Where Should We Put A Hot Tub, If We Could Afford One?

I'm sick.  I woke up yesterday morning after a night of nausea feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  This morning (after only sleeping about five hours) I woke up with swollen, itchy eyes, sneezing, and a nice cough.  I am about ready to crawl back into bed.  I think another day of laziness might just be what the doctor ordered.

Junior has been keeping the kids busy, which mean they haven't been bothering me.  The girls have been cleaning their room and doing laundry, while Ryan helps Junior clean up the yard.  I have to admit to being impressed, too.  The guys have raked all the leaves and trash up, and put everything in the shed where it belongs.  Our house seems to be where everyone's trash ends up when the wind blows, which means it is always messy looking.  Junior has spoken to our maintenance guys about doing some improvements outside, like repainting the outside of the house and maybe adding on to the front porch.  I have always wanted a porch where we could put a table and chairs, and maybe our grill, but the one we have is no where near big enough for that.  The maintenance guy said we could do whatever we wanted, as long as it was up to code, so when we get some extra money, Junior will start construction.  I have a feeling he is going to spend the next couple of weeks checking out covered patio design ideas online before we decide exactly what we want to do.   If he gets his way, we'll have a hot tub and big screen television out there.  I am not opposed to this, but I don't want a hot tub by my front door.  Maybe I can convince him that he needs to extend the side porch.  The only problem with that is that the side porch is right by the road, which means we would have absolutely no privacy.  The ideal would be building a back porch, but we don't have a back door, so that's out of the question. 

Maybe we'll just wait until we can afford to buy a place of our own before we put in a hot tub.

Thank You All

I can not express how much your kinds words about Junior's dad's passing mean to us.  It's been a rough week, but I think it's getting easier for him every day.  We are going to go to therapy every week (instead of every other week) for a little while, and hopefully that will help Junior work through some of his anger and pain.  Thankfully, his work has been extremely supportive, allowing him to take this entire week off.  He'll go back to work on Monday. 

I think one of he hardest things for him was that there was no funeral or memorial of any kind.  His brother and sister arranged for him to be cremated, and they are going to scatter his ashes at his favorite fishing hole.  We didn't even expect there to be an obituary in the paper, but yesterday there was a very small one.  I have been trying to keep Junior busy, so we went out to lunch, and I bought a newspaper, not expecting to find anything.  Of course, seeing it in black and white was hard for him, but it also confirmed it for him.  He was just saying yesterday morning how he didn't feel like it was real because he didn't see anything for himself.  Now that he has, I think it will be easier for him to move on.  Make sense?

Please continue to keep him in your prayers.  I know he will be just fine, in time.  He doesn't want to grieve for a man who was nothing but mean to him, but it's human nature.  He was still his dad. 

Kitchen Remodeling

For the past four months or so, my husband has been my mom's slave on weekends.  She decided that she wanted to redo her kitchen, and asked Junior to do it.  This is what it looked like before:

And this is what it looked like Thanksgiving Day:

Big difference, right?  He removed all the cabinets, and completely rebuilt the bottom ones.  He also left off the bar and made an island instead.  I think that is my favorite part of the entire kitchen.  It has huge doors that open up the entire front side, and inside there is a shelf.  All my mom's small appliances and pots and things fit in there perfectly.  She didn't want upper cabinets put back up, so Junior made her some shelves.  You can probably tell that there are still things left to do...the molding isn't finished, and the floor needs some tiles replaced.  Junior replaced the ceiling fan and the light fixture above the sink, too.  I think the only things he didn't replace were the Kitchen Doors.  

He also redid the dining room walls.  Here is a before shot:

And here's what it looks like now:

Not bad, right?  I love the blue my mom picked out.  It's so bright.  The kitchen has been put on hold until after Christmas, so Junior is finally able to relax a little on the weekends.  I think he's earned it!

My Day. It Was A Long, But Good One

Brandi is still sick.  Well, I say sick because she is running a fever, but she has no other symptoms.  When I ask how she feels, she says nothing hurts (ears, throat, chest, stomach), she just doesn't feel good.  For a while this afternoon, her fever broke, and I thought she was doing better.  She even got in the pool for awhile.  When we got back home, her temp was back to 101.7.  I'm thinking we might just hang out at home tomorrow and let her, and Junior, start feeling better.

Junior's hand is looking better.  It is in no way looking good, but it look better than it did yesterday.  This is a good thing, because it means he won't go in for surgery on Monday.  Huge sigh of relief.  I think the high dose of antibiotics is doing the trick.  He is still hurting, but the pain medicine is making it bearable.

I spent today with my mom, sister, Grandmother, and my favorite aunt.  I was so close to her growing up, and it was wonderful to spend time with her today.  She has to fly back to Florida in the morning, so I dragged Brandi over to my mom's house and set her up in bed with her movies while I visited.  Do I get the bad mom award for that?  I am not usually emotional, but I cried when I saw my Aunt today.  It's been about 6 years since I have seen her.  When I was little, I used to spend weeks at a time at her house.  If we had a vacation from school, I was at her house.  During the summer, I spent weeks on end over there.  She is the only person in the world still allowed to call me Jenny.

I guess that's about it.  I am beat, and ready for bed.  I know I have said this before, but swimming, and being in the sun, wears me out!

When It Rains, It Freakin' Pours!

Junior's hand is a mess.  He had to go back to the ER this morning to have it checked, and the doctor didn't like the way it looked.  He didn't think the antibiotic was working well, and Junior lost some range of motion in his hand, so the doctor sent him to a specialist.

The specialist really didn't like the way it looks.  He put Junior on another antibiotic (a very high dosage) and finally gave the poor guy some pain medicine.  He also re-packed the wound, and showed Junior how to do it himself, because between now and Monday, Junior has to pull the old dressing out and put in a new one, twice a day.  We had to get a special (aka expensive) medicated gauze to go into the wound.  If the medicine doesn't kick in over the weekend, Junior is looking at having surgery Monday morning.

Fun, right?  The poor guy is freaking out, and I can't blame him.  They are talking about going in and scraping out the infection.  I used a black sharpie to outline the redness today, that way we will know for sure if there is any improvement.  I remember them doing the same thing to my boob.  I am hoping and praying that by tomorrow we see it getting better, and that there is real improvement by Sunday.  If you find it in your heart, send up a little prayer too. It would be greatly appreciated.

To top off today, Brandi decided to get sick.  She is running a fever (101.2) and not feeling great.  I was supposed to babysit my nephew in the morning, and my grandmother and aunt are coming in tomorrow, too.  If she still has a fever in the morning, we won't be able to go see them.  I'm not to worried about seeing my grandmother, because she will be here all week.  My aunt is leaving on Sunday, though, and I really wanted to see her.

We are also supposed to go to my dad's house on father's Day, but I am not too sure if Junior will be up to socializing.  Right now, he is in a drug induced sleep (thank you lortab!), and I think he wants to stay that way.  I can't blame the guy, though.  If there was gauze stuffed into a cut on my hand, I'd be wanting to sleep away the pain, too.

I am off to get some work done, and maybe go take Brandi to bed.  She is looking pretty pitiful. :(

My Poor Husband

Recently, my husband cut his hand.  He doesn't remember exactly how it happened, but he thinks it was when he was cutting down trees at my mom's house.  The cut is on the top of his hand, and a couple of days ago, he started complaining about it hurting and swelling.  Yesterday, he decided that he needed to do something about it, so against my advice, he tried to stick a needle into it. 

Sure enough, all kinds of gross stuff came out, but it didn't help with the pain.  Today at work, he noticed he couldn't close his fist.  His hand was that swollen.  So he left work and headed to the ER.  (these are the times I wish we had insurance...he could have just gone to a regular doctor)  A few hours later he was home, and this is what his hand now looks like.  Turns out he has a nice little staph infection, so they numbed him up, cut it open, drained it, stuck gauze into the hole with a drainage tube, and he is out of work until he goes back to the ER on Friday for them to take all that crap out of it and see if it's healing.  He is also on antibiotics.  The doctor didn't give him anything for pain, but luckily we had some leftover painkillers from Brandi's last ear infection, so for now he is sleeping. 

Drug induced sleep, but at least he is resting. 

A New Knife For Junior

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Swiss Army. All opinions are 100% mine.
I have shared many, many stories about my husband, Junior, since I started this blog.  Those of you who have paid attention know that he is a jack of all trades.   He will drop everything to help out a friend, and he doesn't think twice about getting dirty to get the job done.  Right now, he is transforming a lean-to at my mom's house into a storage shed for pool supplies.  I have pictures I will post as soon as the job is completed, so I can show before and after.

Because he is so handy, Junior has just about every tool known to man.  He carries them around in the van, so he is always prepared if an emergency arises.  The only problem with this is when he takes Ryan fishing, and they need a knife or a saw or something, Ryan has to run back to the van to get it.  You're probably asking why they need a saw, right?  Well, Ryan told me the last time they went night fishing, they were cutting down small trees and burning them in a huge fire.  Junior didn't have a saw to get the branches and twigs small enough, so they had to break them by hand.  This year for Father's Day, I want to get him a Dual Pro X Swiss army knife so that he will be prepared, even when he is fishing. 

I also want him to become a fan of the Share the Adventure Facebook Page, where he can participate in Share the Adventure for a chance to win great products and compete for a $25,000 Ultimate Adventure. You should fan them too, so you can join in the fun. 

Live Bee Removal Is The Way I'd Go

 There are very few things in this world that scare my husband.  He will hunt down strange noises, kill big hairy spiders, and clean up when the kids get sick in bed.  But put a bee anywhere within a hundred feet of him, and he completely freaks out. 

You see, a couple of years ago, he got stung on his stomach.  Instead of stinging for a little while and going away, he developed this huge knot that didn't go away for months.  As much as I begged him to have it looked at, he refused, because he is a man.  He decided that he must be allergic to them, and has become this giant baby every time a bee comes around. 

The other day, while we were making the picnic table for my mom, we saw a lot of bees flying around.  I am a firm believer in "if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone".  Not Junior, though,  He was ready to call Bee Removal Orange County and have them come all the way here to find the hive and get rid of it.   Thankfully this particular company does live removals, because I would hate for all the bees to be killed.  I mean, it's not their fault that my husband is scared of them. 

Horseshoes And Branches And Eyes, Oh My!

Consider yourself warned...this may turn into a really long post.  Ready?

I feel like it has been forever since I have been on here, but I think that is just because I had a very busy weekend, which continued into today.  Let me start at the beginning....

A couple of weeks ago, Junior build a horse shoe, um, what do you even call it?  Let's just say he build the boxes with the sand that you use to play horseshoes at my mom's house.  It is between her pool (that's in the fence on the left in the picture) and the big trees that line the road to the right.  It came out great, and we all love playing whenever we go over there. (which is every weekend here lately) 

Yesterday, we were over there for mother's Day, and Ryan wanted to play.  My sister Colleen and I decided to play with him, but we needed a 4th.  We convinced Kasi to play with us, and while she was cleaning up the game we were playing, Colleen and I took some practice throws.

Well, I threw one of the horseshoes and it rolls into the trees.  And we couldn't find it.  All of us were looking for about 30 minutes, and we never found it.  It was like it disappeared.  But, while we were looking, Junior ended up hitting himself in the eye with a tree limb.  Of course, being a "man", he refused to go to the ER and have it looked at, even though he couldn't see out of it properly.  (everything was blurry)  For the rest of the day, no matter how much we begged and yelled at him, he refused to go, even though his vision never returned to normal.

So, when I woke him up at 2 this morning, he said he was going to go to the ER because he still couldn't see right, and his eye was really, really hurting him.  I told him to call me when he left the ER and tell me what they said.  He ended up waking me up before he left, saying his eye was okay so he was just going to go ahead and go to work. 

I get the kids off to school and crawl back in bed.  (I didn't sleep well all weekend and I was exhausted!)  Not an hour later, Junior wakes me up saying he left work because the lights were killing his eye, and he was wanting me to go with him to the ER.  So I drag my fat behind out of bed and off we go.  We finally got into a room around 9am, and that is when the waiting started.  Finally, around 11:15, the doctor came in.  He looked in Junior's eye, and said he didn't see anything, but it was definitely irritated, and his eyeball itself looked swollen.  He put some numbing medicine in it (which Junior said was wonderful) and then some dye, and looked again to see if he could see any scratches.  He said he still didn't see anything, but he thought that Junior should see a real eye doctor just to make sure.  I told the doctor the reason we were in the ER to begin with was because we didn't have insurance, or any money, so I was worried about seeing an eye doctor.  The ER doc called anyway, and assured us that the eye doctor would see us anyway.

So we drive there (he was actually waiting for us) and when we get there, I start filling out the paperwork.  The receptionist comes over and says that we needed to pay $80 before we could see the doctor.  We were like, um, the ER said you would work with us because we didn't have any money right now, and they said that they were.  Um, well, we don;t have $80, so I guess we'll just go back to the ER and see what they can do. 

So off we go back to the ER, and luckily the receptionist there let us walk right back and talk to the nurse we jut had.  We explained what happened to her, and she said to go back to the room we were in, and she would send in the doctor when he came out of the room he was in.

When he came back in he room, he was clearly ticked.  We explained that we didn't have the money to see the eye doctor, and he said that he really was working with us, because it would normally cost over $300 for the exam.  To which I replied, "when you don't have $80, it's not really working with us".  He said he understood, and handed Junior a prescription for Lortab.  I asked if there was anything else he needed, like antibiotic drops or something, and he said the only thing Junior needed was to see the eye doctor.  By now I was starting to get ticked.  I KNOW that he wasn't an eye expert, but if he didn't see any scratches with all the tests he did, what exactly did he think the eye doctor would find?  I asked if we needed to patch it or something, and he said no.  I asked if there was ANYTHING we could do to make Junior more comfortable, and he said to go home and sit in a dark room. 

As we were leaving, he did say that he was 99% sure that Junior's eye would be fine in a couple of days.  If not, we should go back to the ER.  I felt like asking him what they would do then, because really, if they didn't see anything wrong today, what are the going to find in a few days? 

I know it's hard for people who don't live paycheck to paycheck to understand how difficult it is when something like this happens.  If we had money, we wouldn't have gone to the ER to begin with.  We would have went to our regular doctor.  Now, please don't think that I was expecting the eye doctor to see us for free.  That is is no way true.  We just needed to wait until Junior gets paid on Friday before we could give them a payment.  I don't expect handouts.

So, the end of this story is Junior blissfully sleeping pain free, thanks to the pain medicine.  I am still exhausted, and I still have so much to do before we leave for our "girls weekend" trip this Thursday.  I was going to go to bed early, but then I remembered that Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara is on tonight, and I have to stay up for those.

I am hoping that I can catch up on my sleep tomorrow, after the kids get on the bus. 

I Almost Killed Him. Really. He Was Almost Dead.

This past weekend, the weather was horrible.  It was hot.  And Muggy.  You know how it gets when it is hard to breathe because they air is so heavy?  That was what it was like, and I hated every second of it.  Luckily, I was at my mom's Saturday, and except for a trip to Walmart and a little walk to settle my niece once the sun went down, we pretty much stayed inside.  Which was nice.  The girls were with me, and Ryan and Junior were off doing God know what for God knows who.

They were supposed to meet us at my mom's house for supper, but as usual, they were running late.  I finally got in touch with them around 8, and they were just finishing up working on a co-worker's car.  They were home, getting read to leave.  I told them to hurry, because the baby was sleeping (my mom was babysitting for the weekend) and I was ready to get home.

They finally show up, and we headed home.  On the way, we ran to Walmart so Junior could get something...I don't even remember what...so we didn't get home until after 10pm.  As we pulled into the driveway, I could see that my front door was standing wide open.

We don't have a screen door (one was supposed to be put on, but the maintenance guy hasn't gotten around to it yet) so my house was on display for the entire world.  All the lights were on, so I started freakin' out, thinking we had been robbed.  Junior told me and the kids to stay in the car while he checked it out.

Not a chance.

I went in with him, and we searched every room, and everything was as it should be.  Ryan's laptop was sitting on the end table right inside the door, so I knew if someone had broken in, that would have been gone.

So I turned and looked at my wonderful husband.

He says to me, "well, we were rushing, so we probably left it open".

This is where I almost killed him.  Not only did he leave our home vulnerable to whoever wanted to come in, but he let all the muggy, hot, disgusting weather into my house.  He could have ruined mine and Ryan's computers.  It took hours for me to cool the house back down, and even today I can still feel the mugginess in here.  But, like everything else, I can't stay mad for long, and I know he didn't do it on purpose.  But still.

He's a grown man.  He should know to shut (and LOCK) the front door when he leaves.

Men.  What can you do?

Remember Photo Booths?

 Check out this picture of Junior and I.  We look so young.  This picture was taken in 1995 on one of our first dates.  It's crazy to think that it's been 15 years since then.  Man, I was really rocking those bangs and huge eyeglasses!  It wasn't long after this that Junior grew his beard, and he hasn't shaved it off since.

We took this picture in one of those photo booths at our local mall.  You know the ones, where you jump in and close the curtain, feed it $2, and it snaps a picture. It wasn't one of the ones that gives you a strip of different poses.  This one gave you one Polaroid.

I haven't seen a photo booth in a long time, and got to wondering if they were still around.  I couldn't find one in any local malls, but I did find the traveling photo booth .  Unfortunately, they do not have a vendor anywhere in my area, but if you live where they do have one, imagine all the fun you could have.   I bet that if you rented one of these for your wedding day, your guests would have a ball.  Sweet 16 parties and proms would be great events, too.  I think anywhere teens are, one of these photo booths would be a hit. 

I wish I could find one to rent for Kasi's birthday.  Thirteen year old girls would LOVE this.

A Birthday Dinner To Remember

Sunday is Junior's birthday. He is going to be 44 years old. We decided to celebrate his birthday tonight, because he will be working on a car over the weekend. The kids were out of school today (teacher workday) so when Junior got off at 1, we headed out. We had to pay a few bills, and then we were going to eat out.

It's kind of our tradition that the birthday boy (or girl) gets to pick where they want to eat on their special day. Junior couldn't decide where to go, so we drove aimlessly towards Gaffney (SC). When we got there, he decided that he wanted to eat at a fish camp in Shelby (NC) that he used to go to as a kid. I love riding in the car, so the 40 minutes it took us to get there didn't bother me, but the kids were getting restless. We finally get there, and go in.

It was so expensive! We spent more than I had planned, but it was for his birthday, so it's all good. The food was great - except for my calabash chicken. Now, for those of you who have never heard of a fish camp (I didn't until I moved down south) it is basically just a seafood restaurant. The girls and I ate chicken because we don't eat fish, and Junior and Ryan had fish. My chicken was chewy (not good at all) so the waitress brought me a different type, and it was 100 times better.

Let me tell you about our waitress. She was the sweetest old lady I have met in a while. While we were ordering, Junior was debating getting the oyster stew (ewww...), and I told him to go ahead and get it because it was his birthday. The waitress asked how old he was, and he said 21 and holding. She laughed and said that when you get to be her age, you love telling people how old you are, because it is an accomplishment. (she will be 70 in April) She told us her name, and asked what Junior's was, then walked off to put our order in.
Not two minutes later, the manager announces over the intercom that everyone in the restaurant wish Junior a happy birthday. I thought he was going to die! Everyone seated nearby of course wished him a happy birthday...but it gets better.

This guy:

came to our table and sang happy birthday to him! The kids and I were laughing so hard! It was great! Junior vowed never to go out with us in public again. I still hold to the fact that i didn't tell them to do any of that. It was all our 70 year old waitresses idea.

I also told Junior that from now on, where ever we go, I am going to casually mention that it is his birthday, just to see what happens.!

More Sickness

Junior came home from work sick today. I was hoping and praying that what Kasi had at the beginning of the week had left the house, but apparently not. Now I am hoping and praying that the rest of us don't get it, even as I sit her feeling a little nauseous myself. I don't think I am going to make it through the night without getting sick myself.

We shall see.

I hated that Junior had to drive home feeling like he did. It's a good thing he didn't wreck the van. That would have been bad, considering we just paid the thing off. I wouldn't want to have to consider using an autobody irvine repair shop to have it fixed while Junior recuperates. He would hate that. I mean, he can't even get off the couch to refill his drink, but he will go out and work on the van.

Men and their priorities.

Thankfully a family friend brought over some ginger ale and soup, complete with crackers. He even offered to take Junior to the hospital, which he declined. My mom just got over that nasty norovirus, so I am pretty sure that is what Junior has. He should be feeling better in a day or so. Brandi was invited to a birthday party this weekend, and I really wanted her to go. But, if we are sick, that's not going to be possible.

She is going to be pretty disappointed.

She Can Be Sweet....Who Knew!?!

After supper tonight, I fixed Junior a plate to take with him to work tomorrow. I left it on the table to cool down a little before I stuck it in the fridge. When I went to put it up, I saw this note. Seems Brandi got a hold of his lunch, and left him a little surprise.

Under the note is a twizzler. How sweet is that?

The Bug Has Hit Our House

Last week, my mom and sister both got "the bug". It seems this virus is everywhere, knocking people on their butts pretty quickly. They were feeling better over the weekend, so we got together with them on both Saturday and Sunday. I guess they wanted to share with us, because Kasi got it two nights ago, and spent yesterday on the couch with a pretty high fever. Thankfully, she is feeling a little better today, and really wants to go back to school tomorrow. Imagine that, a kid who wants to go to school.

I called my mom this morning, and she said she has it again, only worse. I am sitting here praying that no one else in my house gets it, and my mom is struck with it twice. Not good.

Hopefully, Junior and I won't get it. I don't want him to end up having to be out of work, and I find it hard to run this house when I am sick. Another concern is that we do not have health insurance. The kids are covered by Medicaid, but Junior and I have nothing. If we need to see a doctor, it's a trip to the emergency room that costs way too much money. We have looked into getting insurance, but what they offer through Junior's work is outrageous. Even for just the two of us, it is too expensive. I have heard good things about Blue Cross Blue Shield, and have been on Junior to call them and see how much a policy will be for us. It has been years since we have had insurance, and the older we get, the more I worry about something serious happening to us. Junior doesn't come from a very good gene pool, as both of his parents fought cancer in their fifties. He is almost 44 now, and if the time comes that he has some health issues, I want us to be covered.

Of course, finding the right policy with the right provider is going to take some time, and a lot of research. But, in the end, it will be worth it.

Repossession

My husband has lost his mind. Seriously. He has completely and totally gone insane.

You see, he has decided that he needs to find a part time job for Friday and Saturday nights. At first, he thought bouncing was a good idea. I put a stop to that one immediately. There is no way he needs to be at a club in the early morning hours, breaking up fights between people who are most likely packing weapons. Thankfully, he finally agreed that this was a bad idea.

So now he has decided that he wants to repossess cars. This is something he has done in the past, though it was before I ever met him. He has experience using tow straps and grade 70 chains, but I still think this is a job where he will encounter some not so nice people. I watch Operation Repo. I know what happens when the car owners show up. The problem is that no matter how many times I tell him I don't want him to do it, he won't listen. He claims that he knows enough about wire rope slings and dealing with people, that he can handle whatever comes his way.

Yeah, right. My only hope now is that the guy he wants to work for doesn't call.

December 22, 1994

On this day, fifteen years ago, I met my husband. I know I have told this story before, but for those of you who are new, I am going to share it again. For those of you who are regulars, you'll have to suffer through it one more time! lol!

I had moved to SC from NY in April of that year, after a three and a half year long relationship ended. I was broken hearted, and had no idea what direction my life was going to take. I was depressed, and spent the next few months just moping around my moms house. I finally got a job working fast food, and made some great friends. A few of these friends decided it was time for me to find someone new, and they made it their mission to make that happen. The first guy I was set up with was my age, and had a little boy. We talked on the phone for a few weeks before we ever met, and we got along great. We had a lot in common, and I was looking forward to spending time with him. I think it was at this point where I finally realized what it's like for people who hook up online in free vampire chat rooms or on dating sites. I was amazed that I could get to know someone so well by just talking to them, and never actually meeting them.

Well, a few weeks later, he decided to come to where I work, so we could meet face to face. Now, back then I was a skinny minnie with a nice figure (I had just lost about 50 pounds) and I was very confident. He comes in the store, and we "met", and then he left.

And he never called me again.

To this day I am still baffled, because I am not by any means ugly (tooting my own horn here). The friend who set us up claims that he drove by my moms house after he left the store, and decided that I was too "rich" for him. He didn't think he would fit into my world. Yeah, okay. I was working fast food and living in my moms house! I was not rich by any stretch of the imagination. But, whatever. It was his loss, and it was not soon after this that I met my husband.

When my best friend at the time decided she knew the perfect guy for me, I was hesitant. I mean, I had just been "dumped" by a guy right after he got a look at me, and I didn't really want to go through that again. But, she was persistent, and a week later Junior called me. He wanted to meet at a bar, and I told him I didn't drive. He laughed, and then agreed to pick me up. We had a nice time at the bar, talking, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I had never been a big drinker, and as most of you know, my husband used to be an alcoholic. So we left there, and just drove around talking.

After that night, we were pretty much inseparable. His family wasn't exactly welcoming to me, and some of my family had issues with him. To be honest, he brought that on himself, and has been paying for it for the last fifteen years. He proposed on my birthday in February, and it was that night that we conceived Ryan. (I am sure you were dying to know that!) We were married on June 22, 1995, exactly six months after we met. It was a small, civil ceremony at the courthouse, because I was pretty pregnant by then. People said we wouldn't last a year, and here we are, fifteen years and three kids later, still going strong. Not bad for a blind date, right?

So when people tell me they met their significant others online, in chat rooms, or on a blind date, I get it. I know it's possible to find the one you are meant to be with in an unconventional way.

I'm living proof of that!

Boo And Her Daddy

Here's another shot from Kasi's concert the other night. This is one of those rare moments where Brandi is not beating up on Junior, and actually showing her affection. Usually, the two of them are picking at each other mercilessly, and to be honest, it is quite amusing. The combination of insults they throw at each other crack me up. People who don't know us think they're crazy, but that's okay.

Those who do know us think they are crazy, too, but they love us anyway!

Junior And I

I have very few pictures of Junior and I together. Brandi took this one at Missy's house tonight, and I think it came out pretty good. I had having my picture taken, so it is rare that I willingly allow it. But, since it was for Brandi, I did it. And the end result was a pretty decent picture.

Fridge Lockers

Junior has been having a problem at work, and it is starting to get old. There is one person stealing everyone else's lunches. The associates are pretty sure they know who it is, but they can not prove it. I was a little ticked when this person stole Junior's lunch plate, which was from tupperware and cost about $15.

When I saw this little contraption online, I thought of Junior immediately. It's called the Fridge Locker, and it will keep unwanted fingers away from your food. You can find these at www.FridgeLocker.com. They would also be perfect for dorm rooms, or even at home for those special snack you want to keep for yourself.

I think I might get Junior one for Christmas. He is pretty hard to shop for, and this is something he can definitely use.