Let the games begin!!

School started Tuesday for us here in the Northwest... well for the 6th and 9th graders that is. The official full day was Wednesday. Melissa is still a little disappointed because Kinders dont start school until next week. She was all jazzed to go the first day. My kids got a free day for Tuesday but I had to work because both my morning and afternoon runs have a high school on it. Mornings I drive for South Salem HS and for Harrit Elem over in West Salem. Then afternoons I go back to South Salem HS and take those kids home, buzz over to Englewood Elem for 4 kids (yes a measly 4 kids!) take them home on my way to Hayesville Elem in NE Salem. Most of those kids get off at the first stop which is a HUGE apartment complex. A few more stops in NE Salem, then I head to Keizer to take home 6 Russian program kids so I get to drive all over Keizer. This year is going to be SOOOOO much better than last year. My HS kids are great - they are fun to joke with. My Elem kids are really well behaved... only a few kinders that I will have to train to stay in their seats and keep hands to themselves. Whom ever had this route last year is a SAINT!
The kids had a great first week. Both Serena and John are in blended classes this year. John's is a 4th-5th grade blend with the level of teaching in the blend times at 5th grade. Serena's is a 2nd-3rd grade blend. I think it will help keep Serena in the top of the class. No home work this first week of course but I expect John to bring some home on Monday. I am happy that both kids the home work is brought home on Monday and due by Friday. I will have to keep on them to work on it and not procrastinate but it gives me a bit of breathing room when I come home exhausted some nights and I dont want to even worry about it. I am so blessed to have Dan in my life. He is a great Dad and stays on the kids about that kind of stuff. He helps them out while I am making dinner... truly an amazing person!
I am actually excited about this school year. It is John's last year in grade school and Melissa is starting public school. My routes are going to be so much easier making me a MUCH happier person.

Major fibro day!

As some of you know I have fibromyalgia. Not many people know what it is other than some people use it as an excuse. Basically I hurt all the time, I am tired all the time and most days I forget where I left my keys! Some days I actually feel normal and can function like the fibro never existed and some days I dont want to even get out of bed... today is one of those days - and actually the 2nd day in a row. Yesterday I woke up feeling exhausted and every joint in my body aching. Basically is it pain like arthritis... but it is the muscles around the joints that hurt not the joint itself. There are a bunch of other symptoms that go along with the pain - cronic headaches and back pain, restless leg symdrom (the reason I feel so exhausted - I dont sleep well some nights) and something those of us with fibro have dubbed "fibro fog". I am not sure what causes this in most of use but you get so foggy in the brain you forget things - like one morning I was really hurting and feeling bad - when I made coffee, I had my cup in my hand when I went to the fridge to get the cream. I apparently put the cup in the fridge while I reached in to get the cream. Then turned to the coffee pot to put coffee in my cup - not knowing where the heck my cup was... so I went to the cupboard for a cup and placed the cream on the shelf... that is when it dawned on me! I had left the cup in the fridge... it is almost like you are half drugged - your brain doesnt work up to speed. It makes it very hard to concentrate on work or anything other than the desire to go back to bed and sleep - 1 because you are tired and 2 because it is a good way to escape the pain... The pain is caused by basically slow healing. Most people when they exercise or just doing daily cores around the house, the muscles you use get like microscopic tears in them and over a few hours or over night depending on the extent of the exercise, those tears heal and make the muscle a bit stronger. Everyday building and building slowly. People with fibro - those little microscopic tears take (for illustrative purposes) 10 times longer or so... if I go and do a strenuous work out and then go home and clean my house I would be laid up for 2-3 days hurting like I was hit by a Mac truck. But I also cant just sit around and do nothing because research has shown that staying somewhat active actually helps to keep the flare ups at a minimum. So exercising and everyday life is like walking a tight rope for me... a very fine line from feeling ok to hurting like hell!

Well apparently yesterday I crossed the line a bit. I was working on our master bathroom... it has been a bit crowded with boxes and tools... we are doing some remodeling. Well it has been a while since we worked in there - having moved to a different project while the weather is nice... I got tired of walking and living around all that junk so I started to sort, move and clean... by the end of the day I was a bit tired and my back hurt. Well this morning I feel like hell! Uggggg you would think I would learn!

Time flies when your having fun!

Dan and I had our 2nd anniversary yesterday. The day was ok - he had to work but was home at a decent time... but it wasnt as memorable as last year's - our first - I guess we will have a hard time topping that one. Last year we took the bike down the Oregon coastline and ended up in Reedsport at the Casino there. We had decided to just make a ride and stop when we were tired of riding, get a hotel room, have a nice dinner and make a night of it... Well as we were heading south and getting to Dune City the 'big light-bulb' comes on - weekend of Dune Fest! We were lucky to get the room at the casino - it was a last min. cancellation! But a nice room and it worked out AWESOME! The casino is right on the bay and we didnt have to worry about getting our gear back on to take the bike out to find dinner - we had a really nice meal at the restaurant in the hotel. Well this year the bike is in the shop, our anniversary is during the work week and over the weekend Dan misplaced his wallet - so he didnt have any money yesterday to even get me a card... we didnt go out to dinner because of the kids, I got him a really nice card when I went to get my Mom's birthday stuff (her birthday yesterday too!) but we didnt even have a nice quiet evening here... kids were a pain and Dan got a headache going to bed early... I didnt even get my snuggles! Oh well the important thing is that we have been together for 2 years now and despite our money issues, dealing with children and remodeling our house we have a fuller, more enriched life together than we have both had in years! I have to say I am comfortable in ever aspect with him - except our money problems... which is a whole other blog subject. I never thought I would be happy again after the divorce but this man is amazing! He has taken on a complete pre-packaged family with the most loving patience. We had a running joke from a friend who has been in long relationships with a few men who in the end wouldnt commit - she told me take sometime (this was the beginning of our relationship) to get to know each other but Dan you only have 2 years to make a decision! So I tease him all the time - so what it is going to be? We have talked about marriage and both agree it is best to wait until I have finished school to get married - I would lose a good portion of my grants... but I keep asking what is wrong with a long term engagement?! He answers with "Well hunny we are basically engaged... your wearing a ring." But I must point out to him that is a promise ring which HE was very particular about pointing out "this is just a promise ring" when he gave it to me for Christmas almost 2 years ago... He keeps saying why break something that is so good by getting married? I just dont see how he can put our relationship and his relationship with his ex-wife on a scale... it is like comparing apples to steak! I think he is afraid of what he went through with Jennifer happening again. I have told him I would never leave him and I know I wouldnt - I put up with SOOOOO much with Rob to try to keep our marriage intact - Dan would never do those things so I know there is NOTHING he could do that would make me leave him. When I asked him last night (smiling a wicked grin of course) now that we are at the 2 year mark what his decision was - he told me that is really hasnt been a whole 2 years - I am still on probation. HAHAHAHA - I give him that. We just celebrated our 2 years of knowing each other... it was about a month after we started dating that we knew we loved each other - soooo I told him "Ok - you have another month grace period but I expect at least rubies and white gold!" :D

Why me?!

Why is it that I cant keep a single nice thing in my life?! I swear... between the kids, the cats or Dan (not to mention my own occasional clumsiness) all my nice s*&t gets broken or ruined! John seems to think the once-in-a-while game of BASEBALL in the house is fine - until he shatters the plaster hand print I had of his from his first birthday! I guess putting everything worth keeping in one room that is supposed to be the formal living room - thus telling children to stay out - was just too much for his little brain to handle... Or in throwing a fit he crushes a old figurine of mine from when I was a kid... I guess it has just been the week of breaking things that were important to Theresa. Melissa while trying to sweep swings the broom handle around and knocks off the vase on the counter... Serena dinkin around in the bathroom - slams the door banging a small mirror off the wall. Well to top it all off tonight Dan is moving all this crap around for his new XBox 360 - taking the original XBox into the other family room and setting up the new one in our family room... I have said several time "Please move that glass thermometer off the TV before it gets knocked off while moving the TV." Well it wasnt from moving the TV but he was digging around behind the TV looking cables and pulling things out from behind - so what does he do swings a cable right 'through' it and it goes crashing to the floor.... *sigh* So now I am sitting here wanting to be pissed off and he is trying to make me feel better - he is good at making things better... so I am rationalizing it like I always do - I really didnt want it around - it was a christmas present from my Mom to Rob and I so... I guess it is OK that it is now in the garbage - fitting I suppose... but the other stuff around here was important to me...I cant wait until my kids grow up just a bit more and things stop getting smashed!

Just my daily rant and rave today!

What a weekend - it was one big time scorcher! It was supposed to chill off a bit by today but it is stilllllll says 101 degrees on the dash of my truck!!! I think the temperature outside is directly proportional to 2 things - 1) the amount of bitching and fighting that commences between the girls and 2) the amount of patience I have for any other human being - mainly said children! The hotter it gets the more the girls fight thus getting on my nerves and the more I want to beat someone! Right now I am not working so I am with them 24-7... I think somehow I got the raw end of the deal here... first I divorce and have the kids to myself ALL the time - then I have Dan who is wonderful when he is home - helps with the kidos and dinner and such... but I envy him going to work everyday LMAO! I miss working! You know I never thought that about any other job that I have had. I loved the office positions but after about 6 months I got so bored with it and there always seemed something about the job that I was fed up with by that time - I didnt want to work there anymore... But this job with the school district - yeah it is school bus driving and for some reason a good portion of my friends tease me occasionally about - but I really have come to enjoy it. Wondering if I will want to go to a different job once I complete my degree in a year or so... I am sure I will find something by then to complain about and move on - I am good at that. Only thing that has seemed to survive any length of time recently is my relationship with Dan. Hmmmm maybe things are going to last - I had hoped for that...

PHHHEEEEWWWWWIIIIIIEEEEEEE!

Well today was a 'do nothing' day... to darn hot for anything else. I did go to the gym - just felt the need to sweat ten times more than before hahaha! The girls didnt even want to go outside and John stayed in to play the X-Box! John finally got tired of the girls pestering him and it was convenient that his friends came over to tell him they have the pool set up... at least this time he thought enough ahead to get the sunscreen! When I moved back to Oregon from Texas I thought I had left the whole 'arm pit of hell' behind but it looks like it followed me up later - and they say it is going to hang around until the beginning of next week... someone email me a huge block of ice so I can sit on it!

Is it really bloggin?

Ok this whole blogging thing is pretty new to me. I have a myspace profile and on there you can post your blogs. Most people use it to post answers to silly '50 questions' or jokes that they want to pass on to their friends. No one really uses it for journaling or 'deep thoughts'. I have been looking through some of the blogs on this site... just sort of going to 'the next' and 'the next' to get some ideas of how different people use their sites. I have found a good portion of people use them as a journal site - some on just about any subject that comes to mind, some as a day to day accounting of funny happenings, some to track their travels through the world. But I have also seen several others, (enough for me to think what the hell) who use it to basically post regurgitated crap. Mostly just posting celebrity news with a few pics thrown in the mix. It is like they have gone to yahoo's celebrity news page and just cut and pasted... so my question is - Is this really blogging by everyone else's standards? And why would anyone take the time to do this when the whole idea of blogs seems to be to share your thoughts and feelings on a vast array of subjects? Anyone can go to Yahoo to see who is divorcing who and who has the 'pregnancy bump'... I tend to be a pretty critical person - pointing out the 'huuuu?'s' in life... maybe I should have been a critic or a columnist!

Happy 34th!

Well today is my hunny's birthday! I feel a little bad tho - I was so groggy this morning when he got up and left for work I didnt tell him happy birthday... I am planning to take him and the guys at work some cupcakes... he will like that. Unfortunately I have a man who hates to be fussed over - he doesnt want me to get him anything present wise, nothing special. But I am a fusser! I love to do things for other people... especially him. I know he appreciates it but I think it embarrasses him some. I want to get him something for a present but what do you get the guy who has just about everything and anything else he might want is expensive!? Uggggg he is frustrating! Maybe I will just resign myself to a nice dinner and a good ole fashioned pampering!

Howdy everyone!

Well this is my first hello to everyone! I think I will get the hang of this blog thing. My friend Kaytee sent me a link to her page and said I should start one... it is a good way to have an online journal. Works for me. I guess this one is a 'test' post to see what happens. I suppose I will probably add more laters!