We are gonna do it, it's going to work

It'll be slow.

We have lots of planning.

I know we can do it.

We are both smart independent, hard-working women.

I'm thinking 1-2 years.

Hopefully less.

I want it to be right.

Be ready.

I want to say, be perfect

But I won't

It'll be just the way it's supposed to be

I hope

I'm so tired. I know you hear that all the time. It's true. Now it's a part of daily life. Oh well, listen to it or stop reading!

I sold my treadmill. I don't know that I would even call it "mine". I never even plugged it it. So I sold it to my collections girl at work. Hopefully she gets more use out of it than me.

Christmas is less than 2 months away. I'm stressed about this. Normally I'm done by now. I haven't even started, I don't even have any ideas. The kids are getting MP3 players, that's about all I know. I'd love to get them new bedroom furniture. That's like 2G's though, so it's not happening. I think I might start buying them pieces 1 at a time.

I'm almost done with Oli's book. I won't have it all done in time to give it to his wife, which bums me out. I can only work on it in my free time, and Lord knows I don't have much of that. It's wonderful though. I'm so pleased with how it has turned out. I hope they love it.

My DM makes such a deal out of when I need time off. I called today to see if I could take 90 minutes off for Jonathan's fall party, and he made me feel like he was doing me a favor by letting me go. I hate that feeling.

I'm still coming to grips with the fact that I'll neve be a SAHM again. It's rough, it's like part of me is dying. I'm going to work the rest of life. People do it everyday, I know. It's not what I want for me, for my family. I feel like I'm going to be stuck at my job forever. I will never make the money I make there anyway else. So I have to stay. BTW, thanks for attending my pity party......

Party Pooped

I'm exhausted. I want to go to bed. I still have to scrap. The party went great. The girls loved the castle bounce house. It was a great feeling not to have to entertain 20 kids. They went out side, they ate cake and ice cream, we opened gifts, they went home. Clean up was not as easy, but hey what do expect after having 30+ people running around your house?

I'm off to the table......

Party Prep

We are preparing for the "double birthday" which is what the girls' have dubbed the party tomorrow. The house is clean, the yard is pooper scooped, most of the gifts are bought. Thankfully Staci is making the cakes, have I mention how THANKFUL I am that Staci is making the cakes! We will be having all sorts of yummy munchies as well. I still have to clean my room and put away some laundry, and make the goody bags. I hope I have enough. Elize said some kids from her class are coming but they did not RSVP. I hate rude people.

I can't wait until tomorrow. The girls don't know it yet, but we are going to have a bounce house! Yup, a GAINT pink castle will fill our yard tomorrow afternoon. Isn't that so cool? I can't wait to see their expression. They are going to be so excited.

For those of you coming, I can't wait to see you tomorrow.
If you are not coming, you better live far away!

I love this man!

I mean I REALLY love this man! 10 years.....it seems like forever ago, yet yesterday. I don't really remember not being with him. Everything before him is pretty much a blur. How did I live 18 years without him? He came into my life at the most perfect time. and he is perfect for me. He puts up with so much crap from me. If I have a bad day or if I'm mad, he gets the brunt of it and never complains. He just listens and lets me vent on him. I love that. He not only makes me feel beautiful, he convinces me that I am. He doesn't waiver about it, he makes me believe it too. When I'm down he picks me up, when I'm high he lifts me higher.

He works hard for our family.

He is a great father.

He is my world.

I love you.

My gift......

He gave me 20 long stem roses with a card that made me cry(of course!) and a picture of my D80 that he swears he's going to get me no matter how much I protest.

Another reason I love him......

Exactly 5 years ago today, I was in labor....

With this beautiful girl.....

She is 5 years old today. I can't believe my "baby" is 5. In some ways it seems like she's younger, and in some ways so much older. For those of you that know Savannah she is a wonderful, exciting, girl. She is full of life and fun. I am so blessed to have her in my life, and thankful for all that she has given me and has taught and continues to teach me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH!

I'm home

We are back! I'm happy yet sad. It was great to come home to a bunch of hugs and kisses, but dang, did we HAVE to come home????? I wish I could fill you in a our exciting weekend, but the truth is it wasn't exciting, and that was exactly how I wanted! On Friday we checked into our cabin, got in the hot tub, went to dinner, got in the hot tub, went to bed.

On Saturday pretty much the same thing except we went and got massages.

It was great to have NO time line, no where to be, and no one to entertain.

This was out cabin, it was called the Linderhof, which for those of you that have never been stationed in Germany is one of King Ludwigs Castles.

It was perfect.

I'm going to try and convince the lifesavers to have a weekend there!

This is my hunny in the hot tub, we spent a lot of time in there!

I mean really it's on back porch, we didn't want it to go to waste:)

~~~~~~

Today I had to come back home to real life:( And to make real life worse I bought a coffee pot. I officially feel old. I only drink coffee from Starbucks, I have never made it at home before. Now I think I'm to a point where I have to. I have made a command decision to get up everyday at 6:30. I can only do this with help from my good friends, Black and Decker, and Folgers. When I got home I had to go grocery shopping and while out I bought me this: It has a timer so I won't actually have to get up and make coffee, it'll start perculating on it's own at 6:20. Sweet.

~~~~~~

When I got home and checked my cluster map, there was a whole bunch of new hits in places where I don't think I know people. Which I know is not uncommon in the blog world, but it still trips me out. I wish they would comment, then I think of all the people I blog stalk and don't comment so, I guess we are even.

Thank you to my sister and kiddos who not only had cake and presents waiting for me when I got home, but had also cleaned the whole house and done laundry! YOU ROCK!

Thank you to my lovely friend Melibelle for the fabulous Those Were The Days kit she got me for my birthday. I love it!!! MWAH!

This was by far my best birthday in recent history, a special thanks to all.

I love each and everyone of you.

My birthday at work!

I totally got the birthday hook up at work! Kim got me the purse, bodywash, and lotion. Drea decorated my area and got me the HUGE balloon, and Thomas got me Greay's Anatomy Season 2 and Orange Daisys(not pictured).

Less than 48 hours from now.....

I'll be snug as a bug in a rug in a cabin in the woods with my one and only.

I can't wait.

Seriously, I'm like a kid waiting for my birthday party.

Today I called and scheduled us Swedish massages too.

That is our only plan for the weekend. Other than that we are free to lounge and do(or not do)whatever we want. What a wonderful feeling.

I can't get a good shot of Jason's new do, so I'll update later. I'm getting my hair done tomorrow too! My stylist is giving me a FREE cut and color to be her guinea pig. Hey, it's only hair, I'm up for anything!!!

Amanda got her kids back today! Well, we still have them. She's coming to get them this weekend. Please continue to pray for her and for the kids. It's going to to be an adjustment for her after being childless for 6 months.

I got a call tonight saying that I should be getting a goodie in the mail......I l LOVE, LOVE, LOVE goodies in the mail! She totally knows this too! MWAH! Love ya!

A new do' for my favorite dude

Last night Jason got his haircut then I put highlights in it. It's looks so freakin' cute! I Love it. I'm totally diggin' my post Army guy. Here is a before pic, I'll post an after tonight.

OH, and........2 days until my birthday and my weekend away with the hubby!!

We interupt the countdown to my birthday for this brief message.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUNA! She's the BIG 3-0,

and looking better than ever:)

~Countdown to my Birthday~

Yesterday I got my first birthday gift! Be Delicious by DKNY. It smells awesome! I tried to take picture of the bottle, which by the way looks like a little apple! It has a chrome topper though and you could see me taking the picture in the picture! Make Sense? Anyway, Thank you so much my dear friend for the fabulous smelling perfume! I LOVE IT!

You've gotta friend in me!

A good friend: one that will ride a freaky space ship ride at the science center with your hubby when you are too scared to. Thanks for being a good friend!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTYNE!!!

I love you!

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY BABY!!!

How could you NOT love her? She's gorgeous, inside and out. She's smart, helpful, kind, considerate, and I'm blessed to call her my NIEICE.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Who lives in New Mexico, Asia, and Georgia???

So I but I blog tracker on here so I could see who's reading my blog. Some of these places I just don't know who it is?? I know Kansas is family, Texas is the lifesavers, Pa is Jason's mom, whoever is in NY is also Jason's family. NC is Deanna. I'm pretty sure FL is Selena, TN is of course Ms. Tyne. I think OKC is someone who swears not to like me, so I wonder why she reads my blog....IL/Mo is of course Tara-mesue:) Germany is Sarah.

New Mexico, Georgia and Asia are kicking my butt though. Who are you and how'd you end up on my blog. I don't mind, I'm just curious....

I took a nap

It was like a blessing and a curse. I was so tired on Sunday afternoon I could hardly keep my eyes open, so I napped. Since I did, the laundry didn't get done, the Sunday house cleaning didn't get done. I of course feel guilty about this. I feel like my house is a pit. I have not done a very good job of teaching my children to clean. It's my fault. I'm a freak. I'd rather do it myself and have it done my way, then be patient and let them do it. So they haven't done it, and now when I try to get them to, they do a sucky job at it. So I try to do it all myself. I felt like a loser last week,. I only worked 50 hours but still couldn't get my sh*t together. I'm sinking, I'm tired of everything and everyone. I want a break. Amanda has court tomorrow. I pray she gets her kids back. I love them, I truly do. My "good deed" is over running my life though. It's keeping Misty from moving on to bigger and better things for her and her girls, b/c she's home caring for A and C. No one in this house can move forward until they go back to their mom. I'm not going to be able to quit my job anytime soon. Jason isn't happy at work again. We all know what happened last time he wasn't happy. I don't want a replay. We are working on a plan for him to go back to school. He almost has an AA, so he'd only to need to go back for 2ish years. He wants to coach football. He's thinking of getting a physical ed teaching degree and going from there. I just want him to be happy. I'm so sick of him being unhappy. I don't understand how people are not happy and are not thankful. I go through my spurts of "unhappy" (like right now!), but they are short lived. I don't stay in a funk for more than a few hours. It's not me. I don't know how I got like this. Everyone get funky and stay funky for days, weeks, and sometimes even months. Not me. I'm a freak(again!) . I'm a positive person that always see the upside and doesn't dwell on the crappy. I have a very hard time understanding those who dwell on the crappy and don't try to change, or at least live with it and make the best of it. Lead or get out of the way. That's my motto. No one is going to change your life but you. So start living, or start dying, but either way stop your complaining!

Jonathan got a hair cut!

Before:

After:

He's now the coolest 7 year old at HSA. He rocks!

If you don't like it

I don't care,

don't leave a comment on it though.

I don't need more negitivity in my life.

I'm the luckiest girl in the world

Today while getting out of the shower I realized I'm the luckiest girl in the world. What makes me so lucky you ask? Wealth? Health? Diamonds? Pearls? Nope.

I can be nekked(that's naked to non-Hallock/Duke's) anywhere in my house. I don't have to worry about the wrong people seeing me. Or double check that my booti-ous maximous isn't hanging out of my towel. If a child leaves the bathroom door open while I shower and I don't realize, OH WELL! I don't have to take all my clothes into the bathroom with me and get dressed in there. It's great. What is my secret you ask? Well let me tell you ....

I'm related to everyone I live with! Woo-hoo! It doesn't matter if any of the them see me nekked. I'm married to Jason, Misty is my sister, I gave birth to Jonathan and Savannah. Elize, Ashyra, Anthony, and Carolyn could care less. Misty and Jason do not have this freedom, they must always be aware of their surroundings. Not me!

Now don't get me wrong. I do not walk around the house nekked. This glorious freedom only comes into play on days(like today) when we were all getting ready at one time. I was in the shower, Misty was doing her hair and Jason was in the bedroom. I was able to get out of the shower, dry off, go to my bedroom, put on my "unmentionables" and walk back through the bathroom and into my closet to pick out clothes with out having to worry about who saw me.

And that my friends is why I'm so stinkin' lucky!

TGIF

I'm so ready for Friday, for the weekend. I wish I had more of a weekend. I don't think I ever will. I'd have to make $17 an hour 40 hours a week, to make what I make now. I don't see that happening. All week I've had allergy issues. My eyes hurt like crazy, my nose is red and raw. It's not pretty. I have so much to do. Tomorrow is of course work, then I'm going to Jonathan's school to watch him give a presentation on the timeline of his life. On Saturday we have a game(with pictures at 8!), Savannah was invited to watch her "boyfriend"(MOM! He's not my boyfriend!) in a fashion show at Dillard's, then off to Starbucks to have a secret santa meeting with the lifesavers. After that Jason leaves to go help with the haunted house, and I will work on Oli's book some more. Sunday is church, then sunday school(I teach this week), more scrappin while house cleaning, then Awannas. Notice there's no sleep scheduled in there? Ya, that's my life.

Jason and I found the place we are going for our anniversary! It's a cabin in the woods, located in Glen Rose Texas. Get this, it's called The Linderhoff. Yup, just like the castle in Germany. We are both getting off at 3 on the 13th to hit the road. We should be back Sunday evening. It's going to be great. We have never been away from the kids for more than a few hours. It's going to be scary in that aspect. We deserve it though. We sailed through the first 8 years of our marriage. the last 2 years have been tough though. Not bad tough, just trying tough. I feel like we've been in a marriage test. In 2005 I couldn't wait for '06. 2006, wasn't much better. I pray that 2007 be our best year yet.

Feeling Accomplished

I have every single piece of laundry done! The last load is in the dryer. Oh what a sweet feeling. I also scrapbooked this weekend. I did 7 pages in Oli's book. He came over today after to church to look at it, and loved it. That made me feel great. Did anyone see the HL ad? Almost everything SB is 50% off! Paper, stamps, stickers, rub-ons, it's insane. I'm going to have to hold myself back. BG for 50% off...I'm not going to think about that now.

The answer in NO! I know you are thinking it, I will tomorrow I promise.

Check out this site:
www.memory-works.com
it's a home based SB biz(like CM), but it has Basic Grey, American Crafts, Fancy Pants, and lots of other cool companies. I'm thinking about signing up. Let me know what ya'll think.

and since it's been awhile........
ANGEL............................OUT!