Random Meme

I haven’t done one of these in a while and it seemed time. I still have more pet posts, but I have to dig out old snapshots for those.

1. What color is your toothbrush? White

2. Name one person who made you smile today? The youngest

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Watching TV in bed.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Eating lunch.

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Snickers

6. What did you do last night? Played Mario Kart on the DS with the kids, watched some TV, talked on the phone with the Mister.

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? “You guys have to leave in 15 minutes.”

8. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Sierra Mist

10. Do you like your wallet? Sure.

11. What was the last thing you ate? Lunch

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Nope.

13. The last sporting event you watched? Baseball game on TV last night.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?  Butter.

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? The Mister.

16. Ever go camping? Not for many years.

17. Do you take vitamins daily?  No.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? Nope.

19. Do you have a tan? A little one.

20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?  Depends on my mood, but yes, sometimes.

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw? Fountain soda, yes. Canned or bottled, no.

22. What did your last text message say?  Ok.

23. What are you doing tomorrow?  Dunno. The Mister will be coming home for the weekend but we don’t have Friday plans.

24. Have you ever eaten a bug? I’m sure at some point I have.

25. Look to your left, what do you see?  The Mister’s desk.

26. What color is your watch?   Silver and gold.

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia?   Koala bears.

28. What are you wearing right now?   Tank top and shorts.

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?   Drive thru.

30. What is your favorite number?   6.

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?   The Mister.

32. Any plans today?   I gotta get the kids to a thing then I’m vegging until they get home. Then I’m going to make dinner and bake something.

33. How many states have you lived in?   5.

34. Biggest annoyance right now?   The headache I’ve had for 11 days straight.

35. Last song listened to?   Hmm. Something in the car. I don’t remember.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? Dunno

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?   I wish.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?   Any of my sandals.

39. Are you jealous of anyone?   No

40. Is anyone jealous of you?   Most likely not.

41. Do you love anyone?   Sure

42. Do any of your friends have children? Most if not all of them do.

43. What do you usually do during the day?   Now that it’s summer, I hang with the kids, watch TV, shove some work in when I can, play games, hang out in the backyard.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? Surprisingly, I’d say “hate” is too strong of a word at the moment.

45. Do you use the word “hello”?   Whenever I answer the phone.

46. What color is your car? Silver.

47. Do you like cats?    Sure do.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?    No one specific.

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?    Nope. Cedar Point and Kings Island though.

50. How did you get your worst scar?   I had my appendix removed.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Four

The next stop through our Hall of Fame takes us to Murray and Patch.

Murray was a Holland Lop and I’m not sure what Patch was. We got Murray at a pet store and we found Patch hopping around the parking lot of our base housing. After asking everyone I could find if they were missing a rabbit, we decided to adopt Patch and socialize him with Murray.

It was a rough go in the beginning with biting and fur flying, but they eventually grew to be good buddies. They were fun rabbits to have and I’m pretty sure we gave them a good home.

Here are a few pictures of them bonding on our back patio. These snapshots were taken in April of 2001.

Enjoying their greens. The black and white bunny on the left is Patch and Murray is on the right.

Patch grooming Murray.

Bunny nuzzling.

Quick Update

After my yelling episode the other night, the kids involved all got into trouble with their parents, mine included. Apparently, I yelled loud enough to be heard across the street, lmao. Oh well. Anyway, the boy who was trying to tug the youngest out of the house wrote her a very sweet note of apology. Whatever his motivation behind the note (whether he took the initiative himself or was told to write it by his parents.) I don’t care. It made the youngest feel really good and made me feel better about the state of parenting in my neighborhood.

I’ll be back later today with some pets! I just have to scan some old photos. Yay!

The Longest Week

I know that I said that I would be back to my Pets Hall of Fame series yesterday. At least I think that’s what I said. But I’ve had a hellacious week and I haven’t gotten back to it yet. I will. Probably tomorrow. I swear to try my best.

I wasn’t even going to say anything until I read Jennifer’s post about her experience at the movies. But now I feel inspired and you all get to listen.

I’m not sleeping. Again. And I’ve had a headache since Monday. Yesterday, I was awake at 3 am and got up out of bed at 4 because I was irritated with trying to get back to sleep. Or maybe I was awake at 2 and up at 3. Who freaking knows at that time of the morning. I get to sleep fine, I just can’t stay asleep. It’s irritating. Blah blah.

Anyway, Tuesday night, both the girls were invited to different friends’ houses for a sleep over. No big deal. I didn’t even have to drive them anywhere which was cool for me. The oldest was told to be home by 5:30 on Wednesday and the youngest was next door so I knew she would be home early. She gives me a call around 9:30 and asks if she and T can come over to our house to play. Sure. Whatever. So they troop over to the house with T’s younger sister, A in tow. Nobody mentioned A coming over too, but what the hell. One more makes little difference in my busy day. So, I tell them to occupy themselves while I was trying to work upstairs in my office. Little did I realize that I was babysitting A and T while their parents went to Jacksonville. Hello!! How do you leave your kids at someone else’s house for a period of time without touching base with them first?? They didn’t roll back into town until 6 last night. By this time, I had fed their kids lunch and dinner and had to deal with constant interruptions to my day while I was trying to freaking work.

THEN!! The girls were outside with some different neighborhood kids playing. The Mister and I were watching TV in our bedroom when we hear the youngest child come into the house yelling, “Leave me alone!!” and crying hysterically. I call her into our room to see what the hell when she told me the other girl, she’s 13 or 14, was tossing her around and the boy, also 10 like the youngest, was trying to pull her out our front door when she was trying to get away. Wtf?!? First of all, you should know that she doesn’t like rough play like that from anybody. Not even her mom and dad. She has a sensory perception thing that makes her overly sensitive to what would be a “normal” situation to other people. But whatever. So I go outside to see what the heck is going on and proceed to yell at the top of my lungs. They really picked a bad day to start a ruckus on my front yard. I yelled at the oldest child to get her butt inside and then yelled at the other kids to take their butts on home. Then I slammed the door hard enough to knock a picture askew. Boy. It was just a bad day. It’s times like those when I have to wonder why I’m the only parent paying attention to yelling and screaming outside. And I would never in a million trillion years drop my kids off at someone else’s house and then leave town for the day without talking to the parents first. What is freaking wrong with people? And lastly, there is a difference between the noises of the terrified and the noises of someone having fun. It shouldn’t be that hard to distinguish.

And to top things off, the Mister checked in for his training yesterday so he’ll be gone for the majority of the summer. It’s not nearly as bad as a deployment but it still sucks royal. It’s 12:30 and I could use a freaking nap.

Drama-Filled Weekend

(Past Pets Hall of Fame will be back tomorrow!!)

We had one heck of a weekend. Where to begin…

Well, Friday night the Mister had a mess night to attend. A mess night is a Marine only event that’s pretty basically an excuse for them to get together and get drunk. They punctuate the evening with ceremony and tradition, but drinking takes the main stage. I’m rolling my eyes as I type this just so ya know.

So, the girls and I decided to have a girls night of our own. We started off by buying junk food to snack on at the grocery store. Then we ordered a pizza for dinner. The oldest child and I played some Phase 10 while the youngest played on her DS. Next we decided to go for a cruise around town with the windows down, the sun roof open, and the music blaring. It was fun, lol. We returned home, played another game of Phase 10, and then sat outside for about an hour and a half watching lightening from storms that were in the area. It was awesome. I had never seen lightening like that. It was virtually nonstop for several hours. Anyway, by this time, it was about 11:30 so I sent the girls to bed and then sat on Facebook waiting for midnight when I could grab my vanity URL, lol. I’m such a nerd. I’m www.facebook.com/trishaj in case you wanted to friend me up.

Saturday, I had to drive the Mister to pick up his car at the restaurant where the mess night was. Yeah. Then we grabbed the girls to go to Jacksonville for some shopping. On the way, we went to the library to return some way overdue books. The road to the library is under construction. They’re widening it or something. Anyway, it’s a mess, narrow, and you can only go about 20-25 mph. The Mister hit a nasty bump in the road that wasn’t even marked. It was a doozy abut nothing seemed wrong so we continued on to Jax. We got home after a couple hours. We got some books at the Barnes and Noble and we got the girls new bathing suits because we planned on making our first trip to the beach this season on Sunday.

Later that evening, we decided to go to Lowes to get some gardening stuff for my tomato, broccoli, and cabbage plants. They’re being attacked by bugs. Anyway, we go to start the car and the lights flashed, then nothing. Crap. The Mister tried turning it over and nothing. The freaking battery is dead. Mind you, the Rav is only three years old so the battery should still be good. We borrowed some jumper cables from the neighbor, charged up the battery and ran it for a bit. Then, the lights started flickering again. The Mister turned it off, tried to restart it, and nothing. We’re figuring we broke the alternator hitting that bump in the road. It’s all very bad timing besides just being damned inconvenient. The Mister has to leave Wednesday for some training in Jacksonville for the summer. He needs a car and I can’t go without one for weeks at a time.

I called the warranty people this morning and if it is, in fact, the alternator, it’ll be covered under the warranty. So, I made arrangements with the Toyota dealer, called for a tow, and it’s now at the dealership getting diagnostic tests run. Our warranty is freaking awesome. It’s going to cover the repairs the towing, and a rental car if we need one.

:(

:(

Having the car broke kinda ruined Sunday so we didn’t do anything other than go to the commissary and tend to my plants.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Three

Next stop in the hall of fame takes us to Faline. Faline was our very first rabbit. We got her at a pet store (I know! The shame!) and they claimed she was a Netherland Dwarf. Being unfamiliar with rabbits, I took them at their word. Clearly though, she was a Dutch. We also found out later that she was a he, lol. When we moved to California, I had to give her/him to my aunt who absolutely loves rabbits so I knew that she/he went to a good home. She/he actually lived with us both in Ohio and in Florida but since I flew to California, Faline wasn’t able to come with us.

So, here’s a picture of Faline, the oldest child when she was only two, and myself at our apartment in Pensacola. This was taken in 1998.

Past Pets Hall of Fame Part Two

Next I want to tell you about Cal. Cal was the cat that we got from the Humane Society in Vermont. We originally wanted a cat because we needed a mouser. Before Vermont, we had never had mice before and we tried things like traps and poison to get rid of them but living in the country next to open fields, that stuff did absolutely no good. Plus, the ding dong mice sat on top of the traps and ate the peanut butter out of them. So, we figured a good mouser could be the solution to our mice problems.

Cal was one of the neatest cats that I had ever seen. We visited him a couple times at the shelter before finally deciding he was the cat for us.  He was already a few years old when we got him, but still playful and personable. While still very cat-like, he also liked being around us and he was fun to have.

Unfortunately, he stopped using his litter box and started using our coats, the closets, and laundry baskets to do his business in. His timing was really bad because we were getting ready to move and I, in good conscience, couldn’t move an unpredictable cat into a rental house. Had we had more time, maybe I could have figured out a way to get him to use his litter box again but that wasn’t in the cards. So, Cal went back to the Humane Society. I still feel guilty about it almost three years later so no lectures please.

I would love to have another cat someday but the Mister is pretty against it. I love cats though. They’re gorgeous and graceful and I would really love to have one. Maybe I’ll wait until the Mister  is out of the country on a deployment or something, heheheh. Just kidding.

Anyway, here’s a couple pictures of Cal the cat.

Wasn’t he just gorgeous? Oh. And Cal was an excellent mouser. He completely got rid of our mice problem.

Past Pets Hall of Fame

The Mister e-mailed me this morning asking me if I had a picture of my pet rat, Snickers. He said that a guy he works with doesn’t believe that rats can be nice. The stigma attached to rats and the stereotypes that people attach to them really annoys me. It’s definitely one of my pet (no pun intended) peeves. Rats are highly intelligent, smarter than most dogs, they have a personality, and they are good companions. I got my first rat when the Mister was in Japan. He kept me great company at night when the girls were in bed. When I lost my eyesight in my right eye for a few weeks, it was like he knew. He would sit on my shoulder and lick my right temple all the time. It was so sweet. So, I wanted to share the picture of him that I found for the Mister.

That was Snickers. Wasn’t he pretty? I really miss him. I’ve had several rats since Snickers but none of them were as great as he was. Maybe it was beginners luck, lol.

Things You Can Never Have Too Much Of

First up, we have material things. Everyone needs the everyday stuff in life. Here are the things that I think you can never have too much of:

1. Paper towels
2. Toilet paper
3. Trash bags
4. Laundry detergent
5. Towels
6. Sheets and blankets
7. Books
8. Pens
9. Nail files
10. Scratch pads
11. Tape. Scotch, duct, whatever floats your boat and sticks.
12. Dish soap and/or dishwasher detergent.
13. Chocolate
14. MP3s
15. Nail polish
16. Candles
17. Sandals

Next, we’ll take the more insubstantial things that you can’t necessarily physically touch but stuff you can’t have too much of  nonetheless:

1. Good, honest, true friends.
2. Sunshine and warm weather punctuated with a good, booming thunderstorm every once in a while.
3. Security whether it be financial or otherwise.
4. The love of a good dog and/or cat or any pet for that matter.
5. Love in general.
6. Beauty in music, art, and nature.
7. Music that moves you.
8. Hugs and kisses.
9. Good karma.
10. Good memories.
11. Having your hand held by someone that loves you.
12. Cuddles.

Wanna add to my lists? Feel free to leave a comment or start your own post. It’s Monday. Find the positives in life, lol. ;)

Day Trip to Wilmington

Saturday, we took a drive down to Wilmington, NC. It’s about a two hour drive from our house which is perfect for a Saturday outing. It’s also one of the things on our “to do” list before we move. I’ve been to Wilmington several times over the years and the Mister has been a couple times but the girls had never been.

Our first stop was a tour of the Battleship North Carolina. Both of the girls thought it was neat but Morgan was especially impressed. She enjoyed seeing how the sailors lived their daily lives on the ship. She and the Mister toured the entire ship, top to bottom while the youngest was too afraid to go below deck. I don’t know why. I explained to her that they don’t tie you up and torture you down there, but she refused to go. So, she and I toured the upper deck and enjoyed the views of the Cape Fear River. At one point, I asked her if she thought that alligators lived down there. She figured no but as we were walking around, we saw a placard that said there were indeed two alligators that live in the river near the ship. I never figured we’d actually see either of them, but as the Mister and I leaning over the railing looking in the river, I spotted what I thought was just driftwood but it moved closer toward us and then we could tell that it was an actual alligator!!! I was so excited, lol. It reminded me of the time that we saw two moose alongside the road in New Hampshire. You know they’re out there but you never expect to see one. Seeing the alligator was definitely the highlight of the day.

After that, we drove to Wilmington’s historic river front and walked along the river and did some window shopping. It was pretty muggy that day so we also did a lot of sitting and drinking water. Still, we had a fantastic time and now I can say that I’ve seen an alligator in the wild. Woot!

Here are some pictures. For those of you that are my Facebook friends, these are repeats. If you’re not my Facebook friend, you should be!!