My family is nuts!

Christmas was fun. It started with me getting up much later than I had planned on Christmas Eve. I was seriously behind in my daily quota of sleep and finally caught up, hence the late wake up. After taking forever getting my behind up and ready for the day I went to join in the mayhem at my sister's place. Just about every year for I don't know how long everyone gathers at her place for Christmas. She has the biggest house out of all of us and it just kind of ended up being the gathering place.


For the first time in days the drivers on the road were normal and not maniacs. I have been swearing, biting my nails, and dodging the idiots that have been on the road the last few days. To many close calls to count. Last minute shopping must be the reason for the crazy drivers on the road. When I got there family from far and near along with friends were already gathered there. Many were already well on their way to happy times.

So how is my family nuts? Well......lemme see. I will give you a short description of what we did on Christmas Eve.

Tequila shots with salt and lime.
Dinner of Tamales and Burritos.
Roasting Marshmallows on the fire pit.
Falling over in our chairs.
Playing pool and horseshoes.
Sending the young ones for a beer run. (yes, they were 21)
Fireworks galore.
Chasing each other with fireworks called fire balls.

So you see we don't do the normal things that most families do. Sounds like a party for summer time or the 4th of July huh! The one thing that was missing on the list was the guys didn't go out in the desert to go shooting their guns at varmints like they usually do. The end of night fireworks were the best. I was laughing and thinking this is not a normal Christmas Eve by most peoples standards but I wouldn't change a thing.


Christmas morning I was up early despite being up way to late to work a day shift. I volunteered to work since we were short at the hospital. I have done this lots of times since I am usually by myself and it gives my co-workers a chance to be with their families. Besides, I can miss the first part of the mayhem and go to my sisters when things calm down. After work I went straight to her house, scrubs and all, and made it just as they were serving Christmas dinner. Before I had a chance to eat shots were served up to get me caught up with the others. Can't have me missing all the fun. I actually ate real food and disregarded my diet. I figured I earned it and would deal with any payback and pain later.

There were tons of people at the house. We have a large family and also have tons of friends who came to join us also. Not quite as many as years past but still lots. Some years we have had up to 30 people at the house. Thankfully my sisters house is big enough to handle it. After letting all the good food settle for a bit  another round of presents were opened. Some were wacky like a bag of Funions, a box Zingers, and funny shirts. One, which I gave to my nephew, started an all out war. I gave him a gift certificate to drive either a Ferrari or an Aston Martin. Everyone wanted that certificate and they were all trying to get it, steal it, or bribe it from him. He was smart and hid it right away but during the night others kept looking for it. It was the coveted present for the day.

The rest of the night was spent talking about the old days, catching up on each others lives, playing pool, playing games, looking at the young ones and feeling really old because they are really big now, and spending time with each other.


My family may be nuts but I love them all.

Intermittant posts for the near future.

Hi everyone.

I hope you are all ready for the upcoming holidays. I am. My family had agreed several years ago to only give presents to the kids because of financial issues. This was back to just before the recession was hitting. I have the presents all done with the exception of Morgan. I haven't gotten his yet. I am waiting to see if I can find a better deal on Black Friday, yep I am actually going to brave the madness of the masses and search for a deal. If there is nothing to be had then I will go with the original choice. Teenagers are expensive with their gadgets and I am giving them one big one this year for each of them instead of a bunch of little things.

Example of a boat in the parade

For Thanksgiving this year I am alone because of work. My sis is going to be in Hawaii, the brat, with her family. My mom will be in California celebrating with grandma for the last time in her house since it is for sale. Will be sad to see it go. We have spent many family celebrations in that home for many years and have tons of memories there. Plus having it so close to the beach was convenient for all of us to use for family vacations. If you are in the area, go to Newport Beach/Balboa Island for the Christmas boat parade. It is a sight to see, I have many awesome memories of them growing up. My brother's family will also be there. Should be a fun gathering for grandma. Dad's family will be at his ranch in Reno. He has a big spread there, which I have yet to go see, and all of his family get together for a big dinner there. Yeah, I am a naughty daughter and haven't made time to go check out the place. Need to do that soon. Should make that one of my new year's resolutions.

Bootcamp graduation

Max is currently in training again. He will be shipping back to Afghanistan again. I am not happy but he is a Marine and must go where he is needed. I haven't seen him since he graduated boot camp. He was supposed to come home for Christmas but that has been cancelled. They moved up the date his unit ships out. I figure I won't be seeing him till he comes home, which will be at least a year from now. Guess I know what to wish for on new years.




As for the posts, I will be intermittent in posting because I am finishing up on a project that I have been working on since my surgery. I will tell you all about it when it is done. Between the holidays coming up, work, and the project I just wanted to ask you to be patient and not forget about me.

Grandma & Grandpa's RV

Mom and I were talking friday night catching up on things. We hadn't talked for a week and caught up with everything that was happening in our lives. Towards the end of our conversation she mentioned that one of her neighbors was fixing up an RV to sell. He is a mechanic at a local dealership and picked up one and was working on it. She had been talking to him about it and asked him what he was looking to sell it for. She told me the price. It was a pretty good price. I asked more about it and then after that we ended our call.

After I hung up I got curious and got on the computer and started searching for pictures of the RV. I didn't know what year the RV was but based on the price figured it was an older model. He was working on a Chinook. While searching for pictures I came across pictures of an old Toyota RV that was just like the one my grandparents drove. These two pictures that I found on the internet are like the two that they had.


My dad's parents traveled all the time to different places. Their love was fishing. They loved to fish for trout and went to all the best places to fish. They even had their special bait recipe for it. Marshmallow with fake salmon eggs. That thing was tiny but they loved it. The first one was totalled in a rollover accident. They don't remember what happened and thankfully walked away with only concussions and bruises. Despite the accident they immediately went out and bought another one to go on the road again. Many years were spent on the road in the RV with another couple named Noble and Verda, who also had one, fishing in lakes and rivers all over the country. They weren't full timers but darn close to it.


When I was little they took me fishing a few times but I didn't like it because I could never sit still long enough to be patient and wait for the fish to bite. The last time I caught a fish was when I left my pole sitting on the back of a house boat while inside playing yatzee. I would go back once in a while to check my pole. Late that night I looked out the back sliding glass door and saw my pole slam to the side. I ran out with out thinking and grabbed the pole. Now you need to understand that I was huge and 9 months pregnant at the time. I started reeling in that pole paying careful attention to keep my line away from the boat props. Meanwhile I am yelling over the generator for everyone inside to let them know that I actually caught a fish. That sucker felt like he weighed a hundred pounds and I didn't want to loose him. After what felt like years they wondered where I was and wandered outside. When they realized what was happening they tried to take the pole away from me. "Don't you dare touch that pole. It is mine.!!" I worked hard and reeled in a 5 pound white catfish. He was funny looking. I was so proud of myself for not loosing him and decided that it would be the last fish I ever caught.


Oh, so you know, he didn't taste very good.

Football season in our family

Football Season is here and the kids are in heaven. All four of them are football fanatics. They get it from their father. I don't care for it much. I have a team but not an avid watcher, except for when my team made it to the Super Bowl. Then I was glued to that TV cheering, screaming, and yelling.

How each of the kids picked their team started back in 1995 or so. Zeke and Max were 6 and 4. They would be glued to the TV with their father every weekend watching the games and cheering. I made a simple comment from the kitchen that they couldn't just root for every team. That led to the statement of why not? I continued to cook and left their father to explain the intricacies of that one. After a while their father agreed that they needed to pick their own team. The rule was that they needed to pick a team other than their fathers team, Atlanta Falcons.

What I didn't expect was they called from the living room that I needed to pick a team. I didn't have one.  "I don't know. You go ahead first and let me think about it." They said no, that I had to pick one and they decided I was to go first. I didn't know who to pick. Then I thought where is a good place. I used to live in Arizona and my sister still lives there. Okay, that is a good place. "Whoever is in Arizona." Silence...... "Did you hear me guys." I walked into the living room to a set of disgusted faces and a statement of you are going to never win with that team. "I don't care. That is the team I pick." I have stayed with the Arizona Cardinals since then and after years was finally rewarded when they made it to the Super Bowl. To bad that I lived so close to the stadium at the time and couldn't afford tickets to see them play.

Zeke the oldest went next. He quickly picked the 49'ers. We lived in the San Francisco bay area at the time so it was obvious with 49'ers advertising everywhere that he chose that team.

Max was cute in who he picked. Back then the teams had different uniforms then they do now. Max's favorite color at the time was orange. He thought about it for a while then said "I want Tampa Bay." We all looked at him and asked him why? "Because they have orange uniforms and I like orange." The logic of a 4 year old.

Morgan was born soon after that. I picked up some clothes from the local thrift store and was given some clothes from friends since we were dirt poor at the time. One of them was a cute Green Bay Packer Onesie. Not sure which place it came from. The boys saw that and instantly decided that his team would be Green Bay. Here he was not even a month old and already had a team.

Nicole was the hardest. Right away after she was born Zeke, Max, and their dad argued with me over her team. Since she was born in September they deemed that she needed a team right away and we didn't agree on a team for her. Since she was a girl I decided I had veto rights over all the boys choices. Round and round we went. I suggested the panthers and the looks from them was of stunned horror. "You can't do that to her. They never win. They suck. You have to give her a better team." On and on it went. The three of them went round and round till I got the perfect team. "Okay, I have it. The Vikings." They looked at me confused. "Listen to my logic here. She is a girl, they have purple in their uniform, and blond hair like her. Besides, Max picked a team based on his favorite color orange. So why not pick a team based on purple and blond hair?" They grudgingly agreed.

The football craze still lives on with Morgan playing varsity football at his high school and Nicole working as a watergirl. When she told me she was working as a watergirl the first thing I thought of was the movie Waterboy. They are both loving it and travel often since they live in a small town and there is only a few teams locally to play against. I wanted to take them to a local NFL game on New Years Day when they visit but was horrified at the sticker shock. Those tickets are expensive. Guess it will be the good old boob tube, munchies, and sodas for them like old times.

100th Post

I never believed I could come up with enough stuff to write 100 posts. Much less have 21 one followers so far. I extend a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for following my stories and for all of your comments and support.


How do you celebrate such a milestone......


This way?

Nah!!!!!!!!


This way????

Nope...


This way??????

Not really.

Maybe just this.....

...................jumping for joy at the accomplishment.

Just a simple thanks to you all for listening to my rants, raves, laughter, joy, sadness, and reflections. It has been a crazy year since I started my blog on October 20th. Wonder what the next 100 posts will bring?

Life is busy when you have two teenagers!



Morgan at 4yrs. old

 
I have been a busy bee. Had the kids over for a short vacation. They were only able to visit for a week because of track, camp, football pratice, and other plans for the summer. I hated only having a short time with them but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Nicole at 3 yrs. old

I have slowly realized that having teenagers is sooooo different then kids. They are harder to please and only expensive electronics keep them happy. I had ordered a new Xbox 360 from a discount warehouse only to receive it the same day they left. Bummer since I had gotten it for them to enjoy when they were here. They did have fun but spent more time online facebooking and texting friends than swimming in the pool. When they were younger I had to bribe them to get them out of the pool.

16 and 6'4" tall already!

A couple of friends of theirs had moved away to another complex and after a lot of pleading and begging I let them go over to visit and stay overnight. They promised to come back the next morning since it would be our last day together but I was a nice Mama and let them spend the day there so they could spend more time with their friends. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices to make our kids happy. If it made them happy than I was willing to do that for them despite my missing time with them.

14 already! Geeze, I'm
gonna have to buy a shotgun soon!

During the last month or so I have been working on a project. I have now finished the first part of it and sighed in relief when it was done. It was a labor of love and I am nervous as to the response to it. It will update the blog and let you know more details as I get further along.




Figured I would keep you all guessing as to what it is.

Hot and Humid here.

Humidity. I can do without it. I don't mind the heat but I am out when it comes with humidity. I hate the suffocating feeling of a hot, wet, thick blanket around you. The humidity is here early this year. It even beat the usual monsoon storm. Usually we get the storms and then the humidity follows. I have been working so I have only glimpsed the light show the last couple of storms had on the way to work. I love watching the storms and the fury of mother nature, as long as it doesn't damage anything.



Video capture of dust storm.

 We had a huge dust storm come in which I missed but saw the lightning storm on our side of town while driving to work. It was amazing. It seemed like there were zaps of lightning constantly with no break between them. I haven't seen a good lightning storm in a while.


One good storm a few years ago took out a eucalyptus tree. I lucked out because when it fell it landed in front of my place and was just 3 feet shy of my front door. No broken windows. Imagine my surprise when I opened my door that morning and saw a wall of leaves and the smell hit me hard like I had walked into an Indian spice shop.

The monsoon then leaves us to clean up the mess. I have had to do that too many times. You have to go find the patio chairs that were blown away, clean up the dust because you left a window open (Yeah, dumb a** move I am guilty of!), cook on a BBQ with an umbrella because there is no power, wash the car that's leopard spotted because it rained then was thoroughly dusted afterwards, but it is all worth it.

We are rewarded with amazing sunsets, sunshine mostly year round, and no snow! My favorite sunset is the one where the sky looks like it is on fire. So many demensions and variations on sunsets around here. Summertime around here is not boring!

Sunday's Army Wives episode

Years ago I got hooked on watching the series Army Wives. Over the next couple of years I watched it and Max would give me a hard time about it. I kept telling him to just watch it and he would love it to. Finally one day he was bored and watched it with me. I asked him what he thought and he said it was ok. The next weekend he watched it again. I asked him why he was watching it with me and he said that he was bored. After the third time of him watching it with me I accused him of being hooked on it. He flatly denied it. I wasn't easily fooled. When the series ended for the season he asked me when it would be on again. Ah ha, you are so totally busted dude. After giving him a hard time he admitted that he was hooked on it. It became a Sunday tradition of us watching it together.


When he came home on leave after bootcamp the first thing he asked me was did I remember to record the show. When he had finished all of his visiting with relatives and friends we sat down one night and watched all of the episodes that he missed. It was just the two of us and it was like old times with us laughing and enjoying the show.


When Max left for Afghanistan I promised to send him DVD's of the show so he could have something to watch during downtime and he wouldn't miss it. He flatly told me not to. He didn't want anyone in his unit to know that he was hooked on the show and was embarrassed about it. I promised him that if he had them watch the show with him then they would get hooked on it too and watch it with him. I haven't sent any yet and it will be interesting to see what happens.


Megan, Max's girlfriend, had been giving him a hard time about watching the show. She would constantly goad him every Sunday when he would stay home and watch it with me. He kept telling her to watch it but she never did. Finally, one day a week ago she was bored and watched some episodes on Netflix. She texted me later and said that she was sorry about giving Max a hard time and she was totally hooked on it. Can't wait till Max hears about this. He will be razzing her for ages.


This Sunday's episode hit a bit too close to home. It stirred up feelings and emotions with Max being in Afghanistan. I have lost a few friends there and it brought back memories of them. Plus my emotions being in chaos lately didn't help.

Effects of having too much time on my hands.

I actually went out for a short venture today. I needed to take out the trash before it got over my weight limit (only allowed to carry 5 pounds) and decided to go out on a drive.

Megan, Max's girlfriend stopped by the other day with one of the kids that she babysits. We talked about things and one of them was ice cream. I have been craving ice cream since then and decided to go treat myself. I dumped the trash and then headed down the road to Baskin Robbins. I got a quart of chocolate/peanut butter ice cream and while waiting in line I saw some bubblegum ice cream. I think it has been at least 30 years since I had that stuff. On a whim I decided to get a child's cup of it for fun. It tasted funky but brought back memories.



Lately with so much time on my hands I had been having strange mood swings. Don't know were it is coming from but it is strange. I am suddenly missing Max terribly and I have been thinking about life that I have lived and what I was thinking about how my life would go when I was younger.




When I was 18 I figured that I would end up marrying a Marine because I loved a man in uniform and hung out with them more than the other branches at the base. Before you ask, I tried to steer Max away from the Marines but he wouldn't have it. It was either Firefighting or Marines. The economy tanked and with no firefighting jobs for a while it was choice number 2.

I figured that I would eventually marry, see the world to a point, have a bunch of kids, and be happy at home with the kids and working to have the extras since military pay sucked back then. Where I ended up is no where even close to where I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong I love my kids and wouldn't change a thing when it comes to them. As for everything else, I would have wanted a different out-come.





Megan and her nephews


When Max said that he wanted to get married I was hesitant. Not because I don't approve of Megan, I love her, but because I wanted him to go and experience life with the freedom of being young and single. In short, sow his wild oats. You are able to do so many things and have a type of freedom before life's handcuffs get you with responsibilities. Basically didn't want him to be my age and regret anything. I married much younger that I was expecting and before I knew it had kids and the typical responsibilities. I don't regret the kids, just regret that I didn't get to achieve the things I wanted to do before marriage and kids came along.
That's what I get for a shotgun wedding.

I recently got back in touch with an old boyfriend. We talked for ages and got caught up with everything our kids are doing now and how we are not where we thought we would be now in our life. Got me thinking about the people I dated back when I was younger and where they are now.

Have you ever looked really deeply into the life you lived and if you are happy with it now. I am doing that and even though I am happy in general I am not happy with where I am in life now. I think this calls for some major changes and I am not sure how to do that. Financial responsibilities being the major consideration and roadblock. Plus where would I go and what would I do. Wish I could go back in time and redo some things.

If you have had the same feelings what did you do about it???????????

Achooooo! Achooo! Achooo! Ugh!~!

Well my nose has announced that spring is coming. I am allergic to tons of stuff. I had to get an Epi shot the last time I was tested for allergies because I started having trouble breathing. The doc was amazed at how many things I reacted to.

I am even allergic to grass which sucked when I was growing up. I can't tell you how many times I spent the evening in a bathtub with oatmeal because I just couldn't resist playing on the
grass with other kids.


I love spring time with the green grass, flowers blooming, and gardens ripe with fruit and vegetables. I love all of these things but it comes at a price with my darned nose. I smell it and know what is coming next. Non-stop sneezing til my meds kick in. But at a certain point even those don't work anymore and I have to just live with it and look funny with a sore and red nose.

Growing up with allergies was hard because there were only a couple of medicines that you could take, not like today with an over abundance. In those days, after an attack, you would get an oil based Epinephrine shot to help with keeping the symptoms at bay for several hours. Only side effect was that you felt like a jittery puppet. Think of what you would feel like after drinking 12 Espresso's at once. Your mind races a hundred miles an hour and your body is shaky and jittery. Plus the shot was given in your butt cheek and felt like a walnut.


While we were on a trip around the United States I had an especially bad attack and ended up in the ER again. Here we are at 3 am, in the middle of Virginia, and doing the same old stuff again. Nebulizers, meds, and that dang shot. But my parents were cool as cucumbers. They were used to it and figured it would happen sometime during the trip. They could always count on me being the predictable one with either an allergy attack, broken hearing aid, or sick.


I can't count how many times I was in the ER for allergic reactions and asthma attacks. Between my hearing aids and medical stuff, I was the kid that my parents got maximum itemized deduction on their taxes. They actually celebrated with some fancy champagne the year that they didn't qualify and had to take the standard deduction. Today I have outgrown the asthma attacks and just have to deal with the seasonal allergy attacks.

So I look forward to the coming spring knowing it comes with a double edged sword. Fresh fruit and veggies and non-stop sneezing.

Jealous????? You betcha.

Jealousy, the green eyed monster is back. I haven't seen him in ages and wasn't sure if what I was feeling was him or some heartburn starting. I was catching up on facebook since I haven't been on there in ages and I read a post from Max to his girlfriend about his upcoming leave (vacation). His unit is taking a break and going to Okinawa for a couple of months to replace some members injured during an IED attack. He is taking leave during that time before they go back to Afghanistan.

While reading the posts I saw a message from Max to his girlfriend about him looking forward to seeing her. I wrote a note about it and found out she is going to Okinawa to see him. I had a funny feeling in my chest and wasn't sure what it was at first. Then memories slowly started to kick in and I realized I was actually jealous. I am a pretty easygoing person so being jealous was a feeling that I haven't had in ages.

One, I didn't even know about the trip and had to read in on Facebook of all places. Two, I love to travel and have only been overseas once on a cruise. That was just a western carribean cruise and since I was on a cruise ship and my passport is still empty I don't think it really qualifies. Three, I am not going to get to see him for a year since he is taking leave there and not coming home.


I have tried to plan a couple of trips but life kept getting in the way. For example, I was going to meet a boyfriend in Paris for New Years 2000 but because of the Y2K hype everyone at my hospital was banned from taking vacation from Thanksgiving to February. I seriously considered quitting just so I wouldn't miss a once in a lifetime opportunity. Someday I will get that darned passport filled.

So what do I do with this monster. I haven't dealt with him in ages and not sure what to do. Strange, weird, and not a good thing.......

Mechanics just don't trust women!

After the loss of my Camaro I needed to have something to drive. I was engaged at the time and my now ex-husband was on a Southpack deployment with the military. He had a pickup truck that was sitting around unused because he was gone and it needed a new water-pump. Since I needed a vehicle I figured that I would just replace it myself. I wasn't working at the time and we didn't have much money because the military pay at that time sucked!

So I consulted with my dad and asked him what I needed to start with first. He loved working on cars and I saw he was itching to get in there to help me. I said thanks but I wanted to do it by myself. So off I went to the parts store for a book on repairing that model truck. I researched it and figured out what I needed. I went back to the parts store and I went up to the desk and asked for the parts I needed. The guy looked at me like I had grown two heads. This was a theme that was to continue for the rest of the time.

I got all the parts and tools together and the next morning I had the truck parked in the parking lot behind the condo waiting to be torn apart. Well I discovered that old trucks have old rusty screws and bolts and they don't come off easy. With some manuvering and standing on the wrench a few times I got everything off. Dad came by that night to check out how I was doing and was impressed with what I had done so far.

Since I had the water-pump out I figured that I would get the radiator pressure tested and cleaned. I borrowed my dads truck and hauled it to a place in Oakland. When I walked into the place carrying a huge radiator everyone did a double take. At least the guy at the desk was nice to me after he stopped laughing. I told him what I needed and he showed surprise that I knew what I wanted done. Well, I am no dummy and if I don't know something then I research and learn about it until I can do it.

After the radiator was done I started assembling it back together and realized that the water-pump had this little hole in the bottom of it. Now I know that it is supposed to hold radiator fluid and with that hole, it won't work very well. So off I go to the dreaded parts store and ask about that hole. The guy looked at me like a child and said that there is a nut the goes into the hole. I said  "Well you may think I am stupid but why would you sell a water-pump with a hole and not include the nut for it?" He shut up real quick and grabbed what I needed.

During this process I decided to replace other stuff since I was there and had nothing better to do anyway. I replaced the hoses, belts, spark plugs, distributor cap, and wires. This required several trips to the parts store as I went along. Over time I did win over the guy there and he actually started talking to me about my project. When I got everything done my Dad and I went out to start it. I sat there with my fingers crossed and prayed for nothing to blow up. It fired up and purred.

I never told my ex what happened with my Camaro and what I had done because I wanted to surprise him. 2 months later he came home and was shocked I drove over with his truck to pick him up. After a quick welcome home he got in and tore out of the base. As soon as we left the base he pulled over into the parking lot of a warehouse. I looked at him weird and asked him what he was doing. He said nothing and got out and opened the hood. He had a worried look on his face and was checking it all out. I was a bit mad by then. I told him what had happened and that if I had done it wrong then it wouldn't have been running fine for the last 2 months. He didn't say anything at first and then after a while of checking it over said "It looks Ok. Thanks" That should have been the first red flag for me but as usual, love is blind.

Over time I learned how to do a lot of stuff on cars and can change a tire in 10 min. flat. Today guys still have a hard time believing that a girl can do automotive stuff. Last time I had to change a tire in the parking lot of my place, every guy driving by me just stared at me with a look like they were seeing an alien in drag. Oh, well. At least I won't be one of those people that will be sitting on the side of the road waiting 2 hours for AAA to show up.

The loss of my Camaro "Baby"

My first camaro I owned was my baby. I loved that car. I would clean and detail everything on it every week. I would even clean the fake leather seats with a toothbrush to get every nook and cranny clean. I did pinstriping on the front windsheild up on top. It was the fad in those days and got my car noticed. I wish I had a picture of that.

One rainy day in Oakland, Ca I was going somewhere, I don't remember where, and got on to a notoriously short on-ramp. You had to take a sharp turn and then gun it to get up to speed with the traffic. Well I did the turn and then the rear end started hydroplaning. I corrected it and finally got it under control and just when I was gunning it, it fishtailed violently again in the opposite direction. Next thing I knew I was spinning out of control into the freeway traffic. When I was stopped finally I realized that I was sitting sideways in the middle of the freeway. Oh crap!

I looked out the passenger window for traffic and all I saw was the huge grill of a Mack truck coming at me. Had a second to think "Dang this is gonna hurt!" and held on. That 18-wheeler hit me on the front of the car, spun me around, another 18-wheeler hit me on the rear end, spun me around the opposite way, and then another one drove over the front end. All I remember was that grill coming at me, crash, banging, noises, and getting rattled about.

After all the movement and noises stopped I opened my eyes and looked around. In my daze I realized that my baby was still running and none of the windows were broken so I tried to drive it to the side of the road. It actually moved, granted very wobbly, so I got over and just sat there a bit stunned. I got out and just stared at my baby. She was mangled and had a headlight hanging out by the wired like an eyeball knocked out of its socket.

Next thing I knew one of the truckers came up to me and was worried about me. He asked me if I was OK and all I could say was "My car! She is mangled! My baby!" Finally reality shook me awake and I said that I was fine and was everyone else. Everyone was OK except the last guy to hit me was pretty mad. The trucker that came to me actually kept him away from me and took care of me. Wish I knew who he was so I could thank him.

Now the freeway is all stopped up with rubberneckers and there was tons of police and fire there. Funny thing is that my Dad was stuck in that traffic jam and complaining about it, not realizing his own daughter was responsible.

During this an officer came up to me and pulled me aside. He asked me if there was anything in the car that he needed to know about. Dazed and confused I just stared at him. I asked him what the hell he was talking about. He took me over to my car and in the corner of the smushed trunk was a bunch of white powder. He asked me what that was. Well I said I don't know but if that is what I think it is I am going to kill whoever put it there. He just started laughing. We later figured out that it was the fire extinguisher that exploded in there.

I refused medical care because I was by then embarrassed and just wanted to go home and nurse my wounds. I also refused a tow truck because I didn't want to pay for it. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy but I asked the officer if I could and looking doubtful he said OK. I slowly nursed her back on the road and drove home. Everyone on the road was just staring at me the whole way home.

I parked in front of my place and went inside to figure out what to do next. Now I lived in a very small town back then and knew a ton of cops. They all knew my car because of the distinctive pinstriping and it was the only white Camaro ever parked there. Next thing I know I am getting calls from them asking what happened to my car. Seems one of them drove by my car and told everyone else.

After I called my mom she came home and took me to the ER. I was hurting pretty bad by then and was found to have numerous bruises all over, even in places that didn't make sense, and whiplash. I got a foam neck brace that I had to wear for 2 weeks. I hated it because it made me feel like I was one of those people who fake injuries to get money. I hid out in my place until I could go out in public without it.

A couple of days later we took my baby into the dealership to get an estimate for the insurance. I knew it was going to be a total loss even though I was hoping it wasn't. When I drove it there it was like driving a jalopy. It would go down the road bouncing forward and back. When I drove it into the garage of the dealership everyone in the place stopped what they were doing and just stared at me. You could have heard a pin drop in that moment. The mechanic I talked to couldn't believe I was able to drive it to them and was doubtful about it's prognosis. It was a total loss.

Learning how to drive.

Speaking about cars on my last post I started remembering when I learned how to drive. It all started out one summer when I was 14 and went to visit my sister in Palm Springs for a while. Boy was that an awesome and educational time. Parties like I had never seen before.

My sister hated to drive and decided one night to start teaching me. Well, I wasn't gonna pass that opportunity up. I did pretty well and had a ball there. When I went home I never told my parents about that part of the vacation.

Fast forward to when I was getting my learners permit. Because I was held back when I was younger I was already going to be 16 starting my sophmore year. They didn't offer Drivers Ed for freshmen so my parents had to teach me and sent me to of all places "Sears Driving School". Yep, it was embarrassing driving in that car. I was in a class with a bunch of offenders who were there to get their tickets written off. Anybody watch the old 50's classic blood/guts movie about driving dangers. Car's crashed, bodies, etc. I got the joy of watching that one.

"DA BOAT"

My dad took me out to teach me how to drive for the first time in "Da Boat" at night in the parking lot of a grocery store. Now mind you he didn't know that I already did so I had to fake it. Guess I didn't do too well faking it because he said about 15 min. later "You have driven before haven't you?" Classic freeze moment: do I tell or not? Well I fessed up and he started laughing. He said that he figured it out right away and didn't care.

When we bought my first car it was a stick shift. That was a huge learning curve. Lots of stalls and my little brother in the back-seat laughing but I finally got it. We were in that same grocery store lot and my dad said I did good. He then told me to go around back. The back of the lot which I didn't realize has a hill down and then back up. Going back up the hill dad suddenly yells STOP! I slam the brakes (little bro got a bit smashed up on that one. Hehehehe) Heart pounding I look at him and was scared what I did wrong. He said Ok, go ahead now. I start to go and instead of forward I was going backwards. Brakes slam again. (little bro quiet now after 2nd head butt Hehehehe) Again after several false starts, rolling backwards more than forward, stalls, I finally got it and was done and now had freedom....

I didn't use that skill much because we were living in Phoenix, AZ at the time and it does not have hills. A year later the memories come screaming back when I was living in the San Francisco area and decided one night to venture out to SF city with friends. The hills there are nothing compared to normal stuff.

I was lost but having fun discovering all kinds of stuff and then found myself on a huge hill with a stop sign in the middle of it. And of course with my wonderful luck I had a truck stop behind me right on my butt. No room for error. I raced the engine a bit before letting that clutch go and flew out burning rubber. At least I didn't hit that darned truck behind me. I did not want to explain to my parents what I was doing in the city in the first place.

My whole world opened up once I had the freedom to go places without having to beg for rides. Granted the begging still had to do with gas money but it went quite a bit further then now.

Mom's Cooking.

When mom visited me on Friday we got to talking about different things I ate when I was younger. Her favorite thing to serve us during the summer was pita bread with alfalfa sprouts, avocados, and just a sprinkle of onion salt. Yummy. Sometimes we would even have a piece of bread with avocados spread on it and the onion salt. It was simple but yummy. Thinking about it now, I haven't had it since I went out on my own. I think I will try to get some and have it again.

My mom was an interesting cook when I was growing up. She liked to try new things and sometimes it didn't turn out so well. There were lots of nights when we would end up eating PB & J sandwiches. But it was funny to see what she made and we got to experience some pretty unique food.


One of her disasters was Beef Tongue. Ewwww!!!! When I saw that on the butcher block I ran to the phone and was calling all my friends to try and get a dinner invitation because it looked creepy and icky. No such luck!

It was a very long dinner because it took all of us kids forever to choke that stuff down. Tough, chewy, and no flavor. Today my friends tell me it really is good and she probably didn't cook it right. Well, no thanks. I will stick with regular meat cuts.


Another thing my mom taught us was table manners and how to eat in different settings. One of those lessons was how to eat a formal dinner. She showed us all the different place settings and what all the different silverware pieces were for. This paid off one day when I went to the Marine Corps Ball.

Here I am at a table with a bunch of Marine buddies and their girlfriends. They were looking at all of the different silverware and looking mighty confused. It was funny seeing a large marine holding a tiny escargot fork with a puzzled look on his face. I told him that it was for the snails that they would be serving for appetizers. Now mind you these are big burly, macho Marines dripping with testosterone. ALL of them had a scared look on their faces. It was too funny. They never served it, but I wish they had. It would have been priceless seeing them try to eat that. I don't like them.

I spent the night teaching them what each one was for and it led to stories of dinner with mom and her lessons.

Being a Marine Mom

Early this morning (3 am) the phone rings and I ran to get it because I knew of only one person who would be calling me at that ungodly hour. My son, who is a Marine, was calling from Afghanistan. He just graduated from boot-camp in June and is already in country. He was calling to let me know that he finally made it after a very long journey compiled of some long plane trips, a boat ride, and another long plane ride. He said that he is still in shock over the jet lag and the culture shock of being there. He knew what it would be like from talking with my friends and his recruiter, who had become a close friend, but was still not prepared for the reality of it. He said that the desert gave him a welcoming party in the form of a huge dust storm. Talk about getting a rude awakening..

It was surreal talking with him and picturing him in my mind still as the baby that I fought so hard for. Not long after he was born he contracted a long term illness and was in and out of hospitals for over a year. We almost lost him a couple of times. I stayed with him in the hospital day and night and would only go home every other day to shower and get a change of clothes. I became an expert in sink showers and sleeping in a recliner.

Later when I got divorced the kids would go back and forth between their dad's house and mine. When I moved to Arizona the kids decided that they wanted to stay with their dad because of their friends. I hated not having them with me but my primary goal was whatever made them happy despite my feelings.

Later on Max got into the usual teenage troubles. One day his dad called me and said "I am done. He is your problem now. He will be at the airport tomorrow morning" WHAT???? Well I was shocked and not at all prepared for that. I picked up at the airport a VERY ANGRY teenager. He and I fought and darn near killed each other the first year. I just kept thinking somewhere in there is that sweet boy that I raised. After a couple of wake-up calls he changed into a wonderful son. He made up his classes he failed and went to online school to get extra credits. He ended up graduating early from school and enlisted into the Marines. We fought about that to but I knew that his happiness came first despite my wanting to protect him.

We became best buds and went on many road trips together. We had tons of laughs and I made him try new things. I have so many fond memories like the time his eyes bugged out when he saw firecrackers for sale in New Mexico. He was like a kid again. Yes, we bought some and he had a ball setting them off in an empty field. The first road trip without him was hard. Way to quiet and I kept remembering our trips together.

It was actually harder for me than I expected when he left overseas because all through training and boot-camp he was still close enough that I could bail him out if he got into trouble. There I have to leave him to the care of his Master Sergeant. Talk about feeling helpless.

We talked so much about everything and he was unsure about a lot of things. By then end of the phone call he was feeling much better.

Guess he still needs his Mama...:-)