Dear MySpace,

I have been cheating on you with your sister, Facebook. I know I haven't been on here for quite awhile, but once I got onto Facebook, I was addicted. Like a crackhead willing to do anything for another hit. These last few days I think I have began to control my habitual use of Facebook. Yeah, I still log on at work just to see what people are saying. At night, I used to be on it from the time I got home until I went to bed. The tv or movies would be playing in the background as I focus on Facebook. Now, I have decided when I come home, I just log on to play my games, browse a bit, and then shut it off to watch the news or the movie I chose for that night. Maybe jump on one more time before bed. I don't even remember the last time I was on MySpace.

Tomorrow, I take the oldest son to get evaluated for the things he has being doing lately. My college course on Introduction to Film ends next Monday and then it is on to History or something like that. Only 13 more classes to go for my degree. I believe I am set to graduate in Dec 2011 right now. I leave in October for two weeks to go to Wisconsin for job training. Leave again for two weeks in December for my Annual Training...in Italy. Yeah, just a little excited. Other than that, everything has been the same. Going to work and everything else. My bro, Ralphd00d, has his birthday coming up and we will be celebrating on Monday, Labor Day, as we normally do. Well, that is about it for now.

Horrible Day

Today is one of the worst days I have had ever. My oldest was refusing to go to school and threatened to run away or hurt himself. I finally had to get him in the vehicle, struggling with him the entire time. I get to the school and he refuses to get out. I go inside the school to get help when I hear my alarm going off. He jumped out of the car and took of running, but I had no idea in Which direction. So after 30 minutes of driving around the heighborhood I return to the school. They decided to call the police. After 30 min of talking with the police, I continue to drive around the neighborhood. After returning home, I find him in our backyard. I call the police to let them know I found him and they were coming over to talk to him. While talking to them, he admitted he said he wanted to hurt himself. Because of that, by law, they had to call anambulance to take him to the hospital to get evaluated. We sta there for a few hours just for the counselor to say he can not determine anything because my son would not talk to him. So now I have to schedule him for a psyche eval at an outpatient behavioral health center. To top it all off, he didn't want to go toschool because of schoolwork. Today was a half day. He would have already been home while we were at the hospital if he had just gone to school. Wish me luck tomorrow morning.

And the school season starts...

Well, all three of my kids started school yesterday. It seems the only one to have a good first day was the middle child, who just started 3rd grade. The oldest, 6th grade, apparently has an a$$hole for a social studies teacher. I briefly heard him talking to other parents last week when we went to the school to take the kids through their rounds. I figured he would be a problem. If he goes off on my son for anything other than school work, I will take this matter to the school and then the district. He seems to a verbally abusive person. My daughter didn't have a good day as she started kindergarten. Apparently the teacher wrote something and wanted her to read it, which she is not able to read just yet except for a few words.

I'm still doing well after finishing week one of my Introduction to Film class. My graduation date just updated again and I am slotted to graduate in December 2011. Other than all that, still working, still living, still surviving.

Hello, old friend

It seems I haven't been getting on here as much as I used to. Ever since I joined facebook a few weeks ago, I seem to spend a lot of time on that catching up with old friends and family members that live far away. The only downside to facebook is everyone you add as a friend can view what you say. True, here as well, but only a few people know of this site.

Went and registered the kids for school Thursday night and meet the teacher kind of thing. My oldest will be going to middle school as they changed middle school to 6th-8th grade. He goes earlier than my other two kids, and gets out later. The other actually will be riding a bus. Yeah, no more wasting gas.

Just finished my last class of Business Ethics and received another A. I am already in my next class, Introduction to Film. Only 14 more classes to go get my degree.

Have drill this upcoming weekend, so another 12 day work week. Been watching a few movies, but nothing to really write about. Until next time.

nice small getaway

Well, I just made it back from a nice small getaway. I saw I had some money coming in from my school so I took the family to CA. I needed to make the trip anyways as I needed to go to my Battalion (BN), to gain access to one of the systems for the Army. I also had to go and pick up a laptop as my work computers are outdated and I was locked out of them for reasons I am sure I have explained before. So, we left Thursday night and headed to Riverside. Got there about 11pm. Found where my BN was and looked for the closest hotel. It was a mom and pop motel called MOTEL 7. It seemed it was in a corporate/industrial area as I had not seen any houses in the neighborhood, just businesses. I went to check in and it was only $55, not bad for the first night. As I drove around, I saw that there were maybe three other cars in the parking lot. Well, it is a Thursday night, I figured. Went into the room and it was really small. Kind of like a spare bedroom size with two beds in it and a tv mounted on the wall that really didn't work so well. Oh, well, we were only there to sleep for the night as I had to be ready early the next morning. We walked in and unloaded our vehicle. The room smelled like mold. I went to the front desk and informed them and they switched rooms. I had them go in the first room to smell it as well. Anyways, we get into the second room and the kids start saying they want to go home, they miss the dogs. Finally after getting them settled down I tried to go to sleep. I say try because this room sucked. The pillows felt like pillow cases inside a pillow case. No cushioning. The beds were hard. I started thinking about the Bates Motel. My wife couldn't sleep and mainly hung out in the vehicle listening to the radio as the kids and I slept. She did tell me she saw a few african american teenagers walking through the parking lot looking at vehicles, but they didn't cause her any trouble. Maybe her being out there kept them from doing anything. Not stereotyping, but this motel was not in a neighborhood, it was in a corporate/industrial area and it was between 2-3am.

The next morning, we checked out and I took the family with me. I was not about to leave them there. So I went to my BN, did my stuff to get access, talked to a few key personnel in BN and introduced myself to those that I have spoken with on the phone, but have not met in person, and spoke with the BN Commander, who again says what a great job I am doing and to keep it up. After that, we went to Bell to where my Headquarters is located. Talked to the leadership there, got my laptop and took care of a few other things. After that, we proceeded to Santa Paula where one of my wife's friends live. She was still working and couldn't find a decent hotel in that town, so we continued another 20 miles to Ventura. I ended up booking a room at the Marriot in Ventura, less than a 1/4 mile from the state beach. Took the kids down to the beach just to walk it and chase the waves, not swimming. We then went to my wife's friend's house later that evening as she was hosting a birthday party for another friend, but wanted to see us. We stayed for a little while then headed back to the hotel.

We woke up a little later than we wanted and decided to check out instead of swimming at the beach in Ventura. It was like in the 60's, overcast, and the water was cold the night before. So we began to head south. Ended up going to Seal Beach to go swimming and the kids had fun. Walked the pier and everything as well. We then proceeded to San Diego and went to Seaworld. Since I am in the military, my family and I get in free. Let me rephrase that. Me and three of my family members get in free. I had to pay for my 5 yr old daughter....$50 to get in. Geez, I may have saved $200 getting four of us in, but $50 for a 5 yr old? That is ridiculous. So we stayed there for about 3 hours and decided to head home instead of wasting money on another hotel. We got back around 4am this morning. It seemed busy and a lot of driving, but it was also relaxing and nice to get out of AZ. Oh, and it finally rained at our house. The whole time we were gone.