Bloggity Blog Blah Blah.....Highly Unlikely

........Yep, I'm sitting here staring at the monitor trying to come up with something to write about. Anything. I've looked for writing prompts and read some of my favorite blogs. Nothing. I've been in a crappy mood for days and it doesn't seem to be getting better. It's the holiday's. I don't normally get like this, but this year things are different.

The thing with Keith's family has still not blown over and this whole thing is now just an awkward mess. I sometimes feel like I should just suck it up and act as if everything is ok, but I have been doing that for years. I don't want to be the bigger person. I want to be immature and rude. I want to scream and yell things that I have been holding back. Will I do these things? Highly unlikely.

A nice Christmas shopping spree would normally pull me out of my slump but money is still tight since the beginning of the year when both Keith & I lost our jobs. Yes, Keith did get a new job and I'm getting unemployment, but we are not making as much as we were. Will I go on a huge shopping spree this year? Highly Unlikely

My kids are driving me crazy. Seriously. Between Amber's recent meltdowns over EVERYTHING and Andrew's attitude, I'm done. I want to tell them both that Santa is NOT coming this year. Will I do this? Highly Unlikely

Yep. This post is as crappy as my mood. Gonna hit send anyway. Will you care? Highly Unlikely

Do YOU get the blues this time of year?

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

I love the smell of campfires.......

.........But before I get into that, I just wanted to send a quick "Thank You" to all of my readers that sent me encouraging messages this last week. Knowing you are all pulling for me feels great! To be honest, I am in kind of a rut right now. Not feeling the greatest physically or mentally. BUT, I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if I can't quite see it yet.

Now, back to the smell of campfires. I love the smell of campfires, and it was quite unfortunate that we are in the middle of a drought right now. Otherwise, our CAMPING TRIP last weekend would have been just a tad better. I won't complain though, I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. It just stunk that after being at the campground for 5 minutes we were informed by the evil old lady with no sense of humor nice lady that runs the campground that there were to be no fires. Though we did find a sign in the bathroom that said we could have a "cook" fire instead of a campfire. I'm getting a little carried away with myself. Let's start at the beginning.....
Since Keith's entire family (wife, brother, sister, brother-in-law) is jobless (they all work for the same company - except me) we decided to go camping. We ended up in the Silver Lake Recreation Area of the Withlacoochee State Forest at the Crooked River Camground. The campground is only about 25 minutes from the house, so we loaded up on Friday and we were off. After setting up the tents, we had our run in with the vampire nice camp lady. We had a nice chicken dinner that my brother-in-law burnt to a crisp and then froze our butt's off for the rest of the night. Well, that is until we started a real campfire. That kept us a little warmer, but we had to keep throwing water on it everytime a car came. (In case it was the vampire again).

The kids kept themselves busy with the glo necklaces that we brought with us. The necklaces were a bluish-purple color and so they were then called the "Blurples". They ran up and down the camground amusing all of the other guests while trying to stay warm.


It was so cold that my Sister-in-law and her husband left at 6:30 Saturday morning to run home and get some more blankets. Once the sun came up, it started to warm up outside and we had a nice breakfast of sausage & biscuits with scrambled eggs. Since it was our first time cooking biscuits on the grill, they came out burnt as hell a little well done, but they were still edible.

After that we went down to the nasty, slimy, freezing cold, water hole and let the kids do some fishing, swimming, and playing on the trampoline.

We returned and had dinner which consisted of steak, sauteed mushrooms & onions, baked beans, and fried potatoes. See what foodstamps will buy? The weather was much nicer on Sat. night and we were able to actually hang out around the camp fire cook fire.

Then I went raccoon hunting with my brother-in-laws & niece. We saw about 10 raccoons. They were coming at us from all directions and were even up in the trees above us. It was quite an experience.

OK, enough of my babbling. Will catch you up on the rest of life soon.

Check out the rest of our camping pictures here.


Do you enjoy camping with your family? If not, what other things do you like to do outside?

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.

I can't believe it's been so long......

Almost 2 months to the date since I have posted anything on here. So much has happened since I last posted that I'm not even sure where to start. I'm just hoping that I still have readers out there somewhere....

A lot of the reason that I have not been posting is due to a huge blowout that happened with Keith's side of the family. Some members of his family subscribe to my blog and I didn't want to complicate things more. But, I have decided that this is my little space on the web to share my feelings. If you don't like what I have to say....don't read it. As far as the blowout is concerned, it's not something that I am going to elaborate on out of respect for my husband. Let's just say that people that I thought that I was close to turned out to be completely different than I thought, and my opinion on other people was just validated even more by their actions.

For now, here is a sneak peak about the going-ons of the Alldredge household over the last 8 weeks:

• New Puppy
  
• Universal/Disney
• Poems, Sexting, Fights & Tequila
• Silly hookers in the rain photoshoot
• The Father he never met
  
• Feeling Crafty
• Girls Night Out
  

While you are waiting for me to post something remotely interesting, why don't you head on over to my sister's blog: A Wonderful Mistake and say hello.