We took the kids to Spooktacular at the Jacksonville Zoo last night. What a blast! We had sooo much fun watching them run around like little maniacs.
We had a pumpkin (my friend Christy's daughter, Trinity-not pictured but oh so adorable!), a princess ( my Chloe), a witch ( Chloe's dads girlfriends little girl), and a frog prince (little Jack). They were all soo freakin cute.
I would suggest this kid friendly outing to anyone.

Our trip to the zoo last Saturday. The zoo is Chloe's most favorite place EVER!

There has recently been a lot of road work on a main road we travel daily and Chloe has been extremely upset about the cutting down of all the trees. So we decided to let her plant one of her own to give something back to Mother Earth. I love my little hippie!

Pic Fix for the Granddies in Okie

Jack at 6 1/2 months & a few from Chloe's 3rd birthday.

There are Those That are Fearless

My three year old daughter is quite possibly the bravest soul I've ever met...She is the one person in my life not afraid to piss me off. When I get that steely look in my eyes, the ones that says "I mean business, shut the fuck up now or your ego will leave this altercation sorely bruised", most people (the ones that know me well and some that can just recognize bitch when they see it, run for the hills. I have been known to have a sharp, ruthless tongue and anyone that has been in it's path knows better. Not Chloe. Well, not that she doesn't know...she just doesn't care. She returns "the look" with one of her own. One that very closely mirrors mine. She is fearless when it comes to facing me down, to pushing the limits of my sanity...and she comes back for more consistantly. This girl is TOUGH, I tell you. She has balls of steel and while this at times, infuriates me to no end, I applaud her strength and tenacity. This quality can take her far in life if channeled correctly. God help us all though. There's a storm a'brewin in the Pickard house and we're still ten years from adolescence....To put it bluntly. I'm fucked folks. If she is already this determined to rebel against everything I say, what will she be like as a teen? Visions of myself during these years are keeping me awake at night.

During my bouts of sleeplessness, I like to watch her peacefully slumber. Not only is the only time she is still enough to see her (mostly she's a blur, a blip on the radar as she speeds around bouncing off of walls) but at these times I can appreciate her. I can look at her beautiful face without wanting to scream because she, for just a few hours, isn't looking at me like she will do anything to make me crazy.

Someone should inform this girl that her mother is a badass and she needs to back down....or someone needs to inform me it's actually the other way around.

These kids are freakin adorable!!! Too bad their mom is a shitty photographer...

I Need to Catch My Breath

I've been so busy lately with the new job, new schedule, two kids, divorce and me....whoo! I am way overwhelmed and feeling every bit of it. I believe I have too much shit on my plate and my belly is full so it looks like it ain't going anywhere anytime soon. Bleh.
I'm so mentally exhausted I can't really write anything funny or meaningful. I have lots of posts stuck in pieces in my head but no energy to make sense of them...maybe soon.

New Things of Note

I started a new job this week. I was selling (or at least trying to sell) real estate and doing property management. I had been doing this for almost 1 1/2 years and had gotten NOWHERE very slowly...I was told this career would take a while to got good but I could expect to see some money by a year and by year two would most likely be making enough to support myself. I don't have that kind of time these days..I am now a single mom with two kids and I need to be able to have a steady schedule and a steady paycheck. My brother-in-law offered me a job with his tax firm as an "office manager" making pretty decent money with two yearly bonuses and 1/2 my benefits paid. I jumped at it. This is actually the first "real" job I've ever held. You know the kind with a 9-5 day. It's pretty cool, I work 830-5 Mon-Thurs and have Fridays off until tax season when I will work Mon-Fri and every other Saturday for 4 hrs. Not too shabby especially considering I get a bonus at the end of tax season. As Tony the Tiger would say, GRREEAATT!
Oh and there is a cute CPA working there so I have some eye candy while I work the day away. Don't get me wrong....I am not looking for someone to date or have a relationship of any kind with. I'm only saying some eye candy never hurts a situation. It seems to be pretty cool. I'm excited about the opportunity to get to know my brother-in-law better.

(Some history on that)
I have a half sister from my dad. She's ten yrs older than me and is from a marriage before he met my mom. We found about each other almost ten yrs ago and have only in the past two yrs been trying to work on a relationship. It's been a little rocky and a little uncomfortable but we're getting there. It doesn't hurt that I adore her and it seems she feels the same about me. It's strange having a new sister. You don't go into it with the same closeness you share with your other siblings. The ones you grew up with. We keep waiting for that comfortability to be but I wonder if it ever will. Maybe after a few yrs we'll be close and comfortable with one another. Anyhow....she is ten yrs older than me and is married to her high school sweetheart, Jim. From what I've been able to see, he's a pretty amazing man. They have 5 kids ages ranging from 12-1. Three boys and two girls. He's a good dad and anytime I've been around the seven of them, he is always participating and doing most of the child care.. This is something I feel is kind of rare, especially with five of those lil suckas running around.
S and I have been hanging out for almost two yrs now and I haven't had much of a chance to get to know her husband. It's been emotionally strenuous just trying to forge a friendship with her so having this job with him is going to put us in a position to get to know one another. After all, they will be a part of my family forever now.

New news on le divorce: The attorneys have a phone conference scheduled for 10am this morning. Mine said it seemed that his was optimistic about coming to a settlement soon. She's said this before and sent us a proposal way off from what we had proposed. We shall see, I guess.

I get Jack back tonight and am thoroughly excited about it. Chloe is too...she's been asking for her brother all week. It's really sad....