QotW

(Listening to 'All The Right Moves' by OneRepublic in the car and talking to MG)

"This song makes me happier. This song makes me tougher. When I listen to it, when you beat me up I can beat you up. When you beat me up I won't cry."

More Awesomness...

If you will recall, I lost my job at the end of last May. I went through all of the steps to file for unemployment, and filed a few claims in June-July. Every notification I got after a claim filing showed how much I could get and then that I actually got - nothing. After a few filings I started getting my GI Bill, and so stopped filing claims. Didn't need it and didn't want to have to pretend to look for a job. :)

This week I got a stack of mail and most of it was junk, so I tossed it in a corner and finally got to it this morning. There was an envelope from the Texas unemployment people, and I glanced at it and then tore it up and tossed it. Then I stopped and had to dig it back out of the garbage to look at it again. (Luckily my garbage is all paper!) It was the form that told how much my compensation was and that they reported it to the IRS, etc..

What? This is weird because I never got any money! So, I went onto the website and finally found where I can go into my account. It showed that I got paid back in July. Um, no I didn't.

Then I found a number for the Chase Bank division that handles the accounts. I called and the lovely lady (she really was nice) looked up my info and, lo and behold, I really did get paid in July 2009! There has been several hundred bucks sitting in an account with my name on it for seven months that I knew nothing about! The bank lady is sending me a new card so I can get to it.

How awesome is that? Thank you, Jesus!

QotW 2

As MB was looking at a big dinosaur book and pointing at the pictures:

"This is the dinosaur earth and this is our earth. Because Jesus killed all the dinosaurs. But maybe some are still alive. Like the T-Rex, but the T-Rex can never die."

Quote of the Week

As MB sits on the bathroom floor putting on his jammies and chattering away about random things...

"Mommy, is poop clean?"

Um...

"Poop is shiny when it comes out of your butt, but it's not shiny when it's in the toilet."

Thank you, son, for that wonderful revelation on pooping.

Misery to Come

I WAS going to post a funny story about MB, but instead...

Got another call from the Asst Principal at the school. Once again, my children were misbehaving on the bus. The list is:

Running in the aisles
Climbing over the seats
Shoving other children
Taking water bottles from other children as they are drinking from them
Taking backpacks and other things from other children
Obviously not listening to the bus driver

WELL, THIS morning, after listing all of these things, Mr. AP got to the fun part. It seems MB and MG decided to have an all-out brawl with each other. Fists flying and so on. Now, they are suspended from riding the bus for TWO WEEKS.

Tonight they are obviously going to get in trouble - yet another talk, spankings and early bed. They are also going to have their first groundings - no TV (they don't watch too much), no video games (or even watching others play - this will be the hard one for them), no playing with friends, no treats. They will be reminded EVERY time they ask and don't get something why.

Oh, yes. Bring the misery.

Quotes of the Week

(As we drank hot chocolate at Starbucks, he wanted a straw. We told him you don't drink hot chocolate with a straw, but you can suck it through the little hole in the lid.)
"If I sip too much from the hole, it burns my ears, and my throat."


(When discussing Santa and his love of cookies.)
"Did you know that Santa is estracted (translation: attracted) to cookies? That's why he's fat. He's very estracted to cookies."

"When I chew the blueberries on this side of my mouth, it tastes like a blueberry. But when I chew the blueberries on the other side of mouth, it tastes like a raspberry, not a blueberry."

Some Reflection

Well, to say this year has been interesting would be an understatement of immense proportions.

For a brief moment, I felt that - for the first time in my adult life - I had what I'd always wanted. No, I wasn't even close to rich, but I had a job. I wasn't engaged or married, but I had someone that might be. My family was together, we were happy and healthy and life was going along.

Then, it all went away. Job, special, family - all ripped from me. I've cried more in the last few months than I have in years. I've prayed and asked what the point of it was? In fact, just typing about it is difficult.

What I finally discovered.... well, not discovered, exactly, because I've always known.... So, I finally got it into my heart that God is good.

In what was the lowest point of the year, after having a "conversation" (and I use the term loosely), it finally hit me in my gut and heart that He is here. He won't leave or forsake me. And, for the first time in my adult life, I had peace about all the shtuff that my life was going through.

I'm still not rich. I'm still alone. My family will never be the same. I still cry a lot (being a girl sucks sometimes!). But, God is good. And as this year closes, I refuse to let go of the tiny thread of hope that's left in me and to trust that He will make make it ok.

Happy New Year!