heather__ , 28

[font=georgia]The end of Kiwibox...
Oh, well. On to bigger, "better," and greedier things, I suppose.

I can be found elsewhere.

I'm on Facebook and MySpace. I'm not searchable on Facebook. My MySpace is here. Tell me you're from KB and what your screen name was. I'll add ya.

I also have a blog here. I post on it every so often.

It's been a good 10 years, KB. Too bad greed won out in the end.

Farewell.

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[font=georgia]Whoa. Two months since I've been on here.
And, sadly, not much has changed on this site. Sigh.

I'm on Facebook and MySpace a lot more than here (obviously). If you want to find me on there, send me a note through here or leave me a comment. I'm not searchable for many personal reasons (I have more friends than enemies) so let me know and I'll find you and friend you.

Hmmm... okay, two months...

Brian turned a quarter of a century old on the 28th of August. He still looks about 10 years older than he really is due to his grey hair (he's about 50% grey already).

Things with Brian and I are good. He's still working (hurray!) and we're really hoping for no winter layoffs this year. If he does get laid off, then hopefully it won't be a seven month long one like this year.

We had to put Smudgie to sleep on September 14. She had a mass growing between her heart and her lungs, which was causing her lungs to fill up with fluid. She also tested positive for feline leukemia. There was nothing we could medically do for her, so Seth (yes, Seth) decided to put her to sleep to make her happy. I swear she's still around, though. I've woken up more than once at night thinking I hear her playing with a jingly ball (those were her favorite toys).

Smokie's still going strong. She's adjusted well to Smudgie being gone. She's overly needy now. She has to have attention or she'll get angry at us. Brian and I are going to get another cat, but it won't be till later this year or early next year. We all need time to heal from Smudgie's passing, although Brian thought Seth and I were big babies cause we cried over Smudgie's death.

Seth is currently battling the horrid H1N1 virus. Oh, it's so nasty. I hate that he contracted this, but I guess I should be glad that he did cause he's (slowly) fighting it off and he'll have the antibodies to fight it off on his own if he ever gets it again. It saves me from getting him vaccinated for it. He's not doing so well right now -- he sounds like he has fluid/mucous in his lungs. We're trying a medicine with him to see if it helps get his lungs cleared up. If it doesn't help, he'll likely be hospitalized. He got diagnosed with the H1N1 virus last Wednesday. I was totally against the H1N1 vaccine till I saw what it did to Seth and what it's done to other little kids. Brian and I won't get vaccinated because we're not in a high risk group, but I'd totally get Seth vaccinated if he didn't already have it.

Seth's doing well in school. Kindergarten seems to be treating him well. His teacher is retiring this year. She's planning on being a substitute teacher after she's done teaching this year. I volunteer in Seth's classroom two times a week for about an hour and a half each time. It's fun and rewarding. I wish Seth's pre-K teacher would've done something like this.

Well, I guess that's it.
Hope to see y'all find me on Facebook and MySpace!

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[font=georgia]Umm, I don't know where the past two weeks have went. It's seriously all a big blur.

Brian's still working. They've added about seven more jobs since the last time I wrote. I'm hoping that means we won't have to worry about being laid off for a while. I'm hopeful that we won't have to worry about a layoff this winter, but that's too far away for us to figure out right now.

Brian had a week of vacation last week. It was fun. He only worked for 5 days before he got his week of vacation, haha. We didn't do much because we didn't have a lot of extra money, but we did manage to get out of the house. We took Seth mini-golfing, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Seth spent a night at my mom's house during the week and Brian and I got a night out to ourselves (probably the last night we'll get until next summer). We took Seth to a historical state park that's about 20 minutes away. You have to take a stern wheeler boat to get to the state park cause it's an island. Seth was completely thrilled with the trip to the state park. We got to tour an 1800's mansion. The tour guides were volunteers and the mansion had actual pieces from the family that lived there. Seth got a few new buddies in the tour guides. He asked so many well thought out questions. I couldn't believe that was my kid talking! I received many compliments on how smart Seth seemed to be. We also took a horse-drawn covered wagon ride and Seth got to drive the stern wheeler! Seth wants to go back to the state park soon. We're hoping to take another trip over before the state park closes for the year in October.

Seth starts school in six days! He'll be in Kindergarten this year. Makes me feel like an old momma! He's totally thrilled for school to start back up. I'm thrilled for him to go to school again, haha. I love the summer break, but he's driving me nuts lately. I've already taken him back to school shopping. He has everything he needs for school. I bought him shoes that tie instead of velcro shut. That should be interesting, haha.

Sadly, we've been spending the majority of our time indoors. My allergies and Seth's allergies are really kicking us in the butt. Seth takes Zyrtec daily and it helps him out a lot, but nothing seems to help me. Smudgie's allergies are really bad, too. She's been taking her cortisone pill daily. We did have her taking her pills twice a week, but then she started having wheezing attacks again so we had to up her dosage. I really do think she has borderline kitty asthma, but I can't do anything about it until the cortisone pills stop helping her.

I had to go to a quick care clinic yesterday to get my ears checked out. Thanks to my allergies, my ears were completely blocked with ear wax. Eww. I feel a ton better now that they're clean, though.

That's the extent of things from my end. I made some Jello shots for Brian and I to drink tonight. He's working a local job today and he's going to have a full 12 hours on duty, so I'm sure he'll be in the mood for them.

Enjoy the pictures!

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[font=georgia]Things are looking up, finally.
Brian got the all clear from his physical on Monday and he went to work and did his PODS (annual FRA requirement). After he passed his PODS, he was cleared to mark up on a job. The trainmaster had 2 extra spots put onto the guarantee conductors extraboard so that Brian and a guy below him in seniority could hold. Without those extra two jobs added, the terminal wouldn't have been able to run a few trains this week already.

Brian's already working. He got a recrew on a train coming back here. He should be home later this evening, hopefully. I told him to take his time cause he's getting paid one way or another, haha.

Brian has scheduled vacation next week. It's paid vacation, so I can't complain. We don't have a lot of extra money so we won't be able to do anything extravagant, but anything out of the ordinary will be memorable for Seth. I'm trying to plan something different every day of the week. I'm thinking a day at the park with a picnic lunch/dinner included, a trip to a local pool (he's never been to a public pool before), and my momma wants him for a night while Brian's on vacation.

We can't move Brian's vacation. Trust me, I wish we could. There's no available spots open. Brian and I are hoping to do something for our anniversary (7 years married!) when he gets his second week of paid vacation in December. Our anniversary is in late November, so it'll only be a week or two late. Better late than never.

Our yard sale was a flop. We barely made enough to make it worth our time and effort. My grandma wants me to have a yard sale with her in early October, so I'm hoping that maybe it'll be better than the one we had.

My brother came over and helped us with the yard sale. He ended up snagging a vintage Star Trek watch (still in the box!) and a vintage James T. Kirk action figure (still in the box!) from my neighbors for $35 total. He was so darn happy with himself! He's a Star Trek junkie.

Seth sold bottled water, juice, and peanut butter crackers at the yard sale. He made about $18 doing that! I took him to the toy store a couple days after the yard sale was over and he picked out a new Thomas train (Patrick, I think? It's one of the new ones and he's a cement truck), a Cars car (he found Chick Hicks and fell in love, lol), and a little explorers kit (came with binoculars, a compass, and a hand-crank LED flashlight). He was so proud of himself.

Seth goes tomorrow morning to get his shots for Kindergarten. As far as I know he only needs his second chicken pox vaccine. I've been trying to get him all geared up to be a big boy and to sit still and to not make momma hold him down like we had to do last time. Here's hoping it goes smoothly.

Other than that, our lives have been pretty boring. I'm beyond glad that Brian is back to working again and I'm really hoping it lasts a long, long while. Being on unemployment sucks.

Hope y'all are having a good week!

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[font=georgia]I'm gonna try to make this as short and sweet as possible, so here I go...

Brian goes for his physical tomorrow morning. After the head guys down in Jacksonville get the results of Brian's physical, they'll clear him to go take all of his PODS (a computer rules test that takes 5+ hours) and after he passes all of the PODS, then he'll be able to go to work full-time.

We were also told that the guys that were brought back by the company this time are more than likely not going to be furloughed again. The exact word from the higher-ups in the company is that they didn't bring the guys back just to furlough them again. The way we've been told, Brian should have a job through December, at least.

We won't see any money from the company until late August, so hope that we can make our money last that long.

Our yard sale is advertised and ready to go! I have to finish up a few odds and ends, but I'm ready to sell all this crap and get it outta my house! Do a little no-rain-dance for us and hope that we make lots of money! We can use all we can get right now.

I found out a family friend has lymphoma. It bums me out, but the friend is really optimistic about it. She starts chemotherapy next week sometime. I just hope it's a quick, pain-free battle for her. She's led a hard life.

Brian scheduled Seth to get his second chicken pox shot on the same day as our yard sale. Yikes! I'm calling tomorrow morning and getting it rescheduled. There's no way that'll work out. I have no one to help with the yard sale other than Brian and no one to take Seth to his doctor for me. As long as Seth gets his shot by the 14th of next month, he'll be okay to go to kindergarten at the end of August.

By the way, I still can't believe my baby is going to be in kindergarten. Time flies too fast.

That's it from us.
Have a good one!

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