Give me a break!!!

The other day, I had my usual brush with bad luck, and our new labtop cord stopped working for some reason. This happened right after I posted my story of the River House part 3. So the haunting continues.....

Well, anyways our car broke down too, all the way at Jason's work. That was a ton of fun, spending all day Friday getting it home. Don't you just love it when luck seems to be turning a corner and then something new happens? And most of all, when you have whiny kids at you at the same time?

I love my kids but one thing I can't stand is being hot, stressed, and having a kid whine for something or for nothing, because they aren't getting their way. Give me a break. They know better, why do they think they can get their way by acting like this? I have never caved in for anything. I don't beat them either (maybe I should start), when they crying like a someone ran over their dog, I ask them why, once. And then I try to block it out, but sometimes they get louder and louder, and then start screaming, they hate me, all because I wouldn't buy them a stupid stuffed animal cat! Well, I decided to start getting a little more creative to try to combat these actions. I do of course ground them, and they just get madder and louder, until their voice almost runs out. This week, with all the crap I am already dealing with, my oldest daughter tried to force me to take her to the mall to buy a stuff animal cat, that she doesn't even have the money to buy, plus she has so many of. Her whining, and crying, "My kitten!", over and over, made me want to burn all of the ones she had! But I kept my cool, and I did go to the mall, and went into the very store she wanted to go and asked the store people if it was free, and they told me the price, and then I told her, "even if it was free, and their where a billion of them, I would not allow you to have one, because of the way you acted!" and then we left the mall, with her crying of course, and threatening me, and I made her go into the house while I went to the the store. She was afraid of why I was so quiet. So she thought about doing dishes to make me happy.
Then on Friday, I told Erick, since we are going to Harrisonburg to get the car, that I would just check out what the prices were for a new cable at Circuit City. Jason and I had already to decided that we would try to get the cable through warranty and we had already told him this. We went there and the cheapest cord was $89.00, so I said, "that's what I thought". But Erick was having a cow, that we were leaving the store without it! So for 15 mins. at least, he whaled and cried about not being able to get on the computer, and it was all my fault! Give me a break! Because of his actions, we took them straight home, and Jason and I went out to dinner and to a ballgame all by ourselves!
I am not the meanest mom in the world like they think I am, but a few months ago, Jason and the kids had a fit because I made them beef stew for dinner, instead of buying pizza. I hate cooking but they get what they get, and it really ticked me off! So the whole family bickered and I, well...I, just told them I was sick of it! And I left without saying anything... I decided to go to the movies! I went and saw Vantage Point, all by myself. I really enjoyed it. After the movie, I thought about going for a ice cream, but I called home instead.. I guess they did care, the kids begged me to come home! Maybe, that is what I need to do once in a while, just give myself a break!

The haunting of the River House? Part 3

There was no scientific proof that it was indeed, haunted, only eye witness accounts from myself and siblings. Do we have a over active imagination? Perhaps, but I know what I saw, heard, and felt.

Ever since we moved into the house, we heard noises that we couldn't explain. The old wooden floors made so much noise to walk on, the stairs creaked, and the stair railing was loose and made noises too. My siblings and I were constantly fighting, I guess because we were sick of each other. My dad would be gone most of the time, and we had nothing to do. At night, we kept our doors open. We would only sleep upstairs knowing if others were up there too. At first it sounded like someone walking around downstairs, thinking it was my mom, I dismissed it. Then there were a couple of times where we heard footsteps going up the stairs. We either, screamed for our mom or was too scared to move. I usually laid real still, under the covers and kept my eyes closed, because I was afraid of seeing something.

One night, I heard crunching sounds in the hall closet. For a couple of days it went on, only when it was night. It was really messy in there and I assumed it was a rat. I haven't seen any rats up to this point, but the holes they made were huge! So, finally one morning, I couldn't stand it any longer. I went into the closet and moved things around and I found the scariest looking giant black beetle, with huge pincher's in there! It was as big as the beetles I have seen in the zoo! I freaked out of course, it really was that big! We killed it with bug spray and a broom. Problem solved! But then the noises were downstairs, and my mom heard them too. It was in the kitchen, and in the cabinets. We never seen them, but the rats had been having a feast on our cereals and on our bag of popcorn.

I finally got to see how big they really were when I went down into the basement. My parents didn't allow us to go down there and I didn't know why. One day I did, and I looked around. It had old cobwebbed, covered stairs and a dirt floor. The smell was musty. The basement was a single room with with one light. On the left of it, was a passage way leading to the storm doors outside. I could see a little bit of light coming from it, but it was still really dark. The walls were a dark grey brick and there was a large hole in it by the area underneath the stairs. I was too afraid to look in the hole. When I walked towards the storm door, I saw a huge dead rat laying in my path! It was at least the size of an eight week old kitten! I showed my dad, he couldn't believe how big they were either.

A night after our first Christmas there...My dad was gone again. All the lights were on, and my sister and I were making a can chicken noodle soup in the kitchen. The kitchen was located just to the right of the dining room, where we suddenly heard my sister's ten speed bike, still in the box fall to the ground. It was loud enough, that my mom could hear it in the living room, while she was watching TV. My sister and I went over to the large box and looked at it. I noticed that it was standing against the basement door, and it was slightly open! So I shut it and put the box back. We walked back into the kitchen and it fell again! I turned around, the basement door was open! So then we shut it, and ran over to my mom to tell her. She didn't even get up, she thought it was nonsense. So we took a large green stool out of the living room, scooted it towards the door, which was open again, moved the bike box to lean against the table, and firmly put the the stool against the door. So I stirred our boiling hot soup and began to pour it into bowls and then I heard the sound of the stool scraping on the floor! It was a tiny bit, but the basement door was open again! We left it open, and my mom finally came to see it. She closed it and when she left, I opened it back up just a crack, because I couldn't stand to hear the stool moving again. My sister saw me do this and accused me of doing it all in the first place. I told her, " of course I didn't dummy! You were with me!"

I can't remember if anything else happened, just the occasional flapping sounds coming from the small attic door upstairs. My parents heard them too. They would open it up and see nothing in there. It could have been bats, I suppose. I just kept going to bed afraid when I heard something and I would hum church songs, over and over, until I fell asleep.

Living In The River House... Part 2

Shortly after moving in the River House, I discovered that there was a calico wild cat living under the shed. I got to know her and I called her Kitty. She became a awesome cat. She got pregnant and bore four kittens in the chicken coup. Kitty was a awesome hunter, she even hunted a full sized rabbit once, and fed it to her kittens. It was like something out of national geographic or something because there was fur and blood everywhere! Her wild kittens would follow her into the woods and into the cornfield, all four in a row. Kitty did not care for dogs! One day a pack of wild dogs came onto the edge of our property. I sat on the porch watching. She and the kittens lit up their fur and she actually chased them away! So then on, she was known as our guard cat. At night, I heard a scratching on the window of my bedroom while I was in bed. I was almost too scared to move, until I heard a meow. It was Kitty, on the roof of the front porch! How she got there, I had no idea. I ended up having to let her in because she wouldn't go away. I have no idea how she got on that roof because it was so tall.

As I lived in that house, my siblings and I had basically nothing to do. We had no friends, and no cable. We explored the woods, and we would walk down the road to visit a field that had ponies. Or down the other way, to visit a Morgan horse in her pasture. We discovered a small run down empty house to explore. I would tell my younger siblings that it was haunted and I would scare them about it. It was hard to walk through because of all the plants and things grown around it, and in it. But that was all we could do until my dad put up a tire swing in our yard.

About the house, I never felt easy in it, unless I was in my bedroom. I had it looking so pretty and clean, my room was the only one to have a temple picture in it, because I got it when I went for baptisms. It made me feel safer, I also kind of blessed it in my own way. As for the rest of the house, it never was blessed. My parents were active in church but not fully converted. I had only been a member for a little more than a year at this time and before it, I didn't pray or know anything about any kind of church. My dad was a truck driver and we hardly seen him. At night all of my siblings and I would usually sleep with my mom, down in her room. Nobody liked being upstairs alone. One night when I was sleeping upstairs in my bed, I heard my mom yelling down in the hallway. I got up and came down the stairs quickly. All of the lights were off, and it was super foggy outside. Couldn't see past the porch. Our front door was covered in glass and had no curtains on it. I didn't see anything through it, but my mom was holding a shot gun and pointing it towards it. She told me to go to bed. And she was rude about it, and so I did, but I didn't sleep, I just assumed it was wild dogs again.

In the morning, I asked her, "what happened?" She said she was in her bed, (her room was covered in windows too, with no curtains) and she heard someone outside. So she looked out the window and she saw a shadow of a man down by our tree. So she grabbed for a gun and by that time, he was on the porch. He was a lost drunken black man who wanted inside for some reason. She didn't open the door, she didn't have too. When she told him she had called the cops and she will shoot him if he didn't go away, he got the hint and left. We never found out who he was. If he knew anything about the local police, we had just one fat lazy sheriff that would take him a hour or more to arrive, if he was called. Living in that house was scary without my dad, for all of us. But my mom would never admit to it, just never! Even when she had to have heard the stuff we did! To Be Continued....

The River House

When I moved to a small town named Waterford, Ohio from S.L.C., I spent six grade to one month in 8th grade there, during that time. My grandpa, knew of a bargin deal on a house for us to move into, that was a civil war home, by a river. The house over looked a dirt road, then a corn field, and then the river. The home sat on a couple of wooded acres, in which our neighbors were nowhere in site! My parent's bought the home from a local bank, who said the people who lived there went missing, and nobody would consider buying it other than them. When we first saw the house, we thought it was huge! It was white, had no shutters, had a full length covered porch, and had it's own private driveway that lead to the back of the home, where it had a shed, a chicken coup, and a small barn.
I went with my uncle, and my dad to investigate the home. My grandpa said we were going to need the horse trailer to throw away all of their stuff. When I walked inside, it stunk so badly! The first room we came into was the kitchen. The refrigerator was full of rotten stuff and the cupboards had giant rat holes chewed into them. The table had what it appeared to be, rotten breakfast food, still on the plates, as if they just got up from the table and left! In the living room, it was painted an ugly colored dark rose, there was a dead Christmas tree leaning in the corner, some old furniture and rat poop all over the wooden floors. The dining room and den where much the same, and when I went up the creaky old narrow stairs, at the top was a little door, in which I was afraid to open.
The top floor had three bedroom areas, all with no closets. The first small room,was a baby's room, painted yellow. It had baby's things and a crib inside. The other small room was surrounded by four windows (three of them were floor length), close together, in which it later became my room. It had wall paper and some of it was torn, and in that torn area, the was a nesting of warps. There was a small closet area, that had a window but no door, it was just filled with trash. The other side of the top floor was a room the size of half the house. It had a black and white checked floor, trash, beds, and a red brick chimney from the fireplace below. The worst thing, besides the rat poop, feathers, and trash, was the outline of fur, perfectly shaped like a dark grey cat. But the freaky thing was, there were no bones or blood. Just fur! It had to be scraped off the floor!
After we cleaned it up, I painted my room a sky blue color and I had no choice but to have my bed next to the windows. At night, we discovered that it would be pitched black outside, except for this annoying bright light that was located outside, on the top of the side of the house, where one of my windows were. Because of it, all sorts of bugs would be on that window and even bats could be seen. ( we had a bright idea to get a fishing pole and try to hook one of those bats) If it wasn't pitch black outside, it would be extremely foggy! So bad, when we are on the porch, you can't see any of the large trees we had. I have a scary fog story, and more about the house, in which I know it was haunted but that is for a future posting! To be Continued....

(The river house is simlar to this one, but was on a larger scale, it had a fireplace on left side, and had more windows. Other than that, it sures looks much the same.)

I Must Be Getting Old!

I love music, all kinds of music and I am finally getting to the point that some of the new stuff is annoying! I always said and thought, that I would never be stuck in my own times and just listen to my era of music, but I find myself doing just that! I used to love anything that had a good beat, regardless of the words, but now as I drive, I sometimes hear what my kids are singing and it really disturbs me! It makes me mad at myself for letting them listen to that crap! So now I find myself tuning into the modern rock station, in which I love anyways but all of the time. They sometimes have political meaning songs but I don't mind, it's better than singing about "girl's kissing girls and liking it", "beautiful girl you make me suicidal", and tons of other songs that talk about stripping, panties, putting a baby in you, cheating on girlfriends, and being a convict...
It's awful, I thought that the song back in my day of "Oh me so horny" was bad, but these songs have the f word bleeped out quite a lot. I like Justin Timberlake, he's a talented dude, but if you were to listen to his songs on the album, you would realize how many curse words he has in his songs. The B word is not even considered a curse word anymore! It's just plain sad, no wonder kids today grow up so fast, most kids listen to music and idolize the people singing them.

I am really disappointed of Miley Cyrus, she seems to be turning into a younger Brittney Spears. It won't be long, she will ruin herself and take our daughters down with her. (Check out pictures above, from little girl, to star, to messed up, confused teen. It's gets even worse, look up her name on search for images, and you will get really bad photos of herself that she posted on her myspace page. It's so bad, I can not post them on my site!) Who is she, to be important enough to pay a $100 a ticket to see? I wouldn't pay to see her even if the tickets were $20..maybe $10 though. But all this hype about her, is just hype that her management paid for, but yet people buy into it anyways. Viv has one thing Hannah Montana, and that's it. I am not going to buy anymore of her crap. Because in like two years,(may not even that long) she will become either a wash out or a Lindsey Lohan, or both. But nevertheless, I don't want my daughters using her as a example. Just like some are, by getting pregnant and 14 and 15 years old, so they can have a baby like Jamie Lynn Spears.
As for music, it's a battle, but at least I am trying to teach my kids it's not about the tune but about the words. I like some hard rock, and some people automatically assume it's bad, but it isn't unless the words are. Metallca for instance, are very talented, if you ever listen to their words to most of the songs, not that bad either. But it's true, if it does give you a bad feeling, you should not be listening to it. But anyways, I guess I must be getting old!

Da Dump... Da Dump...DA DUMP!

Okay my title was suppose to be the description of the Jaws theme song, was I even close? Well that is what I am going to confess, my worse fear, sharks, and every thing that lives in the water. The reason why I am mentioning this is because while I was at the pool tonight, I panicked when I noticed a large grey stain on the bottom of the pool! It was in a oval shape, and I raced to the side to get out. I can't stand it, I know it's impossible, my parents have ruined me, because when I was young, they let me watch those horrible movies. Because of it, I couldn't use a toilet that had blue cleaner in it, and I couldn't take a bath that was too deep. I hate seeing the water ripple, I hate looking through water, I hate seeing under water scenes in movies or shows ( though I am getting better at watching it), I hate water beds, I will never scuba dive or snorkel, I hate to swim under water, and I hate looking at large aquariums. And not only because I watched the Jaws movies, but because of a few things that happened to me that made it worse.
For one, when I lived in Fairbanks, in fourth grade, I received swimming lessons in a giant u shaped pool. One end had swallow water, and the other was very dark and deep. One night I dreamt about going to the pool, getting into my end with my friends and then my instructor told us that we were going to go into the deep part with life jackets on for the first time. So in my dream we did, we went to the right side of the deep end and I jumped in first. I started to swim into the center and then a loud ringing bell happened! Suddenly, the instructor yelled, get out of the pool! And on the bottom, there was a huge grate that opened up and a big white shark came out under me and I was on it's back! I woke up and the next morning, on the bus, I told my friend Rhonda what happened exactly in my dream. She was a beginning swimmer too. When we got there, the dream came true! Well not exactly, but it all did to the point that I did jump in first, and held onto the side, then right afterwards a loud bell happened! The instructor told everybody to get out! I couldn't get out fast enough! I then noticed the grate, I was scared to death, and was my friend was too. Then the instructor came back, he said it was a phone call, that made that sound. We hard never heard it before that day.
I have had several bad shark dreams, and I wake up in the night, thinking I am on a raft and a shark might bite my foot off if it is too close to the edge of the bed. When I wasn't much older, we went to Epcot center and I got lost there in the Living Seas. My parents teased me, because I didn't want to go in, and I just sat where I thought I was safe. When everyone ditched me, I went looking for them and I went down a ramp that had aquariums on both sides, I looked at the floor the whole time. When I got to the end, it was nothing but glass, I looked up and saw a sign saying the word shark and then I saw one in the mist of the very blue water coming towards me! I ran and I felt dizzy and shaky, it is awful to be so scared!
Since I have grown a little older, I have tried to over come this fear by watching shark shows, drawing sharks, reading about them, and even going swimming in the ocean, but I don't go more than 3 feet deep. (Great Whites can as low as 3 feet deep) I love looking at whales, from the shore! Once I was with a friend and her dad in his boat, and when I was looking at the water I saw a flash of white near by, I screamed, Michelle seen it too and suddenly the boat tipped a little, we grabbed each other and sat on the floor in the center of the boat. It was a curious orca, that kept on swimming by, so Michelle's dad had decided to take us home.
I hope in the future this will go away, but every time I hear about it on the news, I want to hear more and I get nervous about going back to the beach.

BFF!

Through the years, I have moved a lot! More than normal, all over this country! I can remember all of my best friends that I would make, that I would try to keep forever, until we just stopped talking to each other and that would be the end.
My first best friend in was in Utah, in kindergarten, Kim. Remember I stole her kitten and broke into her house? That was pretty much the end for that. Then I made another in Wyoming, I would put army ants with black ants together, in a old see through newspaper bag, to watch them fight for fun. We lived in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere! I didn't live there long to remember her name, but she had a bunch of younger siblings and one day when I was at her home, she invited me to go ride with her and her dad to go snowplowing. He snowplowed streets at night and I said okay. I ran back to my home to ask for permission, but didn't go inside, I was afraid they were going to leave me, so I told them I could go anyways and went with them. It was so much fun! But when I came back, the police were at my house, looking for me!
Then in second grade, I lived in some apartments in CA, I had a friend that was a real girly girl, I spent the night with her once and we dressed up and watch the Miss America pageant, it was my first time. We had a bunch of fun together, I can't remember her name either, but she didn't hang around me much in the apartment complex, you see, I was a ring leader of sorts, in which I would gather all of the neighbors and get them to do bad things! Like for fun, I said "Let's go find all of the snails we can and put them in this piece of old newspaper!" So, several kids did, we had so many of them, they would try to escape off of it, so I said hurry! Then we closed the one side of it and I told them we can stomp on it to hear the crunch! I opened it afterwards, some were still alive without their shells. And then we made grasshopper soup (I tried to get the smaller kids to eat it), I pulled all the legs off of them. I did that to dandy long legs for fun too. Then for our biggest endeavor, we put mud pies on everything in the entire playground! I won't even tell you what we did to the slide so no one would go down it! Good Times!
Then back in third grade in WY again, in a different town, at the end of the year, I was sat down with my two friends, Bobbi and Peter, and we were told we had to go back to third grade again because we talked to much, horsed around, and didn't know our times tables! My heart broken because I loved that teacher, Mr. Harmon that looked like Clark Kent! Me and my friends, rode the town together, we would go as far as we could! We would play Bloody Mary too, and scare other kids. We even got to miss recess together, and there were plenty of times that we had our noses against the walls.

Then I moved to Alaska for fourth grade, I had a best friend named Shelly there. She was a good girl. She didn't play hockey, football, soccer, or king of the mountain with me. But we wrote our first book together and we were tight friends. After I moved in the middle of 5th grade, she came to visit me in Salt Lake once. I moved again to Ohio that summer before six grade, and we lost contact! I was really sad.
I lived in Ohio for 6th, 7th and one month of 8th grade. I had two best friends. Samantha and Judy. They would come over and ride my horse, Then I moved to Alaska again, were I met some current friends, Stephanie and Shawnessy. Stephanie was a good influence on me, she was seriously dedicated to her school work. She got me into DECA and she helped me pass my math classes. I loved her family as my own. She knew everybody, and everybody knew her. She later became my maid of honor and we used to see each other once a year, for five years. But we hardly talk but once a year, now. Shawnessy, was nicknamed my shadow by my dad, we had so much fun together, we were a lot alike as far as trouble goes. She introduced me into international music, opera, Paul Simon, REM and Saturday Night Live. We tested how far we can go, and do. We never did or tried drugs! But almost everything else. We still talk time to time, not as often as I would like. She is still a fun person to hang with and know.
I moved to Utah for half of my Junior year, and met right away, Shannon. We really did some crazy things! I can't even say what we all did. We used to wish that she could marry Brian, Jason's relative of the same age, and I marry Jason so we can be related. It came true! But we had a falling out after I got married first. It was sad. After that, we would only see each other for family reunions. She and Brian just recently divorced.
During my senior year, Jason was my best friend, and still is! We have moved a bunch of times since then, and I have only really connected with a couple of people in various wards I have attended. But never to the level of what once was. It's hard to say goodbye to friends, and keep in contact afterwards, so I try not get too attached. I made friends with Kelly in Ohio, we went through some rough times together, but her support was awesome! Then in Utah, we met the Shirley family, we loved their kids! Kristie is like a little sister to me. I loved helping her out with her kids and giving her advice. We played cards, video games and board games together. We cried when we left them back in St. George. And now we are here, and I am happy to say, I am really enjoying the friends that I making here. Enspite of me telling someone that I didn't want to make any, because we would properly move again, that was rude thing for me to say. I have been here for three years now, and I have tried to move away! But I am stuck here, and I am happy, and I really like the friendship that I share with some wonderful ladies here. I have to mention Shawna as being one of them because we have so much in common. We know we aren't perfect, but we don't judge each other either. Except, she is a much better cook and wife than I am! Jason, my husband even mentioned that we ought to do the wife swap thing! (tv show, not for real) Funny huh? I know that I have ranted on but I really wanted to get this out there, so that new friends know where I am coming from. I love sharing my goofy stories and experiences, and this is the best way to do it.

Number from Hell?

You know how when you are laying there, you may have the greatest thoughts and realizations? I do, all of the time. Last night I didn't get much sleep, for some reason I was thinking about the numbers in my newest home phone. I laughed and thought no big deal it has three 6's in a row, after all, I did ask for a easy number to remember! So far, this number has been great, nobody must of owned it for a long time because everytime, with out fail, out of all the times I have moved somewhere, I would get calls for someone else, and I hate that! Sometimes the calls would last years! But then, I have just thought about my cell phone number I had gotten last, it too has three 6's in a row! And also, on my knighthood game, a person I stole changed their picture to say the three 6's, but when I play with them, it don't. (it only shows up on my facebook page, I can't imagine what you must think) How come I didn't notice that before? I have had the cell phone number for at least a year too. Weird? Does it mean something? I guess if I want it to. My mother in law believes that everything happens in threes (three sixes?), she is a faithful member, wise old woman and temple worker,I can agree with her. We have been cursed lately, well for the last year, and strangely, I am now recalling that my worst troubles started around the time I received that cell number.!
No joke, I do believe that everything happens for a reason! Even when I don't want it to, or like it. I have had alot of bad luck and it seems to be getting worse. But some good things have come along to counter some of the bad. So am I cursed? I feel that something has been attacking us, and I have been praying, but not like I should. I am not doing all I can to combat this curse, but we are dealing with it, and we remain faithful. Should I change my phone numbers? It would be nuisance, after all it's a miracle Jason can remember them. Maybe I am just being superstitious, I do have a big imagination. I have had some past experiences with the occult, not that I believed in it or anything, but just foolish kid's stuff. Now that I have admitted that, friends please don't avoid me. I am not going to get into this crap, because it brings on a negative energy. I may in future posts, share my ghost stories though! What do you think?

Curtains For ME?

Okay, don't you love it when you try something to get your way, and prevail? I get great satisfaction from this. Whether it's from winning a game of UNO, passing all the levels of a video game or even if it's just a argument.
Today, I went to Lowes', (I love that store, I wish I could have a shopping spree there, because it's so cool!) to buy some screws. For anyone who knows me, I never buy just one thing, I am always looking for bargins. So, I went pass the curtain area and I saw that the valance that I wanted was still there, but it's display had a sticker on it for $10.98. Two weeks ago I noticed this, but I controlled myself and didn't get it. So today, I saw that there were only a few left. The package sticker says $29.98, but I was determined to find out for sure. (Yeah, can you believe that one valance, similar to the one in the picture, can cost that much?) So I grabbed two of them, went to check out, and of course it wasn't on sale. So she called for a price check, and to make a long story shorter, three people later, I stood my ground, and got a $40.00 discount!
At first I called my mom, who hates it when I buy curtains, she was proud of me. Then I called Jason, who also hates it when I buy curtains, he just said okay. Then after I called them I was like, "Yes! this is my way of sticking it to the Man!'' But am I?
There is a moral to be learned...it's true, if you keep on trying, you may prevail at some point. I just wish that my same determination to win a game, would be used for good, rather than evil. If I really tried to lose weight, would I succeed? If I really tried to budget my money better, would I be rich? If I tried to follow all the commandments, the Profits, and the Holy Ghost, etc., would I be different? The answer is yes and no, I could succeed if I tried, but maybe it would back fire some how. I am not sure, maybe I was wrong to insist on having the discount because some stupid worker had put the wrong clearance sticker on the display. BUT, it was there for at least two weeks and how come the department manager did not notice? Well, I am sure if you work for Lowes', what I did isn't a good thing, because it all trickles down to them somehow. Everything trickles down to the consumer some how. In these times, companies are trying to ride out the bad times and people are getting more desperate, greedy, and poor.
I think just about everyone can agree, on what I am saying except for a elect few like my dentist. My dentist is a cranky, old, and opinionated man, who felt it was his duty to talk about the problem with America, while working on Clark's teeth. He said crap like there is nothing wrong with the economy, that we aren't in a recession, that people aren't losing jobs and that there were plenty...he went on and on! I just tried to let it go, even if I felt like giving him my two cents worth! I didn't, because he was the sort of guy that I couldn't possibly win over no matter what. I guess that is why I have a blog, because I can say what I want. It's freedom of speech, and we can agree or agree to disagree.

A Moose On the Loose!

When I lived in Alaska, things were different with the schools there. It may not seem real but it was, anyone who reads this blog from Alaska, can tell you that Alaskan schools are the best! I can't possibly tell you all the fun adventures I have had at school or during school! Only kids that have been down in the states like I have, can tell the difference. In Fairbanks, it is very cold! If you had a car, you had to have two sets of keys, one to leave the car running while you are in the store, and one to lock it. Our car had a plug that came through the engine, that had to be plugged in, to keep it warm. That was in the eighties, maybe things are different now. But anyways, back to the school thing, school was never closed, unless the power was out. I lived in some apartments above the school on a hill. It was Woodriver elementary. We had only two trails we could take, my siblings and I, to get to school. The woods were thick, and you had no choice but to take either, Butt Breaker Hill or Killer Hill. (I did not name them, the name was know to everyone) Butt Breaker Hill, was a wide slope that was steep in some spots, then level, then steep again, with old tree stumps sticking out here and there. When we took a sled to school, (everyone took either a sled or snow mobile) you had to watch out for those bumps, and be a good steer -er to avoid going into a tree. Killer Hill was like a alpine slope, it went straight down. The only way you could walk up it was to have a walking stick and use the trees on the side to pull you up it. I have stories about sledding accidents, but that is not what I was going to write about today.
When I was in fifth grade, we took our class trip right after school started, so we had some daylight left to go camping. In early fall, we had sun and darkness, just like normal people. The cool thing was, the entire fifth grade got to go camping near Chena Hot Springs, for two nights. We stayed in cabins near the edge of a beautiful lake, girls in cabins on the left side of the mess hall, and boys on the other side. Each cabin had one single light that was automatically shut off at a certain time, and plain cots to sleep on. Our cabin had a big wooden door that had a gap on the bottom, where we could see if someone was out there, and a single wimpy metal hook latch to lock it. The toilet was just a out house that was located behind and between two cabins, behind it, was nothing but a big dark forest. Of course we were scared and cold. We didn't have a adult in our cabin, we also had to share cots. I shared a cot with my best friend Shelly, she was a little bigger than I and I felt squished. To be warm enough, I had all my clothes layered on, with my coat, and a sleeping bag, inside another sleeping bag, and I left just a little hole to where I could breathe, while I slept.
Early on, the girls in my class decided that we would take turns staying awake through the night in case a boy came or even a bear. We were told that we had to use the buddy system to go to out to the outhouse, if we needed to. So we thought, every girl can take a turn staying awake for a hour, then wake the next person when it's their turn and to be the extra buddy if we had too. Well Shelly had her turn and my wasn't until well into the early morning hours, I had no idea when it was, but I did have to do it. When I was awake, I sat up in my spot, between Shelly and the wall, and stared at the soft light that came from the bottom of the door. I could imagine seeing a shadow come by as if it was a bear sniffing through that awful gap. But it didn't happen, the wind did make the door move a little and my heart was pounding! So what do you think happened next?
I fell asleep, but I awoke to screaming, pounding, and the words of a girl saying, "Who was supposed to be on watch?" And then I heard, "Jennie Hale was supposed to be on watch! But she is asleep!" I was just laying there when I heard all of this, while facing the wall. The pound I heard did come from there, but I thought I was dreaming. So then I got up, when a woman came in and told us to stay in our cabin! When she left, we looked outside and there were people standing there talking, that pounding sound came from a moose! A girl from the other cabin went to the outhouse and a moose charged at her and hit the same wall I was facing! The screaming came from her and all of the other girls who heard her screams from the other cabin. As for I, I was really out of it, I was so tired, I just went back to bed while the other girl's stayed awake the rest of the night talking about it. So that is my moose story......

Silly Jen, Tricks Are For Kids!

Some time ago, I use to do stupid things to get a boy's attention. When I began middle school, I became kinda boy crazy. I always would have a crush on someone, sometimes on more than one person, even if I had a boyfriend at the same time. You know that feeling, heart pounds, you dress your best around him, you spray perfume all over, you stare at him when he isn't looking, and when you walk by, you have that one moment of shared glances, that you make sure to smile. I did have friends that were boys, good ol' pals, and then I had a few that I couldn't get the courage to even talk to. Can you believe it? I didn't have the guts?
Well one guy in particular, was Richard. He was sort of shy himself, very tall, well built guy, he was cool, was a upperclassman, he reminded me of a James Dean kind, he was a manly man. His locker wasn't far from mine, and I took advantage of that. I had my own set of tricks I would perform to get him to notice me. I did, the drop everything in front of his locker bit, it worked. I would accidentally bump into him and say sorry. I would ask him questions about school activties and stuff, that I already knew the answer to. And I would walk by numerous times where he worked in the mall with my friends.
One of my best friends, Shawnessy, would join me in the quest and I would in hers. One day, we planned to ride our bikes all the way to his house on a bike trail. His house was a few houses down from the corner of a major road. We figured what time he would be getting off work and be heading home, and that maybe we can get him to stop by. To do this, my friend Shawnessy knew how to get a bike chain off and on. Our plan was to take off one of the chains and pretend we were helpless when he drove by in his Dodge Dakota. BUT, we had some problems. First of all, people kept on stopping by and offered to help us. At that time, he drove right by and parked in his driveway. So we thought we would get the chain on, and ride right in front of his house and have it off again, but he decided to get in his truck and go somewhere! So he drove away, we were really discouraged. So we went back to the corner and then he came back. So we tried again, the chain was off and he didn't notice us. He drove away again, and we decided to quit. But we couldn't get the chain back on! His buddy Phil stopped by and we took his help and when he was going to give us a ride home, Richard had came back to his house again! We totally failed, was it possiable that he did notice us? I guess, but even then I didn't learn.

Just Jen

Cats! and More Cats! Everywhere!

I love cats and I always have, since I was a little girl. I was just a little obsessed with them, like my daughters are today. When I tell you how I got my first kitten, you will certainly think I am a tad bit crazy and maybe you will decide to just stay away from me, but remember I was just a sweet little girl....
When I was a little girl in kindergarten, I was a little over confident, scheming, and cute. I was a brat, even my Aunt admits that being the first grand child, I was spoiled, and I was wild. I was bad enough that when my parents moved me, in that year to another school, I was so terrible in class, that they were forced to drive me back to my old one. That is the story about what I thought, was getting kicked out of school, but that is another story. Anyways, to get to the facts, my best friend Kim lived a street away and her cat had a litter of kittens. She had several in the litter but only one white one, in which I just had to have. Everyday I would come to see them, and I made it clear that I wanted that white one.
One day, they were not home, and I ran to the back of the house to look in the basement window. I could barely see them! So I went to the front door, and went inside! At first, I was greeted by their Irish Settler that was much larger than I, but I wasn't afraid. I thought, since no one was there, why not try to play some music on the record player. They had a big fancy stereo and I couldn't figure out how to get the automatic arm to work, so I may have broke it, I can't really remember if I did. I did make the mistake of leaving the class door open, letting them know I touched it. Then I proceeded down stairs, to snatch my kitten! After I started running home, I noticed a mob of people yelling at me, and they began to follow me home. I will never forget how scared I was, but I thought if I just get there, I would be safe somehow. When I got in the house, I went to my mom in the kitchen, and showed her my kitten. She said we properly couldn't keep it. I told her that Kim gave it to me. Then the door bell rang! I looked out the window, and it was a whole bunch of people on the lawn! I begged my mom not to answer it! I even told her that nobody was there! So then I ran and hid in my room with the kitten, holding it tightly. After that, I got to keep it,but I couldn't stay the night with Kim anymore, and then we moved out of the neighborhood! The kitten eventually got sick and died anyways, properly from being too young or from me not letting it go.
I have three adult cats now and two kittens. I am finally sick of them. Every day of my life, since back then, I have owned a cat or two. My kids have too. My daughter Sabrina is a little too crazy about them. She collects everything about cats, she loves house cats as well as wild cats. She acts like a cat, and when she grows up, she wants to be a cat lady. She always wants to be some sort of cat for Halloween but I try to stir her away from it, it gets old every year, just being a cat. And now I am trying to find a home for my kittens, and you would think it was the end of the world! But we can't have five cats!!!! So somehow I am going to try to find a solution for it. Wish me luck!!!

Me in a Nutshell...

When I swim, I really don't swim, I find every excuse to be lazy, by holding onto a noodle, I kick my feet around, like I have flippers or something. But the thing I like about it most, if I am not being afraid of the water, I picture in my mind, something I saw on a TV show once, I too enjoy the water like these animals,----------->

Yes, I do feel free to float, splash, and kick around in the water like a big elephant. I also have another thing in common with this beast, I too, have a large flat butt! Other similaries include that elephants have wrinkles, so do I. They may feel intimidated when they first walk into a room, so do I. They may have a temper when they get poked and proded, so do I! The females run the show, so do I! They have big feet, so do I. They proberly have a very nasty period, so do I. They have nothing to wear, so do I. And finally, they have cute babies, so do I. I haven't really thought much about what kind of animal I would relate to, I was hoping it would be something more sexier. I don't even like elephants. They stink, and I guess, so do I...