Spoiler - that's me...errrr.. US - lol

Well, it's offical - I'm a "spoiler". Though, if I am guilty, Robert is just as guilty too.

Our lil heart, S.M. has asked for his birthday gift. He didn't want anything high tech like a Wii or gameboy toys or a bike. Nope, he wants a Darth Vader costume - with helmet. Can't forget the helmet, folks or it's just a guy in a black suit and cape. So, here I have been for the last week searching the internet for a child's size costume that meets the requirements.

Oh, and he wants "jeans like Rob". What exactly that means, neither Rob or I have figured out yet. Rob's jeans are just plain blue jeans, not faded out and not torn in spots like some of the brands are selling their jeans like now a days. Maybe that's what S.M. means by "jeans like Rob" though, honestly, there's no tellin'.

Finally today, I found a Darth Vader costume. I'm just waiting on Robert's vote to see if it passes muster. Here's hoping it does. It will take it a few days to get to us and then a few days to get it to S.M. He's turning six in March and while it may seem early to some, to be getting the gift so soon, it's perfect timing for us, because of the way our paychecks fall.

Okay now, here's the picture of the costume... it's too adorable!

Well, I think so.

Bad Humor

I'm still giggling. I got this in the mail today and OH ... it made me laugh and I just HAD to share! It seems odd until you open the link - then it's just in bad-taste-funny.


If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you on a plane or train....

1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.
2. Remove your laptop.
3. Turn it on.
4. Make sure the person who won't leave you alone can see the screen.
5. Open this email.
6. Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky.
7. Then hit this link:

http://tinyurl.com/e8efm

(if I offended anyone, sorry... but you have to laugh or you just need help)

Overnights and Evenings

Somedays I absolutely love my job. As some of you who read my blog know, I work in home health care as a provider of daily living support to those who are developmentally or physically disabled or both. It's a very challenging and rewarding thing to do. At times, I want to pull my hair out and others, it gives me such a feeling of peace.

I work kind of an odd shift. During the school year, my main client - J - she has sevices before and after school, on weekends and on any day that she doesn't attend school for one reason or another. Giving me a grand total of 30 hours a week. Which is the minimum needed to keep my insurance active and paid for. Well, as a fill in, I've picked up a sepperate shift, a Midnight to Eight am, at the housing development my company owns/opperates. Bringing my weekly hours to a whopping 38. Now - you wouldn't think that 8 extra hours is that big of a deal, but with the fact that if anything goes funky here at J's ... those 8 hours at the House become OVERTIME. And that - is a big deal. It's a rare thing for OT to be approved with this company. So, I take it as a sense of honor that I have a standing "Okay" for OT whenever the weather goes bad or so-and-so just doesn't want to come in one night.

I get to stay up all night, work on whatever I'm reading/doing... watch TV and just.... veg really for 8 hours and get paid to do so. Yes, I have to do hourly spot checks, but all in all, it's cake.

Then there's the added bonus that I get all this done in 3days. Yup - 38 hours in 3 days. 14 hours on Friday, 12 hours on Saturday and the last 12 hours on Sunday. Mind you, sometimes, if J's folks decide to go out or something my Fri and Sat hours increase. If we are doing something special and I need to come in early... well you get the idea. So - I'm back to doing a 40 hour week and I still get Monday and Tuesday off with my Hubby.

So, all told, working overnight and evenings ain't so bad.

Eight Years

Today marks eight ( 8 ) years that Robert and I have known each other. What started out as a chance meeting online one night, lead to continued contact, long talks, short calls, long calls, a meeting, a friendship forged, longer calls, visits during the holidays, moving in with his parents, getting engaged, getting married and as of Monday the 12th, seven ( 7 ) months of marriage. Not a bad turn out for a chance meeting one lonely Valentine's Day.

Monday was our day to celebrate. Robert planned it all out and told me to keep Monday free for him. No problem!! I worked Sunday night - so did he. We did however, exchange Anniversary/Valentine's Day gifts over dinner Sunday night. He got me an Alliance Pin (it's a WoW thing), a very sweet and appropriate card, Charmed season 7 and tickets. [tickets to what I'll get to later]. He also bought me a car charger thingy for my IPod but I already had one so it went back. I got him two cute cards, a watch band [wanted to get him a new watch but he LOVES his current one and does not want to 'upgrade'], homemade coupons and homemade dinner and a dessert run after work.

Monday... back to Monday. We pretty much lived at the movie Theatre [tickets to the shows]. We saw Night at the Museum (my choice), had a nice dinner, saw Because I Said So (mutual choice) and lastly [but turned out to be the best of the three], Stomp The Yard. Yeah - wide range of movie choices there folks... but that's Rob and I.

All in all, we had a great day together, like most of our days.

Late Night at Work

It feels like the main time that I post is Sunday. That could be because I've gotten lazy about getting on the computer during the week. I check my email at a glance and if it's not my family, I don't bother with it. If I'm online, it's probably in WoW. I have, however, been writing every once in a while - with pen on paper. It's refreshing to get it out.

This has been a disturbing weekend with events happening too close to my own past, to someone small I know and care for and I can finally admit it to myself (and will to Robert too) that it's been fraking with my head. I've been closed off and bitchy and so close to tears the last 50 hours that I just want to hole up somewhere and hide. But I don't. I put on a happy-everything-is-fine-but-it's-not-face and pretend that I don't hurt, that I don't know, that I'm not haunted. I can't stop trembling and I don't want to eat and I'd like nothing better than to get a bottle and have enough shots to quiet my thoughts. But I won't. I won't let me and Robert won't let me either, for that matter.

Super Bowl & Pepper Spray

If you can't tell from the title, my super bowl sunday was a doozy. Let me just say this: football fans and pepper spray do NOT mix well and under no circumstances, should this be reinacted at home or anywhere else for that matter. Anyone who says different, you have my prayers.

It was half time and people were milling about, grabbing snacks (again) grousing about 'Da Bears' being down and some cheering that the Colts were ahead. A curious little boy of ten decided to go nosing in a drawer and found this interesting looking canister. Having nothing better to do, he emptied the canister in the room and no one seemed the wiser. AT FIRST.

Enter me, walking from one side of the house I work in to the next, ie- pass one through the cloud. I'm tending to my charge and trying to get her ready to prop up in bed and watch the rest of the game - SHE LOVES football and I pass a 2nd and third time through the cloud. Into the kitchen and out again and wonder idly why I'm coughing, itchy all of a sudden and why my eyes feel like I have spikes in them.

Enter the three year old, complaining to his mom that "something tastes funny in my mouth". Which leads mom to investigate. By this time, everyone is hacking, from the 5 month old grandbaby to the I don't know how old grandmother. The dad is rushing EVERYONE out of the house and my charge, just in a diaper is covered from head to toe in blankets and pushed through the cloud (my 4th time by now) through the dining room and out onto the back porch. We need another blanket for J and it's time 5 and 6 for me to pass in and out of the cloud.

Only on my sixth time through does it dawn on me what I'm walking through.... actually, it dawned on me as I was leaning over the porch railing throwing up the yummie super bowl snacks in front of EVERYONE. Now... I'm an asthmatic and I have deadly allergies and this is not my first dance with pepper spray so on top of tossing my cookies (litterally) I can't stop coughing, wheezing and putting Darth V to shame with my rasping.

Pass through cloud number 7 has me taking my charge back inside because it's too cold and she has to be put to bed. I make it as far as the hall before I'm choking, hacking, coughing and I barely make it to the toliet where I loose it all over again. Now I come out of the bathroom; pale, sweating and looking like death warmed over and unable to speak because I can't get enough air in fast enough. Pass number 8 - final time and I'm out the house, puking just inches from the Vans on the feet of the boy who decided to empty the pepper spray in the first place. He looked a lil pale too come to think of it.

Boss' hubby tells her to get coat and shoes and take me to the hospital and off we go. I tell you what, normally her lead foot makes me nervous but that night, I was thankful for it! We got there in record time. Robert showed up shortly there after (he was at work) and I was back and seen by a doctor in less than two minutes. Might have had something to do with the fact that my O2 sat was down in the high 70s [its supposed to be 98-100 on a normal person - mine stays 94-97]. I was very impressed with seeing a doctor that fast... and he was a good one.

Several hours, breathing treatments and an EKG later and I was sent home with prescriptions, a rescue inhaler, anti nausea meds and an order to bed rest for 7-10 days. I tucked into bed and slept, waking to eat, medicate and spend some time being read to by my dear husband. I love it when he reads to me, we are currently reading On Basilisk Station: The First Honor Harrington Novel by David Webber. I'm liking it a LOT. I cheat though, I read a few chapters ahead between his readings to me but, he doesn't mind, he's read it before.

Back to bed for me!

Tattoo # 3

I have just about decided that with part of what's left from our income tax return I want to get a third tattoo. I've narrowed my field down to I think two choices. I don't want anything big, as neither of my other two are "huge" or "flashy" by any means. Which kinda makes me want to get something flashy - maybe something with a lil color. Both my tattoos now are a solid color.

My First Tattoo - my own rendering of a Celtic Triangle (I'll try to have hubby take a pic so I can share). It holds some bitter sweet memories for me, but it marks a time in my life. I got it in the fall of 2000. I was working and living in Bryan, Texas as an interpreter and I couldn't very well have a tat in a place that would disrupt the flow of communication. So - tattoo was placed on my left shoulder blade. I originally asked for a UT/ freckle colored ink what I got was a navy outline and Aggie shaded fill in. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I used to say that I'd get it redone in black some day, but it is a reminder that people should be listened to, not just nodded and "uhmhuh"ed at. A reminder of a time in my life and friends that were so dear and now, they couldn't tell anyone whats going on in their life anymore than they can mine.

My Second Tattoo - Japanese characters of the phrase "To be Free". It was done summer of 2003. I'd just met Robert in person for the first time and I had just gotten my divorce decree from my Ex and I was stressed out, liberated, angry, hurt and ready to move on (or so I thought at the time) and jump back into life with both feet. It took me a while to heal all things considered. It is solid black and lives on my right shoulder blade. I was still working in the field where I couldn't have tats showing.

Both tats are about the size of the inside of my palm and in places where even a sleveless shirt almost totally covers them. However, my third one... will be significantly more detailed... mostly because of where I want it. I REALLY want it on the back of my neck - at my hair line... again, easy to cover yet visable if I want it to be. At the same time, I kinda want one where I can see it without using two or three mirrors. lol

ok.. so... I need help/ some help with this... here's the options.

Horse (UT burnt orange) - Tribal Daisy (petals will have color)

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