Things Are Starting To Fall Into Place

Today, I would like to say, that I start my job at the hospital on the 14th of this month (in a little over a week). I had planned on waiting, and saving a few of my paychecks to put a nice down payment on a car, but today (now yesterday), while I was car shopping and weighing my options, I was offered a deal that I could not pass up. See, the last couple of months, while the hospital has been processing all my paperwork and all to get me in, I have been doing some research on cars. I had a few things in mind, that were important to me in my choice for a car. First, the car had the have a good safety rating. Second, the car needed to have good, if not great gas mileage. Third, it had to be $13,000 or less, so I could afford the monthly payments. Fourth, it needed to be a newer model that had not had the wheels driven off it. Fifth, the car I wanted needed to retain it's value because one day, when I decide to trade it in, it would still be valuable. I've researched vehicles from different dealers, and I made sure I got my facts online, so I wouldn't be talking to a sales rep who may or may not be stretching the truth just a bit. I had my favs narrowed down to a Toyota Yaris or a used Prius, a Ford Fiesta, or a Hyundai Accent. I went to the Toyota dealership just to browse, and I looked at their cars under 10, and I wasn't really feeling those cars, so I asked the saleman, if he had a '08 Yaris around 11, and he said no, but he one for $12,900, if I wanted to look at it. I agreed because I've been leaning toward the Yaris for a while now. It really fit all of my requirements in a car. It's a beautiful car, and in great shape. It gets around 40mpg, which is awesome. It was $0 down, and it's $270 a month. : )Here's a sneak peak of my car!:
This girl, is going to get me through school, back and forth to clinicals, and my first few years as a nurse, plus all of Joshua's appointments and him back and forth to school. I am so ecstatic!

Soon as I can, I am rejoining a gym, not sure which one, but definately doing so. I've already lost 25lbs. on my own and I want to keep going. I want to get in the best shape of my life. I also plan to get year memberships to the Tallahassee Museum, the Flint RiverQuarium, and may be Wild Adventures (not sure about that one yet, definately depends on what they have to offer since the last time I went). Joshua will definately enjoy himself. I have a few other plans, but they'll wait a bit longer because school and work are going to take up a lot of my time and spending all the time I possibly can with Joshua while I am doing that. This year is definately looking positive!

Our Late Valentine's Day Celebration

This past Saturday, Jodie and I celebrated a late Valentine's day in Panacea, FL. A place I have been going to since I was a little girl. We first stopped by The Coastal and had lunch. Yummy scallops and clams for me, and shrimp for Jodie. I love that place, and I always have, even when it was known as The Crystal, years and years ago. After lunch we went across the bridge that crosses over Ochlocknee Bay and went to a beach I had found when I was pregnant with Joshua. It is near Bald Point State Park and it has a beautiful view of the Gulf. We spent about two hours walking along the beach and collecting seashells for my little collection, which ended up being a contest who could find the most unique shells, most complete, and then the largest. lol. I, of course found the largest and the most unique. We also ran across a large jellyfish on our stroll; I did not know what kind it was at the time, but when I got home I did some research and found put it was a Mushroom Cap jellyfish. This jellyfish does not have the long stringy stingers that you see on most jellyfish, it actually has short finger like ones that hang just below it's fringe and it's sting only causes mild pain to humans and is harmless(not that I would recommend trying to picking one up. Because really, who wants to have to be peed on to neutralize the pain?). It was a very amazing animal to see because you usually only see the Comb jellies, which are not true jellyfish, and you can pick them up without any consequences, other than them feeling like a wad of snot (ewwwwwww....). The jellyfish made it back out into the deep water and danced gracefully in the current as it made it's way back out to sea and got the chance to see another day. I think Jodie enjoyed seeing a side of me that does not come out very often. One who wasn't stressing and loves being one with nature. It was very relaxing and I do believe it is the first time we spent a whole day out together alone. It may have been a little late celebrating, but it is definitely the best Valentine's Day ever!

Has It Really Been 5 Years, Already?!

So... I know it has been ages since I last blogged, but I figured I needed to start because soon, I know I will have plenty to write about, and figured I'd post something now to get started in this New Year.

Joshua turn 5 years old just a few weeks ago, and I cannot believe that the time has passed as quickly as it has. He's so very intelligent and the smartest child I have ever met especially for his age. He's learning math, yes, MATH! He can add and subtract single digits very well, and it took him about 2 maybe 3 weeks to learn to do this! Now we are working some teens and 20s into the mix, and he has been doing very well thus far. He can count to 100 like a pro! He's also reading extremely well, and it amazes me and everyone who has seen him read some of his books aloud. I had said before he was really good at reading just basic words and then he became the master of spelling, his favorite word to spell is "xylophone" which he could spell at 3 1/2 years! Now can you imagine how easy it has been to get him reading since he started doing that? He speaking a little more now, usually repeating a short phrase he has heard over and over again. My mom answered one of his math problems he called out a few nights ago, and he told her "Great job! You deserve a star!" I'm not kidding!

I recently went through his clothes...again! This time his dresser was looking pretty bare. He has grown 5 inches in the last 6 months! He is now 3ft. 9in. tall and weighs 50lbs.! I bought clothes 2 sizes up last year so he'd have some growing room, and most of it is either perfect length or starting to get to short. His appetite surpasses mine by 3x, so when these growth spurts come along... look out refrigerator because here comes Joshua! I remember a couple of weeks ago I made brocolli for dinner, and I gave everyone a serving. Well, Joshua went back for seconds, thirds, then forths, then finished up with a fifth! Plus he ate everything else that was already on his plate!!!

We threw Joshua a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party this year, and I had to get creative because for some reason or another, no one in this area carries Dr. Seuss themed party supplies, and I didn't want to order off the internet because I was on a very limited budget. I used some stuffed Dr. Seuss characters of Joshua's as props and used bright colors. Here are some pictures from his birthday:

~INVITATIONS~

~The Poster I Made~

~Joshua Blowing Out His Candles~

~The Card I LUCKED Up On In The Bradfordville WalMart~

~Devilled Eggs w/ Green Food Coloring & Ham~

~Multi-Colored Goldfish Crackers~

~Cat In The Hat Parfaits and Thing 1 & Thing 2 Red Velvet Cupcakes~

~The Goody Bags~

~I Bought Him "The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat"~

~A New Book~

Unfortunately... yeah I said it unfortunately, we did not have but a few people show up after I did my pre-party head count (which we were definately expecting more people), and the ones who were the definates did not have the courtesy to call prior to the party, which means I am really glad I gave up on decorating when I did and did not spend the excess efforts trying to perfect everything. Seriously now, pissed would be an understatement. Still haven't from these people yet to this day with atleast an apology. I cannot understand why I try my best to show people I really care and love them and their children, and they can't atleast call, text, or FB me? Don't I atleast deserve that much?
Anywho... I want to thank my mom and grandma who came, our friends Ash & Ben and their kids for coming. I also want to thank Hallie for sending Joshua a gift even though she and her family could not make it, and it was very thoughtful and Joshua loves them! I also want thank Rhay for getting Joshua something aswell, and he loves it as well. Yes, thank you so very much guys! Shows who really is there for you in the long run & I love them for that, and they know that we will be there for them when they want or need us to be! (& those of you who are not on my good list at the moment, I have nothing against your children, just you, and I won't punish them for the b.s.. Have a nice day! :D)

Before I end this, I want to thank the few of you again, and hope we will be seeing each other in the very near future for good times to make many great memories! I'm hoping I can start doing my super happy dance in a week and a half, if human resources hurries and gets things done by then. Then I know I will have another great thing to blog about! YAY!

Just An Update

It's been a couple of weeks since I last updated, so I figured I might as well catch everyone up. May 28th was Jodie & my 4 year anniversary, we've been dating for 4 whole years and I am so very happy to have him in our life. We didn't actually get to celebrate like we wanted too, we WERE going to go down to St. George Island for the weekend, BUT it was Memorial Weekend and the inn had DOUBLED their prices which was absolutely ridiculous, since it's just a basic inn with cement walls and a bed and bathroom and they wanted $150 a night to stay and since it was a holiday they required a two night stay. I think those people done lost their freakin' mind! Jodie ended up working both his jobs that Friday and didn't get off til' after 7pm, so we didn't get to spend any time together until Saturday night. My mom kept Joshua Saturday night, and we went to Rodizio's South American Grill in Tallahassee, which is by far the best food around. They have 15 kinds of meat (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, and seafood), and they come around to your table with these huge skewers and cut of pieces for you, and you can eat all that you want and it's $30 a person (not including drinks), and you eat by candle light. It's a really great restraunt and I recommend it to anyone! We went to Books-A-Million afterward and messed around a bit with the Alice In Wonderland gear, and Jodie bought me one of the Sookie Stackhouse books, "Living Dead In Dallas". From there on we went to the video store, went home, watched a movie and cuddled. YAY!!! We're hoping we can make a short trip to SGI here soon to make up for missing it on our anniversary, so I'm crossing my fingers, if not, we'll be going around the 4th of July for a couple of days with his family.

This past weekend we stayed indoors most of the weekend, since it has been storming off and on for about 2 weeks straight, so the pool was out of commision for Joshua this weekend. We went to Wal-Mart and bought the new Alice In Wonderland, which was really great. Tim Burton did an EXCELLENT job on it, and Johnny Depp was a great Mad Hatter. I used that $10 off coupon for the Blu-Ray & DVD combo pack, so we paid the same price as the DVD by itself. I've been cutting coupons lately for groceries and stuff, and we saved over $20 from the coupons on the things we always need and buy, and I got the new Twilight Saga book "The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner" by Stephenie Meyer which a portion of the proceeds got to the American Red Cross.

Joshua is talking so much lately, he'll be watching something and will go "Dang!", it's so cute. He repeats a lot of what he hears around him, so we have to be careful what we say around him. His therapist said he had the best day ever the other day in speech, he named all the animals, 15 verbs, and used some "ing" words. I'm so glad he's doing better, and hopefully we'll have him ready for school this coming up year, if not this year, he'll definately be going next year.

Well, that's about all for now. I've got some reading to do, and need to actually make my way to bed after to washing machine goes off. : )

The Evil In People

This past Friday, I come to find out some horrible news about the white baby pony we were going to buy for Joshua. My mom called me from work, and said that Kathleen (the lady we take riding lessons from & buy our horses) told her that someone had came into the pony pen in the middle of the night a couple days before, and had tried to steal this sweet little pony. In the process, she probably put up a fight, and they ended up SNAPPING HER NECK and leaving her dead by the side of the road! One of Kathleen's neighbors woke her up about 4am that morning, and told her that they had found the pony. I am so very upset by this; Joshua really enjoyed playing with this pony, who was only about 8 months old, and she would follow Joshua around like a puppy. Come to find out, someone came back Thursday night, and tried to break in again because the gate was standing wide open and there were truck tire prints in the driveway that didn't belong to any of her vehicles! Kathleen says that she hasn't noticed anyone else missing, so that is the only good news out of it all. We now have to work fast to put up a fence here at the house, and borrow a horse trailer to move Expresso and Pheonix before something possibly happens to them. I cannot believe how mean some people are and just down right evil.

*She Was Such A Sweetheart*

*We'll Miss Her*

Joshua's Silliness

In the past couple of weeks, Joshua has done... well, said, a few things that have been pretty funny. One of them was a misunderstanding by a bystander, and the other was thankfully not heard by anyone, but me. I figured this would be a good start to a new blog.

*My Silly Lil' Boo*

A couple of weeks ago, we were shopping and as always Joshua is in the basket of the buggy, talking up a storm (most of it in his own lil' language). Joshua happened to be counting, 1 , 2 , 3, 4! Well, Joshua has a little bit of a problem with the number FOUR, and it sounds just like "whore" sadly enough for those who probably think we are teaching him ugly language. Well, as he was counting we happened to come up behind a little old lady when he got to the number four (whore)... She had heard him and I guess she thought he was calling her a whore and that she hadn't heard his counting, and she turned and looked at him in disbelief and walked off!!! Ooops!

About a week ago we were in Pizza Hut for dinner, and as we were leaving there was this really "curvy" girl who walked in wearing this really form fitting GREY dress on that she really shouldn't have been wearing. As we were walking by, Joshua pointed at her and calls, "elephant!", thankfully the way he says elephant comes out sounding close to "apple pie", even though it has been getting a lot clearer, someone who isn't around him much probably wouldn't pick-up on the "elephant". Thankfully the girl was to busy running her mouth off to one of her buddies to have caught wind. I about lost it, and tripped over the bench that is just inside the door trying not to laugh. We've never had an issue with him name calling, and I suspect it's probably him talking about the dress being grey like an elephant because he calls anything that has black & white stripes, a zebra, but it was still pretty funny.

Mother's Day was good. Joshua & Jodie bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. We spent part of the day at Jodie's grandma's house and the other part with his mother, step-bro and step-sis playing the wii.

My mom ended up working that day. After she got off we had to go check on the horses. Expresso and Phoenix had a visit from the ferrier the day before, and we found out that Expresso has another absess (an infection) in his back left foot. Crazy horse cannot go with out something being wrong. This is his second absess, the first was in his front right foot. He's had a split hoof, but that is thankfully fixed how. Expresso will be a year old this coming Saturday, the 15th, which happens to be the day after my birthday. Our FOUR year anniversary is coming up, and Jodie and I are planning on heading to SGI for a couple of days for some well needed personal time together. I can't wait!

A "Mommy" For 16 Hours...

Yesterday evening we headed to the lake to let Joshua run off some excess energy. Well, we didn't quite make it to the lake, we actually made it half way down the block right before you turn to go down to the road that goes to the lake, and we had to make a U-turn. My mom noticed a baby bird dancing in the center line of Pinetree Blvd, and the traffic was pretty because it was about 7pm, and everyone was getting off work and headed out for dinner. Joshua had a meltdown in the backseat of course, but we just couldn't let this little bird get ran over. As soon as we turned to go back, the baby bird flopped right towards the tire of a big SUV, and missed it by less than an inch. I could have swore he actually went under the tire, but when we parked in the middle of the road, the baby was still flopping around. I waited for traffic to pass on my side of the truck, and soon as I had the chance, I jumped out and ran towards the helpless creature in the middle of this busy road. I scooped him up, and walked back to the truck. I got several strange glances by people passing by and I had one nice man ask, if we had broke down. When I got back in, we headed to the house to get something to put the lil' one down in, and I got one of Joshua's old shoe boxes that had a fold over lid, and stuck my well worn shirt that I've had since I was 7 in the box to keep him warm and cozy. I've always used that shirt to sleep in and it's had it's wear and tear, and was definately time to retire the shirt, my mom joked about it being like a "staple in my life", but it's just one I've never tossed out. We went back into town and tried both pet stores, which was no success because they both were closed when we got to them, so we headed to Wal-Mart to see if we could find something that would improvise til' we could get him to someone who knew what they were doing or until we could get to an actual pet store with baby bird food. Blood worms(dehydrated), bird vitamins, a couple drops of milk, a pair of tweezers and an eyedropper later, the baby bird got his first meal before we settled him down for the night. He spent the night inside the shoebox in my t-shirt drawer, so that no one (Joshua or one of the cats) could get to him, plus it's nice and warm inside the drawer which is good for baby birds who are supposed to be kept at temps around 86*F. He got another couple of meals this morning, when we got the call from a lady who works along side Clanton's Veterinary Hospital to take the baby and drop him/she off. I'm really glad that we were able to find someone to take the bird that does that kind of thing for a living because I don't know how well I could hold up having to feed it every 3 to 4 hours (except from midnight to about 5am when they sleep), and having Joshua jumping around constantly. Joshua doesn't understand he has to be gentle around tiny animal babies. All in all, it was a good 16 hour experience. We saved a life, and hopefully the bird will stay away from roads when he is released back into the wild.

*On The Way To It's New Home*