SERIOUSLY????

Mondays go like this.... Brayden has a reading class that I drop him off at. It's across town about 45 minutes away, so I head home and Chris picks him up after work.  He does this so that I don't have to kill an hour and a half sitting in my car waiting on him, or trying to keep the other 2 kids from screaming at each other and driving me crazy in a store. (as I'm typing this, they are currently ALL 3 downstairs fighting and screaming at each other...but my motto is..."if I don't hear it, then I can't be judged as a bad mom for not jumping in as referee" so I am oblivious to the screaming...I tune it out)

Anyways, yesterday, Chris picked him up and they went on their weekly dinner date. Brayden is the middle child, so this is their "sure fire man time" that they get once a week. So, Brayden wanted to go to his favorite restaurant..... Burger King... (shaking my head) ....but Chris convinced him to go to nasty CiCi's pizza instead. So, they were in there for MAYBE 20 minutes eating, and when they came out...... his truck was gone!!! Someone stole his truck in broad day-light in a busy strip center parking lot.

So, even though we have insurance, my husband was IN LOVE with that truck, so there isn't a value you can put on that. Our first "I love you" was exchanged in that truck. Many vacations have been taken in that truck. Lots and Lots of memories in that truck. At this point, the truck is most likely a goner, stripped somewhere... and may or may not even be recovered. It's just a matter of when the insurance company calls it a loss and writes us a check for it. Also, they don't cover items like the lift kit, the wheels and tires he added, the $700 he just had to shell out a few weeks ago to fix it, or the tank of gas he had just put in, the sunglasses, his hard hat, boots and laptop from work (which his company will probably just re-issue)...his daytimer, etc.... They cover the carseats that were in it, but we have to go buy new ones first. (Like we really need 3 more carseats.....our 6 we STILL have are plenty, but we had 3 in my truck, 3 in his, and 3 to loan out to whoever helped us out with transportation) But, they won't re-imburse until we buy new ones, so we will be back up to 9 carseats again.

Really.....his truck was 12 years old! Dirty as shit on the inside because he works in a steel pipe shop and comes home 4 shades darker than when he left from all the metal shavings. It looked OK from the outside, but I refused to get inside because it was so dirty and nasty. It had like probably 20 empty water bottles on the floor board because he never cleans it out. It's not valued at that much anyways, except for the lift kit and the wheels. Sooooooo.... when insurance writes us our check, it's not gonna be for very much. We will definitely have a car note. A second car note! We haven't had a second car note since I quit working. That's the one reason I've been able to be a stay-at-home-mom. Because we've only had 1 car note at a time since 2005. I'm soooo dreading that expense. Even a piece of shit is going to be more expensive than what we've been paying, and I would never make him drive a piece of shit.

So, I count my blessings that at LEAST he just got a promotion at work and got a small raise, BUT, my plans of re-stocking our savings account are now out of the question. I swear, we can't seem to ever catch a break or get ahead. Every time we have a little extra money, we get something thrown our way. I praise God that at least he is providing for us, but his raise is not NEAR enough for a second car note. So, I'm scared.

Can we catch a break? Why do we keep drawing the short straw? This really sucks. He's really pissed. I'm just hurt.

I have a TWEET for you....

I re-activated my Twitter account and added it to my sidebar on the left. I expect this summer to be a busy one, and I can tweet a quick update from my phone so you can see. I still like my Facebook WAY better, but since I keep that page pretty private, this is for my "public" readers and people who aren't on Facebook. Twitter only allows so many characters though, which is why I love my Facebook. I talk WAY too much to condense it down to 140 characters, but I'll try.

So, you can now find me on Twitter (Pinkanaroodle). When I was young, my Dad nicknamed me "Tiffanaroodle" because it was short for Tiffany....go figure.... so that's where my screen name derived from.

I also added a "share" button that you can click on to instantly stream my blog site to your own Twitter account or Facebook page.

Other than that, today is my kiddo's LAST day of school. I have my work cut out for me this summer. 2 weeks of Dance camps for the girl, VBS at our church, Reading Adventure camp for my Kindergartener going to first grade, and lots of other fun activities planned in there as well.  I've been working out 4 days a week with my trainer at the gym trying to get my stomach as flat as I can and loose as much weight as possible before my reconstruction surgery in October/November. Dr Garvey wants to know EXACTLY what he has to work with, so he wants me as small as I can get by then. So, MAJOR diet and exercise going on in my house!

So, I'll update as often as I can, and if it's been a while, log on and read my tweets every few days. I'll try to post as much as I can......

....using 140 characters or less.

Love ya!
Tiffany

The month I ran my tail off.....

Ok, I only wish it were that easy to actually run my ass off. I checked this morning.....it's still there. But I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off the past month.

So, let's update a little at a time.....

I finished radiation on April 26th!!!! YAY! Towards the end, my skin became pretty burned and very uncomfortable. But, it has since healed for the most part, and peeled like a sunburn. So, I am pleased with how my skin looks today. The stripe may fade a little bit over time, but it just looks like a tan now and not a burn.

My radiation team, Koshy and Thomas (with a broken foot)

 Chris, Kaylee and Brayden went with me to my last session to celebrate. I got to ring the bell after my session was over. Then Brayden wanted to ring it, so we rang it together.

I got expanded again on May 5. They added 250cc's I think, which took me back up to about 550cc's. I go in again this Thursday to have more saline added and they are going to go up as high as they can this time. I was at 650cc's before they deflated me, so I bet they try and add at least that much, if not more. It did not hurt this time. I was a little uncomfortable for about a day, but not NEAR as bad as the first time I was expanded. Once I am fully expanded again, I just sit and wait for my tissue, skin and everything else inside to heal and regenerate for 6 months before reconstruction! So, that surgery should be around the end of October or early November.

My fatigue is subsiding some, but not completely yet. I have been working my tail off though. I've been busy making bows, headbands and flip flops to put on my online store website. It keeps me busy, and I needed to replenish my dwindling inventory. Now I just have to take pictures of them all and list them.

Easter was great. We went to Sunday Morning Sunday school and service. Then, we went out for lunch. (Next year I will resume our tradition of a ham lunch with fixings but I was too tired this year) After lunch we all laid down and took a nap and the Easter Bunny hid eggs in the backyard. The kids got up from nap and opened their Easter baskets and then hunted eggs. We had a TON of eggs. Thankfully, the Easter bunny puts coins and change in them and not candy. We try to incorporate both the Easter bunny and also the Resurrection into Easter and this year all the kids were old enough to "get it" a little bit. Grayson said "Jesus died on the cwoss and went into the cave with the big wock and then he dustappeared into the sky". (I LOVE the way he talks)  Brayden said "Jesus died on the cross and he healed you from Cancer" and Kaylee knew the whole meaning. She's a smarty pants.

 

 

 

Finally, Mother's Day.....It was yesterday and it was awesome and marvelous all rolled into one. We had my Mom and Christopher's granny out for lunch.

Chris cooked on the pit and made some delicious Pork chops, and then he made cinnamon apples, broccoli and rice casserole, and fresh asparagus with prosciutto ham in it. My husband can COOK! I got smothered with love and kisses from my kids and they got me some beautiful things. My favorites were: a card that Brayden made at school (because he has the most adorable face in it), and Grayson made me a flower pot with his fingerprints on it colored into lady bugs, and Kaylee made me a flower with a picture of her in it. Then they bought me a beautiful necklace. I had a quiet, relaxing day with my mom and my family. I am so thankful that I was here to celebrate this Mother's Day with my 3 reasons for fighting.....Kaylee, Brayden and Grayson.



 

So, I think I covered everything this past month. I've been spending my days being Taxi cab for the last few weeks of school and activities for my kids. I go to the gym 4 days a week and Chris got me a personal trainer for a few months to help me get back to my goal weight. She's been kicking my butt into shape. Slow process though..... We have a FULL few weeks left before summer begins. Kaylee has her Dance Recital coming up, Grayson has his end of the year program at his pre-school, Brayden and Kaylee both have end of the year awards, and I have BON JOVI!!!! I'll write again soon......