Out of sight, out of mind...well not exactly

After work, Cole and went to Wallyworld so I could get an oil change and do some quick shopping. One of the things I was looking for was a bill organizer. I found what I was looking for. After we got home, I started trying to decide where to put it. I pay all of my bills on-line so the natural place would be beside the computer. However, the computer is in Cole's room and is used by my brother and his friends. Not that I think they'd be interested, but it's my personal business and contains personal info. I nixed that idea. Well, that pretty much left somewhere in my room to hang it. I sat on bed and looked around. Only one problem with that idea. I already have insomnia. I don't think laying on my bed and looking at the bills to be paid will help with that any. Besides credit card statements and utility bills aren't exactly the ambiance I was going for in my room. So I moved onto my bathroom. A even stranger place to hang a bill organizer. However, my file cabinet is in my closet in the bathroom, so it makes some sense. But, still it wasn't exactly something I wanted to look at every time I stepped through the bathroom door. So, I finally decided to hang it on the wall behind the bathroom door. Having a four-year old, three cats, and a dog I rarely if ever can close the bathroom door anyway. So, it's pretty much out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, almost. Yes, this very insignificant decision took me at least 30 minutes to make. It is a wonder I ever get anything done.

Where did the weekend go?

Well, it is Sunday evening and once again I can't believe the weekend flew by so fast. Friday I got out of work at 3:30. It was so nice. I have had to work late on Friday for so many years, I forgot how nice leaving early on Friday, can be. After a quick stop at the grocery store, Cole and I were home a little after 4:00 pm. I came home and was going to throw on some shorts and decided what the heck, it is no one here but us, so I got into my PJ's to make us dinner. We had a quiet and relaxing night.

Saturday we went swimming for a few hours with my mom. Afterwards, Cole went to my mom's house for a few hours. He always wants to go home with her after swimming (even when we went to the beach in Hawaii, he'd say Mommy I want to go to Granny's house later). I took a nice long shower, picked up the house, and got to read for a while, uninterrupted. Later, my parents picked me up and we went to dinner. Then Cole and I went bowling with Leah. He was so excited and had the best time. It was funny watching Leah watch him. I'm so used to how much he talks and all the silly things he does. She had the same thought as me..."wish I had that much energy". We then went for some Amy's (or as Leah calls it Yma's...don't ask) ice cream.

Sunday, we went to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie with my mom and Leah. Half the movie Cole acted scared and kept partially covering his eyes. But during our bathroom breaks he would say, "we gotta hurry back to the movie". Afterwards he said he loved the movie and wanted to go again. At least he will be another year older when the next one comes out. Afterwards we went to his hockey lessons. A few more weeks and he might be in the full gear learn to play class. YIKES! His instructor assured me that someone can tell me what equipment to buy and how to dress him, because I know diddly about hockey. It's hard enough getting his skates on every week.

Well, that about wraps it up. It's time for another worldwind week. I need to contact the attornery general this week, because still no mula has arrived..shocker! I also need to make some calls on alternate (read less expensive) health insurance for the bug, and decide what classes I'm going to take next semester.... oh, and deal with whatever drama this week at work brings, is it Friday yet?

The love of family and friends

People keep asking me if I'm ready to date again. No....HELL NO, actually! It is the furthest thing from my mind, actually something I cannot even fathom. The last four years of my life, Randy contributed little to nothing to my happiness or to Cole's. I'm comfortable with how my life is. Last week when someone at work asked me the above question and I gave my typical response. They said, "Don't you think that is unfair to Cole?" Actually, no I don't. Cole has the love of family and my friends. I'm thankful for all of them. As time progress, I have been overwhelmed with the love and support we have both been shown. People that are just a 'po as me, have offered to help any way they can. It means so much to me. Anyone that takes the time to get to know Cole, falls in love with him. That is what is important to me, not whether I have a man around to take care of us. A friend's girlfriend said tonight, "You can just tell he is such a happy little guy." That made my evening, because his happiness is all that matters to me. If ever at some point in my life (like when hell freezes over) I start to date again (shudder) it won't be because Cole wasn't loved enough.

Contest update

Well, tonight was the end of the fat loss contest I entered w/ Leah. I lost 9.6 lbs (I would have liked to lose more, but hey there was a vacation mixed in there). I lost 1.4% body fat. I lost 3.2 lbs of muscle, which wasn't good. The trainer said I had to eat a minimum of 130 grams of protein a day to not lose muscle while dieting. That is a lot of protein. Leah lost body fat % too! I'm sure we won't win, but I'm proud of us anyway. Hopefully, this contest will be a stepping stone for us.

The invisible gang

My son is an over-achiever. He doesn't just have an invisible friend. He has an entire gang. It's the Scooby Doo gang. You know Shaggy, Scooby, Velma, Daphne and Fred? For the past several days they have gone everywhere with us. Sunday at the grocery store they helped us push the cart. When returning to the car, we had to buckle all of their seat belts. I set my purse on the front seat and Cole said, "Mom, move your purse you just set it on Shaggy and Scooby". Oops, sorry I didn't realize they were both up front with me. At home they all took a bath with Cole and then we had to brush their teeth, that makes six sets of teeth, if you are counting. After brushing Cole's and two of the gangs, I wisely pulled the Cole you are such a big boy card. I told him that he was such a big helper that he could brush the rest of the gang's teeth, which he proudly did. We had to make room for them in the bed. The gang also rode with us to daycare the next morning (more seat belts - at least the gang is concerned about safety). At daycare, I closed the car door and Cole said, "Mom, all the gang isn't out of the car yet!". I had to open the door and let the remainder of the gang out. At least the gang is quiet and doesn't make a mess and hasn't increased my grocery bill. They are a good group to keep around!

I'm going to the chapel and I'm....

...going to get married. Okay, well, not the chapel but the county fair. Cole told me the other night that we need to get girl and boy cowboy boots. When I asked why, he said because he and I were going to get married at the county fair. We needed new boots and wedding clothes. I asked, what wedding clothes do I need and he said, "you know a dress like Cinderella." He said, he would wear "boy" wedding clothes. So, see just when me life seems the bleakess, Cole brightens my day.

Coming back from Hawaii has been a bummer. Randy is still not paying child support and is not reimbursing me for the insurance on Cole, either. Not to mention, avoiding contacting me and the lawyer. Last week, I placed a formal case with the attorney general. They will attempt to contact him and I'm not sure what happens from there. They have twenty days to respond back to me. I can't pay my bills much longer without any kind of support, especially with shouldering the entire insurance burden, as well. So, I'm just hanging on for now and trying to sort out my options. So, if I don't seem my sarcastic self these days, that is why. But anyway....does anyone know where a county fair is so I can go get married? :-)

Aloha!

We are back ;-( from Hawaii. The weather was beautiful and the scenery breathtaking. We had a wonderful time and are having trouble adjusting to the “real world”. Here is a recap of the trip.

We left on Saturday the 24th. It was a long day of traveling. We flew from Austin to Denver, which was a two-hour flight and then from Denver to Hawaii, which was close to a 7 hour flight. Hawaii is a five-hour time difference from Texas. That evening, everyone was dragging because it was like 1:00 am Texas time. Cole was still bouncing around.

The next morning, Cole, my mom, and I were up at around 4:00 am because we still hadn’t adjusted to the time change. We walked the ship and eagerly waited our first sunrise. The morning we left for Hawaii I had a sore throat. It got worse and I had a fever (followed by fever blisters on my nose and lip) for several days, but I was still in Hawaii!! The first official evening, my grandma wanted everyone to eat in the dinning room. Cole and I went to take a nap and I didn’t wake up when my mom called to wake us up or pounded on the door. I happened to wake up at exactly the time we were supposed to be downstairs for dinner. I showered in dressed in minutes, feeling like I was hung over. I dressed Cole (still sleeping), carried him downstairs to dinner, sleeping through 1 and ½ hours of dinner and then to a comedy show where he continued to sleep. I then carried him back to bed. He slept until 5:00 the next morning!

We did a lot of shore excursions and got to go to the beach several days. Some of my favorite sights were the active volcanoes. Volcanoes just seem so prehistoric to me. So to see the steam vents, see the “lunar landscape” of the volcanoes and to bend down and feel the heat radiating from below your feet was surreal. My favorite moment is when the cruise ship went by an active lava flow. It was nighttime and the lava glowed at the top of the mountain and then disappeared through a lava tube until it reached the ocean. It was glowing a wonderfully orange/red and even from that great distance you could feel the heat in the air. Sadly, this was the night Cole was sleeping through everything, so he missed it.

The cruise ship had a kid’s club that Cole enjoyed. Several evenings Cole went after dinner so I could catch a show. He had a great time and I got to relax. One night Cole and I went to the dance “club” with my parents and brother. Cole was on the dance floor, grooving and doing cart-wheels, it was so cute and funny. Our stateroom was small, but perfect for Cole and I, we sure missed having a balcony like we did in Alaska, though. The food wasn’t very good and the service was awful. This ship only services Hawaii and can only hire American workers. Sadly, it makes a big difference. Cole also, had a wonderful time with his cousins, in particular the younger one Christopher who is 8. Cole was so excited to see him every day and always wanted to hold his hand or sit next to him. Cole would say, “Cousin” whenever he wanted his attention, which would crack me up. Christopher was very nice to Cole and would help him at dinner and always make sure he was taken care of. It was nice, that Cole got to spend some time with family. My aunt, uncle and cousin’s live in California, so we rarely spend time with them.

Seeing Hawaii by ship was a good experience because you get to experience a little of the major islands (132 islands make up the Hawaiian islands). Most trips of the island where by bus and the tour drivers were very informative, however, by the end of the trip I was tired of hearing “Aloha” every second. We got a good deal of Hawaiian history. The white missionaries arrived on Hawaii and took the majority of the lands away from the natives (in the name of Christianity) and still own the majority of land today. The islands are also a very expensive place to live. An average house (on any of the touristy islands) is around $750,000. Gas is around $4/gallon, it was $5 a month or so ago. A gallon of milk is $4. I don’t know how anyone, can afford to live there. So now if I ever get a chance to go back, I would know where I wanted to go. Hawaii (the big island) was wonderful, because of the active volcanoes. Maui was somewhat of a disappointment. It was very industrialized and busy. They had beautiful beaches and a lot of movie stars own land there. We spent some time at a Maui beach. The waves were rough and at times we were knocked down and around. Thank goodness, I had packed Cole’s life vest. On the Maui beach, my mom got knocked down and we got a free peep show when she stood back up. My favorite island is Kauai. It was the most rugged and had some spectacular beaches. They had huge houses on the beach, which are just vacation homes. You can rent a house on the beach for about $5000/week. That’s what I would like to do someday.

Our final day, we had a chance to visit Pearl Harbor. I have always wanted to go there. It was very somber and a pivotal point in American history.

Our plane didn’t leave until 10:00 pm that night, so after our Pearl Harbor tour (and a bus breakdown) we were at the airport by 4:00 pm. At this point, everyone is tired and irritable. Luckily the airport has a USO room. Since my dad is retired military we got to use the room. It has a kid’s room, which had a TV and toys. Seeing the young, baby faced soldiers coming in and out of the USO room was heartbreaking. They are SO young and are away from home and serving their country. Cole and I didn’t have assigned seats on the flight from Hawaii back to Denver, so we went to the gate two hours early. (I had already tried to get us seats when we first arrived at the airport, but was told they could only do so at the gate, along with “We at United don’t want to separate families, don’t worry you will get to sit together”, funny we didn’t have seats together the FIRST time). They didn’t even have a gate attendant until about 45 minutes before the flight. I had a massive headache and was sick to my stomach and had already thrown up once and had to stand in line to try to get a seat together. The gate attendant said sorry we can’t help you until 30 minutes before take off. So, I had to sit back down again. Finally, with about 15 minutes left until take off, we got assigned seats together. Luckily, Cole was asleep by then and slept the entire way to Denver. We got home Sunday pm. Monday we were so jetlagged, we were virtually useless. So, back to reality we go!