The Thursday Vent

I’m back!

I know some of you are probably saying, “You never told me you were leaving!”  And you would be correct – so hello my Stalkees.  I tweeted the main reason for my absence a couple weeks ago on Twitter.  For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter, my absence was due to the FLU.  I was surprised that you could get the flu so late.  So I Googled it and I found out that flu season is actually from October to May.

Go figure that I would get the flue the LAST month of flu season.  My kids kept trying to talk to me while I was half out of my mind with a fever and body aches.  Why is it that children want to be around you more when you feel like crap?  And of course they didn’t get sick.  They’re like super heroes or something.  Able to shield themselves against the common respiratory infection and Dr. FLU!

So my first weekend was filled with medicine, fever, sweating, and aches.  And being in the military, if you don’t have a fever but have flu like symptoms they just give you some Motrin and send you on your way.  And so that was what happened.  I went to work that Monday with the flu and a slight fever. 

Fun right?

So half way through last week I spent washing and packing clothes for my kids.  Because guess what all my lovely readers, I had to take them to Indiana to see their dad.  By myself.  From Colorado.

I priced plane tickets and found that it would cost me almost a thousand dollars after buying plane tickets there for three people and then back for me.  Plus the cost of a rental car and a hotel.  So instead I opted to fly.

Mapquest says that a trip to Indiana is 15 hours.  Mapquest—you lied to me! 

Driving across the great state of Kansas with a 7 year old and a 5 year old is challenging.  Especially when the 5 year old had to pee ever 50 miles or so.  Not to mention that once we got half way through Kansas to stop at a rest area they issued a tornado watch for the state of Kansas.  Not for a certain town in Kansas.  No!  It said tornado watch for Eastern Kansas!

This is when my daughter points up to the sky and says “Hey mom those clouds look weird.”

See the pictures below to see what she meant.  It was almost as if they were falling from the sky, reaching for us.  It was both amazing to see and scary knowing that one of those falling clouds could easily become a tornado before our very eyes.  And so we got back on the road.

As soon as the car was back on Interstate 70 a flash of lightning lit the quickly darkening sky.  Followed by several more and then the sky opened up and began to pelt rain onto us.  It got so bad that I eventually had to pull over at a rest area to wait it out and pray that we were not near a tornado since the weather was so bad.

Finally we got to their dad’s house and everything was going fine until I had to leave on Memorial Day to come back so I could go to work the next day.  Going through St. Louis was pure torture since the speed limit was 60 miles per hour and cops were pulling people over left and right for speeding.  And so it took me almost an hour to get out of the city.

I was making pretty good time since I didn’t have the kids with me.  I got a few hours from Colorado and had to pull over.  After a few hours of rest I was back on the road and finally in Colorado after going through construction and more 60 mile per hour traffic. 

But…

Once I got to the town I needed that would lead me to home I took the wrong road and ended up driving the wrong direction for 45 minutes.  45 minutes wasted until I realized I should be going west…not east.

And so I turned around and went back to the small town I had just left and began my travel towards the actual city I needed.  I made it by 7:20 and then realized I had to go to work and be there by 9.

So I went home to shower and change and go to work.  Where I had to stay all day.

Needless to say that I crashed as soon as I got home.  And today is the first day I’ve had to write anything at all. 

So thank you all for sticking around with me.  And I’ll try my best to keep you all better informed.

I hope to have a chapter up for you on Saturday.

*fingers crossed*

If not feel free to comment or send me emails.  Motivation is welcome all the time!

Later all!

-TheOnlineStalker

Happy Mother's Day Daddy/ Mommy What's that Word Mean?

Not exactly the titles you were expecting to see today right? 

Last year on Mother's Day my Daughters gave me a ceramic picture that was drawn in class.  This mornings gift was just as special.

At 7:30--a full hour more of sleep than usual I must add--my kids woke me up to say Happy Mother's Day.  And then they told me to close my eyes.

When I was finally told it was okay to open them I couldn't help but smile as I saw two teddy bears holding a heart that said "I Love You Mom"

I smiled the biggest smile ever because they had put all this effort into getting me a gift even after I told them that I didn't really need one.  At seven and five it was important for them to know that they apprecieated me.

And then my youngest daughter looked at me and said, "Can we call Dadddy and tell him Happy Mother's Day?"

With a request like that how could I refuse right?  And so I called their dad which went to voicemail.  This is the exact message that was left:

"Hi.  I want--what did I say?  Oh yeah.  Happy Mother's Day Daddy!  Call us back so we can tell you Happy Mother's Day."

Can't make stuff like this up if I tried lol.

Fast forward 5 hours

My youngest daughter went to church with my mom.  Me and my oldest daughter stayed home due to her being a little under the weather.  So I decided we could watch Glee.

Yes.  I love Glee.

We're on season 1 at the moment and we got to the episode where Kurt wants to sing Defying Gravity from the play Wicked.  But of course Mr. Shue won't let him which causes Kurt's father to go the school and raise some hell.

But what I forgot was in the episode an anonymous man calls Kurt's dad at his shop and says, "Your sons a "f*g"

And we all know that word isn't fig. 

As soon as the words left the television my seven year old turns to me and says, "Mom...what's that word mean?"

So I paused the show and had to explain to her that not all boys like girls and that many people say that word to be mean and hurtful to people who aren't like them.  Which led to me explaining that some boys like boys and some girls like girls.  And want to marry them.

"How do they get married?"

"Um...In some states they can get married just like Mommy and Daddy did."

"That's wrong," she says.

"No no.  It's different.  There's nothing wrong with it.  You can't help who you love.  Just like Mommy and Daddy can't help that they love each other.  Never say something is wrong because you don't understand it."

"Okay.  So boys and boys can get married.  Weird."

She doesn't really understand it, but I stressed that you can't help who you love and it's never wrong.  People just don't always understand it.  And as a daughter of a Black mom and a White dad, she'll have some people who don't understand that, but time changes lots of things.

And so that was my Mother's Day. 

Dad got a shout out and my daughter learned that boys don't always want to marry girls.

All in all a really great day.

Happy Mother's Day everyone from your friendly onlinestalker.

Happy Birthday Ariana

Today was my youngest daughter's birthday.  She turned 4.  It was one of the best days, because she told everyone she came into contact that it was her birthday.  And when we got in the car she kept singing, "Happy Birthday to me."  lol.  We went to a expo here and Santa walked up to them and said hello.  If you could have seen their faces.  They just stared at him for a few seconds before they even said hi.  It was one of the best moments that I will always cherish having witnessed. 

Later we sang happy birthday again and presents were given.  She was a very happy girl today.  And I was happy to have been able to share it with her. 

-TheOnlineStalker

Happy Birthday Alexandria

Today my oldest daughter turned 6.  She woke up this morning and didn't even know it was her birthday.  After a month of asking when it was and she forgot.  But as soon as I said the words, she automatically went to the mirror and looked at herself.  Then she turned around and said, "Do I look taller?"

Now that she is a year older, she has automatically grown at least an inch.  At least that's her theory.  And she too grown up to do certain things, like eat breakfast or take a nap.  Because as she put it, "I'm grown now."

And yes, she actually said those words.  The only thing that made it horrible, was the fact that she's celebrating it in a hotel room.  We are still in the process of house hunting, but we did get to take them to a house we were interested in.  What's the downside?  Because there is one.

The downside is...she thought we were moving in to the house.  It took us awhile to explain that we were just looking and we had other houses to look at too.  But once she understood it she just wanted to know what we were going to do to make it up to her.  Here is her list:

1.  A Cinderella cake.
2.  It has to have 6 candles.  6 not 5, because she'll never be 5 again.  (her words)
3.  A dog.  (she's not getting a dog)
4.  who knows what else...she started talking about a whole bunch of stuff and although I didn't log it away for later use, I'm sure she will remind me.

Other than that it was a nice birthday.  We ordered pizza and right now they are watching cartoons.  With any luck we'll get a house soon and get to make up her hotel style birthday.

And to think...I get to do this all over again next month for Ariana's birthday.  I'm feeling old already.

-TheOnlineStalker

The Computer Talks?

Here I was sitting at my computer, trying to upload the next chapter of Love Me Now to my blog. Of course it was being difficult, so I yelled at it. My oldest daughter Alex told me that the computer doesn't talk. So I told her yes it does. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "It doesn't have a mouth, Mom."

I told her, "Yes it does, you're just not looking hard enough."

We kind of went back and forth for a few minutes and then she dropped it. Well my husband was on his computer too and he heard what we were talking about. So being the smart ass that he is, he decided to get on the voice activated system and type out, "Hello, Alexandria."

They instantly became interested in it and he had it talking to them as if they were having a conversation.

"What are you doing for Halloween?"

My youngest daughter Ariana says, "Going trick or treating."

"Why?" he typed.

"To get stickers."

"Why?"

"To play with them."

"Why?"

"A'cuz."

She can't say because.

"Why?"

Finally she got up and stormed off, "I don't want to talk to you anymore!" she screamed at the computer.

Of course we all burst out laughing, because she was completely serious. My husband then typed in, "Come back."

Ariana told the computer no. But after a few times of it saying, "Come back," she finally said, "Okay." And then proceeded to talk to it like it was a real person. This continued for awhile until my husband got tired of typing and finally typed, "Bye."

Tell my why my daughter, got mad and almost cried. I know I was probably wrong, but I couldn't help laughing so hard I almost cried.

We explained to Alex that the computer didn't really talk and that it was Daddy typing whatever he wanted to say. However, my three year old was very serious and now thinks she has a new friend. We'll break the news to her tomorrow. Tonight we're too tickled to try explaining it to her.

She won't believe us anyway.

Max and Ruby's Parents are Dead

Like you, I wondered what the hell?

This my friends is a conversation that my children had amongst themselves. I wouldn't have known about it if my husband hadn't come upstairs and said, "Your kids got problems."

Of course, I wanted to know what would give him reason to say that. Other than the obvious. Because I've come to the realization that my kids have some issues. lol. Not bad ones, but these days they're starting to remind me more of myself at their ages. And frankly that kinda scares me.

But back to the story at hand.

The next words out of my husbands mouth was, "Do you know what your kids are talking about downstairs."

"What," I asked him.

He laughed then said, "Ariana asked Alex where Max and Ruby's mom and dad are."

The two of them were in the middle of watching the cartoon as she asked the question. Now for any of you who don't have kids, Max and Ruby is a cartoon about a brother and sister rabbit. In each episode the sister wants to do some activity but excludes her brother, who by the end of the episode fixes whatever she's having issues with. There however is no mom or dad. Just the occasional visit from their grandmother or Bunny Scout Leader.

Well my oldest daughter Alex looks at her sister and says, "They're dead."

Ariana proceeded to say, "Ohhhh." As if this explained everything. Then she said, "Well what about their grandpa?"

"He's dead too," Alex told her nonchalantly. "He never comes over, so he must be dead."

The entire time my husband is listening to this conversation and trying not to laugh. So when he in turn tells me my first question is, "Why are they dead? Why can't they be at work?"

He says he asked Alex the same question and her response was, "Don't be silly Daddy. Everyone knows they're dead."

I mentioned this to some friends at work and one said she was going to ask her daughter the same question. A few days later she said she talked to her youngest daughter and asked where Max and Ruby's parents where and her reply was, "They're dead Mommy, everyone knows that."

I laughed so hard I almost cried.

Apparently all children know this, but we're too dumb to see it. So to anyone with small children who might watch Max and Ruby, ask them where their parents are. If they say dead, then join the club.

-TheOnlineStalker

Just my luck

For the last day and a half, I have been taking care of a house full of sick people. First my husband got sick a few hours before I had to go to work. I made sure everything was okay and told him I'd take our oldest daughter to school. When I finally got her dressed she complained of her stomach hurting, but she wasn't running a fever so I took her to school.

Three hours later the nurse calls and tells me that she has been sick most the morning. So I drive to her school and pick her up. I now have two sick people in the house. My husband and a 5 year old. The day progresses and I'm more tired than I've ever been. But that's not where my story ends. No. Right after dinner, my youngest daughter gets sick too. Now I have 3...count them...3 people sick. My husband, a 5 year old, and a 3 year old.

Today it appeared that they were getting better. My oldest is still a little sick but not nearly as bad as she was yesterday. But right after we eat dinner I start to feel weird. I lie down and take a nap, only to wake up with achy muscles and then it happened. I got sick.

Everyone in the house got better and I got sick. It was like the universe said, your job is done now we can make you suffer too. *Sigh*

It's just my luck. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel better. Goddess I hope I do.