With people in general, people driving stupid and myself. Its life I guess. My life isn’t the greatest but you know what? I am learning. Especially with my Son, working on trying to get his homework thing done and him to write his homework down when its needed. He has a assignment for a job application thing. I thank goodness it didn’t need any resume templates just yet. He’s only in 5th grade yet. I don’t want him to grow up any sooner. His teacher and I have been emailing back and forth about his assignments. I just hope he can get his grades up before school is out. Its my goal right now.

Its so hard being a Single parent and having the other parent come in and try to look like the good guy, especially when they haven’t been around for our Son’s schooling. Makes no sense. Here I am risking everything I have to make sure our Son has a roof over our head and food in his tummy. I refuse to let him make me look bad. I’ve been there for our Son every single day of his life, thru surgeries and sickness. I’ve been there. Every moment of the way. He’s my Life.

During our camping trip, I had my mind set to one thing. That one kid was a total brat and out to get me. BUT…this is where I learned something that all parents need to know.

Not every kid is perfect, Not every kid is lucky. What I did not know was one kid in particular has Autism. And this one kid is the one I thought was out to get me. I didn’t understand him. I didn’t know what he was trying to do. So during a conversation with his Dad, we were discussing the one kid. He told me, NO MATTER WHAT do not treat him differently. He told me that having Autism isn’t a life sentence of limited activities. So me being curious I wanted to understand him and I asked more and more questions. I thought having Autism meant, these kids are in there own little world doing all sorts of out of the ordinary things.
BOY was I wrong. He is a normal kid that just so happened to run into a road block. Nothing he did. I also found out too that he has Aspergers. Which explained it all. A good friend of mine has a child who has that and I have learned a few things from her. Besides having patience. You have to understand the child involved. Apparently, I didn’t at first.

And I feel so guilty now for not understanding him. One of the things I noticed is, he likes to say unappropriate things. Which he thinks is ok. You know how Gene Simmons like to stick his tongue out? Yah well he did that to me numerous times, then to a total stranger out of the blue. I asked him politely not to do that again as people can be offended by it. He then argued that if Gene Simmons can do it, so can he. I left it at that, and changed the subject almost immediately. This was before I found out he had Aspergers. Well later on that night, the other boys and leaders were arguing with this kid. I was getting upset. So here I would talk about something else to the boys and this kid. I purposely changed the subject to get them off of arguing with him. And would you believe this kid called me on it. He caught on to what I was doing. He called me the PeaceMaker. You know how good that made me feel? I asked him if that was a good or bad thing. He told me, it was a great thing. That it was the first time someone stood up for him. Then it was later when I found out exactly what his life had been like.

He changed me. He changed my outlook on life. He changed ME.

I could of used some really good bedding last weeked on our camping excursion. But instead I had the comfort of my backseat of my Dodge Caravan. Yay what fun that was. I do however have a twin size air mattress to use next time we go camping. And guess what? That will be in May. Its a family event and the pack is paying for one scout and one parent to go. Add’l family members it costs $7 per person. I would love for my boyfriend and his kids to go but honestly. Not sure how that would work.

We had a good night otherwise at the Cub Scout cake auction, our troop raised over $900 in total. I ended up buying back my Son’s cake cause…I put alot of work into it and couldn’t see someone else eating it…lol. Oh well, its yummy and I can’t wait to eat a piece..

I managed to survive a camping trip with my Son and his Boy Scout troop. You simply cannot imagine the stuff I heard? Or can you? A group of young boys and teens…..lots of flatulence.  Well I tried to write down things from the trip.  But it was so cold…it wasn’t even funny.

Road Trip to Galena with Pack 119.  Was interesting road trip up.  I was third in a convey of 6 vehicles.  We left the Quad Cities approx. around 7pm.  We were debating the whole trip due to the line of huge thunderstorms that had previously went thru the QC area about an hour before we were scheduled to leave.   There were tornadoes, and other fun weather stuff involved.  Well no matter what the trip was on.  We left and arrived up here at the Mississippi Palisades Park, to our camping area which by the way was clear in the back of the park, in a remote private area on a turn about.  How cool is that?  Well, we got here and the boys had to get their tents from the trailer and get their tents set up.  Two boys to a tent and those two had to set up their tents.  They had previously worked on their tents at the school for practice cause our Webelos  had never done it before.  So they did a good job, and even did it in the dark. 

After that they got their camping gear and put it in the tents then it was Cracker Barrel time.  Let m tell you it was my first time ever for one of these events and it was a blast.  They had Smores!!!!  The boys were still full of energy at 10:30 but it was time for bed.  It took awhile for all of them to finally make it asleep.  Cause morning sure comes early.   I was up at 6am..wishing for more sleep.   We got up, all the boys slowly made it up.  The pack assigns each boy a job.  There were two food preparers cutting up green peppers.  I was able to help this morning with our breakfast, I was the official Egg Cracker.  Oh yay!  My first time eating Eggs in a Bag.   OMG, so delish.  You have to try it. 

Then off to Galena for the Grant Pilgrimage.  It was a scavenger hunt of sorts.  Then lunch, then the parage thru the entire town of Galena.  I have so many pictures of the entire town, SO NOT FUN walking everywhere but it’s a scout tradition no matter where you go.  So I am sitting here, thinking about the most delicious dessert I have ever had.  It was a apple cobbler, Boy Scout way at that.  Its late Saturday night at about 9:36pm.  Cracker barrel is in twenty minutes.  I am going to go bathroom one last time cause it’s a half mile down the road, and I don’t want to go in the middle of the night.

Well I made it down to the restroom and guess what was sitting in there waiting for me?  The most scariest black spider ever.  So I went and came back, walked over to the garage area to see if they needed any help.  Of course no, they always have the boys doing the work.  It pretty much helps them along in their lives of learning to depend on themselves.  All the boys had to wash their own dish and utensil. 

Anyhow, I went ahead to my sleeping area…yep my Van.  And my Son joined me.  He was begging to go to sleep.  Here it was 930ish and he was begging me.  I told him, go to your tent and go to bed.  Sure enough.  He went, he said he don’t remember anything after getting into his tent.  Then Sunday came too fast.  We got up, I helped the boys with their pancake making.  Some of the boys have never done it so I got to help them, taught them how to measure the mix and water.  They thought it was pretty cool.  After breakfast which consisted of pancakes, bacon and sausage, milk and OJ.  We got our dishes washed and it was time to pack up the tents and head home.  It took awhile cause the boys were NOT wanting to leave.  So we finally managed to get on the road back home, during which we lost one of our vehicles.  And I couldn’t leave a man down.  We had that issue when we first arrived, we lost one of our guys and I felt awful.  When I passed him he gave me the look of death.   So I went back and found him, and off we went again.  We made it home, and honestly.  I was beat.  I got home.  Brought my stuff in, sat down and woke up around 530ish…I think…lol.  I hate to say it, I am still frozen to the inner core of my body.  I spent the majority of the day trying to get warm.  My legs are still sore from the 21 mile walk on Saturday.  I surprised myself in doing all this walking, I watched all these boys keep going and going.  By the time we were done at 3:30pm on Saturday.  I was beat.  My feet hurt, and that’s all that hurt.  I could barely move on Sunday.  Felt like I had a crazy night of …um…can’t say.

I am sorry this post has taken so long to get posted.  It seems, I haven’t been warm enough to sit on the computer to do anything at all.

I haven’t been up to talking, some stuff has happened and I am not ready to share it just yet. I am extremely aggitated about it so its best I don’t talk just yet.

And my mind is even worse. I have been on paid vacation, courtesy of the state and my old job. Which by that way is now old news. Because the company I am employed by now is simply amazing. The pay is even better. The store I am working had a better group of people that enjoys their vendors instead of pissing us off when we are there to help them and make their job easier. After this past weekend proved to me how important teamwork is amongst employees. I now have the opportunity to prove what type of person I am and how hard I can work.

Tomorrow should be a busy day as its a delivery day. I sure hope its not their too early. I only have a certain time I can work. And I just found out that this coming weekend I will be out of town due to a prior engagement. My Son has one more requirement to crossover to Boy Scout. So that is what we have to do this weekend. He has to camp out with a Boy Scout troop. Since I already made the plans, I was so upset when my Ex said he would go. I told him, NO. I don’t get to enjoy that with him and that he’s done it all the other times. Its my turn for once.

Well, I gotta go. Time to rest.

When I say that, I mean it. My body is still exhausted from working 6 days in a row. And last night was my boyfriend’s first night on 3rd shift with his new job. So it was a different kind of night. I have to go wake my Son up who by the way ended up in bed with me last night. He was scared or something last night. Oh well, I slept good.

Its been a rough 6 days in a row of working, getting deliveries, helping customers, and working my arse off. My feet are throbbing right now and I have taken a warm bath earlier already. I may go get my lotion that helps with the pain. I am going into work in the morning for a couple of hours just to consolidate…maybe. I am sunburnt…yes…SUNBURNT. Here it is April 20th, and I have a base tan. I love it. The back of my neck, my arms and of course my face. It was foggy today til’ about 11:15am then the sun came out with a vengence.

I was watching VH1’s Rock of Love 2 with Bret Michaels, and it was a rerun of the season finale. I can’t wait to watch the Reunion. I simply cannot stand the Daisy chick, she has this issue of rolling her eyes and she acted like she was all wigged out on something. I sure hope he found his Rock of Love this time. I do feel bad for rock stars who have fallen into this hole of not having that significant other and searching for that special someone. I don’t mind watching it because I used to listen to Poison back in the hair band days. Yes, I am a fan of Rock N Roll. I have always wanted the big hair…lol.

That’s pretty much sums it up on how I am feeling here. I am ready for a day off. I think they are expecting me to work and work. But then again, they are telling me to make a schedule and let the girls know. I am already taking Monday off. I deserve it, 6 days in a row is crazy enough.