I laughed, I cried and Maybe Laughed or was that a nervous giggle (That was just the ride there)

Yup you read that correct that was just the drive. Let me back up and start from the beginning of the story, I have a bad habit of skipping to the juicy parts! So sit down, hang on and enjoy the ride that I certainly wanted to jump out of the moving vehicle.

So here we go, now as a parent I know I only want the best for my children and know they will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them along the way. Hopefully when they are my age they will still be asking for my advice but I will know that they are well on there way. For a little history Rick works two jobs and I do also (my second job is from home, so it doesn't effect much except my sleep). Rick is a loss prevention detective and the store he works for doesn't look like it's fending well during these hard economic times. Well we are well aware of this and have already started with a plan to figure out what to do if his store closes. With that said my parents are under the impression that loss prevention is not a "real" job, they haven't really given poor Rick the benefit of listening to him and all he accomplishes at work like being top detective for the past 2 quarters! They are also not overly wealthy but well off enough that they could redo the kitchen and bathroom and bar in granite counter tops ... LOL sorry had to throw it in. Mind you neither of them went to college found a good place to work and have stayed with that company for 30+/- years each. So my lifestyle vs theirs and there standards are totally different.

Now on to the store of the longest car ride of my life, I seriously wanted to jump out knowing mom wouldn't let the car crash to save the boys. Our ride started fine and then 5 minutes into it I was standing in front of a firing squad. It started out nice with what is your plan and then the nicest were over it was straight on with Rick needs a "real" job and what is this job. Then when I said we've had a plan that he was going to work his way up to Loss Prevention Management. Then came on the question about money, oh boy did I say the wrong thing with enough. Oh man did that open the flood gates about enough is not enough and on and on. Then we went on about how I make more and I take on a lot, which is true about the more money. This I must say Rick may not make as much as I do, but when we got in a pinch he took on a second job working sometimes an addition 20 hours a weekend and sometimes he's even pulled in 30 extra hours. In my world there are more important things then a lot of money, happiness is one of them. Now over the years Rick and I have had our ups and some very low lows, but no he really is trying his best. He found a job he loves and was wanting to take it all the way, my parents constant complaints about it don't help. Rick's family doesn't live around here so my parents are like his sargent parents and I know he's crushed that they don't feel like he's doing his best. Rick would love to get into the police force which I always said no to, because the fear of him getting hurt, working late hours and us loosing pieces of our family. Now I see I've been doing the same thing my parents were to him, I've told him to follow his dreams and I'm sorry that I may have been holding them back to now a difficult age to get into this field. After crying and then hating myself for 1 showing my weakness to my mom and 2 letting Roy (our exchange student) see my mom get the best of me proving his belief that he need not treat me like an adult. I turned to mom told her that I am 32 years old and I'm old enough to make my own decision. I appreciate her caring and looking out for me, but her words are hurting me and my family. Dried my eyes and finished my car ride to the Flat Stanley Show at The Moore Theater.

So on to positive notes a few weeks back I got an amazing email from Abby at Steals and Deals that I was the WINNER of the Flat Stanley at the Moore Theater! I was super excited because it was 4 tickets! Yes you heard me correct 4 tickets, enough to take me, two of the boys and another adult to keep me in line. Rick ended up working the Monster Truck show (his second job is event security) so I asked my mom to come along and my dad to watch Caden since he was too little. Besides our little incident driving we put our smiley faces on and enjoyed each other. Mom bought the kids cookies and juice, which a certain ungrateful child didn't even open their juice instead of giving it to the other child he threw it in the garbage unopened. Yup don't you just love the attitude, enough about that. The show was AMAZING, I'm so excited we got to go. Are tickets were in the middle section just a few rows up, perfect except for the sore rear from the seats and oh yeah the chilly factor. Guess not searching for those socks before we left might not have been my best idea! There was a gal in there that played so many parts and she came out in this swim suit and OMG I thought she might float away she was so TINY. What a super great play minus Cole who had ants in his pants and wouldn't sit still to save his or my own life. I guess parents behind us could say oh well it's just a kid, since their kid kicked my seat the whole time. You just go with it right, thank the lord no one was in the front of us. I tried to look for Abby (since they have a side profile of her on their site, of course I can pick her out of a crowd). No such luck I was hoping to show you a picture of us together, sad face inserted here! But we did get some great pictures of the boys at the theater.

After the show mom treated us to the Rainforest Cafe where dad and Caden met us. Most of us had fun and didn't complain about not being hungry and then eating our dish and then eating someone elses soup. Yup that didn't come across catty did it? LOL got to love kids especially when they aren't yours so you can slap the crap out of them for being ungrateful and then rude. Oh shhhs I would never slap the crap out of my kid at least not in public ... LOL.

On a GREAT side note I got a call from mom this morning to apologize for attacking me, that she just worries and cares for me. I want you to know I was almost speechless, then I did the thing I almost head slap myself for later. I said no problem, ugh no you need to say thank you I appreciate that. Mental head slap I always let them off thinking it didn't hurt me. One day I may learn. Ok long enough post I leave you now.

Here we are in front of the Flat Stanley Poster at the Moore Theater.

Look we got smiles, who knew that was possible.

Mom with the boys up stairs at the Moore. Shows about to start quick smiles.
Afterwards at the Rainforest Cafe

The snakes are going to get us ...

Or that scary looking Alligator behind us!