Good evening everyone. Last night while on duty, it was about 1:30 AM. I had just finished going over to south campus to check the doors, and had begun walking out to my truck. You could say I have an over active imagination because I stopped and imagined what I would feel if I happen to see a person (or vampire) hovering in the air a distance off, their cape or cloak or whatever flapping in the wind, and then quickly coming for me. It made my mind start racing. Yes I know a lot of things are said to be simply fairy tail. I cant help but think about how interesting it would be if we had those kinds of things, wherewolves, vampires, etc, existing with us but of course hidden to the point where we still would think they were only legend.
Today as I was walking around at the beginning of my shift, I was shielding my eyes from the sun and the thought that went through my head was "I'm definitely a night person. You don't get blinded by the moon. During the summer, it's nicer out after it gets dark. Yes it's much colder at night during the winter, but for right now I would prefer night because of the temperature being a little cooler than the day time summer heat. This morning when I got off work, I couldn't go to bed right away. Erin had to work early this morning, so she was taking Zoe. Lex's summer camp goes monday through friday from 9:15 to 4:30, and so instead of going to bed for 2 hours and getting up to get lex up, I watched sliders while I worked on my school work for the day.
Dropped her off, finished the episode of sliders I was watching, and then I went to bed myself. It was just after 10AM when I went to sleep. I texted Erin asking that if she could please try not to wake me up till around 4 because of having to stay up so late in the morning. Around 3:30 she woke me up saying that she wanted us to be able to spend time together. I was still tired, but I did get up and came downstairs to hang out. Last night Erin bought a Pork Shoulder so that we could make pulled pork. Basically you marinade it in something and bake it on lower heat (like 200 degrees or something), for 5 hours. Then when it's done you literally pull the meat away in strips and then use the fork to pull it apart in shreds.
Then mix it with some kind of sauce or whatever and you have pulled pork. It makes a very easy and very filling sandwich, and the best part of it was the price. It was a 7 lb piece of pork for only $14.00. That's not too shabby!
On a closing note, I was looking over the schedule for next week in class and both classes say "Midterm" as one of the assignments. My eyes got all big and I started to hyperventilate at first. Then I took a deep breath, told myself it will be ok, and calmed down. Today I got the email from Veteran Affairs. My student information and request for the GI bill to cover my school expenses has officially been submitted to them by my school. So, hopefully they won't take long to process but eventually I should start not only seeing payments from VA to my school, but I should be receiving monthly checks to help us with our living expenses. I can't wait! Heck, I can't wait to do 9 more rounds of classes after these 2 classes and get my associates degree! Focus Chris! Focus!
So on that note, I will call it a night. I will write more for you all soon.
CB
Friday, July 9, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Day 84
Good evening everyone. As of today I'm doing pretty good on school for the week. One of my classes I got today's posts and replies done by the time I got off work. The other class I posted the assignment but there hasn't been anyone else that posted so I can't respond yet. I will check later and hopefully a few of them will have posted the assignment. I was just looking at the upcoming weeks in class and next week or the week after I have a mid term in both classes. I saw that and went "Greeeeeeeeeeeeeat", but I guess it can't be too bad. Midterm exams are always higher in points, so it makes it worth a lot more and can hurt your grade a lot more if you don't do well. I tend to panick on tests too much and so when I see a bigger test coming up I usually start to freak out.
So today I woke up around 2:30, got up and came downstairs. Grabbed a bite to eat and then layed on the couch with Zoe while erin was on the recliner and Zoe was watching Dora. After a little while, I put on another episode of Sliders. I'm nearing the end of the 5th and final season. It's weird because 2 of the main characters randomly had an accident and disapeared. They met up with these 2 other characters that started sliding with them and they were supposedly helping them to try to get their friends back, but then suddenly you just stopped hearing about the friends. I'm thinking the reason they stopped the show after the 5th season is because the 2 characters that disapeared probably decided they didn't want to be a part of the show anymore.
So I guess in a way you have sliders off in former tv series heaven, just like Hercules Legendary Journies in tv series heaven. They're trying to cancel the seeker and a lot of people have made a big movement to try to get them to continue but I haven't heard if it will continue or be gone forever. It'll be a shame if it goes away, but that's the way things work I guess.
In closing, I was looking at my account online through University of Phoenix. I'm getting charged the $1,000 or whatever per class for tuition, and then I'm getting charged $70.00 per class for my books. Here's what's funny about that, the books are electronic so I don't actually have the books but I open them up on my computer with Adobe Acrobat Reader. $70.00 for something that is just on the computer? That's strange! But hey I guess colleges have to make money too! So on that note I will call it a night! I will write more for you all soon!
So today I woke up around 2:30, got up and came downstairs. Grabbed a bite to eat and then layed on the couch with Zoe while erin was on the recliner and Zoe was watching Dora. After a little while, I put on another episode of Sliders. I'm nearing the end of the 5th and final season. It's weird because 2 of the main characters randomly had an accident and disapeared. They met up with these 2 other characters that started sliding with them and they were supposedly helping them to try to get their friends back, but then suddenly you just stopped hearing about the friends. I'm thinking the reason they stopped the show after the 5th season is because the 2 characters that disapeared probably decided they didn't want to be a part of the show anymore.
So I guess in a way you have sliders off in former tv series heaven, just like Hercules Legendary Journies in tv series heaven. They're trying to cancel the seeker and a lot of people have made a big movement to try to get them to continue but I haven't heard if it will continue or be gone forever. It'll be a shame if it goes away, but that's the way things work I guess.
In closing, I was looking at my account online through University of Phoenix. I'm getting charged the $1,000 or whatever per class for tuition, and then I'm getting charged $70.00 per class for my books. Here's what's funny about that, the books are electronic so I don't actually have the books but I open them up on my computer with Adobe Acrobat Reader. $70.00 for something that is just on the computer? That's strange! But hey I guess colleges have to make money too! So on that note I will call it a night! I will write more for you all soon!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Day 83
Good evening everyone. I am already half way through week number 3 of both my first 2 classes. What's even better is I received my financial aid award letter today. Basically it looks like they managed to get me loans and grants enough to cover my first full year, and that is without even taking into consideration the fact that I will be receiving the GI bill. The GI bill will go directly to the school to pay for most of my tuition, and then my loans and grants will pay the rest and there will indeed be a surplus. I'm looking forward to being able to make random phone calls to creditors and say "How much can I pay you to settle this account and close it?"
As it is, it looks like with the pell grant and the loans, I got an award letter for roughly about $12,000 ish. It's a relief to know that it officially has been processed and that is how much money I've been awarded to pay for my school. If I can plan it right, maybe after just the first year I can pay off all the debt except for school loans, and then maybe I can cut back the amount of lending I would accept and only take what I need in order to finish my degree. I'm hoping that my GI bill will last all the way through my degree so that I can really cut back to bare minimum. I should be able to keep receiving the pell grant, so hopefully I would be able to not really get anymore loans. I guess I will have to wait and see how things turn out.
So, 3.5 weeks in, My Introduction to University Studies class I am sitting at a 100% in the class, and my Health and Nutrition I am sitting at a 96%. Not too shabby so far. I'm not letting up. I've already got my assignments done through tomorrow so I am good to go. Next thing I need to do is do the assignments that are due by 11:59 PM sunday evening. That way come the weekend, I will once again not have anything I need to worry about. That was pretty nice last weekend. The first weekend that followed the first week of class was hectic. I was trying to get into the groove and so when it came sunday, one of my assignments I turned in a minute before it was due. After that week I tried to save assignments as drafts so that I already had them done, then on the day they were due, I would post them and then respond to two class mates posts.
So, in closing, for a while I would have both good days and bad days health wise. One day my stomach would be fine, I could eat regular meals, drink my mountain dew during my shift, drink lots of water, etc, and other days my stomach would twist and turn regularly, sending me bolting for the bathroom. Erin's mom sent us these pills calls "Beta Plus" which are supposed to help with the digestion process. When we received them many many months back, I didn't think I needed them. At that time I wasn't having any problems. A few days ago I went ahead and started taking them before meals and instead of one good day and one bad day, I had about 4 or 5 good days in a row. I thought "ok, so apparently I do need to take these." Well then come today, suddenly even with taking the pills I have had to run to the bathroom about 4 times already.
The only difference is today the main thing I ate before we ate dinner around 7PM was I ate a very large bowl of oat meal. Could that have done it? I don't know. I guess we will see. Erin herself has not been doing the greatest either. She has had an itch in her throat lately and it results in such a powerful cough that today she threw up because of it. I wish I knew what I could do to help her. It's got me really scared because I don't know what's going on, and what we can do to help it. I got her mucinex and cough drops hoping that would help. I think they help a little bit but obviously she still coughs pretty bad at times.
Also, even though it was a rough day for her cough wise, today is Erin's birthday! Lex and I made her a star cake made from a strawberry supreme cake mix with strawberry frosting. Lex looked at me and said "4 candles?" when I only put 4 candles on the cake. I said "Yup, i'm not putting 32 candles on the cake. Sorry lex." Especially because they were trick candles, which are always fun. I told lex that just for her I will put 10 trick candles on her cake next time we celebrate her birthday. ;) So I think on that note, I will call this it for the night. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
As it is, it looks like with the pell grant and the loans, I got an award letter for roughly about $12,000 ish. It's a relief to know that it officially has been processed and that is how much money I've been awarded to pay for my school. If I can plan it right, maybe after just the first year I can pay off all the debt except for school loans, and then maybe I can cut back the amount of lending I would accept and only take what I need in order to finish my degree. I'm hoping that my GI bill will last all the way through my degree so that I can really cut back to bare minimum. I should be able to keep receiving the pell grant, so hopefully I would be able to not really get anymore loans. I guess I will have to wait and see how things turn out.
So, 3.5 weeks in, My Introduction to University Studies class I am sitting at a 100% in the class, and my Health and Nutrition I am sitting at a 96%. Not too shabby so far. I'm not letting up. I've already got my assignments done through tomorrow so I am good to go. Next thing I need to do is do the assignments that are due by 11:59 PM sunday evening. That way come the weekend, I will once again not have anything I need to worry about. That was pretty nice last weekend. The first weekend that followed the first week of class was hectic. I was trying to get into the groove and so when it came sunday, one of my assignments I turned in a minute before it was due. After that week I tried to save assignments as drafts so that I already had them done, then on the day they were due, I would post them and then respond to two class mates posts.
So, in closing, for a while I would have both good days and bad days health wise. One day my stomach would be fine, I could eat regular meals, drink my mountain dew during my shift, drink lots of water, etc, and other days my stomach would twist and turn regularly, sending me bolting for the bathroom. Erin's mom sent us these pills calls "Beta Plus" which are supposed to help with the digestion process. When we received them many many months back, I didn't think I needed them. At that time I wasn't having any problems. A few days ago I went ahead and started taking them before meals and instead of one good day and one bad day, I had about 4 or 5 good days in a row. I thought "ok, so apparently I do need to take these." Well then come today, suddenly even with taking the pills I have had to run to the bathroom about 4 times already.
The only difference is today the main thing I ate before we ate dinner around 7PM was I ate a very large bowl of oat meal. Could that have done it? I don't know. I guess we will see. Erin herself has not been doing the greatest either. She has had an itch in her throat lately and it results in such a powerful cough that today she threw up because of it. I wish I knew what I could do to help her. It's got me really scared because I don't know what's going on, and what we can do to help it. I got her mucinex and cough drops hoping that would help. I think they help a little bit but obviously she still coughs pretty bad at times.
Also, even though it was a rough day for her cough wise, today is Erin's birthday! Lex and I made her a star cake made from a strawberry supreme cake mix with strawberry frosting. Lex looked at me and said "4 candles?" when I only put 4 candles on the cake. I said "Yup, i'm not putting 32 candles on the cake. Sorry lex." Especially because they were trick candles, which are always fun. I told lex that just for her I will put 10 trick candles on her cake next time we celebrate her birthday. ;) So I think on that note, I will call this it for the night. I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Day 82
Hello everyone. I'm really enjoying having one half day during the week. It feels like when I come to work on saturday, that the day flies by. Well today I officially got my oil and oil filter changed on my truck. FINALLY! Also Erin woke me up saying that I had received a check from the community college in the mail in the form of a refund of some kind. It was like $240. She was like "I wish I would get checks in the mail like you've been lately!" I was like "Well that's why I wanted to go back to school because not only will I get a degree and a better job, but stuff like this happens!"
We went to hyvee and cashed it, and I withdrew cash out of our main account that I have through securitas, and we payed $300.00 towards our electric bill. The bill has gotten quickly back up to $700.00 apparently, and the local organization that has helped us with bills in the past has a program that if you bring your tax information, and have made a recent payment to your utility bill, they will match it up to $500.00. So the reason why I recommended this to Erin was we could pay $300.00 and still have funds left (that's after all bills have been paid), and monday I want to go and see if we can get the organization to match our payment. That'll mean that the electric company will have gotten $600.00 towards the $700.00 balance. That'll put us almost to current. Plus, our insurance temporarily on our vehicles temporarily had cut out because there was a 3 week period where things were tight and i accidentally let it slip. When I went online with them thinking "Crap, I'm going to have to re-enroll and do a new policy, new cards, etc", I found out that I was able to re-instate our policy and when I did it said that it registered us as not having any gaps in coverage, and basically we resumed our coverage as if nothing happened.
So when I got off at midnight, Erin was upstairs laying down already. She has been having a bad cough, and so she hasn't been feeling too well lately. It's been rough in a way, but I'm dealing. I could have gone to bed at midnight. Lord knows I was yawning my butt off when I was sitting in the parking lot during my last two hours doing a patrol while reading off and on, but when I got home, Erin kept saying how she needed some cough drops. I looked but didn't find any. Instead of buying the name brand of mucines she bought an off brand and apparently it didn't do crap. I've done that before where I bought an off brand because of the price and it really didn't help my cough or cold at all.
So I changed back out of my sleep pants into shorts, grabbed my wallet and went to hyvee and got her a bottle of mucinex and 2 bags of halls cough drops. Being stressed out about little personal things, I of course was thinking "I need something to snack on." Instead I settled for bottle of V8 Splash. Then when I got back home, a really good sone came on the radio in the truck and I sat there for a few minutes singing my heart out to that song. Then I gave Erin her stuff I got for her. I don't know if she took any of them because she woke up long enough for me to tell her, and then when I left the room to go downstairs to watch sliders and chill out, she rolled back over onto her pillow.
I came downstairs, nuked up some left over dominos pizza, turned on sliders, and logged online to my classes. One of them even though it's still the 2nd to last day of class for the week, I already have grades for the week because I got all the posts, participation and assignments done for the week. The other class I don't have grades for the week yet but I'm done there for the week as well. Tomorrow if they post the upcoming assignments and posts for next week I will try to see what I can do to get a good start on it. I'm liking being a day ahead because then when it got to friday, I really didn't have shit to do! So, 7 more weeks and my first 2 classes towards my associates degree in Hospitality and Tourism will be done! WOOHOO!
In closing, things are going pretty well. Some times it takes extra patience and juts having faith that everything will be ok. I know things will turn out to be great and we just have to wait and see, but it's hard being patient. So, on that note, I will call it a night. Thanks for reading everybody and I will write more for you all tomorrow.
We went to hyvee and cashed it, and I withdrew cash out of our main account that I have through securitas, and we payed $300.00 towards our electric bill. The bill has gotten quickly back up to $700.00 apparently, and the local organization that has helped us with bills in the past has a program that if you bring your tax information, and have made a recent payment to your utility bill, they will match it up to $500.00. So the reason why I recommended this to Erin was we could pay $300.00 and still have funds left (that's after all bills have been paid), and monday I want to go and see if we can get the organization to match our payment. That'll mean that the electric company will have gotten $600.00 towards the $700.00 balance. That'll put us almost to current. Plus, our insurance temporarily on our vehicles temporarily had cut out because there was a 3 week period where things were tight and i accidentally let it slip. When I went online with them thinking "Crap, I'm going to have to re-enroll and do a new policy, new cards, etc", I found out that I was able to re-instate our policy and when I did it said that it registered us as not having any gaps in coverage, and basically we resumed our coverage as if nothing happened.
So when I got off at midnight, Erin was upstairs laying down already. She has been having a bad cough, and so she hasn't been feeling too well lately. It's been rough in a way, but I'm dealing. I could have gone to bed at midnight. Lord knows I was yawning my butt off when I was sitting in the parking lot during my last two hours doing a patrol while reading off and on, but when I got home, Erin kept saying how she needed some cough drops. I looked but didn't find any. Instead of buying the name brand of mucines she bought an off brand and apparently it didn't do crap. I've done that before where I bought an off brand because of the price and it really didn't help my cough or cold at all.
So I changed back out of my sleep pants into shorts, grabbed my wallet and went to hyvee and got her a bottle of mucinex and 2 bags of halls cough drops. Being stressed out about little personal things, I of course was thinking "I need something to snack on." Instead I settled for bottle of V8 Splash. Then when I got back home, a really good sone came on the radio in the truck and I sat there for a few minutes singing my heart out to that song. Then I gave Erin her stuff I got for her. I don't know if she took any of them because she woke up long enough for me to tell her, and then when I left the room to go downstairs to watch sliders and chill out, she rolled back over onto her pillow.
I came downstairs, nuked up some left over dominos pizza, turned on sliders, and logged online to my classes. One of them even though it's still the 2nd to last day of class for the week, I already have grades for the week because I got all the posts, participation and assignments done for the week. The other class I don't have grades for the week yet but I'm done there for the week as well. Tomorrow if they post the upcoming assignments and posts for next week I will try to see what I can do to get a good start on it. I'm liking being a day ahead because then when it got to friday, I really didn't have shit to do! So, 7 more weeks and my first 2 classes towards my associates degree in Hospitality and Tourism will be done! WOOHOO!
In closing, things are going pretty well. Some times it takes extra patience and juts having faith that everything will be ok. I know things will turn out to be great and we just have to wait and see, but it's hard being patient. So, on that note, I will call it a night. Thanks for reading everybody and I will write more for you all tomorrow.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Day 81
Good day everyone. Today I had mentioned to Erin that I would try to get up around 1:30 and take her car over to valvoline to see if I could get the Air Conditioner working. It looked like it was going to be ok. The did a pressure test and it appeared that it would hold the pressure, so then they started to fill it with coolant, and the next thing I know I noticed that they were putting the equiptment away. I figured that wasn't a good sign. Apparently the condenser has a leak. They pointed it out to me, so I asked "How much is a part like that gonna cost out of curiousity?" They said "Usually that would be like $150 if you get it through auto zone and not your marked up part store."
So, I ended up not having to pay anything since the job couldn't be done, and left. I told Erin about it when I got home, explaining the part(s) that we would need in order to get her ac working. She mentioned that we should try to see if there are any salvaged Ford Escapes that we can get working parts off of for it instead of buying brand new. I said "Sure, we could probably do that. We wouldn't be able to guarantee how long they will last." But, it is true, we could probably find them used somewhere with a car that was totalled before it had really used the life out of all the parts it has. We could even have JD, the guy that fixed Erin's transmission possibly do the work.
So today feels pretty weird as far as school goes. I enjoy trying to plan a day ahead. Basically by today when I came to work, I had completed today's assignments as of yesterday evening, but had saved them as a draft and then turned them in after it was past midnight (making it officially friday). So today when I came in to work, I had posted my assigned posts and had already taking part in class participation. So when I came in, I looked at both classes and thought "wow, I don't have anything I have to do today."
In fact, I can post on saturday if I want to, but I'm not required to. I have already done everything I need to for the week. I also have already turned in the weekly assignment in both classes that is due at 11:59 PM Sunday evening, I got that done wednesday morning. It was part of my wanting to be pro-active in school this week. Well it worked the way I wanted it to. I'm looking forward to getting off at midnight saturday evening and being able to go home and do whatever. During the day sunday when we're not celebrating the 4th, my teachers should have posted the upcoming week's assignments, and so I will try to go online and do whatever I can ahead of time. What I do is save them without officially posting so that on the day that the forum question is meant for, I can just log online, hit "send", respond to 3 people's posts, and I'm good.
So I'm going to call that it for tonight. In closing, last time I changed my oil in my truck, I took it to valvoline because I needed the serpentine belt replaced too. Today I changed the oil myself but I was unable to get the oil filter off no matter what I did. I ended up saying screw it, left it on, and put the new oil in. This time instead of regular oil I got full synthetic for it. While I was on parking lot patrol, I stopped a few times to listen to my truck and it actually sounds better currently I think. I also changed the Air Filter. That was easy. Erin thinks I should take classes and learn how to work on cars. I said "what, you want me to be able to open a shop in clinton?" She was like "That wouldn't be a bad business!" I don't know. I mean, it'd be nice because I wouldn't try to charge an arm and a leg, and would do the best work I was able to. I would want to be one of those shops where people come back to because they trust me to fix their car correctly. Not one of those shops where you take your car in for something, you leave and something goes wrong because of what they did.
So that's it all! I will try my best to remember to come on here tomorrow and write more for you! I appologize that with school there has been a few days that I've completely forgotten about posting here until it was already too late for that day. See ya later!
CB
So, I ended up not having to pay anything since the job couldn't be done, and left. I told Erin about it when I got home, explaining the part(s) that we would need in order to get her ac working. She mentioned that we should try to see if there are any salvaged Ford Escapes that we can get working parts off of for it instead of buying brand new. I said "Sure, we could probably do that. We wouldn't be able to guarantee how long they will last." But, it is true, we could probably find them used somewhere with a car that was totalled before it had really used the life out of all the parts it has. We could even have JD, the guy that fixed Erin's transmission possibly do the work.
So today feels pretty weird as far as school goes. I enjoy trying to plan a day ahead. Basically by today when I came to work, I had completed today's assignments as of yesterday evening, but had saved them as a draft and then turned them in after it was past midnight (making it officially friday). So today when I came in to work, I had posted my assigned posts and had already taking part in class participation. So when I came in, I looked at both classes and thought "wow, I don't have anything I have to do today."
In fact, I can post on saturday if I want to, but I'm not required to. I have already done everything I need to for the week. I also have already turned in the weekly assignment in both classes that is due at 11:59 PM Sunday evening, I got that done wednesday morning. It was part of my wanting to be pro-active in school this week. Well it worked the way I wanted it to. I'm looking forward to getting off at midnight saturday evening and being able to go home and do whatever. During the day sunday when we're not celebrating the 4th, my teachers should have posted the upcoming week's assignments, and so I will try to go online and do whatever I can ahead of time. What I do is save them without officially posting so that on the day that the forum question is meant for, I can just log online, hit "send", respond to 3 people's posts, and I'm good.
So I'm going to call that it for tonight. In closing, last time I changed my oil in my truck, I took it to valvoline because I needed the serpentine belt replaced too. Today I changed the oil myself but I was unable to get the oil filter off no matter what I did. I ended up saying screw it, left it on, and put the new oil in. This time instead of regular oil I got full synthetic for it. While I was on parking lot patrol, I stopped a few times to listen to my truck and it actually sounds better currently I think. I also changed the Air Filter. That was easy. Erin thinks I should take classes and learn how to work on cars. I said "what, you want me to be able to open a shop in clinton?" She was like "That wouldn't be a bad business!" I don't know. I mean, it'd be nice because I wouldn't try to charge an arm and a leg, and would do the best work I was able to. I would want to be one of those shops where people come back to because they trust me to fix their car correctly. Not one of those shops where you take your car in for something, you leave and something goes wrong because of what they did.
So that's it all! I will try my best to remember to come on here tomorrow and write more for you! I appologize that with school there has been a few days that I've completely forgotten about posting here until it was already too late for that day. See ya later!
CB
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Day 80
Ok, so apparently there are going to be some random nights when I end up working late on homework and wend up not realizing I need to come on here to post until it is already the next day. I appologize for this. Just means that apparently my 365th post will be later than the date I originally intended, but I will still post 365 posts here since that is what I set out to do. I'm going to keep it short and sweet tonight. This past weekend, we drove the truck on a 4.5 hour drive to pick up Lex. She had been with the grandparents being spoiled beyond belief for the past month. We've had the stress of Erin's car being out of commission because of the transmission for the past 2 weeks. Thank fully, that recently got taken care of and Erin is once again driving her own car. I know for a fact she is thrilled to death about that.
One thing I know I'm going to have to talk to Lex about is how much crap she has gotten into since she has been back. She has lied, and snuck food, etc. Erin and I constantly remind her that instead of sneaking, she should ask for what she wants. And that if she has done something she shouldnt have and we question her about it, that she should just be honest. Well last night she struck me as odd because she randomly got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. I said "Lex come back here, what are you doing?" She said "I'm just seeing what's new in the kitchen." I raised an eyebrow up at her and said "The kitchen is the same as it has always been. What are you really doing?" She said "It is? Hmm, well maybe I will find something different." Then I went into the kitchen without letting her be alone in there and looked in the pantry. A bag of marshmellows that had been full before she came home was now half gone and I noticed the bag instantly because it layed wide open.
I brought it in and said "When did you eat these?" She said "I didn't." I said "Really..... well mommy did you eat these?" Erin was like "no i didn't." So I looked back at Lex and said "I didn't touch these, last time I saw these they were sealed up. Mommy hasn't touched these... and Zoe can't reach the pantry. Unless the cat or dog got up on the counter, opened the cabinet and got into these, who does that leave?" She said "Me." I said "Exactly, so I ask you again. Did you eat these?" And she still looked at me and said "no." We went back and forth, Erin asked her, I asked her, every time this kind of thing has happened, Erin and I notice things right away. I don't know how to explain it, but it's like, as soon as something has gone missing from the cabinets, usually it's something that's like "Chocolate chips" for erin's baking, or in this case marshmellows, or apparently today it was these cordial cherry kisses that Erin uses for one of the kinds of cookies she makes.
Erin went to bed early because she didn't feel good. I finished the home made pizza that she had started to make, and while I was making it, we told Lex that she was to be in her room and getting it cleaned. I told her she was not to come out until it was done, except for going to the bathroom, and for dinner. Later she came downstairs, walked up to me and said "Daddy, I did eat the marshmellows." I thanked her for telling me the truth and again tried to emphasize how strongly we want her to 1) do everything she is supposed to do, and 2) to be honest with us about everything.
Today, I dropped Erin off at work. On the way to drop Zoe off at day care, Erin got a call from JD saying that her transmission would be ready when she got off work. We dropped Zoe off, I dropped Erin off, and went home. I got online and turned in my end of the week assignments ahead of time for both my classes. Logged offline, and went upstairs to lay down for 30 minutes or so until Erin would call to tell me she was ready to be picked up. My phone apparently spider web cracked some time when we were on the trip this weekend, and I could manage just fine till today when the crack spread throughout the rest of my screen. Now I can't select anything, cant answer calls, can't open my text messages, etc. Thank God we have insurance,even though it will probably cost us something like $80.00.
After midnight tonight when I get paid, I will be going online on verizon wireless and filing my claim. Apparently within 24 hours I should receive another blackberry storm2, and will probably have a mailing package that I can put my phone in and I will have 10 days to send my phone to them. For now, I left my phone powered off and sitting on my side table on my side of the bed. No point in having it on me right now. I would just get frustrated about not being able to open anything up. I love my phone but it made me wonder if maybe when we upgrade down the road if I should go back to the blackberry pearl. Yes it's not touch screen, and I do love my phone, but I hate that if the screen gets cracked like this again, I won't be able to do anything with my phone temporarily. But I guess we have a year or so left till we can renew our contract.
So onto the other stuff that happened with lex. When I went to lay down, Lex stopped me and was like "Daddy I'm hungry." I said "Ok, well it will be a little bit. We'll figure something out soon." She was like "ok." Not even 20 minutes later, erin called and said she was ready. I figured "ok, well I'm going to leave lex here so she can keep working on her room. I want to give her something for lunch so she wont be hungry." I wanted to be a good dad despite my stress level. So I reheated some of the pizza from last night and filled up a glass of milk and gave her one of her mootubes, which is basically a straw that has chocolate in it. She drinks the milk and it makes chocolate milk. I called her down and gave her the plate and milk. She was like "oh cool." I said "I would have given you the rootbeer in the fridge but you have milk." She said "When I finish my milk can I get the rootbeer?" I was like "yes, you can." Thinking that she would eat, drink her milk, then grab the rootbeer. Then I told her we would be back shortly and told her not to sneak anything, which she said she wouldnt, and then I left.
When we got back with both cars over an hour later, I noticed the pizza slices were still there. There was a note she wrote beside it saying "Mom and dad, I'm not hungry anymore. you can have these. I'll be cleaning my room." I went upstairs and confronted Lex because of the fact that just before giving her those slices she had said "Daddy i'm hungry." She came down, I was talking to her in the kitchen and then I randomly spoke my thoughts outloud "Wait a minute, I bet you finished your chocolate milk didnt you?" She was like "Yeah?" Then I spoke the next thoughts that came to my mind as I opened the fridge and verified that the rootbeer was gone "And you grabbed the rootbeer out of the fridge?" She was like "Yeah?" That was when I had to force myself not to boil over. Erin heard me scream at her, she came inside, I explained what was going on. I was on the edge of grabbing a belt and smacking her hard on the butt right there. Instead I was so furious that I tried to show how she should technically be slapping herself on the forhead, only when I mimicked it, I hit my head with my hand really hard and actually felt like I almost knocked myself out. For a few minutes I felt dizzy and light headed.
We sent her back upstairs, I went up with a belt and talked to her. First I asked her why she felt she should not be spanked with it. She couldn't answer me. I then said "I'm going to give you ONE last chance. I need you to STOP lying, STOP stealing or sneaking, and LISTEN! We are a team here, and you are not doing your part. The next time you do something this outrageous that pisses me or your mom off the way last night and today has, you will be smacked with this. Do you understand?" She was crying and was like "yeah." I was like "Good, now get over here and give me a hug."
I napped for over an hour while Erin and the girls went to wal mart for some stuff, and when I had showered and was leaving, Erin was noticing that apparently when I left and told lex specifically not to sneak anything, and she said she wouldnt, she got into the cordial cherry kisses. I looked at her, asked her why she would do that when she told me she wouldnt. She said "Sorry dad."
I'm going to close this entry out now. I've been going over in my head what I should do. I've been praying for God to give me strength and that I can handle the extra stress that has come with our oldest returning home. In the past when she has come back from grandma's house where she has almost free rein, we have always had problems. It's like, because grandma will give her almost anything and let her do almost anything, when she comes home she has forgotten how it works in the family. She doesnt ask for stuff, doesnt listen, until after we all butt heads with eachother and then eventually she straightens up, but I have never stressed out this much whenever she has come back, so we need to talk and get things figured out.
I love her to death and it is because I love her so much that I can feel the extra tension and stress definitely pulling at my health quite a bit. That is why tonight I realized with a crystal clear certainty that we have to get this straightened out before it gets any worse.
Other than that, on a positive note, school is going great. I've focused a lot on it, trying to get things turned in on time, doing the best I can. Week number 2 has already been easier than week number 1. I guess I'm getting used to it. So on that positive note I will bid you all good night.
Thanks for being here.
CB
One thing I know I'm going to have to talk to Lex about is how much crap she has gotten into since she has been back. She has lied, and snuck food, etc. Erin and I constantly remind her that instead of sneaking, she should ask for what she wants. And that if she has done something she shouldnt have and we question her about it, that she should just be honest. Well last night she struck me as odd because she randomly got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. I said "Lex come back here, what are you doing?" She said "I'm just seeing what's new in the kitchen." I raised an eyebrow up at her and said "The kitchen is the same as it has always been. What are you really doing?" She said "It is? Hmm, well maybe I will find something different." Then I went into the kitchen without letting her be alone in there and looked in the pantry. A bag of marshmellows that had been full before she came home was now half gone and I noticed the bag instantly because it layed wide open.
I brought it in and said "When did you eat these?" She said "I didn't." I said "Really..... well mommy did you eat these?" Erin was like "no i didn't." So I looked back at Lex and said "I didn't touch these, last time I saw these they were sealed up. Mommy hasn't touched these... and Zoe can't reach the pantry. Unless the cat or dog got up on the counter, opened the cabinet and got into these, who does that leave?" She said "Me." I said "Exactly, so I ask you again. Did you eat these?" And she still looked at me and said "no." We went back and forth, Erin asked her, I asked her, every time this kind of thing has happened, Erin and I notice things right away. I don't know how to explain it, but it's like, as soon as something has gone missing from the cabinets, usually it's something that's like "Chocolate chips" for erin's baking, or in this case marshmellows, or apparently today it was these cordial cherry kisses that Erin uses for one of the kinds of cookies she makes.
Erin went to bed early because she didn't feel good. I finished the home made pizza that she had started to make, and while I was making it, we told Lex that she was to be in her room and getting it cleaned. I told her she was not to come out until it was done, except for going to the bathroom, and for dinner. Later she came downstairs, walked up to me and said "Daddy, I did eat the marshmellows." I thanked her for telling me the truth and again tried to emphasize how strongly we want her to 1) do everything she is supposed to do, and 2) to be honest with us about everything.
Today, I dropped Erin off at work. On the way to drop Zoe off at day care, Erin got a call from JD saying that her transmission would be ready when she got off work. We dropped Zoe off, I dropped Erin off, and went home. I got online and turned in my end of the week assignments ahead of time for both my classes. Logged offline, and went upstairs to lay down for 30 minutes or so until Erin would call to tell me she was ready to be picked up. My phone apparently spider web cracked some time when we were on the trip this weekend, and I could manage just fine till today when the crack spread throughout the rest of my screen. Now I can't select anything, cant answer calls, can't open my text messages, etc. Thank God we have insurance,even though it will probably cost us something like $80.00.
After midnight tonight when I get paid, I will be going online on verizon wireless and filing my claim. Apparently within 24 hours I should receive another blackberry storm2, and will probably have a mailing package that I can put my phone in and I will have 10 days to send my phone to them. For now, I left my phone powered off and sitting on my side table on my side of the bed. No point in having it on me right now. I would just get frustrated about not being able to open anything up. I love my phone but it made me wonder if maybe when we upgrade down the road if I should go back to the blackberry pearl. Yes it's not touch screen, and I do love my phone, but I hate that if the screen gets cracked like this again, I won't be able to do anything with my phone temporarily. But I guess we have a year or so left till we can renew our contract.
So onto the other stuff that happened with lex. When I went to lay down, Lex stopped me and was like "Daddy I'm hungry." I said "Ok, well it will be a little bit. We'll figure something out soon." She was like "ok." Not even 20 minutes later, erin called and said she was ready. I figured "ok, well I'm going to leave lex here so she can keep working on her room. I want to give her something for lunch so she wont be hungry." I wanted to be a good dad despite my stress level. So I reheated some of the pizza from last night and filled up a glass of milk and gave her one of her mootubes, which is basically a straw that has chocolate in it. She drinks the milk and it makes chocolate milk. I called her down and gave her the plate and milk. She was like "oh cool." I said "I would have given you the rootbeer in the fridge but you have milk." She said "When I finish my milk can I get the rootbeer?" I was like "yes, you can." Thinking that she would eat, drink her milk, then grab the rootbeer. Then I told her we would be back shortly and told her not to sneak anything, which she said she wouldnt, and then I left.
When we got back with both cars over an hour later, I noticed the pizza slices were still there. There was a note she wrote beside it saying "Mom and dad, I'm not hungry anymore. you can have these. I'll be cleaning my room." I went upstairs and confronted Lex because of the fact that just before giving her those slices she had said "Daddy i'm hungry." She came down, I was talking to her in the kitchen and then I randomly spoke my thoughts outloud "Wait a minute, I bet you finished your chocolate milk didnt you?" She was like "Yeah?" Then I spoke the next thoughts that came to my mind as I opened the fridge and verified that the rootbeer was gone "And you grabbed the rootbeer out of the fridge?" She was like "Yeah?" That was when I had to force myself not to boil over. Erin heard me scream at her, she came inside, I explained what was going on. I was on the edge of grabbing a belt and smacking her hard on the butt right there. Instead I was so furious that I tried to show how she should technically be slapping herself on the forhead, only when I mimicked it, I hit my head with my hand really hard and actually felt like I almost knocked myself out. For a few minutes I felt dizzy and light headed.
We sent her back upstairs, I went up with a belt and talked to her. First I asked her why she felt she should not be spanked with it. She couldn't answer me. I then said "I'm going to give you ONE last chance. I need you to STOP lying, STOP stealing or sneaking, and LISTEN! We are a team here, and you are not doing your part. The next time you do something this outrageous that pisses me or your mom off the way last night and today has, you will be smacked with this. Do you understand?" She was crying and was like "yeah." I was like "Good, now get over here and give me a hug."
I napped for over an hour while Erin and the girls went to wal mart for some stuff, and when I had showered and was leaving, Erin was noticing that apparently when I left and told lex specifically not to sneak anything, and she said she wouldnt, she got into the cordial cherry kisses. I looked at her, asked her why she would do that when she told me she wouldnt. She said "Sorry dad."
I'm going to close this entry out now. I've been going over in my head what I should do. I've been praying for God to give me strength and that I can handle the extra stress that has come with our oldest returning home. In the past when she has come back from grandma's house where she has almost free rein, we have always had problems. It's like, because grandma will give her almost anything and let her do almost anything, when she comes home she has forgotten how it works in the family. She doesnt ask for stuff, doesnt listen, until after we all butt heads with eachother and then eventually she straightens up, but I have never stressed out this much whenever she has come back, so we need to talk and get things figured out.
I love her to death and it is because I love her so much that I can feel the extra tension and stress definitely pulling at my health quite a bit. That is why tonight I realized with a crystal clear certainty that we have to get this straightened out before it gets any worse.
Other than that, on a positive note, school is going great. I've focused a lot on it, trying to get things turned in on time, doing the best I can. Week number 2 has already been easier than week number 1. I guess I'm getting used to it. So on that positive note I will bid you all good night.
Thanks for being here.
CB
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Day 79
Good evening everyone. Well tonight is going to be interesting. Tonight is the night of my half shift. I'm only working till midnight, and then Aaron, the guard that has now replaced Randy, will be coming in from midnight till 6. Then sunday, monday, and tuesday are his days, and then I come in Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then when I come in next saturday evening it's only 6 hours because then thats the half shift again.
The truck window is replaced! I'm so not messing with it right now. The guy that is fixing Erin's transmission was supposed to have the car done Friday night originally. Then he called friday and because of not being able to get the parts in time, he said it would be done saturday. Then he called this morning and talked to Erin. The company he gets the parts through still hadn't gotten them in, so he said definitely monday. Erin asked him if he knew where we could get a window installed in the truck if we were going to have to drive the truck down to pick Lex up. He said he had a window and if we brought the truck by, he would put it in for us while we waited. He did, and I asked if he would look at my battery connection because I was not able to disconnect it. Apparently the bolt holding it on was corroded, so he got it off, grabbed one from the truck he was using for parts, cleaned the corrosion off the battery and hooked the new bolt up.
When he was doing that, I noticed the interior lights were on, and then I noticed my trip odomotor was not showing anything. No numbers what-so-ever. Then I tried to turn on the radio and nothing. We checked the fuses and found the culprit, replaced it, and we were on our way. Erin asked him what we owed him and he said he wasn't going to charge us. I'm guessing it's because of Erin's car not being finished yet even though he said it would be, and that he knew we were driving the truck to pick Lex up because of it.
So, up until today, we didn't know what the plan was. We had talked about Erin leaving today with her car and going down there while I stayed here and worked my half shift, then stayed home so that Teagan was taken care of. Another possibility was getting someone to watch Teagan while we were away, and we would go together in her Escape. But of course, the car didn't get repaired in time, and so we knew we were going to end up driving in the truck..
Plus another thing was if we were going to drive the whole way and stay the day with them, we thought about leaving just after midnight tonight when I get off so we'd get there roughly at 7 AM, go to bed for however many hours, get up and hang out. But we found out that they won't really have too much time because their getting ready for a trip, so we agreed that we would just meet them in the middle some where. Well, it's so not in the middle. We used to meet in Des Moines, IA, which is about 3 hours from here, and I think that was closer to half way, but where we met them last time is an hour and a half closer to them. Oh well. We will deal.
So anyway, in closing, I'm nearing the end of my first week at the University of Phoenix. In the mail today, I received a check from the government. It was only for like $87.00 but that's additional money we didn't have before. It said "treasury" on it, but I didn't know what it was for. It also said "VA ED" which leads me to believe that the check was a partial payment from the GI bill. Woohoo! If thats the case then that is really good news. It means I won't have to wait months till I start receiving all the GI bill benefits. Basically it should cover most of my school, and then I'm certain we will receive checks at home every month to help with living expenses. The fact that we got the check today makes me sure of it. So anyway, I will call that it for tonight. Talk to you all again tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
The truck window is replaced! I'm so not messing with it right now. The guy that is fixing Erin's transmission was supposed to have the car done Friday night originally. Then he called friday and because of not being able to get the parts in time, he said it would be done saturday. Then he called this morning and talked to Erin. The company he gets the parts through still hadn't gotten them in, so he said definitely monday. Erin asked him if he knew where we could get a window installed in the truck if we were going to have to drive the truck down to pick Lex up. He said he had a window and if we brought the truck by, he would put it in for us while we waited. He did, and I asked if he would look at my battery connection because I was not able to disconnect it. Apparently the bolt holding it on was corroded, so he got it off, grabbed one from the truck he was using for parts, cleaned the corrosion off the battery and hooked the new bolt up.
When he was doing that, I noticed the interior lights were on, and then I noticed my trip odomotor was not showing anything. No numbers what-so-ever. Then I tried to turn on the radio and nothing. We checked the fuses and found the culprit, replaced it, and we were on our way. Erin asked him what we owed him and he said he wasn't going to charge us. I'm guessing it's because of Erin's car not being finished yet even though he said it would be, and that he knew we were driving the truck to pick Lex up because of it.
So, up until today, we didn't know what the plan was. We had talked about Erin leaving today with her car and going down there while I stayed here and worked my half shift, then stayed home so that Teagan was taken care of. Another possibility was getting someone to watch Teagan while we were away, and we would go together in her Escape. But of course, the car didn't get repaired in time, and so we knew we were going to end up driving in the truck..
Plus another thing was if we were going to drive the whole way and stay the day with them, we thought about leaving just after midnight tonight when I get off so we'd get there roughly at 7 AM, go to bed for however many hours, get up and hang out. But we found out that they won't really have too much time because their getting ready for a trip, so we agreed that we would just meet them in the middle some where. Well, it's so not in the middle. We used to meet in Des Moines, IA, which is about 3 hours from here, and I think that was closer to half way, but where we met them last time is an hour and a half closer to them. Oh well. We will deal.
So anyway, in closing, I'm nearing the end of my first week at the University of Phoenix. In the mail today, I received a check from the government. It was only for like $87.00 but that's additional money we didn't have before. It said "treasury" on it, but I didn't know what it was for. It also said "VA ED" which leads me to believe that the check was a partial payment from the GI bill. Woohoo! If thats the case then that is really good news. It means I won't have to wait months till I start receiving all the GI bill benefits. Basically it should cover most of my school, and then I'm certain we will receive checks at home every month to help with living expenses. The fact that we got the check today makes me sure of it. So anyway, I will call that it for tonight. Talk to you all again tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.
CB
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