Year in Review! It has been a LONG year, yet it has sped by at ludicrous speed. Does that make sense? Most of you know the deal. Living with my mom, needing to somehow get back on our feet. We now find ourselves in WV, in my grandparents old house....

I am not a religious person. I know the reason for the season and all that, but well, its never been about that for us. Christmas for us is about family and being together. I used to love buying gifts for my family members and friends. It bothers me that I cannot do that this year. I know that my friends and family understand and all. But I always took great joy in seeing their faces when they opened their gifts! I know it should not be about that. But that is where a lot of the joy came from. Of course, GETTING is great too. But I liked the giving part best. I have a pretty awesome family and I just miss those days of all being together at my Aunty Nancy's house. I saw some guy on tv the other day berating some woman...

These would be PERFECT in my kitchen, over the table. I wonder if I could make them. I have enough damned mason jars. LO...

I missed my mom so very much. Other than wanting her here with us, it was a wonderful day. I cooked a simple, small dinner. We had a turkey breast, apple bacon stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes with gravy and cranberry sauce. I also made two pumpkin pies. We ate around 12:30. T helped me clean up, and then we watched some football while M played in her playroom. We lounged on the couches all afternoon, getting random drive-by's from M... (these would be random, unsolicited hugs and kisses.) T napped off and on, and so did I. It was a wonderfully lazy afternoon. We finally got moving and went over to my cousin's house for dinner around 6. It was delicious, and we rolled on home around 8. We got M to bed after she watched the...

I have so much to be thankful for. It overwhelms me to think about it really. My mom. I could write a book full of all of the things that she has done for me. SO grateful and very, very thankful for her unwavering support and love. M. My goodness, I love my little girl. She is amazing and awesome and I am the luckiest woman in the world to be her mommy. Even if she does get beastly at times. LOL. T. He has come a long way. He still has a way to go, but he has definitely come quite far. I do not know where we will end up, as we struggle every day with it all... but I am thankful that I get to sit down with him and M tomorrow to have dinner. I am thankful for my cousins. It was them, and my mom, that made this all possible....

I started watching Days of Our Lives back when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My mom always watched soaps. She liked some of the older ones like One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless.. She watched a lot of them. I can remember watching a short lived soap called Texas. I LOVED it. It did not survive. I watched Days and General Hospital for years. As soon as I got home from school, my friends and I would tune in to watch Days and GH. One of my funniest memories with my friends was watching an episode of GH. At this time, I was not particularly a fan of the show. I watched because my friends did. In this episode, a man named Tony was dying. His wife sat in the bed with him and held him as he died. All of my friends...

When Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married, I was living here in Rowlesburg. I was 8 years old. I remember my mom waking me up so that I could watch the wedding on tv with them. It was magical. Prince Charles was always really creepy looking to me. LOL. His eyes are too close together and I cannot stand his hair. Trivial and stupid, I know. Haha. So tonight T and I are watching a Dateline interview with Prince Charles. I have a whole new view of this man, as well as a whole lot more respect for him. The media is so biased (big shocker there!) and I just never knew these things about him. I am so into what he is about that I cannot even comprehend it! If anyone asks me what I want for Christmas, I want the book...

*sigh* I do not know what I am doing wrong. This kid does.not.listen. At all. I will ask her, or tell her, not to do something. She will ask why. I give her a solid reason. She looks right at me and tells me she is going to do it any way. I have tried time outs. I have taken things away from her. I have threatened. And yes, I have spanked. NOTHING works. And before anyone jumps on me for spanking. It was a spanking with my hand. I do not beat my child. You may not agree with it and that is ok. It was a last resort. I cannot just throw my arms up in defeat. So WHAT do I do? She is turning into a nasty little thing and I am at my wits end. She is awesome at school, or when she is over at my cousins house. I know she is...

It is getting colder by the day. Bbbrr. Saw some people that I have known since I was a kid. They are all pill heads. Awesome. We still have a few boxes hanging around that we need to get put away, and the office is still a mess. I need shelves in the worst way. T is adjusting well, I think. So is M. She started school last week. Of course, now she has a week off because of Thanksgiving. I am trying to keep her busy. T is working. I hit the books once she goes back to school next week. We are all sick. No one is down and out yet though, so there is that! This old house needs some work. Hoping we can do it justice. The knob on the heater broke. Ugh. It is just the plastic knob, not the dial itself, which is a good...

A few lines from a song that I happen to like quite a bit.. (and just you shush yourselves when you hear who sings it...) "It's been a long time since I walked through this old town But oh how the memories start to flow" It is from a song by Kenny Rogers titled "Twenty Years Ago" There are just bits and pieces of the song that apply to me and this 'old town'... but it never fails to make me cry. This verse? Does me IN... "All my memories from those days come gather round me What I'd give if they could take me back in time It almost seems like yesterday Where do the good times go? Life was so much easier twenty years ago." I only lived here for a few years when I was a kid. People are sometimes shocked to learn that....

was wonderful. It was just a nice, simple day. M spent the night over at my cousins. She had her granddaughter and niece there (both my cousins as well), and they love to play with M. We went over this morning and K made us breakfast! Chocolate chip pancakes! Mmm. Then, M did not wanna come home, and we had to run to town to get groceries. So, she stayed with K until we got back. She played on her 'playground' (we have a swing set in the yard... LOL) for awhile, and then we all spent a good amount of time out on the porch. It was such a beautiful afternoon. We had gone exploring the other day. I wanted to take them to a really pretty little place near here, but we couldn't get up there because the Army has taken the land...

M is 4 and a half now. There are a few words that she still does not say right, but mother-of-the-year over here does not correct here because it is just SO cute! Example: Napkin. She calls in a 'mackin'. It is just so cute to hear her say it. The other one is bathing suit. She calls it a 'bakin' suit', which, being former Floridians, was wildly funny to me. Because one does bake at the beach. LOL. :o) That is all. Just had to share her cuteness...

The move went well, no major problems. I am super thankful to my cousin R, for all that he did in getting us here. We are just about all unpacked and settled in. I will take some pictures as soon as the last few boxes are emptied. The weather is cold at night and nice during the day. You can see a LOT more of the sky at night here. It is amazing. I thought that being here would be difficult. The first day or three was indeed kind of hard. But now? I feel like this is where I am supposed to be. I am taking some time for myself each morning/evening to try to focus on letting go of all of the negativity and bad juju that I have accumulated. I finally realized that the universe kept pissing in my cheerios because I am one...

We have one week left here in FL. Less than that actually, as we leave on Thursday morning of next week. I am nervous. T and I have a lot to work on. I am hoping that we can do it. We have always been able to get through whatever life threw at us, until 2008. He has been able to face some of the problems that led him down a bad path. We talk a lot. So there's that. I love my nanny and pop's house. I am just having a hard time facing the fact that it is no longer their house, and is about to become our home. With our stuff in it, and not theirs. I am worried about the effect of the move on M, our daughter.  And I do not like leaving my mom behind. Especially after all that she had done for us. This is going to take...

I am not going to go into a great bit of detail, because I doubt anyone but family will read this. The reason for starting this, is so that if people wanted to keep up with us, they could. I will be blogging here regularly about our new life. When I was a kid, I spent some time in a small West Virginia town. My grandparents lived there, as well as my great grandmother, a few aunts and uncles and a bunch of cousins. Now, there are just a few cousins left. My Nan and Pops house is empty since my Nan, and my aunt's passing. The family does not want to let the house go to someone outside of the family. They all have their own homes. Mine is sitting vacant, in foreclosure.  As most of you know, my life has been an absolute...