{Give Me Long Beautiful Hair

At Cassidy's hair appointment, the only thing I could allow myself to let the beautician cut was her bangs and a little peak in the back that came out like a duck tale. I think my mom was a little disappointed, but that's all I could do. I kept the hair and I have in an envelope. I am going to put it inside this cute little picture carousel box that Cassidy's godparent (Kevin and April) gave us at her baptism. I have been putting every momento inside. If you open it, you will find her birth tag from her ankle, my wrist band, her first lock of hair, cards and trinkets from the balloons and cards we got while in the hospital, her ID tag from her PE Tube surgery...and many other odds and ends. I don't know why I keep them but I do.

Darren, Mike, and Darren's cousin Jeff went to the Firemens Icefishing Tourney in DL. They had fun but neither of them caught any fish. I was my brother's first time ever icefishing and he said that he enjoyed it and will probably come back from Virginia to do it again. I was hoping that at least one of them would win something. I can't imagine how boring it would be to sit on the ice and not catch a single fish for three hours.

I am waiting for a neighbor to have her baby. I think she my have had it lastnight or early today. When I went home lastnight all the lights were off in their house and when I went to work at 7 this morning, there still wasn't any lights on and they normally are when I drive by. I saw her husband standing outside of the Implement store when I came home and he and his dad were standing around the truck looking at something...I wonder if he had pics with him from the birth, but it could be something totally not related either but she is overdue and I wouldn't be surprised if she did have the baby.

Darren started new meds for his back pain. The first day they really kicked his butt. He was so drugged that he stayed home from work. We also found out today that one of Darren's aunts has cancer. We don't know how bad it is because she just found out from her dr today and they are going to run some tests to see how extensive it is and what kind of treatment they should go for. Darren and his Dad are really depressed about the whole thing.

Cassidy laughing as she reaches the bottom of the slope. 

It was finally nice enough outside today to take Cassidy out for a sledding. She really enjoyed it. She laughed and giggled the whole time. It seemed to amaze her how she would slide down the slope in the driveway past me. I didn't get too many good pics but there is one that is worth posting...it's so damn cute!

Darren went to Minot to see his doctor. They raised the dosage of some medications for him and they have added some different ones. The doctor said that he doesn't have to be on the meds for life, they are going to try to see what works and what doesn't for meds and when they find one that works he will take the med until there is no pain and then stop taking the med until the pain comes back. I hope this newer stuff works.

I got my W2 straightened. Turns out that you have to make $350 or more in federal taxes before they withhold any from your paychecks...the same for State. Since I only worked 2 days a week for only about 3 hrs a day, I didn't make near enough on my checks for any taxes to be withheld. I am just hoping that in the long run this isn't trouble for me when we file our taxes. If I do end up paying in because of it, I am going to ask my employeer to take about $5 out of each check just to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Friday when we run to DL to do our shopping, Cassidy has a hair appointment at 1pm. I dont' know if I am really ready to cut her hair or not but we will see when we get there. She has such beautiful, curly blonde hair that I hate to even think about cutting it. We will see what happens Friday.

My W2 is Messed Up

I haven't posted for a couple of days because my computer is on the fritz and a buddie of Darren's is working on it. My computer still isn't running right so I decided to go to my parents and use their computer so I could post.

The worst possible thing that can happen around tax time is that my employer screwed up my W2. When I got it, Darren pointed out that this year they didn't take any State or Federal taxes out. I haven't had this problem before and last year they did take the taxes out. I didn't change my W4 when I went back to work. The only thing that changed was that I went from part-time Sanitation to part-time production. The only difference is about $2 less in pay. Since I didn't have to change my W4 I just assumed that everything was alright on my paychecks and I never noticed that they weren't withholding any taxes. I brought it up to the lady in payroll and she is checking on it. She told me that this should not have happened and she apologized for it but said that there wasn't anything that she could do now about it. Since I think this is their problem and not mine, if I have to pay in because of this mistake I am going to tell my employer that I want them to pay me for what I have to pay in. I don't care if they add the money to one of my paychecks or what, but one way or the other, they are reimbursing me for this mistake.

On the plus side, Cassidy has learned how to crawl up on the furniture by herself without any help...okay, I'm not sure if this is a plus side or not, but it's really cute to watch her lift her leg up to her ear to get up on the couch.

If it's nice out the next couple of days. I am going to take Cassidy out sledding with her brand new sled that she got from Santa Clause for Christmas. I will post the pics when we go sledding...it should be lots of fun.

Oh What A Night

We had some shopping to do in Devils Lake so we dropped Cassie off with my mom around 4 pm and Darren, Mike, and I all went into town. We hit Wal-Mart, ran to my bro's bank so he could get cash, we ate really fast at the Pizza Ranch and then we went out to the Spirit Lake Casino. We forgot that the Tracy Larwence concert was tonight and it was crowded out there. I lost 10 bucks, my brother came home with at least 25 bucks ahead, and Darren won 50 bucks off 1 dollar just as we were walking out the door to leave. I have found out though that you can play forever on the penny machines and you actually can win more off one of those than the dollar machines. The penny games are the ones I will play now when I go out there. On the way back home, we were pulled over by a highway patrol for our one headlight (which broke around this time last year when I hit a deer) and for not showing current tabs. We had the tabs but it has been too cold to put them on so we only got a warning for that and a warning also for the headlight but Darren got a 20 dollar fine for no seatbelt. It was a little embarrassing but I am surprised that we haven't been pulled over sooner for running around with the broken headlight for a year. I was hoping to get by Amadon and Josies's but it got late and after being pulled over we just didn't have the time.

Cassie is finally tall enough now to grab stuff off the kitchen table and the counters. We try and put stuff directly in the middle of the table and as far back on the counters as we can but occasionally she still manages to grab something. She has had the habit lately of snatching food. At daycare on Thursday, Donna (the daycare provider) told me that Cassie grabbed a boy's half eaten poptart off the table and gobbled it right up. Then on Friday I had a piece of fudge on the table next to my cup of coffee. I heard Darren in the living room asking Cassie what she had in her mouth and I looked over my shoulder and my piece of fudge was gone. I think it's so funny even though I know that I should do something about it, but how do you scold your child for swiping food? There is a lot of worse things out there that she could be taking. I am trying to let her know that she just can't grab stuff off the table like that and hopefully she will catch on and start asking for things on the table before she grabs them.

I am going to try the bingo games on Gamesonline.com. My mom said that she has played it at work before when it's been really quiet and she has actually even gotten checks in the mail for the bingo games that she has won. She said that the latest check was for 8 bucks. I figure it's worth a shot...any money is better than no money even if I only win 2 bucks.

Another Quiet Night

Since it was snowing really good we didn't go anywhere today. Cassidy had a haircut scheduled at Salon 2000 at 12:30 but I called and had it moved to next Friday. Darren went out and snow-blowed (hahaha...that sounds funny!) when the snow let up. I didn't do anything, I did run into Leeds to get milk and Darren took down the Christmas tree while I was gone. The trip into Leeds was a little shitty but wasn't too bad with Darren's 4x4 truck.

I told Darren about my day yesterday, and a guy who knows the woman who spoke so rudely to me told Darren that she is under a lot of stress lately because of her divorce and things are just finally starting to get to her and that I am supposed to just blow it off like it never happened. I could be wrong, but just because she decided that she doesn't love her husband anymore, kicked him out of the house, and he has moved to Wyoming still doesn't give her the right to talk to me like that....right? Under no circumstances should you take out your aggressions on anyone else. Right? I still remain mad at her obviously.

I guess it's going to be another night to myself tonight. Darren ran into Leeds to get water because I forgot to pick some up from the store and he was also going to talk to a friend there in town about doing some work on my computer since it's running funny. I think I have to reload windows. While he was there he was going to go to one of the bars because it is one of his friends birthday today and he was going to buy her a drink. Then the original plan was for him to come home and we were going to rent a movie off the dish and spend the night together but then my brother called and wanted to run to Rugby or Devils Lake with Darren for something to do so Darren is going with Mike after he is done at the bar.....sigh. It's hard to spend time together during the week since I work days and he works nights and lately it seems that it's even harder to spend time together during the weekends. Sundays I wash cloths at my mom's because our well has extremely rusty water (anyone who has been out here knows how bad it is), Saturdays Darren usually takes care of thing outside (car work, snow removal, repairing fence, fixing stuff...etc) and on Fridays Darren usually runs to Devils Lake to deposit our paychecks, do our Wal-Mart shopping, and gets whatever else we can't get here. I usually stay home with Cassidy since it's winter and there is always stuff to do here. I hope we can work something out where we actually spend "time" together other than the 2 hours that Cassidy is napping. I am sure that it will get better in the summer though when we can all go outside and do something together.

And this last part is for Josie, April, Karissa, or whom ever else can answer this question....how the hell do you get the paragraphs to separate!! I can do it while composing but when I post my blog it jams everything together and I don't like it.

I had a problem with the Blogger site lastnight and I couldn't get in to post. It doesn't really matter though because not too much happened yesterday.

Darren was still up when I got up for work at 7 am this morning. He got addicted to this online casino and was playing slots. When I talked to him around 3:30 pm before I left work, he said that he was up until 8:30 am playing slot games.

When I got to work today, I found out that a lady from Leeds, Arlyce Brown, had died in an accident. She was in her 70's and people that old shouldn't die in accidents and found dead in the snow, they should pass away comfortably in their warm bed at home. I feel really bad for Arlyce's mother who is in her mid-90's because she depended on Arlyce cause she can't really get around too well on her own.

My day at work was so-so. Everyone and anyone who knows me, knows that I like to talk. I really like the people I work with and sometimes they have really good stuff to share. One good thing about me is that I can talk and move my hands at the same time, not once did I think this was a problem...however, today a girl (she is kinda snotty to begin with) rolled her eyes at me and said "don't you ever shut up?" and it got me to think "does everyone share this opinion but she is the only one with balls to share it?". I was really offended by how she said it and I was mad for a while, but I think she is right. For the rest of the afternoon I didn't speak to anyone and just kept to myself. When someone did say something to me I kept it short and I made sure not to make a comment on what was said. I think from now on I am just going to leave the day crew alone and keep to myself and if someone from the day crew is eating lunch in the break room, I am just going to take my lunch to the locker room. The comment made me feel really low and I got this vibe like they don't really like me out there but they are putting up with me because I am the only one that likes to do FedEx. I felt really awful about it.

After work I went to my mom's for a while and just hung out. My mom is my best friend (with the exception of Darren) and I feel good when I talk to her, however I didn't talk to her about work. Cassidy made me laugh though cause she put her face in the cat's water dish at my parents house and her head was in the bowl up to hear ears. I wish I could have gotten a pic of it, it was really cute.

April, I read your blog, and Josie I read your post too. It would be really cool to hang out with you guys whenever it works for all of us. I know it's hard and things to happen on a spur of them moment. I wasn't mad at all, I just wish we could have been there...it sounded like fun.

After work today I and Cassidy met Darren at the Leeds Family Resturant for dinner before Darren started his night shift. After dinner I went to my moms house and waited for the 1st episode of American Idol 2005!! I was only able to watch the first half of the show before Cassidy got really tired and I had to get home to put her to bed. I hope I can catch the rest of it sometime. It was pretty funny, what I saw anyway. And I have also come to love the FX channel. I watch Fear Factor every night when I get home from work and then on Sundays at 9 pm my absolute favorite show comes on....Nip/Tuck! I don't know how I got hooked into the show but I did and now I live for Nip/Tuck on Sundays! I want to buy the box set of all 3 seasons but they are pretty spendy. Maybe sometime after we get our new home I can buy them.



It sounds like everyone got together to play poker the other night at Josie and Amadons, I would have killed to be there, however nobody said they were doing it. But I can't complain because I don't live in town and my friends and I don't really keep in touch too much. I miss them all and I wish I could spend more time with them. If I would have realized four years ago how far apart we would become today, I would have definatley made different priorities. I cherish the memories that I have and each time I look at my daughter the price is worth it, but every once in a while I still have a longing to be with them.

Same thing, New day

It was just another Monday. Nothing much went on. Darren have I have discussed getting another home though. He wants a brand-new double wide that we can move out here on our land. We do need a new home sometime. This one is slowly starting to fall apart on us. There is a hole by the back door in the floor, the windows and doors leak air, the roof leaked (but we did put new shingles on), and we need siding something terrible. We come to figure that fixing everything and putting new siding on would be about as much as a down payment...plus neither of us know how to fix this stuff so we would have to pay labor to have someone do it for us. I think with a little pinching and saving of our money we may be able to do it. And if we can find someome to buy this place after we decide on a home, then we would have our down payment. We will have to see how it goes though, because I haven't started full-time at work yet because the sitter I take Cassidy to can only have two children under 2 at her place at the same time. Right now, Cassidy only goes to the sitter on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tomorrow I am going to talk to the sitter and see when she can take Cassidy all week because we do need the extra money....but then, who doesn't?!? I have posted my pic of our cat for all to see. I hope you are enjoying them!

Scrappy, the cat. 

Farm Yard Pals

I had a second cousin write me an email asking to see a pic of our husky because they just got one. I posted a pic of Tucker, our 4 yr old husky. He's black and white and totally loves farm life. We used to have two, but the other one had a learning disability...really...he just couldn't learn anything and when we turned them loose to run the other husky would just take off and we would have to search for him. We found a good home for him though. We got Tucker when he was a pup from one of Darrens friends who raised huskies. He's a great farm dog, he stays in the yard when we turn him loose, and he even plays with the horses!

The horses are my absolute favorites. Luna, my big red mare, my dad bought for me when I was about 14 and she is the greatest gift he has ever given me. My dad bought her when she was a year and a half old. I was breaking her to ride for a farmer that we knew who had several horses. I fill with pride when I look at her and when I ride because I broke her and she is the best riding horse that I have and she was the best riding horse that farmer probably will have ever had....well, maybe not so for the farmer, but I like to think so :) Cholla (pronounced Choya), our leopard appaloosa, my mother bought about eight years later from the same farmer. The farmer was mad and going to sell her to the meat buyer because she wasn't pregnant one year and all he wants from her are the foals. My mom felt bad and offered the farmer money for her, I think she paid much more than a fair amount for her and now the rest of her days are peaceful. We like to call her our lawn ornament. Tango is our newest addition. He was born a day after Fathers Day of 2004. He is a nice blanket appaloosa and we hope that he grows up big because we have some plans for him.

Now Scrappy, our little tri-color, I got as a grace cause too. I was at the vet office in Cando, ND with one of my horses 3 years ago and while I was there the vet was trying to find a home for a kitten. I didn't know what the kitten looked like, but Darren and I had discussed getting a cat and I had a specific color in mind. When the vet showed me the kitten I knew she was my cat. I called Darren and asked if I could bring her home and he said that I could as long as I was responsible for any messes and the litter box. She has a bad habit of getting into trouble from time to time and she may not catch all the mice I would like her to catch but she is great with Cassidy and she is nice to have around on a quiet night.

I don't have any pictures of Scrappy yet but as soon as I get a good one I will post it for all to see.

Me and Tango 

From left to right: Luna, Tango, and Cholla (pronounced Choya) 

This is Tucker our husky. 

Cassidy throwing the cue ball around after playing in the pool 

Here is Cassidy, Mom, and Anut Missy playing in the swimming pool. 

Why must cats always puke in the middle of the night so you don't find it until 9 hours later. And most of the time they do it in the most noticable spot they can find....we were lucky, Scrappy (our grey/tan/white tri-color) for once puked over her own water bowl so it was floating in the dish waiting for me this morning when I went to take a shower. She missed some of the bowl, but hey, at least it's a linoleum floor so pick up isn't hard....I just don't want to do it! You think they would have to common sense to stop eating when they were full instead of thinking they can pack it down with a bunch of water!

Well the service for Deb Solem that we attended today was very good. Her last wish was to be creamated so that people wouldn't remember her for how sick she got before passing away from cancer. We left Cassidy at home with my mom and after the service we came back to York and picked her up and took her to Rugby since a lot of Darren's family members wanted to see her. Darren's sister, Missy, was home from Bismarck for the funeral too and we don't get to see her a lot so it was great to see her play with Cassidy.

Darren's family had rooms at the Econo Lodge in Rugby. They even have a pool so I took Cassidy to the pool and let her hang her feet over the side of the pool and kick the water...she LOVED it. She made quite a mess and her jeans got a little wet, but oh well, you gotta have some kind of fun when you're a baby!! Darren even took pics of it but they didn't turn out too well. I will post the pic anyway so you can see it when I figure out how to post pics on this thing! Cassidy also had fun rolling and kicking the pool cue ball along the floor to family members. She did that for a long time until she started getting brave and decided to run around. For as young as she is, I was really amazed at how good she behaved. I expected her to do lots of running, but she didn't go wild and crazy like I thought she would.

Last Christmas, from Auntie Lynnette, Cassidy was given the Fisher Price Wonderwater Aquarium. She absolutely loved it from day one. Now when I put Cassidy to bed, she will lay down and kick the aquarium on/off until she falls asleep. I can't complain because she isn't crying, but in our little moble home, you can hear it throughout the house and it sounds like someone is banging on the door. Hopefully this is just another fad and in a few weeks to a month she wills stop.

We have this 19" TV in our bedroom and the sound stopped working so Darren took it tonight into Leeds to someone he knows who thinks can fix it right away without having to order any parts or anything for it. For Darren's sake, I hope the guy can fix it.

Lazy Day

I didn't get to run into DL with Darren. Instead Mike, my brother, went with Darren and I stayed at my moms house with Cassidy. My mom brought pizza home for dinner and at 7 pm I went to a Home Interiors party at a friends house. I didn't get too much at the party, but it was still expensive. I bought two candles, a miniture rustic milk can (I plan on putting wild flowers and grain stocks into it) and I also ordered this really cool looking hurricane lamp for a center-piece for my coffee table.




We have the funeral tomorrow in Rugby and I guess a lot of the family is going to be around for it. I think Darren and I may stay in Rugby for a bit after the funeral. Some family got hotel rooms and we were thinking of running home after the funeral to get Cassidy and then take her to Rugby so the family can see her. I don't want to take her for the funeral though because she doesn't have the attention span for something like that yet.

Wow! My first post. I would have never have guessed that I would be doing something like this but here I am. I have to thank Josie for getting me into this. It's great to be able to keep up with everyone through websites where we can catch up with what everyone is doing.

Darren's mothers cousins wife ( bet you have to re-read that 3 times before you understand it) passed away on Wednesday. She had a long battle with cancer but this last time she wasn't strong enough to beat it. The funeral is in Rugby on Saturday at 11 am and we are planning to attend.

Cassidy is in bed and I am really tired from a long work day so I am heading there next. Tomorrow we are going to run into Devils Lake and do some shopping and we don't really have anything planned for the rest of the day. We are hoping to maybe catch Amadon and Josie sometime at home so we can chat.