So here I am, just chugging along...

Anna's almost 3 years old. Angel's getting ready to go to her first sleepover party at a friend's house. Alicia's getting into the "It's not FAIR" attitude already.

...

And Alex has started talking.

Oh, it's not much. Just a couple almost-words/phrases. Things like "No!" (Yeah... that one's perfect.), "Mama", "Night-Night" (sounds like "Nah-Nah"), "cat" (more like "ck" with a tongue clicky thing that I can't accurately describe...), and he says "Uh-uh".

I just bought some cloth diapers. I'm tired of shelling out almost $100 a month for clean butts for the two little ones. And since they'll both be in diapers for at least another six months and Alex will be in them for another year after that... I'm done buying 'em. Yes they're more expensive than disposables, at first. But I'll never have to buy more. (At least until these ones are -completely- ragged.)

We're almost settled into our new house. It's really nice to know that everything here is "mine".

I'll be shopping for drapes soon. *grins* Me... shopping for drapes...

On another front...

Max died at the end of December. Max was our oldest kitty. He was really sick and there wasn't anything we could do to make him better.

The same day that he passed away, I slipped on some ice and hurt my leg. Sprained my ankle and did some damage to the cushion stuff in my knee. Ouchies... I'll live.

I'm exhausted, so I'm heading off.

^_^*mew*kitty*

Oh my flipping GORD!!!!

Before I made the trip up to WA from TX, I took my van in to the shop to get it completely overhauled. I wanted it to be perfectly safe for the trip. I wanted everything done. Brakes, suspension, wheels, oil, hoses, radiator, fuel lines, spark plugs... EVERYTHING!

Every little thing that could possibly be repaired or replaced was supposed to have been fixed.

But.... Apparently... The guy who did the actual work on the van... Decided (without notifying anyone)... That he didn't have to even look at...
MY REAR BRAKES!!!

Even though I paid for it all.

So yesterday... the rear brakes.... FREAKING FAILED!!! In a spectacular manner. I'm just lucky that I didn't hit anyone else!

Oh yeah... that was soooooooo nice. Just what I needed. I end up in the ER where the docs are amazed and shocked that my spleen and/or liver didn't rupture! (I can haz Mono for teh loooze, kthnx.)

I'm fine. The kids weren't in the van at the time. (Thank the Flying Purple People Eater) I just have some bruising from the seat belt and that whole adrenaline overdose thing.

Replacing the rear drum (which was damaged when one of the springs for the brake got caught between the metal bits) cost me $300 (would have been $700 but for the fact that part of it was covered under warranty and another part was taken off for "customer satisfaction")...

$300 that I didn't have...

I only had $80 in the bank.

I knew I was going to overdraft the bank account... so I figured that I should jump online and go see how much I could withdraw in cash before paying the mechanic so that I could put gas in the van and food on the table 'till pay day.

...

Apparently... My wonderful husband (currently deployed to Iraq) decided that he just had to buy some stuff online without checking with me first. (We had a practically knockdown drag-out over IM about this same freaking thing just last month.)

...

I have NO MONEY AT ALL LEFT IN THE ACCOUNT!!!!!

The two youngest are almost out of diapers. I still need to get school supplies for the two oldest. I'm almost out of cigs. (For $30 a month I get about 3 cartons worth of roll-your-own. I smoke for the health of my children. If I didn't smoke, I'd be so stressed that they wouldn't be as healthy.) My van has less than a quarter tank in it. I'll run out of meals about three days before pay day.

The only good thing about all of this is that I'm fine and the kids weren't injured because of some douchewaffle's inability to follow directions.

....

....

....

....

I'm so angry right now that I don't even know how to cope.

I HAVE A CLIENT FOR MY DOULA BUSINESS!!!!!

That is all. *grins*

^_^*mew*kitty*

With "visits" from our husbands... we raise our families. We laugh. We cry. We live. We love. And we miss them every day.

Married, but single. Heartbroken from the time we must spend apart. We fight to make sure that they come home to loving families and happy children.

It's like suspended animation when they leave... but our lives don't stop. We hang in a sort of limbo as we pray for their safe return. We try to keep them up to date on everything that happens in the lives of our children... but how can we put everything into words???

I made a video for Forrest. Just some pictures to help remind him that we really do care... Enjoy.