Puking, Painting & Parties.....

It's been a while since I've been on here, life has taken me on another roller coaster ride. There's been ups and downs, twists and turns and plenty of excitement. At least I can say there's been no vomit!

It's been a few days since I started this post and now I have to take back the "no vomit" statement. I'll get to an explanation of that in a bit. If you are my facebook friend, I apologize for the repeat vomit updates.

The kids started school on the 24th. Well, Andrew only went for one day and then had to finish up his OSS. He is almost completely finished with his sentence, all he has left to do is his last jury duty on the 21st and then they will rip up the documents and throw them all away leaving him with NO record. He returned to school on Wednesday only to be sent home halfway through the day. (This is due to the vomit that I will get to later). Other than having 2 weeks of homework to catch up on and a couple of honors classes, I think that he is pretty excited to be back in school. This year he plans on playing football, basketball, and track so it looks like I will be spending a lot of time at the middle school.

Amber is absolutely loving school. She's in the VPK program and attends school for 3 hours a day. I totally wish it was longer miss her so much while she is gone. It's quite lonely around here with both of them gone, but I have been able to get much more done around the house without them here.

Keith brought me home a new friend and her name is Freckles. She is so stinkin' cute but is driving me crazy with the whole house training thing. I have no patience... But at least Sasha now has a cuddle buddy!


We've been doing lots of painting on the house and someday soon I hope to have it finished so that we can do another home video tour. Don't worry, I will be here to film this one so it won't be so lame dorky quick.


I Stan got back.

Yes, he came back to me in a package of socks for Amber. Isn't that nice? Thanks MOM! I was able to get rid of him again though when my Sister came over for Labor Day.

We celebrated my brother Patrick's 25th birthday on Saturday. I am really starting to feel old now. He's a half a century and I'm almost 30. EEEEEK!

          Kelly           Me     Patrick          Katelyn
^Just a few of my siblings! I saw my Dad for the first time since the "incident" which was kinda awkward. Not much was said other than some "I Love You's" but, I guess that's a start?

I spent quite a few hours in the ER on Sunday with Amber because the cold that she had developed on Friday had gotten much worse and I was scared that she may have developed pink eye. Her eyes were all red and gunky.

This picture doesn't even begin to explain what her eyes really looked like. Diagnosis = Upper Respiratory Infection + No Pink Eye. Whew! So, Nichole and the twins came to spend the night (as we had previously planned before the ER visit). The next day we had a small get together for Labor Day. Good times!

On to the vomitus.....I told you I would get to it. ***Possibly TMI below***BEWARE***
Tuesday morning, Keith woke up to go to work and found that he was incredibly sick. Whatever it was, it was pouring coming out of his body like water but from both ends.... At lunchtime I got a call telling me to come and pick up Andrew as he had been throwing up in school. He ended up having the same problems as Keith and this lasted all night long. According to my favorite website (facebook) I noticed that Nichole also started having these problems Tuesday night. Then, on Wednesday my sister joined the vomiting crew. At first we thought it might be food poisoning because everyone that was sick had been at my house on Monday. Then, my sister-in-law got it too (and she wasn't at the party). Whatever it was, it was BAD! I made Keith & Andrew take shots of apple cider vinegar which seemed to help calm their stomachs. Andrew was able to return to school yesterday and Keith returned to work today. As far as I know, everyone is back to normal now. I am so happy that I didn't catch this one!

Not Me Monday - Take 2

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

As for me, these are the things that I have NOT been up to....

I did NOT grill a 14oz. ribeye at 10:00 tonight, along with sauteed onions and mushrooms. I did NOT eat every last bite by myself. As the lid to the grill closed, I did NOT hear a big bang. The bottom of the grill did NOT totally fall out. This is NOT the 3rd grill that we have gone through in 7 years. We do NOT grill way too much.

I did NOT sit at Taco Bell for 2 hours tonight with Amber and a few library books. We were NOT there because Andrew was serving his first jury duty.

I did NOT get a call from Keith letting me know that we get to keep our house. They did NOT finally call us and work out a deal after months of struggling. This news would NOT cause me to do a happy dance in the middle of Taco Bell.

I did NOT get super excited because I received a notification that "Bill" was following me on My Blog Log. I was NOT completely disappointed after logging in to see that "Bill" was no longer following me. I do NOT NOT know who "Bill" is.

I did NOT almost forget to post a NOT me Monday post tonight. It is NOT so late that it is almost Tuesday.

I do NOT have over 500 blog posts to try to catch up on. I would NOT ever get that far behind on my blog reading. I am NOT off to read them now.....

Friday Favorites #4

Oh yes it's time to pay homage to all the things that got us through
the week, and give credit where credit is due! Here are my Friday
Favorites this week....

Rogers Park & Sociable Rednecks: We went to the beach last weekend and met some crazy "locals". We had a great time, and will be there again this Sunday.

Andrew's Track Meet: Definitely a highlight this week.

Myspace & Facebook: I have reconnected with some old friends and can't wait until we actually get together.

My Bed: Thank you for keeping me snuggled this week. I needed it.

Junk Food: Chips, Chocolate, Cookies. You name it, I ate it, and LIKED it.

American Idol: Happy that Anoop is finally gone.

What helped you to get through the last week? Head on over to Jana's Blog and add your . <<<Just click the graphic

Friday Favorites #3

Yes, it's that time again. Time to pay homage to the things that have gotten me through the last week. Here they are in no particular order:

Maztec - Keith's new contract has finally kicked off and the work is starting to come in.

Song of the week - If You're Going Through Hell (Rodney Atkins)

The Obnoxious SAHM for giving me the Mom Of The Year Award. Have you read this post? Do I still deserve it now?


Bibi of Bibi Has The Last Word for giving me the Sisterhood Award.



Purple and Gray Paint. The wall behind our bed is purple, and the rest of the room is gray. We have been working our butts off painting our room, and it's finally done!

Aunt Flow - I have been waiting on her for 9 days to show up. I was starting to get scared that she wasn't going to come.

Flowers blooming.



What things have helped to get you through the week? Check out Janna's blog to see everyone's Friday Favorites and add your own.
<<<Click the graphic!

It's been a long day........

For some stupid reason, Keith and I have both decided to stop smoking. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think it's stupid to stop smoking. I think it's stupid to have two people in the same household quit smoking. Cold turkey. Anyway, we quit around 9:00 yesterday morning and it has been a roller coaster ride. One minute everything is fine, and the next WATCH OUT! We pretty much decided it would just be easier if we didn't speak to each other unless necessary.

Andrew has been sick since last Friday, and all of his symptoms got better except for his sore throat. $75 and a trip to the walk-in clinic = Strep Throat. Poor kid.

Spent the day painting the last wall in our bedroom. 3 walls are gray, and we painted the 4th wall a dark purple. Problem was that we ran out of paint before we finished the wall. So, we ended up using the light purple paint that was supposed to be for our bathroom and painting over the dark purple.
<<< Bottom is the color we wanted, but we ended up with the color on the top.

I am going to work with Keith tomorrow for one of the first jobs we are doing for the new contract with Sam's. Will need to stop and get a bag of suckers to use when I need a cigarette.

Working on my and then off to bed....

Drunk Drive

Here is another post for the Flickr group 52 1/2 weeks of 2009. The theme for the week was “Outside your house/Where you live) With only 5 minutes to take the picture, I did not get very creative. Here is the end product:

That sign hangs on the shed in the backyard. Pretty redneck huh?

Unfortunately, I forgot to upload it yesterday, so it did not get entered for the week. :( Story of my life., We won’t even begin to mention how horribly awful I have been in keeping up with NaBloPoMo. Oh well, at least 1 month this year I WILL  post everyday.

Week 1/2

This is my first post for the Flickr group 52 1/2 weeks of 2009. I decided to go with this group since I am already participating in the SPT challenge from Lelly. I figured, how many photos of me could you actually want to see?

The “theme” of the week was the word START.

Here’s my photo:

We have made a new START buying our first home together. We STARTed Amber’s room first, and now all it needs is some paint.

Reflecting on 2008

The year is coming to an end and now is the time to look back at the good and bad of the last year before starting anew in 2009. I cannot say that 2008 was the greatest year, but there were some good parts too…..

2008 started off with me having to find a job because the job that I had worked at for the past 5 years was given to a family member. («<Enough about that, I still get angry when I think about it.) Luckily, I was able to find a job and start in the end of January. However, to get to work I would need to drive, I never wanted a driver’s license and was terrified of driving (watch out world - Teenie is on the road!). Getting my license was a BIG hurdle that I had to cross, and I did it!

Another big moment was sending Amber to daycare for the first time. With my last job I was able to work from home so this was a new to all of us. Amber had always been at home with me, and it was hard leaving her behind. Luckily, Amber jumped right into the swing of things (as did Mommy & Daddy) and loved going to “school”!

I was at my new job for about 2 weeks when I pulled up to the house and there was a man in the driveway. He was there to inform us that the house we were living in was going into foreclosure and that we had 2 weeks to get out. Now, we were supposed to be buying this house after our year lease was up. We had been paying an extra $300 a month towards a down payment. With 2 weeks to find a place, and no money for a down payment, things were not looking good. We managed to find a mobile home on 1 1/4 acres that was in the same school district.

We had a huge Memorial Day party at our house because our friend Corey was coming from out of town. Alcohol & dirtbikes don’t mix. Keith wrecked our son’s dirtbike and almost killed himself. Literally. He spent 3 days in the hospital with internal injuries. Luck was on his side and he has since recovered.

Andrew did very well in school this year, making the honor roll in every quarter. Then he got caught skipping school….. What else is there to say about that?

We got a puppy - Jake(Catahoula bulldog/Boxer mix). Someone stole him. :(
We got a new puppy - Sasha. (Black Lab/Pitbull mix). She is sweet.

The best part of the year was in November when Keith and I bought our house. We have been trying to buy a house for 4 years, and it finally happened. Whoo-hoo. Go us!

On to next year…….

Oh Yeah, Jenny is a dork.

"The average American looks at 8 houses before buying one"

I guess we are not average. Keith and I have literally looked at hundreds of houses before finding the one that we are going to purchase. We looked at everything from mobile homes on land to new construction in a gated community. We even found a Pyramid House (which was really cool).

This house really would have been neat to live in, but it needed too much work and they didn’t want to give us a loan for a “fixer upper”. Stinks! How many people can actually say that they live in a pyramid? Well, not me.

Closing is tomorrow……

I am thankful......

For the husband who is on the sofa being a couch potato, because he is home with me and not out at the bars.

For the teenager who is complaining about doing dishes because it means he is at home, not on the streets.

For the taxes I pay because it means I am employed.

For the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

For the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.

For my shadow that watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.

For a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need cleaning because it means I have a home.

For all the complaining I hear about the government because it means we have freedom of speech.

For the parking spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge heating bill because it means I am warm.

For the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means I am alive.

And I am thankful for the crazy people I work with because they make work interesting and fun!

We close next week!

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