So Tony just updated me on the robbery.  I guess there were 3 guys.  Some of the employees were taking out the garbage out the back door and the robbers were hanging out by the dumpster.  They jumped the employees, one got hit in the face.  A minute or so later the manager peeked his head out to see what was going on.  Then one of the robbers took the manager and started to lead him thru the kitchen to the dining room.  The cameras show the robber pulling the manager around by his tie.  As they approached the kitchen doors going into the dining room, the manager told the robber that they have cameras so I guess he hauled ass out of the kitchen.  The robbers took off. 

Several employees had made their way out of the restaurant except for 2, so the manager took the 2 employees and they locked themselves in the office in case they wanted to come back. 

Thankfully no one was hurt and they didn’t get away with any money.  It still makes me sick to my stomach though.  There was violence and crimes in Vegas but nothing (except our car windows were smashed out Easter morning, just bored punk kids) like that has happened here. 

We need to get our savings in order and our debt paid down so we can get the heck out of here.  I wish Tony didn’t have to work so much so I could go to work part time to make some extra money.  He works so much that we’d have to put the kids in daycare for me to work and that would defeat the purpose of me working.  We will see how things go over the next year, if they don’t get better we will have to make a decision of what we need to do. 

The sad part is, the city we currently live in is supposed to be very upscale, very nice.  And the town that Tony works in has a lot of old people.  Maybe that is why it is targeted.  The Dunkin Donuts across from his work was robbed a couple months ago, the employee wasn’t so lucky….he got shot in the face, thankfully he lived.  I believe right after we got to town last year, the gas station down the street got robbed too.  They are all by punks. 

So back to Tony’s restaurant, even though they had the cameras, the robbers wore masks so chances of them getting caught are pretty slim.  
I really really hope it doesn’t happen again.  

Tonight more than ever I ask myself “why the hell did we come back to Florida”.  I know it is so I could stay home with the kids, because we weren’t making any money in Vegas and because Tony was asked to come back to his old work. 

So the anger and frustration started last night when Tony called me at his usual time to tell me he was on his way home but this time he told me he would be a little longer because someone had slashed his tire.  He told me one of his servers had left for the day but came back in to tell him that one of his tires was slashed but that she didn’t do it, she then quit and at the same time got into a verbal confrontation with another server so Tony told her to leave or he would call the police.  When he was trying to leave he noticed his tire was if fact slashed.  That pissed me off, we had just replaced the tire a couple weeks ago and now we have to buy another. 

Then this evening, it started off great.  Tony got off work a little early, at 6 pm, he came home hung out with the kids, then we went to work out.  It was a nice relaxing evening.  After we worked out we came home and sat down to watch a movie.  At around 11 pm his phone rang and it was his closing manager.  He called to say he had just gotten robbed.  The robber had a gun and made the manager open the safe attempted to make the manager open the safe. **Tony found out later that the manager apparently had been robbed at a previous job so he knew how to handle it, he played stupid and the robber got away with NOTHING!!!**  That there is amazing and bad ass! 

So anyway, I guess a couple employees hauled ass out the back door and a couple out the front door and the robber took a couple employees and the manager into the office.  Again, he got away with nothing. 

Now this may sound really bad but I am so thankful it wasn’t Tony there.  He works really late on Wednesdays, sometimes he doesn’t get out until 1-2 am and I worry that when he walks to the car something will happen to him.   He is always alone past 11pm or 12am. 

I am just so frustrated!! A couple months after we came back (about a yr or so ago)he had a manager that quit come back and want to kick his ass, they had to call the police.  I just fear something is going to happen to him one of these days. 

So unrelated to work but along the lines of crimes, we moved in to our apartment 3 months ago.  We had the truck packed up and we were driving to the apartment at around 3pm.  The street that we usually turn down was blocked off by police, initially we thought accident.  So we drive around to come down the street another way and the street is blocked off there too.  Now where we were was right across the street from the apartment complex.  As we were waiting, me in my truck and Tony in the rental truck, I go and ask the police what was going on.  I see all the news trucks and a crime scene bus in the apartment complex.  I think WTF!!!!  The police tell us that a crime happened in the complex and that it is going to be hours until we can drive our vehicles in.  We can walk into the complex and into our apartment but we won’t be able to take our trucks in.  We parked the trucks in the grocery store parking lot and walked to the apartment.  It wasn’t until 10pm that we were finally able to bring the truck in and unload it. 

We later find out that, thankfully, it was unrelated to the complex.  That someone on the street (at the entrance of the complex) was trying to flag down cars so he could carjack them and when they didn’t stop he started shooting at them.  So when the police came he ran into the complex and in the hallway of one of buildings he was gunned down and killed by a police officer. 

People are so vicious down here, from major road rage to the horrible crimes that are committed.  The topper was Tony’s work getting robbed.  I just don’t know what to think of it.  Thankfully the robber didn’t get away with any money, since he could have gotten away with a lot, I was afraid it would happen again.  I mean if they saw how easy it was and how much they would get, why not come back. 

From Tony’s tire getting slashed one night to his store getting robbed the next.  

Oh and the other thing that happened 2 months after we got down here last year our 4-wheelers got stolen.  We woke up Christmas morning and let the dog out to find them gone.  $14k in brand new quads, I mean we rode them a handful of times but they still looked new.  Thankfully they were recovered but completely destroyed.  The punks rode them hard.    

Now I feel I am just waiting for the next thing to happen.  Hopefully nothing does before we can get the hell out of here. 

@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@~~@

I just can’t believe how fast she is growing up now.  I mean she went to a dance in grade school but she wasn’t as concerned about the way she looked as she did tonight. 

She wore a little bit of makeup and made sure she looked really pretty.   Also the last couple days I have found her makeup left on her bathroom counter which means she is wearing it to school.  Now that doesn’t bother me because it is a lot of neutral colors, glitter and lip gloss. 

I just can’t believe how fast the last couple years have just flown by.  She will be 12 in 5 months which means she will be starting to learn to drive in just 3 short years.  I am not ready for that to come.  I keep telling her that she can live at home forever.  We will see if she takes me seriously. 

Here is a picture of my beautiful girl:

For weeks now Lil Tony has been trying to get into the drawer of the wine cabinet.  All that’s in there is junk. 

 
This is what we were doing before.  Not sure if you can see but he is standing on the second shelf inside the door and looking in the drawer.  He is very strong but not quite strong enough to hold on with one hand and reach in with the other.  He is determined to get in that drawer. 

Well, today I got video of him.  Sometimes he just lays in bed quietly in the morning before I get him out of bed.  I am convinced he plans how he can get in the drawer.  Today was the day, he finally got the answer.  Here is the genius at work. 

 

So you can’t see what he is standing on but he has Little Tike Batman Quad, he pushed over to the cabinet and stood ontop of it to get in my drawer.  He just reaches his hand in there and pulls everything out. 

Now I have to empty that drawer and put everything somewhere else.  

The other day when my daughter came to me about her science project and I found out she had procrastinated I got to thinking about how sometimes she seems to seclude herself from the family. 
Maybe that is how most kids are but I know of plenty of kids that enjoy being together as a family, doing chores around the house without a fuss and just in general do not need to be bribed to want to be together. 
Nicki seems to only SHOW emotions and gratitude when she gets something.  I believe she loves her family but doesn’t always show it.  She is also often times very disrespectful and doesn’t know when she is stepping over a boundary.  We like to have an open relationship to when she can be open to say CERTAIN things but sometimes she takes that too far and talks to us like she would talk to her friends or like an adult.

So anyways, I was so upset the other day, I was trying to keep from grounding her so I made her write an essay of what family means to her.  I told her it had to be 5 paragraphs and just talk about what family meant to her and what being a kid means……….

This is what she wrote: ( I am typing it just as she wrote it, errors and all)

                                                                                       Family
                                      Family?  What does in mean?  Well there are 2 roles in a family 1. Parents and
                                      2. Kids.  In a kids case there are 3 guide lines to follow 1. Chores 2. Love and 3.
                                      Being Good.

                                     Guide Line 1. Chores.  One thing is your parents may asign you some chores
                                     but they are not all of them.  They may have you do another chore just once.
                                    Always do the extra chores.  Never whine when you get more chores.  Espesilly 
                                    as you grow older you may or may not get more chores.  So always do all your 
                                    chores.

                                    Guide Line 2. Love.  Never only give love because you have something.  Alway
                                    give love everyday.  Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night.  Remeber never
                                    leave your family felling unloved for along time.  

                                    Guide line 3. Being Good.  Never disobey your parents.  When they tell you to 
                                    do somthing it’s for your own good.  If you have 2 sets of house rules follow 
                                    them they are also for your own good.  When you go out in puplic represent
                                    your family as if you are famous.  Try to always be good. 

                                   So now you know what I think family is and means.  So now you know to do 
                                   what you parents say, not only love them when you get to go somewhere of
                                   get something, and always do your best to behave.  

Well it’s good to know that she actually listens to the words that come from my mouth, I just wish she would act on those words.   

Kids will be kids!!!

I love my Presto Tilt and Drain Griddle I bought it a couple months ago because I used to make breakfast a lot.  I would make pancakes for Tony, Nicki and I and had a pan that would only cook one pancake at a time.  Let’s just say it took me about 30 minutes to cook all the pancakes. 

So we purchased the griddle.  We did a lot of research to find the one that seemed to have the biggest cooking space.  The griddle is huge and has a non-stick surface that is great.  It makes for extremely easy clean up.  The first thing I cooked on the griddle was pancakes, I could fit at least 9 pancakes on there at one time.  I was done in no time.  If we make grilled cheese sandwiches, we can make all the sandwiches at once.

So tonight I decided that I was going to make my turkey burgers.  OMG they are tasty.  I was able to fit 6 medium sized burgers, 4 slices of turkey bacon and 3 whole buns on the griddle at once.  It was awesome. 

My turkey burgers are SCRUM-DIDDLY-UMPTIOUS!!!!!!

Tony had 3 burgers.  I put a lot of veggies in them, Tony likes it that way.  He says that way all the veggies (plus some) that he would normally put on top are just cooked right in and it makes for a way less messy burger.  Ya know since he needs to put tomatoes and pickles and all the condiments on there. 

They were tasty!!!

I went to the gas station last night to purchase some lottery tickets.  I decided when I first went in that I would only play the Florida lotto, so I filled out my form.  Played one where I chose my own numbers and another was a quick pick.  I got in line.  As I was standing there the line started forming behind me.  I was second in line and I had this feeling that I wanted to play the Cash 3 (which I usually play too).  When I play Cash 3 I usually use one of our birthdays, Nicki 4 2 3 or Lil Tony 7 2 7 or mine 9 2 3.  I didn’t end up playing Cash 3 though because I would have had to get out of line to fill out the form and then I would have ended back at the end, I didn’t want to wait that long. 

So I purchased my $2 worth of lottery tickets and went home. 

Now I am not sure whose birth date I would have used or which numbers I would have chosen but at 11:30 last night I checked online for the winning lotto numbers. 

Boy oh boy was  I upset to read the winning Cash 3 number:  4-2-3 Evening……… Nicki’s birthday.  Of course I didn’t win the millions on the regular lotto but I could have won $500 on the Cash 3 lotto.  Around the holidays that would have really come in handy. 

I should have played, I really should have played.  I always play both when I get tickets.  ALWAYS!!!

DAMN IT!!!!!