Happy Birthday Saige July 29th 2005

My 7 year old going on 17 had a birthday today.  Here are the pictures of the big event.  Brandon turned 15 on the 22nd so we had one big party this year.  Thank you to all my friends and family who came.  The kids had a wonderful time. I love this picture of Saige at the end of the night when we took her hair down. Dwayne had to head out early for his work but not before Austin got his picture taken with him and Khar. Khar looks so scary but he's gentle and loving except when you have a bomb. You can't go wrong with earrings. Brandon got his first cell phone. My mom and her favorite grand daughter. Father and son. Sweet as can be. Me and Saige. Looks like I ate too much cake.

Uhaul Update

My home office is set up in what used to be our dining room. It's the only room we were able to hard wire the network connection which is required for my job. On many days Dwayne will be sitting in the family room playing Modern Warfare while listening to me chat on the phone in the background. "Why are you so sweet and nice on the phone all the time when in real life you never talk to me that way?" Dwayne asks offensively. "Because you're not paying me $3.50 for every 7 minutes of my time", I replied. Yes, it's true on the phone I sound happy, chipper, sweet, and thoroughly engaged by my customers needs. I laugh, give compliments, and give a God awful amount of smiling service in order to make a sale. Dwayne knows that is not the real me. He knows I am defiant, bitchy, irritable, sarcastic, blunt, opinionated and cocky 95% of the time. He obviously married me for that rare 5% of pure loveliness that comes out on a rare occasion.

 I'm starting to hate the days he is home while I am working because I knows it bothers him that I can be a charmer 8 hours straight then get off the phone and I'm back to my rotten self. My job is like being an actress. I probably would have fared well as a prostitute in another life.

 This being the first job I've ever had that I am paid based on the amount of "sales/reservations" I make I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it but after a few weeks of training I have found "sales" is the best type of job for a person like myself. FINALLY, a job that the harder I work, the more I get paid. In all past positions, the harder I worked, the more work they gave me, at the same damn pay. I was number one Financial Aid deal closer in the quickest amount of time at The Art Institute, and instead of being rewarded with more money, time off, or better hours, I was handed more work, longer hours and more stress.

 One of the best things about working at Uhaul is NO PAPERWORK, NO FOLLOW UP, and absolutely nothing to think about (work wise) after I clock out. I spent years stressed out thinking about my job and all the stuff I hadn't finished when I should have been sleeping. Now, at bedtime, I get to actually sleep. It's a whole different world and I like it, I like it.

Everyday I look at Aiden and he keeps changing. Aiden and Saige both had bloodwork done this week and Aiden is healthy as can be, 75 percentile for height and 95% for weight. Saige is at 50% height and 50% weight for her age. Saige was found to have high cholesterol which is at 220, when she should be at 170. I can only imagine it's because she likes butter, eggs, bacon, cheese, and icecream. Skinny as she is we are now limiting the "bad" foods.

Spa Day

Saige has been bugging me to do a facial with cucumbers for quite some time. Tonight I finally had 20 minutes to spare. She was so excited to hang out and get beautified with her mommy. I had never used cucumbers on my eyes before but let me warn you that they do sting if the juice drips in your eyes.

The Truth about Family Trips

Dwayne and I always start off thinking it is a good thing to take the kids on family trips, but in reality it is not. It's always a huge expense, huge stress, and there is little appreciation from the kids for anything we do. We often wonder if our parents felt the same or did God just deal us a bad hand.

 We started off going to the Lava Tube near Flagstaff for an adventure in a dark cave that took me and Dwayne about an hour and a half last time we went without children. For the first 10 minutes Andrea cried as it took her that long to move down 10 feet of rocks. I thought at this pace we should be out of this cave sometime next week. Eventually things started speeding up although Dwayne had to hold Andrea and Brandon's hand the ENTIRE time so he was completely exhausted by the time we got out of there. The whole hike took over two hours. We were most proud of Brandon because with his scoliosis we weren't sure if he was going to be able to hike the mile and half.

 Our "cabin in the woods" hotel sucked. It was old, nasty, and so close to I-17 we could see it from our room. Unlike the picture this place was not the cozy, comfortable room it appeared. Within 5 minutes in the room the kids were all fighting and throwing all their clothes and pillows all over the place while running around like barbarians and locking each other out of the room. The beds had the thinnest sheet we ever saw and Dwayne was sure there was bed bugs "somewhere" on the bed. Why dirt came out of the bathroom faucet we may never know. Although I packed Aiden's bag, he had taken out all of clothes and replaced them with stuffed animals so he had to wear dirty pants the second day of the trip.

 The kids bitched and moaned about food whether we got them some or not. "I don't like hamburgers!" "I don't want!" and "I'm not eating there!" were constant moans we heard yet like fools we spent over $200 feeding these whiny mouths in 2 days. My biggest disappointment is the cafe in Munds Park has been shut down permanently. I stupidly let the kids pick out what they wanted to do on day 2 of the trip and they picked Meteor Crater, so after eating at Coco's where Saige and Andrea announced the eggs were inedible and Saige said she was going to the bathroom to throw them up I took the wheel and drove us 20 minutes in the wrong direction before realizing I was on the wrong highway.

 Saige began kicking Dwayne's seat from behind and he got mad and yelled at her to stop. She began crying hysterically and I told him she was trying to move her seat back. He turned to her to say he was sorry and asked if he could help her move the seat and she yelled she did not want him to do anything for her, she flew off her seatbelt and flung herself over the seat to the third row like an insane monkey. It took about 20 minutes of total meltdown before she finally calmed down.

 When we arrived Dwayne practically flipped out that it was $65 for our family to see a stupid hole in ground. The kids were less than impressed and wanted to leave about 5 minutes after getting there. We forced them to go into the museum and watch a video before we left about 45 minutes after getting there. We made it back into Flagstaff where we stopped at Five Guys Burgers for lunch. Andrea and Saige refused to eat there so they just watched the rest of us eat our $40 lunch. When we arrived back it only took 17 trips into the house to remove the 2 days worth of trash and luggage we had taken on the trip. I'm not sure how one overnight trip would make 4 loads of laundry but it did. I made Dwayne promise we would not take the kids on another trip until at least January next year. I need a vacation from this vacation.

Summertime Bordem

Saige is so bored she played dress up by herself with her favorite stuffed pig. Kahr was eyeing the pig as a play toy.