New Apartment

For those of you that don't know, Tayllor and I moved out of the apartment we were sharing with Christe. It was something that had been coming about a year after we moved in, and it was time to get out. We, unfortunatly, didn't have a place to live (mostly becuase I was in the process of trying to buy a house) so my wonderful mother moved her whole world around and made room for T and I in her small trailer home. (Thank you mom for doing this for us!!). We stayed there for about a month and then the house thing fell through (HUGE bummer). But, I found a really awesome, kick ass, apartment for really cheap and we were moved in by October 18th!

Here are a few pictures I finally took (pardon the mess). Tayllor, being so photogenic, wanted to be in EVERY picture, that goofy kid:

The view from the front door (living room)

Another view from the front door (living room)

A friend of mine sold me his HD flat screen TV....it is awesome!!

I created this area behind the couch as a computer/school work area since we don't use a table for dinner and such. It is rather nice because T has all his school supplies in one central location, along with his desk for working. It works!!

Just part of the kitchen, I couldn't zoom out enough LOL

The hallway off the kitchen leading to the bathroom and bedrooms

The bathroom, this picture doesn't even begin to tell you just how big this room is

Tayllor's room. He says it's not bigger than what he's had, but I disagree. It is a very nice sized room!!

This is my really big closet, with Tayllor jumping in front of it (yes, he is in mid-air!)

It is on the second floor (which works for us) 2-bedroom, 1 bath in a 4-plex. It has a nice sized living room, a very nice kitchen, very big bedrooms and a HUGE bathroom!! The front door downstairs has a code lock on it so that's a little easier on the mind, specially since we live on 23rd Avenue. Neighbors are quiet, and rather nice actually (although, after having to deal with the constant beatings the guy next door put on his girl at the old place, I will NOT be getting to know any of my neighbors nor will I be friends with any of them). It totally works for T and I. I still have not had time to unpack a few boxes or put anything up on the walls, but as soon as I have a break from life (HA!) I'll start that task. My very thoughtful 12 year old said: "Home is what you make of it, mom. No matter where we live, as long as we are together, it will always be home" - so to us, this apartment is perfect!

7th Grader

First day of school for T. Big 7th grader he is. Here are a few pictures I took this morning dropping him off at grandma's house to catch a ride with his grandpa (who is also his 7th grade science teacher this year)

He was SO nervous!!

I told him to give me a funny face so he gritted his teeth and smiled LOL

Slow Down Summer!!

Ok, this is gonna be a short one because I have a few seconds to spare. All I gotta say is: Where The HELL Did the Summer Go!?!?!??
I'll post more later...gotta go home :)

And the Countdown Begins!!

Tayllor leaves in less than 48 hours...to Vegas...to play hockey...without me *sigh* I know this is good for both of us. He needs to go off and experience this and I need to let him, specially knowing that there is a LOT of hockey things to come that I will not be able to afford to go on. In just 6 short years he'll be graduated from high school and off on his own anyways, so why not get used to it, right?? But I really dislike sending him off to a different state without me. I just worry. Makes me a good mama though, at least thats what I'm telling myself, hehe.

This is Tayllor's summer hockey league picture. I'm not too happy with it for a couple reasons, 1) he needed a hair cut and finally got one the weekend he got back and 2) he now has contacts and looks SO much better!!! Oh well, its an experience, right?? And he's still cute as ever :)

Yup, thats me a in a dress. Who woulda thunk it huh?? Christe and I at a friends wedding a few weeks ago. I decided to actually pull out my old dresses and try one on. The one I wanted to wear still doesn't fit just yet but it will soon enough darn it :)

The ABC's of Me

Found this on my friend Patty's blog and thought I'd play along. It would be kind of fun if you (yes, you) played along and did it, too.
A - Age: 31
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: Dishes
D - Dog's name: Moose but he's my roomies dog
E - Essential start your day item: Oatmeal and milk
F - Favorite color: Don't mean it to sound morbid but I love the color Black
G - Gold or Silver: Silver
H - Height: 5'4"
I - Instruments you play: Stereo :)
J - Job title: Mainly Mom and Office Administrator
K - Kid(s): Tayllor
L - Living arrangements: Renting a condo with my best friend, but going to the bank tomorrow to see about a house loan!! Sooo nervous
M - Mom's name: Barbara
N - Nicknames: Mel, Lissa, Shigle-Shigle (don't ask)
O - Overnight hospital stay: Just one for Tayllor's birth
P - Pet Peeve: Pants not coming down far enough on someone's legs
Q - Quote: "It's Whatever"
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: David, Kelly, Jeremy and Sean
T - Time you wake up: During school time, 6:30...during the summer 7:15
U - Underwear: Yes I wear them
V - Vegetable you dislike: Cook brocolli, brussel sprouts, and some other greens I can't think of right now
W - Ways/Reasons you run late: Honestly, for the most part I am usually on time or early, but there are times that the clock gets away from me.
X - X-rays-A few of my stomach when I was younger, 2 winters ago had to get both wrists x-raywed to make sure they weren't broken
Y - Yummy food you make: Velveeta Macaroni (not the boxed kind either)
Z - Zoo animals you like: Never been to a zoo (sad, ain't it?)

My little boy is 12 years old today....where does the time go??

Tayllor - Just a few months
Mom - Exhausted!!

Tayllor - 1st Easter and terrorizing everything

Tayllor - 3 or 4? (I know, horrible that I'm not sure)
Mom - My baby boy, always and forever!!

Tayllor - 7 yrs old, I LOVE that smile!!

Tayllor - 10 yrs old
Mom - Loves the cheeky pics with her munchkin

Tayllor - 11 yrs old and SO strong
Mom - Really hoping he doesn't drop me

Tayllor - Done with 6th grade and 'thinks' he knows it all!!

Tayllor - Full of attitude
Mom - Wishing he'd lose it

It makes me very proud to look at Tayllor and see the young man he has become - his personality and his love for life. Am I looking forward to the next 6 years? No. Will I make it and not want to hurt him, or worse send him to live with his dad!? Hopefully, hehe.

Happy Birthday kid. You make me proud :)

Elementary School over....

...on to Middle School.

Some of the boys Tayllor has bonded with during his school years

Tayllor graduated from 6th grade last Tuesday May 19th. I am not going to lie, I was pretty teary eyed. I mean, thats my baby, my oldest and my youngest. The laid back times of elementary school are over. He is now on to learning how to please 7 different teachers, changing classes and having a locker. It'll be a fun experience but a scary one at the same time. Let's hope T can keep his head together and pull out better grades that I know he can do :D

Here are a few pics from graduation day:

Tayllor getting his diploma from his principal.

It's a little on the orangy side, but that's how the stupid lighting is in the school.

Tayllor and his VERY proud mama

Tayllor and his papa


Tayllor and his sister Kaybrie

Tayllor and his proud grandmas

Tayllor and his proud grandpa

FOR TODAY May 6, 2009

Outside my window...its cloudy and icky and chilly
I am thinking...waaaaaaaaaay too much to list here

I am thankful for...weekends and the ability to sleep in

From the kitchen...its dark in the kitchen at work
I am wearing...shoes, socks, jeans, t-shirt and my underthingys
I am creating...nothing, I'm at work

I am going...home in exactly 2 hours and 50 minutes

I am reading...what I am typing in here
I am hoping...for a raise soon
I am hearing...the music playing on my puter
Around the house...is prolly quiet since no one is home

One of my favorite things...spontaneous hugs from Tayllor
A few plans for the rest of the week: try to catch up on sleep at the same time trying to catch up on shows that have been recorded from MONTHS ago as well as making sure T does his homework and studies for his spelling test! Whew thats a lot!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Tayllor and Christe washing their feet after playing outside in the sunshine. Dirty toes...ahh, I love summer!! :)

So, we made one last stop at Granite Tours camp site just to get another view of the river. Upon driving in to park, this is what we saw:

Parking lot is flooded.....

.....water is coming through from behind where the campsites are....

...and its flowing into the river. It was SOOOOO cold!

We crossed the flowing water (freezing our flip flop clad toes off) and took a picture towards the parking lot and the rest of the people looking on in awww

Yes, he is ALL boy. He just HAD to climb up on the rock and scare the hell outta his mama!!

Tayllor and I stopped off at Angel Rocks just to get a close up view of the actual river. He found a large iceburg (that's what we called it LOL) and decided to throw rocks at it seeing if he could dislodge it from being stuck.

The Iceburg! :)

The big rock T dug up so he could throw at the chunk-o-ice, and when I say "dug up", he really did dig it up LOL

And the throw!

He totally missed with the big rock so he decided to throw some little ones.

Washing his hands in the freezing cold water. You can tell by the look on his face that it's COLD!!!

This was the view of the river running alongside the road. CRAZY!

Here is the one spot on the road that was "flooded" and damaged by the water

Amazing to see the destruction!

Close up, kinda blurry

See that small little piece of concrete just hanging on. Hold on little buddy LOL

Tayllor and I decided to take a drive to Chena Hot Springs on Saturday, just him and I for some "mother/son" bonding. The springs sucked this time around!! T and I decided that 1) it would have been better with a whole group of us going and 2) it wasn't a lot of fun with the pool being warmer than normal bath water temp and the hot tubs being chilled! See, usually the pool is chilly and the hot tubs are ever so relaxing. Yeah, well, not this time. Everytime we went to play in the pool, the warmth just kinda zapped all our energy. So we spent more time in the "cool" tub than anything. (didn't get any pics because silly me forgot my camera and the damn pool doesn't sell disposable ones anymore..bummer deal)

We spent about 3 hours or so there and then drove back, stopping along the way to take some pics from my cell. Got some of the extremely high river that was actually running alongside the road (you usually can't see the river unless you turn off or you go over a bridge) as well as some flooded points in the road. There was only one "flooded" sign the whole way down and that was about 4 miles outside of CHS itself, but it was only for a small part along the edge of the road. It was AMAZING to see the way water just creates it's own path.

Crazy Hair

I decided to take my camera to work with me today, clean off whatever pics were on there and start snapping new ones. Upon loading camera onto my puter, I found some pics I took of T for his crazy hair day at school. I think I did a pretty good job of making him look like Albert Einstein LOL

Side view

This is the "Hurry up mom" face

This is his "Wanted" picture - This is the Einstein look-a-like

And theres the typical Tayllor picture face, all goofy

Sunshine!!

God I totally forgot how good sunshine felt until this weekend when it was shining in the living room window and hitting my toes. My toes felt SO warm! I missed that warm glowing ball of fire :)

On another note, I am hoping to get back into the swing of things with pictures. I've been really horrible at it. I look at my friend Patty's blog, who has about 3 pictures for every entry, and then look at mine who has about 2 pictures every page, and its just sad.

Spring time in Alaska

Woohoo!! It looks like Spring is finally here!! Mother nature looks like she is done pissing me off with the -25 degree wind chill factor. It was a whopping 43 above today!!! Gosh, it was beautiful!

Alright, updates, updates, updates - Tayllor is down to less than 2 months in elementary school. I am SO sad (and so very scared). He will make the biiig move to junior high. Time, it just flies!

Hockey is over but now we have tryouts, lol. Yeah, hockey is really only over for a month or 2 and then we start it all over again. Still looking forward to the Vegas trip T will be taking this summer with that hockey club. And I am still bummed I won't get to go. So, if anyone I know and love is going to be in Vegas July 5th through the 10th, let me know and I'll get you tourney information LOL

As for me, I am good. This lifestyle change is a big hard but I am plugging along. I lost about 8 lbs in the last few weeks but that's it. Im at a slight slump. I honestly don't think the beers I've had the past few nights just to relax is helping so..gonna stop that! Im still waiting for the gym to open and then I think things will push right along. But, I haven't quit and I am going to do this and I am going to lose this weight!!! One of the hardest things I have found is watching Christe and T eat whatever they want, whenever they want. But, I am slowly changing the way T thinks about food and I think, after a bit, it'll be a lifestyle change for us all.

Other than that, things really are about the same. Ramon is still deployed and really, really bored. I was getting to talk to him every day when he was onthe night shift, but once again, his job time has changed and Im down to only talking to him for about an hour every evening IF he gets online. But, according to my countdown, we have passed the halfway point so YAY!!! :)

I'll work on updating a LOT more. Just been crazy here lately. *HUGS*

Slacker.....

...I'm a huge slacker!!!! LOL

This is my official post stating that I'm a huge slacker!! It's also stating that I will update everyone tonight when I get home, hehe. (this was just a tease to keep people coming back for more)

Only in Alaska....

....do you have a moose looking in on your 1st grade class! :)

Yesterday I had to take T to the dentist. As I was dropping him back off at school, there was a HUGE bull moose right near the front door to the school, munching on leaves, looking into classrooms. Talk about a sight. I took a few pics with my phone but most of em didn't turn out too good. The one above was the best of the 3.

Here is a few pictures of the 2 moose Christe and I saw down the street from our house last night. Man, they were big girls!!