I have always believed that a child that sings all the time is a really happy child. I love hearing my daughter sing with her headphones on. As I walked down the hall the other night calling her name (and she wasn't answering) before I could get to her room I realized immediately that she wasn't hearing me because she had the headphones on and was singing at the top of her lungs. Of course, I stopped right outside and just listened for a few minutes. It is one of her very favorite CD’s. It is the “Summer Splash Party Hits” CD that we purchased for $1 that she just had to have! I tried to explain to her that “true” it had some songs on it that she really liked, but that they were sung by different people that we had never heard before, which is why it was only $1. Well now we own it and we take it almost every time we go anywhere in the car or truck (much to my teenage son, Taylor’s, mega protests!!) and she sings as loudly as possible “I…..WAN-NA SOAAAK UP THE SUUUUNNN…. I WANT TO TELL EVERY- OOONNNNE TOOO LIGHTTTT-ENNEN UP” and every time I hear her little voice sing it fills my heart with joy and nothing else in the world matters except how happy I know she is at that moment. Another one of her favorites is “I Can See Clearly Now" which was also one of my step-dad’s favorite songs, so I think about how much I really miss him whenever I hear it (he committed suicide in October of 1996, I only wish he would have hung around long enough to hear her sing the darn song for him! That’s another blog for another day!). Her favorite song on the CD is “Cruel Summer” so when I hear her sing that, I think of the movie “Karate Kid” and some really fun times with my friends. Good old "Bananarama"! The other song is “Summer Nights” from the "GREASE" Movie Soundtrack so now we also own the movie (thanks to Grandma Joan for buying it for her at Christmas time) and the option that it has for her to just watch all the music parts, which she does quite often singing loudly and trying to mimic every dance move while she does. From the time she was about 4 years old until she was about 6 years old, whenever we would stop to use a public restroom, I would be standing outside the stall waiting for her and she would be singing at the top of her lungs. The other women would just walk by me and smile or say “oh how cute!” She doesn’t do it in the public restrooms as much anymore, but here at home, we all know when Abrianna is in the bathroom!

So I’d have to say that Abri has been pretty good about figuring out the correct words to most songs. Taylor, on the other hand is a little bit “off”. Okay, he’s a lot “off” when he tries to figure out the words to songs! For example, the song titled “Escape” or as most people know it as “The Pina Colada Song” (also on the Summer Splash Party hits) was hilarious the first day we put that CD in to listen to it. As I began to sing the words to the song when it started (yes, as much as I hate to admit I know the words and kind of like the song) the part came on where it goes “IF YOU LIKE PINA COLADAS” and Taylor (who will be so mad at me if he reads this blog) starts singing “IF YOU LIKE ME….. KISS YOUR MOTHER…..” and at first I couldn’t understand for sure if that was what he was really singing, so I waited, and sure enough that was it and I just busted up laughing and said “Taylor, do you want to know the real words to the song?” and he was like “what are you talking about?” so when I told him what they really were, then all three of us got a pretty good laugh at it. And if you aren’t laughing or smiling right now, then I guess you just had to be there!

My kids also love Queen, especially “We Are the Champions” they get into the whole slap slap clap as they slap their thighs twice and then clap. Rob & I just look at each other and smile as they sing “YOU GOT MUD ON YOUR FACE….BIG DISGRACE…..” (The slap slap clap part I think they picked up from an “ICarly” episode but it just adds to how much fun it is to hear and watch them sing the song!). Okay so to make it fair to poor Taylor that I “dissed” him in my blog (as he would say), then I’ll tell you my story which happens to involve another Queen song “Another One Bites the Dust”. I know by this point, my mom is already laughing because she knows exactly what I’m talking about. See my version of the song went something like this....dun dun dun “ANOTHER ONE BUYS A DATSUN (dun dun dun) ANOTHER ONE BUYS A DATSUN AND ANOTHER ONE’S GONE AND ANOTHER ONE’S GONE…..ANOTHER ONE BUYS A DATSUN….HEY! YOU BETTER GET ONE TOO….ANOTHER ONE BUYS A DATSUN”

Summer Splash Party Hits CD = $1, hearing your kids sing their favorite songs = PRICELESS!!

Does anyone know what it is like to be lost at 40? I mean those of you with a really great job that have a 401k, health insurance or whatever other benefits you get and just have no idea what’s in it because you just have money come out of your check and it was like you didn’t know it really even exists????? I’m here to tell you that you will appreciate its importance. If you ever get sick, or, something really bad happens where you weren’t smart enough to have a savings account building up every day like Suze Orman says to do and pay off all those damn credit cards that are actually maxed out, then you will feel the hurt that many of us are feeling these days!! Any financial questions send them to her!! I’m not particularly fond of her but I think she knows her shit when it comes to money!! Check her out if you want at: http://www.suzeorman.com/
I was one of those people once upon a time. I had several jobs that I absolutely loved over the past 23 years and the last one (well the totally official one I had that I now have a long term disability claim with) was a job working for the State of Arizona in the Juvenile Court. Law jobs are my kind of thing. I’ve had a little professional schooling but not enough or I would be an attorney!! I have a lot of people tell me it’s not too late but for me, it is. Anyway, I paid into the disability funds and all the other benefits thinking I should…JUST because I just should never realize I may actually need them someday. Well let me tell you how fucking hard it is to collect them if something happens to you!! My problem is they still have “no real diagnosis” (that’s a whole other blog for another day) so my current diagnosis are “Fibromyalgia” (http://www.webmd.com/fibromyalgia/guide/arthritis-fibromyalgia). With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fifth’s Disease and a couple other minor stupid things that nobody has ever heard of. My Vitamin D is horribly low so I take a supplement for that but nobody knows why.
I also have lesions on my brain so back in January I was told I had Demyelinating Disease (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/demyelinating-disease/AN00564)

So in other words with DD (Demyelinating Disease) after an MRI which showed lesions on my brain, my neurologist (which I saw as a just a precaution to make sure I didn’t have MS) began to tell me that I had the beginning stages of DD, after she said DD about three times while giving me an EMG test and sticking huge needles in my arms (this was a test for the numbness I was having and the possibility of carpal tunnel) I finally said to her “What the hell is DD???. She said “Multiple Sclerosis”. I thought I was gonna faint when she said it, I got light headed, I thought to myself “I knew I was sick and now after a year and a half they finally figure this shit out”. I didn’t know whether to be pissed, happy, sad, mad and I immediately thought I had to take on the attitude that I was gonna beat this shit! It was not gonna get me!! I would fight fight fight! Had I not started homeopathic treatments and realized that doctors really don’t know shit sometimes I would still be laying there in bed every day where I managed to gain 60 pounds and get so depressed I was suicidal. Several weeks later after a couple of other tests, called Evoked Potential Tests, she finally told my GP that she did not think I had MS but that I would need another MRI in 6 months (which means I need to have one ASAP—it’s been over 6 months). This was a huge relief but I am still reading everything I can. I read everything I can on Fibro, MS, and several other Auto Immune Diseases which mimic each other very closely which makes them really hard to diagnose.
SO……my point is…don’t get lost at 40 like I did….pay into that shit!!! My best advice is this..pay into that short term disability!! My husband and I now have Aflac. I love the duck and as a matter of fact I was gonna sell it at one time. I would put their web link up like everybody else but they have enough advertisement on their own and if you need to find them….you can and will. If you think you have cancer (but don’t have a real diagnosis yet) guess what, you can get the duck and they will cover everything 100%! Seriously! I love the duck and you should love whatever they offer you at work!
The point is….don’t get lost at 40 and don’t take those benefits for granted….if they offer them….TAKE EM!!
There you have it….stay tuned!

My First Blog!!

Wow! Here I am. This is my very own blog and I am so excited and I have so much to write about. Fair warning, I will probably piss people off, make people laugh, make people cry and who knows what else...hopefully nothing too serious! Thanks to my buddy Brett who writes the best blog ever!! http://blog.nordquist.org/ The good news is that I can't get fired!! ha ha ha I have some shit to write about you Susan! You can't fire me because I already quit (along with 4 others before me....hmm? something wrong with this picture? the good news is that the only reason i add to your positive numbers is because i quit for "health" reasons) perhaps you should do an inventory of yourself woman....you are so far from being management material its crazy...or have you been told this before? Even the Judges don't like you!! Oh my...did I say that? you bet I did...this is way more fun than I ever dreamed it would be!!

Okay so my daughter Abri who is 9 years old is an artist! Or as the proud parent that I am...I believe and am sure that she is! She painted her first canvas paintings this week and I have to say that they are pretty frigging awesome! I will be posting pics of them but in the end after much discussion and my encouragement and telling her how good she is....she posed a very good question today and asked me "who is the youngest artist in the world?" and I told her that I have no idea but we would "Google" it (that one is for you Brett! For what it is worth I hate BING!) and so we would discover who this young person might be and probably write about how awesome their art was in my first blog. Well here she is...... http://www.onariettaremet.com/onanew/index.htm I am not sure that I really think she is that GREAT!! OH I am just a rude bitch but seriously.....her parents are artists so did they help her do these "so-called" youngest artistic fingerpaints? MY kid and your kid can paint this shit on canvas right!!!?????

Okay so there it is...my first blog and already "controversial" as hell. Here we go everyone...this is just the first of many!!