I don't even want to go into everything but this has been a horrible week and I'm thrilled that it is over. M and I are no longer friends and I have resolved that we will never be again. J called Thursday night and quit so her drama is gone from my life. Those are two good things that came out of this week but alot of drama took place before that. But this week is over and I'm thrilled....except for the fact that Tom and Katie are sick now. We are exhausted but still had to get Brittanie to school at 6:45am for their last rifle team competition before the state competition in December. I came home and found Katie in the bed with Tom. I told her she could stay if she were quiet and still and went back to sleep. I had to give her a chance but this is Katie. Still and quiet are not in her vocabulary. So Tom ended up putting her back in her bed. 2 minutes later, she was in the hall peeking into our room. So he put her back in her bed and closed the door, which has childproof things on the knob so she can't open it. She flipped out and screamed for 20 minutes. Tom almost went in there and I told him to just let her scream it out because she would stop eventually. She wants attention and if we keep giving it to her when she screams like that, she will never learn to stay in her bed and shut up and sleep. I've learned to tune it out because she does this so much for nap time. But Tom was struggling with it. She finally went to sleep and we were able to sleep until after 10:30. It was wonderful!!!
I got really happy not long after we got up because Samantha called and asked if they could take Katie to a Halloween carnival at Karen's church this afternoon. So Katie will have a break from up and we will have a break from her and best of all, she will get to spend time with Mamie. She has missed Mamie. She and I will have lunch with Samantha (Boo-Boo) but Mamie's always working. So this is going to work out great. We definitely need a break from each other.
One good thing that happened this week is that we adopted Jonathan's dog since he couldn't take her to Germany with them. Her name is Bash and she is Cocker Spaniel and Daschund mix. She is a sweet dog and we love her already. She is house trained and a perfect fit for us. Now I just have to hope Katie doesn't drive her nuts. She has had to snap and growl a few times to let her know she is annoying her. Katie is stubborn!! But here is a cute picture of Katie with Bash.
I am six days behind this time. I think this is the farthest behind I have ever been but I have had babysitter problems. So I am going to be typing all weekend to get it done. But I HAVE to get it ALL done this weekend because Jonathan's wife and daughters are coming Monday night and staying with us until they fly to meet Jonathan in Germany on Thursday. I don't want to be typing the whole time they are here. I hate it when I get behind.
Brittanie has decided that she and William have little more than an attraction for each other in common and have decided to just be friends. His friend, Justin, on the other hand has alot in common with Brittanie and they have grown very close and are now officially a couple. I really like him. He reminds me so much of my ex-boyfriend, Kim Jude. He is funny and fun to be with. It was one of the best times of my dating years and I'm glad she has somebody like that now. The only difference is Justin is very smart and wants to go to college....as it turns out, he has been preparing for West Point, just like Brittanie. He is close to his mom and I've met her too and really like her. If nothing else, I hope they stay friends for a long time because Brittanie needs a good guy friend. As I have told her, girls will stab you in the back and try to take your man. Guy friends are MUCH better. It took her getting hurt several times to figure out I was right but she has it now.
We are throwing a surprise party for my mom's 75th birthday on January 14, 2006. She has no clue. Her birthday is January 18th, the same day as my cousin, Tracy. So we are going to send her an invitation to a surprise party for Tracy on the 14th. We are even having the party in Fordoche (where Tracy lives) instead of Krotz Springs (where my mom lives) and it really helps that the hall there is ALOT cheaper than in Krotz Springs. Randy (my nephew) called me and thinks we need to have a big gumbo instead of getting people to bring covered dishes or finger foods. He wants to do it. I told him that is ALOT of work on him and his wife because Brittanie doesn't get out of school until 3:15pm on the 13th so we are going to travel until about 10pm and then check into a hotel and finish the trip in the morning. So we wouldn't get there until that afternoon so I won't be of much help. But he said not to worry, he's got it covered. Tracy said she and her sister, Kellie, and their parents, (my dad's brother and his wife) would help him....no problem. So I am getting so excited. I loved the way Tom's cousin, Jenny, did her mom's 75th birthday party invitations so I am going to do the same with my mom's. They took a big postcard and printed a picture of her mom when she was younger on one half of the invitation and the other half had the details of the party. So as soon as we confirm that we have the building, I'll get the address and start making the invitations. Kellie is going to send mom and invitation from her house to "Tracy's party" so she doesn't make plans that day. But everybody she knows will be in on it and have promised to help get her there. I can't wait!!
Well Tom is giving me a hard time for working on my dictations so I better get to it. It is rough being married to someone that smart. I had a bad dream last night that he and I were separated and that a member of my family fixed him up with his old yucky girlfriend. I was hostile to say the least and woke up mad. I told him about the dream a minute ago and he told me we will never separate and I was just getting that warm and fuzzy feeling I get when he looks at me with those gorgeous green eyes and that beautiful smile, when he said "Think about it, why do you think I stick around here? For you work ethic?" And then he burst out laughing. I'll admit, with me being 6 days behind on my typing, that was a funny jab but I had no come back and I'm never at a loss for words. He got me! But payback is coming. hehehe
Brittanie is 99% perfect. She is sweet, well-mannered, considerate, loving, and has morals and self respect. She doesn't do the things that most teenagers do at her age. We can trust her when she is not with us. That's why it is so hard to discipline her when she doesn't do the chores she is supposed to do. My first instinct is to see the big picture and say "well if this is the worst that she does, we are doing GREAT!" But I know that isn't right. Tom and I both have jobs to contribute to the household. Even Katie helps out with the clean-up around the house. Brittanie is supposed to clean the kitchen every night. That is her ONLY chore for the household. She is responsible for her own laundry, as well as keeping her room and bathroom clean. But as far as doing stuff for the family as a whole, the only thing is the kitchen. At the beginning of this year we were having problems with her "forgetting" certain things in kitchen clean-up. So I typed up a very specific list and taped it to her door, which is in the kitchen. I can't tell you the last time she did everything on the list. Joanie has been cleaning the kitchen when she comes because most of the time, Brittanie doesn't even bother to do the dishes, much less everything else on the list. This week, Joanie didn't come Tuesday or Thursday and was only here half a day on Wednesday. I pay Joanie to watch Katie and do our laundry. Well she couldn't get to the laundry this week due to family business she had to attend to. So I figured since Joanie has been doing Brittanie's job for her for months, Brittanie can do hers this week.....the laundry. Thursday I asked her if she had homework. She said she had a book report due. She has already read the book so that report should only take an hour tops to write. So I told her to do the laundry because Joanie couldn't do it this week. Well she did HER laundry, which she is responsible for anyway, and didn't touch ours. So Friday, I got up to find that not only did she not do the laundry, she didn't do the dishes....again! She was supposed to go with our church youth group to the fair last night for a concert. I grounded her and told her that I wanted ALL of that laundry done and EVERYTHING on the kitchen clean up list done or she wasn't going to the rifle team clinic Saturday. She said "You can't do that! I'll get kicked off the rifle team." I said "Then you better get to work!" Well she layed in Tom's recliner from 4 to 7:30....doing nothing....mostly sleeping. I was getting madder by the minute. She did exactly what she always does....puts it off till the last minute and then stays up extremely late trying to get it all done. She came to me at midnight and asked if she could go to bed because she only had one batch left in the dryer and she had just put it in there and it takes 45 minutes to dry. She had to be at school at 5:45am to go to the rifle team clinic. I told her she better make sure she gets up early enough to do that last batch of clothes before 5:30am, which is when we had to leave to go to the school or she wasn't going.....I meant what I said. She rolled her eyes at me!!! I was furious! I told her "You layed around here for 3 1/2 hours doing nothing and now you want to act like I'm unreasonable because I'm sticking to what I said, which is that it has to ALL be done or you aren't going. This is YOUR fault not mine!" She said "I know it is my fault." I told her that I didn't deserve for her to roll her eyes at me. But I told Tom she is going to complain to everybody on the way up to the rifle team clinic that I had her up till midnight doing chores without telling them that she was too lazy to start when she got home so she could have gone to bed at 8pm. She did obey though. She was running around the house, dressed for the clinic, putting away laundry. It was all done in time for her to go to the rifle team clinic. If she would just do things when she is assigned them, she wouldn't be as sleep deprived as she is and it would be less stressful on all of us.
But having to keep her from going to the fair made a knot in my stomach. I hate punishing her because she is so good 99% of the time and I love her. I don't like seeing that sad face. It is like kryptonite for me. But I can't overlook that 1% either because it is important. I'm considering having a talk with 1st Sgt about her procrastination. It is becoming a serious problem. It isn't just in chores. It is infiltrating her school work and every aspect of her life. This will have her flunking out of college and never promoted in the Army if she doesn't learn to do things in a timely manner.
You know if you want to do a good job as a parent, it sure isn't an easy task!! But it is all worth it in the long run.
Tom is a work-a-holic but he loves his girls and is a GREAT daddy. He took the day off of work today to take Katie to the South Carolina State Fair. Brittanie looks forward to it every year. We have taken Katie every year but until this year she really couldn't do much other than ride the ponies and see all the animals/petting zoo. But this year she was old enough to ride some rides. This is where we see how much she is like Tom and I. I am a VERY impatient person and always have been. Well that is one bad thing Katie inherited from me. Tom said she couldn't stand waiting in line for the rides, even though the longest wait they had was 3 minutes. And once she was on the ride, she couldn't stand waiting for it to start. At one point, she was on the kiddie swings waiting for it to start and just couldn't stand sitting still. So while the other kids were scared and sitting perfectly still, she started rocking her swing wildly. She absolutely loves riding stuff but the slow safe rides bore her. She is like Tom, Brittanie, and I in that she likes her rides wild....the wilder the better. By the end of the day, Tom had taught her to raise her hands up while she is riding!!! That's something I never did. I was too scared. But she was having a blast raising her hands and screaming. I wish he had taken the camera with him because he said her little face had the biggest smile on every ride. She absolutely loved it. She also figured out that the last car gave the rougher/wilder ride so she always headed to that last car....unless (and here is where my DNA kicks in) there is a little boy sitting by himself. If she saw a little boy in another car sitting alone, she sat beside him. NEVER by any little girls sitting alone....always by the little boys. That's just too funny that she likes boys that much this young. She definitely is her mom's baby. She ate a corn dog for lunch. I don't see the appeal of those things. I hate cornbread and weiners without chilli, cheese, and onions just isn't appealing at all to me. But she enjoyed her corn dog with daddy. They did stuff nonstop from 11am to 4pm. She was flat out exhausted when she got home but she had a blast. We love the South Carolina State Fair. They really go the extra mile to make sure everybody, regardless of age, has a good time. It is hard to tell which she liked more though, the animals or the rides. Tom let her feed the goats and lamas. Last year when I took her I didn't let her do that. Goats are disgusting animals and I was afraid they would bite her while trying to get the food out of her hands because they are aggressive eaters and will eat anything. I wouldn't even walk near the lamas because they are like camels, they spit! But I guess I'm just over protective because the goat didn't bite her and the lama didn't spit at them. Tom called me on his cell phone while they were on the sky lift. I nearly had a panic attack at the thought of my wiggly toddler that high up in the air. He gave her the phone and let me talk to her and she was so excited that I could barely understand what she was saying. It was precious. All in all, she had a GREAT day with daddy. He is a wonderful father!!!
I took Brittanie and her boyfriend, William, and his best friend, Justin, to the fair Tuesday because they didn't have school Monday or Tuesday. Well when William asked Brittanie to be his girlfriend, he gave her his necklace that he NEVER takes off. He tried to wear Brittanie's middle school class ring on his pinky but it didn't fit. So Brittanie got him a sterling silver rope chain from ebay that was VERY affordable and put her ring on it. She gave it to him when they got to the fair. He has been wearing it ever since. It is so cute to see them together. Anyway, this was her best year at the fair. Even though William doesn't like rides, she still had fun walking around with him, going in the fun houses, and playing games. He won her a good sized dog and two small bears....one was a cheerleader bear. She was pretty tired when she got home but William has given her back the self esteem that Grace took away. I'm so happy for her!!! I want her to have good memories of high school.
Tom developed a migraine on Saturday and ended up coming home early Tuesday because it was still there and had traveled from his forehead, down his neck and spine, all the way down to his tailbone. I figured he was tensing up because his head hurt so much and he has work to do and can't concentrate because his head hurt. So I gave him a Zanaflex, which his a muscle relaxer. He went to bed at 4:30pm and got up at 7am the next day. He did ALOT better Wednesday and is down to a dull headache today....which he can handle. He won't take a narcotic to break the headache. Our doctor wanted him to come in and get a Demerol/Phenergan shot to kick it out and he wouldn't do it. He wasn't running fever and had no dizziness or rash so that pretty much ruled out meningitis, which was my first concern. But his migraines have started coming more and more often and he has finally agreed to get back on the Depakote to try to prevent them. I'm thrilled because I hate seeing him suffer so often with those migraines, especially when they could be prevented if he would just take one pill a day. That is so frustrating. But this one was so bad, he decided it was time.
Well that's all for now. I'll update more when I get more to tell.
The first great thing is that I am caught up on my typing. I know my boss is as thrilled as I am. I am actually waiting on dictations in the mornings. That's a WONDERFUL feeling. Tonight, I have to type what he gave me Friday because I don't have a sitter on Fridays, but as long as it is done and e-mailed by 7:30am Monday morning, I'm still on time.
Thursday, Brittanie had promotion ceremony in JROTC. She wanted me to come and I didn't want to go alone so I asked Jessica to go with me for moral support and to help me take pictures. Well I got surprised when Sgt. Davis called the four leaders of Delta company to the front, one of them being Brittanie, and announced their new ranks. Major Norton was pinning their new rank pins on them and when he got to Brittanie, he turned around to the back of the room where I was sitting and asked me to come up and pin Brittanie's rank pin. I don't like being in front of people, especially not a room full of teenagers that I don't know. But I did it and was so glad I went. I was the only parent asked to do that though. I don't know why I was chosen but I was grateful for the opportunity. But I did get embarrassed because I was nervous and holding my camera in my left hand and trying to pin her and I started putting her pin upside down. Major Norton corrected me and I said "You can tell I've never been in the Army." But I knew better, I was just nervous. Here are some pictures from that.
Here is me pinning her with Major Norton beside me.
This one was taken after she was pinned. See her shiny new rank pin? Obviously this isn't the pin you wear with BDU's but the rifle team all wore their BDU's that day so she had to be pinned with her Class A/B pin on her BDU's.
I love seeing her in her BDU's at parade rest. You should have seen her doing her turns and marching up there all official. I'm so proud of her!!!
By the way, since her boyfriend is in Delta company also, we were able to get a better picture of him as well. He was looking at Jessica and I kinda weird because he didn't know who we were and there we were taking his picture. I guess we looked like the paparazzi! heheheAlso, the guy just behind him to the left, is Chris. He goes to church with us. He and Brittanie are in the youth group together.
Friday, I was able to finally have lunch with Samantha. When I was behind on my typing, it was hard to make time to do that....plus with all the appointments we have with Katie's allergies, Brittanie's orthodontist, and our sleep doctors appointments, it is hard to do. But I had a great time and even got to see Sandra later that afternoon. I have missed them so much. So did Katie!! She had been asking to see "Mamie" for days. I think she was having Mamie DT's. hehehe
Saturday, Brittanie had rifle team competition that morning and got 2nd place on her team. Her team took 3rd place in the competition. That night, I took her and Miranda to a concert in Atlanta. I don't know what I was thinking. It sounded like a good idea at the time. The problem was that I went to bed at 11:30pm Friday night, got up at 6:15am Saturday morning to take Brittanie to school for her rifle team competition. When I got home, I couldn't get back to sleep. So I stayed up, ran to Swansea to pick her up at noon, came home, and left for the concert at 2:30pm and headed to Atlanta. We got there at 6:30pm. I watched a couple of movies in the van during the concert, which ended at 11:30pm. We got home at 3am!!!! I am so old! When I was a teenager or even in my 20's, that would have been nothing. But at 36, I was struggling hard to stay awake on the drive home. I kept having to roll my window down and turn up the radio to stay awake. But it was worth it because Brittanie and Miranda had a blast and both of them thanked me profusely. And the icing on the cake was Tom telling me I'm a good mom. You know I think that is the best compliment I have ever gotten. I love Brittanie and when I think about the fact that I only have her home for 2 1/2 more years and she will be going to college, my heart literally aches. I want to make her memories good ones.
Tom is working today....always the 2nd Sunday of the month. But for once, he will take those hours back. He will be taking Katie to the fair one day this week. I took her last year, as did Tom, and she loved it. I can't wait to see her reaction this year since she is older and understands more.
This has been a pretty good week. I am just about totally caught up with my typing. Brittanie has been promoted to First Sgt. in JROTC, which is the position she was hoping for. And best of all, we got this letter in the mail Friday:
If you can't read it, just click on it to make it bigger. Basically, it says Brittanie has been chosen to be a student ambassador and has the opportunity to go to England, Wales, and Ireland next summer. She was so excited. I went on the website and the drawback is money. We can spend $1000 on this but I'm sure it will be more. It didn't say what the cost would be so we are going to the parents meeting at Midlands Tech on November 6th at 3pm to find out all the information. The problem is that though this is a GREAT opportunity for her and we would love for her to go and she would love to go, she wants her car next September and spending too much money on a 20 day trip would make it impossible to get the car. I wish I had a rich relative to sponsor it. hehehe But we aren't giving up hope. We are going to the meeting and find out everything before we make any decisions. But it was such a honor for her to be chosen.
Also, Brittanie has her first official high school sweetheart. His name is William Culick and he is from Gaston and is a sophomore with her at Swansea High School. He is in the JROTC program and VERY serious about it like Brittanie is. They have been getting to know each other for a month and a half and Friday he asked her to be his girlfriend. You know they say girls often look for guys like their daddy? Well William is tall, slim, dark brown hair, and green eyes....just like her daddy. He has been very respectful of her and just so sweet. I'm happy she found someone like him because there are so many losers out there that have only one thing in mind and we all know what that is. Most drink and do drugs. I've done my research and William is considered a "geek" because he doesn't do any of those things. Well I married a geek and I couldn't be happier. Anyway, here is a picture of her and William taken at Swansea's homecoming football game Friday night. This was taken with her camera phone so it isn't the best quality. By the way, since they don't have their class rings yet, William gave her the necklace that he is wearing in his picture. Brittanie said she has NEVER seen him without this necklace on so it means alot to her that he gave it to her to wear to symbolize that she is his girlfriend. AWWWWWWWWWWW. By the way, she is going to give him her dog tags to wear on Monday. Awwwwwwwwwwwww!!! (I couldn't resist.)
Here is a picture of her cake. It is Disney Four Princesses.
Here is the picture of her party table.
This is her Care Bears Check-up Bear.
This is her Care Bears Share a Story Bear.
This is her Cinderella DVD. 
This is her Cinderella Barbie Doll.
This is her Charlotte's Web DVD from Aunt Ora Lee and Uncle Allan.
This is her Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus Doll from Mamie, Paw-Paw, and Boo-Boo.
Here is Brittanie and Justin. Don't they look adorable together? He has quickly become part of the family. He came over today to help us celebrate Katie's birthday as well as to watch the Carolina Panthers game with Tom. He has Brittanie smiling all the time. Katie has a crush on him too. She says he is HER boyfriend. 
