Weekend thru Tuesday

On Saturday we had our adoption playgroup. There was a new family but basically it seems that none of the families who are there previously ever come back, which is just a bummer, so it's not like we really get to know people because it's always a rotating set of parents and kids, except us and the 2 people who host it J & G and their kids. Which is really a disappointment. Then that evening we had picked up 3-D glasses at Wal-Mart (weeks earlier for K just to play with) and since nothing else was good on we decided to watch Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds Tour in 3-D. It was sort of a disappointment but we just had fun making fun of each other wearing the 3-D glasses. On Sunday we picked more veggies from the garden. K and I then cooked Squash Puff and Tarragon Butter Tilapia. It was so freakin' good! Monday and Tuesday were sort of lazy days since it's so freakin' hot outside. Nothing like 98 degrees heat with a heat index that makes it 109 outside, along with poor air quality. So basically you walk outside and can't breathe at all. So we have spent our time playing with play dough, working on projects, getting ready for the yard sale we are participating in this weekend and just being together all the time.

5 years

Well this post was suppose to be this heart-felt tribute to my Grandfather but I got pulled away before I could write it. So here it is, a little late but better late than never. It has been 5 years since my Grandpa passed away and today would have been his birthday. I can't tell you how much I miss him, everything about him from his wisdom and amazing knowledge of the stock market to his country humor and his life experiences. I mean how many men can say they left their dream of playing Major League Baseball and headed back home because Farming was a better living back then. Or how many men can say they went quail hunting with Dizzy and Daffy Dean along with other members of the famous Gashouse gang? I have so many stories that swirl around my head and so many things I try to remember so I can make sure to pass along what a treasure my Grandfather was to my daughter and my future children, nieces and nephews. My Brother and I were so lucky that even though my parents were divorced my Mom made a point of fostering a relationship with my Grandparents. And once I was able to drive, we visited them all the time, I swear that sometimes we visited them every weekend. I am so thankful that we were able to have the time and the relationship we had with my Grandpa, that I have so many videos and pictures and memories that are still so vivid and will never be forgotten. I love you Grandpa, Happy Birthday!

Need Your Help

I really need your guys help....well actually my Uncle needs your help. He entered one of his art designs in a contest and now needs people to vote for it, so please spread the word and vote for his design called Hold Fast . I know it sucks that you have to create an account to vote but it would be awesome if he could win.

Funk

Well I think I was in a funk pretty much all week, not sure why other than I just was. Worked on my fall bows this week and finished up 2 large custom bow orders from some local women who like my work. Have had a migraine for the past 2 days primarily caused from the stupid weather that can't make up it's mind and stress. Went yard saleing this morning in search of stuff for my Brother's new apartment. Last week, went to an estate sale and it was fill a paper bag for a $1.00, you wouldn't believe how many awesome pyrex glass dishes and really nice used frying pans I stuffed in that bag. Luckily he doesn't need all of it, so that means I got some new frying pans, which I have been needing for years since my current ones either don't have a handle or they are really loose or the teflon is coming off and it's not safe to cook in them because of the chemicals. I wish I could convey better how really excited I am for new used pans!! Otherwise K and I have had some fun this week, we spent some time in the veggie garden and was excited to find we had some yellowneck squash ready for picking. Then today, K had her first experience with play dough. She wasn't too sure what to make of it but once she realized what we could do with it, she went to town. I actually got her to go down for a nap without any fuss at all because I told her when she wakes up she can play with it some more. She was so excited and actually went into the bedroom by herself and then came back out and told me "time for nap".

picking some yellow neck squash

Our veggies

K's play dough "car" that she made

UGH!

So frustrated, I've been trying to update our private family blog and of course I can't get any pictures posted from this weekend and there is some of the funniest pictures that I want to share. Instead, I decided to hop over here and see if I can post a few pics on here and do an update. Well guess I'll have to try in the morning since I won't have a car (I'll get to that late in the post). The Birthday/Good-Bye party went really well, it turned out to be a small affair which was really, really nice, we had 13 people here. And basically those 13 people are really the people who are always there for us and know they would do anything for us they could. K had so much fun getting to play with her friend, S and cousins, M&M. They played so hard and she was wiped our and wanted to head to bed early last night. Then today we had an 80th Birthday/75th Birthday/55th Wedding Anniversary party for my Grandpa's Sister, C and Brother-in-Law, B. Well of course this is my step-family and we just aren't warmly received at all times. It's helped sort of having K because in their eyes she is the token Adopted-Asian child that I saved from the Communists and that's how they sort of treat it or at least it feels that way. So needless to say these are people we only have contact with maybe 2 or 3 times a year depending on who's getting married, baby showers, etc or if they remember to invite us but usually they leave us off in invite list. Well I'm just frustrated today because of how a handful of people acted, it just made me mad and I know there's nothing I can do about it but still I just wanted to say to a few of them, "what is wrong with you? what did I do to you to make you treat me like I'm white trash?" But instead I just clinched my mouth and made small talk trying to be pleasant because I know saying anything won't help at all. Once we got home, Uncle N was going to his friends houses and about 10 minutes after he left, he calls and asks for Mom and of course I make a smart-a$$ remark about did he crash. Well luckily he didn't crash but the car broke down and of course these repair costs are going to drain us. So N is going to take the van tomorrow, leaving us without a car. Fun, Fun, Fun. Oh and to top it all off, my back is still killing me from being rear-ended, still hurts really bad between the shoulder blades.

K playing in her wading pool on Friday

K and S eating lunch together on Saturday

I turned to the side and I look back and K has her fork and is digging into the top of Uncle N's birthday cake. All I could do was laugh and cut her a slice of cake

A picture of my Aunt C and Uncle B. Aunt C is 16 years old in the picture, so that means Uncle B was 20-21 years old. It was interesting finding that out because I always thought they meet and got married after he returned home from service but instead it was through high school & the service they dated each other.

Family Frustrations

Well spent today working on stuff around the house, we didn't get as much done as we had planned but that seems lately like the norm. My Mom had her doctor's appt for her knee and they want to do surgery. They wanted to do the surgery right away, so sometime next week my Mom's knee is getting cut on. Which just adds to the stress we already have! Otherwise, since we are trying to get stuff done outside on the back porch, K gets to spend her afternoon playing in her wading pool. This way my Mom doesn't have to worry about her wandering around and getting hurt while stuff gets done. She is confined to one space and quite content to play in the wading pool all afternoon. In other news, we ran out of work tonight and they didn't want us to start on any new projects, so I was home by 10pm, which really sucks because my paycheck is gonna be hardly nothing because of the week I've had. Well got to head to bed, having a big going away party for my Brother this weekend and tomorrow I have to make phone calls because supposedly there was quite a few family members who didn't get their invitation by mail/email or personal phone call invite. So now gotta call them to make sure they know they are invited and that this isn't some kind of conspiracy against them. UGH!! My family frustrates me so much. Oh and a few side notes, I only have one rule in my house for my guests and that they are told specifically not to answer my phone. Now my Gram (aka Grandma), is allowed to answer it only if she reads the caller id and it's either one of my aunts/uncles or someone she called's name pops up on the screen. Well my Grandpa today really ticked me off, it seems that he didn't bother to read the caller id or he purposely picked up the phone because he saw her name when my other Grandma called, then he acts really stupid with her, when she asks to talk to me and I was at work. Needless to say there's alot more drama to it but after my Mom told me everything that happened, I just shook my head and said, that's it, no more of this family crap, I'm sick and tired of all of it. So as I said before I'm going to be spending my morning trying to make amends because of stupid petty crap.

She reminds me of a mad scientist in this picture with her hands grasped

Preparing to give me a plate of raw fish, guess the sushi she ate yesterday rubbed off on her imagination

Random Stuff

Well lets see yesterday was a horrible day, on the way to work I was rear-ended. Didn't do any damage to the van, Thank God!! but did hurt my back (really the pain is between my shoulder blades) . I was 20 minutes late to work and they decided to be nasty and since I called off yesterday and was late, they decided to suspend me for a day, effers!!. I was so ticked off when I left but was glad to get home to some tylenol for my back. Today my Grandparents wanted to take us out for lunch, so we went and ate at Grand Buffet VII. We haven't every ate there but it was really good food. K ate so much stuff but her favorite was the Chicken Balls and of course the ice cream for dessert. Well gotta head to work, not looking forward to working in a 95 + degree warehouse tonight.

helping water the new bush that Great-Gram brought us

Can't believe it's Monday

What a day today was. Left way early enough for my interview at "SC" and I really thought I would have at least a good 20 minutes to spare, nope with traffic and road construction got there with 5 minutes to spare, then had to find a parking space and climb 2 flights of stairs (note to self, start running upstairs more often for times like these). But got there before 2pm and that's all that mattered. So when I arrived, they gave me a huge folder of paperwork to complete, which would have been nice if they would have warned me ahead of time because I didn't bring anything except my driver's license and cell phone. I also ended up having to take 3 different tests, would have been nice to know because I could have brushed up on my construction math skills, which I haven't used in say at least 10 years. And still with all this, I wow'd them with my interview and do you wonder why I can say that because that is what the comment was to me, well to be exact it was "Your credentials, your pose, heck everything about you just WOW's us". The one thing that really stuck out in my mind was when they asked me the question "What inspires you?" and of course without hesitation I said "my Family". It actually shocked them and said it was the first time in a very, very long time they heard someone say that because most people say Money. Which I really thought was an interesting, I mean I love money but it doesn't inspire me, my family inspires me and I want to make more money to give them a better life. So basically when I walked out, they said I will need to meet with the Owner and the Owner's daughter (who were stuck on a jobsite). I told him I totally flubbed up my Math tests, told him it's been quite awhile since I really even had to use any sort of complicated math and he still was like "that's ok". We still really want to hire you. My thought is I'm not too sure you will want to hire me if you see my 3 math tests scores :) But anyway even if I don't get hired it did give me a boost of self-confidence that I have been lacking for quite awhile and a drive to keep looking for that job I deserve and not just settle with the one I've got.

I have to say this whole job interview with this company, "SC" has been like a dream, I mean I didn't even apply for this job, I applied for a job in their warehouse over 6 months ago and all of a sudden I get a phone interview for a different position, totally wow that guy and he says I'll be calling you for an interview. Really didn't think that would happen. He calls me on Friday and wants me to come in asap, so go to the interview today and come out with them going we really want to hire you, you wow'd us. It just blows my mind.

In other news, K's Great-Grandparents are in for the week again. And they started spoiling her right away. K ate 5 of G-Gramp's cookies and then G-Gram gave her root beer soda. I just pray she sleeps all night! Otherwise since my interview ran so late, I didn't make it into work. They will probably be ticked off but they will get over it. I mean if there weren't rumors of them changing our work hours to 14 hr shifts, 5 days a week with possible weekends because they are going to lay-off some people (yep the company who hasn't laid anyone off in the history of the company is going to do this) then I would have tried harder to get to work. So I think staying for the interviews at "SC", actually honestly I felt deep down that I was suppose to be there interviewing, like something divine had stepped in and I sure wasn't going to disobey the feelings I was having. So I truly believe I was in the right place at the right time for once in my life, which there are only a few times in your life that this happens and this was one of them. So much more going on that I want to blog about but need to get to bed because K has Physical Therapy in the morning.

Sunday

Can't believe it's been almost a week since I last blogged. Just been busy and tired and trying to find some family time. Spent today going through boxes from when we moved, there is just so much stuff but that's what happens when you combine 3 households. The thing is, that even though we made a huge dent in the mounds and mounds of boxes, we are not even close to being done. I go for a job interview tomorrow, they actually contacted me right before the 4th of July holiday and tomorrow I meet with the Owner of the company. Then right after I have the interview, I have to head into work, which I'm not looking forward too. There is just so much petty crap that goes on there and I'm just freakin' sick of it already. I sometimes wish I was lucky enough to be a Stay or Work at home Mom, I really miss getting to spend my days and nights with K. But there is no man on the horizon, well I take that back, there sort of is, but it's just casual chit chat, well actually it's trivia chat right now but even so, I wouldn't get serious for a guy just so I could be a stay at home mom, he really would have to be Mr. Right. As for K, she is doing well, just in the past two weeks she has gotten so much better with things, she can tell you what most colors are, can count to 10 (not always in the correct order), she can spell her name and a few other easy words, she recognizes most letters and she loves to sing, any toy that plays songs, she will listen to the once and then play them again and can sing the words to them. It's pretty amazing. Well I'm off to bed, it's almost 11p and that's way to late for all I have to get done tomorrow.

Swimming & Raining

Well I'm still feeling yucky, my stomach was all over the place last night and today. K had PT this morning and things went well. They did work on a few Occupational therapy things because the Developmental therapist thinks she is having trouble doing things mid-line on her body. So our PT worked with K putting beads onto a string holding it in the middle of her body, of course K performs the task without any problems and the PT just looks at me and we both just shrug our shoulders. But either way we decided that we are still having the OT come out and do an evaluation just to be on the safe side. This afternoon K went outside and played in her wading pool before the heat thunderstorms moved in. The weather tonight has been just awful and it's suppose to be this way the rest of the week.

Monday's Yuck

Well I'm at home with some sort of stomach virus. I hadn't been feeling good all day but decided to try and go to work, I was about halfway there when I got sick and it wasn't pretty. So I slowly made my way home, took a slew of drugs and curled up on the couch for a short time before K decided she wanted to go outside and swim. So I drug myself off the couch and into a chair outside, so she could have some fun. So she's now in bed and I can't sleep because my stomach is doing somersaults.

Lazy Sunday

Well I should be downstairs doing my dishes and cleaning while K is taking her nap but instead I'm up here cruising the internet. We started this year trying to become more green in our daily life. I mean we have always recycled, even before it became cool and we are trying harder to conserve more energy and water around the house. Of course my vaccum cleaner blew up a few weeks ago, so I've been on a search for a new green one and I really love that this one Dirt Devil
it earned an energy star, who cool is that, it's the first vaccum ever to earn one. Too bad it's so freakin expensive.

Happy Independence Day!

We had a wonderful July 4th filled with lots and lots of family time. We headed into the city to watch the 131st annual VP parade. We had so much fun watching the floats, giant balloons and bands. We also got to see Drake Bell, who is now known as a singer but before that he was in the Jerry Maguire movie and the Josh & Drake show on Nick. After the parade was over, we walked over to the park and spent some time there before heading to our car and onto home. Once home, I made/cooked pork steaks, baked beans, potato salad and root beer floats, you can't get anymore American than that menu! We spent some time playing football outside with my brother, mom, K and myself and spent the rest of the evening together. It was such a great day, even with the sunburn on my upper arms.

SIGNS

As you can tell from most of my pictures, I try my best not to post a picture of my daughter looking at the camera because that way you really don't know what she looks like. I do this because her adoption was filled with threats, which I cannot go into for now. But these pictures I took yesterday were just too freakin funny not to post. While I was cooking lunch and before I headed off to work. I was watching K, she would walk behind my stove (where there is a storage area and then I would see her walk into the living room coffee table. She did this over and over and over. Finally I asked her what she was doing and showed me the water bottle. I said, Oh so your getting a drink and she tells me no, for Uncle. So after we were done cooking, K made sure to show me how she had the water bottles lined up all over the place. When Grandma came down to eat, K showed her also the water bottles. So then all my Mom and I could think was of the movie Signs with Mel Gibson, where the little girl leaves the water glasses all over and at the end of the movie the water kills the aliens. So after I had left for work, my Mom took K out to the garden and K walked up and down the corn. Hopefully we won't be seeing any crop circles out there.