Just Me...

Janelle over at Facets of My Rich Life posted a question on her blog asking readers why they blog. My comment was that this is something I have been thinking quite a bit about the past month or so.

I have realized I very much miss just writing about my random (good or bad) day to day experiences! Not doing it has left me feeling a bit restless and like I've lost something I liked and enjoyed.  I am missing the more personal experience of blogging, which I realize is why I started blogging in the first place. When I made the decision a few weeks ago to just blog about less personal topics it wasn't a knee jerk/that day reaction. It was something I though about over a couple week period. A favorite holiday time with a detached (I can't think of a good word to use!) loved one was probably not the best time to be trying to think rationally, even if I did take a couple weeks to mull it over.

So, here's ME again - flaws and all! Good days and bad days. My life consists of an odd DH (ha! he can't be any weirder than my step-brothers wife....I think she has been to only one of our annual family get-togethers in the past 10 years! I don't even know her, really!), a missing son, a perfect daughter (ok, I know she's not really perfect, but darn close to it!), 2 dogs, 3 cats (somewhere out there are the 2 barn cats - at least I put food out for them), 2 parakeets, along with drug dealing neighbors and a great job.

So, what's been going on the past couple of weeks? DD has a boyfriend now! And quite honestly, Miss Perfect couldn't have picked a more perfect guy! I'm sure he has his flaws (who doesn't) but overall he is awesome. He is 5 years older than her, but I have always expected that out of her, when she finally decided she was ready to be in a relationship. He's mature and responsible, he has a good job with a major employer in our area, oodles of room for advancement and he's also trying to finish up his Bachelor's degree. He has a nice vehicle and still lives at home with his family (he's saving to buy himself a house.)  Oh, and he used a discount coupon on their first date! He is perfect, isn't he? LOL. He lives in our town, so with her away at school a majority of the time it will be a long distance thing.  I'm kind of glad it's not a boy at school that she'd see day in and day out, taking away from her studying. Dad approves, too :)

One night while she and I were texting, before Christmas break, she said that she and M had been texting each other quite a bit lately and I asked her if they were going to go out while she was home on break. She said he had mentioned getting together....."but Mom, he is like 24..." I replied "So? You are like 19 going on 30, so what's the problem?".  They started going out on some dates a couple of days after she got home, spent most of the month long break together and the day she went back to school they made it an official relationship. I couldn't be happier and more joyous for her!  He is soooo sweet to her. Who wouldn't want to wake up to a text every morning telling you (a different quality each day) what he likes about you? :-)

We haven't quite figured out what is going on with our drug dealer neighbors. We had (naively) hoped that the big drug bust on the house behind us (which has been dead quiet since that great day) would scare the crap out of them. It did for about 3 days and then the traffic to their house started doubling, as apparently all the other house's customers needed a new place to buy. Great. Not sure what has happened, but about Wednesday of this week it got very quiet. Little to none visiting this house and then Friday morning 2 cop cars showed to that house and stayed 45 minutes! From what limited view we have of their place/front door it appeared the cops went inside the house. We aren't sure why they were there or if they took anyone with them, but it has remained dead quiet over there and basically no one coming to their house. First quiet weekend we've had in ages.  One of the pre-bust arrests that was made of a car that had been at the house behind us, and resulted in drugs and a gun being found, has resulted in that car's driver being sentenced to 1 year in prison, so that was good news. Of the two dealers who were arrested from the house behind us during the bust - one, with the lesser charge, is out on bail.  The other, with a higher bail is still in jail, though the charge for distribution of drugs was already dropped! WTH?! But he's still in jail on the felon with a firearm charge as well as another lesser charge. I think their court date is next month some time. I guess the parents were able to bail out the son with the $7500 bail, but apparently the other one with $50,000 bail is staying in.


No news on when my job/salary review will be yet. I know my boss has been busy with a major contract issue, but I don't know if any other department managers have done theirs yet either. I haven't looked through payroll yet so see if anyone has gotten increases (we have a company that actually processes our payroll, so my boss doesn't usually pass that kind of stuff through me first). I just handle the timesheets and getting everyone's sick and vacation time reported. Good Lord it was an ugly payroll to do last time! I think just about everyone had some time off during the holidays that I had to record.

I made a bit of a change on my blog comment settings, to the same as I find when I comment on most other's blogs - I have to be signed in. Maybe I'll change it to moderation approval, if I find that necessary. If someone wants to be mean spirited, I guess they'll have to find some other blog.

Well, I have to work today - this is not one of our paid holidays, but at least traffic should be a little lighter. DD was home for the 3 day weekend and not leaving until after dinner, so I'll get to see her a little bit today before she leaves and then we probably won't see her again for about a month.