Again with my family

Alright, my son is not here so I can get back to my family post. When I first got there it was just my aunt Suzy, her husband John and my grandma Noonie. When I was little and Suzy lived at home I followed her around as often as she would let me. She was just the coolest. And of course, I always loved going to Grandma's. She had a pool, a cool basement, a scary cat and all kinds of "gag" stuff. In a few minutes, my uncle Curt and his wife Mary get there. We sat around in the living room and told a few stories. Suzy told about thinking she was cool when my dad let her hang around with him and his friends. She said that really they just had her run to the fridge for them and stuff but she was so excited to be hanging out with them she didn't mind. My grandma talked about my uncle Curt calling from the Navy asking her to get him out because he was in love and just wanted to come home. They all talked about dad and his friends talking to the dead with a candle. Apparently, Noonie could hear them and answered in a "ghostly voice" through the vent and offended one of dad's friends. John had started cooking while we were talking and soon lunch was served. Delicious... all of it. My cousin Erin came in with her husband Shane and kids Hunter & Caden while we were eating. Her kids are so sweet and adorable. Shane had a rocky start in the family and I don't really know him that well but this visit he was very engaging and funny. My cousin Jenn gets there with her mom Cheryl and boyfriend after we ate. Suzy was just showing me her wildflower garden when they pulled in. Cheryl came with us. Suzy has all these neat paths mowed through this wildflower field and some benches and things. When you get to the top it sort of overlooks the house and you can see all the cornfields around it. Just lovely. Then we come back to Jenn & boyfriend. When I was little and lived in Ohio, Jenn was my best friend/cousin/sister. She's closest to me in age and we spent a lot of time together. I missed her the most when I moved. She complains about me constantly and acts like I bullied her but she loves me. At the end of our visit her boyfriend said, "Jennifer talks about you a lot. She really loves you and considers you her best friend." Wow. Just wow. That made me happy. Later in the evening my cousin Jodi shows up with her family. Her kids are hilarious! We all tell stories that most families wouldn't tell if they saw each other every day. My family busts it all out even though it's been years. I LOVE that. We just laughed all day. When we were letting the sky lanterns go, Kyla says "is it ready?" Chloe says "I'll tell you when to do it." Then runs up to Kyla and whispers "Don't trust me." Maddie told Erin she was too old to shimmy and broke Erin's heart a little. Erin said "I'm not that old. I love to shimmy!" It was just a day of random awesomeness.

Family trip

I haven't been to Ohio in 3 summers. Every summer I have planned to go but then I don't have the money. This summer I just decided I am going no matter what happens. We left at 2:00 AM Saturday morning that way we could get to Ohio around noon and spend the rest of the day. My aunt said we could stay the night with her but we didn't want to impose too long so we planned to leave the next morning and head on to Mom and Dad. The trip started out good. I love going places with the kids and singing and talking and laughing the whole way. We realized that my math was off by about 3 hours. We were set to arrive ahead of schedule. We decide to go on to Lima, get a Kewpee burger, drive around all our favorite places, see Aunt Bridgette and then come to Bellefontaine at noon. Then traffic stopped right outside of Cincinnati and we sat for quite awhile. Next came the rain... lots and lots of rain. The windshield wipers on my car stopped working. I started praying for God to please stop the rain or fix the wipers. We tried stopping at a Wal-Mart to get a wrench and RainX. Turned on the wrong road and ended up at a Midas. They fixed the wipers for free! Thank you Lord! On the road we go again, but have to cancel our Lima side trip. Get a little lost. End up arriving an hour late. I didn't really know who all was coming. My grandma has a little place at my aunt's so I knew I would see them both for sure. But it turned out EVERYONE came. (Except the ones that live in VA.) It was such an absolutely wonderful day. We had a cookout, told stories, laughed and laughed, caught fireflies, and set off sky lanterns. Everyone got along. All the kids played together. I wish I had the whole day on video and I wish it could've lasted longer. Now I'm at the beach and Trace is nagging at me to get off the computer. I will probably write more about this later.

IRA/Random things

Just set up an account with Schwab for an IRA. Makes me a nervous wreck!!! We did everything unintentionally wrong when my husband cashed in his 401k and I'm hoping that won't be the case for mine. Luckily, I have a good friend that's an accountant to help me out a little. Oh and last night we had a company picnic. It will be my last one. I won a door prize, $100 gift card to Wal-Mart! And when I got it from the CEO he said "HE is looking out for you." Made me cry a little. I will really miss this lovely company. Then just now, his daughter (who sits by me at work and is autistic and precious) said she would miss me next week when I am gone visiting my family. But not like she will miss me when I leave forever, then she will shed the tears. Oh this is getting harder every day.

Hi God, I see you everywhere

I know God is always with me. But there are times when you just feel it more than others. And right now is one of those times. When my husband went to rehab, I was leaning on God pretty hard and He really got me through. When I found out I'd been accepted into the PTA program, for a minute I thought of turning it down. Maybe I should focus on my husband this year. Plus it just seemed crazy to quit a good job with insurance when he didn't have one either. Finally, I just took a breath and thought "You know, I have felt like God wanted me to do this... do I now think He can't take care of me while I am doing it?" So I went ahead with my plan. I had a couple of things in mind. Like my husband could work in a bank or even maybe take my job. I was a little worried because I feel like he also has been called by God to do something, (become a teacher) and worried either of those jobs could be good enough to distract him from his purpose. But, we could worry about that later, for now he just needed a job that doesn't hurt his back. He was starting to get depressed again and fall back into some old patterns. We started to worry then decided to following Alanon principles instead of caretaking & enabling. My husband ran into somebody he knows that needed some help on their garbage truck. Guess what, it doesn't hurt his back. But no insurance or anything like that. Soon enough he saw that Homestead school was hiring a custodian. Now he went to Homestead as a kid and LOVES it! This job does have insurance. He got the job yesterday! He is going to be able to work both of them and has one online class this semester. God just worked it all out and with perfect timing. God is so cool like that.

:)

It's one of those days where everything just feels GOOOOOOOD!

Vampire Diaries / Red

I think i briefly mentioned that the kids and I watched a lot of Vampire Diaries while my husband was in rehab. It was kind of an escape I think. We watched like 4 seasons in 3 weeks. But what I didn't mention is I got a huge crush on this character Damon Salvatore. I haven't had an actor crush in a looooong time. Sure he's cute but he was on Lost too and I didn't like him OR think he was cute. It's the character. He's funny and inappropriate. I think he reminds me of my husband when he was younger. But having that crush for 3 weeks must have opened that door again because watching the movie Red last night all I kept thinking is how hot Bruce Willis still is. lol.

Wowza

Turns out my husband didn't have to go to training last night, so he went to the meeting. Today he is working half a day on a garbage truck. He also took steps to get a job I think he would really like. Turns out all the "helping" I've been doing over the years really is enabling. I'm one of those people that cuts open a cocoon so the butterfly doesn't have to struggle and then cripples them because they needed the struggle to build their strength. Damn. That's totally not what I thought I was doing. Well, better to realize it at 41 than never I suppose. I'm seeing a trickle down effect as well. The kids are doing less codependent stuff too. Woohoo! Also, I am moving right along on my school checklist. Today is my first doctors appointment to get all my immunizations started. I will be getting my bonus check soon so I can order all the books and supplies I need (90% of which I already have in a cart on Amazon, once I have money in hand, I just push checkout.)I was just told I will most likely get a $500 scholarship from Good Samaritans soon. I am enrolled in my CPR/First Aid class. And all my financial aid stuff is done, I just wait to see if I get any. Started my day with a jog and ran into 3 lovely dogs and saw the sun rise over some cows in a pond. Plus, it's Friday. Oh yeah, life is so good.