Family Adventures Family Adventures When my children are grown and gone, I hope that they will look back on their childhood and remember the sound of their mother's laughter. Sometimes that is easier said than done. 
Articles
Would you blog for me?
2008-05-31 00:12:00 I will be on vacation next week anyone want to write a blog post for me while I am away? I can give you an email address, all you would need to do is write an email to that address and it would appear on my blog as a post. The subject of the email would be the title of the post. How cool is that? Anyone interested?I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Blog
Will You Paint My House
2008-05-30 16:40:00 Our home is mostly brick, but the painted bits appear to not have been painted since the house was built. We need to paint our house. First we had to decide if we were going to do it ourselves or if we are planning to hire someone to paint for us. We called every painter in the phone book to get estimates. Only one came out to our house. He is the only one who answered the phone. We left messages for the others and none returned our calls. The one who came out to our house gave us an estimate of $2650 which is about double what we thought. Crap.We tried to call all the other painters again and after two weeks of no one returning our calls we decided to go with the first guy, the one who actually came out to our house and did an estimate. I called him two weeks ago to give him the good news, dude you got the job. He said, I don't know when I will be able to do your house, let me call you back in a day or two to let you know. That is the last I heard from him.I think thi... More About: House , Paint
Why did E.T.'s momma leave him all alone?
2008-05-29 14:51:00 A few days ago I tried to talk Lily into watching E.T. with me on the TV. Normally she does not like to watch anything unless it is a happy cartoon, like SpongeBob or Clifford. As the movie began I talked her through what was going on trying to get her interested. The first scene of the movie: E.T.'s mom and dad leave him behind. Followed by Eliot's mom leaving him home alone because he pretended to be sick. That was it for Lily and she decided she would rather go to bed than watch this movie and she promptly asked me to come and kiss her good night.Ever since then Lily has been asking me daily about those two scenes. Dozens of times per day she asks me, "why did E.T.'s mom and dad shut the door of the spaceship and leave him behind?" Or "why did Eliot's mom leave him home all by himself when he was sick?" I have tried to explain that movies are pretend. Funny how an alien from outer space she can believe that, but a mom leaving her kid, that is not realistic at all to... More About: Daily , Leave , Momma
Garbledy Goo
2008-05-28 13:22:00 Monday was my 39th birthday. I had a really great day. My family conspired together to treat me like a princess. They went all out, it was very sweet.Lily made me a card. She used construction paper, scissors, and glue to make me a collage type card. Not only did she present the card to me first thing when I awoke after a lovely sleep in, she kept presenting it to me all day long. She would say, it is time for me to give you your card. She would go and find the card and present it to me. I would make a huge deal about the card and she was satisfied. She is learning how to get the attention she needs in positive ways. I am learning how to withdraw attention for negative behavior and lavish it for great behavior. She will make me go see her room 20 times when she has cleaned it. Each time I make a huge deal and we are both happy. I am thinking back to this time last year and all the behavior problems. While she is still not a peaceful child she is much better.This mornin... More About: Daily
Someone Smack That Bully
2008-05-25 16:36:00 Yesterday at work, a customer was very rude to Mandy. Mandy is seventeen and works as a cashier at a local grocery store. She was working away and between customers she turned to ask her manager a question. Her manager was in the middle of something so Mandy paused for the merest of moments to try and get her manager's attention and the next customer in line became irate.He started to scream at her. He leaned over the counter and got into her face to tell her how rude she is. As she checked him out he became louder and meaner, telling her what an awful rude person she is. He paid and told her he was going to find her manager and tell everyone how rude she is. He walked screamed to everyone in the store how rude Mandy is. And then he left. The entire time the floor manager never came over to help Mandy or the customer. I hate this grocery store.Mandy was in shock at first but after two more customers she started to cry and had to ask her manager to allow her to go to the b... More About: Bully , Smack
Last Day of 11th Grade
2008-05-24 19:13:00 Yesterday was Mandy's last day of the 11th grade. She only had one final exam left and was done with school a little before 10AM. Lily and I picked her up and swooped her off to a fun filled day. The three girls in the family off on an adventure.We started at the bookstore. For some reason there are no bookstores in my immediate area, I have to drive about 45 minutes to find one. But, in the area of the bookstore is a lot of other cool things. We ended up seeing one of Lily's friends at the bookstore. We three had such a fun time, they have a little kids area with a train, yeah. After the bookstore we went across the street to a Chick Fillet. I have never eaten there before, they also had a kids play area. Mandy and I brought our books and after eating we read while Lily played. Lily wouldn't eat the chicken. I was wise enough to get her fruit instead of waffle fries? and so she ate some of that. Mandy having a mouth full of braces enjoyed the chicken nuggets and small cut up pie... More About: Family , Daily
Indiana Jones
2008-05-23 15:13:00 We went and saw the latest Indiana Jones movie last night, it was fantastic. Jeff and I had a date night. It is so nice to sometimes spend time with him just the two of us. The movie theater is near his work. I drove to his work with a change of clothes. We drove to the theater together in his car. When he took me back to my car and we drove home it was difficult not to have a bit of a drag race. But, I fell back and let him lead. Still it would have been fun to smoke him. I liked the movie very much. A great date movie. I can't help but wonder if the younger generation will like it also? It was very much geared toward me and my generation. I guess we will see. Be sure to see it in the theater, you won't be sorry.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Indiana Jones
I taught Lily to read
2008-05-21 19:01:00 Lily learned her letters back when she was two. She has always been interested in letters and numbers and figuring things out. Playing with flashcards and reading books are two of her favorite things. After she learned all her letters, she could recognize upper and lower case we moved on to learning a word or two that started with each letter. We used flash cards that have a picture on one side and a letter on the other side. We read books about the alphabet that show words that start with different letters. When Mandy was growing up Dr. Seuss's ABCs was one of her favorite books, Lily not so much. She prefers those search books where you have to look for all the things that start with each letter. One day Lily decided we were going to go through the alphabet and say something that started with each letter. We started with a, a is for apple. Then we moved on to b, a is for apple - b is for banana. All the way through the entire alphabet. This was before she turned four. ... More About: Parenting , Read , Lily
My Degree Path
2008-05-21 15:25:00 I have decided to continue on my current path. Meaning I am going to continue to pursue my degree in Computer and Information Science at the University of Maryland University College. I spent Monday applying for a federal grant. It took me all day. Lily was not allowed to watch cartoons due to bad behavior the previous week, so trying to spend a day on the computer was a nightmare. I finally got it all done, only to be told, no money for you. But, if you want to be a teacher we will give you oodles of money.I thought maybe that was a sign and I really do want to be a teacher. I can imagine myself as a teacher. So I looked into transferring to a local school, majoring in math licensure, which is the correct path to being a teacher in Mississippi. Turns out I would have three years of school, instead of one, left to complete that degree. That is three years going a little more than full time. I basically had only a few classes that I have taken that could be applied toward t... More About: Degree , Path
Garage Sale Fun
2008-05-18 15:45:00 We have been enjoying all of the lovely spring garage sales. It is a lovely way to spend the weekend. First you get up early and go out and find a lot of cool stuff to buy. Then you spend the rest of the weekend trying to find a way to incorporate these things into your home. I have rearranged all my rooms and cupboards and I feel like I have a whole new house. All for about a $100 over the course of two weekends. We got two new book cases last weekend. One is gorgeous, taller than me, dark wood, crown molding on the top, looks gorgeous in my living room. I had to rearrange all the furniture several times to find a way to make it work. Now it is sitting in a corner with nothing on the shelves. Big and empty, I am thinking it is very zen, a big empty bookcase. Yesterday was the motherload of garage sales. We bought things at six different garage sales. We seriously spent hours driving around following signs and even getting tips from other garage salers. I end... More About: Garage , Daily , Sale
Advice Requested
2008-05-14 16:41:00 I am trying to make a difficult decision. Perhaps you would like to weigh in with your infinite wisdom. . .Having been a stay at home mom for the past few years we have to watch our money, not like when I was a single mom but still. There are so many things I would love to have. Like a pool, minivan, trip to Lake Tahoe. In August Lily is starting school and I am trying to figure out what I will do with my free time.Option one: I change my major and become a math teacher. There is a local college very close to my house, reasonable rates that offers a degree to become a high school or junior high school math teacher. This has really always been my dream. As a child I always thought I would become a math teacher. I often tutor in math and have had success and enjoyed it very much. There is a real need for math teachers and schools located near my home. However, the pay in Mississippi for teachers is under 30 K per year to start and after 30 years experience the max one can ea... More About: Family , Daily , Advice
Spring Cleaning Away the Blues
2008-05-08 15:28:00 We have been having an annoying week. Little things that ad up to be big things. Things like forgetting to take the garbage can to the curb, or waiting at the rental house for a plumber and Lily getting infested by a thousand fleas, or dropping big messy things all over the kitchen, or catching a cold, washing all mine and Lily's new cute summer clothes with a crayon, etc. It was all getting to be a bit of a pull my hair out frustration.Yesterday, I decided to redo my bedroom. It took me all day, with all the heavy scooting of furniture and dusting and vacuuming. Nothing like having a head cold and inducing an allergy attach by stirring up all the dust behind the furniture and in all the books. I think all the nose running was probably helpful. I had run out of allergy medicine and didn't have any cold medicine and was not feeling up to leaving the house. So instead of taking medicine and resting I cleaned out all the dust bunnies from my room.I was pretty exhausted at the end of ... More About: Daily , Blues , Cleaning , Spring
A New Bed
2008-05-04 17:59:00 Lily is nearly five and we finally moved her into a twin bed. I bought her a crib that converts into a toddler bed and then into a double bed when she was born. I converted it into a toddler bed and she has been sleeping in that for a couple of years now. But, the toddler bed is the same size as a crib, just missing one side and lower to the ground for easy access. Lily got too big. She hates change so much that we put the move off as long as we could. Lately she has been sleeping on the floor more than in her toddler bed so I thought it might be time for the move. We talked about it for a week. We made a date to change the bed. At first she was very upset but settled into the idea over the course of the week. The day before the big day we bought a new bedding set, Lily told me she wanted rainbow and we found a beautiful set with multicolored pinstripes. Lily loved it. The colors also look nice with her purple walls. Most of the time when I let Lily pick something it doe... More About: Family
What is Wrong with Foster Care in America
2008-04-30 16:20:00 My biological mother is mentally handicapped and it was determined that she not able to provide for herself and therefore received/ receives social security checks. Her parents were planning to keep her at home with them throughout her life. But, she got pregnant with my older brother.My grandparents chose to buy her and her now husband a home, furnish the home etc, so they could raise their baby. The baby was born into the toilet because my mother did not know she was in labor. So begun her journey into motherhood. Three and a half years later I was born, in a bed, she still didn?t get the concept of going to the hospital but at least this time she stayed in the bed. My brother was taken away from my parents when he was five after a few weeks of kindergarten the neglect was so apparent that the state intervened. They left the baby, me, because there wasn?t proof of neglect. My parents chose to sell the house and move into a two bedroom apartment. They rented out my bedroom ... More About: America , Parenting , Care , Wrong , Foster Care
Thanks for hearing me dear
2008-04-28 15:39:00 Yesterday, Jeff took care of Lily for me all day long. It was a nice break for me. She has been very diffiucult since I registered her for Kindergarten. Lily is not a person who enjoys change and the anticipation of this change is causing her to act horribly. The entire week was filled with screaming crying fits. Sunday was no different, she was horrid to her dad all day. He was so furious. My sweet husband almost never loses his cool but yesterday he was more frustrated than I have ever seen him. I couldn't help but think, yeah. I am so glad that he gets what I am going through on a daily basis. When he comes home from work and asks how was your day, now he understands when I tell him it was a bad, very bad day. That is all that matters, that I feel understood. Now I am back in the trenches getting Lily through this difficult time. My theory is patience, routine, firm boundaries, and so much fun she forgets to be bad. It is a lot easier for me to go through the daily g... More About: Parenting , Hearing
Relay For Life
2008-04-26 23:26:00 Last night was the Relay for Life , thank you very much for all your contributions. We were able to exceed our goal. Jeff volunteered me as the online chair yet didn't tell me what to do. Then I was sent a 80+ page manual on how to run the website. What I didn't know was that I was supposed to solicited information out of the teams and email and post that information. Now I know. I was invited to do the job again next year, even though this year I only did my job for a week. I guess that is the great thing about being a volunteer.Jeff won the spirit award for his team. He has a lot of spirit and this year he used a bull horn. This was my first year attending the event. If you have never attended a relay for life event, you should find one near you and check it out. We had a blast. It all starts with the introduction of the cancer survivors in our area. Some speeches are made by some of the survivors. Thanks are given. And then the relay begins. The object of the rela...
Why Won't My Teen Clean Her Room: and other parenting fun
2008-04-22 14:01:00 I have been having the hardest time getting Mandy (17) to clean her room. I don't think she has cleaned it properly since we moved in a year ago. She still has unpacked boxes in the middle of her room. I have bought her shelves and assembled them. I have grounded her from the computer and TV. Nothing seems to work. I have begged and pleaded, threatened and yelled. I am tempted to go in there with a garbage bag and be done with it.Mandy is a good kid. She does well in school. She has a job. She is very busy and for the most part she is kind and respectful toward me and the rest of the family. She just refuses to comply in this one area. I think she is doing it because she can. To prove a point. The point being that I am not the boss of her anymore. I cannot tell you how much this is driving Jeff and I crazy. But, it is only a room and while I nag her endlessly and haven't let her use my computer in months, I haven't really pushed the issue. It is only a room.I have... More About: Parenting , Clean , Room
Kindergarten Registration
2008-04-21 15:34:00 Tomorrow I register Lily for kindergarten. She doesn't start until early August. I feel like I have been kicked in the gut. I sure am going to miss that little girl when she is off spreading her sunshine at school.Friday I was able to go to a luncheon for the base spouses group. I was lucky enough to be seated next to two ladies who currently have kindergarteners at the school Lily will attend. I got the scoop. Lots of volunteer opportunities. Both moms were very pleased with the school.Lily has been doing great at our playgroups. They are designed like a pre-school program where mom stays but the teacher conducts stories, songs, crafts, etc. At first listening to another adult was a new concept for Lily to say the least. Now she is understanding what is expected of her and able to participate. I am able to sit in the back and visit with the other moms while Lily does her thing with the kids and teacher. I hope that will translate to a good kindergarten experience, havin... More About: Parenting , Registration , Kindergarten
Relay for Life
2008-04-16 03:45:00 Howdy Y'all, I am the husband Marsha talks crap about all the time. I am participating in relay for life this year and I wanted to blog all of Marsha's blogging buddies to ask for support. Relay for Life is an all night walk to raise funds for cancer. A person gets a team together and ensures someone is walking on the track for the entire 12 hours. This might sound rough, but it is not because if you have 12 people on the team it only comes out to be an hour per person. Well if you would like to donate please go to this link http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entr y&fr_id=8691 Once you go to this link you can go to donate and look under individual for my name Jeffery Green. I hope y'all are able to donate to this worthy cause! The event is next Friday night, 25 April so I only have less than two weeks to raise somemore donations. Thanks! Take Care!JeffI follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog.
Across the Bridge
2008-04-15 00:11:00 Yesterday we were feeling very fine and had cooperative weather. Jeff, Lily and I decided to walk across the Biloxi Bay Bridge . This bridge was destroyed by Katrina and was finally fully functioning again last week, or the week before who knows for sure I was sick and haven't crossed the bridge in awhile. Now that it is complete, it is approx. 2 miles across acording to the odemeter on my car. There is a lovely biking or walking lane. This lane is on the side that allows bicyclists and pedestraians to see out to the open sea. It is a lovely walk. There were a lot of people out yesterday morning and we had a lot of fun.Jeff was concerned that Lily would not be able to walk that far and had me bring the stroller. The two of them then ran off without me, while I plowed along pushing the only stroller we still have which happens to be enormous. I could see the two of them running off in the distance, I guess I am a pretty slow walker. Lily and her dad run the exact same way, ... More About: Parenting , The Bridge
The Pink Dress
2008-04-11 16:15:00 How would you feel if you called a reputable plumber and the person who showed up to fix the pipes under your sink was a female in a pink spring halter dress. Imagine your discomfort as she tries to get herself under the sink, all the while her breast are popping out as she bends, her bottom as she squats and scoots. How much respect would you have for her ability to perform the job at hand? How much respect for her profession is she showing by trying to do a job that requires getting on the floor in a cute little pink sundress?This is exactly how I feel about all the moms who come to the library story time in their cute little pink dresses or their skin tight jeans. Ladies, you have to sit on the floor, you have to crawl around on your hands and knees to coral your 1 1/2 year old. Have some respect for the job, have some respect for the fact that you are a mom and your job requires you to get down and dirty. Screw Oprah, put your kids needs above looking cute. Cause honey, y... More About: Pink , Dress
And then there were three
2008-04-09 15:42:00 Thanks for all your good wishes. Lily did pass her sickness on to Jeff and myself. So far Mandy is ok. Lily is not completely better yet but she is slowly making a comeback. She didn't get dehydrated the whole time, but she did lose some weight, not eating for five days will do that to a person. I should say she ate very little. The doctor tells us not to give her milk but that is all she wants. She keeps it down and it has calories and fat. Just don't tell on me.What is worse than taking care of a sick little one. Trying to take care of a sick little one while you are sick yourself. Jeff was so sick he stayed home from work yesterday. He was laying on the couch with Lily watching cartoons and I went into the bedroom to lay down for a minute. Woke up about 7 hours later. Only woke up because I was gagging on my own puke. Sorry TMI?After my little nap, I was feeling a bit better. I was able to take Mandy to work, pick up a few things at the store, clean up a little and then pick Ma... More About: Family , Daily
A Sickly Weekend
2008-04-07 15:42:00 I heard a strange noise from Lily's room on Friday night, I was sound asleep and not sure what I had heard. I went to her room just to check. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, I covered her with a blanket and left. I was a bit thirsty so I got a drink of water. Not really all the way awake. When I made it back to my bed, Jeff asked if I was ok and I said yes. Just as I laid my head back down on the pillow I heard the noise from Lily's room again. This time I was fully awake and this time I knew what it was.Lily was getting sick. I rushed to her room. Her bed was covered in it, she had been laying in it. Poor girl. I scooped her up and gave her a bath. Jeff went to work cleaning her bed. I got her all cleaned up and was ready to put her back to bed when it started again. This time I got her a bowl and we avoided having to have another bath. Lily and I were up all night Friday, she didn't stop throwing up until after 7AM. We spent the night together in the livin... More About: Family , Daily , Parenting , Weekend
My Little Helper
2008-04-04 18:04:00 Today was a floor scrubbing day, we have some ceramic tile floors and while it is lovely the grout is darker in some areas than others. In the kitchen I was able to get the floor swept before Lily found out I was doing floors. Lily is my helper in all things. I began to scrub the floor with the scrubbing brush to really clean out the edges and the grout. I gave Lily a swifter mop so she could "help". It was all going pretty well.When I had finished scrubbing, I had to mop up all the water I had spread around the floor. I put the bucket of soapy water in the entry way, where there is another tile floor and began to mop up all the soapy water from the floor of the kitchen. Lily found my scrubbing brush and the bucket of soapy water and started to scrub the entry way floor. Too bad I hadn't swept it yet. In fact we have been working in the yard so much that our entry way floor is a disaster, full of sand and leaves. Can someone please tell me why my trees shed their leaves in... More About: Daily , Little Helper
My Inner Feminist
2008-04-02 02:19:00 My husband is driving home as we speak. I can remember as a child how upset I always was that I was continuously being fed the message that women are inferior to men. Women's brains don't work as well because we are ruled by emotion and not reason. Our opinions are not valid because we just don't understand the way the world works. We are to be tolerated. We get all riled up over silly little things and therefore our being upset is not worthy of acknowledgment. I guess this is why I was upset that Lily said that boys mow the lawn and not girls.In the ninth grade we were given a comprehensive test which had to be passed before we could graduate from high school. One component of the test was we had to write a proper paragraph. I of course failed because my topic sentence was about one thing and my paragraph was about another, see above paragraph. It makes sense to me. Hopefully it will make sense to you too. I am sure they would fail me on my paragraph writing skills aga... More About: Feminism , Feminist
My Little Feminist /sarcasm
2008-03-29 15:38:00 After driving Mandy to work this morning, and getting Lily settled down with some cartoons, I decided I should mow the lawn. I have a very brown thumb but I still am determined to have a nice yard. I told Lily I was going out to the back yard to mow and she told me, "girls don't mow, only boys mow"Lily out-climbs, out-runs, out-jumps, every boy on the playground. She may like to wear pink but she is a rough little girl. Where have I gone wrong, how have I failed? Where is my little feminist? I was so upset. I spent 45 minutes trying to get the mower to start, now I am blogging. Where are all the boys?Jeff is off at the Bataan Memorial Death March this weekend. Have fun baby, don't worry I will find a way to mow even if I have to go and buy an electric lawn mower. Why don't they just have a key starter like the car?I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Sarcasm , Feminism , Feminist
One Year in Mississippi
2008-03-28 16:54:00 Today is our one year anniversary of moving here to Mississippi . One year without getting on a single airplane, lovely. Our trip here from Misawa was a nightmare. We lived in a very small town in northern Japan and were traveling with a dog, a cat, a three year old, a 16 year old, and one ton of luggage. Here is what I blogged last year about our journey...Old black water, keep on rollingMississippi Moon wont ya Keep on shinning on me?We were listening to the radio and the song, began to play on the radio just as we were driving past the sign WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. We all sang along. We hadn?t planned on driving into Mississippi, but we missed our connection in Atlanta. We were put on stand by to get onto the next flight into Gulf Port, Mississippi but we did not make it on the plane. Our pets and luggage however did make it on the plane without us. They put us on standby for the next flight leaving four hours later. We had already been traveling at this point for 26 hours. Not... More About: Year
Too Small
2008-03-26 17:22:00 My Lily has grown from a size 4T to a size 6x over the last month or so. She is very attached to her clothes and now she doesn't fit into any of them anymore. At first I tried the direct and honest approach. I told her that she grew and that her clothes no longer fit her and she needed to wear her new clothes. She threw a two day long fit. Now I sneak the too small clothes out when she isn't looking. She thinks they are in the wash...I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Parenting , Small
A Date
2008-03-25 16:20:00 Jeff and I recently went on a date to celebrate the end of our diet and he wanted to thank me for all my hard work helping him to lose 10 lbs in two weeks. He got his waist down to 32 1/2, and all told he scored an excellent on his fitness test.I got to pick the restaurant and I picked a little hole in the wall in the downtown area. I had my very first Po'Boy sandwich, fried catfish no less. It was very good and reasonably priced. We then took a little walk down to the beach through the downtown. It is so much more fun to walk than to drive, we saw so many more details. We got ate alive by the gnats too. I never knew gnats bit until I moved here, they are the scourge of the earth. Lily and I spend a great deal of time outside and we both have a great deal of bites to prove it.After our walk we went to a smoothie place. Jeff and I make our own smoothies all the time but I have never had a commercially prepared smoothie. I think the smoothie craze must have started while we... More About: Daily , Mississippi
Easter Birthday Fun
More articles from this author:2008-03-24 15:49:00 Yesterday was Jeff's birthday in addition to being Easter . We incorporated the Easter and birthday activities into a day full of fun.I woke up at around 5AM, so excited about all of the plans and work I had put into this day I could not go back to sleep. I got out of bed and made some coffee, Mandy was already in the shower as she had to be at work by 7AM. I hid the boiled eggs that Lily and I had dyed and covered in stickers the night before. Mandy came into the living room to check out her Easter Basket, she mumble her thanks and hid her spoils in her room.I was certain that Lily would wake up as I was driving Mandy to work. I was worried I would miss her face as she saw her basket, miss her looking for and finding all the eggs. She did wake up while I was on the road, but Jeff kept her from the living room and the two of them patiently awaited my arrival before beginning the Easter morning fun.Later I picked Mandy up from work and when we got home we had the present openin... More About: Family , Daily , Parenting , Birthday 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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