Monday

I really had fun with the Blog Around the World post and am excited to see where we go next! I added a bunch of blogs to my blog roll to have a chance to read and get to know some new people. I usually keep the ones who comment back & forth and then slowly lose the others, but hopefully, I will meet and keep some new friends! I am a little disapointed that over 50 people visited my blog, but less than half left a comment. That's the point people!! Leave a comment so the people you visit can visit you!

Work was good today. I am trying to put together 2 "Why Try" groups and have been getting names from teachers of students that might benefit from the program. It is a program to help kids overcome their challenges and improve their outcomes in the areas of truancy, behavior, and academics. If I sound like i'm reading that straight off of the WhyTry.org website, it's because I am! I have never actually done a Why Try group, but one of my co-workers has been trained in it and is doing some groups on the west side with me, so I am going to just do what she does after she does it with me! I am excited to learn more about it because it does seem to be an effective program.

Cameron is home from his dad's, and as I thought, he's still pretty ticked off at me over the computer restrictions! I am willing to talk about it and what he can do to have more freedom with the computer, such as being nice when people talk to him, actually talking to people, using words instead of grunts when asked to do something, etc. The current rule is no computer until after 8. He came in from school and pouted awhile, told me how mad he is, and when Bryce came over, he said he wanted to go to Bryce's to do his homework. I said that is fine as long as he shows me what he worked on when he gets back. As they were going out the door, I said, "what time will you be home??" He said, "AFTER 8!" LOL...I was too tickled to argue and let him go. I called his dad to see what they worked out and I will talk to Cameron and see what we can come up with. His dad did make him do homework at a set time every night, which is going to help Cameron keep up with everything.

Here are some pictures of the completed screen porch project now that all of the tools are put away:

Our friend, Brent, works for a demolition company and had asked Walter if he wanted some lights from an old building to put on our boat slip. I think he is still waiting to get one more, then will put them up. Walter cleaned them up real good and they should look nice!

Here are some pictures of the pier with the swing, dock box (for the swing cushion), and bench.

And this is a project that Walter & our neighbor, Leon are working on...to catch the racoon(s) that keep pooping on our piers at night! I have not gone to see the poop, but apparently, it is a daily problem!

These are the lights that Walter put on the pier. They are really cool looking at night and light the place up nicely!

And this is just a cool view of the river from our pier. I love the way the lights look up & down the river.

That's all for tonight! I hope you all have a great night!

Tuesday

Tonight is the night that our garbage goes out and I'm going to make Leon, my neighbor, sweat it out again! I never said anything to him about last week's phone call because i've avoided him all week so that I wouldn't, and really, he's a nice man and means well, but he's got to back off. The garbage truck comes around noon on Wednesday, so i'll take the garbage out around, oh, say 11:30! I crack myself up sometimes!

Walter & I finished putting the swing together tonight and we love it!!! We still need to buy a dock box to store the cushions and cover in, so we tried the swing out and then put it all away! It is really cute and comfy and we will really be able to enjoy it.

Cathy called tonight to ask me why the river was all red, so I went and looked outside, but the river here was brown, green, & murky like always! After a while she figured out that somebody (Department of Wildlife & Fisheries??) is doing a test of the water flow of the river and put dye in it. So far, it hasn't flowed down our way, but I guess it's something to look forward to!

The 2nd day of the training was interesting today and I'm glad I went. I heard the guy who was presenting the material telling my supervisor about a more in depth training that she should consider having a few key people participate in so that they could work to teach the program to others in the school system and she came and asked me if I was really interested in learning about the program! I said yes, cause I am, and I hope she is considering me to do the extra training. A lot of what the guy taught us made a lot of sense as far as teaching kids replacement behaviors, including teaching them social skills they don't have as well as finding help for them academically when they are misbehaving to prevent having to do work that they are not capable of doing. However, it's easier said than done to go to a teacher and explain that a student needs to go back and have some easier work to build up missing skills, or even to change the classroom environment to support the student's needs, but it's food for thought.

No fever yesterday or today, so I think i'm over it. I have felt a little light headed today, but that is probably because I haven't done much for the last week and then was running around yesterday & today. I plan to sleep late and relax tomorrow. I am having lunch with some friends in Baton Rouge, and then maybe i'll come home and clean the house or something. Facebook took away my Scrabulous game due to some LAWSUIT with Hasbro!! Wahhhh!!! What do they think I'm supposed to do without it? I think I had 15 games going lol.

Cameron is going with us to Atlanta this weekend, so i'm excited about that. I will pick him up sometime Thursday. Stacy and I talked about the boys' trouble again last night and are not bringing them to talk to anyone because the 3rd boy corrected the extra trouble he had caused, so the 2 boys are going to be punished at home. So far, Cameron is not allowed to go to the 3rd boys house anymore, ever, period, plus he isn't spending the night away from home AT LEAST until the end of the year, and no peer functions unless it's at the school. He obviously is going to give in to peer pressure and is not capable of making positive decisions when left alone with peers, so, he can earn the privilege to be alone with them. And he's really a good kid. Lawdy be. It's so hard to know if you're doing the right thing with them.

Have a great night!!

Sunday

Mr. Wizard finished the pier/dock yesterday and it really came out great! He is going to stain the wood at some point, probably a grayish color, but he's still working on picking the right look for it. Here are some pictures of the completed job.




So, we went back to Home Depot today to decide about the really cool swing we saw there. It was on sale for $350 and we both really liked it. It was very comfortable, lays down into a bed (now why would I need a bed on the river?), and is made of very sturdy aluminum that shouldn't rust. We also saw some swings for $75 & $80 but they weren't nearly as nice or comfy, so we bit the bullet and got it. It is still in a box in the back of Walter's truck (hoping some nice neighbor will volunteer to help get it out!!!), but here is a picture from Home Depot's website.
There was a lot of commotion out on the river yesterday. Someone drowned about a mile down from us trying to save a friend, according to the news. There are usually some drinking related drownings that happen each summer, but I haven't heard yet if alcohol is suspected in the accident. Drinking is a hobby out here and it's for exactly that reason that I worry a lot about people and what they decide to do on boats and in the water.

I am running fever again and plan to call my doctor tomorrow and see what she thinks. I have to go to a training at work, so hopefully I can get an appointment after that. It's just such a pain to drive to Baton Rouge (40 minutes + traffic) just for her tell me to let it run its course, but then again, maybe there is something she can do.

With the month of July almost over, I am SO proud of my budgetting project! We stayed within our budget on nearly everything this month, especially eating out! We had been spending between $400 - $600 A MONTH eating out! How crazy is that? This month we've spent $200, and that is a huge change to me. We really enjoy eating out, but we need to plan better and look at what we're actually spending, and what we were spending was ridiculous.

Questions & Comments:

Chelle asked if I put Nadda (cat) on anxiety medicine. Yes, the vet suggested it when I brought him in for a checkup. I can tell a big difference on the days he takes it and on the days I forget to give it to him. When we moved to the new house, he got to where he never came out of the closet at all, for months, and the 1st day he took the medicine, that night, he just came walking downstairs and into the living room like it was nothing. He'll still do that now, but if anyone gets up or moves much at all, he takes off.

Tam commented on how much Elizabeth looks like me. I hear that from some people, but when I see us together, I really don't see it. I think our cheeks are the same, but it's hard for me to see the resemblence. Landen, however, is a carbon copy of me at his age.

Kim asked if I remember telling her daughter, Kayli, that I would have named Elizabeth "Jennifer" if I had decided to name her. I do remember that, and Jennifer was always my favorite name when I was little. A funny story about naming Elizabeth - I decided when she was born that I didn't want to name her. The adoptive parents would have a new birth certificate made and would rename her anyway, so I just didn't want to feel attached to her or give her a name, so I didn't. When you don't name a baby, the hospital will put "Baby Girl Smith" or "Baby Boy Smith" (depending on your own last name of course, and no, mine wasn't Smith - it's an example), so they put "Baby Girl Smith" as her name on her original birth certificate, and then that one is sealed away forever. Anyway, Elizabeth's boyfriend calls her "baby girl" sometimes and after hearing that a few times, it just really cracked me up and I told her the birth certificate story and how that is REALLY her name - Baby Girl! She thinks that is hilarious and loves to tell the story to people.

Happy Birthday to my Elizabeth!

Today is Elizabeth's birthday!! She is 26 years old today and I am always so very excited to be able to pick up the phone and call to tell her happy birthday!! Until I reunited with Elizabeth, my mom would send me a birthday card every year on Elizabeth's birthday, just to let me know that she'd never forget her and hope that we would be able to know her someday. I don't get the cards anymore, Elizabeth does, and I'm ok with that!!! She is such a big part of my life now and it still amazes me how things turned out and that's just one more thing that I know God has done for me. I called Elizabeth this morning & left her a message letting her know that I have some birthday money for her. She LOVES having money to spend, so unless she has something specific that she wants for her birthday, I usually give her $100 to do what she wants with.

It's kind of nice to have nothing planned for the weekend! I have put myself on the sofa for the entire day with my laptop and a book (still reading A Good Yarn), and hopefully my mystery fever will leave me forever! It's been going away during the day and then sneaking back in the evenings. I'm not feeling bad at all and I don't think I have the stomach virus, so here I am, just resting and hanging out.

Walter is working on the pier today and it looks like he is pretty much finished with it. He is so incredibly smart and talented and i'm glad I have Mr. Wizard (as we affectionately call him) as my very own. He wants to build a covered deck next that will come off of the back porch so that we can move the bbq grill out there and have some more room for entertaining.

I will be leaving on Friday (if i'm cured of the mystery fever) for a weekend in Atlanta for my niece, Daphne's, 1st birthday. I'm going to ride with my mom & step-dad, and Cameron is possibly coming too. That isn't my week with him, so he's supposed to be deciding what he wants to do. It's about an 8 hour drive from here, so it isn't too bad. We will be staying at my cousin's house on Lake Lanier, so i'm excited about that, as well as seeing my cute little niece! I have only seen her once when she was about a month old.

I do appreciate the kind comments about JP and his situation. It is an uncomfortable topic for many people to talk about, but it is my reality and it helps me to talk about it, so hearing positive comments is really helpful to me, so thank you to my commenters!

Questions & Comments:

Chelle asked if Nadda (cat) meows when he's up to his nightly antics. No. And to be honest, he lives his life in "stealth mode" and only comes out of his closet bed if I'm home alone. Lately, he is able to come downstairs when Walter is home and due to the nightly sharing of pudding, they have bonded a little, but otherwise Nadda will freak out and run (picture back claws skidding across the wood floors until he makes it through the house & up the stairs.) Have I mentioned that he is on anxiety medicine? Another interesting thing is that he has JUST started to meow at all in the last few months. Cats learn to meow when they are communicating with people, and he never learned to speak up because he was a feral (wild) cat for the first 5 months of his life. If you don't tame a kitten in the first 8 - 10 weeks of their lives, chances are that their "window is closed" for making friends with people, and in the case like Nadda, where they are still able to make friends, they typically only bond with one person. Recently, I let him go outside with me and now he's started meowing at the door to go back out. He has the FUNNIEST meow i've ever heard, and now that he has learned to do it, he is starting to meow a lot!

Sunny Sunday!

We had a great time with Cathy & Brent last night. Cathy came over early to swim with me for awhile, then we grilled steaks and they were SO good! Cameron even emerged from his room to eat with us, but only because it was steak he said! After we ate, we went on an early evening boat ride and it was so nice and peaceful!!! There was only one problem - a crazy neighbor that we call "Junkyard George." We live in a nice neighborhood where most of the people take pride in their homes and yards and keep them clean. Our entire neighborhood is just 1 street that is 3 miles long on the river, so it is a close knit neighborhood, for the most part. Well, if you remember the post where I mentioned that Walter, who is the president of the homeowner's association, had to go to court over a neighbor who refuses to pay his association dues of $40 per lot per year, which for him is $80/year...he's never paid them in the 6 or 7 years he's lived here and the previous board members didn't want to do anything to make him pay them, and now I know why!!! He also has a really junky yard and refuses to clean it or participate in the neighborhood cleanup days. In the meeting with the Walter, another board member, Junkyard George and the judge, he was yelling and making threats to sell his house to minorities (and if you know me - I do not tolerate racism!!!), etc. The judge was supposed to rule in 2 weeks by mail (does she sound scared too?) but after a month, we still haven't heard anything. Anyway, we are cruising down the river through our neighborhood and we pass Junkyard George's house. We noticed he's out there, so we just sort of keep going and try not to attract attention, but he recognizes Walter or Cathy (who is the homeowner's secretary) and starts to glare at us. Brent decides that waving to Junkyard George is the best plan, so he waves and Junkyard George becomes angry and starts to walk along his yard so that he can stare at us as we pass his house. He looked like a wild animal and I was a bit unnerved. Walter keeps driving the boat, never looking up, Cathy has her eyes glued to the water and wont look at him, and Brent realizes he's made the man madder by waving, so he starts to wave MORE! I'm watching this man stare us down and i'm like, "y'all, this man is crazy!" Junkyard George was almost unable to see us any more and begins to grab his umm, "thing" and shake it at us!!! I tried to grab my camera, but it was too late by then! I was sitting there speechless and Brent yelled something to him and Junkyard George started screaming things that I'm glad we couldn't hear! I am fully expecting the crazed man to burn my house down or something. Yikes. But anyway, beside running across him, we really had a nice time, then came back to our house and watched tv for awhile.


I'm still maintaining my same weight, but i'm doing good on my diet. I had scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, leftover stuffed bell peppers for lunch, and I have a roast cooking in the crock pot for dinner and it really smells GOOD!! Cathy plans to go to our health club tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to drag myself with her and go work out. It's so hard to make it there, but once I go, I want to go back all the time. I am sure it's going to take some exercising on my part to lose any more weight since I haven't lost anything since Tuesday.

Walter has been working hard all day on the pier. I sat out in the yard with him a good bit today and helped with measuring when I could. I hadn't realized how great the pier will be for just hanging out and watching boats go by. The pier is right under our Cypress tree, which we thought we lost in Hurricane Katrina (before we even started building the house), but it is flourishing now even though it it missing some of its upper branches. The tree was even in the way of where our bulkhead needed to go, but we had the workers build around it! The tree is much shadier than I thought it would be.

Here is a picture of the Wildlife & Fisheries (river police) pulling someone over in front of our house. You never know if they'll give the boaters a warning for something, write them a ticket for a safety violation, handcuff them and put them in their boat, or like today, give them free t-shirts for passing a safety check!

And here is a view of the back of our house from the river.

Nothing much else is going on today. Cameron will go back to his dad's tomorrow, but i'm glad we had him an extra week again due to the cruise! I will be resting up tomorrow for my FIVE little visitors on Tuesday. I need to come up with some activities for them to do and some easy things to cook that they will eat. My friend's 8 year old son, Payton, does not eat ANYTHING, so that will be a challenge.

Questions & Comments:
I really appreciate the comments about my "regret or rejoice" blog and I'm glad that some of you were touched by it, and thank you Lizzy for the standing ovation!!! That is only a small peek into my crazy life growing up and maybe I'll make a point to throw in some other bits and pieces as time goes by!!

Two important points that I didn't include in the post:

• My dad died of pancreatic cancer a year after abandoning our family. His girlfriend in Pennsylvania didn't bother to let us know that he was dying.
• The baby I had when I was 16 was a little girl and I gave her up for adoption at birth. I reunited with her 7 years ago. Her name is Elizabeth and we only live about 30 minutes apart and are very close. When we met, she had just found out she was pregnant with her first child, my sweet little Landen.

I hope you all had a great weekend and have a wonderful week!!!

You can either regret or rejoice!

I came across this quote the other day and it really meant something to me. I made so many poor choices in my life, mostly as a teenager/young adult, that altered the course of my entire life. Had I made better choices, or maybe had better role models, there is no telling who or where I would be today. But then I look at my life now. I probably had to work harder and longer than most people, but today, I am a very happy, successful, person with nothing major to complain about. Sometimes when those old thoughts get me down, I tell myself that I probably made more of my life doing it "this" way because the decisions I made to get here were based on me and what I wanted to do with my life, not what everyone else wanted me to do. I think having so much contact with my high school friends recently started me thinking about a lot of the old problems. I've never been much on comparing myself to other people, so it's not about that. It's more about what I missed out on and the friendships I left behind. I was a mixed up teenager, raised by wealthy, alcoholic parents and never felt "smart" or encouraged to do big things with my life. My dad & I never had a good relationship and I know that affected a lot of the choices I made in my life. I was always forced to be like my sister, and we are NOTHING alike, go to the schools she went to regardless of where I was already in school and doing well, uprooted and moved every year or two because my dad's business plans were more important than roots and stability. Anyway, I ended up pregnant at 16 & 18, a high school drop out, struggling to make ends meet for my entire young adulthood. My dad's business plans finally blew up in his face and he faked his own kidnapping and ran off to live with a girlfriend in Pennsylvania. We lost our house, cars, money, dignity, etc. It took years for all of us (my mom & 3 teenagers) to recover and get ourselves together, but today, my mom, sister, brother, & I are all so much better people than we would have been if none of that would have happened. I managed to get my act together in my late 20's, divorced someone I had married that wasn't really a family man, and got myself back in college (which took me 17 years to finish with full time jobs, life, and children mixed in), and met someone who wanted a family and the things that were important to me. At 39, I graduated college and at 41 earned my Master's degree! Who would have thought! I am such a well rounded, smart, fun, friendly, life loving person, a decent wife & mother, and honestly have everything I need and most of what I want, but yet, I still think back and kick myself sometimes. And as a social worker, I know the importance of letting it go. And as a spiritual person, I also see all of the work that God has done in my life over the years when I never thought He was there before. So, to myself and anyone like me out there, let it go! Forgive yourself for decisions you made as a child and help those around you to make better decisions. Take those kids who don't have anyone telling them "they can!!!" and tell them yourself!!!! And imagine that I now work with kids who have behavior problems, hoping to make a difference, no matter how small! Whew! So, I got that off my chest. Any questions? I'm an open book, so feel free to ask.

Dieting today brings no new news, but i'm sticking to my diet and not gaining anything back, so that is something! I had bacon for breakfast, stuffed bell peppers for lunch, and tonight Cathy & Brent are coming over to grill steaks with us, so I will be in ribeye heaven!! As for the bell peppers, I made Walter & Cameron's (pretend with me that Cameron eats what we eat) with rice and made mine with steamed/mashed up broccoli!! I discovered that after eating the "pretend mashed potatoes" which are made with mashed up cauliflower that the texture of the veggies seem a lot like rice or mashed potatoes. And it was good! My friend, Lesley, is contemplating starting Atkins on Monday, so here is the pretend mashed potatoes recipe incase she needs it or anyone else wants it:

1 head fresh cauliflower, steamed until tender and mashed - I used a bag of frozen & steamed it
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese chopped bacon
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix & mash ingredients together and place in a buttered 9 X 12 casserole or baking dish Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and the casserole is heated.

Here are some pictures of the pier in progress! But first, I have to brag on what an awesome husband I have! His name is Walter, but he is affectionately known around here as "The Wizard." He can fix, build, or create anything!! So many times while we were building our house I would ask him "how do you know how to do that?" His answer is usually, "I don't!" But somehow he is able to figure out how to do any project and do it right. Once, Cameron's 3rd grade class was studying Penguins and each of the kids was told to make a Penguin. There were no guidelines - it could have been a drawing, a poster, etc. Well, here is what Walter & Cameron made out of paper mache' - a lifesize Penguin that was borrowed by the teacher the next few years as well as our public library!! After that, the school asked Walter & Cameron to make a paper mache' statue of liberty for a display in the cafeteria during a school celebration. It's probably a good thing that Cameron moved on to middle school or they might still be making creations for the school! Here are some pictures.

What memories!!! That seems like such a long time ago! Back then, Cameron said that having the penguin at school made him feel like "the president" because everyone was nice and wanted to talk to him!

So anyway, Walter has set his mind to building a pier and started on it this morning. He saw me with the camera and said "you outta take a picture!" I said, "Oh don't worry! This is good blogging material!"

We are also "boat sitting" for a friend of ours who needed to have work done on his boat trailer but didn't have anywhere to put the boat. They brought it by early this morning! He bought the boat on Ebay and flew out to get it! It really is a pretty boat and he will have a great time fishing in it.

TGIF!!!

First, let me say that the Atkins diet is a cheaters diet! What I mean by that is there is no diet you can start that you can really expect to lose weight every day, seriously. But that's the craziness of Atkins (and probably South Beach - but they specifically say NO RIBEYES and I'm not playing that game!!!) and now for the 3rd day in a row - I haven't lost anything. Atkins suggests leaving out the caffiene when weight loss stalls, so that's what i'm doing today. Bye Bye, Coke Zero and Diet Green Tea!!! Today, it's all about water and kool-aid-on-the-go, so we'll see how that goes. Today I had 3 pieces of bacon for breakfast, a Bubba burger with cheese & mayo for lunch, and I stir fried some chicken with bell peppers, onions, & mushrooms.

I spent a couple of hours floating in the pool this morning & reading my book. It is so relaxing and just does me a world of good!! The weather was nice and sunny today, instead of the usual cloudiness, and it was the perfect day for a swim!

A couple of updates from my job! My friend, Courtney, is SO excited about getting one of the jobs in my office! She put her 2 week notice in at her job this week and will get a week or so off before we go to work on August 6th. I am so happy for her! The 2nd job went to a girl who was working for a mental health agency based in one of our schools, so she will be great too, i'm sure.

I talked to the grandmother of my student who got the FREE braces, thanks to a local church!!! He got the braces last week and is so happy to be returning to school in August to show them off. He told his grandmother that the kids can't tease him about his teeth anymore! My boss is sending a thank you note to the church & the orthodontist.

Another student of mine didn't pass the LEAP test, which is required to go to 8th grade. I get really frustrated because the kids I work with are in special education and many of them have learning disabilities. How can we expect them to pass the same test that kids without learning problems can pass? Some can and some can't. This one didn't and has gone to summer school to attempt to pass again. His mother called me yesterday to find out when they'll know the results, so I called the school board to find out. The answer? August! School starts back on August 8! So now, this mother can't plan for the school year until she knows the results. She is quiet frustrated, and I certainly understand.

The wood for the pier came today and Walter is all excited to get started on the project. He lost any chance of me offering to help during dinner last night when he told Brent "I am pretty sure there is a small alligator living in our boat slip." He tried to explain what he meant after that, but I really didn't need to hear anymore. He says something "jumps in the water" everytime he walks out there, but that it is on a log in the water already, not where it could get on ground and into the yard." Yeah, whatever!! Don't ask me to get in that water, as if I would have anyway! I usually stand on the edge of the water freaking out anytime he's in there, so I'm really not all that much help anyway. And next Friday, the 18th, our neighbor, Allen, is coming to start the screened in porch! Yay! Walter is helping him to cut the cost and I am so excited to have this done!! Our cats want to sit out there SOOOOO bad and I am just too worried about them roaming free in the yard. So, Walter will have 2 projects going on, but at least will have help with one of them. One thing we've found in building our own house is that help is not usually readily available!!!!

Questions & comments:

Kelley wanted to know if the sister I mentioned in my other post is the one in Houston - yes. I do have 3 step sisters, but don't interact with them very often.

Tam - thanks for the book recommendations!! I went to Half.com this morning & ordered Rebecca & Outlander!

Thanks to everyone on the compliments on my purdy blue bathroom!! Our bedroom is the same color (maybe if I clean it up i'll take some pictures) and we really thought we'd gone off the deep end with that bright color, but we really like it!!

And again, I am so honored to have received Mere's "Smile Award" today! When I started blogging, I really wasn't sure that anyone would read my blog or care what I had to say, so this really made me feel good! I have really been enjoying blogging and especially meeting new people in the blogging community!!! Thanks again, Mere!