Drywall Mom

I'm not dead.... I've just haven't felt like writing.

2009-07-30T19:05:00.002-05:00

So, I finally have some time to myself. What's been going on since I last posted....

Schools has been out for the kids.

Hired a nanny..... Fired the nanny....

Made a playroom for the kids at the office...

Took a trip to Florida to visit the my grandparents....by myself!

The kids went on vacation to College Station....

Jocelyne had her 4th birthday....

Took up Helicopter Flying lessons......

Got kidney infection....

That's about it..... in a nutshell.... Too tired to write.

How do you deal with a sociopath?

2009-04-27T14:22:00.002-05:00

Do you know anyone with these traits? If you do, run away......and don't look back.

Profile of the Sociopath
This website summarizes some of the common features of descriptions of the behavior of sociopaths.

Glibness and Superficial Charm

Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They may dominate and humiliate their victims.

Grandiose Sense of Self
Feels entitled to certain things as "their right."

Pathological Lying
Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.

Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.

Shallow Emotions
When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.

Incapacity for Love

Need for Stimulation
Living on the edge. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal. Promiscuity and gambling are common.

Callousness/Lack of Empathy
Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others' feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them.

Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature
Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others.

Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
Usually has a history of behavioral and academic difficulties, yet "gets by" by conning others. Problems in making and keeping friends; aberrant behaviors such as cruelty to people or animals, stealing, etc.

Irresponsibility/Unreliability
Not concerned about wrecking others' lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blames others, even for acts they obviously committed.

Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity
Promiscuity, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual acting out of all sorts.

Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.

Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
Changes their image as needed to avoid prosecution. Changes life story readily.

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Other Related Qualities:

Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them
Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them
Authoritarian
Secretive
Paranoid
Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired
Conventional appearance
Goal of enslavement of their victim(s)
Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life
Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love)
Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim
Incapable of real human attachment to another
Unable to feel remorse or guilt
Extreme narcissism and grandiose
May state readily that their goal is to rule the world

(The above traits are based on the psychopathy checklists of H. Cleckley and R. Hare.)

Christmas Time

2008-12-06T11:26:00.002-06:00

I can't even to begin to tell you how busy and crazy life has been. I think an extra bed at the office would suffice it enough. I do have to say, I actually like it at times. I starting to think that I actually enjoy being a business owner. I don't get bored at work, there is always something to do and the more I work the more efficient our business is. Plus, my ideas actually mean something. I actually get to come up with ideas and use them. Justin works along side me and so I'm getting plenty of time with him, and we get along well for being around each other pretty much 24/7. We did get an Xbox 360 to help with turning our brains off of work mode and we have set certain times to do our own things. I can't ask for anything more. I have come to the conclusion that I am officially a work a holic.

The only draw back is that I get into the "zone" a little too much and since I have two kids, I have not been able to spend as much time with them. But, I do feel better with the situation now then back this summer when school was out and I was over worked and working from home trying to take care of the kids at the same time. I was there and I couldn't even do anything with them. Now, the time we do get to spend with them is better since it's one on one time with them. I only have 2 kids and I don't know how people with more can spend quality time with alot kids if both parents work, let alone be able to afford them. I want to be able to give them the best head start in life I can give them. I hope that the decisions that Justin and I make for them are the right ones.

So, speaking of the kiddos.......

JJ has lost his two front teeth and the only thing that comes to my head is "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" He looks like a little vampire when he smiles. He has had to grow up a little faster than the kids around him since we put him in a year earlier and being in private school with a bunch of kids with parents that have more money than we do. He is a deep thinker. He loves the older cartoons that played when I was a kid and even ones that were around before I was born. He loves watching the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel and the Science Channel, and even the History Channel. He sits there and watches them with us. The only draw back is that when he tries to talk to the kids in his class about what he is interested in, they are not as interested in what he has to say. So for the past month, I have noticed him starting to watch these cartoons that I really don't like b/c they promote things such as:

Back stabbing
Disrespect for others
Lying to get what you want
Stealing
Wanting to be popular or to the extreme, "Wanting to be Famous"

I have noticed that since he started watching them, there has been a problem with him lying. I have a feeling that he is just wanting to fit in a school and since he is not sports inclined, it makes it harder for him. To help with this, we joined the YMCA so that he can get into groups with kids that have similar traits that he has. It looks like it is working. The only way that he can go is if he has done his homework, is getting good grades in school and is not lying to us about nonsense. We have seen his grades go up, and he is getting more focused family time. We try to do things that keep with his personality.

Jocelyne is doing well, she has always been vocal but she is finally to a point to where she can communicate much easier. She got her first hair cut about a month or so ago and 2 days after she got her hair cut, she decided that she needed to look "prettier". What did she do? She cut her bangs with a pair of scissors. At least she didn't cut them all so it still looks "ok". But how can you get mad at her reasoning? She has friends at school that she plays with on a regular basis and she also loves the YMCA. They even have a little gymnastics class for her age.

I am excited for Christmas this year. It has been about 10 years since I have had Christmas with my Grandparents and we are going Florida to visit them for Christmas from the 22nd through the 27th! I cannot wait. I can't think of anything better than a good road trip, being around my grandparents (which are awsome!)that spoil us with love and affection and being on a beach for Christmas.

So if I don't get on here before Christmas, I hope that everyone has a great Holiday Season and that everyone had a Great Thanksgiving.

Later

working late.....

2008-11-05T17:58:00.003-06:00

What seems to be the norm around here....I'm working late, again. It's good but it's starting to wear on me. This is one of the reasons that I haven't written in quite a while. I feel so horrible because the kids haven't been getting much attention but if I don't do the work, it will not get done. I just hope that sooner than later, things will calm down and get a little back to normal so that that I can have somewhat of a life again. So far I:

6:00 - Alarm goes off, hit snooze a few times and finally get up.
7:45 - 8:00 get the kids out of the house and off to school.
8:30 - Work starts
Eat lunch between phone calls
5:45 Leave to pick up the kids from school, and hopefully not have to take them back to work. If so, I don't get off work until 8:00 at night.
Hopefully eat something not fast food sometime between 6:00 and 9:00
6:45 - 8:20 get home
9:00 - Put the kids to bed
10:00 and 11:00 - Go to bed

Repeat

I think my stomach is turning against me. I'm really starting to want a full week of just home cooked meals. Everyting is starting to be a blurr...I'm so glad that I have extra help from my parents on the days that I can't get to pick up the kids on time. Thanks mom and dad.

Other than that, my birthday is on Monday. I'll be 29. I'm actually excited. Maybe then someone will take me seriously.

Till then........

Heros

2008-09-23T12:46:00.004-05:00

Did anyone watch the new season of Heros last night. I was not that impressed with it. It was ok, but I think that they left too many holes in it.

I'm too lazy to post more pictures, not only that I don't have time so, here is a picture from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Pictures from Hurrican Ike and Astros Game

2008-09-17T18:17:00.011-05:00

It took me about 2 hours to post this and when I went and posted it, (I should have copied it just in case) only posted half and so I will post pictures later when I feel like doing it again. So, still, no pictures.

Wow

2008-09-13T19:51:00.002-05:00

Ike has come and gone, and all I have to say is that it was awsome! What an adrenaline rush. We did fine, we had some roof shingles taken off, fences fall, a tree fall on our roof and broken branches everywhere but other than that, we came out alright compared to some of our neighbors. Justin and Josh sat out on the porch through the hole thing, even when the eye wall came around. I sat out there with them for alot a decent amount of it and watching the trees breaking and the sound of the wind was just definatly an experience in its self.

JJ slept through most of it. Jocelyne was a little scared of it but as long as she fell asleep with me, she was fine. She like watching the trees twist and turn and the wind. Everytime a big gust of it came along she would look at us and say "cool" with her big eyes as wide as they could get.

One of our friends got a roof leek, another one had a huge tree total his truck by landing on it and the neighbor across the street has a hole in her ceiling. There are more stories but I'll try to take some pictures of it to post so you can see what I'm talking about.

Waiting.....

2008-09-12T12:56:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting hear watching the news on Hurricane Ike while trying to stay awake. Justin is sick, JJ is sick, Jocelyne is sice and I'm trying to stay in denial that I'm not sick.

Justin and the guys did all the preperations for the hurricane. They did as much as they could to the office wharehouse. They boarded up the kitchen window, picked up anything outside that might be flown around. We do have plenty of water. We gave some to our neighbors since they could not find any. I went and bought some last minute food that doesn't go bad and doesn't have to be cooked. I think all we can really do is wait and see what happens.

As for Jocelyne, she woke up 2 days ago with a high fever. Justin and I watched her fever that went between 104.7 down to a 102.4 for most of the time on Wednesday. Yesterday, she still had the fevers but as I went to go get gas in the vehicals, Justin and Brandon called and let me know that her fever spiked to a 106.2. We put her in the bath tub and got it down a few degrees and then I drove her to the ER. She was given alot of Tylenol and Motrin, fluids by IV, antibiotics, a some chest x-rays and blood taken. She looked so miserable. But when they were trying to get her to sit up for her chest x-rays, I told them to tell her to smile for the camera. It worked, she sat up and posed for the x-ray camera.

Since all of this has been going on with all the evacuating, we waited for quite a while, and the doctor came in and told us she had pnumonia and that they were transporting her to Texas Childrens Hostpital in the medical center. We drove in the Ambulance to the hostpital and they watched her for quite a while in the ER and the doctors came in and finally talked to me. They apologized for the long wait. I wasn't mad, I'm just glad she got the attention she needed. They told me that normally they would admit her into the hostpital for her condition but since there were children with much more serious conditions, they wanted to know if we felt comfortable taking her home in her condition. They gave me everything we needed to watch her from home. So we have been taking care of her at home and she is doing much better. I'm glad that we could take her home and that someone else that really needed the medical attention got it. Now I'm taking care of all the sick people at home.

So we will watch the television and see what is going on with the storm and just wait. That's all we can do.

The calm before the storm....

2008-09-10T12:15:00.002-05:00

Jocelyne woke up really early this morning with a fever and she is home from school today so I'm working from home. Business calls have slowed down this week, but it's pretty understandable. Everyone is waiting to see what the hurricane will do. If you ask me, let it come, it will give us plenty of work, if it doesn't it will still give us plenty of work. Just for the fact that if it hits, there will be alot of drywall damage, if it doesn't hit here, it will make all the hurricane hunter drywall companies leave to get work wherever it hit so either way, I'm happy. Sad to say that I make money off of others miseries.

Things are much better.....

2008-09-01T21:44:00.003-05:00

Since my last post, things have died down alot. A little bit of drama but I didn't let it get to me too much. JJ loves his new school. He was really excited about telling me everything when I picked him up. We all got sick though and he missed two days the first week of school. But I guess it happens when you put alot of kids altogether. Jocelyne got it a bit but she only got a stuffy nose. She absolutely loves her school. Things are going well.

Hurricane Gustav did miss us. But it was fun watching it on TV. I do have a confession to make though.... I actually love watching all the roofs coming off and the waves crashing and making destruction. I don't know why, but I do. I am glad to hear that it was not as bad for other peoples sake.

School and work start tomorrow, I'm happy to get back to work. This weekend has been great but I know it doesn't last forever.

To much at once.

2008-08-25T10:34:00.002-05:00

This morning was a little stressful. JJ's first day of school and me moving into the office was today. I battled the noisy kids and annoying parents this weekend getting all the school supplies and dealing with the school that he is going with.

His orientation was on Friday and I met his new teacher at his new school. It was chaos. I was doing fine until I asked the teacher to see what they are going to be learning, only to find out that if I hadn't asked, he would have been re learning everything he learned last year for an entire semester. I was so mad at the level of education or lack of at this new school that I went and talked to the school principal and he just said, "Why don't we put him into the 3rd grade?". Um, let me see....no. He's already a year younger than the kids in his class. He's suppose to be in first grade. He would be a social outcast who already has a hard time associating with other children b/c he likes to play alone alot. After talking to the principal, I told him that we needed to figure it out or I would work a second job to put him back into private school. I talked with him and the 3rd grade teacher and they are going to work with his 2nd grade teacher to work with him somewhere in the middle so that he is not just sitting on his ass and disrupting the class.

This morning was hard. I had to wake up extra early to get all of his school supplies, lunches made and the kids dressed so that we could get everything done. When we got him to his new school it was chaos. There were all of these parents trying to carry bags and bags of school supplies with their kids to one room from Elementary school kids to High school kids and alot of kids crying and parents acting like blithering idiots. They wanted him to carry all of his belongings all by himself in all of the chaos. We told them that he couldn't do it alone b/c he as too small to carry such a load. What did we get in response? "Oh, he doesn't need to bring it all at once. He can bring it throughout the week". I'm fuming mad. I wouldn't have gone over the weekend if I would have known that. JJ looked so nervous and lost in all of it. I felt bad for leaving him. I'm wondering how he is doing right now.

Jocelyne is doing great where she is. I love the school she is in. It's JJ's old school, but she is in the preschool. They are so awsome. I wish that we could have kept JJ where he was. But then again, if it doesn't work out, he's going back b/c I'm not going to let him suffer if it doesn't work for him.

As for me, I don't know what do with myself. I'm on week 2 of Chanitx and it's working quite well. I'm trying to get used to not having a cigarette in my hand. I never noticed how much I relied on it. It's my first day in the office and I'm here all alone. I haven't been without my kids in almost 7 years and I don't know how to react to it. I know it's going to take some time to get used to but, as of right now, I have now clue how to act. I'm used to a kid around me 24/7 and now both of them are gone off to school with other people teaching them and not me. I can do this. Deep breaths.

Anyway, I'm suppose to be working so I guess I should get back to it. I just need to relax and try to get through the day.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures and updates

2008-08-13T13:47:00.004-05:00

So, I finally got my hands ahold of the new camera with all of the pictures on it and downloaded the billions of pictures on it. Most of them are ones of Jocelyne's birthday party and some are of my kids acting loony, but other than that, things are going normal here. I have been taking my Chantix and I can tell that it's working. They were not kidding about those vivid dreams. We are going to an Astros game tonight. I'll try to take pics and post them in a timely manner. Other wise, these are some of my favorites.

Here are my crazy kids thinking that standing on their heads with their butts in the air was cool.
JJ had a great time at the party. He tried his hardest to break the Pinata.
Jocelyne loved opening all the presesnts.
This is her second birthday cake. It was a Hello Kitty birthday cup cake.
Jocelyne loved getting all the dress up clothes.
Jocelyne thinks it's funny to show off her butt.
This was her actual birthday cake on her actual birthday. She thought it was cool to have two birthday cakes.
Jocelyne loved blowing out the candles.
Here is Justin setting up the Pinata.

Day 1 of Chantix

2008-08-09T07:54:00.002-05:00

I started smoking about 3 yrs ago. I was very stressed out and it was a way out. It wasn't a good way out but it did the job. I have don't really have any regrets of doing it, but I have finally decided to quit so yesterday I started doing it. So far I have no desire to even smoke, even when given a cigarette. But anyway, I'm glad I started the process. So, I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Birthday Jocelyne

2008-07-24T10:14:00.002-05:00

My baby is 3yrs old today. I cannot beleive how time flies. I'll post more later after I have time. But as for now....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOCELYNE!

Update

2008-07-22T14:25:00.001-05:00

JJ's Wii is working again, I am soo happy. But I think he is happier than I am.

A fun day with the kids

2008-07-19T14:27:00.003-05:00

Today, I had fun with the kids in the pool. They thought that all the stuff I got for doing my water arobics were great. Anyway, here are some pics to see the kids loving the swimming pool.

This one was taken yesterday at my parents. I dropped Rocky off at my parents so that I didn't have to leave him in the car while I went to the store and Bubba, my parents cat, did not like Rocky in her backyard. As you can see by the look, she was not happy one bit.

I see you.

I can see you too.

Jocelyne thought my water weights were floaties.

Someone is a little too photogenic.

She loved poking her head out of the pool and trying to get me to take a picture. She kept yelling "picture!"

Have a great weekend.

4th of July

2008-07-07T10:42:00.002-05:00

For the 4th of July, we helped one of our friends move in to their new home. After all of that was done, Justin and Tim had a great time popping all of the fireworks. The kids had a great time. JJ hadn't seen Tim and Amie's kids since they moved away two years ago, so they had a great time catching up on stories. I posted some pictures of the night. I really need to get a real camera and not use the one of the phone. It does a good job, but it's not the best quality taking pictures all the time.

The kids loved showing off their silly faces.
Tim's son liked showing off his Kung Foo Panda moves.
Jocelyne loved playing in the sprinklers.
She also thought the fireworks were too loud.
After a while she liked the fireworks, but she kept her hands over her ears the whole time.

Always look on the bright side of life

2008-07-02T19:13:00.003-05:00

I went to the ENT today. The pain was just too much. Another ear infection. He already knew who I was when I walked it. I don't know why, but I get ear infections all the freekin time, and instead of going through my insurance company by getting the ok from my regular doctor to see the specialist, I just go to him now and pay cash. It's alot less hassle and actually comes out to less then going through the insurance company's red tape.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic, I think the perikset is kicking in. We bought the kids an above ground pool so that we can actually use the backyard for something other than growing crab grass. I have been using the pool to my advantage. I've been in it almost everyday, doing water arobics and getting a nice tan. I know that we got the pool for the kids, but I think that I'm in it more than they are. But with the pool, along comes the ear infections and I was curious to see how long it would take to get one. 3 weeks. That's how long it took. So, on the bright side of things, I got some great pain killers and they are making the pain a lot less unbearable. So instead of complaining, I'm looking at the posative points instead.

Anyway, I'm off to la la land so.......good bye.

A moment of silence for JJ's Wii

2008-06-30T12:35:00.002-05:00

On Saturday, since JJ has been so good, we decided to get him the new Indiana Jones Lego game for him on Wii. He was so excited about it that we let him stay up until midnight to let him play it. He absolutely loved it. Then, Then, he played it all day until around 3pm. Around 3pm, a massive rain and lightning storm came in and we had quite a few power surges. After the power surge happened, the Wii did not come back on. The wonderful power surge took out JJ's Wii. He has been in tears since he found out that his new game, which is still in the Wii, and his system are not going to be working again. I'm crying for him. He didn't even get to play it for 24 hours. I was really hoping that he would be playing it all week since I fired the nanny on Friday.

So....... a moment of silence for the Wii.............

I now have to watch the kids with out a game system for them to play. Boooo hoooooo.

Updates

2008-06-18T11:47:00.004-05:00

I have been sooooooo busy to the point of exhaustion so I haven't really had time to write about what has been going on. So, I will try to remember everything that has happened.

Since my last post, so much has happened I will start with last Tuesday. We have been soo busy and I had been running on fumes. On Tuesday morning I was working and Jocelyne came in covered in what looked like chocolate. I stopped and started giving her a bath so that she wasn't a mess, when the phone rang. JJ trying to be helpful, brings me the phone and places it around the tub that is surrounded by water. I told him to take it away and so since he saw that I was busy, he thought he would be a good son and answer the phone for me.

All I heard was...."My mommy is giving my sister a bath so she can't come to the phone right now. Can you call back later"

I could feel the panic rising and took the phone away with water all over my hands. Since it is a business phone, he told this to one of our clients. I was mortified. I couldn't get mad at him too much b/c he was just trying to help out. The client called back later and he told me he thought it was hilarious. I'm just glad that he thought it as comical. Around Tuesday afternoon, Justin came home and saw how exhausted I was. I apparently had fallen asleep on the couch and he couldn't wake me up. He cancelled his afternoon appointment and the next day appointments and took care of me so that I could rest and he even got me a massage for me the next day. I told him that I wouldn't get one unless he had one too since we were both tired and needed rest. Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids at the last minute. We went to breakfast the next morning and then we went and picked up his fathers day present, picked up an above ground pool and got our massages. I knew that the kids have been going insane since I haven't been able to take care of them since all the stuff that I do in the office is now full time work. It's been just as hard for them as it has been for Justin and I since we have been so busy. They were so excited. They just sat in it until the water filled up. Since then, the kids have been asking to play in the pool everyday. I think it was a great investment. We love it too b/c we can actually swim in it too. It's 12' in diameter and 3 1/2' deep.

During the same week, we were also planning a cd release party for our friends that have been working very hard on their debut album. I had to do all the invites and get all the food, get the house ready, make the jello shots, get the keg and make sure everything was ready for Saturday. (I do have to say that I did have to get a nanny to help with the kids, it was just too much to do it all) Let's just say that there was never a dull moment at the party. Let's just say that we invited someone close to us that decided to get soooooooooo drunk to the point that he was annoying everyone at the party, we tried to take the keys away from him, we told him to go to bed. He said he would. Instead, he went out the window, left in our car and came back with it with driving on the rims and the engine smoking and the wheels torn apart on the drivers side. Then proceeded to kick it, and curse absentees at 2am in the morning for my neighbors to hear. Then proceeded to insult my husband and my husband ending socking him in the face to shut him up after he wouldn't stop insulting him and making everyone uncomfortable at the party. (and to the person who did this, you know who you are, the car is gone and it's not coming back, don't bother coming over for quite..... quite, a while, you will not get a welcome response. Grow up and get some help and stop running from your problems. Deal with it.) Anyway, there is more to this story but since I want to keep this person anonymous, I'm not going to go there anymore. I'm don't with it. I am just glad it was the extra junk car he left in and not my Honda. And I'm not having to pay insurance on it anymore and I never have to worry about who is driving it. It's probably in about 100 pieces at a junk yard. I'm also glad that the party still went on and not many people were affected and everyone still had a good time other than the person I just talked about. So there has been alot of drama this past week but the drama is gone.

This week is going much better compared to last week. The kids have been sick but this seems like nothing compared to last week. I also got rid of our old phone company and got a new phone company and a new Blackberry Curve.

Girls night out

2008-06-05T10:45:00.003-05:00

I have been sooooooo busy to the point of exhaustion. Even though I have been getting it mostly done, (at least trying to keep up with the work side, my house looks like an atom bomb dropped on it, I can't do it all but I'm getting there today) I feel so bad b/c since the article, I have spent less and less time with my kids to the point to where they are coming up to me to see if I am ever going to get off the phone and the computer. I have one more day until my cell phone minutes starts over and I am probably already over the minutes and I have plan with what I thought had too many minutes to use on it. But it's worth it. I am not happy with this situation about my kids not getting enough love and affection and watching my clean house deteriorate into a mess. I am already in the process of fixing this. I will keep you updated on this.

Anyway, getting back to the title of this post. I was invited for a girls night out last night. I am glad that I went out. I was tired but after staying out late with some girl pals, I actually feel rejuvenated. I don't know how but I do.

I have heard this soo many times and I fall into the same category.

"I get along better with guys, it's really hard to find girlfriends that are easy to talk to and hang out with"

It has been a really long time since I have a had a really good time hanging out with just the girls. All I'm going to say is that I had a good time and had some great conversations and hung out. Nothing riske. Anyway, I feel much better. It's exactly what I needed.

So much can happen in soooooo little time

2008-05-28T14:07:00.004-05:00

Since I have last posted, it's been crazy around here. I don't know where to start and so I'll do my best.

Two weeks ago, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle gave us a call and told us that they wanted to do an article on us. So we had an interview and the next day, Justin had a photo shoot. It came out on Sunday in the business section on Memorial Day weekend.

Justin ended up working on Memorial day and while he was on the other side of town, his radiator blew and so I had to drive all the way to the south west side of town to help him out. It took us quite a while to get back but it was worth it to keep a client happy.

But yesterday, the day after the holiday, was absolutely insane. We don't start taking calls until 9am and we had phone calls coming in at 7:30 and it didn't stop until 6:00 at night and we close at 5:00. And while I was on the phone, I was driving picking up checks, driving to the bank, writing up estimates and invoices, washed 4 loads of clothes, paid bills and talked to our insurance company. I ended up having to call my mom to watch the kids since I so busy. And after I picked up Justin from home b/c his truck is in the shop, I found a babysitter so that we could have some alone time and on the way to drop them off, a massive thunder storm came in and while we were driving, a tornado, yes, I said a tornado, dropped down around us and moved our car a little and then we watched it go back up into the clouds. But we are troopers, let me tell you, when you find a baby sitter, not even a tornado is going to stop you from going out. I still don't know what to think of yesterday other than, WTF. It was completely insane.

Today is more mellow and now I actually have time to watch my kids while I work. I feel much better. I think that I will sleep well to night. Anyway, my dad copied the article and so here it is in two parts. You can also look up the article on chron.com. In the business section. Anyway, I'm off to work so have a great day.

People just don't know when to leave it alone.

2008-05-22T11:56:00.000-05:00

I was told about a news artical in Fox26 talking about teachers. It was trying to make a point about privacy and how students find their teachers blogs and find pictures of them with alcohol beverages in their hands. The news artical and the schools were trying to make it seem as though these teachers were being bad examples for putting these pictures on the internet. There are some things that draw the line, but just holding a beer is going to get someone in trouble with their job b/c they are a teacher?! I think that a teacher's life outside of work is their own life and only on some occasions should the school fire someone for being a bad example. (for example: if they post pictures of them doing something that is breaking the law) I don't think that someone should have to be that careful to post something when it is none of the schools business or the parents. And let me tell you, if you looked at most parents these days, they would be under more fire from the schools then the teachers would be. I have read many blogs where people have children and have much more questionable photos and blogs and I don't see the schools going after them for being bad examples as parents. All I have to say is........ Stop being so judemental. People are who they are and if they are doing something that is breaking the law that would endanger their children then do something but noone acts the same at work like they do around their friends away from work. So if that is all that they can do is try to get a teacher in trouble for having an alcoholic beverage and their children happen to see that, it's none of their business and that's final.

Firsts

2008-05-19T11:22:00.002-05:00

So, how did this weekend go? It was very eventful.

Let's start with the beginning of the week....... On Monday, we got a call from the Houston Chronicle telling us that they wanted to do a story on our business so we had our interview on Wednesday and a photo shoot on Thursday. I couldn't believe it, it's even going to be in a Sunday edition in the businesss section. That's a first.

On Saturday, Nicole invited me to a pleasure party. I have never been to one so I was curious and had to check it out. It was alot of fun and we all laughed quite a bit at the products that were being shown. Though I have to say that someone had to have put alot of thought into some of these products b/c I could have never imagined some of the stuff shown. The person throwing the party had 7 cats and by the end of the party, all 7 of them were in the room purring. Apparently the pheromones in the products really did attract them. That's a first.

On Sunday, we had some friends over and were playing dominoes out in the garage when all of the sudden my finger felt as though someone had put a cigarette out on it. Apparently I had been stung by a wasp. Up until yesterday, I had never been stung by a bee or a wasp. I knew it was going to happen eventually. I do have to say, that they hurt when they sting you, and it doesn't stop there. My whole finger swelled up and I actually got light headed from it. I ended up taking a Benadryle and sleeping for the rest of the day. Everything is back to normal now, thank goodness. But on the bright side, the little f-er that got me is squashed on the garage floor, so at least it didn't get away. That's another first.

There is another first but I will not divulge this information since it would be improper and imposing to talk about it since it does not concern me. But I do have to say that I am still in shock but completely amused at what I found. But it is nothing bad, or at least to me concerning the discovery.

Has anyone else had some firsts recently?

Nice technique

2008-05-13T20:17:00.002-05:00

Andy Mckee Amazing Guitar Player - Watch more free videos