The Deshaies' Delivery

New Spring By Robert Jordan

2012-01-08T16:26:00.002-05:00

New Spring by Robert Jordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed this book as it gave some history of Siuan, Moiraine, and some of the others. I can see with the way the book ended that this was not the only "prequal" that Jordan had intended, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I do think that quite a bit of what I read in New Spring I could have figured out through the rest of the series, but it was a nice break from the 800+ pages that are typical of the series.

View all my reviews

A Game of Thrones

2012-01-06T22:33:00.001-05:00

I was given this book a while back, the details to which are not really important to this post, but originally I thought nothing of it. Then I had a vacation during Christmas break and began looking through some books I have. (I have A LOT of books!) I've been reading several different series, and to be truthful, I enjoy those books, I just needed a change. I came across this book and something about it struck familiar. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, so I googled the book. I am forever googling things and have been called the "Google Queen" a time or two. Anyway, the first thing I get is an HBO series that started last year. A Ha! I knew I'd heard of it somewhere! So, I spent about three days watching the full first season. To say I got hooked is putting it lightly. I wanted more. So, I grabbed the book and sat down.

I'm far from done. I believe there is something like six or seven books in the series, but HBO did the series a great justice. Considering most times when a book is made into a movie or series, there's only so much producers and actors can do. Most times the movie or series stinks. This time, they did great sticking to the story line and making embellishments where needed.

Onto the book itself. I'm about half way through and have been introduced to a great many characters. The main characters being those of the Stark family, Lannister family, and Targaryan family. Oh yes, there's the king as well. Must not forget him! The development of the characters is amazing. I find myself understanding and/or relating with even the most villainous characters! George R.R. Martin has an amazing talent in story telling, but more than that, he can create very believable characters. You can almost see how the characters could be on our own earth.

I probably should mention that this is a Fantasy book. The world is completely a creation by the author. There are many different races, many different "lands", seasons, etc. You must be patient with the book. Characters are introduced, present, past and possible future and you must be able to remember who they are and how they relate to the story. I'm used to the writings of Robert Jordan who introduces nearly 5 new characters it seems in each chapter! Therefore, Martin's writings are to me easy to follow but if you do not like to keep track of all the characters, then this may not be the series for you. He does a great job, in my opinion, of reminding the reader who this or that person is, and he also includes a family timeline in the back of the book. That may also be why it's easy for me to follow. I've referred to it already a time or two.

I suppose I should explain a bit of what the story is about. The title speaks for itself, really. The story is based on royalty and the wanting and literal taking over of the throne. Kings killing Kings, killing subjects, killing "Hands of the King", killing possible threats to the King. There are seven kingdoms, though only one King. The reason for this is not altogether clear, aside from the fact at one point in the past one King did away with the others somehow. There are the Lannister who are the rich and powerful ones. One of them is married to the King, of course. With that in mind, the Lannisters have the King in the palm of their hands because, what does every good King need? Money! The Lannisters have lots of it!

The Starks are the "good guys" of the book. They are the ones that really want to be left alone, but because they have a history, personal as well as professional, with the King they are continually pulled into quarrels or wars. They are in the northern part of the kingdom.

The Targaryans were the ruling family. The current King had killed one of the kings that was a Targaryan, the King's brother-in-law (a Lannister) killed the most recent Targaryan King so that the current King could sit upon the "Iron Throne". Basically, the Targaryans were the ruling family up until about 20 years past. They are mostly all dead with the exception of two known descendants. The current King would like nothing more than to see them both dead, though they are both children.

Let's not forget about the "Wall". On the other side of this 700, almost 800 foot tall wall made of ice and stone, spanning the length of land, are all the things that go "bump" in the night. The creatures that live on the other side of this wall are what fairy tales are made of. They have the wildlings, the white walkers, direwolves, giants, etc. The Starks, who lives closest to the wall, have a quote that they say often, "Winter is coming". Keep in mind, they don't have seasons like we do on earth. They can have summer for lifetimes. Winters can last even longer. Though when winter comes, so do all of the creatures on the other side of the wall. See, the creatures on the other side of the wall are accustomed to coldness, so if winter is crossing the wall and moving into the Seven Kingdoms, than so will the creatures beyond the wall.

I don't want to give too much away, but if anyone is interested in hearing more about the book and/or series, I'd be happy to go into more detail. Not only do I enjoy writing my own stories, I also enjoy explaining stories I've read, movies I've seen, and shows I've watched.

Productive Weekend

2011-12-10T23:04:00.000-05:00

What a productive day today was! Scott finished his Christmas shopping while Isaac and I hung out at home. I cleaned up the kitchen and downstairs bathroom while Isaac was playing. Scott came home and we all took off to the mall for Isaac to see Santa Claus. Which I don't mind saying was a complete hit! Isaac has this natural ability to draw people towards him, so by the time he climbed up on Santa's lap, several people behind us were cheering him on, almost as excited as he was!

After that, we finished up some shopping we had for family and friends. Isaac is exchanging gifts at the babysitter's house one day next week, so we had to pick something out for another little boy. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of giving gifts yet. He thinks that all the gifts should be for him, so this is definitely something we are going to have to work on.

Dinner was stuffed cabbage rolls, a bit late too. Normally we eat around 6:30, but since we were out so late, we ate closer to 7:30, but it worked out well anyway. Isaac had some time to relax and calm down from all the excitement from the day and I had a chance to set my computer up for writing tonight. We had a very relaxing evening, one we haven't had in such a long time.

Now I sit here with my cup of coffee knowing full well I'm probably not going to fall asleep at a decent hour tonight, but so thrilled with all that I've accomplished in my writing tonight! I wrote for three straight hours tonight. About a half hour or so on a piece for a competition, and the rest on my book. I completed about two chapters, which makes me very happy! Things are coming together so well for the book.

I'm having to do quite a bit of research, which I've mentioned before, and found that a Lincoln Continental is much too fancy for a Detective to drive and a BMW X6 is more likely. Both beautiful cars, but the BMW is much more believable for a Detective. It's the small things.

Writing

2011-12-10T09:47:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I began writing a book. Recently, I've returned to it and love it! I don't know why I stopped to be honest, but I'm getting so much enjoyment from writing it. I don't have a title for it, aside from what appears on my computer when I load it up, which is "Untitled Document"! So far though, I've even surprised myself with how easily the words are flowing.

To get some support, I've joined a website that's been such a wealth of information. I highly recommend anyone and everyone who has the itch to write to check out that site. From commonly asked questions to getting someone to review what you've written, this site can help the novice writer and the veteran writer.

I don't know whether my book will be published, much less completed, but I am having such a blast writing right now! I find that throughout the day, (and when I'm trying to sleep at night) I have all of these ideas that are running through my mind of where I could go with the storyline. Thank goodness for my iPhone! I can make notes on it when I'm not home rather than writing it down somewhere and losing the paper, or napkin as I've been known to use!

I hope everyone who reads this is enjoying their December and remembering what Christmas is supposed to be about. We're trying very hard to impress upon Isaac the reason for the season, but at four years old, all he can think about is Santa and if he's going to get the giant Transformer that he asked for!

Happy weekend, all!

Missed the Train

2011-12-05T14:09:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine is working on a project and one of the things she has to do is compose a poem for different things. The poem she was asked to write was about missing a train and it had to be funny.

I was up for the challenge. I wanted to see how I'd do, so this is what I came up with:

I woke up this morning to the sun shining in my face.
Thinking to myself, “How awesome to wake up to the sun, rather the moon”.
I froze.
It’s Monday.
I need to be at work.
The sun doesn’t shine until I get to work.
Scrambling from the twisted sheets, I nixed the shower, threw on the first article of clothing I could find, grabbed my bag and ran out the door.
Tripping over the curb I caught a taxi just as someone was getting out of it.
It looked like I might make the train in time.
I still had 15 minutes.
A bus load of nuns stopped in the middle of the intersection to dance a little jig….
Who’s going to argue with a bus load of nuns?!
I watched the clock as minutes ticked by…not to mention the clock for the taxi driver.
I was feeling hassled…and poor.
Finally! They stop their impromptu dance!
The taxi stopped at the train station and I paid my buck fifty extra.
As I jumped through the line to Train C, I watched as it pulled away from the loading dock….
I was not going to get to work.
I did not catch the train.
I looked down and realized I had on one brown shoe and a sneaker.
I looked at my cell phone and realized one more thing…..
It was Saturday……

I don't typically write poetry, I don't know the rules. But I had fun with this, and actually think it turned out not half bad. Enjoy!

The Reflection in the Mirror

2011-12-02T13:50:00.002-05:00

Isn’t it funny how different we can look at different times of the day when you look in the mirror? If you look at your reflection in the mirror at night, it’s as though the days stresses finally find a place to land and hit all of the shadows on your face. The truth of the hurts, pain, laughter, sadness, etc., are on the surface and show the “real” you. This reflection can be so scary. Look at your eyes. They tell the truth.

When you get up in the morning, after your shower, the pinkness of your skin, the shininess from the soap, it’s as though you are ready to take it all on once again. It’s as though your reflection is saying “I am a woman. I am a strong woman and I can take whatever you throw at me!” Your reflection has no idea what it’s in for!!!

Then, when you look at yourself throughout the day, you see a woman who has had a struggle or two, but keeps coming back for more. There might be a spot or two of tension, some lines at your eyes, but you’re not down for the count. You still have a bit of fight in you.

There are days I like the woman from the shower better than the woman who’s seen a struggle or two. But all in all, I like the woman I see in the mirror!

School's in Session!

2011-09-12T22:36:00.001-04:00

Say "CHEESE"!

Isaac had his first official day of school today. Once again, we were notified that there was another mishap, so rather than cancel school altogether for the second day in a row, they decided to have it at a play park around the corner. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, but there are quite a few other children in the pictures that I don't know, so I won't post those pictures. Not to mention, my cell phone takes the worse pictures ever! I can't wait to finally get my iPhone!

Isaac started off his morning by first sleeping in until 8 o'clock. He had originally woke up around 5, climbed in bed with Scott and I, the proceeded to fall back to sleep! I let him sleep in. Poor little guy was so excited about going to school! I knew he'd need his rest. After he climbed out of bed and down the stairs, he had a Toaster Strudel. He's never had one, so he was pretty excited about it!

Then began the million and one picture taking session! He finally got tired of saying "Cheese" and asked when we could leave! Scott was worried he'd not like school or be upset to see me leave, but he did so good! I'm really very proud of him! He'll be going on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. Thankfully, one of his teachers is related to my babysitter, so she's bringing him to the sitter's each day for me. Man I love small towns!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far, even though it's only Monday. I will admit, I was a bit hesitant about this day, but it turned out to be pretty awesome!

New Blog

2011-09-11T13:47:00.000-04:00

I've started yet another Blog...Surprising, right?! Well, I don't have a Blog that I can ramble on about The Sims, so I've created one. If anyone is interested in reading what I have to say, check it out here.

I have several Blogs for The Sims that centers around specific families or Neighborhoods but I don't have one that I can write about anything to do with TS2/TS3. This will be where I write about finds, uploads, new things I've discovered, etc.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Our little guy starts school tomorrow. He was supposed to start this past Friday but due to the rain we had from all of the Hurricanes, they cancelled. Wish us luck!

Holidays and Mondays

2011-09-05T10:23:00.000-04:00

I'm honestly feeling a little hum drum today. It's been a really nice long weekend with my family, and today, Monday, we have off. The reason is for the American holiday, Labor Day. Pretty much that just means that the "blue collar" workers are being recognized for their hard work for the country. Truth be told though, more "white collar" workers have off than the blue collar workers. Bleh, whatever.

We are supposed to go to my brother-in-law's today for a cookout, but as I said, I'm feeling a little down today. I think it's just from being home all weekend and had such a great time with my family that I really don't want it to end. Going over there means we have to put on "happy" faces and act like we are so happy to be there. Don't get me wrong, I love them both (Brother and sister in law), I just would much rather stay home one last day before all the chaos begins.

Isaac starts Pre-school this week, and he's beyond excited about it. I'm nervous. I like how innocent he is right now. Not that the kids he will be going to school with are any less innocent, but they will learn things together that I'm not so sure I'm ready for him to learn. On the other hand, he will have great experiences with peers and learn things that I do want him to learn. See, it's a double sided coin.

Maybe I should just go back to bed. You'd think I woke up to a rainy day...Nope, no "Rainy day and Monday" here, just Holiday and Monday....

August 2011 Update

2011-08-18T21:43:00.000-04:00

It's been a while, as usual. I feel like I write those six words every time I write on here! I apologize to my few readers!

Anyway, as one would guess, a lot has happened in the five months since I last wrote. But then again, pretty much everything is the same. Isaac will be going to pre-school in three weeks and he is absolutely ecstatic! He thinks he'll be riding the big yellow bus, but in reality, I'll be dropping him off at one of his teachers houses and she'll be bringing him every morning. He won't be riding the big yellow bus for another couple years. But, nonetheless, he's excited! I'm happy for him as well. He'll get to be around kids his age, which he'll hopefully be going to Elementary school with, and maybe even grow up with. That's what I'm happy about. I'm a bit sad to see this part of his childhood come to an end and his educational time come forth. It's hard as a mother to realize your child is growing up. There's nothing you can do about it, but at the same time you're so proud of them! It's a catch 22!

I've taken a step towards the Simming community. I've always been a bit "shy" on that aspect. I didn't grow up in a home where video games were the norm, so when I met, then eventually married Scott, I had a difficult time adjusting to his hobby of playing video games. Eventually, I started to join in on his "fun" then found a game I enjoyed, which at the time was "The Sims". Over the years, The Sims 2 (TS2) came out, and now there's The Sims 3 (TS3). I'm most comfortable with TS2, but I'm beginning to get a real understanding of TS3 and am starting to appreciate what it has to offer. Well, the step into the community I mentioned is that I've applied and been accepted as a proofreader for the online magazine at the Living Sims forum! I'm incredibly excited about this as it combines two of my favorite hobbies, The Sims and writing! Well, obviously, I won't be writing, but I will be proofreading others' writing and maybe if I get enough courage, I'll try my hand at the writing side of it.

Anyway, the biggest reason I'm so nervous about this is that the simming community can be a moody thing. There are those that are so very warm and welcoming, then there are those that take the game so seriously that you start to wonder what kind of personal life they must have...or rather don't have. Regardless, I'm excited and am honored that they would accept me into their "home".

Now that means my computer, which has been "okay" up to this point, will now be retired. I've ordered one that will work better for me, and make things a bit easier to do once I start helping on the site. A better graphics card is a must. The one I have, as I mentioned, is okay, but when I get into my game for a long period of time, my poor pc starts to get angry with me. So it will soon be living a life of luxury with my mom. I'm going to clean it up a bit, take some programs out and ship it off to moms. I found out today that moms is well over six years old....a dinosaur by today's standards! This one is "only" three!

More pretty awesome news is that Scott and I have started a very small home business selling books! We are very excited about it. Currently we are only selling through Amazon, but we are hoping to one day open a little shop on the weekends in our front yard. The only problem we may face is our property is not commercial zoned, so that could cause a problem. We may just create a website and sell from there eventually, but we are still waiting for the official approval for our business name to come from the state. We are selling gently used books. I'm hand picking the books we sell and inspecting their condition. I don't want to start off with a questionable reputation! So only the best for our customers! ;)

We had another vacation in July. That was really nice. We decided to stay in a cabin in the mountains and it was just the three of us. We had an amazing time! We took Isaac to a zoo, we went to see the home of Thomas Jefferson, we went to Natural Bridge, Virginia, and a few other places. It was really nice to have a quiet family vacation rather than a busy vacation with other family members and/or friends. We have never done this and it was such a success, we want to do it again! Next year my mothers side of the family is planning a big family reunion, so our vacation will be centered around that, but I think the year after that we are going to try to do something just the three of us again. Maybe Disney, who knows?!

Anyway, it's been pretty busy around here, but like I said, everything is pretty much the same. We get up each morning, go to work, come home, have dinner, relax for a bit with Isaac, get him off to bed, then relax together on our pcs and enjoy each others companionship. We go to bed and do it all again the next day! (Unless it's a weekend!)

I hope all my friends out there are doing well and staying healthy. I'm hoping to keep my blog better updated, but as usual, I won't make any promises. One never knows what the next day will bring!

Coffee

2011-03-11T21:35:00.000-05:00

So, I had this conversation with a friend today, who is quite the coffee connoisseur. Have you ever noticed when you drink coffee (this is of course assuming that the person reading this drinks coffee) in a typical coffee mug, it tastes different than when you drink coffee in a travel mug, or even the styrofoam cups you get at, say Starbucks? Each form of the mug seems to make the coffee taste different.

I notice that when I have coffee at home in a mug on the weekends, my coffee tends to be a tad stronger and a tad bitter. Whereas when I pour my coffee in a travel mug, now keep in mind, I have two types, one metal one plastic, the coffee tastes creamier. I do not use cream of any form when drinking coffee. I use two sugars and that's it. (I'm working on eliminating the sugar as well.) When my coffee is in the plastic travel mug, I find that it's especially creamy. Still, I do not add cream!!

This is the cup I have. Love this cup!

How about when you get coffee at a restaurant, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, etc? You can purchase most of these "brands" at the store and make it at home as well. I don't care if you follow the instructions on the back of the coffee container, or make it your own way. It NEVER tastes the same as when you get it at the restaurant! Why is that?!

I'm like so many Americans. I love coffee. I can't say whether this is a true American thing, or if it's common in other countries as well, but I can say this. I will happily drink coffee all day long. Unfortunately, if I drink coffee past seven or eight at night, I will not sleep at all that night. I might get a few minutes of sleep here and there, but overall, I toss and turn all night and my mind is racing on this and that. I actually enjoy the taste of coffee. Probably not many people can say that. It's a taste that takes a little getting used to. My husband couldn't stand the taste of coffee. That is until we had our son.

When I was in the hospital having Isaac, Scott would go down to the Mother's Kitchen to get something to snack on or drink. They never had anything for beverages aside from coffee. So, if Scott wanted something to drink, coffee it was. Needless to say, he learned quite quickly to respect and enjoy the flavor and function of coffee! He is now as bad, if not worse than me. He now has only two tasks in the morning that he must complete before being able to function properly. That is, one, take a shower; two, make coffee and drink at least one full cup. Then, we can chat!

Well, that's my rant about coffee. I know I've been away for a while, and wow, what a way to make a return!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T21:06:00.000-05:00

As usual, this time of year seems to fly by. Cooking, baking, shopping, wrapping, etc. have taken over our lives! It's a good thing though! Watching Isaac get so excited over Christmas is everything we hoped it would be and couldn't wait to see. He went to see Santa Claus recently, and rather than be scared out of his mind, the boy could barely contain himself and keep still long enough for his turn! Needless to say, the two siblings ahead of him barely touched toe to floor and Isaac had run up to Santa to sit in his lap!!

Christmas is in two days, and Scott's birthday in three. As I said, this time of year is a bit busy for us! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, safe New Year and I hope to talk and see you all in 2011!!

Best Wishes!!
Mel, Scott and Isaac

Changes

2010-11-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Some of you may notice that our blog has gone through a name change. Lucky for us, this is not like most normal name changes. We did not have to go through any legal battle, get married, divorce, etc. to make this change. Truthfully, the name before was a bit long for my liking, and I wanted something that was a little more to the point.

On to another change. Our "baby" boy had his third birthday this week! I still can not believe he's three already. He's talking about going to school now! I suppose I should be happy that he's excited about it, but he doesn't really know what "school" is, but I hope his enthusiasm doesn't change once he actually does start going to school.

You will have to excuse the spam of Isaac's beautiful face in this post.

Isaac had fun playing outside with his Nana and Papa. This is our back yard, well part of it anyway. We have two acres of land. For Isaac's birthday, we bought him the swing set you can almost see off to the right of the above picture.

I was finally able to get him to sit still long enough to get a nice "posed" picture out of him. He has "mischief" written all over his face!

Aside from Isaac's third birthday taking complete precedence over our lives for the last month or so, I've also joined an online bible study. I've felt this intense pull to return to church and learn more about our religion recently, so I contacted a gentleman at our church that works with adults in religious formation. The study has been so awesome for me, and I feel like I've learned so much more than I ever learned while going to classes when I was a kid.

Now we are preparing for Thanksgiving. I absolutely love this holiday and look forward to cooking for everyone. Today I finished the shopping for the meal and I think I'm ready! We'll see when Thursday gets here!

Music

2010-10-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

I'm doing something different tonight. I have not done this in a VERY long time. I've plugged in my headphones and am "blasting" my chosen music. I can't remember the last time I did this, and I have to say, it's really very relaxing. I think probably when I lived at home with my parents was the last time I did this. The music has changed, of course. Then I listened to The New Kids On The Block, Poison, Whitesnake, Def Leopard, etc. Now it's Nelly, Mike Posner, Beyonce, Daniel Powter, etc. I have noticed though, that the play list for tonight is somewhat nostalgic in the sense that it's bringing memories to the forefront. The music today has a way of doing that to me.

Take "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter for example. This song makes me reminisce about the days of high school. Having a bad day back then was more common than having a good day. That is until I met my husband. That's another post though! ;) Then there's "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence. That one makes me think of a vacation Scott and I took about 5 years ago or so and stayed in New York for 2 full weeks. It's not the words or the meaning of the song, it's because we watched the movie this song was the theme song for! "Our Song" by Taylor Swift is Isaac and my song. From about the time I noticed he started moving around in the womb, he's always calmed down when this song plays. When he was an infant, I could play it for him when he was fussy, and he'd stop crying and just coo. Now, when we get in the car, he almost always says "Our Song, Mama"!!

Isn't it interesting how music brings different memories to mind? I think that's why I love music so much. I think life would be rather dull without music. Even at work, where "Elevator Music" is played at all hours, I 'd rather listen to that than silence. I guess my parents knew what they were doing when they named me "Melody"!

Bullying-What has the world come to?!

2010-10-05T12:34:00.001-04:00

First and foremost, this post is about how I feel about this subject. These views do not neccessarily reflect the views of my family.

Recently in the news, there's been a lot of talk about kids, children really, who are being bullied. Not just any type of bullying, we're talking Cyber Bullying. I know that when I was a kid, we had bullying at our school as well. I feel pretty confident in saying just about every kid goes through this. Unfortunately, not everyone deals with it in the same way. Some kids laugh it off, some draw into themselves, some retaliate, then there are the few who take the situation into their own hands and do something drastic. These are the ones that concern me. These are the ones who we should all be concerned about.

Teenage suicide is known to be the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. Does anyone else find that alarming, or am I the only one? I was very fortunate growing up, in that first of all, my parents were a HUGE part of my life. If I went to a friends home, they needed to know the kid, their parents, and where they lived. Then, they needed to know what we'd be doing, where we'd be going, and who else would be there. I didn't make a single move without my parents knowing. I may have thought I was doing something without their knowledge, but I assure you, I found out if not at the time, then later, that they knew what I was up to. My point to this is, if a kid pushed me around, or harrassed me, or if I picked or harrassed another kid, my parents knew about it. It didn't happen often, but it did happen.

Fortunately, and some may think that it was "un" fortunate, I did not grow up in an age where there was alot of computers, cell phones, etc. Therefore, if there was any kind of bullying going on, you got to leave it at school, the playground, or where ever it was going on. You didn't have to hear about it when you got home because someone posted nasty things about you all over the internet. I know kids today have Facebook accounts, MySpace accounts, Twitter, etc. They really don't have an "out" anymore. Even if one kids parents restrict their internet usage at home, someone else very well could have parents who really do not care what their kids are doing online. Next thing you know, the first kid has pictures, videos, remarks, etc. being posted about them and they have no control over it. They can't do anything. Because, lets face it, once it's online, there's no going back.

I can not believe that there are parents out there that turn a blind eye to the things their kids are doing. It shocks me that there are parents who assume their kids are harmless and what they are doing is "just being a kid". Shame on you if you're one of those parents. I know everyone has their own form of parenting, I get that. But if you are one of those parents who thinks it's okay that your child is being picked on, or your child is the one doing the picking and it helps to "build character", you should be ashamed of yourselves. I agree that kids do need to learn to stand up for themselves. I had to learn to do that myself. I still have times now where I find it hard to do, but I do it. Yes, it is part of growing up. Yes, it does build character. But humiliating another human being just so you can feel better about yourself shows a lot about your character. It shows that you have ALOT of growing up to do. It shows that you feel so little about yourself that you have to make someone else feel even worse about themself.

You may or may not agree with what I'm saying in this post. That's your God given right. However, if you feel that it's okay for your child to bully my child...well my friend, my lawyer will be speaking with your lawyer because I'll be damned if I'll allow my child to feel so low about themself that they feel the only way to avoid the humiliating situation they are in is to kill themself. I will not lose my child so that your child can feel better about themself.

Something to Come

2010-10-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

I've had something bothering me the last couple days, and I really feel a need to express my thoughts on some events that have been happening here in the U.S. Right now, I'm not able to really put down how I feel, with time restraints, but soon, very soon I will be blogging about what's been bothering me. Or maybe not what's been "bothering" me per se, but what's most definitely been on my mind a lot lately.

I will definitely be posting soon.

Life is Good

2010-09-26T15:06:00.000-04:00

This has been a very busy weekend for us. The week wasn't very quiet either. Tuesday saw that I had two different doctor appointments, one for my eyes, the other a follow-up with my GP from back in March. Both went very well. Wednesday I had another doctor appointment, this time with an Orthodontist. The doctor wants to get me into some sort of braces, but right now, with the insurance we have, I can't afford it. So, maybe next year, if my insurance plan changes.

Also Wednesday, Scott suggested that I begin the ever exhausting process of searching for a new vehicle. Before I started that, I spoke with my manager, (remember I work at a Credit Union) and asked to get pre-approved for a vehicle loan. Approved we were, and now the fun begins. That evening, I came home with a fistful of listings I found on the web for Scott to look through, and (un)surprisingly, he didn't care too much for any of the cars I found. Truthfully, none of them jumped out at me either, but I was working with the budget we agreed on. Anyway, Scott joined in that evening, to help with the search. I have no idea, even now, how he did it, but he found the "perfect" car. I swear that man has more patience than anyone I know!

Fast forward to Saturday. We made an appointment with the dealership (which by the way just so happens to be the dealership we always use!), to stop in when they open to look at the car. We waited this long because the dealership is about an hour drive for us from our home. We knew that if/when we went, we'd be there a while and going after work was out of the question. So, Saturday found us sitting in the dealership signing papers and purchasing a new car! Well, new to us. It's a 2009 Nissan Sentra. It's not huge, which I love after driving the pick-up truck for three years! We have a trunk again, and 4 doors!!! The length of the car is about half of what the truck was. I love it!

Saturday was not done for us, not by a long shot! We normally do our weekly grocery shopping Saturday morning, but with us sitting in the dealership for about 3 hours, we didn't have the time to go. So, we went home and began getting ready for the fair. FAIR?! Yes, my friends, we had a fair to go to! We met my father and Scott's brother and sister-in-law at the fairgrounds and spent about another 3 or 4 hours walking around, eating horribly fried food, petting animals you don't normally see, and believe it or not, we watched a cow give birth. That was something I could have gone my entire life without seeing, but the others wanted to watch and Isaac became enthralled with the cows in the stalls next to the new mother. I was unable to walk away. After that enlightening event, I was quite ready to go home.

To say the least, we were very tired. Today we had to get the shopping done. Poor Isaac wanted to go back to the fair, or even better, he wanted to go see TJ. Who's TJ? Well, that was our salesperson for the car!! Isaac doesn't forget anything!

Through all of this, I kept having this feeling that I finally felt content. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, but not having a second vehicle we could count on, made us both feel uneasy about different situations. We now won't have to spend as much on gas, which is great, but then you have the car payment we didn't have before. Honestly, I'm okay with the car payment. Mainly because it's not very high, and also because now I have a car I feel so much more comfortable driving. We've been spending a lot of time lately doing things as a family. As crazy as that all sounds, normally we spend so much time doing separate things, like taking care of Isaac and baths, or making dinner, washing vehicles, cooking, cleaning, etc., that we haven't had any true "family" time. In the last couple weeks, Scott and I have made sure that we are all having good old fashion family time. No more computers before Isaac goes to bed, (this just happened, we didn't plan it that way), we watch movies together, we wander around the stores looking for nothing in particular, and now we can't wait to start going for long drives and not having to worry about how much gas we'll use because we won't be able to afford to fill up the truck again that week.

I feel like I can say with confidence, "Life is Good".

Ramblings

2010-09-19T10:18:00.000-04:00

Today Scott and I will be joining his brother and sister-in-law over dinner at their house. Scott's parents celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary last month, and with all of the excitement of my sister-in-laws father passing away, and multiple other things happening, we never had a chance to get together with them. My sister-in-law loves to put small family meals together and I enjoy helping her. I, personally, love the fall, especially Thanksgiving, but unfortunately my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are Jehovah's Witnesses, so we do not get to enjoy their company at holiday time. Therefore, we try to have little meals here and there throughout the year. Anniversaries are pretty much the only thing they celebrate. This of course can be frustrating to the rest of the family, but, it is what it is.

On another note, I finally received a book I ordered nearly three weeks ago in the mail this week. I've recently become a fan of TOR books. For those of you who do not know what "TOR" is, it's basically fantasy. I was given a book by Robert Jordan about a year ago, but never read it for a couple reasons. One, it's a genre I don't normally read, two, it was book eight in the series!!! I figured if I'm going to read the series, I should probably start with book one. So, I ordered it through Amazon, and found that I actually really enjoyed the book! I had about 200 pages left of the book, so I ordered book two online once again, and thought I'd have plenty of time for the book to come in if I took my time reading the first book. I thought wrong. I took my time reading. I got to about 20 pages, and still no book two. So, I literally read only 5 pages at a time, hoping that would drag it out enough. Still, no book. I finished the book and decided that I would try to read another book I'd been trying to read for a few months. I'm an avid reader. It's rare to see me without a book. I will always have one in my purse in the event I have an opportunity to read a few pages. (I carry a pretty big purse, being a mom and all!) I tried very hard to get into the other book, but kept thinking about the one I was waiting for. How sad is that?! Anyway, I was done the first book two days when book two of the series FINALLY came in!!! I was soooo happy!! Unfortunately, the day it came in, I'd had a pretty trying day at work, so by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was sleep. That would be typical!

All in all, we've had a pretty typical last few weeks. Not very much going on, with the exception of me waiting for my book to come in. I found out Friday while at work, that one of my colleagues will be leaving the company, which will put a bit more work on my shoulders. I'd love to say I'm up for the challenge, but that would just not be the truth. I'm working on a couple other projects with a few other colleagues, so having to pick up the slack of another job is not something I am looking forward to. I'm hoping that we will be able to replace her in a short amount of time, and have her replacement trained pretty quickly.

I think we will be getting my computer upgraded here soon, as well. Scott enjoys playing an MMORP game, and my pc is the only one of our two that will be able to handle the graphics, etc. Though, that being true, there's still some upgrades my pc could use. The other option would be to purchase a new computer for him, but we're pretty sure it would be more costly to do that!

I don't have any pictures to add to this entry today, but I felt it was time to write again. We haven't taken many pictures lately, though if we think to take the camera today, we should have some pictures from tonights meal.

One Proud Mama

2010-08-30T19:55:00.000-04:00

I think one of the greatest compliments a parent can get is how well they are raising their child. Especially at one of those moments when you're thinking your child is the worse kid in the room! Usually, the compliments come from people who know you and can read your mood. So they know that you are about to break! However, when you get a compliment from a complete stranger, somehow it means a little more than when Grandma, or Auntie say how great your child is behaving.

Another compliment a parent gets, which nearly every mother hears, is how adorable, cute, handsome, pretty, etc. their child is. Again, even if the child is...shall we say lacking in the looks department?, you kindof expect to hear how nice looking your child is. Why? Because who's going to walk up to you and say, "Geez, your kid is not cute"! So, when a parent is approached by professionals to have their child part of their company, it's probably one of the biggest compliments yet! I've always thought Isaac is the most beautiful little boy I've ever seen in my life. I'm his mother though, so that's a natural thing. (Or so I'm told.) Needless to say, when I was approached, I was somewhat surprised!

See, this is what happened. We receive emails monthly from the hospital Isaac was born in on updates, and whatnot. The one this month was about how they'd teamed up with Parent.com to find "The Cutest Kid". The winner gets a $25,000 college scholarship. I thought, "Hey, why not"? I put two pictures in. Just two. I've been since asked to add more pictures with specific posing, clothing, body shots, head shots, etc. He's also been entered in two additional contests where he can win $250 each. I did not enter him in these contests. Parent.com did. That made me feel so good to know that they thought he was what they were looking for, and that they wanted to see more pictures of him! The mommy in me beamed!

Vote for Isaac here.

This is the picture that they entered him in this week. This picture was taken of him while we were on vacation in July. This is one of my mom's favorite pictures of him, as this is how he looked when she arrived at my brothers. The contest is based on votes, so yes, I'm shamelessly including the link here to help get him more votes!!

I'm very proud of my boy. I have no misconceptions that he is in anyway the most gorgeous child in the world....to other people. But he will always be my baby, and the most beautiful child in the world to me. I couldn't be prouder of him, whether he wins or not. Just the idea that he was asked to be part of this makes me very proud of him!

Ups and Downs-We all have them

2010-08-29T10:34:00.000-04:00

So much, once again, has happened since the last post. Those of you who know me, already pretty much know the details, so I won't make a real long drawn out post. Suffice to say, the last few months have had ups and downs.

I will start with our vacation. Scott and I haven't had a true vacation...ever. Not even our honeymoon! Which, that by the way, was spent at my brother-in-laws apartment. Not a very exciting time! LOL Anyway, we went to Letchworth State Park this year, which is in New York. While there, we also went to Niagara Falls. Both were absolutely beautiful!

This was our "home away from home" while we were camping. Needless to say, I was somewhat dissappointed when we first arrived. However, my husband is a wonderful man, and found a way to make the entire experience (camp-wise) a great one! We re-arranged the furniture inside the cabin to be more comfortable, and really spent very little time inside.

This is Letchworth! The entire area is full of these canyons and gorgeous waterfalls! The history of the area is so interesting, too. There's so many different stories about the area, that really, I couldn't even begin to touch the surface.

And of course, the hi-light of our trip, was Niagara Falls! Neither of us had been there before, so it was new to us both. Isaac was a bit nervous around the falls, but ultimately did great! In this picture, we are on "The Maiden Mist" which is a ferry that gets real close to the falls, as you can tell in this picture. We had a wonderful time!!

We stayed a week in New York and was even able to go further up and make a stop at my brothers house. I hadn't seen them in a few years, so it was great to see everyone there. My mom stopped by both days we were there and I spent my birthday with her. It was the first time I'd spent my birthday with my mom in well over 15 years. It was great!!

While on vacation, our truck started to have problems, so when we returned home, we had to spend quite a bit on getting the rear end replaced. A sad ending to a great vacation! However, we made it home safe, and had the means to make the repairs without it getting any worse. That's the good news!

Finally, when we were on vacation, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law joined us. Actually, we initially made the plans last year around this time to all go together. As a last minute decision, my sister-in-laws parents decided to join us. I'm so glad that they did. We aren't incredibly close to them, though we know them very well, and care very much for them. A couple weeks after we all returned home, my sister-in-laws father passed away.

This is a picture of my sister-in-laws parents while we were all on vacation at Letchworth. As I said, I'm so very glad that we had that time with them.

Back to reality and home, we fell back into our regular routine...well almost! Isaac had an invitation to go to a birthday party, we had an unplanned trip to visit Scott's parents, and meetings with different people on opposite weekends. This is the first weekend we've taken for us! (And we still had a meeting, this time at our house!)

That pretty much sums up our Summer. I'm fairly happy the Summer is nearly over, mostly because Fall is my absolute favorite time of year! Winters around this area are not that bad, as compared to New York, so I don't mind them all too much either. Though last winter was very cold for us, which we are used to, but this area went through a bit of a shell-shock! I won't complain, I had several "snow" days from work!

And of course, I can not sign off without a picture of our pride and joy and the love of my life! This is Scott and Isaac at Niagara Falls! Aren't they the most handsome couple of men you've ever seen!?

From Newborn to Worry, in 2 Years Flat!

2010-06-11T21:26:00.005-04:00

Isaac one day old

Years ago, when Scott and I began to express to each other our individual desires to be parents, we never took into consideration all that goes with parenting. When one thinks about being a parent, they think about that adorable pink bundle of joy the doctor or nurse hands you after, surely it can't be more than just a few minutes, of easy and manageable labor. They think of how sweet that little face is, and how instantly in love they become with that darling creature your shared love has created and how amazing that child is, after all, they are your child. They couldn't possibly be anything less than perfect, right? Of course, for Scott and I, we were not so fortunate as to become pregnant once we made the decision we most definitely wanted to be parents. So, after 10 years of heart ache, tears, and pain, we finally saw that magical "+" sign on the test!

For me, it was a beautiful, yet hormonal, 9 months. I couldn't have had it any easier, really. Yes, I had a condition, Gestational Diabetes, but it was very manageable. I was determined to not use insulin as I read and was told by my doctor what the insulin could possibly do to my unborn child. It was my goal to avoid that at all costs. So, I lost so much weight, I looked incredible!! I was so proud of myself for doing what alot of women can not. I managed my diabetes by diet alone. I flat out refused to eat anything that could possibly allow my sugar to go up, in turn cause me to use the insulin. My doctor was impressed.

Then, the day came that our son decided to come. Well, so we thought. It was a Saturday morning, around 2 a.m. We were so excited, we called the on-call doctor, told them we were about an hour away from the hospital, and they told us to come in. Once there, they examined me, then turned me around and sent me back home. See, I'd had a doctor appointment earlier in the week, and my doctor had scheduled an induction for the following Monday. Isaac had decided he wasn't ready to come, so the doctor said he'd take care of that little boy. Well, I guess I should have learned then that no one tells Isaac what to do. Least of all the doctor who is supposed to deliver him. Sunday morning came with more intense contractions, and a fear that I would not make it to the hospital a second time. So, once again, we called the on-call doctor and they told us, once again, to come on in. Nope, I still was not ready, but they decided to keep me anyway, seeing as I was scheduled to go in the next day anyway, and break my water.

Why am I rehashing all this? Simple. Children should never be taken lightly. Ever. This past week has been an awful week for our family. Not earth shattering, thank the good Lord. But not the best, none the less. Isaac became sick Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Once again, Scott and I found ourselves making a 2 a.m. trip to the hospital. This time with our very sick son in the back seat of our vehicle, rather than inside the comfy tummy of his mommy. Isaac had nearly a 104 degree temperature, body aches to the point of screaming when touched, and, get this, a head ache. Anyone ever hear of a two year old child having a headache? No? Me neither. I was nearly in tears because I had no idea what to do for him. Thank goodness for the doctors. They had his temperature "down" to nearly 102 within an hour. I will be eternally grateful to those doctors and nurses.

Aside from illnesses, what other fun and exciting things can our children have in store for us that we never think about when contemplating parenthood? Oh, here's one for you. This one happened today. Scott and I have both begun to catch whatever it is that our beautiful baby boy has. Scott more than I. So, rather than having the pizza we'd put on the menu, I thought it would be nice to go somewhere and have soup, or at least something softer on our throats. So, we decide to hit a local restaurant. Well, Isaac is still not feeling 100%. Our babysitter said it right when she said Isaac is right about 50%. Knowing this, I thought he'd be pretty quiet in the restaurant.

Isaac had other ideas.

By the time we left that restaurant, I'm sure our waiter was quite happy to see us leave. Isaac wasn't a terror. Don't get me wrong. He wasn't running up and down the aisles. No, we strapped that little bugger in. No. He wasn't running amuck all over the restaurant. He was yelling at us. Not a "NO I DON'T WANT IT" kind of yelling. More like a "MOMMY" "MOMMY" "MOMMY" "MOMMY" kind of thing. I was sitting right next to him. *sigh* I ask you, how does one handle a situation like that? I mean, it's not like you can yell at him, you can't pop him on the backside, because let's face it, it's not that terrible of a thing, and also if you do, someone is bound to turn you in to child services.

So, what do you do? Well, we chose to let him know, in an above normal whisper, that he was being bad, and that he was not going to get to watch the new movie I'd just bought him when he gets home. Not only that, when we do get home, he's going to take a bath then go straight to bed. Do you think he understood me? Do you think he cared? I'd say "no" to both. Not only that, when we got home, and after I'd given him a bath, what do you suppose he did? He looked me straight in the eye and said "Momma, I go to bed now", turned around and headed to his bedroom. Now I ask you, how does that work towards punishment?!

After all is said and done, I've realized that not only do I love my baby boy more than anything else, but he's so much like me that I can't possibly be upset with him! I've also learned something today. I really really don't like the two year old stage!!! LOL Nobody is prepared for it. One minute they are the most beautiful creatures in the world, the next, you want to ship them off to Grandmas!!! I find myself making so many excuses for him, that I just hope that I'm not setting myself up for a fall later. I hope that when he's 3, 4, 5, or even 13, 14, or 15, this doesn't come back and bite me in the butt. I hope that he doesn't look at me and get all snappish with me, and I sit there and let him. I hope that I have enough courage and strength to look him in the eye and tell him I will knock him on his butt if he tries that one more time. (Not that I would, but let's face it, it scared the devil out of us when our parent's said it to us!)

Of course, I have a long time before I have to worry about that. I know that I can't allow him to "walk all over me" now, and that the more I show him now that he can't always have what he wants, it'll help to set the stage later, when he tries it as a teen. He'll know that when I say "no" I mean business. But I really want to enjoy my two year old right now. I don't want his time with us right now to be rigid and painful. I want it to be loving and comforting. I also want him to listen to me when we're in public and I tell him to use his inside voice, or to behave. I guess I want a lot. But mostly, I want to have a good relationship with our son, a good and loving one. That's the key. "Loving".

Isaac 2 Years Old

Newest Addition

2010-05-31T09:22:00.006-04:00

We've welcomed the newest addition to our family yesterday. I haven't shared with very many that we lost another one of our fur babies about a month ago. He was a very big cuddle bug once he got to know you, but if he didn't know you, he was very skittish. Well, now that Zipper is gone, we've decided to get another kitty. This one will stay inside and hopefully we'll keep her from catching some craziness that seems to be taking all my kitties.

This is our Azrael! There were two mama cats who had litters about a week apart. There were 8 kittens born and of the 8, 4 were black! Scott has wanted a black cat since I can remember. So, I've been telling myself that this kitty's for him, of course that's not true! Though he's pet friendly, he'd rather not have a whole lot of pets in the house. We now have 10 fish, 2 dogs, and 2 kitties. One of our kitties stays outside keeping the yard rid of random pests.
She's so curious!! And, she's already using the litter on her own! We are keeping her in the bathroom at night so that way if she makes messes it will be easier to clean it up. But this morning when we woke up, she'd used the litter one more time! One final picture to leave everyone with:

Isaac tuckered poor Azrael out something wicked! Once Isaac went to bed, she finally relaxed! Isaac's not used to having a pet in the house that he can play with, so he was very excited! The dogs are too big and I worry that he will get bit. The other cat is outside and can definitely outrun him if he needed to! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

I Sim, therefore I am!

2010-05-23T22:27:00.005-04:00

Happiness comes in many forms!

You may be wondering what in the world that is a picture of and from. Well, I'm what you may call a "Sim-Tard", "Sim-Geek", or whatever. What it boils down to, is I play and enjoy The Sims 2. Yes, "2". Believe it or not, there's a version 3 already and the rumor is there's a version 4 already in the making.

But, I digress. The above picture is my pride and joy! I've been incredibly envious of those more knowledgeable Sim-mers who know how to make their sim's homes look, well, like a home! Because, let's face it, homes have clutter. My sims homes have always been very bland and square. Thanks to the fabulous people at this site I found, I've found quite a few new friends, and learned soooo much about placing various objects on the same surface!

This is a picture of the other side of the same room from above. I can not express exactly how excited I am over this!! I mean, seriously, doesn't this look like any average kid's room in America?! Now I just need to find useful "clutter" to download and I will be "uber" excited!!!! :~D
This is not the same room, but very similar to it. This is how the rooms typically look after I've "decorated" them. See the difference?! Okay, I know I'm geeking out here, but even if you do not play this game, you have to see how pretty cool this is!!

If you're reading this, and you're interested in learning about how to decorate the way I did above, check out this blog. It's pretty informative, and teaches exactly how to make your sims homes pretty amazing and realistic!

Okay friends, I'm off to bed now. Happy simming!!

Run

2010-05-15T21:20:00.002-04:00

Today I ran.

That, in itself, is amazing! Not that I don't have two legs to move with, but the fact that I used them in a fashion that is healthy! I do not run. Today I did. I...can not even explain how amazing I feel for it either! I have not run, not in a way where it's exercise, since I was in high school. We are talking almost 15 years! I found this site that is such a huge help to me. It allows me to ease into the running slowly. Which means, my lungs do NOT feel like they are about to explode. This also means that I feel GREAT!!!! Seriously, who would have thought?

I've heard people say before how wonderful they feel after running. I've always thought to myself, these people are crazy! They must be into pain and suffering or something! When I was in high school, I ran short distance track. Nothing big. I ran for about a full minute, if that, as fast as I possibly could. Then I was done. I could NEVER do long distance. No kidding. We had to run a mile twice a year. Once at the beginning of the school year, once at the end. I kid you not, I never ran that mile under 15 minutes. I hear of people who run a mile in less than 5 minutes, and I get this sick fealing in my stomach! That's what happens when I push myself too hard. Then what happens? I don't do it EVER again! Which in turn makes a person unhealthy and overweight. No, I'm not huge. I'm just not happy with how much weight I've gained.

You have to understand, when I married my husband, 13 years ago, I weighed 120 pounds soaking wet. I don't expect to get back to that weight. It looks good on an 18 year old, not on a 31 year old mother of 1! I would look unhealthy yet again. I'd be very happy with 130, even 140. Hell, I'd be happy with 150!! Though, I can say with amazing satisfaction, I'm no longer in the 160's!!!! That's a huge accomplishment for me! The good thing about what I weighed before, is that I never looked it. It wasn't because I "wore the right clothes". It's because I'm built to carry such weight. I don't like it, but there it is.

So I ran. I'm so proud of myself! I actually have so much excitement over it, I kinda want to go do it again, but I don't want to overdo it and end up causing more damage than good. So, I will run once again on Monday. Yep, that's the plan. If it's raining, well, then I'll have something to cool me down as I run. You know I've crossed over a hurdle when even the rain won't stop me!

April 2010

2010-04-25T21:01:00.005-04:00

It's been a really really long time since I've updated about our family. I would love to say not much has happened, but that would so not be true! Of course, the holiday season has come and gone, then there were the first four months of the year! LOL The weather's been pretty agreeable now that it's stopped snowing! It was a crazy year this winter for snow here in Virginia. We were starting to think we'd somehow made our way back to New York!

I've been recently introduced to two authors. One is rather surprising to me, Lisa See. She writes about China, the way of life there, and it's history. I'm completely amazed to learn some of the things I've learned about it. Of course, most of what she writes, the practices are no longer legal, such as foot binding. Which, I have to say, I'm so glad I was not living in that era or country when that was legal and required! All I can say is, OUCH! I have a habit of researching something to death when I first hear about it, so I found pictures of women who've had this done. I am completely in awe that anyone would willingly do this, though truth be told, they had no choice. It's typically done at an early age of around 6 years old. At that point in their lives, the little girls do what their told and have no voice.

If anyone is interested in her work, I'm told the first book that should be read is "Peony in Love". Ironically, this is the last one I'll be reading. I've read the other two, which is "Shanghai Girls" and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". I actually read them in that order, which is the reverse order I was told to read them. However, I don't think it really matters. None of the books are "related" in the sense that they are not a series. However, timeline-wise, "Peony in Love" was written first, and takes place I believe in the 1400's.

The other author I was recently introduced to is Barbara Delinsky. She is absolutely amazing! I literally read the last book in two days. I'm a fast reader, but I don't typically complete a book so quickly. However, she writes from the heart. She writes about everyday people that have an event in their lives that changes everything. It's not all romance, in fact the two I read so far have very little romance in them. The stories are completely centered around the event. What's pretty amazing about her is that she generally writes about things she knows nothing about. I find that awesome. You know that she has to go and research this stuff. She can't just write something and not have anything to back it up. For example, the last book I read was called "Family Tree". It's about your every-day couple, man and wife, who are about to give birth to their first child. The husband is able to trace his family roots to the Mayflower. The wife is unable to trace her family roots past her grandparents. So when their baby is born with African American traits (they're white) lots of questions are risen. I highly recommend this book! Honestly, when I first bought it, I wasn't so sure I was going to enjoy it at all. But, literally, the first paragraph grabbed me immediately!

Okay, so there's my book review for the year! LOL As for Scott, Isaac and I, we're beginning to prepare for our first family vacation which will take place in July the week of my birthday. We've had time off as a family, but we have not gone anywhere yet since Isaac's been born. Here's the kicker, we're going camping, which I feel it's imperative to mention that I absolutely H-A-T-E camping! Why are we going then? Well, I'm told that camping with my husband and his brother and wife will be different. We shall see. Needless to say, I had to put my foot down and demand that if we go camping, we do it in a cabin. Yeah, I'm that spoiled. I'm not camping in a tent. Absolutely not! And we do not have the money to come up with to buy a camper just to find out that I will not go camping again. So that's the deal. If it turns out great for all of us, we'll consider purchasing a camper. But I want to get through this week in July first.

With that being said, I am actually looking forward to it. Believe it or not! As I said, this is the first time we'll be going away as a family since before Isaac was born, and well, he's two and a half! I think the last vacation we had was in 2006 or '05. I know that's not nearly as long as some people, but when you consider that we usually go to New York every year either in the summer or at Christmas, that's a long time to go in between trips! Also, I've been really anxious about taking Isaac on a drive for that long. Where we normally go to in New York, it's about a twelve hour drive, give or take. So, I'm not all that excited about getting him in the car so that he can cry for half of it, or have Scott pulling his hair out. Yeah, not looking forward to that. But, I think with him being nearly three when we go, it shouldn't be too awful bad. We'll be going to the Niagara Falls area, so I'm really looking forward to that. I'm hoping to catch up with some family when we go.

For now, this is it. I'm going to leave off with a recent picture of Isaac. It's been a really long time since I've posted his picture on here, so let's just say he's changed a bit! This is a picture taken of he and my mom when she came down to visit in March. It's the first time she's seen him since he was born! Enjoy! :)

The Sims Blog

2010-01-19T21:38:00.005-05:00

For those who are interested, I've continued writing a blog (story page) on my dear-to-the-heart Sims 2 neighborhood, Twin Ridge.

Questions, comments, jokes, constructive critism, are all welcome! This is all in pure fun, and I hope that if there is still anyone out there who plays the game, or reads my blog, I hope that they enjoy what they read!

Happy Simming, friends!

~Mel~

December Report-2009

2009-12-12T23:29:00.002-05:00

Christmas is almost here! The tree is up, the lights are on the house, the mistletoe is hanging in the archway and the stockings are on the mantle! Scott's parents will be staying with us for the holidays, and I know they must be very excited to be able to wake up on Christmas morning and watch their only grandchild tear into his gifts! Isaac has finally discovered the excitement of opening presents! Now, hopefully he will not decide to open everyone else's gifts for them as well!

Well, let's see, December brings with it a soggy soggy time! It's been raining here almost every day for the last month or so! One of my friends told me, apparently we've actually had more rain in the month of November than the state of Washington had!! Now that's craziness! I was able to get our dogs in the back pen for the first time today, and truthfully that's only because I went out when the ground was still partially frozen with frost!!! But!! I was also able to make my way over to the garden....yes the garden!...and pull up some carrots!!! LOL I totally thought they would have been dead, but even though the frost got to them, they were still fine!! We had them in our soup today, which was Polish Dill Pickle Soup! Friends, it's so much better than you would think! If you like Dill Pickles, you will LOVE this soup!

I digress.. as usual! We've done quite a bit of shopping for Isaac, and the family. This year Scott and I decided to exchange gifts with each other because last year we said no, but it totally sucked! I'm just being honest here! If you ever make that decision with someone, trust me, you WILL regret it later!! I feel pretty good about the gifts that we got for other family members. I'm pretty excited to see the expression on my dad's face for a certain one I'm doing for him. Can't say what it is in case he reads this!! haha

Hmm, well, our truck is giving us issues. Of course it's only natural, we almost have it paid off, it's our only form of transportation, and it has over 100k miles on it. Yup, it's time for it to die and us to go further in the whole.....yet again! God love vehicles! Sometimes I wish we lived in the city where we could take the bus, or train every day. Though I'd probably hate every minute of that.

Anywho, Christmas is only a couple weeks away. I hope everyone has their shopping finished or at least nearly so. We'll , of course miss being in NY for the Christmas season. There's nothing like having snow on the ground when you wake up Christmas morning. Though if it were to melt and go away that night, I'd be happy too! We hope to one day be able to be "home" for Christmas so that Isaac will have that experience. I'd love it if we could do it before all his cousins are out of school and married! Haha!

That's all for now. I'll write again when the feeling hit's me!

God Speed

2009-11-06T22:19:00.006-05:00

I found out today that a friend who I met through playing my game online found her husband dead in their apartment yesterday. I do not know these people face to face. I know them only through the internet. They live, or should I say she lives, in Germany and I'd "met" her, oh about 4 years ago or so. Now, I know what the media and others say about getting to know someone online. I'm also one of those critics. However, I don't have any doubt that I'll never actually "meet" these people who I now call my friends, face to face. With that in mind, I was heart broken for her when I read her message to our little group this morning. As I said, I do not "know" them, but yet I do. I truly felt as though I'd lost someone dear to me. I couldn't function any more. I just wanted to come home and cry. I couldn't. I have responsibilities. I had to stay at work and complete my day. Why? Because if I don't, I could actually get fired. Why? Because, "C'mon Melody, do you really know this person"? You know that's exactly the response I would have gotten if I'd asked to go home. No, I never met them. Face to face. But my heart still pours out to my friend. At 41, her husband died of a heart attack, in their home, by his self. He had no one there with him. The doctor told her it was likely that he had no idea what happened. Thank God for that.

I called my husband immediately. Why? Because although I have not met these people face to face, he of all people understands the friendship that I have with them. See, he also knows quite a few people through the internet. No, he's never met them Face to face. However we all consider ourselves friends. Sometimes, it's easier to be yourself when you talk with someone and are not face to face. Sometimes you can express yourself better. Sometimes it's just easier.

Sometimes, I ask myself why would God allow a 41 year old man, who just celebrated that birthday last weekend, to die so young. I have to remind myself that it's not always in God's hands. That although we all would love to blame Him for the terrible things that happen, it's not always truly His will. Because where there is a God, there is also a Satan. I'm not going to get all preachey on you, don't worry. But, let's be honest, when you hear of someone dieing at a young age, what is the first, or maybe second thing you think of? Why? Am I right? You know that I am. That's why I made the God/Satan reference.

Meks, my dear long distance friend, I feel for you and pray that you will get through this incredibly difficult time. My heart goes out to you and your family. Know that Steve is in a good place, and is and will always be with you. Although you feel alone, you are not. Turn to your friends, family and loved ones. They will help you through this. And please, Meks, don't leave God out. He also will always be with you.

God Bless.

October 2009 Report

2009-10-18T11:47:00.004-04:00

So, it would seem that I've missed a month...or two! Time has flown right by. I know I say that everytime I post, but truly, it has. Isaac will be 2 next month. And of course we have NO idea what to buy him! I mean really, what do you buy a two year old who really has no idea what's going on?! Yes, he knows there's people there to visit him, and yes he knows there's cake and ice cream to eat, but he doesn't truly get what's going on. I think he'll absolutely LOVE opening gifts, but I don't think he'll get that everyone's there to see him turn 2. But, we'll do this and get him ready for the next month...which will of course be Christmas! This year is going to be so awesome watching him open all those gifts! We're so excited to see his reaction this year. Last year he started to understand towards the end of opening gifts....then he passed out from all the excitement!! Scott was sick last year too, so we're hoping this year we can all be healthy and enjoy the festivities!

Well, our garden, of course, is gone now. There's still some carrots out there, and surprisingly, they aren't dying out. They actually appear to be prospering!! We had some in a roast I made last weekend, and they were delicious!! Very sweet, I might add! Isaac loves to go out to the garden when we're outside and pull a carrot and run around with it like it's his wand! It's so cute! The fence is down, of course, so it's so easy for him to get into it and make some trouble! ;) I have some pictures of the garden as it looks now, but apparently I put them somewhere I would have to search really hard for, so sadly no pics of that today.

So much has happened in the few months since the last report. We've had a family stay-at-home vacation, we've had several family get-togethers, we've had a milestone anniversary celebration for Scott's parents (40 years!), we've gone to the VA state fair, and I've gone back to school! Yep, I'm in college! Well, sorta. I'm doing the "online" thing. I don't have the time to sit in a traditional classroom, so I'm sitting at my pc and studying to become an elementary teacher! I'm hoping that in 2 to 3 years I'll be able to get a job as a teacher and hopefully be in the same school that Isaac will attend. I don't, of course, expect to be his teacher. Infact, I hope to NOT be his teacher. I don't think it would be fair to him. I'd most likely be harder on him than I would be on any of the other students.

As I said, we've had a lot happen in the short time since the last post. We had a July 4th celebration with our family. That was so nice to have everyone over! Even Scott's brother and his wife joined us! That made it all the better! I wanted to upload a picture with this posting, but unfortunately, the site is not cooperating with me and I only have so much time to do this. I'll try again later to see if I can get the picture up.

Our June Report

2009-06-20T17:54:00.007-04:00

Time has flown by while we weren't looking. Go figure! We've had a pretty exciting month so far. I had vowed at the beginning of the month that I would not be taking any time off this month from work. Of course, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, my baby got sick. He woke up with a slight fever of 100.9. I thought, well, I better give him some Tylenol, and wait for it to come down below 100. I checked him about a half hour later and it had gone down to 100.3. I wasn't willing to bring him to the sitters while it was over 100, so I gave it another half hour and it went up to 100.5. I decided to call his doctors and bring him in. I called work and told them I had to wait for the office to open, but I'd try to be in after the appointment. Well, his fever steadily increased. We went to 101.1, 101.3, 102, 102.9, 103. By the time I was in total freak out mode, his eyes were rolling to the back of his head, and he wasn't responding to me at all when I said his name. No joke, when I got him to the doctor's office, his fever went down to 102, he was talking and playing. It was like it had never happened!! On the one hand, I was glad he was better, but on the other, I felt the doctor thought I made it all up. Well, they tested him for strep, and tested his white blood cells. His throat was a little red, and the doctor felt that he was teething and catching some kind of virile thing. I was very glad that he wasn't more ill than that. I hate to see what that would be like!

Well, we are all better now, and have a molar coming in along with all 4 eye teeth! He's growing so fast and has so many teeth that when we are in public, people think he's 2 or 2 1/2!!

Tomorrow is Father's Day, and I brought Scott shopping for his gift. I thought it'd be nice for him to pick out what he wanted. He decided to get a new hard drive for the pc that blew up a few months back. His laptop is slowly but surely dieing!! So, we'll try this.

Summertime has begun, and the days are longer! I'm loving it! Wishing I didn't have to spend the majority of those days at work, but I guess if we want to continue living the way we do, I need to work. I still think that we should only have to work 2 days a week, have 5 off, and still get paid the same! I mean, there are so many people out of work right now, why not?!

Anyway, there's my rant for the day. I leave you with pictures of the honeysuckle that surrounds our house in the spring!

Pictures!!!

2009-05-21T20:23:00.004-04:00

I've been going on and on about this garden we planted, and finally, yes FINALLY figured out how to get the pictures off my camera! Obviously, this picture was taken almost a month ago, so as you can imagine, the plants have grown. Scott told me today that we officially have 2 tomatoes growing and one about to come through! YAAAYYY! We have about 10 potato plants that came through, and the cucumber plants are doing great! The carrots are taking their time and I don't think we have any beans coming through yet. But I'm OK with that! I'm so stinkin' proud of our garden!
Isaac has decided to walk in his Pawpaw's footsteps and go into radio!! I believe his great-Aunt said it best when she quoted Pawpaw on a photo I had on Facebook! I truly believe anything Isaac decides to do in life, he's going to do it with the most excitement ever! He's one of those rare kids that laughs and smiles all the time. He recently had a doctor's appointment, with shots (naturally!), and cried a few minutes, but, no joke, he was giggling minutes later! He's such a good boy! Of course, I'm sure every mother says that about their child. The results of his doctor appointment are as follows: 25 pounds, 34 inches long, and 49 cm circumference on his head. Yes, my boy is over half as tall as me, at 18 MONTHS!!! GREAT DAY! I fear we will have another (almost) 7 footer in our family! Thank goodness he wasn't like that at birth! (7 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches) I could very easily make this entire blog about my boy, but I know some people would get very bored by that. So, I will end this entry with another beautiful shot of Isaac expressing "TOUCHDOWN" for Daddy. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day, and as Isaac would say "Bubye, Cya latr"!

Good bye, weird week!

2009-05-02T13:08:00.003-04:00

Has anyone ever had one of those weeks, where you truly can not wait for it to go away?! That's how this past week was. I'm hoping and praying for a better week this time around! So many different things happened that really, I couldn't even begin to explain it all. Suffice to say, I'm glad it's over.

The weather has been right on target for this time of year, so hopefully our garden will start to bloom. Our front flowering bushes (I have no idea what type they are) are now flowering. My marigolds are looking dazzling (if that's possible for marigolds!) and the honey suckle is starting to spread. It hasn't flowered yet, but I can see the vines all over the place now. I just hope the garden does as good as the shrubbery and flowers! We left the hose on the garden all day Tuesday accidently, so we haven't had to water the garden for a few days! LOL It's still somewhat soggy! YIKES!

Today, Isaac and I are having a day off together. Scott had to work (it's Saturday today), so it's just me and my little man. We've already hit the stores and are home. I'm trying to get him to take a nap, but he's bound and determined to not sleep. So, right now it's a battle of who will outlast the other! I'm pretty sure I'll win this one, I have a few years on 'im! LOL I picked up a few new sippy cups for him. We're thinking we need to move onto the next stage. I'm amazed these things actually have stages! But he's mastered the "sucking" action, so I'm going to try him out on those cups that have the straw. This will teach him, hopefully, to slide the cup closed when he's done, and to keep his cup standing on a flat surface, rather than laying down on the couch! These stage cups are truly amazing! I've also been looking for a rubber (vinyl) bib. His babysitter has this really neat bib that catches food before it hits his lap, and I haven't been able to find any. Well, I found one today, but the darn thing is 6 bucks! Is nothing cheap anymore?! Anyway, I sucked it up and bought it. It's actually a really good idea. I won't have to use the newborn sized bibs anymore that really only protects his collarbone, and I can just wipe the bib rather than having to wash a load of bibs alone! I'm happy about this!

Tomorrow I have a bridal shower to go to. So that was another thing on our many stops today. I had to pick up the blushing bride a gift or two. It's actually kinda fun watching her go through all this. Brings so many memories back from when Scott and I first were married. Though, her fiance is in Poland, so it's somewhat different at the same time. But, gotta say, I could have bought the store out for her! There's so many things I know she'll need, but weren't on her registry! I was a good girl though, and bought strictly from her registry! Alot of the things I saw I could have definitely picked up for us! LOL

Then, I don't know what on earth possessed me to do it, but then I battled Walmart!! Yes, people, it was me and my son against all the "fun, loving, generous, and exciting" people that shop at Walmart at the beginning of the month. I'm just glad we made it out alive. And in one piece! Where are my bodyguards when I need them?! I've made an executive decision to never, NEVER shop there again on the first weekend of a month. Insanity does not even begin to describe the mayhem that is Walmart at the beginning of the month. Am I getting my point across here?! DO NOT SHOP AT WALMART IN THE FIRST WEEK OF ANY MONTH IF YOU WANT TO MAKE IT OUT ALIVE!

Ok, that rant done. One last thing. The trip to Walmart, well lets just say it was the perfect ending to the most perfectly worse week I've had in a long time!

Ok, this time, the rant really is done! ;) I hope everyone else is having a great week. I'm off to spend some very valuable time on my Sims game. I'll take it when I can. In other words, Isaac is sleeping and I can not waste that time on anything other than fun stuff! LOL

Overheated? I am!

2009-04-27T22:01:00.002-04:00

One of the many things I love about Virginia, is that it's a warmer state than New York. However, it's this time of year that I also remember exactly how much warmer it is! It's funny, really. All winter long, you hear people complaining about how cold it is. Then, all summer long you hear people complain about how hot it is! Geesh! One can never be completely satisfied!

I wouldn't mind the heat so much if we had a decent working central air unit. Unfortunately, the only thing with our home when we bought it a couple years ago is that the central air unit is one of the worse out there. It would also appear that it's the original unit that came with the house when it was built. Scott's brother works for a heating and air company, and was going to come over this evening to charge it up with freon, but he ended up having to do some serious overtime at work. Hopefully he'll get here later this week. Today is supposed to be the last day of the "heat" so we should be O.K. the rest of the week.

We had a fabulous visit with my aunt and uncle! They just loved Isaac! And Isaac showed his anxious side, so imagine how he would have looked in their eyes if he was on his best behavior! LOL But, he is only 17 months old, so there's really only so much you can expect from him. I will say this, he definitely wore Scott out running all over the hotel they stayed in! LOL I don't know who was more tired when we got home that night, Isaac or Scott! But, regardless, we had such a great time visiting with them. They had a family friend with them, and that was nice to meet her as well. It was just so nice to do something other than sit around the house all night. Before they got here, we worked more in our garden. We've lost 4 of our Cucumber plants, so we had to plant some seeds. We also put some chicken fence around the garden to keep the wild life out of it. And the cats.

I still don't have any pics to post, but if anyone is on Facebook, my dad has the pics from our visit with my aunt and uncle. I have some pics of the garden, but still haven't attempted to get them on my pc. I don't have a whole lot to say tonight. It's been a long day, being Monday, and can't quite think straight! LOL I just remembered that I hadn't posted from this weekend, so thought I should get that out there.

Have a great week, everyone!

Rain rain, Go Away

2009-04-23T10:14:00.002-04:00

I know that the rain is normal this time of year, but I'm quite ready for it to go away! The good thing is that the pollen isn't too bad right now. It doesn't bother me, but the pollen kills Scott! Which in turn aggravates me because now I have to hear him cough non stop! LOL Gotta love those allergies!

Anyway, as I mentioned before, we planted a garden this past weekend, so at least it's getting well watered! Scott and I were talking this morning about the possibility of actually working in the garden this evening! Imagine that! I'm sure the weeds are abundant. I'm hoping to get a load or two of laundry done today also. I'd really like to take as much advantage of that clothes line as possible! If I can save us some money in the electric bill, than I'm going to do it! Gotta save where we can!

Scott was very fortunate this week and had a full weeks worth of work! We've been smiled upon by God this week! We thank Him every day that Scott has a full day of work in. He was able to get a little overtime in as well! Of course it's bitter sweet. We of course need the money as does anyone in this economy right now. But then you have the nights that you look forward to relaxing with the family. We'll take what we can get!

This weekend my Aunt and Uncle will be stopping through on their way back home from Florida. I'm so excited to see them! It's been several years since we've seen anyone really from NY. Isaac will finally meet more of his extended family! I'm so proud of my boy!

I hope everyone's week is going well! It looks like the sun may shine through the weekend!

Gardening

2009-04-19T21:46:00.002-04:00

We had another great weekend! It's been one right after another with us lately! Guess you could say we are blessed! Saturday we began the exhausting and never ending task of planting our garden. Of course, it's never as easy as just "We planted a garden". First off, we had to go to the store and finish getting the different things that we didn't already have. Such as weed killer, cucumber plants, etc. I also talked Scott into getting stuff to hang a clothes line! ;) We stopped at a local hardware store to rent the rototiller, but the last one was rented before our very eyes! So, we put our name on "the list", went home, fed Isaac, put him down for a nap and started our various self induced projects. Scott worked on the clothes line, and I began planting some flowers. I couldn't wait for the clothes line! I've wanted a clothes line since we were married! I love the smell of freshly hung clothes. AMAZING! Of course, the hardware store called to say the rototiller was back so we could go get it. Scott left to get the 'tiller and I stayed home, praying Isaac would fall asleep, and began the strenuous task of figuring out where to plant, how to plant and finally planting the flowers! I've never done this. Not on my own, anyway. Scott was very brave and trusting to let me at it by myself! I've decided I need more flowers! LOL

Anyway, Scott got back with the 'tiller, finished setting up the clothes line, then 'tilled the garden. We decided, seeing as it was dinner time, to plant the veggies the next day. To say we were tired is being very very VERY vague! We were beyond tired. But, even so, we took Isaac out for ice cream at a local ice cream shop that just opened. I have to say, I'm really glad this area is starting to expand. There's no way in this world I could have survived the trek into town to get ice cream! Oh, did I mention that I also earned myself a nasty burn?! Yeah, I was sore and tired. Nice! :D I can't honestly remember the last time I had a burn. I say burn because I don't tan. Ever.

Again, I digress! Today we got the garden planted. We also have had 4, count them, 4! loads of laundry washed and hung! Man I love it! We hope to save money with the laundry, and fresh veggies. I should mention that I do a load of laundry every day. So I'm told that not running the dryer everyday will hopefully drop our electric bill quite a bit. And with the veggies, we only planted what we eat, so we should do pretty good with that too. Probably the only thing we'll have to buy at the grocery store is peas and corn. We tried to grow both last year and failed miserably. I'm sure that the tree that fell on the garden had nothing to do with it! ;)

We truly did have a fabulous weekend! I really wish it could be like this everyday, but I'm told I need to go to work to help pay the bills. Darn! That's it for us. I hope everyone else's weekend was just as awesome!

Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T20:12:00.002-04:00

It's Easter Sunday, and I'm finally able to relax! We had a wonderful visit with Scott's parents this weekend. My dad joined us today for the celebrations. Isaac was surprised with, not one, but 3 easter baskets and some gifts from Nana and Papa!! He had a great time visiting with all his grandparents. As I said before, he absolutely loves them! Who wouldn't??! He's the center of attention when they're all around! And what a ham he is!

Scott's starting to feel a cold coming on, so after everyone left, he joined Isaac for an afternoon nap. I cleaned up the house, and just as I was about to relax myself, my darling son woke up! Ahh, no rest for the weary! I'm told I'll rest when I'm dead, so I should enjoy it now! haha

In all seriousness though, we really did have a great time with everyone. I wish my mom could have been here too, but she's not able to be here. We really do miss having her around. But Isaac had a great time. He got lots of candy and toys, and played outside with his daddy and his bubbles. I don't have any pics to put up yet. I have to figure out how to put them on my pc without deleting them on the chip. That will take time. I'm not that tech savvy yet! We hope everyone had a great Easter.

Now we will start to prepare for a nice weekend with my aunt and uncle in a couple weeks. They are passing through from Florida, so that will be nice. It's been a few years since we've seen them, and they haven't met Isaac yet! I'm very excited about that! It's so nice when we get to see family. Especially when they are passing through and it's kindof a surprise! I definitely love my family!

My dad gave me some Easter Lilies today. I don't have a picture of it to post, like I said I haven't figured out how to get them on my pc yet, but I leave you with how they look from the wonderful world wide web!

Easter Egg Coloring

2009-04-10T20:01:00.005-04:00

Isaac is having his first Easter where he kinda gets that something's going on. We had our first experience this evening coloring eggs with him! He definitely made it fun! That is, until he got bored and started to pull the newspaper off the table! Oops! Even though he's not feeling very well (no thanks to the cold he has and I'm pretty sure he's teething again!), he was very happy and giggly! One thing I can say about Isaac, he's most definitely a happy baby! Here he is dipping his first egg with Daddy!

Tomorrow his Nana and Papa will be here. Isaac loves spending time with them! He loves being around people in general, but he loves his grandparents! He's very blessed to have 3 out of 4 close by.

I leave you with this image:

This was Isaac last year, completely oblivious of the candy and gifts all around him!

Happy Easter!

A Change

2009-04-09T22:37:00.002-04:00

I've decided to change things up a bit on here. I've not had the time or energy that I thought I might to play TS2 the way I'd hoped. So, I'm going to use Blogger to, well, Blog! Imagine!

Our son has been growing in leaps in bounds! He's already going to be 17 months in a little over a week! Time flies by faster than you could ever imagine! He's walking, talking and loves the outdoors. Every night, as long as it's warm enough and isn't raining, my boy goes outside and either chases the cats, or rides around on his toy fire truck.

This weekend is Easter. His second Easter and hopefully he'll get to enjoy it more this time around. Obviously last year was not very exciting for him, but hopefully this year will be different. Now I just need to put my creative cap on and hope that some of my mom's artsy fartsy -ness wore off on me a bit!

I'm a little leary of posting actual images of my son right now on the web. Too much craziness out there, but here's an image I love. One day I hope to go to Ireland. You could say it's my dream vacation. One day.

And, yes, I know exactly how random all of this is, but it's my first "true" blog entry, and I can do it however I wish! haha.

Happy Easter, All from our home to yours! :)

Round 1-Two Sisters, 3 Kids...Maybe

2008-11-12T13:18:00.015-05:00

Hey-a! I'm Veronica, and my sister, Leesa's gonna talk some too. If I don't start off, I'll never get my say! hehe

We came from a bitty town that don't need no mentioning. All that matters is we are all here now together in The Ridge.

*Rolls eyes* Get off yer horse, Ronnie, and stop bein' so stinkin' happy, Geez. Yeah, I'm Leesa, and I do NOT take over conversations! *cuts eyes to Veronica* Anyway, we moved here with our kids when both our men took off on us. Really, we're all that we have. No parent's, no other siblins, nothin'. So, why not? Course, what with the rule about passin' on our name, I will have to have me another kid, but that ain't so bad. I hear that Raven ain't too happy 'bout it though! *Chuckles softly*

Anyway, back to me, Veronica. Yeah, Leesa calls me Ronnie, but she's the only one who can get away with it. I really think we should talk about what's been going on Leesa.

First off, I heard all this talk about sims findin' gold in their yards, and stuff. Well, I dug like it was my job and never found no gold. I ended up diggin' so deep I got us a small pond out back! Ross loves it out there, but that's gettin' ahead of ourselves!

Yeah, it is getting a bit ahead of yerself, Ronnie. Anyways, I got me some flowers from that Fox Sundust! Now that's a whole lotta man! He sent me a card and all too! If I was a settlin' girl, I'da might settle with him. But I ain't settlin'. I got too much I wanna do!

This wasn't one of 'em, but see, my sweet innocent sister, Ronnie, was off meetin' with one guy or another. So, someone had to teach her how to study. And, I'm proud to say, she came home a couple days later with an A+ report card!

Yeah, Leesa, I gotta thank you for that one! I owe you! See, I was very busy those first few days. I wanted to meet more sims, and ended up meeting a couple of very nice men...*Leesa coughs* And unavailable!

Leesa! Shush now! Sanjay and I talked about it, and thought it better we not see each other anymore. Besides, he's the only one who was married! Niery, now that handsome devil is most definitely NOT married, though I don't know why! I mean, take a look at 'im!

Now, Ronnie, how is anyone supposed to see his face when yours is attached to it?! *Veronica blushes uncontrollably*

Besides all that, look what happens when you ain't careful! *Veronica breaks in* You know, Leesa, the weirdest part of this? Remember when you got pregnant for Kikki? Well, I never heard the bells! I swear for either of them, I never heard the stinkin' bells! I was beyond surprised when I found out I was havin' a baby!

Well, that's what you get, Ronnie, for not bein' careful!

Back to our family, Ronnie. Our babies grew up without a hitch. Kikki's my girl, and Ross is Ronnie's boy. Which is why I have no idea why she let herself git pregnant again! She already has her boy! Anyway, they grew up to be such happy kids! You'd think they were twins the way those two are. But, of course, they're not. I insisted that they get to change their look, so here they are after I got done with 'em.

You did do a great job with 'em, Leesa. Ross looks like such a gentleman! Well, I couldn't get me a job now with bein' pregnant and all, but Leesa dived right in and got herself a job as a gas station attendant. It don't pay much, but it pays. And we're definitely gonna need the money now that we'll have another baby in the house!

I thought I told you to delete that picture, Ronnie! I look completely aggravated, which I was. But regardless!

Another accomplishment for my girl, Ginia, she was invited to join some artsy group. This lady stopped by and offered her a pass to come by and visit. I told her I'd bring her by, once the baby comes, so my girl can see what it's all about.

I suppose we should get on outta here. I wanted to end with this gorgeous picture of our babies all sitting grown up like at the table. Ain't they just beautiful?! *Leesa cuts in* Oh yeah, and the next time we sees ya'll, Ronnie will have had her little baby. Bye, ya'll!

Round 1-Raven's Forced To Reproduce

2008-11-12T10:53:00.029-05:00

I'm told I have to have a son. Does anyone know how disturbing that is to a sim such as I? I do enjoy the Woo Hoo, but I'm very careful. I kick myself for not reading the fine print!! Anyway, I suppose I should start by telling a bit about myself. I'm a Romance Sim, and hope to one day become a Celebrity Chef. Oh, and I go by Raven. Yes, I said "Go By". That is not my given name from birth, but we're not here to talk about that.

If I'm going to live the life I want to live, I decided to give this "digging" thing a try. It would seem that the families here all have had a pile of gold burried somewhere on their property. So, I just dug a whole, and Vola! I found it! How about that?! Then, I decided to make some poor sap a dad, whether he liked it or not. Part of the agreement here is to have a son to pass along my name to. Whatever. When I'm a Celebrity Chef, I'll hire a nanny and let them do all the work! I digress. So, poor sap number one, meet date 1.

We're not going to bother with names, as I don't intend to keep them around long. I only need one thing from them, and as long as I get it, I'm happy. It would seem Date 1 didn't have what it takes to get me pregnant, so I moved onto date 2.

Of course I had no idea at the time that this date took place that this guy would not be someone easily "shaken". This is Fox Sundust. He'll probably be the only "poor sap" that will be honered with having his name mentioned here. Not my choosing, of course. He's the brother of one of the First Families, so he lives here in The Ridge. If I'd known, I wouldn't have bothered with him, but such is life. He sent me a card later, guess he felt obligated. Anyway, I moved onto date 3, which, by the way, ended up being someone I met through a friend. It would seem he decided to just drop by.

Nice guy, I guess. We hit it off pretty quickly.

And as they say, third times a charm! Though, to be truthful, I really am not sure if it was this dude or Fox who succeeded in making the good Community Planning sims of The Ridge happy. Either way, I became pregnant, and still didn't have a job!

I wasn't very happy with the mess this pregnancy was causing, so I thought maybe I should hire some one to clean up for me. But then I remembered, no money. And, I now had a kid on the way, so I would need more room in this little place, that I might just add, was plenty for me if they'd just have left me a lone and let me live however the heck I wanted....but NOOOO, I have to have a kid!!

Someone must have told 'ole Red Hair that I was pregnant, because I certainly didn't, because he dropped this t.v. off one night when I was lounging around studying. I sold it as soon as he left. What do I need another t.v. for?!

I finally found a job in the Culinary field. Didn't matter much though, I couldn't start working until I had this kid. Oh, and believe me, I did.

That was most definitely the most painful thing I've ever been through. I had no plans of ever doing that again, until.......

Mercedes, left Portia, right

Meet my DAUGHTERS, Mercedes and Portia!! Someone out there has it in for me! I guess it's back to the drawing board. *Sighs* I love the girls to pieces, never thought I'd like any babies, but these two cherubs are the apple of my eye. Not that I'd wanted to have anymore, but if I'm going to stick around The Ridge, I have to pop out a boy! Daggone it!

I leave you with a picture layout of our home. Originally, the house was much smaller, *growls* because there was just me, but I had to add on for my girls. Til next time.

Round 1-Constance Explains

2008-11-08T16:18:00.022-05:00

Well, that's our family photo from whens we first got here. My good-for-nothin' son left me ta raise his little un. 'e's not even disservin' of having 'is picture here, but I ain't a smart enuff womun ta take 'im outta it. That little angel ya see 'im holdin' is my little darlin' Toni Lou.

Ain't she an angel? We don't speak of my son in our home. He ain't worth the breath nor tha tahm. Anywho, she spent her first few days settlin' in and gettin' her sleep on. I spent my tahm trying ta wrangle up some muhney.

See, I hear talk around The Ridge that if ya dig long enuff, yu'll find yurself a treasure chest. I ain't found no treasure chest, but I did find myself a treasure!

I don't know much more about 'im other than 'is name, and it's Joe. Well, we hit it off pretty good. Found ourselves out on dates all tha tahm, but he was nice enuff to come over ta my place, so's I wouldn't have to leave the baby none.

I suppose I should tell bit's about me. I'm whatcha call a Fortune Sim. 's why I been lookin' for some treasures! In my youth, I wanted ta be a Business Tycoon, but that's a dream that will never reach fruition. He he, that's the word of the day! I heard young Spencer Maddox use it the other day, made me giggle. Thought I'd use somehow. Guess I found the raht place.

Anyway, my Joe, he wants ta be a Criminal Mastermind. He's not gonna realize his dream neither. But, we bein' old and all, we're O.K. with that. We spend our days watchin' the baby grow, and oh my, I forgot to mention! My girl's no longer a baby!

Ain't she jus' buutieful?! One day, I can see her goin' off to that big city college and comin' back 'ere to The Ridge and raisin' a family! I jus' hope she ain't nothin' like that slob of a boy I raised!

Anyway, like I mentioned, that boy, Spencer Maddox, he been comin' round here alot. Ever since my girl growed up. I think 'es got 'is eye on 'er. Knows a beauty when 'e sees one! His little sister, Mallorie I thinks 'er name, she came by one night too. Seem's my girl growin' up caused a stir in these parts. Welll, I don't know much about that, but my Joe caused a stir with our family!

When my girl went to school 'er first day, my Joe came by an' asked me to marrit him! I couldn't believe it much! Jumped into his arms I did! We din't waste no tahm and got ourselves hitched raht then and there!

Course when my girl came home from school, she sized Mr. Joe up, and decided he was O.K. She hadn't been used ta havin' to share me at all, being it's just been her and me all this tahm.

After she an' 'im decide all was well in the world, I sat her raht down and teached 'er how ta study. Joe sat and watched us for a bit, then went and fished in our little pond. Says he doesn't want to spend good money on somethin' as foolish as food when we 'ave so much of it in our own yard! Makes sense ta me!

Seems my girl didn't 'ave enuff studyin' with me, so she went and pulled a book off tha shelf and studied the cookin'.

We ended that first week snugglin' on the sofa 'nd watchin' us some telly. As bad as we had it before, we are doin' raht good now!

Round 1-Jess Begrudgingly Settles In

2008-11-06T20:36:00.012-05:00

This is not the life I wanted for my children. I did not want to bring my mother to this land. I did not want to lose my husband. But, obviously, what I want does not matter. My eldest daughter, Liah, rebels. My only son, Spencer, has withdrawn into himself and shares nothing. My mother has made it her lifes mission to find "the bad guys". I.......I have turned to a life of crime. One that I hope my mother never finds out about. The only ones who seem to not realize the life we are living and left behind is my youngest set of twins, Martie and Mallorie. Here's our story.

I begin with my mother. I do her the honor of introducing her first, as she began our family. Of course, she did not do this alone, however I never knew my father. The children where we come from never know their fathers. The men in the family are what we call the "None Seers". I suppose I should tell some about our family. We are Seers, or Confessors. Basically, we "see" what many others do not. The "Truth". However, with us leaving our land of Balmuthia, we have lost our "power". My daughter, Liah, seems to be quite content with this. My mother seems to be relieved, I, on the other hand, feel as though I've lost a part of myself. A part that identified who I am. The only solace I get from leaving Balmuthia is that I will not lose my son.

I apologize, I've rambled on, and swayed away from telling of my family. The picture you see of Mother was one where she found a career on the computer. I tried to convince her to stay home and allow me to provide for the family, but she insisted.

This is a picture of myself. I believe it shows exactly how I feel about living here, in Prosperity Ridge. I've heard the kids call it "The Ridge" so I should begin referring to it that way as well. I've decided to begin delving into the dark underbelly of Sim Nation and learn what I can of the Criminal world. I hope Mother does not find me out, though she is a remarkably brilliant woman.

My son, and pride and joy. The only good thing of us moving here. I will not lose him. The men, as I mentioned, are None Seers. Once they've chosen a mate, they will die after reproducing. I was incredibly fortunate that my husband was able to get me with child twice. Yes, I have 4 children, but had only 2 pregnancies. My older children are twins as well.

My eldest daughter is Liah. *shakes head* I do not know what I will do with her. She seems so sweet and innocent when you look at her, but I promise, she is not. As a Confessor, she used her powers without thought. I tried to teach and guide her the proper way, but to no avail. Since living here, she has been brought home by the enforcers, police, as they are called here, for being out late at night, past curfew, with that up-to-no-good Fawn Sundust down the street. I do not like this girl, and I do not like my daughter being friends with her. But even Spencer seems to have been drawn to her. I must find a way to put a stop to this.

My beautiful girls. The became children while living here, and have also developed little personalities of their own. Martie my little princess who seems to have an inclination towards being friendly and popular among her friends, and Mallorie, my little "mother" as we have knicknamed her. Though she is quite tomboyish, she loves being around babies and talks all the time of being a mother herself one day. I'm sad that they do not remember Balmuthia or will never know the life of a Confessor.

Alas, this is our life. This is where we live. I hope my children will grow and thrive. Of course, I would be much happier if I could have raised them in Balmuthia.

Editors Note: I had a lot of problems with this posting, so I will add here aspirations for everyone: Betty-Fortune/Become head of SCIA Likes: Hat/Perfume Dislike: Formal; Jess-Knowledge/Become Criminal Mastermind Likes: Stink/Hardworker Dislike: Werewolf; Spencer-Pleasure/Have 50 Dream Dates (I particullarly do not mind this as he can have this with his future spouse alone) Likes: No Job/Formal Dislike: Gray Hair; Liah-Knowledge/Become Education Minister Like: Cleaning/No Job Dislike: Black Hair. Of course Martie & Mallorie are not old enough to have any of these yet.

Round 1-Rili Introduces Himself

2008-11-04T10:26:00.008-05:00

Rili Satias

Leo/Romance

Have 20 Simultaneous Lovers

Likes:Fit/Perfume Dislikes:Vampires

So, yeah, that's me. I'm Rili, and I guess I'm here because my ole man flew the coup. He's supposed to be in that picture of me, but I cropped 'im out. Who needs the geezer? Anyway, I'm livin' here in Prosperity Ridge, or "The Ridge" as it's becoming known as. I guess we all live here 'cause we had some big tragic thing happen to us...whippee. It's not that I get all mad or something when I talk about it, but what's the point? I mean, it's in the past, so why dwell, ya know? So, I guess I should tell ya about my life, or something. My house is pretty simple. The 'ole man had it built when he knew he'd be leavin' me.

The first thing I did was start diggin' and I found this pile of cash! I couldn't believe my total luck! I mean, the 'ole man hitched the next cab outta here and left me with nothin'! Serves 'im right! Now I can have anything I want! Well, maybe not anything. The one thing I want, well, I guess I havta go to stupid College for it. See, there's this chic, man, she's smokin' HOT! I'm lucky cuz she lives right across the street from me! Her names Fawn, or Doe or somethin' like that. Anyway, she's F-I-N-E! I caught 'er checkin' me out a time or two!

The next thing I thought I should do is get a J-O-B. Chics don't like guys who don't have any money. Doesn't matter that I found all that loot in the front yard. She ain't gonna look my way if I walk around wearing 'ole nasty clothes and drive a piece of crap car. Well, my car is a piece of crap, but at least I have some wheels! Better than that Spencer Maddox. Course he does have that hot sister! Damn, the girls here a serious eye candy! 'Bout the only good thing my 'ole man did for me is move me here!

Anyway, I got this job, and well, it didn't work out all that good. Seems that if I wanna go to stupid college and meet more chics, I need ta have some good grades. So, just when I got to thinkin' I should quit and focus more on my studies, the stupid boss fire my butt. I wasn't too worried. I'll just keep diggin' in the yard. Seems to me that where there's one pile o' cash, there's bound to be another!

So, I got ta thinkin' one night, I should have some kids from school over. Well, me and a couple guys from school have started hangin' out. Randy London and Ricky Cormier are two of my best buds. But, I need some chics in this place. So, I invited that Fawn Sundream over after school the other day, and she brought her friend Sophie Miguel. Sophie's alright, but man, that Fawn, she's somethin' else!

'Course, they did come over my last day of work, so when I got back home, the two were gone. Damn work. I didn't get to show off to Fawn how awsome I am at that SSX game. Oh well, there'll be more time now that I'm not workin'.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about this! My house got broken into! So much for The Ridge bein' safe! Jessica Ebadi's her name. One investment I made when I moved from the city was that burglar alarm. You can take the kid outta the city, but ya can't take the city outta the kid! Glad I thought of it.

Anyway, that's it for me. I gotta get me some z's if I'm gonna get to school in the mornin'.

Round 1-Meet the Sundusts

2008-11-04T09:59:00.010-05:00

Family Members from left to right

Fox, Fawn, Rose, Heather, And River

Up front is Ocean.

With a name like "Sundust" one would most likely ask "What kinda family is this"? Then, once a sim hears our first names, we almost always get mistaken for hippies or tree huggers! I assure you, we are none of that! I'm Fawn, the teenage daughter of River. I have a little brother, Ocean, and my Grandma Rose lives with us. Her sister, Heather, also lives with us as well as my Uncle Fox, or as he likes to be called "The Fox". See, he's what you call a Romance Sim and honestly believes all females want to be with him. I really don't know how my dad puts up with him. He brings his "conquests", as he calls them, home all the time, such as the one seen in the picture here:

I'm not really sure which one it is, but this is either Leesa or Veronica Pierpont. They're sisters that moved to Prosperity Ridge shortly after we did.

Anyway, how we came about livin' here, my grandfather and Aunt Honey died in a house fire a while back, and my Grandma completely lost it.

So, after some long talks, my grandmother convinced dad to move all of us here. He basically told Ocean and me, it was either pack up and move on, or sit and watch Grandma get further depressed. Being the Pleasure Sim that my dad is, he hates conflict and seeing anyone unhappy. So, pack it up it was!

You probably noticed, I haven't mentioned my mom at all. Well, shortly after Ocean was born, she hit the road. Dad won't talk about her, and anytime anyone mentions her name, he clams up and either changes the subject, or leaves the room. No one really knows what happened between them. I was too young, and Grandma wasn't with us yet. She was still at home with Aunt Honey and Uncle Fox. Great Aunt Heather had her own thing going on, so Dad's the only one, other than the ever missing "Mom", that really knows what happened.

This is our new house. Of course, it's before we had windows, paint, and stuff, but we all have our own bedrooms, which, when dad and grandma talked about movin', I feared the worse. I feared they'd have me share a room with my brother, Ocean. I love my little bro' and all, and as brother's go, he's not all that bad, but I like my privacy. Our last house was pretty awesome, but then again, it was just me, my dad and Ocean.

We try to have our meals together everyday, but Aunt Heather has taken on a job as a Mime. It's kinda funny when you think about it, cuz she's the loudest of us all! But, she's determined to make it in the entertainment career, so we let her have her fun. I hope to one day become the law and Ocean's been talking about focusin' on his studies when he gets older. I keep tellin' him that he needs to think about makin' friends, because being popular's where it's at!!

Speakin' of being popular, this is my new bestfriend Liah Maddox. Her family also moved here around the time we did. I don't think I mentioned one of the criteria that needs to be met to move to Prosperity Ridge. Well, basically, your family has to have been through a recent tragedy. Ours, of course is the loss of Grandpa and Aunt Honey. You wouldn't think we'd all fall into that, but with Aunt Heather and Uncle Fox living with us, and Grandma movin' in with us, we all qualified. I asked Liah what happened with her family, and she kinda got quiet and changed the subject. I think I'll let her tell me when she's ready.

I suppose I should take the time to mention the other families that have moved here. It seems we were the first "settlers", so we got to watch everyone else move in, and build their homes. Yep, we all had to build our own homes. Some of the families got lucky when the diggin' started. But, that's another story. Anyway, the second family that moved in, well, isn't really a "family" per se. It's one Sim, and a teenager at that!! And oh what a hottie!! Rili Satias. He and I have become pretty well acquainted!! Then, of course, my BFF Liah Maddox and her family. She has a twin brother, Spencer, two little twin sisters, Mallorie and Martie, her mom, Jess and grandma Betty. Then, there's the Verbecks, Grandmother Constance and granddaughter Toni Lou. I don't know their story, but I hear Toni Lou's dad is a deadbeat. Then Raven Drake, which both my dad and Uncle Fox were eyeing the other day when she ran by in her "work out" clothes. Then, finally the Pierponts. Veronica, Leesa, Ginia, Kikki, and Ross. I couldn't tell you who all belongs to who in that family. They all look way too much alike for my taste!

So, Liah and me, we decided to sneak out one night. It was a weekend and neither one of us works. So, we decided to just take a spin and see what was going on around town. We ran into Rili, and GOD!! That guy just makes me smile thinkin' about him!! Anyway, like I said, we was just crusin' and what do you think happens? Well, apparently, Liah musta just got her license or somethin' because next thing you know, we see blue lights come up behind us!! The cops thought she was drinkin' cuz she was swervin' all over the road!! I didn't even notice, tell the truth! Anyway, I had a nice escort home.

I was so glad that no one was up, and thought, eh', Officer "Dick" won't ring the doorbell and wake all of God's creation up in our house. I was DEAD wrong! Needless to say, Grandma is the one who brought the hammer down on me. While Uncle Fox and Ocean laughed the whole time Officer "Donkey Butt" told my dad and Grandma what happened, I sat there waiting for the floor to open up and swallow me. After Officer "Jerk Wad" left, Dad just looked at me and sighed. Uncle Fox and Ocean went to bed gigglin' like two little girls, and Aunt Heather shook her head and said "She's your problem, Rosie". I didn't know why, at the time, she felt I was Grandmas problem, when my dad is perfectly capable of handing out punishments. But I soon learned. Dad turned to go to bed and over his shoulder said "We'll talk about this after I've had some sleep". I thought I was off the hook because I know that generally means, by the time mornin' comes, he'll have forgotten or decided it wasn't such a bad thing that I'd done. So, thinkin' I dodged one more bullet, I headed for bed when I heard behind me in the most spine tingling voice I've ever heard in my life "Not so fast, young lady". I stopped, turned ever so slowly and found Grandma glaring at me. She made only one move, and that was to raise her arm and point at the sofa. All I heard was "Sit". After that, I got the chewin' out of a lifetime. I've never seen Grandma so pissed in my life. I thought she was gonna have a coronary, she was so angry. Her face was a scary shade of red, and her eyes were the deepest color of black I've ever seen on a sim. The line I remember the most is this:

"I thought you were different, girl. I thought you were better than them kids you hang 'round with. You have dissappointed me so much, I don't know what to do with you. Now, you know as well as I, your Daddy ain't gonna do nothin', but I sure as heck am. So, til I say so, you are to be home every night right after school, you best be on that bus, Fawn Sundust. And, you will wash, and dry each and ever dish after each and every meal. You will help me with the laundry, and keepin the house clean. You will help me supply the 'fridge with fish out of our very own pond. You will do all of this, and anything else I may think of, withOUT complainin'. D'ya here?!" All I could do was nod. I didn't dare speak. That was a Saturday, I couldn't even talk to Liah to see how she faired. Grandma took my phone speakin' privileges away too.

Well, that's how that all went down the first week we lived here. Not a very good start. If I dare say so.

Editors Note: After posting this, I'd realized I not once mentioned lifetime wants, likes/dislikes etc. So, here goes: Heather is a Scorpio, Fortune Aspiration who wishes to be a Prestidigitator. Her likes are Stink/Fat and dislikes Plant Sims. Rose is a Leo, Family Aspiration who wants to marry off 6 kids (Not gonna happen), and likes Fat/Hats and dislikes Stink. Fox, Cancer/Romance-Become Professional Party Guest/likes Formal wearing Zombies and dislikes Grey Hair. River, Libra/Pleasure-Become Game Designer/likes Logically Fit sims and dislikes Custom Hair (Good thing I don't have any!) Fawn, Leo/Popularity-Become the Law/likes Hat wearing Hard Workers, and dislikes Jobless Sims (Obviously!) and finally Ocean, Capricorn-no Aspiration yet or Lifetime Want likes or dislikes. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please leave comments, if you'd like!

Randomness

2008-11-04T09:27:00.009-05:00

I'm thinking about using this site to blog a new 'hood I've been working on for awhile. It seems that between the two sites I use, I'm still not sure which will work best for what I want. I've noticed that a lot of people use this site for the postings, so I may try it out. Anyway, the 'hood I'm working on is Prosperity Ridge. Below is a picture of all the families, and if you click on it, it will bring you to my other site.

Below is a picture of the first family I've begun to play. They are the Sundusts. I'm going to play around with this a bit, so if this all seems incredibly random, please forgive me. This is all very new to me. Infact, I just figured out how to get the below picture at the bottom of the posting, rather than the top! Yes, I'm very very VERY new to this all!

To show how new I am, below is a picture of Rili Satias. I took this picture in one of my picture programs and cropped his "Place Holder" out, but included it in the story! The place holder's elbow as still partially in the pic, so I had to cover it up. You can definitely tell where I did that! Anyway, this has been some fun for me, and I think, most definitely, now that I've figured out how to do all this, I may switch back to this site.

I'm ending with Rili, as that's as far as I've gotten with the story. I'll post the whole thing here, as soon as I figure out how! Enjoy all!