It's been about a year; that seems about right!

Well, it has been about 11 months since my last post. Anyone miss me?

I will admit that the computer has taken a back seat to my fiance, his son, MySpace and Facebook. I have to be honest! :)

Many events have transpired over the year. My last post was about canning. I am doing that - peppers, soup, freezing beans, peas, zucchini. I'm over zucchini bread, that's for sure. Today, I picked the last of the green and yellow beans and pulled the plants. Of course, I planted more seeds about 3-4 weeks ago so I'll have more in a few weeks.

School starts in 13 days. I can't wait.

We are getting married in 46 days, I think. (I'm not a math teacher!)

I wish I had more money because I really don't know how we'll pay for everything that we've ordered!

I am going to see if I can remember how to post a picture. If no one comments on my post, I'll know that no one is reading my blog....

Thoughts in my mind

1. It is Friday night and we are canning peppers (hot and sweet) and making and canning salsa. Oh, the wildness!



2. School is wearing me out, but I have a great bunch of kids and I'm going to have fun this year.

Our wedding

I want to run away to get married.
Marc- I'm not sure if I can convince him.

Your questions answered

First, I'm sorry for not blogging much this week. I am taking the most intense class ever. The teacher is intense, it is all day, and then we have hours of homework each night.....I'll be so glad when I'm finished.

Garrett is now allowed to play outside at his mom's house....so really, there was no punishment.
Here, he isn't allowed to play the XBox.... I don't know how long Marc set that for with him.

I went to his first football scrimmage last night. He had fun. I only stayed for about an hour, as I had homework to do. I told him in advance, so that he would know. I hated that. I wanted to be there the whole time for him. At least I was there....no one from his mom's ghetto trailer showed up.

Wasted Punishments

OK, the punishment for Garrett and his sister was that they weren't allowed to play outside for the rest of the summer. (Talk about punishing yourself!)
Friday, Marc took Garrett home and there was his sister playing outside. Well, you see, they felt bad that Garrett gets to go to football practice....so you know, his sister should get to be outside....and now they are allowed to play outside all over again.
STUPID.
Those kids have learned that their "parents" don't follow through.
STUPID.

Update: More Details Roll In

Ok, when the ex's boyfriend comes home from work, he has more info.
He says he saw the kids drag all of the stuff in SUNDAY NIGHT. It was like 10:30 (yes, they let the kids roam the park that late at night!) and he called the kids in. They started dragging the stuff in and he told them to return it. They said that they lady's granddaughter had given it to them.
Also, the 10 year old sister had at some point taken the ex's digital camera, taken pictures, and then hidden the camera! ( I guess she DID have more information.)
The ex's boyfriend (who is an ass, but MIGHT be right) thinks the granddaughter gave the stuff away, then when cornered said the kids stole it.
What I'm upset about, and I told Garrett this, is that he didn't tell the truth.

Stepson + State Police = Time to Parent and Provide Consequences

OK, long story short.
Marc gets a call from ex-wife. Something happened in the trailer park, Garrett might be involved, the police are there, she wants Marc to come and try to get him to spill it.
Marc takes off.

Apparently, Garrett, his older sister (10) and 2 neighbor kids took some stuff from a neighbor's back yard. Ex-wife told police the stuff wasn't in her house, but let them search. They found 4 crates of stuff AND a duffel bag in the sister's room! (I guess she isn't much of a housekeeper, anyway.) (Ex was probably sleeping during all of the thievery -- she works nights.)
Garrett told his mom and police that he knew nothing about it. He told Marc he had taken a few things and that he didn't know how the stuff got into his sister's room.
All kids had to apologize to neighbor.
Marc's ex says that Garrett was the ringleader. Marc says he believes Garrett. (I'm sorta suspicious of the fact that he claims he doesn't know how the stuff got in his sister's room -- they do EVERYTHING together!)

Anyway, we were discussing punishment, ahem, consequences. We agreed that the punishment should fit the crime. (For example, at the park, he should have to play in the yard for a period of time because he can't be trusted to roam the park.) BUT, we don't know what we should do here. The four wheeler is broken, so that won't work. Marc suggested no video games, but I'm not sure that fits the crime, either. I said how about no video games and no TV -- that's what he does for fun here. Marc can't stand to be without the TV...

This is why I didn't want to be a parent....

Marc is currently getting Garrett for football practice. I went swimming, but Marc wanted me to be here when he brings Garrett home. I do not know what to say!

I told Marc that I want Garrett to know that we all make mistakes, but that he needs to tell the truth. I don't want him to be known as a thief or a liar.

HELP!

I made him do it!

First, thanks for the comments about the turtle. I just want it to be clear that I do not want to take care of ANY animals (since we already have a dog, a goat, a rooster, and 2 chickens) let alone animals for a kid who doesn't get to come here but every other weekend! (It would be MY turtle.)

Second, I have been hinting and SAYING that we (meaning he) need to clean out the closet in the spare room. This is the agreed upon resting place for some of my belongings. He has been totally avoiding it and I refuse to try to organize his stuff. I told him the other day that we don't have to throw anything away, we just need to organize it. FINALLY, today, I said, "Come in here with me. I will help you, but I won't boss you. Make room for me, please." It was SO PRODUCTIVE! I now have ALMOST everything put away. I have almost everything set up for the computer. (I need to attempt the wireless router, but I wanted to post before I tried that.

It feels so good to accomplish stuff!

Nightfishin...

Last night, we put on our dirty clothes, put on bug spray, bought our chicken livers and night crawlers, drove to the swamp and went cat fishing.

I caught the most. (Although I'll share the prize with Marc -- he put the bait on and took whatever I caught off the hook--or cut the hook a few times!) I caught 2 catfish, 2 weird "alien" fish (I'm going to try to look them up today--they were mean and very strange looking.), AND a snapping turtle.

Garrett cried the whole way home because we didn't keep the snapping turtle.

How embarrassing -- to meet a "celebrity!"

OK, so it is Saturday.
We were hungry, so we ran into town for breakfast. I didn't take a shower or brush my hair, just pulled it back.

Who walks in but Marc's cousin who was on Survivor?! (This is our first meeting!) She sits down in the booth with me and makes a big fuss about us getting engaged! Not only am I a dirty greaseball, but after she leaves I realize that I've dropped marinara sauce on my boob!

Oh well, such is life!

Unpacking...

Still unpacking boxes. It is so hard.
I have albums and albums of pictures and no where to put them! I do not know what I'm going to do with them! :(

A complete combination of homes

OK, today we went to the apartment for the remaining things.
I made 4 piles: coming here, going to my parents' barn, school, trash. Oh, there was a small pile for Tracy as well.

Then, we brought everything here that comes here. (I'll deal with the rest tomorrow.) Our den is FILLED with my stuff. Marc doesn't understand why one would want (or need) so many books! I do need to go through some more and get rid of some stuff, but it becomes overwhelming. (Marc also mentioned to me today that he invited some of our friends over Friday night---I'm thinking this is simply a ploy to make me unpack quicker, but he swears it is true!)

It is so hard to find a place to put things. He wants to make room, but isn't sure what to move, either.

Pray for us! :)

FOOTBALL STEP MOM

OK, who out there knew that if your kid (or step kid to be) plays football (pee wee, by the way- he's 8) you have to commit your entire life to it!

I'm not exaggerating! Last night, Garrett had his first football practice. You can play when you are 7, but he didn't play last year. Marc was asked to help coach, so he was going to practice. His ex calls and says she can't go to the parent meeting. SO--I HAVE TO GO! OK, no problem. Practice is 6-8, meeting is 7:30. Marc wants me to go along for the whole thing. Fine. I take a magazine and catch up on some phone calls. This is what I didn't know: parents go to every practice! There were about 40 kids, about 15 dads on the field as coaches and easily 50-60 moms and siblings there with their blankets and lawn chairs TO WATCH PRACTICE!

Oh, did I mention that they practice every day of the week until school starts? Did I mention that games are on Saturdays and a random mom told me not to plan anything on Saturdays because I will be there ALL DAY!

I don't mind going to games and I want to do whatever I can to cheer Garrett on, but COME ON!

I managed to get out of going tonight. I played on the Internet, took a long bath, scrubbed the summer dirt off of my feet and lotioned all up. I'm about to settle onto the couch and find something girly on TV.

I feel selfish because I don't want to spend 6 days a week at the football field. I will probably do it, for Garrett. My question is this: Am I wrong to think it crazy to want to watch practice?

An even trade?

Ok, so lunch with Jen and Mike was fun. I'm anxious to hear what they say about Marc. As we were leaving, Jen said, "He's so cute." But that's all I know.

We gave gifts to one another. They gave us the new Harry Potter book. (They had 2.) We gave them a zucchini and some chocolate zucchini bread. Would you say that is an even trade? I'm thinking that we got the better end of the deal! ;)

Lunch with Jen and Mike

We are having lunch with Mike and Jen today.
I just called her to give directions to the restaurant. She was teasing me about the zucchini bread, so I'm guessing she read my first post of the day.
So, I'm surprising her with a sample of it!
We'll see if she reads this before I see her and is expecting it....stay tuned!

Zucchini everywhere!

We are overrun with zucchini!
Yesterday, I made chocolate zucchini bread-- it was DELICIOUS!

The Internet, AT LAST

Marc's sister came over last night and helped me!
When I downloaded the DSL software, there were so many extra programs bundled. Something like 25 programs were running when I first turned the computer on. She helped me decide which ones to turn off.

Whew!

Now, I'm supposed to be doing work, but am so distracted!

Will you marry us?

Well, I thought I had my internet hooked up Monday night, but something is terribly wrong. At this point, I can't even use my computer. So, I'm at Marc's sister's using her computer for homework. (I'm in class again this week.)

We went to Myrtle Beach last week. (There were 10 of us.)

Garrett and Marc cornered my on the balcony. Marc got down on one knee and Garrett said, "Will you marry us?"

Here are a few pictures from the week!