Another early wake up call...

Not really a "wake up call". But, I did wake up at 4am this morning. I guess you could say my back was the alarm. I toss and turn all night. Then I wake up in frustration from tossing so much. I basically get sick of all the movement disturbing my sleep. How Eric can sleep through my tosses is beyond me. I almost do a little jump as I toss that makes the whole bed move..Haha. He doesn't budge. It was around 11pm when I laid on the heating pad and as soon as my muscles relaxed I just fell asleep. It happens like that most nights.

I left Eric to finish some last bit of packing for the night. I am trying not to help because I know in the end it will benefit my back to heal a little faster. Hopefully before we start to move stuff. Poor Eric. As I see him sleep right now I notice he is still in his clothes from last night. Belt and all. That CANNOT be comfy. On a daily basis, I am in my comfy clothes as soon as I hit the bedroom and know I am not going anywhere else for the day or night. Two of the kids are the same as me. Sunni likes to get in her jammies as soon as we get home for the night even if she knows she has to take a bath later. Michael too as soon as he hits the door on Fridays he is already got his shoes off and ready to get in his jammies. Joey is a different story. Some nights he will stay fully dressed (shoes still on) until Eric or I beg him to take off his shoes and stay a while..lol. We usually have to tell him 3 or 4 times to get his pajamas on. He's always so busy. Then it slips his mind while playing.. I just could not imagine sleeping like that. I have hard enough time as it is to sleep without my clothes distraction.


The house stuff is almost done. I set up the gas yesterday. Eric's Mom will call for the Electric today and then the water on Monday. Cable should be set up for a date on Monday too. After all I do need the computer to keep up with everyone! Phone should be set up too. Oops I forgot that one. I don't really see a house phone as a needed thing right away I guess. It just stops you from your daily things that you need to get done. Especially when you have to get focused on moving and unpacking.(the same goes for the TV and computer too.)


I think that will be my main chore out of this. Unpacking. Poor Sherry just moved in with her daughter in October and now 6 months later she has to pack again. We just moved to an upstairs apartment only 8 months ago so I can feel her pain. Moving everything downstairs shouldn't be as bad as going back down stairs. Not too many things are going upstairs in our new home except for the kids stuff, our bedroom stuff and that's about it. Everything else will sit in the garage until Sherry gets here and works her magic. I can help with our mattress. I've done it before. The headboard too. The only things I need to steer clear from are our bedroom cabinets. There's two. They are big and heavy even if you clear the clothes out of them. That will take the help of my Dad. Eric can get one with a dolly BUT going downstairs will be scary by himself so he will really need Dads or Rustys help. I forgot to ask Rusty about helping yesterday. Why is it that I hate asking for help so very much? My Dad offered that's the only reason why I accepted his help.


The walk-thru is today. Eric will be the only one going. I am too sick to go anywhere. Along with Michael I battled the stomach flu yesterday. I ate dinner last night but, woke up again this morning with the stomach pains. I won't mention the rest but I am sure you have had the stomach flu and know what goes on. I think that is the other reason why I didn't do much packing yesterday. Plus we did Earth Hour. We turned out our lights from 8:30pm-9:30pm. Even the Las Vegas Strip went sorta dark. As dark as they could go. So no packing or cleaning while that went on. I decided to take a bath to ease my back. I cannot wait until I have my roman tub. This apartment tub isn't tiny but, just no room to relax. Your either laying under the water or sitting up. No laying back. I missed my tub from our home on Crossetto Dr.


I think I am just naturally more happier in a home apposed to an apartment. In an apartment it's almost like you have to share your daily life with about 3 other families that surround you. People you do not know and people who do not have the same values as you. When you want to open your shades and open your windows in your house you do not have to worry about the people above, below, or to the side of you looking in as they walk by, or if someone in the building (in apartments) is smoking outside you don't have to worry about it coming in your windows in a house. That's my pet peeve as I look back at my history of apartment living. We have a family below us right now. Pretty nice people. Whenever I open our patio to let fresh air in on a nice day within only a few minutes I smell smoke.. Or some illegal substance start to wonder into our home. I have to shut the patio instantly. I CANNOT stand it. Such a pet peeve of mine.


I understand smoking. It's like a drug. Both my parents were smokers. I have hated it since I could walk and talk. I used to bring home flyer's from school on how bad it was. Show then pictures of a smokers lungs. To make things worse both myself and my brother got Asthma from second hand smoke. My mother even smoked while pregnant. It wasn't an issue in the 70's. When my brother and I became teenagers then my parents became more aware. They started smoking outside instead of in front of us. But whenever it got too hot or too cold to go outside soon the smoking came inside. I hated going to school smelling like an ashtray. If anyone in your family smoked it was inevitable to have the smell get on your laundry. I made my first husband stop smoking because I would play the "I have asthma" card a lot. It's just nasty to me. I don't understand it and that's why I don't do it. Not because my religion says it's "not right" but because I know it harms you and I am smarter then that. I feel the same way about drinking. Always have always will. And if your asking if my parents still smoke. Well, my mother died still addicted, even when she had to carry her oxygen everywhere. She would stop to go outside and smoke. My father? He's been trying to quit since I was 5. He tries. My ex? Well as soon as I left he started back up. His wife now smokes as well BUT they go outside to do it. I never smell it on the boys' clothes so that makes me happy. I can no longer ask their father to do something like quit. It's his life. I am just happy to have a husband now that has the same values as me. Not saying that I would ever think of myself as "above" someone. I just have different values. My parents never condoned smoking. In fact they used to threaten both Rusty and I if we even tried stuff like that. We lived with a "Don't do as I do" theme in our house..Haha. My father drank beers all the time. My mother didn't drink. She never liked the idea of drinking. So it was a don't do as I do. It worked. Both my brother and I are not drinkers or smokers. We have never touched drugs. If you took what the parents did at the time of raising us out of the picture. My brother and I grew up in a home that gave strong morals. I never once thought to myself.. "Well, my parents did it and liked it, I could try it." No. For me it wasn't even an option. Same with cursing. My parents both had a really bad mouth. Really while driving..haha. But if you went back to when my brother and I still lived at home. If anything foul came out of our mouths. Well, hell hath no..you get the idea. When I moved out I had a foul mouth. Really while driving. Eric was pretty surprised about the things that would flow out of my mouth. I have learned A LOT since then. Nine years later I am cleaned up. If you lived with my family when I lived with them you would see how conservative they made us. I was the only girl so. No makeup, no jeans, until I was old enough to drive and had my own car. Even then when my dad would see me before school if I was putting some lip-gloss on he would stop at the bathroom and say "Wipe that crap off your face. You look stupid"..lol. It wasn't like any experience on "Wife Swap" that I have ever seen.. The funny thing? My mother wore loads and loads of makeup..lol. Like I said. Do as I say not as I do. It worked for my brother and I.


I am a different parent. I have adapted the term. Do as I ask. And let me tell you what might happen if you stray..lol. It's working so far. We'll see when they get to be tweens and teens. Oh gosh.. rambling. I better do something productive. This is a place to write your feelings, experiences and so on. So I will leave this as a little look into Traci's childhood. A marker of the past I guess. So if I forget, my kids can read this and see what I went thru. Good Day! Hope I get some stuff done!