Day 19 of no tv challenge

life is good. tv is so not necessary to every day living. now i need to bring my kid around to that and i can save $50 a month. now giving up the dr. pepper not so easy. we went one day and my kid comes down stairs and says she's got a headache from all the days without soda pop. i had to point out to her it had been less then 24 hours since we last had some pop. she's like that's it and i was like yup!!!

i have begun the no soda pop challenge fresh this morning. after sleeping the entire weekend with brutus the english bulldog and sophie the puggle, i am sleep deprived. i had a 4 hour round trip drive back home for my baby cousins 4th birthday and needless to say i needed the soda pop to stay awake to drive.

i did not know an english bull dog made so much noise. there are sounds that i have no idea how to describe. he even made a noise that sounded like the velociraptors in jurassic park!!! but he's so cute doing it!!! at one point, at 2AM sophie popped her head up, looked at him and looked at me, like shut him up! we all got up and took a break outside. every night he stayed with us we got up at least twice between midnight and 7am.

last night was the first night we didn't have him since thursday and sophie and i were out by 9:30 and we didn't get up once!!!
dogs are cute for a reason, it's so we don't give up on them when they drive us crazy, it's all part of God's plan :) or the Dog's plan????

so happy that's over now

all my kid could talk about was the stupid royal wedding.
now that it is over, i am so happy!!!!
sick of hearing about it, i bet the coverage won't die down until Monday, but it's hogged up the t.v., internet, and my kid.
i thought it would have been funny if one of them would have changed their mind, but i guess not.

so back to the real world... i know it sucks, but that's where i live, how about you?

weather sucks, it's windy, cold, and raining off and on.
next weekend will be nicer, going to take the kid to tour a technical college Friday, on Saturday going to go see thor with dad and the kid, then visit cousins, then on sunday going to go visit the kid's mamaw as a surprise for mother's day.

so i need like $100 for gas just for that weekend. going to put like 600 miles on the car, dad is 2 hours west, linda is 2 hours south, and the tech college is 2 hours east, so that's a tank of gas each day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, cuz each trip is just over 300 miles and my new little car get a little over 400 miles a tank, that's if we don't run the air conditioning.

but we don't visit often so it'll be a nice change of pace. i'm looking forward to the visits but not the driving. i think my butt will stay cramped until tuesday. but the whole point of the newer car was so we could go visit more and save on gas.

well the dog is staring at me so she either has to go out to pee or wants petted.

later.

tax time

got my taxes filed. get back money at federal and state, but owe city :(
but i will have a huge down payment for a new(er) car. poor betty, is on her last legs. she's 15 years old, has almost 280,000 miles on her and can't go in park anymore. she needs a new windshield, brakes in the back, whatever is wrong with the car not able to go into park, she's leaking oil and transmission fluid. i think it's safe to say betty is ready to retire!!!

i'm going to have a car payment for the first time since 2004!!! that will be an adjustment, plus i'll have to up my insurance from collision only to comprehensive. my kid will be driving the new(er) car, so it's going to need all the coverage it can get! but it's going to be nice to have a new(er) set of wheels. it takes me 2 hours to see my family. that's 100 miles one way!

here's hoping my new(er) car is as reliable as betty has been!!

i knew this would happen

my plans are being foiled for my trip to indy
and it just sucks.

i wanted to rent a car. the location i wanted has been closed.
since my visa is a debit visa, they wanted to place a $300 hold on it!!!
i said no, i'll just drive my car.

so i got to squeeze in an oil change tonight and get the headlight replaced.
plus, go pay off the new couch, which i've been so excited about.
i hope they can deliver it on monday. dual reclining with a center console!

i ordered dominoe's for lunch at 2pm after i get poked and prodded at the ob/gyn. i figured the appt. would seem more bareable if i was coming home to fresh italian sandwiches and hot wings for gab. got a coupon, so it wasn't too bad. cuz the pizza from dominoes still sucks, even after they made all those so called improvements.

i loathe my yearly pap smear. if guys hate a prostate check, they have no concept on what it is live to get a pap smear. here's hoping all my pieces and parts are where they are supposed to be and healthy.

wish me luck!

It's been awhile

I've been on the road. I went to Tennessee to see my Meemaw for the first time in 10 years. She's full of fight and stubborn as a mule. She refuses to use her cane. and she insists on getting up and waiting on people. Everyone tries to get her to relax, but as my Aunt Jenny said, "She's gonna do what she wants to do until the day she dies!" Which I hope is a long way out, but I worry. I see how hard it is for her to step up and down from the house to the patio then to the driveway. She even sways like she's going to fall. I love my Meemaw so much, I just can't imagine this world without her.

She said when I was little and I'd go to the store with her and Grandpa that I would have a trick to get me a toy. I'd wait until Grandpa was out of ear shot then I'd say, I ain't havin any fun, over and over until Meemaw would say, Would a new toy be fun and I say, Let's go get one. I've never heard that story before and it was nice to see the smile on her face as she remembered it.

She is confused somewhat. She kept calling me by Mom's name. And she got other people mixed up to. She admitted that the stroke done wiped her mind clean. She said she knows what she wants to say but it just won't come out or it comes out the wrong way. It frustrates her alot. She got her hair cut short and permed. It looks so cute on her. It gives her a mop top of curls that makes her look like she's got tons of moxie. She tries to stay sassy, but she tires easily.

Got to visit with most of the family. Ten years is a long time not to visit. Ty is 5, so this was his first time meeting me. I kept asking him, who am I and he'd get the blankest look on his face, and I say I'm cousin Shannon and he'd go oh, okay, I'd ask him 10 minutes later, what my name was and the blank look was back. I told him he needs to work on his memory. He called Dad, Uncle Jerry, then he called him That guy, which was too funny.

Yes, it was great to see the family. To hear the stories and see the bubba's (Dad and his 3 brothers) shoot the breeze. Politics gets these old coots all worked up. I don't like to discuss politics, there's no discussion about it, because every one already has their mind made up so it's pointless to talk about it. It just turns into an intense akward near arguement. No thank you!!!!

I hope to visit once a year for as long as Meemaw is here to see. It's a heck of a drive and hopefully, that new Motel by the Wally world will be finished, cuz the one we stayed at sucked!!!!! Dad was down there 3 years ago and he said it had gone downhill quick. I found a bug in the bed. There was no breakfast like they advertised. And it was dirty all around. Yuck, Yuck, and triple Yuck!!!

Well, it's good to be home. Sophie had fun with Molly and her owners Jeremy and Ashley. He took real good care of her, but by Saturday Sophie was homesick and had stopped eating. She was a real good puggle for him. No accidents. Shared her toys with his dog Molly. I missed that dog sleeping next to me. Gab's just happy to have a cell phone signal, air conditioning, cable t.v. and internet access 24/7. She thought she was dying out at MeeMaw's house where you have none of those. She said she now knew what the pioneers went through. Sheesh!!!

But I am not going to miss the heat and humidity. I drank tons of water and only went to the potty once in 8 hours. As soon as I drank the water, the heat sucked it right back out of my flesh. I missed my bed and air conditioning the most!!! God Bless the person who invented air condittioning!!! Amen!!!

On The Road

Well the time has come in the year when people are traveling more. I don't mind the traveling as much as everything you have to do to get ready to travel. Taking out the trash, getting someone to dog sit, washing all the dishes, making sure there's nothing the cat can get into or anything bugs would want. It's exhausting!

It makes me never want to leave my house. But it's for a good cause. I get to see Meemaw for the first time in 10 years. She's been sick and fell recently. At 86 the number of days remaining on her lifespan are rapidly declining. My uncle says there are times when she gets confused and isn't sure when it is, minor dementia, but it worries me.

Meemaw is fiercly independent and a fighter. She pulled out all her i.v.'s at the hospital and was getting dressed to go home when the nurses came rushing in on her. They had to put her in restraints to keep her from leaving the hospital!!!

I hope we travel safely and have a good visit with Meemaw.

Hiccups and 200 miles

I have put 200 miles on my car today and I have hiccups. I drove my kid down to her grandma's house. Then drove back, went to the grocery, put gas in the car and came home to find the dog had left a pile of doggie doo on the carpet. Then I walked her, cleaned up her mess, petted her because she was all hyped up and made pizza for dinner. I ate, walked the dog a 2nd time. Took my med then went to lay down. Then just as I got settled hoping for a nap, HICCUPS!!!!

I seldom get hiccups. My kid gets them all the time. I always tell her she's sucking in too much air. I think I laid down too soon after I ate. This is so annoying. I've tried holding my breath. Scaring myself (I looked in the mirror - just kidding), focused on the next hiccup, counted to 10 with deep breathing, laid with my head upside down from the couch!!!! Nothing worked, I still have them. I'm getting annoyed.

I hate hiccups!!!!