So From July to October Here It Goes

JULY Jacob did come home the end of July and there was a readjustment period. We re-enrolled him at the local public school to see if he could try again to be mainstreamed with out issues. While going through the enrollment process I discuss my worries with the head of the special education department. Jacob was one of the first children IEP tested when school began. We did go back to Mancelona and Jake had a blast. I absolutly love the outdoors and living so far away from the hussle and bussle of the suberbs and cities. AUGUST This month saw more changes yet a steadying of our relationship. I am now on meds and they are working wonderully. The first two weeks were very hard but from then on it's been much easier. We held a very successful garage sale and got the idea to look into permanant flea market booths for Simple Treasures. During our garage sale a gentleman came buy looknig for jewelry. I know material possessions are everything and I rarely wear my jewelry and money was tight so Jake wouldn't have been able to go to the Warren Birthday Bash Carnival.... I sold my jewelry. nothing too big or expensive BUT it did give us 90$ to go play with for the day. To this day it's one of my FAVORITE memories. He got a wristband to ride all the rides AND he was tall enough. He was riding rides even I really don't like. He rode the Crazy Spin without me b/c i didn't have a wristband. He hated it yet rode it 3 times b/c the "girls" asked him too. Side/note I am going to have to beat them off with a stick when he's older. Then he got his face painted, got to feed the petting farm animals, ride a camel, watch fireworks, eat yummy foods and walk around downtown Warren. He had such a good time. Now work wise this month my manager left so was waiting to see how that would work out. Turns out that was the best thing EVER. Absolutly love my job now. SEPTEMBER Now school started and Jake is doing really well. His teacher is willing to help him more and he will stay in the mainstream classroom which I am really worried about. But so far it's going okay. Work is turning out to be awesome. Hours can be made up as needed. He lets us take off days that we need with no consequneces b/c our job is mainly a sit and wait job anyway. So that's made things 1,000 times easier. We also found a permanant residence for our business at a local flea market and steve is there every friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So far it's breaking even and even seeing some green weekends. MAJOR PLUS! I have also gone off of hiatis from Dollar Tree Kenn has asked if I'll come work a weekend and then he got the best surprise ever. I told him I'll work every weekend both days til christmas then I will readvise my weekends to every other full weekend and EVERY Sunday. This is my play money. I do whatever I want with it. Right now it's paying for normal stuff but starting in October it'll be put to better use. The van has turned out to be a godsend! We use it for Simple Treasures ALL The time. Love the fact the seats come in and out so easily but the next van will have stow in go if it's not a truck plain and simple. We got a DOG! She is a rescue pitbull lab mix. We were told there is a good chance she is knocked up. I got her from Tina before Tina went back to her Ex boyfriend who doesn't like me so she no longer talks to me and our moving up north with her was disgaurded. I am upset about it but at same time it's her life and if it makes her happy so be it. We are still planning on movingup north just not as quickly now. In fact we are looking at property even FARTHER NORTH now :) I have made friends with a few people who live on self sustaining properties and if I could eventually get that way we'd love it. OCTOBER Early this month we lost our beloved kitty, Bella. Animals are animals and they have animcalistic nature. New dog + scared cat= one BAD situation. In less than 45 seconds of rough play Bella's intestine was punctured fro mthe inside and she did not make it through the night. It was very sad and an eye opener that you can not always force animals to get along. We harbor no ill will towards Baby Girl. We just take extra precaution with our furbabies now. And mentioning Babies... BABY GIRL is DUE ANYTIME!!!! We're not exactly sure when she was tagged (mated with) so we're not sure when she's due but she looks HUGE!!!! I am loving working the two jobs. One garunteed 40 hours and then 16 at the other store is working out pretty decent. Especially with Steve working weekends too. For the weekends Jake either goes to his dad's or goes to work with Steve. He is a natural born salesman. When he's not grounded he LOVES gonig to work with Steve b/c the other vendor s ALWAYS have something for him. Kid is SO spoiled! Talking about Jake this child is going to DRIVE ME BONKERS! He was good all of September for school and then magically the 2nd week of October ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! He's hitting girls, not listening, doing whatever he wants, talking out of turn, telling substitutes off. WTH! So now he's grounded and we're starting the SAME PROBLEMS as last year jsut a little later in the year. His teacher this year is pregnant so I'm not sure how much she's going to tolorate... If he gets suspended so help me............. Sweetest Day was this past weekend and I got 1 lb of Steve's favorite hand picked chocolates AND a Card AND one milk chocolate rose and one dark chocolate rose. He loved them. He felt really bad he didn't get me anything. He has real issue using my money to be me any gifts and had a bad weekend at store. It's all good I don't mind doing the spoiling. Which is exactly what I am doing right now. I started my christmas shopping and Jake's main stuff is already in layaway. We're going to do the rest of it next week. I ALSO went and started Steve's shopping. He probably couldn't tell you the last time he was spoiled for christmas.... SOOO I AM SPOILING HIM THIS YEAR!!!!! He will probably have more gifts under the tree than Jake from us. Jake gets spoiled from aproximatly 16 other people so he won't be left wanting but this year I want to spoil my other love. Plus gotta get stuff for al lthe animals including little stockings. I think cats are getting scratch post and treats, toys, maybe some fancy food. Lizard is getting new foliage and scenery for his HUGE 55 gallon tank, a new lid and double lighting and maybe some special treats as well. Baby girl sigh is going to get some treats and toys. Hopefully her puppies will make great christmas presents to others but I think they won't be ready to go yet. I refuse to give up baby animals before 8 weeks old. I wish I knew of natural remodies for fleas. Because all of my animals were rescues I can't seem to get away from the little biters. GRRRRR! And vets want WAY TO MUCH MONEY FOR FLEA TREATMENTS! Which brings me to my next idea. I am thinking of making my major something to do with care of animals. It will help out greatly if we ever get the farm and I already know how to help humans so maybe if I do a duel animals and people healing we can cut out some MAJOR bills when it comes to animals. Just a thought I am entertaining. My weight loss is making slow progres. I am down 20 lbs from July. I start the gym tomorrow so I shoul see a HUGE spike in my loss. My goal is to be 200 by New Years Eve so we can dance it up BIG style :) So there's my end of summer beginning of fall synopsis. Maybe this time I'll keep up more on it :) Love Always, Nickie

This week

We had fun on Saturday at Tin's BBQ and then I had to work Saturday night and Sunday at Dollar Tree with my favorite manager EVER Kenn. Ended up leaving early on sunday with some medical issues and spent 5 hours in the ER to be told have to see a regular doctor who has more time to figure out specific problems GRRR. That means more time off of work that I can not afford. Oh well we'll figure it out. Steve ordered his new memory card for his work camera since i kinda broke the regular one by TAKING IT INTO THE LAKE!!!!! OPPS lol. He is anxiously waiting for his camera so he can get back to work. He picked up a BUNCH of old horror VHS movies and he wants to get them up on Ebay b/c they are big sellers apparently. He is also working the the video game package he picked up a few weeks ago gotta say i love having the vintage systems to play anytime I want. Jake comes home Thursday!!!! I am so excited. I have missed him so much but I bet he had fun at his dad's. He gets home and the next day we're taking him to Mancelona to see where he's going to be moving too. He has no idea yet. I don't know how he's going to feel about it. I think having his god brothers live so close will make it easier on him. Plus he loves animals so that should help too. His dad has agreed to the move and we're going to adjust the parenting time agreement to reflect the move. He'll get Jake on school vacations and every other holiday gulp plus a few weeks every summer. Lots of kids do it so we'll see how it works. Still not really talking to my parents I'm tired of how they were treating Steve and I. So what if you don't agree with what we're doing not everyone lives the same way, you should still show approval or at least love and compassion and understanding not everyone lives the same. But thats a subject I rather leave closed lol. So hopefully they'll figure it out soon. I guess that's all for now Love Always, Nickie

Lots of things always happening in my life :) Steve and I are still doing good. I'm back in counseling for my bipolar disease and they are thinking meds starting meds next month. I'm kind of excited to hopefully be able to live with a normal emotional level and not always up and down so much. I cry over everything. The anger turns to sadness to happiness so quickly it makes MY head spin. Jake has spent the summer at his dads. He comes home next week. I really need to figure out how to print out some pictures. I miss having pictures everywhere. Hopefully getting my laptop up and running as Steve is using the desktop for work most days. We are moving to mancelona, mi sometime soon. Still in the planning stages but thats okay. It will happen and I am so excited for it to happen. We're moving up there with Tina and her sons and possibly her boyfriend who is also one of my good friends Chris. I have gotten almost nowhere in the weight loss :( I have to get my self control and cravings under control. The good news is I am much more active and will continue to be that way. Im am steady sitting at a size 16. I really just want to be healthy. Figured out my stomach issues I am now on prilosec once a day. We did get the car program from MI works. I am now the proud owner of a wonderful 2003 Windstar, and it works wonders. Still hate the job but it still pays the bills lol. I had my wisdom teeth out last month. THAT was horrible. but my mouth is finally healing :) Love Always, Nickie

Overview Of April

April has been a kick ass month. My birthday was amazing all around. VIP circus tickets, a pandora bracelets with charms, candles, lotions, flowers, money, tons of facebook wishes, time with my family and friends. I LOVED IT~!~~~~ Steve and I are doing soo much better. Jake keeps asking for a sibling :/ We're just not ready for another baby yet. Maybe soon but we want to get married first. But right now we're still working on a car through mi works and then working on buying our first house. It should be sometime this year so I'm excited. I am also now riding the city bus to work and it feels amazing to be independant of needing a ride from people who mistreat you. Now for my kids. My older "adoptive" children are all doing extremely well. Mikey and Walid are both working. Mikey is also going to college and Walid just got a new 2012 Fusion! I am soo proud of them. Zainab is working full time and holding down the fort while Mike is going to school. They celebrated thier 4 year anniversary this month. Paige is going to school and focusing on academics right now getting ready to graduate. Paige and Walid will be celebrating thier 1 year anniversary in June. My youngest adopted Austin is being a teenager :) What else can I say? He's staying out of trouble and working on school. As for my monkey, Jacob <3 He is doing very well when he applies himself. He can blow threw math pages liek they're nothing IF he wants to. He is defiant (oh joy) and constantly wants things his way and will not budge. He has been grounded and had privledges taken away alot lately. His dad is now getting involved with the behavior modification process of grounding and holding up my punishments liek this weekend he will not be going to his dads since he had a bad schoolweek and his dad is also talking to him over the phone and explaining his behavior can not continue. I mean he actually hurt my feelings this week. I started making him breaskfast and leaving him a little note and the 2nd day I did it, he ignored the note threw it on the ground and ate COLD pancakes before steve could even warm them up bc he wanted to do it before he did his morning chores. Hes supposed to feed the animals before he eats b/c he likes to NOT feed the animals at all. He's just being a rambuncious 7 yr old.... is he 18 yet? :D Still fighting with DHS for the car program AND bridge card they keep messing with my paperwork its not even cool. I hate my job but it pays the bills so I suffer for a little bit longer. Love Always, Nickie

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Love Always, Nickie