I certainly hope that all who come here and read our blog, all my family and everyone else has a fantastic new year! May all be blessed with kindness in their hearts and always pass that on to others.
I know, it's a bit dull... but it's what I feel.

I am fulfilled! I love my life, my hubby, my kids, my grandkids! I really enjoy my job. I wished I had been working here longer. I hope to work here until I no longer must work… and dang, that is longer than I want it to be.

We have a foster child, she is not like the 3 babies we had for a few weeks in November. She is 12. It has been an adjustment. To have been set in our ways somewhat, then to allow another into the privacy of ones home, it takes some getting used to. We have been fortunate that the children that have been placed with us are children in need of some love and understanding and have not had severe abuse. We shall continue to do what we can for children in need and I hope to have a little baby foster child again soon.

Have you ever made the mistake of your life, felt so bad you couldn’t even look another person in the eye, you absolutely wished you could just melt away and become nothing. Well, I did …. But he comforted me and told me all will be ok even with the stupidity of what I did. I cannot say how much my heart feels so good today. He is my life, my love, my dearest friend and I am so happy to know that he wants me for his life, his love, his dearest friend forever.

Every person in the world should be able to have a love as this! I do and I am so blessed in my life, with him… and with all my wonderful children!!

We went to the grocery store a while back to pick up stuff for a weekend of one of the boys, K, and his girlfriend visiting from California and because we needed just a few other things. It wasn’t too bad, out the door with only $150 spent. Makes me remember the days when the kids were small, we would spend over $1100 on groceries each month. And after only a few days the kids would complain that there was nothing to eat. We used to go through 2 gallons of milk a day. Every recipe there was I would have to double or triple it and quite often I would make hamburger helper without the hamburger to save a little money. I was not a good cook, but we didn’t starve! Unless you asked one of the kids anyway. HA!

We raised the kids in first a 3 bedroom home (which was lost to a fire and we were only renting (more in another blog about this), then a 2^nd 3 bedroom home one block from the previous home, then a huge 5 bedroom home (just in the next tract from the previous house), all only 3 miles from the beach. I loved taking the kids to the beach, before they put a cost to being able to go there, unless I drove up the coast, parked about 3 blocks out and walked down the side of a sand filled hill to get there.

So, we would plant our blankets, our shade, the towels and our bags of toys and settle in for a day of fun. FUN I say! I start my routine…. counting…1,2,3,4,5,6. ok, I see them all. I spread out the toys…. 1,2,3,4,5,6.. ok, I see them all. I grab the baby strength SPF60 sun screen and yell at each kid to get them gathered and slathered. Then off they go toward the water. 1,2,3,4,5,6.. ok I see them all. I watch the 2 oldest as they venture further out than I want them to go. But I let them. Again 1,2,3,4,5,6. ok I see them all. And to think I made it through an hour of fun by then. By the end of my day, I am reminded how much the kids loved doing this by listening to their conversations about bragging rights of what they all got to do. Back home, I spray them off outside and they hurry in, change and are into the living room to watch tv. I spend the next hour emptying up the family vehicle of wet towels and all, then broom out what sand I can.

I would not be surprised if my husband would ask me the next day about what I was “counting” in my sleep. Haha!

I would not trade those days for anything.

When I started this blog, I had only read a few others’s blogs and decided this would be a fun thing to do for my husband and I. No one knows ya, and one can rant, rave, plot, cry, brag, be composed, be logical or not, confused and shamelessly spew whatever you want, even in a very unwomanly manner and get away with it. I find it a nice release. Only thing that I find a challenge to me is coming up with witty titles to my blogs. Why do I care? I suppose because I want to grow and use my brain.

I am not the most exciting of characters there are in this world, so through this blog I get to play with using my brain and in so doing, I open up my vulnerability. And if all else fails, I may have to steal from another…..Yeehaw!

This is something I wrote a while back and am just now getting to post it here.

I wrote this Oct 11th, when I was still at my last work place.

The IRS announced that the new income tax forms have been simplified beyond all understanding! HA! And a few other things that gave me a laugh today...................

I had made my second trip down the stairs at work and I got to the 2^nd step from the bottom and for some reason (maybe cause I am wearing my stupid high heels instead of my cowboy boots) I missed a step and went flying quickly toward the huge front doors that swing open like shutters. To brace myself from falling I of course put my hands out and sure enough I go squirting out the door out to the entrance and get deposited right into the path of a nice old couple making their way down the walk. No Joke! I had a good laugh at that!

And…. I thought about last week when I had a terrible experience that has changed me forever. I was horseback riding and everything was going great until the horse started loosing her footing and was bouncing out of control. I tried with all my might to hold on but was thrown off. Just when things could not possibly get worse, I realized when I was being thrown that I had caught my foot in the stirrup and felt my head hit the ground. With the horse still running and bouncing my head harder I was just praying it would all stop. Just as I was giving up hope, a nice cowboy that worked there at the store came running out to unplug the dang thing. Thank goodness for heroes! hehe, joke!

But I am passworded out. Just about every site you go to you must become a registered user. There goes the brain again trying to think up a password that is unique to the site that you will remember. If you are anything like me, quite often it is a password that you use on another site, because there is only so many passwords that one should have to really have, right? Well, to the hackers, they don’t know that you have 15 different sites that all use the same password, they just hack into a site and wreak havoc with you for a few days then they go and hack another user’s info and mess with them for a few days and so on. It doesn’t matter that we shouldn’t be worth their time. Take for instance, I have a family MySpace site and sure enough that site was hacked. The hacker sent out bulletins that were for porn sites and I am sure that all 14 of my family & friends had a good laugh about it, because they know that I would never promote anything like that.

Yep, I love technology……password anyone?

This was a post I wrote a while ago and am reposting now...

Oh man, I saw him. Yes, I did. It was amazing. There he was not 25 feet away from me. I could not take my eyes away. He would glance my way and I would avert my eyes for just those brief moments. I could tell there was chemistry between us in just this short amount of time. At first I just smiled and enjoyed the feeling I got from knowing that he knew I was watching him. I am sure you know that jittery feeling in your gut. I knew it was not going to last, but I seized the moment I had. My body warmed with the heat I felt as I walked closer to him. I hoped he would not flee if he felt my invasion. My breasts swelled with my deep breath. I knew I had to do something to stave my yearning, but what? I’m thinking… I’m thinking. I say to myself, “just go over there and talk to him”. Just then he dropped something, this was my chance to move in. I walked to him, bent over and picked up the rattle he dropped and started cueing my heart out, he responded with the biggest giggle a baby could make. Ok, so I am a mother and I love babies!

What were you thinking, that maybe I was talking about a nice big cowboy in his wranglers?

We live in a small town, we live off a dirt road, we live down this long easement that only goes to our home. We are about 5 acres away from our nearest neighbor. One day last year their goat came over to our property and our 2 dogs played around with it, but we shooed the goat home. Our dogs went over to the neighbors and they decided they would go play with the goat again, but this time they went a little too far. They drew blood. So, panic floods my veins and I hurriedly call the neighbor to tell them all that happened. They run out, get their goat and off to the vet they go. We find out that the vet could do nothing but clean the wound and give it painkillers. The goat came home nice and clean and in no pain. Me, wanting to show that I would do the right thing, offered to pay the vet bill. Now, I always did my best to not let my dogs wander the area, but at times they did, so the next day I got rid of my dogs for fear that if they did this to a goat, they may do it to other animals or perhaps a child if they got off my property. We have had neighbor dogs come over and eat our chickens, but we always just shoo them away, we can’t do much else.

Anyway…I paid the $223 vet bill with my next paycheck and even put off my truck payment a week to do so. 28 days after the incident, the neighbors invite us and a few others over for a bbq. One of the things they would be serving would be goat meat. You do not know how thrilled I was to find out that they killed this goat because it would not stop terrorizing their horses and their dogs and were going to bbq the thing. Needless to say, we did not go to the bbq, nor did we talk to them much over the next few months. We often times refer to the neighbor’s $223 goat that we bought for their bbq, in conversations, when we choose to be sarcastic (which isn’t that often).

Now, I say, this is definitely something that has happened to you, right?

I have a confession to make. Please don’t tell K.R. about this. K.R. has been waking up with a pain in her shoulder. I just tell her its old age or something. It started about a month ago. I sleep with three pillows and one night, one of them fell on the floor. I didn’t want to leave the warmth of the blankets to pick it up. So I rolled over and laid my head on her shoulder. I went straight to sleep. I slept so well that night. So after that I would wait for her to fall asleep so I could do it every night. Luckily I always wake up before she does and she has no Idea that I do this. Please don’t turn me in, I need the sleep. Most cowboys sleep with their head on a saddle. I much prefer K.R.s shoulder

I have never in my life even paid attention to politics. I either was not mature enough, did not care enough, or just figured it does not affect me. But this year, I have been paying attention. I am not registered to vote in this state. I did vote back in California, but I just asked my husband who and what I should be voting for and that is how I voted.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not want anyone that is running for president to be president. I do hope that whoever it is does in fact make a national health care system. As to the war, I don’t think we should have ever been there (though I wholeheartedly support our troops!) and I firmly believe that we need to just stop thinking we need to be in every war there is. We are supposedly the most powerful country, but gosh, do we have to try and save the world? I guess we are not really saving these other countries, we are saving our oil and other precious resources that the Bush men are in bed with for.

I see our fellow Canadians and even know a few and they just live their lives and get healthcare when they need it without worrying that they won’t be able to make their mortgage payment because they have to go to the doctor, and they have no worries that they will be attacked for something their country does or does not do because they just go about living their lives and leaving others alone.

I know I am naïve in many things, but I do know that I hate politics, no matter where it happens.

We had planned a long weekend away from the home and away from the kids. Only 3 of the six still lived at home. We were packed and ready to go out the door the minute my husband’s paycheck was deposited. We arrived at the cabin at about 4pm (we were about 150 miles from home) on a Friday night, checked in and then called and made reservations to go horseback riding the next day. We ate a light dinner and had a pleasant quiet evening. The next day, we get up, had breakfast, went shopping at a unique antique store and went to pay but the ATM machine would not accept the husband’s pin number. So we asked her to charge it, it went through, no problem. We arrived to go horseback riding where we paid cash. On the way back to the cabin we stopped at a bank to get cash and again his pin did not work. So, I tried my card and it said no funds available. We about sh*t! We were suppose to have over $4.000 bucks in there. So, we go down the mountain to the nearest bank branch, went in and were instructed to use a phone hooked directly to customer service. This was the beginning of my rudest days I have ever lived. Nothing could be done until Monday. Come Monday, I spend at least 2 hours on the phone talking to a bank employee that obviously could care less about my situation. Finally a branch manager was able to disclose to us the circumstances of what transpired while we were 150 miles away. Apparently someone intercepted an ATM card that was mailed out for my husband. This person took the card into a bank that we had never been to and said that they needed to redo the pin number and then also went to a teller with a bank check and cashed a check for $1800 (the kicker here is, the person signed my husband’s name, but misspelled it and the bank didn’t even blink an eye about it). Then they went on a shopping spree and spent every last cent we had at 3 stores all while were still friggin 150 miles away.

The bank gave us back all the money that was stolen using the ATM card immediately, but did not want to give us back the $1800 for the check. OH MY GOSH… I spent the next 4 days on the phone for hours, being put on hold and passed onto another bank employee, explaining the whole story again and again until I was blue. Finally, they agreed that they would give us our money. It took 6 weeks to get it back into our account.

2 weeks after the incident, in the paper, we read that they caught an illegal immigrant (from Viet Nam) with tons of false ID’s and bunches of ATM cards in his possession. They basically gave him a slap on the hand. What is wrong with our justice system??

I hope no one ever has to have their identity stolen, it ain’t fun!

When we moved here to Arizona, we had to leave 5 of the kids back in CA. They were all grown and had their lives, we brought the baby who was 14 and was going to start high school with us. My oldest boy, M, rented a home in the same tract we lived in (same 5 bedroom floor plan as our home was) a few years before we moved. At that time he had 2 of his brothers and another roommate sharing the home with him. I think we saw more of the boys then from when they lived at home. They would stop off at our place on the way home from work and end up eating there and doing laundry and such. In the last 7 years that M has lived there he has had every brother and sister live there at one point. There are now 3 of my sons, M, K, and J and a stray roommate sharing this place. They all seem to migrate back there to M’s place. They all end up supporting each other through girlfriends or boyfriends and breakups. One of my sons has a daughter that the mother of the child will never let him see (he tries to get the courts to help him to no avail). My daughter has a son that lives with the other grandmother that lives close by because my daughter unfortunately found drugs (more on this later) with her son’s father (he is no longer in the picture and my daughter has 21 days left of a her service and she will be able to have her son home again). But through all this, they are some spectacular human beings and I am proud to say they are mine.
Even when we were missing towels, toilet paper, ketchup and the washer and dryer was going 2 hours every night and you could never find a tool in the garage if you wanted to.
Life is grand and I am blessed beyond measure.

I had told my husband about the pain I have been having in my right shoulder. It even keeps me from getting a complete night’s sleep at times. I attribute it to that I am getting up there in age (I deny I am old!).
So, a few weeks back, my pain was pretty bad and it seemed to consume my thoughts constantly. As I was driving to take movies back to the video store I glanced over to the car in the next lane where a lady was reaching back to discipline her kid in the back seat. Oh My Gosh!!!!! It struck me then…. I have Mama Shoulder!!!
With 6 kids, I must have retrieved a hundred toys, baby bottles and even changed their clothes while one handed driving!!!
I suppose that is why my right arm is about 2 inches longer than my left (just kidding).

I got the job. It is for less money, but I know that I will be busy and learning new things. It is here in the local town, so I do not have to commute the 27 miles into the next town. My new work will be just the 7 miles into my little town. It will give me an extra hour and half at home in the morning. That does not mean I will sleep any later, which is fine, but time away from home less, which will be good if we get foster kids (oh, we have not written about foster parenting). That will be another blog and I will have the hubby rant about that. HA!

The holidays are upon us and we travel out of state to see our kids. Our kids give up their bedrooms and put their lives on hold every time we visit. First thing on Thanksgiving Day is their annual football game. They play with friends that went to grade school with them. Now they are all grown adults with many different lifestyles .After the game they all get together for a picture or two. Back to the house where you can smell the turkey that K.R. put in the oven, the kids take showers while I help put out the munchies and play with the grandkid. Dinner is now ready and the turkey smells great. The kids get their plates and start digging in. It’s noisy and it’s messy and it’s us. Although the food was great, it takes second place behind the feeling of being a very close loving family. K.R. and I are very lucky and can’t wait till Thanksgiving Day.

Ok… I’m nervous! Why? Because I had a job interview. Now I sit here thinking, what did I say that was probably stupid? What gestures did I make that were silly? Did I say the things they wanted to hear? Was I too personal? Did I shove my foot in my mouth unwittingly?

We had a Halloween party at work soon after I returned from the interview so that kept my mind from torturing me right away, but here its an hour later and I can’t seem to concentrate on work. In a way I do not want to leave this job and the new job will be for less money, but no more commute.... which will save almost 2 hours of my day away from home. (I commute with the hubby, it takes only 20-25 minutes to go each way, but because he starts an hour before I do, I sit in my office for an hour before work time). If I do get the job, it was meant to be. Keep your fingers crossed!

Man, to think of all the stuff I can do by staying home an extra hour and half each morning…I can go out and shovel manure or I could clean the kitchen.. HA!
Hmmm,… or I can always sit on my butt and watch my TiVo’d programs. Oh.. did I say that out loud?

My wife is on me to come up with a new blog. But she has been in my head for over a month now and I can’t think of anything else. She must be putting something in my cocoa. I would like to write about my kids, but I don’t want to be on the computer all night and I don’t want to pick just one. The holidays are coming and I look forward to being with all of them. What a lucky cowboy I am

We have 2.5 acres and 5 horses (2 of which we graciously babysit for a friend). I love the look of 3 rail wood fencing and that is what we put up on the northern border of our property, but wood does not hold up when you have horses (especially a colt that thinks he is invincible and just barrels toward the fence. He has knocked about 8 rails off and 2 times we have had to go retrieve him from the adjacent field. On the east side we have regular field fencing put up with t-posts, on the west side we have pipe fence posts and field fencing. Then on the southern part of the pasture we have also put field fencing with t-posts. Our neighbors to the east of us have electric fencing which has zapped me a few times, but we do not mind the fence because it keeps our horses and their horse from leaning over the fences. Only thing is, when the neighbor’s father got zapped so hard a while back (ouch!), they hardly ever have it on anymore. So their lonely mare wants to be with my horses and proceeds to lean on the fence. The neighbors to the west of us, they also have electric fencing that is strung on plastic t-posts about 1 foot off the property line, but it seems that they don’t ever have it on, because their horses have bent our fence posts into our pasture by about a foot. So… I think we have to break down and get our own electric fencing, this way we can get zapped all on our own when we forget to stand clear of the electric fence…. HA!

I am one to get periodically and thoroughly obsessed with something new. I am also one to get too involved with anything that has to do with the kids (who aren’t kids anymore). I was team mom for every kid in every sport and room mother each of my kids ten times over and I would save things that I thought another mother would think to be handy if they were to become over involved with their kids. I also collect pictures out of magazines of what I want to do when we remodel our home or a new project I want to try. There are so many magazines stuffed in every inconspicuous empty space I could find, about horse barns, scrap booking, recipes, getting organized, home décor and web design that I have no room left.
And as I write this, I think it funny that the other day I laughed at my husband for having too many junk drawers in the house and should combine the stuff and get it all out to the garage (the catch all for over storage of crap in the house).
Maybe it is time I get out that “getting organized” book and do something about it… oh wait, where the heck is it?

Our list is filled with projects to get done around this place. The last 3 weeks seems we have added greatly to this list. We have so many things to do we don’t know where to start. We got a big screen tv (52”) we had to cut down our old wall unit which was built in so the wall behind the unit was unfinished and the dang wall is tape and textured (luckily we know of a fast way to texture it). All we wanted was the tv.. but along with it came a huge project. And now that project has made it so we need to add another 3 projects onto the list.

It ended up my turn to change the toilet paper roll again at work. I made sure that the paper will roll off the top and not that awful roll under stuff. It is bad enough that one has to reach back 2 feet to even reach the roll, then to have to spin it a dozen times to get the paper to fly away from the roll, then you try and catch it and it rolls to the back again. It seems that every other time someone does that dang roll under stuff when it is their turn. What is up with that?
So, now you know that putting the toilet paper roll on the wrong way is one of my pet peeves. Where the heck did that saying come from anyway?

He wasn’t always a cowboy. Before we moved here to AZ, we were beach bums basically. He was my first love, my only love. I knew when I was 14 that he was the one I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. He is still with me and accepts all my faults (and I am full of ‘em). So, 36 ½ years and going strong, we are blessed with 6 kids and 2 grandkids (for now…. boys and daughter, get them babies poppin’ out!!!).
I cannot say how many times I re-fall in love with him. Take for instance the other day I was meeting him at the store to buy a big screen tv. I was going down an end aisle and from afar I glanced a nice looking cowboy with tight jeans and a black cowboy hat, then as I got closer I realized he was my hubby…. mmm what a nice sight. If my son had stuck around any longer he would have had to tell us to “get a room”.
Ok… so it’s a little mushy, but I love him!
Feels good to be me!

Marriage has been around since any of us could remember. It has not gotten any better; in fact it continues to go down hill. Divorce is a billion dollar industry in this country. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t changed. My thoughts on marriage of the future are simple. Time limits. Couples who are under 25 years old can only be married for 2 years. Older couples can choose between two to five years. Hey, you have to get your dog a new license every other year. Now don’t get excited. Let me explain..............
Remember how well each person treated each other while you were dating. With my system that pleasantness will return. Say your marriage contract was good for two years. What do you think will happen several months before it expires? It’s like dating again. She will be cooking and dressing up for you again and you will be doing those stomach crunches and opening doors for her. Plus, you can get married again. Think about it. You can get married as many times as you like. You know what that means? That’s right, more honeymoons. I know there might be some complications if she or he doesn’t answer yes. But that’s another blog! Admit it, it does make sense. Now the reason I bring this up is because for the past several years I was hoping to get SR’s cowgirl to marry me again with all our kids present. Hopefully all I need is a date and a room in Vegas. This is one project I don’t want to put in our unfinished projects list for too long.

People get very passionate about different things. Some are even passionate about their jobs. I, myself want to be passionate about many things, but I’m not. I thought of getting a job that I could be passionate about. Can’t think of anything I would want to do. I love animals, but I could get rid of them too. Does that mean I can’t get passionate about them? Maybe a sport would do the trick. Nah, I don’t really care if we lose. I only stay pissed for a short while. Some people can even get passionate over fruit! But I don’t like Rosie O’ Donnell either. Maybe the one thing that I am passionate about takes all my passion. Could that be it? Because there is only one thing that I know of that I can’t live without. There would be no sunshine and no reason to smile without a 5 foot 1 and ½ inch blue eyed blonde that goes by the name of SR’s COWGIRL. She will always be my number one unfinished project.

Don’t bother seeing if we are going anywhere. It’s Nascar time! And football! The remote will be found either in his hand or within an inch reach. We bounce back and forth between the race and a game or two. Why is it the dang tv knows that if one program is at commercial, that they all are at commercial? We hate commercials! We will usually set the Nascar race to record, then will sit down to watch it about an hour after start time, this way we can zap right thru those menacing things. But, geez.. today we didn’t even start watching the race until at least 1 ½ hours after start time and we still caught up to the true time. Thank goodness for the mute button and his fast finger!

Morning Quality Moments… everyone should have them. Right before the alarm is to go off (this is at about 5:15) you have time to just lay in each others arms and cuddle. Nice warm skin touching skin, you don’t open your eyes and you try and keep those extra few seconds of dark behind your eyelids. BUT… Then unfortunately you both have to pee. HA!
My husband came up with these initials, MQM, the other morning. First thing out of my mouth was, “hey, that would be good for the blog.”
This is only something that we have been doing for a short while now. The mornings used to be that he would get out of bed, make his lunch and then go turn on the tv for a while. For so many years he has always had to rise long before me. We carpool now and this makes it so I have to get outta bed way before my old body wants to, but I like it, because it gives us more time to spend together. I do end up at work an hour before my start time, but we sure save gas.
So, when I lay my head down at night I know that the next morning will bring another MQM.

A few months back I attended a foster care class. That night it was given by a man with many years in this field. If there is one thing I like, it is learning from those with experience.
I listened to him speak with my undivided attention, until he approached the subject of mistakes. He went on saying a child should pay for his or her mistakes. I immediately spoke up in opposition to his view. Well he said, if I were visiting you at your house and I knock over a glass and it breaks, wouldn’t you want me to pay for it. I said absolutely not.
I now have had time to think about it more and maybe he was right. This world would be a much better place if people didn’t make mistakes. Of course we have to start when kids are young. We need to teach them that mistakes are not acceptable in this modern world. Take for example a little leaguer. A ground ball to the shortstop and he picks it up and makes a perfect throw to the first baseman. The first baseman drops the ball. Did he drop it on purpose? I wouldn’t think so, so he must of made a mistake. He needs to pay for that mistake. I expect him to come to my house and mow my lawn right after the game. I didn’t get up early on a Saturday morning and sit on these frozen metal bleachers to see someone make a mistake. After all, we could lose the game. What about the rest of these parents, they need restitution too!
How about another example of mistakes that has to be paid for. A father invites his friends from work to meet his wife and 15 year old daughter. He is very proud of his daughter. When his friends arrive, he goes to introduce his wife and daughter, the daughter lets out a loud fart. Yes, if it was a son this happened to it would be funny and the daddy would be proud. But this is his baby girl. She didn’t do it on purpose, so it must have been a mistake. She needs to pay for it. She does have a pretty penny saved up for a car. Let take it all away. Your just not suppose to make mistakes.
The president of the US makes a mistake. Give him a rifle and send him to Irag. I know this is cruel, but a mistake by the president could cost billions and maybe even a life or two. He says he didn’t make the mistake. Yeah right, so did the kids.

Ohh crap! I just spilled my coffee. Oh ohh, a mistake. Please disregard all the above. I guess I’ll have to give this subject some more thought. I’ll just put it in my unfinished project file.

We have been together forever. Through all our years and our ups and downs we still make it thru.
We have so many lists of things we want to do, not only working around our land, but working with the horses, finishing a remodel job in the computer room, bugging our kids to have more kids (We want more grandbabies) , traveling and so much more. At times we are overwhelmed. But we are together for the long haul and we are An Unfinished Project.