grrouchie thoughts with photo fails

At the beginning of June I decided that I was going to be a lot more attentive towards trying to slim down so that I can look fabulous for the wedding and while only a week in I have been successful.  I'll talk a bit more about that tomorrow as I want to get back to progress as a weekly post and the 1st was a Saturday so WTF right?

Poor Edward

The kids dad has actually been showing up and trying to be in his life a little bit more often recently which could be good or bad.  I'm under the impression that he is filling the kids head with some things but I'm not there for any of it so I don't know.  Last night (for the 1st time in several months) he said he wished his dad could live with us so that we could all be a happy family.  We had to explain to him that it won't happen and everyone is happier because of it and also that if his dad lived there we would not all be a happy family - I'd be 100% out of the picture.  I think he understood.
He then went on to say that when his dad lived there he got straight A's and he had a horrible year after his dad left and has to repeat 2nd great.  So, we had to explain that while his grades were better (he never had Straight A's) he just had a bad year and adjusted poorly but he showed a lot of improvement near the end and we are both very proud of him for that.  This is why we have summer tutoring lined up and will be helping him out over the summer as well.
I'm fairly certain his dad is the one that put the whole "straight A's when he was there" thing into his head as a "see, you were better off when I was there" type of thing.
This is going to be the most frustrating part of my whole life and I hope it gets better over time (hope he wakes up before the kid decides he wants nothing to do with someone who is going to be so negative all the time).

Oh please give me the Strenght to deal with this situation :)

One of the "last straws" that caused me to finally decide to leave Pennsylvania permanently was the insane weather in Erie while I lived there.  My last winter had an overnight Ice Storm that put about three quarters of an inch of ice around my car and it took me about 45 minutes to break open the door so that I could get the car running to melt the rest of it.  Yes- Remote Car Starter would have been an amazing thing but I didn't (don't) have one.  While I'm enjoying winter evenings in the 50's and 60's and have friends complaining to me because it's still snowing in March and April I am reminded that I made the right choice because real winters suck.

I don't miss this shit

Disney is just 5 work shifts away at this point.  We are doing our last minute prepping and picking up some things that we need.  We will buy a bunch of stuff to fill the cooler Tuesday evening and then weds morning we'll buy some Ice to pack into it for the 4-however many hours it is going to take to get there.  Our plan is to leave around 8 am and hope that the kid sleeps for most of the ride over.  I've learned over the last year that having a 7 year old sit in the back seat of the car is something that takes a lot of patience to deal with.  They want to be involved in every conversation and hate quiet and boredom.  I'm considering charging up my 3DS, my PSP and my Kindle Fire to give him something to play with over the course of the drive.  Between those there should be something to keep him occupied and quiet most of the time.
On the PSP I can load some movies - and I can do the same with my Kindle Fire.  There should be enough battery life to last until we get there (and then we can start charging everything).
I'm also thinking about bringing a video game system for the downtime in the hotel room - not really for video games but to watch a movie or two.

I bought these new headphones for the car ride!

The last important piece for vacation was taken care of when my fiance got her brother to take care of the dog while we are gone.  His request was we buy him a harness so he can take him to the park as his kid loves to go to the dog park and loves to play with the dog.  So, she is off doing that today while I'm wasting time on the internet, playing video games and reading comic books.

Lets hope he doesn't fun my secret stash of chocolate again!

I'm almost done with Avengers vs X-Men and then I can start on Marvel NOW.  I'll be done before vacation starts.
I've also started playing Skyrim again.  I'll probably never be into video games like I used to be, it's harder for me to find some that I really want to keep playing so I'll stick with games that I can dump hundreds of hours into and still able to find new things to do.  I've only bought 2 new games this year and when I pick up Skyrim Legendary Edition that will be the 3rd.  I used to do that before a month was over lol.