Thanksgiving & Black Friday Fun!

So, who is ready to go back to work or school? Not I. Pretty sure my husband would agree.

Thanksgiving was nice. Kevin & I shared our first holiday as a married couple. It really does not feel any different. We dated for 3 years. This was not our first rodeo. Maybe, I pitched a huge stinkin' fit on our way to his mom's house. We will not go into details, but I sure tried to get my point across. Even went as far as turning around to go home. All over :::drum roll please::: Kevin NOT wearing his wedding band. I understand him not wearing it to work. Ok, fine. BUT I do expect he wear it to OUR FIRST HOLIDAY DINNER TOGETHER BEING MARRIED. Whatever. That's over. We made up. I will say we are both sooooooo stubborn. Oh, man. We did not speak the entire way to Waverly, which is a 2 hour drive. O-M-G. That was super hard for me.

We left Waverly around 1:45-2:00 to come back to Portland. We totally missed my mom's family Thanksgiving. Kind of hate that we missed that, but you can only be one place at a time and it just so happens that both of our families eat at the same time. I think we should start alternating years, we will see how that works out for us next year.

My dad's family likes to eat later, which is perfect! We ate, we laughed, we shared stories, drank our wine, and laughed a little more. We drew names for Christmas- this was the best part. We all traded the name that we drew. Shhhh..don't tell the grandmother. HA!! Some people are just easier to buy for...

Black Friday may just be one of my most favorite days of the year. I love love love love love love buying presents for people. I picked my mom up at 9pm and we headed to Electronic Express. I was after the 19inch flat screen TV's. Well, some girl in front of us in line was so totally annoying. It is amazing the things you learn about people. In 1 hour this is what I found out- stupid redneck girl (who had half of her pant leg tucked into her boot) has 2 kids, she lives in the top of her grandparents house with her husband, who by the way had to be at work at 5am. She was there for a 60 inch LED flat screen for her grandpa. She has a big dog and her pomerarian got ran over while she was pregnant with her last child who was born in January. Interesting huh? Oh it get's better....weird old lady who walked up behind us to get in line. She has a grandson, that is why she was out shopping. She was after the Android Tablet that was on sale for $69.99. She would not be out if it were not for him. She couldn't finish her root beer because she would have to use the rest room. She bought her watch at Fred's for $12 but had to buy a new band for it, a new battery, and all together now she has about $30 in her Fred's watch. Sweet. Here is the best one, we will refer to this one as the Harley man. ANNOYING. He made me want to cuss a lot. I didn't though. Anyway, he had his blue heeler in his car. He rides Harley's and solicits money for St. Jude's children hospital. He has several grandbabies, I lost count after 3 or 4. I think the final total was 7. He has a girlfriend. She was at Wal-Mart. When she calls him, he answers "yeah, baby" He was there for an Android Tablet as well. He and the weird old lady created an alliance, they were going to help each other out. Whatev. Anyway, he is a cancer survivor. Lung cancer to be exact. Oh yeah, here is the absolute best part. RIGHT after he told his lung cancer story and his purpose behind raising money for St Jude..................................he lit up a cigarette. I stopped feeling sorry for him at that point. Stupid redneck girl convinced me that the 24inch TVs were on sale for $119. SWEET. I was pumped for that deal. I go in, grab my items, and dang if we did not end up in the check out line with lung cancer survivor/harley ridin/ smoker. Here we go again, except this time he is chatting with my mom (who so graciously agreed to shop with me). He notices her Harley shirt, great. Just freaking great. This should open a whole new can of worms. EXCEPT, all he can say is "I love a woman with Harley Davidson across her chest" REALLY.....that is my mom and she is married to my step dad. I don't care if you love that, get your girlfriend a Harley shirt and tell her how much you love Harley across her chest. Some people. Anyway, he checks out and we are next. I had planned to pay with cash. Already had it all out and ready to pay. Low and behold, stupid redneck girl failed to tell me that the 24inch TVs for $119 were ACTUALLY computer monitors. O-M-G, again. So, my heck of a deal on TV's that I waited in line for over 2 hours for, ended up costing me an extra $100. Whatever, the kids got bigger TV's. They were still on sale, just not for $119. Life goes on & we went to Wal-Mart. Picked up the few things I needed there and dropped the mom off at 1am. The husband and I went back out the next morning. We had fun, spent money, bought more presents, and enjoyed being with each other.

My Black Friday advice: Don't talk in line. You will have a blog written about you :) Don't listen to anyone in line about what is or is not on sale. (So. Dumb. Of. Me.)......................

A pic from the toilet.... :)

Happy Monday. More like, Happy Rainy Monday...

I guess we need rain. So the song says, what is it... rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, whiskey makes my baby be a little frisky. In my case, whiskey makes my baby (the 31 year old) be a little silly!

Over the weekend, we had both the kids. When Mattellen and Hayden are together they either super love each other or super duper DO NOT get along. You see, Mattellen is the chief & so is Hayden. We all know what happens when you have too many chiefs and not enough indians. Yeah.

We went to the ICE! display at Gaylord Opryland on Saturday night. It was ok. The kids had fun, I guess that is all that really matters. They enjoyed the ice slide more than anything. Kevin & I loved watching all the kids come down the slide. The babies would get stuck half way down the slides and have to scoot their little behinds to the bottom. Our babies, would FLY down the slides and I held my breath until the got to the bottom. I could just imagine one of them whacking their mouth on the side of the slide & the outcome would not be great. THANK GOD that did not happen.  




















Anyway, on my way home today my phone kept buzzing. I was on the phone with Alicia and kept saying 'someone is trying to send me a picture, oh well, anyway, what were you saying' When I hung up the phone the picture finally came through...and I LOVE IT.

My sweet little Hayden sent me a picture of himself.

I will leave you with that, since quite frankly, I just don't think it get's much better than a Monday pic on the toilet.

Letter to Santa and more...

We are a little over a month from Christmas. I absolutely love this time of year. This year will be even better. Not only is it mine and Kevin's first Christmas as husband and wife, our first Christmas in our new house, AND we will have both of our kids on Christmas morning. How fun will this be!!!!

Anyway, with this time of year comes letter's to Santa. Kev and I have been asking the kids what they want to Christmas. Hayden has yet to come up with anything. His answer is always cheese. I have no idea where that is coming from but he claims he loves cheese. His cousin, Gracie, Aunt Jennifer, and Uncle Michael got him cheese for his birthday because that is what he told them he wanted. I guess you get what you ask for :)

Mattellen on the other hand, well her Christmas list is a mile long and then some. Her letter went something like this:

'Dear Santa Claus,

What I want is a IPad2 and some high hills boots I ware size 5 1/2. I want a Ipode Touch. Can I have a Titans book? I want a laptop and I want music CDs. Coutry Music Cds. I want Party Rock music!

P.S. I will do better

Love,
Mattellen',


All I can say is, I sure as heck hopes this Santa is loaded with money or his elves are able to build electronics.
I will have to say her letter made me giggle...I love the I will do better statement.
She had to pull another card at school. She was trying to put her clip back in her hair and the teacher made her pull a card. I guess that's life. I told her next time to just leave her hair down and if she looked crazy then so be it, sure beats pulling a card for trying to put your hair back in place. She agreed.

So, my line of work can be a little frustrating, rewarding, over whelming, and so on...
Especially, around the holidays. Today, I had a client who claims our employee has worked 60 hours and has not been paid, but no one knew he was working (in case you don't know I work for a staffing service). I call the guy who they THOUGHT was the employee and he claims he has never been to that facility, but proceeds to tell me that they can send him a check if they would like. Yeah. Whatever. Anyway, finally the mystery employee calls and says this is 'Milton' BUT yet he referred to himself at our client as 'Trey' o-m-g. No wonder you have not been paid, you are going by 57490584098 different names and NO knows who you are. Again, whatever. Needless, to say he wanted his check this week, so not going to happen, I am not a miracle worker.

On to better things, Thanksgiving is coming up, in case you didn't know. :) Now you do.
I see lots of Facebook post about things people are thankful for, why not jump on the bandwagon. I am not thankful for these things only on certain days though, my would be an every day thankfulness. Drum roll please...........................

1. My child. Life would not be the same without her.
2. My love for God. Sometimes, my mouth would make one think that I need to talk to God a little more. I swear I talk to him daily. I make the statement 'Dear Lord, help their little soul.' Often. Or I might say something like 'Lord, be with them' Or 'Lord, forgive me for what I am about to say'
3. My mom & step dad. No explanation required. They are awesome.
4. My husband. He is my rock, my soul mate, my ONE true love. I love him more and more every day. Bottom line- I LOVE HIM.
5. Hayden. The relationship he and Kevin have is awesome. He has the best personality. He loves to joke around and I love that about him.
6. My grandparents. All of them. My Pa, Jr., is the strongest man I know. My Mema, oh how I miss her sweet face, her soft hands, her way of making everything ok, her pecan pie and sweet tea. Nanny & D-Dad, they love my child as if she is their own. I am SO lucky to still have them.
7. My mother in law. Her love for her children is amazing.
8. My job. I am so lucky to have my job. I am so lucky to have found a career that I enjoy (on most days)
9. My little dog, Noodle. Laugh if you want. Noodle may be a dog but he is my baby dog. I love his little heart to pieces. I love that he has to sleep under my legs.
10. Dunkin Donuts sweet tea. Again, go ahead laugh. It's ok. You would be thankful for it too if you worked across the street from a DD. It helps me get through the day.
11. My friends. Tiff, Alicia, Kaci, Natalie, and so on....I love each and every one of them for different reasons. Natalie accepted me into the 'group'  Kaci- oh my. She was the first person to talk to me in Beechmont, KY. She taught me how to play Texas Hold'em. Tiff- I cannot name only one reason. I just love her. Alicia- #1 her kids are cute HAHA!!! (inside joke, but if you want to be her friend then tell her that) #2 She helps me make it through the day.  

I could go on and on. I will spare you though, just know I am thankful for life.

On that note, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine will be good. Even though, my little Mattellen will be at her dad's. I will still make it a good day.

Mattellen's school mishap....oh well,it happens.

Monday, this day comes every single week. We all know that after Sunday comes Monday. Nothing new. Although, it seems in the line of work I am in, EVERYONE, needs a job on Monday.

I love what I do (some days).

Anyway, today was interesting. Over the weekend, I received a phone call from Mattellen's teacher. I knew it was coming, my grandmother had already given me the heads up that there may have been some issues at school on Thursday. I never know what to expect with Mattellen. She is me made over. I was raised with all boys. I have taught Mattellen to be respectful, BUT...................some day's she forgets. That's ok. Life goes on. Apparently, on Thursday Mattellen had a slight falling out with the same brat classmate that we have dealt with since Kindergarten. This child and Mattellen have never been on the same page. In Kindergarten we had a falling out over a crayon, he wanted her crayon and decided to snatch it from her and she commenced to digging her nails into his arm.
In 1st grade they swapped several not so nice words. Now, in 2nd grade he has decided she needs erasers in her lunch. Mattellen kicked him. I cannot say that I blame her. If my co-worker put erasers in my food I would probably kick them too (just kidding Alicia)! The end result, they both had to miss recess and a note was sent home. WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.....I never got the note. My child, pulled the ultimate no-no. She scribbled out the note that her teacher sent home. Yep.

 Needless to say, the teacher and I had a long conversation about how unacceptable that was, as if I didn't know. I LOVE Mattellen's teacher. It was her 1st grade teacher as well, she is awesome with the kids. I wish Mattellen could have her every year!

The teacher and I talked about several things. I guess some parents have called and complained on Mattellen (oops!) and have requested their child does not sit next to mine. Now, this did not go over well with me AT ALL. When my child is wrong I will be the first to let her know about it, but I will also be the first to defend her. I spoke up after the teacher made me aware of the other parents request. Mattellen comes home at least 3 days out of the week and informs me that some child has said something mean. I chalk it up to kids will be kids blah blah...and let it go. Other parents call the teacher. I guess I will start calling the teacher every time Mattellen complains. You know, since I have all the time in the world to call her teacher about kids being mean. Whatever.

No matter how many notes Mattellen scribbles out- she is still my baby and I love her to the moon and back. She sure is giving me a taste of my own medicine. I was told that my own child would be my payback. With that being said, Heaven help my Mom!

Anyway, the end result of Mattellen's mishap. I made her do 10 write offs. 'I will not scribble out notes.' Before she started them, she said do I have to put a period at the end of the sentence. Um, yes child you do.

I also made her write her teacher an apology letter. Her first letter went like this: 'Dear Ms. Hartman, I am so very sorry that I scribbled out the note you wrote to my mom. I won't do it again. Will you please forgive me? Love, Mattellen.'
I did not let her take that to school. I was afraid the teacher would think that I made her ask for forgiveness. I let her know that Ms. Hartman forgave her & she only needed to apologize. Her new note said: 'Ms. Hartman, I am so very sorry that I scribbled out the note that you wrote my mommy. I will never do that again. Love, Mattellen'

The teacher took her note and thanked her for the apology. Pray for me. I have a feeling I have a few long years ahead of me. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

Here's to being a geek, that's what my husband said...

So, I have never blogged before.

Anyway, I decided tonight that I would start a blog. As soon as I said, I am going to blog, my husband immediately called me a geek. He said 'what in the world are you going to blog about?' Then something like 'I'm gonna blog you.' And so on...he continued. I thought, why not make this blog about him, since he thinks I am so uncool now.

He even asked me if I wanted tape for my glasses, LOL. What a terd.
Although, I am super in love with that terd no matter if he thinks I am a geek for blogging or not. 

He and I just bought our first house, we have been married a little over a month. We got married 1 day after our 3 year anniversary. Well, our 'meeting' anniversary. It took Kevin 6 months to put a 'title' on our relationship. Took him 6 more months to tell me that he loved me. Although, I had already sorta told him. I will never forget how he said it either 'I love ya terd' Yep, I honestly didn't expect anything more. I was always "terd" to him until a year or so ago. Then I became, baby, sweetie, honey, all the typical lovey dovey names.   I got a little mad at him for some reason, I am sure I had a right to be mad (maybe). In the midst of me telling screaming/yelling at him why I was mad, I said something along the lines of 'I JUST LOVE YOU THAT'S ALL' then the awkward moment of silence started. Whatever.

Kevin was hell bent that he was NOT going to have a girlfriend much less fall in love. HA! His plan didn't quite work out so well, huh?

I remember when we first started 'talking.' He told me not to text him a lot because that is what 'crazy' girls do. Needless to say, I was terrified to even text him after that statement. We met on September 23rd, went to dinner and hung out at his apartment. We went on another date later that week and so on...then he left to work out of town, also decided he was moving back to Waverly (his hometown) and I thought well this is it, I will never see this guy again. Guess, I was wrong too. I see him every day & I love it.

Then we decided to throw our kids into the mix. They are almost the same age, Hayden is a few months older than Mattellen. Hayden is a spitting image of his dad. Looks like him, acts like him, gets mad and crosses his arms like him, you get the picture...and Mattellen well, she is my mini-me. We do not look quite as much alike as the boy's do, but there are some similarities. She does act like me- smart mouth, sassy, out spoken, and so on...again you get the picture. Put us all together and we are one big happy family!


On June 27th, 2011 Kevin popped the question. I knew it was coming, I helped him pick out the ring. I just had NO IDEA when. I really wasn't expecting it to be in our living room when I came home from work. I thought Kevin would have made a big deal out of it, not because he felt like he needed to or because he wanted to (he is very conservative and we all know I am not) but because he thought I would want a big deal. He even consulted with my friend, Alicia. She gave him some ideas and they came up with July 4th during fireworks. I guess Kevin couldn't wait that long. Anyway, I came home, went to the mailbox, walked back in the house, and found Kevin on one knee. I grabbed his face and tried to kiss him, knocked the ring out of his hand, and his response was 'I have not even asked you yet' So, we started the process again. I stepped back and allowed him room to breathe and then it happened. 'Baby, will you marry me?' Of course, I said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then I had to Facebook it- you know how the saying goes "It's not official until it's on Facebook"

September 24th, 2011. I became Lindsay Adams.