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July 28, 2004

New job idea in case I get laid off?

I'm off in 19 minutes. First sleep, then house cleaning, then grocery getting, then twinkie frying and beer drinking. And that's just today! I'm starting to get giddy. Someone stop me.

Posted by krystal at 5:49 AM

July 27, 2004

juxtaposition

Jake's at camp til Friday. It's rained the entire time. I hope they're finding good stuff to get into and that he's safe and warm. Trevor and Kendall have been hanging out w/ Stacy's kids while I sleep. I'll pay her back in kindness or something.

The weekend was just great. Thursday Tree and I took the kids to the river. It rained that night but we had so many laughs on the screened in porch with the kids. I felt the weight of the world go away. Friday morning the kids had a good breakfast and went swimming. Stacy came down w/ her kids and we had a yaya-ish day with 7 kids and 3 mommys. That night the rents came down and libby and marv showed up too. It was ungodly hot and mom turned off the freakin ac so sleep was impossible and blah! Saturday it rained more and the kids were doing the fishing tournament dad arranges w/ the church so I got out of dodge when God's people showed up. (not before meeting the 55 year old boyfriend of Lois Harris who is 80 and recently widowed...go Lois!)

I went home, had a few beers w/ Peggy and we went to the bowling alley for a birthday party. That was awesome. This guy bought us beers and gave us lighters. (and matches and ego boosts peggy would remind me). We came home around 6ish and watched Tank Girl. Danny showed up all wet from riding his harley down in the rain. Drinking continued...future hangovers of america were formed.

Sunday...Danny left, I sat on the couch like a corpse and then went to work. The ultimate anti-climax I guess.

This week has been just as fuckety at work as the last few. I can't figure out the phones and I keep hanging up on people. It's sort of funny in a really not funny kind of way. Oh well.

Wednesday night we're having twinkie night at the house. We're having some friends over to deep fry twinkies with us. The kids are going to love it. I'm all sorts of excited about it too.

Peggy and I have been learning yiddish. oy. This way we can better communicate with Hoyshul.

Posted by krystal at 5:47 AM

July 22, 2004

41 minutes

That's how long before the "long week" is over.

This week I lived past my period, not talking to Sean at all, still being fat, getting a new roommate, Stacy coming home, 4 days of 12 hour shifts, a new ticketing system at work, long lists of shit I did not get done....

Some of it was good, some was bad. In the end, I'm going to the river today with my favorite people in the world and that's what matters.

When I come back, I have a date w/ Danny. yay.

***

Calendar:
7/25 Jake goes to camp
7/29 Terry's birthday
7/28 John's coming over, Peggy's cooking...I'm drinking.
7/30 The Village (??)
7/31 Nicole gets married
8/6-8/8 VBS
8/13 girl night
8/14 Opal's shower
8/21 Picnic
9/18 Lisa gets married

Posted by krystal at 5:32 AM

July 21, 2004

Combination platters

Life has become quite busy now. This week we got a roommate, Peggy, and her 2 dogs. They're a welcome addition to our house. I like having an adult to talk to and the kids like having furry creatures to walk and feed. Stacy and her family also got home safely from Puerto Rico. I'd missed that girl so much. I felt all happy that her fish, Peter, didn't go to that big toilet bowl in the sky while she was gone. *phew*. The dogs made it ok too so we're officially "good dog sitters".

Work has been teh suck this week. Things are very weird indeed and I'm just gritting my teeth and waiting to see what happens. I'll take severance check for 4,000, Alex.

I'm going to have to get busy on my "list" tomorrow. Jake needs to be packed up for camp before we leave for the river on Thursday. No pressure. NOOO pressure.

Jake's voice is changing so he's now officially "Peter Brady".

Posted by krystal at 3:17 AM

July 17, 2004

Yay

Tonight I'm gonna give Jake his first official babysitting job. Christian's band is playing at Uncle Sams and I want to go see 'em so I'm going to pay Jake to be the official real live babysitter for a few hours. I'm all stressed out about it but in a good way. I know he can do it and I'll have my cell phone on and I'll only be about 15 minutes away. It'll be fiiiine.

Last night I went to bed at 7:20 and woke up when the dogs started barking at the garbage truck around 4:30. The kids love having the dogs here. Kendall walks them so much that by the time Peggy gets back, Torte will be thin and she won't recognize him. I need to take some pictures.

Posted by krystal at 12:56 PM

July 15, 2004

exhaustion

The beach was great. I finally couldn't take it anymore and woke the kids at 7 so we could be on the road by 8. The trip only took 2 hours. Jake rode up front with me on the way there and we listened to his Ramones cd and then Shockwave Rider. He loves that cd and Kendall said "can they play for my birthday party??" Lis, tell your man that he's definitely hit the demographic. Can he play mmm bop? hahaha

The kids had so much fun in the ocean and I got the sun I wanted. I hate how crowded it is at Va Beach. We decided to go ahead and plan next year's vacation at Nags Head or somewhere on the outter banks. I'm going to call next week and get a house reserved so we can get it paid for in advance.

Coming home was a little more hectic. We spent 30 minutes waiting to get to the stupid tunnel but still made it home by 8. I enjoyed the kids so much today and they were angels...no fighting, no whining...everything was just great.

We saw some really cool customized cars, 3 cars full of lesbians, lots of pierced people and russians everywhere. It seems like the new workforce in Va Beach is Russian. In every store, restaurant and parking lot we visited, there were russians working. I'm not talking ugly either...these chicks look like the mail order ones in email spam. I'm going to send all of my male single friends there to find mates.

Posted by krystal at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)

A slow and steady rush

I woke up early this morning. Not surprising since I went to bed before 11 last night. Not surprising since we're going to the beach today and while my children are able to sleep, I can't because I'm too excited.

I know there's no sense getting there at 8am or even really by 10am but I'm ready to go. I haven't had sun since Hatteras and I'm craving the heat.

I wish the kids would hurry and wake up!!!!!

Posted by krystal at 5:58 AM

July 14, 2004

Back to our regularly scheduled life

Yesterday I woke up in such a foul mood. I got my insurance reinstated that I'd fucked up by shorting them $11 the month before. I took the kids to the dollar store and the card cellar, came home and plopped down knowing I wouldn't be going to work. I rarely give in to pms or allow my mood to fester like I did last night. It was just what I needed though. I got the house clean, did all of the laundry, wrote out my bills and stuck em in the mailbox (at 2am) and mostly just dug the fact that I was totally 100% alone.

I woke up this morning wanting to do stuff with the kids. We're going to see Spider Man 2 at the cheapo 10am movie. After that, who knows.

Posted by krystal at 7:31 AM

July 13, 2004

crappityness

This week is dragging. I have one more night to work (and 1.5 hours today) and I'm having a really hard time seeing myself here tomorrow night. I might just need a personal day. I think I do.

I need to get my act together and take care of my personal business. I have to pay my bills. I have to clean that filthy fucking basement before the bugs down there learn to get upstairs. I need to clean up my yard and cut my grass. I need to take my kids to the beach.

I promised them that we'll go Thursday and I won't go back on that. The weather dude said it's going to be a little cloudy but not rainy. We'll just drive down and back since we have doggies to take care of. I think they'll just be happy to go hang out. Last year we went for a few days and stayed at a cheapo motel. That was ok except we went in August and the jellyfish were out. I want to take them to Hatteras in August if I can swing it. I asked around when I was there w/ Byron and the people told me that they don't get them nearly as bad as Va Beach.

I'm listening to some songs that I got of The Afghan Whigs after Scot recommended them. I'm pretty fond of "Hated". I should go ahead and purchase a cd or two.

My kids are having step-mom issues. I haven't yet approached James about it but if they continue to feel unhappy about going there, I'll have to bring it up. I really hope I can make them happy enough that it doesn't become that big of an issue. Jake is the main concern lately. He really resents her and is vocal about it. He's got a lot of pull w/ Trev and Kendall so I worry that his discontent will spread to them. Then I'll have to feed them all to sharks, step mom included.

I liked life better when I had good things to look forward to.

Posted by krystal at 4:47 AM

July 12, 2004

Up in it

In the grand scheme of things it was not a bad weekend at all.

Thursday we did the movie thing.
Friday Adrianne dahlin came over w/ Paige. I hadn't met her yet so it was really cool to see her face to face. She's so cute and such a good baby. I love how she mimicks the faces I make at her. Friday afternoon the kids went to their dad's house. James and I swapped because he needed this coming weekend free. I hadn't really remembered that so I didn't make huge "single girl" plans. Danny came over Friday night w/ his little boy, Aden. He's about 18 months old so he's very active. I had a blast playing with him. He's very well behaved and when it was bed time he just went to sleep. I don't remember my kids ever doing that!! We watched Mystic River. I liked the movie a lot. Sean Penn is starting to look like Al Pacino.

Saturday they left and I did my chores, got my hair dyed and then headed up to Tree's house. It'd been a whole week since I saw Jason so I had to catch up there. He's growing so much. I think he knows me now.

Today I came on home, dreaded going to work, took a shower, put my pj's back on so I could pretend I was staying home. Peggy brought me her two dogs to babysit for the week. They're Porter and Torte. Super sweet pups. I think the only trouble we'll run into is if they bark a lot while I'm sleeping during the day. In that case, they can just go outside. Peggy said it was Ok.

I have wicked pms and tonight I'm feeling very overwhelmed. I am still concerned about layoffs at work that they're not telling us about. I've got too many plans and zero personal time. I have stretched myself very thin over the past couple of months in some bizarre attempt at not being lonely and instead I'm never alone and it's really not the answer.

Tomorrow I go back to simplifying my life again if it's not too late.

Posted by krystal at 2:43 AM

July 9, 2004

I'll get you, my pretty

The Spotsylvania Film Festival started last night. They have 4 nights of movies but the only one the kids hadn't seen was The Wizard of Oz. They saw it at the dinner theater but not the REAL thing. I also wanted to reaquaint myself with the 'rents so it was the perfect time.

We picked up Vanya and then met up w/ my folks back here. Dinner was awesome at Ruby Tuesdays. I love their killer fish sammich. The kids are not at all impressed w/ the newer healthier kid meals but they subbatooted fries for veggies and all was well. We got to see lots of pictures from the Honduras trip and all 4 kids behaved like champs.

We got to the film festival, ie: the old spotsylvania football field, around 7:30. There were a ton of vendors selling cheap food and drinks and there was a huge area set up for the kids with a moon bounce, a huge slide, craft tables and a fire simulator thing. It was ALL free, there was no intention on the part of the county to bilk us. What a cool treat.

So by dusk we'd gotten sweaty and glittery, eaten a ton of food and settled in for the movie. Dad hates The Wizard of Oz so he grumbled a bit but otherwise everyone was well behaved. It was cool to see the movie on the big screen but I have to admit, I don't much like the movie either. Classic or not, it grates my nerves.

We were able to get out of there with no hassle or huge traffic jam even though there were over 700 people there.

I'm so glad we went and I'd love to go back but the kids go to their dad's house tonight for the weekend.

Today I get to meet Paige. Adrianne is coming down for a while. I'm verreh verreh glad about that.

In fact, I should go wash the stink off of me right now.

Posted by krystal at 8:29 AM

July 6, 2004

bridge over the river whymegod?

The kids let me sleep in today til 2pm. I wasn't even really that tired (so I thought) but the sleep felt good. I started to wake up around 1 when I smelled this horrible death by oven smell. It didn't seem to get worse so I went right on back to sleep. When Jake woke me up he told me that there was a black fishstick on the bottom of the oven. He swears he didn't drop the fishstick in question (even though that's what he was cooking when this all happened). Nonetheless, everything is fine and the house didn't burn down.

I sent Kendall, Jake and Teddy over to Stacy's house to feed her pups and do the house stuff that we do in the afternoons. I usually do the afternoons with Kendall but I wanted to get in the shower. Jake came home and told me that they'd locked the key in the house. He said this at 3:30. I leave the house at 4pm on Tuesdays so that the kids can get their .99 happy meals and I can still be on time to work.

So I was replying to a note from Opal where she told me that Noah had heard from an old employer who is interested in my resume. (yay!). I told her I had to go break into the house next door. She sent Noah over and he did the breaking and entering thing just like a pro!! I am so happy to have met these people.

I got the kids their dinner, came to work and everything seems right-on with the world again. I think tonight Sean is coming over here after work so we can go out for some lunch (at 3:30am...what else do ya call it??).

There's more good stuff going on, I just have to simmer down and think about it.

Posted by krystal at 10:29 PM

July 5, 2004

wonder twins power...ACTIVATE!

Posted by krystal at 2:42 AM

July 4, 2004

Save a horse, ride a cowboy

Last year I volunteered to work the 4th of July because I wouldn't have my kids and there's just nothing worse than alone on a big holiday. This year my panic was minimal. I have established a pretty busy social life and I ended up getting to do almost everything I'd had in mind.

Tuesday night I was off in exchange for working the holiday so I took the kids to James and then went out w/ friends to see Christian's band "Crush n Run" at The Loft in F'burg. We had Fredericksburg beer and lots of fun. The band put on a great show. I'm really learning to appreciate my town. I love the shops and the bars and the easy going manner of the people.

Wednesday I picked up the kids and after breakfast we met my friend Ed and his kids at Old Mill Park for a picnic and then they all went swimming. I was a little freaked out by this sign they have that says that 71 people have drowned in that river since 1974. The part of the river we were in wasn't that turbulent but I was skittish none-the-less so I hovered more than usual over the kids. We came home and got ready for Gymnastics. Kendall was worn out and performed badly. Her attitude wasn't any better. I got agitated with her and cancelled our plans to go swimming the next day. I want her to do her best at gymnastics and wearing her out in the sun first just isn't a good idea. After we came home from the gym, Sean came over with his basilisk, Corky. What a cool creature!! The kids loved it but wouldn't touch him. I think it's safe to say we won't be getting one of those.

Thursday we had a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes and fresh fruit. Then Kendall and I met up w/ Peggy and a few others at the dog park. It was a nice outing that didn't wear her out. The boys didn't want to go so they hung out at home glued to the ps2. It's ok because for the most part they've been so busy this summer that they haven't had a chance to turn on the TV. Thursday night was gymnastics again and Kendall did much better. She made sure to keep her attitude good and her performance just followed suit.

Friday morning Tree and Jason came over and hung out. We packed up all of the kids and went to see mom at work. I hadn't seen her since she finally got home and Mom hadn't seen Jason at all. Then we went to visit Deb's parents for a bit. Robin picked up the kids and the rest of the night was spent playing with Jason and drinking beers. I love that baby so much. He's handsome and smart and I just think we're so fortunate to have him around. Tree and I pretty much just sat around talking about how gorgeous he is. hehe...we're tards :)

Saturday I woke up and wasn't shocked to find Tree and the baby gone. We're the same when it comes to being home. I went back to bed and slept off my hangover.

Late in the afternoon Danny came over and we went downtown to Mo's for a few beers and to watch a band. That is a really awesome place to go. You can sit out there and watch the river while listening to live music and drinking beer. Kids and dogs were everywhere! It was great. We came home and watched vh1 "I love the 70's" til late late at night.

The weekend was filled with family, friends, going out, staying in, being exhausted and sleeping in. I rested up and did some stuff around the house today and now I'm back at work thinking about lots of happy stuff. Independence is definitely worth celebrating.

Posted by krystal at 7:04 PM

July 1, 2004

in living color

Posted by krystal at 12:58 AM | Comments (2)

The lizard on my lamp

Posted by krystal at 12:55 AM