Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in peophi's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
4:23 pm	I can't believe I did it Well it has been a week. I guess that is kind of starting at the end huh? A week since what? Well, a week since I got a tattoo. I know, unbelievable. I hardly believe it. Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by them, but I knew I could never get one. I was too terrified of needles. I hate needles. As long as I can remember, needles have been a source of fear like no other. The very thought of a needle would have my hyperventilating. Finger pricks, shots, anything. I wanted no part of that. Well I am a mom now. I have tried to give blood for my kids, that does not work too well. I get so worked up by the thought of the needle I end up sky rocketing my blood pressure so they will not take it. I guess all for the good right? I noticed something a few weeks ago. My son Jamie. He is a serious little boy who takes everything very seriously. We were going to ride a roller coaster together. The Titan. When he rides with his dad, everything is good. He was going to ride with me though, and this roller coaster scares me. I was unsure and nervous... and I noticed that I was making him that way too. He was reading my face and freaking himself out. He hated that ride because he worked himself up to hating it because he knew I was scared - and if I am scared than he knows something must be wrong. Now that really got me thinking... was I going to pass on this terror of needles to my son? Would he see my face and know I was scared and swallow my fear inside him and let it affect his life as it had mine? No way in hell. I am not going to let that happen to my kids. I do not want them to be scared. How could I get over it? Then I kind of just out of the blue said "I want a tattoo." I planned on taking it nice and slow. I have been in about 4 tattoo parlors in my lifetime. I looked around and freaked myself out and ended up leaving. I think just making it through the door is enough... It wasn't. My husband thought as I did. Me? A tattoo? Yeah, right! He was wrong. I sent a test to my uncle who I was told moved to Mexico - but used to do piercings at a tattoo parlor here in Dallas. I figured he might be able to suggest someone who I could talk to. I was wrong. He was still in Dallas and still working at Obscurities. I told him what I wanted, he said one of the guys there could do it easily. I was still thinking in my head, weeks and weeks away. He gave me the number of a guy, my husband was about to go out of town... I told the guy I would be there that afternoon for it. I felt I would chicken out and not go. I knew I was going to call back and tell them I had changed my mind. I got in the car and started driving. I was freaking out. I was nervous and scared. I called my uncle and told him I was going in. He was a bit surprised and told me to make sure and eat something. We hung up and I panicked a little more. Eat something? I hadn't eaten since the night before. It was after noon now. I knew if I stopped somewhere, I would not make it. I felt sick and still scared. I tried to call my mom. Maybe I would tell her what I was doing and she would get upset and it would talk me out of it. Her phone was not in service. I tried to call my cousin. She wasn't there either. I tried to call a few friends - no answer. No one was home. I kept driving through the Dallas lunch traffic. Deep inside I was telling myself to just turn around and go home. I kept driving though. I took a wrong turn, and I could have just admitted that I was lost and called and told them I wouldn't make it. It was a sign right? Something telling me not to do this? I just turned around and went the right way. I made it. I hoped the place would be dirty or maybe someone would laugh at a middle aged woman coming in for a tattoo. No such luck. It was spotless. They were even nice and tried to help me relax. Weston was the name of the guy who was doing it. He said he had to get all set up. I noticed a pizza parlor across the street so I said I was going to run and get food. Part of me wanted to run to the car and never come back. I didn't though. I got a brownie and a lemonade. I couldn't eat it though. As Weston was drawing the outline, I tried to eat the brownie. I pulled off a small corner and tried to nibble on it. I felt like I was going to throw up. I did drink the lemonade though. I do not think it helped. I was still terrified it was getting closer to time. He kept asking me to stand up to check on the placement. I was relieved each time he had to make a change. I still had time to back out. Why wasn't I backing out? He started on the tattoo. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Oh my goodness it hurt. I was trying to keep from jerking away and forcing myself not to cry. I could not help whimpering "oh my god oh my god oh my god" over and over and over. It seemed to take forever. I kept asking him if I could back out and he was determined to make sure I didn't. The first part was over, and he was starting on the second. A minute or two into it I heard a familiar voice "Who is screaming back here?" I look up. It is my uncle. Even though he did not have to work that day, he came down. I have never been happier to see anyone in my life. A strange thing happened while he was talking to me. The fear was going away. The pain was still there in full force, but the fear was gone. I did not realize it at the time though. In my mind, I was supposed to be terrified, so I was terrified. It was only after I was on my way home that I realized that I was not scared anymore. I was even contemplating another one. It was really strange for me. All of my life I have dreaded the very thought of a needle anywhere near me. Here I was enjoying the thought. Now I just had the fear of telling my mom! Oh - and I know no one reads this, but just in case - what did I get? I got a small purple star on the back of each leg about 2 and a half inches above the ankle. Current Mood: pleased (Comment on this)
Monday, January 18th, 2010
3:12 pm	It's my birthday! Supposedly on my birthday I get to do whatever I want to do. Right? Wrong. I had to go to the gym! Hubby guilted me into going. So I went. I got all sweaty and tired and icky... on my birthday. Bleh. Oh well, I got him back. He complained that someone was really stinky. Really bad BO. I made sure he knew it was him. Hahahahahahaha I love my birthday! Current Mood: dorky (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
10:31 pm	Birthday dinner A few months ago, I began seeing this show "The Naughty Chef" advertised. I like cooking shows. I was not too sure about this one. I was not even really going to watch it. When I say I like watching cooking shows, it means that I just like watching people cook. Usually I would only ever eat maybe 90% of anything I see on them. Iron Chef - 0% bleh, but it is fun to watch. So the day came around of the show. I do not know if I actually caught it on opening night or if I just saw the first episode on a rerun during the week, but I had it on in the background. I was reading or doing something else and the TV was on for noise. I was looking up and I saw the food. It looked good. Really good. It looked like something I would enjoy eating. I remember my interest being caught when they said the restaurant Chef Blythe cooked at was Central 214 in Dallas. "Hey, I live near Dallas," was running in my head. I looked up the restaurant and found a review of it. Kobe Chicken Fried Steak. I had the same misgivings about it as the reviewer did. Why do that to a perfectly good piece of meat? I was curious. Curiosity and me are a bad combination. I do terrible things under the influence of curiosity. The review kept gnawing at me. For a week it just sat there eating away into my brain. I watched the show again and it still looked good. Finally I begin planning. I go to hubby and make a deal with him. Since the restaurant is not in our price range, I had to get creative. Deal was that if I could get down a pant size by my birthday then he would take me there for my birthday. Easily done if I might add. So for 4 months I have been waiting and waiting. Salivating at the thought of Kobe Chicken Fried Steak. I am not usually this obsessed over food, but here I was. Last night was the night. I admit I was nervous. The few times hubby and I have ever gone to a fancy restaurant or an event catered by a fancy thing, we have not liked it. I do not like trendy food. I do not like small portions of goat cheese topped with bleh. I do not have a refined palate that can pick up the subtle traces of truffle and crab and whatever. I like food that tastes good, makes me feel good and satisfies me. We get in, and the place is pretty. It was like the show, but then different since it was not being seen through a camera lens. They were really friendly too. We got to sit on like a counter thing right next to the cooking area. This was great because I got to watch them cooking everything. For me things were looking up. I noticed hubby was looking a little nervous. We ordered our drinks and they brought out some appetizers for us to sample. I had seen both of them on the menu and one of them was a NO but the other was the one I had been considering. It was a deviled egg made with cayenne pepper and poached shrimp. It was great. I really enjoyed it. The other was a chicken fried oyster. Oyster? Bleh. I have never wanted to try an oyster. I tried one though. I felt if they were nice enough to give it to us, I would try it. I was keeping an open mind. I ate a snail once on a cruise - I could try an oyster. Yuck. I do not like oysters. Or snails. I was still feeling hopeful although I think hubby was beginning to feel more nervous. That made me feel bad too. Guilty that here we were in this expensive place and he was not going to eat anything. We ordered our food. He ordered a spring greens salad thing and the special of the day which was salmon and like potatoes and beets and what not. I heard the word salmon and kind of tuned out. It goes without saying what I had. I did substitute sautéed green beans for the mustard greens though. It was an amazing substitution. Those green beans were I think the best ones I have ever eaten. He liked his salad. I munched on the bread. We watched things being cooked, got to meet the chef. Our plates arrived. I will tell you this. Heaven. It was amazing. I am at a lack for words to describe it. The meat was so tender and the breading crunchy. It was full of flavor and I could not stop eating it. Any of it. I kept telling myself "stop" "Stop please" "come on now... leave some room" "STOP!" I just could not stop eating it. I had to mentally restrain myself from picking up the plate and licking it clean. I did leave 2 small bites of the mashed potatoes. I did not want to, but I liked myself better for leaving a bit. There is my willpower for you. Hubby loved his salmon too. I was on cloud nine. I had picked a winner. We were going home from a fancy restaurant and not stopping by Taco Bueno for food afterwards. Then hubby turned to me and said we could get dessert. I love him. In that moment I think I fell in love with him all over again. They brought by the dessert menu and I saw a few things I wanted to try. It was a war between the chocolate pecan pie and the naughty cookies and milk. Not much of a war cause really everything bows before cookies right? Hubby got the cheesecake and was not disappointed. My cookies were amazing. Three of the warmest, softest chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. I am so glad they were not taping for the show last night, I am sure that I looked like a pig gobbling down food left and right. I wolfed down the cookies. The milk was chocolate milk and bourbon. It was rather nice. It was naughty, that's for sure. I felt so bad eating all that food. Oh and I forgot - right before they delivered us our desserts... the chef brought us a dessert. It was a chocolate waffle with bananas and ice cream and syrup. It looked like trouble on a plate. I was so tempted to dig into it - but I stopped myself. I had cookies coming. Hubby and I did try a bite... okay three or four bites of the waffle. It was very rich. I could see my kids going to town on it. Wow. I have to say, if I did not have cookies heading my way, I would have probably consumed the entire waffle AND licked the plate. Thank goodness for cookies! We got to talk to the Chef again and she was really nice. I had imagined that she would probably be condescending or too good for the little people. I did not get that from her at all. I liked her a lot. Even if the food had been terrible I might have wanted to go back just to talk to her again. She made me feel welcome and important and special. I liked that. I do not think I have ever left a restaurant feeling that way and it was a good feeling. I know that I will be thinking up reasons to get to go back. It was amazing and wonderful and delightful and honestly if I was a millionaire I would eat there every week. It has been over 24 hours, and I think I am still full. I know my taste buds are mad at me for eating normal food after tasting the food of the Gods. Really, if anyone reads this and finds themselves in the Dallas area. Look up Central 214 and stop in for a meal. Order the Kobe Chicken Fried Steak. Heck, give me a call and invite me along! Current Mood: jubilant (Comment on this)
Monday, December 28th, 2009
9:05 pm	Hmmmm Okay, well I joined the gym and its been fun. It caused me a pretty bad cold, but other than that, I like it. I ended up getting an iPod for when I am on the exercise bike. I never wanted one before and feel kind of like a sell out getting one... but the bike is REALLLLLLLY annoying. And boring. Really really boring. Having music to listen to does help a little. I downloaded some of my mp3's to it. A nice assortment of songs I think. I am glad I did put a pretty wide variety in there. My youngest son, Hank, is a tad bit hyper. He really seems to have something in him that keeps him from standing or sitting still for any given amount of time. It is kind of a hassle when we go out and we have this ball of energy being annoying. It also makes car rides a hassle too. Three kids in the back of the small little KIA we got for driving around town to save gas. One of those kids being unable to sit still makes it harder. We went to see Princess and the Frog tonite. Side note - I LOVED it! Hank was wanting to run and be wild, but since we had to stand in line - not a good idea. Suddenly I remembered my iPod in my jacket pocket. I flip through it and find "Bananaphone" and plug the headphones into his ears. Miracle of miracles, the boy stands still. It was uncanny. He was perfectly willing to just stand there and listen to the song. That song ended and I switched it to "Still Alive" from the Portal game. He again just stood there, very still, and listened. We got to go into the theatre and find our seats. I felt he would be okay, so I let my daughter, Wendy, listen to the song "Windy" by the Association. She of course was thrilled because I told her that is the song I named her for. Hank on the other hand began to get wild. I rolled my eyes and switched it back to Bananaphone and put the headphones in his ears - once again, he is a zombie. So yeah, the iPod is now something I imagine I will never leave home without. It is nice to stick the ear buds in his ears and have silence. I like that. It is a nice break. He listened to a few songs, then the movie started and he was content to sit and watch and eat his pizza. Life is pretty good. Cannot believe I own an Apple device... *shudders*... but it does serve a purpose I suppose. Current Mood: chipper (Comment on this)
Monday, December 21st, 2009
3:43 pm	*growls* I try and be in a good mood. I really do try. I am just disagreeable I suppose. Yesterday, my parents got me the coolest thing. A Sony Reader. Not quite the Kindle I would have wanted, but it is essentially the same thing right? So I charge the thing, start browsing around on the little Sony ebooks thing. They have like no selection and are painfully over priced. 'Okay," I think, 'I will try Barnes and Noble.' While still more than I believe a downloaded book should be, they were a bit cheaper and have a better selection. I found a book that I wanted as a test. I bought it. Jim helped me get it to my Reader. Success! It uploaded fine. There were also 4 free books for getting the little Barnes and Noble eBooks account. Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. I could deal with those. I uploaded those as well to my Reader. More Success. Yay! Credit card in hand and a small budget, I go out and find 3 more relatively cheap books by an author I kind of like and books I had not read yet by them. I buy them. I then look for Clive Barker and grab a book by him that I have not read yet. I go to download them and upload them into the Reader software. Three of them go in just fine, the Barker book doesn't. I try and download it again, thinking in my hurry that I might not have let it finish. It downloads, I try and upload it. Nothing. I grumble a bit and then try and finish the upload of the other three books into my Reader. Error. Apparently I am not licensed to read the books I just purchased. I download and install the Barnes and Noble software, download the books. I can read them there, but I cannot do anything with them. There seems to be no way to upload them into my Reader. I am rather annoyed now. Why in all seven hells will they let you upload some books and not others? I would never have wasted the money buying 4 other books if I knew I would not be able to read them on my Reader. The entire point of getting a Reader was to be able to have books on the go. I could read at the gym while doing that boring cycling thing. Now I am feeling stupid because I wasted money buying books that I will never be able to read, and chances are Barnes and Noble will not refund me the price of them. I sent them an email asking for help on how to get them into my Reader. I am fully expecting them to tell me they do not support the Reader. If that is the case, the free books and the first book I bought should not have been able to upload. I did test it. I was cautious! Why on earth was I not more cautious? I really think I took reasonable precautions. I did not buy 5 books at once. I bought 1 and then tested and then got 4 others. I hope they either fix the problem or refund me the money so I can try and buy the books elsewhere. I am so annoyed. I do not like being in a bad mood over the Holiday season. I should be relaxing and enjoying myself... maybe reading a book on my Reader *growls* Current Mood: pessimistic (Comment on this)
Friday, December 18th, 2009
11:36 am	Approaching my mid 30's... Well, yeah. I am getting up there in age. No longer the whimsical girl I used to be. I am getting old..er. The past year especially I have noticed. I just haven't been that happy with myself. Okay, well hard to explain. I have been happy with myself, but just do not feel like myself. When I look in the mirror, that person there is not who I am. The person I see in my mind. Maybe it is time to get healthier and see if I can find her again. My mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year. I had been thinking on it. Finally I told her, rather than presents I would really love a gym membership. I knew if I paid for my own membership, chances are I would not go. I would let other things distract me. My parents buying it though - then I am kind of obligated to use it. So mom and dad got me a membership to Lifetime Fitness. We went for a tour and it is NOT the kind of place I really enjoy. I am against the whole thing. Really, the people there just are... scary. Women applying makeup and fixing their hair to go work out.. Why? When you work out you are supposed to sweat and be unattractive. If you are smiling and laughing and talking - you are doing it wrong. At least that is my opinion. They do have a daycare option, so that is a plus for me. I can go and put Hank in the play room and perfect. They have water aerobics classes too. I love the water. Even more perfect. The first week was wonderful. I was sore and tired, but I felt great. I went to the water aerobics class every single day. I enjoyed it a lot. I even kind of enjoyed the freaky psycho lady trying to talk me into going to her church. The second week... eh. I am really disappointed. The water aerobics class. I love it, but being so wet was rather unfortunate. Take the gym and all the new germs, add in wet hair and cold weather and you get a terrible cold. I tried to push through it and keep going, but it just kept getting worse. The cold went from my nose, to my throat and finally into my lungs. It is week three and I have realized that I have to forget the pool for my health. I can't give myself pneumonia. That is not doing anyone any good. My cold is finally sort of on the mend though because I haven't been in the pool the past few days. In fact I feel my body saying 'thank you'. I will have to try again once it is gone and actually use the hair dryer before I leave the building. I hate blow drying my hair. Guess I could cut it all off. So yeah, first came the gym. I do notice an improvement in my attitude. I feel a little happier. A little younger. I still do not quite feel like myself, but I can also attribute that to being so sick. It is hard to be sick. The constant mucus and coughing... my throat is raw and my head hurts from the force of the coughs... it is bad. I do not think I have ever been this sick before. My mom called me yesterday. I was getting ready to take cupcakes to my son's school for his birthday. She said she was going to the Frisco mall and would I like to meet her there. Hell yes! I thought. I dropped off the cupcakes, grabbed Hank (since Jim is sick as well and trying to work I thought he needed a break) and off to the mall I went. I do not like the mall. I hate the mall. I do not like shopping. I love my mom though. I like being able to spend time with her. I also needed to get a present for my brother's wife. It was going to be nice. First stop was we met up in a store. We did a little shopping for the kids. Got something for them each to wear Sunday night at the family Christmas party (am excited). We got Wendy some of the cutest fringed moccasin boots and then some of these jeweled, flashy shoes. Jamie got 2 shirts (one red, his favorite color) and Hank got a balloon and some shirts as well. I had told my mom a few weeks before how I had been curious about those shoes that work your legs and butt. She brought it up and said we should go look for them since we were in the mall and Macy's and Dillard's showed them. We chose Dillard's first. It was closer and I like it more than Macy's. We get to the shoe department and I wanted them to measure my feet - just to make sure these shoes would fit right. Problem. The woman measured my feet (6.5E). Yes I have wide feet. I have always had wide feet. I have duck feet. I got them from my dad. On the bright side, I do not need flippers when I swim. So she told me that they were not going to have shoes to fit me. Yes, I nodded, I knew the drill. This is why shoe shopping makes me cry. I can't wear pretty shoes. I know that. I get it. I accept it. I dream of fancy shoes, but I know they are a dream. Move along lady and let me go. No, she didn't do that. She kept talking at me about my feet. Over and over, drilling it into my head. I was trying as hard as I could not to cry, but it was hard. I am a 33 year old woman about to burst into tears in a shoe store. My mom knew I was upset, but I hoped not how much. She finally walked away and we left. We went shopping for Wendy at a Hello Kitty booth. My mom had a blast at that. I love watching her shop for Wendy. She only has the one granddaughter and my daughter LOVES things that sparkle and shine. It cheered me up to see her having so much fun. Next was the store for my sister-in-law. I got her a shirt. I would have gotten her more, but man the prices on those clothes. For a woman who only shops in 2 stores... wow. I will buy clothes from Wal-Mart. Just wow. We got lunch and then mom suggested we try Macy's for those shoes. I was apprehensive. I did not want to ruin it. It had been a good day. She talked me into it though. Thankfully it was packed, so we did not get hassled by shoe people. Mom grabbed a sales person and pointed at the shoes and said a size 8 for them. They brought them out, I tried them on and they fit. I pulled off the tags and we got them. We headed to our cars and halfway through the mall I noticed I was breathing hard. Wow. You think after a summer of Six Flags and the gym I would not be huffing and puffing after an hour and a half in the mall. My feet were a little sore and I realized - it was the shoes. They were not uncomfortable, it was just that they really work. So I am kind of optimistic now. They are the most complicated shoes I have ever owned. They come with their own instructional DVD and instruction book. That is pretty wow in and of itself. Shoes that need instructions. I haven't got around to watching it, but I read the book while I was waiting to pick up Jamie and Wendy from school. Wow. So yeah, maybe in a few weeks I will be able to give a better judge on these shoes. I can hope anyway. Adding these to the gym will be good for me. Now I just have to work on eating healthier foods. THAT will be hard as I dearly love my southern comfort foods. Oh - and I am adding a note here now. I started eating spinach on Halloween of this year. Two days ago, was he first day I could eat it without cringing. A piece even fell off my sandwich and I picked it up and ate it. Yay me. I have conquered spinach. Now I need to find something else to conquer. Any suggestions? Yeah, I don't have any either. My mom suggested asparagus. Yuck! It smells really bad. I think that will be pretty low on the list. Right down there with artichoke hearts, liver and avocados. Current Mood: hopeful (Comment on this)
Monday, December 14th, 2009
11:34 pm	Jamie's Birthday party The day started out pretty good. The day before I had started coming down with a cold. Naturally, that morning it was a full blown nightmare of icky-ness. I was miserable. On the bright side, at 9pm the night before I get a call from one of my son's friend's mother. She said they would be there. I thought "wow, last second, but at least someone is coming." So anyway, back to that morning. I skipped the gym because I was miserable. Really really miserable. Jim went though and thankfully I stayed home and got another phone call at 9:30am from another mother saying they would be there. Okay, my remark about the night before being last minute... yeah. So I was slightly happier. I felt like roadkill, but at least my little boy's heart wouldn't be let down on his big day. Yay! We get ready to go and we swing by the store to pick up the cake. I was feeling the cold medicine by this point and was in good spirits. Then I got a look at the cake. It was terrible. It was this giant sloppy mess. Honestly it looked like something I could decorate myself. I have NO skill in cake decorating. I can barely slop frosting on a cupcake, so that means this cake looked bad. I was not impressed. Needless to say, I threw a small fit and we got the cake for free. Free cake is good I suppose. I would rather it have been beautiful though. My son was happy with it, but it's cake. He was on a high knowing his friends were going to be there. They should have paid me to take that cake though. Later in the day when we got to the whole cake part of the party, the thing began to fall apart. Turns out it looked like something happened to it and they had to piece it together with frosting. *sighs* You pay people to do a job. They should do it. Take pride in your work, don't just slop things together. Anyway, turns out that 4 kids overall showed up. My son was in heaven. He was bowling with his friends. His sister was beating him for a few frames and they all proclaimed how unfair it was that they were being beaten by a girl. It got them moving and they soon passed her. So then the happiness was complete. Presents were wonderful. My son's friends are really nice. They got him some wonderful presents. One of which was the main thing he wanted. I had been looking for this for awhile and had given up. My mom had come across it the day before, bought it and was going to give it to him for Christmas. I had to call her and let her know she had to take it back. The really cool thing is, the one who got it for him is the little girl who has had a cruch on him for awhile. She is a nice little girl, shy and does not have a lot of friends. I am glad we were able to invite her and I am glad she got to be the star of the day in Jamie's eyes. That made her day. She was so happy. Overall it was a good party. The only real down point was that I was sick and that terrible cake. I will always remember that cake. *shudders* Current Mood: relieved (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
11:06 pm	RSVP anyone? Okay, a few years ago I had a birthday party for Jamie. I let him invite his friends from school. I put "RSVP" on the little invitations with my phone number. No one called. Not a single parent called to let me know they were coming or not. No one but my parents. So that left my husband and I in a bad situation. We had to go ahead and pay for all the children just in case some of them actually did show up. Some of them did, but nowhere near the entire guest list. We did get some kind of a refund though, we got a gift card for the pizza place. Whoopee. Anyway, I learned my lesson from that I had thought. Until this year. Jamie begged for a birthday party. He did not want the small get together at my mom's. He wanted to actually invite some friends. I gave in, but we compromised. Rather than invite his entire class, I told him he could pick 5 friends and invite them. So he invited his friends and I even gave an invite to a friend we had lost track of. We ran into her at the gym and I figured it would be nice to invite them. So Jamie's party is on Saturday. We are going to Main Event because he wants to go bowling. I once again put our phone number and RSVP on the invitations. Again, nothing. Once again we are wondering who will show up. Will anyone show up? Will I have to see my little boy holding back tears because none of his friend's could come? Thankfully we did it informally. We are not renting a party room or anything and there was no paying in advance. If by some miracle the kids show up, we will pay for their shoes and the lane. If they do not, well... I really hope someone shows up though. We are even having his party 10 days before his birthday in order to not conflict too much with Holiday things. What pisses me off the most is why won't mothers RSVP. My daughter was invited to a party on Sunday. We are going and the first thing I did was call the kid's mom and let her know we would be there. I consider that it is the polite thing to do. Am I wrong to expect the same kind of treatment? I hate this constant worrying that Jamie will be disappointed if no one shows up. Its his 9th birthday. He is so looking forward to this. His friend's have told him they want to come, and will be there. I hope his friends do come. I hope its just that they all have mothers who cannot be bothered to RSVP. I want to see him smiling have having fun with his friends. I want this headache caused by the worry that he will be disappointed to go away. I want Saturday to be here already so we can know. Get it over with. Either no one shows and I have to see him be sad... I just hope 1 person shows. I know seeing all 5 would be heaven for him, but even just 1 would do. I want my little boy to be happy. I want him to have a good birthday party. Is that too much to want? Current Mood: aggravated (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 13th, 2006
12:26 pm	Sad sad world Anzak and I took the kids to dinner the other night. We were at Red Lobster, and of course the waiting room was packed. People were just standing there in any space they could find. They had a little seating, but all was full. What really got me was that half the people seated were teen, young and middle aged men. All appeared very healthy. I looked around and saw elderly women and men standing, I myself was a woman holding a baby with 2 small children clutching me. What possessed these guys to just sit there while others were standing. Didn't they have parents? My dad never let a woman stand if he was seated. He would offer her a seat and then make my brothers stand up and offer seats to women and elderly people. I even make sure and offer my seat to someone who looks like they need it more. It is just considerate. Where were these people raised? Was my family just that different? My grandfather wouldn't sit unless there was no one else standing. He considered himself healthy and would let others sit before he would. I was raised with this kind of idea. I guess it just makes me mad to see how selfish some people are. I know I will make sure that my kids learn to offer up their seats to others. When they are teenagers and have healthy young legs, they can stand and let others who need assistance sit. We ended up leaving and finding some place that didn't have a wait - and while Anzak would have rather had Red Lobster, I didn't want to stand for 40 minutes holding a baby and watch my other 2 being jostled around by people packing themselves in the restaurant. Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
10:48 am	My favorte Christmas Ornament I wanted to add a little note about my favorite ornament that ended its short life this year. When I was 14 or 15, my mom was dragging us through the mall doing Christmas shopping. I saw a Christmas shop - one of those random shops that seems to srping up during the holiday season and sells Christmas stuff. I was drawn to it because it was filled with blown glass ornaments. Really old looking ornaments. My favorite kind. I love blown glass ornaments. They are probably the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I wandered through the shop, and found two really inexpensive little blown glass pieces. They could be clipped on the branches of the tree. One was a frog prince and the other was a bird with ltile gold strings of tinsel coming out of its tail. They were lovely. It was then that I saw a display they had on one side of the store. They were Russian Blown glass ornaments and they were beautiful. One of them was this beautiful blue color that lightened in the center and a delicate little pink horse was painted on it. The horse was painted to look like it had spirit and it was just really beautiful. I begged and pleaded for mom and dad to buy it for me. I promised eternal care and devotion, anything for that ornament. It was not a cheap ornament. They finally relented and let me have it. I was in heaven. I looked forward to Christmas even more everyyear because I knew that I would get to hang my favorite ornament on the tree. I was obsessive with this ornament. I was always careful with it, packed it carefully and made sure nothing ever happened to it. This year when I was unpacking the ornaments, I reached into the layers of paper protecting it, and came out what was left of my ornament. It was broken. It looks like the movers put something really really heavy on top of my box of ornaments. I remember telling the guys who were moving them out to the truch to be very careful with that tub, that it had fragile things in it and to put nothing on top of it. I guess he did not listen :( I cried. My son saw my tears and thought he did something wrong and started to cry too. Hadto make sure he knew that it was not his fault. I should have carried that box out to the moving van myself and madesure that they put nothing on top of it. Hindsight. I will always have to keep my eyes open to see if I can ever find another ornament like it. My Nana gave me one of her blown glass angels, which is very beautiful and I can't believe she gave it to me, but I will still always miss my favorite ornament. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 31st, 2005
9:43 am	Trick or Treat! My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul Peophi goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Magenta. alianna_815 tricks you! You get a wet rag. anzak tricks you! You get an eraser. frashii tricks you! You get a wad of paper. hardartist tricks you! You get a piece of paper. mahlon gives you 19 mottled green chocolate-flavoured wafers. mc4bbs gives you 16 tan passionfruit-flavoured jawbreakers. nodwick gives you 10 red cinnamon-flavoured jawbreakers. pseudomammal gives you 18 mauve blueberry-flavoured nuggets. stormchildnews gives you 18 purple lemon-flavoured gummy worms. Peophi ends up with 81 pieces of candy, a wet rag, an eraser, a wad of paper, and a piece of paper. Go trick-or-treating! Username: Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
9:37 am	My Halloween Party peophi's Halloween party: alianna_815 dressed as Warren G. Harding. anzak dressed as a ghost. frashii dressed as Optimus Prime. hardartist dressed as Ali Landry's aunt. mahlon dressed as a Level 3 paladin. mc4bbs dressed as a bottle of Pulritodrone. nodwick dressed as a skeleton. pseudomammal dressed as Ted Williams. stormchildnews dressed as Mary-Kate Olsen with her very own conjoined Ashley. Throw your own party at the Hallomeme! Created with phpNonsense (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
9:21 am	Cursed with a stubborn daughter My daughter has a will of iron. From the time she was conceived, it seems like her entire existence was to torture me. She was by far my hardest pregnancy, the worst at nursing, and she can be the most annoying creature I have ever come across. She started talking really early, walking really really early, and has always had this piercing shriek of a laugh (and cry) that can penetrate the fabric of the skull like an ice pick. She was a terrible nurser (I nicknamed her Piranha and the name fit surprisingly well). She also baffles me beyond anything. How I could have given birth to a little girl who acts so girly is beyond me. She loves pink, and sparkly things, lacey things, frilly things and girly stuff. She actually loves to shop. *shivers* She is the complete opposite of me in every way it seems. Above all, the most annoying thing about her is that she is so impossibly cute that I can't ever seem to stay annoyed with her for longer than like 3 seconds. That's probably the oddest thing of all, I can hold a grudge forever, yet with my daughter, she can get awy with anything. Her cuteness is a powerful weapon. I have a feeling that she will rule the world before she is 12. Anyway, we have been trying to potty train her for a long time now. At first she seemed excited about it, but she does not quite understand what to do. She has this incanny ability to let her bladder loose when I am completely busy doing something else. We tried those training pants that would show you when she was wet (worked for my son ok) but she would only pee when I was right in the middle of nursing. Keeping her pantless also doesn't work because she will hold it until hell freezes over in order to keep from going. We have tried bribes of candy, toys, money, our souls... you name it, we have offered it. She scorns it all as beneath her. She will sometimes humor us and sit on the potty, but no matter how long she sits there, nothing ever happens. She will make a "psssssss" sound and then say "I went pee!" A few weeks ago she saw the add for a Puppy Surprise toy. Its a mother dog with puppies inside her. Kind of a cute toy in an icky kind of way... but my daughter just HAD to have one. I told her that if she went in the potty, we would take her to the store and buy her one. Did she go in the potty? Of course not. Instead she dug through her toychest and her brother's room and found all the little "Dogz" McDonalds Happy Meal toys that we have gotten through the years (they offer that toy way too much). So now she has 6 or 7 little tiny puppies and uses them as babies for some of her bigger stuffed dogs. She has made her own Puppy Surprise out of it, and even calls them her Puppy Surprise. We got a V-Smile for the kids. I have to say it was worth it. I was kind of hoping to use it as a prod as one more thing to convince my daughter to give the potty a try. Now at nap and at bedtime, I send the 'babies' to bed early. Anyone who wears underwear or goes poo poo or pee pee in the potty can stay up and play V-Smile for a little while. My son of course thinks this is the world's greatest idea. My daughter, even though she loves V-Smile and wants to play it, just shrugs and heads to bed. Not a complaint. We have had her wearing Princess Training pants for awhile, and this week we took those away. We put her back into baby diapers, which she absolutly hates. She wants her princess diapers back. I tell her that if she starts to pee pee in the potty, she can have them back. She can even have Princess underwear. That seemed like it might work. She actually spent a good deal of time on the potty. Unfortunately she never had to go during that time period. I knew she was about to potty, but she was holding it. She was crying a bit that she needed her diaper, I told her just to go in the potty, but she held on another 30 minutes. I do not want to make going to the potty a bad experience, so I relented and put a diaper on her and then down for her nap. She of course let loose as soon as the diaper was on. She has some amaing control, I will give her that. I wish they had more potty videos or books. Like a Cinderella goes potty or something. There really aren't enough girly girly role models out there. Disney really needs a line of baby Princesses, and then have a potty training book for them. My daughter saw Princess diapers, so in her mind, Princesses wear diapers. She thinks she is a princess, so she thinks she has to wear a diaper. No amount of me pointing out that Ariel and Belle go in the potty will change her mind. I know in time she will make up her mind. All it will take is just one thing and she will be ready. I just am so tired of diapers and want to get her potty trained. Sooner we can get her out of diapers, then the baby will see that the older two aren't going in a diaper and make him want to potty too. I just wish my daughter wasn't so stubborn. A couple I knew tried something on their son. I do not remember exactly, but it was like not letting him wear a diaper in order to force him to go. The boy ended up having to go to the doctor because he refused to go in the potty, so refused to go period. He constipated himself really bad. They had to give him something to make him go - and they gave him a little much and it worked too well. The poor boy was on the potty, but it was a bad experience for him and set him back some. I do not want my kids scared of the potty, and I do not want to hurt them by making them have to force themselves to hold it in. That is how Urinary tract infections can happen, and I do NOT want my daughter to have one of those. Patience...I need to somehow find patience. I think she refuses to potty just because she knows I want her to so badly. I think she is waiting for something amazing, like an offer to become Empress of the world or something. I would raise and army and begin my takeover this minute if I thought it would help. Of course, anyone who would follow me into battle would have to be an idiot :P Current Mood: stressed (Comment on this)
Monday, October 17th, 2005
9:49 am	The Fair On Saturday, we took the kids to the State Fair of Texas. I was impressed that I had such a good time. We started with a few games. I was amazed that they were so kid friendly. Most of them had signs that said "Kids play till they win, prize everytime". First game was a fishing game. The kids got to hold fishing rods with magnets on the end, and then dip them in these pools of water and try to pull little rubber fish out of the water. The kids had a blast, and my son won three plush flowers and my daughter won a stuffed puppy. The guy handed me a little teeny plush duck for the baby. "Wow, nice guy" I thought. Next was a baloon popping game. The kids each came away with a stuffed puppy. Then my daughter saw another dart game with baloons. The prizes were hats. The guy at the counter said she could have any hat on the walls, or the princess hat if we paid for two games. I had my daughter pick which colors of balloon she wanted me to try and pop and then kiss my hand for luck. We threw them together and after three baloons popped she got to pick a hat off the wall (we weren't going to pay $10 for the princess hat). She picked pink (of course) and she did not want to take the hat off for anything. Its a fuzzy pink hat, and looks very 'pimpish'. They each won a little stuffed mouse from somewhere too, but I forget where. The kids were hungry, so after we watched my Nana shoot a BB gun (a BB Tommy Gun at that!) we went to the little food area. We got Corn Dogs, Lemonade and Anzak got Pizza and fries. My daughter and Nana wanted funnel cake, but we told them that we would ride some rides first - then get the dessert. My son saw a swinging pirate ship from where we were sitting. He wanted to ride that. We paid the tickets, we got up to the ship -- and he changed his mind. No way was he going on it. So I went back and asked the guy for our tickets back. He said he had put them in the box, so nothing he could do. I asked him if my daughter could ride - nope, she was only 34-35 inches and had to be 39 for that ride. So not wanting to waste too many tickets, I rode it alone. He did refund my son's tickets - so he wasn't such a grumpy old man after all. Wish he would have refunded mine - riding it alone was no fun... Anzak and my son rode an airplane ride, my daughter didn't want to. Then my Nana and son rode a 'roller coaster' together. My daughter was too short for that one too. By one measly inch. While they rode that, and the baby slept in his stroller, I took my daughter to another little game and she won another stuffed puppy. She of course was carrying her other two as well, and the third went into her clutches. So here was this little teeny girl in a pink furry pimp hat, clutching three plush puppies for dear life. The kids rode a little boat ride, then we went to the Ferris Wheel. My son did not want to ride it - which was fine with me since I did not either. So Anzak, my dauther and baby boy and my Nana went to ride on the Ferris Wheel, and my son and I were going to sit and wait. I noticed Pony Rides and asked my son if he wanted to. Of course. So I got some tickets, and we stood in line. My son saw that one of the ponies was black, and he wanted to ride that one. We were the 6th person in line, and there were only 6 ponies, so I told my son that he might not get to ride that one. I told him if he wanted to ride the black one, we should let the little girl behind us go first. He wanted none of that. So of course he did not get to ride the black one. He was upset and I had to walk alongside him and the pony. Oh well, he had a chance but he is always determind to go first :p When everyone else met us after the Ferris Wheel, I took my daughter to ride a pony too. Now she was a natural. Everyone remarked on how well she did and how happy she was riding. I think she enjoyed that more and anything else the entire day. After that we rode the Carousel and the kids had fun. I held the baby on a horse, and everytime we would go up I would say "wheeee" and then he would go "eeeeee" on the way down. It was so cute. The kids rode a little safari train, and then the hunt for funnel cake began. We got 2 funnel cakes. One for my nana and one for my daughter. We all got slushies too for everyone, and caramel and candy apples for my son, Anzak and I. Everything was yummy! It was 3pm, and finally time to head home too. My Nana had tickets to Neil Diamond (wish I did too!) for that evening, so she needed to get home to take a nap - and we needed to get the kids home for a nap too. The kids sang (three different songs) the entire way home. They laughed and played and it was just marvelous. I am so glad we went and can't wait to go again next year. Maybe we will get season passes and go every weekend.... hmmmm maybe not. Once is enough for any year I think. Current Mood: bouncy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
9:55 am	I need to get my mind out of the gutter... I am watching Dora the Explorer with my kids. It's some nursery rhyme episode. Apparently Dora is trying to help her friend Mary's Little Lamb get back to Mary. On the way they run into the characters from Rub a Dub Dub three men in a tub. Dora hitches a ride in their bathmobile. Does the thought of a girl, 3 boys a sheep and a monkey all in a bathtub just creep anyone else out? Current Mood: mischievous (Comment on this)
Friday, September 30th, 2005
11:37 am	*sigh* I have three cats. Dragon, he is a little under 2 years old; Pirate, he is almost 6 months; and Firefly, she is also almost 6 months. Well, like a responsibile pet owner (and a desire to not have a marking cat) we ad Dragon fixed when we got him. When we got the kittens, I called the vet and made an appointment to have them fixed too. What was I told? Well that I had to wait until the cats were 6 months old. But...but...what if they mature too fast or I am wrong on their ages because the female was a stray and the male came from a lady who was sure he was a she? Dragon was fixed when he was like 4-5 months old - why do I have to wait? Well, they wouldn't budge, so I went ahead and made an appointment for when they hit 6 months. Pirate is scheduled to be snipped on the 24th of October. I had Firefly scheduled for a month later because I thought she might be younger. Everything I had ever seen or heard about cats tended to mention that cats went into their first heat cycle between 6-8 months of age. I was so wrong. Firelfy last week began being a little more vocal than usual. She was also acting a little awkward. She seemed uncomfortable and kind of acted like she wanted to be alone. Then it began getting worse. Two days ago, Anzak caught Pirate trying to mount her and she was eagerly wanting him to. Oh please no! Well, I had Anzak dig our dog's old crate out of the garage and set it up in our bathroom. Put a litterbox in it, food and water and a blanket. Then I put Pirate in it. I figured that he was the more dangerous because male cats mark. Of course Firefly kept just getting more and more annoying. Yowling and screaming and howling and being about as annoying as a cat can be. So we had Pirate howling because he wants access to her, and Firefly howling cause she wants her man. I also noticed her gettling a little careless with her urine. *sigh* Two options now. Either get the other dog crate out of the garage and set it up somewhere and put her in it - or throw her outside and let her take her chances. Well, I couldn't do that. We just had her declawed, and I couldn't bring myself to put her out. So we got another litter box and I put that, some food and water and a blanket into our guest bathroom. Now that's where she is going to live till this heat cycle is gone. While now the house is safe from a marking baby tom cat, and squirting by a desperate female - we still have to listen to the meows of all three. Pirate and Firefly who eagerly want to find the backseat of a car and Dragon who is suddenly lonely and does not know what is going on. I know that Pirate probably can't breed Firefly yet, he is only a little over 5 months and so probably not too mature, but I want to try and keep him from marking. I am tempted to call the vet and see if he can fit us in earlier for the both of them. I can't see dealing with this for at least the next 10 days. Everyone would be miserable. *sigh* Current Mood: frustrated (Comment on this)
Monday, September 26th, 2005
12:06 pm	Child abuse My soon to be 1 yr old son is abusing me. Besides the slow torture of sleep deprivation my gang of children are employing, he is adding a more physical attack to finish me off quickly. Last week he was wearing a sleeper with a zipper on it and was practicing his walking. I was laying down on the floor, and he walked toward me and sat himself down on my face. The zipper crashed and scrapped along my forhead causing this ugly red birthmark looking thing right in the middle of my head :(. No blood thankfully, but it still hurt like the dickens, and I got some funny looks. This morning he found himself a makeshift club, and whacked me in the head with it. That kid has some strength. I already have a little knot forming. Funny thing is, he managed to hit the exact same spot that he already injured with the zipper. This is the same kid who misses his mouth when trying to feed himself, yet has uncanny accuracy when it comes to beating me in the head. He was always my sweetest baby, but I guess its the quiet ones you have to watch out for after all. I need to go lie down for awhile and hope the headache that's coming goes away. (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 25th, 2005
11:27 am	A new chair :) When I moved in with Anzak, I was nice and gave him my computer chair. I figured that since he actually did computer work the computer chair made more sense for him. I only use my computer for chatting with people and playing games. Yeah, I know, I am a shirt off my back kind of person. Well that was a long time ago. Since then I have been using a plastic green lawn chair - and then since the move - one of the kitchen chairs. Let me tell you - they are not that comfortable. About a week ago my computer chair (Anzak's chair) finally gave out. The soft cushy comfy chair died. I told Anzak just to use one of the kitchen chairs - just like I use - and he did. Two days later, he realized how uncomfortable it was, so he offered to buy us both new computer chairs. Yay! Well, I picked the most wonderful chair. It is blue and soft and wonderful. I am very happy with it. Then again, I would have been happy with anything with a cushion. I can't wait to get online and use it. Maybe I will not get so irritated when people harvest my nodes... yeah, that's probably asking way too much. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 19th, 2005
11:57 am	Sad sad people out there... I play EverQuest 2. I enjoy it for the most part, it's a good game. They just released a new expansion and fixed my class (yay!) and pretty much pissed everyone off about something - but oh well. They added a new continent. The Lost Desert of something or other. Well, to mae it annoying, you have to build your faction up with one of three different groups. To do this you have two main choices. You can do quests over and over, or you can kill guards from the other two factions and turn them in to yours. I usually do the quests, but occasionally I like to deal out a little death to some rival guards. I went into the city, and found a nice little spot with some solo guards on the opposite faction of the one I was working. Perfect. The only problem was someone else was also heading for the same spot. She got the first group of mobs, so I ran past and went to another group (the spot had 4 total groups of 2-3 mobs a piece - with a named or place holder that would spawn when all 4 groups were dead). The other girl sends me a message and tells me that the room is camped. I send her a tell back asking if I can join her. She of course says no, and eplains that solo xp sucks when you are solo, more so when you are grouping. Easy - I tell her I am not looking for xp, I just want the faction. So she decides to be unreasonable and say she is factioning too AND xping - so she still does not want to join forces. Fine. I can be nice. I tell her that I will just kill this one spawn point, and she can have the rest. That would give me 3 mobs to kill, and her 9 (and 10 if the name popped). That's 10 mobs every 15 minutes, with me only getting 3. I figure it was a good compromise. She said it was her camp and she had been there for hours. (Funny how all the mobs were up at the same time if she had been there for hours) I told her that there were no 'camps' and that we could easily share. I figured she accepted that because I heard nothing else from her. Even though she broke an encounter because it got too much for her and she ran away from the "camp". She came back and killed her groups, and I sat and waited patiently - even though I could have easily competed with her for some of the other groups because she had to regen power sometimes. Next thing I know, I get a tell from an offier in my guild. He is taking her side. I told him flat out that I was standing by what I thought was right. He kep[t trying to use the argument "if she had come into the area you were fighting, and began killing one of your groups, how would you feel?" "I would offer to group with her and share all the groups," I told him. It is really the only fair thing to do. There are only a select few solo mobs that are solo in the city. All of them in that little area. Sure one person can kill them, but in the spirit of being a good person, the right thing to do is share. I do not know what I find worse, that she would not be reasonable and share in the first place, or that she would run and whine to my guild. I could probably understand her point of view if we were competing over a named mob that drops really nice loot or is needed for a quest, but a normal mob. That is just pathetic. Oh well, lots of pathetic people out there. What made it worse was when I was leaving, I told her to have a nice day, waved and then told her that she really needed tolearn how to share - that my 3 yr old daughter can share better than she does. She went and told my guild officer that I was making 'snide' remarks. *sigh* I am really glad that my parents took the time to teach me how to share with other people. Makes me thankful for having a caring family. Current Mood: thankful (Comment on this)
Friday, September 9th, 2005
12:57 pm	Sometimes people amaze me...or My sister-in-law took time out of her homelife this weekend to volunteer at an emergency shelter for hurricane victims. She originally was just taking some clothes and things over to her church. She heard that they were desprately looking for volunteers to help out at this shelter. She signed herself up. Well of course people were pouring in. People who had nothing but the clothes they were wearing and little else. They had been in the same clothes for days and probably eager for something clean to wear. At least if I had been wearing the same clothes for days and was feeling as scummy as half these people look - I would want that. A store nearby had donted a lot of unopened packages of Hanes briefs. Also the t-shirts and other underclothes. My sister-in-law was handing out packages of briefs to people - and she said that a good 80% of them were complaining because they did not want briefs, they wanted boxers. She was telling them that they had two choices - to accept the brand new clean briefs, or keep the dirty clothes they were wearing. She said that many of the people also complained about the t-shirts they were being given. They did not want sleeved shirts - they wanted straps. Hello - you people have nothing. Why not be grateful? It is not like they were trying to give them used underwear with holes in it - no - they were getting brand new underwear. I think that if everything I had was underwater, the last thing I would be complaining about is someone handing me brand new clothes. My mother, sister-in-law, brother's girlfriend and my grandma and myself all went to Eddie Bauer at the Outlet mall. They were having a Labor day sale and most things were 50-70% off. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I got 4 new t-shirt for $5 a piece. The woman at the checkout said that a few hurricane victims had been in the store and were trying to get the store to take even more money off the price for them - and also discount items that were no on sale. I personally think it was just more people looking to use a situation to get something for nothing. I mean, Wal-Mart fashions might not be the most fashionable things out there - but they are cheap and will get you by. Oh well - I sound heartless and all sorts of bitchy today - but it really makes me mad to see people act like this. I mean, I feel bad that they lost everything, but they should be thankful that people are going out of their way to help them. No one says that a store has to donate a ton of underwear, no one is making people give money out of their own pockets - what ever happened to a simple "thank you"? Sometimes I think that is why people do not bother to help a lot of the time - when they do - they get people who do not appreciate the help. Current Mood: bitchy (4 Comments |Comment on this)