Catching up on life!

Wow-- this summer is really cruising by- I never meant to go this long without updating this blog, but somehow, I find it easier to send a quick message every so often on Facebook than to sit and write about things!

Since Megan graduated the end of June, she has been enjoying her summer with her friends and busily getting ready for college. I can't believe it's just a few short weeks now and she will over to SLU in the dorm room and not at home all the time anymore! We are really excited for her though and looking forward to this next chapter in her life!

Speaking of chapter's in her life- Meg is now an AVON representative- http://mroyce.avonrepresentative.com/  - that is her AVON website- you can order right offline from her and orders of $30 or more gets FREE Shipping!  She thought this would be a fun new way to meet people over at college and I agree. It' only cost her $20 to join and will be a good source of some extra income hopefully too!

On top of that, she also got a job working in the Government section of the ODY library on campus - she starts work Monday for some paid training and works everyday except for Tuesday- then I don't think she knows anything after that yet.

SO-- lots of things happening with Meg!

Here are a few photos of her summer!

 

and a few of the artwork pieces she's drawn this summer:

Alex has been enjoying his summer as well - it was a BIG relief that he ended up passing every one of his classes at school and he will be entering into the 10th grade the beginning of September. I think ( I hope ) he's learned his lesson in the fact that he needs to do homework next year!

For a few years, Alex has been wanting and wanting a puppy - but I kept saying NO because he never wants to do anything except what he wants when he wants- which doesn't work well with a puppy- well, I was so happy he passed all his classes, I have into him and we drove to Booneville back on July 2nd and picked up a 8 week old Beagle puppy we've named Keeda. She is ADORABLE- and I have to say I've fallen in love with her just as much as everyone else- she's sweet and for the most part a really good puppy- she of course likes to chew, but if she has toys out or a rawhide bone - she's pretty good about not messing with anything else. She loves to play, and is pretty much potty trained- she hasn't had an accident in the house in days now, but you have to be attentive to her and take her out all the time- she occasionally goes to the door and sits to go out, but not often. She whines still when things don't go her way- and only barks at the cats when they won't play with her- then she looks around and wonders where the barking noise is coming from-- it's very cute! Alex is just in love with her and is taking good care of her and being attentive to taking her out- even at 2 in the morning! Here are some photos:

I love this above photo - we put a gate in the hallway to keep her from going places we don't want her too and she doesn't think this is fair at all! LOL

and this is a pic of her today ( the others were right after we got her at 8 weeks old) - she is 12 weeks here- she's about 9 pounds and growing- but not to fast and hopefully she won't get to big either- I'd rather she stay as small as possible!

Next are a couple of photos with Alex holding a baby for the first time- he even asked to hold her- he wasn't prompted at all- he was so cute with her-- the baby is my husband's niece's daughter Lillian born early June.

 

We've just been enjoying the summer- it's been a really hot one as some of you know, so haven't been out as much as I'd have liked to have been. My father and I made a couple of trips to the Watertown area doing genealogy research, but not as many as I'd hoped for- it's just been to hot to be outside walking much. Hopefully we will get in a few more trips before the weather turns cold though.

This time of year is my favorite time- from now until the end of October- there is a cooler, crispness to the air at night ( it's only 59 degrees right now) and I have the windows open- during the day, it just is beautiful weather- just needs to get a little cooler. I love the change of the leaves and noticed yesterday on the way home from shopping with mom that some of the trees in a field of Burt Carr's were already turning colors- to which I was surprised at!

Megan has graduated!

 

 

I still don't really have words for the graduation experience at this point- other than to say it was wonderful - but will share some photos of her for now --

Happy Father's Day to my Dad

I have to admit, I honestly didn't realize Father's Day was even today until I read a bunch of posts on Facebook where people were saying Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. When I was a child, these little "holidays" always seemed like such a big day to me- WOW a day just for Dads, Moms, and so on- how neat and I'd go out of my way to create something for the day or whatever. As I grew older, I would have a special meal - then as I've grown even older, had my own kids and so on, I tend to think these "holidays" are just a way to get people to spend money on senseless things- do I really need to buy a plaque that says You're the BEST dad, or a $5 paper card that will be tossed in a drawer to tell him I love him? I used to think so, but not anymore. To me, it's just another day whether it's Mother's Day, Father's Day, President's day, Easter, or whatever. I'm not a big holiday person.

My dad and I have always been close - when I was little I would sit on his lap and count his "boo boos" on his hands- my father worked hard every day to provide for us and would come home with numerous little cuts and scrapes- I don't know why I like to count them all, but I did. I also was fascinated with combing his hair- again, I would do this over and over- comb it, mess it up, and comb it again- and he let me.

I remember once or twice a week we would go to my Uncle Burt's Farm to get milk fresh out of the tank at his farm. We had 4 big gallon ( or bigger?) glass containers that fit into a wooden crate and we'd go over, visit for a bit and then gather the milk up in these jars and bring them home. We did this until Dad had his heart attack and they said he should be healthier in his eating- I think this is when we switched and started buying 2% from the store - I believe the milk from the farm would have an inch or two if cream on the top you'd have to skim off from it.

My dad took the family camping every summer and I have many found memories of camping with family and friends growing up. We took Motorcycle trips - whether it be for the day or him picking me up from my sister's in Virginia and bringing me home on the motorcycle.

My dad bought me cars to drive, didn't kill me when I got into accidents - just replaced the windshield, headlights, or whatever and took it all in stride.

We used to go get he newspaper at Fay's Drug store just about every night during the week for a long period of time. Dad was always doing something crazy like walking around the entry way bushes in circles just to embarrass me- I remember one time in the store, he looked in his wallet and told me he had $5 - it was all he had until the end of the week, but if I wanted something, I could get it- I told him no, I didn't want anything- and it's not like the only time he'd ever asked me if I wanted something I'm sure- I was always getting little trinkets- but that one time has stuck in my mind for many many years.

In the summer my dad would sometimes come pick me up when he was working if he had to go a long distance for the day and take me with him- I used to feel so special getting to go in his work truck and be with him for the day- it was always so much fun- and I'd tag along at night sometimes helping him fix someones furnace that had called- let me tell you- girl or not- I bet if I had to,  I could bleed a furnace line, adjust the height of the flame and change a nossil- I'm sure I was more of a pain to him at times that helpful, but never the less, along I went.

I was a pain in the butt growing up and probably sometimes as an adult as well, but I never once felt as if I didn't have this unconditional love from my dad. I'm so very thankful that my kids have grown up knowing him and felt this love as well. My kids adore my father and their entire life is filled with wonderful memories of him just like mine.

I could keep going on and on and on about my dad- as you can see, I have many many fond memories of my dad- I truly love my dad and appreciate everything he's always done and continues to do for me. I don't think he needs a "special day" for me to tell him I love him- because I know he knows how special he is to me each and everyday.

Dad- Happy Father's Day- not just today, but everyday- I love you and am so very thankful to have you in my life, living right next door, sharing the joys of the kids with me and continuing to make wonderful memories.

Megan's Class Ring

Yesterday the UPS truck stopped here and Meg grabbed the package and brought it in to me- it had an address on Minn. on it, but no company name or anything. I had no idea what it was, so I opened the package with her standing about two feet from me. Upon opening it, I still didn't know what it was- it appeared to be a little black box with a cardboard/paper thing over it- I was reading that as I was pulling the black box out from inside of it- I said " OH!! It's your class ring" before I could even stop myself.  I had ordered in on May 24th, but did not receive notice that it had shipped yet, so I had no idea. It was a surprise that the package was the ring- well of course there was no turning back as to what it was- so no special moment so to speak to present her with the ring- but she loves it and that is all the really matters.

Class rings have come a long was since I got mine 20 years ago, and they carry a pretty price tag as well. Here are a few photos of it- she of course designed it herself and I wasn't to keen on it when she designed it, but now that it's here- I adore it and it fits her personality perfectly- it's hard to tell, but there are two diamond accent stones on each side of the bigger stone.

Random thoughts and happenings

It's been a while again since I've posted anything here- during the day, I can never seem to think of anything to post- then at night while laying in bed trying to fall asleep, I think of lots of things, but always forget by the morning! I think I need a notepad to write things down on! Anyway- I thought I'd just do a random post of things that have been happening here as well as random thoughts on things-

Finally got the house sided completely- I had to hire someone else to do it that cost me $650 - I'm still frustrated about the whole ordeal- but got tired of waiting over 3 years for what took the new people less than 8 hours to complete- which honestly made me even more upset that it took such little time, yet the original person hired to do the job couldn't take time and come back to finish it. My mother gets upset with me that I don't just forget about it - and I've really tried, but it's a matter of principle- not to mention the fact if it wasn't family I paid to do the job, it never would have dragged on this long. Most people would have taken the issue to court to get the money back, and had it not been family I might have, but as annoyed as I am, I'd never go down that route with family.

It's getting closer and closer to Meg's graduation- only 10 more days- I can't wait for her to be done with high school, but I think it's going to be a LONG summer for her. She is really anxious to get to SLU and is already bored with nothing to do. I've been encouraging her to get a job- not for the money of it really, but for something to do and it will do her good to get out of the house and around people. I think she's going to have a big awakening when she goes to college with all the different people around her!

Alex has just two more regents to take this week and he will be done with everything for the school year- still on pins and needles to see which classes he will end up passing. I know these two regents he must pass in order to get credit for the course- so I'm crossing fingers that he does. He thinks he did really well on his social and English finals and he probably did- but I'm not sure it will be enough to carry him into a passing overall average. I think- I hope he's finally learned his lesson though that he can't expect to breeze through the classes anymore without doing homework. I'm hoping for a better school year in the fall, but I don't know... time will tell. It's frustrating because he's so smart- but just doesn't want to apply himself. He dislikes school SO much.

My niece Katie came for a visit for a few days- it was great to see her- she's now back in Texas living with her mom again - I hope that it goes well- I hope she doesn't fall back into the same pattern as she was in a year ago. She has goals to get a job and go to college- so I hope she goes through with it and keeps that attitude up.

I've been really extremely bored without my college classes- I ended the semester on the Dean's list, which was pretty nice- that 4.0 really boosted my confidence - and made me think- wow, if only I'd cared back 20 years ago, how things might be different today- but we can't live in the what ifs and in reality- I wouldn't change anything, because I love my kids immensely and wouldn't ever want life without them.

Although I'm bored- I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything- I should be working on my websites, I should be adding photos to my dad's website, I should be going researching with him, I should be doing lots of things- or could be doing lots of things- put it that way- but I just have no motivation. The last few weeks with Alex and school have been emotionally draining though, and I think it's just all catching up with me- where I just don't want to do anything.

Well, that's some of what's been going on here- it will be another day of doing laundry, dishes, floors, etc. - nothing to exciting- but I'm glad to see that the sun is out today even if it is only 57 degrees!

A Beautiful Day - so much going on!

This has been a busy week! I have been finishing up items for my niece Natosha's baby shower on Saturday- I will take some photos and post them in another post - I've finally gotten most of that done and just waiting for her dad to come and pick it all up tomorrow.

I got a call from school on Tuesday telling me that Alex had been in an altercation with another student and was getting 5 days out of school suspension- lets just say I was NOT happy about this at all- and I hope he grows and matures soon!

Then I found out my niece Katie who has been staying with her sister Amber down in the Albany area is leaving the beginning of June to go back with her mother in Texas, so I paid for a ticket to fly her up here for the next several day to visit with all of us before she leaves. She's 17 now- and I think was only 11 or 12 the last time she was up here. I booked her flight I "thought" for today- when Amber and her arrived at the airport and gave them the printed e-ticket- the agent looked at then and said -- "your flight was yesterday" -- they were like WHAT?!!?- Neither of them caught that I'd made the mistake when booking it and I of course didn't either. Thankfully- we live in a very little town and the flight coming here was actually empty so they told her it was ok they would just switch the date. So, she was the only one on the little 8 seater plane coming here - besides the pilot of course- she was a little nervous- she's flown a lot, but I "forgot" to mention to her how small the plane was lol - I think she thought she was going to antartica or something- maybe flying around the mountains of Alaska- thankfully the flight was only about an hour long! All is well- she got her safe and it's good to see her!

Megan was supposed to go on her senior trip to NYC this weekend, but has decided not to go- she's got a really sore back for the past few days again, which I think is starting to feel a little better, but she didn't think it would be much fun to go walking around a ton- plus, she doesn't really like to be with people for long periods of time - so in the end, it probably worked out for the best that she didn't go.

The fishing trip that wasn't

Last week sometime, my father told Alex that they, along with my Uncle Ron ( my mom's brother in law) would go fishing today. Alex loves to do anything with his grandfather so he was pretty excited about it the past few days. During the night last night, I woke up a few times and noticed Alex was still up playing games on the computer- I woke up at 4:30 AM and he was still awake- I mentioned the fishing trip and asked him if he didn't think he should get to bed? I never really got an answer, but I think he went shortly there after.

At 7AM the alarm went off to get Alex up to go fishing- because he takes about an hour at least to get ready and my dad had said somewhere arounf 8 or 9 they would leave. Well, after trying for about 30-35 minutes of getting him up and him not budging, I got tired of it and told him either he gets up, or I'm not coming back into his room again - he just wouldn't go. (you have to take into consideration it's a constant battle every weekday to get this kid out the door to school and by the end of the week, I'm wiped out from it). Well he didn't get up, so I called my mother, told her I was giving up on him and going back to bed myself. It would be a lesson learned for him. If he wanted to go - he should get up.

Well, my father left to go fishing and Alex finally got up about 30 minutes or so after he left- if that- it wasn't very long- and of course was incredibly mad at me that  "I" didn't get him up to go fishing- well, one, he is 15 years old- he should be getting himself up to go fishing AND to school- but I DID try to get him up- he's been angry with me all day because he didn't get to go fishing with his grandpa and now I feel guilty for that because it's a day for the two of them they won't ever get back together and had I tried harder, I could have gotten him up. Worse part is, I don't think he's learned a thing from today other than mom is mean and didn't get him up to go fishing!!


PS- HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT ROSIE!