Mexico Day 1

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to go with her to get surgery in Mexico. Being the awesome friend I am, I, of course, said yes. A. I love her lots B. She'd do it for me and C. It's a free trip to Mexico. 

 The flight was really fast, after we finally boarded. Our plane was late, then had a hydraulic leak and we had to get a new one. 

Our shuttle guy picked us up and because I was so fascinated with San Diego, he drove us around the bay so I could take some pictures. 

We crossed the border with no incident, didn't even have to show our passports. 

We went to the hospital, got her pre-op stuff done, then came to our hotel. We went and ate dinner and I had an amazing club sandwich. Finally, we walked around a bit. She isn't feeling great because of the fasting, but we did make it to a pharmacy, to buy me some coke and see if they had Noah's medicine. 

As any of you that read this know, Noah's medicine is 499 dollars a bottle and is not covered by insurance. Therefore, it's been a 2 year battle to keep Noah healthy without the medicine he really needs. I just walked into a pharmacy, asked if they carried it, and bought 3 bottles for 24 dollars. 1500 dollars of medicine in America - for 24 bucks. I want to cry.

Day 132: Housekeeping

Alright - I have a hodge podge of information for you.

Bullet Point Number 1 - 

 First, I am in the process of moving. In case you haven't heard the news, I signed a contract on Thursday to teach 4th grade at a charter school in Phoenix. The school is about an hour north west of where I currently live. While I could commute, I feel like the best thing to do is to move. Bri is going to be attending the school I am teaching at, and Noah is going to start pre-school in August, so I really have a choice right now over where to put him, he's not in one currently. It just makes sense to begin my own life, by myself, doing it on my own. I need that independence, that knowledge that I can do it, be a bonafide grown up.I think it won't hurt to distance myself from Colby, and I know it will be great for the kids, because Tammy and Preston will get to be more of their grandparents, rather then babysitter, which is what I want for them. The actual move is still a couple weeks away, but I have a lot of free time right now, so I started cleaning and getting things we don't use every day packed up. I've actually got quite a stack of boxes going, but I didn't feel like taking another picture. I'm very excited for the next chapter in our lives to begin.

Bullet Point Number 2 -


These kittens seemed as obsessed with computers as Bri and I are. I am so thrilled with them, but good lord.

 

Stache enjoying a nap on the side of my computer as I tried to start this blog. 

 

Tux snatched up Bri's computer when she got up to go to the bathroom 

Bullet Point Number 3 - 

My son has learned to Fake Cry. God help us all. 

And Finally, Bullet Point Number 4 - 

 Because of my interview in Yarnell - and the fact the radio in my car has been possessed by some sort of evil radio demon, I decided to pick up a cheapy little knock off I pod from Walmart for the trip.Obviously, as we all know now, I never actually made the trip, but I have been thoroughly enjoying it anyways. I loaded it up the night before the intended trip with a mix of quite a bit of music and some comedy by Daniel Tosh, Greg Giraldo, and Russell Brand's Scandalous. Daniel Tosh - A+ for funny. Seriously. I'd never heard of him before a couple days ago - and now - I'll definitely be listening to it a lot. Warning - if your humor does not cross over into dark and twisted - don't bother, as abortion, decapitation, rape, and illegal immigration are all brunts of the joke.

But listening to it this evening as Bri watching Never Say Never for the 10,000th time, I was thinking about what a weird taste in music I have. Then I realized that that isn't the first time I've noticed it. I've actually been told this many times, by many different people. So as I've been typing this, I've been keeping as list of songs that play while the knock off I Pod is on shuffle. For your viewing amusement, My playlist:
(P.S. I'm going to hit forward a few times without listening to get a better list going, it really didn't take me 40 songs worth of time to write this).



Fuckin Perfect- Pink
Hound Dog - Elvis Presley 
Quit Playing Games with my Heart - Backstreet Boys
I Gotta Feeling - The Black Eyed Peas 
All or Nothing - O Town
This love - Maroon 5
Cherry Cola - Savage Garden
I like Big Butts - Sir Mix A Lot
Hakuna Matata - The Loin King Sountrack
Smile - Uncle Cracker
Hate - Plain White Ts
The Clap - Infant Sorrow
Words by Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus
No Scrubs - TLC
Here in your Arms - Hellogoodbye
Skater Boy - Avril Lavigne
Sweet Transvestite - Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack
Something There - The Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack
Inside of You - Infant Sorrow
Amarillo Sky - Jason Aldean
Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Long Time Coming - Oliver James
Stupid Boy - Keith Urban
Creep - TLC
Craig Christ - Stephen Lynch
Thanks for the Memories - Fall out Boy
Fuck Her Gently - Tenacious D
Without You - Keith Urban
Free Falling - Tom Petty
Lullaby - Stephen Lynch
I Miss You - Blink 182
Mean - Taylor Swift
You're so Vain - Carly Simon
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
I'll Be There For You - Bon Jovi
If You like Pina Coladas - Rubert Holmes
Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show Sountrack
Red, Red Wine - Bob Marley
I'm Yours - Jason Marz
Drops of Jupiter - Train
Unwell - Matchbox 20
Do I - Luke Bryan
Wait, Wait, Wait - The Format
Are you Going to Kiss me or Not - Thompson Square
I'll Make Love to you - Boyz 2 Men
Kokomo - The Beach Boys
Last Resort - Papa Roach
One Time - Just Bieber 
Say My Name - Destiny's Child
Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks
**Are we sick of this yet?**
All Shook Up - Elvis Presley
Big Fat Friend - Stephen Lynch
Lucky - Britney Spears
Under the Sea - The Little Mermaid Soundtrack
Love You 'Till the End - The Porgues
If Your Gone - Matchbox 20
Everybody wants to rule the world - Tears for Fears
Pedals Back on the Rose - Jaron
**Okay I'm done for now**

What do you think? Would I find as strange of a mix on your I-Pod?

Day 131: Well.. Shoot

So apparently when I allow myself some room to not blog every day, means I don't blog at all for like 2 weeks! I apologize. I've got enough stuff right now that I could blog every day for at least a week. Sooo...I'll get on that.

So recently - We've had some new additions to our family. They are cute and furry and I couldn't resist. I mean, because seriously - I'm well on my way to being an old cat lady emotionally, I might as well be one literally as well.

Meet Tux and Stache

 They were Tammy's cat's kittens...but now they are mine!!

 Omg - I love them so much.

 This is Stache - aptly names for his black mustache on his nose.

 And this is Tux. Cuz I decided it to be so.

I should point out, I have no clue if they are boys or girls. But whatever they are, they are both the same...soo..that's good. 

And yes, I did have a different cat. It was Tammy's outside cat that she thought maybe if I took it it could be an inside cat. But after it peed all over my closet, it went back to Tammy's house. 

So now I have these little ones. As I type, Tux is sleeping on my legs and Stache is crawling up my back. They are lovely.

Day 130: Things I want to believe it

First things first. I need to tell you that I have decided that I don't have to post every single day to complete Project 365. I realize that is kind of the point of the thing, but my life just doesn't always work like that. I'm a single mom, with two kids, trying to support myself and get my Master's Degree. Sometimes, I just don't have the time or energy. So if you have noticed my erratic postings lately, that is why. 

Now, to the point of my blog today. 

Things I want to believe in. I'm not sure why - but this has been on my mind for two days. So I decided to share. 

1. God. This has been sort of a rehashed topic. But I want to say something here. I WANT to believe there is a god. I WANT to believe in the christian bible. Once upon a time I believed it with all my heart. But then things started happening. Things I could not understand. I was denied a job because my sin was to public. Living with a man outside of marriage. Granted, one of the teachers was leaving at lunch to get stoned in the gas station parking lot, and another had a drinking problem. But those sins are secret. The pastor of my church refused to marry us because it was my second marriage. I was sabatoged at my job by a fellow christian. And treated sub-human by the people that should have been the most important. Made to feel like I was worthless So much so that I actually believed they wanted me to kill myself. And I almost did. 

So I looked at all this and I realized, that I don't want any part of that god. or that bible. or religion. But even now, even today, I want to believe it is real. That there is some higher power out there that loves us and one day will fix all this. I want to believe that my good intentions and effort are not for nothing. But I can't. No matter how hard I try. 

2. Relationships with the opposite sex. Not to be confused with love. Because I absolutely believe in love. I unconditionally love my children. I love my dog. I love my cousin. I know love exists. What I don't know I believe in is Relationships, like marriage. I question the entire institution of it. A year ago, all I wanted to do it get married and live happily ever after. But that obviously didn't work out. And then I think about the people I know that are in relationships. I'm not going to use any examples, because I think it would be offensive. But let's just say I can think of very few that I would want to be in their shoes in this department. Perhaps my grandparents are the only reason I think it might be possible, and that was a different era, a war they lived through, a belief in forever, in not giving up just because it got hard. Now it gets hard and people just...walk away. Leave the people that love them behind. Prime example: My son still asks for his daddy almost every single day. And then gets sad and says he went to work and never came home. How the hell do I explain that to him. That he gave up because it was hard? It's so unfair and I really question whether or not there is such a thing as a healthy relationship that lasts for the long term in this world. 

3. An economic recovery. I am a good teacher. I have the potential to be a great teacher. But at this moment, I am drowning in debt, bad credit and a rent I can't pay. In another month or two, I'm going to be facing homelessness. So how does a person with a Bachelor's Degree, great references and amazing test scores get here? A shit economy. No jobs, insane gas prices, a bad economy. I want to believe it will get better, but gas prices never go back down. Government spending in the wrong places is never going to stop. Teachers are getting the axe, schools are getting shafted, and a potentially great teacher is going to lose everything, including the potentially hundreds of children who's lives she could have changed. I'm hoping above hope that the economy recovers, but there's no indication of that in the near future. 

So that's it, my top 3 things I want to believe in. :)

Day 128: Buckets-o-Fun

I am not really buckets-o-fun today. But my son is...so enjoy. 

Day 127: Water for....Me

 I have to confess - I had no intention of writing this blog about this topic. In fact, I took pictures of Noah today that I had intended to share. 

So here is the back story. 

My cleptomanic daughter jacked a Mad Libs book from a boy at school.

Okay, okay. That's not exactly what happened. Bri found a Mad Libs book at school. She knew it belonged to someone else, but she wanted it so bad and she knew this boy had several of them, so she figured he'd never notice it was missing. Thus, she kept it. Now, that in itself was wrong. But to make it worse, the teacher confronted the class and said, no one is in trouble, but if you found it please bring it back. However, now Bri felt trapped and couldn't give it back because she was scared she would get in trouble. Well, because these things always back fire, another kid in the class, saw she had it and told on her. Her teacher very politely pulled her aside and told her that it wasn't a big deal, but if she found it and took it home by mistake, she needed to bring it back on Monday. 

Let me just say, I had no idea - about any of this at this point. 

Okay, fast forward to Sunday Night, after I've put Noah to bed. Bri starts crying. I finally pry out of her what happened, and that she was going to just take it back to him but when she just walked into her room she found that Noah had destroyed the book. Colored on every page, ripped the cover off...you know, normal Noah style. So now she can't take it back. 

Pardon me, while I giggle at natural consequences kicking her ass. 

Sooo...we went in to the school today, informed the teacher of what happened. I told her teacher I feel very strongly that she needed to be punished at school for it, as well as home. But that I also would replace the book for the boy, because it is unfair to him. 

Alright, back story over. 

So I went to Borders this afternoon to pick up a new Mad Libs book for the boy in Bri's class. I should not be allowed in Book Stores. I can't resist man! I LOVE books. No way around it. I do have the borders reward card thing where I get 10% off every purchase...so...I justify my actions. So I ended up walking out with two new books for me, one for Bri and some worm thing for Noah. 

Anyways...one of the books I bought was Water for Elephants. Call me a bandwagon reader, yea, I woulda never wanted to read it had I not heard so much about the movie. But all the reviews of the movie I have read talk about the importance of reading the book first. 

So I started reading the book at like 5:30p, after dinner tonight. I continued to read while Noah was in the bath, during bed time routine, while Bri showered, through my normal computer time. And here it is 10:30 at night and I have finished the book. I could not put it down. It was AMAZING. 

It is absolutely no wonder that they made a movie from it. Seriously, if you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. I'm not going to type out the plot and stuff, because it's quite intricate and would take a long time. But let me just say - this is in my Top 5 favorite books of all time.

Day 126: Talk about it Friday

So, I've actually read like 5 books in the last 2 or 3 weeks. I had one book left in my pile of unread. I grabbed it when I threw Noah in the bath. It was one of those 1.99 books I grabbed outta the bin at Walmart without knowing anything about it.

I started it at 6:30 and was done with it by 9. I had to finish it, because it had me slightly freaked out. It was...creepy. But not in a real realistic kind of way. I don't recommended it, unless you are looking for a 1.99 cheap book to read when you have nothing better to do. And even then...I don't really think I'd recommend it. I'll try to get up the patience or desire to actually review some of the books I've been reading lately. But not today.