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Peaces Of Me++++
++++ The miles just keep rollin as the people leave there way to say hello I've heard this life is overrated but I hope that it gets better as we go |
Dec 30/02 We woke up very late today. Nadia took Caesar on a very long walk basically the only one he got today. My email went crazy today sending people many emails, it wa a virus and James's computer had it too. email to every address on our computer from all our email addresses My computer was infected with a virus that send to all my contacts... If you received a friendship or love or some sort of screensaver this was the virus. If your virus scan will no longer work or Ctrl-Alt-Del wont do anything you have the virus. Contact me if you can't clean the virus, my son Brent knows how... James Edwards ------------ We took April and Monica to Grammie's today for the afternoon while we finally had our anniversary lunch at a restaurant in Ajax. Nadia told us about it and it was so out of the way that we had to look it up for directions, Ajax built up around it and kind of hid it away. Stacy went to Jessie's tourney in Ajax, they are doing well in this tourney, too bad they couldn't play like this in regular play. She found the top Jessie wants finally and the tie that was lost in the mail showed up today too so she has Jessie's gift now for tomorrow. Brent spent the day trying to fix the computers and when he was finished Jessie's was infected too so Stacy and Brent went over there to help. April had Erin overnight. She is the only person April is even trying to contact this break. I hope that means that she is trying to break away from Chelsea and Tara. I don't think they like me, because of what Tara did earlier this month, trying to pretend I said something when I didn't. They say I am too strict, that is the biggest joke, I am the last person that Nadia, Brent or Stacy's friends would say I am strict, they would laugh. I have had more personal conversations with kids, gone out of my way for alot of kids. I drive them everywhere, even when my kids aren't with them they have phoned for help. I have kids in my house all the time. I try to treat them as young adults but I expect the respect in return, but they want to pretend that I am a bad guy. Oh Well, as long as April knows the truth, I am all right with her. Monica went over to Cory's again. I told her to be home by 10 but she came home at 10:30. I have to have THE TALK with her. Nadia went out to Derick's house tonight. Derrick's job is making her kind of lonely at this time of year. She is being good-natured about it though. Annie at 12/31/2002 04:38:00 a.m. Stacy and I went to Pickering Centre to try and exchange her coat. She likes it so much that even though we don't have the right size she wants to keep it. We tried to find a gift for Jessie, the tie still hasn't arrived. I asked Stacy how it was going with Jessie and she said that they are never alone together and that if she wasn't going out with him she would miss him but still, that is not a good reason to stay with someone. I told her to try harder with him to go on real dates, make plans. Stacy had her secret Santa exchange at our house tonight. Most of them received, panties, like I said it is the year of the panties! Stacy gave Coral one pair that was so sexy, she couldn't show them so Stacy grabbed them off her and showed everyone, it was funny. They parted hardy with fancy drinks and danced and sang very loudly. They stayed overnight. Monica did the same thing tonight with Cory and we are getting worried about all the time they spend together. We want her to do Holly's house in daylight so that Cory doesn't have to be there with her. We don't want her to be alone if she goes at night. Nadia went out with Natasha today and then to a movie. As usual, someone forgot to tell Nadia that Natasha phoned, this time it was me! I have tried to teach my kids to check the call display every time they come home I do! Sorry Nadia! Nadia loves her Smoothy drink machine and has been making everyone drinks. Hopefully she will find nutritious diet drinks because she told me that was one of the reasons she wanted it. Brent had a party tonight and it was like a our Elementary School reunion. Unfortunately they are still not that friendly a bunch, basically grunted at me, that is about it. I like the guys he hangs out with now, they are nice, Steve talked to us for a while, they are going to be moving very close to us. There was a girl that has been interested in Brent for a while that he has been trying to avoid. She came to his party and asked him to go out with her. Brent said no and then she asked if she would ever had a chance and he was uncomfortable about it but he said no. It is strange but I have noticed that Brent puts no or little effort into trying for a girl that he really likes. I guess it shows that he is not interested in the emotional side, more physical side of the relationship. They basically have to pursue him or almost jump on top of him like Crystal did for him to get interested. Is he lazy or not interested in getting to know the girl himself? I guess that will come in time. Still I am glad Brent said he is not interested instead of just going with the flow. He doesn't need a girlfriend at this time in his life. Annie at 12/30/2002 04:32:00 a.m. At 12:50am Jessie phoned and asked for a drive home so Stacy took James's car out to get him. He was too drunk, didn't say a word to her and she had to stop the van so that he could throw up. She wasn't impressed - at all. Stacy went out to dinner with Jessie's family and then Coral and her went to Jessie's hockey tourney in Ajax and then watched a movie at Jessie's. Monica as out with Cory, between Holly's empty house and Cory's place, again. HMMMMM. We had our first adult party in our basement with our neighbours so no one had to drive home! It was a lot of fun. At first everyone sat near the bar. The neighbours all complained to us about the red car that vibrates the whole neighbourhood with the bass from the music. That would be Adam and it is true, he makes the house move with his music. Some said they have been woken up at all times in the night by it. Even people many homes down said that they have been tempted to call the police. They also mentioned the smoking outside. That part has been a disappointment to me too since we first started allowing parties the idea was to keep them inside where I could watch them and they could be safe. Brent brought his friends over to play darts for a bit while our party was going on and I was happy to see them. Annie at 12/29/2002 04:29:00 a.m. Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary and in light of James's news that we spent $10,000.00 this year on restaurants I have no desire to eat out. We can't afford that at all. Last year we spent more than we made. Nadia went to the Ranch house in Ajax with Derrick as part of his Christmas gift and picked us up our first 3 dvd's. Stacy went out with Jessie and his mom and was going to his tourney in Ajax when she remembered that she had to work at 6 at the rec centre. April read and watched TV. She had Erin over to play old Nintendo in the evening. It is amazing how much the kids are enjoying the original Nintendo instead of the latest games. Brent went out with Steve in the evening to Doobers. He asked James for some booze so James gave him a little. I phoned Crystal's old place, she doesn't live there anymore, she lives with her new boyfriend and his family so I guess she finally found want she wanted. I hope that is what she needs. Monica is coming home too late these days. She is out with Cory to look after the cat, which means they are alone and then she goes to his house. I told her to be home by 11 but Cory's mom drove her home at 11:45. Stacy went out with the girls, they phoned and insisted she go, so I am glad she went. It sure isn't like after she was sick where she couldn't bear to be home, lately she has been a homebody again, so I am happy they made her. Annie at 12/28/2002 04:23:00 a.m. Adam phoned yesterday to wish Brent the best so that was nice to know. Well, Boxing day sales were a huge disappointment. Nadia, Stacy and Monica came with me and we didn't buy anything. We watched Brandon and Billy hockey tourney game and then went to the Kegs's until 4:30. Stacy's freind Tracey dropped by with her brand new car. I cooked the turkey late and when I was cleaning up, I met Jess C. in the driveway, the first indication that Brent was having people in. Stacy went down for a while. When Brent left about 12 he didn't let us know until James noticed Doober spinning donuts in front of our house and almost hit a parked car. I hope Brent was in the white van and not with Doober. Annie at 12/27/2002 04:53:00 a.m. After debating about what time we would get up, we slept till 8:30. I was so worried that I didn't have enough for everyone that I felt sick about it but once everything was out, it looked good. This was the year of the underwear; everyone got really nice although very sexy name brand underwear. Nadia shopped at the NHL for me so we got some unique gifts there. Nadia got the 3 main things she wanted, Age of Mythology, a Smoothy drink maker and a staple gun. Brent went shopping for his own presents with dad and since he shopped at Wal-Mart he got a lot more clothes than normal. He really likes his watch. We got Stacy the coat she wanted so bad and even though I got her a medium, it seems tight. She got lots of novelty socks and they should keep nice since she does her own wash now. April got the Lord of the Rings Books and we finally talked her into reading them in the proper order. She wanted to know what happened after the second part in the movie! She got lots of tops. Monica really liked her coat, we got her a magnetic dart board that Michael Gibson liked so much and lots of tops too. Grammie came over a usual and gave us cheques this year, she did not buy clothes which was good since I just found a top under Nadia's bed that was still in the box from last year! Nadia went over to Derrick's for Lunch again but we had to pick her up this time because it had snowed all night and Derrick's parents didn't want him driving the car. There were 37 for Christmas dinner at Gramma's house. Craig got a scale that measures body fat and people were checking their body fat. That is not the best idea since they don't have the knowledge about it, for example girls have to have more body fat than guys and athletes have to be measured differently. They had a lot of fun anyway. James and I came home for a while to walk the dog and Monica went over to Holly's to take car of the cat. The cat being an outdoor cat wants outside so bad. Our youngest newfew brought a motorized skateboard but he yanked the toy away from the older boys by the antenna and it snapped. Unfortunately the older boys got blamed for breaking it. I never let my kids bring their new toys when they were little. Cory came over in the evening and gave Monica a silver necklace. It was very nice and he loves it. They played old Nintendo up in her room until 12. Annie at 12/26/2002 04:59:00 a.m. James had his x-rays and his finger was dislocated, but he has had a break in the past that was not looked after so they said be prepared to have arthritis there one day. Today was a big shopping day and thankfully the stores weren't too busy. Nadia helped me out a lot and Stacy found the Christmas stockings- minus 2. Brent still slept all day even though he had a full nights sleep so we had to shop for him. April made cookies for us. A Christmas Eve to remember; Monica is taking care of Holly's dog, she went over with Cory and when she got there the key was gone. She spent the rest of the evening with him and then told us the key was missing. April and her went out looking with no luck and then James, Monica and I went for a long time and finally found it on someone's lawn. You forget that an 12 year old does not take the easiest route, she zig zagged everywhere it took her fancy, Cory even pushed her in a prickly bush that I had to search. Annie at 12/25/2002 04:10:00 a.m. Early this morning I awoke to Brent all pepped up on caffeine. I enjoy talking to him no matter what time it is, he talked to me about the new Star Trek movie that he downloaded and told me he was going to stay up all day to try to get back to normal instead of sleeping the day. He finally passed out so we woke him up at 9 and reminded him that he didn't want to be sleeping. He kept saying ok but he wouldn't get up. Then he said that he was going to go at 4 with Steve to look for a job at his work, but he has been telling me stuff like that since Friday. After about an hour of trying to get him up, James told me to go get water and put in on him so I finally did. Brent threw one of his new Christmas presents at me and it hit my leg and my face. It really hurt my leg and left marks but I didn't even get to say anything about it beccaseu James had heard the altercation and barged into the room to defend him. At that point James yelled at him and they both went at it and ended up completely across the floor in Brent's room. James eased up on Brent but he took advantage of James letting go. Brent bent James over his bed against the frame even when I yelled that he was hurting James's back. The girls were all upset and beside themselves at this sight. It stopped for a while and then James went back to talk to Brent and when the door was blocked James pushed it open. We found out later Brent's foot was blocking the door. They shoved and pushed to the point that Brent had James pushed across the stair railing and the Monica was pushing on the other side of the railing so that it wouldn't break and would support both of there weight. We all thought they were going to fall down the stairs. The railing is now very wobbly. When James came back in our room his little finger was grotesquely out of its socket or broken, it wouldn't move. He has to go to a company party for Christmas today so he couldn't go to the hospital. He popped it back into place himself but it keeps getting stuck in one position. My leg by my knee is sore and swollen but even though it hurts when I walk, it will be ok. I can't believe he threw that stuff at me, it shows that he could hit anyone if he should hit his own mother. Stacy and I went to the grocery store today, what a Zoo. I found out that Steve got called in early so he asked that Brent come in at 3:00 for a job. I hope he gets it. Stacy drove him. Brent didn't get to see the manager, he waited quite a while and then they told him to go. He is out right now with Steve. We went to Mark's so he could check James's finger, we tried to get an appointment earlier but it was booked up. Mark wants James to come by first thing in the morning. We didn't tell him what happened. How can you say your own son hurt you? Nadia was given an NHL coat by her boss for Christmas. Derrick has been working evertime hours at Cullen Gardens so Nadia hasn't even spoken to him for a couple of days. He got off work after 11 and came by to see her. Cory was supposed to go out with Monica today but he phoned and said he was having relatives over. She walked past when she was looking after Holly's cat and he was out with Cody. That was still ok but later he told her he went out with Ashley and Sheena so it upset her. I told her to really pay attention to what is happening and if it is upsetting her or confusing her she should think about breaking up with him. Annie at 12/24/2002 04:05:00 a.m. Jessie was out with his buddies, were frozen to the bone, they had no place to go so they came to Hannah and Mario's. Hannah gave them a little feast and then went and made more food. I kept looking at one guy who looked familiar and finally I asked him, turns out his dad is Nadia's old select baseball coach. He was in the accident in the spring where the car was cut in half by the tree (see April 20). We got home from Hannah and Mario's this morning at 2:30! Unfortunately I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I made two music video picture tapes for both my bro's and family; they really enjoyed them. Brent wouldn't get out of bed and was actually in the shower when we were trying to leave for Mark and Carrie's at 2:30. I wish he was more conscience of being on time. Supper was served Buffet style and it was very good. Jessie came with us and Toni and Mark gave him a gift certificate to Casey's. I got an autographed Maple Leaf picture and earrings. I fell asleep sitting up there; oh oh, I only got 2 hours sleep last night. April had a cut out of Orlando Bloom in her hand all day showing everyone how hot he is which can get very annoying after the 10th time. Brent took it off her a couple times and hid it. ------ email From Vanessa Merry Christmas Annie! Thanks for the pic of your kids.....it is wonderful! Hey! Your Brent is pretty hunky looking!!! lol!!! Annie at 12/23/2002 04:44:00 a.m. Nadia and April went to see Lord of the Rings and April has a new crush, she walks around with his picture, Orlando Bloom. I guess this is the backlash from the peer helper bashing down her idol Jess C.. Now she is like most young teenage girls, too bad, I liked it the other way, when my girls were all different from the norm. Mom, Please Get me up @ 5:30am tomorrow morning I know April is going to turn off the alarm clock when she goes to bed and I want to have a shower get ready and Cory is picking me up at 7:30am for his hockey game it's really important please don't forget! P.S. as you can tell I don't need you to drive me anymore. And Cody is coming so I have some company Love Monica ---------------- Hey mom! Don't you love the new background!?!?!? Lol......I LOVE IT!! Hehehe oh yea. My arm is killing me please find a way to make the pain stop! P.S. if Josh is looking for his hat, it's under the tree in the back yard. From April Stacy went out with Jessie in the afternoon with my car. Later she drove us to Hannah and Mario's for the evening. Brent had about 10 people over, I was worried about it because I like to be home when there are kids over. Jodi came into the family room thinking we were there and had drinks for us. That was nice. Annie at 12/22/2002 04:58:00 a.m. Monica and Cory had a misunderstanding today and he told her he didn't want to go out with her anymore. He danced with Sam and Monica danced with Scott in the afternoon at the school dance. I guess they all got jealous. Then he said he wanted to go out with her but he didn't love her anymore. She was absolutely heart broken about it but she called me up and told me all about it, which was very mature of her. Monica was terribly confused, kept sobbing that she didn't understand. She calmed down enough to go shopping for her party tonight and he had phoned her when we were out. They straightened everything out but she no longer wanted a sleepover with all the girls, only Holly. Sam has been making moves on Cory. Sam even told me that she is going to go out with Cory after Monica and Cory break up. Monica is very disillusioned with one of her supposed best friends and that is probably why she isn't having all the girls sleep over tonight, so she won't have to have Sam there when she is upset with her. Monica's party went well, they had a lot of fun with Twister. It looks like Cody still likes Holly, every time I went downstairs he was with her. She had her Christmas clothes on because they opened them today, they are going somewhere warm where Colleen will be teaching fitness classes - nice. April and Monica were in the local paper, for the photo contest. Now I have to go around to the neighbours and get their copies! Nadia knew I was having trouble with getting Christmas gifts for Gramma and Grammie so she offered me a great idea. She said that she knew I figured out that one of our presents was a family portrait and asked if we wanted copies for the Grandparents. What a wonderful idea! Nadia has always been a good organizer. It is one of her strong suits. Annie at 12/21/2002 04:33:00 a.m. Nadia is still sick, hacking and blowing her nose constantly, poor thing. They don't want her to come into work and spread it. Brent came home at 3am from Josh's and later he went out with the Doobie brothers and Doober (probably in a cloud of smoke). I don't think that Brent is smoking, for one thing he has absolutely no money. I couldn't sleep after that. I went on a marathon shop today, Stacy took the afternoon off and we went to Pickering Mall to Oshawa for 6 hours. She helped me a lot. I am beat. My email still is sending stuff to other people, its weird but the junk mail has not disappeared off it for 3 days now so I am going to delete it myself. April, Erin and Chelsea opened their presents today. Chelsea was telling Erin that she bought her the most expensive gift of all her friends just like she did last year but last year she didn't buy anything. That is the same thing she told April yesterday that she bought April the most expensive gift. Today she showed her a sales receipt for something like $30.00. She was just trying to pressure the kids into buying her an expensive girt but it didn't work. Chelsea's gifts to her friends were about $5.00 just the amount our kids spent on her. I am glad that the kids are finally seeing through Chelsea. Brent went to the movies the second part of the Lord of the Rings late in the evening with the guys. Annie at 12/20/2002 04:41:00 a.m. Nadia and April are both home sick. Brent didn't know when his exam was today. It really upset me and Nadia and I couldn't understand how he could handle not knowing. I found out in the evening that he couldn't sleep all night with worry about it. Doober picked him up at school and Adam came up to them and said that they should phone him sometime. Nadia came with us to the vet so the dog won't always associate it with James and I. Caesar weighs 85 pounds now and the doctor thinks that because there is some discoloration in his fur near his paws that we should change his food, his treats even the rawhide bones and pigs ears. We did that before and noticed no difference. I don't think he has allergies to food so we aren't going to do it. We went to Griffin restaurant with the Kegs's, Marita was upset with a friend who has been handling her income tax for years. He hasn't been doing them, left them stranded with taxes and they had to find someone else, he is 2 years behind and the income tax people are after them. They think he is heavy drinking. They brought Brent up again and both James and I defended him as best we could. It is not like it was when we were growing up and we all have different expectations of what should be so when things don't work out the way we want we shouldn't compare them to us and how we were, it doesn't work that way in my mind. I am glad that he is the person he is, he will fill his own expectations when he is ready. He tells me that he likes his life like this right now so I can handle it. I just can't handle him sleeping for days at a time! Stacy says that the some spectating parents had words with some of the players on the team. Stacy never gets involved with the dissention and rarely pays any attention to it. Hopefully she can always avoid it. Annie at 12/19/2002 04:19:00 a.m. Stacy had a school volleyball tournament at Durham College, I took a lot of pictures for the yearbook. Every school seems to have their share of rep players but we were not quite on this time. Nadia too sick to go to work at the NHL, she should have had the flu shot. I had a hard time finding flu medicine that Nadia could take, nothing with acetaminacin. Monica had her family Christmas volleyball night and she had lots of fun. Stacy couldn't go play with her, too much studying and essays. A woman there says she recognized Monica from the Short Hurdles last June. Her daughter came in third. I tried to use my visa tonight, but my card was denied. It happened to Brent today too after he paid $100.00 on it (from me). Just another reason not to get my shopping done, I am so late with my shopping. James was late coming home, he went to a company party. Someone has been using my email, I got postmaster failure messages from 3 different addresses and I don't know them at all. I changed my email password put 12 in front of it. Annie at 12/18/2002 03:13:00 a.m. Monica had a frustrating BB game after school. The coach is a big disappointment; he was yelling upset with the girls for losing. Holly scored on herself and then made a pass behind her that got away and it changed the momentum of the game. It is only one game and you have to learn to lose as well as win so the coach should lighten up. Monica is trying going to be as positive as possible to off set his negativity. The installation on the car starter was 4x the price of the gift so no gift for Grammie yet. This Grade 12 girl is April's peer helper in gym, and she upset April today when she was talking about Jess C.. She was teasing April about liking him until she realized that April actually knew him and then proceeded to tell April that her and Jessie do stuff and fool around with each other. She told April to ask Jessie about Monster's Inc. Then she told her she wouldn't do stuff with him right now because he is bald. The whole conversation disgusted April. I told her that the girl doesn't really like Jessie that much if she wouldn't when he was bald and that guys will take what is offered so you have to watch what you give. This girls whole approach is more like what guys think but I heard from other girls (not Stacy), that she acts like a guy. Stacy was not impressed with Jess, but guys will go for what is there. Many guys will. Stacy said that this peer helper could get herself in so much trouble at school if one of the girls complained about what she talks about. The girls she peer helps are supposed to look up to her. I was happy with April admiring him, most girls go crazy after movie stars, musicians, or sport heroes but my kids seemed to escape that. I much rather them admire a real person that I think has integrity so I hope that doesn't change because of what the peer helper said. April is breaking out on her body, it is itchy and sore so we took her to Mark and he thinks she might have an allergy or she is stressed. He told her to take an antihistamine and use the steroid cream she had with the poison ivy. Nadia's Christmas party with the NHL was at Academy of Spherical Arts- a pool hall. Unfortunately Derrick was sick so he couldn't go which would have depressed him to no end. They sent them all home in taxis after free drinks, not bad thinking. The taxi driver wouldn't close his window and it was freezing out. Nadia is not feeling well all of a sudden. James and I visited Gramma at night, had a beer with her. I wish I could visit with her like I used to, I would visit them in the morning or early afternoon almost every day. Now when she could really use the visit, I am not there. Grammie loved the concert tickets that James got for her; she wants to go again next year. Annie at 12/17/2002 04:42:00 a.m. James and I watched our little neighbours hockey game this morning. Billy played goal, did very well and Brandon had a breakaway. They all reminded me of Weeble's Wobbles but we don't fall down! They are so cute and they try so hard. Then we went to the Kegs's. James was with Dave all day going between Dave's, Paul's and our house having Christmas cheer. I went home and sent 60 Christmas cards by email. Later Marita invited us back to her house for a sparerib dinner- delicious! Stacy went to Jessie's game and this time Hannah sat away from her so Stacy felt left out and uncomfortable. I think it is something to do with his sister Sarah, I think something is happening with her and they just don't want to explain what is happening with her. They moved because Sarah was being teased about the elevator, she doesn't seem to be out much and I think she misses a lot of school. If she is doing this to control her life the next step would be to stop doing things her parents want her to do such as hockey. I should know I did the not eating and I stopped piano when I was 15 because I knew it would bother my mom. Last time I saw Sarah was at the Sports Bar and couple of months ago. Hannah was trying to find Sarah, their food was there and Hannah went looking for her. I bumped into Sarah on the way to the washroom and I told her Hannah was looking for her because the food was there. I suggested that she surprise Hannah, sneak back to the table and eat all the food on her, just a joke, but she looked like I said something bad. She hasn't talked to me since, doesn't realize that it was a joke that I would have said to any kid. Annie at 12/16/2002 03:55:00 a.m. Monica and April went to Staples to be presented with April's fourth prize gift certificate and Monica's $350.00 Digital camera. Monica was the youngest contestant, the rest were in high school. We went to Terry's annual Christmas party tonight and baby Sydney stole the show, she is very smiley and good natured. Jessie, Derrick, and Chelsea were our guests. James cousin ws invited with his family and to everyones surprise Tyler and April realized that Tyler has been to one of April's party without realizing that they were related! Jen, Laura and Mark all have new homes in the near future. Monica's contacts were really hurting her eyes there so we just threw out her contacts. She is too young to wear them for long periods of time. She wore them for Staples and just forgot about them. She usually only wears them for sports. Monica is really taunting April about smoking last year and I reminded April of how she kept bringing up the fact that Brent left our house last January. I hope she realizes that things that you might not be proud of can come back to haunt you. Annie at 12/14/2002 04:56:00 p.m.
April's french mark has been upgraded to a 65%!!! She did it and I think she enjoyed the process of the teacher challenging her. Tonight was semi for Stacy and she wasn't too prepared for it. She said it wasn't very good, there wasn't very many people there. This year the short dress was in. She went to Gemma's afterward but didn't do the drinking she thought she would. We went with Mark and Toni to the movies and dinner. We had beer samplers and pizza. The Star Trek movie was very ordinary. Brent drove with Adam today to his 4pm exam. They stayed after to help 4 people celebrate the same birth date. Monica went to Sam's party and she went right to the babysitting job without checking in. Unfortunately, she didn't call and I ended up waking up Sam's mom at 12, looking for her. Monica told me about finding a letter written by April about smoking last year. I wish she didn't tell me on the day we were telling April how happy we were with her behaviour lately. April relieved Monica as the babysitting ran late tonight. She has been showing a lot of maturity. Amazing what a change in friends can do! Annie at 12/14/2002 04:57:00 a.m.
April's french mark has been upgraded to a 65%!!! She did it and I think she enjoyed the process of the teacher challenging her. Tonight was semi for Stacy and she wasn't too prepared for it. She said it wasn't very good, there wasn't very many people there. This year the short dress was in. She went to Gemma's afterward but didn't do the drinking she thought she would. We went with Mark and Toni to the movies and dinner. We had beer samplers and pizza. The Star Trek movie was very ordinary. Brent drove with Adam today to his 4pm exam. They stayed after to help 4 people celebrate the same birth date. Monica went to Sam's party and she went right to the babysitting job without checking in. Unfortunately, she didn't call and I ended up waking up Sam's mom at 12, looking for her. Monica told me about finding a letter written by April about smoking last year. I wish she didn't tell me on the day we were telling April how happy we were with her behaviour lately. April relieved Monica as the babysitting ran late tonight. She has been showing a lot of maturity. Amazing what a change in friends can do! Annie at 12/14/2002 04:57:00 a.m.
April's french mark has been upgraded to a 65%!!! She did it and I think she enjoyed the process of the teacher challenging her. Tonight was semi for Stacy and she wasn't too prepared for it. She said it wasn't very good, there wasn't very many people there. This year the short dress was in. She went to Gemma's afterward but didn't do the drinking she thought she would. We went with Mark and Toni to the movies and dinner. We had beer samplers and pizza. The Star Trek movie was very ordinary. Brent drove with Adam today to his 4pm exam. They stayed after to help 4 people celebrate the same birth date. Monica went to Sam's party and she went right to the babysitting job without checking in. Unfortunately, she didn't call and I ended up waking up Sam's mom at 12, looking for her. Monica told me about finding a letter written by April about smoking last year. I wish she didn't tell me on the day we were telling April how happy we were with her behaviour lately. April relieved Monica as the babysitting ran late tonight. She has been showing a lot of maturity. Amazing what a change in friends can do! Annie at 12/14/2002 04:45:00 a.m. Driving Brent to his exam at Centennial this morning was filled with anxiety. He had a an hour shower and even though I told him I wasn't driving the highway he waited until it was very late. I hate highway driving; I have lost my nerve years ago when I lost control of the car. When he realized how late he would be he tried to talk me into the 401 so I eventually gave in and got on at Brock in Pickering. He has to make his own arrangements. I thought that he would try for his drivers licence, he talked about it but hasn't done anything since. Brent told me the other day that he would stay more at Grammie's and visit with his buddy Sullivan who lives around where we used to. Adam drove back home from school even though James called Brent to give him a ride from the parking lot. So Brent has made the first move towards patching up the friendship. Adam know that we were there to pick Brent up but he wanted to go with Adam. James and I had lunch with Keg's at Ajax Thirsty Monk place. We are one of the few people that can take advantage of his weird night shift and socialize with them. I am happy that James can set his own schedule. Nadia was so excited to tell us about a project she was working on at the NHL. She is making a game for the NHL party and the game she created was so good that the vice president said that they should try to market it. Nadia could make herself rich! I don't think board games would make it in the day of video games but she had so much fun creating it. She bought game pieces that were hockey players holding Stanley cups and even made the boards in proportion to the goal net. Stacy got stalked tonight and her reaction bothers James and me. She should have phoned us or the police, she had a cell phone but she tries to handle things herself. She was followed into a Mac's Milk store bothered as he walked too close to her all through the store. The guy stood right behind her step by step, didn't buy anything and then he followed her out. She ran to her van but just sat there so he couldn't follow her home. Instead he got out of the car towards her so she took off. She didn't want him to know where she lived so she took the long way home and thought she lost him when she turned left on an old yellow light. She pulled up in our driveway and hid so that they wouldn't think she just pulled in. James took her to the police station but although she could identify the make of the car she didn't have the licence plate. When they came home, the piano teacher was in the driveway and Stacy panicked because she thought it was the same car. April went to the school tonight with Erin for a play. She is being so pleasant to be around lately very good natured. She is seeing some of her friends for who they are, recognizing some of the things they shouldn't be doing. April is very enjoyable and entertaining. I went to Jessie's hockey game tonight and Hannah did not sit anywhere near me. There were 3 empty seats on my side and she went around and sat on the other side of Coral. Last year in house league we all sat together all the time, called ourselves 'the clique' and had so much fun as a group. This year she is distancing herself, and I don't know why. Stacy noticed it too. Maybe it is because she has some extra work to do for the team and is busy, I don't know but I am not going to feel bad about it now. After the second period we moved over to them. Annie at 12/13/2002 04:31:00 a.m. I went to the dentist today, the freezing didn't take effect at all so the drilling was somewhat painful. There were so after effects except a tender jaw because it was at the back. I got a phone call from the local newspaper and Monica won first prize in the Photo contest for a day in the life of school. She won not from one picture but with a series of pictures. As a bonus April won 4th prize! I am so glad that they had so much fun taking the pictures and this is fantastic! Our pool table bumpers and felt were installed today and it looks very good. It looks very classy and no matter what anyone says I am so happy that we have the big pool table. I don't think that it takes over the room, I think it makes the room. We went to the west end to Sears warehouse and bought me a dog walking coat. It was half the price it was in the catalogue $64.99. It is not a coat that I wouldn't normally buy but who is going to look at your coat when all you are trying to do is keep warm first thing in the morning. Annie at 12/12/2002 04:23:00 a.m. Caesar went wolf on me today, someone put a chicken carcass out near the road and he just went crazy. He tried to bite me through my gloves and tried to jump on me but I had my foot on the leash and I had to punch him and shake him until I got the bones out of his mouth. He was really snaring and basically scarred the crap out of me! I went to the Christmas concert for dress rehearsal with Grammie. Monica is annoyed that the Creature hasn't taught her the high notes yet, told her to fake it so she didn't want anyone to see her fingering. Hopefully her piano teacher will help her with her clarinet. The new kid at school was suspended for 5 to 10 days for trying to strangle Steven A. who mouthed off to the older boy. Steven's parents laid charges. Steven can bring out the best in any kid! Monica had a volleyball game tonight her first exposure in rep volleyball. Monica's serve counted 17 times in a row! On the 18th they finally volleyed it over but we got the point. So they subbed Monica out to break the points up and when they got a point the subbed Monica back. This perplexed her because they told her that if a player ws doing extremely well they wouldn't sub her and they went back on their word. Tara has been mad at April since she came over here when she fought with her parents. Now she says that she was mad because I talked to her mom about her mom pushing Tara down the stairs??? Excuse my French but WTF? First of all I didn't even talk to Tara's mom, I waived to her as she brought in her other daughter for soccer. What does she think that I am going to say to her anyway? "Hey, I heard you tried to push Tara down the stairs." I don't even believe it anyway. And I never heard about that part of their fight until tonight. She didn't want April to tell me why she was upset with April but I herd April defending me and telling Tara that she was going to talk to me about it. Tara made her feel alienated enough that I had to pry it out of April. Pretty good strategy eh? Say whatever you want about a person and then try to make the person swear that they won't tell. I think that Tara is trying to get April to not be as close as she is to me by pretending that I am talking about her when I am not. Annie at 12/11/2002 04:38:00 a.m. Monica lost her coat again, dashed off to school without one when it was -11 degrees out. I was so upset about her on my dog walk this morning that Erin's mom ran over later with a coat for Monica. I watched Stacy's school volleyball tournament in Toronto today at a Catholic School. Judging from what I hear about the big city these days a Catholic School is probably where my kids would be going. I would feel safer and besides, James is Catholic so what difference does it make, I have no problem with religion - I grew up in that environment. It is strange that every school there had a different ethnic complexion. Some school would be all Asian with a few token different races. The fact that there is so many cultures participating shows what our country is all about. Toronto was so white when I grew up there. The only one that seemed to stand out as white now was Birchmount, most of their players were white blonds with a few Asian. I guess all areas have different cultures in different pocketed to make a great city - Toronto. After the games, Stacy and I went to visit her old grade 7 teacher at Pickering High. He was coaching the junior volleyball team. They aren't very good but as he complained, "This isn't an area where they live/learn volleyball right through the system." Just as we were leaving he took Stacy aside and tried to whisper so I wouldn't hear, "Next time don't bring your mother!" I don't know if Stacy ever heard the rumours that he had a thing for her, but if she did, I know she will never visit him alone now. Grammie drove Brent to college because she stayed at Mark's last night and Brent will stay at Grammies overnight tomorrow. At least someone is happy at Brent's new arrangements. He is very good to his grandmother. There was nothing much to do there so Brent played cards with her. Stacy works in the gym, baseball coach forgot to tell her about a batting cage for tonight. The cops stopped Stacy tonight, she saw him following her and signalled left and becaseu she was so nervous of the cop she turned right. She showed him our insurance card and it had an expired but he let her off with a warning. Annie at 12/10/2002 04:38:00 a.m. Adam phoned me today to apologize for the inconvenience of him not driving Brent to school anymore. He stated that there was no point them both being in the car when they were so uncomfortable being together. They had words last night. Adam dissed Brent in front of a girl that Brent likes so Brent confronted him saying everyone knew that he talks about them all. Steve talked to me about it, said it has been building up for a while and even though Robin is nice, Adam and her are not good to be with as a couple. They stand their friends up or ditch them. I am uncomfortable talking to him about this and the fact that he approaches me at his work when he should be working. He even walks down the aisles with me while I shop. I am not getting him in trouble, he is. Monica had Melissa, Sam and Kate over today to work on a volcano project. April spent the day at Chelsea's. Annie at 12/09/2002 04:58:00 a.m. Tara is braging that she trashed her house wrote I HATE YOU all over her walls, smashed wine glasses and ransacked rooms of her house. When she ran out of her house she hid out here while we were out, and her poor parents didn't know where she was. April's throat is a little better but she stayed in until the evening when she went with Erin to baby-sit and then stayed overnight. Stacy stayed in alone this whole weekend. Nadia watched the hockey game here and then went out around ten to Don Cherry's for Wings with Derrick. I wish they wouldn't eat so late at night. She can't afford to not be active after she eats. Brent was at the Doobie Brothers overnight. Monica had Holly over for the night. Their bedroom is finally clean so they can have visitors over. Annie at 12/08/2002 04:44:00 a.m. April stayed home from school today, actually right in bed for the entire day. She is hardly ever home sick so I tend to believe her. Brent had an assignment with Adam, they were supposed to go in to school but in light of the gossip going on about Adam and Brent they didn't work well together. They ended up emailing it in. He finally brought the old Nintendo that April has been asking for home from Adam's. I hate to see them having this falling out. James and I went out to Montana's for lunch to energize ourselves to clothes hunt for the party. We found me a nice pair of pants and a sweater for tonight. I have gained weight so I had nothing to wear. Dinner was soooooo expensive $4200.00 for 12 of us. One of the wives was talking about the dinner bitch early on, she has no use for her either. It was almost better when it was an unspoken pact, and all we needed to feel connected was a glazed over glance. Before we left for dinner Tara phoned crying to April that her parents wanted her out of the house. I find it hard to believe that any mother would throw a 13 year old out. She came over here after we had left. April was supposed to go out to sleep over at Chelsea's but she was too sick. Instead she phoned Mark to ask what she should do for a sore throat. She has to be pretty sick to not go out with her friends. Cory was over and he stayed so late that his mom was looking for him. She finally got hold of him at 12:30 in the morning so I imagine he is in trouble. ------------------ Something Monica wants in her stalking: at buck or two when you walk in before you go to the isles you got to the front of them, there are these squishy things in different colours and the one I want is the lime green one! They’re really neat! Love Monica ------------------ Hey Mom it's Monica I'm really sorry I had Cory over until 12:30pm and I shouldn't have but we watched Jack Frost on TV with April and then we played video games we couldn't get through to Cory's house and I'm really sorry! Cory's mom came over to get him the phone line was busy because Sharon was calling people looking for Cory she called here but April was asleep and the ringer downstairs isn't ever on so we couldn't hear it, again I'm really really sorry! If I'm grounded I understand I shouldn't have had him over that late, sorry. Love Monica Annie at 12/07/2002 04:50:00 a.m. Finally did some Christmas shopping done for April. I was looking for something to wear for tomorrow but I couldn't find anything. I weighed myself last week and I have gained about 13 pounds. I could feel it sneaking up on me. I didn't feel well so I didn't go to Pitching Clinic. I think I have anxiety about the Christmas party tomorrow. I can see it all now. The Dinner Bitch No one is allowed to miss her entrance. She always makes an entrance and it is impossible to not notice her. She walks in on the arm of her hubby, like some kind of prize or maybe she thinks she landed the prize. Her voice is sharp but nothing compared to how it will project with each raised wine glass. That is one of the few pleasures I have on these nights - listening to how shrill she becomes. I give James the look that indicates that she is here, and wonder how everyone is going to keep us away from each other. She approaches my bar chair, drink in hand and offers her cheek for the air kiss. She backs up, looks me up and down and smirks. It is hard to smile back at her but it is my job. Be nice. And then she heads in the direction of the women. All I can gather from their conversation is in her hand gestures as she monopolizes the conversation. I should be there in that group. I am a wife, after all, and all I know is how to talk about the kids. I probably should be sipping wine with the other wives pretending to be interested in conversation instead of drinking beer with the men. Every year I have a choice. I can easily back out of the man group and walked over to the circle of wives, get near the two I actually like and align myself with them. I can ask about the kids whose names I never remember and their hair and their clothes. I can ask how they'd been since I saw them last year, in another restaurant, making nice, nice while the husbands stand around downing the drinks and talking shop. We follow the waiter to the table and everyone pauses to see where I stand, as this is one of the most important decisions of the evening. Where I sit. Everyone pauses until she sits down and then I sit a good distance away to make sure there is enough space between us. The top dog sits next to me, he enjoys my company as I do his. But the last couple of years I can feel his wife's eyes burning into me. She has begun to make her alliances with the dinner bitch. I look for my ally, why do they put her so far away from me? Because she is the buffer, just as I was until I dared to defend myself. Yes, I don't have to wait until tomorrow to write about our Christmas party. It is the same thing year after year. My night out! I talked to Derrick's mom for the first time ever on the phone about Nadia's drivers course and we had a good conversation. I just found out her name is Sharon. Brent wouldn't get up until supper again, we keep telling him that he is going to make himself sick by sleeping all the time. Annie at 12/06/2002 04:44:00 a.m. After trudging the heavy boxes of hoodies to College today to disperse to the students, Nadia and Derrick came home with a lot of them. I guess people just forgot about it. The hoodies have to stick around our house for the weekend because Nadia has co-op for the rest of the week. Monica got 83% on her report card! Not bad for doing her homework just before bed and at 6 in the morning! April got perfect on a French retest so her mark went from 40% to 43% so we know that she is determined to try. The teacher has captured her spirit and I think April is up to the challenge! We went to Burger Joint tonight, Brent walked in there with Steve (he couldn't come with us because he was waiting for his friends) so James gave him some money and Brent went and ate at Taco Bells instead Annie at 12/05/2002 04:31:00 a.m. The College Hoodies that Nadia designed came in today, she spent hours sorting the sizes and now she has to collect the money. It was a cod order so James had to give her the money and Nadia went to the bank. Fortunately they came after James and her figured out the cash situation because James insisted it all in advance. She will have made about $300.00 on it but it was a lot of work. She researched it very well so it was a good business experience. April got a free pass to boxersize from her gym teacher. I am glad April feels close to the gym teacher, she is trying a lot harder because of it. Her muscles are sore from the work out and working in the weight room. Hopefully this will encourage April to maintain her weight. Brent came out from hanging out with Brandon and Steve, they have been gossiping to Brent about Adam now he is very disillusioned with him, his best friend for years. Adam has been talking about Brent behind his back. Although Brent realized that Adam talked about most people behind there back, he thought because they thought of each other as best friends that Adam wasn't doing that to him. Apparently Adam has a name for all his friends and Brent's is the bullshiter. Brent is hurt because he considers himself an honest person. Adam even went as far as to say that Brent lied about Crystal wanting him back. I told him he could go into my email and check the letters she wrote to me and see for himself. He said that Brent cheated somehow on the exam where he got perfect. Right. Brent is supposed to go to a concert tomorrow with Adam and Derrick but he doesn't want to anymore. Annie at 12/04/2002 04:39:00 a.m. James thought that Nadia let the web page she is the webmaster for lapse but it turned out to be another company trying to get her business by pretending they already had her domain name. Monica's jumps and hits were highlighted at Volleyball tonight. She looks like she can hang in the air. I don't think her lack of height is hurting her right now, there are only a few tall girls but as they grow a round her I can see a problem. Even though she is average height compared to the rest of the girls, she looks so much more mature so that is why I think that she will be short, she has already had her growth spurt and looks very much like a young lady. They have her on power. To protect herself against the cold Stacy dressed in layers to walk the dog and was totally unrecognizable. She went out to get the dog in the back yard and the dog freaked and ran inside, wiped out sprawling like Bambi on ice in his attempts to get away from her. He wouldn't go near her until he recognized the sound of her voice and then he acted like he was embarrassed. We took the pool table rails in to have them replaced, they didn't have any bounce and we had an opportunity of changing the colour but everyone preferred the green. It will be ready soon. Annie at 12/03/2002 03:57:00 a.m. Party Backlash I didn't sleep well last night, I never do when I have drinks and lately I don't have to drink much to feel this way. I don't even enjoy the taste of Rye and Coke lately, wine, no, beer I still like. I heard Brent's party until almost four and then they went to Doober's for a hot tub. Amy and Jodi stayed overnight in the family room. April didn't like the way "that Buddy guy kept touching you." Monica wanted me to know that she didn't like him always talking to me and wanted to know why he was. James told me that Buddy gave Caesar a Rye and Coke in the hall on the floor. When James cornered him about it, he said it wasn't him and that he told the other person not to. There wasn't anyone else there and he for once didn't have a drink. I guess maybe we should have kicked him out then. Buddy phoned today to apologize. Brent talked to Buddy, he said that he was sorry for everything he did. He said he was very drunk and to apologize to me. I guess this was one of Jakes 'bad' friends I was warned about long ago. Fortunately I have met most of his good friends. Some kids hung out in the living room, even though Brent told them not to and left water stains on the piano and the floor from the beer bottles. This one girl B.J. went to get a picture with another guy and he freaked out, didn't want his picture with her because she has a violent boyfriend. My neighbours collected most of the discarded beer bottles that were thrown all over their lawns and stacked them in front of our house. I really can't blame them for that, they have been more than patient with the amount of parties we have. I wish the kids would just stay put in the house. They are defeating the purpose of why we had them in the basement in the first place. It was to give them privacy and a safe environment to party in where I could take care of them. When they keep going outside I have no control, any drunk could come and go and I couldn't help them at all. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why they are going outside in the cold winter night. Wacky tabacky. James brought me downstairs to show me the pool table and an end rail was off. I immediately thought that it happened at the party and I was so upset until I saw James smile. He always said the bumpers were dead and he wants knew ones. I hope it can get done before the holiday season. Annie at 12/02/2002 04:40:00 a.m. Party Pooper I had a bad feeling about Brent's party that something might go wrong, I even expressed my concern to James, Stacy and Brent but it never crossed my mind that it would be me that would be involved in it. James stayed downstairs with me for quite a while, he is elated about not having Crohn's and we were celebrating. He has had so many early nights in the last year; I was thrilled to have him by my side for once. Amy, Jodi, Stacy and Jessie kept us company for quite a while. We were included in the party, not just watching over it. At the beginning of the party Steve was very funny, he kept saying, "write that down" to anything he thought was remotely intelligent. Very soon though the entertainment shifted to Jeannette. Steve says that, whatever Jeannette wants to do she does, she relies on her beauty to get her way. She is the one who told James and I to fuck off a couple of years ago (see June 16/01). She convinced Steve into picking her up but he really complained about having to do it. If he didn't want to pick her up then he shouldn't have agreed. As Steve went to pick her up James told him, "I bet she won't even be there" and sure enough, he came back from Oshawa angry, she wasn’t there, he even got out of the car looking for her. She phoned again demanding that he drive back and get her but he wouldn't, so she whined to get other people to drive her. No one wanted to talk to her and people were handing off the phone to anyone. Josh sudden boldness surprised me; he commandeered the phone, entertained us, rambling on to her with a lot of gibberish. The more he babbled the more she pleaded until the waterworks started. I couldn't understand why she was so desperate to come here. While Josh sang 'muzak' to her Rich gave in as usual, and went to pick her up. Jeannette took the abuse on the payphone, because she wasn't supposed to be in Oshawa. Her uncle told me she had lied to her parents, she had to make her way here so that her mom wouldn't find out. She is a beautiful girl and can easily get the attention of most guys and tonight she was giving the eye to Jess C. and all I could think of was not this again- not the black spider. Buddy's reputation precedes him; a non-stop big mouth and he lived up to my expectations. Even though there were numerous teens I didn't know at the party I quickly identified him. While he was talking nonsense to me, I said, "You must be Buddy". He replied, "You must be Brent's younger sister" Yeah right. Drunken Buddy somehow managed to grab one of the cacti by our door. The invisible slivers were driving him crazy, he needed someone to blame so he blamed me. He went on and on about it, told me he was going to sue me, he kept coming upstairs whining blah blah blah... He attempted to rub his hand on my face so that I would feel the prickles but I pushed him away. There was absolutely no way, he was getting near me, I told him a firm "no" and to back off. He persisted, got so carried away that he tried to force the issue, which somehow turned to a sexually suggestive attempt to guide my head to places I didn't want to go! Of course I fought back, this was ridiculous there were so many kids downstairs to hit on. Ewww. Why me? My struggle became more physical and the kids could see I needed help. Stacy and Jessie came to see what the ruckus was and I couldn't believe the look of anger on Stacy's face and Jessie saw red. Jessie spat through his teeth for Buddy to get away from me so Buddy focused on him and it looked ugly. I yelled at Buddy to either go downstairs or get out. He started to argue with Jessie and it looked like they were going to come to blows. I yelled many times at him to get. He bad mouthed Jessie, opened the basement door and staggered down the stairs sliding into the pictures as he went. Jessie and Stacy were so mad I knew he had to go so I ran after him. We yelled for Brent but he was not in the basement and Stacy yelled for Jake who escorted Buddy out without any questions asked. Buddy was so out of it he didn't even understand that it was only him that was leaving at first. He threatened Jessie to a fight for Monday. Jess C. came in when they were all talking to Buddy outside and asked if Buddy took a swing at me. When I said he did, Jess left angry and you could her him threatening Buddy. I am glad those two are here because they always help Stacy out. I wish that never happened. I think Buddy thinks I am Stifler's mother! Annie at 12/01/2002 04:58:00 a.m.
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