TV

I am starting to really hate TV sometimes.  There will be shows that I love and then they go and cancel them.  UGH!  Why can't they just keep writing and leave well enough alone.  Or at least continue until there is a better stopping point.

Butting heads

First, I have a few great friends.  The kind that will keep you in check and also tell you the truth no matter what the situation or the outcome it could have.  I respect them and love them for that most of the time.  Although frequently that will cause us to butt heads.  

My kids have Facebook pages.  That is my choice to let them do so so don't give me crap about their age.  They are friends with some of my friends; the ones who I know are OK and that they know personally too.  One particular friend whom I have the kids really like.  Our sons are the same age and are in cub scouts together.  She's actually the cub scout leader for them.  My kids were of course her friend on Facebook.

This morning she made a post about her son.  She said that he had grown up a little bit that night.  He had lost a molar and had found out the truth about the Tooth Fairy.  She didn't word it that way though.  She worded it in a way that completely blew it out the water.  (not saying it here in case there are some kids reading over shoulders)  I made a comment about her saying that particular comment on Facebook, especially with kids on her page.  She got really, really defensive about it.  (she does that, taking things too personal sometimes)  Of course when something like that is started other people have to chime in; people I don't know.  It came down to my parenting techniques/values being questioned.  Mainly because I said that I wanted them protected from the truth of those things for now because I feel that childhood is sucked away from them too quickly sometimes anymore.  They said I should put them in private school and take away any and all tv/computer/radio/public interaction.  There is absolutely NO need for that.  But I also don't believe that adults should bring those truths to light for children that still have that sense of childhood.  Personal preference.  She made a comment...'I doubt you go around correcting people or saying something to them if they are within earshot of your kids and you don't like it'.  (not her exact words, but that is what she was saying but with more attitude)  I told her, yep, actually we do.  We've done it many of many times.  I don't care, but if someone says something unkind or out of sorts around my kids, I will say something. My Hubby usually beats me to it though.  We've had people kicked out of restaurants for things they were saying within earshot of my kids.  Of course that got a rise about free speech or something, but that to me was a mute point.  You lose some of that if you can't respect people.  

It ended with me deleting my kids from her Facebook page.  I told her that it was nothing personal between me and her, but I felt it was best if her posts weren't child friendly.  Maybe I do protect my kids a little too much, but I'm just trying to hold onto their childhood as long as possible.  

What do you do to help protect your children from things like that?

Did I overreact?  (I was told I was taking it too personal)

Happy Mothers Day

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ~Jewish Proverb 

They are the whole reason I am a mother.  :)  Love them!

Life

I know I need to do a randoms post again and get some things out.  I do it for myself as much as I do it for the people that follow me and care what I write (if there are any).  But it's almost 3am here now and for now I just feel like uploading photos that I have taken recently to share with you.  Hope you enjoy.

 Our dog, getting ready to go for a ride.

 My Hubby napping in the hammock.

 Hubby feeding the fish in the pond.

Happy Easter!

I hope that everyone has a blessed and wonderful holiday weekend.

Images found via Google.

Wednesday Randoms

Just a few random things from me this Wednesday.

I am eating popcorn and I am LOVING it out of these new Pop Up Bowls.  YUM!

One of my little girls best friends started her period yesterday.  I know, you may not have wanted to know that part exactly.  I hadn't discussed this with my daughter yet because I thought she was just slightly too young yet.  Apparently not.  :(  I guess the teacher at school explained it to the girls a little bit because she came home with very, very basic info on what it was.  They don't actually talk about it in school until almost the end of 5th grade. She's not close to that yet.  Guess I will have to have this talk soon.

I am missing my Hubby.  He's been working some crazy hours the past couple days, like getting up at 4:30am for work and then working again at 11:00pm.  I know it's nothing compared to what some people deal with, but I still miss talking to and seeing him.  I should be used to it by now, but I'm not.  His work usually slows down sometime around fall, is almost dead through winter, and then starts back up again around spring.  Well, it is that time and this week he's had a lot to do.  The rain has been messing them up lately so he's still been home with me more.  Complete sunshine this week though.  He did say that he would take me to a wonderful, big garden thing here that I like to go to for pictures this weekend or next if I would like.  That would be wonderful time together.  :)

I watched another episode of Extreme Couponing tonight.  It amazes me!  I think I partly have it figured out.  How they do it I mean.  Hubby said that if it was something I wanted to get into he would support me and help me if he could.  Those people on that show are almost insane with it.  I don't need 1500 tubes of toothpaste.  Sorry, but I just don't.  Hubby said that if we are getting it for free, we might as well get it and donate it.  I agree with that.  :)  He even said that he would help me with an area to do a stockpile if I needed one.

The bird that Hubby brought home the other day has died.  We tried hand feeding him and he was OK with it for a little while, but that just isn't what he was used to so he wasn't dealing well.  Some friends of ours told us to expect this, and we did a little, but it's still heart breaking.  :(  Hubby said to look at it in a different way...if he hadn't picked him up and at least tried to save him then he probably would have died right there.  At least he got a few extra days of fun.

Our garden is coming up nicely...finally.  It took an extra week for everything to sprout.  The only thing that we are hoping now is that the deer don't eat it.  The family/neighbors who we share the huge garden with us already had one row of their beans disappear.  Not sure whether it was the last frost we had the other week or whether it was deer.  We are hoping frost, otherwise, we need to figure out something else to protect the garden.

I've been napping/sleeping just about everyday with the quilt that my Grandma made me when I was younger.  I miss her.  About half of my adult life I didn't live near her, but that was when the Alzheimer's starting setting in too, so she barely knows when I moved to the East Coast.  I didn't realize how much I would actually miss her or how much it would bother me.  I spent the most time with her out of all of us kids, so I think that may be why I'm taking it harder than the rest of them.  I will see her again another day.

My Grandma on my Mom's side hasn't been doing so well.  Her job was in jeopardy with all this government crap that had been going on and she hasn't been feeling too well.  The doctor keeps telling her that she is too stressed, but that is not all that is wrong with her.  She is getting older, and I know this, but she is like me and she is tough and stubborn.  They did diagnose her with pneumonia a couple weeks ago and told her to take it easy.  She hasn't been dealing with that so well.  I hope she ends up OK.  

Currently watching reruns of Criminals Minds...I just have to say Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) is really cute.  :)  And yes, Hubby knows this.  Actually he knows a lot of the people I think are attractive.  Of course, I know his too.  We are secure enough to be able to talk about things like that.  He even looks at girls at work and will tell me about them.  His work guys can't believe he tells me.  No reason not to, I trust him, he trusts me.  So we find other people attractive, that is human nature.  We still know who we are married and committed to...each other.   :)  

Images found via web.

He's so loving

My Hubby is so loving.

Not just to me, but to things around him.

He has a soft heart, even though he seems tough on the outside.

Case in point...

The other night he was driving home from work and in front of him in the road he saw a bird that was trying to get out of the way of cars passing by it.  After a few cars and seeing it couldn't get away, he noticed it just sat in the middle of the road and let the cars go over it.  He figured it had a broken wing.  Most people would just pass it by as did everyone else.  Not my Hubby.  He stopped, picked it up, and brought it home with him.  I didn't even see the bird until dinner when he pointed it out.  He had sat him on top our coat rack and he didn't make any noise or movement.  He told me the story and it made me feel happy inside.  You could see that he was proud of himself.  He is a big ol' country boy.  

I asked all kinds of questions, because I am not one to normally bring wild animals into our house.  Mainly because...their WILD.  They are unpredictable, not trained, dirty, etc... He assured me that he was fine.  He told me what kind of bird he was and off to Google I went. (Google is magic)  He was right about the kind.  I narrowed it to species and approximate age.  I wanted to know what it ate, what it did, what its behavior was.  I learned a lot and then some.

He's a Purple Martin.

I have named him Marty.

Isn't he pretty?

Surprisingly, he will let you hold him, pet him, feed him, and he has never once tried to claw or peck or be mean in any way.  For a wild bird this really astonishes me.  You would think he would go absolutely crazy if you tried to come near him being that we were humans.  Hubby believes that he knows he saved him and therefore knows we won't hurt him.  Plus, this type of bird is normally found around people houses, within 100 feet or so.  

He eats flying bugs and likes to catch them on the fly to do so.  That is hard considering his wing is hurt.  We didn't know what we were going to do about food, but knew that by the next day we had to figure something out.  

When Hubby got home from work today he put water in an eye dropper and Marty actually drank out of it.  Later on he turned on our porch light (to attract flying bugs) to find him some dinner.  Hubby grabbed a small moth to feed him.  That took a little more work because like I said before they are used to grabbing it out the air while it is flying.  After he bit it one time and killed it, he then ate it.  I'm glad, because I would hate to be trying to heal his wing only to know that he dehydrated or starved.  

We're not crazy, we know there is a chance that he could die while in our house.  But he would probably die outside too seeing as how he can't fly.  I would rather him be in here with us being taken care of then outside and possibly not being able to take care of himself.  Not sure how long it takes a bird wing to heal, but hopefully he will be good as new soon.

Isn't my Hubby wonderful?  So caring.  

You say it's your birthday...

Want to play? Click the picture above. :)

My birthday is September 30th.
I was born in sunny Florida, near the beach.  Wish I was still there sometimes.
I left my 20's last year and so far it hasn't been bad.

My birthday falling where it does makes me a Libra.

My greatest birthday memory is the year that my Hubby asked me to marry him.  That was a wonderful birthday.

I always spend my birthday with my family (Hubby, kids).  Always have.

It's actually a tradition of our family that whoever is having the birthday gets to choose where we eat and what we do.

If I could do something where money was no option though...

For some birthday, doesn't matter which one, I want an asymmetrical cake.  Something to this effect.

What's your birthday about?

Most images found via Google, other than my wedding photo.

New!! :)

I love these new template styles that Blogger is coming out with.  I will be so happy when they actually fully roll them out, rather than right now where you can just 'see' how they work.  The colors and stuff are just plain right now so hopefully they will make them fully customizable like all other layouts.

I think I am going to put my picture blog like this when it happens.

http://amberscrazy365.blogspot.com/view/snapshot

I am going to change this blog to another one too, probably mosaic, but not sure.

Here's a preview of this blog in mosaic.

http://crazylifeofamber.blogspot.com/view/mosaic

Have you seen them yet or messed around with them yet?

I'm sort of excited.  I love new and interesting things.

HOO are you? plus some

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I would do this one that another friend done.

1. Have you ever had a professional massage before?

Nope.  I would love to go though.

2. When drinking bottled water do you have a preference on which brand you drink?

Not ALL the time.  I buy Propel, Aquafina, Purelife, and ONE usually though.

3. What is your favorite kind of soup?

I like soup, most of them actually.  My absolute fave though is Zuppa Toscana.  You can get the recipe here.

4. Do you have a preference on which Kleenex brand you use?

Kleenex...or so I thought.  Isn't Kleenex a brand itself?

5. What is your favorite breakfast food?

If you go by what normal people consider breakfast foods, I guess it would have to be either cereal or bacon.  I will eat just about anything for breakfast though and I will eat typical breakfast foods for any meal as well.

Figured I would do a few random updates while I am at it since I haven't actually wrote much lately.

The trip back 'home' for my Grandmothers funeral went better than I expected.  My younger sister said about 10 words to me, surprisingly.  My kids asked to go see my Mom.  I wasn't thrilled with the idea (my Mom and I had a huge falling out and we don't speak to her anymore), but I was the bigger person and did it for the sake of my kids.  I think they enjoyed it, although I'm still not thrilled they went.  I got to spend a lot of time with my Dad.  I miss seeing him on a regular basis.  We've considered moving back since he is getting older and needs help with some things.  I have four other brothers and sisters that live in the area but they are busy with their own lives.  I wouldn't mind moving back, but we would really have to feel out that job market and it probably won't be in the next couple years.  I also got to see almost all the family from my Dads side.  That was nice.  It was a sad reason for us to have to come together, but it was still good.  She was my last grandparent on my Dads side.  Miss you Grandma.

 Hubby's eye healed up just fine and he is doing better.  He had his MRI done and they said he has major issues in his neck/spine and that is what is causing the pain/tingling/numb sensation in his neck/arm.  He goes to a spine specialist next week to find out what his options are.  His general doctor said he may be looking at more surgery.  Prayers that is not the case.

Soccer is once again in full swing for the Spring season.  Both the older kids are playing, on separate age leagues.  In the fall they will be back on the same age league thankfully.  It's easier when they are together so I only have to worry about one practice instead of two.  I wasn't going to coach this season as I had given up Spring coaching and just do Fall coaching. The guy that runs it said he REALLY needed a coach and he REALLY needed me to do it.  He twisted my arm so I did it.  I am coaching teenagers though.  WHOLE different atmosphere with them than what I am used to.  Thankfully a very good friend (probably one of my best friends) said she would assistant coach with me.  She is great because she played soccer all up through college so she is very knowledgeable.  I was actually a little intimidated to teach teenagers, but so far they haven't been as bad as I thought they would.  Pray it stays that way.

So, now instead of just keeping up with two practice schedules, I have to keep up with THREE.  I'm a glutton for punishment.

We've got most of my flower bed out front planted.  The tulips are already blooming and they look awesome.  I will have to take some pictures. 

We have about half our regular garden planted too.  If it all grows well we should have a good harvest.

I've been out of college for almost 10 years now and I believe that I have decided what I want to do with my life.  I know, about time right!?  I'm not actually going to do anything with what I went to college for.  I want to go back to school.  I've been thinking about it and Hubby and I have tossed it around once in a while, but tonight we sat down and really talked about it.  The final decision was 'go, we will make it work'.  Not quite that lacksy-daisy, but you get the idea.  A lot of me going back is going to depend on how much money we can save over the summer.  Hubby's job is really, really slow in the winter and we don't want to struggle or have to worry about money when I go back.  I would have to cut back on some of my church work too so it is something we will have to sit down and plan out.  

Next item of business would be to decide WHAT exactly I want to go to school for.  I want to try to get into a profession that will last even in hard economic times.  So I've been trying to think about things that people will always need/use/do even if the economy starts to plummet again/more.  Nursing was the first thing that came to mind.  I don't like needles though and I'm not too fond of bodily fluids.  If I went into nursing I would probably want to work with babies or little kids or something like that, so either labor & delivery or pediatrics or something.  

Technology was the second that came to mind.  Technology is always going to keep improving and changing. I love electronics and gadgets and stuff too.  I don't really want to fix them or anything though so I don't know where I would fit in that. 

Third idea was just a general management degree.  You could use it for a multitude of things.

Hubby said to go in the school and talk to them and see if anything strikes me.  I think I will do that soon.

Well I guess this has gotten long enough plus I need sleep.  (haven't been sleeping well again)  I have more but will see about writing it in the next few days.

I leave you with a picture of the little boy I love and love to spoil.

I love him like my own and he fills my need right now for wanting a baby.  :)