roll playing thing. Back then it was "He Man","Skeletor" and of coarse the WWF. The latter would sometimes get a little violent but I don't remember any actual blood shed. After a time my son stopped having sleepovers,earlier than the girls did.
Ah the girls. Noisey, screaming, laughing, argueing, crying ,Vomiting, and the most destrutive gender. Any misconceptions you may have about girls being quiet, shy, well mannered and well behaved must be banished from your brain. of coarse their age at the time of the sleepover does play an important roll in this behavior. From about the age of four through thirteen you just don't know what to expect. Especially if its a girl you've never had over before. I am a firm believer in personnality screening,a talent I have picked up after the vomit incident. Its really quite simple. Listen to your kids talk. Somewhere in the excited chatter are stories about the girls or boys in question. If you hear "It was so funny when Beckys parents had to come get her from school for pushing the P.E. teacher down the stairs!" you might want to rethink the invitation.
I have found that once they hit fourteen the drama isn't so bad anymore. They are still noisey,but not as much. They are starting to show a little more respect to us as parents and our property. And amazingly they don't seem to require as much food! As a matter of fact I have almost come to enjoy the sleepovers for the simple fact that my daughter is happy and entertained. I do try to stay in the shadows however so as not to embaress her. Yes I have become embaressing. How nice!
I know that someday I will miss these weekend sleepovers. Although I can't at this time imagine when. So I will once again open my home for the semi-weekly sleepover.Better go buy a pizza.

Enjoying The Money Buzz

Today was a good day. My family hasn't had a lot of them as of late. It's all due to the annual income tax return season which I am sure that the CEO's of Wal-Mart and many other retailers are tickled shitless about. And yes we were among the massive herds of lower income Americans' that fall into the "Lets stimulate the economy and not save for our future" category. I realize the stupidity and ignorance of the decisions that we often make. But I also am aware of the fact that when you never have money to spend and money comes to you, its a natural instinct to want to buy things that you normally would not be able to buy. Don't get me wrong. We did pay all of the major bills that needed to be payed. Still there were more bills left and I couldn't help but feel that we should have some enjoyment. So the little bills were pushed once again to the back burner. As we walked into our local "Wally World" as my husband likes to loveingly refer to our Wal-mart as,I pulled my family aside and instruced them to "Enjoy The Money Buzz". And we did.
We only blew about one quarter of our return. So no I don't feel guilty. And actually I am proud of the fact that we didn't eat out. Let me explain. Every year at return time, most years we pay off bills. But I always insist that we eat out first. If we buy nothing else for ourselves, we always go out to eat. Since my two strokes in the last four months I have been on a healthy eating kick so instead I opted for splurging on a "Healthy Choice" lunch from Kroger. See how good I can be! Lately whenever I have eaten out I have been very disappointed. I feel that either the service or the food has not been up to par. I had a horrible Applebees experience yesterday so I didn't want to throw money away today on exceptionally poor service and highly over salted food
again.
So do you want to know what I got? My husband bought me an early birthday present. Please keep in mind that we are finacially poor. I got my very own, brand new, shiney, pink digital camera!!! I can't even remember the last time I owned my own camera. My fourteen year old daughter owns her own camera. My thirty year old son has his own camera. My twenty-seven year old daughter has her own camera. My husband has his own camera. And now I have my own camera. And when I get it all figured out I will post some exciting pictures for you to see. I am totally "Enjoying The Money Buzz".

A Good Saturday ?

I must admit I usually don't look forward to Saturdays. Everyone is home which is a good thing but it generally is such a busy day for me that I just get worn out. By Saturday we're about out of food in the house so I run all over town to hunt for bargains to feed my family. This after I take my daughter to church for her confirmation class and a little bit of work there (I'm church secretary). Then of coarse putting all the groceries away and by then everybody is starving for lunch. Laundry usually comes next and by then it's time to figure out whats for dinner and start preparing. As a matter of fact I don't really get any free time or me time on Saturday until about 7:00 p.m. when I'm so tired that all I can manage to do for myself is vegetate in front of the television.
Today I am hoping for a different Saturday. There are different plans today. First off I did most of my shopping yesterday. I still need some things but nothing that has to be bought today. I do have to go to church but thats something that I generally enjoy. After that I am going to get my hair cut. Something I really don't need but Am not happy with it right now. New hairstylist too so it should be interesting! Just remember hair always grows back! My husband won't be home which isn't a happy thing but its one less person to care for. My daughter decided to spend the night at a friends house which is something that is a bit rare. But the best part of today if everything falls into place is that my grandaughter Sarah (6 years old) is going to come and spend the night with me! We haven't had alone time in such a long time. We always have a fun time when we're together. Hence my nickname shes given me " The Crazy Grandma". We are going to the theater to see "Cinderella". This isn't your average theater either. Its circa 1946,and has been refubised inside and out with all of the beautiful colored lights all over the marqee, something that was common in that era! We are within walking distance so we can enjoy quality time before as well. I have some craft projects planned as well which is one thing that Sarah really enjoys.
My luck has not been so good as of late. Health issues and finacial woes have pretty much taken a majority of happiness from my life as of late. I keep trying,hoping and praying but in just seems that my family keeps sinking deeper and deeper into hopelessness and despair. I feel a bit selfish wanting a good day without bad news, sickness and worry. But still I can't help but hope that today will be "A Good Saturday".

Windy

Wow it's such a windy day but a balmy 68 degrees here in southern Illinois. It's Monday which means the Bachelor is on tonight and I don't even know why I watch it. I don't care for any of the girls that he has to choose from so I guess I'm just addicted. Just like I'm addicted to smoking cigarettes. Although I am only smoking a half a pack or less a day, I know that once again I have to quit. I really don't want to though. I did feel a little better when I quit the last time but it was just to hard to stay on track whenever I was around my husband who was still smoking. He says he's going to quit this time too. We will see. Anyway I wish it were April instead of February. I'd work in the yard today!

What A Week

Wow that was some week I had! My youngest daughter Kate got really sick on Monday so I took her to the Doctor on Tuesday. Fortunately she didn't have strep throat but she was feverish and feeling very lousy. We went right to the pharmacy to get antibiotics and as I was walking out my whole right arm went numb. I just looked up and said"Oh Shit!". I had a stroke in Nov.08 and this was the same exact feeling. We started to head home. She wanted to stop and get some ice cream but I really didn't think shopping was a good idea at that point. When we got home in started to go away after I layed and relaxed for awhile. When I got up to go into the kitchen it happened all over again. So this time I called my son and told him to come get me, we are going to the hospital. So he did and we did. It turned out to be a TIA which is a mini stroke. The doctors put me on stronger medicines which really sucks because theyr'e very expensive and they make me feel like shit. Anyway it was a rough night in the hospital. I felt terrible leaving Kate at home alone sick. I know she's old enough to take care of herself but its that mothers guilt. Then on top of it all, the morning I woke up in the hospital and tried to call her and her phone just kept going to voice mail. Thats something that never happens. I called my daughter-in-law to see if she could run over and check on her. All of a sudden in walks a very out of breath and cold ( it was 10 degrees that day ) Kate. I kept waiting for my daughter-in-law to walk in behind her and then I realized she had walked there by herself. Her phone had just died. I was almost in tears, 1-because I was so proud of her for doing the right thing and 2- because I felt even more giulty ( mom Guilt ) for not being at home to take care of her. Than my daughter-in-law came in and took her home. At least I was able to go home that night. I was very weak and felt horrible for two days after that which brings us to us to Friday. My daughter was off of school all week but was finally starting to feel better. My husband was able to get home on Thrusday night, he wasn't supposed to come home this week but because he was worried about me he came home early which was actually a good thing. On Satuday morning we had all planned on going to church. Katie had a confirmation class and I had some work to do there which I needed my husbands help with. Then we were going to have a family prayer meeting with our pastor ( which we really could have used at this point ). Anyway before we left the house my huband had a very sharp pain on his side. And a few minutes later he actually fell down in pain. It was very scarey. So we made yet another trip to the hospital. They said that it wasn't his heart which relieved both of us to no end! But they think that it could be his Gallbladder. He had eaten about 30 min. before the incident so they couldn't really see anything in the test. So we have to go to the doctor on Monday and he may have to have more tests taken. What A week!!! It feels like a month has gone by to me. And again I have memory issues since this last incident. Pray, pray, pray. We are going to church this morning, we can use it.