27

Its my birthday, Im officially 27 years old. I have lived 27 years, my heart has been beating for 27 years, my lungs have been breathing for 27 years. It seems like a long time… not that I feel should be done by any means LOL! Just saying… I guess I take this birthday with reflection on my life. And I look at it this way… I feel like just started to really live about 4 years ago, when I made my ultimate choice that lead me to my happiness of today. I have loved more, laughed harder and cried less in the last 4 years then my whole life combined. I am 27 years old… I am someones daughter, I am someones granddaughter, I am someones wife, I am someones mommy, I am someones friend. I have set goals and accomplished them. I have smiled more and fought hard for who and what I believe in. I have made friends that will last a lifetime. Im 27 years old and I am truly happy, I have a big wish to ask of this year and I think I deserve it.

Whats been up and whats been down

PEOPLE OF ZION!! (Id love to say that to a crowd some day) LOL!

Had a FML week! Started out all wrong. Just little stuff, you know how it is. I call it the snowball effect, basically one thing goes shitty and then before you know it you are running downhill with a giant snow ball chasing behind you trying to crush you to death! The zombie death sickness started out on Monday and is slowly taking over my body, and I currently have 100 year old lady who chain smoked all her life kinda voice. YAY, for the plague!

I have finished my clinical hours!!! (Thank god!) I fully intend to sleep in this Saturday and bask in non nursing home glory! LOL! It really wasnt all that bad actually, there were a few residents that made me laugh and stole my heart. A job like that can be so rewarding and humbling.

My grades are freakin awesome! I have my final on Monday and Wed. I sign up to take my state boards. Can you hear my knees knocking? LOL! I know my written & oral exam will be fine its the skills part Im nervous about…

Ooh oh last Saturday we bought our first pet!!! Hermie! Our Hermit Crab. Yeah, a Hermit crab, dont laugh! Hes (or she, I dunno what gender it is) has a dora shell, give you 3 guesses who picked that crab out? It came with a basketball shell but it prefers the Dora shell. There’s not a lot of work involved with taking care of him but I think hes lonely. Im thinking I might buy him a companion this weekend.

Watched the 100th episode of Ghost Hunters, which was awesome as usual! Love me some Dave Tango! ;) I cant believe they had their 100th episode! I remember when the show started! TAPS is awesome! I

Hmmm what else…

Oh my friend has me hooked on RuPauls Drag Race! God that show is hilarious! The hubbers is not too fond of it and I guess I can understand why lol. But to me it Rocks!

Day Trip to New Orleans!

He had today off, I had today off and then munchkin had school… so we took the opportunity to take a day trip to New Orleans!! Its only about an hour and thirty five min. drive from home, but since we took the vette we made it in probably an hour, Hahaha! It was an awesome day the vette drove perfectly and we had so much fun just the 2 of us walking around the French Quarter. We had Beignets for breakfast at Cafe Beignet on Bourbon St. which were Oooooh Soooo Yummy!!! Then walked Bourbon to Canal to Royal and then St. Peters. We visited Rev. Zombies house of Voodoo and checked out Preservation Hall, where New Awlins Jazz music was born! After the walking around the French Quarter we headed up a few streets to St. Louise Cemetery No. 1 where I was looking to find Marie Laveau’s The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans grave, but no such luck. The cemetery is huge and we also were running out of time before we needed to head back. I’ll see if I can find the GPS coordinates for next time. I would have also loved to take one of Bloody Marys tours but alas there just wasnt enough time. New Orleans is too cool for just a few hours. I cant wait to go back!

I did end up getting a few trinkets from our trip some postcards a voodoo doll and a gris gris bag from Rev. Zombies.

I just love that the hubby and I got the chance to do this together. I had so much fun just being with him. He is awesomest!

Driving in to New Orleans and then looking to find parking thats not gonna cost us $25.00!!! Waaaaay to rip off the tourists! LOL

Everything was decorated in Mardi Gras colors! It was beautiful!

Interesting History.

The famous water meters that people end up stealing and selling to tourists.

Cafe Beignet at Music Park on Bourbon St.

Oooooh so yummy!

My fav. shop so far…

Preservation Hall is amazing!

World famous Rue Royale!!! I loved the art galleries on this street. I found George Rodrigue Blue Dog gallery!!!

Grades, Birthday Package and some SNOW!

So I hold 2nd place in my class for the top grades. Ive scored 100’s on both tests Monday and 100 on my big test Wednesday. So YAY!!

Its moms birthday today, she is 55 and still Rockin! I love her… she means the world to me, just wish I were there to be able to celebrate it with her. It makes me sad because I know she wont be doing anything to celebrate… Dad just doesnt think of these kinds of things, I doubt he even got her a card… but if I were there I would take her out, she deserves it.

I got a package in the mail today from her, on her birthday the woman sends ME a package… Yes she is amazing like that. Its choc full of Valentines Day stuff, mostly for Viv but still… she never ceases to be incredibly awesome.

Its also snowing today, It started about an hour ago and as I drove around I saw a few of the city trucks with workers shoveling SAND onto the roads… YES, SAND!!! I know… no, not salt… but SAND! I guess I have to give them credit for improvising… LOL! I mean it had barely begun to snow but I guess they are just taking precautions. I never think Id see the day it snow on the beach! We are supposed to get more tonight sometime so we shall see. I hope so, the munchkin loves snow, she gets sooo excited about it. The first time she saw it was when we were stationed at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City, OK but the first time she really remembers it was about 2 years ago when we were stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta, GA. I doubt it will be enough to stick on the ground let alone last but its still fun to watch it.

Oh yeah and just in case you wanted to see what I look like as an avatar here it is… enjoy

Who Dat? Believe Dat!

Saints won the Super Bowl and I am happy, Im betting my dad is not so happy! LOL! I did tell him to close his eyes earlier cause hes not gonna wanna see the spanking the Saints are gonna lay down on the Colts. Hes not really a Colts fan he was just staying in his division… We are Steeler fans by nature and well now I think I found my # 2 team! I love the attitude behind the players and how they work hard as a team. Im glad to see them over come their last few years, they deserve it! Its their first with hopefully many more to come. Their fans are die hard just like Steeler fans and I love that too! WHO DAT NATION!! They are like the little brother of the Steelers for me now…

Im waiting to see what this city will look like tomorrow after all the hard parting thats going on tonight. I would love to be a fly on the wall of Bourbon street right about now. Ok no wait, I take that back Id love to be on Bourbon street right about now! LOL!!!

Hot Date

Tonight it was give parents a break, brought to you by the Keesler’s CDC. So him and I decided to take advantage of the break and go on a date… yes, a date… oh how its been so long!!! LOL!!! Its really awesome to just get a way for a bit and remember what life was like before we had the munchkin, I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world but it was a nice trip down memory lane.

We had dinner at hooters because we have missed wings. Lately every time we go out for dinner (once or twice ever 2 weeks) we’ve been wanting to try the local cuisine. We are in one of the best cities to try such delicious delectation’s, but last night we missed our wings so hooters it was! Then we headed over to The Grand in D’Iberville to watch “Spy Next Door”. It was pretty good, your typical Jackie Chan movie and had some pretty funny stunts and acting in it, even Billy Ray Cyrus surprised me with his acting skills! The little girl Laura who’s 4 in the movie reminds me so much of my munchkin. “I wanna be a cyborg!” and “This place doesn’t look like has chicken tenders either!” LOL

All in all it was a good time and I loved going out just me & the hubbers.

Girls Night Out

Tonight was girls night out!! YAY!! I think it was well deserved and in order since Ive been working so hard on school work, I really kinda needed the break. It was nice to just get out and relax with the girls a bit. We went to dinner, just chick-fil-a but it hit the spot, those wraps are so yummy! Then we went to the movies to see Dear John, which I loved and made me ball my little girlie eyes out tear up a bit.

I loved the movie and loved the actors but was slightly disappointed in the ending, I just felt a bit blank, I felt like I needed some closure. Other than that it was a great movie. I mean how could you not love 105 mins of Channing Tatum hottness!! He sure makes that Army uniform look incredible…

The deployment scenes were almost a little too realistic, one in particular where I think just about every military wife, fiance, girlfriend or signification other that was sitting in that theater jumped outta their skins. And other parts were so shocking it left you totally open mouthed.

All in all it was worth the time to take to see and I will probably own it once it comes out on dvd.

A Brain is Required

This week has been my first week of my college nursing class! It has gone really well, its just alot of info to cover over the next 5-6 weeks. We are covering at least 4-5 chapters a day out of the book and working on at least 6 skills. I got an A on my first test and ace’ed my skill lab work. This week and weekend will be spent studying up on Chapters 5-12, skills 6-12, and preparing for 2 exams on Monday morning… I keep saying its alot of work, but it will be worth it… it WILL be worth it! My tiny gremlin has also started pre-pre-school at the Creative Learning Center just up the street from the house, its also on my way to the JD campus which is great for me. She was sorta not real keen on going to this place after her first bad experience of going back to day care on Monday. Apparently she had a really bad day with a very HORRIBLE sitter. I decided to fix that real quick and just sign her up for a regular center instead of having her go to FCC home care. Never again will I put my child in FCC! These people really dont care to ever watch your kids, they just want to make some money and do their normal routine. The munchkin loves going to CLC so far, she takes her little back pack and likes the fact that we call it “school” she gets to spend all day in a real classroom setting and play with kids her own age. She also gets to learn skills that will prepare her for pre-k and kindergarten by learning on the computer and learning to write her name, numbers, shapes and colors. It comes out that its $40.00 more a week but she can also go every day of the week instead of just 2 days a week, and I have the peace of mind that she is ok.

Somewhere in between all that homework, Im going to attempt to have some fun. A friend of mine has invited me to go out for girls night on Friday night! Woohoo! I kinda need it, and he is totally ok with that (in fact I think he’s encouraging it lol) and watching the kiddo. We are going to the movies to see “Dear John”. YAY for girly movies!!!

Saturday is date night with my hubbers, we deserve it after a shitty Monday… and he also needs a break and a chance to relax. Besides Im looking forward to spending some good quality fun time with just him. I Love him! Not real sure what were gonna do yet... but some beer & wings are definitely in order!

Crazy-Doom-Disaster-Kinda-Day.

Today was officially crazy! It was the start of my first day of my college nursing class; which went well, just everything else went to shit. LOL!

It started as soon as we set foot outside our door. He went to go drop her off at her first day of “day care” with her FCC provider and she didnt like the fact that he was dropping her off 3 min till it was her “official” opening time (6:30am). He then proceeds to drive to work, getting about 3 blocks and the vette died on him (while driving it!) He calls me up and asks where I am, which is still at home. I then rush to get out the door to come and rescue him. We then attempt to at least get the vette off the side of the road and into the McDonalds parking lot. We try to jump the vette, but alas no dice. :( So I drive him to work and drop him off and then head off to school myself. Later he calls me and tells me that our insurance company has towed (for free, thank god!) the vette to Midas to have them look over it and see whats wrong with it. Apparently it a ton of stuff that is wrong with the ignition, it was one part that ended up frying alot of other parts and basically what it boils down to is about $800-$1,000 in parts and labor. He gets the vette from Midas to a garage in D’Iberville (the owner knows the man who sold us the vette). He gets done with the car issue, when his supervisor comes in and tells him he has to go to the house ASAP because there is a gas leak! The fire trucks and house management workers were on their way. They went in and opened every window to air out the house, used their gas detection meters and decided it was just the levels on the stove that were causing the leak. So the middle part of the day seemed to go the best. I get done with my class and head over to Gulfport where the only uniform shop in the area has the white, yes thats right… WHITE scrubs I need. As Im driving back and heading to the base to pick up the hubbers, the munchkins provider calls me… and asks when Im going to be picking her up since she has a 4:00pm appointment that she NEVER mentioned to me other my husband! Livid at this point I race to get him from work and then race back to housing to pick up my little one cursing and screaming the whole way…

So in the long and short of it, this was our day. The only thing that made it worth it was having our friends over eating my fantastic chili, my friends awesome cornbread and watching a kick ass episode of Chuck.

Our First Mardi Gras Parade!

Today was awesome! We drove over to Ocean Springs, MS and enjoyed our very first Mardi Gras Parade!!! It was honestly fantastic! Such cool floats and fun people all around us. We got TONS of beads!!! The munchkin got so many “throws” & “trinkets” she could barely stand up! The parade started about 12pm and we got our seats on Beach Blvd around 11:00am, we sat freezing in 40 degree weather for about an hour but it was well worth it. It warmed up a bit after the parade started, with all the excitement you sorta forgot about being cold anyway LOL! I cant wait till next weekend and all the weekends to follow up to Ash Wednesday because its Mardi Gras Parades from now till then! Next weekend is Mojo fest in D’Iberville!!! Cant wait!!!

YAY!! For Air Force honor guard!!

WHO DAT NATION!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!

The pile of loot!

No Nonsense and a Nook

I start my CNA class next Monday, kinda nervous seeing how its been 10 years since I set foot in a classroom. Last month when I went down to the JD campus to register and have a look around, I felt like I was back in high school. This feeling was confirmed when I saw a young couple smooching the lips off each other next to a vending machine and two guys flinging food back and forth to each other in the small'ish size cafeteria. At that point I literally said "Im too old for this shit". Regardless Im going to press on and show up for my class on Monday morning with an open mind and hopes of having a somewhat normal classmates seeing how this is a "continuing education course" and not just a regular college class. Im kinda nervous cause I dont know where the class is actually at and I still havent gotten my clearance from Biloxi Regional... I called today to find out what is going on but all I got was an answering machine. Im hoping they are just out to lunch and that they'll call me back in a bit with some good news.

So in other news, our Nooks from Barnes & Nobles arrived yesterday and I love it already! I spent pretty much all yesterday afternoon searching the BN website for e-books and adding some to my wishlist. I also downloaded 5 free e-books. The freebees I got are: Cain's Apples by Bryan Lee, Already Dead by Charlie Huston, My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent, and Dead(ish) by Naomi Kramer which Im currently reading and find to be hilarious in a dark comedy sorta way. I also love that its written with alot of U.K. slang. Books that I currently have on my wishlist are: Petal Pusher by Laurie Lindeen, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, Pop Salvation by Lance Reynald, Breathers by S.G. Browne, Plague of the Dead by Z.A. Recht, Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Dear John by Nicholas Sparks and Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. I also love the fact that I can add personal pdf files on my nook (like my good friend's soon to be book) and also add music to listen to while I read. The lending book part is just an added plus in my opinion too, just need to find someone that reads as much as I do in about the same genres or at least has an open mind. lol.

Personal pdf. documents folder with friends book inside titled "Violet Moon"-- remember that shes gonna be famous soon! :)

Figured I'd show you size comparison between nook and regular size of rolling stone magazine. (BTW, doesnt John Mayer look (to quote Mr. Ned Flanders) Scrum-Diddly-Umptus! on this cover!!??)

Upon start up...

Home screen...

And touch screen of my library with book covers.

And speaking of the nook, I have been busy crafting away with an idea that came to me after searching for something to cover my nook with and finding that they sell covers for about $50.00 a pop! I literally said "To hell with that shit" and decided I could make my own, and so I did and for probably an 1/8 of the cost! After making a few of these, I decided to make some bookmarks for a few friends that havent ordered their nooks just yet (There all waiting for me to try it out and give them the review on it before they commit to buying LOL!) But anyway here they are in true geek-ness!

I even made a Chuck sleeve for the him. :)

Dinner and a Letterbox

So yesterday we went out for our traditional Friday night dinner. We decided to try something new and go down to The Ole Biloxi Schooner. I have to say I absolutely LOVED this place. I could tell as soon as we walked in it was a "locals" kinda spot. We walked in and just about every head in the place turned in our direction, people looking to see if its someone they knew. While eating, 3 seperate groups of people walked in at different times and yet they still all knew each other. It was cute to watch them and over hear their conversations of "Oh yeah Betty you know thats Jakes boy Steven. Yup hes all grown up now has 2 kids of his own, his wife is Laura and is J.J.'s little sister." I truly miss that, coming from a small town myself. The food was wonderful and the prices were unbeatable. He had the seafood platter which was fried fish, jumbo fried shrimp, fried oysters, stuffed crab, hushpuppies, fries and a small salad for $9.95! I had the jumbo fried shrimp platter with fries and a salad and little muchkin had the popcorn shrimp & fries. We all had very full and happy bellies from dinner.

After we were done with dinner, I decided to go letterboxing (www.atlasquest.com for those of you that dont know what it is) for one called The Mad Potter. The clue states that the box is located in a cement planter box in front a book shop in the Charles Redding building, where Howard St. meets the street that is named after the Mad Potter. Now there are 4 planter boxes in that location. Two of which are directly in front of the store front window and 2 that are located East of the front window. Ive search all 4 and couldnt find the box anywhere. Ive searched the planter box thats right where the street signs connect and has a poster of what looks like a man on it thoroughly but still found no such box. Im thinking the box has been compromised in the hands of muggles. I wrote a message to the planter and am awaiting a reply, until then this letterbox shall remain a mystery. So in the meantime Im thinking of good spots to plant my own.

Heres a pic of me finding a letter box while we live in Augusta, GA. This one is from Fort Discovery, which was incredibly hard to get to without being caught by someone whos watching. Its in a high traffic muggle area. :)

From a Lemon to a Corvette!

So we didnt get the electric car, in fact it was a HUGE disappointment. He left with his co-worker Joe on Friday morning to fly up to Knoville Tennessee. He also rented a penske truck & trailer to drive it back down here to Biloxi. So he gets up there and heads to the "dealership" to see the guy hes been talking to about this car. The guy happily shows him the car and lets him take it for a test drive. He didnt get but down the street and it died on him, Joe had to walk back to the office and get the salesman. Once they got it started again, he started to make way down the hill when it died again. They brought it back to the lot and started to look it over more closely and soon found pretty much EVERYTHING that could be wrong with it was wrong with it. Everything from dead batteries, major rust, boots being cracked so badly they were spitting break fluid on the rotors. It was such a huge disapointment for him, so the guys went to lunch and talked about everything and he decided that even if the guy would give him the car for free, he would still have to sink money into it to fix it up. Seeing how that wasnt even worth it they decided it would be best to walk away from the deal. He calls me up and lets me know whats going on and I have to say I was totally pissed, not at him by any means; it wasnt his fault the car was a pile of junk. No, I was pissed at the man trying to sell him the pile of junk mostly because we could have avoided paying over $600.00 bucks in plane tickets a deposit on a penske truck and the hassle, if he could have simply gave him a list of things that were wrong with the car. I was absolutely livid! I agreed that he should just walk away from the deal and just come home.

Two days later we drove over to D'Iberville to our favorite comic book shop & exotic pet store to have a looksee and on the way back we see this small dealership. He spotted a VW Beetle and wanted to stop and take a look at it mabey test drive it, so I stop and we get out have a look about the Beetle, when he spotted it, our Harley! Ok no not a Harley as in motorcycle but thats what we are calling our new Corvette! Yes thats right we bought a Corvette! We actually did take the bug for a test drive and tried to be practical about it considering we have children but both of us knew what our hearts desired. In all fairness its was a great price and its a freakin Corvette!!! Shes a silver 1992 corvette in pretty cherry condition, has some superficial things we need to fix like the fiberglass under spoiler, because the previous owner ran it over a parking lot bumper and ripped up the under side of the fiberglass and the seals around the windows, but other than that she is perfect and beautiful! So lesson learned... When given lemons, just throw those bitches away and buy a Corvette! LOL!

Its been a while.

Its been a while since I posted... ok ok, so I forgot all about this niffty little blogger thingy, so I'll give you the run down.

We have moved!!! Woohoo!!! Yippeeeeeeeee!!! and a ki yay mother f&$#@% to Georgia... Haha! Im so glad to be rid of that evil state. I do miss our back door best friends. I know what your thinking, you perverts but not that kind. They are our BFF's that lived just across the lawn from my back door. They are the glue that held us all together while living there, namely my sanity. I miss them alot and their most adorable daughters, hell I even miss their dog! Haha! I am glad to be in Mississippi, I love the city of Biloxi, theres so much do and see... Hello Beach!!! Hello Casinos!!!

We have settled in just fine and are getting things rolling. I will be starting college at MGCCC for nursing (the CNA program) Cheers to me for finally going back to school. Hes is working on finishing up the last of his classes for his Bachelors and I am completely thrilled and proud of him and our little one (whos not all that little anymore) just celebrated her 4th birthday!

We spent Thanksgiving with my mom and dad this year and Christmas in our new home. It was our first time spending Christmas at our house, we actually had to buy our first tree! His mom and dad came for Christmas as well and that was really nice. I spent Christmas day pretty much in the kitchen, we snickered about "knowing my roll" aside from opening presents. The munchkin and I decorated rice krispy Christmas houses (sorta like gingerbread but ya know, with out the ginger bread part.) I made a full Christmas breakfast and TONS of food for dinner. Ham, Turkey and all the sides!!! We had some new friends come over and spend Christmas dinner with us and the munchkin got to spend some time with her BFF twinzee... you have no idea how much these too are identical to each other!

In brand spankin new news we have bought a TOTALLY ELECTRIC car! Yes, thats right TOTALLY ELECTRIC! This little baby is made by Wildfire and comes from China it runs completely on batteries which means its 100% eco friendly and were no longer supporting overpriced gas corporations! YAY!!! We got a most excellent deal on it too, a whopping $6,000! And it will also qualify us for a federal tax credit, Thank You Obama! Im totally excited to own this awesomely cool car, He will be going with a friend from work next Friday to pick it up in Knoxville, TN. I will post more about it after we get it home. Heres the website for more info: www.wildfiremotors.com