- Despite my yearning to travel, I am a homebody. I'm very big on close family, but I'm very selective who I consider family. I'm adopted and my adopted mother never let me forget that I didn't properly belong to her family. So now I have a small selective family which includes part of her family but not her. I would take them all along with me on my world tour. :D Pancakes and bacon sounds good but I don't have any bacon. I love to cover the bacon with maple syrup. (Yes, I'm a bad diabetic.) Hubby has yet to tell us what he wants for his Father's Day Feast. I'm hoping it'll be pork chops with shake n Bake. I'm easy to please. lol It sounds like you're making some headway on the yard work. I'll be your cheering squad...Go Kat! Clear those roots! Mow that verge! Plant those flowers! You go girl! 😂

lol yaaay for a cheer squad :) Honestly, I needed it for the past several months. Now I'm just slowly moving my way through what is left, since I've actually cleaned up everything from the tornado excepting the neighbor's side of the property. And the big downed trees that I cannot do anything about - which is why I am trying to burn the root ball up.....I'm only cleaning the neighbor's side since no one lives there right now and I'm using the stuff to feed my fire, attempting to burn ONE downed tree root ball :P Its, erm, well still attached to the tree, so I'm not sure how well that is working hahahaha but I have burned up a good bit of the roots, and I know I keep making it smolder inside the root ball....but mostly I'm just burning random piles of stuff in the hole to be honest LOL

I also cover my bacon with syrup. My dad is diabetic and I'm likely to be at some point, but well - yea. For now, even though I would love to lose weight, I just eat what I want and only occasionally tell myself NO :P

Also - in my opinion that was very wrong of your adoptive mother. My baby brother is adopted. He is totally always my baby brother (he is bigger than me and in his 30s lol) Also my dad was adopted. So, when he got in touch with his birth family I ended up with a very large extended family. My dad is the oldest of 5 in his adopted family, oldest of 3 fully biological siblings (the 3 were all adopted out separately, him and his brother and sister). His birth parents went on to remarry and have more kids - so then he is also the oldest of 7 more on his birth dads' side and 3 more on his birth mom's side. (If I counted right, he has 16 younger siblings) My mother was not adopted, but her parents married and adopted each other's first children, she is 3rd youngest of 9 total kids. Adoption is totally family (or should be!!) I am glad some of her family is more considerate.

Oh yes, the power went out for a good hour after I last posted. I did finally get to cook tho after it came back on.

Happy Belated Birthdays!!!! Gifts will come at some point. It's been crazy here. 100mph winds came through and knocked out power and trees throughout the city. You don't realize how much you depend on technology until you cannot access it. Am in a hotel for now. So I finally can use my phone and computer. AND I am back in air conditioning. Ugh!

no worries on that!! Was your home damaged, or just no power? Thank goodness you are somewhere you can have AC and power. My cousins over in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida have all talked about bad storms recently :( It has been a very stormy spring. (Hard to believe it isn't even officially summer yet!)

Heck yea I get that. I think I would go stir crazy without access to technology. I mean, I have paper books, but I've read every single one I own multiple times!! And even going to the library doesn't help, I don't often find anything new I want to read LOL I've pored over their shelves multiple times too. I guess I might spend more time outside doing yardwork or walking if I didn't have technology...maybe :P

I just practiced my speech out loud. I caught myself saying UM and pausing several times. Need to keep working at it hahaha. But it lasted 6m so that is good. I'm always scared I'll end up with LESS than the required time. This way if I forget something I'll still have enough time.

oh my that’s awful, is there any damage? As long as you and the family are ok.

Air con we don’t have it in any houses in the uk. Wish we did as we are in the middle of a heat wave 😭😭

- everyone should have a cheerleader at some point in their lives. :) Diabetes and I do not get along. I have a gargantuan sweet tooth.Hubby and I fight over it all the time. He rarely wins. 😂 As for adoption, I agree. I'm curious about how your dad handled finding out who his birth parents were. I recently found out who mine are and I'm not quite sure how to act towards my new found family members. :D

I'm not sure exactly. I was very young (maybe not even born yet?) when he did it. I know now, at this point, he is happy/grateful to have met them and gotten the chance to know them. Many of them he has good relationships with, several are very close. Some I think he barely has contact with but I don't know if that is them/him or something else. He has a general idea of them and where they are/how they are doing but no real "relationship" with those ones. Personally, I would say, act towards them as you would any new person you meet and want to get to know. :) They may be biologically related but that doesn't guarantee a relationship. Be yourself. A relationship will grow or it will not :) Treat them as you want to be treated by them. I am sure it is an unsettling time for you. And for them. (I am not sure of your age, but I am 46 and my dad is 73, so his reunion with birth family was like 40/45+ yrs ago)

i feel for you all in the UK. I just cannot imagine living w/o AC, at least, not where I live!! I know some areas it is easier to deal with not having it than others.

- That's how I'm trying to deal with it. I'm almost 52. I found my birth dad last August. He's 73. On my mother's side, my half-sister found me this past March. She's your age. Our mother died 9 years ago. Interestingly, they've each approached a relationship with me differently. My dad is willing to see how it goes. He understands that these things need to grow organically. My half-sister is the opposite. She feels that shared blood means instant ties and a relationship to go with it. Needless to say, I talk more to my dad then I do to my sister.I just don't feel close to her and, sadly, probably never will. It really beggers the notion of nurture vs. nature, though. When we were comparing likes and dislikes it made me think that things like loving books and British tv were somehow genetic. rofl 😂

While I can agree on there being ties, after all my intermingled family issues I know that blood doesn't mean instant relationship.

Honestly I think many things are genetic but just as many things are from how you were raised. Nature and nurture both have a place.

- I agree. It makes me wonder why my sister feels differently. Perhaps one day I'll just ask her. That may prove interesting. :D So, how's your day going? Hubby brought home KFC for dinner. Yum! I love mixing their potatoes and coleslaw. XD

Yuck yuck yuck. No coleslaw. However I love KFC potatoes and gravy! And chicken skin lol

My day has been pretty lazy after this morning. I spent $400 on new glasses that I won't get til July 3rd.... Then I came home, played on here, on Farmville 2, and been reading on Kindle on my tablet. Also cleaned a few things out of my bedroom. Slowly working on getting rid of stuff. Nathan is supposed to bring down 10 more things from the attic for me to do....something...with lol

- I lurve the cole slaw. I 'm weird with it, though. I love to mix it with the potatoes and gravy. Then I dunk pieces of chicken in it. Yum! I also think KFC could get away with selling just the fried chicken skin. Forget the rest. They'll just serve up buckets of the skin in original and extra crispy. :P lol I didn't realize that Farmville was still a thing. Before my stroke, I played all those fb games. XD We're cleaning today, also. Son is doing the laundry and Hubby is pitching all the junk mail he seems to collect. It seems like a nice day outside but the guys won't go out. Something about too much sunlight would kill them... lolol 😂 Ugh, My guys are going to get new glasses on Friday. I do not look forward to hearing what the bill is for the both of them, exams + glasses. x.x

Farmville got shut down but Farmville 2 is still played. I used to play them both. I also played frontierville. Guess I like fake farming lol

I went and got older son from the truck stop. Helped him clean out his truck. Will take him back tomorrow. After this week, he is going back to Werner and being a company driver. All I can say is I'm relieved because he has simply gotten himself into debt with this owner operator job. What they are paying him isn't enough to cover what they charge him for everything ...fuel, his hotel when he got there, truck rental, insurance, other random charges I have no idea what they are but are being charged.... He is negative $1500 right now and I'm scared to think what he will be on this next paycheck because I doubt he got enough loads to offset the debt So very very glad he chose to leave and go back to his other job.

[Edit] 825pm Nathan finally brought stuff out of the attic. Bag of Katie's stuffed animals. Box of karate belts. Need to figure out which were Katie's early belts, she is the only one wants to keep hers. Took a picture of Shane's and will take one of Nathan's before I toss them. At least we will have picture of them. Katie is only one who made it all the way to black belt. 2 box of Halloween stuff, box (or 2?) of Christmas stuff, box of cabbage patch dolls. My closet shelf will soon be full lol I had forgotten I had so many. And they are double sat!!!

[edit] 9am June 21 Oh boy oh boy, time for new classwork ;)

I've spent the morning being lazy. I need to tidy up my living room now, since I have attic stuff in it hahahah! I guess I will be taking a trip to goodwill or something, to get rid of a box and a bag and maybe more. Need to figure out what I want to do with this paperwork I want to keep (mostly kids school stuff, but some other things are like, house purchase documents, which I won't need after "I" get my own mortgage but feel I should keep until then....and some old letters from friends/relatives) - its been sitting on my couch for a week now lol I also need to vacuum again. I stepped on something, don't know what but can't get it out of my foot even with the tweezers, it is tiny and lodged in good, but I'll try again later. Gosh only knows what fell out of the boxes/attic when Nathan brought the stuff down.

- I used to play those, also. Such time sinks. lol Shouldn't your son's work be paying him instead of him accruing debt in their service? That sounds a bit back-asswards to me. You should look over his contract to figure out what's what. Oh my word, don't get rid of the Halloween decorations! Everything else can go but those. :P I have no fear that you'll be able to wipe out this new round of schoolwork in an instant. You do so much in a day that you make me tired. 😂

I have no idea what was in his contract. I know he had 30 days to get out of it. I know that as an "owner-operator" he gets paid 80% of whatever load he hauled for this company. Sounds great right? Except, then they are charging him left and right, and he barely got any loads, so it was nowhere near covering what he "spent" let alone any extra to be his "paycheck." Again, I am SO glad he is leaving them. Now he just has to worry about how he will pay them back I guess, because for sure they aren't going to let him walk away owing them $ for fuel and whatever. I told him to talk to them about it Friday when he gets up there to turn in the truck and GET IT IN WRITING about how he has to pay them back and how much.

Hahah I did get rid of SOME decorations. Kept the ones I really wanted to keep. Most of that Halloween box was honestly old costumes. They can go. No one will be wearing them again.

It really helps that I am not WORKING right now hahahah!! When I wake up before 6am and don't go to sleep until 10pm what else am I supposed to do with my day all day long? Summer break is nice, but the days are very long!! At least during the school year, I am at work from 715-315 and that uses up a good bit of my day ;) Today I have cleaned up the living room, vacuumed it and the hallway, taken son to his truck, taken other son to pick up a friend and go to the movies, picked them up, took her home, came home. Tried to drop off the stuff at goodwill but the trailer was full so it's still in the car. Classwork-wise - I have read my first chapter, taken the quiz, done both work ethics assignments, typed up one assignment (have not turned it in yet) and posted my discussion board post, plus responded to another person AND what they said back to me lol Oh yes AND I recorded myself doing my speech and I suck (I was constantly fidgeting!! and I wasn't loud enough) but I'll do it again in the morning a few more times, and I have until Tuesday before it HAS to be turned in but it was originally due tomorrow and I'm hoping I'll get a good enough recording to go ahead and turn it in.

My idea for the "persuasive speech" is about being involved. Trying to decide if I should make it more specific, like "being involved with kids at schools" or keep it general "be involved in your community" - guess I will decide as I start researching, I have to actually have QUOTES and sites and stuff for this one proving my points... so like for instance, if I am more specific like, be involved at school I have to say WHY they should, and prove why it's a good thing to be involved, etc. I'm leaning towards just more general because then I can use different involvements for main points - like be involved at school can be one point, but another could be involved with church, or youth group, or your community (like our town has 2nd Saturday events to participate in and I could encourage people to go be involved in that and WHY participating in community events is a good thing....) I dunno. :P

- You did all that?! No wonder I'm pooped. lmao :P Seriously, though, your son really should go through his contract with them to see what he really does and doesn't owe. And yes, he should get everything in writing Friday. Have you noticed that the Goodwill trailers are almost always full? Oh, did you read that a Salvation Army or maybe it was Goodwill, finally emptied their trailer and found a dead body at the bottom. And nobody knew how long the body had been under all those donations. XD I have faith that you'll nail your speech. Just keep practicing. :D General Tso for dinner tonight. Oh, did you notice that Quentin is now asking for holiday and event items in their quests? I just noticed it this week. Yes, I have no life. rofl 😂

Quentin frequently asks for holiday and event items. I see it all the time. I wonder that you didn't notice it until recently.

I will have to ask him if he has a copy of it, but knowing how he is, I doubt he does.

Eew omg thats awful. Our goodwill normally has donation drop off into the store, not a trailer. However, the tornado that hit us back in January also totally destroyed the Hobby Lobby, and Goodwill is in the same shopping center building, so I do not know if they were damaged or not, there is a few smaller stores in between them, but they had fencing up all around the goodwill too, even though a section of it was open so you could get to the doors.... But they had a trailer in the parking lot and a worker sitting outside by it. She said it was full and was supposed to have gotten an empty one today but it was not going to show up until tomorrow.

Hamburger helper tonight. cheeseburger macaroni. Son had pizza rolls. Need to pull something out of freezer to cook tomorrow I guess :P I forgot again. I am horrible at remembering to thaw things out. I told him we could do spaghetti, since hamburger meat can be cooked from frozen, but he wanted pizza rolls instead.

And yes, I'll keep practicing, I should have practiced and tried recording before now. But I only just practiced speaking it out loud instead of recording until today. And recording you see all the weird little things you don't even realize you are doing LOL As for the other school work, it sounds like a lot when I write it down, but it doesn't feel like a lot when I am doing it. I think it really helps that they are childhood education classes and I pretty much know a LOT of it already from working!!

[edit] June 22 145pm Ok ladies. Update time. Ryan came over, we went to UPS store, got papers notarized, and then went to the courthouse. They said everything looked pretty good, and there is now a court date on Aug 16 that Ryan is required to go to, I am optional. So I guess in about not quite 2 months I will be divorced. I am hoping anyway, I don't see any reason why we'd have to wait longer when we've been living separately for over a year already now, and that info is in the documents as well.

- Are you ok? hugs :)

yes, thank you. <3 My husband asked for a divorce about 4 years ago. However, we were going through a bankruptcy at the time and decided to continue living together until that was completed. He moved out of the house a little over a year ago now. We are doing a "no contest" divorce ourselves, using an online site for the papers, now that he has finally decided to move forward with it (I decided that since HE was the one asking for the divorce, he was the one who was going to deal with the paperwork/filing/costs of it). So, at this point I am just happy to have things moving forward. It has been a strange year for me, I will say that. A lot of adjustments. Overall, though, I think this has been a good thing, and something that really should have been done years ago.

- I'd make him pay for it, too. I'm glad you're ok. It's a traumatic life event that tends to blindside those involved. I remember when my ex asked for a divorce. I knew it was coming and it still blindsided me. It was the little things, that you don't think about after you've been together for a while. What got me was I'd forgotten some items at the grocery store. My first thought was to call my ex and ask him to bring them home. I was half-way through dialing his number when I realized what I was doing. Life apart did have it's challenges but I got used to them. I'd been single before so it didn't take long after that event with the groceries before everything clicked again and I was good as gold. :D ❤ As for Quenti, I haven't done their quests in a long time. I've just recently started back up with them to get the mage amulets. I think it's a good change to their quests because it helps get rid of the surplus of event/holiday items. :D