As most of you know from my post before I have been having a premonition for about a week or two about the death of someone close to me. I originally thought it was grandma but I feel better about that now after seeing her.
On my way home I received a phone call from my sister saying that my friend had called and needed to get a hold of me ASAP. I’ve known this friend since I was in high school. I dated her brother and loved him. We were very close. We have kept in pretty close contact over the years. His first daughter is named after me. We have always had a connection like no other.
He had a severe drinking problem. When I dated him he didn’t drink but after we broke up he started drinking a lot. I did not always understand the drunken 3:00 phone calls or him passed out on my doorstep, regardless I knew he had a problem.
What I did know was that his mother passed away when he was a senior in high school and he was never the same. He held her hand after they pulled the plug while her life slipped away. He never recovered from that experience.
He married his first wife and had his first daughter. After that his wife went wacko, divorced him and left him to raise an infant. So he did. For a while there his life seemed really on track. He seemed to have it all together. Meanwhile he hid behind a wall of deception while feeding his depression with alcohol.
Three years ago he married his second wife. They also had a beautiful daughter. He continued to drink. The demons of his past were haunting. He could not shake it.
On Saturday of last week he was arrested for drunk driving again and was going to have to serve time. His wife had had enough. She went in on Sunday and told him that she was divorcing him. He yielded to his depression and hung himself in his jail cell on Tuesday. He was kept on life support until Friday when they pulled the plug and he rested finally for once in peace.
His sister called my house to let me know. He had very few friends due to his dark nature. She wanted to make sure that I knew I was invited to the funeral. I will be going on Tuesday.
My heart is very heavy tonight. I do not understand why he did this. I am confused and hurting. It hurts to know that his children ( 2 and 10) are without their father. My feelings are so raw. Why didn’t he call? Why didn’t he reach out? Were things so bad that he felt like dying was his only option? The guilt associated with being here and not knowing how to help is haunting. If only I could have helped.
Please do not mind me while I vent. I just don’t know how to deal with everything yet. I need a day to get back to myself.
Rest dear Daniel. You are finally at peace within your mother’s arms.

I have had a very frustrating day. My god daughter was suppose to go with me to go see Hula Hubby’s grandmother. Things came up and she was not able to go with us. I must have called at least 70 other people to see if they would go with me but no one was able to go. So tomorrow I venture out to go see his grandparents that lives about 5 hours away. I have to go. It is not a choice in my book. I have felt the need to go for about 3 weeks now and I have to do it. I don’t get these feeling very often but something is pushing me to go tomorrow. Last time I felt this stronly about something it turned out to almost be the last time I saw that person.
My grandparents (when they were living) lived about 6 hours away. One time I was suppose to go and everything was shot down. The person that I was suppose to travel with backed out and my car had issues. I cried to my father so hard that he felt that I should go and so he went with me. We went for our visit and started home. My grandfather followed us into town. (they lived about 30 minutes from town in a rural area) My father teased me relentlessly about how I pushed and there was no reason to go except for a visit. We got to the next town and my father stopped to call my mom and tell her we were on our way. She told us to head back. My grandfather had had a heartattack about 5 minutes after we had left.
If I had not visited my grandfather he would not have followed us into town which meant that he would have had a heart attack at home 30 minutes from help and probably would have died. Since then my family does not question my premonitions.
It has always made me uncomfortable that I generally can sense life and death. When I was younger they would tell me that I was possessed. I was always right on though. My grandfather’s heartattack was not the first time and it certainly has not been the last.
I wanted to go see grandpa and grandma last week and actually had pushed to see them. It ended up that our son got sick and I did not want to expose them to a sick child. They got into a car accident last week.
Anyway it’s probably nothing but I know that I am bothered. May be it was last weeks incidents that I have been sensing. Regardless, I am going. I’m packing up my kids and I’m leaving tomorrow morning and will be returning Saturday. I feel the need to say hello and let them know that we love them. I’ll be back in 3 days!!

So many of you I have met because you have written a comment and I have in turn looked at your site and returned the favor. I have loved loved loved the company and the comments!!
Now it’s your turn. If you are a regular reader (you know who you are!!) and I don’t have you listed please let me know. Some of you I read on a daily basis but don’t always have the time to comment (bad bad me) BUT I would love to have you listed.
I have lost track I must admit and am getting ready to do a new blogroll! Thank you…The Management!!

INTRODUCING AMBER… She’s a young hip mom of 20 with 3 children and expecting her fourth!! She’s pretty new on the block so I thought I would let you all know who she is!!!
WELCOME AMBER!! Can’t wait to see more!!

Ro is a single mother of three. She has sent up the flag for hlep.
I know that this blogging community is a community of on line friends that help each other out. We all have times in our lives where we have to rely on other people. This is just the case for her.
I am going over to offer what little assistance I can. If you have a moment please go over to her site, tell her I sent you and if you can help…please do.

I have been blogging since the end of May. I just wanted to tell all of my readers how wonderful this experience has been and to say thank you for your support!!
I hit my 1000 th comment!! Obviously we all have alot to say!
I love you guys!! YOU ALL ROCK!!

You’ve gotta see this one. Photos attached… On a recent visit to our
veterinarian to get shots for our cat I found this recipe on the waiting
room bulletin board. After recovering from hysterical laughter, I
obtained a copy from the office staff. The picture below
looks like POOP but it’s actually quite tasty, so I decided to
pass it along.

PICTURE BELOW!!!!

Cat Litter CAKE INGREDIENTS
1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent

SERVING “DISHES AND UTENSILS”
1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW pooper scooper

Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan.

Prepare pudding and chill. Crumble cookies in small batches in blender
or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of
cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside. When cakes
are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half
of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture
moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.
Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable.
Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more
rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle
remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green
crumbs lightly over top. Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted.
Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter
box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the
edge of the box. Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with
scooper. Enjoy!

Hula Hubby called me a couple days ago and explained that he might have the opportunity to have me go to Europe with him AGAIN! This time it would only be for a week and a half. After his business is over he wants to go for a week, rent a car and travel through a little bit of Europe. WELL TWIST MY ARM AND MAKE ME GO! He had already talked with my parents and asked if they would mind watching the children one more time. They of course said that they would love to. He said that this was a twice in a lifetime experience and made his case.
He was so pursuasive that I guess I am taking the hop across the pond to go see the Champagne district of France and a bit of Germany! Being that both of us are history freaks I know that we will enjoy our time.
I need to learn a little bit of French before I go. This time I at least have to know how to ask for directions just in case we get lost!!!

It’s official. We have been a healthy group of people (Hula Hubby doesn’t count because he wasn’t here when he was sick!!) until Vacation Bible School week!! They should have isolated the children that the parents sent sick. Honestly they should not have been sent at all. I have had 5 calls this morning from parents of children that were in the preschool class. I want so bad to post a sign on the preschool doors that says, “For your 3 hours of peace the rest of the freaking class has to pay. PLEASE KEEP YOUR SICK KIDS HOME!!!!” or “Yes we are teaching the children to share…JUST NOT GERMS!!!” I swear that drives me nuts!!
The kids went through all last year without one sick day. If HG had a cough or a runny nose I just kept her home and she rested and was just great the next day! Not so lucky this time.
4:00 this morning I was given a morning wake up call from a little boy that “wet” his bed through his diaper. It was disgusting! So I bathed him, dressed him and changed his bed. He went immediately back to sleep. Did I? Of course not. He woke up an hour later sneezing. So I gave him some medicine and he went back to sleep.
For a little boy that gets up at dark thirty in the morning he slept until almost 9 am. Of couse did I get to sleep in?? No. Hula Hubby called at 7 to just yap! Ok so then I tried to go back to sleep. BUT NO! So I played a game on the internet and answered 5 phone calls from parents of the preschool class that are hunting down the sick kid that started this whole epidemic
HB got up with his face crusted in snot. Ok, it’s official…he’s sick. He’s whiney and cranky and won’t get off my leg. He wants to be constantly held. Hula Girl rarely get sick but I’m just waiting for the gauntlet to fall!
I am tired and worn down today. I need extra patience to endure my blessings this morning.

I have noted many times this week that as I go through the hours there are several times that something has just tickled my funny bone and I can’t quit smiling. Then there have been other times where my kids have done something so cute but so wrong and I have to smile on the inside and force a stern look on the outside. We had one of those experiences recently!
HG and HB were playing in the backyard making mud pies. I had already told HG that HB didn’t understand completely that they were just playing and that if you served him a slice he may try to eat it. So they baked away.
I ventured to look in the little house where they were sitting just in time to see HG give him a piece of pie and tell him to go ahead and eat it. Go he tried it. He had the most horrible look on his face. I walked in and they both jumped to attention knowing full well that I had told them not to do this. Then HG started preparing her opening arguements on how it was alright that he taste dirt because she use to love to eat dirt and also because she watched something on the Discovery Channel that said that eating dirt was actually nutricious. She started to point out all of the vitimins in dirt when HB looked at her with a mouth full of dirt and spit with all of his might!! PPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Icky, mommy!!” HG screamed at the top of her lungs. Her face and her hair were filled with icky spitty mud. “No!!! HB we don’t spit!!!” I said outwardly but inside I was laughing and saying, “You go Bubba. You teach your big sister how not to use you for her taste tester!!!” LOLOLOL
These two are going to be some kind of entertainment!!