26

I am officially 26 years old today, happy birthday to me! I was born at 3:17am, so to think my mother was having contractions 26 years ago is funny. I've come a long way in 26 years...

Education

• Finished High School, missing one credit.
• Got G.E.D.
• Attended The Art Institute of Indianapolis and became a Sophomore.
• Went back to college (Kaplan University) and am now in my second year.

Career

• Worked 5 years in a nursing home (Edgewater Woods).
• Got job at Community NorthView Care Center.
• Joined the Army.
• Began learning about Tattoo's and got an apprenticeship.
• Got a job at Treasure Point working on Graphic Design.
• Started doing a Demo job for Advantage Sales and Marketing.
• Started working for Source Interlink merchandising.
• Came back to the assisted living environment at United Faith Housing.
• Now working for big companies at IBM.

Love

• Met my first love, Kate in High School, and she moved. I did my own thing.
• Got a somewhat complicated relationship if that is what you call it back in 2006, made all the big mistakes that make me who I am today.
• Kate came back into my life and we have been inseparable ever since 1/7/2007.
• Learned how to keep a stable, committed relationship, and how to trust a female again.
• Got engaged.
• Got married finally in New York.

Family

• Raised by my mother until age 13, and then she abandoned my brother and I.
• Got to know my father, but raised self because he was an alcoholic and didn't care what I did.
• Pretty much raised my brother from age 9-16, and then we parted ways. Its not the same and we don't know each other anymore.
• I'm not close to any of my family members. I used to take the time to know them and associate them, and all I got was judgement for the lifestyle I live, you know, the gay thing lol. My family has given me a bad image of Christianity. I know I am a great person and I shouldn't have had to put up with favoritism and judgement.
• Decided to start my own family with my fiance' and we planned our first child- Skyler.
• It was great being a family, and my own bloodline didn't matter to me anymore.
• Had a mid-life crisis, left Kate and was on my own for 6 months.
• Came to my senses and begged for another chance to make it right and to be a family again.
• Originally tried to get Kate pregnant, but it didn't turn out that way and instead I got pregnant with my second son- Hayden.
• Had Hayden.
• Family was complete after getting married.
• I still don't have a connection with my bloodline, besides my children. I now refer to my brother as a sibling instead of a brother.
• Having my own family makes me wish my parents cared about me as much as I care about my kids. Even though I am grown now, it would be nice if any of my family would want to spend time with me...

Self

• Born in Phoenix, AZ.
• Lived my childhood around alcoholism and fighting.
• Broke wrist at 13.
• Moved to Indiana after my mother had an affair on my father.
• Did whatever I wanted :). (Not a good thing looking back.)
• Got drivers license at 16.
• Was on the Tennis team for a short while.
• Broke my wrist again at 16.
• Got first vehicle at 17 and my first job.
• Went Skydiving at 18 and got first two tattoos, and tongue pierced.
• Age 19, started drinking and got introduced to Weed and Pills. This year, was a very reckless year for me, It was the year that I clothes-lined my alcoholic father and that was the last day he drank and went to AA. I started dating this girl, and I was the most horrible person to her at this time. Met Jeff, James, and the other Hoodlums lol. I also stole Katie from one of my good friends at the time..Kerry. Got a seat belt ticket, and got in my first car wreck. Started dating Katie in the beginning of 2007, I was still 19.
• Age 20: Became in a serious relationship with Kate, became engaged, moved out on my own, bought first car, joined the Army, lost a lot of weight.
• Age 21: Got job back at Edgwater Woods, got a new apartment, got first kitten with Kate, got arrested and got a new apartment again and started doing tattoos.
• Age 22: Moved back in with Brian,  got unemployement, went to a lot of concerts, started going to college with James, got a new car from a dealership, and got our first dog- Ginger.
• Age 23: Was doing well in college, doing more tattoo's, started working at treasure point audio, got pregnant with Skyler, stop using drugs,  and quit going to college because I was falling asleep in class.
• Age 24: Had Skyler :), played a lot of Wii, became great friends with Leah, started working for Advantage Sales and Marketing, and Source Interlink. Broke up with Katie for 6 months, lost car, jobs, and lived poor for a while doing tattoos.
• Age 25: Put my family back together, got pregnant with Hayden, got a job at Harter House, got a vehicle from JD Byrider, more bills, laid low and played a lot of video games, had Hayden, got a job at Manpower. Cut  ties with a lot of people who stopped me from growing as a person, got married, got own place to raise a family...

That is a lot of big things that has been going on in my life by looking at that. I think of my roots whenever I have a birthday. I think of my relationships with my family members, and each year, we drift further apart. My decision to marry Kate, was the final straw with most of my family members, and my "friends". Those that remain are indeed true friends and I am grateful for that. Brian was pissed, Colleen went off about it, Kyle was indifferent and didn't care, and I didn't bother to tell anyone else, I'd rather not get scrutinized by what makes me happy and the choices in my life. It's not like they are a part of my life to know or have it affect them. Big life events in my life, are huge for me, and I'm happy that I have Kate to celebrate them with and our boys. Unlike many other people in my life, she has been there constantly for me in the last six years. I'm going to stop wasting my time trying to have people in my life that don't try to be in my life without me going out of my way to spend time with them. I guess if I'm out of sight, I will also be out of mind. I believe I am a great person, kind, loving, generous, considerate, and I don't let you down if I love you. I'm a great friend, and I listen to people, I treat people like I would want to be treated, but I don't trust that easily. I guess when I used to trust the wrong people, being let down, just started hurting too much, so that part of me is still there, but I don't know if it will be seen very much so anymore. My next goal is to move far away from Indiana, and never come back. I personally don't want my kids to get attached to the same family members I have, just to go through the same things I went through, and never feeling like they were important. 

  It's amazing what one can do when they put their mind to it. I do it all the time. Everything I wanted I have gotten so far. I'm a person of action and I don't stop until I succeed. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I'm glad I interest you enough to read my blabberings..

Randi

I'm on Morning Shift

Woah! It's been a while since I last posted, but things have been full of events since then. I gave birth to my beautiful second son on October 2nd, 2012. Hayden Elijah Colton :) My genes dominate because once again, this baby looks just like me and that makes me happy. Here is a picture for you all to see. He is a big baby actually and I got to watch the surgery from the reflexion on the light. I saw my insides!! lol

The day after I had him, our house got robbed. They took all of mine and Kate's stuff but left other things, oh and they stole some movies from Skyler and his favorite comfort blanket. Bastards, you can steal from me, but why cross the line and take from my son? So we came home to a wrecked house, everything was gone through and various items missing. Bye Bye Xbox, Wii, Playstation II, Gamecube, all my games, over half of my movie collection (all my Angelina Jolie movies are gone! I almost had all of them and they took a whole dvd tower) My laptop that only worked sometimes, old cell phones, they took our Venus Razors that weren't opened and an unopened dove deodorant, all of Kate's pants, including the Candy Pants I bought her from Britney Spears Line, a picture frame that was $20...ugh, and just other stupid stuff really. Well someone must like us enough to want our stuff. I just regret not being there because it would have been on! It has always been my dream to find a intruder in my haus :) They wouldn't leave conscious hehe.

Anyway, so Hayden is doing well. Skyler is more and more interested in his brother..as he calls him "Bubba." Skyler seems like he has grown in the past month. He is about 3 feet tall and 30 lbs now. He doesn't look like a 20 month old. He is starting to talk more, and tunes us out when we talk to him. He does his own thing but is very loving. Right now he is sick, so he always wants held and nurtured. I love him. Him and Kate have been spending alot of time together because he doesn't leave her side. I'm up with Hayden during the nights and early mornings. I try to let Kate sleep because she is go go go during the day. She let me sleep for like 5 hours yesterday. I want exhausted and don't remember passing out like that. That seems to happen a lot lately. Me laying down and passing out after a long day. I woke up at 5:35am yesterday, got all my school work done, and just chilled. I have this weekend off so I want to spend time with my family. Kate and I don't really get much time together. One of us is always sleepy, and dealing with one of our kids. It's a new time and we expected this, but at least we have eachother :) I'm trying not to let the stress get the best of me, or us, but sometimes its hard. All we can do is try. I love my life, and this year is ending well.

1 Day Away.. OMG

Ello,

Its hard to believe that tomorrow is the day the birthing process will start. Things are happening quickly indeed! Yesterday was the last day of my seminars for this quarter at Kaplan. Right now my grades are still at a 4.0 average so I should be good if I keep up the work :) I'm going to try to get as much of it done today as possible because I don't know what the weekend will bring. I am in need of a flash drive though in case I need to work on my studies at the hospital, on the laptop. All my work is saved on my desktop computer, and I lost my other flashdrives I was using.

Well yesterday went by quickly for the most part. I stayed up and played the Sims 2, and am finished with Kate's daddy, so I'm working on my mom now. Went to bed around 8, and was in a sleep daze until 11. Kate made us fried egg sandwiches on bagels for breakfast and some coffee :). Skyler was dancing on the coffee table again and everytime I closed my eyes on the couch, he ran up with the feather duster and tickled my face lol. Kate and I spent most of the day in bed watching TV, which is rare because we don't do that lol. Skyler played in his room and in our room all day. I got comfy and me and Kate took a nap after Skyler fell Asleep. It was great! We slept in until 630 or so. I made us Ravioli before my class started at 7pm. It was fast and only lasted until 7:30, so we watched the X Factor for a bit. I decided to take a shower with Skyler to help him go to bed.. It relaxed him, but he was still wide awake!! We came upstairs and played until my 10pm class, and he still was awake running around and climbing out of his bed when we were trying to put him to sleep. Kate tried rocking him to sleep but he still didn't fall asleep. We finally decided to lay him down and let him fuss his way to sleep.. It eventually worked. I called my mom and talked to her until my phone died. We ate some chicken and noodles, and Kate took a shower. She came back up and I gave her a massage to help her sleep, then I laid down, she grabbed me and the next thing I know..we were asleep :) It was a easy day, and I feel restored. Today we are going to clean our haus some more to prepare for the unknown. Leah may be staying the weekend, depending  on how things go with me, so we are giving her our room to snooze in, since she is pregnant and its the best place to be :) Well I'm going to start simming again. Thanks for reading!

<3 Randi

I Slept My Day Away

Hello!

Man, today I was worn the **** out! I didn't really sleep because I was too uncomfortable, so by 10:00am, I had to do something, so I tried to fall asleep..and I did. Kate let me sleep in and took care of Skyler and made sure he didn't wake me up. She is so sweet to me. I woke up around 1pm for some Ramen noodles and PB&J Samich hehe, then I went back to sleep. I was completely exhausted, and I can see why. Sleeping for only 2-3 hours at a time for five days or so does take a toll on one's body. I woke up closer to 5pm finally after recovering with sleep. My body felt way better than it did, and I was ready for my day. Kate was at her sister's house and Skyler was just waking up from his nap too. As soon as I woke up, my woman came home to me :). I went downstairs and started cooking us dinner. She wanted some homemade pizza, so I started making the dough. We had pepperoni and cheese pizza..it was delicious! We ate, then decided to go on a walk to try and hurry this birthing process up, and to spend time together since I didn't get to see her most of the day. We both were curious what my blood pressure was, so we decided to take a walk to CVS and let me check it there. It was so nice outside, and the sky was hazy. I enjoy our walks because its just me, her and our baby boy. Gives us time to talk and focus on eachother. We made it there and my blood pressure was perfect! 123/73. Amazing for walking there, sitting down, and voila! We then walked home. Skyler didn't fall asleep, and enjoyed looking around, but it made him tired. When we got in the neighborhood a dog was barking and Kate was like "shut up" and Skyler was starting to say "shut up" too. lol it was cute. He is more talkative these days. He must know something is going to happen soon, because he is all over me, and wanting all of my attention, more than usual. Walking slow wears you out more than brisk walking I think. Kate and I were worn out when we got home. We made some strawberry koolaid, and downed it, but Skyler to bed, then relaxed for a bit. I made us some popcorn and Kate made us some cheesecake lol. We watched the news, then TMZ, I rubbed her back and she fell asleep. I've been playing the Sims 2 and skyler just woke up from a bad dream..so I must go. I love you Kate, Sky and Baby Hayden!

I like this cooking thing :)

I've decided that I enjoy cooking. If I had it my way I would cook every meal from virtually scratch. I used to loath it, but after I have been doing it and researching how to be better, it has became a hobby. This morning I cooked us biscuits and gravy and it was the bomb! I ate some chicken/broccoli alfredo that Brian made at work just because it sounded good. For supper, I made us hamburgers on toasted bread..and damn! It almost tasted like a frisco melt from Steak and Shake. Pretty badass I must say :)

Here is how my day went..

I stayed up for a while and played the Sims 2. I deleted everything and recreated Brian as my first sim (Brian is my father for those of you who do not know). I will create Kate's dad next then our mom's and so on and so on.. Here is a picture lol

Brian talking to the Genie the gypsy left at his door..

I stayed up until Skyler woke up around 8:00AM, I fed him some blueberry Pomegranate applesauce and some cheese poof things from Parents Choice, put "Despicable Me" in for him, then came back into our room. Kate was awake kinda and asked when I was coming back to bed, I couldn't resist, so I crawled back in bed and got all snuggly. We slept in until 11 or so, Skyler fell back asleep, and I woke up to Kate finding the letter I wrote her in the origami heart <3. She woke up in a great mood hehe. I laid there for a little longer, then got up because Hayden started kicking me, and I made us biscuits and gravy. I played the Sims a little more, while Kate watched Steve Wilkos, then we laid down again lol. She stayed up and did this and that. I woke up because the baby was in my ribs and it was hard to breathe. Kate got me hooked on playing "Song Pop" on Facebook, so we battled eachother for a while, then ate some Chicken/Broccoli Alfredo. I fell back asleep again, and she watched TV. Her sister ended up showing up with her boyfriend and a few friends, so Kate went down to say hey. They left, I cooked dinner, we cleaned, gave Skyler a bath, moved the bassinet upstairs by our bed..and they both fell asleep. Today was another lazy day, but I was so tired... I'm glad I have a few days left because I've been draggin'. Well I'm going to go back to playing my game, just thought I would record my daily events :) I love you Kate, Sky and Hayden <3 R

4 Days

Its hard to imagine that in four days, I will have my appointment with Dr. Copeland and most likely will be admitted into the hospital to deliver Hayden. This will be my last four days being able to feel him inside my body and have this pregnant feeling. It has been a long year of pregnancy, so think that I got pregnant on January 4th, 2012, found out I was actually pregnant on February 12th, and went through two seasons to get here. It feels like a long time, and Kate and I are so ready to meet the new addition to our family. I'm not looking forward to the recovery stage if I have to have a C-Section (which is the most likely outcome because I have a vertical cut incision, and will have more risk of a rupture during natural birth). My last appointment in June, my doctor said that this baby is big for its age and if he kept growing at that same weight I would have a 9 pound baby, and he recommended a C-Section. Its all going to be new in a way, considering I was knocked out when Skyler was born, and it felt like I went to sleep, woke up and there was a baby lol. I'm not a fan of Epidurals and I want to avoid getting one at all costs. Something about having a needle go into my spinal fluid isn't natural to me, and 90% of every woman I've talked to who has had one, has told me they now have back issues of some sort. Right now I am free of any back pain, but I don't know if its from my constant yoga practice which is supposed to make back pain go away for the most part. I don't know. The last time I had a back ache was when I was pregnant with Skyler. Only time will tell how this situation will unfold for me. I just hope all is well, and I have a happy, healthy baby, and I make it out great as well. I'm very fortunate to have people in my life who will be there to help out. Leah is going to stay the night Thursday and watch Sky when we go to the doctor, and is going to help out in taking care of him while Kate and I are in the hospital. If she needs a break, then we have Kate's family who are ready and wanting to keep him at their place as well. So we are covered. Its exciting how life will be changing soon :).

Anyway..

Today has been an easy going day. I slept in actually until 10am, and Skyler was at his gate yelling at one of us to wake up, so I got up and let Kate sleep in. We went downstairs, and I let him run around and be a toddler, while I cooked some French Toast from scratch. Its interesting how the more practice one gets at cooking, the faster and easier it becomes hehe. Skyler ate some pomegranates and made faces at himself in the mirror while I cooked. We then brought up the food and had Kate wake up to some hot and fresh breakfast. We ate, and decided to lay back down. We figured it was Sunday so why rush into the day. Well we had to be in Chesterfield around 2:30pm, but ended up sleeping in until 1:40..so woke up in a rush and got us all ready, then we left. The part that makes us both fall deeply asleep fast and regardless of the situation, is when I wrap my arms around Kate and we get all cozy...works every time. Its different these days because Hayden creates that big gap between my body and her body lol, and most of the time he is kicking her..but we manage to make it work. For the first time ever, Kyle and Leah beat us there! I brought Skyler's baby gate to block him from the stairs, and it actually was a great idea, we didn't have to keep chasing him around that corner. He was a good baby, but was harassing the plants this time. I got to catch up with Leah because we haven't seen or talked to eachother in a week. Her baby is growing, and I'm glad she is doing well, my brother seems to be treating her well lol. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and a dinner roll. Also, some fresh grapes he grew from his garden, and Skyler loved them. I did dishes, and Kyle helped. Kate, Brian, my Uncle Keith, and Grandpa all sat around and watch the Colts lose, and of course NASCAR. I took Sky outside to let out some energy, and then we decided to head out after it was official that the Colts lost. haha. Kate got us some Ice cream cones from McDonalds on the way home, and Skyler some fries..then I wanted a Cappuchino..so I got spoiled and she got me one. lol, she spoils me these days and I never go without a craving. I came home, and she and Sky went to see her sister at her dad's house. I just relaxed, then laid down for a nap until she came home. I woke up to her kissing me :) I love my woman, she is great. I was still a bit tired, so she gave Skyler a bath and let me sleep in a little more, she wrote me a letter :).. We then decided it was time to make supper, so we went to Payless and got...

• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Beef
• Taco Seasoning
• Tortillas
• Sour Cream
• Milk for Sky
• Sausage (for breakfast)
• Biscuits (for breakfast- I'm going to make Biscuits and Gravy lol)

All for under $13.. amazing..

She cleaned up and I cooked dinner, we ate, she tried to put Skyler to bed, but he climbed out of his bed, and played a little more, until I put him back to bed. Kate took her a hot bath and I did the dishes. Skyler was whining, and I think just needed his mom-om (as he calls Kate) to tuck him in and give him that good night kiss, just like every night. The next thing I know, he is asleep, and I'm crawling into bed next to my lavender smelling fiance. We fell asleep very fast. I'm awake now because this baby doesn't let me sleep very long periods at a time. I probably sleep 3-4 hours at a time, but have the most vivid dreams... Well that's my review of my day. It's 2:18AM, and I think I'm going to play The Sims 2. Peace Out!

Randi

Randi's September 2012 Playlist (playlist)