Gosh, so sorry it has taken so long to write but with Facebook now that seems to be where everyone keeps up to date with everyone's activities. Lots of exciting things are happening. Lamont and Erika are pregnant and they are having a girl!!! Now they say they want to get married. In my book it's always a good idea to get married if there is a child coming along..
Another cool thing happening is I get to go to their wedding and meet his mom. Ask me if I am nervous....OH YEA!!!!!
But I do need prayers for this to be a good visit and we will be friends and not be threatened by each other because we will be sharing this little girl!

Kids!

When Gabe and family come home I try to get everyone together, especially the cousins. First on my agenda was to take the 3 oldest to the movie. If I don't get them together I end up seeing the movies twice. I like the movies but not enough to see them twice so I feel extra lucky if I can take all of them at the same time. So that is where we were heading when I took this picture. It cost $40 for the movie tickets, $20 for the snack packs, $7 for tokens to play games after the movie. Whew! Thank goodness I don't do this every week.
I love when Gabe and Marci come to town. The boys are always so excited to see us and love playing with all of the toys I have. They are such fun little guys and it was a gorgeous weekend. I had planned for Gabe, Marci, Lucas and Natalie to get together but that didn't work out. Everyone was busy with things they had planned.

Another Post

A certain faithful reader, who will remain nameless, is touring in the northeast right after she got back from some foreign country. How unfair is that? Anyway, I do hope faithful reader is having a fantastic time and thank you for sharing your photos and etc with all of us back home.
Another friend of mine is heading to Arizona, Utah and Colorado. They are flying to Phoenix and then renting a car and heading to Utah and Colorado. More unfairness!!!
I would love to plan a girls ski trip. Any takers out there??
Hubby and I are celebrating our 40th anniversary next February and are talking of taking a trip to Alaska. We thought about flying there and then renting a car and just driving. Has anyone ever done that? Any ideas?
That is all the thoughts I have!!! Thoughts? Opinions?

Turning 60!

It has happened I have turned 60. That seems so old but I feel 40! How is that possible? While I was in South Dakota dear old hubby decided we did not need the expensive cable that we have had for years so he canceled it and signed up for AT&T U-verse! We had talked about doing this and he decided to take matters into his own hand while I was gone. So I come home with this mess and he didn't remember what he ordered or when we were suppose to get it. GREAT! Being the controlling person I am I called AT&T and found out they were suppose to be here August 24 between 9 and 11 a.m. I decided that was going to be my stay home and clean and iron and do laundry day. I waited and waited and no one arrived. At least it wasn't a wasted day because I had accomplished alot. A few days later I look out front and there are 2 AT&T vans outside and I am thinking someone must have gotten the day wrong. Hubby goes out there to talk to them and they said they didn't need to come inside. That has me puzzled as were are suppose to be getting internet also. Days later I find out there was a part that needed to be replaced. All this time we have basic cable and that is it. I am ok with that but really miss my internet. I really don't know if the previous cable company is providing us with basic cable or is it the new one. I have asked but no one seems to know. Weeks later our guy calls and says they will be at my house between 9 and 11 a.m. on Sept. 14. Part of me wanted to scream out "NO THAT IS MY BIRTHDAY, I AM TURNING 60 AND WANT TO DO WHAT I WANT TO DO!" But I kept quiet thinking this whole mess would be behind us. I told our representative that if they didn't show up I was done with them. Hubby says "Watch what you threaten!" I guess God was trying to teach me a lesson or something cuz guess what??? They didn't show up!!!! Instead of calling our guy I went to the store close to our house where hubby set it up. I walked in and said "Hi Tim, I am Mrs. Livingston!" (I had only talked to this guy on the phone). He said "Hi, nice to meet you." Then he looked at me again and said "Uh oh!" I said "Yea! What would you like me to do? What will it take to get your service? Money?" He was very apologetic and got on the phone with someone and of course they said they would get back to him. I told him I wasn't going to sit around so he needed to call me. He did several hours later and said they will be here on October 4. I am thinking it isn't worth it to schedule my day around them.



Another frustration on my birthday was JC Penneys. I had bought polo shirts online from Penneys for us 3 girls for our family picture. One size was too small so I found out that they had the shirt at one of the malls in town. So I got purchase a Medium and find out that the shirt is $12, online it is $21. Now I could not go and exchange all of them cuz they didn't have the sizes I needed. Isn't that the strangest thing that they will not honor the in store price? I think Penneys has lost my business...
Needless to say I had a frustrating day!

In South Dakota..

It has been quite a while since I have blogged and I am sorry about that. I have been kind of busy. I was able to go to Salt Lake City and celebrate Lamont's 40th birthday with him. This was a special time for me and I feel blessed. At the end of that weekend he wanted me to stay longer but it would have cost alot of money to change my flight. I paid over $800 for it and didn't want to have to pay more. I left Tuesday early for SD. I was not as excited about this part of the trip as I usually am and a week into it I was ready to leave. That is one of the good things about driving, you can just pick up and leave when you want.
My brother from Florida came up and that was exciting. It was good to see him, his wife and their daughter.
As you well know I have a crazy sister. We were all hoping she wouldn't come to Rapid City but she wanted to see her brother. She had no desire to see her sisters and we had no desire to see her. Before she left for RC she put on facebook she was going to a family showdown. So, Paula and I were wary of anything she might do. I steered clear of her, there were so many people here that I knew she wouldn't bother with me. My brother saw her bad side and sort of avoided her. I told him he needed to say something to her cuz I figured I would get blamed for keeping him away from her since I was driving him around in mom's van. But he decided to ignore her. Well, tonight I got 5 vicious texts from her. It is so sad that she hates me so much.
She is someone that is hurting so bad and blames others for all of her troubles when in fact it is her addiction to alcohol and drugs that has brought her down this path. I fear one day she will die and we will have this hatred between us. My only thought as to how to resolve this is thru prayer. So, if you are reading this please put Brenda and Jeanette's relationship on your prayer list. Thank you!

Summer again...

Yesterday started my week on and week off of keeping Wesley and Hayden. I did have Wesley alone a couple of weeks ago and it was a breeze. Yesterday was fun, today however is overwhelming, frustrating, tiring and exhausting....oh wait that is the same thing as tiring. Right? Trying to get these two moving is alot like herding cats. They move very slow and do one thing at a time at a slow pace, again I am repeating myself. When we were about to walk out the door I asked Hayden if he had a shirt. He said "Yes, it is outside by the trampoline." "OK," I say "can you go get it?" Off he goes walking VERY slow. So, after watching and wanting to scream HURRY UP!!!! He finally gets back in the house and we open the door to walk out and I notice Hayden is without shoes. I said "Hayden, you got shoes?" He says "Yes, they are outside by the trampoline." About this time my voice starts to escalate and I say "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" He very timidly says "NO ma'am." While we are watching him Wesley looks at me and says "Mimi why are you yelling at us?" I said "Because you guys are taking forever to get anything done!". Hayden finally gets back inside and off we go again and they are dressed and ready to go. They went to a neighbors house while I ran a few errands. I felt bad about yelling and decided I needed a game plan if we are going to get anywhere today. They want to go to the water park but getting them moving is not something I look forward to. So, my plan is to tell them what needs to be done before we go and we need to go BEFORE 2 pm. Wish me luck. I will keep you posted on if this works or not. They are 10 years old by the way, not 4.

Old Things...

Hubby and I grew up in the 60's. We have had this collection of albums for over 40 years, above is just a few of the abulm covers. As I was reading the newspaper today the Baton Rouge Little Theater wanted to use them for an upcoming production of Hairspray. So I hauled some the albums out and started typing an email telling the lady what we had. She is so excited. Now I need to go clean them off as they have been sitting in a closet for many many years. So glad someone can use these. I should buy a record player and play them...