been in a funk

Yesterday morning I woke up and upon checking messages on my cell phone was greeted by a message that caused me to be a little disgruntled. No need to rehash the message itself. Sometimes things get to me, after all I am pretty sensitive. The message was from a "friend", and well it said something that hurt my feelings. For the past 36 hours or so it's grated on my being, my every last nerve.

Time heals all wounds, and so now the pain has passed.

When I let myself end up in these situations I seek out ways to alleviate the hurt or frustration. Usually a walk down memory lane does the trick.

This time proved as cathartic as any other and I would like to share my journey.

There is no specific order that these photos are in, no chronology. It's apparent to me what could make a person smile when viewing them. Most of them are taken with a Minolta Dimage that maybe wasn't the best quality of cameras, but it preserved memories for me that may not have otherwise been.


















Their expressions are worth a thousand words, and make me bubble up with laughter!

mary jane and her birthday suit

Discussion of a recent teenager related incident brought the following blog I had previously posted on another forum back to memory:


Mary Jane and her birthday suit, June 2008.

She's not one and the same, two separate incidents in my life actually.

I try to make the best of "things" and put a positive spin on everything.

First, I'll tell you about Mary Jane. She's also known as weed, pot, grass, wacky-tabacky, and so forth. Her counterparts are commonly called joints, doobies, bongs, roaches...you get the picture.

Just when you think you just might stay away from this issue, at least until the youngest starts his rampage on the substance abuse world, your world gets turned upside down. We wouldn't know a thing about this except for the snooping habit of a dad. In this case the means is condoned, because the end brought a big problem sharply into everyone's focus.

Last weekend AW came up to me and asked if I knew something about LB and whatever. ?? He had been listening to a conversation his older brother was having, and it peaked his curiosity. I had no idea what he was talking about, so went straight to the original source and inquired. Of course, this irritates LB and he starts telling us to mind our own business. Because he reacted harshly my curiosity also peaked. I went and texted a friend who might know what was going on. See, the kids, her 15 year old daughter, and my 15 year old son, had both been at a party the night before. Her daughter often shares gossip with her so I was hoping she had the scoop.

She too was baffled, and asked her daughter. Later on I was able to bribe LB and he responded telling me that the dad, mentioned above, had wanted him to tell me anyway. (Yeah, I wondered why he hadn't told me prior to then.) The story I got was that this dad was accusing his son of smoking weed. As horrifying as it was it didn't directly affect me so I was somewhat relieved, although saddened for our friends. You might be wondering why this dad was talking to my son about it.

I thought my family wasn't directly involved...wrong!!!

Evidently, as the story has come out it was not only the one boy, but about 7 of them...who I had agreed to let crash at our house the night of our town carnival a few weeks ago. Two stayed back, claiming fatigue. LB was one of the two. He knew what the others were headed out to do, but thank heavens he was "tired". Nonetheless, these idiots went out, on our watch, and smoked pot!

To end this frustrating story, we let the original parents handle the brunt of the situation since it was their discovery. As far as our end? The boys involved, many of whom I love like they're my own, are no longer welcome. It doesn't help that a couple of them have been party to other incidents--but nothing that could end us all up in prison!

Her birthday suit....not Mary Jane's, silly!

Once again, the family 15 year old is involved in this one.

So we drop LB off at his game. He has to be there an hour early, so Big B and I will drop him off and then run to the store for drinks, and snacks....especially needed watching a championship game. It was a good one too! Anyway, back to the story. While driving back to the ballpark we notice he has left his cell phone on the backseat....uh, do we want Mom to look at it? For those of you who think we do a lot of privacy invasion around here, well, if you don't have children, don't judge it's none of your beeswax, if you don't have teenage children--just you wait, if you do and still find it appaling, well aren't you the lucky one to have raised completely perfect angels? Yeah, right.

For one thing when you're paying the bill, you have rights! For another, if they're so worried about their privacy being invaded then maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't leave a picture of a naked girl, whom they know, and is their age, on their phones! Yeah, you read it right. Full frontal nudity! 15! Can we say child pornography?

So let's do the philosphical math...Mary Jane + her birthday suit= teenage hell.

let your voice be heard

This is something I'd like to start, Sound Off Sundays.

According to my sitemeter I have visitors (lurkers) from all over the world. I would like to hear from you! So don't let me down, give me a shout out! Sound off!

If you have a blog and would like to join in the fun, you may use my graphic, but please link back to me!

old faithful

This photo was taken with my Samsung cell phone. It's not of the best quality pictures, but it is one of my favorite photos in my arsenal. I tried finding it the other day to go along with my patriotic post, but it was buried deep within the confines of my files. I just happened to come across it when searching for a different photo.

25 Random Facts About Me

From Facebook:
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

I'm not actually tagging people for this, if you want to play along than start typing!

1. I have an obsession with cows...black cows, spotted, cows, brown cows, baby cows, any kind of moo cows!
2. I've never lived anywhere longer than six and a half years. [I was born in Pueblo, CO; and then we moved to England for 4 yrs; from there we went to Las Vegas, NV, for 4; on we moved to North Richland Hills, TX for 6 1/2 yrs; then we moved up to Co Spgs, CO, where I went to high school, all three years of it, and from there I left for Lackland AFB, in SA, TX for basic military training; after that I went to Sheppard AFB in WF, TX, for tech school and was there a few months; I spent a couple of months in AZ at Davis-Monthan AFB for my clinicals after which I went on to my first assignment, Iraklion Air Station, Crete, Greece, for 18 months. I met the man of my dreams, swapped assignments with someone (was supposed to go to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX) and went to Minot AFB, Minot, ND where we became a married couple (actually the wedding was in CO), and had our first child. We spent 3 1/2 years in Minot. Big B went to Greece for a remote and I went back to WF, TX where my parents had moved to to live with them for the year. LB and I visited Big B in Greece, and I came back with a souvenir, my pregnancy with AW. After the year was up we moved to Langley AFB, Hampton, VA for 4 1/2 years. Then we went to Italy for 4, and now we are living in VA, again.]
3. I was a SAHM for 13 years with a couple of out-of-the-home jobs thrown in there. So I've worked a grand total, outside of the home, in my adult life, forabout 7 years.
4. I had gastric bypass surgery in 2006 and although I didn't drop down to "skinny" status I did lose 80 lbs. I would do it all again....but wont let myself get there again!
5. I've been going to school for nearly ten years now and have a bachelors degree to show for it.
6. One of my pets is a bearded dragon named Irwin.
7. For the longest time I wanted to get into movies and television as a make-up artist.
8. I've never drank an energy drink, like Amp, RockStar, Red Bull, etc.
9. I can sew, paint, draw, photograph, arrange flowers, scrapbook, decorate and do all sorts of artsy fartsy stuff. Some talents I do better than others.
10. I love to cook and bake.
11. My favorite color is purple.
12. You'll just as likely find me listening to country as you will rock, pop, alternative, or reggae, as loud as the little ole car stereo can go....or in the house when I'm alone.
13. I demand that the sponges, dish towels and such be used properly in my kitchen. Don't wipe the counters down with a damn towel!
14. I've never had a bikini wax, have only had a few massages, but I get semi-regular pedicures.
15. I garden. I've only done flowers and herbs, but will someday plot and cultivate a veg garden.
16. My favorite movie of all time is Grease. There are a few others that run close behind: What Women Want, Remember the Titans, Howard's End, Pride and Prejudice(older version), Evan Almighty, just to name a few.
17. I've never spent more than a night, let alone any great length of time, away from all three of my guys.
18. Someday I will go to Jamaica, and maybe back to Europe, but definitely Jamaica!
19. I had LASIK surgery in '99, and now ten years later am having to wear glasses to drive at night, for astigmatism, and may need readers soon. All that damn reading!
20. I have friends all over the world, some I've known personally and some I've made through my blog.
21. I have recurring nightmares, some since childhood. My brain is too hyperactive.
22. I am in nursing school, but am leaving my options open as to what kind of nursing I want to do. I do feel a draw toward L&D/women's health.
23. I am a natural redhead. Most of you know this, some don't.
24. I am gullible, trusting and loyal almost to a fault. If you've meant anything to me somewhere in the walks of my life I only hope that we are forever friends. We may not talk often, or have seen each other in years, but you are thought about....remember-hyperactive brain.
25. I believe that everything happens for a reason, but we are in control of much of what we do. You choose to be happy and you choose to be mad.

photo tag! play along!

I'm procrastinating like nobody's business. Should be studying for my Mental Health Nsng exam on Tuesday, but am traveling Blogworld instead! Ever feel like your own worst enemy?

I think the college burn-out goes far deeper than anyone might suspect.

Anyway! That'll have to wait for another blog post!

Jen over at Reflections in the Window was tagged and I thought it would be fun to play along!

To play you go to your photo files, choose the fourth file, and then choose the fourth photo in that file and tell it's story. Easy! and fun!


essence of AW

This is a self-portrait of AW. He must have been fooling around with my camera (without my knowledge) and decided he needed a new Myspace photo. I love it, though. It's a bit abstract, and is just AW.

Jen had a great suggestion. Rather than tagging anyone directly she left it open for anyone to play along as they wished.

Consider yourself tagged and tell us a photo story!

with gratitude

First off, I divulged the fact that I blog yesterday in lab. I was still mad upon arrival that I had to vent out loud.

Must stop or will get mad again...

Anyway!

I would like to thank Undergrad RN for her wonderful blogosphere. Here I've been posting the items or blogs that I come across offering great info and all along I could have been adding for easy reference to my sidebar...and that's what socialization in the profession is all about! Thanks Undergrad RN!

Today I have to go grocery shopping and on the way stop by a uniform shop I've located via the 'net to check out their scrubs supply, oh, and their shoes. I'm hoping they have shoes so I can try some on. It's a must for me to buy some decent quality shoes since I have bad hips and feet...and I'm going into nursing? Go figure!

A friend who has a sister who is an OR nurse recommends MBT, but if you know them you know they're $$$$, and if not go take a look!

After the shopping's done it's back to the books. We have our first exam in Nur203-Mental Health Nursing, on Tuesday. This psych-major-gone-nursing-student isn't taking anything for granted!

what a way to get fired up

Wow, talk about insta-pissed! I was just browsing some other blogs and came across one that will remain unnamed, as I don't wish to point fingers, but I do have to say how sad, and frustrated it made me feel.

We'll start with an example of someone who is not a "fair-weather fan", because this is one of the many things that came screeching into my mind as I read the blog.

When the going gets rough, say for a sports team, people bail. They jump ship all too easily! My husband is not one of these people. He's a Philadelphia sports fan: football, the Eagles; baseball, the Phillies; and hockey, the Flyers. I'm not a big sports person, but admire his tenacity and character for being the kind of person who sticks by through thick and thin. If you know anything about the Philly teams you know that they haven't been the most popular of professional sports teams, and have not had a world championship until this year, when the Phillies won the World Series.

This particular blogger wrote a post on how he/she, after yesterday's inauguration, finally feels that she can fly the American flag.

What?

Times are tough right now in our country. I do not dispute this fact! Many lost faith because our leadership was poor, to say the least. I agree.

How about just simply being proud of being a member of the free world? What about all those who have fought and died for that freedom? What about those who perished September 11th, 2001? What about the marvels of all the good that does happen in this country? Advancement in technology and medicine? Have we forgotten our forefathers? What about the leaps and bounds we've made concerning civil rights?

Did President Obama himself not speak of the future not only being in his hands, but our's as well?

I couldn't wait to return to the United States after living in Europe for four years, just so I could fly the American flag.

Yes, in this free country people have the right to make choices such as to fly or not to fly the Grand Old Flag, but to not fly it because they've lost faith? It symbolizes so much more than that.

I can remember a conversation I had with an Italian whom I lived near, in Italy, and he told me he could look at me and tell I was American. To him I think it was somewhat of a vailed insult.

Damn straight you can tell I'm American, and proud of it....no matter what!

can't not mention today

What a day!

I have to say that today is without a doubt going to be ingrained in many people's memories for years to come. Our county's public schools required the students to watch President Obama's inauguration.

I was fortunate enough to have been able to have been on that two hour break I spoke so highly of last week, and therefore was able to view the inauguration in its entirety.

Whatever viewpoints people have of our new president in this era, they should stand behind him. If nothing else he is human. I don't agree with some of his policies or intentions, but found myself almost enamored with his oath of office and his speech.

My family has another reason to remember this day. Seven years ago my mother-in-law passed away after battling leukemia. No one, not even my husband, has even brought it up. It might be a good time to sit down with the boys and give them a piece of their history.

oh my, oh my!

Any good nursing student, as well as any good nurse, needs a great pair of nursing shoes. Somehow I don't think these would be so comfy after 12 minutes, let alone 12 hours!







What brand/style do you wear?