I'm still here

 Happy Tuesday everyone! So much has happened since I last wrote. Life has been a whirlwind around here. Some good. Some bad. Always eventful it seems. I can't believe it's been over a month since I last wrote. Seems like a lifetime ago. 

Let's recap some highlights with photos: 

Rebecca and I went to see "Hamilton" in Columbus. It was AMAZING!  

I had my first ever colonoscopy. They found a large polyp and removed it. Found out it was aggressive, pre cancerous. The surgeon said that we caught it just in time and that he removed it all. Have to go back again in 3 years instead of 5. 

There have been many days where I have felt like this...

Rebecca performed and was an MC for our town's youth showcase at their Music and Arts Festival. She did amazing. 

I got Rebecca moved into college. It was a relatively easy experience minus delofting her bed, which a friend was able to help her accomplish a few days later. She is enjoying herself so far and is extremely busy with classes and schedules. 

Ben started 8th grade. His last at the middle school. 

Jacob started 10th grade! 

We have had a couple nights where we have had fires at my sister and sister-in-laws house. During the past month and half they have been rocks for me! 

Rebecca came home over Labor Day weekend. It was nice to have her home but it went way too fast. Also my van messed up on the way home from picking her up so that was a bummer. 

We celebrated my dad's 66th birthday that weekend. It was nice to have Rebecca home. 

In other news without photos:

I am in a new position with Head Start. I returned to work for Head Start but in a different center and in a full day/full year classroom. The hours aren't the best as I have to close now and not get off work until 5:30, but it is where I am supposed to be. Maybe one day I will elaborate on the craziness that was trying to find a suitable job this summer--- including my experience being interviewed by licensing and Children Protective Services 1 week into a new job that I later quit. It has been a bumpy ride for sure. 

The boys, especially Ben, are not handling Rebecca being away very well. It has been super rough and emotional around here. 

Life is in a rough state right now. But I am taking each day as it is coming and just handling each day as it happens. I have been reading blogs, but not always responding as I have been reading on my phone. 

I hope everyone is well. Until next time, I wish you well. 

Thoughts

Happy Wednesday everyone! We made it to the middle of the week. Honestly there really isn't that much going on around here to talk about. 

The new job didn't work out. It just wasn't the right fit for me and that is okay. Something will come up that will be for me. I will admit that it is hard to not get depressed and down and frustrated and honestly I am some of that. It is what it is. 

I can't believe it is July 16. This month is flying by. 

Today would have been my 20th wedding anniversary. It hit me this morning as I was going through Facebook memories. I hadn't thought about it until then. I am not angry now, just sad. I never thought I would be a divorced, single mom. 

 I have been binge watching nature documentaries on Disney+. I never knew that octopus were such interesting creatures.

The weather has been so humid the last few weeks. I walk outside and immediately am drenched in sweat. We had some rain earlier today. 

I had a good nephrology appointment this morning. That is a positive. 

Ben broke his bed, so I will be in the market for another one for him. I don't know if he jumped on it or if Jacob jumped on it, but they sheared off one of the middle metal legs. I am not sure how they did it. Ugh. He would rather sleep on the floor anyways, so I am thinking about getting him a frame that is like 3 inches off the ground.  

The kids are all gone tonight. The boys are at their dad's apartment. Rebecca is at my sister's house. It's so quiet here and I don't like it. I will have to get used to it though as Rebecca gets ready to move to college. 

I just need to get back into a good life rhythm right now. I am depressed I think and my medicine isn't helping but my doctor left the practice and is not practicing right now. Ugh. 

Just lots of ughs right now. Such is this season of life. I will get through it. It is just hard for me right now. 

Until next time....hope everyone has a good rest of your week. 

Fave breakfast, BBQ festival, and 4th of July

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope everyone has had a good day and had a good 4th of July if you celebrate that. Thought I would hop on here for a little miscellaneous post. 

This has been my favorite breakfast/brunch lately. Scrambled eggs (with or without peppers) with Apple Salsa on top. It is so good!! 

Rebecca and I went to our town's local "Brews, Blues and BBQ" event. It was sort of smaller than I thought it would be with only one stage set up for music. We went with my sister, sister-in-love, and my SIL's brother who was in town. I had a macaroni and cheese and BBQ pork burrito. It was really good and the sauce was yummy! 

My sister had a parfait cup that had BBQ pork, baked beans, coleslaw and topped with a mini corn muffin. It looks so cute. 

Yesterday we went to my parents' house for the 4th of July celebration. My mom cooked out and the food was yummy. There was smashburgers, chicken skewers, caprese salad, pasta salads, ribs (that got a little crunchy on the grill but were yummy) and more. 

There were games of Corn hole and badminton. There were sparklers and firework fun (which my mom and sister let off). Overall it was a nice day. 

And finally, this moth tried to stay in my parents' house as we were leaving for the night. It was a beautiful moth that my sister finally got to go back out into the night. 

Today has been very low key. The boys went to their dads. Rebecca and I made a Walmart run and otherwise just laid around and relaxed. I did run to a friend's house to feed her cats and water her flowers for her while she is gone on a trip. 

Gotta gear up for the next week. Hope all of you are well and staying cool. Have a great rest of your weekend! 

 

Boys home, margarita and maybe a new job

Happy Saturday everyone! I can't believe it has been over 2 weeks since I last wrote. I didn't mean to go radio silent, just been dealing with some depression and other things and the hot/humid weather that means I don't want to do anything at all. 

Not much has been happening, except dealing with the hot and humid weather like a lot of other folks. Really it has been too hot to go outside as heat indexes have been over 100 degrees and the humidity is sky high.

So what HAS been happening since the last time that I wrote. Well, I had to get my windshield replaced. I had a huge crack along the bottom that developed over the winter and then a couple months ago a truck threw a rock and made a crack in the middle. Thankfully, there is a company called Safelite which will come to you to replace the windshield. $300 later I am good to go.  

The boys made it home from camp. They had a great time. Ben conquered the giant swing! Jacob had a blast with his cabin mates and he even gave a testimony before the final mass of the week. The final mass was really cool as the Bishop of our diocese was actually there to celebrate mass. And yes the boys were very stinky! 🤣🤣🤣

I had dinner with a coworker of mine. We splurged on margaritas, which was perfect on a hot day. We have both been considering taking different jobs given the uncertainty of the funding of Head Start. It was a nice reprieve from cooking and the conversation was great. 

I have taken on a couple of small jobs cat-sitting for a friend. Her and her husband go camping a lot so I am going over to her house when they are gone and feeding their cats, cleaning out litter boxes, and watering her flowers. It gives me something to do. 

I have also gone on 2 interviews at a  learning center/childcare center that is about 40 minutes from my house. I have actually been offered a preschool teaching job there. I have been weighing the pros and cons and I am leaning toward taking the position as it is a privately owned company that has centers around the state. So I would be looking at job security on that front. The only downside is that they don't offer the same benefits as Head Start. I don't know if it is my depression or anxiety that is making me apprehensive but I am nervous about it. 

Other than that not much has been getting done. My house is a disaster. In fact, today is the first day in a while I have felt like getting things done at home. So, after I finish this up I am going to start tackling some cleaning projects--- like the mountains of laundry, sweeping of floors, etc. Doing all of this in the coolness of my air conditioner of course. 🤣🤣🤣 

What are you guys up to this Saturday? Are you staying cool? 

Camp and Orientation

 Happy Tuesday everyone! As promised here is the continuation of my crazy busy weekend, which began with Rebecca's graduation party. 

Saturday night, I came home from the party. Froze the leftover meat. Left everything else that I brought home either on the counter or on the floor in the boxes that I brought them home in and then went to bed. I had to get up and continue packing for the boys to get them ready for camp. I also had to pack for myself for a short trip Rebecca and I were taking to Bowling Green for her orientation.  And we had to leave by 12:30 for all this to happen. 

It was a stressful morning. I hated leaving the house in a mess but honestly it is what it is and I know I will clean the house when I get home.

Rebecca and I got the boys dropped off for their week-long Catholic Youth Summer Camp. I hope they have an amazing week. I know Ben was nervous to go, but I have seen a couple pictures of him and he seems to be having fun! Now the fun questions to ask are "will the boys shower and use soap this week?" "Will the boys change their clothes each day?" "How smelly will the boys be when I pick them up on Friday?" 🤣🤣🤣

After dropping the boys off, Rebecca and I headed north to Bowling Green. She was scheduled to have orientation yesterday and it was an all day event and she had to be there at 8 AM so we decided to make it a little road trip. 

We got to the hotel around 3:30 PM and that is when the fun started. We decided to take a dip in the pool. No worries. Pool water was decent temperature. We were the only ones there. Then we decided that we wanted to watch the Tony awards Sunday night. When we got back to the room, we tried to turn on the TV. It wouldn't work. So I went down to the front desk, as she wasn't answering her phone, and she apologized and said she could move us to a new room. Great. We move to another room just down the hall, and TV is on and seems to work. Great. Rebecca started watching TV and about 30 minutes in, the TV shuts down and says no connection and won't work. I call down to the front desk and explain what happened. The front desk lady apologized profusely and said that maintenance was not there and she could move us to another room on the opposite end of the hotel and on a different floor. We didn't mind. So we ended up on the top floor with a working TV. (It did glitch at one point, but immediately came back on). She was so apologetic and said that she was so sorry that this was happening and that they had just come off a sold out weekend and they had to shut down several rooms due to the WIFI not working in those rooms, etc. I wasn't upset as we have stayed at this hotel a number of times when we have come up to BG and this is the first time we have ever had this problem. 

We ended up walking across the parking lot to go to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, where Rebecca discovered that the mild wings are still a little too spicy for her.  When we got back we watched the Tony Awards and I enjoyed all the musical numbers, including the Hamilton reunion. 

Yesterday was orientation day. We had to be at Bowling Green State University at 8AM. It was a long day with a lot of information that I already had received at previous events. However it was good for Rebecca as she got to get her class schedule, meet some new people, and saw her dorm layout to get an idea of what her actual room will look like and get some valuable information about dates, and events, etc. It was a lot of sitting and listening to presentations for parents. 

They did feed us lunch though and it was yummy. Dining hall food has sure gotten better since I was in college! Overall it was a productive day. 

Then it was back to the hotel for some rest. We ordered Campus Pollyeyes famous stuffed bread sticks for dinner. They were so yummy! Then spent the rest of the evening relaxing-- Rebecca played games on her tablet and was texting friends. I was working on this here blog and catching up on some reading of blogs. 

For the rest of the week, I need to meal plan. I need to clean house. I need to head over to my sister and SIL's house and take down graduation party stuff and return tables and chairs to rightful owners.  I have lots of things that I need to do. So if I go silent for the rest of the week, I will either be sleeping off the exhaustion from the long weekend, or Ill be too busy doing housework. 

Hope everyone is having a great day! Until next time.....

Rebecca's Graduation Party

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mine was SUPER busy and stressful, but overall it was all good. Can I ask a favor though? Next time I decided to throw a graduation party, send 2 kids off to camp and attend a college orientation over the course of 3 consecutive days, please will someone stop me?!? It was a lot! But that has been my reality over the last 4 days. 

Friday, I went to my sister and sister-in-law's house to decorate and set up for Rebecca's graduation party. We got some stuff set up and then I had to head back home to pack the boys up for their week long camp that I was taking them to on Sunday, pick up tables that I was borrowing from friends, and to make the cupcakes for Rebecca's party.  On Saturday morning, I got to work cooking up taco meat, icing the cupcakes, and doing some last minute things at home, like finishing up a photo board, finding all her certificates to display, etc. Then I headed off to my sister and SIL's house to finish setting up. I think the decorations and displays turned out really well. Her party was to start at 4 and would go until whenever (it ended up going until around 10:40ish). There was a decent turn out of her friends. They all seemed to enjoy the taco bar and the cupcakes (despite the melting icing due to the heat/humidity). 

I went simple with the menu-- chicken and beef soft tacos with lettuce, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa for toppings. I also had nacho cheese and tortilla chips, beans and Spanish rice. Cupcakes for dessert. I will say that I bought enough food for everyone who she invited because I literally got 3 RSVP texts. Does no one RSVP anymore? I should have bought half of what I did and that would have been enough. Oh well, live and learn. I froze the taco meats and we will definitely use them up for dinners. 

One of the fun things that Rebecca wanted to do for her party was she wanted to burn her college recruitment letters from all the various colleges that sent her mail. So we were able to make that happen. Her friends thought that was a pretty cool idea and seemed to enjoy it. They also enjoyed the yard sized Jenga and they played UNO and enjoyed the photo backdrop. 

Overall it was a nice party, although Rebecca did end up getting a migraine level headache and that dampened some of the party. Good thing her aunt is a nurse and got her medicine (ibuprofen and then Tylenol) and caffeinated her up to help the head.  

We cleaned up the food, but left everything else out because it was late and we were all EXHAUSTED. I had to get up early on Sunday to finish packing for the boys, shower, and pack my stuff up for a short trip for Rebecca's orientation at college. 

I will continue this tomorrow as this post has become really, really long......

So until then, have a wonderful night!