My Life is My Life

Well, I am on my last week of training for my new assignment. I can’t wait to get started, but I am a little nervous too. It will be different once I am ‘out on the floor’. But I wish all my other clients had training like this. Very comprehensive.

Riley is getting so very big. We had to buy him a new car seat. I can’t get over how happy and smiley he is. Whenever he sees Amy, my mom or me, he just lights up and smiles at us. He loves to laugh at me. I tell Amy, it is because of my hair!

Recently we sat him in from of my laptop and he was so engrossed in it.

He would try and tap on the keys and just watch the monitor. A few days later, Amy put him in from of my moms PC and he would just attack those keys and watch the screen. When something would pop up, he would try and make it reappear by hitting one side of the keyboard and then the other. And if it worked, he would do it again. He is very smart and will be using a computer in no time.

Amy has him on baby food now. He loves it! She will mix the baby food with rice cereal and he just eats it up.

And of course, he loves his snuggle time. Last night mom had him asleep and not 5 minutes later he was awake. Mom put him next to me on the couch (where he could watch me play World of Warcraft) and not 5 minutes later, he was back asleep!

Amy will put him in bed with us, in the early morning, and he will slowly edge his head close to me, and push Amy off the bed with his feet. So she ends up going to sleep in another room and Riley and I have the bed to ourselves. And he will sleep for a few more hours.

Courtney has been gone most of the summer. She switches weeks with her dad, but the last time we had her she was at Girl Scout Camp. Then the when she went back to her dads, she went to their church camp. So she has been just a camping away.

Dominic and Mikayla are both doing good. Just hanging around the house, getting on each others nerves. They play nice one day, fight like hell the next. Usual sibling stuff.

My dad has been in the hospital since June 14, and I finally went out to see him last night. Time just flew by and I had so much going on with the family that I didn’t have a chance to visit him. That, and I don’t like hospitals unless a baby is being born.

Dad had to have the back part of his leg removed, and if it doesn’t heal, they may need to take off his leg from above the knee. He is doing better. He originally went in for pacemaker problems and tiredness and they found out his leg was infected (I think there was a blocked artery). He is not expected to get out for another 8-14 weeks!

Not much else has been happening around the house. Been pretty quiet.

Currently in my iPod:

• Popular – From the Broadway Play WICKED
• Evanescense
• Beautiful to Me – Dolly Parton
• Not Ready to Make Nice – Dixie Chicks
• Everything for Free – K’s Choice
• One – Mary J. Blige & US

What I miss when I am away

I have a funny story to tell you. Amy filled me in on the happenings of the weekend and this story is too good to not share.

While I was away at Guys Weekend, she was cleaning on Saturday night and she hears a "helloooo" out of no where.

She goes to the front door and there is my dad standing at the end of the steps, he says, "someone wants to talk to you", and Amy says, "who?" and he says, "Their in the car".

It turns out that Muriel and Lorraine had come over and he took them for a drive in his new minivan. While they were out, he decided to show them the outside of our new home (he lives close to us).

He drove by and saw our minivan in the driveway and decided to knock and see if we were there, but when he saw the door open, he decided to holler so he wouldn't have to try and climb the steps with his bad leg... or scare anyone.

So Muriel and Lorraine (My great aunt and grandmother) come in and see the house and they all love it! As they are standing around talking, my dad looks at Amy and very quietly says, "We are going to get some tacos".

So Amy picks up his hint and says, "Well, we were just about to leave and go get some dinner, because we haven't eaten yet."

Dad winks at her and says, "Do you like tacos?" and Amy says, "yeah we love tacos."

Muriel pipes up and says, "Is there a taco place around here?" and dad says, "Yeah, they just put one up in the new village a few miles away." So Muriel then invites everyone to dinner. (My dad can be so sneaky.)

So they arrive at the restaurant and Amy is standing behind My dad and Muriel and they are facing each other at the counter deciding what to get and Amy is facing the order-taker-chick.

They both are looking at my dad and Muriel like it is a tennis match, back and forth, Muriel would ask how much something was and dad would then say, "well, why don't you get this, or this or this" this went on for like 15 minutes.

Finally they decided what they wanted and Muriel kept asking how much each thing was or second guessing herself, so the order taker looks at Amy and Amy tells her the order and says to put it in. So she does. Amy is just giggling the whole time.

So then Muriel is asking for the total. And everyone is trying to tell her and she can't hear, so then they are trying to show her the display that has the amount. The whole time her hand has her pen and is in the spot where you write the number amount in your check. So Amy reaches around and grabs her hand and helps her write the amount. Muriel is kinda laughing about this and the cleark is trying so hard not to laugh.

Then, Muriel is trying to figure out the date, and dad wasn't listening and tells her the total, so then Amy tells her the date again. So Muriel finishes with the check and then tears it out of her book, but leaves it sit there as she is writing in her register. So Amy reaches around, slips the check out and gives it to the cashier. The cashier then is telling them their order number at the same time as the cook calls the order number out... wait, it gets better:

They get a booth and a table next to it. Amy, my mom and Muriel and my dad are sitting in the booth, while Lorraine and the kids are at the table.

This is a Taco Bell/Long John Silver's combo restaurant, so the cashier comes over with little pirate hats for the kids. A few minutes later Amy looks over at the table and starts giggling, everyone asks her what is so funny and she says, "This is the adult table and that is the kid table." Everyone looks over and all the kids have their hat on and so does Lorraine! Everyone starts giggling... wait, it gets better.

Lorraine sees this little girl who has on this cute outfit, she wants Muriel to see it so she can make one for the girls (my great-aunt is a wonderful seamstress). So, for 15 minutes everyone is trying to get Muriel to see this girl, but every time she finally hears them and looks, the girl goes behind the counter or her parents stand in front of her and Muriel keeps saying, “I don't see anyone!"

By this time Amy is cracking up, she is laughing so hard that she sounds like she is hyper-ventilating. So everyone (except Lorraine, who can't hear anything going on) is laughing and asking if she is okay, and Amy quips, "Lorraine, give me your oxygen". Lorraine somehow heard that and takes the tube out of her nose and hands it to Amy.

This just killsAmy and she falls over on my mom laughing so hard and my dad starts laughing so hard that he almost falls out of the booth. Which makes Amy laugh even harder. It took them a good 10 minutes to calm down!

The whole time, Lorraine and Muriel have no clue what is going on!

So always remember, old people are cute, but half-deaf relatives are a riot!