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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Domino's House Party

Not sure how it happened but I was chosen to host a Domino's House party this past week. I did apply for it but luck of the draw was the only reason I won. Domino's sent me a $75 gift card, a game called "You Gotta Be Kidding" and some coupons. What I was to do in return is host a party, order all 6 of the new American Legends pizzas and play the game. Since things have been so busy in my life, I decided the best place to host this party is work. I ordered the pizza on Sunday and the Customer Service group had a Domino's House party on Monday for lunch. It was great, the game was fun and the new pizzas were awesome (and this is coming from someone who does not care for pizza)!!


Fun was had by all and I am glad we had a chance to sample all of this fabulous pizza!

Later,
L

What a busy few weeks...

The Turner family has been super busy over the last few weeks thus no blog posts for me. My camera finally decided to start working again so I have some new pics for you. First off we had Anthony's 30Th birthday party shortly after he came home from Boston, just family but it was fun. Anthony received some great gifts to add to his kayaking stash (it is almost complete, 4 more things to go).

I have spent a lot of time on the road for work lately, Baltimore, Alexandria and DC. Here are a few pics I took of the George Washington Masonic Memorial last week from the train station in Alexandria:
And on to Father's Day, which we spent in Selma with my dad.
Most of Saturday was spent at a friends house on the river in the pool. Anthony took the kayak out for a test drive in the pool and we went on a fabulous boat ride.
Cutler is ready to start boating! Ha! No way he will be doing that for many more years...
Oh my, he is MY child! (notice the tattoo on his arm!!!!)
Well for this coming weekend, Cutler is going to hang with G and Pampaw, Anthony is going to River Rats with Jason and Megan to run the Hiwassee and I am leaving for Orlando on Sunday not to return until Tuesday. The whole family will then leave on Thursday afternoon heading to Tennessee to spend the Fourth of July with some amazing friends, Megan and Jason, Katie and George, Christa and J! Upon our return, I will be packing once again! heading to Chicago on Tuesday. This should conclude the majority of my travels for the next month. We are planning a beach trip and Anthony and I plan to spend our 10Th wedding anniversary (I know, scary right?) in New York this year...wish us luck!
Later,
L

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

How can you fall off the wagon when you were not really on it in the first place????

So running, not happening! I am going to try again but my motivation is shot. I am overwhelmed with work, life, family, SBA and others right now and feel like making the time to run is on the bottom of my list. how do I get it back toward the top? I need to do it in the morning, first thing. I need to get out of bed at least 30 minutes earlier than I do now and Just Do It! But that bed is so warm and comfortable in the mornings, I truly dread letting my feet hit the floor. I used to not sleep well and when it was time to get up, I got up. Now I am sleeping better and just don't want to get up. Hopefully the motivation will come back soon, we all know I need it to.
Update on the bully...
Cutler is no longer being bullied, his teacher was wonderful when Anthony asked her about it and they moved Cutler to another table that same day. No longer can the little mean-spirited, red-headed, freckle-faced meanie-pants pick on my precious little boy. Did I mention that he probably out-weighs her by 10 pounds and is a good head taller than her? I think it is time for him to enroll in a street fighting class or something, he needs to get roughed up! (and not by a little girl).


Later,
L

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Running update

Well I did it Monday night, I completed two miles in less than 25 minutes so I was happy. Was being the operative word, I am not happy right now. I am procrastinating, the treadmill is calling, slash that! yelling, and I have been yelling four letter word right back at it! I do want to run but I just can't make myself get down there and do it! So who knows if I will or will not tonight, we will just have to see.
Cutler update...
His little bully buddy, Reagan, is still being a bully. She punched him in the tummy today and he told me she did not even get in trouble. If you know me, you know what I am thinking...I am going to be at that school in the morning and have a little talk with the teacher. Well, I thought about it and decided to let it go for one more day. I am going to ask Anthony to ask them about it in the morning and if I am not satisfied with that then I WILL be going to the school on Friday morning to speak with his teacher regarding what will be done about this BULLY! I am not happy, but I am pretty sure you know that by now. So if you were me, what would you do? I don't want my kid to get kicked out of school because of his mommy but I sure as hell do not want him to get bullied everyday and end up not loving Big Boy School...I need some mommy help on this one.

Later,
L

Monday, June 1, 2009

Running...

In more ways than one!
Seems like the last week or so has flown by, we spent most of the weekend at home working in the yard and washing cars but it still flew by.
A friend of mine who used to run like a maniac, like 7 days a week, has taken a running hiatus for the last few years but decided to start back up again. This friend is NOT me.
I took up running a couple of years ago, but not maniac style, and have recently taken a longer hiatus than I wished for. So, she started running again and has asked me to start up again so we can do a few races together...so here goes. Tonight is the night! I will start the treadmill up and again start the cycle! Part of me is very excited and part of me dreads this worse than bathing suit shopping, which by the way is much less devastating with a TAN. Back to the subject, tonight is the night, running, running like the wind. Or in my case running like a turtle. Let's see how it goes, I plan to get two miles in tonight by alternating running and walking. I am pretty sure I will regret that tomorrow but what the hell! I might even do a few crunches and write out a new diet since I am getting my ass back on the band wagon. Breathing seems to be my biggest obstacle, I need to learn to breathe right without focusing on it the entire time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. So the band wagon starts tonight, listening to some PINK disco- logy and running, maybe this will inspire me to write in this blog a little more but who knows.

Oh I do have a Cutler update. He started "big boy" school last week and so far he seems to love it, even with a mean ass kid named Reagan in his class. This chick pushed him off a tricycle on his second day, seems she is a little of a bully. Believe it or not, my kid is super passive (unlike his mother) and just lets things roll off his back. BUT, he does tend to bring them up again time and time again as if he is holding a slight grudge (now this is just like his mama). One day, just one day, I hope he becomes a very balanced mix of myself and his father. Passive to a point but a little hot under the collar and not afraid to take up for himself. You know as well as I do that if I was being bullied in 3K, that chick would have no teeth! But luckily my son has no chance of getting kicked out of pre-school due to fighting, his only chance of getting kicked out might just be his mother's mouth!

Later,
L

Thursday, May 21, 2009

T-Ball

Cutler started T-ball the week after his daddy left for Boston and we just had our final game this past Tuesday. It went so well! Cutler is very good and loves playing! Here are a few pics from the game:Enjoy!

Later,
L

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Almost Home

Well I know I have not updated the blog in a while with what I have been doing up here in Boston. The fun and games are almost over. Last night we went to Fire and Ice for dinner and then to see the Blue Man group. I have to say it was a fun night. It is not often that you can bring together a group of 31 guys all from different backgrounds and cultures and still be able to have a good time and everyone gets along. I think I have stories to tell for months now on what has either happened around me or with guys in the group.
I fly home Saturday and I cannot wait for it to get here. It has been nice to make new friends and on one hand I hate to leave the guys but I miss my family, home, and friends. It will take a little adjustment to get back into the swing of things once I get home but like I said I cannot wait. I am almost to the point of counting down the hours and not just the days.
Well I am about to go to class and try to stay awake after a night on the town. I hope everyone has a Happy Wednesday and I look forward to seeing everyone once I get back.

Later,
A

Sunday, May 3, 2009

A hell of a storm and bowling

Well today we had plans to spend the afternoon at my friend Meredith's house letting the kiddos run around outside for a while. We started off by meeting at TGIFriday's for lunch and it just went downhill from there. Lunch was fine and the kids acted so well we decided to splurge for icecream. Meredith and I made a deal with each other that if we both ordered the brownie a la mode that we would start phase 1 of the South Beach Diet together tomorrow. So here we go. South Beach Diet here we come! Have you ever read what you have to eat on that damn thing for two weeks? Eggs for breakfast everyday it seems, and I am not a huge fan of eggs. but I thought two weeks, who can't do this for two weeks so yep, you guessed it, I got the brownie and man it was good. So we were finishing up the dessert when the manager started herding everyone into the kitchen as he was told a tornado was coming our way. So Meredith and I rushed all 4 kids, who were covered in sticky ice cream, into the TGIFriday's kitchen. Now I thought, oh this can't take long and it won't be so bad. WRONG...there were about 200 people in that damn kitchen for an hour!

We finally made it out of there (two hours after we arrived) and were headed to Meredith's house when she called her hubby. He said, NO GO on going home, there were tornado's all around the house. So we decided to head up to Vestavia to the bowling alley. Ever took four kids bowling who are covered in ice cream and have had no nap???? Wouldn't suggest it! They did great for a little while but soon grew bored, tired, and irritable. but we did score a few good pics along the way.
Oh almost forgot, we had to stop by the grocery store so Meredith could pick up some diapers (Annelise had shit running up her back by this point) and she picked up a couple of Monster Energy drinks for her and I as well. Enjoy the pics from today:
Cutler just bowled a STRIKE Annelise hitting the MONSTER
Leighton, can you see the ice cream on his shirt?
McKenna and Annelise waiting...
Meredith and I with a pissed off Annelise!
Later,
L

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Wow, what a week!

I know I have not posted in sometime but swear I have a very good reason! It is called being a single mom and everything that could go wrong HAS!

I came home last Thursday evening from work to find Boss with a swollen, bloody foot! It freaked me out but he let me look at it and it looked like he cut it really bad and split his toenail. So I called the vet Friday morning who said they could work me in Friday afternoon. I rushed home from work, had to call Mattea to pick Cutler up from school, wrestled Boss in the front of my truck and listened Cowboy cry in the backyard! We get to the vet and Boss is a little nervous, there are no other big dogs in the waiting room but he is not "fixed" and there were some other non-"fixed" males in there as well. So Boss proceded to spray both of my feet as if he were marking his territory! Now let me remind you that there are no other large dogs in the waiting room, he is the largest by at least 80 pounds but still sees the need to mark me! WTF???

Anyway,
We see the vet who is able to look at his foot a little closer and finds that he has a tumor in his foot that he has irritated. So surgery it is. now I talked the vet into letting me take him back home with me Friday night and bringing him back at 6:30 Saturday morning so I would not have to deal with a crying Cowboy all night. Boss did great, I picked him up around lunch time Saturday and was told to change his bandages everyday for at least a week to allow time for healing.
I guess now that this wound is healing, Boss feels the need to lick it and well...he can't because it is wrapped up. So everyday when I get home, the bandage is in 100 pieces on the porch and Boss is a happy as a lark. But not today, nope that will not happen today (at least it better not). Check out the pic:

That's right DUCKTAPE!

I put medicine on it, packed it with gauze, wrapped it with athletic tape, put one of Cutler's socks on it, then wrapped it with Duck Tape! I will let you know what it looks like when I get home today!

Oh, and since Boss was wearing one of Cutler's socks, he decided to wear the other one and one that he thought matched! Check this out, Cutler with mis-matched socks, 2 sizes too small pj's, wet hair from the shower, and a dog with duck tape on his foot!

Later,
L

Sunday, April 26, 2009

I'm Certified

And by that I do not mean crazy, even though many will disagree on that subject. After weeks of studying my butt off and stressing out I got my EMC Proven Professional certification. I start my more specialized courses for the next for weeks starting with our Clariion system. This should make the time go by much faster. We went and celebrated Saturday night after the test in Providence, RI and had a blast. It is interesting to see how people from different states and areas of the world act when going out to dinner and a night on the town.

The coming weekends will be busy as we all try and do different things, we are looking at going to New York in a couple of weekends.

Later,
A

Monday, April 20, 2009

He passed...

Anthony called me this morning and he passed his course exam! he is very happy but has one more test this coming Saturday. After this he will be able to relax and have a little fun!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

1 week down 6 more to go!!

Just to give you guys an update I am doing good up here in Yankee country. The guys are great, the instructor is awesome, and I actually got to get some sleep last night. So far this week I have been getting out of class, eat dinner, and then study until roughly 1 or 2 in the morning. The course is kicking my butt, but I think I am getting it and understanding all the nice acronyms they throw at us. I think I learned about 100 of them this week. Some are easy to remember like DAE (disk array enclosure) and others that just have weird names like FLOGI, which means Fabric Login, why they dropped the N off the end of login is beyond me but whatever.

We have officially finished the first of the two books for class. I feel like brain overload is happening some days and expect to wake up one morning with my brain on my pillow because it leaked out. We have another week of this intense training and then next Monday have a course test with the big certification test to follow on that Saturday the 25th. I dread having to go in on a Saturday at 9 to take a test but after that if I pass I think I will finally be able to relax. It also doesn't help that it has rained almost every day since I got here. Last Saturday when I went to Boston it was cold and rainy, Sunday when I was too tired from the day before walking it was nice and sunny, go figure. Since then every night we get a nice full night of rain and most days too. I think I will have to find a tanning bed soon if I don't get some sun soon because this gets depressing. Well I am off to rewrite notes, make a presentation for Monday and reread everything again.

Later,
A

Friday, April 10, 2009

Wow what a day...I actually got my ass kicked today!

So the day started out OK, Cutler was in a great mood, it is Good Friday and work was actually decent.

But things went downhill fast! I had to fire yet another Executive Director of the Spina Bifida Association but this one went fairly well. I guess as well as could be expected!
I went by Mattea's house to pick Cutler up and things were still looking good. Cutler had been great all day and his finger looks so much better. We then came home and ate a little lunch and I put Cutler down for a nap, once he was down I ventured downstairs to get a little laundry started and saw something glistening in the downstairs bathroom. It was WATER, all over the floor. Now this has happened in the past but my Mr. Fix It has always been home to well...fix it!
This time I called a plumber, set me back $200 but at least we will not have a flooded house in the near future.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Anthony was scheduled to get his first paycheck today but since it is coming from ADP they could not direct deposit it so they mailed an actual check and guess what, that's right folks it was NOT in the mailbox today.
So while the plumber is fixing our problems I decided to tackle something I swore I would never attempt, transforming an Optimus Prime Tranformer. They say these things are rated for 5+ years old but I can guarantee they never asked someone over 15 to attempt to transform the damn things. This morning Cutler wanted to take this particular one to Teta's house but he only wanted to take it if it was transformed into a car and at that moment it was still in robot form. Anyways, I tackled this thing while the plumber was here and it literally kicked my ass! In the end I won of course because mama ALWAYS wins! Here is an after pic, I didn't think to take a before pic as I was sure I would never succeed at transforming this thing and I am damn sure not turning it back into robot form in fear that Cutler will demand it be transformed back into a car....

OK it may not look that hard but please feel free to come over anytime and transform any of the thirty others in this house and I promise you will say words you wish you never knew!

Later,
L

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Cutler had a date...and a possible broken finger

Since Anthony has been gone we decided to meet Nora (the 3 year old girlfriend) at the park on Wednesdays. Here is a pic from yesterday.


When I arrived at school I was informed that Cutler hit his finger on the wall and it was swelling a little. By the time we went to bed last night it was horrible and looked like this:
I think it is just jammed really bad, he is not complaining about it but we will be keeping an eye on it for a few more days!

Anthony is doing well but studying for a tremendous amount of hours daily, he has a fairly important test in a few weeks but I have no doubt he will pass with flying colors!



Later,
L


Sunday, April 5, 2009

Follow the red brick road

Well yesterday me and Chris took the train from Franklin to Boston, mainly to avoid trying to navigate the streets up there and find parking. It was a fun day and I am using today to rest since my legs are sore from the all the walking we did. We were thinking of going to Cape Cod today but a lot of the guys went out drinking last night and didn't get back until about 3am so most of them are still sleeping. We walked the Freedom Trail which is quite a hike since the little bricks you follow disappear sometimes and there are only a few signs that point you in the right direction. We did travel the whole trail and ended with the Bunker Hill Memorial which is the tall building below. This thing whipped my butt. It is a spiral staircase with 294 steps to the top, and for those that do not believe me there is a picture from the entrance area of the memorial and picture from the top.


We took a tour of a WWII battleship and saw too many graves to count. All in all it was a good day. My only problem was that it was a little cold, rained a little on us, and wind was blowing like crazy. They call Chicago the windy city but I think this took the cake it was horrible. Especially when the wind would blow a nice amount of sand up in your eyes from the roads. Well I will post some more in the days to come if I can.

Later,
A

Friday, April 3, 2009

2 days down, 50 more to go

Since I promised to let everyone know what is going on with me way up here in the North here goes. The past two days of class have actually been fun. Did some various icebreakers and opening up activities but it was not too bad. I have made several new friends now from all over. In the class we there are 28 of us. We have 2 guys from Australia, Saudi Arabia, Poland, the UK, and Switzerland. There is also a guy from Russia that is working in the NYC office. Me and Chris the guy from the UK are teamed up on the rental car and he wants to see as much as he can while here so we will be trying to see what we can when we can. This is our only free weekend for at least 2 weeks because we have the SUPER cram for the exam weeks coming up. Basically we have to see about 1000+ powerpoint slides along with learning 2 books worth of information, the books are about 400 pages each so come Monday you guys might not hear much from me.

For the free weekend we are planning to head to Boston for the day tomorrow and try and see as much as we can. Sunday we might head down to Cape Cod or Providence. The biggest problem is figuring out where to go since we will have about 5 weekends that we can do something and that is if we do not have to study too hard after the exam. I will try and post again this weekend with where I have been.

Later,
A

The little things in life

I ran by Subway for lunch and this was what I saw parked next to me.


Later,
L

The things we do...

I was so sick yesterday that I actually did not go to work and stayed in bed until almost noon. When I finally arose, I decided to go to the doc and turns out I am suffering from severe allergies. So I got a few shoe which included a steroid. Now when I get a steroid shot I tend to think I am SUPERWOMAN! So I picked Cutler up early from school and thought what a great afternoon to fly a kite... and in Cutler's words, "that kite was SUPER AWESOME!"

We did a few things around the house and then Cutler read his daddy a bedtime story over the web cam, it was so CUTE.

This morning I remembered C had a carpet burn on the top pf his foot from falling at school yesterday so I asked him if we could put medicine on it and a band aid. Let's just say that did NOT go over well and he told me only babies need band aids. So to prove him wrong I told him I needed a band aid (I had no boo-boo on my foot but swiped some lipstick on it to make it look like one) and he needed to put it on my foot. So enjoy the pic...
Later,
L

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Home sweet hotel

Ok I am finally here in Boston and just finished unpacking. I will post pictures later tonight or tomorrow of the room. The room is tiny but this will be my home for the next 52 nights. I am now off to find target and something to eat.

Later,
A

April Fool's Day !

You know what...it really sucks for your husband to have to fly out on April Fool's Day to be gone for 2 months. As most of you know, Anthony has gone to Boston for training for the month of April and May! SO today has just sucked...

I must say that I was very surprised by my employees yesterday as they pulled an April Fool's joke on me a day early. Check it out:
I was shocked, surprised and proud of them all in one. This took a lot of teamwork, effort and planning on their part. I have been consistently working late and coming in before most of them so they had to do some serious planning to pull this one off!
Anthony should start posting about his journey in Boston soon, be on the lookout for those!
Later,
L


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

and we are BACK!

We arrived safe and sound in Alabaster yesterday afternoon after a pretty good cmaping weekend. It did indeed rain most of the time but the lady at River Rats was kind enough to let us camp under a pavilion that is in the process of being renovated into a bunk house. Here is a pic of our sleeping arrangements:and yes this last picture is a tent, well kind of, it is a hammock that Travis sleeps in and it even has it's own rain fly.....weird I know (I am pretty sure I told him that several times). But he claims it is the most comfortable place to sleep ever and he would hang it in his house if he could figure out how!
So on to the river, Travis and Jason went paddling down the Tellico Saturday and Sunday. The rest of us stuck around camp Saturday during the rain but ventured out into what turned out to be a beautiful day Sunday to watch them.
This is what they did:

Jason>>>>>>
Travis>>>>>>>
and Travis taking a little swim>>>>>>

It was amazing and scary as hell all at the same time just to watch! I can't image actually being in that boat...
Here are a few other random pics from the trip:
Later,
L

Friday, March 13, 2009

Time for a relaxing weekend

I have put in so many hours at work this week that I am afraid to count to see the actual number. We are leaving this afternoon to go camping at River Rats with Megan, Jason and Travis. I can't wait!
I will post pics next week.
I know it will be raining most of the weekend but I have no doubt we will have a great time!


Later,
L

Friday, March 6, 2009

Daddy and Cutler Day

Today Anthony let Cutler skip school and they spent the day together at Oak Mtn State Park.

They hiked up to Peavine Falls, played on the playground, had a picnic lunch, went to the wildlife rescue center, and hiked the Treetop trail. Cutler told me he had a great time and here are their pics...


Oh and here is a pic of our new condo tent. Looks like we will be using it next weekend at River Rats and I can not wait!

Later,


L