Trick or treat

What a dull night. The kids are all out with their friends. Mom is at work, should be home soon though.
I have no plans other than to avoid having lights on, since I have nothing to give the little beggars anyway.
It's only 5:30 and I could actually go to bed, I'm very tired... Don't know why.
My morning class was cancelled today, instructor was sick, that's always nice. So I didn't have class until 1 today.
I'm thinking I may step out for a little bit tonight, much later. I have some mischief I may want to get into a few blocks away. The Student Senate President lives about 3 blocks from here, and I would love to TP mummify his truck. He parks on the street... Too easy.
I have class at 8 am, so I won't be out too late. I definitely don't want to miss class tomorrow either, I am on pins and needles waiting to see what I got for a grade on that "15 pages in 4 hours" paper. I'm kidding, I'm pretty sure it'll be an A.

Ok, I'm bored, so here's another picture, even though you have NOT been playing along. You will not get a fabulous prize at the end, you will get a spanking for not playing well with others. Of course, if that's what you've been shooting for all along, then maybe that WILL be the fabulous prize.

Yeah, I think I need a scary movie to cheer me up... see you later honey. I love you.

Tomorrow I become the mother of a teenager

May God have mercy on my soul...

Alexander John was born at 5:27 p.m. on October 30, 1993. He weighed 10lbs, 15&1/2 ounces. He was 22 inches long. His first word was "Ma" and he said it within seconds of being born. His first cry actually sounded like he was screaming "Ma" over and over.

I vaguely remember it; I was pretty drugged.

He's a good kid. JP, it's been a long time, and he's changed a lot. He's fun, he's so smart, and he has a good sense of humor. He likes girls, and he likes to switch them more often than he switches his socks. But if he's got a girlfriend, he won't even dance with another one at the school dance, because that would be cheating, and he wouldn't do that to the girl of the month... His loyalty is amazing, especially for his age. I think it speaks volumes about his parents, and their relationship. We have done good honey, he's a good person. He is a person I actually like knowing. He's not a kid anymore, he's a person, and he's a pretty cool one, too.

His idea of a funny joke is a bit off color, but I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. He is a good friend, trying to be cool with "the gang", and he still comes to me to hang out. I think that's saying a lot, he still wants to just hang out and talk to me. Some times our conversations turn serious, talking about girls or drugs or politics, but some times we just talk about stupid movies that we both want to see.

I am very proud of him, for all his jokes and kidding around, he is a good person and he knows right from wrong. He tries to pretend that he's tough and all, but in reality, he will always do the right thing over doing the cool thing.

Maybe all that pain and drug induced stupor and blood loss was worth it.

Yesterday turned out pretty damn good

I went to my first class, Business Math, and she gave us our Midterm report cards... I was not happy. According to her, I was at a B- !! She gave us a sheet that showed our grades for each assignment. I had two zeros on mine. I know that's not possible, I turn in EVERYTHING....

So after class, I was off from 10 to 1 and I ran home, went through my file folder for her class, and FOUND those assignments! I took them in to her, and she adjusted my grade. Now I'm where I belong... An A, of course.

Then I sat down with Karmeen and Jacqui and we finished our continuing problem in accounting, they were having issues, too, although not the same as mine. We worked together and got all done, handed that in in class yesterday.

I also got down to the Senate office, got all my minutes typed up, and even did the "extra chore" that Slinger asked of me: all previous minutes from meetings since the beginning of the year are now pretty, and a hard copy is now on file, signed by both Slinger and I. Little "by the book" chore that should be done every week. Done.

When I got home, I spent quite a bit of time last night working on the family room. Moving furniture, vacuuming everywhere. I think I may have found a place for the end tables, coffee table and the two blue chairs. My friend Jason came over for a visit, said his cousin is looking for furniture. I said to tell her that it's free if she comes and gets it. The loveseat will go to Alex and his "gang" for their cellar hang out. I will be delivering that myself.
I want the room completely clean, since I will be making the final payment on Wednesday of next week, and hopefully having the new stuff delivered on Thursday (Saturday at the latest, since Steven and Mark will be up Saturday afternoon).

I got to class early this morning, Business Law. He wants us to bring our laptops to class, and since this is the perfect time to talk to JP, I am happy to oblige him!

With everything I got done yesterday, I wasn't home much between classes, and wasn't online at all, so I missed talking to him.

Take a guess at the pic honey, come on, just play along, I promise it will be worth it.

Love you babe!

another clue

here's one you might get right away... or not

funny thing is, when it's all over, and I show you the big picture, what I cropped this out of, you will be really surprised.

Post any and all guesses here honey, I will not accept an answer in an IM or an email. Play nice by the rules, or no big prize at the end. ;-)

Fog is lifting... Slowly but surely

Ok, so I'm not gonna say that I suddenly feel fabulous. I did not leap out of bed, rip open the curtains and do my best Julie Andrews impression.
but I got a decent night's sleep.
I have a new perspective on the pile up of things to do.
They will get done.
All in due time.
No need to stress.
I'm feeling pretty good about life again.

Then I got out of bed.

My 8 am class this morning was the first shit to hit the fan. Today is mid term. The instructor was pleased to announce that there would be no mid term exam. HOWEVER....

yeah, shit, I hate howevers.

There is a term paper due TOMORROW by 11:30am. She assigned it at 8:30 this morning. Gave us a run down on what is to be included. Oh, not much--just cover the 6 main points of the 7 chapters of the book that we've gone through so far... ya kiddin' me? WTF?

But this is the new improved Nik, I'm feeling better, none of this defeatist attitude. I got right to work. We had the hour and a half left of class to get started. Plus I had an hour break between that class and my next. I got going on it, did pretty good, by the time I had to leave for my next class, I had just started page 9.

I went to my Computer Tech class, learning about Excel. Quickly did the online quiz and the assignment in the classroom, then bailed half an hour early so I could eat. Wednesdays are a real bugger. I have classes from 8-10 and 11 to 3. Since I had used my one free hour to work on my term paper, I was starving, with no relief in sight. So I said an early goodbye to Marcus and called Corin and had her bring me a Jr. Whopper.

I finished out my afternoon of classes, accounting and payroll, no real big issues, other than my continuing problem in accounting is a real problem. BUT, IT'S ME, Little Miss No Worries! I brought it home to work on during Emma's hockey practice. Not a problem, I can get it done. It's due by the end of the week.

I came home and got going on my term paper some more. By 5 pm I was done. It is 15 pages long. Yeah, that's right, I busted that thing out on the busiest day of my week in roughly 4 hours of actual "working on it" time. I have it on my flash drive and will print it out first thing in the morning, and drop it in Diane's mailbox.

I had more issues with the accounting problem during hockey practice, decided to talk to Carol tomorrow and have her help me. It was getting really frustrating. It's a continuing problem, meaning that it carries over, 3 chapters so far. We do some of it, turn it in, get it back and when we learn new shit in the next chapter, we apply that to the continuing problem. I believe it is called that because it is a continuing pain in my ass problem. I cannot find the adjusting entries. I know I did some of them, they're posted to the ledger, but I can't find the journal pages that they're on. I'm about ready to trash the whole thing and start from scratch.

My dog is laying here with her stomach gurgling and passing some nasty gas. I am going to pray that letting her out one more time before I go to sleep will be enough. I do not think waking up to a pile (puddle?) of runny dog shit is a good way to start my day.

The sun'll come out
tomorrow
bet your bottom dollar that
tomorrow
there'll be sun

bite me bitch

Dropping the ball

1. Didn't mail the package to JP last Wednesday like I said I would
2. Didn't call Jenny last night with the web address she needs
3. Didn't leave a check for mom before I left for class yesterday
4. Didn't bowl worth a shit last night
5. Didn't get my Bus. Math homework done over the weekend
6. Didn't touch my Accounting project either
7. Didn't get the minutes printed out for the senate meeting yesterday.

These are just 7 things off the top of my head I have dropped the ball on lately. I'm sure there are more, but I've forgotten them, too. I'm tired of being scatterbrained and forgetful. I'm sick of letting people down who are depending on me.

I'm in a funk, I don't feel well, I'm not sleeping well, and it's really starting to take it's toll on me. I seriously think I may as well be quitting smoking cold turkey, THAT'S how bitchy I've been lately. Something as simple as driving across town puts me in the pissiest mood. Maybe it's because I attract idiots like a damn magnet, maybe it's just because, like Shrek's buddy, I too am a donkey on the edge!!

I go from feeling energized and pissed to defeated and exhausted. I would love to go to bed right now, but the way my stomach is feeling, I don't think I want to go too far away from the toilet.

I just wish I could be happy. In a decent mood, at the very least. Anything but this horrible angry-all-the-time thing I've got going on.
Ever notice how when you're in a bad mood, it seems like everyone and everything around you goes to shit? When it rains, it pours. Murphy's law, hell, I don't know...Bad karma even!!

I thought the trip to Brainerd would help, I could feel it coming on shortly before then. I thought if I could get away for a few days, relax and enjoy myself...Might be just what I needed. It didn't help. It only blocked it out for 4 days. Same shit, different day.

I do not believe in depression. Not for me anyway. Other people can suffer from depression, that's fine if that's what they're doing, but I do not do that.
I'm in a funk, that's all.
As a wise woman told me, I just need to put on my big girl panties and get over it.
Thanks mom.
Just needed to vent a bit first.
Hopefully this and a good nights' sleep will do the trick.

Home at last.

Yes, I got home last night, but we still had houseguests until this morning, so now it finally feels like home again. I do still have to go through the linen closet and REFOLD my towels the right damn way, but that's pretty low on my priority list today.

I had classes today, first time in quite awhile, almost a week with MEA weekend and the GA gettogether. In my computer class we got a test back... That I had forgotten we had even taken! I got an A on that, and since today is midterm, he showed us our grades so far, and that, too is an A.

We had a Senate meeting today, and Slinger thought he would be funny and had each of us who had gone to GA get up and talk before our senate about what we learned, liked, and found out at the fabulous weekend. With no warning, no time to prepare anything. I wanted to say that "I found out that Slinger can drink almost anyone under the table, and he looks really stupid but is a freaking wiz at parliamentary procedure... He amazed me on all points"

But, I couldn't tell the Senate that their 19 year old President was a drunk (at least not on the record, as I'm pretty sure the majority of them know it anyway). So I stuck with the Parli Pro amazement.

Then I went to Accounting class, got back the tests we took in there last week. Highest grade in the class? Why, yes, that would be me!! 99%... Raised my midterm grade from a 93% A to a 96%A... That's always nice.

Tomorrow is the first day to register for Spring Semester classes, and Carol went over that with us today since she is our advisor. I'm going to do some funking with my regularly scheduled programming, but it will all turn out good in the end, and hopefully not be a waste of time. Regardless of shifting classes, I will still end up taking 19 credits for the second semester in a row. It's not an easy load, but next year is better, it's only 17 per semester. If I can get away with taking one or two over the summer, it will lighten my load next year even more. They don't come out with the summer offerings until roughly February though.

I have a busy night planned. Emma has hockey practice from 5-6 and I have bowling tonight at 6:30. Plus Corin just called and she's coming over. I have payroll homework to do, and I'd really rather not slack ass through this chapter like I did the last one.

Time to get moving, lots to do, little time to do it in.
I haven't talked to JP in too damn long, I missed him this morning by about 5 minutes, pissed me off when I got home this afternoon and saw that he had IM'd me right after I walked out the door to go to class.

Try again tomorrow, I guess. I just miss him.

Quorum was established

Goodie, so now we can sit through some more boring talking.
The good news is that this IS the last day. I'm so tired, not doing much sleeping; kinda hard to do with all the loud drunk kids running through the halls etc. Plus April and I were up pretty late last night "chatting".

We did excellent this morning. At 9am we woke up, and by 9:30 we were both showered, cleaned up, PACKED (and loaded in vehicles) and sitting in G.A. in time for roll call. Hung over or not, we are good!

I'm not sure what time we are heading out today, whenever we are done. Even though Slinger drives like a maniac, I think I will try to get some sleep on the ride home. My in-laws are still going to be at the house, so I will have to make nice when I get there. Dammit.

I wish JP was online, I haven't talked to him in quite a few days.

Boring meetings, nice resort

So we are spending the long weekend in Brainerd, at Cragun's Resort for student senate General Assembly. The resort is nice, the meetings pretty much suck ass. We spent Thursday after we got here doing workshops that really had no purpose except to occupy our every second. Friday was pretty much the same.

These "boys" that April and I are here with are just that:Boys. They seem to think the main purpose of this weekend is to see how much they can drink, and how stupid they can look. Last night they actually all got mohawks. They did this to each other in their room in a matter of hours. There was a lot of high fives, and "dude, you look awesome". Lies.Two Of them look ok, Timmy is a military boy, and his is pretty decent, and Corey's hair was short to begin with, so he doesn't look bad. But Justin and Slinger look absolutely stupid. They had longer hair to begin with, so it's just awful.

When we got down to the conference room this morning (which is where I am now, love the internet in this place!) we found the "boys" had discovered the joys of hair cement. Justin and Slinger spiked their long mohawks up. Nice, wonderful way to represent our school. Jackasses.

Last night was a dance, April and I went to that for awhile. I actually broke my long standing rule of NOT dancing with women. It was a lot of fun.
Before that we dragged the 2 decent, better behaved boys down to the hottub with us. We had just a little bit of unstructured time, so we decided we had to get to the tub, because we didn't know if we'd have any time today.

So the first 2 days were all the dumb workshops, and today and tomorrow are all General Assembly. Basically, general assembly is all of us sitting in a huge conference room, listening (or not, whatever) to some people up front. I think eventually we will vote on stuff, but for now, I'm just sitting here hoping JP will get online so I can talk to him.

I may add more later, it sounds like we will be in this room for the next 12 hours (with breaks, of course) and I'm sure I'll be bored enough to think of other things to say.
I love you honey, I miss you more than anything.

Bowling scores...The good, the bad and the ugly

I just got home from bowling. It was actually a lot of fun, fun to get out of the house and not deal with kids, fun to laugh (and be laughed AT!)

I warned them, I told them that I love bowling but I'm not very good. My friend Charity, the one who invited me told me not to worry, she wasn't very good either. MY ASS!

We bowl 3 games, competing against another team. Tonight we were paired up against Team granny. No kidding, not a one of these ladies were under the age of 60, maybe even 65. Those grannies sure had fun kicking our young butts though.

First game I was pretty much expecting my score to suck, seems I need a little time to warm up to it again, it's been quite awhile since I've bowled. I got a 74. Lowest score on the team, but at least I was not the only one not to break 100. Missy "only" had 98.

I asked Charity for some pointers, she is pretty freakin' good. During the first 6 frames of the second game, she watched me, and coached me, and gave me suggestions. By the 7th frame, it all culminated and sank in. I got a strike in the 7th frame. Fluke, I'm thinking. THEN, I got another strike in the 8th frame. Weird. When I got a strike in the 9th frame I was pretty much freaking out. I finished out the 10th frame with a 4th (IN A ROW!) STRIKE followed by a nice spare. Final score for my second game:175!! Could not believe it.

Of course, all returned to normal for my 3rd and final game. I had peaked. But at least I broke 100. I got 105 on my 3rd game.

So my overall average is 118. We whooped the grannies for the second game, but they beat us 2 out of 3.

I asked the guys working the stinky shoe and beer counter if they could print out my 2nd game. I figured that if I told JP about this he would not believe me, so I have proof, and I'm mailing it to you with the next letter or package.

Now You are answering my IM, so I'm going to close this out early and just talk to you.

An easy one for you honey!!

Here you go, it's an easy one, build your confidence a bit...

It's rainy today, and I wanted to use my (class-free!) morning to get that ice dam cord strung up in the gutter area. I was hoping to get a few outside things done this morning, and now it will have to be put off AGAIN. I am not happy.

After classes this afternoon, after Emma gets home from school, I have to take her downtown to get her a new hockey helmet. Of all her gear from last year, that's the only thing that doesn't fit. She has her first practice of the season tonight at 5:15. Somehow I have to be in two places at once tonight. I have to pick Miss Em up at 6:30 AND be at the bowling alley at 6:30.

It's official, I am a Midwestern settled mother. I have joined a bowling league. A couple of the girls in my accounting class asked me to join, and what the hell, I love bowling, I'm just not very good at it. I told them that, but they said it didn't matter, none of them were very good either. I doubt they were being serious though, they were probably just trying to make me feel better.

It's really raining now, it's depressing... Almost white-out conditions due to RAIN!! Oh well, I have laundry to do, and a house to clean, so at least it won't be a total waste.

Have a guess honey, good luck. Remember Fabulous Prizes await you for playing along nicely!

Torn

I'm torn here. I just finished uploading and cropping all the pics I'm going to use for our "game". There are several. I think, in fact, more than enough to do one per week until leave in late December.

Since I've already done the hard part, getting the photos taken (or, those that were already taken and uploaded, just needed to be cropped etc) and they're all ready to go, I even created a separate file for them labeled "clues"... All I have to do is wait a freakin' week?

No, I don't think I can do that.

I will post them whenever I feel like it, and it will be a minimum of once a week. I will tell you this honey, some are easy, and some are very hard. Some you won't need clues for, some you will, and that still won't help you.

I took the girls for a walk tonight, they were being naughty right off the bat, so I decided that walking them both at the same time just wasn't going to happen, not tonight. Alex was along, so I had him take Hailey home and I continued on the walk with Comet. I walked her for 2 miles, then came back, took a 10 minute break, and got Hailey out there to do the same. Both girls were wonderful when they had me to themselves. Apparently they don't work well with others. Brats, bitches... Eventually they WILL walk double. A four mile walk is not my idea of relaxing, I am a smoker for Cripes Sake!! I could have keeled over out there!

I am sure that I will pay for this walk tomorrow. I can feel my legs already stiffening up as I sit here on the bed with my warm laptop on my... laptop?(teehee)

Ok, so yeah, I guess I will post another pic in the next day or so, and I promise, it will be one of the easier ones, since you seem to be having trouble with that first one. I should have started you off with something easier, anyway.

I love you honey, talk to you soon! (PS, just because I post another pic does NOT mean that guessing is closed for a previous pic... Just let me know if you post a comment on an older pic, so I can go check to see if you're right or not)

The Clue

JP wants a clue...
ok. I got it.

This is an object sitting on our new dining room table. It does not normally sit there, but it could. I am assuming it will be laying around a lot more when JP gets home.

There, that's easy enough to figure out, huh?

Haunted Farm, trains and idiots

I went with Gina and Kent tonight to the Haunted Farm. We took Alex and his friend Casey along. It's located 10 miles south of Moorhead, so it was a haul. We turned onto the gravel road and started seeing cars parked along the side. We decided to pull over and join the mindless minions in the walk. It was about a quarter of a mile trek, including a railroad crossing.
It was a chilly night, but we were dressed for it, so we were doing ok.

After forking over $12 per person, we were escorted into a farm house. Up the stairs and through a maze of shoddily constructed "walls" covered with garbage bags, our shoe laces glowing brilliantly (and my teeth too, I assume) due to the mass of black lights. Nothing scary there. Down the stairs and out the other door, we followed the path to the machine shed.

That's where it actually got interesting. We were herded through cattle panel stanchions to be split into groups of 10 or so. We got a tour guide named "Carla" (spooky, huh?) and were led through the woods and various outbuildings. The thing about haunted places these days is that they try to use "hi tech" things to enhance the scare, but it doesn't work. Nothing beats a real person with a real chainsaw, that's all. Every time I heard the whssshhh of air rushing through an air hose, I knew that something would shortly be popping up in my face; really took the fun and surprise out of it. There were actual people out there in the woods, but in my opinion, not nearly enough.

We spent a little over an hour out there, and decided to head back. We headed back down the gravel road towards the location of the KIA. We soon realized that we couldn't get there, there was a train stopped on the track blocking the road.

why?

This was the best part of the night, by far! Turns out some idiot coming out to the Haunted Farm parked his vehicle ON THE TRACKS. Maybe he thought the tracks were part of the Farm and therefore fake.... Maybe he didn't see the tracks (How could you NOT??)

Or, my theory, Maybe he was just an idiot.

the train hit the car, of course. It must have happened not too long before we got there, we were about the second group walking up the road. We waited a good 15 minutes before they cleared the train to get moving again. The whole time, other groups were walking up whining about/wondering what the hold up was. It was fun to tell them. I was actually wishing one of the groups would belong to the mangled metal being removed from the cow catcher. That was a bummer actually, we couldn't see the remains of the vehicle, it went quite a ways with the train. I would have loved to hang around and wait, just to see the look on Idiot's face when he comes walking up "Dude, where's my car?"

definitely a fun evening. Tomorrow won't be fun though. I have homework to do and Student Senate minutes to type. I have to get Emma in to her hockey gear, find out what needs replacing, and go buy that. I'm quickly running out of money. The budget took a couple of unexpected hits this payday, the quarterly garbage bill (I always manage to forget when that's coming up!), the portion of the Dentist bill not covered by military insurance, the kids' lunch accounts all hitting zero at the same time.
I also need to do a house clean and laundry day to cover us for the week.
I don't have class Monday until 1pm, so that will help, and I don't have class at all Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I am leaving Thursday morning for Brainerd for 4 days with my fellow Senate Executive Board members for G.A. (General Assembly, statewide thing). We are staying in a nice resort, so I'm assuming they will have internet, and I have a cord if I do need to plug in to use my laptop in the room. Hopefully I will be able to talk to JP during my time there. I will be sharing a room with the Treasurer, her name is April, she's very nice.

It's after midnight, I should be getting to bed, but I think I'm too wired now. Maybe I will play solitaire for a bit on Pogo, that usually makes me nod off.

Snow? Already? Um...Ok

In a way, I am rather taken back by the sight of the white crap already, after all, it was just last week that the kids and I went tubing down the Ottertail River. (Wasn't it?)

And then I realize what I just said... "Time is just flying by"

LET IT FLY BABY, LET IT FLY!!

I actually had to go out this morning and start the KIA about 15 minutes before I planned on leaving the house. The rain last night turned to snow overnight, but not before leaving a thin layer of ice on my windshield... And the entire van, for that matter. It is currently about 20 degrees outside, wouldn't be so bad if not for the wind. The wind probably makes if feel a good 10 to 15 degrees colder.

Don't misunderstand, it's not a foot of snow out there, just a dusting, but it's now been here for almost 24 hours, even with the brief moments of sunshine today, it didn't warm up enough to melt it.

Winter is coming to Minnesota, and with it comes icy roads, school cancellations, colds and the flu, shoveling and scraping, bundling up to go out for even a minute... And best of all, Winter brings my husband home to us.

Bring it on!

We are playing a game!

Here's the rules:
First off, it's only for JP (sorry to anybody else, but he deserves it more!)

Once a week I am going to post a picture. What of, you may ask? Well, that's the game. JP has to guess what it is. It's gonna be one of those close-up pics. These will be pics I am taking around here, so they will have meaning to him... Not just some random "found on the 'net" type pictures.

If anyone else reading has a guess (or knows what it is) then please email me, JP has been instructed to leave his guesses in the comments.

I will snap the first picture tonight, and post it tomorrow (maybe Thursday, Wednesday is a full day for me, it may have to wait another day)

At the end of this, when JP comes home for R&R in late December, he will get a fabulous prize for playing along. (Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm actually going to give him a gift, big bow on it and everything)

Plus, maybe it will give him something else to think about, get his mind off things that suck.
I love you babe, Let's Play!!
; )

Ok, after reading all that, aren't you glad that I'm on the ball, and got the picture taken and uploaded AND cropped and sized so I can post Picture One NOW!!

168 divided by 2 equals 84

168
That's how many days remain in this deployment
84
That's how many days until he comes home on leave.

If this were a baseball team, 84 would be our magic number.

I have homework to do, but I'm procrastinating. I have laundry to do, same deal. I have accomplished something rather important today though. I ran out and bought a 1 gig flashdrive and downloaded some home movies onto it so I can add that to the box I am getting ready to mail to JP. For some reason my laptop is being obnoxious and won't let me burn a DVD with these movie clips I have, so I am sending them to JP so he can either burn them, or just download them to his laptop.

I have been writing JP letters, they take me a week to write, and I usually do it between classes, so the majority of the stuff I write about is school related, but I don't really know what else to talk to him about, especially now that I know how much it saddens him to hear about things at home. I imagine it just makes him miss us more to hear these things, things about the kids, or the house, me or the dogs. I wish it didn't, I wish he could stand to hear these things. I think he needs to be kept up to date, I believe it will make things easier for him once he comes back. If he knows the progression of say, Alex and his girlfriends and dating situation, maybe it won't come as quite a shock to him when he comes back, the first time Alex asks for money to take his girl of the week to the movies.

Speaking of school related things, I may be in a bit of a pickle with my payroll class. We are dealing with filing taxes for a business, on a quarterly basis. I am pretty much lost in the sea of IRS forms, and when to file, because depending on how much your employees make, and depending on how many employees there are and when they get paid, you either have to send in a check every 3 to 4 days, or once a month, or quarterly. Of course each due date has a different grace period, too. It's mucky. I just want to get through it and get over it.

Sitting here blogging about it isn't getting it done though, is it?

We're ok

We aren't fabulous, we aren't great, but we ARE ok.
We being the kids and I here at home.
And JP and I.
It's not always wine and roses, but who's life is?
Life has it's ups and downs, and I have been lucky enough to have more ups than downs, but it seems like lately, the downs have been a hell of a lot lower than I ever remember.
I'm considering seeing a doctor about depression and insomnia. I am leery of this because I don't believe in medicating a person into normalcy. I think that's an oxymoron.
But I need sleep and I need relief from these headaches. Short of buying stock in Excedrin, I don't see any way to fix me.
The stress and the worry about JP, about the kids, about money and school and grades, and the house (there's nothing wrong with the house, knock on wood) and winter is coming, and I haven't seen my husband in too damn long. I'm pretty sure that would cure all that ails me right now... just being with him for awhile.
Now, I don't want JP to read this and add worrying about me to his list of worries either. I am taking care of myself the best I can, and I will be fine eventually.
I just want to go to bed and sleep for about 2 months.

It's finally October, and we have one broken toe

Here's a "not quite right" family picture for ya! See that empty spot between the boys? That's where JP belongs.
For those not in the know, this is our front step. The corn stalks and e-freakin-normous pumpkins were delivered by Dave, Mom's 'gentlemen friend'.

Notice the pretty footwear Eric is sporting? This picture was taken Monday afternoon. Eric broke his toe Sunday night. He's been a real champ about it though. In the world of stuff happening to people, Eric is the prince of Broken Bone Stuff. Despite fears of someone reading this and calling Child Protective Services on us, I will admit that this is the second broken bone young Eric has suffered in his short 8 years. The first was a hairline crack in his wrist. Both broken bones were suffered during the same activity, although something like 4 years apart. You'd think he'd have an aversion to roughhousing with his brother by now. No. If he keeps this up, we can expect another bone to snap around age 12, and again at 16. If it happens again at 20, well, he won't be on our insurance anymore!

As I am typing, I am hearing whines from kids. I sent the two oldest to bed tonight, shortly before 7pm. I'm such a fun killer. Why don't I see the humor in having water balloons in the family room?? Sometimes I amaze myself with how mean I can be. (Sarcasm people, it's SARCASM) I am one month away from having new furniture delivered to my family room, and these monsters think they can have a water balloon war down there? Holy cow, they'll be lucky if I allow them in there ever again. They still don't get the concept of NO FOOD, NO DRINKS in the family room, even though it's been a rule for a very long time. Apparently I need to employ a bouncer for the family room. Check ID's? No, check kids' pockets, make sure nobody is trying to sneak in with a water bottle, (or balloon) or a candy bar.

It is, as I titled this post, FINALLY October. I can tell JP is getting wore down by this deployment. I can 'hear' it in his words when we talk on IM. My husband is not a down guy. He's not exactly Suzy Sunshine, but he knows what he has to do, and he does it. He's not a complainer and he's not a whiner. He's a matter-of-fact get r done kind of guy. Lately he's been kind of sounding almost depressed. I do not blame him a bit, we are in the worst of it right now. This is the longest stretch of the deployment without any family contact, and I'm sure he's getting to the end of his rope. I know him, I love him, he CAN make it until December. I'm sure he just has times (like I do) where it feels like it will never come. I hate to see him like this, and I can't wait for December so I can cheer him up, get him back home so I can see MY husband, the way he's supposed to be, the way he always is. I want him back. After that, it will be smooth sailing, because after he gets back to the sandbox after R&R, it will be a downhill run to the homestretch. After December, he will see that we can make it, and that we are almost done.
When it's all said and done, we win.
We win babe, because we love each other, and that's what we do. We win.