Presents @ MindSay

well, its been awhile again...I haven't been myself since July-August probably and I didn't feel like writing any.
The Dixie Classic Fair was fun though,but I got very tired that day.. That it how its been . I get so tired doing anything and stomach problems too. I was glad when my Doctor appointment finally arrived over a week ago now. All my blood work came back with great results. No thyroid problems or Liver problems and I'm not perimenopausal either... Cholesterol levels were great as were blood count, etc.. so, Dr. said it sounded like depression. All the stress from this year...Yes, worry is a sin..I don't handle it very well and I give it to God, but I always manage to pull it back..Not what you're supposed to do...so now I'm back on my Zoloft after being off it for well over two years..Starting to feel like me again. Last friday at the West/Reynolds game I had the best time. My friend I haven't seen in a long while, Trace' Cave Cunduff came. and wonders of all we saw John Sherrill too! We haven't seen him in years! Long years! LOL He has not changed a bit! He's still John! haha.. we had a great time picking and carrying on..just like the old days again! I knew I was gonna be okay then..
I can almost pinpoint a time when I really felt lowest...The day we got that Certified letter from our mortgage co..I had to sign for it and my heart sank...I prayed so hard while opening that letter, and called James crying my eyes out...That was hard, as I have written before. I just kept praying though, and I knew God would answer in His time, but I was being honest with Him and asking Him to hurry up. :)  Not what you're supposed to do either, but He knows me and we are all human and live in this imperfect world.
Meanwhile its been getting cooler and having crisp nights. There have been some Indian Summer days though. I was able to not turn our heat on for almost 2 whole weeks.
Then Monday came. I was working at home on Quickbooks trying to get it straight for Biogreen. I get a call and answer it. It's Lynn. She's been helping us deal with our mortgage co..She said"They are sending you a package out Fed Ex and you should get it tomorrow.. Your interest rate dropped to 6.375% and your new payments are like $848.00"... My skin started prickling and I cried... I felt relief wash over me.. She didnt know the rest of the details..we'd find out from the letter.. I stayed home again on Tuesday and worked on Quickbooks again,finishing it....James came home for lunch like he always does...I see the Fed Ex truck back into the driveway... James goes to meet him and signs for the letter... we sit together and open it. I read it...
"James, it says that this is for the next 365 months!"  Oh my! Here come the pricklings again!!! We look at each other.. "So this is the new payment for the rest of the loan?" "Yes!!" Hallaluha!!  after trying 3 times with them to get this Loan Mod, we get it and it's great! we didnt know if it would be just 6 months as most are or a year, but the life of the Loan!! That was such a blessing !!! A burden lifted!! I thanked God all the rest of that day and still am....
another prayer was answered too on Tuesday. Ariana was able to trade her Jeep and her $2500 for a 2002 Saturn! It only had about 75000 miles on it. Her jeep broke down over a week ago and it was a pain trying to get her to College and picked up and to work and me to work.... it was a mess but we did it.. and she had to buy the $84 dollar part and Jeff fixed the jeep for her, but it still needed a battery...she'd go somewhere and have to get a jump to start it... Not good..plus it was eating gas and ate oil like crazy too. She had to put 3 quarts in every two weeks or so.. she did cry though...The jeep was her first car... She didn't really want to give it up, but she knew it was for the best. Now she 'll have a good car when she goes to UNCC in a year or so..
and Morgan. He had to buy a new car too. Late September his old car starting acting up and stalling out on him, so James looked around here and found him a "97 Grand Am with only about 65000 miles on it.. and Morgan could afford it. he just had to borrow $1300 from Grandma to do it and he'll pay her back in Jan. when he gets his financial aid $ again. It cost him $2800.00. Both of the kids cars are white now! That is odd! I wont know who is who until I can see the whole car coming in!! LOL
So many blessings this week..... I am feeling better on my medicine and getting things done now that got neglected over the summer...Whew..now on to the next problem..figuring out how to pay our taxes of $1800.00!!! since we inherited that 7 acres of land, our property taxes went up...big time!! 
We signed the papers from the Mortgage co. and Fed ex'd them back all on the same day...we should hear soon about when payment is due and all that... 
There's still the matter of Christmas too. I told James we could not afford to buy for everyone this year... We will get the small ones something, and try to figure out how and what to do for Morgan and Ariana... I just want us to be together...I don't need one thing! After all what is Christmas all about anyway? -The Birth of our Lord and Saviour!!!! When you realize that, nothing else matters. Enjoy the season of Love!
Thanksgiving coming soon! Time to Thank the Lord for all our blessings! But we should thank Him on a daily basis... He does so much for us..look for the small things and the big things..There's always something! I remind myself of that daily...

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Dixie currently feels:

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Friday it be. Today be the day of the night out and Dixie's epic 18th birthday sleepover. :D
 
Friday is the day I have to go into college for a film studies lesson, so mam drove me there and she even agreed to pick me up afterwards. It was a lesson that passed rather quickly, just another lesson of watching video clips and making notes. Basic stuff. Dixie gets the feeling there's going to be a lot of this.
 
When I got home, I straightened up my room, planted peas on my FarmVille field and waited around for my guests. :)
Shelly came first, who was swiftly followed by Adam 20 minutes later. We hadn't him knocking on the door becuase mam had a hairdryer on proper loud, so he let himself in.
 
These are Adam's present:
 

 
Aren't they epic?! :D
They've earned pride of place on my gaming shelves. The super mushroom has cherry candies, the 1-up mushroom has apple candies and the power star has "star" candies that don't really have a flavour that can be defined.



Adam said they sold "shitty blue mushrooms" as well and he said they don't even exist in the Mario games. I think they're meant to be from New Super Mario Bros. - so the blue mushroom would be the mini mushroom. If I'm ever in town with some loose coins, I might get it to complete the collection. Perhaps.
 
Ashleigh came later and the three of us were engaging in our usual banter - Adam and I were fairly hyper while Shelly and Ash were in relativley sane states of mind.
Dad came in just before we were about to leave and pissed me off. If the rest of the night hadn't been so mint, he'd have ruined it all for me. He put me in a shitty mood for the next 45 minutes and I didn't hyper up again till we were in Eston on the minibus.
 
He came in having a whinge on about the whole personal message thing - making idle threats to Adam and Shelly about not swearing. But he only had to say it ONCE. But he said it OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. He pissed me off that much I ended up shouting at him - and because he ended up upsetting Shelly because he spoke to them like shit.
I did tell Shelly though that he talks to me even worse than that sometimes.
 
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The minibus came at half 7, and we went around Eston and Grangetown picking everyone up. First nana and Susan, then nana, grandad, Ian and Lisa - then finally off to get Christine and Roger.
 
We were playing fucking musical chairs - I was sat at the front to start with and by the end, mam had banished Adam and myself right to the back. I was like "MURRR, BIRTHDAY GIRL HERE, BANISHED TO THE BACK OF THE BUS!"
 
Joe Rigatoni's was a lot smaller than I expected it. I dunno why I expected it to be a big place like - but anyway, it wasn't.
We had to stand about and wait to be seated - I was stood talking to nana Pat and Susan while everyone faffed about at the bar.
 
I'd wanted to sit in the middle of the long table - and I SORT OF was, more of the middle slanted to the right. Between Adam and Shelly, opposite Susan with nana Pat on her right and Ian on her left. I couldn't really see Ash because she was sat right on the edge of the table - bless her, she had to keep shuffling out every time Adam, Shelly or I needed a piss.
 
It was amusing listening to everyone's orders - about 11 of us wanted parmos. :)
OH, AND THEY WERE FUCKING EPIC PARMOS.
Absolutley MASSIVE, but NECTAR.
I didn't finish it entirley - but they did a service where you could get it boxed up and taken back with you, so we did that. :)
 
I was worried about Adam: the combination of parmo and Jaques had made him feel ill - and he was in the toilets for ages. I went to check on him - just stepping slightly inside the block so I could see if he was alright. He seemed it - but didn't want any more cider, so I ended up drinking the rest of it.
I got a bit drunk again - slightly over what I was at nana's 50th wedding anniversary. Shelly, Ash and Adam thought it was hilarious. I'm not that funny - I'm just sort of hyper, more talkative and my voice is a bit higher and I talk slower.
 
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Here's some photos:
 















 
And of course, the epic Guitar Hero cake. It's in the shape of my beloved LEGEND. :D
 

 
Oh, and it was awesome. Mam critiqued my cake-cutting skills, so I made her do it.
It wasn't one of those cakes with the icing to cake ratio 2:1 - there was just enough icing and plenty of cake.
 
The minibus home was fucking mint. Everyone was sort of drunk - so we were all laughing and merry - sucking the helium out of the balloons. Ash sounds HILARIOUS. I expected her to end up sounding relativley normal, but she does end up quite squeaky. Not as bad as Adam and my dad - they were both talking to each other with their new squeaky tones. Everyone was pissing themselves.
 
Shelly, Ash, Adam and I were all sat at the back of the bus - so Shelly and I had a lot of privacy to kiss as much as we wanted. I did want - so she gave me lots of kisses. :D
 
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Ian and Lisa came back with us - we had a few more drinks and played Guitar Hero 5.
I kicked it off with Du Hast - I tried Expert vocals (and bodged them up because the new vocals system is HARD) while Shelly and Adam both played guitar.
 
I didn't really like Guitar Hero 5. I hate the interface - and I couldn't see properly because all the colours were blurred together, so I just sat and watched.
Ian and Lisa did a lot of vocals while you couldn't get Shelly off the guitar. Ash didn't play much either, so I was just cuddled up to her, playing with her hair for most of the time.
 
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When the time came - mam and Adam inflated the airbeds and we all threw the bedding, sleeping bags and pillows down the stairs. The sleeping bags proper bounce. :)
 
Shelly took the 3-seater sofa, Ash got the 2-seater, Adam got the bigger airbed over by the TV and I had the smaller one between the two sofas and paralell to Adam.
We stayed awake for a lot of the time, talking - and trying to shut Adam up because he was listening to his iPod and singing The Veronicas PROPER loud. It's weird being in the dark downstairs. I proper couldn't make ANYTHING out. :)

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Dixie currently feels:

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Blog #260

Happy Birthday To Me...

Anyway, today is the day Dixie turned 18.

I don't feel any different. I don't want to be 18.

For one, I don't like the number 8 - and for two, I don't like this immense burden of suddenly being an adult now on my head.

The only good thing is, now I can legally buy porn and sex toys. :)

Hello Ann Summers! :P

I still had college today, regardless of the pile of presents by the fireplace.

I didn't have time to open them when I woke up, so I only opened the cards that were there and put them on the mantlepiece. Mam had gone a bit mad with the decorartions - banners, balloons and foil tinselly things all over the place.

I should have opened the presents though - because for the entire day, I was left wondering what the box on top of my PS2 was.

When I came out of the house, ready to walk for my bus - this chav was walking by, and he was proper staring at me.

I didn't actually know why - until I realised he wasn't staring at me at all, he was staring at the banners and the balloons on the window behind me.

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College was pretty meh.

English was relativley boring, but thankfully - not too tormenting.

Media Studies was reasonable - another lesson on those horror films.Watching clips and taking notes. Very easily done. I love the old horror films too. Especially Nightmare On Elm Street. :D

Freddy Krueger - definatley my costume of choice this year for Ian's halloween party.

Today I had a beasty 3 hour break - Shelly walked down to the docks with me. We both bought sausage sandwiches and I got myself a bottle of water.

We went to the paved part down by the river and sat on the benches for a few hours, cuddling and talking. Shelly gave me lots of kisses too. We were in a really secluded part, shaded by trees and bushes, so nobody was there to bother us. It was freezing though - and despite Shelly's best efforts to keep me warm by cuddling me close to her - we only retreated back to college for the remaining 45 minutes of this beasty gap purely based on the fact it was far too bloody cold.

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When I got back, mam was in - and I finally got to know what was in the box.

An odd surprise - Shelly said it would be Guitar Hero 5 - but the box was WAY too small to have a guitar in it, and too big to be just the game - so I knew she was wrong. I had a feeling it might be something silly, like one of those daft novely keys - but it was far too heavy for that.

I opened it and I found a sexy DIGITAL PHOTO FRAME.

Fucking PHWOAR mate. :D

It looks fairly complex to set up, but I have a few ideas. I'll have a fiddle around with it - get some of our epic Saturday trio photos on there and show Ash and Shelly the next time they're round. It'll be a sweet addition to my desk - turned on for guests and when I need cheering up. :)

She'd also got me a mug with a cuddly troll inside it and a silver pentagram pendant. Sexah. :)

Paul had been and dropped off a card and the two Maximo games he'd ordered for me. Maximo and Maximo VS Army Of Zin, the sequel. And apparently, there's something else coming in the post for me. Oooh, I wonder. :)

And lastly, another jiffy bag with one of the games from Shelly - Ed, Edd 'N' Eddy: The Mis-Edventures. :)

Mam scorned my immaturity. Nah, she's just boring. I know how to have fun. :P

I wanted to go and play my new games, but mam fucking swayed me with a season of Desparate Housewives. Damn her. :)

While we watched this, I ate some instant macaroni cheese that smelt like sour milk and vomit, but tasted really good. :P

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Ian and Lisa came later on the night - and they'd brought my card and their present actually did contain Guitar Hero 5 - proving Shelly's idea partially correct. :)

Mam then did let me set up my PS2 - and we played We Love Katamari - took it in turns doing some levels.

Mam thinks its a pointless game. Nah, she just doesn't recognise genius gameplay when she sees it. And she's also shit at it, so that probably contributes some too. :P

                        What a strange day today was.  Claudia had a meeting from 10 – 12:30, and then another from 2 until 3:30.  Felt bad for her, esp since A’s meeting should have been me attending, but it is what it is.  She reports neither was too bad; A’s was really them just planning out his day, and then D’s they either want him to be w/ Claudia and other kids maybe at BSE, or at Wings if there are no other kids coming in.  If Claudia is not with D next year … she’d be in some kind of resource room situation at Heath … with Z.  Either option is really intense, so I don’t know which to hope she gets more.  Oh Z; his tutor sent us an email today with Z’s responses to the questionnaire, and he added a little caviat-esque thing that said, “oh, I didn’t know E and D were real kids in his class.  I thought he was just using his imagination, creating characters and then blaming them when something happened”.  HILARIOUS.  What a little character.

                        Que mas?  AB and I started out really well, but then we had an assembly a 10:30.  It was the high school select chorus, including MISS ELIZA, wearing adorable tuxedoes and singing.  My guys were there, too, and E and D survived the first 2 ½ of 6 songs, and A left too, but he went back in when I said we would be doing work.  E and D went w/ Mr. Levine, which I felt might be unnecessary since he was enjoying the performance, but that’s how it happened.

                        E came back in from cash-in, and Parker asked me to circle D’s safebody point because he wouldn’t leave the gym.  E told A to sign off, I told him that A still had 3 minutes because he’d been using the comp earlier for Math, not his cash-in.  I turn around, and E is at the back table, with his binder out, starting to work on a Math sheet.  FOR SERIOUS.  There were about 2 minutes left until hand washing time, and he took the initiative to try to start Math.  MEGA-points awarded for that.

                        Not much to report for lunch; A made a new gross food combo, consisting of marinara sauce and … cinnamon applesauce.  I couldn’t watch him eat, but he enjoyed it, so whatever.  Recess proved to be a bit interesting.  Parker comes out while I’m talking to a sad Cori (SH! I gave her gum! SH!), and says, “can I talk to you for a minute?” and pulls me aside and I’m like ‘uh oh, what did I do now that was bad/offensive?’.  Not me; somehow, while D was at E’s house this weekend, he came into possession of this gold bracelet with 3 little orbs on it.  He planned on giving it to Emilly, but Parker saw the box and it had a hefty price tag on it, so we agreed he shouldn’t give it to her before we talked to all the adults involved.  Inside, he DID give it to her, but I went to catch up to her and she and Kiarah were like ‘D keeps giving Em all this jewelry and we give it back to him and he gives it back’, and she’s clearly uncomfortable with all of it.  We need to have a chat about that.

                        Then we watched the adoooooooooooorable 6^th graders (who attacked me with flowers at recess) put on their play about the first ladies.  Very, very cute, even if hard to hear/understand sometimes, but they did a good job.  And my boys were able to sit through the whole 40 minutes, really politely.  Issue at 2^nd recess where D came in swearing and threatening (he’s baaaaaaaaack), but it was quite contained all things considered.  A also got in trouble with Larry and Cynthia for not listening.  E and Parker cashed in next door, and then D had SAID he wanted to just miss first cash-in tomo, but then came back because Parker rationalized that it was just 4 minutes today.  He changed his mind and took that option, but owes us time tomorrow because he really only served about 2 minutes.

                        Lastly, Parker taught E today about ‘raising the bar’ or ‘setting the bar too high’ with girlfriends/presents.  He told us he doesn’t buy his girlfriend anything.  He does the dishes sometimes, and he cleans out the catbox, and that’s about it.  Wow; she is a lucky lady.

 

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I've been in an absolute legendary mood today.
No idea why either.

I went into college early on the college bus - sat around on the round tables killing Lisa's battery with Solitaire.
This is annoying me. According to my stats - I've played 700+ games, but only won around 300 of them.
Sigh, if only there was an undo move tool.

Shelly came in at around half 9, followed by Ash about 5 minutes later.
I gave Ash a birthday hug and we went up to fourth floor.

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Another Photography lesson wasted.
The three of us all agree that we can't work on our sketchbooks during the lessons. It's just not the right atmosphere to do so.
I can work at home or in the LRC - but I can barely work in the classroom.

I gave Ash her presents.
My mam had even gone to the trouble of getting her one, and a card.
Mam got her some funky pyjamas - which I can't imagine her wearing - she'll look mental. :)
I quite like them, but I can't really imagine ANYONE wearing them. :D

I knew that my technique of taping three presents together would annoy Ash.
Lmao, she almost resorted to using her scissors to slice the tape apart - until I stopped her, said she had to do it herself. :)

I got her Elite Beat Agents for the DS. From CEX, but I don't think Ash minds - she buys games from there herself. Nothing wrong with 2nd hand games - as long as they work.
(And as long as the skanky fuckers don't sell you a two-disc game with a disc missing... Cough.)

Along with that, a cuddly Buckbeak teddy and the printed T-shirt I mentioned in an earlier blog.
Ash was amused. I hope I get to see her wear it. It'll look funky.

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I was a bit overboard on my junk food intake today.
As well as getting my usual Pepsi and crisps - I got one of those 'I'M-A-PRETTY-PRINCESS' marshmallow eggs, some Highland Toffee and my usual Floggs marshmallow with the jelly inside.

I didn't get a sandwich - so my entire afternoon food intake was like 90% sugar.
No wonder I was hyper off my tits for the next few hours.

It was too windy to eat in town - so we took our stuff back to college and ate on the tables beside construction.
It's quieter there - there's just a lot more chavs roaming about.

Ash and I went halves on some doughnuts.
They're being skanky now too - the last time we got them, we got 6 for £1 - but now it's 5 for £1.
I let Ash have 3, seeing as how she was the birthday girl.

Then she dared me to dip random things in the remains of the chocolate sauce.
Like my toffee and my cheese and onion crisps.
The toffee was alright - but the crisps tasted beyond weird.

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Ash took command of Shelly's DS again - started playing Gardening Mama.
I don't like it when Ash is proper enthralled in something - you just can't attract her attention.

So I annoyed her instead - shaking her wrists so she couldn't keep the DS still.
Then I tickled her and flicked her nose - up until she decided to turn it off and give me attention. :)

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I had a bit of a sugar crash in English.
I couldn't stop coughing.
I was choking up chunks of phelgm too.

Argh - SWINE FLU?!

Even Angela said I looked ill.

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This was overidden by my hyper burst in Media Studies.
When I get THAT hyper - all I do is TALK.

I was actually being really productive though - I had the courage to ask all the questions I was too shy to ask before. - And believe me, it was a shitload.
I think I was annoying Lewis too. :)

I tried to calm myself down by eating Mentos - but they made me worse!
I looked at the ingredients and noticed why - the second one on the list was SUGAR. :)

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Between my note-taking, I was writing random things with my coloured pens.
I chose a different colour for each sentence and wrote something random about the colour I'd chosen.

[Note, BLACK is written in WHITE - as black on a black background wouldn't show up, now would it? :P]


RED is war, blood and INCORRECT ANSWERS.

PINK things tend to be intimate body parts or female underwear. Mmmm, panties...

DARK BLUE tries to be hardcore, but it fails epically.

LIGHT BLUE is for nothing other than baby boys and their fluffy booties.

BROWN is SHITTY. :)

GREEN is the colour of nature and Arriva buses.

BLACK goes with anything. Especially black.

YELLOW is impossible to read on white paper. LOL.

ORANGE is a happy (yet suicidal, depressing and angry) colour. :)

PURPLE is an evil colour. Only true villains wear purple capes.

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This state carried on right up until I got on the bus.
I managed to calm down by playing some Solitaire and listening to Blackmore's Night.
A calming combination. :)

When I got home, I ate noodles and finished off the story on Bully: Scholarship Edition.
Currently at 96% - let's see if we can get the 100% this time.

I'm hoping I can. On top of the two missions I missed out last time - I've found one that's not even listed on the GameFAQs guides!
I found it on a Strategy Wiki page though - so someone's acknowledged its existance...