blogging & music

I enjoy blogging, but am not a good writer. I don't feel that I'm witty & humorous like some of the blogs I read, and my use of the written English language is okay at best. I hated writing papers in college & it was somewhat of my demise. I'm also not very computer literate. If you show me how to do things I can usually master it, but there are many things I'd like to do with my blog, that I just don't know how to do. (Thanks to Karen of snakes, snails & puppy dog tails for showing/telling me how to go about adding a blog roll. Which someday will be much longer, but it is time consuming to add.) So I guess I said the above to say if I was better I'd blog more.
So Karen had in her music likes "Go fish," since I don't listen to mainstream music any more I didn't really know who/what they were. Well, let me just tell you who they are. They are a group of guys who cater to children AND adults with their music. It is rawking music geared to toddlers on up, but has disclaimers on the cd "great music for Kids that won't drive parents BONKERS!" They aren't kidding. This is Christian music; talking about all of the books of the bible, the ten commandments & their version of Jesus loves me is great! Apparently they were featured on Focus on the Family. I look forward to catching a lot more of these guys.
Today was absolutely beautiful here- thank you Jesus! I took the girls outside to play & run around. We had a good time. Have you ever listened to a three year olds' vocabulary? THEY CRACK ME UP!!! One of them said something to the other about "Actually we have to do this or that..." REALLY? Oh my goodness. I think it is because they are repeating their mother! One of them told my husband the other day, "Just a minute, I'm in the process of doing something." I say this to them all the time when they want me to drop whatever project I happen to be in the middle of so I can wait on them. Or they expect me to be their personal slave; get this, get that. So I'll ask them, "What, are your legs/arms broken?" My oldest has taken to fussing at me when I don't get whatever for her & telling me, "Yes you do, because my legs are broken." It is really hard not to laugh in her face.
I had some other things I wanted to say, but due to the hour I think they've ran out of my mind.

pet peeves

So I've posted about one of my pet peeves in the past being people who come to the end of an off ramp(or on ramp for that matter)& STOP when there isn't even a yield sign. So last Tuesday I'm on my way to my girlfriend's house for our weekly playgroup & I come to a particular off ramp where the traffic has its own lane. THERE IS NO REASON TO STOP!!!!! Lo' & behold what do you think happened to me? Yep, you guessed it, the car in front of me stopped. So I honked my horn, not in a rude way let me lay on it, but a beep, beep, beepity-beep-beep. I got the 1 finger salute, so I just smiled & waved back. As he proceeds to drive away & I go around him it was this old man & he did it again! If I wasn't in such a hurry to get to my friend's house that morning, I was very tempted to follow him into the mall. I would've asked him if that was all the command he had of the English language. Probably was a good thing I was in a hurry.
Gotta love it!

IKEA & girlfriends

So Saturday the 5th, 3 of my girlfriends & I trekked about 45 minutes to our "local" IKEA; while the dads stayed home with all of the children.(except 1 that is still nursing) We stopped in next door at Costco to visit our friend Michelle who was suppose to accompany us, but ended up covering for a co-worker. It was good to see her & at least say hi.
For those of you reading who may not know what IKEA is I'll try to explain as best I can. It is a HUGE store where you could basically decorate/design & furnish your entire house. It got its start in Europe somewhere- I want to say Sweden, because they also have a small cafe that serves a lot of Swedish products? Not 100% sure on that info, so if you really want to know- go google it. :) If you've ever watched any Veggie tale videos I can only relate it to the Madame Blueberry one & "stuff mart".
We all had a good time doing what we women love to do (shop, talk & eat in case you didn't know). Any way IKEA's prices are pretty reasonable & the stuff is pretty decent quality.
One of the things I bought I will have to return at some point. We don't have anywhere to hang coats in our apartment; so we have to rely on over-the-door hooks, which is what is in the girls' bedroom for coats & sweaters. I'm a bit tired of the girls coming in & dropping their coats wherever they want or just throwing it in the glider rocker for mom to hang up later. So I found this cool strap that fits over the top & bottom of the door. It has 5 hooks on it & some of them would have been low enough for the girls to hang coats on. Great I'm thinking to myself- this will be perfect! NOT!!!! Get it home, open it up to hang it & find that it fits very THIN doors like maybe 1/2" thick. Now really how many people do you know who have 1/2" thick doors in their house??? ARGGGHHH. Or I can look at the good side of it- I now have a reason to go back sooner than later.
Happy Monday- hope y'all have a good week!

The worst year of my life

This is a picture of my mom & my oldest daughter Rachel exactly a week before she passed away. This woman doesn't even look sick does she???? My mom fought a brave fight against her illness. I truly am glad she isn't suffering any more. Today has been surreal? -not sure that is the word I'm looking for, but for the moment it works. I haven't been overly weepy missing her today. Tried to keep myself busy so I didn't have time to really think about it. But this morning I was definitely thinking about it. Recounting in my mind exactly what was going on that day a year ago. My sister-in-law called me about 4 am that day. They had re-admitted my mom to the hospital on Monday. When I talked to my s-i-l on that Monday I asked her if she thought I needed to come back up. She said no, we'll call you if/when that happens.
My husband & I got up & threw stuff in the van & were on the road by 5 am. Now, I need to tell you how my husband drives- like a grandpa! If you get him talking in a conversation he'll slow down to about 60 on the freeway. So to my amazement & admiration he was doing 80-90 on the freeway that morning in hopes we could make the 6 hour drive to the hospital before my mom actually passed away. In fact it was totally the Lord that we didn't get pulled over on the Mass Pike. We were in the high speed lane, he was doing about 85. All of the sudden a car comes up behind us & flashes their high beams at us to move over & get out of the way. He pulls over as soon as he can & much to our surprise a state highway patrol vehicle speeds by us.
I got to talk to my mom on the phone during the trip & tell her I loved her; that I didn't want her to suffer any more & we were on our way, but if she couldn't hang on until we got there it would be okay & I understood. We were about an hour/ hour & 1/2 tops away from the hospital when my brother called me & told me she was gone. They said they'd wait for us at the hospital so I could see her one last time. When I walked in that hospital room, she looked so peaceful. And the most important part was she was no longer in pain.
After we took care of all the stuff at the hospital we went & ate lunch at a Wendy's, then my husband & I went & picked up the girls' 2 year old pictures that my mom & I had just had taken a week & a half ago at JCPenney's.
It is still hard to believe she's gone. She was the one person that I could call at 10 or 11 at night & talk to & she never cared.
My mom was a truly amazing woman. Very strong & independent, a survivor. She taught me so many things, I don't think I could even begin to list them all here. Don't get me wrong we had our ups & downs. Not too long after my parents got divorced, we must've gotten into a knock down drag out fight; because I wrote her a letter telling her I wanted a divorce from her too! She kept that letter for years in her wallet.
I happened to be living at home for my 25th birthday. She told me not to drink & drive & that no matter what time it was or where I was to call her & she'd come get me. She did! The next day my brother & sis-in-law & my 2 young nephews came into town to visit. I was sooo hung over, but we all went & picked up my car & went to COSI in Columbus.(COSI stands for center of science & industry)
She was one of those mean moms- always needing to know where I was, when I'd be home, who was going to be there for chaperones, who was going to be at the event, etc.
She instilled values & morals in me. She (& my father) gave me my foundation for my faith. But even that wasn't always an easy walk. When I got saved I wanted to get re-baptized. She would have liked to have a cow, thought I was in a cult, didn't understand why I needed to do that as I had been baptized when I was a baby. Then when I moved to RI to go to bible college & I totally knew it was the Lord, she was furious at me that I gave up my massage therapy career that I'd just spent the last few years building up.
She tried to teach me how to sew. But that was something I have NEVER had a desire to learn. Okay, maybe minutely, but that has just been recently. She was an awesome cook & an even better baker; but knew others were also as good if not better than her. I never liked her meatloaf, but I do like my aunt's.
I could talk to her about anything- yep, sex included. She didn't always approve of my lifestyle(then again I'm not too proud of parts of my past)but I knew I always had her support.
She was a proud woman, but not too proud to accept help. The things that woman taught me! I knew I'd miss her when she was gone, but I didn't think I would miss her this much.
If I could be half the mother to my girls that she was to me, I'll be doing okay.
Mom, I miss you. Can't wait to see you someday.