Terrible Blogger

And again, I have failed at keeping up with my blog like I wanted to. Again, I will try harder. The weekends have been crazy busy and the weeks have been deliciously mellow. Which, gives me no excuse as to why it’s been almost 4 months since my last post. Sitting at a computer all day doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy about sitting at one for a while to type blog posts. But I will try harder. I promise. Plus I’m not that eloquent so I read what I have written, then re-read it, then delete, change and re-read it again. It takes forever.

               Anyway!! Since my last post, we have painted our living room, painted the fireplace, got a POD, started packing up the house, spent weekends at the beach, spent time with our friends, gone crabbing 4 times, seen 6 concerts (5 Phish, 1 Zac Brown Band) gone camping in Saratoga Springs New York, saw the Red Bull FlugTag competition in Philly and gone back to school. That’s 5^th grade for my little guy this year!

Weekends at the beach

 

Painted our fireplace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phish Atlantic City - Bader Feild

 

3 days camping in Saratoga Springs to see Phish at SPAC

 

 

Philly RedBull FlugTag

 

Right now we are enjoying the cooler weather with Friday night high school football games, open windows, and spiced scented candles. The chili making will be getting started here soon with Sunday Fundays in full effect.  I will be doing some freezer/make ahead meals and baking more since my momma found me a bread maker. For FREE!! It should be a good time.

This weekend we are starting a multi weekend celebration of our best friend Dave’s 30^th birthday at our favorite bar. His girlfriend Jen is planning to surprise Dave with all his friends there when they come to meet Chris and me for drinks Saturday night. He’s going to be super surprised.

Then next Friday Chris, Dave and I are taking half days from work and traveling 3 or 4 hours to Jens parent’s lake house in northern PA, just south of the New York state line. Once there, Jen will be meeting us right after work as well as Dave’s sister and her boyfriend, who also happens to be Chris’ best friend Nick. It’s a little odd, but we are getting used to it!  Then the party will continue until Sunday afternoon when we have to make the 4 hour trek back home. It’s going to be a great time and I will make sure to take tons of pictures.

For The Future

Life since then has been a lot quieter, definitely more reflective. You appreciate more things when you go through the loss of loved ones.

But now we are on to happier times and bigger plans for our little family. We are fixing up our house to sell it and buy our “Forever House”. I am working on eating better and getting healthier heading into my 30’s. Chase is his team’s starting pitcher and he is doing really well. Chris is working on his handyman skills around the house and trying to save us money in as many places possible, while trying to fix up the house. I hope to be around and post every couple days. Life should be picking up fairly quickly right around the corner.

Blog Revival - October 2011

October 2011

Life was recovering slowly and quietly then we were hit with another hurricane. My beloved grandmother died unexpectedly. At 86 you can’t believe she will live forever, but it’s still heartbreaking. She was ready to go and told me those exact words the weekend before. She was prepared and ready to go. She wanted to be with my grandfather again. She said she couldn’t go because too many people were still holding on too tight and she needed them to let her go. It wasn’t and still isn’t easy. The family parties, going to the beach house, picking up the phone to call her only to remember that she is gone is so hard. She was such a huge part of my life that is now gone. My rough and tumble little boy was so gentle and sweet with her it made you heart hurt. Seeing him breakdown when they closed her casket for the last time, was the most devastating thing to my entire family. But she is happy now. I know she is. I just miss her so much.

Blog Revival - Labor Day

Labor Day Weekend 2011

This is the weekend that changed our lives forever. Chase’s biological father was murdered on Labor Day. There are many stories going around, but I know the truth. There was an argument over something, a fight started, and 2 people were stabbed several times. Chase’s dad was the most severe and died at the scene. He wasn’t very close with his parents and a lot of the planning of things and settling of things was set on my shoulders because I am his son’s mother and my son inherited everything he owned. So on top of having to explain to my 9 year old that he will never see his father again, I had to deal with a very large group of people that I worked very hard at keeping at arm’s length for years. I got away from that life for a reason, and certainly didn’t want to be shoved back into it like I was. After Chase’s grandmother came and pilfered anything worth anything from his house (the guy wasn’t even gone 24 hours) it was my job to come in and clean up the mess and make sure everything was cleaned out of his house. She trashed the whole house and left me to clean it up. Then on top of all that, she took the car that rightfully belongs to my son. The car that Chase and his father worked on together. It was their pride and joy and she took it and left the state. I have the titles to everything he owns so she can’t do much with the car, it’s just the simple point that she stole from her own grandson. Since all of this went down, we have not heard from his father’s family since Thanksgiving. I hope they forget my son even exists and he won’t have to deal with people like them again.

Blog Revival - Memorial Day 2011

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Life was calm from February until Memorial Day weekend. Chris and I joined several friends in a trip to Bethel New York to see Phish play the opening weekend of their Summer 2011 tour at the site of Woodstock. We camped at a great little place that was extremely accommodating and cleaner than I have seen any campground that wasn’t state owned. The weather was perfect and the scenery was breathtaking. Chris and our friend Dave drove up early to catch the Friday night show and I was driving up with our friend Nick later that night since neither of us could get off work. They decided to close our office down early and Nick decided that he was sneaking out of work early and bought us some last minute tickets to the show anyway. Chris was beyond jealous that I got to sit 16 rows back from the stage while the rest of our group sat in the lawn. It was an amazing show. The rest of the weekend was so much fun, just relaxing with no cell phones (no reception) and electronics of any sort but an i-pod to play music on.

The night of the last show of the weekend was where things got nasty. The campground provided campers a ride on buses so no one was drinking and driving (great idea!). Leaving the show, Nick and I got separated from the rest of our group and missed our bus. There were cabs lined up down the drive so we hopped in one to take us back to camp. About 2 miles from our site, the cab driver fell asleep behind the wheel and wrecked our cab, rolling it over. This is where things get hazy. I don’t remember much and what I do remember has only come back to me in the last year or so. There were 6 of us total including the driver and we were in a mini-van. Nick and I were in the center section of seats and Nick was able to get everyone out of the van. It was leaning against a tree but laying on the driver’s side so we had to climb up and out the passenger side windows. Nick said every window in the entire van shattered upon impact and the van wasn’t even recognizable.

I woke up going into a CAT scan and was understandably freaking out. Chris had no idea what had happened and couldn’t even reach us until he went to the front office to find out if there were any missing busses. Nick had called the camp a few minutes before that and told them what was going on. Someone from the camp brought Chris to the hospital.

All in all, I walked away with no permanent injuries. Lots of cuts, scrapes, bruises and glass removal. I did have a severe concussion and bad shoulder pain. I actually pulled a huge chunk of glass out of my head 2 weeks later. I was out of work for 12 weeks that year. Thankfully I have amazing benefits and an amazing mom who donated some of her vacation time to me so I didn’t lose a since dollar being off all summer.

Blog Revival January 2011

Wow, my last blog post was almost 2 full years ago. A lot has changed since then. Mostly in the 2011 year. I’m going to post several different updates of 2011 so it isn’t all squished into one post.

January 2011

The year started out pretty rough. My step-dad drove my step-sister back home to Tennessee after Christmas holidays and got sick almost immediately upon leaving Tennessee to return home to Delaware. After 4 days he still wasn’t any better and developed a nasty cough. After 8 days, 4 trips to the doctor and 2 trips by ambulance to the ER, the hospital finally admitted him after he started coughing up blood clots. Another week in the hospital before they even figured out he has double pneumonia and his lungs were so filled with fluid it was almost drowning him. 14 full days before he was able to come home and another 3 months recovery until he started feeling normal again. He still to this day can’t fend off any sicknesses that come his way. It’s hard for a man in his very early 50’s who was very active to suddenly be sick all the time.