Welcome to my Site

You can reach me at: bnbharty@gmail.com and I'll try my best to answer. I get a crazy amount of email, so PLEASE don't hate me if you don't hear back from me. Love ya!

Click here for my Terms of Use

Friday, May 25, 2012

Expect the Unexpected

Life is so crazy. Jake was at the hospital for 14 days, and on the 15th day, just when we thought that they were for sure gonna keep him for their Residential Treatment Center summer program, we got a call at 2pm saying to come pick him up... He was coming home. Apparently he was doing SO well that he was to be discharged.

Model resident. Kind. Caring. Never caused a problem. Leadership. Helpful. Understand. Glowing reports from both therapist and psychiatrist. Because he's a smart kid. Aspies are, you know.

I picked him up and was home with him 4pm. And then we had Joe's baseball game at 5:30pm and Tom's last baseball game at 7:oopm and the end of the season party. LONG night. Jake did well, but I think it was too much for him. I blame PEAKS, because it was dumped on us last minute.

So by the time we got home, everyone was tired. But I don't think that we quite realized it. We were not prepared with a spot for Jake yet. His room was not ready. So when he started in on a melt down, we had no where to send him yet. So it escalated. And escalated. And soon, CPT and I were both a$$holes and we couldn't make him do anything, and he wasn't going to budge from the couch. Sigh. I was regretting picking him up. An hour later, and we finally managed to convince him to go to his no emptied out and cot fitted room. Exhausted.

Morning brought new perspective. A little, anyway. But CPT had his feeling hurt. Jake had said many mean things. And CPT has very sensitive feelings. I'm not sure how to help him when dealing with Jake. I'm really not. We are going camping in just a few hours. And I'm a bit afraid. We will be about 3 hours from home. In the woods. With 5 kids. Wish us luck...

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Let The Countdown Begin Freebie

I was looking at the calendar today, and realizing how close it is till the end of school! Only a few more days, really! School for our kids is the 6th of June, I think. Early release this Friday. And no school on Monday! Holy crap!

Anyway, busy and fun day today. I met Laura at Starbucks at 8:30am. My choices were limited, since I don't do coffee or real tea (ha!), so I got the Mango pineapple (or something like that) smoothie, and a cheese danish. Oh yeah, SUPER yummy breakfast! We sat and chatted for about an hour, then headed to the commissary. She'd never been, and I had stuff for the house and a list from CPT that I needed to get.

It took FOREVER, but we had fun. We found on-sale produce, and I showed her my theory on cereal. Less than 10 cents an ounce. Or however that works out. All I know is that the 10 is what we are looking for. We ended up having to get 2 11's and a 10. Cereal is expensive, you know. All the yummy cereal costs 20...

By the time we were ready to pay, there wasn't an inch of space left in that cart for food! LOL. She bought cookies for our potluck dinner tonight, and I got watermelon and strawberries. SO yummy!

We paid, and I showed her how to work the baggers, and how to tip them. It's always good to have a friend to show you the ropes. I didn't have anyone there to show me! Our bagger made out with a SWEET tip. I gave her $5, and I think Laura did too. hehe.

We unloaded the groceries at my house, then stopped by Military Clothing supplies. Laura wanted to get something for her Camelback. I'd forgotten to put the eggs and CPT's chocolates away (they were in the middle seat), so before heading to Laura's for lunch, we stopped back by my house. I grabbed some paperwork to close out a party, and we headed out.

We had lunch, played with her cats, and watched a few episodes of Big Bang Theory. It's the show that the girls have been trying to get me to watch for ages. Seemed pretty funny. I'm gonna give it a try once I finish up with "How I Met Your Mother".

I headed back towards home around 3, and stopped off at Fallas for a little shopping detour. LOL. I ended up finding a few summer dresses. Cause it's SO hot out! It was near 100 today! After gaining a bit of weight, El Paso seems hotter - ha!

I got 2 fancy-ish vests too. But the shirt that I bought, I don't like so much. I need to return it in the next day or so. It looks like a tent. Ever get a shirt like that? Made for stick people?

Then I headed home, and the kids and I had about 30 minutes to get the watermelon and strawberries prepared before we had to be to Joe's game early for team pictures. We were in ultimate hustle mode. Tom and Eme stepped up big time!

I worked on Joe and Jim and their uniforms, and Tom and Eme sliced and scooped and helped out a lot. We were only about 7 minutes late to the pictures. But we made it! hehe.

Julia and I hung at the game, and eventually Corby and Laura came. And then CPT came too! It was a very enjoyable evening. Julia left to take the little kids to the other field, and she hung with Kim and Tim there. Tim got back YESTERDAY from his TDY training in MO. Welcome back, Mr Tim!!!! They leave this Friday to PCS to Ft Hood, TX. I will miss her SO!!!!

Anyway, after Joe's game, we packed everything up, and headed to Jim's game. We caught the last 7 minutes. ha! We hung after the game for about 10 minutes chatting with Julia and Corby, and Kim and Tim. Then I dropped Laura back off at her car, and we all headed home.

We cleaned up the house for a while after we got back home, and the sports kids took showers. It was a late night, with kids not getting to bed until around 9pm.

What else... This past weekend, CPT had staff duty on Saturday, and we did absolutely nothing. Ok, so I took Joe and Leo to hockey practice. But I put my jammies back on as soon as I walked in the door. LOL. We just watched TV all day long. TOTAL day off. Sometimes you need that, right?

I had a party on Friday for Miche. It was a little party, but a lot of fun. I got a new party booking off of it, and the girl is SUPER excited about it. She even moved the party up because she's SO excited. Which made me even MORE excited - ha!

Jake called from PEAKS a few times. One time he was mad, and wanted to know how told on him for doing drugs. I wouldn't give up the name. He ended up hanging up on me. The other time he called, though, he was much nicer. He said that they had learned about support groups for when they get out. And he said that he wanted to join one. I said that I would find one for him. He sounded more positive. He also seemed over interested in his socks. Hmmmm. I bought him new ones when I went to Fallas today. I keep thinking that he's hiding "weed" places... I guess I have reason to be suspicious, right? I'm going to try and make it out to visit him tomorrow. CPT and Tom have a game, and so does Emeline. Wait. That leaves me with no babysitter.... Hmmmm.

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks.