I got an award

Charlene at adventures-in-mommy-land gave me this award. I'm glad somebody likes reading my blog and I'm not just talking to myself. LOL

The rules to accept this award are very simple. I have to answer a few questions with one word answers. And then I have to pass this award to seven people.

The questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? Kitchen
2. Where is your significant other? Work
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Wisconsin
5. Your father? Wisconsin
6. Your favorite thing? Dunno
7. Your dream last night? Censored
8. Your dream/goal? Travel
9. The room you're in? Basement
10. Your hobby? Knitting
11. Your fear? Many
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Alive
13. Where were you last night? Resturant
14. What you're not? Unemployed
15. One of your wish-list items? Landscaping
16. Where you grew up? Wisconsin
17. The last thing you did? Shower
18. What are you wearing? Clothes
19. Your TV? Old
20. Your pet? Many
21. Your computer? Old
22. Your mood? Goofy
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? SUV
25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? Joann's
27. Your summer? Fast
28. Love someone? Yes
29. Your favorite color? Any
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Last week

And the award goes to:
Suzie at Up the Hill Backwards
Nikki at What If All This Means Something
Marianne at Marianne's Motifs
Kristen at We Are THAT Family

I know that's only 4, I'm still working on the others.

I'm going back to school on Tuesday too

School starts on Tue (Sept 2nd) and with it I start a new job at school. I got the Noon EA position (playground lady) I was interviewing for last week. I'm not exactly sure how this all came about because they called me on Tuesday to let me know they offered it to someone else and they accepted. But he also said that he thought I was a strong candidate for the job and wanted me to keep checking the school website for other openings. I was thinking about volunteering in class once a week to get some experience in the school setting when he called and offered me the job. Its 2.5 hours a day, M-F. It works great with my schedule and gets me out of the house for a few hours a day, especially in the winter when Hubby is off and driving me up the wall.

My Sizzling Summer Vaction

We decided to take a weekend and head up to mother-in-law's cabin the first weekend in August. Things were crazy around here the few weeks before that, with me involved in a 5 week triathlon, dealing with neck & shoulder issues, and getting Funky Princess ready for camp. The week before we left I was running around trying to clean the house and get the laundry done before we leave, pack everybody's stuff, along with all the other stuff we had to drag up there. Trying to figure out what exactly we were going to eat while there, so I could get a cooler packed with enough food for the weekend. By the time we left Friday morning, I was ready for some R & R.

Launching the boat

Friday afternoon, after we unloaded everything and got settled in, we took the boat out fishing. We only take the boat out once a year, so trying to launch the boat off the trailer, for us it can turn into a big ordeal. First of all it took forever for Hubby to back the trailer down the boat launch. I was standing at the bottom of the launch trying to direct him into the water. I kept signaling him to keep backing up but he didn't trust my judgment and stopped so the only thing in the water was the very back end of the trailer. The boat was still a good 3 feet above the water. He got out of the truck to check how far he was from the water and said, "Don't let me forget to put the plug in." Then he started to unwind the wench and tried to slide the boat off the trailer. I suggested that he back the trailer up a little more before trying to push it off. So he got back in the truck and backed up more, so now the trailer tires are in the water and the bottom of the boat in actually touching the water. I was holding the bow line, he unhooked the wench cable from the boat and we give it a shove off the trailer. As soon as it hit the water I remembered the plug. We forgot to put it in. So we had to hook the wench line back up and crank the boat back up on the trailer, drain the water, put the plug in and launch the boat again. Believe it or not but this was an improvement from our experience last year.

Fishing
We finally got the boat in the water, park the truck and headed out fishing. Hubby found a spot to drop anker, got the kids fishing. He baited my hook and handed me my pole. I cast my line, and the next thing I knew, my reel fell off the pole and landed in the water. I threw down my pole and start to pull up fishing line, but I was thinking it's pretty much useless because the line is would just going to keep unreeling as I pulled it up. After I pulled up several yards of line I did finally pull up the reel. I guess the top part was loose and when I cast it came apart and the whole thing flew out of my hand. We managed to get it put back together and reel up all the line, but the button release on the reel was gone so it was pretty much useless. I used it the rest of the afternoon as a canning pole.

We weren't out there more than 20 minutes when Jepup Man announced he was bored. We were catching some fish, but not fast enough for him. I told him to lie down on the floor and take a nap; the waves would rock him to sleep. But when he tried that he said the sun was to bright. So somehow he managed to wedge himself under my seat to shield his face from the sun, but that didn't last long either. Then he was complaining he was to hot and he wanted to take his shirt off. But that meant undoing his lifejacket and it was a fight to get it on him. We told him he could take his shirt off, but the lifejacket had to go back on. Once he got his shirt off, he couldn't get his lifejacket zipped up and had to have me do it for him.

He doesn’t quite get that you can't run around in a fishing boat. He wanted to back by me, then he wanted to sit in front, then he wanted to sit on this side, then over on that side. Every time he'd move from one side to the other, the boat would tilt and he'd freak because one side was leaning into the water. Hubby had enough of this and yelled at him, "PICK A SPOT AND PARK IT!" The rest of the afternoon he complained about being bored and wanted to go back to the cabin. We were out there a couple hours and caught about 7 fish that were big enough to keep. We decided to pack it up and head in for supper around 5:30.

Loading the boat
Loading the boat on the trailer was just as big an ordeal as unloading it. Once again Hubby parked so the trailer was barely over the water and tried to load it that way. He did manage to get it loaded, but was a little bit flustered by the time it was done. I suggested that he have the trailer farther in the water next time, he gave me a crabby look and said "Yes, I know."

A bad sunburn
We headed back to the cabin to have dinner and it was then that I noticed how sun burned I got that afternoon. I had put sun screen on, but not very well, because I had stripes down my arms. I used some of that no rub spray sun screen and where most of it landed it didn't burn, but it left me with a stripe on each side where it did. Hubby couldn't figure out how I could burn so unevenly, until I explained that I tried spraying it while we were moving, so the direct spray hit my arm and the rest of it just blew away. Also I was wearing a tank top and didn't think to spray any under my arms and got burn pretty bad there too. My scalp, nose and the areas I missed with sun screen were pretty red and sore.

Fishing again
Saturday morning we got up and were planning on going into town, but changed our minds and went fishing again instead. This time we launched the boat like old pros, and found a nice spot. Hubby got Funky Princess's pole ready and as soon as her hook hit the water she had a bite. He didn't even have time to finish baiting Jepup Man's hook before he had to take Funky Princess's fish off, and as soon as Jepup Man threw his line in the water he had a bite too. That's pretty much the way it went, and we could even see the fish as they went after the bait. The minute we dropped a hook in the water there were at least 5 fish right there. It was fun to watch. The kids were pulling them in faster than I could get my hook in the water, so I just set my pole down and helped them. Most of what we caught were to small to keep, but they were having fun so it didn't matter. We were out there about 2 hours and brought in 10 keepers.

A visit from a loon

While we were fishing the kids noticed something black swiming towards us. They thought it was a dog, but it was coming from the middle of the lake, so it couldn't be a dog. About 10 feet off the back of the boat, it popped it's head out of the water. It was a loon. None of us had ever seen a loon this close in person before and it was just sitting there. I grabbed the camera, but it disappered underwater before I could take a pic. I waited and waited for it to pop back up but it never did, at least not were I was expecting it to. When it finally did pop up, it was to far to take a pic without useing the zoom. I zoomed in, and just as I was trying to focus, it disappered underwater again. This time it popped back up on the other side of the boat, but again disappered just as I was about to take a pic. There was no way this loon would have it's picture taken. We didn't see it again until we were heading back into shore. I tried to take it's picture again, but it was to far away and we were moving, so all I ended up with was a small black blur surrounded by blurry water.

Shopping

We went back to the cabin for lunch, and then into town to do a little shopping. In town we stopped at a small winery and sampled a couple locally made wines. We bought 2 bottles, a wild plum & a honeywine. Next to the winery was a small gift shop where they sold jellies from the local wild fruits. There was blueberry, chokecherry, grape, linden berry, crab apple and another kind I can't remember what though. They let us sample the jellies. They were good, but I decided not to buy any because my dad makes jelly from the same fruits. I didn't see any reason to pay for the same jelly I could get from Dad for nothing. Next we hit the bakery, they were getting ready to close when we got there and only had a few items left. We picked up some cupcakes and the last loaf of cinnamon bread. Next was the grocery store. I was hoping they would have some aloe vera or something for sun burn relief, but being a small grocery store they didn't have much in the health and beauty section besides a couple different shampoo brands and soap.

Swiming

Back at the cabin we put our goodies away, donned our swim suits and headed for the beach. The kids had been bugging us to go swimming since we got there Friday afternoon. When we were there in the morning fishing, the beach was empty by the time we got there in the afternoon it was busy. Boats were coming in and out, kids were playing in the water, and people were sitting on the beach. The kids jumped right in and started to play with the other kids there. Hubby and I took our time getting in the water. It was hot out, but the water was cold, so we kind of inched our way in. I was finally in up to my waist and decided to dunk myself and get it over with, after that the water wasn't so bad. Hubby doesn’t swim so he just stood in the water up to his waist.

We were standing there watching the kids play when I felt something along my backside. I looked up at Hubby and asked if he just pinched me, he said no, and then all of sudden he jumped and let out a yelp and said something just got him in the ankle. I hate when fish bite, so we scrambled out of the water and sat on the beach. While we were fishing Jepup Man asked if a fish could mistake a finger or toe for food. We said sometimes. A few minutes after Hubby and I left the water Jepup Man comes up to the beach complain that something bit his toe. I said "A fish must have thought it was a big fat worm." That didn't stop him from going back in the water though. Eventually the kids got tired of swimming and we headed back to the cabin. I was tired to so I laid down and took a 2 hour nap, while the kids and Hubby watched tv. When I woke up, Hubby was making supper (frozen pizza). After supper we went out for drink and the kids played a couple video games. We went back to the cabin and called it a night.

Packing up

Sunday we got up, packed everything back up and cleaned the cabin before leaving. It was just a weekend, and it was pretty relaxing, but by Sunday we were all ready to go home and sleep in our own beds. Hubby and I have talked about buying a cabin of our own someday, but if we're this tired after 2 days of relaxing, imagine what it'd be like if we did this every weekend.

You can check out more summer vaction posts at
We are THAT Family

My birthday

My birthday was earlier this week, but I didn't feel much like celebrating because I was in a crabby mood all week. Luckily my family put up with me anyway. Hubby bought me these beautiful flowers. Jepup Man made me this rock ladybug for my garden. He actually gave it to me last week but said it was for my birthday. Funky Princess made me a card.

We went to the state fair on my birthday. We walked a lot, ate even more and just kind of looked around at stuff. We made our way down to the midway and let the kids go on some rides. Funky Princess somehow talked us into letting her go on a rollercoaster and when she got off she was shaking and almost in tears. She said she never wanted to go on another coaster ever again, but about 10 minutes later she was asking to go again.

I didn't bring my camera with because I didn't want to lug it around all day, but I did bring my cell phone and got a pic of the kids on the river raft ride. It's not the greatest pic, because you can't see the kids.

We stopped by the Creative Activities building to check out the knitting. I was thinking of submitting something for next year and wanted to check out the competition so to speak. After checking out the rules, I'm not so sure I'd do it because it sounds like a lot of running around getting it there before the fair starts and picking it up afterwards. Maybe I'll try it on the county level first.

We found the remote!

We found the living room remote, along with the missing pencil sharpener and the missing library book. The basement remote is still missing, but I bought 2 replacement remotes today. I'm not happy with the new remotes. They don't quite work the same way, so one is going back and the other will be used in the basement until we find the original. Hopefully we'll find it, and just have to use the new one as a backup. The bedroom remote fell into a dresser drawer and was found shortly afterwards.

Raging lunatic

I've been a raging lunatic the last couple days. There's been so much going on with school shopping, job interviews, never having a moment to myself and feeling overwhelmed by the mess everybody leaves for me to clean up. I think I'm past my breaking point because I've been a total b!@#h to everyone, and now I feel guilty about that. I'm ready for school to start.

Gremlins

We have a remote hiding gremlin in the house. That's the only explanation for all 3 satellite remotes missing. I know I had the one in the living room on Friday and it went missing sometime after dinner. Jepup Man went to get the one from the basement and that too is missing. The only remote we had left was the one for my bedroom, and now that's gone missing too. Looks like we're stuck watching whatever channel the satellite is tuned to until we find the remotes (or at least one of them), because it's a real pain to have to manually shift through those channels to get to the one you want. Or maybe this is the gremlin's way of letting the kids know they're watching to much tv. Hummmm.

It's a new week

It's a new week and I refuse to let the events of last week continue to depress me. I'm still waiting to hear from the other interview, but decided if I don't get the job it wasn't meant for me.

Yesterday I got together with my mom for my birthday. We had a picnic lunch down by the river, and played with Jepup Man on the beach; then went into to town for some ice cream and to look around the antique shops. We weren’t looking for anything in particular, Mom wanted to show Jepup Man some of the toys she used to play with, and while we were there we saw some of the old toys I used to have. I said “I guess this means I’m getting old too.” I found a Schmitt beer mug for Hubby, for his birthday. It was a good day, and I'm starting to feel better about things.


Tomorrow Hubby's talking about going to the state fair. That will be fun. Lots to see, do and eat.

Lost

I'm lost. I'm wandering around trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and I have no clue. I have a degree in Medical Assistanting but haven't used it in 10 years, so feel like I've lost everything I learned. I've been a stay at home mom for 8 years and now I feel like I've let myself go brain dead. I've like to go back to school to hopefully revive what little brain cells I have left, but I don't know what I'd want to major in. So here I sit, wanting to find the answer, but to terrified to make a move.

I don't think I did to well in either interview. In the one yesterday we talked about the position I was applying for, but then he switched to another position that was open with more hours, but I needed at least a 2 year degree to qualify. I'm not sure if he was just telling me about it to keep in mind or if this was his way of indirectly telling me I wasn't qualified and should go back to school.

The one this morning, I felt ganged up on because I was being interviewed by a group of 5 or 6 people, and I've never done well in group interviews. The whole thing lasted 5 minutes, and I burst into tears when I got out to my car. That's not a good sign when you're in and out in 5 minutes. I had to drive around for a while to calm down before going home.

Both interviews said they would call with a decision by Monday afternoon, so it's going to be one hell of a weekend.


Update: Just got a call from today's interview, they offered the job to someone else. I pretty much knew that was going to happen.

My first interview is in about an hour

I wasn't nervous about this until just a few minutes ago, when I started to think of possible questions they might ask. And for the life of me I can't come up with an answer. If I can't even think of answers when I'm rehearsing, how am I going to come up with them during the interview? I know me, my brain doesn’t move that fast when put on the spot. I haven't had to interview for a job in 8 years. I'm starting to remember how scary it is.

When it rains it pours

I have that interview scheduled for Friday. I just got a call for an interview for the same position at one of the other elementary schools. This one is scheduled for tomorrow morning. And this time I made sure to ask where it was and who I was meeting with. I got that all straightened out for the Friday interview.

I don't know which is worse

I was thinking about this last night, when I realized I have 2 very different kinds of children. The tornado and the snow storm.

The tornado child is the one who's constantly in motion. Can't slow down for even a second, but leaves a mess everywhere she goes. This kind of child is always very busy and has a very active imagination. They're always making/building or playing something and leaves the mess for everybody esle to pick up.

The snow storm child moves rather slowly and takes time to build up their mess. Once in a while he will hit you with a major blizzard of mess, but just as it takes spring a while to melt away the bitterness of winter, it takes about as long for the snow storm child to clean their room.

It's been a day

Maybe my feelings of dread this morning didn't have anything to do with my eBay auctions, but instead was the foreshadowing of my day to come.

I took Jepup Man school shopping today. We stopped at Kmart first and we weren't even there 5 minutes before he started in with a full on fit. He was mad because Funky Princess had found a shirt that came with a mini radio in the same store last week, so he had to have one too. I told him I wasn't shopping with him like this and left the store, threatening to take him home and finish his clothes shopping without him. He calmed down after awhile, but there was no way I was going back in there after the scene he just caused. We left to go to another store.

In the second store, things were better, but not by much. I was getting frustrated because everything he tried on wasn't fitting. Then I got a call about a job interview. I had to many things going on at once and completely forgot to ask who I was meeting with and where. All I know right now is I have an interview at 1pm on Friday, either at school or the school admin office.

When we left this store I called to check messages at home, thinking maybe the person who called left a message there also. But I found there was another message from school regarding a survey I had to take to complete the application process and it had to get done today so they would have the results for my interview. I called and got all the information (or so I thought) and found it was something I could do online. So I decided to stop at a library since it could be awhile before I got home.

I got on the library computer and typed in the web address, but it didn’t work. I can't very well call from the library to make sure I have the correct address, so I decided to go home and do this. Mind you its noon, we've been out since 9am and have only hit 2 stores and bought 3 items. On the way home I realize the route I've chosen is under construction and there's no other way to get off and take a different route home. So by the time I got home my stress levels were through the roof. Guess what the survey was about. How well you handle stress & anger management, how ethical you are and how often, if ever, you take drugs & drink alcohol. I found it rather ironic that I had to answer questions about handling stress when I was having an already stressful day.

I got that over with and felt better about shopping again, so we headed back out hoping to get it all done. We went back to Kmart, (yes, the store I left because he was throwing a fit) only because I had a $5 off coupon for a $25 purchase. The trip back wasn't worth the $5. He tried on every kind of pants they had that weren't jeans, (he refused to wear jeans) and nothing fit. Finally I got him to try on a pair of jeans and by some miracle they fit! He came out of the dressing room and told me to find him more of those exact pair in his size. The bad news, this pair was the only one.

We got up the check out, and I dug in my purse for the coupon I was planning on using only to find it's not there. I keep my coupons in a little notebook in my purse and when I stopped at home I took the notebook out to look at the notes I took about the job survey and I forgot to put it back when I was done. So I left all my coupons at home.

I had $15 off at Famous Footwear, $5 off at Kohl’s and another one for Office Max that I was planning on using. I had to decide if I was going to go all the way home again to go get them or not. I decided not, but I also decided not to stop at those stores today. I could get his shoes next week, I could easily finish up his clothes shopping without going to Kohl’s, and I really didn't need to go to Office Max that badly today either. At least I had the Stuff & Save bag for Old Navy, so that's where we went.

I thought for sure this was going to be a bust because all they had for pants were jeans. They were running the 2 pair for $25 sale on jeans, of course that's all they had. The only other kind of pants they had were uniform pants and there was no way he was going to wear those. We got lucky though and found him 4 pairs of jeans that he actually liked and was willing to wear. If I had only stopped there first.

After that, somehow he talked me into going to Sears, even though we were both tired and crabby. We went and argued some more about clothes while there. He didn't want to try anything else on, but it was his idea to go there. Why were we there if he wasn't going to try anything on? We found some shorts on clearance that I got him to try on, but he refused to try anything else. Looking tired and frazzled beyond belief, we made out way up to the check out. The clerk, being all perky and friendly, asked how our shopping was. I looked at her and said "Stressful. I hate school shopping."

I sold some stuff on eBay

I cleaned out Jepup Man's closet and found he had several pairs of pants that he'd out grown but they were hardly worn and in really good condition. So rather than give them away, I thought I'd list them on eBay to get some of my money back. They sold in 2 different auctions, but now I have this awful feeling that some how I mixed them up and shipped them to the wrong addresses. I don't think I did, because I checked the packages 3 times before mailing them, but I just can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.

Is there a pencil shortage I don't know about?

Twice now I've gone to buy school supplies and twice they didn't have any pencils. Come on, are you kidding me? How can 2 different stores be out of pencils? Sure they had lots of the fancy pencils that are $3-4 for a 10 pack, but none of the plain yellow #2's. I'm going tomorrow to check out Office Max and hope I have better luck there.

Hubby broke the fire pit

A few years ago we built a flagstone patio and put a fire pit on one end. After having to mow around the fire pit and it being a major pain, I thought it would be easier if we just wrapped the patio around the around the fire pit.

Hubby brought home a load of flagstone last night and as he was tossing them off the truck he hit the fire pit and cracked it in 3 spots, making the one side cave in. The fire pit was a hollow cement form that was left over from some landscaping materials and he can't get them anymore. He told me he could try gluing it back together or gluing edger blocks on top of it, but he wasn't sure how the glue would hold with the heat. Our other option was to get an actual fire pit ring. This means having to pull up part of the patio to make it fit. I thought about and decided to go with the fire pit ring to save us the work of trying to glue it and finding out that doesn't work and having to put in the ring anyway.

OUCH! Note to self

Don't stick your hand in front of the pressure washer nozzle while using it.

It happened by accident. I decided the front porch rug needed a good cleaning, but it's to big to put in the washer. So I drug it outside, pulled it over the swing set and took the pressure washer to it. The pressure washer does a great job. Blasts the dirt right out. There was one corner I was trying to get but it kept flapping away from the pressure of the water. If you've ever used one of these things you'd know you need both hands to control where the water goes. With one hand holding the rug and the other trying to control the nozzle, my nozzle hand slipped and hit the other one with the pressurized water. Taking off a little strip of skin about a 1/4" long. It looks like a bad scrape and boy did it hurt.

I guess I lost some weight after all

The other week I was complaining to a friend that I did that triathlon and gained weight. But last night I went to put on a shirt that I know was a little tight across the belly. I was able to button it up without the button strain across my stomach. WOOHOO!

I have to get back to the gym, I haven't been there at all this week.

Funny sleep positions

Charlene at Adventures-in-Mommy-Land posted a pic of her son sleeping in an unusual position. Seeing that I had to dig out some of the sleepy pics I have of my kids when they were younger.

Cleaning My Car

I wrote this song based on all the strange things I found while cleaning my car. Sung to the tune of My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music.

Cleaning My Car

Half eaten poptarts

and something that's sticky

Happy meal bags

and napkins that are icky

One naked Barbie

tied up with string

There are things I find while cleaning my car

Dirty socks

one left shoe

mail that's 2 weeks old

Oh look there's that beach towel that I thought was lost

And now it's all full of mold

And it only took me a year

I like to think I'm a little bit of a tech head when it comes to the computer & other electronics. But for the life of me I could not figure out my camera phone. I've had it for a year and was able to take pics with it and save them in my phone, but I had no idea how to upload them to the computer. It really wasn't an issue, because most of the stuff I took pictures of with my phone was just stupid stuff anyway. Nothing that I really wanted to keep. That is until till today.

Wouldn't you know I went to pick Funky Princess up from camp and forgot my regular camera at home. I got there and realized they were going to put on a horse show and I didn't have my camera. I pulled out my phone and thought it's better than nothing even if I can't upload them. I got a few shots of her as they were riding the horses around the arena, but felt bad that I didn't have one I could print out for her. One nice lady there offered to email us some her shots, so I gave her my email.

On the way home I started to think there has to be a way to upload those photos. I looked at the options menu and there was an option to send pics to PIX PLACE. I didn't know what that was, so I hit that and the next thing I know the screen says MESSAGE SENT. Message sent where?

So I get online and start looking for this PIX PLACE. I found it and had to register an account, but there was the pic I sent. I was surprised at how well it turned out too, because I wasn't expecting much from a camera phone. I was able to save it to my hard drive from there and now I can print her a pic of her and her horse.

"Oh, I know what THAT means!"

Jepup Man has an obsession lately with the tv show Futurama. I know I'm a bad mom to let him watch it because there's some adult humor in there but usally it goes over his head. The other day he was watching it and there was some comment about forced mating with aliens. His eyes got real wide and he says,"Oh I know what THAT means!" I asked what it ment, and he looks at me sheepishly and says "Marrying." Yep forced alien marrages.

Please stop calling

OMG! What part of "She's at camp and won't be back until Wednesday afternoon." do you not understand?

Everyday since Funky Princess left for camp, her friend has been calling and looking for her. It's the same kid calling every time. I thought we made it clear to her that Funky Princess wouldn't be around for a few days, but she still keeps calling. Sometimes more than once. It's gotten to the point now when I see that name come up on caller ID I just don't answer it.

Sometimes I wonder if getting her a cell phone would be a better idea. That way I wouldn't have to play answering service.

Signs

I saw another sign today that made me laugh. It read "Free Kitten Horses for sale" Now I know it means Free Kittens & Horses for sale, but we had fun trying to imangine what a kitten horse would look like. Would it be a cat head on a horse's body, or a horse head on a cat's body? Or a horse with paws that meowed? Or a cat with giant horse hoves and a mane? And just how would a cat mate with a horse to get kitten horses? lol

Oh the things my mind comes up with when I'm not thinking about anything in particular.

I know bad photoshop job.

"You can leave now, Mom."

I took Funky Princess out to her camp this afternoon. She was super excited about going to horse camp. She loves horses. When we pulled in we could see them out in the pasture and she was already picking out the one she wanted to ride.

We were the first ones to get checked in and moved into her cabin. I told her I'd stay with her until a few of her cabin mates showed up. While we waited we walked around a little bit. She's been to this camp before, but this is her first year at the horse camp. So it's in a different part of camp, and the cabins are different.

All the cabins were little one room A-frame houses with 6 beds. Nothing fancy, but very nice as far as camp cabins go. There was a little deck off the back of the cabin with a nice view. As far as I could tell there was 1 bath-house with 1 toilet & 1 shower for 5 cabins. Which I can't quite figure out how you can have 1 bathroom for 30 people, but maybe there was another bathhouse somewhere else where I couldn't see it.

By the time she got her stuff put away the other girls were starting to arrive. She got involved in meeting her cabin mates and helping them move in and then turned to me and said "You can leave now, Mom." Geeze, no need to push me out the door. But she was right; it was time for me to go. I know she's in good hands and will have lots of fun things to tell me when I pick her up in a few days.

Looks like another quiet week

Funky Princess is heading off to Girl Scout camp this afternoon, and my parents have offered to take Jepup Man for a few days. (Oh I hope he behaves himself.) I'm hoping to give the house a good cleaning while they're gone. All summer I've been fighting a messing house and losing. With the kids gone I should be able to tackle a good deal of it. Maybe even through out some of the broken old toys and junk they won't let me get rid of. (Shhhhhh! If you don't tell, I won't.)

Funky Princess comes back on Wednesday and I have to pick up Jepup Man on Friday. So I was thinking of taking Funky Princess school shopping on Thursday. Then I'll do Jepup Man next week. It's just easier to take them one at a time.

How much longer til school starts?

Triathlon Progress Update-Week 5

Crossing the Finish Line

Ok, there wasn't an actual finish line, it was in my head, but I finished and on time. I'm so proud of myself right now, because I had my doubts that I could finish it.

I got my water bottle and t-shirt today when I left the Y. Hubby saw the t-shirt and asked if I was actually going to wear a t-shirt that said I was lazy. Hey, it might be called a lazyman triathlon, but there was nothing lazy about it. I worked hard for that t-shirt and yes I'm going to wear it proudly.

Here's my score card from all 5 weeks. I had to turn in my official score card to claim my prizes, which I was kind of bummed about. I wanted to keep it just to prove I did it.

I'm feeling pretty good right now. The rest of the summer I'm going to cut back to 3x a week again, because the kids are sick of going to the Y every day. But once school starts I'm planning on hitting the gym 5 days a week again. When this rolls around next summer, I'll be ready.

Tell me Thursday

Huh, I don't know what happened. I posted a pic for WW yesterday and got 5 comments on it. This morning when I logged in my post was gone. Anyway I reposted it, here it it is.

I posted this pic for Wordless Wednesday. That was taken last weekend when we went on a fishing trip. Jepup Man thought it was cool the way the motor stirred up the water behind the boat and told me to take a pic. I thought it could be a good time to play with the shutter speed. If you look closely you can actually see individual droplets of water.

Wordless Wednesday

Say What?!

Have you ever misread something and the way you read it completely turns the original meaning around? That happened to me today.

I was at the garden center/farm market picking up some sweet corn and green beans for dinner. I turned to look at something and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bag of what at first looked like it said Cow Butt Compost. I started to wonder if this was what they were now calling manure, because cow butt compost sounds a little better then manure. I turned to look again and it was Cotton Burr Compost. I laughed all the way home thinking about cow butt compost.

Triathlon progress update-Week 4

It's the end of week 4. I can't believe how fast it's gone. After pretty much calling it quits last week because of a pinched nerve in my neck, I've been feeling much better this week and came back more determined than ever.

This was a short week for me because I missed Monday and couldn't make to the gym today. So I had to pack a week's worth of exercise into 3 days. I’m tired but I did it.

My progress this week


I have 5 days left to finish, because I won't be able to make it in on the weekend. So I've got to make those last 5 days count. I've got 37.92 miles left to bike & 6.7 miles left to run.