Author Archives: Amanda

HORRIBLE Friday the 13th

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If things over here weren’t crazy enough, Gino has not been able to drive. Which means I have to tote his butt around everywhere. I honestly don’t mind, but that added with the kids added with work added with Grandparents = no time AT ALL.

It started Friday the 13th. Gino got up for work at his usual time and left the house at 3:45am. As he was coming out of the driveway a cop flipped around and followed him. He finally pulled him over for signaling to turn at 75 feet instead of 100 feet (CAN WE SAY RACIAL PROFILING?) Ridiculous. So, Gino’s wallet of course is in my purse. The cop ran Gino’s name and come to find out Gino has an expired CA license. It expired on his birthday (lovely). So, Gino calls me at 4am to come and pick him up and take him to work. The cop luckily let Gino park his car and didn’t tow it or give him any kind of ticket.

4am and I’m dragging my kids out of bed and not happy AT ALL. Later that day Gino takes my car and immediately gets pulled over for *hesitating*. He actually was at an intersection that makes no complete sense and where everyone hesitates. Once again *RACIAL PROFILING* Unfortunately, the news had just launched a segment on Mexican gangs in our area and we’re in a REALLY small town.

So, I grab the kids and go to where Gino got pulled over and threw the race card right in their piggy faces. I’m not liking these cops very much. They weren’t very happy about their accusation, but frankly, I DON’T CARE.

Proceed on to the following day….. I was driving down the driveway a cop (THE STUPID GIRL COP THAT GOT HIM THE DAY BEFORE) looked down the driveway (it’s a long one) saw the car and actually pulled over so that she could see if I or Gino were driving. She then got behind me and followed me ~ I’m honestly considering harassment charges here….. again, NOT HAPPY.

It’s the little things that keep me up late!

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Why is it that I think I have everything accomplished and can go to bed and then I realize I forgot to close the lid to the washer. My husband’s clothes have to be dry in order for them to be on him at 3:30am…. lovely ~ I’ve been going going going since 6:30am ~ I’M SO READY FOR BED!

Today we actually had a summer like day. I took the kids for Thursday Park Day to the water park and Ella didn’t like it AT ALL. Jayden LOVED IT! In fact, I anticipate many days there this summer.

I was hoping that I can find a cord for my video camera before I uploaded and talked about Jayden’s graduation, so please bear w/me here ~ I have some super cute pictures coming and tears to talk about.

Tomorrow my sister Britney is coming over for the first time. She’s never been to Ashland, so I offered to take her there. I’m going to hire her to help me with some filing and hopefully we have a jolly day. She’s a really cool girl, but I’m still a little weary of it all. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m getting to know her as a person, not a sister right now.

Thank you, Mya

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I asked Gino the other day if he ever thinks of Mya. He said, “Not as much anymore.” I thought about his reply and thought about how a year ago she was all I thought about and now a day actually does go by that I don’t think of her. I’ve prayed many, many, many times for healing. To heal my broken heart for missing my baby. To help me to not resent my sister and my nephew. I honestly, full heartedly believe that Heavenly Father answered my prayers.

I look at Vani and I don’t think of Mya. I never thought that would be possible, but it is. I even stopped wearing my necklace with Mya’s ashes in it every day. Not on purpose, but sometimes life is busy and I actually forget to grab her.

I can think of her and smile and thank her for allowing Ella into our lives. If Mya never said Goodbye, Ella would never say Hello. And that right there, bring this peace to my heart and soul and I know that Mya exists, and that she’s with our Heavenly Father. She was too special for this world. She came at a time that we needed her, and her purpose was served. She brought this family from chaos to love. She saved us. I will forever be grateful to her for what she did for our family.

Thankfully we have a beautiful plan and Mya will be a part of our eternal family… I know it. I feel it in my heart, and that’s what gets me through this life. We will all eventually be happy, complete and together forever.

Thank you, Mya. Thank you for everything you did for your family ~ we love you. We will always love you.

My Fro Head

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Well, I missed Tackle It Tuesday, because I’ll be honest – I DIDN’T TACKLE A THING ~ I missed Kitchen Tip Tuesday, because my poor family hasn’t even had anything from my kitchen in a week, so basically I have no right to even talk about my kitchen. Works for me Wednesday ~ nothing worked for me this week – so let’s just back track a little bit in life and join in on Sincerely Fro Me To You.

Notice the Fro’ in this carnival ~ Kristen had an awesome Fro so that’s where she came up with this title. Well, I wanted to show the world that my helmet hair headed child actually at one point in his life did have a Fro’ and it was cute. I made the dreadful mistake of cutting it and now it’s straight as a board.

I stumbled upon this picture on my computer just now while I was looking for another picture for Sincerely Fro’ Me To You, and my heart jumped at the site. Sadly, it was only 5 years ago, but we look SO DIFFERENT! We all looked so young. Well, this is dedicated to my Jayden ~ You did have a fro’ and I loved it….. and I will always love you my freshly kindergarten graduate.

A Mama Woops

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Today was long! I changed Ella’s diaper tonight and got up, threw her diaper in the garbage and then went to FINALLY get on my blog and talk about how my son graduated from Kindergarten yesterday and how Ella has another tooth and all the things that I’m just now too exhausted to talk about, when….. my husband says “Are you just not gonna put another diaper on her?”

I walk in the living room and Ella’s sitting there with the Xbox 360 remote right in between her legs. A part of me was secretly hoping that she would pee all over it, but of course that would never happen. No. She’ll just wait until she finds a great opportunity to pee all over me.

It’s official ~ I’m losing it. At least I did this at home and not in public.

Echo Echo Ecccchhhhooooo

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I know, I know, it’s like there’s an echo going on here, but here I am to update as to why. I’ve been running around like a crazy, mad woman, and things are so different with Norm and my Grandma living here.

It got to the point in only a week I was done. I was tired of it and I didn’t want to leave my family behind anymore to tend to them. I know, I’m terrible. SO! I came up with a solution…..

Here is my new trusty schedule and they MUST abide by it or I pack up and move a little more North…. and I’m not kidding 🙂

Sunday: Church and then after church BBQ @ Grandma’s house w/Norm and Grandma

Monday: LEAVE ME ALONE DAY I HAVE TO WORK!

Tuesday: In the morning I work – in the afternoon we go for a stroll through Lithia Park

Wednesday: In the morning I work – in the afternoon I take Norm to his massage & then we all go out to dinner

Thursday: LEAVE ME ALONE DAY I HAVE TO WORK!

Friday: In the morning I drop the kids off with my Grandma and go to read to Norm – in the afternoon I work

Saturday: The morning is ME time ~ In the afternoon we’ll take Norm out on the town for any shopping or whatever he’d like to do.

SO! That’s the set schedule, but of course it can be tweeked for fun things that come up. I’m hoping that we can catch a couple of play, since that’s what it’s all about where we live. Can you believe that I have yet to go see a play since I’ve lived here…. terrible, I know.

Okay new subject: Britney

As discussed previously I’ve been nervous for Britney, my long lost sister, to move here. I was not ready to look at her as a sister and decided to approach her as a friend instead. It’s working. She’s a pretty cool person, and while we don’t have tons and tons in common, we haven’t had a silent moment yet. I guess the fact that we both despise our biological father is common enough huh? So, we’re doing well here 🙂

Family Home Evening – Getting To Know Each Other

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To learn more about what Family Home Evening (FHE) is CLICK HERE. Last week I had my days completely confused and believe it or not we didn’t do our Family Home Evening. This week however, we have something fun planned!! It’s a little activity to see how well we really know each other. They do this for newly weds, but I’m making it fun for families too! We are all going to fill out our answers on a sheet of questions about ourselves (Jayden will just have them in his head) and then go around the room and see if we know each other’s answers.

Here are our 15 Questions:

What’s you’re favorite color?
What’s your favorite movie?
What’s your favorite current TV Show(no discontinued shows)?
What’s your favorite song?
Would you rather go to the ocean or play in the snow?
Would you rather be on a boat or on the shore?
What’s your favorite animal?
What’s your favorite thing to eat?
What’s your favorite shape?
What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
What’s the funniest movie you’ve seen?
What’s the favorite thing you own?
Where’s your favorite place to go?
Would you rather go to Disney Land or Sea World?
Would you rather drink water or soda?

Happy Monday!!!

If you have question suggestions please add them in the comment section.

**EDITED TO ADD:
I highly suggest this FHE!! We had sooooooo much fun and there was much laughter doing it!!

Best New Family Site

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If you’re anything like me right now, you’re running around with stressful household and basically, YOU’RE GOING CRAZY!!! First off, if you’re looking for ways to have a stress-free home, what the heck are you doing reading MY BLOG??? I’m still trying to figure it out, but I’ll tell you what ~ I think that RD.com – Parenting might just have the answers to all of our problems. You gotta love 7 Ways to Create a Happy Household.

I’ve been searching around on this website all morning and I LOVE LOVE LOVE all of the stuff that RD.com – Family Life has to offer their readers. They have awesome, awesome, awesome ideas for tips on traveling and I’m definitely going to be using their games for the road for any of our road trips we’re going to be taking this summer.

This actually might be my new favorite website. It goes beyond family tips and goes on to health, politics, basically everything you’re looking for on one, great site! So, stop stressing out and living in a unhappy home and go read some ways that you can change your family’s life. Our lives are so short and we all need to be happy, and through inspirational, amazing family stories and family tips that we never thought of ourselves, RD.com will help you get to the happy place in your family that you need.
Sponsored by Reader's Digest

Not so bad

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Things have been BUSY! I must say that they’re running a lot more smoother than I thought they would. Norm has taken to his new home quite well and I hope that he falls more and more in love with it here. I actually sit here writing without anyone in my house. That’s right ~ PEACE AND QUIET! I sent Gino and Jayden off to the movies and Ella off with my Grandma so I could actually get some work done. I LOVE IT!!!

My sister Britney ~ the one who’s moving here, sent me a text and asked if she could have a part in my children’s lives. She said that she really would love to get to know them, and that kinda put a smile on my face. I liked that she asked and I’m starting to realize that while we may be different, we have similar situations. She doesn’t know me and she’s probably just as reserved as I am.

I’m going to follow my dear friend Sam’s advice of starting out with a friendship and not a sister relationship. I’m taking a deep breath and hoping it all goes well.

Great-Grandma Louise

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In this 5 generation picture, the old lady on the far left is my Great-Grandma Lousie, which is my children’s Great-great Grandma Louise. This week’s Fro’ you to me I’m going to share a little story on my Great-Grandma Louise. The old lady is a wretched old woman. Notice I said IS? She’s still alive.

My memories of her bring nightmares to children. She LOVED to scare the crap out of us grandkids. Here’s a couple little tricks she pulled on us:

When we’d stay the night at her house, she’d put a rubber band around her wrist and tell us that if we didn’t go to sleep that her hand would fall off and come get us.

We went camping once and she made Indian Stew ~ the kind where you actually bury the bag to cook it. After it was done she told us that the Indians would be back for their stew so if we don’t eat it quickly they’d kill us.

She’d tell us scary stories and tell them to be true so we’d be utterly frightened to death while laying in our sleeping bags, in the wilderness, camping. I still don’t understand how my mom allowed her to be around us.

There’s another little slice of dysfunction in my family ~ My Great-grandma Louise.