Buddy Bench and Soccer.

Thought I would stop by to update while my homemade spaghetti sauce is cooking away, Dorothy is taking a nap, and Deanna is playing with her friends. I already got one of my reviews up today, picked up my papers for the coupons, and did a little shopping. 

Deanna is excited that one of her old friends from when she was in pre-school has moved back near us, so close in fact she can play with her almost every day, so now that they have rekindled their friendship they have been in and out of the house all day. Deanna's friend will be eating dinner with us as well as spending the night. Most of the time Deanna's friends get homesick and end up going home so time will tell if it works out. Either way she has another friend to play with. 

Soccer is under way in our area and the girls are glad to be back out there on the fields. 

Deanna is playing her last year on the Youth Team and will move up to playing for the school next year. I was very lucky to receive a pair of new Storelli bodyshield Leg Guards for her to try out for a company I work with.  So far so good. Will be doing a full review for them over on my other blog MarksvilleandMe in the next few days. 

Dorothy is excited as if you couldn't tell from this picture. Here she is getting ready to watch her bigger sister play her game. Her game was already done and over with. Sadly because of our prior engagements the girls missed two of their practices but should be ready this week. 

We had Open House at the school for both of the younger girls earlier this week and all went well. Deanna has a new to this school teacher who seems like he has lots of ideas to make learning fun for the kids. While we were meeting him (only one other parent besides myself was there) another teacher came in asking for me and low and behold it is one of my friends who teaches special ed as well and told me anytime Deanna needs help just let her know and she will be there to help out. 

Deanna's teacher asked if there was anyone I didn't know and I said I knew lots of people but certainly not everyone.at a sweet heart. I certainly feel even better knowing that I have another friend on the inside so I can keep abreast of all of the inner school happenings because if you don't ask, you do not receive when it comes to education for your child.

You may remember from last year that Deanna had three teachers and a pretty hard time during school because of all of the changes so I am hoping this year will be another good year like she had two years ago. 

Next it was onto Dorothy's classroom, and her teacher is great. I instantly hit it off with her and look forward to another rewarding school year for my youngest daughter. This teacher seems to have it all together and that makes me really feel good about the education my child receives. 

Being a parent is hard enough without having to worry about if your child is being taught right or not (don't get me going on common core), but I do like to know that the teacher is competent enough to teach my child what they are presented with. 

One thing that bothered me at the Open House had to do with the way the government tells schools what they have to do no matter how much of a bad choice it is for the students, and how easily even the Principle is pulled into spreading lies to parents who don't have the sense to know better really ticks me off. 

On a good note I think the best idea was a bench that the school has that is multi-colored that was placed on the playground. It is for children who can't find anyone to play with. Of course they are hoping kids take the initiative to go over and play with the child but if they don't the playground aides are supposed to help out.  I have seen them called Buddy Benches but now sure what our school calls them. Either way it is a great idea. 

Dinner is almost ready so off I go to enjoy dinner with the family but hope to be back on soon for another update.

Back to school in Marksville

The girls just finished their first two days of school. They have all been really excited and nervous at the same time to start school. They all have new teachers this year, Dorothy entered 2nd grade and is in the Rock Stars classroom, Deanna started 6th grade with a brand new teacher to our district. Dennise started her last year of school as a Senior and is looking forward to what her future will hold. 

I had a really nice letter from both of the younger girls teachers this week, and sent out emails to both teacher so that I can make sure they are on my contacts list. I look forward to meeting them during Open House.

Dorothy and Deanna start Soccer this weekend, which starts another year full of games to attend for all of the different sports they do. Thankfully so far Dorothy only does two sports, but Deanna is interested in a lot more and once she hits 7th grade she will have to make some choices between which ones she can do because some are played at the same time.

Deanna was not able to be in Choir this year because it would not fit into her schedule but I still have one more call to make to see if they can possible change a few things to accommodate her wishes. her favorite thing about being in 6th grade is that she can sit with whoever she wants to at lunch.

Dorothy was finally glad to be able to wear her new clothes and meet her teacher. She was a little afraid she wouldn't have any of her friends in her classroom, but has had no complaints and really likes her teacher so far. She brought a bag home today that she has to decorate and return Monday with 4-5 things from around the house that tell something about her. We are including a picture of our family, but the rest  of the items she will pick herself. Will be interesting to see what she picks out. 

They also did a really neat project with different kinds of beads to make a backpack ornament. I will try to include a picture on a different post her bag is not accessible at this time. I love all of the neat things that the younger grades do with the children. She even said they worked on something to give to us already but she isn't sure when we get it. I am thinking on Open House or at the end of the year, depends on what the teacher has planned.

Dennise  the child who has filled our lives with music is now a Senior and with that comes a whole year filled with activities for both her and her parents. It really is as busy for the child as it is for the parent or guardian. She already brought home her BBQ tickets to sell for Home Coming. We have turned in Dennise's Senior picture, baby picture, her Senior Quote, and another picture she wanted submitted for flashback something. My husband is working on a project for the yearbook to hand in as well. And this is just the first two days of school. 

Dennise decided against getting her picture taken by the school and has submitted the one she took, although we really like another one that was taken better, I believe we still have time to change it, but in the end it will be her choice. 

 It just amazes me how all of my children enjoyed school through out the years, with only a few bumps along the way. Seems like yesterday I was putting our first born on the bus. It is hard to believe we will be seeing our third child graduate in 2015, along with all of her friends. It won't be long till our last graduates, and then our grand children after them. The times goes by so quickly. 

As for my husband who started back to college 2 days before the girls returned to school, did very well over the summer keeping himself on the President's List. I am very proud of him and can not wait to see him walk across the stage next Spring and then move onto his 4 year college. 

MarksvilleandMe wishes everyone a great year ahead in what ever area you are studying.  

Blondo

Originally written March 23, 2012

On one of the old sites I used to blog at they had writing prompts but since I wrote there the site is pretty much gone so I have been grabbing what I can see that I have there and bringing it over to this blog on different pages so keep coming   back for updates. 

For this week’s prompt, I want you to tell me about your very first (meaningful) pet. Everything you can remember, including its name, how old you were, what happened to it, any fond or bad memories you have, etc. Just anything that pops to mind. 

Also, do you believe it’s good for kids to be raised around animals? Why/why not? What was the most entertaining and/or endearing pet you’ve ever had? If you aren’t a pet person, why is that?

Blondo wasn’t exactly my first pet, but the first Pet I had a relationship with. My first pet was a Guinea Pig, which I only remember from stories from my parents, so Blondo will have to do.

One day at my Aunt and Uncles house one of their dogs attacked me and bite me in the face leaving a scar below my left eye. Sadly they had to put the dog down since I was the third blonde haired person it attacked. After this I became very afraid of dogs so as a gift to help me overcome the fear they gave me my very own puppy. I must have been about 5 or 6 when this happened.

Here is my Dog Blondo. His chain was heavy and his anchor was put in the ground I believe over 6 feet with cement and if he really wanted to get loose he could break it like it was nothing.

I fell in love almost instantly, and named him Blondo. Blondo was half Saint Bernard, and Half Labrador. He had the fur of a Labrador, but the size and strength of a Saint. He was beautiful and very protective of me. He was an outside dog that guarded our home, and then when we had our pigs, chickens, and turkeys he became their protector and friend. I say friend because one day he helped the pigs dig their way out of the pen, and when I got off the bus all you could see was that the pigs had gotten out and were running around.

Here is blondo in the spring before planting time, witht he chicken/turkey coop in the back, you can tell my father firmly believed in recylcing everything, his dog coop, and you can see a bit of the pig pens fence. This shows off his muscles the best I think.

When ever I was sick he would whimper for me and Dad would have to let him into the house so he could check up on me. He would bound up the stairs to be near me, but one thing he never learned to do was go down the stairs. We had to push him down the stairs every time, and he would slide all the way down. His fathers name was Dumbo or something like that, I guess he passed that along to his son. He weighed about 180 and was pure muscle.

Here is my Princess Goliath when she was still a baby.

  

When I was about 14 we were moving and we thought we were moving far away so we had to give him up to a farm family. I cried, he cried and shortly after we gave him up he died. He probably missed me. I know to this day I still dream about my beautiful Saint Blondo, and miss him today just about as much as I missed him then. 

Here is Princess with Dorothy, what a huge head she has.

  

Of course my dream has always been to have another Saint, and when we moved to where we are now, I had no idea that the dream would come true, but sure enough Princess Goliath came into our lives and 4 years later she is yet another beautiful Saint to bring happiness to my life. I love her as much as I loved my Blondo even though she gets into mischief from time to time.

For the second part of the prompt. I sure do believe in children being raised with animals of all kinds. I grew up on farms so we also raised our own food to eat, Steer, veal, chicken, turkeys, pigs, and all of the veggies we could plant. My father bartered for things like butter, smoked bacon, cheese, and things like that. I was also taught to live off of the land, as in we hunted for Raccoons, fox, and other animals and traded their skins in for money to pay for other things we wouldn’t normally be able to buy. I am sure most of my Christmas and Birthday presents were paid for in this way. We reused everything much different then the world today where if it breaks you throw it away and buy new.

I grew up knowing it was ok to eat animals but also that they could be your friends too. My vast knowledge of animals was handed down from my parents to me. I am glad they chose to let me have pets, it taught me love, compassion, and as they died it taught me to deal with death and losing a part of yourself with that, and most importantly the memories of good times to keep you going forward in life every day and not to give up. God gave man a wonderful gift when he let us rule over animals.

What was your first Pet? 

Back to School and Beyond

As always time gets a way from me, but honestly my blog has taken off and I couldn't be more delighted. I am ever thankful to my readers and I am currently working on two giveaways that will be starting soon. On top of that I have had reviews to do and more on their way for me to review. I love to write about my family as most of you can tell, and I love to talk, so writing is just natural for me to do. Now to just keep up with everything else in my life and I will be all set.

We have continued to do a little school shopping here and there. Deanna's book bag came in, just waiting on Dorothy's to come in. I did buy a few shirts for Dennise, and one for Deanna. I also love the Garanimal line so I picked up a few things for Dorothy as well.

We hope to make one trip to the mall for clothes in late August, early September to pick up a few things, but other then that we have ordered pretty much everything online, or picked things up here and there as we were doing our regular shopping.

I get a little excited for back to school even if we don't have much money to do a lot with, which happens to be right around now. Thankfully my husband's workman's comp is still coming in but his Unemployment is under a new coverage for him going back to college so now he has to have his teacher fill out a paper, she sends it to us in a email, we print it out, then we have to take it to a place where we can fax it back to unemployment, so the money does not come on time which has messed with our finances a bit, which always gets me a bit up tight until I remember to trust in God.

Thankfully I have had gift cards that I have collected from the beginning of the year from all of the sites I do and have been able to get quite a bit of what the kids have needed. As for school this month I have to pay for Soccer for Dorothy and Deanna, Dorothy needs new cleats and shin guards, as well as making sure that we have money set aside for the second day of school the day they will be taking the High School pictures. Why they can't wait a couple of weeks I have no clue, but this is how their school does it.

Dennise is a Senior and I remember most of the things we have to pay for from our other two graduating so as long as money keeps coming in we should be OK. My husband will be done with summer II classes soon and will begin his Fall Semester in College. Hard to believe next spring we will have two graduates in our house. My daughter Dennise from High School, and my husband from College. He does hope to transfer after spring semester...God willing. We are trusting in God that if that is what he is supposed to do everything will fall in place.

When my husband fell and was injured at work our whole world was turned upside down, and believe it or not most of it has been for the better. God is Good.

YouTube & FlyLady Saved Us Hundreds of Dollars

First of all I might have mentioned this before but our dryer stopped working a few months back. We have been looking and looking and finally decided on one but then I didn't want to put the money out because we had a slow down of income. Like I said just when you get used to having money it stops coming in.

Anyways I have been Flying with the FlyLady and in one of the emails I received one of the customers were writing a review for a product which was the Dryer Lint Kit , but it got me to thinking. Let me do a search on Google to see if it is something that is easy enough for my husband to fix.

The first thing that popped up was a YouTube video for the very same dryer we have .




My husband did everything the Video said to do to test our dryer and sure enough it worked. He then got on Ebay and found the parts we needed for under $40.00 shipped. This has saved us hundreds of dollars. I am so glad we held off on getting rid of it and buying a new one.

I have found more good in the internet then bad, which is why I am still here.

Has a online search ever saved your money?

Back to school physicals and shopping have started.

Dorothy had her physical today. She is 6 1/2 and ready to enter 2nd grade. She is a whole 50 1/2 pounds and grew a whole four and a half inches. The Dr. said most kids her age average about two and a half inches in a year. We thought she would be short but who knows. I guess time will tell. 

While we were there Dennise saw the other Dr. to get new medication for her allergies. They have been giving her a ride for the money all summer long. Mine seem to come and go depending on where we are or what we are doing. So far I have gotten through with no medications.

My back is getting better just taking it easy just in case for a while. Hard to believe in a little over a month the girls will be returning to school. The vacations seem to go by too quickly. We have started out back to school shopping already. 

This week was underwear shopping, and we got a few notebooks that Dennise wanted for school. 

I do a little school supply shopping each week taking advantage of the great sales. I also take each week or every other week and pick up clothes for the girls. We did socks about two weeks ago. Next will be book bags if needed, and then shoes, followed by clothes. 

I think we have it down to one store to get Dorothy and Deanna's clothes from and one or two for Dennise depending on what we can find. We don't have as much money as we had last year so we have to be a bit careful with our spending. The girls are pretty adaptable so I am sure all will work out. 

Hoping to get a few things I need in the clothing department as well as new sneakers for my husband, as he is attending college himself. Learning is a lifelong process and something I always look forward to myself. 

How do you all do back to shopping? All at one time, spread out, early, or last minute? Chime in below. 

Saddened

Over the weekend we went to visit my parents grave site. My father died in 2001 and my mother shortly after in 2004. I was a bit upset to find their site looking a little worse for wear, so we plan to go back soon and tidy it up.

It is customary for us to drive past the last place they lived when leaving the area. When we went by it was like something hard dropped in my stomach. The trailer was gone, actually the whole trailer park was gone.

It was just another reminder that when you die the world goes on. Which bothers me a bit even though I know it is true, because to me a part of me stopped the day my parents died. A part of me was suspended in time, with the rest of my body going on.

It hit me quite hard and I shed a few tears. Dennis even said he saw the look in my face. It was like losing a part of them all over again. See when Dennis and I don't get a long I used to go to my parents and spend time with them, now if it is at night I take the car and drive past the places I lived with my parents. It soothes me, and when I feel better I am able to return to the house, my husband, and the kids. Rarely does it happen during the day but if it does I visit them at the grave site.

Which brings me to the last bit of being sad. I know how I was with my parents and how much I loved them, and how respectful I was of them. I also know how my husband is and was with his parents. I just don't understand how families today can just turn their backs on each other. I just can not put my mind around it. It sickens me.

I guess I was brought up right to love everyone always, be forgiving, talking things through, and always trying to help out when needed. I guess that is why I have always been the mediator, because I want everyone to get along always, which in a lot of ways makes me a door mat, but I would rather be more like Jesus in forgiving and loving people then to be sour, hateful, and spiteful.

Life is meant to be full of love, not hatred. So in leaving you tonight I pray for everyone to take a minute and see if you can turn that hate back around into a loving feeling. No one knows what tomorrow brings.

Weekend travels.

Well not far travels, but we did get our errands done. My daughter Dennise went with her friends to NYC, while Deanna was at her friends house, so we were off with just Dorothy for the day. We did our shopping at Walmart, Aldi's, and Shop Rite. My order for Shop Rite started out at 185.40, after coupons I paid 66.05. Walmart we got school supplies and my magazine. Aldi's were pizzas, carrots, avocados, celery, and deli meat for the girls for summer school.

Dorothy asked if we could eat out and we happened to have Burger King coupons so we did. Dorothy was a happy girl and all she cares about is that she gets one of those dollar chicken sandwiches.

We have really cut down on how much we eat out to save money. Most of the time we buy our pizza's at Aldi's and then freeze then when we get home so that we have them in the house instead of ordering pizza. Mind you when all 8 of us were here we used to cook 4 pizza's to feed everyone. Now there are just 5 of us and we get buy with one. There is $15.00 in savings alone. Not to mention how much it would cost to feed all of us if we went out to eat. I remember bills over $100.00 when we would eat out.

Next year we plan on not going to the movies at all unless they are free through one of the sites I frequent. For those who know my husband and I try to have date night once a week needn't worry because we will stay have our date nights. It might be a little snack after the kids go to bed, a board game, or a movie that just the two of us watch from our huge collection of DVD's. We are pretty adaptive to changes, thankfully.

Sunday the kids were all doing their thing when my husband's mom stopped by. The last time she stopped by she was trying to sell her house, but now she is working on getting a loan to fix it up a bit before putting it back on the market, she really needs all of the luck she can get. The housing market is really bad right now, and I don't see it getting better anytime soon.

We have even thought about making the plunge but to be honest every time we get used to money coming in steady we have a big hiccup out of our control that throws everything off. Time will tell if we actually make the leap, but for now I am just glad that our Landlord once again is sending his men to fix things up in our home. Believe me I have a huge list and most of the stuff on it has been there for the whole time we have lived here. This is our 8th summer here.

Sorry our weekend travels were not more exciting but hey that's life.

My sink is shiny!

     Some of my readers might know what the name of my post means. I have been flying in and out for years. Mostly out because of the symptoms of Fibromyalgia, and my weak immune system. I have my good days and bad days. It doesn't matter though because Fly Lady says "You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?", and that works for me. 

     It took a long time to grasp that because I am a perfectionist at heart, and someone who won't start projects until I have just the right materials to get it done. Believe me I still fight with my perfectionism more times then I can count, but slowly I am starting to slow down and enjoy the life I have with my family.

     With FlyLady's system which is free for all you start out with BabySteps and work up to flying. I think I like her system so much because it reminds me of the things my mother did as I was growing up. It worked for her and now someone else was doing the same exact thing she did. It just amazed me and I know for sure my mom was older then the FlyLady so she didn't get it from her. 

    My mother did most of her cleaning 15 minutes at a time because she just couldn't clean any longer then that because of her medical problems. She would rest for a bit and then get back up and do some more until she was done.

     Me I have always been the one that has to do all or nothing. I also have a problem with cooking in my kitchen if everything is not wiped down before starting dinner, which means there can be no dishes, and the counters even if they were already cleaned have to be cleaned again. Then dinner is started. 

     In the past on the good days I would be in a whirlwind to get everything on my list done before I ran out of steam, but it just didn't work, leaving me feeling useless when days or weeks would go by and nothing was really done in the house, and it was all just piling up around me. 

     Don't get me wrong my kids helped when they felt like it, but they grew up with me being sick and knew when I was feeling good I would get it all done so they didn't try to hard. As for my husband he can clean and cook, but he wasn't really seeing how hard it was for me to keep up with everything until he had an accident at work in early 2013. That is when his eyes opened to how painful it was for me to get things done. 

     My husband was used to me cleaning non-stop and keeping things pretty much spotless. So as the years went by and the pain got worse, things were getting backed up, I just blamed it on having 6 kids to look after He  just thought I was being lazy. 

    He still struggles with seeing me in pain, because in the past I was always the one to get things done right, and now I depend on him more and more to help me when those bad days, still way to often happen. I didn't think he noticed me reading my FlyLady emails but he did. He said I always see you interacting with the site. This surprised me. I told him a little about it and why I liked it so much and he is standing behind my endeavors to Fly High with the other FlyBabies, and FlyLadies, because it makes makes me happy.

     Now most people who know me from when I was younger knew I was very organized and tidy, but once my father died in 2001, things changed and it wasn't too long before my mother followed my father in 2004. Big changes happened inside me because the two most important people in my life were gone. Yes I love my husband and my children, but it just is not the same love you have for your parents.

    I lost a big chunk of me when they died and a little over a year ago I started working on bringing me back. It has been a long road but step by step I am making my way back to being me. 

If you want to find out more about what a Shiny Sink is or more about FlyLady then visit the sites below.

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

and let's not forget

The FlyLady' FlyShop

 where you buy all kinds of things to make your cleaning easier.

More then a little busy

OK more then a little busy. School has ended and Summer is in full swing. The girls have spent most of their summer riding bikes, swimming, and going to Summer School. Dennise isn't going to summer school so she has been spending time with her friends and sister on top of swimming.

I had hoped to buy a new bike for Dennise she hasn't had one in a few years, and one for me so the girls and I could all ride together, helping me loose weight, while spending time doing something active together, but it just didn't happen. Maybe next year.

Between my jobs and Dennis being in college we have fit a few fun things in. We had a few things planned that might not happen now, but we are adaptable and will persevere. We have plenty of free or almost free things planned to somewhat make up for our plan changes.

I just went through a few weeks with my knee acting up, then a few good days, to my back being out for three days and counting now, although it does feel better tonight. Let's see how it feels tomorrow before I say it is all better.

Even with all of that we did manage as a family to spruce up a few things and declutter a few places in the house that needed work on. I really should get in the habit of taking before and after shots so you all can see the difference.

When we moved here 7 years ago we had boxed all of our DVD's up, we had some in a pull out drawer of a bunk bed for a while until we got rid of it then they went back into boxes. My husband bought me new shelves for our DVD and CD collection as a Christmas present. He put them together and we just pretty much threw all of the DVD's and CD's on the shelves in no particular order. It was not pleasing to look at.

My lovely daughter Dennise decided to do the whole job herself putting all of the movies in alphabetical order. When my husband and I left today to take our vehicle for it's first oil change and tire rotation, as well as a trip to Sam's club, while throwing in a visit to the movie theater, we combined date night into our errands, there were still movies everywhere between the dining room and living room.

When we returned not only did the girls already put out the garbage but the movies were all put on the shelves, the dishes were washed, and the little ones were all in bed. I am a very proud mother in deed.
We have been trying to work on the girls being more respectful. I know in public they can be Angels, well most of the time anyways, but behind closed doors they fight like cats and dogs, and they have mouths of a Sailor.

I am forever telling them to stop swearing, but it is hard when your husband swears and yes even I have sworn from time to time. It started about the time my oldest started swearing when he was a teenager. Before that I didn't swear that much. I still don't swear a lot but it can get out of hand when it is all you hear.

We may be a Christian family and know better, but it doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. If we didn't make mistakes we wouldn't be human. So I guess some of what we have been trying to tell the kids is sinking in and eventually they will use intelligent ways to communicate to each other instead of yelling. Please pray for our family to become closer and kinder to each other.

Thunder on Sycamore Street

I was talking about my daughters musicals and plays before and forgot to mention the drama department's play of Thunder on Sycamore Street

My daughter Dennise pictured above played one of the wives.

Here you can see the wives listening in on the husband's conversations about what to do with the new neighbors, one which happens to be a man who just got out of jail.

The community doesn't like that sort of people messing up their way of life. 

The show was better then I thought it was going to be.

Above my daughter being led out by her husband a.k.a best male friend in the world.

Here are some of the cast waiting for the rest of the characters to come out on stage.

Here they are doing their bows.

Last but not least the whole cast of Thunder on Sycamore Street.

Dorothy Bridging from Daisies to Brownies.

It seems like only yesterday I was signing Dorothy up for Girls Scouts, now here it is two years later, the end of one level and onto another.

Here is our Troop while they are still Daisies. Aren't they cute? We got the rest of our badges on this evening so there will be two more pictures posted in another blog soon.

Each girl had their turn walking over the Bridge starting off as Daisies and ending with becoming Brownies. 

As you can see some of the girls like Dorothy were very happy to be Brownies.

Our party started at 5:30 and we all left well after 9:30. The girls had a great time as did the parents who attended. Great food, fun, and conversation. 

You would never know by the pictures that Dorothy was the first and only one to spill blood that night not once but twice. 

First was her her second tooth coming out, and the second was the hammock coming back and causing her to bite her lip. 

Didn't take her long to be back up running and playing with the kids. 

I so love how resilient children can be.

I hope years from now Dorothy and the rest of her troop will remember these times together.

Congratulations Girls!

June 27, 2014

    

Musicals and Plays

I told you I would be back and here I am. Been busy the last few days. Monday was pretty quite until my daughter Dennise got home and then we went to do my merchandising jobs and then out for girls night. Dennise  was recently in the Musical Les Miserables, by the Two of Us Productions. 

Here is the whole cast.

Here is my daughter holding the glasses used for one of the scenes. They kept falling off until she came up with the brilliant idea to put pieces of Play-Doh on the bottom of the glasses to hold them to the tray.

The Theatre Association of NY State has recognized their production of LES MISERABLES with 8 awards, including:

Outstanding ensemble work to the Company

Outstanding musical performance to the Orchestra

Dennise ran into another lady from Les Miserables and she gave her a secret code to get free tickets to see another play in another state.

The cost of the tickets would have been $90.00

Something we could just have not swung.

She took a chance on calling and sure enough there were seats left and she asked if she could get two. Bingo they said two tickets would be waiting for us when we got there.

When I was done with my jobs we had enough time to stop by Friendly's for dinner. The food was great but not for our diets.

Dennise took the lovely photo below while we were waiting for our food to come.

Below you can see us waiting for it to be time to go in to get our tickets. See how excited we are and of course my daughter's Les Miserables shirt. She had to represent. 

The play we saw was The Mystery of Irma Vep-A Penny Dreadful by Charles Ludlam. Directed by Aaron Mark. Staring Broadway Actor, Bill Bowers and Tony Award-nominated, Tom Hewitt. Between the Two of them they played 8 Charactors.

We were given balcony seats which as some of you may know might be good or they might be bad.

Ours were right in the front and I would say they were about the best seats in the house.

We could not take any photos during the play but I can tell you it was funny and the whole show was put on by two actors. Yes only 2 and there were tons of costume change overs. Amazing work to say the least. 

Here is a picture Dennise with Bill Bowers.

I have to also add that we were lucky because the night we went after the play the audience was able to ask questions and hear the answers from the Actors. It was great and a night we will all remember.

By the way for anyone who doesn't know Dennise will be a Senior next year and will be continuing her education in a College of the Arts.

Two Months Later

I apologize yet again for this post being so very far from the last one, a little over 2 months. My medicine has kicked in and things are going much better, so I have been playing catch up. My husband, two older daughters and I are working on losing weight, so far so good. Being on my medicine has made a big difference. Dennise, Deanna, and Dorothy just finished up school on Thursday, plans for summer are underway.

We have so much to be thankful for but will get to those in the next few nights to catch everyone up, with what has been going on here in Marksville.

First of all for the first time in several years both of my email boxes are at Zero! Can you believe it? I thought I would never get there. My next goal is to work on my blogging a bit more over at MarksvilleandMe, which if you go there know I have kept that a bit more updated as well as Pam's fight to lose weight. Like I said we have been busy and I have done very little other then those posts.

With my emails being at Zero I have much more time to do things like blog and maybe even read a book for fun. My fibromyalgia had kept me from enjoying much of anything until that is my medicine kicked in. I still have some rough days, more then I like to admit, but my husband loves to see me enjoying things a little more now that the pain isn't as bad every day. I have more then 3-4 good days a month now which is a god send for my family, house, and self.

Today I  was able to get dishes done, laundry washed, dinner ready, and delegated the rest of the chores  to my ever hard working kids, and husband. I do need to get some rest, have a pretty busy day tomorrow, so I will leave you with this short post and will continue to update you tomorrow. Have a great week everyone!

Update on Lilly's operation.

I meant to get back here and give everyone the update that Lilly's operation had been moved to April 25th which was yesterday but life gets away from me from time to time. She came through with flying colors and even got on the phone to talk to me.

The only problem they had was when Lilly came too after the operation she was trying to tear the IV out so they gave her Morphine so she would calm down other then that she did great.

You can see Lilly when they first tried to get her to eat something, and how motherly worried Samantha is for her. 

This morning she wouldn't eat or drink so Samantha spoon fed her a ice pop before leaving for work. Samantha was going to stay late at work but doesn't want to leave Lilly alone too long with David, she wants to be there for her. Samantha is stopping by our house after work to pick up the humidifier (the Dr. said that would help), some broth and noodle soup for Lilly to see if she likes that better.

I will have Lilly and Lainy Tuesday and Wednesday so I can cuddle with her and see if she will eat better for me. It will be my first time having both girls at one time with no one else here but me so it should be interesting to say the least.

I had my tonsils out when I was 28 and it was not picnic it took me over 16 weeks to heal. I feel for her. Prayers for a quick recovery for her would be most appreciated. Thank you.

Prayers for Lilly

A few weeks ago my grand daughter Lilly went to the Dr.'s or should I say she went again. She actually had gone a few months before and they thought she might have a sinus infection, then they thought allergies. Nothing was working and finally they sent her to a specialist because she had something stuck up inside her nose. It was a ball of some sort of fiber the size of a large jelly bean. Long story short the horrible smell that had been coming from her mouth disappeared right away when they removed it.

Lilly's tonsils were pretty swollen then but they all had agreed it was probably from her nose being clogged for so long so they said they would just watch it. They put her on antibiotics for it last week, but with today's appointment they agreed that the swelling was not going down. So they are going to take both her tonsils and adenoids

My daughter Samantha will be taking Lilly to the specialist to see when everything will be happening. She was told if Lilly goes one whole day without eating and drinking they are to go straight to the hospital. She is having a hard time breathing and her snoring is through the roof.

We went out to do shopping today and she did eat a little for Papa so that made Samantha and me feel much better. Just keep her in your prayers and I will update as soon as I get more information. Thank you in advance.

The Marksville Run Down

Holy Cow it has been a long time since I have updated. All I can say is we have been really busy. Let's see if I can give you a run down.

As of January 1st my healthcare insurance no longer is approving the medicine that works for my Fibromyalgia so I have been in a constant state of pain. The Dr. tried me on a new medication that made things so bad I was literally just getting up to go to the bathroom. We stopped that medication and my Dr. is contacting the insurance company and trying to get them to pay for the medication I was on before, so right now we are just waiting to hear what they decide to do.

If you remember my post Financial Melt Down in Marksville  you should know we went through a bit of a money shortage which started back up in January. The Dr. had sent the wrong papers into Unemployment so they said my Husband committed fraud from October to December and we would have to pay all of the money back so they were with holding his checks until the amount he had gotten wrongfully was paid back. It took a while but the Dr. re-sent in the right papers and they were able to reverse everything and deposit yet again a big amount into our account which was gobbled up quite quickly. 

Mind you our landlord had been getting crumbs for rent so he had sent me a 3 days eviction notice, which happened to come on the same exact day as the money. God has great timing is all I can say. With that being said my husband finally got his reimbursement for gas mileage back and forth to the Dr.'s  which we had been waiting 7 months for, and I finally filled out for our income tax and even though it is small our tax refunds have started coming in. I can't say enough good things about owning your own business other then tax deductions rock.

During this time Dennis started College and right now is looking at being on the Dean's or President's List. The Dr. is still leaving him at 50% disabled as he just has no strength in his left leg. His quads are doing well but the lower leg is pretty much just dead weight at this time. My husband keeps telling people that between his knee and his foot feels like nothing is there, but we hope with the new exercises the Dr. wants him to start we will see an improvement. 

Our daughter Samantha gave birth to our second grand daughter AlainaMarie Faith Ortiz but we all call her Lainy. Lilly loves her baby sister and does very well with her. Samantha and David are doing well with both girls. They are good parents. I love my children and I love having grand children.

Dennise got a part in Les Miserables for a production company so we are all really excited about that. Dennise is also in All county, NYSSMA, and got another part in the High School Play or Musical forgot which they were doing this year. With this being her Junior year it is quite full, I can only imagine what next year will hold for us. 

Deanna had a bit of a rough start to the year. She started the school year off with a substitute while her teacher was on maternity leave, then she came back and was only there a few weeks if that and then she changed positions within the school, leaving her class to a new teacher all together. Deanna and her did not see eye to eye and at one point Deanna was written up and we got a letter home. I did respond and with my guidance so far everything is going well. Deanna now is back to enjoying school for the most part and has found a liking for her new teacher. They just needed a way to bond. Now that we are through that Deanna is back to going to her band lessons, not sure if I mentioned it but she wasn't in the winter concert because she needed more practice.

Deanna and Dorothy are in their last month of playing basketball and are looking forward to Soccer already which doesn't start back up for us until Fall. A long way off for them. Deanna is starting wrestling today. They don't go against other teams until they are in 7th grade. Right now it is just a learning experience.  Dennise was in wrestling for a short time before me moved to this school district and she didn't show an interest in it anymore, and we hadn't heard anything about it either. My husband is really excited to see her in action though, so time will tell if she stays with this or not. 

Dorothy is doing well and any day now we should have her Girl Scout Cookies and will be able to deliver them to everyone who ordered. She really can't wait for summer to get here. All she asks is when the school will give her lessons to swim. Where we live we have a kiddie pool in the park and a big area for people who can swim to enjoy. There is no in between for learning swimmers. She really wants to swim in the big side this year but can't because she doesn't know how to swim. Wonder if there are lessons anywhere around us? Will have to check into that. 

I guess that is pretty much it for a fast run down of everything anyways. Hope you all have been doing well and I would love to hear from everyone. Here is to the coming of Spring and lots of fun for everyone.