Happy Memorial Day!

Here's to my Dad who served in the Navy in peacetime. He was too young to serve in World War 2 and Korea but too old and had too many kids to support to serve in Vietnam. In the picture above he's with his best friend Freddy Martin. They served in Hawaii in about 1958 or 1959. Some tour of duty huh? Here's to my Uncle J. C. (my Aunt Bobbie's husband) who was in the Coast Guard in peacetime at the same time my Daddy was. Also, here's to my Mom's younger brothers Johnnie and Robert who both served in Vietnam. Johnnie was in the Marine's and Robert in the Army. Here's to my Dad's Uncle Coot who was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in World War 2. Here's to my cousin Stacy and her husband Nick who both were National Guard and served in Iraq. Without any of them serving their country I wouldn't have a my country. Thank you Daddy and thank you to all the members of the United States Armed Forces in war and peacetime who've made this holiday a very personal holiday for all Americans.

Awake?

I think I am. Just one week and a few days until everybody in our household become night owls. That's right. Summer is just around the corner for us. I don't know who's more excited about school being over for the year the kids or me. Jessie is officially a 6th grader despite her failing math every semester. She missed it by just this much though so considering her learning disability with math it really means she did very well to just fail by that little bit. She did pass the math TAKS test so that's why the ARD committee decided to go ahead and pass her to 6th grade. I don't want her to be passed ahead just to be passed but holding her back for this and knowing its an actual learning disability is different than if she were just a normal student who wasn't trying. Her other classes are all on grade level or a little above and she was given a small IQ test where she was determined to be an average person of intelligence. I'll take average intelligence. It's her personality that makes her who she is anyway. I mentioned to the committee that well so she won't be an accountant when she grows up but they threw back at me that maybe she'd be a writer then. Okay, I know my girl has an imagination but now I'm wondering what the heck she's been saying or writing at school. They didn't act like it was anything bad so I guess I'll just look forward to her future and see what she turns out to be. Nicky is passing to the 8th grade. I just can't believe he's in 8th grade. It just seems like he was a baby yesterday. He's at the other end of the spectrum from Jessie. He came home with awards for A/B Honor Roll and an Outstanding in Science Certificate and never even told me it was Awards day. In fact, I'd never seen the inside of the new middle school until we went to his Band concert last week. All I saw then was the Cafetorium. (I hate those!) Why not just build an auditorium when building a whole new school? Doesn't make any sense to me either. Nicky plays the Baritone. It looks like a small tuba. He really enjoys it. Jessie thinks he enjoys Band so much so that she's decided she wants to do Band for her elective in 6th grade too. The Band director let her try the Flute and the Clarinet and asked her which she liked best. She chose the Clarinet. The director told her good choice because its an instrument for people with long arms. Yep, I have a monkey girl. Her hands are already bigger than mine too. If she's not going to be tall I'll be very surprised. Nicky too. Both are already even or past me in height. Course I'm only 5'4" but I wasn't anywhere near their heights at their ages. Thank goodness for tall grandparents. They'll both be at the middle school this next year and then Nicky will start high school the year after that. I don't even want to begin thinking about that yet. Sidenote: After a cooling off period of a few days my brother and I are all good again. I was hoping it would be okay and it was. It helped I was able to get my emotions all out here though. I've opened my blog back up for anybody to read again. I just needed a few days of being paranoid I guess.

@@

That's an eye roll by the way. My brother sucks! I'm so upset with him right now. Our family is on Facebook. A lot of the extended family on my Mom's side is too. Well, I made a family group page that is closed to the public so that we could post more private things that don't need to be all over Facebook. I really wanted my Mom to be able to talk about my Dad to her family without worrying about who else could read it and today she actually posted on there that she saw him and that he was in a good mood. I was excited for a little bit. Anyway, I started a Scattegories type game there and my brother proceeded to answer with a whole bunch of answers and not give anybody else a chance to answer so when I started the next letter I just asked that no one answer more than once in a row to give everybody a chance to play. He IM'd me on Facebook and told me to remove him from the group. I told him no that I'd just delete the whole group. I found out I can't delete the whole group without removing everybody first and I don't want to do that. There'd be a lot of questions and its better to just leave it up instead. Then he said this smartass is leaving Facebook. I told him I didn't call him a smartass and then he said he didn't say I did. Okay, so that remark was just like slapping me in the face then. Why say that remark if it has nothing to do with me? I told him I just asked to take turns so everybody could play and he told me I replied during the game. Um...no I didn't. I started the game and then changed to the next letter. He didn't give anyone a chance to respond after my one Aunt responded. I deleted the Scattegory discussion so there's no chance of that happening again. It just pisses me off because he knows how important it was to me that we have this family group page. I feel my Mom's family drifting all apart and I miss the closeness I had with all my cousins growing up. I think my brother is just mad because he couldn't control everything on there. I'm going to enjoy him not being on Facebook I think. There's times when he's jumped in on conversations with friends of mine that he has no idea who they are. I won't miss his abrasiveness on there that's for sure. He loves to be mean when he's talking to you in person too and then turns it around and says he's joking. I'm tired of it and I've been wanting to tell him off for a long time but because of what my Mom is going through with my Dad I haven't. Now, I doubt I'll get to talk to my Mom or my sister very much since he's always the one to answer the phone. So I guess I've lost my Mom and everybody now for sure. I keep telling myself I did nothing wrong. I just wanted a chance for everybody to have fun on there. What's funny is I know he'll still be going on Facebook under my Mom's and sister's pages so I can't even trust a conversation with them on there that its not really him. His loss right? Then why do I feel bad? I guess its cause I'm the eldest. I hate being the eldest sometimes.


**Edit** I got on Facebook this morning like always. My brother is back on there. I think he has his settings so I can't see him on there. Fine with me. I didn't do anything wrong. Just asked he played fair and apparantly he just can't do that anymore. I only noticed because one of the pictures someone else put on had him tagged and it was in blue so that means he's not off of Facebook. He'll get over himself eventually. I'll be here when he does but I'm not going to fret myself over him anymore. He's a grown man and should be able to handle himself as such. The only thing worries me is not seeing my Mom.

Wednesday

I didn't go and see my Dad this past weekend. My brother Patrick took my Mom and sister Cheryl up and dropped them off on Sunday. He hardly will ever go in to see my Dad because he feels like he's a trigger and that he being up there will make my Dad want to come home. I had told Cheryl I would take them but I like to go in the morning and they wanted to go at lunchtime because the nurses told them that they could bring him a hamburger and fries for lunch. They said he ate every bit of his burger and almost all of his fries. I think they're planning on doing it again next week too so I don't know if I'll go then or not. We'll see. Chris wants to take the kids to see Clash of the Titans this weekend. With Ironman 2 out that one shouldn't be crowded at all. We'll probably see Ironman 2 in a few more weeks. Chris is one to always go and see a new movie a couple of weeks to a month after its released simply because he doesn't want to be in a crowded movie theater. Yet, heaven forbid we go to the dollar show and catch one we missed. Doesn't make a lick of sense does it? LOL. My Mom had a great doctor visit on Monday. She was in a wonderful mood and she and I got a lot of talking done. I told her about that last message from my niece Amanda and the bit about having help to buy a car and she told me that they did buy a car for me but they didn't. My Dad picked up an El Camino and I did drive it but my brother Patrick told me in no uncertain terms that it was HIS car. I've told my Mom that before but of course she doesn't remember so I let go of it. Then she told me that they made monthly payments to someone for some other old Buick I owned. Yeah they did from money I gave them each month for it but she was bound and determined it came out of their pocket. Nope. It didn't. I let go of that argument too. I know the truth. No one ever helped or bought me a car. I always took care of my own in that department. Anyway we got a lot of talking done which she can't do at home because she doesn't want to upset Cheryl and Patrick just knows everything so my Mom doesn't feel she can speak freely around him. I don't mind her getting stuff of her chest to me it just leaves me with nowhere to go with anything and there's times when I don't need to know the stuff I know. Sometimes I hate being the eldest.

Kids Names

I saw on another blog out in blogland that someone explained the meaning behind her kids names. Since its Mother's Day weekend it seems like a good time to explain about my kids names too. First though happy Mother's Day to all my Mommy friends and family online and off in the real world.


Family names are a really big deal to me. You'll see why as you read below.


Nicky is 13 so I'm sure he's about to become just Nick soon. His whole name is Nicholas Jay Harold H*****t. The Nicholas was picked out by Chris and my sister Kelly. Chris said he always wanted a kid called Nick so I went with it since I didn't have a boys name picked out for him. The Jay is Chris's middle name and his father's middle name also. Harold is after Chris's grandfather Harry H*****t but I didn't want to go with just Harry since kids can be mean when it comes to some names like Harry. Chris's grandfather was Harry Christopher H*****t. Chris is Christopher Jay after him and his Dad Delbert Jay. As big as I am on family names there was no way I was going to name Nicky Delbert. Maybe he can use it for one of his sons as a middle name when he has one.


Jessie is 11 and I think she'll always be Jessie even when she's a little old lady. Her whole name is Jessica Ivy Jo H*****t. The Jessica is after my grandfather on my father's side. He was Jessie Elbert P******s. The Ivy is after my grandfather, yes I said grandfather, on my Mom's side. He didn't have a middle name so he was just Ivy P****n. The Jo is after my Mother-in-Law who is Betty Jo H*****t. I think I made my Mom jealous by naming Jessie after my Mother-in-Law but she got over it. She already had a niece named after her and I think Ivy Jo sounds good together.


If we would have had a third I think I would have gone with Mathidy. It's pronounced Math-i-dee. It's a boys name and a tragic one on my Mom's side of the family. Mathidy was my grandfather Ivy's older brother and he was accidentally shot with a 22 rifle when he was 13 or 14. No one has ever used that name in our family since. Since there's no way I'm ever having another baby I think I'll try to encourage my kids to use it for one of their own in the future. If they don't it won't upset me though. Who knows though how baby names will be by the time they're grown. We might be using a number system by then. LOL.

Weird....Wired........Wonky

I just feel so weird this morning. Like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hate when I wake up in this kind of mood. Well, not exactly a mood. Just waiting for something to happen is what it feels like. There's almost a tingle to my skin. I'm not anticipating anything. Our anniversary was last week. My birthday isn't until June and there's nothing in between to get excited over either. I wish whatever it was would go ahead and happen and be done and over with. Oh I know.......I'll get a lottery ticket and maybe I'll win the lotter tonight. Yeah right! LOL.

First Line Friday

If you got here from Kathy's blog looking for great graphics thanks for coming by. You can go here

http://grabitgraphics.blogspot.com/

Just drop me a comment about what you're looking for and I'll see what I can come up with. I make a lot of fun things for Kathy as for being great at it I'm my own worst critic of course.

My friend Kathy loves books and bags and Bon Jovi. Not in that order necessarily but she has a love for first lines and came up with the idea for First Line Friday. You can find her here

http://bagsbooksandbonjovi.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-line-friday.html


First lines have always intrigued me since I heard an author say that writing the first sentence is, by far, the most difficult part of writing a novel. The reasoning was that a first sentence can make the reader continue reading or cause the book to be tossed aside. So, go to your To Be Read Pile, choose as many books as you want and share the first line. Be sure to include the title and author so that if your reader also finds it intriguing, they can find the book. Also, share your thoughts about the first line. Does it draw you in? Is it...exciting...thought provoking...scary...funny?

My book choice for todays (okay I'm a day late and a dollar short but I'm here) First Line Friday is Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox. I'm posting the whole first paragraph because when I picked this book up I just couldn't stop at the first line.

Chapter One

A Wake-up Call

Gainesville, Florida - November 1990

I woke up to find the message in my left hand. It had me trembling. It wasn't a fax, telegram, memo, or the usual sort of missive bringing disturbing news. In fact, my hand held nothing at all. The trembling was the message.

Since I know what is going on with Mr. Fox I know this will be an interesting read. He's a contemporary of sorts. I watched him on Family Ties and lusted after his Alex Keaton character with all the other girls too. When Tracy broke his heart on the show I cried right along with him. Now I have a chance to find out how he survived such devastating news of Parkinsons and how Tracy and their children helped him through it all. I have so much respect for Michael and his family. I really hope a cure is found for his disease.