Merry Christmas

We're off to Temecula tomorrow to spend Christmas with the kids. This Christmas has not seemed at all like Christmas. As much as I have tried to keep it as normal as possible, it's just not and I guess I need to realize our normal is changing. I'm sure next year will be better. Happy trailer trash Christmas everyone

Ben update

As you all know Ben started his 1 month of hell, I mean academy with Ventura City Fire on December 15th and I thought I should send out an update. Week one started out pretty mello with your regular administrative / HR business. We are all set up with our benefits which are pretty decent, I was happy to hear our HMO actually includes Acupuncture and Chiropractic:). Mello ended last Thursday with search and rescue drills along with RIC (rapid intervention crew) . While I was home being the happy home/trailer maker, as Ben puts he was getting the shit kicked out of him. The crazy part is he likes it. When he came home he was drenched in sweat all the way through to his underwear and omg he wanted a hug and kiss and being the good wife I am, I told him to go away. Since Thursday it has been an overall ass kicking. Friday, is a blur to Ben, Monday they tried to kill him. by having them do crossfire exercise in full turn outs to include their SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) which all together weighs about 70lbs. This exercise lasted about an hour. Ben said at one point he started to see stars and thought he was going to pass out, but he didn't he pushed through and was happy with the calories burned. I think I would rather skip a meal. Tuesday they had EMS classes which are not physically hard but mentally draining. Ben has it drilled into him according to Riverside Protocol but now has to some how erase all that and learn the Ventura way. I have no doubt that he will kick its ass. Ben is a very smart man and loves to Learn. The rest of this week including today is pulling hose which is very strenuous. Ben is coming home drenched and ya I still tell him to go away, he smells really bad. The first part of the week we were practically out of water and Ben was unable to shower, he had to use baby wipes to get the stink off, poor guy. At least tonight he can take a hot shower if that's what you want to call it, you get wet, turn off the water, soap up, turn on the water to rinse and your done.
Even though Ben is wiped out he is very happy and looking forward to his career with Ventura City Fire. By what he tells me it sounds like they are all a bunch of good guys. I'll keep you posted as he progress's, keep him in your thoughts.

Home made soap

Today I checked off one of my want to do's, which was making soap. One of my co workers / friend told me about her soap making I expresses to her it was something I had been wanting to do. She actually brought in some soap she had made and not only was it visually beautiful but it smelled awesome. Now that I have time on my hands I decided to attempt it. It was much easier then expected. I can't wait to make more and experiment with fragrances, different oils etc for the skin, different designs it will be fun to personalize it. Thanks for the encouragement Johanna

Realization and self awareness

I guess my first realization is that my kids are fine with this life transition, it is me that has the issues with it. What I am learning is that I have to learn how to not only be my children's mother and Ben's wife I have to figure out who Kim is. This is definately going to take some time. Just like this blog, I'm a work in progress.

What to do on date night or not to do

I knew date night was coming for which I was excited at the thought of exploring our new town. I checked out their local events publication; The Buzz, in it, it spoke of quite a few music venues. As I was perusing it, I came across two that seemed, key word seemed like they could be good. We first went to this place called Billy O's, normally me and Ben prefer hole in the wall bars. The people are usually more friendly and down to earth. Upon Driving up, the area was a bit questionable but we kept our minds open. We go inside and the place was a complete #%&@ hole. It looked like at point in its life it was a seedy strip club with vinyl seating, booth style. The vinyl was all split with the innards all coming out. Im not even going to let myself think about the stories those booths could tell if they were able to talk (yuck). The paint if there was any was screaming to be re done. The stage looked like it was made of wooden pallets. Enough about it's appearance, let me tell you about the peeps. Like I said earlier, hole in the wall people are normally friendly, well in this case there was nothing normal about these guys. They all seemed to be angry, not at all friendly they were all sitting around the bar, it's like they were their own drinking club and we we're not invited. I don't know how else to describe this crowd let's just say it was not a fashion show and I think they all could have shared a tooth brush. The worse part is the band wasn't even there and would not be for at least an hour. Feeling as welcome as we did, needless to say we left. Then we head to a Tapas place that states they have Jazz on Friday. We get there and the place is dead. The so called Jazz was one guy playing an acoustic guitar. One drink and we were out. At this point Ben was done and we went home :(. We will try again next Friday.

Now this was a first.

I went to downtown Ventura to look for a bike for little Vic, as I'm walking into a store a gentleman, obviously homeless says hi and I of course say good morning back to him. On my way out this same man firsts says bye and then says excuse me miss, I have lost my phone number can I have yours? I couldn't help but smile and let him know he was a funny man. He made my day. I have never before been propositioned by a homeless man. This was an eye opener for me, I'm not proud to say this but I'm also sure I'm not alone. Homeless people tend to make me nervous and this interaction gave me a different perspective. They are people just like everyone else, the only difference is they are in a rough spot. Ventura has a lot of homeless who need assistance, it truly is very sad. I am slowly becoming more at ease around them and I'm thinking that maybe this is where I would like to focus my volunteering. Now I just need to put on my big girl panties and do it. Wish me luck as this will be way outside of my box.

Another note worthy accomplishment.

Every morning I take the girls on a morning walk/frustration. I know that people say that as a responsible pet owner you are to pick up their offering (piles of steaming poop). I say that's rediculas poop is a natural fertilizer for the earth. Ben disagrees with my phylosophy regarding dog poop. Therefore I decided to dedicate this week to becoming accustomed to picking up poop with my hands, it's so wrong. I began on Monday by actually taking the bags with me, the bags that scream yes I'll be picking up poop with my hands. Tuesday with bags in hand after both Molly and Izzy left me an offering I decided it would be easier if I let them cool down first.so I left them and proceeded with our walk and yes I made sure no one saw me abandon the poop. On our way back I first came to Molly's offering,picked it up no problem :). When I reached Izzys it seemed much larger then I remembered but I still made my attempt and managed to get two of the five pieces and yes I left the rest. Today,I think after my black tank experience nothing was going to phase me. Both Izzy and Molly true to form left me offerings. And I am proud to say I picked up both Molly's small and Izzys huge steaming smelly offerings. While walking.g to the dumpster with my smelly poop I felt very accomplished.