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.