altruistic1

What in the world is happening today everyone has gone stark raving mad.  I am talking about all of the murders, family members killing their families, random shooting sprees, and on.   We all know that some areas are bad and that we should be safe if we watch who we hang with and do go to certain areas and be upright citizens, right?  Well, a father lost his son to a random shooting at a car wash.  A woman was shot sitting in her own home, no one knows who or why.   Violence is rearing its ugly head and we really need to be extra cautious!! 

I am so upset this is just disgusting, my second oldest son found out yesterday that a friend of his had been murdered,  he has know this person since they were young.  We do not really know any details because it is under investigation.  My son has been to Afghanistan and Iraq and has to come home to another war zone.  Hopefully, they will find the person who did this and will put them behind bars, so the family can have closure.  My heart goes out to the families of the victims of all of these travesties, I cannot imagine the pain that has been inflicted on them.  

I have been babysitting for my son while he has been going to the gym, so I am absolutely wore out at the end of the day!!  Today, the kids decided to take buckets full of water and make mud puddles and then jump in them, they tried to come in the house several times but I persuaded them to run through the sprinkler instead. They thought that was great since it was the 90’s today, the baby was in the walker in the house and the kids were finished playing in the sprinkler but had gone back to the mud puddles.  I brought the baby onto the back porch in her walker and turned on our misters, solving the mud issue, not to mention the baby loved it too. 

I let them play for quite awhile and convinced them to come in the house while I made supper and fed the baby.  They dried off, and played while I cooked, the baby was hungry so I fed her while the food was cooking.  I fixed them their plates and told them if they ate all of their food they could have ice cream, only one of them was able to finish their food and was given ice cream, the other two did not care too much, they were tired.  I fixed the baby a bottle and she fell asleep and took her in the bedroom to lay her down, came back into the living-room and the youngest was asleep on the couch, and the one with the ice cream had fallen asleep sitting up on the other couch ice cream in hand.  My grandson was the last to fall asleep and it was only a short time later when I was transferring the girls to their beds, he was passed out laying on the floor.  I put them all to bed, and waited to here from my son, he had returned home after the gym and tried to work on some of his school work that he had not been able to concentrate on because of the news of his friend.  They came over later and took the baby home with them but left my grandson here for the night.  Tomorrow morning is going to be fun, all three of them are going to be so excited finding out he is still here.

I have to apologize for being absent a few days for those who even read this.  Our family has had a bunch of crazy things happening.  My second son has a weight problem and decided that is was time to do something about it, he and his wife have been going to the gym and dropping their two kids off with me.  That means I have 4 kids three years old and under, I love it but they indeed are a handful.  This has been almost a daily routine, I am in total support of my sons weight loss, but at the end of the day I can hardly keep my eyes open. 

My youngest daughter turned 20 years old this month, the worst part of that is that I did not even get her card in the mail in time for her to receive it on her birthday.  She was supposed to come and visit last month but her little girls was sick.  Hopefully, they will be able to come visit soon.  Time flies by so fast.

My youngest son found out that they are having one baby and not two, I think he liked the idea of having more than one but his fiance on the other hand is relieved.  I do not care either way, I love them all.

We are on our way to Chucky Cheese , my friends 8 yr. old daughter is having her birthday party there.  I haven’t been to a Chucky Cheese in over 20 years.

I ran across a photo today that made me laugh, my youngest son was about 4 years old and he was riding his bicycle in our back yard, he had a jacket on and he was wearing his “cow-boots” riding an old bicycle.  Cute, but not funny right, well, his head was shaved bald, not completely though, he had areas that had a little stubble and other places that was even with his head.  That was funny because of how it happened to be bald.

We had moved from Rochester, New York and into a small rural community outside of Tucson, Arizona and the kids just loved being able to go outside and play, we had a large back yard and they had plenty of outdoor toys, so they spent a lot of time outside.  We not only moved kids across country we also had animals, four dogs, two boxers and two shih tsu’s, a guinea pig and two cockatiels.  The shih tsu’s have long hair and we soon found out that even though we did have some grass on the property we also had a lot of plant life that is less than friendly for people or animals.  I really do not know the name of some of the nasty little things that we soon learned were our biggest enemies.  I loved walking barefoot, but that was a mistake if you did not want to step on these thorn-like objects, not to mention that they attached themselves in the dogs long hair and would get carried into the house where you should be able to walk barefoot.   The poor dogs would step on them as well and I would have to pull them out of their paws and hair.  Some of them we learned are called goat-heads, and another one that caused us a lot of problems I never did find out what it was called but it was round and grew in the grass from a vine, it was round and had thorns that curled a little at the tip, so when it went into your skin it held on.  The goat head looks like a triangular piece of wood about the size of the tip of your little finger and it has three narrow pointed tips, so when you step on it it goes in deep and sometimes breaks off in your foot, they can penetrate the soles of shoes as well. 

With that said, the poor dogs with the long hair were always coming in with them tangled in the hair of their feet and legs, if I didn’t set down right then and go over them from head to toe I ended up paying the price, they would chew them out of their hair and drop them on the furniture or floor, real nice to sit down on!!  It did not take me long to decide that the upkeep was too much pulling them out of the hair.  I dreaded that job, ending up with them in my fingers just to get them untangled out of the hair day after day.  I had enough one day and pulled out my dog clippers and decided to shave the dogs so they had short hair, the boxers had far less incidents with the prickers. 

I started shaving the dogs and ended up feeling ill in the middle of it, so, I left the clippers unplugged but sitting on the floor along with the hair I had been placing in a plastic bag.  Went into the living-room and just wanted to lay down for awhile hoping I would feel better soon.  Instead, I fell asleep,  I woke up to the sound of the clippers in the kitchen, got up and looked at my lovely little boy with the clippers in one hand and a handful of his cut hair in the other.  OMG, what did you do, he had curly blond hair, I cannot put that hair back on your head!! 

I took the clippers and my youngest son to the bathroom so I could try and make his cut look decent.  Ha, Ha, I was wrong, he was a wiggle-worm and every-time I turned the clippers on, he would start squirming and I dug the clippers all of the way to the head, so he had digs all over his head from me trying to right a wrong.  It took forever to finish and I hated the outcome, you could see the longer and shorter areas from quite the distance.  When we were going to church he was so ashamed that he decide to wear a hat on his head.

 Thank goodness his hair grew back in quickly, I did the best I could and decided that cutting people hair is different than cutting the dogs hair.  I never made that mistake again either leaving, anything down within  reach!  I finished the dogs and was glad I did, and so were they, the whole time I was in the bathroom they were hiding.  From then on I kept the dogs hair short.  

 That picture was certainly worth a thousand word!!

We bought the girls “FurReal” friends, the 3 year old got the baby bird and the 2 year old got the baby pig.  My youngest son had bought the “FurReal” friends for the girls for Christmas in 2007, the baby bear and baby monkey.  They love the ones that their uncle bought for them, they carry them around and feed them their bottles along with their favorite baby dolls.  We had been shopping one day and picking up a present for a birthday party and happened to walk down the aisle where they were displayed, the girls about jumped out of the cart to get to them, but just because they wanted them we could not afford them right then, so they were given on a special occasion from their mother.  Needless to say that they love the new “FurReal” friends as much as the ones they already have. 

We all had fun coloring eggs!!  I think everyone enjoys coloring eggs, my oldest son was here with his family and he was right in the midst of the coloring.  Later, we went to a park that we had not been to but my son had been there before fishing.  It was a very nice park and not far from where we live, always a plus when you have a kids, you never know what might happen that requires a trip back home.  Unfortunately the 2 year old is not feeling well again, she has the cough back and ran a low-grade fever, so that was good that we didn’t have far to go back home if needed.  We ended up staying a little over 3 hours and did not have to return home.  The park has a lake and people were fishing, there were ducks on the lake, there were slides and picinic areas, basketball courts, baseball fields and much more.  We had kites for the kids to fly and they ended up playing on the slides for a long time, we had to convince them to go back to the car so we could hide the eggs before the chocolate melted.  My son took the girls and his 3 yrs. old son for a walk while the rest of us hid the eggs, there was an open field that was away from the main stream of people and we placed the eggs.  When they returned they went to town picking the eggs up, we had to stop them from sitting down to open the find and wait until they were finished.  When they finally picked up the last of the eggs they sat down and started checking out what they had, we played Frisbee for awhile and decided to go back home.  The wind was  a little chilly and I did not want the 2 year old getting any worse.  My son was going to barbecue at his house and wanted us to go over but I said that we would pass.  It was alright because he had his father-in-law and brother-in-law to barbecue with.  We were not home a half an hour and both of the girls went to sleep, the oldest slept until this morning and the youngest was up off and on coughing.  They had quite a day!

I love spending time with my family!!  Last year my youngest daughter was here with her little one for the Easter egg hunt.  When I was getting the Easter buckets out it reminded me, I had one extra bucket.  More holidays will be coming and we will get together soon.  I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter and spent time with their loved ones.

I wish that I had more time on my hands (don’t we all!!)  I have had several set backs the last few days.  My computer has been checked several times and I cannot afford one more dime to invest in it.  It is a real shame seeing that I had five kids, that at least one of them could have been a computer geek.(no disrespect)  I am trying to do affiliate work online and I visit a lot of different sites a day, posting ads.  I have several sites that I frequent and one of them seems to make Internet Explorer stop responding almost every time I go to the site.  I have written to the site for assistance and they tell me it must be my computer.  I rarely have the issue when I do not visit that site.  I would like to know how to tell for sure, without spending a fortune. 

If that is not enough my son and his wife have been going to the gym and I have been babysitting.  No problem I raised five right.  That means I have two 3 year olds and a 2 year old and a 7 month old.  Having the two girls with me all of the time they know what not to do, until their cousin gets here and all bets are off.  Not to mention that they take advantage of me because I have the baby to tend to and can’t catch everything they are doing.  Of course they wait until I am trying to get her to sleep and they start screaming and since she is at the age that makes her not want to miss a thing, she hears them and the game is on.  Then she is cranky but does not want to go to sleep, she might miss something.  They found a pen today and I do not have a problem with my 3 yr. old granddaughter because she only writes on paper or a coloring book, the 2 yr. old will write on anything, not today the 3 yr. old grandson showed his 3 yr. old cousin how to write on herself, face, legs, arms and the 2 yr. old did not.   That doesn’t mean she wasn’t as mischievous as ever though,  she just took the back burner today and let the other two get into trouble. 

The other day the 2 yr. old went into the kitchen and took her small chair that goes to her table and put it in front of the sink and took a butter tub off of the counter and took it in the living room onto the couch and opened it, well, it had bacon grease that was from earlier that morning.  I have a brown suede type couch and love seat that set next to each other and she had it on both of them.  She didn’t stop there though she realized it was messy so she took it out the back door leaving a trail out to the rocks in the back yard where she dumped the rest of it and was playing in the mud from it.  I know you must be thinking where was I all of this time?  I had gone to the restroom and they had been watching their favorite cartoon, I was gone less than 5 minutes. 

If it is not one thing it is another around here.  I cannot win!!  I am not complaining though because every second that I spend with them is more important than any old mess!!  As far as the computer goes it will just have to bump it, until of course I actually make money!

 
I hope that everyday we all try to better ourselves in some way, learn to think positively, learn something new, learn how to be kind!  I cannot stand seeing all of the negative things that are going on in this world, some are brought on by people and others are brought on by nature.  We all say that the kids of today are our future leaders of tomorrow, how can they learn to be leaders when they are constantly being abused, neglected, and killed.

How can a parent let themselves fall into this negativity?  I am a parent, grandparent and though I know I am not perfect in any way shape or form, I have no reason to blame the kids, grand-kids for what they have or have not learned, I am their teacher.  They only learn what they see and hear, they only act the way they act because they are trying to tell you something, we have to learn to listen.  This world is full of people willing to help, if you just ask!!  No one wants to judge you or belittle you because you need help, the fact is we all need help and would be better off if we learned to ask for it sooner than later.  I know that everyone has good in them and that they start out wanting to do and be good but something happens along the way and they do not reach out for help, they let the negativity take control and then their world starts spiraling down, one negative thing after another.  We have to learn to be accountable for our own actions and stop blaming what has happened in the past or the present and stop this destruction of ones self and their loved ones.

There is nothing more important in this world than your family and the sooner people realize that and embrace the fact that family loves you unconditionally, when you think they do not love you it is when you have let all of the negativity in your life take over.  Wake up people and smell the roses just because things aren’t perfect you can manage to make the best of them. 

Stop and think before you act or say something and you will find out that things work out much better and in your favor if you just stop and think!!

The day was going as it normally goes around here, actually a little more quiet.  I watched my 3 yr. old grandson and 7 mos. old granddaughter for about 5 hours.  The noise level in the house was a bit loud, they were having a blast, they have not been able to see each other for awhile and they made up for lost time.  Toys everywhere!!  I love it when they are able to play together.  Needless to say today the girls were a little tired around the edges from yesterday, so they were a little less rambunctious.

 The doorbell rang this afternoon and it was two gentlemen selling Kirby Vacuums.  I told them that I could not afford one, but they insisted that I at least let them demonstrate the cleaner.  So, after a few minutes of convincing I agreed to a demonstration, repeating to them that I was not going to purchase.  They said they would be right back and sure enough a few minutes later, someone was back but it was not the original two, but another set of two.  One was demonstrator and the other was the sales person.  I kept saying to myself why did I agree to this.  The demonstrator had to unpack the vacuum and put it together and proceeded to show me all of the different features.  Since, I have dogs and two little girls that constantly drag dirt in or drop hairs there was plenty of places to clean.  The young man that was giving the demonstration was new and he was very eager to show what he had learned.  The salesman would come in and check on the demonstrator and they have to show their work, I felt guilty having this young man do all of the work and then not to purchase from them.  I would tell the salesman that I appreciated the offer and that time would be served better elsewhere but they just kept insisting.  I have to admit that it was very informative and the vacuum is a good name but my wallet does not hold the kind of cash needed for this, nor can I afford the monthly payments, especially right now with the way things are.  They did a very nice job, and I have their business card and if I ever come up with the funds I might just give them a call back. 

So my house was thoroughly cleaned, the couches were swept, the curtains, the plants, hard to reach places, ceiling fans, the beds were swept, and the carpet shampooed.  It really was amazing and helped me cut back on what I need to do to finish my spring cleaning.  Thank You Kirby!! 

I consider my self to be a lucky person, I have 8 beautiful grandchildren, four boys and four girls!!  All of my children with the exception of my youngest son is a parent.  A few weeks ago my youngest son calls and says that his fiance is expecting.  When they went to the doctor and the doctor wanted an ultra sound they were told they may have twins, so they scheduled her for another ultra sound to make sure.  I was excited and couldn’t wait for the day they went back for the second ultra sound.  It was supposed to be last Friday, so when my son didn’t call, I called him.  He said that something came up at the place they were having the ultra sound and needed to have the date changed to Wednesday. 

April 1, that is, my son called in the morning and said that they had the ultra sound and that they had quadruplets, I did not believe him because he likes to joke and told him I wanted to speak to his fiance but she was in the store.  He continued to assure me that he was telling the truth and how he would have to buy three more car seats and all of the other things that were needed.  He said that he had to let me go because he had to go to work.  I tried calling his fiance but she did not answer, so I decided to call my other son and see if  his brother had called him and he said that he had and that he had told him the same thing.  All of a sudden I realized that it was April fools day and both of us had just been fooled.

We finally got the truth out of my youngest son and they are only having one baby.  I am glad it was only a joke though, it is hard enough with one!  So, toward the end of this year I will have 9 beautiful grandchildren.    

I hate to say it but, this computer beat me again!!  I had my computer checked out and cleaned up last month.  Yeah, no real problems back to normal again!! Surfing the web, writing my blog, posting my ads, reading my email, and printing learning pages for the girls.  Things were just great until I tried to print pages for the girls, for some odd reason they would not print.  I checked everything out that I could see, even ran the repair on the printer thinking it was something stupid that had gotten messed up.  Nothing that I had tried seem to fix the problem, if that was not bad enough, Internet Explorer was freezing up and at other times pages would be splayed across the screen. 

This all was happening at different intervals and then when it was apparent that I was not going to get the printer working, I decided to un-install the program and reinstall it with the disk, thinking that it would just take some time and that would be one less thing that I would have to worry about.  Ha, Ha, the driver would not install the screen would freeze, I kept trying to see what that was all about and found nothing to give me a clue.  Gave up on that idea, I can do without the printer right now.  I had to control, alt, delete way too many times, lost information that I had been working on, that was the last straw.  I called the computer repair person that worked on my computer and set up an appointment for him to come over the next day.  

He was coming at 1 o’clock and I was so wanting for this to be over with and the computer back to normal.  First he addressed the printer issue and did not seem to be able to figure it out either, I explained a few things and he was checking things out and finally after about 45 minutes he was able to get the printer to reinstall.  Next, I was not able to do back-ups because the computer would not let me choose the drive that I wanted to back up the files to, he fixed that issue and the back up started and he instructed me to let the back up finish and then run the anti-virus program again and make sure that there were no viruses hidden.  The back-up took forever and when it finally finished and I started the quick scan for the viruses, it took almost 2 and a half hours itself.  Into the evening before it finished and I was in the middle of finishing supper and getting the girls ready for bed. 

I thought that since the girls were tired and getting to bed early, I would at least be able to have a little time on the computer, until the phone rang.  It was my son and he needed me to come to his house, I thought it would still give me time to get on the computer when I came back home because I did not stay long.  I sat down and had so many things to do, I was trying to get everything caught up and start fresh in the morning.  I was working away and could not keep my eyes open,  I was falling asleep at the computer!!  So, I gave up and went to bed.  I am still playing catch up.  As far as the Internet freezing up I had an issue very first thing this morning and nothing since, hopefully it was just a glitch and I wont see it again.  Wish me luck.

I told you a little about the squirrel monkey that I was lucky enough to have for a few years.  I had two cats, a little black mixed breed dog and two parakeets, and one son at the time.  So, bringing a monkey into all of this was going to be fun.  He had his own large cage that came with him, so I figured that it was best that he stay in it until he was used to his new home.  Well, as time passed we introduced the rest of the animals to Michi and he immediately took to each and every one, with the exception of the birds.  They were in their cage all of the time and in a room that was not frequented by the monkey.

As time passed and Michi was more familiar with us he spent very little time in his cage.  I found out that one of his favorite things to do is to check out a glass that someone had sat down, he would dip his fingers in the glass to see if he liked the contents or not.  Most of the time he did like what he was tasting, so he would continue dipping his little dirty hands in the cup and licking them off.  When he had his fill of the drink he would head over to a table lamp that had silky white shade, crawl up on top of the shade and lay down and hang off of it.  It did not take long before the shade was filthy and had to be replaced with something that was more cleanable.  If he was not on the lamp shade, he would curl up on the bed with one or all of the other animals.  He loved the cats so much.  I used to let him climb in the tree outside and if he didn’t want to come down when I needed him to I would pick up one of the cats and I would meow myself, Michi would come from where ever he was, run up my leg and try to get me to let go of the cat.  It was hilarious to see him come out of the tree so fast and run up my leg and onto my shoulder, reaching down pulling on my fingers to let go of the cat.  I guess he thought that the cat sound was actually from the cat and that I was hurting it.  If I would have been smart and had a VHS camera at the time I would have been able to send clips into The Funniest Home Videos!!