I really look forward to my new adventure… I mean Atlanta ( How can I NOT be excited!!??)
But, the thought of leaving my beloved Savannah - My heart is sinking a little…   Been here since 1993 it’s been the most stable home I have ever had… 
So, I am going to make the most out of my time…

Here is my Savannah, GA bucket list

This year I will do the bridge run/walk…  I have a fear of bridges…  What a great way to conqueror my fear- I just need to get my booty in shape…  Starting NOW!

Go on a ghost tour( I have been on three but, I want to take the one that starts at midnight)

Pig out at the Casbah ( LOVE THAT PLACE)

Take pictures at the Bonaventure Cemetery

Do another sunset  Dolphin Tours

Take a ride on the Savannah River Queen

Eat fair food at the State Fair-Go to a Haunted House ( Ugh. Can you say Chicken S***)

Eat cheese and drink wine at Mienheart Vinyards

Go to Butterducks winery

Go to October Fest and watch the wiener races

Go to the Savannah Theater and watch something (anything really!!)

Para-sail ;-D

Eat at the Pirate House

Eat at Uncle Bubba’s

Go to Oatland Island

I am sure I have forgotten something…  Hey can you help me add to my Savannah, GA Bucket list??

Summer of 09… 
I have been wrapped up in my own drama, I didn’t take time to smell the roses, I have been too consumed in my own misery that even though “life is bad” it could always be worse!
One of my blogging buddies Dizzy Girl wrote an end of summer blog,  and I realized that if I took a long look at the things that happened during the summer, it was ALL that bad… 
As summer of 09 closes..  I can honestly say it’s one of the BEST summers I have had in years…:

I met my husband’s Niece and Nephew and they told me I was “cool” and “I was the best auntie EVER” They taught me teenagers are moody, but, I can learn a BUNCH from them!!   I miss them every day! 
I went on my first Dolphin Cruise.
Cooled off at Splash in the Boro
Hung out at Sunbury
We went to the Beach and made a sand castle (and had a clam land on my nephew), I saw Sting Ray’s in the wild!
We ate a HUGE pizza from Sweet Melissa’s (YUMMY)
I rescued three doggies (I don’t think I will do that again! Ha Ha)
I took a photography class (Thank you Rowe Photographers)
Went to Hilton Head Island while a hurricane was passing through (about) 200 miles offshore
Watched the Fireworks on Ft. Stewart from the top of the Farris Wheel (could not have planned that any better) nothing beats accidental romance!
Stayed in the pool until I turned into a prune…
Eat Watermelon until I couldn’t move..
Had somebody pay it forward to my family (double and then some…) – Went to China, Morocco, Paris and Germany… I made wish on Tinker bell, I rode Dumbo and I got to be a KID!  (OH yeah…  And the kids had a wonderful time too! Ha Ha)

At times it was so humid you could cut the air with a knife…
Miley Cyrus (local stalking case click here) came and wrecked havoc on our lil sleepy town (joke)…  Now bring on Robert Redford…
We had some really wicked (awesome) storms…
Summer heat=BAD tempers – And when the President of the USA started talking about “Public Health Care”  people started losing fingers…
Fires are raging in California (still)
I saw the city of Richmond Hill come together when they lost one of their own…

We lost several icons (RIP):

Farrah Fawcet
Michael Jackson
Senator Kennedy
Eunice Kennedy
Billy Mays
David Carridine
Karl Malden
Ed McMahon

The summer time brought many burdens on our family, but, if I really take the time and look at everything that happened, I think in this instance the good out weighs the bad…  And with falls comes a new set of adventures:

A new job for honey (God willing)
A Move- Our last day at this house is Oct 31,09 good bye Muscadine vines and Effingham Co.  – A new adventure awaits us (A move to a new part of GA away from my beloved Savannah)
Me working full-time on my “secret project” – I have a deadline of the end of the year! 
The end to all this TAX drama (one way or another details to come )

Ugh…

It’s funny how you are reminded that your life is not your own and in a nano-second things can change!

Ugh…

You want to talk about a turn of events…
Because, of an error my life has been turned upside as of right now I have no light at the end of the tunnel… Maybe soon that will change BUT, as of right now as I type these words… Let me check again…

Nope no light…

I really cannot do any finger pointing because at this point in time I really do not know what happened, and I most likely never will but, I guess that is the way life goes.
At least in my world…
Sooo.. I guess here goes.
This is a situation that is kind of a hard pill to swallow. When I say I have swallowed humble pie, I mean we have.
Where to start…???

Lets start with INCOME TAX season it’s always exciting ( accept when you have to pay…)

Our W-2’s came in Late Jan, we  took our  taxes to an accountant in Savannah, GA…

Around Mid- Feb we got a phone call saying our taxes where done, the IRS found a mistake ( in our favor)that she had made a mistake and that our taxes were corrected, the accountant said, we would be  getting more money back… (YIPPEE)
She told us “The money is going to be dropping very soon, give it about two weeks or so…” A phrase I was going to VERY use to hearing…
So, one month goes…Two months go…
And FINALLY I told Jason he needed to give the IRS a call.   And he did… We found out that the IRS had in-fact paid us (March 13 and state went in- Feb 28),  Ready for this–  it just went into another account.  So the IRS told us to fill out this form( either 1139 or 3911 I always transpose this number)
Jason went the accountant with the information that he had found, and she did in fact tell him that-(paraphrased) she did put the money in the wrong bank account but, that she was “putting a trace on it” to see where the money went to… (Another term I got use to hearing)  And she asked Jason to please not fill out the form and sendit in…  She said it would put her business at a stand still  and we don’t want to put anybody out like that…  He accepted this and did not send in the form.   
Let just add this– I am ignorant to tax laws and I really don’t know my head from my booty when it comes to things like this… So we took her at her word.
The first red flag was when, we called the IRS again, and come to find out no trace had been done to our account …  The other red flag that just hit Jason and I like a ton of bricks was:
 WE NEVER SAW OR SIGNED OUR TAXES…
Back he went – to talk to the accountant again, and she said:
The Government had frozen $ 12,000 of her money because they had to double check before releasing the money- called a “tack”…
Thinking about it now:  “DOLORES HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID!!”
On the flip side to that: Accountants speak Greek to me and I took this person’s word… Again let me say I really don’t know what actually happened, and I cannot do any finger pointing, nor will I until this matter is resolved. Back to the Story…:
Week after week… We got the “Your money will drop any day now” “Your money will drop any day now”…
We did call everyday, we did check on our stuff, we did not let this slide because we needed the money…
Alright so, as if we didn’t have THAT to worry about…

Our lives were spilling out of control at a rate of speed my head is still turning Lets see:
Jason was laid off from Uncle Sam (gotta love those budget cuts) and we lost a considerable income. 
We filled for  unemployment but, the state of GA was  so behind unemployment didn’t   kick in until 8 weeks AFTER he applied (we got hit on all ends)…
Any money we had was gone – Savings account was totally depleted
Oh yes!!  Let the good times roll haha( at least I still have a sense of humor)

Back to the story…:
Finally after weeks of “your money will drop any day now” …
I called the IRS and got the same information accept this time, I went ahead and filled the necessary paperwork (its either 1139 or 3911 ) and faxedit in… I felt really bad doing so, and I can’t even tell you why.  Contray to popular opinon I am a nice person.  I do have a heart…  ( SHHH don’t tell anybody)
 A couple of weeks go by and basically after many many many phone calls the IRS finally gives us an answer, and in “Dolores speak” the letter reads something like this:
“ Hey sorry we cannot help you because, WE HAVE ALREADY PAID YOU STOP BOTHERING US!!!”
We made one last phone call to the IRS. FINALLY somebody with an open mind helped us. And honestly the IRS has been very helpful it’s just that their hands are tied.
The guy explained everything to us in terms we can understand.
What happened was the person who did our taxes didn’t put her EIN or SS # as a preparer on our taxes so; it was made to look like we did our own taxes.   And we put them into the bank account listed. The Bank account that our money went to, it went to wasn’t even an authorized dealer that deals with practitioners (Jackson Hewitt, H and R block have a handful of banks that they use, and the bank routing number wasn’t on the list).

Shockingly enough, The IRS gave us the bank account and routing number- I guess after the investigation they can do that… Because, we are now in possession of that, it did go into an “open” bank account, and the numbers?
Not even CLOSE to our bank account. Is a matter of a fact this went into a “business account”.
This particular bank that was used- personal bank accounts start with a 1 and business accounts start with a 2… Needless to say this account started with a 2…
Maybe you’re thinking OH MY… the IRS broke all kinds of laws by giving you this bank account number… YOU MIGHT BE SCREAMING PRIVACY ACT!!
Well… even us having this bank account number… It’s not like we can do anything with it. We are not authorized users; the only thing we can do is… deposit money.
Ugh. 

You would think it’s a really simple cut and dry case. Taxes go into wrong bank account; we should get our money no problem?
Right?
WRONG! If you only knew the hoops we are going through to try and recover money that is OURS!
It’s been a nightmare. And, like I said…
We have no end in sight. It’s not as black and white as it seems. You have all kinds of shades of grey… Let me say this, I know the Taxes laws more then I ever wanted to and it sucks being on this end of things! Listen ya’ll… Learn from this: A. Always see your taxes
and
B. PLEASE BE SURE YOU KNOW WHO DOES your taxes!

OK, now I have to go and eat worms and hide my head in the sand… Listen wake me up when this year ends OK?

Part 1 of my blog! 

I have been struggling with this blog…  I know what I want to write.  The proper words are not coming to me …
I want this to be a shiney happy blog!  I want to be in that state of mind again…
 I cannot bring myself to even start it correctly with  sounding like, I am playing the victim card.  I am not trying too… 
I just have had a craptastic year… (it’s had it’s good points, VERY good points! In general if I play out the statistics…  I have had better years…)
But, here I am… 
Waiting…
Surviving…
Wondering …
Just Here…
(taps fingers on keyboard, that’s another thing I do ALOT!!!!!  I think it’s a nervous twitch or something)
Ok speaking of my craptastic year…   

I have been MIA in the blogosphere cause I want to write happy positive things–  I cannot be one of those bloggers that has NOTHING good to say…  Man, I hate those bloggers…  I once read this blog were this person complained about Disney(have I already mentioned that?  If I have then please forgive me) I mean WHO goes to Disney and complains!  GEESH! 
Ok, well people life is crappy(honestly not wait I want to put… ) Damn does it suck…  ( I like the word damn… I use it alot! )

Onto the shiney happy part…

disney

The Magic Kingdom  the happiest place on earth(not being all cliche and stuff, it really is!!!).  I smilied the entire time… 
Neatest part?  I saw Disney through my children’s eyes, what an awesome experience!!  It’s so different to see their eyes wide open taking everything in… 
For a brief a moment in that span of time I got to forget about what is going on here…
We  never could we have afforded it ( well not never. I am being my  overly dramatic self ) At this point in time we would not have been able to take the kids… 
In case you didn’t know, our economy sucks and even people, who have never had to penny pinch are doing so!! 
I was just fine with my “lil” stay-cation @ my parents house (mainly due to the fact that our landlords would not fix our air conditioner *nice people huh?* please remind me to tell you-  they made us keep a creepy picture of Jesus up, and it’s really hard to have a creepy picture up …  I will blog about that later, oh and tell me if I have already …  needless to say it’s down…) Oh yeah my parents have a pool…  Which is why I packed up the kids and stayed with the parental units…  let me say I am loving being at home( I had to throw that in…)
Back to our trip…
She got a great deal on passes for 5 days all parks minus water parks, paid for our hotel room, gas money and an anonymous donor helped with spending money…

Back to our fabu vacation- We went to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Disney, Animal Kingdom and Epcot…  We have passes for one more day but, really we needed to get back to reality the children where starting school On Wends… 
Victoria was little bit on the hesitent side, she cried with the haunted mansion( sigh…)
  Alrighty BAD MOM…  I made her do it.. But, so did my mom so,I was just making sure I keeping with tradition (haha). 
Now the twins?  OMG!  What a nightmare… HOLY MOLEY!!!  My suggestion to anybody with children under the age of – three, I wouldn’t suggest it!  It had it’s good moments, but, it mostly had it’s moment’s that made honey and I tear out our hair!
his includes-Almost losing one, the temper tantrums,  WE had to take turns on rides, um….  OH YEAH..  One fell from the stroller bumped his head on the concrete…  Everybody around me freaked out..  (rolls eyes) I had to tell everybody(nicely) me  he is crying, his pupils are NOT dilated, he is responding to my voice and can follow my fingers, YES LADY-I WILL NOT LET HIM FALL ASLEEP…  I forgot to tell you… My husband is a medic! 
Adventurous to say the least

Low light of my vacation — the run in I had with a  VERY VERY VERY rude woman… (seriously…  Honey told me SEVERAL times let it go…  It’s done, I could not shut up)
WWJD went out the windwo(hangs head in shame),  I should have let the women knock my son out of the way with, and walk away and do nothing…  What happened was- this women said in a VERY RUDE TONE to my son, “EXCUSE ME and then PUSHED HIM OUT OF THE WAY!”  He almost was knocked over to the point I had to catch him– I almost punched the ever living crap out of her… (listen she was like built like an amazon and could have taken me down but, I tell you what… I would have ruined that nice pretty nose job of her’s ) WHO DOES THAT TO A CHILD!??
Admittedly so, I didn’t show a very good example to my children either, and I could not let it go!  I really couldn’t… 
I never used the F Bomb!  Now that is something I am proud of!  Honey, has rarely seen my inner Madea and he did…After the fireworks its absolute chaos everybody is scrambling to get out of the park and yes, I do understand your going to shoved and such…  But, you should have seen what she did to my son..  I guess you had to have been there!  Don’t mess with momma bear!  ha ha

All in all it was amazing!  I will never forget it and one day I hope to pay this person back the same way they did my entire family!  Maybe I will never be able to take their entire family on vaction but, I hope to one day return the kindness they showed us for those few days we got to spend with them!  In the middle of all of this chaos and disturbance…  It’s nice for the universe to show us compassion and shower us with blessings! 

Sometimes, in the middle of life…  You will have moments that take your breath away… 

Now, if I would have had the roaming gnome it would have been complete!!  Ha Ha!

We made it two years!  Here is to many more years of crying, venting, happiness, dreams and much much more!!

Happy 2nd Bloggy Year!!!!!!

Speaking of the Bachelor I just want to say… 
Congrats to Molly and Jason from last season’s Bachelor… I was wrong you have endured alot of public scrutinity…  It’s not easy to make it when you have so many people hoping you fail…  Good Luck!  I wish you many years of everlasting love!!

Molly and JAson

SOOO, Jillian…  The most boring Bachelorette in history gets engaged to Ed… (Personally, I would have chosen the dude that has the wine distillery… but, that is cause I am a wine drinker and…  Well…  COME ON who wouldn’t want their own personal arsenal of wine anytime they wanted it…  If your into wine.. ) Blah blah blah… 
So, on the off chance you don’t watch the show, it appears many-of you don’t…  The guy she chose,  Ed left the show for work reasons, then he comes back and  asks for Jill for a second chance and she gives him one…  No biggie  we have all done that…  OK, maybe you haven’t done it…  I was a serial dater, not to be confused with a serial bed hopper, never really was interested in playing hide the pickle with multiple men…
After everything is said and done and the last rose has been given out…   Now two women are coming forth saying that they were ALSO dating/sleeping with/doing to weddings with  Ed while he was on the show and, even after he got engaged… 
Now, I have to ask you something…  Is it really cheating…??  All these contestants on the show are dating 25 and in this case 30 men…  Your in hot tubs, making out. kissing, holding hands in front of TV and these other people you are dating( kinda takes voyeurism to a whole new level huh??)
Back to Jill days before the big proposal Jill was in a few of these compromising soft porn at times situations:
1. She was in a hot tub with Reid, sans clothing
2. She could not stop making out with Kiptyn the day before she got engaged.
3. She had an overnight date with Kiptyn
4. She went into hot tubs with Kiptyn
5. Moments before she accepted Ed’s proposal, she was freaking out about Reid’s proposal.
Now let me ask you this: If you were Ed, and your future fiance had done and of 1-5 above within 72 hours of you geting engaged to her, would this  bother you???  Of course it would! 

Come on!!  He was getting everything  in before he settled down(hehe)…  it’s no different then a “man’s bachelor” party…  Come on!  give it a break! 

Now what I cannot understand is why I continue to watch this show!  I lose IQ points every single time I turn on the TV!! 
Now let me ask you…  If all these allegations are true…  Did Ed really cheat on Jill??

Humor, positive thinking it’s a wonderful tool when you are down and out-  When I had my emergency surgery earlier this year, they gave me so many drugs that right before I went into surgery, I broke out in hives..  It was the worst!!  What did I do?  Used humor to help combat what I was going through…  It worked… 
I really am not tryng to be a Debbie Downer…  I hate reading those kinda blogs…  But, as of right now my world is upside-down, inside out and I feel like I am a really bad sitcom and I just want out!!  But I can’t get out cause…  This is life!  And you can’t quit it… 

 09 is not the year for me. 
I have had really good points, but, I am sad to report- this half of 09 has been a CRAPTASTIC year…    And it nothing and I mean nothing has gone our/my way!  I/we take one step forward and two steps back. 
So, I have no choice but, to scream at the universe…  ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME– COME ON!  ( best line ever–  If you are a Grey’s Fan..  You understand) 

 It’s no secret that my baby daddy has been absent in my children’s life.  (first two not the twins)
Balls are rolling…  And they have been for sometime… 
( Cryptic I know sorry)
Today I called up the office of  Merritt and Grinstead and thought I was talking to an intelligent person.  I would have settled for a paralegal instead what I got was an ignorant Office Manager( her name escapes me DAMN IT  Yeah I am name dropping something I never DO!!!) who doesnt’ know the first thing about Special Needs children…  more specifically AUTISTIC CHILDREN!!! 
(I really thought she was some who was important had, I known she was a big nobody in this I would not have given her the time of day)
Been dealing with ignorant people about this subject, I have seen and heard it all… Hell I even read a blog where special needs children were compared to DOGS… I have met some real doozies…  But, this took the cake… 
( And the tears are rolling down my cheeks as I write this… )
I explained my situation and I wanted to see what my rights were, in the state of GA laws have changed so drastically, I can’t keep up… 
I told her A, B and C (not gonna bore you guys with gossipy details), the only thing I can say about my ex is  one  is he has always paid child support–  He has to he in the military  somewhere in the conversation She told me…  “That it was up to me to FOSTER the relationship with the children and their father”  “IT WAS THE LAW” – WHOA…  Wait a min I think she missed the mark someplace in our conversation, AFTER I had explained that he hasn’t seen the children (EVER) and that he hasn’t made any attempts and that they are autistic… blah blah blah… 
I was trying to explain to her that You can’t “foster” something that doesn’t want to be “fostered”  she said I was in contempt of court if I wasn’t doing this.   WHAT!!! 
This man who has never been in the children’s lives EVER, has more rights then I DO!!!???

 I wish I was hiding birthday cards and Christmas presents!  
 I wish I was preventing the children from seeing this man.  He doesn’t want them never has, never will. 

What am I afraid of then? 

Ask yourself this:  
You are a teenager or younger and this man walks into your life, and, you knew he was their but, has never made an effort to make contact with and says “I am your father”  ( he-he…  Kinda Stars Wars like LUKE I AM YOUR FATHER..  COMPLETE with heaving breathing… he-he)
 Don’t you think it would put a monkey wrench in your life?  Now add in a disability…
I haven’t hid the children’s father from them, they just have a REALLY hard time wrapping their mind’s around that.  Can you blame them?? 
I have a time wrapping my mind around it.
And this Office manager tells me I need to “foster a relationship”.  How?  I think anybody with a lick of sense would really not give out that advice, the law is NOT  BLACK AND WHITE! 
This women who has never laid eyes on my divorce decree or anything else for that fact…  She doesn’t know me or the struggles I have been though,…  SHE ASSUMED, and it was really wrong!

Oh it gets better… (he-he) I call my mom bawling my eyes out..  Heaving sobs even…  And my mom calls the office( cause mom is just as pissed as I am )  And she told my mom she “NEVER SAID THAT”  Oh yes, because I use the phrase –”foster relationship” ALL THE FLIPPIN TIME!  If she didn’t say that, how on earth did I come up with that?  I appreciate her thinking I am THAT smart(thanks for that) but, honestly had NEVER heard that term my whole life until this afternoon.  She called me a liar!  Real nice customer service skills, the finest in town( sarcasm )

My advice to all Hinesville, GA residents who want REAL LEGAL ADVICE don’t go to the Merritt side of things, I am all about supporting small business..  Honestly I am…  But, I cannot support a business when they degrade a potential client and make people feel as bad as I was made to feel today. 

I’d like to know WHEN we mother’s lost our rights to protect our children?  I’d like to know when did dead beat father’s get more rights then the mother’s did?  Please somebody help me understand this..  I am open for discussion

Can I throw a temper tantrum?  Can I be 12 just for the duration of this blog??  Can I just be a little bitter…????????????????  PLEASE!!!  
Truth??
I have been moping around.  I have been feeling sorry for myeslf I have been acting 5…   I want to stamp my feet and say this is NOT FAIR.  I’m not your friend anymore!  I am going to go eat worms…  Life right now is taking me for a ride… The ride of my life!  So, I can either do two things…  I can mope around like I have been or I can look around and really think.  Is my life really THAT bad… 
No.
No, really it’s not! 
I have a man that loves me,
I have wonderful children,
I have a roof over my head and I still have my sanity! 
What more do I need…?  In the next few weeks I my life will change even more… ( I know I keep saying that…  but, as the story of my life goes nothing and I mean nothing is set in stone…)  
I feel like the little engine that could…  “I think I can I think I can I think can…” 

I feel so disconnected from everything, even Komen…  I don’t feel like I need to retreat, I think I just need to put myself “out-there” but, i don’t just want to do it 25% I want to give it my all, I want to give it my everything! 

With me I know I cannot set BIG goals.  I have to set baby goals!  So, I have started to eat breakfast, Your thinking Geesh Dolores GREAT…  Breakfast?  It may seem small to you but,its huge to me!  Next?  Cardio everyday…  YAY!  Been doing that!  Don’t spend so much time on line.  GRRRR… Then I have to remind myself…   ” Baby-steps Dolores”… 

As I rise through the ashes yet again in, this new journey…  What is to become of everything…????
  I have no clue… 
Iknow one thing… I will be forever in school…  LIFE!   Learn with me…  Hurt with me…  Be happy with me…  Just do me one big favor…  Don’t judge!!!  As I go through this new journey…  Smile with me…  and send me happy positive thoughts!  In the mean time…  Hold on y’all it’s going to be a bumpy ride

PS- I’m not preggers, or dying…