7th grade..... Again

Verse by verse dissect a favorite song that you had in 7th grade...
Again by Janet Jackson

There was a boy. It's always about a boy at that age isn't it? Anyway, there was a boy that I was totally head over heels for in middle school. He had the looks, he was a "bad boy", he was popular, he was nice. To me. This boy made me weak in the knees. He wasn't my boyfriend, but he was a close friend that I wanted more from. He stopped showing up at school for a while (which was devastating) and then he came back.....From here on out, I will refer to this boy as Bob*.

^Middle school me


I heard from a friend today
And she said you were in town
Suddenly the memories came back to me in
My mind

Butterflies....
Ahhh yes, the memories. The memories of making eye contact across the crowded hall. Those gorgeous green eyes smiling back at me. Bob, always picking me first in gym for his basketball team, before ALL the other girls. Dancing at the teen club. Walking through the neighborhood by my grandma's house. Bob holding my hand. Passing notes in class.

Chorus:
How can I be strong I've asked myself
Time and time I've said
That I'll never fall in love with you again

I swore that no matter what, I wouldn't let Bob hurt me. I didn't think that it was possible since we never were officially bf & gf. Little did I know.

A wounded heart you gave,
My soul you took away
Good intentions you had many,
I know you did

Bob was just trying to be a good friend when I wanted so much more. He dated my best friend. That hurt.

I come from a place that hurts,
an' God knows how I've cried
And I never want to return
Never fall again

I spent many sleepless nights crying over Bob and did not want to let him into my heart again.

Making love to you oh it felt so good and
Oh so right

In my mind, it was GOOD! That's the only love making that was going on in 7th grade.

Repeat Chorus

So here we are alone again,
Didn't think it'd come to this
And to know it all began
With just a little kiss

One meaningless kiss (to him) and again I am back to being head over heels for Bob.

I've come too close to happiness,
To have it swept away
Don't think I can take the pain
Never fall again

I was pretty much over him and let him back into my heart. Trying all I could to not get hurt again.

Kinda late in the game
And my heart is in your hands
Don't you stand there and then tell me
You love me
Then leave again
'Cause I'm falling in love with you again

I took a chance. I jumped with both feet and gave him my heart.

Hold me, hold me
Don't ever let me go
Say it just one time
Say you love me
God knows I do love you again

How quickly middle school "love" ends. I haven't seen Bob in years, but he will always hold a special place in my heart. He was my first "love". Puppy love that is. I am so thankful that I am past this stage in my life. Puppy love hurts almost as much as real love without all the benefits.


This was a Writer's Workshop Assignment from Mama Kat. I'm a day late, but it's done.

*Please note that in no way does this post have anything to do with a boy named Bob. So, if you are Bob and we went to middle school together, I am NOT talking about you.

I'm a Farmer. He's a runner. You're a winner. There's more.....

For those of you that have been kind enough to friend me on facebook, then you might know what I'm talking about....
Yes, that's it. FARMVILLE.  I farm online because I am as close to being a real farmer as I am to becoming a man. I am totally addicted. I find myself "farming" at all hours of the day and night. I have even set my phone to remind me to harvest my crops. Well, what do you expect? They WILL wilt if I don't harvest them in time. DUH! Most of the people on my friends list are farmers too, and it's great when they "find" some sad animal on their farm that I can adopt. I seriously get excited and rush to adopt hoping that someone else hasn't already given the animal a home. This month, people are finding Turkeys, and I'm hoping that we get reindeer next month. I even have my daughter addicted to the game. The first thing she wants to do when she wakes up is watch mommy farm. Where's the 12 step meetings when I need them?

Now I know that there are certain people out there that despise Farmville. All I can say is, if you can't beat 'em you should join 'em. You never know, you may become addicted too!

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Andrew will be coming home today for the first time since his escapade and I have yet to figure out exactly what I am going to do or say about the situation. He left our house on Thursday night, and ended up at school on Friday. Thankfully his friends were kind enough to message me as soon as they saw that he was at school. I knew that if he came directly home from school on Friday that it would turn into another argument because I was still angry and there was a possibility of him taking off again. I had been in contact with one of his friends father's who Andrew has deep respect for, and when he volunteered to pick Andrew up and let him stay the weekend at his house I immediately said yes. I figured that this would give us all time to cool down and hopefully provide Andrew with an opportunity to talk to an adult that is not a part of the situation. We will see how this one turns out.....

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I have WINNERS!
Here are the 12 winners for the Giveaway Extravaganza.
I was going to announce them by video, but my batteries died halfway into it :(

See, I paused it so I could cut the names up and get Amber, but it was dead by the time I came back. 2 other sets of batteries were tried with no luck so I used www.psychicscience.org to pick 12 random numbers for me.

Eyeglass Chain    14        Carma
Fight Like a Girl    20        Carma
Angel Cell Phone Charm    37        Naddez
Dragonflies & Birds    2        Rebecca Smith
Pink Floral    15        Carma
Owl Gift Bags    25        michellesmall1
Cupcake Tags    35        Kelly
Memories Journaling    10        Tanya
Think Pink Cards    12        Tanya
Heart Cards    23        michellesmall1
Pendant    13        Carma
Checkbook Set    26        michellesmall1

Congratulations everyone! I will be sending out personal emails to all of the winners later today!

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Randomness;

Don't know if you noticed, but I gave my blog a Thanksgiving facelift. I kinda like it.

I have updated my blogroll and also added a section called the players. You can find both of these at the top of my blog. Please check them out :)  I have been horrible about checking blogs lately, but I have cleared my reader and am starting fresh. So, be on the lookout for me in your comments section. I won't mind at all if you comment on my posts either.

I will be cooking my first Christmas dinner for the entire family this year. If you have any tips/suggestions or recipes to share, please send them over!

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Save a boob! Donate by clicking here for Keep a Breast or here for Susan G Komen.

Lucy made me do it....

Lucy was generous bestow upon me the Premiere Meme Award. Thank you Lucy! Though next time you could always give me an easier award. This one was kinda hard! ;-)

The Guidelines

You must divulge Seven Personality Traits about yourself and Pay it Forward to Seven Bloggers.

1. Moody/Emotional - It doesn't take much to make me happy or piss me off. Either way, you will know exactly how I am feeling. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I cry over the dumbest things and will get mad and scream at my own television.

2. Bashful - I am extremely shy around people that I don't know very well. There are people that I have known for years that will come over to visit my husband and I may say 10 words to them. I would much rather just sit and listen. Yep, I am a wallflower.

3. Obsessively Organized - My CD's HAVE to be in alphabetical order or I freak out. My closet is organized by type of clothing and by color. My craft stuff is the same way. You should see the pantry in my kitchen, everything has a place and you better not put it in the wrong place (see #1). My entire life is on Google Calendar and my phone calendar. I also get reminders sent to me by text message just in case I forget to check both calendars. Did I mention there is also one on the fridge?

4. Obnoxious - If I'm not being shy, I can be very loud and obnoxious. I drive down the street hanging Stan out the window. I will yell to my Mom from the other side of the store letting her know that I found the tampons. I throw fake cockroaches at my sons friends in the store and think it's great that I'm embarrassing him. For some reason, I can think of tons of stuff to put on this one.....

5. Kind-Hearted - I will do anything to help someone in need. I hate to see anyone hurting or without and will do whatever I can to make it better. AC broke = I have a window shaker - Homeless = Come stay with me - Broke = Here's my last dollar....

6. Creative - I'm creative in many ways. I love doing crafts, all kinds. I love writing poetry (that I am not gonna share with anyone). I am having a hard time describing how I'm creative but trust me, I am.

7. Thrifty - I am a bargain shopper. I refuse to pay full price for anything. Don't throw that away, we can always find another use for it. Coupons - Nah I don't usually go that far.

Now, I'm supposed to pass this on to 7 bloggers. Some of these are new blogs that I just started reading (and haven't added to my blogroll yet because I totally suck) and some I've been reading for quite some time. Go check them out and tell 'em congrats on their awards :)

1. The Fox Den
2. Show My Face
3. Irrational Dad
4. All In A Mom's Life
5. Just Jingle
6. K..Is Not Your Average Girl
7. A Wonderful Mistake (she's also my sister)

Weekend Recap

My sister came to spend the weekend with me us. I LOVE it when she comes because we always act like complete morons have fun! Friday night we she decorated piggy banks for the twins birthday party while I decorated her and took stupid pictures of myself and Sasha.

Saturday we went to the twins birthday party and had a great time. Family, friends, and Food (gyros that we stopped to get on the way there). What more could you ask for? It had been a little over a month since I had seen the girls, and their Daddy informed me that every weekend they ask to come and see us. Awwww :)

Of course, we also had to do a mini photo shoot. Luckily I was wearing a dress and didn't have to climb the tree!

After the party we kidnapped picked up my nieces and nephew and stuffed them in the trunk so that they could spend the night with us. The kids had a great time playing together and it was Kayli's first time staying with us. It all went well except for the fact she would scream at the top of her lungs everytime Sasha went near her.

Sunday we spent the day at Andrew's fathers' house. It was nice seeing Andrew's aunts again, I haven't seen them since I was a teenager. Again, we had family, friends and good food!

I'd say this weekend was a success!

Please excuse me while I let off a little steam...

There are certain people HOLY SHIT A SPIDER JUST CRAWLED ACROSS MY HAND that claim to care about my children and want to know how they are doing. Normally this would not bother me at all and I would be happy to share what was going on in their lives. But, this is after almost 6 months of ZERO contact with them. Why bother asking now? Do they really think that it makes us think they care? If they gave a rat's ass about my children, they would know what is going on in their lives. They would not NEED to ask. Shit, there are complete strangers that know what is going on in my kids lives. It's not like it's a big secret or anything. No matter what "our" relationship is, my children should have never been involved. Be mad at me all you want to, but take it out on MY children and you have crossed the line. What really p'd me off was that my husband actually told them what was going on 24 hours after I asked him not to mention anything important that was going on. He could have said the kids are fine, but nooooooo he had to go into "everything". And believe me, a LOT has gone on in the last 6 months! If you can't tell, I'm still mad.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogcast..... 

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.....

Not Me Monday - Take 1

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. This is my first Not Me Monday. I have NOT been watching JannaBee participate in this for months and have NOT finally decided to jump on board.

On to my post....

I did NOT have a nightmare dream that everything in my phone was deleted and wake up in a complete panic. I would never do that because I do NOT care that much about my phone. Upon my panicked awakening, I did NOT try to jump out of bed only to find that my legs were NOT yet awake and fall completely on my face.

I did NOT have so much to drink on Saturday that the thought of alcohol does NOT instantly make me want to vomit. I did NOT wake up on Sunday and NOT remember much about the night before. I did NOT spend most of Sunday in bed recovering.

I did NOT get into an argument with Keith on the phone about NOTHING. I did NOT hang up on him and then text him to NOT call me for the rest of the day. I would NOT do that. It would be so immature and we all know that I'm NOT ever immature.

I did NOT have to take my teenage son to court today. He did NOT get charged with battery for punching another kid in the face. He did NOT get sentenced to 30 hours of community service, attitude adjustment classes, a jail tour,a bunch of essay's and jury duty. He did NOT deserve his punishment. (Actually, I thought this was a little much) He did NOT stand up in front of the courtroom and apologize to me. I did NOT cry.

I did NOT eat 2 slices of pizza, 2 garlic stix, and a whole plate of appetizers for dinner tonight. I did NOT then drive home with my pants unzipped because they were too tight. My belly does NOT still hurt.

I did NOT find out today that another one of my friends is hooked on roxies. I am NOT worried about her and her children. I do NOT wish that this drug would disappear.

I am NOT about to shut down the computer for a couple of hours to watch The Haunting in Connecticut.

I am NOT hoping that you will leave me lots of comments. I do NOT ever think of silly little things like that.

Poems, Fights, Sexting & Tequila

My sweet son was abducted by aliens and his body is now inhabited by a moody, sneaky, dramatic, depressed, liar. I do hope he returns soon, I miss him.

It all started when the first girlfriend came into the picture. I noticed here and there that he was being dishonest about small things. I would catch him, we would talk about it and he would get grounded or whatever and we would move on.

POEMS
A couple of weeks before school let out, I received a call from the guidance counselor that I needed to come in and speak with him. He sounded quite concerned so I raced into the school to find Andrew in his office. Turns out Andrew was writing in a notebook during class and was caught by the teacher. She took the notebook away from him,placed it on her desk, and went back to teaching the class. At some point she noticed the notebook was gone and upon taking it away from him again (he had snuck up to her desk and took it when she wasn't looking) she decided to read it to see what was so important. Inside she found some very disturbing poetry and song lyrics and turned it over to guidance. The stuff inside the book was definitely all negative. It talked of cutting, burning clothes, drugs, etc... According to Andrew, most of the stuff was song lyrics (which I confirmed with google) and some were poems that he had written when he was angry. The guidance counselor did a suicide test on him and the test came out good. It showed no signs of him being suicidal. I was told to keep an eye on him and to try to get him to open up about whatever it was that was bothering him. Now, I know for a fact that he doesn't cut himself (he walks around in just shorts most of the time) and I am also pretty sure that he's not doing drugs or burning his clothes but this still upset me greatly. I tried talking to him but he wouldn't talk back.
FIGHTS
A few weeks later, I again received a call from the school. This time from a very upset principal that claimed my son "attacked" another student and that I needed to get down there immediately. So, I show up to the school and am taken to the School Resource Officer's office where he proceeds to question my son regarding the incident. What happened was that this other student, *A* had spit in my son's face 2 weeks earlier and then had been suspended from school for 2 weeks for a different incident. My son didn't tell anyone what happened because he figured that *A* was gone for the rest of the year. They let *A* come back for the last day of school, and when my son saw *A*, he said he just flipped and socked him in the jaw. When *A* didn't fight back he walked away instead of trying to continue the fight. The S.R.O. explained that because the spitting incident had happened on another day, my son was being charged with battery. *A*'s parents wanted to press charges. He could have been arrested on the spot and hauled into jail. Fortunately since my son is an honor roll student who had never been in trouble before, the S.R.O. decided that instead of arresting him, he will have to go to Youth Court. On Aug. 3, my son will sit in front of a jury of his peers and go to trial for his crime (OMG Do you know how it feels to type that? Horrible.). The judge is a local attorney that volunteers to do this to keep first time offenders out of jail and without a criminal record. Once my son completes his punishment, all records will be disposed of and his name will be cleared. This opportunity is only given 1 time, and if he messes up again he goes straight to jail without passing go....   
SEXTING
My son does not have a cell phone that he is allowed to carry around with him. He has one in case of emergencies that he is only given when he goes somewhere or stays home alone so that I can contact him. At times, I let him use my cell phone to chat with his friends/girlfriend. One night he was using my phone and as I was getting ready for bed, I sent him a  text message from Keith's phone that it was getting late and he needed to bring my phone to me. He replied back with a real snotty message about how it wasn't a school night and he didn't see what the big deal was. This pissed me off. Tremendously. I went to retrieve my phone from him and he seemed real nervous, like he didn't want me to get my phone back. As I came back into my room and checked out the conversation that he was having, I then knew why. Sexting. On my phone. As if we hadn't had a million talks about this. Needless to say, he's not using my phone anymore!
TEQUILA
4th of July party at my Dad's house. (Also a party for Dad & my sister Kelly's birthday). Keith & I watch as my dad hands Andrew an open beer. We think he's joking around and Keith takes the open beer from him and hands him an un-open one to go put back in the fridge. Dad asks why we won't let him have a beer. "It's a private party and he should be allowed to drink one" says Dad. Keith & I both explain to dad why we don't want him to have a beer (Like we should really have to explain this to a 50 something year old man) and how we don't think it's funny that he even suggested this. A little while later I am informed that standing directly behind me, my dad give my son a shot of tequila.  I am pissed. Are you fucking kidding me? I can't believe that he would seriously do that, (still thought he was joking about the beer because he can be a real ass sometimes) and I am ready to leave. Keith tries talking to Dad about the situation but he won't listen and claims he is trying to get him to "open up" about whatever has been bothering him. Seriously? For real? Let's get the kid drunk so he can open up? I don't friggin think so. (If you can't tell, I am still pissed) Finally, we leave. 12 days later and I still haven't spoken to him (he hasn't tried to contact me)

So, this is the crap that I have been dealing with..... My son is a good kid, that gets good grades in school and will do anything to help out around the house or with his sister. I don't understand what happened all of a sudden to cause such irresponsible behavior. This is why I believe he was abducted by aliens.

Seriously, for those of you that have already raised your teenagers do you have any advice? I don't have any idea what to do other than to lock the kid up in my house and never let him leave again.

Run Andrew, Run!

Last week was the championship for Andrew's Track team. They had the meet at the high school right next to Andrew's middle school which was nice for us because they could have picked any of the other schools in the county..... The meet started at noon and we brought with us lots of water, fruit, and cheese for the boys team. For a bunch of teenagers, I was very surprised at the amount of "Thank You's" that we received when we showed up with our cooler filled with goodies.

Andrew runs the 400 (1/4 mile) and has the 3rd fastest time on his team. During practice he has consistently run 4 seconds faster than at the meets. He lets the pressure of wanting to win psych him out. This time he ran 1.5 seconds faster than he has ever run at a meet and came in 4th out of all 21 boys that ran (3 boys from each of the 7 schools participating). Of course, he was disappointed that he didn't come in 1st place, but Keith & I are very proud of him. Overall, the school came in 3rd place for both the boys and girls teams. I cannot wait until next season!

Waiting for his turn:

Getting Ready to Run:


Eagles on 3!

My name is Tina and I am a slacker.

***Updated below***
I cannot believe that it has been a month since I have posted anything. I kept telling myself that I needed to sit down and write something, but here I am now apologizing for the last month of nothingness that I have provided you with. (Hey, at least I have been updating my status on Twitter for you) A lot has happened in our lives and I'll do what I can to explain without making it too long........

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Remember me telling you about my BIL and his new GF? Well, there has been a twist to this story. Not only are they still dating, but my son is now dating her daughter. This is a big deal. Andrew has never had a girlfriend before and they are in "L-O-V-E".

I have had a great time hanging out with both of them this last month and look forward to more Beach Trips & Parties!

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Andrew made honor roll for the 3rd time. (Only 1 more quarter to go!)

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Andrew joined the track team. He is more competitive than I had realized and that has caused a couple of tumbles and a few bruises to his ego. No matter what, he makes me proud. Today is the last track meet and then next week is the championship. I'm a little disappointed that the track season is over so soon. I never wanted to be a "soccer mom", but I have really enjoyed going to the meets and watching Andrew compete.

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Amber went on a road trip to Kentucky with my Mom & Eddie to my Uncle Scott's farm. She had a great time learning about all of the farm animals and let me know that she wants to be a farmer when she grows up. I don't have the photo's of their trip yet, but I will share them as soon as I get them.

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Sasha broke my nose. How does a dog break your nose you ask? It was my own stupid fault. It was Sasha's sheer determination to achieve her goal. What was her goal? To retrieve the largest tennis ball ever made and bring it to her favorite person (me) as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, somewhere in her plan she forgot to include stopping and ran right into my face. This left me with 2 miniature shiners and a slightly crooked nose.

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Sasha became a woman-dog.

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Well, this was not much of a celebration for my 100th post, but it's almost time for American Idol and I am pooped. I will continue with the rest of my catch-up soon. Goodnight.......

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***Updated 4/23***

I have been on the job hunt for 2 months now and have yet to even get an interview. Unemployment is still coming in, but it does not pay all of the bills, so we are slowly sinking financially. I am a bit embarassed to admit that we were approved for foodstamps. Being a teenage mother, I have worked very hard to stay off of public assistance and now here I am..... But, that's life. Gotta feed the kids!

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The contract that Keith's company got with Sam's Club has kicked off, but there has been minimal work. Working with family is always hard, but it seems much harder when there isn't any money coming in. This has caused some major drama within the family and Keith has now decided to find a job elsewhere. There are some insurances that we have to get together and he should start working in about 2 weeks. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Produce & Teenagisms

Well, Keith never left for KY. He ended up getting some work here locally and decided to stay. We are still waiting to hear when the new Wal-Mart contract kicks off, but I am not gonna hold my breath on that one! We were discussing the garden that we are going to start this weekend. I suggested to Keith that if he doesn't hurry up and get a job he would be sitting on the side of the road with his truck selling produce. That's when the light bulb above my head turned on and I had an idea. <<<That doesn't happen very often! So, my great idea was this...We could name Keith's new business, Snow Goose Produce. Now, I know that sounds pretty stupid to all of you, but WE thought that it was hilarious. (We live on Snow Goose Avenue). OK, I'm sorry! I wanted to include you in on our little joke, but if you don't think it's funny....I'll change the subject.

Amber is still on a mission to destroy herself. I don't know what happened, but since she turned 4 she is a walking accident. Maybe she has decided that she wants to be a crash test dummy when she grows up and is just practicing???

Andrew is still in trouble, and I don't know when he will ever get ungrounded. I should have know that this was coming, and I probably deserve it for all of the trouble that I caused my parents as a teenager. I just don't know what to do anymore, and something needs to be done because this is spiraling out of control. I know that all teenagers go through a "stage". When does it end? What do I do in the meantime? Aliens have abducted my son and sent back his body with someone else inside. This "new" son lies, cheats, disrespects, and is slowly driving me crazy!

If YOU had a produce stand, what would you name it?
Bubble wrap or cotton bolls to protect a self destructive 4 year old?
How do YOU deal with teenagisms? [teen-age-iz-uhmz] (Made up my own word there!)

the good, the bad, the ugly & what's to come.

The Good:
Caring.
Awesome BIG brother.
Creative.
Honor roll student.
Keeps his room semi-clean. (Usually pretty good for a teenager)
Helps around the house.
Funny.
I could go on and on about the good things, but I want to get down to the nitty gritty.

The Bad:
Lying.
Disrupting class.
A's & B's to D's & F's (Now back to A's & B's)
Cheated on a test.
Caught skipping class.
Cheated on another test.
Listened to Ipod in class.

The Ugly:
No tv.
No music.
No computer.
No video games.
No books.
No trips to see Dad.

What's to Come:
Empty bedroom.
Only a bed.
No door.

I failed (Holidailies & NaBloPoMo)...

….but I am gonna keep on keepin’ on!

My Sister-in-law & I took the kids to the Brooksville Christmas parade on Saturday and we met up with some girlfriends there. All of us together ended up being quite a nice size group. We had 4 Moms, 4 teenagers, 3 elementary school boys, & 2 toddlers.

The parade was nice. Not what I am used to (The New Port Richey Parade), but nice for a small town. Had I grown up here in Brooksville, I am sure I would have known half the people in the parade. There were some “visitors” to the parade that I was not expecting to see (See Pics)

Yes, Even the king was there! Amber, of course was extremely excited to see Dora!

After the parade, Michelle & I took the kids to the Golden Corral for lunch. By that time we were pooped and headed home.

Dagnabit - I was getting ready to start adding the pics and I see that my Fotki failed me. 23 of 104 photos uploaded. Grrr - Well, I will add the pics when they are done uploading.