Tulsa Part 1

I finished with all of my finals for exams a week before I left for Tulsa. Up until that point I had not packed or anything because I was trying to focus on school and getting my GPA up. Thankfully, it worked! Once I found out my grades (3 B's and 1 C), I began making a detailed list of everything I would need for Tulsa so I wouldn't forget anything. Once the list was complete, I started packing everything that I didn't need to keep out until right before I left. Last time I tried packing everything last minute, I ended up forgetting a lot of stuff. So anyways, I began the packing and crossing things off my list. It was then that I realized my phone charger and car converter were nowhere to be found. I took my mattress and box springs off my bed so I could get a good look under the bed, and it wasn't there. I went through all my drawers, closet, book bags, and basically everything in my room. I never found it, so I contemplated buying new ones, but they were expensive so I kept putting it off thinking maybe I would find them. So anyways, Monday before Tulsa gets here and I talk to Melissa on the phone about plans for Tulsa and Holly's surprise party, but then we had to get off the phone because she had to go to her meeting. At some point I had also talked to Valerie about it, though she was the first one to ever know about the surprise party, which was planned about 2 months ago, as soon as we found out about the Member's Event, and she offered to let me borrow her cake carrying thing so I wouldn't have to buy one. So fast forward to Tuesday, I went to the store and got some stuff I wanted to have with me in Tulsa, like tylenol, shampoo, conditioner, sun block, things like that..I didn't want to bring my shampoo and conditioner from home just incase something happened and I wasn't able to bring it back home. Later on that night, I called Holly to remind her to bring my pillow and blanket that I left in her car after the Charlotte show last tour. While all this was going on, I worked on getting my car ready for Tulsa, I had new back brakes put on my car, had my tires rotated, and got an alignment done. Fast forward to Wednesday morning, I got up at about 8 AM that morning because that was the day I planned to get my brakes done, and I had to call like 50 car shops until I finally found one that would replace them for a reasonable price and had an opening (a lot of the places were completely booked for the day). After I found one, I got in the car and headed over there, and spent about 3 or 4 hours there because there was only one mechanic working so it took forever. While I was there, I talked to Valerie some more about the plans and told her how the people in her room would know when it was time to go in my room for Holly's party. Oh, I should also add that I plotted all the little details with Laura as well, like getting the cake iced, what excuses to use if Holly were to end up seeing any of the stuff (we decided if Holly saw the frosting I would claim that Laura doesn't go on road trips unless she has a can of frosting so I was bringing the frosting for her. At this time, Holly didn't know Laura so Holly would have just thought it was really weird but probably wouldn't have suspected anything. Anyways, when I finally got done at the car shop, I took off to the house and finished up my packing. I finally got everything packed into my suitcase, but I would have had absolutely no room for souvineirs so I brought one really big suitcase, and one really little suitcase. Yes, I over pack, but it always works out to be okay. It turned out that I had a few things the other girls in the room needed to use but didn't have so I let them borrow mine, and I also packed all of my own towels since I have allergies and am allergic to most detergents. Because of that, there were enough towels in the hotel room for everyone to have one.But okay so anyways, I got everything packed, except for the cake and of course my phone charger because I still had not found it. Holly said she would buy a car converter because she didn't have one and that way I could hold off on buying one. I had about two hours until Holly was supposed to be at my house, so I started to make the cake and I found out I didn't have the cake pan I wanted, so I got my mom to buy a disposable one from the dollar store since she was there anyways. I started mixing the cake mix and all that, then had to wait on my mom to get home. She finally got home and I was worrying about if the cake wasn't done before Holly got here because by that time I only had a little over an hour before she was due here. My mom said she'd just claim it was hers since she was making a bunch of cakes anyways and Holly would never know any difference. Turns out, the cake was just ready to come out of the oven when Holly called to say she was turning on my street, so my mom took it out of the oven for me and set it aside so it could cool down before I packed it. Once Holly got here, we took off to the mall and wal mart to gather up what we needed before the trip. I then realized my debit card was missing, so I figured it was at home and I just wrote a check at wal mart. Then when I got home, I still didn't find it, despite searching my suitcase and car really well. I felt sure I would find it soon though and it wasn't stolen, so I didn't cancel my card. Instead, I wrote my mom a check and she gave me the cash and I just took cash with me to Tulsa. I am actually glad it worked out that way though since it ended up the only way to get merch at the Member's Event was if you had cash since the credit card machines were down. Well, while all this was going on, I asked Holly to just keep looking around in my room to see if she happened upon my card and I took off to the living room and talked to my mom for a bit while I looked through my suitcase. I then went back to my room and acted upset/annoyed and told Holly I'd be right back so she said okay. I went to the kitchen then and packed the cake into the cake carrier that I bought and packed it in my suitcase, along with the frosting, 2 spatulas, and a butter knife. After I was finished, I went back to the room and asked Holly if she wanted to go ahead and load up the car so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. After the car was packed, we went to bed At about 6:30 the next morning, we headed off to go pick up Laura and then made our way to Tulsa.

So much going on.

Well, this past week has been interesting to say the least. My step sister from florida and her twins came and stayed with us for awhile. My other step sister (the one that had the baby) tried to start a lot of drama so she could show off and that was annoying. Then yesterday, I went to court over that ticket, and it ended up my lawyer talked to the judge and got my ticket dismissed, I didn't have to pay any money at all (other than of course what I paid my lawyer) and the ticket won't be on my record. Today, I went to work and my manager fired me. It's a long story and right now I am tired and too annoyed to really go into detail about it on here, so if you want to know just ask me and I will tell you. While all of this is going on, people who have been renting our house in chattanooga haven't paid the rent and my mom and grandmother have tried getting in touch with them but either no one answers the phone and messages aren't return, or someone will pick up the phone and hang it up. They had been trying to get in touch with them for awhile now. Well, we can't afford to let them live there for free so my mom had to type up an eviction letter and mail it to them. She also included a hand written note in there saying that since phone calls are going unreturned and her and my grandmother are getting hung up on, we had no choice but to evict them. My mom told them they had five days from the day they get the letter to move out.

Part 2

I forgot to mention a couple of things.

1) I am worried about school. I took all of my classes online last semester because I didn't find out until last minute that things weren't going to work out at the school I wanted to go to so the only way I could take all the classes I needed and also work was to take the classes online. Well, I regret taking them online because I failed all of them. The online classes were super hard because I had so much due each week from each class. I had like 3 things due for each class about twice a week and my internet kept dying on me so I missed the deadline to submit some things, I forgot about some assignments until after the due date passed, and I just felt completely overwhelmed. Anyways, my school has put me on financial aid suspension, which means I can't get any kind of loans or anything until I either bring my grades up, or I appeal the decision and my appeal is approved. I am going to try appealing the decision because I am not taking any classes online this semester. I am taking them all in the classroom. But if my appeal is not approved, I will have to go to school only part time because I won't be able to afford full time. The thing is though, even if I go part time I am not sure that I'd be able to afford it. I looked up the cost and it's $637. I would have to pay half of it plus $20 up front. I don't have much money right now because my job is giving me like no hours so I am not completely sure I would get that much money. I am just hoping and praying that somehow, everything works out. If it doesn't, I have no clue what I am going to tell my mom. She'll be mad if I don't go back to school this semester. She doesn't want me taking time off from school.

Second, I have court coming up on January 5. I am hoping all goes well. I have a court appointed lawyer and the lawyer gave me some advice that he said might help but he couldn't gaurantee it. I followed his advice, so we'll just have to see how it works out on January 5. I am hoping and praying this won't go on my record, but I am also kind of nervous about how much money it will be because like I said, I don't make much money and I don't have much at the time being either. I think I can get on some kind of payment plan but I don't know. I'll just have to see come January 5. Really, I am just hoping all works out.

a lot on my mind..

So right now I am tired and can't sleep because I have a lot on my mind and I don't feel good. I am hoping maybe by saying everything that's on my mind in this post I may be able to calm my mind because I will have gotten everything off my chest, so here goes...

First of all..Callum was doing so good, but now he is not doing so well. He was taking milk, having bowel (I don't know if I spelled that right) movements, passed his EKG..I mean really he just looked like he was doing better than most babies in his condition would do. Well now he is no longer taking in milk, he had to have a blood transfusion, he's losing weight, they found something (I forget what) in his bowel movements that wasn't good and they can't do surgery or an enema because of how little and pre mature he is so they just have to hope that all works out. On Christmas day, he quit breathing and turned blue, but the nurses/doctors got him breathing again.

Second of all, my step sister (the one that is the mother of Callum) is really getting on my nerves. My mom and I have done nothing but go out of our way to be nice to her ever since the day we met her, which was like six or seven years ago. Well, she apparently feels the need to insult others behind their backs to make herself feel good. I have three recent examples to prove this. First, she told her boyfriend/fiance (the father of her child) that my mom didn't like one of his cousins and got all kinds of drama started when that's not even true. My mom has done nothing but try to be nice to the cousin everytime she has seen the cousin, which was like twice. Second, my step sister is completely trash talking her dad to her half sister that's staying with us for awhile, just trying to make her dad seem like this horrible person. While her dad does have his faults (as does everyone else..no one's perfect), he is not a horrible person. Third, we were getting ready to go see Callum at the hospital today and my other step sister's (the half sister of my step sister that had the baby) were supposed to ride with me in my car to the hospital (we had to take two cars because there was 7 of us going) but when that was mentioned, my step sister (the one that had the baby) said "don't get killed" (her way of calling me a horrible driver) so my other step sister wouldn't allow her kids to ride with me. Oh and I just thought of a fourth example. When we got to the hospital, everyone (except me and my mom) went to the bathroom. My youngest little sister asked my step sister (the one that had the baby) why she said what she said, causing the kids to be prevented from riding with me and her words were "because I actually care about them, I don't want them to die, I don't care about you." Okay, I am not a bad driver. I've had two wrecks and my car was totaled each time, but neither time was my fault. I got a speeding ticket like 2 years ago, and right now I'm fighting this ticket that I got where they say I was driving wrecklessly because I was driving at a high rate of speed. I wasn't driving at a high rate of speed, but the cops wrote on the ticket I was. They didn't even use radar or anything so I am hoping I can atleast keep this from being on my record. But seriously, I drive a lot of friends and kids to places and if I was a bad driver, I wouldn't be allowed to do that. My sister and brother let their kids ride in the car with me, and they wouldn't do that if they were scared of my driving. There is only one other person that complains about my driving, and I'm getting to that next.

The next thing on my mind is one of my aunts. She complains about my driving to people and gets people talking about it a lot and trys to make me out to be a bad driver, yet she is always wanting me to take her places when she comes and stays with us. No one in the family complains about my driving unless she gets something started. And she has no right to say anything because atleast I have a license..she doesn't, and she also wants me to take her everywhere when she's here. And also, I can't think of a single person in the family that has not had atleast one or two wrecks (their fault or not) and/or tickets, so whatever.

It just really annoys me when people trash talk me behind my back. If they have something to say, they should say it to my face. And they also shouldn't be trash talking me when they have no right to do so. I am not a bad driver, no, I'm not great, but I don't tailgate people, I try not to speed and for the most part I never go more than 10 miles over the speed limit, I don't drink and drive, I make sure everyone in my car is wearing a seat belt, and I just do my best to make sure that I am aware of my surroundings so that I can keep myself and my passengers safe. If the car in front of me hits their brakes, I hit mine..no matter how far/close I am to the car. If they suddenly slam their brakes, I'll slam mine. I think people don't like how I slam my breaks, but I am not going to get in a wreck because I refused to slam my brakes when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. This trash talking is just really annoying. I don't understand why a 23 year old and 40 something year old think they need to trash talk me to make theirselves feel better. While they will say that's not true, why else would they trash talk me behind my back and be too scared to say anything to my face? It's just really lame. We are no longer in elementary school but I guess they don't seem to grasp that. I hate trash talk. I mean if you have something to say to someone, you should tell them. I myself will tell people what I think of them instead of letting them hear it from someone else. If I don't like something, I tell them in the best way I can without coming accross as rude or I just keep my opinion to myself. I mean if someone was just saying "I don't like her hair" or something like that then yea I'd still be annoyed they weren't telling me, but atleast they are not trying to make me out to be something I'm not to other people. It just really irritates me. When I try to talk to the people that are trash talking me and ask them why they are doing it, they deny it. They are old enough to know you shouldn't do that kind of thing, but apparently they think we are still in elementary school where trash talking is accepted. Well, I don't know if trash talking is accepted in elementary school now, but when I was in elementary school the teachers and staff or whatever didn't pay it much attention because trash talking was just something they considered to be part of the age and eventually everyone would grow up and realize how stupid it is and quit. Apparently some people never grew up enough to realize how stupid it is. I hate it but have no way to change it. Ugh. Well, I am going to end this rant and see if I can get some sleep. Good night everyone.

Introducing Callum Edward

At 4:16 AM on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Callum Edward was introduced to the world after being in the womb for 27 weeks. Callum is doing as well as he can considering the fact that he was only in the womb for 27 weeks. The labor started at around 6:30 PM on Monday, December 15, 2008 but he was not born until 4:16 AM on December 16. Callum was not able to be held because he is so small and fragile right now because his fat tissue has not fully developed and his blood vessels are not fully developed either, but my step sister was able to stick her hands in the incubator and hold Callum's hands and talk to him for a bit before the doctors took him to the neo natal ward in the children's hospital. The doctors there have said Callum's respirations are at 44 (which is really good) and is only using the respirator to do fifty percent of his breathing. Things are looking positive for now and I am praying that they continue to stay positive.



Callum weighed in at two pounds, four onces and has black hair. His entire head was covered in hair and I expect the hair to be much fuller by the time his original due date gets here. The doctors currently have his eyes covered so that the blood vessels can continue to develop but they seem to be very pleased with how he is doing for being three months pre mature. Thank you to everyone that has been keeping him, my step sister, and the rest of my family in your thoughts and prayers. I hope that all of you will continue to do so as these next few months are going to be a long journey for us all.

Another update lol

I thought I had to be at work at 2 today so I got up early (early for me lol, which is like noon) and got dressed and then left the house. When I got to work, I put on my uniform and was about to clock in but then a guy I work with was like "oh what time do you have to be here? 2? And I was like um yea I think so..wait let me look" so I went and looked at the schedule and saw I didn't have to be at work until 5 so I left and right as I was leaving, a friend of mine called that lives in Nashville but she was in town today. She was at her sister's house and it's like right down the road from where I work so I went to go see her. We hung out for about two hours but then she had to leave cuz she needed to go to the store and she was meeting up with a friend of hers after that. It was fun hanging out with her..I miss her. She's my best friend and we used to hang out every day but now we rarely see eachother :( . I want to go visit her sometime but she always has school and work during the week days and on weekends I am always working. Well..that is all I suppose.

Update..

So I went to court this morning, and long story short, I chose to plead not guilty and I did not ask for a lawyer. The cop that pulled me over wasn't there so they reset my court date for December 4. If the cop doesn't show this time, I think I win automatically but I'm pretty sure he will. I am just praying for the best. The judge seemed pretty nice (I paid attention to how he was handling all the other cases) so we'll see. Anyways, I only slept like two hours cuz I couldn't fall asleep so not long after I came home I decided I'd take a two hour nap, and that turned into a 3 hour nap cuz I kept hitting snooze on my alarm clock lol. Anyways, tomorrow my step sister's mom and one of my other step sisters will be here so my mom is freaking out about the house being cleaned. I hate it when people come over because my mom always wants the house spotless and if it's not, she's not in a good mood. Also, the few days leading up to company coming she is not in the best of moods if the house isn't spotless. She reminds me of Danny Tanner from Full House when she knows people are gonna be coming over..she doesn't think she's like that but she is lol. So anyways, I am hoping to go to the mall at sometime this weekend cuz all the stores are having sales and I want to try to pick up a few things I need (like jeans lol..I only have like two pairs of jeans) and if I can find some clothes that aren't too expensive, I need to get some clothes that would be work appropriate if I get the job where my sister and brother work (dress clothes instead of jeans and a t-shirt). Oh yea and I also need to pick up a gift for my friend's birthday that was on November 1. Umm other than that, if I see some stuff that's cheap enough I may get them cuz I need to start on my Christmas shopping. I will try to post my Nashville review either sometime over the weekend or the beginning of next week. We'll just have to see. I have some homework to turn in for my online class tomorrow night and I also have some due on Monday, so I'll just have to see how time goes cuz when I write my reviews I have to just sit down and only focus on them so I can remember everything I want to say about the shows and not take five hours to post the review cuz I got distracted lol. Yes, I'm easily distracted, but it's ok. But I guess that's it for now.