Happy Birthday Rachel!!

22 years ago today, I gave birth to a beatiful little girl. Okay, so maybe she wasn't so little...she weighed 10 pounds, 5 ounces!!! And she had a ton of black hair!

This is something I wrote for this blog about 3 years ago....Instead of rewriting, I just decided to repost it.

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I was 17 years old and a Junior in high school. I had no interest in being a parent, nor did I have the patience or funds to take care of a child. I decided the best decision would be to release her for adoption.

I lived in a foster home for about the last 3-4 months of the pregnancy. I can't say I enjoyed my time there. But I did enjoy being pregnant. I was still attending high school and even went to the last dance of the year dressed in a toga. I was 7 months pregnant at the time.

One morning, I woke up early just not feeling quite right. I went out and fed and watered the horses, then went inside and showered and shaved my legs. Why did I shave my legs? Who knows!

My foster-mom drove me to the hospital and Lacey was born a few hours later. She was the most beautiful baby in the world. I spent 3 glorious days in the hospital with her. I could have been released from the hospital before that, but since I was releaseing her, they let me stay with her.

I held her and cuddled her and loved her as much as I possibly could. Then, the day came I had to let go. I dressed her in a cute pink outfit my mother had brought for her. I wrapped her in a blanket that my grandmother had made. I said goodbye and turned and walked away from her. I could barely see because of the tears.

I don't remember the ride home or much of the next few weeks. It broke my heart to leave her there, but I knew it was for the best. She was a beautiful baby. I named her Lacey Rae after my mom. I knew her parents had named her Rachel Megan.

2 years later, I had my son Anthony. 1 year after that I had my son Lucas. 6 years after that I had my second daughter, Meghan.

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On Halloween of 2005, Rachel contacted me via the Classmates.com website. We finally got to meet again in April when we went to San Diego to see Anthony graduate from boot camp.

Rachel is as beautiful now as she was then. I am very proud to call her my daughter. Her parents have done a wonderful job raising her.

Happy Birthday, honey.

Another round of Cliff from Bonnie

From Bonnie

Instructions: You must sleep with one of the following people, live with one of them, and throw one of them off a cliff. What do you do?

Round One
Will - Live with
Grace - Sleep With
Karen - Cliff

Round Two
Jaclyn Smith - Live with
Kate Jackson - Throw off a cliff
Farrah Fawcett - Sleep with

Round Three
Peter - Cliff
Paul - Live
Mary - Sleep

Round Four
Larry - Live
Curly - Sleep
Mo - Cliff

Round Five
Brandon Walsh - Live
Brenda Walsh - Sleep
Donna Martin - Cliff

Round Six
Reggie Jackson - Sleep
Peter Jackson - Live
Michael Jackson - Cliff

Round Seven
Frank-N-Furter - Sleep
Brad - Live
Janet - Cliff

Round Eight
John - Sleep
Paul - Live
Ringo - Cliff

Round Nine
Bruce Lee - Sleep
Brandon Lee - Live
Jet Li - Cliff

Round Ten
Ralph Lauren - Sleep
Tommy Hilfiger - Live
Donatella Versace - Cliff

Round Eleven
Anderson Cooper - Live
Jon Stewart - Cliff
Stephen Colbert - Sleep

Round Twelve
Rick Dees - Live
Ryan Seacrest - Sleep
Howard Stern - Cliff

Round Thirteen
The Divine Miss M - Live
M. Butterfly - Cliff
M. Night Shyamalan - Sleep

Round Fourteen
Pete - Sleep
Linc - Cliff
Julie - Live

Round Fifteen
Mr. Coffee - Live
Mr. Clean - Sleep
Mr. Whipple - Cliff

Round Sixteen
Bubbles - Live
Blossom - Sleep
Buttercup - Cliff

Round Seventeen
Tyra Banks - Live
Janice Dickinson - Cliff
Nigel Barker - Sleep

Round Eighteen
Chandler - Live
Ross - Cliff
Gunther - Sleep

Round Nineteen
Rebecca Romijn - Cliff
Randy Quaid - Live
Mel Gibson - Sleep

Round Twenty
Laura Palmer - Sleep
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Live
Emerson Lake and Palmer - Cliff

New Life, Old Habits

So you know how they say old habits die hard? Apparently that is very true for me.

I have been pretty depressed lately; ever since I kicked Pat out. So my friends got together and decided I needed a night on the town.

Now, I wasn't much of a drinker in high school. And I did very little of it in my younger years. I did more once I discovered casinos in Nevada give free alcohol to anyone gambling in their casinos. Then when we moved to Minnesota, I found there wasn't much else to do besides drink. And while I never did tons of drinking, I was known to tie a good one on now and then.

When Pat went to jail a few years back for an old (14 years old) warrant for DUII, my friend Karon and I started going out every weekend and drinking heavily. I missed Pat and it was the only way I could get through it.

Well, Pat is gone again (even though it is my fault this time), so I went drinking last night. And I did a lot of drinking.

We started at a nice little bar on the south side of town. We stayed there and had something to eat and our first couple of drinks. After we had been there about 1/2 an hour, this large (loud) group of people came in. They were all about 40-50 years of age. We found out later they were doing a Pub Crawl.

Anyway, this one guy (Bruce) came over to talk to us. He was a big man with a big grey beard and a big pot belly. He asked if we were gamblers and we all said no, but he persisted. So I finally said I would bet him a quarter. He said, "I bet I have your name tattoed on my ass." I had already figured out the joke, but no one else had, so I said, "Prove it." He proceeded to drop his pants right there in the bar. And sure enough, he had "Your Name" tattoed on his ass.

Then he holds out his index finger and his middle finger. "Do you know why women should always use these two fingers to masturbate with?" No, we asked. "Because their mine!"

From there, we drove downtown and did some major drinking. From what I was told, we hit at least five bars. Saw some very good looking men and one GORGEOUS female bartender named Erica.

For most of the night I drank Jaeger Bombs and Windsor & Coke. Except at some point somebody gave me a shot of house tequila.

That did me in. I started puking at the last bar (in the bathroom, thank the Gods!). I continued puking in the street. Lucas came to get me (pre-arranged designated driver!) and took me home. OMG I was wasted. I passed out in my bed and woke up at 8:30 this morning to puke again. I was still drunk at that point. Thank goodness I had remembered to ask for a bucket next to my bed.

I am still not feeling real great, but I am feeling a LOT better than I was earlier today.

And I still want to go back to find Scott the bartender at that one bar. He said I could come get him when he got off work at three.