Lily and Ben Hughes: New Years Resolution

So here we are in 2009; and it seems that time is just being flushed away so fast! To me it seems that just yesterday I was trying to negotiate my life and decide how to tell my folks that I would be having a baby out of wedlock at the age of just 20... and now here I am 26 with my Devilish 5 year old who last year started kindergarten and is just growing like a weed and changing everyday... and I feel like I should try harder to keep in touch with my family, or at least let people who might care know how we are doing and how wonderful he is and how much he changes on a daily basis. So this is my new years resolution.

As we know that I could never keep to a resolution to keep in contact with people on a one on one basis I have decided to start a blog, and I will try to faithfully update it at least once a month. I will send it out to all those that I am in contact with and you can pass it on to those that I am not in contact with if you think they would like to know how Benjamin and I are doing. I love all my family very much from my cousins to my aunts and uncles... I just unfortunately never really had the opportunity to really build much of a bond with most of you and at times I'm not sure I really fell like part of your family, however don't ever think that that doesn't mean that I don't care for each and everyone of you!

So anyway... 2008 was a year... Ben started Kindergarten; he is doing really well. He had a bit of a rough start; as he is the youngest in his class but his teacher was really patient with him and with some persistence and some extra attention he is really doing well now. He also started basketball in December... it's not real basketball, but he likes it, he didn't at first because he thought he wasn't any good but just this last Tuesday he made his first basket!! So he was super proud of himself and it was a super self esteem booster!

Benjamin is a super sensitive boy! But well he is also very DEVILISH... as you can see from the pic, which is from Halloween '08! He was a devil for Halloween... and he was also a skeleton... he usually has two or three costumes every Halloween because he has one for school/daycare then one for trick treat and then we usually go trick treat at the zoo or at the convention center... yes he is a bit spoiled!!

There are a few little girls in his class that he is "going to marry" and his teacher had to have a talk with me because Ben is a "Romeo" apparently he held a girls hand and when one little girl fell down he picked her up and sat her in his lap and kissed her check and told her she would be okay... and that is just "unacceptable"... oh brother!! LOL so we need to teach our children to be nice just not too nice.... but not too mean or then they are considered bullies...

I'm sure parents, grandparents you all think it's very amusing how we children suffer through the lessons of being parents... the greatest revenge, right??? :)

Tomorrow night Ben is actually having his first sleep over, its just with my best friend and her boys... and my best friend Julie with be staying the night too... because her boys haven't ever had a sleep over either... but it's exciting for them!!

They have these huge plans to "stay up forever" and to eat "popcorn till there stomachs explode"

So his room is all set up for camping with tents and sleeping bags and tons of movies and flash lights and comic books... and all his bakogon... which by the way is like his new obsession... bakagon.... to me they seem practically the same as pokemon... but don't say that to him oooooohhhh no, because they are not.... no sirrrrrr... yeahh...

So anyway tomorrow night why the three little monsters take over the latter part of the apartment my girlfriend Julie and I are going to watch chicky flicks and give each other facials and do our nails and stuff...

It's kind of a decompression night after the holidays... Also this weekend my boyfriend John

is gone this weekend for guard and he will be gone for about 4 days since he is getting ready to go to Saudi Arabia in February...

This is a pic of him, and also his son Brody who is two and believe it or not Brodys bday is October 10 just like Ben, isn't that crazy!! Ben loves having Brody around! John has him every day for a few hours and then every other weekend... so it works out that I have Ben all week every week and every other weekend so John and I live together, so we have our boys together on the same weekend and then no kids one weekend... which actually is kind of nice!! Gives us a weekend off to our selves!

John is a good man, is is good to me and to Ben, he is a man though, and like any man does to a woman he does drive me nuts at times. But over all he is genuinely a good guy!

Oh yeah one of Ben's xmas presents was a puppy so a new addition to our family was Oscar Bingo... named by Ben... he is a very cute dachshund... he was born on 10/1/8... he is actually a very good puppy... but very puppy... and the whole potty training and biting stage drives me crazy!!

But he is soooo cute... it makes up for it!! And he keeps me company!! John when he isn't on guard duty works over nights, so I really don't see him much during the week, so the puppers is my night companion, he keeps my toes warm!! And gives my some kind of raunchy kisses in the morning... :)

I'm doing pretty good, I work at the VA hospital. I'm only a contract worker, I've worked there for there years now as a contract... but at least I have free medical. Which has come in handy recently!! Just a few months a go I had to have emergency gallbladder removal... and for awhile now I have been dealing with chronic headaches which they aren't really sure why I get them, they might be related to some calcification's that they found on my brain last year... but I have to take some pretty expensive medication to keep my headaches to a minimum... so the free medical insurance is nice!! But I'm doing okay... my headaches have been better... recently though they have started to get worse... so I will have to probably have some more test soon... I'm just sort of putting it off because the next step they said if meds didn't work would be a spinal tap and possibly a shunt from my brain to my stomach to help keep the pressure down... because they think that I have something called pseudotumor which is a constant elevation of spinal fluid pressure... They only think that though because I had meningitis in 2005... but for now I'm surviving, and I'm happy!!