Candle Safety: A Lesson Well Learned

Just a little wake up call to all of us who use candles for light and on a daily basis for scent...BE CAREFUL! Our neighbors were using them because we had no power most of the day yesterday and weren't expected to get our power back until tomorrow night. Around 1030a this morning, an unattended candle was the cause of this...



What they didn't lose to this fire, I am sure they will have to replace because of smoke and water damage. From the time they called 911 to the time the firefighters were on scene it took about 10 minutes and we are about 2 minutes from a fire station. This was a fire that used fire fighters from 6 stations!! And it only took the fire about 15 minutes at most to look like these pictures.

Fortunately for us, we got our power back, but only because DOM had to come out and cut the lines to their house after the fire was out so they just stayed and fixed the lines in our neighborhood. My son calls the Norfolk Firefighters "heroes". Today, to him, they were since they saved our house and put out the fire next door so quickly.

Stay safe!

USS Bainbridge Homecoming

Yesterday, one of my best friends' husband came home from a 7-month long deployment. He is stationed onboard the USS Bainbridge DDG-96 here in Norfolk, VA. I took pictures for her and her family so she could enjoy the moment. Some background...

The USS Bainbridge was the ship involved in the recapture and recovery of Maersk Alabama and their Captain. Snipers onboard the Bainbridge successfully recovered the Captain after taking out pirates on Easter Sunday. They were covered heavily by the media out on their deployment and when pulling into port. Everyone back home was very proud of our sailors onboard the Bainbridge and other ships who have fought the many Somali pirates.

Here are some pictures that captured their day...

 
 
 
 

My Crafty Blog...

...coming soon!

I think I need to start a NEW blog and advertise my crafts on there. I am not sure WHEN I will start it, but I am thinking about it soon. I got a new MAC Book since my horrid little PC took a nose dive into PC crap land and I am learning the ins and outs of this wonderful piece of machinery! It is so beautiful and yeah, I am in love all over again! Anyway, here are a few examples of what I have for "sale" and what I am making and can make. Hairbows mostly but I do blankies too and some other novelties as well. (Crayon caddies and stethoscope covers and bible covers...you get what I mean?) Sooo, here you go!

Bumblebee Hair clip


Patriotic Pony


I have more and plan on adding them to my new blog. Watch out bloggysphere!!

TTFN,

To Hell In A Diva Purse

Originally posted at www.tidewatermommies.com by me but had to share with my blogger friends as well! :) Enjoy!

Last night I "hosted" my daughter's 10th birthday party which just so happened to be her first ever sleepover. She invited 10 girls from her class and 1 girl from the neighborhood and 6 from her class came as well as the girl from the neighborhood. Ages ranged from 9 to 12. The girls started to arrive promptly at 5pm with their sleeping bags, bookbags, presents and cell phones...yes, CELL PHONES!!!!! I was in the kitchen finishing cooking the pizzas, covered in cake batter. I was totally exhausted from preparing. The last girl arrived around 6pm and we started the "festivities" at about that time with a Diva Toast...totally their idea. I bought ginger ale and root beer just to limit the amount of non-sleep inducing products in my home. I was hoping to get to sleep around 1am. :D Next was cupcake decorating, followed by another Diva Toast. We then did presents, more Diva Toasts, then ice cream with several Diva Toasts. They then wanted a shot at being an American Idol. Oh boy. 7 out of the 8 girls played 2 rounds and were done. That was it for them, they were bored.

They then went downstairs to chat. It got EXTREMELY loud so I went on down to check it out and they were down there beating the crap out of each other with their pillows. That's fine and dandy, but they were aiming for heads and heads only!!! REALLY?? Can't you get some kind of head injury or something? I let them beat on each other for a bit because I was still hoping for that 1am bedtime and it was only 730pm. :) About an hour later, the first bout of crying began. :lol: Of course the first girl to cry was my kid and I know how much of a drama queen she is so I stifle my laugh when she says she is upset because no one wants to play with her. Then the next girl comes up and says one of the other girls said she didn't like her and that was why she was crying. The night continued on like that, one girl crying, then two until finally I had had enough and called them all in for a "Diva Mom Chat". :lol: :lol: :lol: By this time my blood pressure was probably so high I should have been confined to my bed, but I couldn't find my BP monitor to check it, I was so mad at these girls! :evil: It was 1130pm and super close to my 1am bedtime. :roll: I told them they needed to sit in front of me and discuss their problems right now before they could get up. Then all Diva Hell broke lose. All the Divas started to cry about how they missed their parents who were out to sea or their dad who was a deadbeat oh and one girl even told all the girls about how she missed her mom because she didn't like living with her dad but she didn't have a choice cuz her mom was IN JAIL!?!?! Finally I thought I had got it through to them that it was time to settle, be nice and chill.

OH HELL NO! Not 15 min had passed and they were at it again!!! This time they were slapping each other! :shock: :shock: Supposedly they were playing a game of some sort. I told them that had to stop before someone got hurt. At that point of the night I became the worst mother in the world because they all wanted to leave. (BTW, I tried movies, games and just letting them be....it sucked!) 1am came and went. 2am came and went. I fell asleep sometime between 1 and 2 and when I woke up there was an injured girl and TONS of girls screaming!! I get up and all I could smell was peanut butter. OMG. There was PB all over the place. :evil: :evil: It was on the floor and the walls and the sink...everywhere but where WE used to put it when we had sleepovers! I was finally pissed. There were 2 girls who were asleep, some who WANTED to sleep and some that just wanted to be...Divas is the word I will give them for now! So, I told Sydnie to pick 3 girls to come up with me to the living room and 3 BEGGED to come up so they could go to sleep. The other 4 slept in Sydnie's room, which is actually our gameroom. By now it is creeping up on 3am. Noise is still billowing from Sydnie's room and I yell down a few more times and it turns to whispers. The girls up with me can't sleep because the floor is way hard and I feel bad for them. Then the dog starts to snore so it is way harder for them to fall asleep. Finally, at 330a, the last girl falls off to Diva Wonderland, then Miss Lady Bird, my dog, decides she has to pee. YAY! I finally get to MY Wonderland around 4am, just in time for me to have to wake the Divas back up at 9am.

I have a before picture of all of them together, when the night was young. I wish I would have thought with my tired mind to take a picture of them the next day all tattered and tore up!!! :lol: :lol: Never again will I host a sleepover like that in my home. I will steal the idea of the mother who came to pick up one of the girls and rent a hotel room with an adjoining room! One January birthday down, one more to go.

My Diva at 3


My Diva NOW

I'm Ready (Post Written on Tidewatermommies.com)

Ready to go back to Virginia
Ready to see my doggies...I miss them sooo much
Ready to sleep in my own bed
Ready to be able to hide in my own room, with no kids
Ready to eat my OWN food when I decide to cook it
Ready to be done with this nasty weather
Ready to be done with Christmas Vacation
Ready to be in MY home
Ready for January 15th...even if you DON'T have a place to live, you can live with me!!!!!!!! ;)
Ready for this deployment to end so the end of sea duty is closer
Ready to go to coffee with my VIRGINIA friends since these Ohio women all want to hibernate
Ready for my Costa Rican rum...anyone want to join me?

I've been ready to leave here since I left Virginia. This place is super depressing and just makes it that much harder to be here on top of being without my husband and my grandfather. Add the fact that my mother has been off work only two whole days since we've been here, Christmas Day being one of them, doesn't help. She works days so she goes to bed at like 9pm. They don't eat a normal dinner so I have to figure out what to cook here and be sure to make enough for my kids and my step-dad and whomever else decides to come over at dinner time. OH and then we were informed last night that the water softner (they have well water) broke and that is why my mom and I have been sick for the past 3 days. (We drink a TON of coffee) My son got sick shortly after we got here with strep and LUCKILY I found a little clinic that took Tricare Prime so we only paid $3 for the antibiotics. Christmas Eve day I cut my eye opening packages I had delivered here, but it is now healing nicely! But Christmas Day went amazingly well. My mother bought $150 worth of petit fillets (steak) and cooked them on the grill. She also made crab soup and my grandmother brough over shrimp and noodles and LOTS of sweets. There was other stuff too like potatoes and this bread stuff and...yeah, I'm getting hungry. Before my sister left we had our Christmas fight over how I discipline my children. She thinks I yell at my middle child more than the other two but it just so happens the middle child has acted out the most in front of "Aunt Shay" for attention. Anyway, it ended with her boyfriend and our step-sister interveneing by giving my sister money. That always shuts her up! LOL! The end of the night was laden with beer and cards and basketball. It was nice.

If you made it this far, I commend you. Guess I should have blogged this instead. Maybe I will since I haven't done that in a while! LOL! Here's all the grandchildren posing nicely in front of the tree. Aren't they just adorable?! :) Happy Holidays to all and I can't wait to get back to my home.

Friday Fiesta Foto Finish

It's Friday again and a whole week just flew by me without a word. I know, I am a complete slacker, but what can I say! My husband is gone and juggling 3 kids who have taken a turn for the worse in the attitude department is really trying doing it on my own!! My health really sucks too so I tend to sleep half my day away and then spend the other half cleaning. Anyway, here is a cute picture of my son and his really cute mohawk. I let him do it once and he loves it. He looks just like his daddy! I hope you enjoy his picture as much as I enjoy taking them. Don't forget to head on over to Candid Carrie for FX4 today!!


TTFN,

Seven Things Sunday

Because I have been slacking, I decided to steal a meme from my girl over at Diapers and Wine. It is 7 Things from Your First Month of Motherhood. Go grab a tissue because you are going to cry...from laughing so freakin' hard!

1. I became a mother the first time in January 1999. I flew home when Syd was just under a month old. From sunny San Diego to cold and snowy Ohio with a colicky infant, alone, non-stop and I forgot the formula and forgot to bring a winter coat for my newborn. Needless to say my mother thought ahead for me and was waiting at the airport with a winter coat and a warm bottle.

2. Syd was only 2 days old and she again, needed some formula because I ran out of the stuff from the hospital. (Had to supplement because she was a HUGE kid!) I knew I wasn't supposed to drive, but I was home alone, again, and really needed the formula. Off to Target I went. About half way through my 10 minute shopping trip I realized I really needed to "go" and thought I could hold it. Well, I couldn't and shat myself right there in line at Target. All I could do was stand in line and laugh my ass off.

3. My baby fit in a clothes basket softened with a pillow, slept in said clothes basket for the first month of her life because it was more convenient for me to keep her close while I cat napped on the couch between feedings.

4. I fell asleep with my baby on my chest while breast feeding only to awake to her on the floor...sleeping soundly. I'm a baaaaadddd mom!

5. Colic is just another word for bitchy baby, seriously. My kid screamed her head off non-stop for like the first 7 months of her life unless she was stuffing her face! And the doctor called it colic. WTF? How many different types of milk ARE there in this world?! I know which ones smell the worst that is FO SHO!

6. I lost all my baby weight and then some. (Mind you, I now have 2 more children so that is NOT the case!!)

7. When you decide to QUIT breastfeeding, DO NOT take a warm shower! Them bitches just start flowing alllll over again!!!

I hope you all enjoyed my little meme today. I am not going to tag anyone, but if you read this, go ahead and do it. Just for fun! Have a great week. I might be back later. :)

TTFN,

Friday Fiesta Foto Finish

I haven't been posting alot. Mainly it is because the house has been sick. BOO! That and I have been hiding my laptop from myself so I can get some housework done. Anyway, today is FX4 day. I am sharing one of my favorite photos from my fabulous trip to Washington DC. These kids cracked me up trying to get on top of this poor statue. The foto was taken at the National Zoo. I must say I was completely disappointed in the zoo. 1/2 of it was closed the day (extremely cold day) we were there because they are building something for the elefants. Either way, the kids had fun with the animals we DID catch, especially this inanimate one! Enjoy and don't forget to stop on over to Candid Carrie's Place for Fiesta Friday!

Friday Fiesta Foto Finish

Well it has been DAYS since I posted so I figured I would go ahead and do an FX4 for a post to catch you all up on where I've been. I decided to take the kiddos and head up to Washington D.C. for a few days. Yes, myself and 3 children all alone in a busy metropolitan area...I'm nuts. We had fun though. So I figured what a better picture than a picture of the infamous White House?! Mind you we were FAAAARRRR away from it. I just cropped and zoomed in to get it this close! Enjoy my pic and head on over to Candid Carrie for some more pics this Friday!! (Surely most of them will be about Halloween!)

Recovering...

...from my BATW comment hangover! My goal for the rest of the week is to personally respond to the 50+ comments because, well, that is just what I want to do! Thanks to all who stopped by and know that I will definately be responding and maybe even travel to your neck really soon. Oh and thanks again Debbie for "making" me be a part of BATW yesterday. It was fun to get so many comments!

TTFN,