Great Nanny died on June 13th.  She had a massive stroke on Thursday the 12th, and was taken off life support on the 13th.  Her funeral was held on Monday the 16th.  It was very sudden, and has taken us quite hard.  I'm sure it's going to take a while before it really sinks in.

On a lighter note, Bri celebrated her 12th birthday on the 20th.  She had 4 girls over.  They went roller skating, then came home and spent the night.  I can't believe she's only 12.

I don't work for Bath & Body Works anymore.  I watch a 3 1/2 month old baby boy at home instead.  His name is Mason: He is a real sweet guy.  

I turned 40 on the 9th.  Yikes, I'm not that old am I?  It was pretty good.  Bri is out of school for the summer, and Nate is going to 3 weeks of summer school.  I even had a short visit with Sling.

Britne & I met with her future mother-in-law on Saturday to discuss more details on the upcoming wedding.  Isn't is strange how doing something with someone you're not used to can wear you out?  I guess Brit & I were trying to really behave, maybe that's why it wore us out!  We finally got Bri's bridesmaid dress, and she tried it on.  She looks really stunning.  I can't believe how grown up all my babies are.

Well, I'm off to recover the kitchen chairs, and then clean the shower.  Or maybe I'll clean the shower first.  Whatever.

but it's really not my fault.  Bri crashed BOTH computers in the same day!  This was a couple of weeks ago.  I'm still trying to get the Norton subscription straightened out.  They keep trying to tell me I have to buy a new version - I THINK NOT!

I finally got the front room painted, and it is an awesome improvement.  The kids don't like the way I have the furniture, but they can arrange furniture when they're the parent :P

I've started watching Mason.  He is 2 months old.  He is the son of one of my managers from work.  He is so sweet.  He's so big he reminds me of when Nate was a baby.  Right now he mostly sleeps.  Like 4 hours at a time.  I am getting so many little things done around the house; it's amazing.  When I was working at the store, by the time I got home I was exhausted.  But now, he's asleep, and I'm still fresh :)  I've caught back up on my couponing, and re-downloaded as many songs as I can remember (the ones I had, but lost, when Bri crashed the computer).  This time I've zipped them and saved them to a memory stick.

I've also been getting a little cleaning done on the shed in the back yard.  This week is the week that the city comes and will pick up big trash, so I've been throwing a lot of stuff out in the ditch.  Larry cut down 2 trees in our little field next to the house, so we had to get all that wood out there too.  But the trees were dead, and were impairing the growth of the ones that weren't.

My mom is in the hospital again.  She went totally mental.  She even showed up at my job one day.  I hadn't seen her in over a year, and suddenly I looked up and there she was - the next person in my line!  She just said "Hi" and left.  I couldn't do anything because I still had a line.  Tres bizzare.  "Please God, don't let me grow up to be like my mom.  Thank You and in Jesus' name, Amen."

Gotta go - it's 2:30 and I have to wake up Mason and get him ready to leave to get Bri from schoool.

Okay, I've been bad.  I think it's been a month since my last entry.  But I have been busy.  Here's what's been happening:

I've been to Abilene to see Leslie & Kara.  Broke my heart, I don't think Leslie Really remembered me.  But she did warm up to me and we got to play and stuff.  My default pic is me (an actual photo of me!  alert the press!) and baby Kara.  They both have gotten so big.  Leslie is talking so much clearer.  Kara grew hair overnight!  I have pics of them posted on my myspace - myspace.com/skunkifer.  Add me to your friends if you want.  I also have a little secret in regards to them.  Actually 2.  But you'll have to message me if ya really wanna know.  Don't want nobody peeking.  (What movie is that from?)

Let's see.  The children's great-nanny (I think she's like 80 something) had to go to the ER and ended up spending 11 days in the SICU.  She finally got to come home yesterday, which was her birthday.  Happy Birthday to her!  We are all concerned about her and would appreciate everyone's prayers.

This week's schedule at work said that I had requested the week off.  I didn't, but I'm not going to fight a week off!  Sad to say, I guess I didn't really make much use of it.  Haven't done a thing to the front room - in terms of prepping the walls and painting.  I guess I really just rested most of the week.

I will start watching little baby Mason around the 14th of April.  I think he will be about 3 months old then.  It will be nice to  have a little one to shower with love again.  My kids insist that they are too big, and I can hardly get a hug from Bri most days :(  Nate just pities me, give me a kiss and a hug and pats my arm.  Like a senile old person or something.  One day . . .

Brit and I are sort of dieting together.  She needs to lose an inch all over - most especially around the bust, waist, and hips - to fit into her wedding dress.  When she ordered it, it fit.  But since then she's apparently gained some weight.  So I've been enlisted to help.  Couldn't hurt, right?  I mean, most of my life I've been way smaller than this.  But then again, after 5 kids, give me a break.  :P

Bri and I are about to go to the pawn shop.  We found a bunch of old jewelry in the shed out back, and are going to see it it's worth anything.  Keep your fingers crossed.

One, more thing.  I noticed someone I care about a great deal mentioned that they want to/are going to go to A & M.  That is cool.  I was going to go to A&M Galveston to study Marine Biology.  But then came Brit.  I think it's a great place.

Things have been lively as usual.  It took me forever to get the camera cord from Larry so I could upload pics of Britne at her fitting.  Here is my favorite one:    She's doing a little dance.  Here's another one that I liked:    We're going to have to go back again in a few weeks.  She has been pretty stressed out, and had gained some weight from when we bought the dress.  So now she really has to watch what she eats.  We can't afford another dress :P

I had a migraine on Saturday.  I hadn't had one this bad in almost 2 years.  I had Larry take me to the emergency room because I didn't have any medicine that was helping it.  When he called my job to tell them that I wouldn't be coming in, they told him that I needed to bring the doctor's paperwork when I next came to work.  COME ON PEOPLE!  I know you were inconvienced for about 6 hours, but I was inconvenienced for the whole weekend.  I lost 6 hours of pay, and ended up owing what equals about 40 hours of pay.  Trust me, I would have rather been able to work.

I got a letter from my mom on Friday.  I'm not going to get into the whole thing with my mom (that's a whole other rant), but she was trying to guilt trip me.  But I'm going to shake it off.   I know the whole story of my life, and she doesn't.  Bleh.

The dining room got one coat of paint on it last night.  It needs a second coat, and the ceiling still needs to be done.  It looks SO much better.  I'm really getting excited.  I can already picture how much better the house is going to look when it's all done.  The really hard part is trying to maintain the rest of the house while working on the painting and stuff.  Bri & Nate just want to let everything (the dishes, laundry, trash, etc.) go while I'm doing this.  But it drives me nuts, and I can't paint if everything else is a mess.  So now I'm off to do some dishes and laundry.  Go me :)

Explanation on title:  That's how I feel things have been the last couple of weeks.  Casting my pearls before swine.  Enough on that.

Today I am going out to meet Britne at David's Bridal.  She needs some alterations on her gown ( she's short like her mama) and we are picking up Bri's Bridesmaid dress.  I expect to have a pretty fun day just us girls :)

Larry moved into his own apartment so that Nate could go to public school.  This freed up a bedroom.  So Nate moved into Larry's old room, Bri moved into Nate's old room, and I get my room to myself!  Yeah!!  It seems like everyone is really happy with their rooms.  

I finished with the hallway, except for the trim.  After I rehang Bri's curtains in her new room; I will be starting on the dining room.  Have to take everything off the walls, clean them, fill in the holes, and then paint.  It's starting to look like a completely different house.  In a good way.

I have to go beautify myself for my visit with Brit.  I think I'm gonna borrow Larry's camera and take some pics of her getting fitted.  I'll post them later.

What is the frekkin' deal with Sling & I going to the movies?  If you read my previous post, you know what happened when we tried to see Cloverfield.  Two nights BEFORE that, we tried to see Resident Evil:  Extinction.  We watch 30 maybe 45 minutes, and I realize that he's falling asleep.  I couldn't believe it.  He tries to say nah, he's fine.  Then I turn to him to say something, and he's asleep again.  Needless to say, we left.  I guess I just wasn't meant to see any movies this time around.

On a different (but kind of linked) note, Brit was sick this week.  I went over to her house on Thursday night, and made her chicken noodle soup.  I gave her a little pedicure, and played with her hair while we watched Resident Evil, Resident Evil:  Apocalypse, and yes you guessed it, I finally got to see - Resident Evil:  Extinction!  Yeah!  I had bought the first two after the 30/45 minutes I had seen of the 3rd one.  I realized it might make more sense if I had seen the previous ones.  And then James was nice enough to rent the third one.  Thank you James.  And I got to see Lily & Tsion playing around too.

Have any of you seen this? Well, me neither.

I went to see it last night. They had signs up at the ticket window: Cloverfield caused sides effects similar to motion sickness from a roller coaster. No problem - not only do I not get motion sickness (have taken a 21 hour train trip, too many to count plane rides, driven cross country too many times to count), I'm pretty cool with roller coasters too.

After about 15 minutes I ask my friend if it was making him nauseous. Nope, he's fine. So I think, maybe I ate too much candy. WAIT! Is that possible? Could I ever really eat too much candy?  So I try to ignore it.

15 more minutes go by, I have to go to the ladies room.  This sucks. Blows. Whatever. I try to go back to the movie. I think, I'll just close my eyes and listen to the movie. Then I peek at it for about 30 seconds. Not good. The damage is done.

I still feel so stupid. Especially since it was $9 a ticket, and we definitely had to leave.



Here's my question: I wonder if I took some Dramamine, could I watch it then? Hmmm.

I know

I'm so happy!  My friend, Sling, just got into the States yesterday after being in Iraq for over a year!  I was at work, and had answered the phone "Blah, blah, this is Jennifer, can I help you?"  Then this voice says, "Is this Jennifer W?"  At that point I'm like - crap, gotta be bad if they ask for you by your last name.  I admit that it is truly me, and it turns out to be him!

Typical Guy (or Typical Him), one of the things we end up doing on our first day of seeing each other is putting a new tire on my car.  Gotta love 'em.  Then we went to the movies.  Presently I am waiting for him to call so we can go out tonight. 

I always love it when he's in town.   Now I'm doing the happy dance just like Blue.

This week has been a little easier, less busy.  Last night, while Nate was spending the night w/ DJ & Bri was skating w/ her boyfriend Darian, Larry & I went to Brit & James'.  It was the first time Larry had seen their new apartment.  (BTW, Britne is a book stealer!  Never let your books out of your sight when she's around.)  We went to Cici's and had pizza and all that good stuff.

I worked a whole lot less this week, which was a welcome break.  But it was weird at the same time.  My schedule this week is pretty much the same.  But that will give me more time to work on home improvements!  Here's a pic of Bri (holding the camera) & Alex in front of the new mirror's in our freshly painted/revamped bathroom: 

Now I'm working on the hall adjoining the bathroom.  I've already removed everything, and cleaned the walls.  Now I need to spackle the nail holes, sand, and it's ready to be painted :)

I've been playing Neopets a lot this week.  Britne's interest in it has been rekindled, and we are showing each other things that the other one didn't know.  I now have 115 secret avatars; Brit only has 92 :P  And I'm working on a couple more that take a little while to get.  

I still miss Leslie & Kara, their grandma emailed me that Kara got her first tooth, and is expecting another 3 or so really soon.  Here's some pics of them:
  
That's Kara - before her new tooth.  Here's a cute one of Leslie:
  Girlfriend loves her baths.  

I'm mailing my cell phone in to be repaired tomorrow.  I don't know how I'm going to survive until I get it back!  Not.  I've only had 3 calls in the last two weeks.  But I do feel more secure when I have it, in case of emergency's.

I messed up on the info on Brit's dress.  It's not burgandy and white.  It's trimmed in black.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Her wedding colors are going to be black & blue & silver.  (That's my little rebel.)  Here's a picture of some candle's that I'm decorating for the ceremony:    
She's real stressed about being able to afford this and that.  Please keep her in your thoughts & prayers.

Earlier today Bri & I watched Disturbia.  The first ten minutes really hit hard.  The whole movie is definitely - disturbing.  I think I'm going to watch it again tonight before I go to bed.  Nate hasn't seen it at all, and Larry hasn't seen the end.

As you may or may not know, Britne is getting married in July.  The 22nd to be exact.  I'm so excited for her.  Her fiance's name is James.  They are very good together.  Here is a picture of her wedding dress: 
  
This is the back.  It is trimmed in a wine color.  This is also the veil that she is wearing, and it is also trimmed in wine.  Here is a picture of the front of the dress: 
  
I couldn't get it to print in wine, but you get the idea.  If you want a better look you can go to Davidsbridal.com and in the search box type E8252.  It fits her perfectly!  It really took my breath away to see her in it.  She isn't really a girly girl, so I hadn't seen her dressed up in a long time :)