The End of Year ADULT Pool Party

Some stories just have to be told and this is one of them.

Let me start by giving you a back story. Every time one who has ever been to the pool know this one couple. They are notorious for being drunk........constantly. One particular incident led to the intoxicated man grabbing my noodle(my swim float), and putting it between his legs and riding it like a pony. Needless to say, the noodle was officially retired into the garbage on the way home and I fumed about for weeks.

So last night Honey Tree Apartments threw an end-of-the-year adult party. They went all out they hired belly dancers and TJ the DJ.

Now this party was a non-alcoholic party. However there was nothing to say that people could not drink before hand. The belly dancers got up and started their performance and it happened. The first intoxicated lady(who I am pretty sure had been drinking since the morning), got up and started dancing with the belly dancers. They looked a bit shocked. The girl was so smashed, she was dancing facing the wrong way and looking at herself in the glass doors behind her.

Finally the belly dancers finished up with requesting every one up on stage to dance with them. Now I am pretty comfortable with my self but I am completely sober, so that was not happening. A lot of people got up and it was cute.

Then it was time for TJ the DJ. He started spinning and then he started up the karaoke. First song sung......Sweet Home Alabama. Most of the people were not bad. We noticed that the drunk couple had been dancing provocatively randomly and they were getting a little hot and heavy.

Then it happened. Our former neighbor from the building with the fire, got up and asked us if we wanted to rock. Well of course and his response.......well it is not happening tonight.

Then he belted out a version of Under the Sea. The man sounded like Cookie Monster. It was truly the highlight of my night.

Quite a few more people got up and sang and the drunk inappropriate couple continued to randomly dance. I realized the drunk couple was the same couple who were always drunk at the pool and the man had put his privates on my noodle. They were both smashed.

And then it happened, the climax of the party. The lifeguard blew his whistle. He got up and walked around the pool because a woman in the pool was not responding. She was floating but not responding. He walked over to her side of the pool and blew the whistle. No response. He jumped in.

Apparently the woman had fell asleep or passed out, who knows. And he pulls her out of the pool. She is full of smiles. We are all watching in awe as the woman who came out of the pool was the same intoxicated woman who danced with the belly dancers and staring at herself. Apparently she was also good friends with the drunk couple.

Personally I think the three should sell their services as entertainment for adult parties.

Want to make your party a blast, call the drunk trio. They will act inappropriately and make every one uncomfortable, and send every one home with loads of laughs.

All and all it was fun. It was nice to get and have adult fun.

Logan and the Napkin

Well Friday night came and none of the children had plans. So they were all stuck with mommy. I decided to take the boys to get haircuts and get a few school supplies at Target. Knowing that taking all three children any where usually makes me literally insane. This particular night was particularity bad.

By the time we were done at Target I literally wanted to punch my husband square in the face. Not that he had done anything. Just because he was not there and he is my partner when it comes to dealing with them.

For some reason, they kids behave better when he is around. I have no idea why, because I have the biggest temper.

So knowing that I wanted to kill this man, he met us for dinner at Jason's Deli.

The first thing I saw on the counter was a Gluten Free sign, they now had GF bread. Finally my night was looking up. I ordered my sandwich(the first time in 6 months) and sat in anticipation.

About 15 minutes into the meal, it happened.

Let me frame this, some one in our house is always spilling something. I cannot tell you how many times Joey has dropped his drinks in various places in Richmond. Once when we went to the Richmond Flying Squirrels game, he dropped his hot dog and then I gave him mind because he was crying and he dropped mine.

He had already dropped his hot cocoa from Starbucks in Target. So I thought we had met our quota for the night.

I was wrong.

This time the guilty party was my daughter. She knocked over her almost full coke. The children had set at a different table on this glorious night because quite frankly I had enough of their faces.

So I look back and roll my eyes and told the teenager, who was vaguely staring at the mess waiting for to magically disappear, to go get napkins to clean up the mess.

Well the boy obvious did not notice the plural verbiage. So he trots back with one napkin. Yes that is right one napkin. If you did not get that, my 16 year old son ran and got one napkin to clean up an almost full glass of soda.

It was at that point that I looked at my husband and told him to look at the boy. His response, " the boy is going to live with us forever."

I had to know, "Logan why did you get one napkin?"

He shrugged and with his big puppy dog eyes and said, "I don't know."

It has now occurred to me that my husband is right. He is not moving out. Not because he has some infinite love for us and wants to stay with us,but because I do not think he would ever find his way out of parking lot. He would just drive around town wondering where his new place is located.

Logan and Joey: DS and Privates

Well it is quite obvious I should receive the award for the least mature parent of 2010.

I come in from Barnes and Nobles fuming because I was working on a paper and this group of people in the their golden years thought it necessary to sit next to me and use traditional means of conversing. I mean seriously who communicates without Facebook now a days. I digress.

So I walk in the door and the first thing my lovely husband says to me........"Ask me what your son did."

I fight the urge to run right back out the door and look at him and wonder which child did what. Logan was standing there with a proud look on his face.

So I bite," What did you do?"

Logan was never able to respond.

"Ask your son where he put Joey's DS"

No pause, " He put Joey's DS in his pants."

I immediately threw my hand over my mouth.

"Yeah, mom he stuck my DS on his penis and now it smells," Joey responded, "MOM, it is not funny, stop laughing."

I turned my head to where he could not see me and told him, " I am not laughing at that, I am laughing at something someone else told me the other day." (This is a classic line the kids have used on me many times)

It is at that time I looked up and see Logan was standing there. He was starting to realize I was too amused to punish him. Truly that is about the only way our children can escape trouble. Making us laugh is the valued asset in this house.

So with my hand over my mouth, I walked back to the room and started my lecture.

"LOGAN as a mom, I have to tell you that is horrible for you stick any of Joey's toys on your privates parts. But as an older sister.......hysterical."

"MOM", was the response from Joey in the background. "It is not funny that Logan put my DS on his nuts."

With that being said, it is air apparent I am least mature parent in the world. Sometimes I wonder who put me in charge in the first place.

Joey's First Crush.......Awwwww

So my little baby boy, one of the sweetest children, I know. Well my baby boy, has his first crush. If he knew I was blogging about it, he would be pouting in his room if she was not here.

So Taylor has slowly developed a wonderful friendship with a middle school girl named Sophie. Sophie and Taylor spend a great amount of time with each other. They are currently making a little horror movie for youtube.

Joe and I noticed that every time Sophie comes over, Joey suddenly has clothes on. We encourage our children to stay clothed but Joey has been anti-clothing since he was born. As soon as he learned how to dress himself, he learned how to undress himself. Many times when Joe and I get home with the kids from a family event, this child is suddenly in his underwear. Joe and I will barely have put our keys down and almost naked Joey is running around.

So we knew something was up when he started dressing himself under no duress.

Oh course, Joe and I are mature parents and asked the boy if he liked Sophie. Okay, okay it was more like.......Joey likes Sophie, Joey likes Sophie.

Which made him stomp out of the room.

Finally, we told Joey. "Look it is okay to think she is pretty."

He said to me with his arms crossed and his face pick, "OKAY I think she is pretty but I don't LOOOOOOVVVVVEEE her."

Many times over the next days, I heard a yell out of my little boy......"I don't lOOOOOVVVVEEEE her TAYLOR and/or LOGAN."

This is the price of being a Rupp.

So today Sophia came over so Logan can help her put strings on her new guitar. We noticed that not only had Joey put on clothes. It was not just the clothes he put on, it was the outfit he had chosen. He choose a pair of jeans(unzipped) and a sleeveless Ohio State shirt that shows his belly because it is 3 sizes to small. He looks like a little muscle builder from the 80s.

I cannot wait to blog about Logan and Taylor first crush.

Recap of Year 33.

The one thing I can say about my life is that is never ever dull. A brief recap of this year began with the office at ACON closing in Richmond and moving to Floroida(ironic). I was given the opportunity to work from home on a conditional basis. Two weeks after I started working at the house, we moved to the Honeytree at West End.

Halloween was fun, the kids had a blast. Then thanksgiving came with a lot sadness, Lina was getting sicker and we all felt helpless. She spent her last days where she wanted to be, with my dad in the home in GA. She watched part of her last FL/FSU game with me on the phone. It was a last decent day she had.

On December 2, after a three year battle with cancer, my brave step mother passed on. Those days are blur to me, and I miss her every day. She always had a level head and was calm and rational. Out of all the sadness came a stronger relationship with my step sister Jaime. I love her like she is my blood sister.

Christmas was bittersweet without Lina, but I worked really hard to make it special for the kids. We upheld all our family traditions and create a few new ones.

In January, our lives were turned upside down when our neighbor knocked on our door at 1:30 on 1/27 to tell us her apartment was on fire. I grabbed the dogs and the laptops and Joe grabbed the cats and we were out the door. We sat for what felt like an hour and watched the firemen put the fire out.

No one was hurt and the fire was started by my neighbor improper use of a cigarette. But we had renter insurance, so we moved into another apartment at Honeytree and started rebuilding our lives. The most important thing was that we were all safe and the animals were all safe.

After replacing a lot of our stuff, we celebrated Logan 16th birthday. It was hard to believe he was this old and the year had been tough because he continually refuse to make any effort in school. At that time he was bringing home 6 Fs on his report card.

I traveled to Florida, to spend time with my dad and to help him go through Lina things. This was so taxing to my heart. We took dad shopping and help him buy things that would not hurt him so much. I really wished I could do more for my dad, but grief is a personal journey. I hope he knows I am there for him. Jaime and I went to Downtown Disney and had a blast. I almost felt 16 again.

The sadness and stress of the years events kinda plagued us, so with our tax money I decided this family needed more fun. The kids are growing fast and Logan will be an adult in 2 years. So I bought season tickets for Kings Dominion. We started to go as much as possible as a family. The kids just seem to have a blast.

Taylor turned 11 soon after that and she had her first slumber party. She had a great time. My little girl is starting to turn into a little preteen. On her birthday, I took off and went to KD to celebrate.

May began with rushing Taylor to the hospital. She had pain in her side. After much debate, they decided it was her appendix. They took her appendix out on Cinco De Mayo. So we spent almost 3 days in the hospital and was released and within a week she was sick again with a high fever. We spent another night in the hospital. She ended up having a kidney infection.

It was that time that I realized I might have a gluten intolerance. For years I have been sick on and off. Randomly I would get sick and I would lose everything I ate or drank. I could not lose weight and was fighting insomnia. Within a week after giving up gluten, I dropped 4 inches. And soon after I dropped 10 pounds. My vomiting episodes stopped and my insomnia began to subside. Now a lot of the time, I feel like I am 23 again.

Taylor graduated from the 5th grade and is now heading to middle school. Joey passed and is heading to the 6th grade. Logan failed 6 out of 7 classes and will be repeating the 10th grade. It broke my heart but I just had to let him fail. I hope he learns his lesson.

Mother and Father day came and went. Both were nice but sad because they were the first one without Lina. Fathers day fell on Lina and Dad's anniversary. It hurt my heart to know he hurt so much.

At the beginning of this month, my baby turned 7. During that day, he tried to shave his face. He is now called Razorface.

Now I am the end of my 33rd year with bittersweet feelings, but the one thing I am thankful for is that I get to spend each year and each birthday with my husband. He is my partner in and life and he makes the day to day trials so much easier to bare. I know he did anything in his power to make this day special even though I am sad he has to work today.

I feel so surrounded with love and feel lucky because even when bad things happen there seems to be someone looking out for me.

So here hoping next year will bring loads of family fun and happiness, the end of the recession, new career opportunities, and financial opportunity that will lead to a new house and the end of apartment life.

The Incredible Fainting Taylor

So my precious daughter, who I mistakenly thought had

more sense than the boys, has shown me the error of my ways. Sitting there with books all the time and getting perfect scores on her state exams has seriously confuse my husband and I.

So we took the whole family to Kings Dominion on Sunday for Joey's birthday celebration. It has slowly become a tradition due to the fact we have season passes and it is 20 miles away. I have the trip down to a science and the cost is really lower than going to Putt Putt, Bowling, or the movies.

Well we always go after lunchtime because I am too cheap to eat at the park. I make everyone eat lunch before we walk out the door.

You know I generally have a policy that I do not look directly at the child because if I make eye contact, they want something.

So I did not pay attention to what the children ate or drank at lunch. I was already annoyed that no one was running out the door to go have family fun time. When we first started going the kids were up at 8am and so excited. Now I have yell at them to get up before noon.

So off we went to the park, off course we cannot leave the house and have a good time unless I am completely annoyed before we leave.

So we get there and we bypassed the park photographers(because I am too cheap to pay for that either). For anyone who visits KD, stay right because they only have one photographer on that side.

We head to SpongeBob 3D. It is new favorite ride and it is in air conditioning. Joey got to decide the order of the rides, so we headed to White Canyon River after SpongeBob. The line was long but the ride was closed the last time we went so we waited. It is a water ride so we thought we could it would be worth it.

Taylor was quiet while we waited. But she is normally silent, because she is secretly a ninja. Right when we getting close to the front of the line, she told me that she was seeing colors and her lips were gray.

Before I knew it she was on the ground. She had fainted but her eyes were open. So we thought she was just exaggerating. Joe picked her up and tried to get her oriented. She seemed to understand what was going on. So we got on the ride. She was conscious but she was kept trying to lay down. We were hoping that the ride would help her and cool her down quickly. Well we got drenched and she seemed a little better.

We got off the ride and we had to help her get to a place to sit down. Joe looked at her lips and they were gray. So we realized quickly it was not the heat, it was probably dehydration. So Joey and I ran to the closest place to get a drink.

Of course when you are freaked out and in a hurry, the dumbest people seem to be in front of you. Four college age girls spent 15 minutes trying to decide if they wanted to buy one souvenir cup because obviously this is not a purchase that anyone should make a snap decision about. I wanted to hire another teenage girl to punch these four girls in the face.

I digress, so I finally get the drinks which had no ice because they were out and made it over to the table where Joe had Taylor and was trying to keep her stable because she was still pale as a ghost. I gave her the drink and she drank and drank and drank.

Her color quickly came back.

I started asking her questions. I wanted to know exactly what she had drank since she woke up. Apparently she woke up and ate cereal with milk.

I asked my daughter if she drank anything with her lunch.

NOPE, nothing. And she preceded to look at me like I was nuts. I could not wrap my head around eating lunch and not having anything to drink with it. Not to mention she had a sandwich.

It was about 3:30 when she fainted. And she had half a cup of milk since 9am.

So apparently I will have to remind my daughter to drink fluids before we head out into the world. There is a possibility we will have to give her instructions on how to come out of the rain in the future.

So Joey and Taylor make a great pair. The razor face boy and the incredible fainting ninja.

Signs for my Children: For Logan

I sat the empty box by the door to taken to the trash by the teenager. Of course it sat there and sat there. So I finally made the child a sign.

It actually worked, he took it out.