Wow! My little man is growing up! He got his first haircut today~ a high and tight for my little man.

He has 2 official teeth and 2 coming in really fast~YAY

it is Good-Bye 2009 and Welcome 2010!!!!

So some good things happened in 2009~ there will be residule of the negative 2009 things going into 2010... But I'll save that for another day.

Today

the opportunity for her to get to know her biological father. He has been good for her and helped her understand herself better. A very good thing......

es him and they have their own thing going that is her busness not mine.

Then there is my other baby girl~ she too is AMAZING! And for her 2009 brought

baby girl once a month...

I have CUSTODY! Once again she is mine! Obviously I have to share her with her Daddy. I am ok with that. He loves her, she lov

there she was.

Because of my own poor choices, she spent 7 years in the custody of her father. Finally in 2009 after first thinking I would only see my

If only you knew! I waited 10 long years to give birth to that child, had the 3 boys and disappointed each time when it wasn't my girl. Then finally~

pears both are on the path to a better life and more substance to their life than just floating through...

My daughter! My Princess! My baby girl.......

ve daily part of our family.

My other 2 big boys~ what a roller coaster ride they were on this year! But here we sit the last day of the year and it ap

es of those choices. His choices have been a point of grief for me in 2009 and so I am hoping in 2010 he makes better choices and he can again be an acti

My kids~ wow!

My oldest is still a lost sheep and I worry about him. I also know he is making his own choices and he has to live with the consequenc

s been my lifeline to sanity in 2009.

Anytime I thought I was losing it, all I had to do was look at him and hold him & I realized just how strong I am.

My bouncy bouncy baby boy! Allen John Dale will be celebrating his first year with us in 3 days. What an awesome little guy and such a blessing. He ha

s too..

The very best thing that happened in 2009, the thing that kept me hanging on and keeping myself together through all of the stuff that went on~

This year is finally OVER! After everything I have been through this year I am ever so glad to see 2009 go into history. There also were some good moment

Hullo Dear Readers! What a week! My days have been full and busy all week long! Took a little trip down to Sacramento~ stayed with my cousin and her family....

Spent Christmas in the arms of family. It don't get much better than that. Christmas morning it was waking up with 7 kids excited and happy!!!!!

Back up~ Monday, after my brother had been bugging me, I decided to take off with the kids and go to Sac to be with family for this first Christmas without Mom. My, whatever he is (not exactly boyfriend but more than casual friend) helped me put plastic over the broken window, change out wiper blades, check oil, trani fluid, antifreeze, window washer, etc... Car was ready~ a big thank you to my friend for all his help in getting us ready to go~ yay!

We all loaded up in the station wagon, said a prayer, and we were off! A nice boring trip~ and we arrived in Sac. Got lost instantly (a theme for us.)

Called my cousin, she came and rescued us... And so over to her house we went. House? No... 2 bedroom apartment where for the next 6 days anywhere from 13 to 22 people would be! OMGosh her poor little place!!!!!!!

oopps gotta take care of baby... Back later to write more!

https://mail.google.com/mail/x/jzqin8j1ghgk-/?v=c&th=125b3bb20e9675c9

Over the river and through the woods...

Poop...

Poop...

Sorry about that mess... Technology isnt always perfect~ texting blog entry to blog didnt work

, she got to hear some family stories, and love on her dad.

After their visit it was back over to Crossroads to do the elf thing~ Santa's helpers...

to meet up with Elizabeth's dad. She hadn't seen him in a while between the flu outbreak, cold weather, and then him getting sick. They had a good visit

o we walked to the Christmas Party... Not bad really, sort of pretty, and good excercise.

Once there, I left Kate to be an elf and took the other 3 kids

w maintenance issues, it will be an amazing car to have... Until then it hates the high elevation, it hates the cold and it just doesn't want to play.

S

fix it up. It needs new glo plugs and wires, an oil change, a tune up, a good cleaning inside and out, etc. Honestly once I am able to take care of a fe

rty.

The car... My @~#% car. I really like the car~ dont get me wrong~ but it annoys me! How I wish I had an extra couple of hundred laying around to

before she is an adult.

After the arguement, we all worked together to do a little clean up and get ready to go decorate for the Crossroads Christmas Pa

ss to get the morning started... We managed in our own inept and disfunctional way to work thngs out between us. This will not be the last fight we have

if he understands the damage he has done to her by not having stronger boundries for her?

Anyway, she and I got into this verbal arguement. Lots of stre

d is so use to getting her way and not having much in the consequence department that she is a real handful.

I know her father adores her but I wonder

Yesterday was a long, emotional, but also fun and wonderful day!

The morning started off with a HORRENDOUS arguement between my daughter and I. The chil

Do not let Katie cook you eggs unless you want them scrambled or over hard

Good Morning! It is time to rise & shine! It is morning time! And what an AMAZING day it is!

Grab your coffee and a a comfy chair and come join me this morning

First things first~ we are back home in our own little place. It is really coming together as OUR home. Things are finding their way to 'homes' where they will help make our home neat, tidy, and attractive.

I had an interruption at 6:30 this morning while writing. The gentleman who I am wanting to get to know better called. We talked forever about a bunch of different stuff. Kinda cool~ however social the call was, it was initially started for a computer question.

He is taking a look at my computer that has terminal blue screen to see if it might be salvagable. So he was inquiring some info about it.

It was an interesting bit of conversation and I learned a little more about him through the call.

It is rather amusing, my kids both said this guy reminds them of their dad~ initiallly I was like "No way"... Maybe a slight physical resemblance~ but thats it...

Ok... So my kids were right. There are definately some similarities. The dry sense of humour, the matter of fact rather lacking in empathy response... Yup a LOT like my Ex.

Not all bad... Certainly familare after 22 years of my Ex being involved in my life. I am looking at it as an opportunity, if nothing else, to develope a long lasting friendship...

Ok~ back again :)

During the water fiasco I had an interesting interaction with a rather interesting gentlman. A man I hope to get to know better very soon...

He is just a wee bit older than I am, has a decent job, and we share some similare interests. He is going to be a great new friend & who knows..

I found a person of the mechanical kind to work on my Escort. He is going to do the work for parts cost only and a home cooked meal :) sounds good 2 me

Good evening dear readers! What an eventful couple of weeks! Things have been BUSY!

First, the "Big Freeze of 2009" had water pipes frozen and busted all over.

We were affected too... Pipes froze after day 3, friend came over and thawed them, only to discover we had numerous breaks in the lines... Uggg

7 days without water from the time of freeze until the broken pipes were fixed.

There was some fun from it though (see pics on my Facebook of our fun!

We spent HOURS in the indoor heated swimming pool and hot tub. Pretty amazing. Snow on the ground, broken pipes at home & we were swimming! How awesome

It was a new experience for me~ 42 years and I never went swimming when it was snowing...

The hotel was a wonderful luxery. We all enjoyed it A LOT!!

Especially after we had busted our tails to make the money to stay there! A friend, who has some health problems, had their car stuck in what he called an igloo from the snow plows piling snow where his parked car sat.

So the girls and I set out to free his car. 3 snow shovels and some serious work did it.

And that is how our room was paid for. Like I told our friend... Never underestimate the power of a woman who wants a HOT shower!

By the way~ I took a 30 minute HOT shower there and NEVER ran out of hot water! It was awesome!

We are back home, working on the disaster of a week of no running water created...

Good Morning! Time to rise and shine! It is a beautiful snowy day! Get up and watch the sunrise!

Good Grief! We are now on day 3 with NO water! Froze up solid~ on top of that my little desiel Mercedes is really objecting to the cold. It just won't start. FRUSTRATED!

on, but he made a comment that sounded so much like something my sons father would say that I was like"No thank-you"...

I really miss my Mom~ I wanted

ad. Now we just wait for the rest of it... See how the date goes and go from there.

I also had another guy ask me out~ turned that one down. Silly reas

n~ I have a date? A real bonafide date with a guy who seems like the cats meow. All of my kids like him, he can make me laugh, and he has a job... Not b

s were in the Christmas parade on Saturday night. Today was busy with friends and family and moving my washer into the house...

Oh yeah and did I mentio

Good evening dear readers~ what an eventful last few days this has been.

We have been painting my daughters bedroom~ still not done with it. The girl

Tired... Painting is hard work

OMG! Today has been a BLAST!!!! Kids and I headed to Crossroads, a program that helps low income families and homeless people and provides a bunch of different services.

It was a totally a blast~ it was friday and everyone was in a jovial mood. Lots of laughter and fun for sure.

We (daughter and I) helped sort through donations~ totally AMAZING~ hit the jackpot for size 18 months little boy clothes :) Baby Gap, Children's Place, Old Navy, OshKoshBabybyGosh, seriously cute boy things.

Then we came home and have started our "Painting Party". Katie is painting her bedroom. It is funtastic Lemon Blast and Lime Breeze checkerboard on one wall and then she hasn't decided yet on the other walls. Either solid or strips or... Something.

known 26 years. Trusted him, loved him, and he taught me... NEVER trust ANYONE.

ast 6 months keeping men, all men, at a distance. I just haven't been able to get comfortable letting any man in my life.

Here, in Ron, was a man I had

the father of one of the other victims. So their family has been assisting 2 victims to get over the betrayal of trust this man did.

I have spent the l

y made me aware of just how much damage that man did to so many people and so many families.

It is all far reaching~ my daughters best friends uncle is

st son, raised his wifes 2 boys and his daughter, and will never get to raise this son.

Preparing my victim's impact statement for his sentancing reall

him and all he is learning to do and I get a pang of sadness for his father and all he is missing out on.

Certainly he (my son's father) does not deser

an. For all the evil and vileness that is him, there was also a part of him that adored his son.

It is rather ironic that he never got to raise his olde

him and all he is learning to do and I get a pang of sadness for his father and all he is missing out on.

Certainly he (my son's father) does not deser

ve any contact with our son. I know that I will do all I can to ensure that he never sees the boy~

But there is a part of me that feels sorry for the m

it is :)

Can you believe, Allen will be a year old in just 30 days. How did that happen? My big boy is a toddler, not my little baby anymore.

I look at

r~ a white tree.

This is such a year of change that it just seemed the time to do something wildly different from the past. So a white Christmas tree

new and amazing memories for our family.

Last night we errected our Christmas tree. We still need to decorate it. A little something different this yea

Good Friday Morning Readers! It is another amazing day!

We wake up in our new house, there is a peace here, no one is feeling stressed, we are creating

Good Evening Readers :) What a day~ I am wore out! Started off this morning to do laundry... Car would not start~ someone had unplugged the darn thing! Arggggg!!!!!

OK so a desiel really needs the block heater going in the cold weather. The teens are tough temps for an old Mercedes. After buying a new battery, new wipers, oil, water, etc for the car and it wouldn't start...

Woke with my son~ no not the baby, my 22 year old. He is headed out of town for a week or two And woke me up to say good-bye.

After he left I got to thinking, you know you always think, as a new parent, that once you get your baby to sleep through the night your days of sleepness nights will be over. Little do you know~ they have just begun...

I cannot begin to imagine the number of nights my Mom must have spent sleepless during the 41 years 5 months I had her.

I was a stong-willed, headstrong, reckless youth and as I got older I made a series of mistakes in judgement that caused my Mom untold grief.

You just do not realize, until you experience it yourself, how much a Mother really loves...

I wonder if it is the same for fathers? Somehow, I think it maybe a little the same, but at the same time, I think there is a difference too.

Now I am laying here, Allen woke up from my typing, so he is hving a middle of the night snack... I look down at him and wonder...

What will he be doing in 21 years that keeps his mother awake?