Things to ponder

I was catching up on my blogs that I like to read today when I came across a post that echoed my own recent experiences with an individual. 

The writer spoke about "Givers and Takers" and how she learned that being a Giver is being more self aware and that it is definitely something you learn either from a parent, a personality trait or through life and that real Takers are pretty clueless individuals that never seem to learn. 

They spoke of a long time friend that only ever called to unload THEIR problems, wants, and needs on them and would hang up without ever inquiring about them in an entire two hour conversation and how with the last phone call they simply said at the end to the Taker "Oh, I've been horribly rude.  I haven't let you get a word in edge wise.  How are you? What have you been up to?" and proceeded to hang up without the Taker's response.  I thought this was totally awesome. 

I applaud those that help themselves, who take a stand.  This post reminded me that it is okay to put people in their place when necessary and that if the circumstances indicate it, to remove them from your life entirely. 

I have begun to do just that.  I am removing the dead weights, "Takers", users, manipulators, and anyone who is NOT a positive for me and mine out of my life.  Life is stressful and can be hard enough without all of that extra baggage. 

I've always been comfortable being me and I know that "me" does not fit the standard norm of what people expect which is probably why my friends are Few But True (I just totally made that Few But True up and it ROCKS!  At least I've never heard this little phrase.).  My life on the other hand is quite normal and that is awesome, as I've always thought of a normal life as a good, stable, and happy one. 
Honestly, I envied some of my friends this...their childhoods fit this and mine so DID NOT but I digress. 

If you can make your life less stressful and more enjoyable by dumping some excess baggage, then do.  It will definitely be worth it.

This day SUCKS!

My day started out like most days.  Got up early, fed the girls, put them in front of some toons.  Since the girls were occupied I decided to finish the yard work up.  I started just after eight. 

Not fifteen minutes into mowing my lawn two officers in a patrol vehicle pull into my drive.  I cut off the mower to go see what they needed.  They had been called an informed that I was disrupting the peace, being obnoxiously loud and possibly hurting someone. 

They were pretty pissed to find me mowing my yard and my kids still with their heads.  I guess I didn't quite live up to the hype the ASSHOLE neighbor fed them.  I was merely doing yard work not massacring small children and animals.  Oh! Well, the morning went on and I finished mowing the ENTIRE yard as well as weed eating all of it...which took WAY TOO LONG.  

I put away my tools, cleaned up and decided it was time for me to have my breakfast.  In scavenging my meal I discovered that the freezer part of the fridge had stopped working and from the looks of it (the giant puddle forming around the fridge and every thing thawed out and warming) it had died sometime last night.  WTF!  How had I missed this when I got the girls breakfast? 

So I clean out the freezer, tossing a bunch of new unopened just purchased items and mop up all the water the thawing process had created.  I then call my Rental Company to inform them of this new problem and they let me know that a repairman will be contacting me. 

It has been a while.  About an hour now and no repairman has called nor are there any in sight.  *Fuming*  I am so damn mad because now I suspect that my entire refrigerator is giving up the ghost.  It is just cool inside.  I will have to make an ice run in order to try and save my food.  DAMN DAMN DAMN!  

Why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?  Why does it only seem to happen when Zack is deployed, I am already stressed and on a tight budget?

I have called my Rental Company again and informed them that I need the repairman NOW.  They are working on it.  *Sigh*  Okay.  I guess we are off to make an ice run because you just can't sit back and wait for others to solve your problems. Oh, how nice that would be every now and then.


FUCK!  Repairman just called.  The soonest he can be here is between two and three pm.  Will someone be home?  Fuck yes, someone will be home....me, fuming, pissed, angry, ready to throttle your ass since ASAP and EMERGENCY mean nothing.  Let us just hope everything will keep in the mean time with ice as I have no real funds to replace the majority of it until payday.

Just an update.

What have we been up to?  Other than the basic day to day stuff, we really haven't been up to all that much. 

Last Sunday we went to the beach on Eglin with some friends and played.  All the rest of last week was spent being lazy at home, playing in the back yard, destroying the veggies as they come in in the garden (Tate), playing the Wii (Remi loves the Just Dance Kids that another friend loaned me.  I will have to purchase a copy for Remi so that I can return the borrowed one), Keeping house which never seems to end, walking on my treadmill at night because I can't sleep and oh, crafting. 

We love arts and crafts.  Tate is getting pretty darn good with the scissors and glue and now seems more inclined to keep her artwork off of the walls (Yay for that!), Remi is always asking to make art pages or play with her Cuttlekids, which is a die cut machine for kids that we picked up super cheap at Big Lots.  Looked on line and was shocked at how pricey the dies run...guess we will hope Big Lots gets some more in.  Although she does have about twenty different ones that we did find cheap.  She loves it because she can create as it pleases her and not rely as much on when I want to use my cutter.  I have been scrapbooking and crocheting like a madman.  At some point I will have to get albums to actually put my finished pages in. 

I would love to get outdoors with the girls more, do some hiking (That is something this area really lacks.  Any real hiking trails.) There is an abundance of water related things to do here, tons of parks, camping but not rustic camping (closer to RV style as everywhere around here is regulated.) and there are several interesting museums that we are slowly going to work our way through.  We will save the mini road trips to other interesting areas and things to do around us for when daddy is home so he can do those things with us too.

We are a part of a play group that we occasionally attend.  I admit it.  I am an introvert and prefer my people interaction in smaller groups with less drama and more intellectual interaction for shorter periods of time. I prefer to watch more and talk less if the talking is drivel.  I prefer reality, honesty, and truthful interactions and people over fake any day.  I don't do well with bitchy, snotty, or pushy people and so we limit our time in this group.  As sadly, women, seem to be a lot of what I don't like.  Not all, but most.  I do a lot more than I would if I did not have the girls.  They make me push my limits daily and put up with stuff I wouldn't normally for the sake of them.  So for friends here, not many, and very temporary.  But at least it is something more than that CRAP HOLE called Tucson.

We love it here and are not finding it horrible with Zack deployed since we seem to have so much to do.  We miss him though and the girls ask about him daily.  We do get to talk and see him pretty often through MSN Messenger.  Skype, you have failed us this time.  Communication is not always the clearest but it is better than nothing.  We have four and a half months to go and Zack will be back with us.  Hoorah!  Time seems to keep on going and so do we.