Day 9: September 5th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "I dropped a tear in the ocean. The day you find it is the day I will stop missing you. ~Author Unknown"

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Somebody, please... shoot me! All day long I've been thinking about cute little frilly dresses and pigtails... little tiny hands holding mine... baby powder... girly shampoos. So what I want to know RIGHT NOW is this.... who in the world infected me with the baby itch????? And why on earth would you do that to me? LOL In all seriousness, although I would love nothing more than to have a little girl to dote on, I know they grow up eventually. All I can say is that I'm SO GLAD I had the forethought to have that surgery back in '98!!!!

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I finally got around to trimming the bushes out front, yay me. It was so hot out by the time I finished that I have pretty much left the clippings and all outside and come in to take a break. I got swarmed by wasps who were evidently building a home inside one of the bushes (one flew and hit me right in my eyelid, which was thankfully closed!) I also had a little hummingbird hovering around me a good half the time when I was doing one of the bushes... I think it must have a nest in that bush, or it's just that curious about me and what I was up to. Either way, it's nice to see that putting up the hummingbird feeder has worked. I never saw them at all before, and now they're around all the time. It's really funny how they sound like tiny little helicopters!

INCIDENTALLY, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BUY YELLOW DAHLIA BULBS FROM LOWE'S.

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Last night's sunset was great, but the camera really couldn't seem to do it justice. I tried and tried to get all the reds and oranges to show up in the shot, but no dice. Oh, well... enjoyed trying, anyways. Then I went inside and learned how to make Frito pie for one, as both the kids ditched me. Again. I have spent more time alone since Ron left than I have EVER had in my entire life! Maybe that's where the itch came from? :)

Day 8: September 4th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after moments or a lifetime is certain for those who are friends. ~Richard Bach"

Today started out with a bang. Cody has football practice during 1st hour at school, and I get this phone call at about 8:20am this morning. They were doing some kind of tackling drill and he and another boy collided. Cody had his head down, and has evidently hurt his neck/back/spine or something. He said that his back & chest both hurt, it hurt to breathe, and he had tingling in his legs. So I made him an appointment on base to the doctor's and away we went, to find out that he will be fine, just a little sore for a few days. They told him to take it easy, so it's a good thing it's a 3-day weekend.... no football practice!

I got to hear from Ron today, and he says that things are going well. He was relieved to find out that his room there definitely does NOT have a 5-foot ceiling in it. (Can you imagine the concussions???) He does have a tv in his room, too, which is great even if all he can watch is AFN, the Armed Forces Network. Bet he can't wait to come home to cable again after a few months of THAT. And if you can imagine, they even have a makeshift pool: Someone has cut up an empty tank and made a 5' deep swimming pool out of it. I guess they're planning on making it a hot tub over the winter... good luck with that! He even says that the food isn't bad there, and that the other night when he showed up at the chow hall there were even packets of his very favorite spice mix in the whole world, Tony's. He was glad to see it, and has made it a point to be sure that I know they have the best chow hall in the area, or something like that.

I got notification that they have finally begun working on my student loan, so there is a good chance that it will be completed soon and I may get the funds by the end of this month. HOORAY!!!! House payment, here we come! HAHAHA For a while there I was worried. The financial aid department at the school said that they were completely bogged down when I went in to find out what was going on, so I wasn't even sure if I would GET a student loan completed this semester. They said that with all the people out of work their requests for financial aid had doubled what it was last year. That means that the school has twice as many students using financial aid, but no help in the financial aid office to help work all the requests. I'd hate to be in their shoes right now! Needless to say, I've been very patient. :)

It has been so dreary outside all day long that it has made me want to just throw on an old pair of sweat pants and lay around on the couch all day. HOWEVER.... not going to get any of this weight off of me THAT way, so it's going to be out for a walk for me tonight. Since I haven't been doing very well in the walking department lately, I think maybe I had better make night my official walk time. The mornings just don't cut it anymore, because somewhere along the way I lost my motivation.

Day 7: September 3rd, 2009

Quote of the day: "Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell. ~Emily Dickinson, "Parting" "

Today we had orientation at the hospital, and it was great to see all the gang. We've all been in different classes, so a lot of us haven't seen each other in a while. Laurie and I showed up to the hospital a little early so that we could go over our SIMS lab assignment, which was a semi-good idea, but at the same time it was awfully early. We had to go to Circle K (Sorry, forgot... it's Stripes now) and get some coffee before hand to wake up a little. We had a great time playing catch up with our friends, but the day seemed to drag on and on and on.

And see what going to nursing school does to your parking abilities???

I went to Sam's Club with Laurie after orientation was over to pick up some cat litter for our kitties, and because Laurie saw a jacket I got from there and wanted one of her own. We were walking through the frozen food section and saw something I could not believe. There was this old woman standing at the end of the aisle handing out food samples of some strawberries with whipped cream, and this young mother was standing there with her young son, probably about 6 or 7 years old. This stupid old woman was acting all pissy because the child had evidently attempted to reach into the bowl of strawberries.

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Meanwhile the mother is standing there almost in tears over the whole thing saying "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, he has a disorder. I guess I should maybe put a shirt on him that says so, or put a sign on his forehead." Even the little boy kept saying he was sorry, over and over. It was heartbreaking! He didn't know what he'd done wrong, but he knew it was something. Now I know that it's a health issue, but that old woman's attitude completely reinforced my opinion that old people without people skills DO NOT belong in the workforce. Some of them do, yes, but the ones who are nothing more than crotchety, mean, and opinionated with no personal skills should just STAY HOME. Just as the teenagers who have no personal skills.

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Children with disabilities (which he obviously had) should not be treated as if they can help it. And the mother has enough to deal with in her everyday life while dealing with her child and his problems, she doesn't need some Nazi Granny to try and "put her in her place". I have no problem with ANY person of ANY age who deals with the public in an appropriate manner, but when you are dealing with customers, that particular age group seems to forget that the customers are people first, customers last. You know the ones I'm talking about, too. They're the ones who are likely to stand on the front porch yelling "Get off my property!" if you walk on the sidewalk in front of their home. This particular old biddy went on "break" right after it happened, and I can only hope that it was with a guilty conscience and a big old slice of humble pie. And that's it, I'm off my bandwagon. For now.

Day 6: September 2nd, 2009

Quote of the Day: "There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being - to help someone to succeed. - Alan Loy McGinnus"

Another day come and gone, and yet still I feel like nothing got done today. They said on weather.com that the weed pollen is high today here, so maybe that's why my head feels like it has been stuffed full of cotton and I can't seem to think straight. Or maybe it's the heat, or whatever. Who knows? All I know is that I had a beautiful drive to school this morning, with a bright ruby-red sun poking up on the horizon, and then it all went on a downhill slide from there. In class today we went over a helter-skelter melee of various different non-related items, so by the time the instructor got around to going over the actual module information the entire class was pretty much brain fried. Even the instructor was having a hard time with concentration today, and ended up letting the class go fifteen minutes early, with the goal of a coffee and some Tylenol. Maybe it's something in the water here in Texas?

I went to WalMart with my study-buddy Laurie after class today and we had Subway for lunch. Of course, this was after following some big farming monstrosity ten miles down the two-lane country road between towns at around 15 miles per hour. He covered the entire road, both lanes in both directions, and I couldn't pass him. And we ALL know how well I do with patience while driving, but hunger made it even worse. He did finally pull over a little bit so that I could drive on half the road and half the grassy shoulder to pass him, and I was able to get moving. It was really nice to just sit and eat and chat for a while about non-school things. Laurie and I get along real well, and have a lot in common outside of school as well as in. She's the one who talked me into applying at Texas Specialty as a nurse's aid. While we were there at WalMart I picked up a camera that has a video function so that I can send some quick videos to Ron once in a while. Maybe that way he can keep up with the comings-and-goings of this family. Oh, and this really cute little sweater.... ;)

Damien got his glasses broken yesterday, and the first available appointment isn't until the 30th, so he is pretty much up a creek until then and wearing an old pair that isn't the right prescription but is better than nothing. I'm not sure what's going to happen when it comes to purchasing the new glasses because he doesn't have any money left after car insurance and car payment. But he's been out trying to find a second job, and has put in applications with the new GameStop on the base, as well as to United, and plans to apply with WalMart as well. He doesn't seem very motivated about it, but something may come up. It had better, or that boy's going to end up in the poor house before he even gets started. Have you seen the movie "Just My Luck", with Lindsay Lohan? In that movie, his character is the guy that she kisses at the dance, the one that had the worst luck in the world. EVERYTHING seems to happen to Damien. You'd think there was a curse put on him, if you believed in that sort of thing.

Cody has been doing well enough in school, since it's only the first week it's hard to tell. He's doing football again this year, but dislocated his thumb in practice the other day, so he ended up missing a practice and has to be on B-Team for the 2nd year in a row. Or so he says, anyways. The REAL reason that he is on B-Team instead of A-Team is because he is not dedicated to playing football, and shows more interest in being with friends. There were about twenty kids that tried out for the position he was trying out for, wide receiver, and he just didn't put forth enough effort to make himself stand out. I'm hoping that he does a little growing this year and gains a little more maturity and self-discipline. I'm trying to help him in that department, but lately it feels like the blind leading the blind. I just can't seem to get myself together, either. So we'll see. He and his friends have plans to make some kind of funny video together (involving some kind of tin-foil rabbit ears) and I'll try and post it on here if I think it may be something that would be suitable for all viewers. (Nothing that will give ideas to young influential children that could get them hurt!) HAHAHA

Oh, and did I tell you that the new camera is waterproof to 10'? Gotta love technology when the instructions on cleaning it include "soak it in a bowl of water for 2-3 minutes"! I'm thinking of that ride at Six Flags that I can finally take pictures while riding on... or of taking pictures of everyone at pool parties... or fishing at the lake... or camping... Hmmm. The possibilities are endless!

Day 5: September 1st, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Happiness resides not in posessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. -Democritus"

Got up this morning to fabulously cool weather for like the third or fourth day in a row, and have all the windows open so that I can air out the house while it's still decent. I hate that about summer, how the house gets all stuffy inside. Opening the windows and allowing the breeze through the house seems to bring the entire place to life, and makes it smell so great!!! And the kitties all love to sit in the windowsills and smell the outside. It's as close to kitty heaven as they can get, or so they seem to think. They don't even seem to mind the fact that someone is out hunting this morning so there's loud rifle shots ricocheting off the houses. The dogs, however, have flown the coop into their new doggie door into the garage, and come out only when I go out into the backyard.

Well, we've made it this far... day 5. Already. Wow. I can't even begin to say how hard it has been to get over the initial shock of going from couple to individual! Lucky for me I'm a tough gal, and can deal with anything I'm given. The kids are into their own lives now that they are older, so the house stays pretty quiet most days. I wish I could say that it stayed clean, as well, but the boys are hurricanes when they do blow through on their way to whichever friend's house they're going to or whatever football practice or job. The messes they leave are reminders that I'm really not alone in this house, even though it seems like it sometimes. Sigh. At least they'll keep me busy, right?

I really have to go for my walk, and soon. But... right now, number one on the daily agenda is to get to paying the bills today. It's the first of the month, which means that 90% of our bills are due. I wish that you could set your own due dates, that would be sweet! Right now, all the big dollar bills are due in the first two weeks of the month. It makes it difficult to keep them all paid and still put food on the table! Someone should do something about that, right? Good luck getting THAT to congress as a bill... and passed.