Happy Friday!!!

Hey doodlebops.... still riding high after last night's fantastic game. :0) I went down to wake Reilly this morning. He didn't even open his eyes, but managed to say... "hey mom, I scored two goals... one to tie and one to win." Yep... feeling pretty proud of himself. I imagine he'll be the king of Woodgrove today, with everyone giving him major kudos. Luckily, he understands the need to be humble about it, rather than being an asshole braggart. I told him he can brag as much as he wants at home... but be cool at school! 

Giving his brudda congratulatory hugs last night. :0)

In the locker room after the game last night, the coach was doing his regular re-cap. Just before dismissing the team, he told them they could have a day off of practice on Friday. Then, he said to Reilly... in front of EVERYONE... "your choice... practice, or take the day off?" Reilly's reply... "I think we need the work." Good answer!!!! I told him that was a test, and he just passed with flying colors. :0) 

Tonight should be fun. After practice I'm picking up Rei, Patrick and Lexi & they're all going to spend the night. Yes, Lexi is a girl.... but those two are like her big brothers. I just love that he's having kids over, instead of always wanting to be somewhere else. 

Best buddies post-game, Julia & Rei

Mucho to do today, including taking back that damn camera. SO many of my pics from last night were fuzzy... grrrr!  Me NOT happy!!! Happy Friday to ya. And hey Bobbin.... we're supposed to get 3 to 5 inches of SNOW on Sunday!!! Check out the new Shutterfly album... sorry about all of the blurry ones. 

xoxo

S

Pretty proud of this guy.

***Praise every improvement.***

***Acknowledge all the good things.***

***Have the heart of a child.***

-Instant Karma

Hold on to your hats fuckers!!!

HO LEEEEE SHIT!!!!! Are you sitting down?!?! We just got home from Reilly's third lacrosse game as a Wolverine. It was AWESOME!!! Once again, he totally committed and played harder than I've ever seen him play before. He did GREAT!!!!! And that's not even the best news.... they won!!! They actually WON!!!! Only 3 games into the season... a brand new program... and the other team was TOUGH. But we beat 'em 3-2! :0) And I still haven't told you about the big, fat layer of icing on the cake.... REILLY SCORED TWO GOALS!!!!! AMAZING!!!!! He's been playing club lacrosse for 3 years, and I don't think he ever scored before tonight.... and two in one game???? Yeeeehawwwww!!!! I can't even tell you what joy it brought me to see him so filled with pride after that game. Spectacular. And hearing the announcer say, "Woodgrove, #10... Reilly Streight, with 2 goals tonight..." fuckin' goosebumps! 


Good thing the kid is used to me and my antics. I cheered like a crazy banshee from beginning to end. At one point during the game, one of his teammates said, "dude... your mom is crazy." His reply? "I know... I live with her." Bwahahahahaaaaa!!! Of course, along with my passionate cheering, I gave my cowbell a serious workout. I'm the only one there with a cowbell, and Rei said it's totally loud on the field. :0) But he can hear me cheering too... yes, I'm that loud. 


The rain held off, but it was freezing out, so there weren't many people there. Still, Rei said the roar of the crowd each time he scored was "amazing". Watching him walk off the field after the game, getting pats on the head from his teammates.... it was fuckin' great. The kid even told me this morning... "we're gonna win this game tonight". Sweet. Obviously, I took a ton of pictures... duh... but I haven't gotten them off the camera yet. I hope I got at least a few good ones... I'm quickly falling out of love with this new camera. I'm thinking I might take it back and exchange it. Glad I got it at Target... shouldn't be a problem. 


Rei had his own cheering section again... Rory & Julia, natch... his buddy Taylor that's joining us for the 10k, his friend Scott and Uncle Chris. I am really hoping that this big night will be exactly what he needs to keep him moving in the right direction. He's continuing to bring his grades up and has completely turned his attitude around at school. He's even talking about going out for football at the end of summer. Fuck... if playing high school sports will keep him this focused, I'm all for it. 


Gonna check the camera and see what pics I got. I'm SO excited for him... :0)


xoxo
S




GO WOLVERINES!!!!!!

Balls!!!

Well, that was a pathetic excuse for a night's sleep!!! We were having a monster electrical storm at bedtime, so all 3 of the younger ones were seriously wiggin' out. The dogs were too.... especially Lola & Chloe. Barking, whining, moaning.... ugh!!! We finally got everyone to sleep. Ahhh.... game over, right? NOPE!!!! Leighanna came into our room at 3:15 whining & crying.... then Rory came in at 4:15 whining and crying... and fuckin' Kirby started doing the same damn thing at 5:15!!!! AAAGGGHHHH!!!!! So let's just say, meeee tired!!!! 


Reilly has another home game tonight. The team is REALLY pumped... it seems the word has gotten out to the LAX teams around the county that they are BRUTAL. They may not be the best team.... yet.... but they play the hardest!!! Of course, being that lacrosse players are generally neanderthals, they LOVE being known as skull crackers. Lovely. 


The weather has returned to shiz... very cold and rainy. I don't mind it, unless I have to be outside watching a lacrosse game with the wind howling & making it rain sideways. Eew. I'm seriously hoping that the rain dies down before game time. Unless there's lightning, they'll play. That's the beauty of having an artificial turf field... no worries about tearing it up. It's funny, the other schools around the county are SO anxious to play on the turf that we only have 3 away games all season. And sometimes we have 3 games in a week! 


Finn is taking the kids up to their mom's this afternoon. She's finally agreed to have them for a couple of days, so Leighanna is going to miss school tomorrow to take advantage of that fact. I'm trying to find someone to watch Rory tomorrow night so Finn & I can go out. He got Outback & movie gift cards from my mama for his birthday, and we'd love to have a date night. Reilly has big plans to go to Patrick's, so that's out. Shit!


I have to confess something.... I was in a serious funk yesterday and decided to indulge in some retail therapy. I have been beyond blessed to receive gift cards for my birthday & Christmas, and even St. Patrick's Day, and I save them forEVER before I use them. Well, yesterday felt like a good day to use a couple of 'em. I got a new pair of workout pants and a jacket at the Gap Outlet. Yay! Workout clothes are pretty much my uniform these days, so those will get some serious use. The other thing I got was a MAJOR indulgence.... something I've NEVER had before... my very first (and most likely last) Coach bag. It's beauuuutiful and I LOVE it!!!! It was on super duper clearance and my gift card more than covered it. True, 'things' are not important... but it sure felt good to treat myself to something. :0) I have missed shopping so much... like Carrie bradshaw said, "shopping is my cardio!" ;-) It was tough for me to admit to that purchase.... don't shit on me for it please!!! 


The daily shiz awaits... better hop to it. 


Love ya...
S


***Hey To... FYI... Costco has a TON of new Skechers Shape Ups for 50 bucks. Lots of colors and styles... thought you might want a heads-up for Cook. :0)

Cool beans!!!

Hey doodles.... big, exciting things are happening with Team DAStreightBoyz!!! Reilly has recruited 3 of his friends who will be joining us in the race! Of course, being the last-minute Lucy that teenagers are, they made their final decision JUST NOW... race registration closes in 3 1/2 hours!!! Turds!!! The event has reached capacity... 40,000 participants... so they have to stop taking runners tonight. So cool!!! The other bonus? Patrick... Rei's friend & teammate... is one of the teens joining us, and his mom is going to lend me their van so we can all go together. Yahooooo!!!! The other kids are Taylor... one of Rei's friends that I adore, total cutie patootie... and Lexi, Mrs. B's daughter. We were excited about the big event already, but now we're CRAZY PUMPED!!! Are you impressed? He's bringing 2 guys and only 1 girl... shocker!!! The other cool thing is that they are each going to send out links to our fundraising pages, so hopefully they will push us over our goal. Fingers crossed!!! 


Now we just need to hope for nice weather!!!


Nutso thunderstorm happening right now... all kids & dogs are flipping out... gotta go. 


xoxo
S

Happy Hump Day

Hey chuckle heads... it's 9:40 a.m. and I've already submitted FIVE resumes this morning!!! If I keep doing this, something good is eventually going to happen... right??? RIGHT??? That's what I keep telling myself anyway. I HAVE to start bringing in some dough... this is making me CRAZY. It doesn't help that Finn is barely hangin' on financially too.... his job just pays absolute shit and he's applying for everything on earth too. We're quite a pair. :0) His dumb bitch ex refers to me as his 'sugar mama'... heeelarious. If she only knew!!! She finally has a full-time job, and all I can say is that she had better start giving him some serious financial support... NOW. At the absolute minimum, she should be paying for Jayden's childcare. That would be a good start. Please, please, PLEASE.... send up a prayer, some positive juju, light a candle... whatever. We BOTH need some great job opportunities, like yesterday. 


I've been hanging on to my old iPhone for 8 or 9 months now. I have a friend that's in desperate need of a phone & I offered to give it to him. The only thing on it that's important to me, is a text conversation between David and me. I never deleted any of his texts, so it takes place over the course of more than a year. I even went to the Apple store to have them help me transfer the data, but there's really no way to do that with a text file. So, yesterday I started transcribing it by hand. I started at the end and am working my way backwards. All I can say is, wow. I had no idea how incredibly difficult it would be to go through all of that. I can actually hear his voice in his messages, especially the funny ones. The other thing that amazes me is how incredibly clear his mind seems in his notes. I've only gotten as far back as May 4th of last year.... he was so incredibly ill at that time... it's amazing that he had the presence of mind to say some of the things that he did. Our final text conversation was regarding Father's Day. I'd asked him if he wanted the boys to spend the night on Saturday, so they'd wake up at his house on Father's Day. He was thrilled, and I took them over on Saturday afternoon. He was taken to the hospital via ambulance at about 3 am, and never went home again. It was crazy to re-read those texts, knowing he'd be dead less than 2 weeks later. 


Clearly, it's going to take me a while to transcribe a year's worth of texts. I want to have them though, and I also think it will be a nice thing for the boys to read someday. Sure, we had our moments.... but it's very clear in reading through all of it that I always cared about and looked after David, and it's also very evident that he appreciated all of my help. 


I've found in the past couple weeks that I am wrestling more and more with the fact that he IS dead. It's just such an incredibly huge concept... I STILL can't completely comprehend it. Fuck... if that's the case for me, imagine what things are swirling around in the boys heads. Ugh. 


I guess that's it for now. I hope my Cali peeps get some sunshine soon. :0)


xoxo
S


***FYI... pics from Rei's latest game are up on Shutterfly. :0)

Better....

Hi monkeys... happy to report that I did in fact, pull out of the funk yesterday. I got a wee nap in the afternoon... KEY after giving blood... and then raced out to Reilly's game. He did SO much better last night. He was really present in the game this time, and seriously played his ass off. The team did much better as a whole too. We still lost... 6-4... but they are definitely pulling together as a team. I left the game with a sore throat... too much screaming and cheering for our Wolverines!!! :0) I also have a totally obnoxious cow bell that is FAB. My sweet Finn even went to the trouble of coming to the game with the kids after a particularly long day at work. I SO appreciate that he is showing Reilly his support. The kid continues to fight it, but eventually he'll see that Finn IS on his side. 


Reilly's new idol, Mrs. B., was at the game too. We spent a lot of time talking again... did I mention that I just LOVE her??? She told me something that gave me some serious hope as far as Reilly is concerned.... she said that Reilly sent her an e-mail on Sunday thanking her for welcoming him into her home, and for helping him get into the tech forum. She said that it was such a beautiful letter that it made her cry. She thought I'd put him up to it!!! Wow. She's clearly made a huge impression on him already. Meeee likey. She calls him 'little Einstein' and it makes him all gooey inside. :0) To have an adult that's not his mom believe in him so much is HUGE for him. 


I also got to visit with Patrick's mom a bit. I just adore these two families and I couldn't be happier that Reilly has hooked up with them. Yes... a blessing for sure. 


Rei's 2 besties, Dani & Julia, came to the game again. Since he did such a great job, I took them out for a post-game bite again. It was so fun, and I love seeing him be so happy with his friends. LOVE these girls... they're AWESOME. 

 Get 'em Rei!

The cutie patootie LAX crew.

I've already sent out a couple resumes today... time to get back to it. Still sending love & hugs to Elaine & Terry. :0)

Make it a good one...

xoxo

S

***Bonus.... beautiful weather again last night... got to fall asleep listening to my froggies singin' in the creek. :0)

***Simply soak up the day.***

***Do the things that make you feel good about yourself.***

***Be a good friend.***

-Instant Karma

Well shit

Well, the funk definitely grabbed a hold of me today. I went to donate blood. I always forget how hard it is for me to be in there. I never went there with David... it's not that. But seeing all of the medical equipment, people in scrubs, and just knowing how many times he was at death's door, only to be brought back by a donation of whole blood, platelets or plasma... the feelings wash over me like a tidal wave. Having said that, it does make me feel incredibly lucky that I can give blood, and it makes me SO happy to know that my one wee pint of blood has the potential to save THREE lives. Honestly, I'll never know exactly how much more time David had with the boys because of donor blood products, but I certainly feel the need to pay it forward. 


I was also incredibly sad to hear that my amazing Aunt Elaine lost her precious pooch Missy this morning. Knowing how immensely difficult that is, my heart is broken for her. I was lucky enough to catch her on the phone a bit ago and we had a quick chat. I love you SO MUCH Naine.... thinking of you and Terry and sending you all of my love. 


So... trying hard to stay positive... looking forward to Reilly's game tonight... thankful that we still have a home & food in the fridge. :0)


xoxo
S

Exactly!

You nailed it, Miss Bobbin! That's why e-mail is SO fab!!! Totally non-threatening, NOT a personal call.... you aren't interested? DELETE!!! Duh!!! That's what I meant when I said that some people's behavior baffles me. If you hate me SO much and want nothing to do with me, then why the FUCK would you engage by replying??? It's not like I routinely send out e-mails & she's tired of hearing from me... I haven't contacted her in ANY WAY in TWO YEARS! And the last time I wrote to her, it was a nite to sake her to please stop posting such hateful things on my CB guest book.

Believe me Spunk, I do NOT feel hurt by her or sad that she's not in my life. Quite the opposite, actually. That was one bonus that came with David walking out... she went with him. Not that she'd even been involved in our lives for 20 years... she's one of those who we'd see or hear from once every few years or so, but the SECOND David got sick, she claimed to be one of the foremost experts on his life & said she'd do anything to help, etc. The bitch is even an RN, but did she EVER come to visit or even call???? Um... NOPE! Gross.

It's cool... all I can say is, karma, baby!!!

Hey Spunk... what is Miss Fatio & what the hell is an antebellum dress??? Pics please!

:0)
S

Blah.....

Hey there... Happy Monday. Feeling pretty blue, but gonna skip over that for now. Saturday was spent much like I thought it would be... outside all day running around with the kids. We took a walk up to the kennel, they rode bikes, played basketball & lacrosse, and spent hours digging in the giant pile of gravel that sits next to the barn. It was fun just watching them play and be silly. :0) Reilly had a great day too... their team mulch fundraiser was a huge success. Evidently, they are very common out here. It seems like most of the high schools do one in the spring. (Too bad for our arch rivals at Valley... they had 14 pallets of mulch left over!!! Boo hoo!)  All of the sales were done on-line through the school, so the boys just needed to be the muscle and deliver the mulch to those who had pre-ordered it. They lifted and hauled 3500 bags of mulch!!! Awesome workout!!! He spent the rest of the day hanging with his friend and teammate Patrick, and in the late afternoon they hooked up with some other friends... girls... duh. A couple of weeks ago, Patrick introduced Rei to this darling girl Lexi. Her mom is a teacher at Woodgrove and has really taken a shine to Rei. She even got him all pumped up about this technology conference, and now he's part of the Woodgrove team that will be participating. It's not like a science fair, where the students have to do a project and then present it at the event. Rather, they sign up for a specific discipline... Reilly & Patrick are teaming up on mechanical engineering... they show up at the conference, are given a problem, and have 2 days to troubleshoot and solve the problem. He is SO jacked up about it and I couldn't be more thrilled. 


This mom, Mrs. B., is one of those teachers who just gets teenagers & they love her for it. I went to pick up Rei & Patrick at her house on Saturday night, and we ended up spending about 90 minutes just chatting and getting to know each other. I LOVE her, and I LOVE that she is someone who Rei will be spending time with. She is a total no-shit gal... she gives the kids some room to roam, but she is totally on top of them & keeps them in line, while giving them a fun and safe place to be. I feel so blessed that Reilly is making such great choices as far as friends, and I made sure to heap on the praise about it. Patrick came home with us and spent the night. Again... that makes me SO happy. I think I've mentioned it before, but when David got sick, all of his guy friends just sort of faded away. So often, boys don't know how to 'talk' and they just didn't know what to say to him or how to treat him. But now that David is gone, they seem to treat him normally and he's surrounded himself with a really great group of guys. They are all athletes and they're all Honor Society students... hoping some of that will rub off on the kid. 


He has another game today, so last night he wanted to get some "game hair". Being that he is making such positive strides, I allowed him to give himself a faux hawk... it actually looks pretty cool. :0)

 Last night... pretty pleased with himself.

 This one makes me laugh AND wanna barf at the same time. Eew.

The 'do this morning. He gave me a cheesy face, that's why I cut it off!

I spent the entire day yesterday, alternately cleaning and then submitting resumes. You would not believe how long it takes to submit those fuckin' things. I have about 10 different resumes, but I still have to tweak one of 'em each time I want to submit it... gotta make it totally custom for each job. I have to tell you... this shit is getting OLD. Yes, I did get that one job, but I haven't gotten so much as a call on any of my applications since then. Ugh!!!

We're less than 2 weeks away from our Comfort Zone 10k. I hate to keep bringing it up, but if you have yet to donate and were thinking you might, now is the time!!! And again, PLEASE forward the info to your friends and family. Though Rory has already reached his goal... he's at $1004.00... you can certainly still donate. His link is: www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/rory-streight/fordaddy

Reilly has reached $1200.00, and only needs $300 more to hit his goal of $1500.00. His link is:

www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/reilly-streight

My goal is $2500.00 and I'm already up to $2300.00!!! Only $200.00 to go! Here's my link:

www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/dastreightboyz

If we can each achieve our goals, as Team DAStreightBoyz, we will have raised $5000.00!!! That means we will be able to sponsor an ENTIRE Healing Circle at camp. Yahooooo!!!!!

Funny story about my fundraising efforts... last week I made one last push with an e-mail campaign to about 50 'important' people who I just assumed would have been the first to donate. It was a mass e-mail with a very nice letter and links to our pages, as well as, comfortzonecamp.org, so they could read about the program. There were a couple of people on the list who haven't been in contact with me since the funeral, but they are people who claim that they'll do anything for the boys, blah blah blah. So I included them. What the hell? When it comes to CZC, I have no shame. I'll use every resource at my fingertips to raise money for this amazing place. I got a note back from someone who simply said "take me off your list". I responded immediately with, "are you kidding me? Did you even read about Comfort Zone?" She replied with, "I will not allow you to blackmail me with David's memory." OH. MY. GOD. I won't share what I wrote back to this heinous bitch, but just know that it was HARSH. If you had ANY idea how horrendously this woman, and her entire family, behaved toward me at David's funeral, it would make you sick. (FYI... NO, it's not the skank.) And not just then.... when we were still together and I was writing on CB, she routinely posted nasty things to me in the guest book and sent me hateful e-mails as well. Seriously.... some people positively BAFFLE me with their disgusting, thoughtless and hateful behavior. No worries though... she didn't have the balls to reply to my e-mail... pretty sure I cut her to the quick with that one. Cover your eyes mom.... that woman is the reason the word cunt was invented. Guaranteed. 

Still haven't had a chance to share my story about Rory's jack-ass principal, but it'll have to wait. Time to resume the job search... there are usually a lot of new listings on Monday mornings. Hoping the day turns around and I can keep the funk at bay. Have a good one. Go Wolverines!!!

xoxo

S

***Donate blood.***

***Articulate your most fundamental beliefs.***

***Strive for progress, not perfection.***

***Be with people you like and who make you happy.***

-Instant Karma