I Have aged 20 years as my child wanders out of Gym child care...

So, me being the sporty mama that I am actually thought I could burn some fat from this old behind of mine yesterday. We havea fairly new rec center and my 11 year old loves to go to their water area. I on the other hand, would not be caught DEAD or alive in a suit so I thought I would use this opportunity to work out while 11 y.o. played in the water adn the 3 y.o utilized teh paid babysitting.
I went in and paid my fee to get in, then another fee for the babysitting. I am doing good , working up a sweat and at th 1/2 hour mark decided to jsut go peek and make sure the 3 Y.O was doing ok, There were a lot of kids his age but I was concerned about the infants in there and wanted to amek sure he was not too rambunctious. he has never had child care other than family.I peek in and it is very calm and serene. 1 worker rocking a baby the other doing some paperwork.The one doing the paperwork turns around and I smile. She smiles then starts looking around the room, her smile fades as she starts looking behind counters and inside toyboxes. She comes to me frantically" I dont know where he is, I dont know where your son is" . I was astonished at first. This room was not a large room by far and really no way a child could get out of your sight in this room. She says' He was jsut so quiet and then it got really hectic for a minute as there were multiple parents picking up kids and then a little girl vomited, I am so sorry this has never happened before" , Me still in a daze turn and look at the floors of rooms and the multitude of people and take off at a sprint.After searching fora good 10 minutes, I glance over where the rock climbing wall is anad there is a tube that runs from the top floor of the building to the ground floor. I see lots of tall people, knees and legs and then a short set of legs parts through. I run to him and look him over, unsure of how long he has been on his own in this place and start asking questions. Luckily he was unhurt and aside from a few rides on the elevator and who knows what else he was just fine.I on the other hand need some valium and a stiff drink. After the fact I found out this is the same place that no more than 6 months ago a 7 year old was assaulted in the mens restrooms by another man and chills ran down my spine. I guess this was my sign from the man above that I am not meant to work out or maybe that I need to be aware more or something but believe me not, I will never leave my child in the care of anyone but family again. I am seriously considering opting our of School LOL. If I live long enough to make that decision.
When I found out I was pregnant at 39 with this guy, I did not think ahead to all of those moments that take your breath away , Literally , and Now wonder if My heart will hold out for the next 16 years! I havent even decided what sort of action to take today. I do know that something needs to be said/done but I am trying to stay level-headed. This facility is run by the county and the employees are paid employees. They have a list of things you need to fill out and agree to before dropping your child off. The woman in charge was very much shaken but, I still wonder how many times this has really happened.

I am re-thinking this whole over 40 toddler parenting and I think I want a little time to think this over

My Little re-do Makeover from the thrift store Metamorphisis Monday

Finally remembered to post a Metamorphisis Monday.. Not a Big one but Hey it is something!Go check out all of the others at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com









Isnt she a beaut!?



I bought this little stool/chair at the thrift store a few days ago but I wasnt feeling the orangey yellow faded out set and its bright chrome that will not go with anything I have.
SO....This little Lovely got a quickie makeover.





All I had to do was bend back some prongs (4) On the bottom and use a screwdriver to remove the top seat.




I then lightly sanded it of all dirt and yuckies. I took it to the yard and gave all of the chrome a coat of Black rustoleum. I had some cool fabric I wanted to use, A Black with Gold , perfect for the Job! Made a template around the seat, and cut the fabric. I just left the old orange covering on and went right over it. It was clean and was really attached very well.


I sprayed the edges of fabric and seat where I wanted the fabric to attach with Spray adhesive but I any thick like glue would work I am sure. Just more holding as there are no areas that you can staple.
Waited for it to dry .... Voila'.. Instant new stool/chair. Since I am only 5'3 I need a stool everywhere but HATE HATE dragging little stepstools around, this I can pull over with my foot, climb up, down and have a somewhat comfy seat for peeling potatoes :-) Easy peasy Lemon squeezy.


Now I jsut need new rubber caps to go on the legs, It was missing 2 when I bought it.

I hope to be doing more, We are remodeling our kitchen and will have it done witin the MONTH!

Places in the Heart and MOVIE night (day)

Since we are all healing this weekend from either one thing or another I chose today for Movie night . Movie night spanned the whole day.
We set up camp in a darkened room with stacks of movies and DVD's. We of course had to start with Cars. My 3 year old could watch this movie over and over again.
Then onto Wall-e which held his attention a little less but , I didnt mind so much.
Then we had to watch cars again.
Next from one of my picks was fireproof. Kind of cheesy acting but the storyline was good and held my attention.I had been meaning to watch this all the way through for a while and while we had to pause it and rewind a few times for food breaks I finally finished it. Then we watched camp Rock for the 546,677 th time it appeased my daughter.
We ended with Places in the Heart. I had seen this before years and years ago. It is the story of a widow who tries to run a farm and raise 2 young children. It has the obligatory Bank man who you hate throughout the movie . Moses or MOZE, played by Danny Glover is her savior and helps her through many trials. Although the "N" word is still offensive to me when I hear it , it is suitable for older kids who know better than to repeat the forbidden words.
There are 2 down now and 3 to go but I do think my movie watching is finally at it end.
Ciao

Giveaway 500.00 walmart giftcard

Go check it out
http://onthego2mommy.blogspot.com/

I did not know 11 year old Child could have shingles

I am flabbergasted. Youngest daughter had what looked like a bug bite just below her tailbone about a week ago. I thought she had gotten bitten or something at the Waterslide and jsut told her to give it a chance to go away. Well as the days progressed the bug bite flattened out and started looking like a bunch of flat blisters. By the time she arrived home from school it had spread in sort of an arc on her left side right down the buttock and down the back of her leg.
I thought it might be staph and we went to the doctor today. She said shingles as soon as she seen it. She gave us a prescription for acyclovir and she has to take 4 pills every 3 hours. ! It is a handful of pills too. It is still spreading and is very painful. School just started yesterday and already she has to miss school. Ugh, She prides herself on getting awards for perfect attendance and now she is already absent!
In case you dont know what shingles is I will link it but in a nutshell it is the chicken pox ( herpes zoster) virus that usually lies dormant in people who have had chicken pox. Doctors are not sure why but in some people it becomes active again and results in shingles. It is on one side of the body following the path of the affected nerve. It is very painful and itches like crazy. They say people who acquired chicken pox before turning one were at higher risk as well as people with low immunities and stress can also bring it on.
Here is hoping that she can feel better and doesnt have it for as long as some I ahev seen. Some have had the rash for over 3 months and the pain in the affected nerve can last years almost debilitating.
From the way she describes it, You feel pain and tingling sensation over and down the nerve days before a rash is noticed. Then it gets painful and itchy and she just feels really crappy. I will post back later on her progress . She is zonked out for the night. Poor kiddo

Not real sure how I feel about this.

Yesterday I was in the town near me doing my final school preparations. One side of the road there is a strip mall and the other side is a super Wal-mart.
I see a bunch of kids right at the entrances with big signs. I thought they were probably advertising a carwash or something. there were probably 6 kids with big signs.
1 read Please Buy Local the other was Keep your money at home, then there were 3 that said "help our mommy keep our home"
Ok, so I feel really really bad for any families that are going through any sort of financial troubles and I do try to buy local when it is possible. What I am not totally comfortable with is
1- these are kids and even though they are having financial troubles I dont think putting it out there like that is doing a service to the,. Why would you want your children to worry about this and add more stress to their already stressful lives.
2- I did not see any adults out there , I mean why embarass your kids by putting them out there with signs like that.
3- a continuance of the above. As much as it pulls at your heart strings ( and I am sure the parents thought of this as well hence the reason they used kids for the deed) I know my kids would be ridiculed and made fun of for this and would never forgive me when one of their school mates brought up the fact that they seen them talking about losing their home in front of Walmart. I really just dont see the reason why you would put a child through this.
4- My thoughts are that this person whomever it may be ( an if it is you , my heart goes out to you but come on..) Needs to go back to business school. Since when did this tactic work. This is not far off from the homeless people that are at every exit asking for just 1 dollar for a meal.
uggh
I am having a hard time with this because I do have a heart and have kids and have been broke, and I mean BROKE. When my husband and I split up he paid not 1 dime of child support . I went back to work , lived in a trailer and my kids were plunged into an entirely new life. The luxuries they had before like FOOD, dental care and all that jazz that we take for granted was gone. Some of the sadder times were when we had to go to the food pantry for food after not doing so for the first 3 months.
My youngest was 7 at the time and she was in HEAVEN, we were down to not much at all in the cupboards and were at a point that I would lie tell family that I ad to work jsut so they would watch the kids sicne I KNEW they would eat while they were there., My youngest came in 1 day wanting a box of cookies ( from the food pantrys day old bakery shelf) I let her and her friends take some ou as I thought they could have a little picnic. They were gone for a while and she came back, Said I have a surprise for you mommy. She pulls out like 6 dollars from her back pocket, I asked where she got it. She had gone through the neighborhood selling cookies for a dollar, the reason,so we could pay our electricity bill :-( I had no idea she knew wnything about our troubles other than we had to move and would have to watch our pennies. This was at Christmas time too and luckily I had Christmas bought so they would have that.
It was a bad time in our live and it was not the best but when I told them all we were moving back with their dad they were mad, They wanted usto stay in that tiny 2 bed 2 bath trailer in a trailer park rather than go back, . I made it on 1000 a month while it wasnt a lot it still paid the bills and I cared for my kids,


More on thie later.

I will never trust an ATM at the Mall again (Shudder)

So, today I run in the mall to catch up with the kids and thrown them their money so we can get the hookie out of the place and get onto some good stuff... Like thrift store shopping.
This atm has a slider thing that you slide the card through instead of sticking the card in and then machine sucks it in. This one you slide the card and you still ahve it. All went well, I head my 200 dollars shuffle into the tray looked at screen , it says PLEASE REMOVE YOUR CARD.. Uhh,, I removed it already it is already in my purse. Keeps sayign that and not giving me my money that I HEARD shuffle into the little drawer.Over and over again Please remove your card, I take my card out thinking Maybe I need to unfreeze it so I slide again. Nothing. Now I am pissed cuz I know someone is going to get my money. Grab my phone to call the number on the machine. Phone is DEAD, so I have to leave my machine and RUN about a block to my son to get his phone but I dont want to leave the ATM in case someone else comes along , you know and gets my money that it wont give to me. So I get back to the machine and another guy is using it, I run up and ask him if it is working , he says no, it keeps saying please remove your card. UGHHH , now mine and his is trapped in that damn little drawer. I call the number tell her the sitch. SHe says All I can do is dispute it on you account ( the money did come out of my account , just not into my hands). Uggh. may take 10 days to 2 weeks. UGH. the poor guy behind me had done a transaction that only left him with 4.00 in his account. He is startgin to cuss now and it is like we are a team, We are both mad and saying not so nice things about this stupid ATM she is blabbering off on the phone about all of the stuff and reading me off numbers and I am telling her how stupid it is and couldnt someone come down her and just get us our money being held captive in this blasted machine. Then just liek that she says , Oh, I see it jsut credited it back to your account. Oh,thank you . goodbye and GOOD RIDDANCE you thieving ATM machine.

Will be posting soon about back to school! Whoopee!!!

Only 2 more days and I have my days back! Somewhat. I lose 2 and still have 1 home so we are going to work on some preschool stuff while the others are out getting all smart.:-) Stay tuned for our fashion show with a SPECIAL Guest.

Itsy Post for today..

Today this Boy..




Was a super duper TURKEY. He spends a lot of time with grandma and pa and the things he comes home with.this week it was about "toots" Or farts of which granny tries to dissuade that. So He has been saying it every time and is very happy when he "toots"
We went to Provo to finish the kids school clothes shopping and brought him along. While we are eating I walked over to get him some fruit from the buffet.before I got back to the table I could hear him yelling something to me. But didnt understand.My 2 older kids were scrunched down under the table practically and I was Like"Whats going on lets eat guys we've got a lot to do." The 2 older said didnt you hear him screaming to you? I said yes but I was sure it was some useless nonsense like he usually hollers at me like "Hey mom, I want a gerbil someday"But Noooo What he WAS Screaming was My full name for the whole restaurant to hear and make note of ,"Bonnie Murphy, I tooted, did you hear it, I tooted in the eating place,"uugghhhh Gotta love em'

Farewell my friend:-(

Today was a sad day:-( Our love-bug Laci Slipped out and was hit by a car. This is such an odd occurance I still cannot grasp it. We live in a VERY rural are and MAYBE have a total of about oh 10 cars in a 24 hour period pass our house.She was outside this morning and we have jsut put up a bigger yard fence in the back and she ahs figured out how to escape it. I am not sure hwere she wanted to go but it was obviously into the road. We live on 40 acres and dont have any really close neighbors and the road is a good 200 feet or more from our house.
What is even sadder was I was just onto the kids about feeding and watering them .I was mad that instead of giving her fresh water every time they walked past the water bowl outside that they just left the old warm water plus they would both say they fed when they didnt. It wasnt a probelm inside but she has been spending a lot of time outside lately because my son adopted an older Min Pin and she didnt much like her.
Anyway. I had jsut been getting onto them and had sent one of them out to make her come in and we couldnt find her.
Fast forwar like 2 hours and we found her run over on the road quite a ways from our house. My son picked her up and we wrapped her in her favorite blanket and buried her out in the pasture under an apple tree.
A little while later my 11 year old ( whom just got in trouble for their lack of responsibility when it came to the dogs) gave me a letter she wrote Laci
" Dear Laci,
I Love you so much I'm Sorry I couldnt Feed or water you sometimes . I am going to miss you so much. I hope you are better off with God. He will treat you better than I treated you. So, to pay it off I'm Not going to eat ofr a day or drink anything for a day and I am going to lay out in the Sun for a day. I'm so sorry . I love youSo Much Laci."

we had a talk and I told her it was as much my fault as it was hers and we can learn from this. She was very much a part of our family and getting a little older. Even though she has lived here for years and years and has never even shown an interest in going anywhere I guess she just decided to go adventuring. Our heart are a little emptier and we are much sadder. The others are keeping a closer eye on their babies and it just goes to show you just never know.
And sjut to clarify. Laci was never out of water or food, If she didnt have it outside she had it inside. I just liked them to be in easy access to clean fresh water at all times and the thought of warm water outside would set me off. She could always walk 10 steps to the house and find cold water and a full bowl of food. This was "her" dog and she will be greatly missed .She was a gentle would and would not hurt a fly. She thrived on attention and Loved every person alive.

One last before I forget!

As we were tramping through Colorado, the blind leading the blind.. we came across this little town .....And we felt compelled to pull over.. do a U turn ( the road construction guys had no clue what we could possibly want to do... I mean how often is my dad with me?. NEVAHHHH. SO I jumped at the chance and here we are. a couple of rebels ignoring the rules of the road and taking a chance ( and I did find a pair of needle nose pliers right out my door.. ta dah I mean where else can we both stand under our names.. that we call each other. LOL

DOnt we look GREAT! My dad looks like he is ready for the insane asylum and we havent even driven in the mt. yet and I look like a person who was rode hard adn put up wet... . The Glamour life baybay.''The second one is even better instead of knowing where or when he jsut pointed whichever way he wanted, and I look as if I grew another person to the front and side of my left arm. Ha. Thats my Eaaassy ridin clothes, non binding and comfy but not cute AT ALL>

Onward Men ( and women)

We trudged out of Durango and felt like we could have put down roots in silverton . It looked like our kind of town and there were kids rafting and tubing just looked like they were having fun. Probably should have done the fun thing because for the next few hours we would be having anything but fun.
The first part of the ride was beautiful and easy just slow and not many vehicles enjoying the mountain scenery.A little over an hour outside of Silverton Oh My... Beautiful but Ooo so steep and switchbacks galore where you are to go only 15 (fine with me) but people behind me thought I should be going down a mountain on switchbacks one after another at 40 mph. Ahh No. Not here not me . I follow posted speed limits. This is just a 2 lane road with no rails as I turn the corner I can reach out and shake my daughters hand in the back seat it is that tight of a curve. This went on for HOURRRRSSSS. UGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH it was so pretty but oh my . LONG and so many big campers and trucks bumper to bumper and there were just a lot of vehicles period.



This is as we are traveling through the very upper reaches of the mountains at one peak we were 13,343 feet up. We would then have to go down then lo and behold, another one to go up, and waddya know another to take us down only to repeat this bad dream fro hour upon hour with an older man in one seat ( he is scared of heights, and 2 teenagers who cant seem to stop arguing about ANYTHING! They argued about the color of a bush, the wayone breathed hard at the other, they were just rotten.


It was so very beautiful but Wow!We were very glad to be done weaving in and out of all of those campers, busses and cars, motorcycles etc.
I could breathe a little easier. I ran out of daylight bu there is a quaint little town down as we were jsut going out of the really mountainous area called OURAY How CUTE!. I totally could have stayed there. They call it little Switzerland


The Sign before you come in on the East side


Looking down their Mainstreet


Ouray is a historic district. There are no billboards in Ouray, Ridgway, or unincorporated Ouray County. National forest area begins south of town of Ouray.
They do have a hot springs and water park on the north end of town as you are passing through. I will have to go back sometime but I will be going from the north to the south the next time and it definitely wont be in the winter .


Well Folks, I need to get these all up here in the order that we did em' this was our July trip and I dont think I took the camera to the Aug trip but I do have some coming up from the kiddos and some things I have been working on here, so stay tuned. I am also coming close to my first GIVE-AWAY! SO excited!

Ding Dong The witch is dead..

Well. I thought she was,,,, she has been reincarnated in my oldest 18 year old. daughter.I swear , every thing from her mouth today was a complaint or how we did something wrong .BLAH BLAH.We dont listen to her anyway but OH my you are seriously going to hvae a miserable life if all you ever do is complain.
Lets get back to my long overdue post about our trip from New Mexico. The little darling is back and back to work , I on the other hand had to recuperate from that dadblasted mountain we had to cross from silverton on over the mountain range and then down into ouray,and all of the other really cute old mining towns.
The ride starting out was not bad at all we wandered up to mancos to let my son see the Elk at a the elk ranch they have there, He is 15 and he lives and breathes hunting so we went back out of our way to go see them

We wandered into their small but quaint gift shop and bought a few things I thought I could not live without , Bought some bpinion salve, and it does smell like it , Love the smell. We also got some jalapeno elk bratwursts to take home to dad.


But they were more interested in these things BEAUTIFUL animals too. Beautiful area I would so live here in a minute.Next pics are our drive from durango to silverton and over those LONG TALL mountains

Another trip Momma has all her babies back..

We got up really early on the 22 nd and left Utah over the mountains and into Price. rididng with me were my dad, and my 16 year old son. We caught I-70 at green river and went on into and past moab and then on into moticello where we turned and ran right into COlorado. Bye bye Utah. another few hours driving past some beautiful mountain scenery . drove like that for another 5 hours til we reached our destination.Aztec New Mexico the home of my brother and his wife and 3 kids.



We were there for that night and the next then home we had to go....We made it a chance for dad to see my brother and his family since he probably wont make the trip again. he is getting older adn these short trips he is still able to do. We also picked up my daughter who had been in New mexico for 3 weeks and felt it was time to come home. This post is about the trip out adn tomorrow you get trip back.
We showed up to this..
These 3 guys could not wait and had the chair ready and waiting for Grandpa.
The Next night they barbecued some Yummmy Burgers and we ate out in the backyard. Did a lot of talking with a few of his best friends that we had never met and then they FORCED us all into playing Texas Hold 'em . No money passing around here LOL.


It was our last night there so it was a late night. No drinks touching lips since I drive and I HATE headaches. Just lots to talk about. We woke later than we wanted the next morning to start out Long Trek home. We had decided to go through Mancos Colorado so my son could go see the Elk on an elk ranch there. We then had to backtrack to Durango and chose the route through silverton Ouray etc on our way to Grand Jct COlo to see my sister and her kids. More on that crazy trip tomorrow

I dont wanna go, just leave her gone

Words from my 3 year old who has been totally missing his almost 11 year old sister since she has been gone to her older sisters house for over a week.
I don't get this kid. He has whined, pulled the pouty lip, cried, and begged for his sister. I in order to get him to go to sleep a little quicker told him" we are going to get her in the morning" , His reply? " I don't want to go , let's jsut leave her gone". Umm, exsqueeze me? "let the bus bring her home" me" but she isnt at school" Him-"Let her walk here". Well, great idea but she is almost 3 hours away. ? No comment. . No comment.. no comment, but thinking. thinking , thinking, thinking. " We don't need her, let her live there" . Poor girl. She absolutely spoils him rotten and calls every day asking to talk to him. Rotten little boy ....

We went on a "walking Trip"

As Sky put it any way.. We hooked the trusty cart to the bike and went off on our way. We didnt go far since skeeters were on full attack but seen some animals and scenery that we cant see normally. Although , Most of the wildlife we seen before we even left our driveway.Here we are below before we left and when we visited with Harry the llama and his buddy.



Then we turned to go and what do we have here?

She wasnt worried at all busy grazing on a bunch of trees we had just cut down so we could build a fence.

Sky want much surprised. They come through every evening and morning heading in and out to water and greener pastures.

Below is the walk away from our house, it was getting pretty shady and the mosquitos were keeping us busy.


Here is our view heading back. You can JUST see the tip of our house behind the trees.



I hope to get him out more. I just got me A beach cruiser and the stinking bike seat for sky wont fit on the back over the brakes , Talk about bummed! So last night we walked no pic of that since I decided it would be a great idea to take a 100 lb dog AND a unpredictable 3 year old . When I would get control of 1 the other would take off. We were plenty exhausted even after 30 minutes!
It is jsut me and Taylor tonight. Grandma and Grandpa have Sky, Chelsea is in New Mexico, and Liv is in Colorado. Now we will see who the real mess-maker is. Hoping to maybe take my son fishing up in the mountains tomorrow although, he didnt seem too enthusiastic about it.

Our trip to Moab.

After our trip to SLC approximately a week later it was time to deliver my daughter to her summer place in New Mexico. My SIL met us in MOab. That was quite the long trip in one day. Some really pretty scenery but pretty dang bland in some spots.




The one pictuer above My oldest kept saying" it looks like from the movie the hills have eyes" .. I have never seen the movie but felt very differently after that!

LONG LONG break.

Whew, been gone for a while but we have been SUPER busy.
Here are a few pictures from the past few months.
We took a long weekend and took the kiddos to SLC we went to the Zoo, Discovery gateway and hung out all weekend. I only got pictures of the zoo.
Sky was NOT impressed with the animals. He mostly wanted to see the Kangaroos ( only because his construction paper has a picture of a kangaroo) and the Llama, which we have a llama so I wasnt sure the meaning behind that. It was SO hot , I let the youngest ride the train and carousel. He HATED the carousel and cried before it started. The train he hated before it started and then would not get off at the end.





We sure were pooped when we got home. Olivia is getting so big and is almost taller than me and she is only 10! The below pic are from the carousel as well