Is It Really The Weekend??

 More art from my album Blog Inspirations. I totally forgot all about this album and when Courtney fixed my photos and I started making my albums I came across this one and I decided to use some of these pictures until I get back to scrapbooking full time. 

 I have some wonderful photos but I promised Courtney that I wouldn't put any photos of Celeste online. It is a long story but it is for safety reasons and as a parent I cannot say that I blame her. 

 It is always wonderful to see pictures of our kids, how much they have grown, the cute things that they do and the fun pics but since I realize the danger that these innocent photos can put our kids in, I wish more parents wouldn't display so much of their children's activities online. 

 I made some English Pea Salad the other day and Celeste was sitting on the counter so she could stir the ingredients and it was so funny to watch her because she asked for a spoon and she just reached in and loaded up her spoon and took a bite right out of the big bowl. Needless to say she loved my pea salad and I sent photos I took of her to her daddy, her Aunty Karyn and both of her uncles and her mama. I realized that I can send pics to who I wanted to in our family. I didn't have to display them all on Facebook, Instagram and so forth. I know that even my photos can be hacked but I feel more comfortable doing this than splashing them all over the internet. 

 It is 4 in the morning and I am still awake. But no one has a set bedtime on the weekends. I am usually asleep by now but nothing ever goes according to plans. I should just stop trying to plan things and just take things as they come rather than trying to plan something.

Weekend before last we had a house full of company. Randy from Salt Lake City Utah was here and then Courtney's mom and sister from Colorado.

 I know that Denise and Cecile wanted to spend time with all of the grandkids but in my opinion it would have been easier if they had gone over to her son's house but no, everyone came here. It was really a mad house. Courtney had to work the last day they were here so it was hard trying to keep the kids quiet while she worked. Denise has a doctor here and asked me if I could watch the kids for about 45 minutes. I said sure no problem but her daughter Cecile decided to drive her to her appointment and they took the kids with them. That just left me, Celeste and Randy here and by the time that they got back and we had lunch (Denise brought back burgers) and the kids played. The day before on Sunday we had the birthday party for Lily and Brayden and we did not do a party and a meal like we had done before. It was sort of a let's see what we have in the fridge. I had made a huge pot of vegetable beef soup and we had chicken and cheese enchiladas and lots of sandwich fixings plus a huge Chef salad so no one was going to go hungry. 

 The next weekend Courtney and her sister in law Megan and I had a girls night out. We put a movie on for the kids and we sat outside. I am not sure what to call the space that we sit at. It isn't really a balcony but it isn't a patio either. It is a nice little area that overlooks the parking lot, the park and the front of the exit gate. Whatever it is we do have a beautiful view of the mountains. 

 The night of our girls night out we just put the kids down for bed and they spent the night. Megan and Bryan Lily, Gunner, Luke and Emma were up with the birds, and I forgot to add Celeste in the list as well. Celeste is pretty self sufficient. She can get her own breakfast and juice so no worries there, but the other kids are not able to get their own unless it is something like a pop tart or something similar and Celeste will help with that.

 The rest of the week was not a easy one and Courtney described it as the week from HELL. She had some of the rudest customers that yelled at her for the most part and one call lasted over a hour and a half. Courtney missed her entire lunch break day before yesterday. 

 She got her lunch break and one of her breaks today but missed one completely and I called Matt today (Yesterday) and he asked if she was ok and I said yes but was working and didn't come out for her break so she must have been on a difficult call. He said that she usually texted him during her breaks but he didn't hear from her. She called him when she got off work because her dad had eye surgery yesterday and she was texting her mom because something didn't go right with his surgery and he was having a follow up. 2 years ago her had had a complete eyeball transplant and he developed a cataract but something else had gone wrong and he may lose that eye. So Courtney was trying to understand what the doctor was saying to her dad. Matt understood so they are good.

 This is basically a recap of my last blog and I really wanted to blog about something else but I am really too tired to go into it so I will save it for my next post which I will try and do tomorrow or later tonight depending on if I get any sleep. 

 I will be getting a eye injection on Monday so I will have to blog tonight or tomorrow. It will take a few days to get my sight back so I will talk to you tomorrow... Be safe and Be kind to one another and take care of yourselves.... BB

 

My Son Nathan And Other Crazy Happenings

I forgot that I had experimented with this kind of art a few years ago. This is not my work but it and others like it has been inspiration for a lot of my pages in the past. I am going to be trying to get back into my scrapbooking soon but right now I am having some problems with my old computer not coming on that has some of my newer kits for my scrapbooking program and I really need to find out what is going on with it because this laptop does not like any of my kits or the scrapbooking program that I use and I thought that I had everything backed up but I guess that is what I get for thinking because I cannot find the newer kits I had backed up. 

 Courtney is going to help me when things settle down just a little bit more if that is ever. But she did fix my phone so that my photos will now be synced to my Google photos and I have started working on my albums.

Hello,

 I have been trying to get over to blog for the last week or so but things have just been really crazy around here. 

 I think that I told you all that last week Courtney had a family friend from Utah come over and spend almost a week with us.

 His name is Randy. He is Courtney's older sister Heathers biological father. He goes to California every year for Heathers daughters (His granddaughters) birthday. On the way back to Utah he stops in to visit Courtney and her brothers. This past weekend was really busy because Courtney's mom and sister came Friday night and stayed until Tuesday morning. Randy left Monday morning.

 I asked Courtney if it felt weird for her mom to spend a long weekend with her ex-husband here. Courtney said no, that they all get along fine, which they all did, so I guess that they worked out the dynamics of families a long time ago.

 My son Nathan flew in also towards the end of the week. He went to school just outside of Reno in a town called Sparks Nevada. He and Matthew both went to the same school. Well Nathan's best friends name is Paul and he is a manager of a Truck Stop in Fernley. 

 Paul is a direct descendent of their Tribal Chief and his grandmother passed away last year and Paul told Nathan that he could live in his grandmothers house that is next door to his house so that is convenient and Nathan can go to work at the truck stop. The pay is what he was making in Austin and Paul told Nathan that the house needs work so Nathan will work on the house also.

 Nathan and Paul are wanting to take HVAC classes and then they can get a lot of hands on training and re-wire both of the houses. Right now they only have fans to help keep them cool. Nathan bought a 110 window unit the other day and just has to install it. The nights are really nice and cool here right now so that is a plus but during the day, fans are just not enough.

 So Nathan is living on the reservation in Wadsworth. Yeah I know... the names of some of these places are really crazy. Nathan spent most of his free time with Paul and his family while they were in school except for Christmas. Nathan came home for 3 weeks Christmas every year. 

 One year my boyfriend and I went to see my daughter Laurie and we had a really nice A-Frame camper and we camped at San Bernardino National park in California and then on our way back home we decided to stay a few days at Pyramid Lake. It was only about 45 miles from the school where Nathan was and it was a long weekend. I called his counselor and made arrangements to come and pick Nathan up and I wanted it to be a surprise and so I asked his counselor to not let him sign out for the weekend so that I could come and get him.

 Well as usual things never go as planned. When I got to the school I pulled over and called him and when he answered I said "Hey, what are you doing?" Nathan replied "I'm walking to the car. Stay where you are and I will be there in 2 minutes." 

 Awww how did he know I was there? Well his counselor had to leave early and so he told Security that Nathan Reed's mother would be there around 4:00pm to sign him out for the weekend and Security sent a note to Nathan's workshop director telling him to tell Nathan that his mom was picking him up and to get what he needed from his dorm because they were locking it up for the long weekend. So Nathan was dismissed from his last class of the day and went to the dorm to pack what he wanted to bring with him and then he went out front to wait on me. I still had to go to the Security post and sign Nathan out and then we were as Nathan put it... Outta there lol.

 We had a great weekend. Nathan was pretty exhausted and we had a great camping spot and we also had free cable and so Nathan just watched a lot of movies and slept some. I was tired from all of the driving so I enjoyed the down time as well. I took Nathan back to school on Tuesday and my boyfriend and I took the long way back home. We chose to go home by Route 66 and let me tell you that was one scary drive pulling a camper behind me on some of those hair pin curves but after I made it to our destination I was so glad that I got to experience it.

 We ate at a little cafe where dollar bills covered the walls, ceilings, doors and we also went to the hotel and saw the room where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding night. By todays standards the room was/is a dump. The bed looked very lumpy but they did have a telephone, a wash basin and water pitcher, a small pretty lamp next to the bed and if I recall some kind of rug. 

 Anyway I asked Nathan to call me when his plane landed and he did call me. He asked for my address and his friend Paul brought him to see me. Celeste was ecstatic and she was not about to let her Uncle Nate out of her sight for a single second but she did give in and let him use the bathroom but as soon as he was done she was standing before him with her arms UP and Ready for her Uncle Nate. It was the first time that I got to meet Paul. I have talked to him lots of times on the phone and on Messenger but in all of the years that he and Nathan have known one another this was the first time that I actually got to meet him. They stayed about an hour and then headed back so that Paul could get ready to go to work.

 So Matthew was going to Austin to pick up a load and scoop up Nathan while he was there and bring him out to Reno but Matthew was worried about his weight and so he took one of Nathans huge duffle bags, his amplifier and his guitar and Nathan decided to fly to Reno. It turned out to be kind of a good thing in the long run because Matthew didn't get a load to Reno after all. He ended up going to Portland Oregon and then to Washington State. I might have that backwards but it doesn't matter really. Courtney's brother picked Nathan up yesterday and drove him to Boise Idaho to get his things off of Matts truck. It was the first time that Bryan and Nathan had ever met and they seemed to hit it off great. Boise is only 6 and a half hours from here but Matt was going to put Nathan and Bryan up in a motel but Bryan wanted to get on back home because he wanted to be here with the kids for Father's Day. Yeah well that didn't go as planned. I will get to that in a little bit. But for now... 

 Last night while Bryan and Nathan was on their way back to Reno, Megan and the kids came over and we put a movie on for the kids and we sat outside enjoying the beautiful orange moon and cool breeze and then the when the movie was over we put the kids down to bed and we decided to have a girls night out.

 Courtney has not had anything stronger to drink than a beer in a couple of years. Megan went home and got a bottle of Southern Comfort Whiskey and I had my trusty Margaritas.

 Then we had music, laughter and Courtney read our horoscopes and we had more laughter. Megan called Bryan to check on him and Nathan called me to say that Bryan had just dropped him off and was on his way to Reno. 

 We went thru our playlists to play some songs and Courtney went inside to check on the kids and when she came out she was like... Oh My Song and she and Megan started singing and dancing and they looked so cute both of them more than Tipsy and I decided to video them... I can't figure out how to share it here so I will have to have Megan or Courtney show me how to do it. I have it saved in my videos but I am probably doing something wrong. Oh we had soooo much fun. I sent the video to Matt this morning and he laughed his butt off. He said you girls are terrible. Here I am out here working my ass off and y'all are getting wasted. I said... Not me. It takes more than 2 puny margaritas to get me wasted. Tipsy maybe but not wasted. Now Megan had to go to work with a hangover this morning and Courtney said, "Now I remember why I don't drink hard liquor." lol. I really wanted to put that video in this blog. I may just have to do it next time.

 Today was not a good day as far as the kids go or as Nana or the parents go. In fact it was one of those days that I ended up short tempered and all of the kids saw a side of Nana that they had never seen before.

 Not one of them minded. They tore the room up multiple times. Gunner the 3 year old was one of the worse. Not once but twice he tried to stick his fingers into the box fan. I saved his fingers TWICE today and finally I told him..... "You know what little boy? I am not stopping you from this second forward. If you don't want your fingers then go ahead and stick them in the damn fan and let them get cut off. I don't care any more." Well lets just say that I think he learned a valuable lesson because I didn't stop him the third time and he screamed and screamed and screamed. He didn't stick his fingers far enough in there but far enough that it scared him more than anything. I let his mama and daddy handle it. I told Megan I was going outside and have a cigarette and when he stopped screaming I would be back in. He still has all fingers but I bet he won't be doing that again.

 Earlier in the day the kids dumped out all of the toys and we were making them all clean them back up. Well Celeste comes in with her silver unicorn head band and wanted it put away so it didn't get broke. Courtney was busy so I took the head band and put it on Celeste's dresser. Far back on her dresser and I showed Celeste where I put it. When I went back in to check and see if they had the room picked back up the sheet and comforter to my bed was pulled off into the floor and I reached down to pick them up and stepped on the unicorn head band. I asked who got it down and well we have a Not Me ghost living here. No one would confess, and I said well the only way that it could have gotten down was if someone climbed up on something and got it down. Still they swore that they didn't do it so I lined everyone of them up against the wall with their hands behind their backs and they hate that with a passion and Emma especially hates it so she confessed with in 5 minutes but the problem with her confession was that she couldn't tell me how she got it down. She was going to confess just to get out of standing on the wall so she ended up with extra time which made her start bawling which in turn woke up the 2 year old so they stood there a good 45 minutes before Lily confessed that she and Celeste climbed up on the handles of the dresser and got the head band down. Oh Celeste was pissed that Lily ratted her out too. So I gave each one a potty break and a drink of water. I told them that they had better drink as much as they wanted because I wasn't going to play the I'm thirsty game. That is where they just drink a tiny sip and keep going back every 5 minutes because they are thirsty. Nope Nana doesn't play that game.  So they each got to potty and have a drink and then they got to sit on the sofa until lunch was ready and then they had to sit back on the sofa until nap time. Celeste never takes a nap but she was the first one to say that she was tired. Yeah she was tired alright. She and Lily were on the top bunk just having a grand old time until I went to check on them and I made Lily get down off of the top and she kept saying but my mom said I could and I said I don't care what your mom said, get your butt down from there and lay down on my bed now. When I went back in again, Celeste was leaning over the top rail talking to Lily so I made Celeste leave the room entirely and she thought that she was going to get her tablet and she got all nice and comfortable and I said.. Hand it over. She started crying and I said... If you want it back any time this week then you better dry it up little girl. You know me well enough to know that your crying does not phase me. In fact it makes me mad to see you just bust out crying when you do not get your way.  

 So I couldn't figure out exactly what kind of punishment to give Celeste and Lily for lying to me about the head band so Celeste usually gets a little extra time on her tablet at night. I told Courtney I didn't think that she deserved the extra time for lying to me and Courtney agreed. Well she thought that her mama wouldn't agree with me so she was in for a surprise when her mama told her to get her pajamas on, her teeth brushed and her hair brushed and get in bed, Courtney followed up to tell her good night and what was Miss Celeste doing? She was watching tv. The tv went off and the water works started but not for long. She knew that she was still in trouble and big trouble for lying to me.

 And Miss Lily got into trouble more than for her part in the head band fiasco and had to do without her dinner tonight. She didn't know that her mom put her plate in her bag to take home tonight but just the thought of not getting dinner and having to watch the other kids eat while she sat on the sofa was hard but her mom and dad made that decision over something that happened earlier and the last time that they had to clean the in the day because I did lay down on the sofa and nap for about a half hour or so and Courtney said that it took over 2 hours for them to clean that room back up yet again... they were busy playing. That might have been why Lily was in trouble with her mom and dad. I don't know because I did sleep for a little while.

 It was a long hard day and I told Courtney that I was happy that tomorrow was a work day for her and I would just have Celeste to take care of. I am too old to take care of 4 other kids. They wore me out. 

 Speaking of wearing me out, I am very tired. I am passed exhausted so I am going to go to bed. I have to be ready for a doctors appt. early so I am going to say good night now and you all thanks so much for listening to me moan and groan and whine.  Have a wonderful evening/day... Until next time... BB

 

 

Our Birthday Boy Last Year (1st Birthday) & His Daddy

 

Happy Birthday Brayden, Nana Loves You!

Hi,

 This post isn't going to be as long as I would like but to tell the truth it would be 10 pages long with all of the happenings that is going on around here lol. I can say that since I have moved to Nevada I have been busy as a bee. Maybe even busier but I have had to slow down some. I guess that I have really just been watching a lot of the things that are happening instead of physically being in the middle of it all. Still I have little ones to hug and kiss and cuddle with. I have scrapes and boo boos that only kisses from Nana can make better and of course no matter what I am eating or drinking, my food must always taste better than their food lol. And I LOVE every minute of it all.

So the picture above is of Brayden. He turned 2 yesterday June 12th and he had his big party yesterday. It was originally planned to be at the park but Mom and Dad decided to have it at home instead for a couple of reasons. First is it is just to hot even at 6 or 7 in the evening and Mom just had a baby on the 30th, a little girl Brayia is her name. I haven't seen her just yet but I will in time.

 

This is Brayden and Caleb today right before the party. He is just so darn sweet. I will post pics of Lily and some more of the party tomorrow. I am adding this one in because I forgot to add it when I first started typing my blog. Caleb is really tired. He works nights and he hasn't been getting much sleep at all since Brayia was born. 

 W\e had a family party for Brayden today shared with his cousin Lily who turned 6 last Saturday. Bryan and Megan did have it at the park and the kids had a blast but it was hot and windy and so I missed the party because I was in the hospital. I didn't get out until Sunday evening late. 

 The main reason for the family party was that Grandma Denise and Aunty Cecily were driving in from Colorado and they haven't gotten to spend much time with the kids so it was a special occasion and it was the first time that I had gotten to meet Courtney's mom and sister and they also had a family friend Randy who makes the trip every year to spend a week with Courtney, Celeste and her brothers and their families. So it was chaotic but a lot of fun but it was tiring fun. I have loads of pictures but I have to go thru them when Courtney has a few minutes which is probably Never according to her lol to look at my phone and find out why the pics I am taking with my phone are not being backed up to my photos so I can put them in albums. It is supposed to do it automatically but so far it isn't and I have labeled a few and they have disappeared. They are not in the albums that I put them in and I really need 2 pics so I can make Bryan and Caleb's Father's Day scrap pages. It is hard to believe that next Sunday is Father's Day. I haven't even got to finish Mother's Day scrap pages just yet. 

 One of my sisters told me over the phone the other day that now that I am not working I should have a lot of free time but that is just not the case.

 Monday thru Friday while Courtney works, Celeste is busy with some of her learning books and activities and I am either on the phone with making my doctor appointments, ride transportation or I am helping Celeste with what ever she is working on and before I know it Courtney has her first break. If I am home then Celeste and I go downstairs and feed the birds. We spend at least a half hour making little mounds of bird seed and filling some bowls that we found so the birds can have a drink of water or splash around and it is fun for us. After we feed the birds we stand back and be really quiet and wait for them to come find their food. The birds we are seeing are little baby birds. I don't know the names of them and they are so fast that all of my pictures are never that good. And we will make a game out of seeing which side of the gate that they will go to first and usually it is the gate nearest to our apartment building. 

 By this time it is getting hot outside and so we scatter the rest of the seed that we have in different areas and Celeste will call out her goodbyes to the birdies. "See you tomorrow little babies" and she and I head inside where we sit and cool off and she will try and call her daddy and if he doesn't answer she will leave him a sweet voice mail telling him to call her  later. She will use the time to entertain herself while I check my messages and try to take care of what I need to and then Courtney has her lunch break. We eat and I clean the kitchen and by that time I am ready for a nap or at least lay down and rest. Celeste will lay down with me and watch something on her tablet and I usually do fall asleep and Courtney will wake me up when she has her afternoon break checking my sugar. I get up so I can spend some time with her and we usually decide on what we are going to have for dinner, discuss any errands that need to be done and after we have dinner the evening is ours. We either listen to some music and talk to Matthew and if we are not doing that then we have the tv on and watch something on Netflix. This coming week she and I are going to be watching a fun series called Schitz Creek. If you have Netflix and want some good old fashion Belly Laughs then add this to your watch list. It is too funny. I don't know how many seasons it has because I haven't looked and I only watched a couple of episodes because I want to watch it with Courtney. She has been working so hard and doing so much and we have both been worried about Matthew. He has been running a really high fever and his throat is extremely sore and I know that he has strep throat. He is on his way to Austin to pick up Nathan and bring to Reno and I want to blog about that too. I need to make a list of everything that I want to blog about so that I can finally get some of it blogged. I think that everyone is going home early Tuesday morning. I really like Courtney's mom and sister. I wish that we had more time to spend getting to know each other better but they both have to get back home and get back to work. 

 It is 2:15 in the morning and we have Luke who is 2 and Emma who is 4 and I know tha tthey will be up bright and early and so we will have to be on our toes because Luke loves his Aunty Courtney and he doesn't like her bedroom door closed and he can't get to her so Grandma and Nana will have to make sure that he stays in the front part of the apartment. His babysitter will come and get both kids around 9 or 10 so it will not be too bad. 

 Take care and I will talk to everyone again. I really am going to make a list of things that I want to blog about and I am going to try to blog every chance I get. I brought my laptop into my room and I am using my night stand for it to sit on and I don't have room for my mouse and I just got a warning that my battery is low so I am going to go and plug my laptop in and I am going to bed. Have a great day/evening,,,     XOXOXO Please take care of yourself and I will talk to you soon... BB

Good Evening,

 I will not keep you long this evening, I just wanted to stop in and say hello. I have been in the hospital again this time with what they called Urosepsis. I will just give you this summery.

Urosepsis is a type of sepsis that is a severe reaction to an infection, usually a (urinary tract infection) and spreads to the blood.

 It can cause all kinds of things that are very scary and that led to some scary moments. I was hospitalized and on heavy antibiotics and I also had to have another medication to bring down my potassium because my kidney could not filter it out so I am home now but very tired. I have been on the phone most of the day scheduling some things and getting ready for Friday as Courtney's mom and younger sister is coming for the weekend along with a family friend. So a full and busy house. 

 Hugs to all. Blessed Be and stay safe always. BB