Mommy's Little Helper

Never too early to start!!

Alright, let's talk...

About New Year's resolutions! 2007 was undeniably the worst year for me thus far. I'm committed to making 2008 a year for new beginnings and a new me! With this in mind, I'd like to share with you some of my personal resolutions (in no particular order):
1. Take better care of myself physically
2. Find the patience I lost somewhere along the way (particularly with my children)
3. Develop more of a social life/social network and stop making so many excuses for always being alone
4. Become more financially responsible and independent
5. Take more pride in myself (and stop being my worst enemy...be my bigget advocate for a change!!)

Ok, so I'm sure I can think of 100 more to add, but these are the most important (for this minute)

To begin this adventure, I'll be joining my single parents group for "Magic Mountain New Year's Eve" in New Hampshire. I'm very excited for this and will be with new friends, having a blast and ringing in the new year with champagne and fireworks!

Happy and Healthy New Year to you all!!!

Almost over...

Christmas, that is. It's been a tough couple of days. Lots of memories and feeling left behind. It was my choice, of course, not to join Keith with his family, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to go. I was also very bored these last 2 days...remember, everyone, that I wrote that!! When I post again, complaining about being too busy, too stressed...remind me that apparently I'm hard to please! :) I did hope to do something today, but no such luck. Not much open on Christmas Day! Ohh well! The kids had a great few days. They seemed ok being without me, which was good. Last night, however, Zack had a real hard time sleeping. He was up with me every 2-3 hours, saying that he was afraid that Santa would come into his room. Apparently my reassurance wasn't enough. He did say, this morning, that I was right and Santa never did come into his room! The whole time Sarah was opening her gifts, she kept saying "How did Santa know I wanted this?" Or "How did Santa and his elves MAKE this?" They are still asking me where Santa gets his sleigh! They want one and don't understand why they don't have sleigh stores like they have car stores. Ohh to try and rationalize with a 4 year old!! Here are some pictures from this morning opening presents from Santa. These are all I have, so enjoy!

Can you take a minute

And send me some thoughts or prayers. I would greatly appreciate it. Without getting into too much detail at this time, I've been having some health problems over the last several months that my doctors and I have just begun to try to figure out. It's rather frustrating as the waiting and guessing game has begun...Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. Once I know something, I'll be sure to post an update. Hey!? I was told that things start going downhill at 30! Whoever said that to me...not happy with you, ok?!! :)

Phew! What a vacation!!

I had a GREAT time away with Valerie!! I had 2 nights out (more than I've had in the last 2 years!!!) and we had a blast! I was able to meet Valerie's friends, and possible new boyfriend (she won't like me saying that!) It was so good to see her again! I was also able to see an old friend Bernice. She was my old supervisor in grad school(even through she is only 4 years older) and we've kept in touch all these years. We went to Charleston for the day and did a lot of shopping!! We even bought matching pendants and spent a lot of quality time together. The only difficult part of the vacation was being too naive that going back to SC after being gone for over 6 years wasn't going to affect me at all. Boy was I wrong!! It was much harder than I thought it would be to go back to where Keith and I began our married life. Stupid me asked Valerie to take me to see our old neighborhood. We drove right by our old house and it was truly like time had stood still. The garage doors were open and a man was doing something in the garage. I closed my eyes and saw Keith sitting on the front porch. I saw Hayle and Daisy running around the yard. I saw both of us running through the woods chasing after Bubba when he escaped the house. It was surreal and very emotional. I'm so glad I went, but I was definitely unprepared for the emotions it created. Par for the course, I guess.

I'm waiting (patiently) for Valerie to send me the pictures she took over the weekend. Once she does that, I'll weed out the inappropriate (I mean silly...yeah, silly) ones and post a few of us here.

Leaving tomorrow

And I'm so excited!! I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to South Carolina to spend a few days with my friend Valerie from Grad school. She came her to visit us last year, which was the first time I saw her since we graduated and I moved back here. It was suggested that I go on vacation to begin to build new memories for myself. Take time for me...be selfish and have fun. So, that's exactly what I have planned! I know tomorrow night Valerie and her friends are taking me out for a night on the town. Sunday we are spending the day in Charleston. Otherwise, not much else. I do want to visit with another friend of mine, but I'm not sure yet. And, of course the weather in SC all week has been in the 80's. I come to town and the highs will be in the 50's. It beats the foot of snow I'll be leaving behind!! Anyway...see y'all in a few days!! Maybe I'll come home with an accent again! One can only hope. (yeah right.)

They're BAAAAACK!!

My flying squirrels, that is!! Last night I seriously think they had a party in my crawl space behind the bathroom and invited all the squirrels in the neighborhood! Daisy was not happy to have been left out of the party...needless to say by 3:30am, both dogs were in their cages to sleep the rest of the night. Daisy just wouldn't quit and Hayle was terrified. Big wimp! I called the wildlife specialist this morning and told him what happened. His response was "Tis the season." He said at 9am that I was his 4th call already about flying squirrels. Someone was at my house by 10:30am and checked the existing traps in the attic. He found one dead squirrel and one dead bat! Yup!! I did say bat! So, I have flying squirrels and bats, apparently. He didn't see any bats other than the obvious one, but if one can get in, others can get in. He re-baited and reset all the other traps and put more around...just in case. Now I just want a good night sleep. If it's not the freaking squirrels...it's my son getting me up at 5:30am!! This morning at 5:30 he asked if he could play in his room cause he knew I was sleeping. I said absolutely not! He stormed back into his room and next thing I know it's 6am and I hear both kids up and playing in Sarah's room...I just can't fight this battle. Ugh...but mommy needs her sleep!

Can you believe this??

I still haven't heard about the offer on the house!! We did go back and forth a bit and finally Keith and I agreed to the amount she was offering on the house, but was still trying to negotiate on the closing date (since it took her a week to get back to us!!). Well, now she is wavering and keeps saying that she needs more time. What the heck?! After talking with her agent, my agent thinks that she is apprehensive to make sure a financial commitment on a house she never saw...not my problem, lady!! Her son came and loved it! Really, she should have never made an offer to begin with, but as my agent says...until she signs a piece of paper, she can do whatever she wants. UGH!!! So, we are still in limbo...

I never did realize how frustrating it is to sell a house. My mom came yesterday to go house hunting with me...the first time I actually decided to look. I really was afraid that she would agree to our counter offer and want to close in a month. I wanted to look...just in case. Well, of course I found a great house with a basement playroom, fenced in backyard and great neighborhood. We looked at 5 houses and 2 of them we found out are owned by people who lost their jobs and now are loosing their house. Not that there is ever a good time to be faced with loosing your house and job, but this time of year is the worst. Makes me feel terrible for them and thankful for what I do have. Strange considering I'm loosing my house because of divorce...but just seems different. I just don't ever want to loose sight of what I do have in life...a wonderfully supportive family, fantastic kids, great friends and a job I love. The missing link is selling my house and moving...UGH! Brings be back to the beginning of my post...oh well.