always something

The time has come

2011-11-04T20:16:00.000-04:00

To see if I am really made of what I think I am. NYC here I come. If I make it over the Veranzzo Narrows bridge, all will be good. I promise to post more often now that this training crap is done.

Thursday we will have real high speed internet. Can I here a woo hoo!

Out with the old

2011-09-26T21:40:00.001-04:00

I don't know about you, but I get tired of eating the same old thing over and over again. It is not that I am not a good cook, I just stink at deciding what to make. Then there are those picky children. So I am on a mission to cook something new each week. The week before last I had the kids each pick something out of my cooking light magazine and I made it. They were basically different varieties of things we have eaten before, but still different. Tonight I made Spinach, Pasta and Chick Pea soup. It was really good. I tweaked it a bit by adding the extra bacon, from the BLTs we were also having. That may have thrown off the nutritional value, but hey it tasted great and the kids ate. Even the chick peas.

I am also going to make a fennel and spinach side dish later this week. I have never made anything with fennel but here's to trying something new.

Any other suggestions? I am going to try to make pumpkin soup soon.

EB and B passed their practical test for hunter's safety tonight tomorrow is graduation and a video on field dressing a deer. Boy are they excited about the movie. I am sure they will serve popcorn and M & Ms.

Ouch, ouch, ouch

2011-09-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

That could be a reference to my really bad typing on my last post, but no. Last week I decided to run 16 miles, in my brand new shoes and inserts, in the cold and rain. Since then, my hip has been really bothering me, really, really bothering me. So to make sure it didn't get any better, I ran 18 miles today. I should have ran 13 today, but next week when I was supposed to run 18 I have a 10 mile race. Anyway I had to switch things around. This is the stuff you have to put up with when you decide to do crazy things like run a marathon at age 45. I am excited to go to New York, but I am hoping now that I can make the at all. I have 6 weeks to get it together. Training for a race, has a tendency to take the fun out of running. There isn't the option of saying, "I don't feel like running today.

Another ouch. Our house is back on the market. The bank took to long to approve the loan and the buyers backed out. Their realtor made sure we didn't get a cent of their earnst money, when she made us sign a new contract and her buyers never did, even though they asked for the extension.

Y camp was a lot of fun, in spite of the crappy weather, the piece of plywood I slept on and the nasty smell of ten year old girl's tennis shoes. Oh my Lord. I met a few really nice women and even learned a little about the environment. I took 355 pictures for the 5th grade slide show and still not sure I got a one of everyone. I learned some new camp songs and spent some time talking to the teachers. Our school is so lucky. The teachers are awesome and they really care about our kids.

After having this mac book for 6 months, I finally figured out how to make it do the right click I love so much on my work PC.

I am trying to upgrade my imac to snow leopard and it is not going well, all because I wanted a track pad for a mouse, which requires snow leopard. It keeps getting stuck in the same place every time. It is making me cranky. I did what I was supposed to do and it still won't work. Of course, there is no support on a 4 year old computer. Poop. I might try using support for my laptop to see if I can get some help.

The Packer game starts in an hour. GO PACK GO. I can't believe I am cheering for the Lions, but I certainly would like to see Detroit have a couple of positive things this year. Only 2 minutes to go. Go Tigers too.

Okay, that is a whole lot of nothing, but it's all I got.

One cranky puppy.

2011-09-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

Ellie is on a diet and it is not going well. She is a couple of pounds overweight, which doesn't seem like a lot, unless you weigh 20 pounds. Then it is 10% of your body weight. She has been sitting in the kitchen crying every night. She sits and cries by the dog food closet. I know how she feels. I stinks to be deprived. I mean really, I only let myself have 3 fudge graham cookies tonight when really I wanted 5. I am trying to get them more exercise, but they can't make it 4 miles with me and it is getting dark early again, so after I run doesn't really work. Okay now she is eating EB's crocs. I really do feel bad for the poor girl.

New TV starts this week. I recorded Glee and am watching Raising Hope and the Biggest Loser. If you haven't watched Raising Hope, you really should. I don't know why but that show makes me laugh all the time. There isn't really anything else that I am excited about. Oh except, Modern Family. I always forget about that show.

Tomorrow is camp and, goodness, I haven't even packed. I have been lectured a couple of times about how I really should get my stuff together. I have to get to bed. I need to run 6 miles before camp.

I should call it quits.

2011-09-18T21:53:00.000-04:00

I know I should just call it quits with this blog. My posts have become almost obsolete. I just can't quite do it.

School has started, fall is here and the garden is done. The pumpkins are just sitting out there waiting to be carved. It is a little early, but it won't be long. We are still waiting for something to happen on the house, but I am not holding my breath.

Training has been going well, but I am certainly not going to do this again. I feel good, but there isn't enough time. Just realized I was supposed to go over to another parent's house and work on the yearbook tonight. Oops. I even had it on my calendar.

Went to a wedding yesterday where everyone, of the groom's friends and family, really dislike the bride. AWKWARD. It was strange. His Dad didn't even come. I did get some great pictures of the family though.

The Packers , Bucs and believe it or not the Lions won too.

Looking forward to chaperoning 82 fifth graders, at sleep away camp, for three days. Of course camp is just 5 minutes from school, but if you have great facilities, close, you should use them. I hope the weather forecast improves for Wednesday. Right now it looks like it will be much like today, which was, lets just say, crappy. Oh well, it is rain or shine!

Toffee is laying next to me on the couch and one of us needs a bath. I am thinking it is him, since I showered today.

I have had "The Help" on my list to see since it came out. Guess I'll be renting it from Redbox.

Lame post, but my brain is tired along with my body.

My pumpkin runneth over

2011-07-28T21:52:00.000-04:00

No one will ever accuse me of being a "Type A" gardener. Of course they would never accuse me of being a "Type A" anything, except for the constant need to be doing something.

My tomato cages are bent, falling over, full of weeds and way too close together. I am shocked by how many tomato plants came back after the @#^$ ground squirrels did their thing, but they are there and quite full of tomatoes. I think there might be a little blight going on but we will survive.

This is just one hole out of a hundred. Maybe there will be a few less, now that EB has had some success behind the scope.

One should read up on some things before you decide to just throw one a plant in the garden. Looks like we will have a pumpkin bounty. This one is already a foot long.

There are probably 10 more on this one vine. One vine that has turned into a plant that is about 20 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 4 feet tall. Who knew. It has taken over the beans, which is fine. I think I have eaten my fair share of beans so today I froze a couple of packages.

There are quite a few that are just a couple of inches. Hopefully the bees have done their job and we will have enough pumpkins to fill our porch with jack-o-lanterns.

P.S. Things seem to be moving along on our house, just a couple more steps to go. The inspection is complete and they are only asking for $1500 to make necessary repairs. I am good with that.

Keep us in your prayers!

We have an offer

2011-07-23T11:12:00.000-04:00

We have an offer and they have accepted our counter offer, unfortunately the inspector they are using is known to ruin many a deal. It is an old house, it has lots of quirks. Please say a little prayer that all goes well or at least the things he identifies can be fixed for less than $4000.00 That is our threshold for not having to pay money on a house we don't own.

It is hard to believe that I can be excited about selling the house we have had for 15 years for $23,000 less than we bought it for, but I am. I sat down yesterday and figured out what it cost us to actually be in that house, including the interest, loss on the house, improvements etc and it really came to about $1400 a month. You could say geez that is a lot of money to lose on a house, but all I have to do is think of all the wonderful people I would not have met and called my dearest friends if I had not lived in that house. We had great times there and we miss our friends a lot. But we have moved on and dammit I want to be done with the house.

B ended up winning his baseball game Thursday so we have another game today and I have to say it is sticky and yicky outside. It was a very long 8 miles this morning. Thank goodness for the EB who is now the WB (water boy). He saved my life again.

Appliance repair man is coming back this am, so hopefully we will have an oven that works. A really expensive oven that works.

Much better.

2011-07-21T19:51:00.001-04:00

85 and zero humidty. My kind of summer night. Last night of baseball too. Yeah. The puppies would be excited too if they understood anything besides food and belly scratching. They have been in the kennel way to much lately.

Saturday, EB has tickets to the Twins vs. Tigers game. He is taking the children, I think I may go see Larry Crowne. Bad reviews or not. Of course, that is after I run ten miles, have the oven fixed, do the laundry, clean the house, weed the garden, water the flowers...... You know the everyday stuff.

Can I really blog from my phone?

2011-07-18T20:22:00.001-04:00

So I will probably post more often, but they may be less coherent. I am not sure that is possible, but we shall see.

We are sitting in the sauna. The boys clearly could not care if we win or not. I say, lose on purpose so we don't have to play two more nights this week. At least our team's back is to the sun while we are on the bench. Z is pitching so I need to pay attention. Ooh that was painful.

I ran on the treadmill when I got home, showered and then came here, now I need another shower.

When did companies stop standing by their products?

2011-07-13T21:29:00.000-04:00

I am so completely frustrated and ready to give up my favorite brands.

About 3 weeks ago the buttons on my Kenmore oven stopped working. First it was the bake button, next it was the pre-heat button, then the convection bake oven and lastly the convection roast. This is the oven we have had for less than 2 years. Yes less than 2 years. I called Sears and spoke to someone from another country, who of course, didn't speak English as their first language. I work with a lot of non-native english speaking individuals who I have no trouble understanding, but over the phone it is much more difficult. Anyway they told me it was going to be $129 for just the service call. I still had one button that worked so I said pass, but then I really can't bake a cake on convection roast. So I called again, same situation over again. I said I wanted my oven fixed, she put me down for the microwave. That was after a 10 minute conversation. Then I had to call back to fix the appointment. That took another 15 minutes while they tried to sell me a million things they tried to sell me when I made the original appointment. I said, "I really just want to fix the appointment, not anything else, just fix my appointment."

So the service man gets here yesterday, he was here for about 15 minutes and there was a lot of talk, no real action and he says okay that will be $500, and I'll order the parts and come back next week. Come back next week, are you fricking kidding me. I took 1/2 a day of PTO, I am not taking another 1/2 day of PTO, do you know how valuable PTO is. I said all of that except the fricking part. I should have said, "yeah this is the same thing I told the people on the phone, so you could have had the parts and fixed it right now". He then said he could come back on a Saturday in a couple of weeks. Oh yeah. $500 for an oven that cost about $800 and is less than two years old.

I am so mad. BTW, when we built our house we bought $4000 worth of Kenmore appliances. Can't return them, what do you do. So now I will not be shopping at Sears, which means I can't shop at Land's End. Do you know how much I love Land's End.

Okay on to other really great news. It is going to be around 95-100 for the next 7-10 days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

2011-07-05T21:33:00.000-04:00

THANK YOU TO ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO KEEP US FREE!

Seems like it should have been a much more productive weekend than it was. I have no idea where the time has gone and now I just realized all the kids are out of the pool and I should be helping EB work on the edging at the front of the house.

BE RIGHT BACK.

Okay, a day later, but back none the less.

I am just going to have to do a list.....

Movie reviews are overrated.

Cars was better than they said.

Looking forward to Larry Crowne, in spite of the reviews.

Fireworks are underrated.

We had at least 7 fireworks shows in our subdivision alone.

Our dogs do not like fireworks, therefore sleep was overrated this weekend as well.

Training is going well.

EB is now WB, the Water Boy.

Signed up for a couple more races.

Yard work is never ending.

A super duper zippy lawnmower will take out a $200 light pole in no time flat.

Bought 300 ft. of weed block and 220 feet of edging.

In hopes of not taking out any parts of the house.

WB does not like hostas.

They are cheap and good filler for around the house.

We'll be having this conversation again.

Wasabi peas are a little overwhelming if you stick 6 in your mouth at once.

Berry mania mmmmmm.......

Almond and chocolate pound cake with cream cheese, whipped topping and berries. Lots of berries.

Thankful for the swimming pool.

Sunscreen should be free.

Friends coming to see family. but staying with us. Can't wait. We'll have lots of good breakfasts.

Painted a cookie jar that we have had for ten years, still in the box. (Amy you should finish your pig.)

There are pumpkins on the vine.

Tomatoes too.

Green beans should be plentiful.

There are 6 less ground squirrels in the back yard.

The scar will heal WB.

Casey Anthony, not what I expected. Thank goodness the final judgment is not up to humans.

Ellie and Toffee make me laugh all the time.

Nice to finally have summer weather.

Happy Birthday to my big sister.

Blogging by the fire.

2011-06-11T21:28:00.002-04:00

Today turned out to be a beautiful day, even if it does feel like September and not June. I had a great run of 10.5 miles this morning. I started out with long sleeve shirt, running skort and gloves. EB met me at mile 5.5 with Gatorade and more Kleenex. I dumped the gloves and dirty tissues, downed as much Gatorade as possible in 1.5 minutes and carried on. It is actually hard to run when you can't breath, darn allergies.

EB, G and I managed to get the errands run and groceries and lunches prepped for the week before 1:00. We have been trying to empty the pool so that we can move it over about 5 feet and level it, but it taking longer than expected. Not sure when we will be able to refill it as tomorrow we head to the rents to wish my sister well on her move to Germany. I certainly hope we get a chance to get there this time. Everything, of course is waiting on that damn house in Michigan. Please just sell and be done with it.

We also managed a trip to Trader Joes to stock up on dried fruit for my trail mix for snacks. Thirty-nine dollars of dried fruit and a few pita chips. Not even a grocery bag full. Oh my, why must we eat. It really just only makes me crazy anyway. While on that little trip we stopped and picked up some new tomato and cucumber plants, seeing how the blasted @#$%^ ^&**% squirrels literally chewed them in half. They didn't even eat them, just chewed them off like little beavers. Really why!! You don't like them, you should know that from last year. I am going to buy some plastic owls and put them on the side of the garden, they are working to keep the woodpeckers off my bosses house, so maybe they will do the same for me.

Now we are sitting by the fire (still light out) watching the sun set and the hot air balloons float through the sky, while listening to Jason Aldean. We already ate S'mores, for me it is just graham crackers and marshmallows, I can do without the chocolate.

Today was the Joyful Noise Family Fest and my favorite band, Casting Crowns was there, but we decided to save the $150 and stay home and get things done, but right now they would be getting ready to go on stage. Oh well, another day.

A little funny,

Last night we were watching America's funniest home videos and there is a video with a kid with panty liners stuck all over his head and body. Knowing what they are, G says, "That is disgusting." Z says, "What they are just big band-aids." G wants to correct him, I just told her to play along.

I may have been abducted by an alien.

2011-06-08T22:32:00.000-04:00

I believe I have been abducted by an alien, had my brain replaced, and then returned. On Saturday the boys and I dropped G off at a birthday party and headed to Wal-mart to get a pool. Yes, I said a pool. In my back yard, yes I did. When we picked up G from the birthday party, several hour later, and were pulling into the sub G looked over and said...."OMG, did we really get a pool. No kidding we really got a pool, I don't believe it we got a pool." We filled it up and the kids wanted to get in. Ummm yeah, we have well water and it is cold! 58 degrees to be exact. They did get in, but I didn't let them stay in long.

Then of course the temps hit 100 and the pool warmed up considerably. Today it was 85 and not just the top foot, that was 95. Of course it is going to be 65 over the weekend. Can't win them all.

As you can see the pool is leaning a little to the right. That is a problem. It was just a couple of inches lower than the other side and we thought it would be okay, but now we are planning on taking it down and fixing it before we have our own America's Funniest Home Video. The only thing that really bothers me is the wasted water. I am going to water the yard with it, since we used salt and not chlorine, but that still makes me sick. I figure my neighbors water their yards everyday, what's another 4400 gallons.

I have also heard some very interesting conversations while supervising the pool. 10 year old girls have active minds.

Lots more to write about a lovely conversation with the Michigan tax assessor regarding our house there, but right now I need to get to bed.

Just call me a slouch

2011-06-02T21:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight Z had a really bad headache and didn't go to baseball, he went to bed instead. That worked out really well for me. G went to B's baseball game with EB and I stayed home. This is prime productivity time for me, but something happened and not a whole lot got done. I took the puppies for a walk, tried to water the garden, did a couple of dishes, prepped for breakfast and now I am sitting on the couch under a blanket. Yes I know it is June and I am cold. No the air is not on.

I really need to get back to blogging on a regular basis. There so many truly important things to tell you.

Like....

How my dogs crack me up. They act like children. They talk to each other and then get mad when the other doesn't respond.

How G is singing church hymns in the shower, nope, she just changed to Taylor Swift.

How the wind just won't quit blowing and ruining the $200 in plants that I just put in.

How, tonight, I ate two rice krispy treats and then buried the wrappers in the garbage can. Then I ate a handful of stale cereal and then a handful of stale chips. Why I continued to chew and then swallow them, after I realized how bad they were, is beyond me. PMS

How I woke up with a tick crawling on my arm a week ago and haven't slept well since. And in spite of the tick medicine on the pups, we keep having to pull them off them. It is so hard to find them on Ellie, since she has silky black fur. Tick check.

How EB and his friend totally messed up my satellite tv while trying to wire the house for the upcoming internet connection. I haven't had tv since Monday, which wouldn't really matter except I need my weather! I need to know in advance if I am going to blow away while walking the dogs.

How my trainer made me do squats while holding a 30 pound wight bar over my head. My inner thighs hurt!!

How our former tenants are suing us for the security deposit, claiming we didn't properly notify them that we were keeping it.

How I added a 1/2 ton of rock around my pond and it looks so much better.

How my 12 year old believes he needs braces based on an assessment by his 12 year old friend. He has perfectly straight teeth.

Don't you feel like a more complete person just by reading this!

Is 8:25 too early to go to bed.

Happy 70th Birthday to the most wonderful daddy a girl could ever ask for! My very own super-hero!

Is it spring yet.

2011-05-25T16:44:00.000-04:00

I just spent a week in Hilton Head and to come back to this weather has been more than a little depressing. I really thought we would be having weather in the 70s, at least. Tomorrow, G & Z have track and field and I am afraid they are going to have to wear their long underwear under the shorts.

I have been trying to get some work done outside, in between the training, baseball, swimming lessons, work and cleaning the inside of the house, but it is not going all that quickly. Looks like most of my perennials came back, with the exception of the columbine. It seemed like it was coming back, but we must have had a couple of cold days last week and now it is deceased. Oh well, I bought a couple of new ones to stick in there. I really need to be a little more thoughtful about what I buy, but I have a tendency to just try to get it done. Now that I look at it, it needs more color. Anybody have any suggestions for colorful perennials. I have lot of different textures and even lots of shares of green, but not much color.

I do have a bunch of pots on my porch that I will finish filling with annuals, for color, but even those seem to be primarily green.

While I was in Hilton Head on my workation, my wonderful daddy weeded my 10 x 10 vegetable garden and it was in sad shape. The weeds were thick and 3 feet tall. It was beautiful. The children helped, but you know how that goes. Sunday night I rand to Mainerds at 7, during the only hour of sunshine, so I could get some tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. I got them planted and weed block down by 9:00. We will have cucumbers again. YEAH. My co-workers will be happy.

Enough of the garden growing, how about those children growing. G & Z turned 10 on Saturday. 10 how does that happen. We are lame parents and did not have a party or anything. We did take them shopping and out to lunch, what more do they need.

My mom got G the American Girl book "The Care and Keeping of You". It has made for many interesting conversations over the last couple of days. The book is great and very thorough! I had already had a chat with her about the some of the stuff they cover in the book, but maybe not in enough detail. She said, to those sitting at the dining room table, including her grandfather, "This book is full of the "V" word and the "B" word. Some of this stuff is just disgusting". I thought I was going to spit out my drink. Later on we had a lovely talk, on our walk, about tampons. So if you have a girl and are not comfortable starting those conversations the book should take care of starting them for you. Very accurate illustrations too.

Lucky you who only have boys! Your conversations are much simpler, body hair and morning penis. Okay I guess that is a good closer.

Happy Wednesday! At least I think it is Wednesday.

Where oh where has our little girl gone oh, where oh

2011-04-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

where could she be...........

Having her own little pity party once again. I am done now, so I will come out and play again. The last month has been a little stressful as the ~~rotten, nasty, lying~~ kind and generous people who had agreed to buy our house found a way out of the contract and bought another house. Now they are just being nasty about what they need to do in the house, since they moved out. I am 99.9% sure we will actually win this one, so I have decided to stop being nice and am just going for everything I can get.

I remind myself everyday that this is just about money and that God has provided for us in spite of what they have done. He is an amazing God.

I did finally talk to and see my friend who lost her son and she is really a special person. Her faith is something I can only dream about. She said that she is sad when she wakes up and he is not there, but she is okay with everything because she knows that he is going to have a secure and safe life in Heaven. Her biggest fear is forgetting him, because she had him for such a short time.

A couple of months ago my running friends and I put our names in the hat for the NYC Marathon. No one got in except me. Over 90,000 entries and I got picked. I could defer and then if my friends get in next year I get an auto entry, but I have tell you I am seriously considering doing it this year. Of course only if some of my friends will come cheer me on. I don't think I have been this strong physically in a long time. I am eating right, I have a trainer who said she would help me through, I have frequent flyer miles to get me there and I feel like it would be a good way to burn some of this stress I am having.

After I found out I got in I went and bought a couple of lottery tickets. That didn't turn out quite the way the marathon did, but it was good for some entertaining conversation. We stopped at the Kwik trip on our way home from AWANA and I got my tickets. When I got in the car, G says, "If we win the lottery I am going to take a bath in money." I thought I was going to die laughing.

Hard to believe it is going to be May 1 on Sunday and just yesterday it was snowing. I really am done with winter.

I am not a very good friend.

2011-03-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

Today I checked in on Facebook and found out that one of our friends, from our old church, three year old passed away last week. I have not been good at keeping touch with people. Sometimes Facebook, can make you feel like you are always connected when you are really not.

You think, oh I'll just send them a Facebook message and then you never do and then you don't call and then something happens and you can't figure out what to say if you could even pick up the phone and call.

I really don't think there can be anything as painful as losing a child.

God Bless you Johnathan!

Inspiration for change

2011-03-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

It has been another great week at the "Always something" house again. Unfortunately that hasn't been true everywhere. The pictures from Japan are really heartbreaking and frightening. I feel guilty for thinking thank goodness it is on the other side of the world.

On to more positive things.

This is my inspiration to change......

Change my decor that is. Not change me. I mean, really, I am perfect just as I am.....chuckle, laugh, guffaw.

This chair goes with nothing I own, but that didn't stop my from buying it. I can say I didn't buy it on a whim. I slept on it overnight. Then I went back to the store the second it opened on Sunday and snatched it up. Apparently out of the hands of another person who was going to come back and get it. "You snooze you lose." The dark color is actually a deep purple and not black or brown. I love "Home Goods" store. Oh my goodness, I could spend my days alternating between Home Goods, Michaels and an occasional pass through Lowes and my life would be complete. I am putting it in our bedroom and we are in search of a coverlett and shams that will go with it. I think I am looking for something in a chocolate brown. Then I will need to paint and either make or get new curtains. That is the only thing that makes me sad. I spent a lot of time making those curtains and they are beautiful, but not near as much fun as the chair and right now I am looking for fun.

I also purchased a couple of low back slipper chairs for the living room, but they were very cheap, but cute.

On Monday these came to my work.

Seventeen years of wedded bliss. chuckle, laugh.... mostly it has been bliss, but there have definitely been moments. Here's to Seventeen more EB, you are a wonderful and oh so thoughtful husband.

Wednesday could have been a disaster. My car just stopped while on my way home from work at 8:45 pm. Frightening, but I turned it off, took out the key and then restarted it. Amazingly enough it worked. I took it in Thursday and they said it was a sensor and it was actually covered by my extended warranty, whoo hoo, but they didn't have the part, so unfortunately they were going to have to give me a loaner car. So I stopped after work and picked up this...

That was a hoot to drive. The guy said, "Don't get a ticket." I didn't, but I easily could have.

The week ended with this.....

Of course we hadn't eaten 1/2 of it before we decided to take the picture.

Thanks EB, again, for a wonderful night and another wonderful year.

Please continue to pray for all of those in Japan and around the world, may something good come from all of this.

Awesome week

2011-02-19T11:26:00.001-05:00

It has been a great week. My final check out went well. Okay, Stephanie said I kicked butt. I am not one to brag about myself but just for a second I will. I lost 15 pounds and 9 inches, 5 of which was off my tummy. I also did 34 push ups without stopping. My blood pressure was way down and my V02 was way up!!!

Then there was some bad news. The value of the house in MI, dropped another $11K. Yep now down to $30K less than when we bought it in '95. Boy that real estate was a good investment. I am not sure how that really fit in to my awesome week, but it is all part of life.

Then there was some really good news at work. And then there was some more good news at work!!

I finished 8 scrapbook pages, thanks to all the teachers who called in sick. I am trying to drum up sympathy for these teachers, but I am having a really hard time. Welcome to the real world where when the economy tanks, things get tough and tight. I watched what the unions did to the state of Michigan. I know it wasn't entirely the unions, but they certainly had a hand in it. (Please don't yell at me Green Girl) I do think Gov Walker could have phased some of the cuts in over two years, but something has to be done. Okay, I will get off my soap box.

Today is the last day of basketball. I am so ~~happy~~ sad.

This afternoon we get our taxes done. Let's hope the week ends as positively as it began.

After we are done with our taxes, we are going to work on the basement ceiling. Let's hope that doesn't end in divorce:)

Dread and Glee

2011-02-15T20:18:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I have my 12 week Wellness check out. I am both dreading and extremely excited about this appointment. I know it is going to be better than week one, but just how better. This has been a bad week for eating. We didn't eat at home all weekend, which is never good news. I had a burger and fries on Friday and I have been snacking, snacking, snacking. I did put in tons of exercise as well, but I am still not sure what is going to happen.

Wish me luck.

One day to go!!!

2011-02-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the big day and I can't wait. Snack ingredients and beverages are in the fridge.

I burned as many calories as possible the last couple of days, so I could eat all those snacks and drink all those beverages.

Craziness abounds at our house as usual. Let's see, today is basketball x 2, Aikido, birthday party, balloon launch, iceskating and snack preparation. Of course we have yet to buy a birthday present, why be prepared when you can cram it all in one day.

It is supposed to snow again, surprise there. I mean we have only had 60 inches of snow so far this year. I think we should shoot for 100. Let's go for way above average. Of course we could be south of here and getting feet of snow in one day, so I shouldn't complain. My sister lives in Dallas, just a mere 15 miles from the stadium, where she has had to work from home because the roads are way to icy. I feel genuinely bad for all those people who have tickets to the game and may not make it there, due to this stinking weather.

These are the times when I global warming, where? We have had below average temperatures this winter again!!

GO PACK GO!

Yesterday I took green and gold cookies to work and I made them say Go Pack Go, before they could have one. I think there may have been a few Vikings resistors that stole cookies when I wasn't looking.

Boy am I good at rambling on about nothing!

GO PACK GO!!

2011-01-23T18:45:00.000-05:00

WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!

I may never walk again.

2011-01-19T22:11:00.000-05:00

168 squats/lunges in 25 minutes. Holy cow, I could barely make it back to my office.

The trainer is part of this wellness program we are doing at work. It cost me $50 and I got an initial 1 hour assessment. 5 - 1/2 hour 1:1 training sessions and 2 - 1/2 final check-ins and assessments. The two women are registered dietitians and personal trainers. Mine is a 26 year old triathelete, who is wonderful, even if she makes me cry. She helped me come up with a great eating and exercising plan. I am not training for anything other than being able to breathe in my pants:)

Will it be me?

2011-01-18T21:28:00.000-05:00

B wants me to be the person to download the 10,000,000,000 mac App. He is checking it when he gets up and when he gets home. I am not holding out hope since I don't think I can stay up all night and watch the numbers turn. Seriously what would I do with $10,000 in itunes gift cards.

I am not looking forward to tomorrow. I have my 8 week check in with my trainer and I really don't want to weigh in. I had been doing so great right up until this past weekend. Nachos, beer, chips ahoy and a chocolate chip muffin. I am going to bed hungry and I am not going to eat until after I weigh in.

Okay that is a lie. I know I am going to eat breakfast.

BTW - My trainer wants to be Jillian's replacement on Biggest Loser and tonight she tried to prove she could do it. My arms were noodles and I thought I wouldn't be able to drive home.

Write this on the calendar.

2011-01-17T18:06:00.000-05:00

I sat on the couch today and watched 3 movies. Yes three whole movies, with only minor interruptions. Okay I can't really say I watched them. I, more like, listened to them while I worked on a prayer shawl, for one of my co-workers and did a little yearbook. Of course I did empty the dishwasher, let the dogs out four times and ironed Z's clothes for their orchestra performance tonight. But still, my butt was on the couch for approximately ~~5 4,~~ 3.5 hours in one sitting.

Really I did. By the way, anyone have any earplugs.

So far so good.

2011-01-15T22:11:00.001-05:00

Third quarter and we are ahead. Yeah PACKERS!

The snow can go at anytime. Tonight EB and I went to his work holiday party. We were letting the kids stay home alone for the first time after dark. I didn't want to stay late, so we took two cars. Well there is so much friggin snow, there were no places to park and I ended up coming home, without dinner. EB stayed. I do have to complain about the Embassy Suites, yes I put their name out there. If you book a party with 400 people you should at least have parking for 200 cars. We drove around the parking lot 6 times and then stopped to ask where we could park. They said, "Sorry this is all the parking we have." Really, that is unacceptable. Find a parking lot, use your empty shuttle and take people back and forth. Seriously you need to have a plan. Plus I bought a dress, new shoes, hose and had good hair, dang it.

Okay, I am done now. Back to football game. Aaron Rodgers, you rock!

Again a repeat

2011-01-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

Seriously this making me cranky. Thankfully Biggest Loser is on. Amy, football on Tuesday would have been great if it had been someone other than the Vikings. Oh pooo.

Verizon is coming out with the iPhone and the EB can't wait.

Moved up to 8 pound weights for my upper body class. Should be fun driving tomorrow. I am going to need to go shopping soon:)

Did you know that you can waste an enormous amount of time on apps for the MAC. I am going to be a great pilot one day. I can land 39 planes, on 3 runways, in the snow in about 5 minutes.

How is that for a useless post.

I am ticked off!

2011-01-04T22:45:00.003-05:00

Glee was a re-run again!

That is all I have to say about that.

I am not ready for the talk.

2011-01-03T22:19:00.000-05:00

The Y is right next to our Vet's office, so we pass by it often.

Tonight's conversation was unexpected.

G, "Mom, when is Ellie going to have her surgery so she can't have babies."
fine
Me, " I am not sure."

G, "When can Ellie have puppies?"

Me, " She is old enough now, but she is fine because Toffee can't have puppies so she will be fine." I meanwhile can see the path she is going down and I am not sure how we are going to get around it.

G, "Toffe can't have puppies, he is a boy."

Me, "I know, but a girl puppy can't have a puppy without a boy puppy. Just like people."

G, "But how?"

Now I am thinking, I should have just stopped at soon. Why didn't I just say soon.

G, "What about the other dogs in the neighborhood? Can she have puppies with them? Can she just have a baby if she walks by them?"

I do not want to have this conversation..........

Me, " G, that is more than you need to know anymore than that right now. I will tell you when you are 12."

G, "Okay"

Really that is it. I could have just stopped at soon and she would have been fine!

My baby turned 12 today.

2010-12-30T22:59:00.000-05:00

I can't believe you are twelve today. Where has the time gone. I would post some wonderful pictures of you, but I am lazy and I am sitting on the couch with my shiny new laptop and the pictures are on the desk top.

You are.........

Caring.

Smart.

Cute.

Funny.

Wonderful.

First born.

Sensitive.

LOVED A LOT.

And then a LOT more.

We had a very relaxed and laid back Birthday. B had an eye doctor appointment this morning. All is still good. No glasses, check back in a year.

We went bowling, where I kicked your butt. 169 & 148. I think you bowled a 68 that last game. We ate cheese curds, onion rings, mushrooms and french fries. What a waste of my hour on the treadmill this morning. But you are worth it.

The rest of Christmas break has been wonderful as well. I have read two books and we completed two puzzles, both of which were missing pieces. Mmmmm I wonder who could have been responsible for that. Could it be one of those critters that took all the ornaments off the Christmas tree.

I wish there were still 32 shopping days until Christmas

2010-12-07T21:29:00.000-05:00

Not because I have shopping to do, I am just about finished. I have just have a ton of stuff to do. We are having several out of town guests, although we are not sure just when.

Here is a recap of the last few weeks, because that is all I can manage.

THE...

Tree is decorated.

Bottom two feet is missing all the ornaments.

Next few feet have ornaments with teeth marks.

Van has new tires.

Basement has a new refrigerator.

Weather has gotten cold.

Exercise has gotten painful.

Pounds are coming off.

Photos are taken.

Cards were made and mailed.

Baking isn't started.

Basement is looking better.

Kids are busy.

Girl is surprisingly better than mediocre at basketball.

The presents are purchased and hidden.

TV is calling my name to watch Glee!!!!!!!

Geez, only 32 shoppping days to go.

2010-11-21T21:52:00.001-05:00

I would like to say that I am ready for Christmas, but that would be a big fat lie. I have bought one present, just one. I have thought about quite a few things I would like to buy. Especially for myself. All those sales, on all those ridiculous things that I want but truly do not need. I am a technology/electronic gadget junky and my latest heart's desire in the new macbook air. Really want one, really, rea;;y do not need one. We have two laptops and an iMac. Really do not need one. If I keep saying that, maybe I will believe it.

The buy's list consisted of a variety of Nerf guns and accessories. G wants an easy bake oven, like she asked for and didn't get last year. She would also like a pair of Ugg boots. They will be knock offs, I am not paying $90 for a pair of kid's boots.

Gabby and I did finish the Christmas cards today. We decided to forgo the glitter on the last 15. I ordered the pictures today, even though I didn't really like any of them. There were a couple of the kids and th puppies that were cute, but EB insisted that we use a picture with all of us. There wasn't a good one of all us with the puppies, so I think I will just let them chew the corner off of all of them as their signature. They are good a chewing. In fact they have just about finished off the legs of the coffee table.

G and I listened to this while we were cutting and gluing.

I have this one and couple more like it, from when we were kids. Remarkably this one is not scratched at all. I also have a Jim Neighbors one I love. I am so thankful EB bought me a record player earlier this year. I use it all the time.

BTW, Best Buy upgraded us to a Silver Premier reward zone membership, which allows us to get Black Friday sales tomorrow. The macbook air comes with a $125 Best Buy giftcard, which I could use to buy B the camera he wants for his birthday. Of course, we could refer back to paragraph one where I stated that I really did not need that macbook air.

I do not need a macbook air. I do not need a macbook air. I do not need a macbook air.

If I can get through tomorrow without ordering one, I can probably lose the extra 15 pounds I have gained over the last two years.

I do not need a macbook air. I do not need a macbook air. I do not need a macbook air. I do not need a macbook air....................

Say it isn't so

2010-11-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

Today, I finally broke the news to B about the Tooth Fairy.

He didn't believe me.

I had to tell him several times.

He kept saying no.

There were tears.

Then the inevitable happened......

He said, "Is the same thing true about Santa?"

"Yep."

"Oh."

We came to an agreement about telling G & Z. If he spills the beans, no Santa presents for him.

About an hour later he whispers to me that we should really tell G & Z because....... This isn't going to last long.

I hated to do it, but I just couldn't risk him getting beat up on the bus.

Hold on to your hats.......

2010-10-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

and coats and shoes and tables and chairs and planters and deck boxes and basketball hoops. Okay you get the idea. It is just a teeny bit windy here today. Here and everywhere else in the Midwest. They are saying the white fluffy stuff could be coming as well. Can you really complain about that considering it was 68 degrees this weekend.

The puppies are not happy. They are down right scared of the noise and the wind. You might even need to hold them to the ground to get them to go. Good news is the satellite has not gone out, so as soon as the kids go to bed I can watch GLEE!!!!

Our neighbor came over to let us know that we had a coyote on the porch yesterday. Great. I told EB we needed to get a giant spotlight for walking the dogs. I have heard them quite often, just hadn't actually seen one. We are going to have to start a neighborhood watch for the animals, not people.

Spent a lovely weekend with these women.

Looking at these

Of course there was eating and shopping too and then eating again. Amy introduced us to a new beer. Wild Blue. Very nice!

Bare feet welcome!

2010-10-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

You can once again walk bare foot in our front yard. Of course it is going to snow next week, but still your feet won't come out full of thorns.

I spent 2 hours digging out those darn prickers and that was only about 1/2 the yard. Wouldn't it be nice if I could use a screwdriver and a hammer to get rid of all the other prickers in my life. I guess I could but then I would be in jail.

Guilty as charged

Accessory to a crime.

Spare a square?

You catch em you clean em.

Easy come easy go

2010-10-12T20:31:00.001-04:00

We lost a fish, Zeplen went bye-bye. Purchased two new fish. The lovely sales person at Petsmart talked Z into getting two 20 cent fish instead of 1 $15 fish. Thank you, as one of those fish was belly up in the morning.

Puppy classes at Petsmart is some sort of racket. We rarely leave there without spending $30. Which is, of course, why they have training classes there. Friday is graduation. I am not certain these darling little things are going to graduate. They have to walk down and aisle of treats thrown on the floor and not pick them up. Thankfully they are not putting dirty socks or underwear down or there wouldn't be any hope at all. We were going to sign up for the intermediate class, but we found out that our trainer is leaving and we really like her, so we may take back our Friday nights for beer and pizza.

This fabulous weather we are having is really becoming a problem. My house is filthy and the possibility of getting it cleaned is slim and none. I am actually a little disgusted by the fact that there is quite a layer of dust right here on the glass desk I am sitting at, but it hard to remain focused when it is 84 degrees in the middle of October.

The lottery drawing is tonight and here's hoping that dollar we spent will come through for us.

Okay I really have to clean this desk. I can't look at it anymore.

Deja' vu ~ Does it happen to you?

2010-10-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. It started early, 4:45 am to be exact, on a Sunday no less. The wonderful EB took us to the big city for an early morning run, up one very long hill. The course was beautiful, but the company was even better. Then the fabulous EB came back and picked up the elated runners and took us to the drive through for some caffeinated rejuvination.

Friends departed, lunch was eaten, shirts were ironed...blah blah blah.

We headed to the park to take family pictures. It is one of our favorite parks, I have blogged about it before, the very long, steep hill to get to the waterfall. We have even taken pictures there before, but here is where the Deja Vu comes in..... We walked down the really steep hill, took some pictures and then decided to take the horrifically brutal scary stairs back up to the top, because EB thinks it will be shorter. EB goes behind me so I don't totally freak out. It takes about 15 minutes but I make it to the top, breathing really hard. We walk about a 1/2 mile take some more pictures then head back to the car. Only we can't find our way to the parking lot. We run into another couple who informs us that we really can't get back to our car from where we are. We have to go back down the stairs and back up the hill. It is getting dark. It is 6:30 pm and we have been there since 3:00. We are tired, hungry and feeling a little bit distressed. We get back to the waterfall and head to the big hill. There are 4 deer on the hill and the boys are worried they are going to charge us. They are crying and I am thinking I am ready to start too. I am ~~walking, crawling,~~ dragging my shaking thighs up the hill when I get that creepy feeling we have been there before, right down to the conversation we were having . EB says this is not true, we have not done this before, but I know that in my mind we have.

BTW. It was late, we were tired, we hit the drive through, again. I treated myself to a Big Mac. It has been at least 10 years, since I have had one of those, maybe longer. It was wonderful.

And 4 more sets of these stairs and you will know what I survived. There were at least 100 steps.

Pre-wash cycle

2010-09-19T21:43:00.000-04:00

I don't know how long the door is going to last on the dishwasher.

The dishes get pre-washed and then we sanitize for good measure.

Yesterday we went to Kohl's, in search of some casual boots, for me. I tried on a pair that had a few more buckles than I really cared for, but they were kind of cute, brown and in my size. I tried them on and Z says, "Mom, you are too old for those boots. They are for somebody younger." He continued on about how I should really get something different, but did like what I eventually bought.

Later, at church, Z reaches down to pick up his pen lets a little toot (okay maybe not a little) out. He looks at me and whispers, "Oops I didn't see that coming." Of course, it was during closing prayer and I thought I was going to die laughing.

I had a great run, yesterday, too. I ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes and still felt good. Let's hope that happens next weekend and race day!

It's a good day

2010-09-14T11:08:00.000-04:00

B had an eye appointment today and they said..........

He doesn't need to wear his glasses anymore.

I never thought that would happen, ever.

He can see 20/25 without his glasses and it has been that way for 2 years, so they think his vision is pretty stable. We will go back every 3 months for a year to see how he is doing. If all remains stable he won't need to go back at all!!!!!!

Patching works.

I am doing a little happy dance right now!!!

Where does the time go.

2010-09-13T21:38:00.000-04:00

Two weeks into school and I am already exhausted.

Tonight was the first Parent Group meeting. I remembered at 8:00. It started at 6:30.

The new weekly schedule is about to send me over the edge.

Monday - Akido
Tuesday - Football
Wednesday - feeding the children something other than cereal or PBJ
Thursday - Akido
Friday - Puppy training
Saturday - Akido
Sunday - Swimming lessons

Plus, some where in there, I need to fit in 4 days of running. Just under 3 weeks until race day and I am feeling less than prepared. I did run for an hour and 30 minutes, without keeling over on Saturday, but I certainly wasn't going to set any speed records.

We took Toffee to be neutered today and Ellie doesn't know what to do without her brother. We went for a walk tonight and she sniffed the ground every inch of the way. She won't settle down. Z wanted to know if Toffee's pee pee parts were going to be the same, so he must have some general idea of what is going on.

This weekend we went to my sister's to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful time and played several hand crushing games of spoons.

A friend once told me, "You should really celebrate anniversaries and skip the birthdays. Birthday's come automatically every year, but in order to have an anniversary it requires work and commitment and should be celebrated"

I think we are going to do that next year. We have a tendency to treat it like every other day and it is not.

Congratulations Sister! Thanks for the fun.

Sign of a very good summer.

2010-08-31T16:01:00.000-04:00

The kids had another great summer, except for the little run away incident last weekend. These shoes are only 4 months old, which is a little disappointing but probably pretty normal for 9 & 11 year old boys.

That is not blood. It is tomato. All of my tomatoes were eaten by worms, so I let the kids whip them out into the field. I think I was able to use about 10 out of the 60 or so that were out there. I did pick some of the green ones and put them in a bag in the basement. We'll see. They may ripen, but won't be near as flavorful.

The cucumbers are done and drying up.

The puppies are being trained.

I am supposed to be training, but that has been not a successful as the puppy training.

There is more ragweed growing in the fields around me than the campaign mud being slung around the tv.

School starts tomorrow. We dropped supplies off at the middle school. They requested far more supplies than can possibly fit in the teeny tiny lockers they give them. I am not sure what they are supposed to do with their coats and boots come winter time. I have a feeling they won't be wearing boots. B is fortunate, there are so many kids in his 6th grade class that they are short about 40 lockers. Some kids will have to leave their stuff in bins outside the class rooms.

It has been nice being home for a few days, but now I have to go back to work.

I'm melting

2010-08-11T20:25:00.000-04:00

Day 5 of 90 degree temperatures with a 60+ dew point. It was still 90 at 6:45 pm.

Amazingly enough we had another severe thunderstorm last night.

We had 4.25 inches of rain in an hour.

I am so glad we live at a higher elevation.

Z woke up from the noise last night. He ran through the kitchen, which woke up the dogs, which startled him and he catapulted like a rocket into our bed screaming.

Needless to say it was a loooong day at work today.

The pond is green.

The flowers are brown.

Bring on fall!

Just a thought.

Too cute for words.

2010-08-04T21:29:00.000-04:00

Pictures will have to do.

Toffee Chu (because the kids said they had to have a middle name) Chu is really appropriate since he chews on everything except his chew toys.

Ellie May

18 total pounds of pure joy. Okay except for the peeing on my new carpet. Toffee is now on a leash when he is in the house.

Is it that time already?

2010-07-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

Yes it is back to school time.

I love the line in "You've Got Mail" where Tom Hanks says to Meg Ryan, "If I knew your address I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils."

I love back to school shopping, although I thoroughly not ready for summer to be over.

Today B got his house assignment for his first year of middle school. Yikes, I am definitely not ready for this. In with his house assignment came the usual registration paperwork etc. Then there was my favorite piece of information.

The Student Dress Could

Pants should fit at the waistline so as not to reveal under garments
Pant legs should not drag on the floor.
tops should be long enough to easily cover the mid-riff.
Spaghetti strap tops and many tank tops do not cover the chest and back adequately for school-wear.
Bra straps should not be visible.
Shorts and skirts should be long enough that when you drop your hands to the thigh, they should not touch skin.
No hats, caps, or bandannas.

Can I get an AMEN and a HALLELUJAH. Finally someone who speaks my language!!!

The did say at orientation they will call parents and make them come get the kids from school.

I love it. I hate being a prude, but I do not want to see your cleavage.

Great or just a little too weird.

2010-07-25T20:57:00.000-04:00

Grandma and Grandpa took the kids camping from Thursday to today so EB and I went on an actual date.

We went to dinner and a movie.

We saw Inception. I haven't decided if I liked it or not. It was entirely too violent for my taste, but if the violence is all in a dream is it really violence. It required thinking and there was no way I could have gone to the bathroom in the middle of it even though I drank 3 glasses of water and 2 diet cokes at dinner and then had another diet coke at the movies and my eyes were yellow. It wasn't my kind of movie, but there wasn't a single chick flick out there, so we went out on a limb.

As is always the case when the kids camp with Grandma and Grandpa there was a really bad storm that had the camper rockin, the awning ripped completely off and all the tenter soaked through to their underwear.

EB and I joined them on Saturday night. We slept in a tent. First time either of us had done that since high school. The full size blow up mattress we slept on left a lot to be desired!

Could we have a little modesty please.

2010-07-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

Saturday G and I were walking through a park and an elderly lady told her that she had such beautiful hair. This is not the first time she has heard this. In fact it happens almost anytime we go out anywhere. She blushed, as always, and said a polite thank you. I like to think she has the perfect blend of her Dad's hair color and mine. Thankfully she got her Daddy's looks and smile.

Later, when we got in the car, she said to me, "Mom, do you think we should get a journal and I should write down every time someone tells me I have beautiful hair. You know, people say that to me all the time."

Lord help me.

They are doing what?

2010-07-15T21:44:00.000-04:00

EB calls me at 2:30 today and says, "You're dad and brother are coming up to bring the pool table."

I said, "When?"

He says, "Now, they are leaving in a little bit."

Now, my parents said several months ago that they wanted us to take their pool table. We have even tried to set up a couple of times to do it, but it never worked out.

So apparently somebody had a wild hair and decided it needed to be moved today.

My brother threw out his back before they even got it up the stairs at my parents house, but they somehow managed to get it up the stairs and to the truck. They drove the 2 1/2 hours up here only to figure out that it wouldn't fit around the end of the stairwell.

So we did this.

What's a little drywall repair.

Then we did this.

Okay I didn't. I just stayed out of the way and prayed they didn't scratch my slate floor.

Then this happened.

But hey, what's a little more drywall repair.

Then this happened.

And all was good.

Did you know?

That a cast makes a really great brace for your pool stick.

And sticking your tongue out really improves your game.

I hate getting that call....

2010-07-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

You know, you see the number pop up and your heart drops a little. It is camp. Usually it is no big deal someone doesn't feel well or forgot something, but I still worry since they go swimming or are in the river boating almost every day.

Well this time it was this.

They were playing kickball at camp. Z apparently kicked the ball really hard and B tried to catch it.

A clean break of his thumb, just above the growth plate.

Thankfully it was only his thumb and it was his left hand.

He kept poking it with his other hand last night and I said stop before you knock it out of alignment. He said, "It doesn't hurt, I can't feel anything." Apparently he got really good numbing medication before they set it.

I could tell you all about what bad parents we are and left him at camp for 2 hours after it happened because he couldn't get in to the dr. until later, but why dwell on those things.

Our weather radio just went off again. That is about the 10th time in two weeks and probably the third time today. There was a tornado about 5 miles south of here earlier.

Even the overflow valve doesn't help when we are getting this much rain.

Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful.

Moments

2010-07-12T21:45:00.000-04:00

Today I had one of those blonde moments. I can say that because I am was keep pretending I am a blonde with the help of my stylist.

Our new "used" car has one of those "no key" key fobby thingies and inside of that fobby thingy is a valet key. It also has doors that are supposed to close with the push of the button, only sometimes they close and then when you are not paying attention, you come out of Best Buy and your doors are wide open. Last night we took the van to the dealership as the car fixit man said it is just a computer update you need, so bring it in and we will fix it. EB and the kids and I drove the 40 minutes to the dealership and left the valet key in the overnight box.

Fixit man called today and said, "Uh the valet key only opens the door it doesn't start the car." So EB drives 2 hours round trip, in his truck that gets 15 miles to the gallon on a good day, to take him the key fobby thingy. What a waste of time and money. I mean it makes perfect sense, there isn't a place to put a key so you need the fobby thingy. Then I got to thinking and I am wondering what a valet would do with a valet key that only opened your doors. Isn't the whole point of valet is that they drive your car to you.

That wasn't the only blonde moment I had today, but I am only sharing one.

As for the weekend......

I hung 3 loads of laundry out to dry plus our sheets. I wanted to take a picture with all the clothes on it, but just about the time I get ready to do that, the thunder rolls and the rain comes in and it was a mad dash to get the clothes down.

We did a little of this. This is my kind of golf course. The homes on this course are on wheels and could be moved if needed. I could probably afford to replace any windows the children or I break.

I don't think this one is going to recover.

I can't wait to try these. The tomatoes were quite delicious.

Don't buy those bags of seeds that are supposed to attract butterflies, because really, who knows what is a weed and what might one day have a flower on it.

Seriously child, you are going to bed

2010-07-08T21:20:00.000-04:00

Me, "Alright kids it is time to go to bed."

B, "Mom, dad said I could watch the "Decision"." ( At this point I am not really sure what the "Decision" is, but it doesn't matter anyway as it is bed time.

Me, "It is 8:00 it is time to go to bed."

B (whining with his head hanging low), "But I want to know where Lebron decides to go."

And we wonder why sports stars have egos bigger than their salaries. Even our children are brainwashed into thinking there is nothing more important than what this one person is going to do. As much as I once loved Brett Favre, the hype over what he was going to do last year was obnoxious and ridiculous.

Don't get me on my soapbox about what athletes get paid to do. My blood pressure can't take it.

On happier notes:

I swear there are 50 teeny tiny cucumbers on each of my cucumber plants.

There are about 20 golf ball sized tomatoes and 5 teeny tiny peppers in my garden.

I ran 3.5 miles, in the rain, last night.

It is a 4 day work week and a 3 paycheck month.

We have no place to go this weekend. Ahhhhhhhh.

Freedom

2010-07-05T20:42:00.000-04:00

To do just about anything you please, whenever you please and with whom you please.

We chose to spend time sitting by the river, in 1000% humidity, for many hours.

It was very relaxing, in spite of the humidity.

The kids participated in a fishing contest. G caught two fish and a turtle. Just as I was about to take a picture of the 1 1/2 foot long snapping turtle, it dove back in the water.

I barely moved from under this umbrella, for the 6 hours we spent at the river.

The only thing that would have made it better, was if I had brought a good book.

The library opened back up today in a new location with 20,000 more square feet than they had before.

I am off to make my pick list.

The best part about this 4th of July......

I did not fall down and break anything. Woo hoo.

I know I had something good

2010-06-29T21:44:00.000-04:00

I just can't remember what it was.

I ran up to Z's game and was thinking about something I wanted to blog about, then I watched the baseball game and then I forgot.

Now how is that for entertainment.

9 million calories of deliciousness

2010-06-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when we don't plan out our menu for the week. We end up on Friday with either take out or whatever is not completely rotten in the fridge.

Therefore I made a new concoction, which has probably been made before but not by me.

Anyway the ingredients included:

Expired Grands biscuits

Leftover bacon and turkey sausage

Eggs

Cheese

I spread the biscuits in the bottom of the cake pan lined with parchment paper. Cut up the cooked bacon and sausage into little bits. Scrambled the eggs and then poured them on top of the biscuits, tossed on the meat and baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. Lastly I through on the cheese and stuck it back in the oven to melt.

I am certain my arteries just shuddered, but mmmm it was good.

Oxygen and Geritol please

2010-06-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went running with my neighbor.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't run in 16 months.

She runs 4 times a week including 10 miles on the weekend.

I also hadn't run with anyone in over 2 years.

When we got back I thought I did pretty good.

I decided I should really see how far we ran.

2.7 frickin measley little miles.

I consoled my old, out-of-shape self with a Schwan's Sundae Cone.

No casualties today

2010-06-23T21:20:00.000-04:00

No stranded or floating friends today.

Our neighbors want us to take measures to get rid of the little dudes, but I just can't do it.

They are telling me we will have 2, if not 3, times as many next year.

Last night there was one in the downspout and one in the garage.

I am considering putting an owl statue up, but I heard that scares away the birds too.

The kids have one of those Robo dogs, maybe I could set that loose in the yard.

I am off to un-friend some people on Facebook.

Did you know?

2010-06-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

Ground squirrels can't swim.

All the fish are accounted for.

One more window well rescue for the day.

I don't know if I can handle this.

To top it off my MIL wants to be my friend on facebook.

Knock Knock

2010-06-21T21:53:00.000-04:00

Overheard in the kitchen.

EB to Z "Z do you have your cup on?"

Z, "Knock, Knock. Who's at the door?" As he proceeds to knock on his cup.

Seriously this is what we do here.

In the relentless pursuit of a yard, I was watering away when I found two ground squirrels stuck in the window wells of the basement. I was sure cute in my wellies, running clothes and big leather gloves as I wandered out to rescue them. That is the third rescue in a couple of days. I also found some skeletons for those who were not fortunate enough to be rescued. I am not sure if I am just going to put a stick down there, so they can get out themselves or cover the wells with chicken wire.

Keep your tissues handy.

2010-06-19T18:49:00.000-04:00

We saw Toy Story 3 today.

Best movie I have seen all year.

Maybe for the last two years.

Of course I have probably only been to 3 movies in the last year, but still it was fantastic.

Rain rain go away, come again another day

2010-06-15T21:28:00.000-04:00

Maybe in a month or two.

I feel like we have had our fair share. 9 hours, at an outdoor concert, in the rain, is not as much fun as it might sound.

It is helping the grass grow, but I think it is drowning the tomatoes. They look terrible.

The water lily is blooming, but may be hard to find in the algae filled pond. Sister gave me some kelp, but I think I am going to have to buy some fish and snails to help it out.

Glee season finale was wonderful. I cried and have watched it 4 or possibly 5 times since. I also downloaded the CD and the kids know every word to "To Sir with Love." They already had all the Journey tunes down.

Went to a wonderful wedding at which my children behaved fabulously and charmed everyone they came i contact with.

B got one of his behavior bracelets taken away for saying something about I-da-ho, U-da-ho when they were working with a hoe in the garden. We asked him if he knew what a "ho" was or a prostitute or even sex. He said no, but that may have been a cover-up. Someone needs to have a little talk about that before he starts riding the bus with the high school kids in fall.

BTW I could barely stop laughing, while he was telling us what happened.

Another proud parenting moment.

Labor pains

2010-06-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

No, I am not giving birth.

At least not to a child.

We are, however, trying to grow a happy little yard.

Last weekend we moved 15 cubic yards of dirt. That is one big dump truck full. Thank you to the lovely excavation company for dropping it in a couple of different places so we didn't have to move it as far.

EB says no matter how long I stare at it, it isn't going to grow any faster than it is.

This weekend we finished up planting that last of what we are going to plant, for this year anyway.

Needless to say, I am more than a little achy from all this hard labor.

B got his first shot at mowing, we even let him drive the tractor by himself. He is 11 but still barely able to hold down the seat and push the clutch at the same time. EB was worried, but he did alright. There is a safety feature that as soon as you don't have enough weight on the seat it shuts off. Between that and the fact that our yard is pretty flat, I wasn't too worried. Someone should write that down. I wasn't worried. G thought she should be able to drive it by herself as well. Just because you are the same size as your brother you are still only 9. I did let her sit on my lap and drive until my leg fell off.

I made another rhubarb cake (coffee cake like thingy), this one EB gets to take to work. I took the last one.

A lady from work brought me a chunk of rhubarb and a chunk of rhubarb root. YEAH! I planted it along side my peonies.

This is the last week of school and more importantly...........

The GLEE season finale :)

Sitting in the airport watching all the planes go by.

2010-05-15T19:15:00.001-04:00

I need to hire a trip planner who is better at it than me. We are at the Denver airport waiting for our connecting flight. We have a 3.5 hour layover. Every once in a while it would pay to not be so cheap for goodness sake. I really didn't pay any attention to how long our layover would be. We had a 3 hour layover and the plane is already dealyed for 35 minutes.

At least I got a comfy chair with an outlet.

EB is watching Crazy Horse on the iPAD touch he got for his bithday. The movie is 1 hour and 53 minutes and it took 4 hours to download. Ironic isn't it.

We were in Tucson for a conference. Okay I was at the conference and he was lounging by the pool. The weather was wonderful. 87 the last two days. I did my share of sitting at the pool as well, although I was in the shade most of the time or covered up with pool towels or both. You know, tender pasty white skin.

One night of the conference they had a BBQ with steaks the size and shape of Texas. I ate veggies and dessert. Lots of dessert. After dark, they brought out this huge telescope and we were able to see the rings on Saturn. It was incredible. The gentleman who set it up, had the coolest laser pen that looked like it was touching the sky. I wish the kids could have seen it. I am still literally star struck. I have never seen anything like it.

Cereal again

2010-04-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Since I destroyed the meatloaf last night, that was supposed to be for dinner tonight, we had cereal again.

I am trying to plan out my meals for the week and not buy more food than we need, therefore we had nothing. Not that the kids complained. They would eat cereal every night of the week. Me too, except then I really start to feel like a terrible mother.

The 5th graders, B, had their concert tonight. I unfortunately only got to see about 5 minutes of it. I had signed up to help with the popcorn fundraiser before and after the concert, only it turned out to be before, DURING and after the concert. Z was kind enough to take pictures for me since EB is out of town. They should be interesting.

Crazy weekend ahead of us. We have something tomorrow night and three things on Saturday. We are going to have to divide and conquer. We are also supposed to have trees delivered on Saturday. I guess that will take care of what we are doing on Sunday.

I would like to fit Church in there somewhere as the only time we have been there in the last month has been to drop off the kids at Awana.

Bake at 375 for 3.5 hours

2010-04-28T22:09:00.003-04:00

OOOPS!

I got distracted and took the kids AWANA awards ceremony.

When we came home it was a little smelly. Not bad, but smelly.

I was trying to be efficient and cook two dinners tonight, since we won't have time tomorrow night.

Now we will be having cereal.

Thank goodness we weren't gone longer.

In case you couldn't tell, that was a meatloaf.

The nutshell

2010-04-27T21:53:00.002-04:00

Here is the last month in a nutshell.

Trying to break up the @#$%@^ dirt so we can plant grass seed.

Watching Glee

Trying to break up more @#$%@^ dirt so we can plant grass seed and flowers.

Watching Glee

Trying to break up more @#$%@^, nasty, hard as concrete clay, so we can plant grass seed and flowers.

Watching Glee

Actually planting grass seed.

Watching Glee

Watering grass seed.

Caught up with every episode of Glee.

Watching grass seed grow, or not.

The highlight of the month was visiting with an old friend who was in town last week.

It might have made the whole month. THANKS KT.

I should have hired a lawn boy. The errand boy is sick of this job.

Other people's children

2010-04-05T21:08:00.002-04:00

I really don't like to talk about other people's children, because Lord knows I have had to carry my daughter, with legs and arms flailing, out of the grocery store.

Sunday during church, the mother in front of us let 2 of her 3 daughters (around 5 & 7 years of age) completely misbehave. At one point the older of the two, was hitting the younger one in the head with a shoe, as well as stepping on her head. They were out of control.

There are rules when we go to church. Our children are not allowed to sit next to each other. They generally keep themselves occupied with all the bible puzzles they hand out when you come in. Occasionally we will have to tell them to be quiet or to stand up and sing, but generally they are good.

The difference is, I will carry my child out when they are misbehaving. Even to my utter embarrassment.

Finito

2010-03-31T20:57:00.002-04:00

I don't even know if that is a real word or not, but I am using it anyway.

FINITO!

The yearbook is done.

I had help this year.

EB asked me if I was going to do it again next year.

Of course I am. Some day I will learn the word "NO".

Quite possibly alone.

Wonderful weekend

2010-03-28T20:48:00.002-04:00

We had a sleepover this weekend. It really should be called a "stay up way later than we need to" over. The kids went to bed at 7:00 tonight and it took them about 3 minutes to go to sleep.

Six kids and no crying. It was loud and wonderful just the same. Five boys playing Wii and one very curios girl, who just wanted to peek over the couch and listen to the grownups talk.

We can't wait to do it again and break in the fire pit next time.

We had cake, disguised as a chocolate muffin, for breakfast.

Hope you had a great birthday AC!

We also watched the "Blind Side" and now I love Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw even more than I did before.

Totally depressing.

2010-03-24T20:48:00.002-04:00

I THINK I WILL JUST GIVE UP AND

EAT DONUTS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

AT LEAST IT WILL BE ENJOYABLE.

Duh!

2010-03-22T20:16:00.003-04:00

When G and I got home from gymnastics tonight the boys were already in the shower. It was 6:30 pm.

I asked them if they had done their reading and finished their homework?

"Yeeesss mom, tonight is the season premier of Dancing with the stars."

"Ocho Cinco is on this season."

I said, "Who is Ocho Cinco?"

B says, "Mom, he is the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals."

I said, "Oh, I don't know who that is."

"Mom, you watch football" he says.

I said, "I really only watch the Packers."

"Well his real name is Chad Ocho Cinco. He used to be Chad Johnson." he explains

"Ah a name I recognize."

Z & B are down the hall discussing something about changing names when I hear B say, "You have to pay money to change your name."

Z says, "Oh."

I hope they don't want to change their names, they are not that far out.

So now they are all in our bedroom watching Dancing with the Stars.

They are not in the living room as G still has to finish homework, read and do math facts.

BTW

They also recognized, Evan Lysacek and Neicey Nash from Clean House. They do love to watch clean house. They had no clue who the others were, for some of that I am thankful.

I wonder what it would cost me to change my name to "Mother is always right".

BTW, he changed his name because his jersey is number 85.

Hi my name is....

2010-03-17T20:56:00.003-04:00

She was slightly disappointed that her name was Tooth Fairy.
She left a pen right next to her pillow, so that the tooth fairy could write back.

G is going to sleep well tonight

2010-03-16T20:06:00.003-04:00

Another beautiful night for a walk. A little chillier than yesterday, but still 45 degrees.

The kids accompanied me on a walk. They were on bikes and scooters.

G made it the whole four miles.

She should sleep well tonight.

PS. EB is putting the 3rd tire in 1 year of Z's bike.

Anyone want to take bets on when it is going to blow up?

Elvis was good to me.

2010-03-15T21:21:00.002-04:00

I keep wondering what I do with all my time, since I am not exercising regularly and I am certainly not updating my blog.

What the heck am I doing.

I can't be doing much, or I would have something to write about.

Saturday we took a road trip to IKEA to purchase a mirror I really wanted.

That didn't happen. Turns out it was entirely to big to fit in the van. So we bought two cheap office chairs for the kids to zoom about the craft room. Don't ask why we didn't get three. Then we had some swedish meatballs and came home.

Yesterday I spent nearly the entire day sitting on my front porch. It was 66 degrees and we were treated to the sight of about 13 bald eagles soaring over our house. Welcome back birdies.

A couple weeks ago we took a road trip to my parent's and went bowling.

If you look closely the bowling ball in my mom's hand it sports a young Elvis. I borrowed him and managed to bowl a 174 and a 169. Not bad for only bowling once a year.

That is all I got.

A mess that makes me happy.

2010-02-17T21:08:00.005-05:00

I am not normally a fan of a big mess, but this one makes me happy. It was so nice to be able to start a project, go make dinner and then come back to exactly where I left off. I didn't have to clean everything up just to feed my children. I still have to organize a lot more stuff, but at least there is now a place for it.

I need to get a table for my sewing machine.

We still need to put up the baseboards/trim and the big empty space, we are currently using as a dance floor, will be filled with my parent's pool table.

The yet unfinished wall. We still might make some lighting changes, so we are not quite ready to finish. Still plenty of room for the dance floor, or maybe an air hockey table.

The bathroom you could sleep in, at least until we get a shower.

Lindsay Vonn is racing and I just can't watch.

The Swiss girl just took a major fall.

What does this say about my kids

2010-02-02T20:31:00.002-05:00

They are addicted to the Biggest Loser.

Currently they are channel swapping with that and American Idol.

They get very emotional when they do the weigh in.

They do not like Jillian Michaels.

They think she is mean.

A truer statement does not exist.

If I were on that show, I would take her down.

Six more weeks of winter. Yee ha!

I would take just two days of 40 degree temps and then it could snow again.

Okay maybe a week. The yard is a sheet of ice.

Earplugs anyone?

2010-01-24T20:12:00.002-05:00

B started the recorder a couple of weeks ago.

They are supposed to practice 90 minutes a week.

Someone forgot.

Today we got 90 minutes of lovely recorder music.

Three 30 minute sessions.

I would have let him skip, but his teacher makes us sign a paper that they did it and I just can not blatantly lie for my child.

We are getting very close on the basement. We are about 80% done with the sanding.

One room to go.

We made it home, just barely

2010-01-19T21:20:00.002-05:00

G had an eye dr.'s appointment this morning in the big city. We got there a tad bit early so we we sat in the parking ramp with the car running, so environmentally conscious, watching the exhaust blow past the front window. I decided to shut the car off and save gas and the environment. Only the exhaust didn't stop coming. Why you ask? It wasn't exhaust. Yes, my car was a smokin.

So I did what every other helpless woman like me does. I called the EB. Okay I did open the hood and look under the car, but what do I know. G's appointment was going to be anywhere from 2-4 hours, so I thought that would give it time to cool down.

Appointment got over in about an hour. Really. They never get done early. I needed more time for the car to cool down. We headed to the ramp. Prayed to that wonderful God and started the car. We did make it home and I took G to school. EB had called the dealership and made an appointment. So a couple of hours later I took the car in. It is 1.5 miles to the dealership. When he came to tell me what was wrong with my car, he said it was a miracle I made it the 1.5 miles from my house. No, the miracle was God getting me and G back to our house safe and sound.

Diagnosis. One very cracked and busted radiator. $844. Did you know that if you have rear heat in your minivan that it costs a ton more to get your radiator fixed. Now you know.

BTW G is just fine. They had dilated her eyes at the drs office and when I went to check on her at school, she was wearing he teachers shades. Apparently the sun at recess was just to much for her.

Playing catch-up

2010-01-18T22:21:00.002-05:00

Wow! I just realized I posted, all of, once last month and only twice the two months prior. Let's see if I can manage 3 posts this month. I had better hurry, this month is half over.

Back to working on the yearbook again. This time I have help. They do seem a bit technically challenged, both with experience and DIAL-UP! We are meeting at school tomorrow to use the high speed internet connection in the library. All three of us are pretty tall, so we should look hysterical sitting at the little computer desks. I tried to get a bunch of mine done tonight that way I can help the TC ladies tomorrow. I was talking to one of the 5th grade teachers today, while we waited for the dawdlers to come back from the bathroom, and she proceeded to go on and on about how wonderful B is. For the most part, I know that, but it sure does make a momma proud to know all of the 5th grade teachers think he is just wonderful and so respectful.

I don't know why I don't hear that about Z.

Still working on the basement. Down to sanding the drywall mud and painting. Of course, we should probably put a door on the bathroom, but why bother. Seriously, I can shut both the door to my bedroom and the bathroom door and they still come in.

I have been back on the treadmill and enjoying all sorts of one word titled movies over that past week. I am sure that is horrible grammar, but who cares. I never manage to see the whole movie. I could watch High School Musical 3 every hour on the hour, but I can't find any of these movies again so I can see the other half. I would like to DVR them. Of course I can't remember the names, but I know that if I saw them again I would recognize them. Three of the movies were on the Sundance channel, two with subtitles. That is a bit tricky when you are on the treadmill.

Lastly, G has told me three times, in the past week, that I am embarrassing her. As I was getting ready to take them to school this morning she says to me, "Mom are you going to do something with your hair before you come take pictures at school? That is kind of embarrassing, you know."

YES! I am an embarrassment to my children.

Covered in dust and mud and eating Christmas cookies.

2009-12-13T21:21:00.004-05:00

We've been a little busy.

I am more than a little tired.

Our goal was to be done by Christmas, but....

Christmas was moved to next Saturday.

Welcome to the future

2009-11-25T20:46:00.003-05:00

I love Brad Paisley's song, "Welcome to the future".

In fact I am living it at the moment. EB is driving us to Mom and Dad's and I am on the Internet. In the car. Amazing to me.

The kids are playing DS. I wish I could say it was quiet, but it is late and the kids are cranky.

I need a drink...

I need lotion....

Z is laying down on me.......

You know what thethe best part is. I am not even listening to it. See I got these new headphones, with all my rewards points, and they block out background noise. Yes I consider my children background noise when their whining.

Yes, I know I should be conversing with my children, great conversations about what state license plates we've seen. But then again I could be listening to Tim McGraw.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a little black friday shopping. This is the first year, in about 10, that I am not going shopping.

That lovely EB is going to get the one thing I want. I am so lucky.

Spinning

2009-11-23T20:09:00.005-05:00

The world is spinning and I feel as if I am about to be flung off.

I had grand delusions of spending Sunday on the couch watching football, but alas there is always one more thing that needs to be done.

Another trip or two to Mendard's

The house is mostly decorated, inside and out.

Christmas pictures are ordered.

Packers won, even if I didn't get to watch.

Vikings won, even if I won't watch.

Jimmie Johnson took home another cup.

Taylor Swift took home everything.

Friends shopped so much that I think their plane must have been flying low on the way home.

Kids picked out a new CD " 70s Roller Disco"

S A T U R D A Y Night!

With the windows open and the kids singing at the top of their lungs.

Susan Boyle's CD is pretty darn good.

"Wild Horses" is my favorite. "Day Dream Believer", was a surprise.

I think I have been broken down and may buy something ridiculous from that A.... Girl store.

There will be lots of deliveries to our door step soon.

Basement is half finished.

I watched "Pride and Prejudice" again, twice.

Turkey is coming. And Pie, oh so much pie.

I need to go hit the treadmill, so I can partake in more pie.

So much for conserving water

2009-10-25T21:27:00.002-04:00

When we decided to put in a whirlpool tub, I didn't really think we would use it. I thought it is such a waste of water and electricity, but we have used it several times already.

The kids got to take their first dip in it tonight, after I let them have Mc Donald's for dinner.

I must not be feeling well.

G went to a Halloween sleepover last night where she stayed up until 2 am. So after swimming lessons and a bath, she crawled to her bedroom and was silent immediately.

BTW, body wash is not the same as bubble bath. I had to take a couple of buckets of bubbles out of the tub.

Poopy day.

2009-10-13T22:28:00.003-04:00

Isn't that a lovely title.

I had to let some one go today.

She deserved it. I gave her many opportunities to prove to me that she could do the job.

Still sucked.

8 hours later it still sucks.

On a much happier note. A place for everything and almost everything in its place.

Okay, not everything. but much closer than a couple of weeks ago.

I'm back

2009-10-05T20:31:00.004-04:00

I did figure out the whole internet connection.

Now I just need to figure out where to find the time.

Still have a garage full of boxes.

But a beautiful house, just waiting for friends and family.

I would post a picture, but blogger doesn't seem to want to do that right now.

Or it could be my sloooowwww internet connection......

Now I have to go watch some football.

BBL

Dilemmas

2009-09-16T21:35:00.002-04:00

I really don't know what to do about this whole looming internet problem.

I built a room in our new house, specifically so I could monitor the kids on the computer while I was in the kitchen.

And of course the ease of hopping on to see what all those bloggers are doing.

I am getting down to the wire and I am distraught knowing in one week I will be disconnected unless I want to fork over some cash. Way more cash than I want to put down.

I had visions of being back to blogging every day!

Promise to post more pictures before the we move. Just in case.

Busy days

2009-09-08T21:20:00.008-04:00

So close yet, so far away. They ran out of soffit, so another delay. The front door, after waiting for over 6 weeks, is the wrong door. I love Lowes, but they will be replacing the cheap door they gave me when I paid for a really expensive one.

I spent the Labor day weekend, picking out fabric and making Roman Shades. Yes I labored most of the weekend. Thanks to AC for that great idea.

Master curtain fabric.

Boys curtains, almost done.

Spare bedroom fabric, also almost done.

The Roman Shade is pretty easy to make, unless you do like I did and use blackout fabric. Now I could have used other liner except that EB wants it dark. That lining requires extra sewing and lots of needles for the sewing machine.

Gymnastics started today. There go my new walls.

G says she is going to have to go to Beginner II class because she had to demonstrate for all the other kids, as well as help them do handstands. I said let's see how this session goes.

Cabinet installation started today.

I am going to love my very big island.

Other than all of that, I have the creepy crud and have gone through no less than 5 boxes of Kleenex in the last two weeks. All courtesy of Z.

See you in a couple days.

Recovering.....

2009-08-31T20:22:00.003-04:00

Vacation is over and we are all pooped. The children go back to school tomorrow and I go back to work.

They are excited.

I am not.

There are still too many things to do.

Curtains need to be made, some time in the next couple of weeks.

Ten things I am most looking forward to.

2009-08-18T20:32:00.002-04:00

Burners that turn on when you turn them on.
A dishwasher that doesn't spew 2 gallons of water on the floor.
A refrigerator that doesn't need a bowl of water emptied every couple of days.
An actual laundry room, with dark gray slate tile, that should hide all dirt.
New glasses that aren't ruined by the dishwasher that spews water all over.
Neighbors who don't scare me.
Windows, windows, windows.
A garage I can park my car in.
Kids riding home on the bus.
A place for everything and everything in it's place. A girl can dream can't she.

Only a few more weeks to go. Of course if you walked through my house you wouldn't know that we were moving very soon. We plan on throwing things in the truck as we go. Besides everything in the garage is already packed.

Wild weather

2009-08-10T20:27:00.003-04:00

Friday night the grandparents came and took the grandkids camping, just about 25 miles from where we live. This allowed us to carpet and appliance shop "child free" on Saturday. Yeah!! Anyway Friday night around 1:00 the thunder started to roll and the lightening exploded. EB and I were awake for about 2 hours, it was that loud and bright. Our kids do not like thunderstorms, so I was really worried about them in the camper and whether G & G would get any sleep.

I called G & G Saturday morning to see if they got any sleep. They said the kids slept right through it.

I said, "Didn't it wake you up?"

They said, "Yep it was really loud."

I said, "What did you give my kids before bed?"

Saturday, after a very successful shopping day, we headed to the campground. We ate, sat by the fire a while, beat off some gargantuan mosquitos and then headed home. When we were pulling into the driveway there was a weather warning on the radio. We sat in the car to listen to what was going on. There was a tornado warning, about 40 miles away. Z got all upset and threw up in the yard. They were a wreck. It took us 20 minutes to get them calmed down and in to bed. An hour after they got in bed, the tornados came pretty close to us and there warnings for our town. We got them up and went into the bathroom. They fell asleep on the floor! After it passed we put them back to bed.

Not one of them remembered that Sunday morning.

Still alive and kicking.

2009-08-07T10:18:00.006-04:00

Home with sick child again. This time it is Z and we are headed to the pediatrician shortly to see if we are up for round 4 of strep throat. Right now, he is feeling fine and playing a game he found on the computer called potty racers. You race a port-a-potty and when you crash you know what happens. Nice isn't it. At least it isn't blood and guts.

Here is a few pics of the house. If all things continue on as they are we will be in by Sept 18th.

Library

Library/Kitchen

My closet

Living area

It is all just a big open area. Our room is on one side of the house and the kids are down the hallway you see above.

I should lower my expectations

2009-07-27T20:39:00.002-04:00

On facebook, I said it was really great to see people and how wonderful my classmates have aged, but the truth is I am not sure I really enjoyed myself. I did enjoy catching up with about 6 of what would have been my really close friends back then, but that was about it.

I had envisioned everyone talking to everyone, but that really didn't happen. For the most part people hung out with the people they hung out with in High School. Now I can't say that I made a great effort to talk to people, I tried but it was just to difficult. Who would have thought, I would turn into an introvert when confronted with people I actually new once. I can talk to complete strangers for hours, but not to my old classmates. High School insecurities run deep. There were about 75 classmates in attendance. I did spend a lot of time trying to remember who people were. I heard people say the same thing about me.

I did find out, in talking to some of my classmates, that one is gay (he told me himself not rumor), one had a brain tumor 5 years ago, and one wants to get a divorce after 23 years of marriage. No sister I won't tell you who told me what.

I survived unscathed. I am very glad I went, if for nothing more than to connect with those 6 people.

Off to meet up with some old friends

2009-07-23T22:13:00.002-04:00

This weekend is the big 25th reunion. I surely hope I don't make some big fool of myself. I am sure I did enough of that in high school.

Not sure why this whole things makes me sort of nauseous, but it does. It has managed to bring out my completely insecure 16 year old self.

The new neighbors

2009-07-22T20:28:00.003-04:00

First, you know it has been a long time since you posted when you can't remember your password.

Last night we went to a block party, courtesy of Edy's ice cream, in our new neighborhood. I think I am going to really like our neighbors. Everyone is fairly new there, less than 3 years, so there were only a couple of people who really knew each other. We all wore name tags. I thought we should wear them for the next six months, but I was overruled.

We talked to one couple who, it turns out, lived in the exact same half of the duplex we live in. They know the creepy neighbors. They lived here right before we did.

There are three awesomely tall women. Not enough kids and definitely none our kids age. They were either much older or much younger. There are two teachers, maybe one will be a math tutor:)

We also came upon some devastating news........ There is NO INTERNET in our new neighborhood.. I feel like I just stepped back 10 years. NO INTERNET. The life of this blog could be prematurely hacked off. Oh yes there is dial-up....not, can't, won't. I looked into using our cell service, $60 a month. YIKES. I pay $20 now. I can't do $60.

On that note and the pain in my shoulder I am going to bed.

Who knew.

2009-07-12T20:34:00.002-04:00

Last night we took the kids to the drive-in. I haven't been to one in probably 18 years. The last movie I saw at the drive-in was a horror flick with Demi Moore. I don't like horror flicks.

It was a triple feature with Ice Age 3, Night at the Museum 2 and the Hangover. We took the truck, blankets, lawn chairs, pillows and snacks. We didn't bring our grills like everyone else. These people had quite the spreads going on. We also didn't get there early enough. Gates opened at 7. We got there at 8:30 for movies that started about 9:30. We had an okay spot, but next time we will go much earlier.

It was 15 bucks for the five of us to see 3 movies. Of course we didn't make it to the second two. Everyone was crying because they really wanted to stay, even though Z slept through most of the 1st movie. G says, "I stayed up until 2 am last weekend..........." I am a mean mom and said we were going home. All 3 were asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

Collar bone is feeling somewhat better, but still a long way to go. Too much typing for today.

Hello gravity!

2009-07-06T20:23:00.002-04:00

Posting is going to be mostly pictures for the next 6 - 8 weeks.

Once again I must remind myself that I am not 18.

No, alcohol was not involved. Although it might have hurt less at the time.

He will be missed!!!!

2009-06-28T20:39:00.004-04:00

I am not talking about Michael Jackson, Ed MacMahon or Billie Mays.

He was much sweeter, softer and always happy to see me.

I knew it would happen sooner rather than later. He was 15.

It still broke my heart.

We miss you Sammy, even G.

Tell Mavy we miss him too!

We have been a little busy

2009-06-22T21:46:00.011-04:00

There has been dance.

There has been fishing.

There has been baseball.

There has been more baseball.

Then there has been this...

and this...

and more of this...

Tomorrow there will be walls.

I am looking forward to the weekend. I know it is only Monday, but we have no plans, I can't remember the last weekend where we had nothing to do.

Too much fun or too much sun

2009-06-14T22:10:00.005-04:00

We took the kids to their first concert yesterday. It was an all day event.

The weather was beautiful, 72 and sunny. We were outside for about 8 hours.

I am sure it was the first concert I have been too, where I didn't get pushed around by drunk people.

We saw several great bands. Including Mercy Me.

Lincoln Brewster (Used to play guitar for Steve Perry)

We also saw Chris Sligh (American Idol), Tenth Avenue North, Josh Wilson and PFR.

We did our best to stay cool during the day and then warm at night.

They didn't quite make it through Mercy Me.

We got home around midnight. We carried the kids in and sent them off to bed.

I went to kiss Z goodnight and I didn't see him in his bed. I hadn't turned on the light, so I nearly stepped on him when I found him on the floor. He looked dead. He had his pants and his underwear down around his knees and his arms up over his head and he was sound asleep. We could not have been home more than two minutes. I couldn't stop laughing.

I picked him up and took his sweatshirt off and pulled up his pants. He was dead weight.

Must really have been too much fun.

I made it 8 hours in the sun yesterday without getting a sunburn, but this morning I go for a 2.5 hour walk and fry my shoulders. It was 9:00, I thought I would skip the sunscreen. Moron.

Too much excitement

2009-06-13T09:19:00.002-04:00

I know this will be hard to believe.......but the builder closed on our lot yesterday.

We are really really really going to build our house. There are even stakes up every where on the lot. Corner house, corner gar, corner driveway.

I really can't believe it.

Today we are off to see a lot of great bands, but most excited about seeing Mercy Me.

Where has time gone

2009-06-10T15:07:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it has been 10 days since I posted. Crazy life here. The only reason I have even three minutes today is because G came down with strep throat yesterday. I said she was fine until I looked in her throat, Googled "pictures of strep throat" and sure enough it looked suspect. So we took a visit to the urgent care last night. Second to last day of school. Oh well, a little Penicillin and she is on the mend. I think we might have even found a pediatrician. G was thrilled with the doc. The nurse looked looked like she was 18, but whatever.

BTW I thought Penicillin was old hat and they only prescribed amoxycillin. Maybe it is special for strep.

Let's see what else happened this past week.

G had her recital last week. What a great show. I am so disappointed she isn't going to dance next year.

Spent the weekend in the rain with 7 people in a 100 sq foot camper and we all came out alive.

Went to a bunch of baseball games.

Wow we are an exciting family!

Mistaken identity

2009-06-01T21:56:00.002-04:00

Turns out those aren't just cute little caterpillars. They are the invasive Gypsy Moth caterpillars, hated by all, except my children.

Many of them did not survive the day, guess I won't be crying. I told the kids we should extinguish them, but they weren't having any of it. I couldn't do it either, so we just set them free.