One of my favorite memories

Have you ever seen the movie Heartbreak Ridge? If you haven't you should watch it sometime. It stars Clint Eastwood as a Marine gunnery sergeant who gets stuck whippin this platoon of spoiled boys into shape. Clint had sooo many good movies (Any Which Way You Can, 2 Mules for Sister Sara, Dirty Harry, Hang Em' High, Pink Cadillac, Bronco Billy, In the Line of Fire the list goes on and on). Heartbreak Ridge is my favorite Eastwood movie and i'll tell you why....

When I was in elementary school, I had to have been 6 or 7 years old, I felt sick at school and the school nurse called my mom to come pick me up. Susan happened to be home from the hospital (I don't remember if she was in remission or if they had just let her come back home for a little while) and since I didn't have anything contagious that would hurt her my mom dropped me off with her and went back to work. Already I was feeling better! Since there were 5 kids between my mom and aunt we didn't get a lot of one-on-one time with Suz when she was home, so needless to say I was excited to be home from school and spending some time with her. After my mom left we were sitting in her bedroom floor watching Clint Eastwood movies. Susan was a huge and I mean HUGE Clint fan. I think she had every movie he ever made and had probably watched them all a dozen times. Anyhew, whatever we were watching ended and she put in  Heartbreak Ridge. Needless to say, I hadn't watched it before, its not exactly a child friendly movie. I guess she thought I was young enough not to really pay attention to the stuff I shouldn't be hearing. Boy was she wrong!! Later that evening I walked to the market to see my mom and I let out a mouthful! I don't remember what I said (knowing me it was probably the cadence or something equally as catchy) but I do remember getting in trouble for it!

Its a bittersweet memory, but something I'll never forget. Every time I watch Heartbreak Ridge (or any of his other movies) I cant help but remember Susan and how much she loved Clint Eastwood. She eventually got to meet him through the Make A Wish Foundation through Brenner Children's Hospital. A white stretch limo came to the house and picked up Susan, Stacey, Samantha, Julie, Aunt Lynn and Uncle Gary (years later I asked why I couldn't go since everybody else got to. Mom said I was invited but she was afraid I'd get homesick since Mom wasn't going and they would have had to head home early...which was probably true). They were put up in a nice hotel in Washington, D.C. and taken to meet Clint (she also got to meet Barbara Walters who happened to be there interviewing him) and watch him film part of In the Line of Fire. He was really nice to everybody and took the time to visit with her and the rest of the family and sign me an autograph :) There are lots of photos and a video too (I guess Make a Wish sent someone to do all that stuff). If you know my family at all, you know we are a weird group so of course we sent a box of fruit and a B&B hat that there's also a pic of him wearing!

I guess we were too young and innocent to realize that they don't give Make a Wish trips to kids that are gonna be OK, it never crossed my mind that she wouldnt be. Other than losing her hair (she would always wear her favorite UVA hat) she always looked fine to us. Later I realized that she wouldn't come home to us until she looked good and healthy, she didn't want us to see her any other way. I wish I could be that strong. Strong enough to know my fate, own it, and be brave enough to deal with it the way she did.

ok...cmon now FB...

Ok Facebook...I've got another beef with you! Ok well not really...its the same one as before. These sponsored adds are cracking me up!

Is it too much to ask to at least not recycle the same pic over and over for these dumb adds. Lets not forget this is the same pic that I blogged on a couple months ago...something about fat chicks if I'm not mistaken...

On a side note...watching CMT Crossroads with Train and Martina McBride... they're singing "A Broken Wing"....not cool Train...stick with pop or whatever you sing. Thanks for ruining this song for anybody who has heard it! And to the lead singer...for God's sake...your not a 12 year old boy! Stop shopping in the little boys section and get some pants that fit your dumb ass! I'm not even gonna get started on the leather!

trip to the lake with harley and memphis

I walked Harley and Memphis to the lake behind the house this afternoon and let them play a little. Heres a video.

fat guy in a little coat

ok...so i dont know what i was thinking when i let stac talk me into going to this boot camp class with her. i mean we already do old people zumba...

                  "puuulease cookie?? itll be fun!"

riiiiight. if your idea of fun is being one of 2 or 3 fat people in a class of already fit skinny heifers (seriously...there are like 4 other class instructors in this class...do they need to work out? NO!) who look graceful the entire time.  while i look like a beached whale floppin around all red-faced trying my best to get back to water.

not to mention the mini-hitlerette that is leading the class. of course she can squat down like a frog and kick her legs up behind her head...shes like 84lbs and 3 1/2 ft. tall!

this is why fat people stay fat. i cant begin to tell you how uncomfortable it makes me being one of the only fat people in the class. i mean i naturally go to the back corner and try to position myself where hitleretter cannot see me. but she always does. its almost like she positions herself to give me the stink eye the week long hour that im there.

shes probably not really giving me the stink eye. i mean it could be all in my head. that im just uncomfortable in the situation and trying to give myself an out. who knows...only 8 classes left!

a melody of fruit...

We started doing fruit creations for different events a few years ago. We started out small with me doing designs on watermelons and as you can see we have moved on to bigger and better things. 

Its something we all like to do when we have the time. Its nice to let our creative juices flow every now and then!

Do you ever wonder...?

Do you ever wonder how your life might have turned out if you had done things differently? Where you'd be today? How would loved ones that left us too early be today? If I would have just gotten a job right out of high school instead of going to school would I have been married and popped out a couple youngins by now like most of the other people around here have? Would I have started drinking or gotten into drugs like a lot of the people that hung around did? Rebelled from my family and live in a van down by the river? Where would I be? Would I still have the same morals and attitude that I have now? Would I hate life?

Honestly,I know a lot of things would be different and obviously I would have missed a lot of experiences and gone through a few new ones. But Id like to think that I would end up pretty close to where I am now. Even thought I never (and i mean NEVER wanted to go to school) I think that eventually, after my folks kicked me out of the market and I ended up in some crappy job that I hated, I would have realized that I needed to get my crap togeather and go get an education. I have always gotten along with my family for the most part....except the assholes....so I think i would pretty much have the same morals and attitude that I have now. I dont think that I would have gone buck-wild and gotten knocked up or run off and gotten married. Even when I was in school and what some might consider being a heavy drinker, it was never something that I had to have and I never see myself going down that road where I would be addicted to any substance. Im sure I would still be all about tattoos and stuff like that.
But who really knows! I mean, I might be preggo with my 5th kid by now...

I know everybody has days where they hate they're life. But I can say for the most part I am happy with mine so far. Ive met some great people and had some great times. I can honestly say I have an awesome group of friends that would give me the shirt off their back if I needed it.

How would your life be if you had gone down a different road?

Jacked Up Plans...

Dont you just hate it when you have a day allllll planned out and then your plans get jacked up??

Today I had planned to get all this stuff done, i was taking the dogs for pics - and cill was coming with me so we could hang out!, get my oil changed/tires rotated, feed the chickens and work in the coop some, and go to tractor supply to atleast look at if not buy some babies (its baby chick and duck season at TS in case you didnt know!).

Instead of doing all of the fun stuff that i had planned to do today, i started out my day around midnight last night in the bathrooom praying to the porcelain gods and eventually just drug a pillow and blanket in there and slept on the floor. and all day ive hung out on the couch watching old school cartoons on boomerang (i miss awesome cartoons like the snorks, smurfs, huckleberry hound...) but feel pretty good because ive been able to move without throwing up and have kept down some gateraide and 3 ritz crackers so far, which is a major improvement!

Oh well...theres always next weekend!