Memorial day Weekend Puke and Pizza

First off, I am not dead not in the hospital. I have been way over stressed out in the last month and half.

It has been super crazy from soccer games, to troubles at the school with my kids, to multiple teacher/parent confrences, a survival plan for my kids until the end of the year, extreme couponing strageties put to use, and getting more product into the shop to sell.

Did I mention the crazy work schedule I have to maintain to help DH get to and from work again. Oh, yes meaning I had to stay up late to get him out the door on time, get little sleep as possible for myself, still get the kids to their activities, work at my job with other peoples' kids, and do all the mundane stuff a stay at home parent has to do to have a functing household.

Yikes, that would make most people runaway and start life over again right?

Nope, not me! I tackle it like the leader of the greek move 300. Going down until it kills me right. NOPE!

I have no instituted massive chores for my kids to do, I holler orders at my DH for help when I get overwhelmed, and refuse to do things when I know I am to exhaugsted to do them.

I am re-establishing contact with friends that we have not seen in months, and repair damage to our family's self-confidence due to some serious bullying problems that did come out until the end of the year, and trying not to sweat the small stuff as the book puts it so nicely. Not an easy task to do.

My Dh tried to do something nice for us. A short trip up to the Prescott metro area. On the way, there one of my kids puked all over my nice new van. You know the one I posted a year and half ago. Oh, yes that nice new van. He deseperately searched and found a car wash with a high water pressure house to scrub clean the puked on matts, and outside of the van. He even vaccumed my said van out removing in missed puked piles from removing nasty matts. Yes, we missed a spot. Then it was off to get new set of pants for my poor kiddo who lost the entire breakfast treat. Then off to find a friend/co-workers car show in the middle of B.F.E. Guess who didn't bring the GPS for added assistance, already frustrated and fuming DH. We finally found said car show. Had fun, with more than even comments of my stomach hurts and I need drink from the peanut gallery. We left to go eat at Bill's Pizza Place on the square. No close parking places to be able to stay and eat. All parking availabale indicate a 30 minute walk with all grumpy family members. My DH turned the puke van around, stopped at two stores not finding what we needed. We headed back down the mountain home. We did finally stop for pizza an hour later at Streets of New York! Yummy. By that time, all was better expect for the smell in my van. Arizona heat and puke smell do not go hand in hand. We stopped for some special vechile cleaner. I got to scrub the carpets under the matts, the seats, doors to remove any remaining missed dried puke and did I forget to mention the LaLa Yogart Smoothie that the kids sprayed all over the back of the van. No, rule no drinks but water allowed in Mommy's van! I know I am so mean! Proud to be it. They are not having to clean up the crap. I am. I have to make my honda last at least 10 years folks. so, excuse me I don't want it destroyed in two the entire that is.

No back to this weekend. Once we got home from our little trip. My dh was complaining about our struggle to coupon and use extreme coupon strageties. Well, one look in the freezer and cabinets just about shut him up. He couldn't beleive the deals we got. He played video games, the kids watched movies, and I worked on the newest line for the store. Educational pdf files for boosting reading comprehension and writing skills.

I am sick of paying for over priced items that in general only cover parts of what my kids need to hold their skills up over the summer. My kids don't like a lot of the material they find it boring. So, I am getting creative with kids. You my followers benefit by me posting affordable pdf files for you to download for a small fee at the www.artfire.com/users/beautifulswagstore site. It's not there yet. Waiting for approval of several teachers that I know to check for mistakes. All I ask is that since its a low price, please promote it on your twitter, facebook, and blog, so, others can get it too. If there is so book, you need done let me know. I will love to do it.

Extreme couponing is great but it has to be a family lifestyle. Seriously, even my kids are telling their dad to stop complaining and help. Help as in do the research for the sales, print out the list of what is on sale and we will match the items to our coupon stash. No shame in saving money. Will he do it? Hell NO!! We are not embrassed to say we coupon. Heck some of our summer outtings are pre-shopping trips to double check regular prices and sale prices before actual shopping. Let start a seperate post about this because there are somethings I need to say about it.

So. its Sunday Morning I have been awake since 5:30 am with a sinus headache. I have caught all the blogs up and will be starting the twitter stuff for the store.

On a serious note:

THANK YOU TO ALL THE SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN that serve our country. To their families we can't do it without your sacrifice. Thank you!

Awakened by P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast

Picture from Amazon.com. Zoey has put together her soul and saved her warrior from the otherworld. Now, she has to face the real world and how to get good and evil back in the right balance again.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the story. I have quoted them from the pages.

p. 17

Sgiach laughed. "Science often feels more mysterious than magick, or at least I have always thought so."

p.25

"Not because of you,Z. I've been hurt because that's what Darkness does,-it tries to destroy those of us who fight for Light."

p.101

"Darkness is territorial, possessive. Once it's had a piece of you, it doesn't like to let go."

"Darkness doesn't have any choice if you choose the path of the Goddess, and you have. It can't beat Light."

"But I'm not sure Light can ever really beat Darkness, either. There's a balance to things, Z.

p. 137

"You know what, Erik? All I'm gonna say to you is this: Evil wins when good folks do nothing," Stevie Ray said.

p.158

"Because there is no old magick left here!" Sgiach said, almost shouting in frustration.

"Out there inthe aht world of yours, the mystical, wonderful magick of old, where the black bull was revered along with the Goddess, where the balance of male and female was respected, and where event the rocks and trees had souls, had names, has been destroyed by civilization and intolerance, and forgetfulness. People today, vampyres and humans alike, believe the earth is just a dead thing that they live on-that is somehow wrong or evil or barbaric to listen to the voices of the souls of the world, and sothe heart and the nobility of an entire way of life dried up and withered away..."

p.159

"Aye, remembers a time when honor meant more than self, and loyalty wasnae an option or an after thought," Seoras said solemnly.

p.183

It's a friend's job to love you , too, if they're real friends." Mama Johnson paused...

p201

"I don't think High Preistessess are supposed to make mistakes."

"Of course they are. How else would they learn and grow? "

"It is wise woman who recognizes that." "It is one of the key differences between you and your mother."

P. 218

Do Not forget this feeling, the Goddess's voice sang through my mind. A tru High Priestess is humble as well as proud, and never forgets the responsibility that being a leader entails.

p248

My son, there is no need to get over Jack. Remember him, and rejoice in the brief, beautiful love you shared. Choosing to do so does not mean forgetting or getting over, it means healing.

p257

Zoey said, "Sometimes nothing and your friends equals a whole lot of something."

p276

Under normal circumstances that is the way of things. But the world today is not normal, nor are our circumstances.

p279

"magick of the oldest kind. it is rarely present in the modern world; it does not suffer civilization well."

p285

What was the old saying? If it has tires or testicles, its gonna give you problems.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Finally, Mercy and Adam get hitched whither by their planning or family's planning. Their honeymoon was suppose to be naturally blissful but the fae have other plan unknown to them. The newly married "Hauptman" couple have to have their honeymoon cut short.

Quotes from the book

p. 16

"Not at all," he disagreed , though I've heard him call me both rash and stupid as well as munber of unflatterin things. "Your ability to survive anything that gets thrown at you sometimes leaves the rest of us swallowing ulcer medication for days afterward. I don't like the taste of Maalox."

p.25

"It's a new trend, Mercy, he said. "Right up your alley because it's supposed to be based on an Indian legend. The story is that if you catch a butterfly and whisper your wish to it, then let it go, that the butterfly will take your request to the Great Spirit. Since you released the butterfly, when you could have killed or capture it, the Great Spirit will be inclined to view your request favorably."

"I am doomed," I told the pillow. "Doomed to butterflies and balloons." "At least it isn't pigeons,"observed Warren practically.

p.49

Mating is a lot more permanent than marriage. Partly, I think it's that usually if you find your mate, he's not going to be someone you need to divorce. Abuse is almost not possible whe tow people are connected by a mating bond, and it gives you insight into your mate that allows you to avoid the nastier fights that a snowball into cold distance. And partly it is the magic is some what harder to deal with than legal paperwoark, and the mating bond is pack magic.

p.50

"And if your ex-wife or any moderately attractive woman from thirteen to seventy is in the area, you should be aware that there is no reason good enough for you to take off your ring."

p. 51

" I thought that if you're feeling primitive about this, it is only fair to let you know that i'm feeling primitive, too," I informed him lightly.

P.52

That dog tag meant more to him than the ring did-and so it meant more to me, too. I noticed that the chain looked to be tough enough that I could wear it when running as a coyote, too.

p.70

My Whole life I'd been an outsider: first a coyote raise in a pack of werewolves, then a supernatural outsider in my mother's mundane household, finally an outsider who had too many secrets to really have friends. I was good at appearing to fit in, so no one really took notice of me.

p. 166

I hadn't ridden in the back of a pick up truck since I was a kid, and it was still fun. I jumped out before he stopped, just to see if I still could. I landed on my feet but let the moment roll me backward and carry me back to my feet again. It was a matter of timing. My foster father had taught me how to do that after he caught me trying to imiate him.

"Teaching her how to do it right, so, she doesn't break her fool neck," he growled, while my foster mother, Evelyn fussed, "is likely to be less fatal than forbidding her to do, because tha doesn't work at all."

p.188

"I'll try to make sure that you always feel that way. My mother use to threaten to shoot my father."

He could barely stand up, and he was making jokes.

I nipped his shoulder. "I can see why she might feel the urge. Tell you what. If you make me mad enough to aim a gun at you--I'll aim for right between your eyes."

"So I won't feel it?", he asked.

I nipped him again, but gently, just a scrape of my teeth. "No. So the bullet ill just bounce off your hard head."

He laughed. "Bird of a feather, Mercy."

p. 239

"I like this man, your husband," he told me. Maybe it was an explanation. "He would have attacked me for putting you in danger--even though the wolf knew exactly what I was. And yet, when you asked him to have patience, he did. It is proper that men listen to the counsel of women."

"Like you listen to your sisters?" I said, as the wolf put his nose just under my ear. I tilted my head to give him my throat. Sharp teeth brushed against my skin, and I shivered.

"Wise women," Coyote agreed. "But sometimes pushy and easy to rile. I think they need to develop a sense of fun. They do not agree with me, so maybe they are not so wise at all that, eh?"

p 266-267

"Why should He?" Coyote asked. "All that is mortal dies. Death is not such a bad thing. What would be a bad thing would be living without challenges. Without knowing defeat, we cannot know what victory is. There is no life without death."

"I like my God better than I like yours," I told him.

"Don't you know, child? He is one and the same." Coyote watched the river devil wait for my response. "The Great Spirit has given us our wits and courage. He sends helpers and counsel. He sent me to you, didn't he? I talked to my sisters tonight. It was a good thing."

p269

I had made the right decision, the only decision. But that didn't make it any easier to live with the deaths of four people I could have saved. I fed Adam, and when he grunted at me, I fed myself too. I had to keep my strength up. If four people had died to give me chance to help kill the river devil, it wouldn't do to fail because I hadn't eatten.

p308

"She does stuff stuff likethis all the time?" asked Calvin, looking at Adam with respect.

Adam lifted his head, and his eyes yellow again--but his voice was only a little rough. "To be fair, it's usually not her fault. She doesn't start things."

"But it looks like she finishes them," said the woman holding Benny's hand.

p 320

I patted his shoulder. "I hate being dependent, too. It sucks."

He gave me a rueful laugh. "We do seem to be in th same boat, no?"

I suppose we must work on being gracious and grateful until we can do for ourselves. Someday the wheel of fate will put us in a position to be of use to them, and we will remember how much easier it is to give help than it is to accept it. Now, why don't you twll me of your adventures? I've heard quite a bit from Warren, of course, but I prefer to get the story from the source whenever possible."