Easter Pictures

We had a nice Easter with family. Here are a few pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt:

Here Hollywood is just trying to help Lil Brother open his eggs....I just love her face below after he takes it away to add to his pile. LMAO.

Update...finally. :)

First the good stuff. Pictures. My mom came over and we painted Easter eggs on Tuesday. I bought over 4 dozen of them...yes we have chickens who lay plenty of eggs. Our chicken's eggs are brown - some of them pretty dark so they don't make for good painting. Besides...they are so fresh they are very hard to peel when you hard-boil them. So I bought 3) 18-packs and pulled all of our bantam eggs (small light colored eggs from small chickens) and boiled them all. We used 2 different dye packs too so we'd have plenty of colors. It's not fun to run out of eggs to paint. :)

Easter 2012, a set on Flickr.

What else is new....hmmmmm.....I don't know. I've been a bad blogger. Sometimes I'm just busy. I also don't like to blog until everyone is sleeping and some nights I have too much work to do (for my 2nd job) to take the time to write about feelings or thoughts...or anything. Plus I had a Farmville habit that I just kicked. I know...such a NERD! I don't care. We all need a little release now and then...I don't drink, smoke, or go to the casino...I play a little Farmville on FaceBook. LOL But it takes too much time and it is pretty lame. So I'm done...I have not been on there for over a week! Pat me on the back next time you see me. Hahahahahaha.

This is the part where I dump all my feelings and personal stuff out for all to see because I just don't know what to do with it.

I'm getting fatter. I hate that about me. I don't know what the heck is wrong with me but I've developed some bad habits (like eating too much, too often) that is packing on the pounds. It. Must. Stop. I have to get the tide turning the other way or I will surely explode. I'm too short to be this fat. It's yucky. I know part of it is that I just don't care about attracting anyone of the opposite sex. Part of me wants to repel them.

I actually had this stupid plan in January....the one where this would be MY year. The year I get trim and fit. The year I spend working on myself and NOT be with any men since I seem to have rotten judgement in that department. The year where I resisted the temptation to go back with my ex (Hollywood's dad). I even went so far as to plan (in my mind) my big 40th birthday bash I would have in November to celebrate at my friend's bar - I would be thin and dance with men half my age just because! I would feel great and look great! But the reality is the year is 1/4 over and I've lost not 1 stinking pound. I joined WW in February - that worked great for the 2 weeks I did it. Oink Oink. I lose a few pounds and then go into panic mode and quickly gain it all back and then some. WTF is wrong with me!!??!!

I have to say though - I did resist the temptation to go see my ex. He called last week. This is how much of a class act he is - he called the house phone all week trying to talk to Hollywood. She doesn't want to talk to him because she's pissed at him for running out all the time. I don't blame her. So anyway...she answered the phone by accident and he talks to her for a bit and then tells her to have me call him so he could "make plans". To do what? He didn't say. He also got a new phone number...so since I didn't call him, he was able to get through to my cell phone (I blocked his old number so he'd quit calling me). He asked if he could drop off Hollywood's b-day present. He was either going to meet us Friday or Sunday. He never did either one...guess things didn't go his way over the weekend.

Saturday he started texting me and telling me he wants to be with me, get serious, he'll do anything to be with me....he asked me to go to Vegas with him and his friends next week...told me he'd buy me a ring when he gets his taxes back....etc. I told him he should find someone younger who could have babies with him since I still can't (that's the excuse he used last time he left me). Then he called me and asked me to come out to dinner with him, bring the kids the next day, blah blah blah...said he realized that I'm the one he wants and now things will be better because he is sure about us and on and on. I told him that just because he has thought about how HE feels doesn't mean anything to the rest of us. He obviously didn't give any thought to how WE feel...nothing has changed from OUR perspective....not to the child of mine who he turned on in South Dakota...the child of ours who was scared of him because of that...but who let him back in her life last year only to have him leave again...and me - the one who lets him use me for a door mat when he's in between girlfriends. The ugly truth is that he's mentally ill. I don't know what's wrong with him clinically, but I know living with him is impossible and I will not sacrifice my kids' comfort or my own happiness to help him or let him back into our lives. The bridge is burned, asshole. Move on. So it's back to blocking him.

I think part of it is that I feel sorry for him. I have the kind of personality that takes care of people, things, etc. I've always taken care of things...from my little brother and sister, farm animals, pets, whatever...on to my own kids...and boyfriends. Yuck. I feel obligated to him for some reason...like I'm the big bitch who is keeping him from having a family. But this is MY family damn it! He may have helped to create one of my three children, but I raised them and did all of the work without any help from him. This is MY family and I'm not letting him in to damage them. He has no clue how to raise kids and he says/does all the wrong things. I could go on and on...but I feel better getting that off my chest.

I think that's enough yuck for today. I'm tired just thinking about all of it. In other news, work is going great. TONS of responsibility and I think I'm handling it well. I like it. I also work with a really great group of people. There are a couple of them who make it so fun - we're good friends and I just feel comfortable there. I thank God in every prayer for this job. I'm still behind on my bills...but I'll get there...just a lot more slowly than I hoped.

Christmas

Here is a video of Lil Brother at his Christmas program. I started laughing when he did his little trick and that's why the camera is so shaky. Sorry about that. :D




Christmas this year was excellent, with the exception of my grandma being in the hospital. She had a medication issue that caused a series of problems so she spent 3 days in there. I feel so bad for her. She got out today finally. We went to see her tonight. She seemed pretty good in spirit...she has some bruising from the monkeying around they were doing with her blood thinner I guess...and she is bone skinny. If you are so inclined, do say a prayer that she will get some sort of an appetite back. She is far underweight and it scares me...it's not healthy at all and she keeps loosing more.

I had Friday and Monday off of work so that was awesome. Friday my aunt and mom came over and we made cookies....the kind my grandma used to make. Norwegian Krumkake is a very delicate cookie that is best when filled with whipped cream.

Almond ginger snaps are another family favorite:

I'm pretty sure I gained about 5 pounds in the last 4 days. So much good food. We had Christmas Eve at my aunt's house with my mom's side of the family and Christmas day was at my house with my dad's side of the family.

Here are a few pictures:

Christmas 2011, a set on Flickr.

On Friday a pair of Bald Eagles showed up right behind my house. I took this picture from my bedroom window. I just love to see them. When I was a kid there were not any around - it was a very rare sight to see them here. Now they are making a good come-back and I'm so glad.

I got three main gifts for Christmas - we draw names in my family....but everyone buys for the kids under 18. I asked for and received a blender...a quite awesome blender, an Ninja Professional - like this one:

You can't make it out clearly, but there are 3 rows of VERY sharp blades. While taking it out of the box on Sunday I managed to cut my finger. Deep. Like it opened up over and over on Sunday, bleeding. And once today as well. So I'm guessing it is way better than the one that I had before - my old one used to stink like something burning while it ran, it was way too loud, and it would vibrate off the counter if you didn't hang on tight to it.

I also got a heater for my living room from my dad and he always gets something cool too - this year it was a Soda Stream pop maker. You make your own soda pop at home. I heard about it on the radio and wanted to try it, until I found out the price. Now we have it, without the initial investment. The kids LOVE it. It's so simple. No electricity or batteries needed. Just the CO2 tank. So far we've tried cola and orange flavored. They are good. The cola tastes like Pepsi to me...and I'm a coke drinker but the orange is yummy!

The kids made out like bandits of course. They really loved all their presents. The girls are at that age where they are pretty fun to buy for. My aunt M. got them both clothes that they have already worn and love. MK got a lot of fun earrings too. Peanut loves the watch my dad got her. It lights up in bright changing colored lights around the outside. MK got the movies she asked for so she's watching one now. Little brother...hard to say which is his favorite...but he's now sleeping with 2 Angry birds (the red and the blue), he played his Leap Frog Explorer for a few hours already, and he's wearing his Angry Bird T-shirt I got him tomorrow to daycare. He also loves his cars - the hot wheels are all the rage right now with him....and he asked to wear his new clothes both yesterday and today. Happy, happy kids. Happy, happy mom.

I have the best extended family ever. My uncle surprised us all with 100 dollar bills too. I asked him if he won the lottery...he said no. :) That was awesome (and much needed and appreciated).

Today the girls and I met up with my aunt M., my cousins, and my sister for a movie - the Sherlock Holmes one. I have not seen the first one, but this one was great! Little Bro couldn't go since it's not a kids movie, so he got to spend some time at my brother's house. He really likes seeing my brother and his family, so I'm so glad that he could go over there. He doesn't get to very often. I hope as my niece is getting bigger, she'll get to come over to our house more often too. She's so darn cute! Here's a picture I took of her at Christmas:

Tomorrow it's back to work. Sad face. But happy to have a job to go to.

Zooey Mama!* Longer post...lots going on!

What a weekend! It started early Friday with Hollywood getting braces put on. Unfortunately they hurt her quite a bit and she had a hard time all weekend. They have 2 brackets on the inside of her last molars on top which rubbed a hole in her tongue on each side. :(

Friday evening Little Brother had a Christmas program. It was really cute. He didn't sing at all. He was so funny to watch though. I was worried he would cry, but he didn't. He was too interested in watching everyone else to remember to sing. He also found a couple coins in his pocket and tried to show me and the kids around him. I don't know where they came from. I only took a couple pictures and the rest is on video. Here's one though.

And here we are having cookies and juice afterwards in the fellowship hall.

I may post a video later...too tired right now.

Saturday I got up early, cooked, cleaned and got ready for MK's birthday party. That started at noon. She had family and several friends over for pizza, pop, and a DQ ice cream cake.

She took her friends on a tour...showing them our little barn with her chickens...they were pretty impressed with the egg that one of them laid. She took them on a walk to our pond behind the house...and showed them her gecko and hermit crabs. Then most of us (9 kids & 9 adults) went snow tubing in the afternoon. That was AWESOME! We got a picture before we left, but 3 of our group had left a little early to go to another engagement so they are not in here.

I'm the one in the red jacket...the same height as some of the shorter kids. :D My cousins, brother, sister-in-law, sister, aunt, 5 of MK's friends, MK, Hollywood and her best friend are all here (my SIL is taking the picture - thank goodness she had her camera phone with). Everyone said it was really fun and I think they all had a good time.

Let me tell you about it from my perspective...first off, I'm over-weight. Like the most over-weight I have ever been in my entire life. We're talking 25 pounds more than I weighed when I was 9 months pregnant with my last child. Ya, lard ass type of over weight. I stood looking down at the hill wondering if I had the strength to be able to pull my ass back up the hill. It took a while for me to get the courage to go down the first time.

They have a type of pulley system with a rope to get from the bottom to the top. It's pretty basic. I mean like....there's a tractor that runs the pulley system with it's PTO...hooked up to a tire that spins the rope and I'm pretty sure some of the pulley wheels were rims. Like from tires. The tubes as you can see in the picture are from tires. Not the fancy blow up kind you buy at a sporting goods store. Nope...these were watch-out-for-the-metal-valve-stem kind of tires. Not all of them, just one of the ones I got stuck with for a bit. The others had plastic valve stems.

The rope lays on the ground on the way up the hill...you throw your tube down, grab the rope and then jump on your tube and hang onto that rope for dear life. God forbid you start losing your grip and the icy rope starts slipping through your hands. You're screwed then. You better roll off the side and get the hell out of the way of the person coming up behind you. There's no one to direct you as to when you should get on after the last person. You just wing it. There is a woman standing in a booth at the top watching so she can stop it if anything too terrible happens.

I made it up the hill every time. Do you know why? Because looking up at that hill while you're on the way up and realizing that if you slip, you'll have to WALK all the way up gives you a really good reason to hang on for the whole trip. There was one time when I over-shot my tube so it was basically under just my waist and legs...I had to hold my whole body up and hang on to the rope to get up there. I thought for sure my muscles were going to rip away from the bone. I made it though. I can barely move today...but I did it! It was a really fun time with family and MK's friends. I love her friends. They are all sweet and nice like she is.

We got back to my house around 7:15 pm. I heated up the sloppy joe's I had made that morning and got out the chicken salad I had made too. The girls all had some supper and then most of them went home. A few stayed over night. They all had left by noon today (Sunday).

I went Christmas shopping for a bit with MK's dad after the kids left. He called me and asked me to since he was clueless what to get her. I met him in the town where I live and guided him in his choices for a teen girl. :) It was actually pretty enjoyable. I'm glad he and I can be friends. It's much easier for all involved.

I was home in time to give the kids supper and I brought home some meds for Hollywood's sore mouth. I got more wax for her brackets, some numbing gel that the pharmacist recommended for her tongue and some soft foods & ice cream for her to eat. She was finally then able to eat a whole meal for the first time since Friday. It was a chicken pot pie. I hope her mouth adjusts soon. I feel so bad for her. It's hard for her to see the value in it right now, but I know in the long run it is worth it (from experience). I was thankful we were so busy this weekend to keep her mind off of it.

*Zooey mama is what Hollywood and MK always say from the movie Diary of a Whimpy Kid (I don't know how to spell it). :)

Whirlwind

Things are going really fast this week. I took some Christmas pictures of the kids...the group shots did NOT go well. Little Brother was uncooperative most of the time...sometimes being silly (like pinching noses and laughing maniacally)and sometimes just being...three. When he was cooperating some one else either wasn't looking, had just two teeth showing, or was holding a limb in an odd position. I spent most of the time being irritated at how is wasn't going. LOL. I did it two different days with him, so the first day with just him went pretty well. Here's a few that didn't make the Christmas card this year but are cute/funny anyway.

On the list for tomorrow:

Work half the day...leave to go get Hollywood and take her to get her braces on! Exciting for her! Pick up MK from school and Lil Bro from daycare, head home to eat supper and then Lil' Bro has his very first Christmas program that he is participating in tomorrow evening. I'm excited about it! Then it's back home to clean the house because....

Saturday:
MK's birthday party! The celebrating starts at noon....we're all going snow tubing in the afternoon (except Lil Bro - he's too little for this one - he'll be at Grandma's) and then back home for hot chocolate and snacks until their parents come get them. I can't wait!

Finally

Now it feels like Christmas....

The Long Thanksgiving weekend

I have so much in my life to be thankful for. My children. My health. My family. My church. My job(s). My life. This past Thanksgiving was about spending time with family. It was so nice!

We started out Thursday traveling to my aunt's house on my dad's side. She has a big woods behind her house that is a nature preserve so after we ate and cleaned up we went for a walk out there. It was a perfect day for it. I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone (translation=sucky pictures). I debated about bringing my camera but figured we wouldn't have time to do anything outside the house anyway. I was wrong. Sad face.




Later in the afternoon we headed over to my mom's place to feast on a turkey, pork roast, potatoes, yams, cranberries, gravy, pies, etc. It was delicious and I suffered from a food coma the rest of the evening. It was really nice to visit with everyone though. My aunt M. and her family came (my aunt M. is the one who traveled to Vietnam with me). My brother and his family were there too. My niece is getting so big. Again, no camera. I stink!

Friday was a do nothing day. Hollywood's best friend came over to spend the night...I made pho. It was an all day ordeal.

The ingredients:

The fixings to go with it:

And the finished product:

I'll be honest. It was delicious BUT it was way too expensive with all that meat/bones. I also made a big mistake. It said to cook it for a minimum of 6 hours, but I fell asleep on the couch with Lil Bro for an hour (so it cooked for 7 hours) and when I woke up there was hardly any broth left. It had boiled off. To the point that there was not enough left. I was disappointed to say the least. Plus you take out all of the bones and meat it was cooked with - seems like such a waste of all that expensive meat. I would have come out ahead had I just make the couple hour round trip drive to go eat it somewhere. That will be the last time I make it that way. It was fun for all of us though to eat it and the kids all liked it. Except my 100% Vietnamese child. He wouldn't touch it or even try it. LMAO.

I wanted to put up the Christmas tree but we never got around to it. Saturday we went to see a movie and Sunday we went for a walk. Here are some pictures from that. Hollywood's mama cat followed us the whole way (like a dog) and back.

Another random photo:

This pictures cracks me up for 2 reasons...one the kitten just stayed on her shoulder forever and eventually fell asleep there. Secondly - Lil Brother is playing Mario Cart on the Wii. He mastered that skill over the holiday weekend. That boy can drive! With little instruction from Hollywood, he picked it right up.

He amazes me. This evening when I was on the computer he came and sat next to me with his "Angry Birds notebook" and grabbed a pencil and quizzed me on how to spell various things. He can write really well. He asked me to spell words (so he could write them in his notebook) that started with "V" and then "U" and thought it was hilarious when he wrote "underwear". He also asked me to spell the character's names from Veggie Tales. He is so thirsty for knowledge. I just love it. He asks me to look stuff up on the computer for him - like the names I didn't know. He asks me to print Angry Bird coloring pages out for him too. He loves it when we draw the birds for him to color. I SUCK at drawing, but luckily they are pretty easy.

He's 3 1/2. If he already knows how to write...what is he going to know by the time he starts kindergarten?

He's so full of life, love, and personality. He is simply amazing. How could I have gotten so lucky? I think of the path that both of our lives were on before we met...me a single mom from a small town in the Midwest...him an orphan from a poor city in Vietnam...somehow fate brought me to him and him to me. He is the greatest gift I could have ever wished for. He makes my heart happy and I hope I have the same effect on him.