It's been 10 months ...

And a blog post is LONG overdue!!

Let's see ... where to begin? I guess I do it by subject matter, chronological order would be too hard (and confusing, LOL).

Work is going good. As good as part time work can go. With the horrible winter hours were scarce, but now that spring is finally here, I'm getting almost 50 hours in a pay period (two weeks). Speaking of pay, I should be seeing my one year raise coming soon. Yeah, it's been a year already that I've been working at Home Depot. I'm still looking for a better job, but that'll happen eventually.

My folks are going through some rough times. Mom's been in and out of the hospital a few times, mostly when Daddy's in the hospital, too. She goes through these episodes of anxiety anymore ... scary stuff. Daddy's health is failing more and more as every day passes. He's presently in the hospital, so weak from his body shutting down that he is incapable of even staying awake for more than a few minutes at a time. It's heartbreaking to see him like this. Mom has finally admitted she can no longer take care of him, and has told the doctor that once released he will have to go into a nursing home. Brother Deere and I have been trying to persuade her of this for years now.

Aunt Silly and Uncle Pain have been going through health issues, too.Both have been hospitalized. Aunt Silly took a fall and broke her shoulder, and has been having severe anxiety issues ever since.

Cousin and I have really been busy with our folks lately. I just hope this isn't a sneak-peak of our lives as octogenarians!! I've already told my kids to stick me in a happy home and leave me be, if that's the case.

Speaking of kids ...
Gizmo and his girlfriend, Drama-rama, are doing fine. After they moved out in March of last year I had no idea where they'd moved to. I'd only seen Son a few times since they'd moved. That all changed when the GF invited me over for Christmas dinner. We had a nice evening, and were able to start to re-build a positive relationship. It's a work in progress.

Married Son ... BossMan ... whatever he is called (I need to find a new name for him!) has moved to the opposite end if the state, to Grand Rapids. He's still legally married, but the divorce is progressing well. He went to Grand Rapids to be closer to his girlfriend (yes, he's got a new one already), and has found a job there. He's still driving trucks. He's "home" every weekend to see his son. So it's almost like he's not even so far away. I see him more now than when he was living locally. LOL.

Alien ... now there's an entire blog all by itself. And I'm sure now that I'm back to blogging she'll be a regular blog topic. Then again, if it weren't for Alien, I might not have taken up blogging again. It's therapy, cheap therapy. And I sure need it right now!

Okay ... I'll keep some of the details short for now, only because there's a lot of ground to cover here.

On February 17 of this year, Alien's house caught fire. Thankfully ALL got out safely. Including the pets. The Red Cross put them up in a hotel for two weeks, but after that, having no place else to go they moved in with me. All five of them, and the animals.

I was one week short of celebrating my first anniversary of the Empty Nest. One freaking week.

They've only been with me since March 1st, but it seems like FOREVER!!

I know, I know! I said I'd never ever open my doors to any of my kids ever again. BUT ... there's those three babies that needed to be considered. IF it was only Alien I would have said no way.

And those babies are the biggest source of stress for me.

Granted, Butterball is now 4, JR is 3 and there's the newest addition ... five month old RyRy. RyRy is the least stressful, he rarely cries.

It's Butterball and JR. They don't listen ... but then, Alien has NO disciplinary measures she follows. I try to be patient, knowing they are stuck indoors a lot (weather and all), but damn, that doesn't mean they can destroy the house.

They're worse than the original Wrecking Crew was!! WORSE!!

They don't pick up anything!! Toys, clothes, food wrappers, food. You name it, it lays on the floor until Dear Ol' MomMom goes ballistic! I have to stand over them like a Drill Sgt and turn into Bitchy MomMom!! And forget Alien or her BF supervising them. She claims she can't whilst taking care of the baby.

She even uses the baby as her excuse for not picking up her clothes from the floor, doing the dishes or taking their tons of trash out on a regular basis.

It's a constant battle. 

Just yesterday they managed to pull the door entirely off the bathroom cabinet from climbing on it. They wanted to play in the water in the sink. I've told them a hundred times before (if I told them once), that they are NOT to climb the cabinets. Yet, here they are ... the damned door pulled out of the cabinet (hinges and all).

A day doesn't go by when I'm not hounding Alien or her BF on the progress of their house hunting. And  yes, both of them are working at WalMart (that's a blog entry for later). They know I'm way beyond stressed and I make sure to remind them constantly.

Usually as I'm hovering over the boys and barking orders at them.

Butterball is finally getting it. He's the least resistance I have.

It's so I want to be away from the house, but know if I'm not here to supervise (read BITCH) then this house would probably fall apart. No. No probably about it!!

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So, yeah, plenty going on ...

and I'm getting too old for this shit!!

Will blog more later. It's my day off today and I have a few errands I need to run. Time to get ready for the day.