Thank you again to MMP ,of Attitude, the Ultimate Power for this award, it must really be my week:) 3 awards in one week, I might get a big head LOL!! Thanks again.
I got another award Yaaaaay!! I received this one from Juliana. Thank you so much.
I would like to share this award with
1. Trinity -- of Rooms of My Heart
2 Amel --- of Amel's Realm
3. Odd Facts
4. Daszzle --- of Something To Smile About
5. Crystal --- of Choc Mint Girl
6. Stacey --- of My Thoughts
7. Sindi ---- Of Life Is a Rollercoaster
8. Pauline --- of Cursuum Perficio
Saturday night I started feeling really stressed out. Randy kept trying to get me to talk and I finally gave in and told why I felt so stressed. I told him because of the holidays I was missing my parents, not working yet ( still on medical leave), and no break from the kids. So he told me to go out Sunday and have some alone time to find my clarity. I took him up on his offer.
The first thing I did was I went to my friend Sindi's house just to talk and get things off my chest. Sindi is one of the few who truly understands me and she is one of the best listener's I know. After I went there for awhile I had to get a couple of things from the store so I went shopping. This was actually a day that wasn't good to be out in, it was cold and rainy.
I still wasn't ready to go home yet, so I decided to go to a local county park to walk a trail. (How crazy am I), I was cold but it was worth every bit of it. Luckily I keep an umbrella in my car. On my stroll I decided to take some pictures and I stopped to listen to the birds, watched ducks on the lake, watched a Woodpecker high in the trees, and just watched at the beauty of the rain falling gently on the lake, ground and trees surrounding me. I really felt myself relax despite how cold.
I walked down to the wetlands overlook to gaze at the water and just relax. It looked so pretty to me this time of year.
I absolutely loved some of the colors together and looking so close at branches and leaves seeing the rain drops drip off ever so slowly. It was just what I needed.
Well after I got home I changed out of my wet clothes and relaxed some more on the couch. Randy cooked supper and did up the dishes. I felt like a queen for the day. That's pretty much my day I got lots of hugs, and kisses from all three. I really felt like I was appreciated. It turned out to be a wonderful day. God Bless:)
I was tagged by Juliana to do this meme. It's really fun! Here goes:
Here are the rules:
*Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
*Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
*Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
*Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Seven :
1. My family comes first in my life.
2. I like draw the decorations for my kids' birthday parties when I can. I use to draw all the time growing up.
3. I like to change my hair color. ( it just irritates my hubby)
4. I'm getting addicted to blogging. ( I just love all my new friends)
5. I'm very protective of my family and friends.
6. I lost all of my molar teeth to my pregnancies. Well I still have one left:(
7. Now that I'm in my 30's I want to learn to cook ( I should have listened to my mother). I cook some but not enough.
Now, I am tagging :
1. Randy
2. Gage
3. PBnJunk
4. Pauline
5.Pilgrim
6. Odd Facts
7. Daszzle
Have fun.
Tag: Common Writing Mistakes
Crystal has tagged me with this meme. It seems to be pretty straightforward.
Here are the rules:
~Start copy paste~
Instructions:To play this game, all you must do is explain what your most common writing mistake is. Then, simply tag 5 people for the meme. Those 5 will, in return, tag 5 more people. Ultimately, readers should see a tapestry of common grammar and spelling mistakes. Therefore, anyone who feels ashamed of their errors will feel a bit more confident and secure.Copy the person and persons' names that sent it to you and add your own at the bottom of the list. It really helps build community.
The answers:-
Shine with Grace : Mixing the word 'from' with 'form' all the time.
Trinity : I sometimes feel confused to use past tense or present tense when I share my stories.
LadyJava : Typing too fast that sometimes I miss words in between.
Genie King : I type too fast too... always end up with 'tot he'... when it should be 'to the'.
Spiff : I type too fast that I end up with sentences that have no spaceinbetween... LOL!
Nessa : Mostly grammatical mistakes... but it doesn't really bother me as long as my readers understand :)
Choc Mint Girl: Obviously grammatical error due to lack of vocabulary…but getting better and better and better…he he he…
Michelle Dawn : I tend to misspell a lot either typing to fast or just spelling wrong because I'm to lazy or forget to use spell check... he he he....Add your link and answer here
~End copy paste~
I’m going to tag
1. Pauline
2. Juliana
3. Stacy
4. Amel
5. Graham
Have fun!!!
Trinity of Rooms of my Heart had an awards show on her blog and I presented the Rockin Girl Blogger award to Bobo. Later in the evenning I was given the Beautiful blogger award by Trinity.
Thank You so much for this award. If you get a chance go to Trinity's blog to the awards show. She did an awesome job.
Well we had a good Thanksgiving. I made my mom's chicken cheese ball, beef cheese ball, waldorf salad, and her sweet potato casserole. Randy cooked the turkey. We also had mashed potatoes, noodles, deviled eggs, and I made no bake cookies ( Chocolate & peanut butter), chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies and pumpkin pie.
Randy watched football, then all of us watched movies. We watched Perfume (it sucked), Transformers, Santa Claus 3 :theEscape Clause (Great movie), Wind Chill ( Great movie), and several others. I got a real kick out of Faith, she did a few dishes for me it was so cute. She actually did a good job and would get upset if I wouldn't let her help with them.
That's pretty much all we did. Have a great day.
I received this in an email and just wanted to share it.
This was sent by a man in Rhinelander, Wisconsin
A very eventful day around here... A once-in-many-lifetimes experience! I saw this lil' feller run out in front of a car-- thought it was a lost baby goat. Stopped to get it, and WOW!! A real Albino Whitetail Deer. Just hours old, but doing fine. No Momma deer around. Another car nearly hit it in front of me ..
Well, he is THE neatest thing any of us ever saw And such a 'freak of nature'; only one in more than a million are ever born. He took his bottle of food, followed us around the house, and is doing great. So, we called the Zoo &Fossil Rim, who were both interested, but we're going to send him to a rehab farm. Maybe he will make it in captivity somewhere and be appreciated. So rare... Sure wanted to keep him though but it's not the thing to do.... not LEGAL either. Here are a couple of pictures to show you. He was snow white, pink eyes, ears, nose and hooves. Kids called him POWDER. He was SO small. That is my shoe lying beside him. WOW! How cool is that??
Pass this around; a lot of folks have never and will probably never see another picture of an Albino deer fawn......
I was tagged by Trinity to do this meme. I find this one interesting.
Well the first thing I thought of was taking a hot, relaxing bubble bath by candlelight.
glitter-graphics.com
I will ask these special people to share their tips for us, don't forget to follow the instruction below ok!
1. Crystal
2. Amel
~*~*~*INSTRUCTION*~*~*~
Copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)
Share one of your own health tip (tip on how to be more healthy) with others and add on the numbers below. Try to make your tip short but informative. Tag at least 2 person.
~*~*TIPS*~*~
1. Be happy - Everyday health and beauty
2. Cherish your health : If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyoud what you can improve, get help. – Anggie and Jeremy Boy Online Journal.
3. Count your blessing - Trinity of Rooms of My Heart*
4. Take a hot , relaxing bath by candlelight-Michelle Dawn Rusin Roundup
Dedicated to My Mother
Part 4: The Finale
I'm going to start this one on as positive a note I can. I remember that mom & I would get into music wars. I didn't like her country music and she wasn't to crazy about my music and she would turn hers up to hear over mine and I would do the same, then we would compromise and listen to her oldies music so we would quit driving the neighbors nuts.
When I turned 16, she sent me 4 roses to school on my birthday. A white rose, a yellow rose, a pink rose and a yellow rose. On the card she had wrote that each of the roses represented 4 years of my life up to age 16. My junior year in High school she got my boyfriend (now my hubby) and 2 of my other friends to keep me distracted and to make sure I didn't leave the cafeteria because she sent a Gorilla to school with a rose and song for my birthday. (I was so embarrassed).
When I turned 18 she remarried my dad on my birthday. She asked me to stand up with her and I did against my better judgement. She truly thought that I wanted them back together when I didn't. I told I would but I didn't agree with it. She asked me why and I told her because when you two re together I get the brunt end of it when you fight. 6 months later I told her I told you so. They were divorced within the year.
Mom would get all excited when I had my high school dances, I think she was more excited than I was and during this time I'm trying to be a normal teenager why she was fighting with dad all the time.
+%26+Michelle+Urbain.jpg)
I became anorexic for 2 years because of her. Not realizing it she would always say I was skinner than that at your age. Well eventually I did get skinner. In college I finally snapped out of it, but it took me forever to get her to understand. I had to tell her over and over again that because of that statement I decided to get skinnier and that it briefly put her attention on me and not my dad..jpg)
.jpg)
The pictures of me is at my worst with the anorexia. She did finally try to tell me that she never meant for me to take that statement the way I did. She did finally apologize years later.I ended up shielding my son from her and we would go 1 to 2 years at a time not talking and her sending me letters saying that she hated me , I would be sorry for what I did to her, she is no longer my mother, and she was going to kill herself. I would just send the cops to her house. She always liked to make the threats and I got immune to them and told her I'm done with her pity parties and I'm not going to let her hurt my son like she did me.
Needless to say I finally got pregnant with my daughter and we finally started talking again. We worked out a lot of things but not all. She was at the hospital for both of my kids' birth. She had told me once during this time that I helped her grow up by being stronger than her and standing up to her and thanked me for doing that. She was there at times I would need her at the end. When sis got a fever and had to stay in the hospital overnight she stayed with me. every time I had to go to Indianapolis to Riley Hospital with my son would go. We really seemed to have finally met at the middle to get along.
This picture is the last picture taken of her. Taken Oct. 14, 2004. The day I had my daughter.
On February 17, 2005 I got a call from my Uncle Max (her brother) asking if I had talked to her. Then another family friend called and asked the same thing. I called her house to check on her and got no answer. We had went bowling to practice for our league and still hadn't heard anything back from her (which was unusual). I left my hubby and daughter at home and my son went with me to her house to check on her. We finally got someone to let us in (an apt complex) and we had to get maintenance to let us in her apartment. I was hoping for a diabetic coma at the least but I found her dead I knew as soon as I touched her body by how stiff and cold she was. (She was only 53). Her neighbors kept Gage in the hall and I called 911 to report it and the maintenance guy had to finish the call for me. I called Randy and both of us called others to tell them and after all of the excitement and paperwork I finally went home. Dad following me. He was there as soon as we got a hold of him. She had to have an autopsy done and it took forever to get the results and I had never had to deal with something so hard in my life. Thank God for my family and my friends. Without everyone supporting me I never would have made it. We finally had her services and got rid of her ashes like she asked. We finally got the autopsy report back and it was labeled an accidental overdose, along with 4 other contributing factors. Her heart was extremely bad and so was her thyroid and water on the lungs.
I know deep down that she is finally free and happy and that she isn't hurting anymore and I'm so glad for her, but that doesn't stop the pain or the nightmares of seeing her in my sleep dead.
This is the hardest thing I will ever truly write minus the fact that 1 year and 7 1/2 months later I found my dad dead in his sleep also. I do however feel that this is helping and thank you all for going down memory lane with me.
Dedicated to My Mom
Part 3: Adult Years
Now on to my mother's adult years, I am going to have to put her adult years in 2 part's, so my full dedication will be four parts total, but these will be the most intense for me to write about.
As before I will start out with questions & anwsers from her then I will go into what my memories. Here we go:
Q.) What can you tell me about your courtship & dating? How did you meet? (This is about my dad)
A.) "I met your dad Chuck through my brother Max and his wife Mary Margaret who was Chuck's sister."
Q.) What are your hobbie's?
A.) " Reading, computer, crafts, T.V., and listening to Music."
Q.) Do you have a political affliation? Did you ever work on the polls?
A.) " Vote for both political parties. Worked on polls as inspector, clerk, judge, sheriff."
Q.) What are your favorite recipes?
A.) " Sweet Potato Casserole, Waldorf salad, Braunsweiger ball, Chicken cheese ball and beef cheese ball, noodles and dressing."
Q.) What are your favorite family stories?
A.) " Stories with my daughter only best in my life."
.jpg)
Here's what I remember. On September 1, 1972 my mother and father got married. Then on October 16,1973 I was born against the wishes of my grandmother. My father had 3 other kids from a previous marriage and their mother had custody of them, but they would stay with us off & on. I was raised pretty much an only child. Mom told me that she was sick the whole pregnancy with me and that I kept her in labor for 27 hours. They ended up naming me Michelle Dawn. Other names she had thought of for me was Misty Dawn, Melissa Michelle, and Annette Jeanette. If i would have been a boy I would have been named after my dad Charles Albert Jr.
I guess at around 6 to 8 monthes of age I had to be hospitalized for dehydration and a partially callapsed lung. Mom told me they had me hooked up on IV's and that she used to sneak me watermelon juice in my bottles. She could never breast feed me because she got milk fever. After a couple of days I was released.
.jpg)
.jpg)
She had a hysterectoromy at the age of 29 due to cancer, lost of all her teeth,and wore dentures, I believe she also had her gall bladder removed.
I remember one time I got caught cussing out a bully at school and I got caught. The school called home and told mom, by the time I got home she was mad. For my punishment she washed my mouth out with Dawn dishsoap.
Another time I was in Upward Bound( a program that helps with school and college), I got to stay on campus for six weeks and one day with one of her friends she was on her way home from a court appeareance against dad and she drove by the dorms I stayed in and seen me smoking a cigarette. (This was the summer between my 9th and 10th grade years). Anyway she parked the car and came barraling at me screaming at the top of her lungs. She had me take her to the people over me at the campus and told them she was taking me home and they were no good for nothing pieces of shit. I took off and headed to my room and on the way I puched a door frame because I had a feeling that she was going to hit me and I would want to hit her back. She followed me to the dorm room still screaming at the top of her lungs. Next thing I know I'm on the bed in the fetal postion blocking hits to my head. Her friend just sat there and watched. Mom ended up puching me 4 times. once in the back of my head and 3 more times down my spine. Someone called for the campus police and they separted us, she was escorted off of campus and I was taken to the campus infimary. I was ok just shaken up. Child protective services got involved and made us go see a psychiatrist together before they would let me go home after the 6 weeks were up. We worked out some of the problems but we were never the same again.
I'm going to stop here for now and finish it up in part 4. Thank you again for reading.
To Be Continued.....
Memories of My Mother
Part 2: Teenage Years
I don't know much about my mom's teenage years, so this section will be difficult for me to write. My mother didn't talk a lot about her younger years. So to start this one out, I'm going to do the question/answer first, then I'll tell you what I do remember her telling me. I really hope I don't bore anyone with these posts, I just feel that this is something that I need to do. I'm finding it difficult to write about someone who's life was built around negativity.
Here we go:
Q.) What high school(s) did you attend? Where? Did you graduate? If not did you get your G.E.D? Did you participate in any activities or clubs?
A.) " Sarah Scott, 8th Grade; 9th grade at Shakamak; High School at Wiley 1 1/2 years, Quit. Got G.E.D. in 1986; was in Y-teens at Wiley"
Q.) When did you start dating? Did you have a curfew? What kinds of things did you do on dates? Do you remember your first love?
A.) "I dated behind mom's back, was not allowed to date. Was raped at age 14. First true love Terry Bealmer."
Q.) What did you read?
A.) "Not much, mostly romance and murder magazines"
Q.) Did you have a job? Doing what? How much did you earn?
A.) "Worked at A&W restaurant at 16; Heap Big Beef at 18; Waitress work."
Q.) What was your first car? Did you buy it yourself? What color was it?
A.) " Do not remember, didn't get license til 21; Price of gas was .23 a gal. ---Gas wars."
I remember mom telling me that she got married at the age of 17 to Melvin"Butch" Mitchell and divorced by age 18. She married again at age 18 to George E. Bell and divorced him by age 19. .jpg)
When she was raped at age 14 it happened when her mother wasn't home and she called a friend who came over and helped her clean up the mess. She never said that she told anyone other than that friend. I also remember her saying that if she didn't start her menstrual cycles on time her mother would try to force her too. She never said how that was done and I think I wouldn't ever want to know. Like I said this is extremely hard for me to write because I was hardly ever told of her childhood. The only things she did bring up on rare occasions was heartache and abuse. It does however explain lightly why she was a severe depressive person in her adult years, which I will continue in part 3..jpg)
In the pic above that is my mom with her brother John.
Hope I'm not boring all of you with this and I apologize for this depressing subject with the holidays getting closer but like I said I feel that I somehow need to do this.
To be continued.......
A.) " My grandma and Aunt Ruth, my only salvation. We went to the meat market, blackberry picking, mushroom hunting, killed chickens, and learned to play solitaire."
In Memory of My Mother
Part 1: Childhood Years
This blog is dedicated to my mother Brenda Jeanette Presnell. It is a form of therapy for me and a way for me to keep her memory alive. It will also be the hardest thing I will do.
On December 12, 1951; my mother was born into a family with a father, mother, and four older brothers, Tom, Max, Ron and John. I'm not totally positive of some of her childhood other than she grew up around her brother John more than her other brothers..jpg)
I made a questionaire a few years back about different aspects of life. To understand her childhood better, I will list some of the questions with there anwsers. Here goes:
Q.) How easily or often did you get into mischeif? Why? What was your punishment?
Were your parents strict?
A.) " Not often. Got terrible whippons from mother, dad left when I was 5. Mom tried to
raise us."
Q.) What stands out in your mind about your relatives? Did you have a favorite relative?
Why? Did you do anything special with that relative?
Q.) How far was school from your house? How did you get there? Does anyone stand out in your mind as having a large influence on you? How were your grades?
A.) "School was about 1/2 mile whereever we lived. Mrs Failing's birthday & mine same day. Had her for 1st and 2nd grade. Not good grades moved to much. Different school every year after 1st and 2nd grade."
Q.) What experience did you have with death as a child? What funeral or burial customs were followed?
A.) "Had grandpa die & uncles. My grandma had caskets with bodies in them to view at home till burial."
There are several other questions I had asked her but those are a few. To end out her childhood before her teenage years, I remember her telling me that they moved around a lot and I guess things could get pretty violent. During one of her parents fights an ashtray was tossed across the room and it hit her eyebrow and busted it open. I rarely ever heard her talk of anything postive from her childhood.
.jpg)
I'm going to end part 1 here and tell you more about her in Part 2: teenage years. In doing this I hope to understand more about her for myself.
To Be Continued......
Thanks for reading!!!!
I found this website and thought I might help promote it.
Vote for your favorite NFL™ team with a click. Then earn more clicks by playing the Kick for Clicks game! You can only vote and play once a day, so come back every day! The team with the most clicks by midnight, December 15, 2007 will earn donations of Campbell's® Chunky™soup to their team's food bank of choice. We'll donate one can for every pound of the winning NFL™ team's total weight!
http://clickforcans.com
I Can't Help Myself
I was tagged by Dazssle for this meme, thanks I love these things:) Here goes:
4 dishes I like to cook
1. Swiss Steak
2. Chili
3. Vegetable Soup
4. Enchiladas
4 movies I love to watch over and over:
1. Interview with a Vampire
2. Goonies
3. West Side Story
4. Nightmare On Elm Street Series
4 qualities I love in people:
1. honesty
2. loyalty
3. sense of humor
4. respect
4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
1. Nip/Tuck
2. House
3. CSI
4. Family Guy
4 places I have been:
1. Kentucky
2. Tennessee
3. Ohio
4. Illinois
4 things in my bedroom:
1. Dressers
2. vanity
3. jewelry box
4. Boom Box
4 favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. potato soup
3. chili
4. chocolate
4 dirty words I like:
1. Damn
2. The F word
3. B**ch
4. Asshole
4 blogs I'm tagging:
I have decided not to tag anyone for this meme but feel free to do it. It's fun.
I seen this on a post on Cafemom and I just had to share it. It is so sad. If you click on the link you can light a candle to help keep her memory alive. http://kelsey-briggs.memory-of.com/
Here is a poem I found for all Veteran's and pictures of my family who served in the military.
.jpg)
This is my Uncle Ron Presnell
This was my Aunt Ruth's Husband James Beaman
This is my Uncle Tom Presnell.jpg)
This is my Uncle John Presnell.
This was my father Charles (Chuck) Urbain.Well, I figured that since Thanksgiving is coming I would do a post of my Top 10 Things I am Thankful for. My list isn't in any specific order. Here goes: 2. I am Thankful and Blessed for my children Gage and Faith. I always wanted to be a mother with one boy and one girl and I got my wish. They are the greatest. I got my wish , the million dollar family.
1. I am Thankful for my husband Randy. I would feel complete without him. I truly believe we are soul mates. We have known each other literally half of our lives and I love him the same if not more than I did when we got married almost 14 years ago. .jpg)
3. I am Thankful for my dad Chuck. He taught me what he could when he could and he always accepted me for who I am. He was always there when I needed him. I miss him so much at this time of year.).
4. I am Thankful for my mom Brenda. We had so many disagreements and barely got along at times but I learned from watching her mistakes to try to go a different direction. Despite her faults her love for everyone was genuine. I miss her too at this time of year. ( I will be posting about her soon because her birthday is coming
5. I am Thankful to be alive, even if I wonder why I am meant to be here at times. (that's my depression talking). I know we are all here for a purpose just trying to figure out mine. 6. I am Thankful for for all the hardships I have been through, as weird as that sounds. If not for all the hardships I never would have figured out the inner strength I have. 7. I am Thankful that I found my parents when they passed away. It was difficult at the time, but I learned a lot about myself in doing so. I also believe that I was always meant to be the one to find them. 8.I am Thankful to have a job. A lot of people can't work because of health or other related issues and my heart goes out to them. I'm just glad I can and I will for as long as I can. 9. I am Thankful for my friends, without any of them my life would boring , dull and difficult. I love all of them for their uniqueness and Patience. I am also Thankful for all my new blogging friends, all of you are terrific. 10. I am Thankful for the Lord above. I question my faith a lot but deep down I know I would be where I am today without him.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I would like to wish everyone an early Happy Thanksgiving and Blessed Be.
