ONE FLEW OVER THE COUCKOO'S NEST

Since I have not displayed my companions lately I thought I should give them equal billing. So here are my babies--

Now aren't they just the prettiest lil birds. The yellow one is called Angel and the grey one is called Spike. They are a blast - Spike talks alot-yes he actually speaks words and short phrases. Angel sings- Apparently this is normal for cockateils. They are about 4 years old (give or take 6 months) I absolutely love them. They keep me company in my puter room and when the dogs are not in here then I let the birds out and they fly around and hang out on the puters and crawl up on us so that we will scratch their heads. ( THEY LOVE GETTING THEIR HEADS SCRATCHED) it is so much fun.The only thing that drives me crazy is that Angel loves to grab my earrings (which are posts) and bite them and try to remove them...that could be a painful battle for me. LOL. Now the monitor you see them on is not mine- it is my hunnies--mine has too much STUFF on it (but I will leave that topic for another time) so they perch on his and come to me for affection. AWESOME.

PUPPIES

Have I mentioned yet that during Hurricane Charley my female rottie again gave birth to pups...the good news is that this time she only had three (Happy Camper here). The better news is that they are all males. They are also adorable to say the least. Here is a picture of them at 3 1/2 weeks.

 

Now it is not like I need more dogs or that I planned this out. But I would never have them put to sleep so we will enjoy their antics and find GREAT homes for them.  Now I am trying to convince hunnie bunnie to let me keep one.I know we need another dog like we need another hole in our heads.... but I cannot resist... below is a picture of him and now you tell me if he is not just toooooo cute.

He is the biggest and the fluffiest and always hungry...and I just love getting puppy kisses from him. How could my hunnie look at that face and not fall in love?

HURRICANES

 This is our fence or what is left of our fence in the back yard..as you can see some of the branches that helped bring it down. All the panels will have to be replaced because the wind just blew them apart. We did have F.E.M.A. come and check out what damage we had from the hurricanes- the front roof part of our garage also collapsed. If I can get a picture of that I will definitely post it...

Now this is my neighbor's front yard (well about half of it) and because of Frances it became totally flooded and the water took days to drain. The amount of water everywhere was a sight to be seen.

Now this picture is just a lil corner of our front yard and a continuation of the neighbor's flood. As you can see in the background the brown dried out debris that is still sitting there from hurricane Charley. Now those piles are double (at least) in size because of Frances. Everything on the street was just floating around...

This is the roof top of a Circle K about half a mile up the highway from us. In the foreground is the awning over the gas tanks and in the background is the overhang of the store itself. That place took a beating which for some reason surprised me. BTW- the pieces to their store have not been found- God only knows where the wind took them.

So as you can see so far..... Hurricanes is our middle name at this point. I am so very THANKFUL that Ivan has headed more west and we will not be so affected. I really do not think the area could take any more.

ANOTHER HURRICANE

Well we are still around......this is a good sign. Hurricane Frances never affected us..Thank God...it scares me to death how many people were so effected by her. Six Million people with electric.... the state was dark......but we never lost ours...I guess it made up for having no electric for eight days with Charley. We are all safe and sound and all is well. Now Ivan is on his way..... I do not think this one will affect us either...right now it seems to be moving more east so that makes me a happy camper. But I will not count my lil chicks until monday or tuesday..we will see how it moves.

Now as everyone knows by now I am sure is that I have an AWESOME daughter. We are so very close that people wonder about us... I find her to be so intelligent and sharp as a tack that it scares me. She has a great sense of adventure and is extremely loyal to those she loves and cares about. It just AMAZES me what a kid I have..... there is a quote that I really believe in concerning her..."My Daughter Is The Reason For Me Being Born"

She gives such life and laughter to everything and really is NOT  selfish at all which stuns me since she is such a teenager...I will say she has her moods that make me stop and think where did she get possessed..but 99% of the time...God really has Blessed me! Since the boys have moved out (which stills breaks my heart) it has only been the three of us hanging out...my hunnie, my daughter, and me...so we really have gotten a chance to go crazy together and have fun and spend some great quality time together....it has been wonderful. At least once a week ( more if we can afford it) we go out to lunch and spend hours just talking and making plans and such. It has really been a life changing time for all of us.

Well now the daughter has started her own journal..Now that could be good or bad..she tends to speak her mind and uses more of that "teen" lingo that makes me nuts but, I find her very very funny. Her journal is called NO BOUNDARIES.  I hope you will take out a minute and check it out...... she is quite different.

Now as you also probably know - football season has started...THANK GOD...I just absolutely love football...So I hope to watch as much of it as possible to last me through the off season--LOL

Any Hoot- When I have the time I will upload the pics I have from the hurricanes...it is very different living through them...I am still stunned!

Until I Write Again---PEACE!!!!

RIDING OUT A HURRICANE

Well I will admit that this has been the worst summer I have had in a very long time....I have lived in florida for 18 years and have never been phased by the weather-especially storms....yes I complain when it is hot but that is normal for a floridian. Now all of a sudden we have had to deal with two hurricanes in a matter of less then 3 weeks. We are still recovering from Hurricane Charley--debris is still all over the place and trees are still down. Last hurricane we had no electric for 8 days - that just about destroyed us...we have our own well and septic and we have to have electric for those things to function unlike the majority of florida. No Electric, No water, No bathrooms....unbelieveable. So today - later late this afternoon Hurricane Frances is going to hit us head on. Geez- we are so worn out from Charley and now Frances is knocking on our door. Well I guess we are in for another ride. No we are not evacuating....I am not worried about my home...as much as not having electric. Now as for my summer....I have had no dsl all summer until about 4 weeks ago...no dsl no puter.....then as soon as our new dsl shows up- charley hit...... now frances....... I cannot get online long enough to do anything except delete mail so my mailbox does not fill up. So I am hoping to get back to a normal schedule soon,,,,,, In the meantime--stay positive for us and I shall return. PEACE!!!!!!!

LIFE GETTING THE BETTER OF ME

Well, I have no excuses at this point…I am just overwhelmed by life outside of my puter world that I cannot seem to handle both. I know that sounds overly dramatic but that is where my head is at. First so many changes have taken place here.  One of my sons had a late graduation. He did not have enough hours in one class so he had to attend summer school. Well, that was a heck of a celebration and I have never been so proud then watching him walk across that stage to receive his diploma…everything seems so worthwhile now. However—Right after the ceremony, I noticed my son was quite distant from me. Every time I tried to talk to him, he was very short and almost rude. Well-I have no idea where all that hostility was coming from. As the weeks went by the situation was getting worse and worse. There was no talking to him and no reasoning at all.

Well the bomb the boy had to drop was he was leaving and moving in with his grandmother. (He thinks that life is so much sweeter where she is at). To add to this news-is that his twin brother went to Tennessee (again) to help drive his grandmother up there to see her family and to take a vacation that he believes he needed for not doing anything for over a year. Well that child decided that he liked hanging out with his grandmother because she expected nothing from him at the age of 19 because she wants to make him co-dependent on her. That is what she does best. She has already done that with two out of her four children and now she is working on my two boys. There is no talking to her because she does not feel she is wrong because they are going to be living with her. So the one brother already down there has convinced my son here to leave everything here and go down there. Telling him life is so much sweeter. But there is a massive difference between the two boys. The one already down there thrives on attention. He is easily dependent on others and really never had much of the social life. The one here is very independent and had already landed a full time job and has already paid off all his debts and just got a mustang in mint condition. He also is very much more social and always has plans to go do something. He also is the son that goes racing on weekends. However as usual he allows his brothers overzealous mouth get the best of him and convince him to leave everything and go live with them. For the life of me I just do not understand that logic. I already know what is going to happen---the boys are going to fight viciously, which is what they do all the time when they are together and then the resentment only builds up between them and then neither of them will really move on with plans that they made originally.Yes I know I should just let them go and let the chips fall where they may but I am trying to get them started on a positive foot and they are only heading for a lot of conflicts.

Then my sister in law that now has been living with us for over a year has grated on my last nerve. She tends to be VERY impulsive and they lead to a lot of conflicts and problems here. There are way too many to mention but trust me…every night is another battle. Unfortunately her son has to suffer the most because she uses him as a weapon. The other day she did not get her way about one of our bedrooms that she wanted and “threatened” me that she was going to have to move and take her son with her because she did not feel it was fair to her. For the first time—I said GO JUST GO…and don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split ya. Well that shocked her just a bit then she came back with that Anthony would probably have to change schools…and my reply was GOOD…he can adjust easily because he is only going into the first grade. Since then…the topic has not been brought up and she has made no effort to move out.  To be honest I am truly OK with her moving out because then it will just be my hunnie and our daughter and myself at home. We all deserve the peace and quiet and no stress kind of life.

Also my parents have been traveling a lot and we have had to travel back and forth to their home to take care of their precious cat and their house. So that has taken A LOT of time away from our normal kind of routine.

Today they left taking a cruise to Mexico-including 5 port stops. They are traveling fools. Believe me when I say that so much more has happened here but my medications are taking over and I am getting very tired…so I will try and return soon and fill you all in on more of my life that seems to be a saga. PEACE!!!!!

I AM LOST

I know I know I know...again I have disappeared. I just cannot seem to get myself together anymore. I think when pain becomes so constant and is not control it tends to take over your life and you can do nothing but think of the pain. I do apologize and I do not blame anyone who just does not want to keep in touch anymore.... I guess I thought I could handle things but I am not.

With that being said... We are having mega problems with getting on AOL during the hours between 10 in the morning until around 11 at night now. AOL swears it is the phone lines that are having a problem and the phone company says it is AOL's equippment...so of course that means nothing is getting resolved. Again I am going through another bout of sleeping about 21 out of 24 hours a day. I am missing life and that really is eating me up.

Have I mentioned previously that finally WORKMAN'S COMP (w/c) approved my wheelchair. No it is not electric but at least it is a start. It was made for me because of my size and needs and such...pretty cool and a very nice blue in color. So hopefully I can start going to the stores again just to get out. That would be so cool. It only took w/c 4 years to finally approve it. I also have had some doctor appointments and because of the water gain (which has been enormous) the doctors suspect that my heart has suffered some damage. So of course that only caused me to stress out more  and that lead to me getting upset and that lead to more breathing attacks...go figure-the vicious cycle goes on.

On a more positive note--I have one son that has been working his buns off and is travelling the state so he is a happy camper and we really enjoy our time together when he is home. The other son just took his GED test so we are waiting on the results...it takes 4-6 weeks to receive the results.

My daughter has been watching the nephew every day trying to keep him busy. WOW--6 year olds get bored very very easily. Tho I think riding a go-kart and bicycles are great time consumers...lol. Now of course in the great sunshine state the weather is getting oh so hot....and humid....it is already climbing into the mid 90's with no breeze in sight...so this summer is going to be a scorcher. UGH!!!

I would do some major complaining about certain company that has been here and all-and for those that have been keeping up with my journal know who that is-but I think I will save that for another time. I really do not feel like rehashing all that in my head right now...suffice it to say that it has made the homefront extremely on edge...like a bomb waiting to go off.

I am hoping to keep up with my journal more often but at this point it REALLY all depends on my health and if AOL will ever let me on line. To all of you that have hung in there with me.......thanks....I shall return!!!!!
PEACE!!!!!