in loving memory of the best grandpa and great grandpa ever 

Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I lost my grandpa yesterday. It was a sudden and unexpected passing. Just the day before my grandpa and my aunt came over to see me and the kids. But since I had been throwing up the day before I did not hug or kiss him like I normally do so that I would not expose him to the nasty germs that have been passed around my house. I did hold his hand, which in a lot of ways is just as important and of course told him I love him.
Then about 10 am yesterday morning my mom calls me hysterical. At first I could not understand her then I heard her say grandpa is gone. I completely lost it. I had just seen him the day before, he was doing good, he was happy, healthy and in a great mood. My daughters had picked flowers for him. She did not know how he had passed just that he had and was headed to my grandparents house. My hubby had just left for work so I called him and he came home, my girlfriend watched the kids as I went to my brothers school and broke the news to him and then we went to my grandparents.
Grandpa died of an aneurysm. He was getting ready to go to dialysis, my grandma had just buckled him in the car, he was talking to her and as she walked around to the other side of the car to get in and take him she noticed he had stopped talking and his head was down on his chest. He died sitting next to the love of his life, the one he had been married to for over 50 years. My grandma has yet to cry and is afraid to start in fear that she will not ever stop.
My dad and uncle have taken care of the arrangements and his funeral will be on Monday. He will be buried in Jefferson Barracks, he will have an honor guard, will have a full Masonic funeral, and will be in one of his many Masonic outfits to be buried in.
He is the best man I have ever known, he means the world to me and we were extremely close. We did more things together than anyone else in the family. It was always me and him. It was him and I at Cardinal games in the hotest part of summer then went to Ted Drewes to get ice cream, it was him and I that went to all the museums and the zoo together. I was the one that he took with him to his company picnics, I even went to a press confrence with him one time and was interviewed by Danforth with him. I was there with him at the City Christmas party, I was there when he was honored as citizen of the year in his city. I was the one that would spend a couple of weeks of my summer vacation with them. I would be the one sitting next to him in the morning eating breakfast, reading and just talking. It was him and I that discussed politics and our different views (him a democrat, me a republican) We discussed God and our realtionship with Him, It was us that just loved each other and had the best grandfather/granddaughter relationship.
The selfish part of me just wants him back. I want our talks, I want our time together, his childhood stories, his voice, just HIM back. But, I know that he is in a better place, I know that he is no longer in pain, can eat what he wants do what he wants, is with his parents and son. I love you Grandpa and miss you terribly. Hug grandma Annabelle for me and remember that I will always love you!!!

I never right in this thing, but I think it is important today.

Bren, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. I hope it was a peaceful passing for your grandfather.

On a side note, sorry I have no been in the pit very much lately. Work has been extremely busy and my father has been in and out of the hospital. He has been suffering from a very serious case of the flu. But today, he was diagnosed with the early stages of emphysema and was told to quit smoking. I hope for his grand kids sakes that he finally puts down that damn cigarette.

Again Bren, I am very sorry.

Odie i.e. Jeff

I have been avoiding the whole Final Four thing. I am NOT a basketball fan and the fact that it is going to be here does not thrill me in the least little bit. I go downtown for tailgating and football games, that is about the only time I am there, but I will DEFINETELY avoid it this weekend. BUT, there is one good thing from it, our friend Daniel will be in town!!!! We are really excited that he is going to be here and cannot wait to see him. My hubby is not a basketball fan either but has decided to be a short term fan and is rooting for Illinois. SO, there is my contribution to the whole Final Four thing. Good luck to all 4 teams. I dont care who wins :o)

I hope that everyone had a great Easter. Ours was very quiet. We are still fighting the stomach bug here and had a couple of puking kids. So we did the egg thing, Easter baskets, our special Easter reading Benjamins Box and that was about it.
I talked to my cousin Michelle, she is now 7 months pregnant and is going to have a girl. They are going to name her Nayah Kathleen. Her hubby is going to be back from Iraq for 2 weeks right around when she is due or right after the baby is born. She will be moving back home in early May so that she is not alone in Colorado with a new baby. She is really excited and cannot wait to have her baby. Her hubby has been really supportive even though he is in Iraq. He went and bought a bunch of things for the baby before he left so that he feels he is a part of his little girls life even before she is born and for the time afterwards. I am very excited for the both of them and cannot wait for her to move back and spend time with her.
And now for our Boston trip. I am soooo excited. Michelle is going to come and spend a day with the kids, my parents are going to spend the nights with them and my other girlfriend Bev is going to stay the other afternoons with them. Geoffrey from dogsnot has been a huge help in where to go and what do and hopefully we will be able to meet up with him and his girlfriend for a beer :o) ( I will drink my hubbies beer since he does not drink ) Geoff had some great ideas on where to go so I know my days will be full. Its going to be strange since I will be alone during the day, no kids, no hubby to entertain me so I will have to entertain myself, maybe a trip to Salem to see all the witch stuff will do it for me :o) And of course LOTS of pictures!!!!

You are Fibers!

Fun and crazy at times. You are a warm fuzzy kind
of person. You run around getting things done
but still find time for fun! You have so many
diverse interests that it is often hard to pin
you down to any one thing. People love your
friendly attitude and carefree ways. You often
brighten other people's days. But Fibers Beware
- Sometimes people don't take you seriously
because of your happy-go-lucky ways. Sometimes
you find yourself feeling left out from
decision making that could directly affect you.
Even though you like to be happy and cheerful,
make sure others know that you can also be
serious and in tune with reality.


What scrapbooking item are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hubby and I are going to Boston in May!!!!! I am soooo excited!!! I have never been to Boston and have always wanted to go. I have the kids taken care of, the plane tickets will be bought next week and I get to go!!!! I am sooo soooo excited. It will be 4 days of NO kids. Hubby will be working some of that time but that is fine with me, I will go either to his things or will go about Boston. There is a friend of ours that might go with us so him and I may bum around while hubby is working. Then we will have the nights to ourselves, or as a group since there will be other guys going. So, now to plan my days.... I will have to start my research and figure out what to do while I am there :o) If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear em.

**UPDATE** Here is the link to see Little Raven Alana.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JEANNE AND SEAN ON THE BIRTH OF THEIR BABY GIRL!!!!!
WELCOME RAVEN ALANA BORN AT 9:53 PM SHE IS 6 LBS 11 OZ

I am going to try this again and hope that I do not have any more interuptions. I was actually up early this morning and got about 3/4 of the way through my post when my youngest decided to TURN OFF MY COMPUTER. Yes, much steam was coming from my ears!!
We had a great but very busy weekend. My mother babysat Friday night, I went to my Homemade Gourmet party/ Mary Kay party at Deanna's. I have tried the Homemade Gourmet stuff before, and its ok so I thought I would try a few different things. Then after that was over Deanna's sister did makeovers on us. Washed the (non) makeup off of us and do some microdermabrasion treatment that they just came out with, which feels like rubbing SAND all over your face washing it off and then using a moisturizer. I am thinking its to HEAL THE SKIN YOU JUST TOOK OFF YOUR FACE. But, what do I know. Overall it was a great evening and we had fun. My best friend was there and so were a few other ladies and Melissa was there, someone we DONT like, so my best friend and I amused ourselves by doing our "nontalking" to one another. While I was out doing the girly thing hubby went out with his friend Scott, they went to Outback for dinner then to see the movie Million Dollar Baby, which he said was an excellent movie. Neither of them thought that they would like it much since its a boxing movie but said that it really was very good, plus it has Hillary Swank, what guy doesnt like her? :o)
Then Saturday I went to Kris's and played with her kiddos for a while, then her and I went for lunch and our makeover. Lunch was nice and relaxing, its awesome to just sit and TALK for an hour and not have to rush. The makeover was a lot of fun too. I do not think I have ever put so much makeup on my face before. I am MUCH better at the natural thing of NOTHING :o) but it was fun to be pampered. Then we had our hair done. I looked soo cute with my hair up in curlers :o) They took a before and After picture of us. It will be interesting to see the contrast in pictures when we get them back. My hair is normally extremely straight, no curls nothing, just STRAIGHT, so my hair all poofy and curly was very interesting. Then to top it off, I decided on the black feather boa to go all out. I figure if I am going to look like a hooker, might as well go all out. I should get the pictures back this week so I will see if I will post the pictures. But Kris and I had fun making faces and making fun of our makeup and hooker looks. Oh and a side note, my hubby prefers me without makeup so when I came home all made up he was not impressed. The hair had pretty much fallen, so there was not a lot of curl left, that hubby liked, the relaxed curls he thought was cute.
Then Sunday, my oldest was invited to a birthday party the day before (nothing like the last minute) so I had to take him shopping to get his friends birthday presents, a haircut that he needed anyways and grocery shopping. The birthday party was at Chuck E Cheeses and it was only supposed to be an hour and half so I decided to just stay (the makeup clouded my ability to reason, cuz that was STUPID) That place is a madhouse, too freakin many ppl and too freakin many ppl that do NOT pay attention to their children. Had to rush home and help hubby with dinner and finish what he had worked on then had dinner with my parents Sunday night. That was the jist of my weekend.
I love my girl time it really is awesome. I can go a month or more not seeing some of them and by the time we can get our schedules to work out its nice to just be able to catch up and veg with them. Low maintance relationships are awesome, no worries about calling all the time, no worries about hurting one anothers feelings when we cannot always make an outing its just an awesome way to have friendships. Ok, I am outtie, time to go clean since I did not have the time over the weekend.

HAPPY ST.PATRICKS DAY!!!!!!!

Lets see what have I been doing... Hubby, John and I went to some bar for a while last Thursday, I had an awesome piece of chocolate cake, Friday I went to my best friends and scrapbooked for a few hours, Saturday I prepared for my grandpas 80th birthday party that my mom and I pulled off famously. We worked it PERFECTLY if I do say so myself. Everyone showed up, everyone ate, everyone left... yup, thats about right, no one did any of the work but my mother, father, hubby and myself. Which is TYPICAL in my family. Both my aunts did NOTHING, my uncle did nothing, and my other aunts husband, USELESS... yup that sums all of them up... BUT they enjoyed it, so good for them. Most of all my grandparents enjoyed it. After the party Hubby, John and I were going to out to a bar, but I decided that I was too dang tired for all that and we ended up going to see the movie Hitch. Which is a CUTE movie. I really like Will Smith, and the GUYS really liked the girls in the movie :oP My parents kept the kids overnight so hubby and I had a great evening ALONE. They even kept the dog :o) It was awesome. It is nice to get a break with my hubby once in a while. Sunday we did not do much, spent it with the kids and then went to my parents for dinner. This week has been a really hectic one, lots of ppl from out of town came in for Executive meetings so my hubby has been late most of this week. My kids are enjoying their time outside. The weather is getting better, a little warmer, and a little more light out in the evening so its been great for them to be outside. Tonight my parents are coming over for dinner, tomorrow night I am going to some home gourmet home show at my GF Deannas. Saturday I am getting together with Kris, going over to her house to spend some time with her and her kiddos that I have not seen in a while, out to lunch with her and then we are going for our makeover and pictures. It should be interesting. If the pics are halfway decent I may post one :o) I am still not sure what all they are going to do to us and they probably will not be too happy with me since I am rather finiky about what is done with my hair and makeup. But I will be out with a friend and we always make the most of our time OUT so regardless it will be fun. Other than that, it sums up what I have been doing.
My children are fantastic, my youngest has switched from calling me mama to calling me mommy, so I am pretty much putty in his hands, I LOVE when my kids call me mommy, it is the sweetest sound. My other daughter is having a blast being my terror, my older daughter is loving her schooling and her girlfriends in the neighborhood, and my oldest is awesome. He has been attending Bible study with a friend of his and really enjoys it. I do not agree with all they are talking about, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and as long as my son does not bring it home judgingly I am ok with it. OK, I am outta here, gonna go outside with my kiddos and enjoy the beautiful weather!!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!!!

me my mom and my grandpa 

My kiddos and Madison 

My puppy, Sierra 

A man, his wife, and mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, "You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150.00."
The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, "Why?" Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home, when it would be wonderful to spend only $150.00?"
The man said, "A man died here 2000 years ago, he was buried here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance."

I HATE Missouri weather, absolutely HATE it!!! At least down in Texas it was fairly predictable, its hot, hot and way TOO F*CKIN hot. But here... it was BEAUTIFUL this weekend. Saturday was a lil chilly but still beautiful, and yesterday was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! Then today, chilly, cloudy and threats of thunder storms *sigh*. We did manage to take advantage of yesterday though. We took the kids to Suson park and let them run around and to look at the animals.
Now, for the park, we took our 4 kids and our neighbor girl with us. We had FIVE kids with us and the puppy. Now, someone tell me how it is I can manage to watch all 5 of my kiddos and a dog and other people cannot manage to keep track of a couple???? I was pushing my 2 year old son in a swing and there were 2 other kids next to him. NO PARENT ANYWHERE AROUND. I spend a good 10 minutes pushing my kid with these 2 other little kids, ages about 3 and 5, asking if I would push them too. At first I ignored them, then felt bad for them and ended up pushing all 3 kids for another 10 minutes, STILL no parent anywhere around. Finally I said forget it, they are not mine and I have enough to worry about, I ask the kids where their mom and dad is, they say BACK AT THE PICNIC area. Ok, now the picnic area is NOT close, it is a good 100 yards away. The playground area is CROWDED and there is NO one around these 2 little kids. WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!?!?!?!?!?!!!!! The little one wanted down, well, I will NOT touch another persons kid, dont care if he wants down or not, not mine, dont want that resposiblity thank you very much. There was another lady on the other side of me and she took the kids down, the younger of the 2 wanted back IN the swing so she put him back, the other one went to get their mother, she was sitting on her fat ass FEEDING HER FACE while these 2 little kids were by themselves. She sends her daughter back and she tells me, "my mom said she will be here later" Well, that was my clue to say F*ck it, NOT my kid, not my problem!! GRRRRRRRR people like her SUCK!!! I manage to keep WATCH of all 5 of the kids I have in my care and this fat assed bitch is too freakin busy feeding her ALREADY FAT ASS to get up and take care of these kids, how freakin SAD is that???? *deep breath* The woman FINALLY shows up about 10 minutes later, the other lady and I are giving her dirty looks as she comes up, she takes the kid out of the swing and takes him back to the picnic area and he shows up at the playground not 2 minutes later without her AGAIN. *sigh* SOOO many things could have happened to those kids, there were soo many people milling around, lots of adults wandering around, those kids could have been picked up by some stranger, they could have been hurt on all the equipment, there is a fishing pond close to the playground, one could have wandered off to it, just sooo many things and a careless fat assed bitch who was not paying attention to her kids. Its just inconcievable to me. Call me an over protective mom, but dammit I am NOT a careless one that does not care about my kids and I do not get people that are like that.
Ok,done ranting, just one of my many pet peeves. :o) We took the kids to O'Charleys for dinner and then to Baskin Robbin for ice cream, over all it was an awesome day. We got lots of funny looks, 5 kids and the 2 of us :o) We manage to get enough funny looks with our 4, but with the 5th that is the same height as my older daughter and looks like they could be sisters it was even more interesting :o)
Are there any single women out there looking for an awesome guy??? We have a friend that is 34 and is absolutely awesome. He is a GREAT guy and I wish I had a single girlfriend to hook him up with!! Hell make that 2 guys, we have another one that is about that age and is single too. I have 2 single guy friends and no single girlfriends to set these awesome guys up with... The last single girlfriend I had was set up with my best friends hubbies best friend and they are now married, I am good at the setting up game :o) Just lack the single girlfriends to go WITH the single guys!!!

It has been a LONG 4 days but hubby FINALLY gets home tonite. Its been rather stressful but my grandma came over to help out for a while and it was awesome to have her clean my house. She is a clean-aholic and gets every crack and crevice in my house. Its awesome. The 2 younger ones have been sick and today is the first day I have NOT been thrown up on in the last 6 days. Thank God for the small things :o)
I got an email the other day. Our 10 yr class reunion is this summer. I am still shocked that it has been 10 yrs, and am now debating on whether or not it is worth it to even go. Its going to be $56 a person to go. Cant say that they are worth that much. If they were real friends we would have stayed in touch right? I mean seriously, 10 yrs, that is a long ass time not to talk to someone so why go back after 10 yrs?? I talk to TWO people from my class, out of over 500... NOT bad LOL. Both of em my best friends that I have had for a long time. I have heard about many of the people that I graduated with. Most are losers the others lead a normal life like me. Kids, hubby and whatever. I do run into some every once in a while. But not worth keeping a constant relationship with. There are a few that I would like to know what happened to, but for the most part I dont really care. Oh, well. There is time to think about it. Hubbies was last year and we did not go to his. He had zero desire to go to his either. He talks to just a couple people he went to school with too. Plus that would have required us to go back to Oklahoma and I tend to avoid that state like the plague.
Off to go get hubby from the airport!!! Yeah!!!!!!! :o)

Today is Yahoo's 10th anniversary. They are offering a free ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Its only good for today though. So go get your coupon and head over to Baskin Robbins :o) Here is the link... Gotta love ice cream :o) Enjoy!!!!