I think it's about time...

SO it's been quite some time since I posted anything on here, and so I think it's just bloody time.

I have moved! It's Monday, and we moved in here on Saturday, and I believe, if I quote it properly that I am about 97% unpacked/put away. The only boxed I have remaining are the ones that were photos in frames that used to be on my walls, which will be un-framed and put in my big'o'box of pictures...no cluster-fucking my house no more!! LOL I know, little bit of ramble got in here! So anyways, yes. We moved. We are currently residents in Ann Arbor. Though we are VERY close to being in Ypsilanti, Will always calls Ypsi "the ghetto" but whatever...I can see "Ypsi-bowl" from our driveway he he...but we have a Ann Arbor zip code. Tony's school is literally less than a mile away, he goes down one block from our driveway, goes one block and turns right. Then he is there. His motorcycle that gets 100 miles + to the gallon will last him months. (FK yeah!!!)

So I guess I started this to tell about my move, but I ramble WAY too much, and whiskey doesn't help, so wtf ever. Our move was easy ( for me he he he ), my mom was nice enough to come out the day we were moving, though I left earlier than my stuff did, Mom and I left (no later than) 1:30 pm Saturday, Will showed up about 2pm at our apartment to load our crap into his 30 ft. trailer. And, just to do acknowledgements, it was Tony, Will, Rob, Sagger, Dana, and Jew who helped move us, and I do appreciate your help, so very much...but they didn't show up until like 6, which was actually great time...but they did sweat all over my bloody couch. The men-folk were quite gross...I will just borrow mom's carpet cleaner to clean up my couch. Which reminds me, I owe the couch people money...sorry, rambling again...

So, just for your information, I have 2, count them, 2 pools, a little play ground for Bayani (with a slide, lol) and the little cafe next to the main office has free wi-fi if I ever needed it, with free coffee and only 50 cent espresso or wtf ever they sell...I hate coffee...

But yeah, it's bigger than our old place, the living area is MUCH bigger, the "master bedroom" is different dimensions, but only a little bit bigger than our old room (the closet is MUCH bigger), the second bedroom (Bayani's room) is a bit smaller, but she had a ton of space in her old room...the bathroom is bigger, and even has a place for the litter box, and the kitchen is a whole lot bigger, we aren't even using the real dining room, there's this little space at the end of our kitchen that fits our table just perfect, so the dining room can be used for whatever. Currently, Tony's tv and ps3 is there.

So we've had an issue with Comcast so far. If we could've had somebody different, I would've gotten something different. But that's all I get. Two+ weeks ago I had called Comcast, to set everything up, like get our crap mailed to us by August 24th, right? Makes sense. Well, they sent it to us on August 19. Then, when we got it, instead of one cable (with dvr) box plus the Internet modem, they sent us 2 cable boxes; one dvr, one regular. So, Will told me to return one of these boxes, saying the one we were keeping was the dvr box. So I turned in the box Will told me to turn in, and get the Internet modem...well, it still, didn't work, after 2 hours since the guy left to hook us up. So I called, and another guy came out...oops, we returned the wrong box. The box we kept wasn't dvr. Damnit. I was angry about that. But, thankfully, the 2nd guy had a box in his van or whatever. SO FINALLY we have Internet and cable. If only we had a power strip, our actual computer would be on and hooked up. Tony left every power strip at the other apt so we are without until tomorrow. Tomorrow we are leaving at 10am to go clean the old apt and get the last few things that they didn't grab. I am actually excited for that, the bedrooms don't have lights in them, the light switches only work a lamp or whatever plugged into a certain outlet...I haven't gotten completely familiar with them yet...give me time, I'll figure it out.

So tomorrow, before we leave for Charlotte, I am returning 2 applications, both to the same little plaza, less than a mile away, one is Subway, which said they were hiring, (hell yeah, I heart Subway) and the other was the bicycle shop like next door...they sell similar stuff, but along the lines of bikes, they sell Treks, apparently, so we'll see. The guy said they don't normally hire until March (same as mommy and daddy) but he said to turn in my application as soon as possible just in case, since I did randomly mention I used to work at a bike shop...lol that would be perfect...

Alright, bed time. I've rambled enough. 'Night :)

Speaking of "new year"...

The days are finally winding down, as Tony is technically on his way home...I do not know exactly where he is, I do know he isn't in Iraq, but he is either in Wisconsin, Georgia (on his way to Wisconsin) or somewhere in Europe (on his way to Georgia, on his way to Wisconsin). On his way to Iraq origionally, he said they stopped in Germany. On his way home on his break he said he stopped in Ireland. So who knows. I did tell him that if he stopped in england that he was to bring me back a car with the steering wheel on the right. Stick. But I doubt he'll do it. (;])

Anyways, that means it's almost been 365 days. It will actually be 365 days since pre-mobilization on June 6th, but hopefully he'll be home by then, or else the flight to california will be leaving without us...as our flight leaves at 7:25am on the 6th.

I am glad he will be home for all 3 of our birthdays this year. He has missed not only mine and his for 3 years in a row, but missed Bayani's (of course) this year, which sucks, as it was the 1st one. But he says, no matter what, even if there is drill, he WILL be here for birthday number 2.

Ok, so the mini rant is finished. I was just bored, I havn't talked to him since the 19th, and I have nothing to do, as today is rainy.

Spontaneous Combustion

OK, so to start right into it, I had finally got my new window motors last Thursday...I was so excited, because daddy said he'd fix that and my 'lets not hold a charge' issue too...lol Gmarrie, my car won't hold a charge either...we should just set our cars on fire...anyways, I went to a movie with Michelle and Aunt Barb Sunday (The Blind Side...good movie, btw) and daddy went to work. He called as I was in line with Michelle for junk food and told me, to my surprise, that my diver side window was working just fine. A little slow, but OK. "TWWHHHAATTT????" I say, and apparently it was working fine. Since it stopped the one day, I never re-tested it, that seemed pointless. I guess I should have. Whatever. I was quite frustrated but whatever.

After the movie, I go to daddy's house, and he says "I have good news and bad news, good news is I put the relay in and now your amp doesn't draw power while the key is off!" which was why my battery kept needing to be jumped every other day..."bad news, the window motors are wrong. They don't fit."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, after cussing and being angry, I finally decided it wasn't as big of a deal now that the driver side worked well. I also decided that I would just steal one of the back window motors and put it in the front. Bayani doesn't need to be rolling the window down any time soon...

Yeah. I wish some rich doctor would tell me he would give me a million dollars if I flashed him. I would so do it.

A nice start to my year...

Wow, still feels weird to try and type '2010'...but that's not the point. I went and seen "Brothers" this evening with Michelle (don't ever tell Theresa...I told her I wasn't going...she wanted to go to a movie, I said I couldn't...lol) and if you know nothing about that movie, weather you've seen a preview or heard about it, or whatever, I dunno. I suddenly regretted going to see it after I got 20 minutes in.

I don't remember if Tony remembers about this blog, if he does, then he'll just read what I don't think I have the guts to say. If not, well, I get to vent either way...

To give you some back ground on the movie (without giving it all away) There are 2 brothers. Duh. One, in the Marines, is set to deploy literally the day after his brother gets out of prison. The marine is sent to Afghanistan, apparently not his first tour...something happens, and the 2 marines go to his wife's house to tell her he is dead. They have the funeral, very sad, etc. The brother who just got out of prison; who is a total loser, technically, drinks all the time, very irresponsible, his father always wishes he could be more like his brother...anyways, because he feels pulled to help out, ends up trying to be the "man" for the 2 kids the marine left behind. At one point, the widow and the ex-con are sitting, chatting, about how miserable their lives are, how the widow never gave him the time of day back in high school, etc. They kiss. But that's all. Then LO! The marine isn't actually dean! He's been alive, a prisoner for like 4 months!!! Now he's home, covered in scars, as he was tortured...of course, the question comes out of the ex-con and the wife hooking up...which both deny, but things happen, (the little daughter freaking out on the father and lying) and the marine thinks she and the ex-con are just lying, and since his time in Afghanistan was so........AWFUL is putting it mild, he snapped, and at one point had a gun to his head....trying not to give too much away, there is obviously a whole lot more to that...details that I can't type.

So, obviously, seeing some of this movie, as Tony predicted, made my eyes swelled up with tears once in a while, it seemed half the time I was holding my breath. I knew this was one of my fears; not that I'm going to sleep with Tony's brother, or any type of infidelity, but him coming home, being traumatized just by the things he's had to do or see, which he won't tell me if he's seen or done anything...not the point, I think my biggest fear is that when he comes home, he's not going to be the same. Wait, I take part of that back, I know he's not going to be the same, but I am afraid he will come back and be stuck in a bad way. It scares me to death that I won't be able to help him, if he needs it, or maybe he won't open up to me, he won't tell me if he is drowning.

I do recommend seeing this movie, it's...um...intense.

My Stupid Car

So you are not the only one with car issues...I'll start at the beginning...

I had Tony's TV and PlayStation 3 in the back of my car one day, I had to work, and so I was going to take it to the post office when Bayani went down for her nap. I locked my car obviously, and when 1:30-2:00 came around, and I walked out to my car to hit the post office, I forgot I locked my car and I went and torqued on my door to open it. Realizing within half a second I had locked it, it started "honking" at me...I thought "oh, it has an alarm? Hhhmmm..." and I got my key out and unlocked my doors...the beeping didn't shut off. Eventually it just shut off, it sounded random, like a wire wasn't quite connected all the way, so sometimes it would be a constant sound, and sometimes it would just sputter...very annoying.

But it stopped, and didn't do it again for a little while.

Skip forward to about a week and a half ago; I was driving to Will and Rebecca's house because Will said he finally got me a passenger side window motor that my car hasn't had for the entire time I've owned the car. I was almost there and it started beeping again, I felt awful, as I was pulling up to a stop sign and somebody was in front of me. It continued to do it for about a block, and then it just stopped. I got there, and the motor he got ended up not being the correct motor. Bummer. But, since I was there, I was going to stay to at least Rebecca could spend time with Bayani. I got in my car to go drive to get myself something to eat. I got about 3 houses down and it started beeping again. I turned around and pulled in Will's driveway and just sat there for a second. He came out right before it stopped and he thought, "hey, maybe it's just your horn malfunctioning. I'll unplug your horn." And he did. It didn't do it for a week until Monday, where at 8am I woke up to somebody honking outside. Go figure, it took me a minute, but it was my car.

I ignored it. There wasn't anything I could do about it, I can walk out there and kick the car all I want, it won't do any good. It shut off, and that was all it did for the day. I called Will and told him what happened, but he probably didn't listen to his voice mail, because he never does, so he never returned my phone call. But it hadn't done it again since Monday, until today...

I first heard it about 9:30, right before mom came over to pick up Trixie to go to work. I rolled my eyes and turned on the TV. But it didn't just sputter and turn off. It would beep for a couple seconds, then shut off. Then beep again for a few seconds, then sputter, then shut off. It was going on and off literally all day today. After Bayani went down for her nap I went out there, as it was going off, AGAIN, to see if I could isolate where in the car it was located...I think I have it narrowed down to driver side-center, towards the bumper...but of course, once I got out there, it stopped. And for the 15-20 minutes I was out there, total silence. Some dude who said he was painting the newly empty apartment below mine , who was sitting in his van eating his lunch, came over and started poking around. He said something along the lines of how he's been hearing it going off all day, I said I was sorry, and that I didn't know what to do about it. He gave up, and I gave up, but first I called Will, and he said you just need to find it and cut a stupid wire. But I just have to find it first. I called dad, he said he'd look at it today, then I called Elsa, my landlady, and warned her that my car is being stupid and if anybody calls and complains about my stupid car being stupid loud and I stupid can't stupid fix it. She said it was OK. (As long as I hurried up and got it fixed soon.)

So I get here to work, it continues to go off after I get here. At 4 mom was going to leave to take mini-kitty to the vet, and she walks back in and says, "Miranda, your car is going off again..." And of course, because I am so frustrated, I say "If kicking it would fix it, I would have already broken my toes! " So I walked out there with her and I see dad running up to it, which excited me, as it was constantly beeping. Dad crawled under it, and I ran up and popped the hooded and Dad started poking around, as it blared quite loudly at us, he pushed on something, which made the sound fluctuate. He had found the box!!! This literally happened in the middle of me typing this blog, by the way. He pried the metal box open and pulled a wire and poof. Silence. I'm excited. I really hope that is what we supposed to pull, I'll be sad if my car doesn't start when I go to leave today...

My Rude Day At Work

SO I was working today, like I do just about every day, I was in the middle of pricing and putting away from stuff from SBS and Giant, nothing out of the ordinary. The phone rings...
Then it starts...
The guy, who didn't really give his name, proceeds to tell me his son bought a bike from us "not to long ago" which, later, we found out was on 6/25/09, and he saw in the paper that for this week and next week, we were having a sale for 10% all bikes (Giant and Redline) in stock. He then asked if his son could get the 10% difference back. I said "Um, no, probably not..." and he SNAPS "Well, IT'S STATE LAW..." he didn't say it nicely, he like bit my head off. I said "well, i've never been asked this question, so let me go ask the manager..." (My mom) which, mom had no clue. I told the guy to call back when dad got there.
SO I called dad, told him the story, and asked what I should do. He suggested looking up the law, which I did. I first found a phone number to the State Law Library. I called, talked to what sounded like a college punk, he said he'd never heard of the law, but I might want to call the Attorny General Fraud Division, and gave me the number.
I call said Attorny General Fraud Division. I was put on hold for like 10 seconds and talked to a lady, who also said she had never heard of the law, and was sure it wasn't true. "Some business CAN do that, as a policy, but it isn't a law."
Jim made the comment that "we aren't ABC Warehouse. HAHAHAHA..."
A little later, at about 5pm, this guy and his young teenage kid come walking in with the kid's bike. Says something about his kid's crank fell off, turns out he was missing a bolt, whatever...then mentioned to mom about how he wants the 10% back, mom continues to say "well, we actually got ahold of the attorney general, and they said there is no such law..."

"Well, I am going to call the Attorney General," the guy says. He paid for his bolt we put in for him and then he left. I later said (and so did dad) that we should have just gave him the number, but we didn't. What a jerk. I hope he does call the A.G. and they tell him he's an idiot too.

The Attorney General chick I talked to actually told me that if the guy had a problem with what we told him that he should just call a lawyer. It makes me so mad that he is just a jerk. But it makes me laugh that he's such an idiot.

Crazy, crazy times.

OK So just to get it out there, TODAY, being Tuesday, June 9th, Tony left to go spend the night at "Porter's" house (a.k.a. Chuck Norris...whatever...) and they are going to get shawasted, then tomorrow night must report in Grayling with all of their stuff, and there they must stay....Thursday night Rebecca, Grace, Bayani and I will be driving up there, Friday afternoon is the big BBQ cook out ( I have been informed to bring a desert...tomorrow (wed) I will be making a double batch of cookies ) and that night will be Tony's last night...well, to spend with me...THEN SATURDAY...a ceremony, tears, then they leave for Flint to jump on a plane and go to Wisconsin....WOO! WISCONSIN!!! Not really...there they will spend 25 days, making sure all paperwork is done and dealt with. If they do not do/get done whatever they are supposed to do within those 25 days, they stay until they get it done. But if they get it done, and I'm sure they will, they will then fly to some town I currently can't think of the name, then they will drive the rest of the way to Baghdad...Baghdad is a "no-fly-zone" apparently...whatever....there he will spend (word-for-word from his orders:) "no less than 400 days" in Baghdad.

OH, and he didn't tell me this until last month, because he couldn't, but he has been selected from his 250 +/- to be part of a 16 man group that will be doing special missions that do not involve the rest of the platoon. I don't know what else he will be doing in said group, just that it's more dangerous. It's nice, he loves to make me worry.

So yeah. There's my current life. I feel like eating chocolate until I die. I'm kinda stressed out.

Time

It kind of sucks, time is going by so fast, when I know I don't want it to. I do and i don't, but in the wrong places. I want time to slow down, Bayani is getting SO big so fast, she's a little chunker...fat rolls on her wrists, it's so cute :) But she is still growing up fast. Tony left on March 6th to go play in the desert until March 29th for Military training. On April 2nd we will be leaving for California for a week to see his family, none of them but one has seen Bayani, and all of them obviously want to see Tony before he leaves....in late May/June 1st. His paper work says June 1st, but I am sure they will want him to report to where ever a week before or more. That is another reason why I want time to slow down. After he gets back, I literally have 7 weeks or less to spend with him before he goes to Baghdad.

12 months is a very long time. Time. It's always about time. EVERYTHING is about Time. You are either waiting for time to go by, wanting time to faster, wishing time would slow down, or stop. It's always about time.

And sadly, I wish time would speed up, too. I want Tony to hear Bayani say "dada". I would LOVE for to tell him "I love you daddy" but I know we have a long time before that happens. But for her to say 'dada' before he leaves. A girl can dream, I guess ~

Much Needed Update

WHOA it's been a while...so quick catch up (not that many read this anyway...who knows, it just might happen today lol) *inhale large breath*

Bayani Sage was born August 28th after 20 hours of labor, not all of it was intense, only like the first 2 or 3 hours and the last 5 hours...had gone in on the 27th for regular appointment, but her heart rate was low, so they decided to send me to Ingham Regional Medical Center *here after to be known as IRMC* to see what they wanted me to do...which was later determined to induce me. They stuck (literally) a string up my "hoo-ha" which got my cervix ready and started small amounts of labor...but since it was getting said cervix ready, it hurt for a bit...after that, waiting game.

*pant pant pant....inhale large breath again*

NEXT MORNING (28th) they hooked me to an I.V. of crap to get labor going at about 8am, after like half an hour of being on said I.V., during a contraction, her heart rate dropped down to near 70 for 2 minutes straight...her heart rate is supposed to be between 120-160. So, they stopped my I.V. for a little bit, monitored me for a while, eventually put me back on the I.V., and watched me for a while. At about 11am, they checked my cervix, and I was only dilated to 3cm (you need to be at 10 to have the baby, if you don't know this) they said since I had been on the I.V. for as long as I've been, and since her heart rate kept going a tiny bit lower than they wanted it to during each contraction...they said if I didn't make any progress by noon, I would get a C-section...basically, if I didn't get to 10cm in one hour, I'd get the C-section.

*SUPER large inhale, pant pant pant...large breath AGAIN*

At 11:45, I felt a weird feeling, since at 11:15 I got an epidural, it wasn't pain. It was pressure. I told my nurse I was feeling something weird that wasn't a normal tightness from the contractions. She threw on a glove and some gooey stuff and checked my cervix and said she couldn't find it...either it's gone or she's missing it. They called the attending doctor and made Dr. Seiler hurry up, and so the attending told me to start pushing. Ironically I went from 3cm to 10 cm in 45 minutes, and just to let you know, that's freaking unheard of, super rare. Magically at 12:20 her little head popped out and before her shoulders were out she barked at the doctors. It was quite funny.

*sigh*

Other than that, nothing new has happened. She was born at 5 lbs 7 oz., 19 1/8 inches long. She just had an appointment on Wednesday and is now 7 lbs, 15 oz and 21 inches long. She's very good at holding her own head up already, not for long periods of time, but for a couple minutes. As long as you steady her, she can stand on her feat and hold herself up for a minute straight or two also. She is now starting to smile more, only a little, I don't think she means to, she knows that when she moves certain face muscles it makes mommy happy...that's about it.

She's getting so big so fast already :)

Bordom at the Bike Shop-so we'll update.

So, as of today I have one month and one day until my due date, and I am SO ready to get this child out of my tummy...apparently she is fully developed, now she's just adding fat so she can better regulate her temperature after she's born. The average baby at this stage in life weighs about 5 1/4 lbs, and is over 18 inches long, which is funny, Hayley was like 4lbs 8oz. and was just at 18 inches when she as born, and she was 6-7 weeks early.

She is starting to hurt when she "kicks"...when in reality they aren't kicks, they are just BIG movements. It hasn't been a "kick" in a few weeks...pretend you are in a giant bubble...when you stretch your arms your hand will move from point a to point b in the bubble...now imagine my belly with a foot going from somewhere near my belly button all the way to my far side. Literally, her limb will stick and inch or more out of the roundness of my belly. She has also realized that it's funny to feel mom twitch when she pokes her kidneys. Yeah, that's fun. She played a game with the nurse at my last appointment; at every appointment they measure my belly and check her heartbeat with their little monitor...the "doctor in training" would find her heartbeat, but before the little monitor would register and give her a number, she would move. Yeah, she thinks she's funny...she likes to play little games.

Other than that in Miranda world, nothing is happening, just being fat and tired all the time and currently we're pretty broke, but it'll get a bit better in like a week or 2 because tony did get a dollar raise from Kane (so he wouldn't quit to go to Spartan...longer story) and he's been getting 40 or more per week which also rocks. So Tony's first pay check of the month of August will go towards groceries, thankfully. Our cupboards are looking pretty bare.

Ok, I guess I'm done. Have fun:)

!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA SOEUR!!! I hope that is correct, I looked it up, according to Yahoo! "Babel Fish" that's what they told me "my sister" means so whatever...please correct me if I'm wrong.

I have been looking forward to my 22nd birthday, I know the whole time I'm 22 it will never be "really bad", (life, that is)...I guess it's because 2 is my favorite number, so 22 is just as awesome, so I figure the age of 22 will rock...I know, it's kind of weird...

NOT THE POINT...GINGER MARRIE, have a totally frickin awesome birthday, hope you have a really really happy day, I hope it rains for you and you see some totally weird animal you wanted to see, and I hope your rabbit tries it's hardest to look cute for you, and I hope David makes you dinner, and I hope you win the lottery, even if it's only $20, and I hope you magically get a phone call from an employer you really want a job from and they give you a job where you do what you like to do and get paid a lot to do it, and there are no stupid people there to bug you. There. That's my birthday wish for you.

Totally random, but there was a slight pause between the last paragraph and this one, I decided to "tidy up" the front of the bike shop...I had put together a men's cypress in the front of the shop yesterday, and never took care of the box. I then recall the fact that my grandma wants a bike box to put her cakes on for grandpa's 75th birthday this weekend, she had apparently gone to several stores looking for the thicker things to put her cake(s) on, and none of them were big enough, so she asked for a bike box, since they're thick and big...................which brought me to the question; Why would she need one so big? Is she making a life-size cake of grandpa?? I giggled when I thought that, those bike boxes are really big. If I wasn't so wide right now, I could easily fit into one with space to move around in.

There is a lot going on this weekend, Round Table is Friday, the "Wall that Heals" will be here Friday through part of next week, (that's the 1/2 scale model of the Vietnam wall, btw) Tony and my dad have volunteered to work security at the wall on Saturday, I think ironically they will be working the same shift, so at least they'll have somebody to talk to. Also, apparently, Jessica and her son will be in Charlotte this weekend, it is somewhere near Donovan's birthday, so there is going to be a birthday party for him out at Gerry's house on Saturday. Sunday I believe is the party at Camp Francis for grandpa, wow, 75, wasn't aware he was that old...also not the point...

Well, that's enough for today, again, Ginger Marrie, have a good birthday, and tell Neil I told him happy belated birthday, have fun being a classic :D

Pretty good weekend

Well, Friday we signed the lease to our new apartment, we handed over $1522.50 to Elsa, the Shaker House lady, the only reason we had that kind of money was from Tony's tax return we stashed away immediately after getting it, then when he got back from North Dakota he got paid again, so we freakishly had the money at just the right time.

Friday night we moved all of our stuff from Jimmy's house, so we slept at our new place that night, which ironically, I slept the entire way through the night. It was awesome.

Saturday, I had to work at the bike shop, but while I was there, Tony, and his co-worker Chris, and Joey moved 99% of the stuff out of the storage unit. After I got out of work, I ended up working my ass off until like midnight moving stuff, putting things where they needed to go, probably working harder than I should have.

But on the plus side of things, everything is the way it should be, the second bedroom is full of stuff I still have to go through, but other than that, my kitchen, my bathroom, my bedroom, and 98% of my living room is where it's supposed to be.

Ginger Marrie, tomorrow is your birthday, so have a lovely 22nd birthday, 22 is a fun number, so you will enjoy the whole year! :D

Woo For Me

Yeah, totally random, but I am very proud of myself today, I have put together 2 bikes. Yes, believe it or not, I can put together new bikes. I haven't tried fixing bikes, mom says that next summer I'll be the "help" and fix the bikes, assuming I don't have a better job, or a full time job...

And today isn't the first time I've put together new bikes. Maybe a month ago we got 16 new bikes in, dad put together 5 of them, mom put together 1, and I did the rest, over the course of 3 days. That's 10 that I did, we got them on a Friday, Dad and I each put together 1, then Saturday, dad came in early and did 2 before 10 am when I got there, then, dad of course got busy, I did like 7 of them between 10 and 4, mom did one that day, then Sunday, dad and I came in and each did 2 more. I am pretty good at them now. I can't adjust shifting, there are too many little combinations that it could need despite it being brand new...that's a Denny and dad thing...but I can adjust brakes. That's pretty easy.

It only took me about 1 1/2 hours to put together a women's "Suede" and a little girls "Taffy", which was awesome. I guess there is still one bike to go, I think it's another "Suede", maybe this time it's the blue one.

Ok, the end.

I got a car for a weekend (GO ME)

Well, news in my world, I am 25 weeks along, and for all of those people who don't really know what that means, that puts me at like 6 1/2 months...normally, pregnancy is 40 weeks, so at least I'm over half way along...oh, and another thing I learned, it's not 9 months...it's more like one week less than 10 months. There. Store that away for a rainy day.

My parents are leaving (or have already left) today for South Haven...one of my favorite places in Michigan. Poor daddy has been working all day and night for Spartan, all because he kind of got promoted to this new program they have called Sparcon, and because of this, he is the only guy in the WHOLE ENTIRE COMPANY who knows how to do his job, which he is still kind of learning, so other than the fact that they did give him his own spiffy looking computer-cell phone (like a black berry, but different name) that he doesn't have to pay for, now he gets a million calls a day, and 2 million emails a day, and most of the time, he barely makes it to the bike shop before 5:30, just to close at 6, go home, eat dinner, then go through his phone to respond to the 100 emails he received since 5. The refused to even give him an afternoon off 2 weeks ago just so he could go biking at Ft. Custer because the weather was nice. How rude. He had to BEG his boss for 2 whole days off so he wouldn't go postal on all the bull shit, so today, once he is released, him and mom are going to South Haven until Sunday for a much-needed vacation.

So I get to extra hold down the fort...John Spencer, the kid who worked summers for my parents last year and the year before (then he turned 18...can't afford to pay him 7.15/hr for 40 hours a week...they can pay me that much, but I only work like 20-25 hours a week) ...anyways, John is coming back for a couple days to help Denny with the repairs until my parents come back, so it'll just be the 3 of us until Saturday, which we'll be closing early for anyway, Denny has to leave at 1:30 for something he won't go into detail about...somewhat suspicious...

Not the point. What is cool is that I'll have more hours this week, so it will be a nicer pay check...

Ok. I'm done. I should probably find something important to do here to get my money's worth while I'm "working"...

I think I need some advise

ALRIGHT...I'll first start you off on the "Master Plan", because that is where this all goes wrong.

The "Master Plan" begins with us getting the apartment at Shaker House. Then it flows onto Tony leaving for North Dakota on or before the 27th of April. Then on May 1st, I hoped to sign the lease, then slowly but surely (with help from Charlotte, who volunteered) start on moving all our crap from our storage unit. If it happened to work out this way, if I emptied the storage unit before Tony got home, or at least got all of the necessary things out (not the crap Tony has plans for) my father volunteered to move the bed/tv/movies/clothes out of our current room at Jimmy's house. Weather Tony was home or not, that was the "Master Plan".

What was achieved was we got the apartment at Shaker House and Tony left for North Dakota on the 25th of April to make sure he got there on time. I couldn't sign the lease for the apartment because Tony was the one bringing in the income, he is the main lease-holder, and has to be present to sign the lease, which means I can't move anything until he signs the lease. Bummer. Obviously, the rest of the "Master Plan" can't happen because of that.

Jimmy was aware of our "Master Plan" before we were aware of the problems and flaws with the "Master Plan". Jimmy apparently believes that nothing ever goes wrong in the world and that the "Master Plan" would go through without any problems. But he told us as of last Friday, we wouldn't have to pay anymore rent because we were planning on starting the moving out process as of yesterday, but since the "Master Plan" blew up in our faces...Jimmy also asked me to put the cats in this new apartment I was supposed to have by today because they are causing him more stress and hassle that I can't mess with on account of I'm pregnant. Duh.

I enlightened Jimmy on the issues we now faced, and how the cats couldn't be moved because I had no apartment until Tony gets home. Tony is supposed to be released from his base on the 12th of May. It will take comfortably 2 days for him to drive home. He wanted to stop in Wisconsin to see a friend of his from basic training, NOT FOR A WEEK, just for like an hour or so. So let's pretend he gets out at 3pm on the 12th of May. Since he got up so early, like he will have done every day since he got there, like 4:30 every morning, he won't want to drive that day, he'll stay, sleep in the next morning, then leave, making it to Wisconsin that day, seeing his friend for probably the hour or so he wants to, and if not that night, the next day, then leave that day, being the 14th, and be home that day. Maybe even at the latest, if Tony really really dragged it out, he'd be home by the 15th. But I doubt that.

Jimmy told me today that this new dude, "Troy", whom I do not like; I don't like looking at his face, he has a really really bad mullet, and he doesn't know how to shut a fucking door, because for the last 3 nights in a row when he comes over to smoke Jimmy's pot, he has let my fucking cat out and then doesn't tell me about it until I'm "hey, have you seen Bill?"........"Oh, yeah, he got out like 2 hours ago when I got here......" anyways, Jimmy told me today that, and I quote for a reason, "he will be moving into your room when you move out on the 14th."

To which I reply, "Oh, well I don't know if we're moving out on the 14th, Tony wants to stop at his friends house in Wisconsin on his way back." And that was all I got out. Jimmy then went on to get an attitude, saying that Tony was starting to piss him off, and that he's trying to be nice and not make us pay the rent, and that Tony CAN NOT stop at his friends house, he needs to come straight home and get out of his spare room. I tried to tell him that I talked to him today, and if he hadn't interrupted me, he would've heard me say "he'll probably be home by the 15th, maybe 16th at the latest" but he continued to complain about how he's just trying to be nice and how Tony is putting him out in the wind, walking all over him as he walks away not even talking to me anymore. Then, since "Troy" was sitting in Jimmy's room, probably contemplating the concept of string, goes in there and continues to bitch about Tony and how he is going to "gallivant across the country for a week after he gets out of his class"...

So I guess what my issue seems to be, is what the hell am I supposed to say or do to Jimmy that won't screw up our friendship? My parents are kind of paying me at the bike shop, but my mom doesn't want to pay me under the table because it screws up her paper work, and if I can't get unemployment, she'd give me paychecks "above the table", and I'd be an employee. If I can get unemployment, I'll still work for her, but she'll take the money I'm making from her and just pay off my debt I owe them. But we don't know yet if I'm getting unemployment, so she payed me cash last Saturday, but I don't want her to screw up her paper work for too much longer, do I ask for a pay check this weekend and just give Jimmy $75 so he can't bitch at me and Tony? Do I tell Tony all this crap, just so Tony can get pissed off because somebody who has no business telling Tony what to do is telling Tony what to do which will then make Tony not want anything to do with Jimmy, which means our friendship will be all sorts of screwed up, most likely non-existent.

I'm kind of lost, and still pissed off that Jimmy said last week "yeah, sign your lease, and it would help me out a lot if you got those cats out of here...you can stay as long as you want, but your cats are just too stressful......." but now he's "oh, you need to be out by the 14th.... blah blah blah blah..."

I'm lost.

Tony is gone

Tony had to report to North Dakota as of 4pm Sunday afternoon. Camp Grafton, apparently a small, itty-bitty base at least half the size of Fort Custer, and for those who haven't been on the actual base of Fort Custer, I'll explain it for those who have been in the camping part...it would probably be considered MAYBE 1/10 or less of the entire campground. Like ONLY where the camping happens. No trails. Itty Bitty base. In the middle of nowhere.

So, last Wednesday, Tony noticed one of his tires was hissing at him, then he noticed a GIANT crack in the side of one...which is where it hissed at him from. Knowing he had to leave Friday, he freaked out, knowing we couldn't afford a new tire, let alone 4 new tires, which he needed. He almost was forced to take my mothers Ford, which at first, I wish he did, but now that hind sight is 20/20, I'm glad he didn't. But, his mother (her and Will are apparently rich again...) bought him new tires. Four of them, in fact. which was awesome. The reason I say hind sight is 20/20 and I'm glad he took his truck is this: Tony left Friday, probably about 1:30pm...his journey was going to be about 1007 miles one way. He had to travel through a chunk of Indiana, a chunk of Illinois, a chunk of Wisconsin, completely cross over Minnesota, then through half of North Dakota. He stopped in Illinois some time near 11pm that evening to sleep, since he was tired. At 3:30am, he woke up, and wide awake, continued on his journey. Some time that Saturday, It snowed like 18 inches in Minnesota along highway 94, which sadly was where Tony had to drive straight through...It was VERY snowy.......which sucked....

Thankfully, he had his 4-wheel drive truck (not mommy's car) and 4 brand new pretty tires. He made it through just fine, he got into Camp Grafton about 4pm Saturday afternoon, he had left early from Michigan just because he wanted to make sure if something like taking 4 extra hours to putt through 18 inches of snow, he'd have the time to do it safely.

But he's safe, he says North Dakota is a baron flatland with no trees to block the wind so it's super windy, and the base is so small, and the nearest town is probably the size of Potterville. Sucks for him but on the plus side of him driving down, he gets 47 cents per mile, which means $470 one way, so he only spent about $200 in gas going down there, and he's getting double back. Totally awesome.

Tony comes back somewhere near the 12th of May, but he plans to stop in Wisconsin somewhere to see one of his friends from basic training, I have only heard him be called "Lugenbeel" so whatever. We'll see him soon :)

Some bad, but mostly good baby news

SO...as you may or may not know, on Friday, my OBGYN called me to let me know that a specific type of protein found in my blood was high when my blood test results came back...the possible products of me having this high protein in my blood could mean a few things; examples are spina bifita, or some type of brain defect. She told me nothing else of my results other than that my kid has like no chance of having Down Syndrome, which was good news, but it still didn't make me feel better.
Monday, I got an expected call from MSU Women's Health Clinic in Lansing to schedule an appointment to get another ultrasound done to go back over and make sure the spine was the way it was supposed to be along with the brain how it was supposed to be. This appointment happened this morning, thankfully, and I have good news: everything looks the way it is supposed to look!!!
BUT I am still considered a high-risk pregnancy: after my ultrasound, I had another appointment with a genetic counselor to explain everything, and for me to ask my questions. She explained to me what everything means...bare with me...

They tested my blood for 5 different things: a "perfect" test result would come back with all 5 results at 1.0. Nobody comes back with perfect results, but a good "normal" test result would have all 5 come back close to 1.0 as possible, like .7 or 1.4 or whatever is OK...my first high protein, "AFP" came back as 3.7, and the other one, I think it had the initials were HCG or something, it was also 3.something. AFP, or alpha fetal protein, is only created in my baby's liver...and since she virtually "produces" the amniotic fluid, is let out that way and then goes into my body via through my uterus and into my blood stream. Which is how every pregnant woman has that protein in her body. But they did the ultrasound, and the spinal collum is supposed to make a triangle around the nerves and such...like so<>...to have spina bifita, it would look more like V...and since the bottom of the spine's bones are so tiny at this stage, they can't be 100% positive one of those bones isn't like V, but since her legs were moving, and her feet weren't "club feet", they say they are 90% positive she is fine.
Now I'll explain the not so great news: Because those 2 specific things came back high, together they signify that I have a higher chance of going into premature labor, my water breaking early, bad case scenario preeclampsia, SUPER worse case scenario, still-born. But still-born is like SUPER unlikely, so I'm not worried about that, more along the lines of premature labor...I opted out of having a amniocentesis because the risks out-weighted the benifits, I'm already at risk for my water breaking too soon, why poke a hole in the bag if I don't really need to, so I am not going to. It would be really bad if I started getting contractions because they poked the bag. plus, it wouldn't matter either way, there is nothing I could do about it anyway, obviously termination is WAY out of the question, so taking the risk of the amniocentesis makes no difference. Plus, going from 90% sure of no spina bifita to 95% sure, is a pointless test that i won't mess with. 5% isn't a big deal. So, I guess you can say, other than the risks later on, everything is fine.
But if you think about it this way, if my biggest concern is a preemie baby, and not spina bifita, I think I'll be OK.
Oh, and as of right now, Tony and I want to name her Bayani (Bay-on-E) Sage.

"It's the 'Miranda's random news show'...staring..."

OK, our first guest today is the most recent and exciting news of all (or at least to me) I am having a little girl!! YAY I had my ultrasound on Monday, it took the student tech. chick an extra 20 minutes to realize that my baby is very modest, and kept her body clenched up tight...knees in her chin, feet crossed in front of her girly parts...so she went and got the senior tech, and let me go pee FINALLY. The senior tech figured it out in like 3 minutes. I am glad it's a girl, that makes me excited, I just hope I don't scar my child from pink and dresses like my mother did to me...I'll keep the pink down to a dull roar, don't worry...but little baby girls look so cute in dresses...but I see lots of bright colors in her future, like orange, yellow, maybe even lime green...or soft purple...god I can't wait to tickle her tummy...

Other news...sorry those who read this, I never got to the whole "I got a job" news, but I guess this annoying story starts in February...I'll start there:

FEBRUARY 12th, 2008. Valentine's Day
The Depot. My parents used to take me there when I was younger. Within the last like 5 years, it has bounced around from being sold to other random people, going out of business, opening some new business that bombs in the first few months, whatever. Apparently in November of 2006, an obnoxious man named Larry and his "wife/girlfriend/life partner" or whatever she is named Mary Jane, or MJ, opened an Italian restaurant. They somehow even found themselves a real Italian chef...Vito. Born and raised in Italy. He's like 67 or something...old and set in his ways...remember that...
Needing a job, I decided one day sitting at home bored and alone, hey, I should put in some applications at places that look like fun...I need money, hey, the Depot, lets go in there. I walked in to find two girls probably between the ages of 19 and 22. Lisa, 19, apparently graduated with Tony, not that either of them know each other. The other girl, I already forgot her name. I put in my application, she said she'd call me, because they needed a new waitress.
The next day, she called for me to come in for an interview. I did, and she introduced me to Vito, and MJ, and told me that if it doesn't come from either my head waitress (which was her) or Vito, don't do it. Vito is virtually the boss of everybody, apparently because he is the shit and is always right, etc. The next day was Valentine's Day, they wanted me to come in at 10am to help set up for dinner which started at 4pm. I did, I stood on my feet all day for the first time in weeks, worked my ass off, and apparently, without trying, impressed Vito. YEAH!
Sorry, going into too much detail...about 3 weeks ago this Thursday, I was working with Lisa, my schedule was 11am to 4pm, at 2pm, everybody but one waitress and one cook go on break until 4pm...which meant me and chef was staying while everybody went on break since Lisa worked until 8pm. At like 2:15, a group of 20 people came in, and I served them to the best of my ability. Out of 7 separate tickets, THE FIRST ONE I FILLED OUT WAS FOR A COUPLE WHO WANTED LASAGNA, AND RAVIOLI. I literally had served the same couple the day before. I remember this because somebody who knew them joked about how he was a lawyer and tips big. Salads came with their lasagna and ravioli, they both wanted French. I wrote this on my ticket. I handed chef my completed tickets, I waited for him to look at all of them and he said "OK, I got it." and I went and refilled drinks and got salads around.
Soon, chef had all of my food done and ready. Except for my ravioli. I asked him where it was and he freaked out and asked where on any of my tickets it said i needed ravioli. I hadn't seen my tickets since I originally handed them to him, chef had handed them to another waitress who just came in for her pay check but was helping me out a little. I got them from her, and showed him. He accused me of forgetting to tell him that I added onto the ticket, and that he doesn't make mistakes, and I am calling him a liar because I told him I didn't add the ravioli, and he continues to go on that being a chef is his life and he doesn't fuck up like that and then told me to go home as soon as my table left. He was very mad, none the less.
I didn't say anything bad about him, he put words into my mouth, I never called him a liar, all I said is that I'm not a liar. But CHEF IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Jimmy got a job there, he agrees with me on how even if chef fucks up, it's totally everybody else's fault. Because chef was pissed off about this, he had his wife, who happens to do the schedules, take my name off the schedule. I kept calling, for 2 weeks, "am I needed today? When will I get to work?" They just kept telling me "we hired a new girl, we don't want her to screw up, so we're training her good". What the hell ever. I went in last Thursday, and personally asked chef if I was ever going to be put back on the schedule, he said basically he still is upset about that day, and how I still won't admit to screwing up (BECAUSE I DIDN'T) and he still isn't over it. "I need some more time" he says.
Well fuck him and his stick he still has up his ass. I didn't fuck up, and I'm not going to say that I did just to make you feel better. I'm not going to lie about doing something I didn't do. Fuck that.
At least Jimmy is doing well, apparently chef really likes Jimmy, which is good.

Well my wrist hurts now, sorry for ranting, it just really upsets me that he is so petty. GET OVER IT. Other than that, not a whole lot new going on, job hunting, slaving for my parents to work off my $900 some odd dollar debt...yeah, I owe them money...lots of money. So instead of them hiring some new punk kid and paying him minimum wage, they just have me come in and work for like $6 an hour but at least it's under the table, no taxes...not that I'll see anything of it, I already saw it...now I'm just working it off...speaking of, I need to go get ready, I have to go to the bike shop at 1:30 to hang out with mom and do nothing. WOO.

NEW NEWS!!!

Ok, so today started off REALLY bad for me, but I should probably start off in order of events here...

So I got a job, I've only worked like 4 days, (today being day 4) but it's a pretty nice job. I work at the Depot as a waitress, they just opened, so they are all new with the whole business thing so I don't look as bad...he he...ANYWAYS...how my day started off really bad this morning:

The Scio Farms lady...that's our trailer park lady, Karen or something, SHE'S A BITCH. I called this morning just to ask for the paper they told me they would have, they said they had a health inspector go into my house to make sure there was no mold or mildew in my walls or ceiling, I wanted a copy of that report...today I find out that somebody lied to me about a health inspector going in there...there was no report. Then the bitch got an attitude with me just because I told her what I was told and she got pissy. I called back like 5 minutes later and asked if I could have the phone number for the corporate office and she repeatedly told me no. I told her I didn't want to talk to her, I wanted to talk to her boss or somebody else above her. SHE STILL TOLD ME NO!!!! So after her ranting at me for like 10 minutes, she told me she understood that we don't have money to pay rent for the next 4 months, and she would make some phone calls and I needed to find some military paper work stating anything about Tony and deployment and for me to call her back. I called Sgt. Sherman and asked him to pull up said paper work, he couldn't get quite what I wanted, but freakishly, as I was putting my coat on right before clocking out at work, I noticed my pocket with my phone in it vibrating. It was the bitch. I answer, told her I had some form of paper work, and the then enlightened me on how she had another choice for me: Pay the rent and late fees we owe for this month, clean the trailer from top to bottom, like steam clean carpets, clean bathrooms really well, mop floors, ect. all before the end of this month and then we are done with the stupid lease. No more $2,500 shit, no court eviction, no eviction at all, actually. THEN WE WILL BE DONE. Best frigging news I've heard all day.

Oh, by the way, I had an appointment scheduled on Monday for an ultra sound and such, but they had to reschedule me for some gay reason, so I didn't get my ultra sound. Not until like March 3rd. How stupid.

HOLY WA!!

So, I am going to try to explain this, mostly for Ginger, on account of you are the only one who reads this...but this all took place last night...

It all started while Sarah was talking to Jimmy on the internet...I was watching tv, and Tony was at Blockbuster renting a few movies. Jimmy informed Sarah that we couldn't stay at his house this weekend like we planned on doing due to his landlord doing house stuff...he couldn't have a full house this weekend.

So Sarah enlightened me of this news; then wondered out loud of Rebecca was going to be at home in Charlotte this weekend. So, I called her and asked her. She went on to sound extremely reluctant towards it, so I told her never mind, it's not a big deal, I was just wondering. She also had said durring our conversation, that since we want to move back to Charlotte, we should not just stay with Jimmy for maybe a couple weeks, like we had planned, but live with him for like 4 months or more..."So you don't have to move in the snow, and you can learn how to cook and eat healthy..." which, first, I thought to myself, uh, we will be moving our stuff to Charlotte right? There is snow out side, so um...no matter what we will be moving in the snow...and wow, how do you know I can't cook? ANYWAYS...We hung up, not with any type of attitude or anything...not 3 minutes later, Tony comes walking in the door on the phone, talking to his mom...Rebecca had hung up with me and immediately called Tony. So she got all up in his business about what he's spending his bonus money on, and on how he shouldn't spend his money because she's so wise and knows everything and he had it hard when she was young and doesn't want to see us do the same mistakes she had...well because she was bitching at Tony about his money, all he said was "mom, don't worry about my money." I am not saying it came out nicely, it might've came out with an attitude, but because Rebecca has this thing with giving the same piece of advise over and over and over again until you do it. Tony got pissed off and they eventually hung up. Then, like 10 senconds later, calls back and says "I want the car back before you go to Charlotte" So Tony and Sarah and I go clean out the car. I was going to follow him in my car, but it wouldn't start so then we tried to get it started. Sarah, being smart, she got on line, where Rebecca instantly started talking to her...she said she wanted like everything back that she ever gave us, and technically, if you include the stuff Will gave/bought us, this includes MY car, OUR WEDDING RINGS, our bed, the couch, the blue poof chair, the computer desk, the computer, the dish washer, the tv's, the tread mill along with other things, I'm sure. She then continued to tell Sarah that she is pissed off because we don't listen to her, we don't want her advise (because we don't automatically follow it) we disrespect her, we told her to Fuck off, we don't appreciate all the things that her and Will did for us, like pay our bills while we lived here in Ann Arbor...the list goes on.

She sits there and bitches and complains how they are in debt and she's so worried about their bills, but they go out and buy those stupid Oddisey's, buys half of Toy's-R-US for the kids for Christmas (literally)...

But the stupid thing is, we apparently told her to fuck off, and that we don't appreciate her, and we disrespect her, and that we don't always act on her advise...how retarted.