All the Whos in Whoville are Shocked!!

All the Whos in Whoville are SHOCKED!

This sweet precious little girl singing "Where Are You Christmas" back in 2000...

Is now the rockin' lead singer of  The Pretty Reckless

 

Taylor Momsen has done a lot of growing up in the last 14 years.

 

 

Take Me Out To the Ball Game

Yesterday the Miracle League was invited to attend the Atlanta Braves game for the second year.

Despite getting a later than promised start ("leaving at 8:00 a.m. SHARP" should mean just that to this OCD girl!) the trip was a huge success!

I was in charge of Bus B. Though Bus B lead the way.  That meant I had to do all the talking. Thankfully Miracle Mary had given me the guy's name before we left. That will factor into the story later.

 

 

We had a wonderful brunch at Golden Corral in Douglasville Georgia and this year everyone was seated and eating in record time! I assume GC learned quite a bit about large groups since our last visit.

I had nearly a whole plate of crispy, yummy bacon, but THIS from the desert bar caugh my eye.

 

Yes, that is yummy, blue raspberry Cotton Candy!

 

We had a little trouble getting to the stadium this time. The route we took last year was blocked and circling around the are brought us to yet another dead end.  We could see the stadium. It was close but yet too far away for many of our special needs folks to get to.

 

After dropping the name of  the Head of Braves Security at numerous Sheriff's deputy and Atlanta PD barricades, (including this specimen of Atlanta's "Finest" Officer Rodreguiz)

we were finally  on our way.

 

Though last year's seats were pretty awesome for free seats, the full sun was too much to take for our group. This year's seats were MUCH better. 

 

The combination of  being under the balcony and the slight breeze made this year's game much more tolerable.

 

I had to venture out to find the big baseball that I had my picture with last year. I needed to see if I could tell just how much weight I had lost over the year. I remember that I thought I looked pretty good last year.

 

You tell me

 

 2013                                    2014  

 

 

Wow, what a difference!

After Pitcher Dan took this, we realized the exact baseball was across the courtyard, so I took this one too.

 

 

The Braves rallied several times, I feel in part, due to the excitement of the crowd. We did the Tomahawk Chop several times.

 

But, alas, it wasn't to be. The Braves lost to the Diamondbacks, 1 to 3.

 

The Braves loss was disappointing, especially after having the bases loaded on several occasions.

The announcer invited all kids to come run the bases after the game. We were told that our kids could bypass the long line that was forming. Many of our more able kids waiting patiently in the long line while our wheelchair folks were ferried down to another gate to join the group.  The rest of us went back to the buses to wait.

 

It was well worth the wait as many of our players bragged about running the bases at a Major League Baseball stadium. Each recieved a t-shirt and certificate for the feat.

Our wheelchair folks didn't get to get out on the field at all. They were given their shirts and certificates and sent on their way.

 

The trip home was was quiet...so quiet that I fell asleep. We arrived back at the park at 6pm

I had gotten stiff riding the bus and discovered that my left knee was roughly the size of a softball. I made it into the house and onto the couch and did not move for the next 3 hours, when I got up, slightly sunburned, swollen, and sore and put on my nightgown and fell into bed.

 

No sooner had I drifted off, then the neighbors behind me started shooting very large, very loud fireworks! For the second night in a row, they started shooting them at nearly 10 pm! I felt like I was in the middle of a war zone! Good thing I don't have PTSD!

 

The barrage went on for an hour before the night went silent.

 

Thank goodness for work today....things will be "normal" once again!

 

~En-JOY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hindsight

Hindsight is 20/20 right?

My cousin posted this article on her FB page. As I read through these "19 signs you are dating a loser"  I couldn't help but think how this actually, accurately described D/H.

In close succession, another one of my friends posted this article  about what a man does to drive a woman away. D/H did all of this too.

 I was amazed that I had not noticed it before. Hindsight.

Our relationship had been so one sided. He never made any effort to improve his situation. I had over looked his faults and shortcomings simply because I loved him. That is what you do for love.  It is only now clear that he was using me for what I had to offer. I had been a strong, independent woman. He had done just enough, for just long enough to reel me in. made me believe I could rely on him.

He was never happy with himself, he thought of only himself , he rarely showed" love" and affection outside of sex, and he expected everyone in his circle to be there to bail him out, without returning the favor.   As evidenced by conversations with both his high school girlfriend and first wife, whose habits were long established by the time he came into my life. Now there are three women with the exact same story. (Makes you think huh?) Unless he makes a true effort to change, they will continue until his dying day.  What a sad, shallow life.

Now you may think, after all that has happened, that I harbor ill will for D/H. Quite the opposite. I pity him.

I pray that he does make a true effort to change. I pray that he finally finds the happiness he seeks.  I hope that he is able to truly give love to someone else in a way that he never could to me. After all, I was just his meal ticket. Most of all I hope that he finally is able to love himself.  It's a sad life when one thinks they can find their happiness within someone else, rather than searching their own soul for it first.

Yesterday, I truly celebrated MY Independence Day. I am free of a life that I thought I had deserved, with all it's unnecessary drama, and struggle. But the stress and the struggle just walked out of my life and now I am healthier and happier for it.

As Christina says, "Thanks for making me a fighter."

 

"Fighter" ~ Christina Aguilera 2002

Stripped - RCA Records

I don't usually do this, but I had to post the words to this song. I guess I never really realized how much they apply to MY situation. She could have written this song about me.

After all you put me through
You'd think I'd despise you
But in the end I wanna thank you
'Cause you made that much stronger

Well I thought I knew you
Thinking that you were true
Guess I, I couldn't trust called your bluff
Time is up, 'cause I've had enough

You were there by my side
Always down for the ride
But your joy ride just came down in flames
'Cause your greed sold me out in shame, mmm hmm

After all of the stealing and cheating
You probably think that
I hold resentment for you
But uh uh, oh no, you're wrong

'Cause if it wasn't for all
That you tried to do
I wouldn't know just how capable I am to pull through
So I wanna say thank you

'Cause it
Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter

Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Never saw it coming
All of your backstabbing
Just so, you could cash in on a good thing
Before I'd realized your game

I heard you're going 'round
Playin' the victim now
But don't even begin feelin' I'm the one to blame
'Cause you dug your own grave

After all of the fights and the lies
Guess you're wanting to hurt me
But that won't work anymore
No more, uh uh, it's over

'Cause if it wasn't for all of your torture
I wouldn't know how to be this way now
And never back down
So I wanna say thank you

'Cause it
Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter

Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

How could this man I thought I know
Turn out to be unjust so cruel?
Could only see the good in you
Pretended not to see the truth

You tried to hide your lies
Disguise yourself through
Living in denial
But in the end you'll see
You won't stop me

I am a fighter
(I'm a fighter)
I ain't gonna stop
(I ain't gonna stop)
There is no turning back
I've had enough

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter

Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Thought I would forget
But I, I remember
Yes I remember
I'll remember

Thought I would forget
But I remember
Yes I remember
I'll remember

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter

Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

• Writer(s): Scott Storch, Scott Spencer Storch, Christina Aguilera
  Copyright: Reservoir Media Music O.B.O. Tuff Jew Productions LLC, Universal Music - Careers, Scott Storch Music, Xtina Music, Reservoir Media Music
  Lyrics powered by www.musiXmatch.com

Indeed!

            

 

Happy 4th Y'all!

 

"Thunder on the Mountain"

Fourth of July fireworks over Birmingham's Vulcan Park on Red Mountain

 

~En-JOY!

Tammy, Tammy....

A bunch of us from work try to get together and go out once a month.

We call it our "team building meeting"

This week, we went to see the new Melissa McCarthy movie "Tammy"

We were all stoked because, well let's face it, Melissa McCarthy is hysterical.  One word, BRIDESMAIDS.

Well "Tammy" ain't no Bridesmaids. 

Here is the review.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one that felt that way. Nearly all of the funny parts are in the trailer.

Definately one to wait for on DVD.

But one thing I can say for the movie is that it got THIS song stuck in my head. Gosh I miss the 80's

 

Your Love ~ The Outfield 1985

Play Deep - Colombia Records

Unspeakable

I am heartbroken today. 

My friend Miracle Mary's son was attacked yesterday.

I can not believe that we live in a world where there on those who prey on the innocent.

 Big P is a young man in his mid teens, with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Like any other red-blooded teenaged boy, he is quite the ladies man, always wanting to be paired up with our prettiest volunteers. His love of baseball is legendary and he would play morning, noon, and night if we'd let him.  Big P has Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic chromosonal disorder. It occurs one in every 25,000 births.  We just happen to have two boys with PWS at the Miracle League, the odds of which are pretty astronomical.

While in Gainesville for a Prader-Willi study, Miracle Mary and Big P went to eat lunch at a local restaurant where the unspeakable happened.

Big P was attacked in the bathroom. He was either cut or stabbed, resulting in multiple lacerations to his back and buttocks.  He required 70 stitches to close his wounds.

Miracle Mary posted this picture of his pants.

While being questioned, Big P told officers that a man in the bathroom had pushed him into the sink very hard.  So hard that the sink was off the wall and water was flooding the bathroom when they found him. They asked him the same questions several different ways and the story never deviated.

I can not even imagine what may have happened to provoke such an attack.

Nor do I want to.

Bigger and Better!

It had been six months since  the man who was my husband walked out. An event that took me so by surprise, that I honestly didn't think that I would survive it.  Like having my heart ripped, still beating, from my chest.

He left for a woman that he met working a concert nearly a year ago. Actually, I am pretty sure that he first saw her at the KISS concert in 2012. We went in through the VIP entrance, because of the flooding. A rude, deeply unattractive dumpy woman with a mustache, took our tickets. When we made it through the gate, he had turned around to me, laughing, and said "Was that a man or a woman?!" Indeed! Now  it   is the "love of his life."

They say the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Many people have told me that. Actually, it is greener where you tend to it. My guess, from an outside observation, is that the grass over there is quickly dying.

Oh yes, I have had more than one occasion to see him lately. I doubt he has seen me (or even recognizes me), because I have had some pretty good vantage points from which to observe. He not only looks miserable, he actually seems to be miserable too. He has aged overnight. And looks awfully unhealthy.  I knew him during the prime of his life, so I know what he looked like when he was healthy and happy. I also know when he's "playing happy," which he is pretty good at. He can convince anyone for a little while. But I know that he is not happy with himself. Very sad.

I, on the other hand, have come out the other side so much stronger, I am really surprised by how much better my life is right now.

I have never been in better financial shape in my entire life.  Even though he and I both made decent money, we always seemed to struggle. I am now paying the mortgage all by myself. That comes as a big suprise, after struggling to pay it with two incomes for so long. As a matter of fact, with two, equal incomes, we were barely scraping by. There were times that we weren't making it and had to lean on others. Now, with the exception of that very first week (when he left owing nearly $800 in deliquent utilities) I am doing it all on my own now. with no problem.  I wonder, even now, what he was doing with all of his money.  I hear that he has decided to 'be responsible" now. What a good life we could have had if he had made that decision years ago. We would have cleared 80k this past year. A comfortable, stable life. But the gambling,  the pay day loans,, the premium cell phone and cable packages, and the "get rich quick" schemes frittered it all away.  I'd add the drinking in there, but he always found a way to get our "friends" to pay for that. Even the part-time job he took to "help out" would only pay once a month, and then only enough to cover his gas to and from the event (and actually, I gave him gas money to get to it).  Responsible? Well, he was when we started dating. Of course, as all his exes can attest, that will be short lived  and soon he will fall back into an old pattern. Football season starts in 61 days, and with that, the gambling will begin soon enough. No one can "change the stripes" on that tiger. 

I am healthier than I have been in a long time. I am thinner than I have been in almost 20 years. I eat right and cook something healthy nearly every night. I'd say I've reduced stress in my life, but my stress actually walked out. I am working on lowering my blood pressure. A great deal of that is heriditary. But it is at least now under control. I could never afford my blood pressure meds while we were together. Oh I could at first, but the strain of having to come up with monies for groceries or bills, or gas for all his flitting around, my meds eventually fell by the wayside. I had begged to quit my job to get my health under control, but he was unwilling to do what needed to be done so I could stay home. But life is so much simpler now. I am happier with what I have, what I do,  and I am now healthier for it as well.

I am learning to do things by myself, for myself. And I am happy about it. So far I can cut the grass, weed eat, move furniture, sit around the house, go out to dinner, go to a movie, go on an adventure, all by myself. I laugh at myself too.  I have friends that I can share with, friends that have come back into my life now that the negative, draining influence is gone. I can go where I want, when I want.  I can only imagine how it must feel to have to account for every minute of every day, down to the second, and having to be followed around, because my partner not only doesn't trust me, but also because she knows what was done and said to the wife while  hiding the "relationship." It must be stiffling to think you have " taken control" of your life, only to inadvertently reliquished it to someone else.  How does anyone stand being controlled like that?! 

I have a friendly relationship with a great guy, who cares for me. It's only been a few months. I'd be stupid to think that we were "in love" so soon (or heaven forbid, want to move in together), but I could see me falling for him easily. I care for him, and respect him. But he shows that he is worthy of respect, and shows that I am worthy of it too.  He makes me laugh. He works very hard, and always wants better for himself.  He loves his children. He is responsible, trustworthy, secure, level headed, and many other things.. So many things that a man should strive to be. He is also patient. He knows I've been lied to and manipulated by someone I trusted implicitly, burned by someone I had loved with all my heart. He knows that I was let down by a man I should have been able to rely on, and he steps over himself to keep from letting me down himself. He is okay with my quirks, and ticks. He finds them amusing, if not endearing. ("here's one for your OCD" he often says) I am learning to trust again.  Where this relationship goes, only time will tell, but we have a good start.

Oh yeah, bigger really is better.

I'm living life large! It's too short to live it any other way.

I look forward to the next six months, and where they will take me.

Happy Anniversary to Me!