-2011-

When 2011 began, I definitely had no idea it would end this way. Had you told me last New Year's Day how the year would end, I would not have believed it.

But here I am. Here we are. Feeling strong, confident, and most of all, happy. My kids are happy and that makes me happy.

My in-laws are happy, they got exactly what they've been wanting. And that makes me want to egg their house.

Just kidding.

(Sort of.)

It was a big year in many ways. My baby girl turned 10. My son graduated from high school. And my middle daughter turned 16. I am so proud of my kids.

I got my job which I love and plan to do forever.

My parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary. My niece got married and pregnant.

I'm excited about 2012. I'm finding my happiness and taking care of ME. There are some things I know 2012 will bring; my divorce, my niece's baby girl, my baby girl graduating 5th Grade.....and of course, the year will be full of surprises.

I'll be celebrating the New Year with old friends and new friends. It's going to be interesting, just like the new year. I can't wait to see what both of them bring!

I hope your New Year is full of wonderful things.

DysFUNctional MOMents II - One Child Left Behind

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It's Tuesday and time to confess this week's #momfail moments!
And of course, I have one ready and waiting.

Sunday was a busy day for us. At least, that's the defense I'm using. The girls went to a church picnic with my sister, niece, & niece's husband. Tim was at a friend's house, & Andrew was at MIL's house. John & I had errands to run, and that's also the day we adopted our new kitty.

Once we got the cat, we took her straight home, arriving just after my sister & her family brought the girls home. Tim was home also, along with two of his friends. We came inside and showed the cat to everyone, and chatted with my sister & family, Tim, and his friends. We were laughing and having a good ol' time.

And then the phone rang. It was John's mom. The infamous MIL.

What could she possibly want?

Oh, she was wondering where we were. Because it was 6:35pm. And we were supposed to meet her at 6pm to pick up Andrew.

We totally forgot about our kid.

Um....oops?

Now it's your turn! Link up a DysFUNctional MOMent, so I don't feel like such a douche.

Please link directly to your DysFUNctional MOMents post,

and leave a comment after linking up!

Fraggin' from the End of my Rope

~ It's been a rough week, emotionally draining, and today was the worst! I'm at the end of my rope, for sure.

~ Among other stresses, today John went to the end of our dirt road, as usual, to pick up the Littles off of the bus. Andrew got off...but not Elayna. It took us 30 minutes to figure out where my child was! She missed the first-run bus, so the school dean put her on a second-run bus. She didn't tell anyone, so nobody knew where she was. The secretary finally learned, via the bus driver, what had happened and that she had been dropped off, so we had to rush back to the bus stop. Meanwhile she had already walked all the way home. She was scared, we were scared, it was just a very scary time!

~ Thanks for voting in the bedtime poll. My MIL decided I put Andrew to bed too early. They go to bed at 9pm at the earliest; on nights where they have soccer or other activities it's even later. And they get up at 6am! John works nights so it's just me and the kids Monday - Friday. I just love how she wants to tell ME what to do in my home! Grrr.


~ Speaking of MIL, Andrew, & stress...getting Andrew back after an entire summer at MIL's, where there are basically no rules, is challenging, to put it mildly.

~ Okay, I have to confess to a bloggy pet peeve. When the name you use for comments has nothing to do with your blog, and/or is a very common name, I never know who is commenting unless I click the name and visit the profile. I have several people with the same name who comment frequently, and sometimes I assume they are all the same person and don't realize I have a new commenter who I should be visiting. It would be SO awesome if you could use (for example) the name "Mary @ Totally Awesome Blog" or "Totally Awesome Blogger" for comments!
*WHEW* I feel better now.



~ Thanks for participating in/commenting on my new meme, DysFUNctional MOMents! I think it will be fun and I really hope it catches on and takes off.



~ My guest post is up now over at Single Mom in the South! =)

~ The BFF & I sang this last Friday night at Karaoke. It's kind of our theme song! ;-)

Have a GREAT weekend!

Visit Mrs 4444 for more Friday Fragment fun!

Sometimes thinking of a title takes me longer than writing the whole post. I give up!

~This week has been nothing short of fantastic. It was a good week in general; work was great, I had some good quality time with a friend & with the hubby....but best of all, there was wonderful news.....

.....my niece, Heather, is PREGNANT!! Yes - the one who just got married. Honeymoon Baby! I am absolutely ecstatic. I told her I was ready for her to have a baby and she hopped right to it! I love it when people listen to me. ;-) She's due in March. I am so happy that we will have another baby in the family! My kids are excited too. I can't wait for March! I have visions of tiny shoes dancing in my head. (I love tiny baby shoes.)

~ Just thought I'd clarify that my WW post about my Mother-in-law was mostly tongue in cheek. MIL doesn't really come between hubby and I nearly as much as she'd like to. The picture kind of amuses me; I had it in a frame on the bookshelf for a long time until I got sick of looking at it. My mom was taking a picture of me and John that day when MIL jumped in and got between us I should have seen it as an omen.

~ I just posted about my disappointment in Kat Von D. Now I just heard that she and Jesse James broke up. Shocker! *snort*

~ Have you watched Dance Moms? Oh my word. They make the Toddlers & Tiaras moms look tame. These chicks are hard core!

~ I haven't been around much this week, I've been really busy with work & other fun stuff, but I'm going to try to catch up a little tonight.

~ One (of many) things I learned at work this week: Don't call an 85 year old woman 'pet names'. A nurse called my client, Ms J, "sweetie", to which Ms J calmly replied, "don't call me sweetie, you asshole." I flipping LOVE her! (She was just calling it how she saw it; the nurse was kind of being an asshole.)

~ Tomorrow (Friday) night, I have a date!!! With my best friend. We're going out to dinner, then drinks & karaoke. Anytime she and I are together we have a blast. I can not wait!!

~I am loving this song, it reminds me of myself & my daughters! (and Ms J, come to think of it!)

"There ain't nothing wrong with a woman who's gotta little backbone!"

Don't forget to visit Mrs 4444 for more Friday Fraggin,

& have a great weekend!

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Taken in 2005.

John is on the left, I'm on the right.

My mother-in-law is in the middle.

Enough.Said.

Linking up with the lovely Angie & Amanda for WordFUL Wednesday!

Royal Fragments

Well well well, the end of another week. I'd like to say 'another fantastic week', but I'd be lying. So let's just say 'week', and leave it at that.



The storms that ravaged Alabama last night are heading South. They are not predicted to be as bad where I am, but we are definitely seeing some effects. Right now it's cloudy, with thunder and lightning, but no rain. And we need rain!

My prayers are with the people affected by those horrific storms last night. What a tragedy.

*Update: I fell asleep while composing this. (What? It's perfect sleeping weather!) Anyway, it finally rained. The storms were loud & made the kids nervous, but we are safe & sound.

Royal Wedding: Are you interested? Me, only mildly. My in-laws will be up watching it though. In fact, they considered a visit back home to England so they could be there for the wedding, but decided against it. (I don't know why. I was only mildly interested in that story, too.)



Tonight I'm going out with some girls from church. Dinner and a movie! I never do stuff like this, and I'm looking forward to it.
Saturday the kids have a soccer game and then we're going to a birthday party. I'm hoping for another fun, relaxing weekend.


Speaking of which, I hope you have a good one too! Check out Half Past Kissin' Time for more Friday Fragments.

Better Late Than Never

I'm coming in way late on the Fragging today! We've been kind of busy for the last couple of days. Now we're at my Mother-In-Law's for the weekend. They're out of town, and MIL's dog, Roxanne, is very old and takes medicine several times a day. So we're here taking care of Roxanne, who I call my dogsister-in-law. ;o)








Snail Mail friends! I'm very interested in learning how your snail mailing is going. So, I'm going to do a link up next week. I'm going to do it Wednesday, so hopefully that gives you plenty of time. I'd just like for you to do a post about how it's going, anything special or fun you've received or experienced, or whatever you feel like posting about. It's not a requirement, just something I thought would be fun.
Also, if you haven't already, please share each others' birthdays and other special occasion dates. I just realized I missed one of my Snail Mail partner's birthdays last month, and I felt so bad! It never occurred to me to ask for that. Duh!
Also, if you haven't signed up yet but would like to, just email me! It's ongoing so it's never too late, and in fact I have one person waiting for a partner right now.
One more thing - Andrew has seen Elayna exchanging mail with her partner and wants in, too. So if anyone knows a boy around 10 years old (or younger) who would like a pen pal, let me know. He loves video games & Silly Bandz, and won't take the time to write often I'm sure, so no pressure, LOL.




Speaking of Andrew....last night all of my kids were at their Dad's house, celebrating their baby sister's 2nd birthday. John was at work, so it was just me and Andrew at home. We ordered pizzas and watched movies, and Andrew said it was a GREAT night. =) I wish I had more one on one time like that with all of the kids, it's so much fun!




My eyes have been bothering me for the past few days, so I went to the clinic at work to get them checked out. Turns out I have conjunctivitis, and I can't work again until they clear me! So, I get an unexpected long weekend. Crazy!




Speaking of conjunctivitis...Andrew said to me last night, "Mama, Daddy said you have conjitis."
I said, "Actually, it's called conJUNCTIVitis."
And he said...."DRUNKtivitis??"
That sounds like a good name for a bad hangover!




I've found the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe! But you'll have to go over to my food blog, Southern Loving, to see it.

Alright, time to wrap up this very late version of Friday Fragments! Hope you all have a great weekend, and don't forget to visit Mrs 4444's for more Fragging Fun!

InLaws or OutLaws?

• A pharmacist tells a customer, 'In order to buy arsenic you need a legal prescription. A picture of your mother-in-law just isn't enough.'
• My mother-in-law is banned internationally from playing poker, as she keeps all the chips on her shoulder.
• Adam and Eve were the happiest, and the luckiest, couple in the world, because neither of them had a mother-in-law.
• What is the difference between outlaws and in-laws? Outlaws are Wanted.
• Fred and Rick were in a pub. Fred says to his mate, 'My mother-in-law is an angel.' Rick replies, 'You're lucky. Mine is still alive.'

"....and that's all I have to say about that." - Forrest Gump

Holiday Weekend WrapUp

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
Ours was great. Of course, I haven't uploaded pics yet, big surprise! But, we had a great Christmas.
On Thursday, we celebrated Christmas with the in-laws.
Then on Friday, we celebrated at home, and my parents came over. The kids had a great time and of course, they loved all of their gifts. Elayna was SO excited while opening her gifts that her legs were shaking! It was so cute. Their 'big' gift from us was tickets to Busch Gardens. They are excited! My favorite gifts were soft, warm PJs from MIL, a personalized ornament from my niece with all of our names on it, a new bible from my mom, and HoMedics massager from John, the kind you put in a chair and sit on. It's heated, too. Mmm!
On Saturday, my kids went to their dad's for the week and Andrew went to his grandma's for the week. (his "mother" hasn't even called over the holidays; we haven't heard from her in months so it wasn't a big surprise, but...ugh.) We went to my parents' house Saturday evening because my brother & his family were visiting. We went out for pizza and hung out with them.
Also on Saturday night, we got shocking news - that Urban Meyer, head coach of the Florida Gators, was resigning for health reasons! We are passionate Gator fans, so we were absolutely devastated. However....
On Sunday, we found out that he has changed his mind and will not be resigning after all, but taking an indefinite leave of absence. We are praying for his health. The rest of Sunday was spent doing next to nothing. I napped a lot, since I had to work Sunday night.
And now, here I am! I also changed my blog background tonight....you like?

Hope you had a Wonderful Weekend!