Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Daddy the day of my wedding.

I am late with this tribute but better late then never right?

My dad celebrated his 49th birthday on Friday and we had a good time. It was the first night of the Bertrand family reunion so we all cut up like we always do. We all laughed and joked around. I hope he had a wonderful birthday!!

My daddy is one in a million. That is easy for me to say since I am such a Daddy's Girl but he is truely a great man.

He always was and is very philisophical. I don't ever remember him yelling so much when I was in trouble. He normally sat me down and talked to me. He may have talked for hours but he definately got his point across effectively.

He was always full of knowledge when I was growing up. I thought he knew it all. I was just amazed at how smart he was.

He was also a vol. firefighter in the earlier years. That on top of many other things made him my hero. He was willing to risk his life for others, no questions asked.

I was told when I was younger others would joke his arm would stay in the craddling position. He would not let me go. He had just lost his father and needed something good in his life, I guess I was it. When I had colic he would stay up with me all night. When he was layed off he and my mother kept food on the table. I always wanted but never needed for anything. I never went without.

I remember distictly how when he got home from work, he would get down on the floor and play with my barbies and dolls with me. We would wrestle in between commercials. We would both jump into my kiddy pool at 2am when he got home from playing music, just because we could. My daddy was the best daddy growing up and he still is today!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!! May you have 49 more blessed years (and more)!!!

Where is the Toothfairy when you need her?

You know how when you were little the tooth fairy would leave a quarter or (if you were lucky) a dollar under your pillow in exchange for your newly pulled baby tooth? Well that quarter and dollar pale in comparison to the amount of money it takes the dentist to pull, drill, fill and cap the left over teeth. Where is this hatred for teeth coming from? Let me explain.

First of all I HATE teeth!!!! I don't like them at all, they are gross and bacteria filled! I hate going to the dentist not only because of the drills and needles but because of them touching my teeth with instruments (though sterilized) used on someone else's teeth. EEEWWWW!!!! But you have to go are you will wind up like my loving husband.

We went to the dentist yesterday to have our teeth cleaned and to have Justin's "bad teeth" inspected. We walked out 2 hours and $400 later. That was just for that day!!! I am happy to announce that I have nothing wrong right now and my wisdom teeth look good!! Justin on the other hand did not fair so well. He had to have a deep cleaning which he will finish up on the 20th since he was bleeding too much!!!! and several x-rays!! We were also told of the wide array of procedures that need to be conducted for him to have a healthy mouth. The original quote was almost $8000.00 but since I have no dental insurance and Dr. Bernard is the bomb.com he discounted most of the work to a little under $5000.00 before medication!!! That is still ALOT of mullah!! I feel bad for Justin because his teeth do bother him a lot more then he lets on and because of all the work he will have to get done.

I guess our budget just got a bit tighter.

Not Feeling it!

Last night after work I was suppose to pack and get ready for today. Didn't happen the way it should have. This will be the first family reunion since Granny passed and the first I will be at without her. This has be down today. I am trying to kick that out the door since today is Daddy's bday. I want to be the normal birthday lovin' girl I usually am but today I am in a funk.

On top of that the new coworker has taken over the ENTIRE job!!! I offered to split it up but since he wants to learn he is doing EVERYTHING, while I am trying to look busy!! WTF!!!! I am wondering now if I should update my resume'?

Bad Poster Bad!!!

Ok so I am officially the worst blog poster on the net but hey at least I post.

Just an update:

~I have a new coworker in my department.
~We will be moving offices and working together.
~He has alot more experience then I do
~I dont know how I feel about that
~ I kinda feel like I am being pushed out of my position
~ I hope it is just my nerves.
~I have a family reunion this weekend
~It wll be really hard without my Granny
~I also will be bringing a cake for my Daddy's B-Day on Friday
~He will love it since he RARELY gets this cake
~I am hoping to try and enjoy myself
~ Justin is looking forward to the camping too
~We are bringing our tent
~ Justin is no longer nervous after meeting a good chunk of the family at the funeral home.
~ Laila's MSDS has been acting up so I hope it stays at bay for the weekend
~It will be nice to have the weekend away

Other the the above mentioned things, Justin and I are doing great!!! We are on a budget which is tough for now but doable. We are trying to save as much money as we can with the economy being so unstable. We have a plan that works for us and we are sticking to it.

On another note Corey has moved out!!!! He is in Houston TX working so he will be off my couch and out of my house for at least a couple of months (if things stay as good as they are).

My Granny

At 5:10 on 9/16/08 I lost my Grandmother, best friend, and confidant. She was the greatest grandmother anyone could have. I was not expecting that phone call. Especially about her. She was only 69 and was doing fine on Monday night when Mama went to visit her.

The Doctor said it was a blood clot to her lungs that was the cause of death and that she went in her sleep. I hate that I wasn't there and she was alone. I hate not knowing if she really was asleep or if she knew what was going on. I hate that my mother was told over the phone and had to be there alone for hours. I hate that I couldn't seem to drive fast enough to get there.

I went to be with my sisters so my dad could be with my mom. AAAGGGHHH I just wanted to go see my grandmother!! But I knew my job as the oldest was needed. When I got there the girls were with my cousin Niki and were crying (I still choke up thinking about it). We started talking and joking around about good times and our crazy family and the mood was lightened a bit. Nik left and the girls and I watched Full House reruns and tried as we could to eat breakfast. After I knew they were a bit better I called my dad as said I was going to the nursing home and bringing the girls, I couldn't take it anymore.

Laila broke down when we got into the parking lot. My dad and mom took the girls and I rushed to my grandmother's room (why I was in a hurry now I don't know but at the time I felt like I needed to be there.) When I opened the door the nurses had covered neatly and she looked asleep. She was barely blue and still had good coloring. She was already cold but I still hugged and kissed on her as best I could over the damn bars on the side of the bed. I talked to her like I always did. I apologized for not going over the weekend before and for not being there for her last breaths.

My uncle Black and Uncle Rocky got there not long after. They really rallied around my mom (who is the baby) to all get through it. Planning the funeral went a lot better then anticipated for 5 kids. No fights, no disagreements. I wanted to pick out her outfit for the funeral and was allowed to do so. I enjoyed shopping for granny before so I had to do it one last time. I picked out a black dress with a shimmering floral jacket. She looked amazing in things that sparkled, not tacky sequins but glittering threads. Everyone raved about the dress which made me feel good. Uncle Terry, Uncle Black and Uncle Rocky made funeral arrangements so my mom could get the girls things done and not have to do everything. I couldn't have done better myself. She would have been so proud of her boys. They picked out a beautiful blue and silver casket with doves EVERYWHERE. They even had embroidery on the opening that had three doves going left and one going right with "Going Home" underneath. BEAUTIFUL!!!!

My dad did the service music, my husband was a pallbearer (sp) along with all her other grandsons and one other grandson-in-law, and the priest who did my wedding did the service. It was a beautiful day. To nice for a funeral. To nice to be sad.

She left behind a lot. She left 4 siblings, 5 children, 14 biological grandchildren, and 4 biological great grandchildren (with at least 2 more on the way). She may be gone but never forgotten.

Honeymoon to remember

And that is why I will write about it so I remember in years to come!

(It is a work in progress and will be tweaked from time to time)

The Wedding Day:

As we were walking out of the reception house, the guests that were remaining stood outside waiting the the bird seed pouches I spent HOURS on. Well the doors were open and we were PELTED, the did not throw the seed up in the air to fall softly, they just THREW it!!! OUCH!!!

We took forever to actually leave from there due to his mother. She kept talking to us, and talking to us, and talking to us. I wanted to scream "We are married let us go!!!!!!", but I was nice. We FINALLY get on the road toward San Antonio and make it about 2 miles down the road and we realize there is no way in hell we can drive 7 hours with all this birdseed. We stop to go to the bathroom and get something to drink. Well lets just say I found a visitor in the restroom and didn't have the heart to tell Justin until we hit Houston.

We got to the Crown Plaza around 2am and we were beat!! I get to the desk to check in and the guy behind the counter says "Two doubles non right?" WRONG!!! It is my honeymoon! Trust me there will be times in my marriage I want him in a seperate bed but not tonight pal. I tell the guy there is a mistake since it is our honeymoon and we requested a King. They had nothing else available until the next afternoon so we went to the room (918). It was a clean but small room and I was just so upset of having to move and do Seaworld the next day I didn't want to like it. We unloaded and decided to eat out of the wedding food that was packed for us. Lets just say that I was upset. There was enough food for one maybe. We each had a meatball, a mushroom and a 1/2 sandwich!!!! I was erked!!

That is were I am ending the wedding night portion!!! :P

Day 1:

We woke up around 7:30/8AM to find a breakfast voucher for two under our door as an apology in the room mixup. We decided to take them up and go downstairs for breakfast. It was really good and we were really hungry!

We went upstairs to change for Seaworld and went downstairs. I talked with the lady at the counter and she said they will have the room problem taken care of when we got back. We would just have to switch everything into the new room later that night whenever we were ready. Good now I can just enjoy my day!

We had a fantastic day at SeaWorld! The shows were great and Justin really enjoyed the rides. I would go back in a heart beat and the tickets were free for us as they were a gift from my boss!!!

And of course the man of the day was SHAMU!!! But watch out if you ar in the splash zone!

We stayed until closing and were a little upset because my camera kept breaking but we knew we were in a huge city so they were bound to have a WalMart :0) *yes we even shopped on our honeymoon*

We decided to stop by the hotel to change first since we were SOAKED!! When we got to the hotel the lady at the front desk told us our stuff had been moved and we were in a new room!!! 2218?! We were a little upset having them move our stuff but only until we walked into the room!!! We were on the top floor with a VIEW!!! We were on the executive level and could see most of the city out of our window. It was NICE!!!

We went to Wally world to get our snazzy new camera and McDonalds for a romantic in room dinner...lol.

Day 2, 3, and 4 to follow!

Finally!

Well I am officially a Mrs.!!! I should have updated a while back but oh well since no one reads this...lol. We went to San Antonio for our honeymoon and didnt want to come home. I will post a honeymoon blog later with details (ok not all the details).

I will update you all on our current housing situation. Let me sum it up in one word: SMALL!!

Justin's 18yr old half brother moved in with us two days after the honeymoon. Not that it wasn't planned I just thought I would get more time to be just a wife. Anyways, he is currently looking for a job while Justin wants me to start looking for a bigger place.

We are not looking to buy anything as of now. Justin did the math and refuses to finance any more then 80% for a mortage, saying "do you know how much we will pay in intrest? Lets just buy 3 houses?!" Well also the market is SO unstable right now so we will gladly pay 1/2 the amount we would be if we had a mortgage to rent and let some one else fix our a/c, plumbing, and do my grass...lol.

We will be looking into either a two br apt in our complex soon our Cory will just have to tough it out on the floor until March. I just hate him being there bc I cant do anything in the morning before work. I can't put a load of dishes or laundry on, no coffee before work at home, no morning news, NOTHING. Just get up and get dresses AAAHHH. It is beginning to wear on me.

Lets just hope he gets a job soon so maybe he will be up in the morning so I can grab a cup of coffee.

I'll update more later!!!