The Misadventures of an Ordinary Housewife

Closing this blog

2010-07-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've thought about this for a long time and have come to the decision to consolidate my personal blog and my craft/shop blog. I haven't posted here since April, not because I haven't had anything to say but more the lack of time and I think it would help my shop blog if I could fill in the posts between craft posts with more personal stories and photos.

Those of you who wish to continue following me (I know there's only 5 of you) can find me at Confessions of a Craft Junkie.

Back to the routine

2010-04-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

Spring break ends tonight and I'm ready for it. Not that I haven't enjoyed my 10 day weekend, but it gets to a point where it's just a little to long. Especially this last week, early last week we all took turns being sick. First it was JC with strep, then Hubby with the flu, then FP with flu, resulting in a huge mess in front of the bathroom door (I think you know what I mean), then me with some stomach bug (maybe a mild case of the flu. I don't know, I'm the only one who didn't throw up), then JC again with the flu. By mid week I was on a disinfecting rampage. Everything was Lysoled or Cloroxed. I think that was the cleanest the house has ever been and it smelled like a hospital.

By Thursday everybody seemed to be feeling better. FP needed a dressy outfit for an upcoming band concert so we did some shopping. Trying to find an outfit that's dressy but yet still fits the school dress code, which I swear was written back in the Victorian era, not an easy task. But we did find her a very nice button down blouse and skirt to go with it.

When we got home from shopping the kids and I worked on raking the yard. We got most of the front yard cleaned up and looking better. I was outside yesterday planning some projects for this summer. Even with everything we've done the last couple summers there's still a lot more to finish.

Friday the kids wanted to go visit with their friends and I was left home alone. The house was clean; the weather wasn't that great for working outside so I didn't know what to do with myself. I spend part of the afternoon sorting through my yarn stash and deciding what I was willing to give up. It was really kind of liberating and sort of re-inspired my knitting obsession. For the last couple months I'd really had no inspiration to knit much of anything. Now that I've cleared out a lot of the yarns I don't like, I'm starting to get new ideas and excited about going to the yarn shop again.

By Saturday, I think the kids were ready to go back to school, too. They had been pretty good all week, not much fighting; although for a good deal of it one or the other was sick so that might have played a role in it. But by Saturday I think they were getting a little sick of each other and couldn't do anything without annoying the other.

Yesterday was Easter, we didn't do much. Hubby smoked a turkey for dinner and we had mashed potatoes and dinner rolls. It was a pretty quite day with just the 4 of us, but it was nice. I like Easter, it's the only big holiday dinner that's no-stress.

Today I'm just picking up the house, running a few errands and getting ready to get back into the routine tomorrow.

Welcome to the Mommyhood

2010-03-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

When you have your first baby nobody ever says; Welcome to the Mommyhood. Be prepared for getting peed on, pooped on, vomited on, lots and lots of crying (both the baby and you), screamed at, climbed on, hair pulled, hitting, biting, early mornings, late nights, no privacy, food stained clothing, constant cleaning, saying "No" at least 100 times a day and then hearing it being repeated back in a screeching toddler voice. Beware of flying food, flying poop, flying anything. Be ready to chase down a naked toddler before and after bath time or the one who decides to skinny dip in the dog's water bucket out in the yard. Be ready with all the answers to every "But, why..." question you can think of and even some you can't.

Be ready to jolt out of bed with Tylenol in one hand and a thermometer in the other when you hear that sick pitiful cry of "Mommmmy!" in the middle of the night. Be prepared for chasing away monsters under the bed or in the closet.

Be prepared for broken friendships, broken arms, broken favorite toys. Lost pets, lost loved ones, lost homework.

Be expected to know everything but then be told that you know nothing. Be prepared to be treated like you're from another planet; that you're not cool enough to be seen in public but yet expected to drive them to the mall. Once again lots and lots of crying (both you and your teenager). More late nights. Be ready to argue over the dumbest things and know you can't win because they just won't give up.

No matter how scary it is you need to be prepared to teach them to drive, to get a job, to date, to be responsible for their own decisions, to make good choices, to grow up and become a responsible adult; and to let them go when they think they're ready; even if you're not.

Welcome to the Mommyhood. One tough job, but one you wouldn't give up for the world.

Who put the cat in the closet?

2010-03-24T13:02:00.001-07:00

This morning I let the cat in on the porch because it was chilly outside. I figured she could come in and warm up until I went to work. When it was time for me to leave I couldn't find her, but the front door was open slightly so I figured she let herself out. I went outside to call for her to make sure she wasn't locked in the porch while I was gone but she never came. I didn't think to much of it and left for work. When I got home I called for her again and checked her favorite spots and again she's no where to be found. So I unlocked the porch, and still can't find her. I called for her and I hear this little meow come from the closet. When I let her in this morning the closet door was open just a crack, but it must of been enough for her to squeeze though. I found her up on the top shelf, laying on bed of winter hats, stuffed behind JC's deflated snow tube. She found herself a very good hiding spot.

It's no wonder I'm so exhausted

2010-02-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

I just realized this morning that because I'm only organized person in this house that I'm busting my butt trying to keep everybody else organized and on task. It's a never ending job and it's frustrating and exhausting. This morning I'm just about at the end of my rope. I woke up with a sore throat and not feeling the greatest, FP almost missed the bus because she was doing something in her room and wasn't ready. JC had all this stuff to bring to school for their read all day thing. He brought a blanket, a pillow, so many books he couldn't fit them in is backpack, his stuff to go outside and a couple snacks. It wasn't until he got to school that he informed me he forgot his homework. WHAT?! He could remember all this other stuff but he couldn't remember to pack his homework? Why is it so hard to pack your homework and stuff the night before and place it by the door so it's ready in the morning?

I don't understand the disorganization. I've always been a list maker, the kind of person who packs the car the night before a trip, I have to have the kitchen clean and orderly before I can make dinner. I don't understand how people can live a disorganized life and it drives me insane that my family is like this.

I'm tired, I can't keep up.

You can't read my mind, how do you expect me to read yours?

2010-02-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

The phone rang last night and Hubby answered it. I saw the caller ID and figured it was my BIL calling to ask if I could get my nephew on the bus in the morning. Hubby talked for a few minutes and then hung up and never said a word to me about our nephew so I figured it must of been something else. Then this morning Hubby tells me at 7 am that nephew was suppose to come over around 6:30, but now he didn't think he was. I asked him why he didn't mention it last night, not that it was a problem, but it's nice to know before hand. He claims he did, and that I was in a cold medicine stupor and don't remember. No he didn't. He hung up the phone, then came back in the living room and never said a word. Even the kids agreed with me.

He accuses me of expecting him to read my mind, when actually I tell him the information he needs to know several times in advance, mark it on the calender and leave him notes. I don't think I can be any clearer without telling him the information at the exact time it needs to happen. What we have here is not so much a failure to communicate, more like talking to a brick wall.

My parent's computer

2010-01-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

Ok I admit I didn't give my parents enough credit. They've been playing with the new computer and slowly figuring things out. Mom was able to figure out how to scan a document, rotate it, and save it in her files. Dad hasn't had a lot of time to play with it, but he was on it last night figuring out different things. Give them a few weeks and I think they'll be ok with it.

Teaching old dogs

2010-01-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

My parents bought a new computer. It was about time too, because the old one was still running Windows 98 and they couldn't find components or programs that were compatible anymore. My parents aren't computer savvy at all and making the jump from Windows 98 to Windows 7 is completely mindbogling. Part of the problem is it's hard to embrace change and even harder to break old habits.

In the old computer Mom had an old version of Excel that she used for her checkbook register. She was very proud of that file because she "wrote" all the formulas herself. Um, more like plug in the numbers and hit autosum, but never the less she was proud that she was able to figure it out by herself. I took a look at the file and couldn't for the life of me make any sense out of it. On the new computer I downloaded a check register template from Microsoft with all the formulas already included, all she had to do was plug in the numbers and the program would do everything else. She didn't like it. She asked why she couldn't just do it the way she was used to. That would be fine if she could remember how she set the old file up and we're having a problem getting the old files transferred to the new computer. (It's come down to taking the hard drive out, putting it in an external case and running it through my computer. Which I don't have the time to do right now.) I even set her up with a balance sheet and tried to show her how to copy and paste from one form to the other, but that's to technical for her. Then she saved the file and couldn't find it again because she wasn't sure where it went or what she named it.

Dad wanted to how to transfer pictures from their camera. I showed him, but I know it didn't sink in. He also wanted photo editing software, so I installed Photoshop and told him he'd have to play with it, yeah like that's going to happen. I'm pretty sure he's not going to touch it.

Every time either one of them gets stuck on something Mom calls in a panic thinking they broke the computer. I don't mind helping them out, but there's only so much I can do over the phone and I'm running XP on my computer so if it's a Windows issue I have to look at it to see whats gong on and it's 1 1/2 hour drive out there.

Now Mom is talking about getting an mp3 player so she can listen to audio books at work. But she doesn't have the slightest idea how to use one. I suggested she get comfortable with the new computer first and then we'd talk.

Edited to add she just called me because she couldn't see her read emails when she loged in. That it was only showing the new messages that she hadn't read yet. That's the way her email works. When you log in, it showed the new unread messages and you need to click INBOX to see the messages you already read.

Just doing my research

2010-01-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

JC has recently discovered the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. We bought him the first book for Christmas because he couldn't get in the library. As he was reading it he showed me a few parts that he found funny, so then I had to start reading them too. He borrowed his teacher's copy of the second book and it's been laying around the living room. I picked it up and finished it in 2 days. Last night Hubby caught me reading JC's book and teased that I really bought the first one for myself. I said it was my duty as a Mom to know what my kids are reading and to see if I approve, but my reasoning failed me when he mentioned Funky Princess was reading Twilight and I should be doing my Motherly research with both kids. Unfortunately I have no interest in the Twilight series.

Kitty in the fan belt

2010-01-08T12:34:00.001-08:00

It's been so cold that the cats have taken to crawling up under the hood of my car and sleeping on the engine after we come home from some where. They know the engine is nice and warm. This morning I went out to warm up the car to take Funky Princess down to the bus stop. After coming back the cats crawled up under the hood. When I went out later to take JC down to the bus, (because they don't ride the same bus and have different pick up times). Figuring the cats were still hiding out under the hood; I pounded on it a couple times as I walked to the driver door. Usually they know that's their signal to get out. I put the key in the ignition and when I didn't see the cats I figured I'd better look under the hood before starting the car.

Sure enough there they both were, refusing to leave they're toasty warm hiding place. I had to shoo them out and the one was sitting in a way that if I had started the car without looking; she would've gotten caught in the fan belt and that would've been end of kitty. So I'm so glad I looked first. I had one die like that before and never do I want to see that again.

Nobody sleeps well when Hubby's gone

2010-01-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Hubby is at a landscaping convention and was gone last night. Very rarely is he gone overnight and JC won't admit it, but he missed him. After everybody went to bed last night, JC called me from his room that he couldn't sleep. I told him to just lay there with his eyes closed, eventually he'll fall asleep. About 20 minutes later, he was in my room asking to sleep with me. I sent him back to his own bed. Another 20 minutes later he was back telling me he heard something at the front door. Of course he did, it was cold last night and I let the dogs and cats in the porch for the night, so he was just hearing the animals moving around. Eventually, he did fall asleep and left me alone, but then I couldn't sleep because it was to quiet. This morning JC asked if Dad was coming home today. He'll be home this afternoon, so we can all sleep tonight.

Is it really necessary...

2010-01-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

When explaining how to transfer songs from the computer to an mp3 player to a person who barely knows how to turn the computer on, is it really necessary to explain to them what the USB port is and how it works? Do they really need to know how it connects to the hard drive? I mean I can turn the light switch on without needing to know how the electricity got from the power plant to to my house.

We celebrated Christmas with Hubby's family yesterday and my one SIL bought her son an mp3 player, but nether one of them know how to use it. I tried to explain it to her in the simplest terms I could, but then my teenage, know-it-all, I'm smarter than the rest of you even though I'm failing most of my classes, nephew (can you tell he's my favorite) chimes in with this convoluted explanation about what a USB port is, how it's connected from the computer to the device, and all this other useless information she didn't need to know. After listening to him she said this is why she doesn't like computers, they're to complicated.

No they're not that complicated. Now days they're pretty much plug in and go, but to listen to my nephew he's got to make things so much more complicated than it needs to be. But then again, what do I know because he's a teenager and knows everything.

Mary Jane, when will you learn?

2009-12-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Spiderman 2 & 3 have played almost continuously on Directv. I saw the first one and thought it was pretty good, I even liked the second one. But as I sat there sort of watching the third one this weekend I began to wonder, "Why does Mary Jane continue to hang around Peter Parker when it just puts her life in danger?" Oh lets see, she's been dangled off the top of the Brooklyn Bridge by the Green Goblin, kidnapped by a freak with 4 mechanical arms, I don't remember what happened in the last movie because I was only sort of paying attention, but really how much drama can one person stand? How many times does your life have to be threatened to realize that maybe this isn't a healthly relationship? At what point does she say that's enough, change her name and move as far away from Spiderman as she can?

Angel or Star

2009-12-24T07:52:00.001-08:00

This is my family when it comes to what goes on top of the tree. Let me tell you how it all started.

When I moved in with Hubby, he had been living alone for a long time and the way the house was decorated just screamed BACHELOR. The whole house was in need of a woman's touch, and slowly over the course of several years I was able to turn it into a home we could both be happy with.

By our first Christmas I thought I had a good start on turning his decorating sense around but found the Christmas tree was something he wasn't going to give up without a fight. He had some of the gaudiest decorations and stringy ugly tinsel (which I've never liked) that looked like he picked up from Goodwill. For his tree topper he had this awful silver star, edged with silver tinsel and red and green blinky lights. It was worst than the toilet paper tube angel my mom had.

A year or so before I met him I had picked up an angel with shimmery wings, a silky long dress that lit up from underneath, and her hand folded to look like she was praying. At the time I thought it was absolutely beautiful, but my tastes have changed and when I look at it now I realize it was a little less gaudy, but still gaudy.

As we decorated the tree with my meager collection of ornaments, and a few of Hubby's thrown in to keep the tree from looking bare, I tried to hide his star. There was no way that ugly thing was going on the tree. As I was about to put the angel on, he asked what happened to his star, because he said a star should go on top. I told him I didn't like it and I wanted my angel on top.

For several days afterwards we had a friendly tree topper war going on. I would come home from work and find his star on the tree and my angel sitting on the shelf. I would take the star down and try to hide it, but some how he always found it. (I suppose being layed off all winter gave him a lot of time to search.) I think in the end I won or he just gave up because up until a few years ago; when I bought a new star; we've used the angel. But every year we would argue about what goes on top, an angel or a star.

I don't get it

2009-12-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

It's 3 days before Christmas and now suddenly Hubby thinks the cupboards need to be cleaned? He could care less what the house looked like the other 364 days of the year but now, right now before Christmas is the time he's obsessing about the cupboards? And the only people we're having over is my parents. As long as the house is clean and there's food on the table they don't care if the cupboards are washed. I told him if he was so worried about it, it was his job, I have the rest of the house to clean.

Sometimes it's just the littlest thing that can make a difference

2009-12-21T06:35:00.000-08:00

I admit I've been a grump. I would have been happy to lock myself in my sewing room and completely ignore Christmas. But that's not possible since my "sewing room" is crammed in a crowded corner of the basement and there's nothing that separates it from the rest of the basement.

Things have been very crazy around here, as they are everywhere else around Christmas and I've been dealing with some car issues for a long time. They were stupid little things that didn't warrant a trip to the mechanic in themselves, but when the power windows went out with the window open and it was below 0 outside; it was time to take it in.

Among the long list of things wrong car was the back window washer wasn't working. It's been like this for so long, I don't remember when it stopped working. Up until now it wasn't something I really thought about, but in the winter with all the slush on the road it's nice to have.

I've had the car back for a few days now, and yesterday I was driving home from dropping JC off at a friends and had forgotten all about the back window washer until I accidentally hit the switch and noticed washer fluid squirting out and I had a clean back window.

It's a little thing, but it really made me happy and the grumpiness is quickly fading.

Check the date

2009-12-18T06:50:00.001-08:00

Umm, Hubby, I know you're a little behind the times, but seriously it's almost 2010. Don't you think it's time to take the 2008 calenders down?

No joke. This calender is actually hanging up in my kitchen and there's one just like it in the home office.

The week before Christmas

2009-12-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

Feeling a little or lets face it; a lot stressed? Me too. Here's a little poem I wrote about Christmas. Feel free to steal it and share.

The Week Before Christmas

T’was a week before Christmas and all though the house,
the children had their clothing and toys strewn all about.
Papa was in the kitchen, making cookies galore,
And never noticed the mess he was making on the floor.
Mama was stressed out to the max,
Thinking about all the cooking, cleaning and presents to wrap.

The in-laws were coming to stay for the week,
And weird Uncle Harry was in the living room fast asleep.
The children were fighting over which TV show to watch,
When Mama yelled, “STOP IT! AND PICK UP YOUR SOCKS.”
“Why can’t anybody in this house help me clean?”
“Mooooommmmmmm!, the little one whined, “Make her stop. She’s being so mean.”

Just then there was a knock at the door,
It was Grandma & Grandpa with presents and more.
Grandma never arrives empty handed.
“Where’s the grandkids?” Grandpa demanded.
“Have you two been good this year?”
“I have Grandpa, but he was naughty before you got here.”

Grandma started to unpack,
All the Christmas goodies she had in her sack.
Fruit cakes, cookies, and candies, oh my,
“Please don’t let the children eat all that at once,
To many sweets will cause a sugar rush.”

Mama had yet to decorate the tree,
And the big one was begging Grandpa for a Nintendo WII.
“Now you know Grandpa can’t afford that…
Watch those lights so you don’t electrocute the cat.

Christmas can be a stressful time of year,
Mama tries her best but she’s no Martha Stewart we fear.
“Why do I work myself into such a craze?”
“The cleaning & decorating seems to go on for days.”
“Why do I do all this if no one cares?
“The stress from it all is making me lose all my hair!”

“That’s it, I’ve had it! I give up. I hope you're days are filled with holiday cheer,
“I’m going back to bed; don’t wake me until the New Year.”

Proud Mommy Moment

2009-12-08T07:27:00.001-08:00

Funky Princess earned her Girl Scout Bronze award last night. The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest earned recognition in Junior Girl Scouts. The work on this award consolidates the key program elements in Junior Girl Scouting: helping others, improving your community and world and becoming the best you can be.

Way to go, Funky Princess!

One birthday party down; 1 to go

2009-12-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics from JC's birthday party. He wanted an alien theme.

His UFO cake

The boys making their own UFOs with silver paper plates, stickers, and markers (I know lame, but I had to fill the time somehow)

Doing a goofy dance as everybody's singing Happy Birthday.

Blowing out the candles

Opening presents. Everybody bought him Legos

Up next Funky Princess's party in 2 weeks.

The Holiday Serenity Prayer

2009-12-03T06:30:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love the holidays with all the relatives? For those of us who find visiting with relatives a little more stressful than it should be, here's a little holiday pray to help us through the next month & a half.

The Holiday Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept my (insert relative) in-laws for who they are;
The courage to bite my tongue when my (insert relative) mother-in-law criticizes my (insert housekeeping, parenting style, ect) cooking;
And the wisdom to know when it’s time for everybody to go home.

Fire at Funky Princess's school

2009-12-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Somebody set a toilet seat on fire in one of the boy's bathrooms at her school today. They had to evacuate the building and close school for the rest of the day. I heard about it just as I was getting off work and rushed up there to pick her up. There was still an hour before the buses would come to pick them up and I didn't see much point in making her sit there that long without a coat. Her books, coat, everything had to be left behind, which I understand, but I don't know what I'm going to send her to school in tomorrow morning. It's usually in the 20's when she gets on the bus. But the main thing is everybody's ok.

I forgot how much fun jumping on the bed could be

2009-11-29T08:56:00.000-08:00

Remember that feeling of almost flying as you jumped on your bed as a kid? Or you and your siblings had contests to see who could jump high enough to touch the ceiling. Or just jumping on the bed because it was fun and a make-shift trampoline. And then remember your mom yelling at you to stop because it sounded like you were going to fall through the floor or break the bed; so you'd stop but would get caught doing it again the next day.

I think as adults we don't do enough of those kinds of things. In fact we discourage them. Every thing must be clean and orderly, everything must be just so before we can do something just for the sheer thrill of it. Things are very rarely spur of the moment, because there's always so many other things that need doing.

This weekend, we brought home a new mattress for Funky Princess. Her old one we had gotten from my grandma and I don't know how in the world she managed to sleep on it because every time you moved you bounce. That was Funky Princess's biggest complaint. Several times she bounced herself right out of bed in the middle of the night.

So we brought a new mattress home and hauled the old one out of her room. It's sitting in the middle of the basement right now. I was walking through the basement and had to walk over the mattress to get what I needed. I stood there for a little bit and just bounced. My bouncing soon turned into full blown jumping. The kids came downstairs to find me jumping on the bed (mattress). After a few minutes of jumping I collapsed on the mattress in an exhausted heap, but with a smile on my face. For those few minutes I was a kid again and was doing something just for the thrill of it.

Birthday drama

2009-11-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

Funky Princess shares a birthday with her best friend. This can get to be a problem when scheduling parties. FP had already set the date for her party. Her birthday is right before Christmas so she wanted to do it a little early because some of her friends were going out of town for Christmas. We were just about to print the invitations, when she got a call from her BFF that she was planning a party on the same day. FP asked me if we could move her party back a week. I didn't think it would be a problem, but gave her a hard time about it and told her they should have had the fore thought to not be born on the same day. She didn't think it was as funny as I thought it was.

Great birthday idea website

2009-11-13T06:37:00.001-08:00

Both kid's birthdays are just around the corner, and money is tight this year so we can't do anything to elaborate. JC and I were kicking around ideas last night for his party. Last year we did a sleep over but this year he wants to invite some girls, so no sleep over this year. I wanted to do something fun but simple. Something I could put together myself without spending a lot of money. I found this website http://birthdaypartyideas.com/. It's full of fun ideas and you can pick and choose the ones that best suit your budget.

We decided on an alien theme. I found some alien clip art that I'll be using for the invitation. We went through all the fonts on the computer and picked out an alien language font. The invitation will be printed in Alien with English translation. JC came up with some cool alien games like draw an alien face on a balloon and make your own UFO using paper plates, stickers, and whatever esle we have laying around. If the weather is nice enough, he's planing an outside game of capture the alien; kind of like capture the flag but with 2 plush alien toys that he has. I figured out how to do an UFO cake. And I found some cheap alien novelties at Oriental Trading Company. I figure the party will probally cost around $50, that includes food, decorations and party favors.

Time changes everything

2009-11-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made a visit to the clinic I worked at 12 years ago. It's been a few years since I've been down there and boy how things change. It used to be a multi-specialists clinic with family practice, OB-GYN, internal medicine with an in-house chemo facility, orthopedics, pediatrics, occupational health, in-house physical therapy clinic, eye clinic, eye wear shop & dentist office. It was all your health care needs in one building.

When I worked there, I knew it wasn't in the best area but I never felt unsafe. Often times I would walk down the street to different restaurants for lunch and not think anything of it. I used to work until 7pm and walk by myself out to my car in the parking ramp and not worry about anybody hiding and waiting to jump out at me or anything like that.

But my visit there yesterday afternoon was very different from what I remembered. The clinic is getting old and somewhat run down. A lot of the doctors have moved on to other clinics. There's just a few left from when I worked there. It's pretty much down to family practice and occupational health now.

The neighborhood has changed. At 3:30 in the afternoon it was pretty much a ghost town. The streets are still busy with cars, but the sidewalks were empty, the bus stops were empty, the clinic was empty. It was almost like everybody was tiring to get out before it got dark. I noticed the clinic hours changed so they close at 5pm now, there's a full time security guard on duty outside the clinic. I got to talking to the nurse telling her how much things have changed since I left. She agreed it's turned into a bad neighborhood.

It's kind of sad. This was my first real job after college and after moving from Small Town, Wisconsin to Minneapolis it always felt like home because of the friendships I made there. Every once in a while I would stop in to visit with old co-workers to catch up, but they're not there anymore. There's not much point in going back, if it wasn't for the appointment I had yesterday. I'm pretty sure that was my last visit.

What a way to start the weekend

2009-11-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

See my lovely splint? I tripped over a kindergardener today and landed on my wrist. I hit the floor so hard I couldn't feel the pain in my hand until an hour or so later. My whole hand was numb, but immediately started to swell and bruise.

My co-worker said I took the fall well because I managed not to take anybody else out with me. She said I some how managed to weave around the kids and find an empty spot to land.

I had to file a work injury and go to the doctor. They think it's just a sprain, but are treating it as a fracture just in case. I have to recheck in 3-4 days.

Trick-or-treating woes

2009-10-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

UGH! Funky Princess came home and asked if she could go trick-or-treating with her friend tomorrow. I said yes and immediately regretted it, because then JC though he should have a friend or 2 over to go trick-or-treating with. It would be one thing if we lived in a neighborhood and they could walk from house to house. But we live out in the country and have to drive from place to place and Hubby doesn't like to drive extra kids around. So I knew that wasn't going to be an option. Then JC thought he should call his friend and try to get himself invited to go with them, but they're in the same boat and I told him that it would be rude. So to put an end to the whole situation, I called Funky Princess's friend's parents to explain why she would be trick-or-treating at home like normal and find out that her parents didn't know this was what the girls had planned.

Feeling rather dumb or blind as a bat

2009-10-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I was making tater-tot hot dish for dinner and I needed a can of Cream of Mushroom soup. There wasn't any in the kitchen, so I sent Funky Princess to the basement to look for some. She couldn't find any. I could swear I just bought some, I know there had to be some somewhere in the house. I went to the basement to look for myself. All I could find was Cream of Chicken and Chicken Noodle. Not what I wanted for this hot dish. I grabbed my purse and coat and ran to the store to buy a can.

When I got home, Hubby was sitting on the couch in the living room and points over to the shelf (the unofficial collection area for things that need to go in the basement) and there sitting on the shelf is a whole case (we're talking 12 or more cans) of Cream of Mushroom soup. I walked past this shelf at least 5 times while I was looking for the soup and didn't even see it.

"Senora H. es muy bonita. No?"

2009-10-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

This year at school they are introducing Spanish to the 4th & 5th graders. The kids like to show off their new language skills by saying a word or phrase in Spanish, thinking that we won't know what they're saying. I took 4 years of high school Spanish, and while my comprehension is a little limited if I really think about it I can usually put together simple phases and fake my way though it with someone who knows very little Spanish.

Well, today a 5th grader came up to me on the playground and said, "Habla" meaning to speak. I told him, yes I could speak and I could also speak some Spanish. He wanted me to prove it by saying something, so I said, "Senora H. es muy bonita. No?" He gave me a funny look, then asked me to translate. I said, "Mrs. H is very beautiful. No?" He gave another look and said "No" and walked away.

Corn Maze Fun

2009-10-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to a Corn Maze today. We were given a map and punch cards. The object was to find the 12 stations within the maze and punch the cards to prove we found all 12 and then find our way out. I love doing this kind of stuff. We got lost a couple times, but were able to find all 12 stations and eventually made our way to the exit. They also have a haunted corn maze, that they open up after dark. I don't think I'd want to be lost in the corn after dark.

In addition to the maze they also had small farm animals for the kids to pet. There was a miniature horse, goats, sheep, geese and 3 little pigs.

Here's the kids trying their hand at milking a cow. There was a bucket of water attached to the backside with some kind of tubes they had to squeeze to simulate milking a real cow

And here's Funky Princess in the Pony Hop race

Playing with fire

2009-10-18T14:04:00.001-07:00

We took down a bunch of trees and brush in the backyard earilier this fall. The trees, Hubby is going to cut up for firewood this winter. The brush we threw in a pit and had a bonfire last night. Watching the flames and sparks fly out of the pit inspired me to grab the camera and play with the shutter speed. I got some really cool pics. Take a look.

We also had a small campfire for cooking hotdogs and smores.

Crazy day

2009-10-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those days where you wish you'd never gotten out of bed? That was my day yesterday. It started when I woke up in a cold medicine induced stupor, so my brain wasn't working from the very beginning. It took me forever to get moving even after a shower, 2 cups of coffee and a can of Mountain Dew. It wasn't until the daytime cold medicine started to kick in that I actually felt somewhat normal and functional. In the meantime, JC got out of the house without his jacket and I had to chase him down to the bus stop to make him put it on.

After he left I was trying to get some stuff done before leaving for work, but everything I touched seemed to fall apart. I was planning on leaving a little early for work because I had to run to the post office, but in my rush to get out the door I locked my keys in the house. I had to walk across the field to my SIL's. She gave me a ride up to Hubby's work so I could get the keys and took me home. By this time I was running about 15-20 minutes behind. I had to rush to work and made it about 10 minutes before recess started. It's my job to unlock doors, bring the balls & jump ropes out, set up the tether balls, check out the playground, wipe up any standing water, ect. Basically get the playground ready before the kids come out. Ten minutes isn't enough time to do all that, so some stuff, like wiping the slides, didn't get done. I felt really bad but what could I do?

When my shift was over I was pulled aside and asked if there was anything wrong, because I'm usually so on top of everything. I explained I had a bad morning and was running late and did what I could get done, but wasn't able to fit everything in the time I had to do it in and promised that was a very rare occurrence.

I stayed after my shift and did some volunteer work, because I had a meeting with JC's teacher right after school so I didn't seem much point in going home and having to come back in 2 hours. I met with his teacher and we discussed some missing assignments and found that he's not always bringing his homework home. She gave him a list of all the assignments that were missing and incomplete. We made sure he brought everything home including the homework that was assigned that day.

The meeting lasted longer than I had anticipated, so as soon as we got out the meeting I had to rush home, drop JC off with Hybby and quickly show Hubby all the homework JC had, pick Funky Princess and take her to Sylvan. We got to Sylvan at exactly 5:00. I dropped her off and went to run some errands.

My first stop was the yarn store (the one I went to last week and got lost). I'm still trying to find an alternative route. So far I've been unsuccessful. Again I drove around for a good 30 minutes trying to figure out were I was and how to get there from here. When will the road construction end?

After the yarn shop, I had to make my way back up towards Sylvan to hit Office Max and Walmart. Everywhere I went it seem the universe was conspiring against me. At Office Max I think the cashier was a trainee and he was the only register open. Walmart was just crazy. Lots of people there doing after work errands just like me. I didn't get back to Sylvan until 6:40 and Funky Princess gets out at 7:00. I was hoping to use some of my waiting time to knit but that didn't happen. Instead I cleaned out the car, which has been a mess for a couple weeks and was driving me nuts.

Funky Princess and I got home at 7:30, luckily Hubby was making supper, but JC was still doing homework. After supper I had to sit down with him and help him with his homework. We were up until 10:00 doing homework. After the crazy day I had I was happy to turn off the lights and go to bed.

Because I'm the mean mom

2009-10-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

Through our school website, I can check my kid's grades and manage their lunch accounts. I got an email today that Funky Princess's lunch account was low and needed replenishing. I thought it was odd because I know I just put $100 in each account when school started a month ago. I logged in to check it out and found the problem. While school lunches are fairly cheap at $2.20 a meal, I found she was spending anywhere from $5 to $10 a day on extras. She had blown through $85 in a period of 18 days. I checked her purchases and found some days she wasn't even buying lunch, but instead buying the snack items for lunch. Things like a little package of Fruit-Roll Ups for about a $1 a piece.

I'm ticked. I printed up the purchase sheet and told her I am going to add up everything that wasn't a lunch meal purchase and make her repay me for all the junk she's bought. I put money in that account for her to use to buy the school lunch and if they're serving something she doesn't like she's suppose to plan ahead and pack one. I've wondered how she gets through the day when she leaves for school without breakfast, now I know.

Another issue we're having is with JC. He claims his teacher gives to much homework. But from what I see he lets it pile up until the night before it's due and then brings 3-4 hours of homework home to complete in one evening. I've been after him to bring it home the night it's assigned and get as much of it done as possible so it doesn't pile up, but he just won't listen.

While I was online checking out Funky Princess's lunch account I figured I'd check both of their grades. JC is getting an F so far in his writing. He's missing an assignment from the 2nd week of school. I told him he better ask his teacher if he can make it up for some credit. I know that the grades are going to change because she doesn't have all his assignments posted yet, but still I'm not happy knowing that he's already missing assignments.

We had issues last year, and I'm not having a repeat of last year. I'm making it my mission this year to stay on top of these things and really crack down when I see them start slipping back into bad habits.

Why I leave the driving up to Hubby

2009-10-02T07:34:00.001-07:00

I don't like to drive in unfamiliar places. It makes me nervous and I worry I'll take a wrong turn and end up going the wrong way down a one way street or highway or getting so hopelessly lost that I'll end up going miles and miles out of my way just to get where I was going.

I've lived in this area for a good 12+ years and have gotten pretty good about finding my way around and even if I do get lost I can usually figure out how to get where I want. But that wasn't the case last night.

After dropping Funky Princess off at Sylvan I decided to make a trip down to a yarn shop. It's not that far from where I was and I've been there before a few times so I knew how to get there. But I wasn't counting on the road construction, the rain and it being rush hour. All these things made the trip that much more complicated. It had been a while since I'd last driven down the stretch of highway with the road construction. It made me nervous because the lanes were very narrow and a little off from where they should of been. The rain was making it difficult to see and the highway was packed because it was rush hour. Once I got to the yarn store I decided I would take a different way back and avoid the highway all together. That may have been my first mistake.

After leaving the yarn store I headed North up a street that I thought would take me where I wanted to go, after all it was going in the direction I needed to go. I figured it would eventually hook up with something I would recognize. I drove until I came to a 4 way stop, I had the option to go straight or turn left or right. If I went straight it would take me into an apartment complex. If I went left I assumed it would take me way off to the west, to a street I knew but was out of my way, so I turned right not having any idea where it went.

It took me East back over the highway I was trying to avoid and then eventually South. After several minutes of driving I found myself at a crossroads and realized the crossroad was the same road the yarn shop was on, but on the opposite side of the highway. I had managed to drive around in a great big circle.

I got myself turned around and started heading North again only to find myself in a city to far East of where I was heading. Another right turn and I ended up going South again, this time way South of where the yarn shop was; ending up down by the Mall. Finally I knew where I was and could find my way back to Sylvan without having to take the highway. What should of been a 10 minute trip turned into a 40 minute exercise on how to get lost in my own hometown.

Turn off the heat please

2009-09-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

It's September, it's not suppose to be 90 degrees outside. Where was this 90 degree weather in July when we were suppose to have it? I'm working the wild monkey farm outside in this weather and it's really not pleasant. I come home just dripping in sweat. There's been a couple times where I've sweat so much it looks like I wet my pants and that's something that will get the kids talking.

Luckily the weatherman is promising cooler temp next week. I just need to get through the 3 days left in this week.

Are you gellin'?

2009-09-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

I bought a new pair of shoes about 3 weeks ago. These are my everyday, wear everywhere shoes. Usually I don't have a problem breaking in a new pair, but I've noticed over the last couple weeks that after walking in these shoes my feet hurt so bad it's like walking barefoot over sharp rocks. I can feel every bump & pebble through the sole. And it really gets painful after being on my feet for long periods of time, like working at the wild monkey farm (school playground). The bottoms of my feet are just raw and numb by the time I can take them off.

At first I thought it was because of my weight. I know I could stand to lose a pound or 50, and I remember my feet hurting last year but nothing like this. So today after work I went to Walgreens to find those Dr. Scholl's gel inserts. Normally I can't stand anything extra in my shoes but I had to do something.

As I was putting the gel insert in, I accidentally pulled the original insole out and discovered the problem. The insole that came with the shoe was so thin there wasn't any cushioning at all. I was basically walking directly on top of the rubber sole and that's why I could feel every little pebble.

It really makes me mad that I bought these expensive cross trainers and they put no cushioning in them. I thought this brand was suppose to be a good brand for arch support and shock absorption, but apparently not. I hope the Dr. Scholl's help otherwise these shoes are going in the trash.

First day of school

2009-09-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Funky Princess started Middle school today and JC 4th grade. It was very strange to send FP off to school at 6:30 in the morning and then do it all over again with JC at 8:30, and then I had to be to school at 10:30 for recess duty.

For FP this is the first year where she has to change teacher for every class. She had gotten a little confused with her schedule and attended the same class twice. I got an email alert that she she was marked absent for 2 classes. After I talked to her I realized it was because of her mix up with her schedule, but she didn't think to say anything when the teacher didn't call her name for role call. I emailed the two teachers to explain what happened and hope it doesn't get her in trouble.

JC isn't home yet, but when I talked to him at recess he said he was having a good day. He has a friend in his class, which is good but I hope they pay more attention to their teacher than to each other.

My day went pretty good too. I had the usual kids who like to see how far they can push the line. I remember them from last year. And I also had some really scared kindergardeners and 1st graders. I had one 1st grader who fell and needed to go to the nurse. He told me 1st grade was really rough, this was his second visit to the nurse in 1 day. Tough day for him. Other than that everything went fairly smooth.

I must be getting old

2009-09-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

It used to be things like the state fair or amusement parks really excited me. That I really looked forward to going. We never went to the state fair when I was a kid and only went to the big amusement park about 5 times when I was growing up. We pretty much were stuck with the little town festivals for thrill rides.

I've lived in Minnesota for about 15 years now and out of those 15, I'd say we've (Hubby & I) have gone to the state fair about 13 times. The novelty of it has worn off. I don't do thrill rides anymore, ever since I got sick on one and made a mess of myself and the car I was riding in. And having grown up in Dairy Land, going to the fair to look at livestock really doesn't do it for me. I know all about where our food comes from, I don't need to go to the fair to learn it.

"So," you're wondering, "What do you do at the fair, if you don't ride the rides or look at the animals?" Bacisly, for us it's a big pig-out fest. We eat all kinds of junk I would never in my life think of eating. Like deep-fried, battered vegetables, yeah that's real healthy; although I will admit those are my favorite.

But this year I just wasn't in the mood for the fair. I told Hubby I really didn't care if we went or not, but JC wanted to go so we went yesterday. I think to really enjoy the fair, you have to be in the mood and I really didn't want to be there. The crowds were awful. We couldn't take 3 steps without losing each other. Funky Princess wasn't with, so luckily we only had one kid to worry about. I told JC that he had to stick with one of us and if he noticed the other was missing not to stand and wait for whoever. If you weren't tethered together somehow it was real easy to lose somebody in the crowd. And you couldn't really go where you wanted, you just had to go where the crowd took you.

The lines for everything were way to long. I didn't want to stand in line for 45 minutes to get cheese curds (another favorite), so I passed on those. We walked around the food building and Hubby asked if there was anything I wanted. Not really. It was hot and I didn't want to stand in line forever just to order something. He got a little perturbed with me, but I told him to go get whatever he wanted and we'd wait over here. We were on our way out of the fair when I finally did get something to eat, veggie fries and a pop. Even though I love the veggie fries they were just to greasy. It's something you can only have once a year.

This trip to the fair was more or less wasted money. It just wasn't enjoyable and my feet hurt.

Not to brag, but...

2009-09-02T16:57:00.001-07:00

Funky Princess's picture was on the front page of our local paper.

Did I do the right thing?

2009-09-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

The one thing I hate about being a parent is the constant second guessing myself. Did I make the right decision for my child? How might things turn out if I had made a different choice? It's something I struggle with on a daily basis.

Last night was Funky Princess's 6th grade open house. Ever since we got her class schedule in the mail about a month ago, I've been concerned about her math placing. They had her in advanced math and I don't know why. She's a smart kid, but she's always seemed to struggle with math and this last school year even more so. This is why we made the decision this spring to enroll her in Sylvan over the summer. Sylvan has worked wonders, however based on what she tells me they still haven't gotten to the kind of math she was working on last year. I'm not even sure what kind of math she was doing because I didn't understand it either. Which leaves me to wonder if her teacher was teaching something that was to advanced for the 5th grade or if Sylvan isn't teaching her what she needs to know for this year.

Anyway, after talking with her math teacher last night and explaining my concerns, he suggested we talk to the guidance counselor to see if they could move her down a level or two. That given her history, starting in advanced math is probably going to be a little to much for her.
So I talked with the counselor, they looked over her records and couldn't figure out why she was placed in advanced math, so they bumped her down to basic math. I'm still concerned, but for a different reason now.

Basic math is your basic addition, subtraction, multiplication & division. She's mastered that already at Sylvan and she's ready to move to the next level. I'm just worried that the basic math is going to be to easy for her; she'll get bored and think she can just slough it off. So when the time comes to move her up to the next level she's not going to know what's going on because she didn't pay attention before.

I'd hate to see her struggle and fail, but I also don't want her to get A's without trying. I want her to be challenged to learn.

It's time for a change

2009-08-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

The kids have sat in front of the TV or computer all summer long, and done very little else. JC's weight gain is a direct result. I've tried to get them outside and moving, but they'd rather sit in front of the TV/computer and let their brains rot. I've had enough. Perfect timing for the TV to break.

I decided that as of today, they will not get any leisure computer time during the week. It used to be 1 hour a day, and as I got busy with other things, it slowly morphed into "Lets sit here until she kicks us off" computer time. They'll be able to use the computer 1-2 hours over the weekend and only for school work during the week.

Once school starts, the TV can't be turn on before 7 pm. So there'll be no excuse for rushing through homework and doing a half-assed job, just so they can sit and veg.

I'm hoping this will open up the opportunity for them to concentrate more on homework, read more or get outside and get some exercise. Anything but sitting on their butts doing nothing.

Clothing designers...Get a clue!

2009-08-28T11:34:00.001-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that clothing designers make the ugliest clothes for us bigger girls with the thought that we will look so bad that it will motivate us to lose weight. I've stopped shopping for clothes for myself because of this. I only shop now as necessary. And unfortunately it was out of necessity today that I broke down and went to Walmart to look for clothes.

For the last couple years I've been very frustrated with Walmart's selection of plus size clothing. Everything was shape wear or stretch there for a while. Really? Do you really want me to squeeze my fat rolls into a t-shirt that's going to show every roll and make me look 10 times bigger? What's the logic here?

Then there were necklines the size of tree stumps. Umm, just because I'm large in the waist doesn't mean my neck is that big too. And when you make a neckline that wide do you realize that it doesn't fall on the chest quite where it should. I really don't like having to wear a t-shirt under a t-shirt to keep certain things from being seen. A neckline that goes half way down to the belly button might be ok on a size 2 model who has no chest and is wearing it for evening wear, but not on an every day t-shirt for a big girl.

And this year, what is with the ruffles? Everything has ruffles. I'm not trying to be Little Bo Peep. Ruffles are cute on little girls 6 and under, not so much on a 30 something woman.

I'm really not that picky when it comes to clothes. All I'm asking for is a standard, relaxed fit t-shirt. Something that will give me a little bit of modest covering without calling to much attention to myself. Why is that so hard to find? I think it's time to start designing my own line of plus size clothes, I'll call Plus the Rest of Us.

It's not everyday a helicopter lands in your backyard

2009-08-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's not quite my backyard, more like across the road from our house.

I was outside taking pictures when I heard the helicopter approach. He came out from the field behind our house, flew over me and landed next door.

When I first saw it I thought he was flying awful low until I realized where he was going. My first thought was that somebody had gotten hurt over at the disc golf place and they were air lifting them out, but soon realized it was the mosquito patrol and they were spraying the drainage ditches.

I stood and watched until he took off again and then ran inside to tell JC what he missed. About 15 minutes later I heard him fly over again and yelled at JC to go outside and watch. We ran down to the end of the driveway and watched as he landed and took off again. He thought it was pretty cool. He's never seen a helicopter that close before.

Have I done a disservice to my kids by staying home?

2009-08-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've been a SAHM for 9 years and now I'm starting to wonder if it did more harm than good for my kids. They seem to think that my duty as their Mom (even though they are capable of doing these things for themselves) is to clean up after them, make them whatever they want to eat, keep them entertained at all times, organize and pack their backpacks every morning, and in general be at their beck and call all the time.

Now I know as a parent these things do fall in my responsibilities, but when can I reasonably expect them to start taking some responsibility? I'm not going to be packing their lunches and folding their laundry when they're 35, as some point they need to start doing things for themselves.

I've given them chores, but it's a constant fight to get them to do them. If I tell them the dishwasher needs to be emptied, so the dirty dishes in the sink can be put in there; they whine and complain. Today I told Funky Princess to bring her dirty clothes up, and sort them to be washed, she cried, "But that's your job!"

No, my job is to raise two children who grow up to be self-sufficient, successful adults who can do their own laundry and cook for themselves and pay their bills. My job is to teach them the life skills that will be necessary to achieve successful adulthood.

My job is NOT to reward laziness by doing their chores for them. My job is NOT to cater to the every whim of my children. It's NOT to give them every little toy they have to have because the kid down the street has one. It's NOT to be their personal chef & maid. It seems that because I stayed home with them for the last 9 years and did most of the housework, they think they shouldn't have to lift a finger. I wonder if I was working full time if they would realize that Mom can't do everything and pick up some of the slack or at least know how to pour themselves a bowl of cereal.

I'm ready

2009-08-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Forget what I said earlier about not being ready for school to start. I'm ready now. I'm ready to send the kids back to school, but not ready to go back to work. I could use these last 3 weeks to have the house to myself. Maybe then, I could give it a good cleaning. As hard as I try, I can't keep the house clean with the kids around 24/7. There's a constant flow of dirty dishes, dirty laundry, and garbage to pick up. They are old enough now that I should be able to leave them in a room for 5 minutes without them destroying the place, but that hasn't proven itself yet. I go to fold laundry and walk back into the living room to find Popsicle wrappers all over the place, half eaten bowls of popcorn, somebody made themselves a peanut butter sandwich and smeared it all over the counter, ect. I'm not talking about little kids either, they're 11 & 9.

Please! Send them back to school now as long as I don't have to go back for another 3 weeks.

Had a minor bike accident

2009-08-06T15:14:00.001-07:00

We have a nice system of bike trails around here and I try to get out a couple times a summer to take advantage of them, but this summer there just hasn't been time. I've been busy working on things and running the kids places. Yesterday was a pretty nice day so I to bring JC's and my bike with when Funky Princess went to Sylvan. After we dropped her off, we drove to a park where we could access a trail.

Since training wheels, JC never really picked up bike riding skills. He's all over the place, can't keep his handlebars straight, worried he's going to tip over, forgets to use the handbrakes. He told me before we started out that if there's to many curves in the trail he'll crash into a tree. I told him just stay to the right side trail, look straight ahead and he'd be fine.

We hadn't even gone 2 tenth of a mile when he had to stop because this was wrong or that was wrong. It was almost every 2-3 minutes we had to stop to adjust something or let him catch his breath. It really made for a fun ride. Eventually he realized his whining wasn't getting him anywhere or started to get the hang of it and his demands to stop became less.

I had gotten a little bit ahead of him and came to point in the trail where it splits. I turned my bike around to wait for him and as I turned around he ran his bike right into the side of my leg. He saw me, but forgot to use the brakes and just plowed into me. OUCH! Left a bruise on my thigh. Luckily he didn't knock me over because I think that would've hurt worse.

We rode a little farther, but he soon started whining again so I figured it was time to turn around. On the way back we had to ride down a hill with a sharp curve at the bottom. I made it down the hill and around the curve no problem, but not JC. Once again he forgot to use the breaks, went down the hill and crashed into some weeds at the bottom. It's a good thing the weeds stopped him otherwise he would've gone right into the creek at the bottom of the hill. I know it's not nice to laugh when he could've hurt himself, but he's fine and I hope he's learned to use those breaks, they're important. I hope he does better when he learn to drive a car. This will probally be the end of out trail riding unless I can find a very flat straight area for him to practice on until he learns to ride a little better.

Not ready for this

2009-07-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Funky Princess is starting middle school in the fall and on Friday we got the letter from school with the list of her teachers and supply needs. After reading it, I got a sick nervous feeling in my stomach because I realized I'm not ready for her to start middle school. I don't know what it is that has me feeling this way, but just the thought of if makes me scared.

This is a whole different ball game than elementary school and seems much scarier then when I went to middle school. I'm sure with her tutoring this summer she'll be able to keep her grades up, but I just can't explain why this has me so I'm so worried.

I didn't want to do it, but...

2009-07-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's that time again. Time to start thinking about back to school. I put the Back to School clock up on my blog. It's not there to count down the days til school starts, more like to remind me how many days of summer vacation I have left and I better make the most of it.

This summer has gone by so fast and really we haven't done anything. Not a day at the beach, no get togethers with friends at the park, nothing. My summer has mostly consisted of getting up at 6:30, hitting the gym before the kids get up, rushing home to shower and get the kids up and ready to leave by 8:45 so Funky Princess can get to Sylvan on time, spending 2 hours trying to find some way to keep JC entertained, coming home for lunch and then doing things around home the rest of the day. If I wasn't so exhausted by 1:00 we could do something in the afternoons, but by then I'm ready to crash.

And the weather really hasn't cooperated either. Sure it's been nice to not have to run the AC 24/7 with the cooler weather we've been having but it doesn't feel like summer. Who wants to go to the beach when it's 70 degrees outside and you're in jeans and a light jacket.

The kids have been complaining that this summer really sucks and yeah, I kind of agree. Please can we have one more month with nice weather? I'm not ready to go school shopping yet.

I found it!

2009-07-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Every house has one. That mysterious black hole that sucks in socks, car keys, the tv remote, ect. In our case it also likes library books, shoes, gloves and tote bags. It happens to be our loveseat. I can't explain how it could hide all those things especially after being moved across the living room a few weeks ago. One would think that all those things would fall out in the move, but somehow the loveseat held on to it's treasures only to give them up yesterday afternoon when I couldn't find my knitting bag.

I spent part of the afternoon sitting on the loveseat knitting and my bag with my instructions and tools and such was sitting next to me. I got up to go do something and when I came back my knitting bag was gone. When I asked the kids where it was they had no idea and claimed not to have touched it. I searched the house looking for it because it had the instructions I was writing for a sweater that I'm being paid to make for a client. Without the instructions I had so far, I'd have to start over. I yelled at the kids telling them I didn't think this was funny and they better give me the bag before I really got mad. After all how could I misplace a big pink striped beach bag type of thing. Still they swore up and down they didn't know where it was. Then I happen to catch a glimpse of it peaking out from under the loveseat.

The loveseat is a rocker/recliner where each side moves independently of each other but it's all one unit. Some how my bag had gotten shoved under the recliner foot and was now wedged in between the two rocker parts of the loveseat.

With both feet up, I got down on the floor and crawled under to see how I could pull my bag out without wrecking it. While I was down there, I found the school library book that I had to pay $15 to replace, a glove that had gone missing last winter, and a pair flip flops that have been missing since last summer.

The kids have now nick named the loveseat "The mystery couch" and said from now on, if anythings missing that will be the first place they'll look.

Had an idea

2009-07-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

I was out running errands this morning and I passed a car in a parking lot with one of those sun shades in the front window. It was the reflective kind that kind of look like solar power cells and I began to think, "What if they made something like that that would collect the sun's energy and store it in some sort of battery to power the car. It could plug into the cigarette lighter (power point, they don't call them cigarette lighters anymore) and after a long day in the sun the car could run on the solar power it collected during the day.

I know it wouldn't work in all situations, and would probably only work with a hybrid. Maybe there's already something in the works like this, but if not it's something to think about.

A Letter From Camp

2009-07-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

Got this letter last night from JC at camp. I'm glad he's having a good time. It's been pretty quite without him here and I miss him more than I thought I would. I pick him up tomorrow and I can't wait to hear all about camp and see the pictures he took.

Taming the junk monster

2009-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

JC is away at camp this week, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get in there and give his room a good cleaning. I knew his room was a disaster but didn't realize it was in close running with the houses featured on Clean House. Yes I watch that show and that's what inspired me to tackle JC's room.

I'm not kidding. His room was wall to wall junk and he refuses to let anything go. I found empty Happy Meal boxes, the packaging 2 of his Transformers came in, papers from school that he never showed me, clothes that he's outgrown but won't give up, clothes that I bought last fall for school that he never wore, boxes and boxes of... who knows what. The list goes on. I threw out 3 garbage bags and I'm still not done. I still have to go...(dramatic pause) UNDER THE BED (SCREAM).

I made a joke before I started that I hope I don't get eaten by the junk monster. It's been a tough fight but under the bed is the scariest; because that's where it lives.

I'm goin' in. Wish me luck.

Sometimes rocks are not just rocks

2009-07-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July is one of the few days Hubby has off all summer, we saw it as an opportunity to take a day trip up to Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior. It was a beautiful day for a 3 1/2 hour drive. We got there and took a tour of the lighthouse, the fog horn house and the keeper's home. I got some really great pictures. After our tour we decided to take a hike down to the lake. The lighthouse sits on top of a 189 foot cliff and the hiking trail is pretty much straight down. Luckily there's steps and hand rails.

As we got closer to the lake I could see someone had stacked rocks to make a several towers. From where we stood they weren't that impressive until we got down to the lake and could see them up close. They ranged in size from 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall and were so well balanced that they weren't going to fall over to easily. They were actually really beautiful. Somebody had really put a lot of work in to stacking them and left them for other people to enjoy.

To my surprise nobody touched them. I don't know if the other people there saw the beauty in them that I did, but everybody appreciated them for what they were and left them alone. That is until this one family showed up.

Hubby and I were sitting on a rock with a tower just a couple feet behind us. I heard this family behind us talking about the towers and then heard the Dad say he was going to knock one over. He pushed over the tower that sat directly behind us. I turned and gave him a dirty look. He could of hit one of us with a rock and he knocked it over for no other reason than to be an ass. Shortly after that the mom started to knock over other ones. Not being a very confrontational person, I said nothing although I really wish I would have. But somebody else did speak up.

This guy who was there with a couple of his friends saw her pushing over a tower and said, "Hey, Lady! Don't do that!"

She stopped for a moment and said, "Why? It's not natural."

I don't care if it it's not natural, it was beautiful. The lighthouse that she was there visiting wasn't natural either, should that be destroyed. The steps she walked down to get to the lake shore aren't natural, but she seemed to have no problem with them being there. There was a nasty exchange between her husband and the other guy, which I won't go into, but while they were going at each other; she proceeded to knock the rest of them over arguing that they weren't natural, they shouldn't be there.

The fight was broke up by the other guy's friends after he shoved the husband to the ground. The guys left, but the family that started it stayed. Their two kids were there and watched the whole exchange between their dad and the the other guy and had all kinds of questions.

What exactly are they teaching their kids? That it's ok to destroy something that doesn't please them? That only their opinion maters and it's ok to get into a heated exchange of words and force when others don't agree? Do they go to the beach and encourage their kids to stomp on other kid's sand castles because they're not natural? How would it be any different if I went to their house and started to pull flowers out of their garden because those plants don't grow there naturally?

After the whole thing was over some friends of theirs (the family's friends) who were coming down the hiking trail and heard the commotion, caught up with them and asked what was going on. They told their friends what happened and talked about the other guy like he was some kind of nut job for not wanting them to push the rocks over. They justified pushing the towers over by saying "it was just kids playing, and they're rocks they're going to fall over anyway." That maybe so, but why not let the wind and waves knock them over? Why did they feel it was their responsibly to take care of something Mother Nature could have done? I'm just glad I got some pictures of the towers before they destroyed them all.

Why can't Johnny tie his shoes?

2009-06-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

OMG! How did I let this motherly duty slip by unnoticed? I bought the kids new shoes yesterday and came to the realization that JC (who's 9 yrs old, starting 4th grade in the fall) doesn't know how to tie his shoes. Come on, this is something he should've learned in kindergarten. This last year he had shoes with Velcro, but I know he's had laces before and I thought he knew how to tie them. This morning as we were getting ready to run to the store, I had to demonstrate how to tie shoes and then made him do it. It took a couple tries but he did eventually get his shoes tied. He's a smart kid, he has a lot going on in that head of his, but some how the simple act of tying his shoes confuses him. I guess that's something we're going to have to practice this summer.

Surprise on her report card

2009-06-17T12:18:00.001-07:00

I got the kid's report cards last weekend. JC did well, as expected. I was surprised by Funky Princess's though. I thought for sure her final math grade would be a D or worse, but somehow she managed to pull off a C-. Still not a grade I'm very happy to see, but not as bad as I was expecting. Everything else looked good with A's & B's. She's going to Sylvan 3 days a week all summer so hopefully we can boost that C- up to at least a B next year.

Close encounter with a monster

2009-06-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

We were on our way to drop JC off for a play date when up on the side of the road there looked like a piece of rubber or garbage We got closer and I realized it wasn't garbage, it was a monster turtle. This thing was huge, at least a foot wide and a very crabby look in it's eye. We stopped the car to look at it from the windows because nobody wanted to get close to it. Then went on our way. When we came back almost an hour later, it was still there. So I ran home and grabbed the camera.

I know it's kind of hard to tell how big this thing is from the pictures but trust me I wasn't getting close enough to it to measure it. As I walked up to take the pic, it started to turn towards me and gave me a chilling stare. I stood about 6 feet from it and used the zoom to get in close. Funky Princess stood a few feet behind me and was nervous the whole time we stood there taking pics, she didn't want to get any closer. As we were walking back to the car I told her the turtle was chasing us and she took off running, scared that this giant turtle was going to catch up to her.

I've seen turtles like this around here every now and then but this is the first time I've been able to photograph one and I don't know what kind it is. Considering the hole it dug, I think it was laying eggs.

Very annoying

2009-06-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

With in the last week we've been getting these strange phone calls that when you pick up there's a computer listing numbers. The first couple times I had no idea what it was so I just hung up. Then last night we got one of those calls at 11 pm. Hubby checked the caller id and all of these calls are coming from the same number. This morning when I got back from the gym I checked the messages and there was another call like this. Since it was on the voice mail I listened to it and learned somebody was trying to text to our landline. After farther investigation I learned the number belonged to one of Funky Princess's friends. I told Funky Princess to ask her friend to stop trying to text our home number, if she wants to talk then just call.

Ms. Thompson?

2009-06-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Funky Princess's teacher has called me Ms. Thompson on more than one occasion. I haven't been Ms. Thompson for 12 years. Her teacher has never known me as Ms. Thompson, and the weird thing is I still answer to it.

"I've been doing some thinking..."

2009-06-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

These will be the last words I utter before Hubby strangles me to death, because he knows it involved some heavy lifting, or major digging, or just hard work in general. A few years ago I decided to do some landscape projects and we got most of it done, but there's one project that needs some finishing and another project that hasn't been started yet. I think he's stalling on that one because it involves more work than he wants to do.

After work today I ran up to the garden center to get a couple of tomato cages and looked at all the cool things they had there when I ran across several Obelisk Trellises. I thought they were really cool and started to think where I could put one in the yard. As of right now I don't have a spot for one. I have a small sun garden with an arbor arch that has a climbing vine on it already, so I can't really stick it in there. But if I were to expand the garden, which I've been thinking about anyway I could put it on the other end.

"Oh, Hubby! I've been doing some thinking...."

Great Job!

2009-06-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

JC has been working on an animal research project at school for the last couple months. He had to do the research, write a report and put together a display. He did everything by himself the only thing I helped with was printing pictures for his display. I was so impressed when I saw it, he had really put a lot of work into it.

I impressed with a lot of the displays I saw on Friday. You could tell the kids really worked hard on their projects.

Strawberry Carmex

2009-05-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ok I admit I'm a Carmex addict. I have tubes of the stuff all over the house, car and usally carry one in my purse. I'm constantly putting it on to Hubby's disgust.

Somehow today I didn't have any one me, which is really unusall. So I stopped at Walgreens on my way to an appointment, they were having a sale buy 1 get 1 free so I grabbed 2 tubes, paid for them and left. It wasn't until after I started to apply it to my lips that I noticed it had a different taste to it. It wasn't a bad taste, it was just different. I looked at the tube and sure enough it was Strawberry Carmex. I started to think this was a good thing. Now Hubby won't complain so much about the taste when he kisses me. But wait there's a catch, now I'm finding myself licking my lips because it tastes so good. Kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?

Or maybe that's what the Carmex people had in mind when they came up with this new flavor. Make it taste good, so people will lick it all off and have to reapply more often so us true Carmex addicts will have to buy more and continue the cycle.

Looks like I'll be getting lots of knitting in this summer

2009-05-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

Funky Princess is attending summer school at Sylvan this summer due to her bad math grades. She took an assessment on Saturday and they figure she will need 84-108 hours of tutoring. We're looking at a schedule of 3-4 days a week for 2 hours a day. So I'll have 6-8 hours a week doing nothing but waiting. Of course I can use that time to run errands as long as where I need to go is to the center, but it's far enough away from home that it wouldn't make sense to run home in between. I'll just keep a project bag in the car.

Learned my lesson

2009-05-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Do not stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

I have a bird house hanging in one of my flower beds and never thought a bird would build a nest in there. I thought it was more of an ornamental bird house, but some little birdie decided this spring to move in. I didn't even notice until JC happen to see a bird fly in there one day. We stood and watched as she/he flew out and back again with a twig. She was building a nest. A few days later I was outside and thought I'd take a peek to see if there were any eggs. It was to dark to tell, so I just left it. Today Funky Princess told me she peeked in there and saw 3 tiny eggs, so we went out to take a look. I stuck my face up to the hole and still couldn't see anything. Then I tried tilting the house a little bit to let some light in and while I was trying to look inside a small blur came flying out at me. I let out a blood curdling scream and ran away from the bird house. Funky Princess laughed at me and said "I told you there were eggs in there and now you scared her away." Scared her away? She scared me too.

It's ok, Mrs. Birdie. I learned my lesson and you can come back to your house. I promise to leave you alone from now on.

Daily Babble

2009-05-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Mission Accomplished!
I got the lawn mowed today! I tried to get started on it Friday night, but had trouble getting it started even after Hubby charged the battery and pumped up the tire. It needed oil, gas and a new fuse. After I did all that it started up just fine this afternoon. The yard looks so much better. I can't say it's 100% better because the grass (mumbles under her breath weeds) were so tall right now it looks like a freshly mowed hayfield. I'll probably have to go over it again some time this week with the bagger to get some of that picked up.

Good Grief!
You are 9 1/2 years old, you are perfectly capable of going to the fridge and making yourself a sandwich when you're hungry. Don't get crabby with me because you're to lazy to find something to eat.

This really ticks me off
As I was mowing the lawn today, I noticed a car pulled over on the side of the road up aways from our yard. I could see the driver's door was open and someone was walking around to the back of the car. I watched as whoever it was, opened the trunk and proceeded to dump something in the woods along the side of the road. We have a problem out here with people dumping their unwanted appliances, furniture, and garbage alongside our road. And it really floored me that this person was doing it in broad daylight. If I had been in the car I would've gotten closer and gotten a driver's licence number, but I was on the lawn mower and there's no way I would have gotten there before he took off. I did jump in the car to go see what was dumped, looks like 3 big bags of yard waste. Come on! Start a compost pile for crying out loud.

My car is not...

2009-05-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

My car is NOT:

A rolling toy box-Pick up the toys you had to bring with you for the 5 minute trip the post office and take them in the house
A dirty clothes hamper-If you remove any article of clothing while in the car, make sure said article gets taken in the house and put in the laundry. I know you don't like to wear socks but do you think it's fun for me to find lots of stinky dirty socks stuffed in the map pockets? Check the car next time you're out of socks.
A garbage can-Pick up your candy wrappers, plastic toy packaging, kids' meal menus and all other assorted garbage. And don't think by stuffing them between or under the seats or in the map pockets with your dirty socks that I won't find it.
A dirty dish depository-(This one is more for Hubby than the kids) Bring in all your coffee cups, plastic containers, reusable water bottles, ect. And why is there a dinner plate in my car? I'd really like to know the answer to that one.

Just my luck

2009-05-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day when I have time to mow the lawn, which is in dire need of mowing, and the lawn mower won't start and has a flat tire. Hubby's working today, so the chances of getting it fixed today are zero. And at the rate he does things around here it will probably be the middle of July before the mower's fixed. Welcome to my hell; watch out for flying monkey wrenches.

Ghost in the kitchen

2009-05-14T05:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I was making banana bread. I have one of those big KitchenAid mixers that I was using to mix the batter up. I know I had it turned off while I was peeling the bananas, but the mixer some how turned itself on and the beater very slowly made one revolution around and then stopped. Nobody else was in the kitchen when it happened, so nobody could have bumped the switch. I like to think it was my grandma. She always loved to bake, in fact she mixed up one last batch of cookies just before she died; so maybe she was in the kitchen with me last night helping out.

Does this make me a bad mom?

2009-05-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

Does it make me a bad mom because I can't seem to get Funky Princess's girl scout badges sewn on her uniform? It's not that I'm incapable of doing it, I just don't want to. I haven't had the ambition to pull the sewing machine out and do it. She's only been earning them for the last 2 years, and now she has a bridging ceremony coming up on Friday and she needs her badges sewn on. I don't have the time to sew them on before Friday, so I stapled them on. Now that should earn me the bad mom of the year award. I hope nobody looks to closely at her uniform to see the staples. It's just a temporary fix; I promise. I'll get them sewn on...hopefully before her next bridging ceremony.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there. I know I'm a day late but I was busy yesterday just like the rest of you. I had a great Mother's day weekend.

Friday night I dropped the kids off with my parents for the weekend, so Hubby and I got to spend some time alone. Saturday night we went out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. We don't get to go there very often because it's kind of pricey. We just found out they were closing for good the end of the month due to the highway expansion project so we had to get in one last meal before it was gone. Everybody else had the same idea, the meal was wonderful though and well worth the wait. Sunday I had to go out to Wisconsin to pick the kids up from Mom's and we celebrated Mother's day out there. Funky Princess bought me a new tea kettle, I really needed one because my old one was rusting from the inside, JC bought me a heart shaped picture frame. I guess he had wanted to get me a fish shaped salt and pepper shakers lol, but Hubby talked him out of those. At Mom's they made me some garden bugs. Painted rocks to look like ladybugs with google eyes (very cute). Then we came home, had pizza for supper and Hubby made strawberry shortcake for desert. What more could I ask for?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

2009-05-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

JC had an assignment to write a short report about what he wanted to be when he grew up and draw a picture of himself in that job. He wants to be a plumber. I love the pic he drew, beard and everything. His report reads (misspellings included):

Plumbers dress in a dark blue shirte and dark pants. Plumbers have to go to plumbing school in order to fix peoples toilets. Plumbers work in peoples bathrooms. Plumbers can drive as activies in their jobs. Plumbers can use a reach, plungers, and a screwdriver.

Pink Slip

2009-05-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

I was handed a pink slip at work today. I can't say I didn't see it coming; they've been talking layoffs all year and I know I was low on the totem pole. Up until now I've been struggling with a decision as to whether or not I was going to come back next year, so I guess they made my mind up for me. Still; I can't say that it doesn't sting. I guess there is a possibility that they might call me back in the fall, but the more I think about it the more that possibility looks pretty slim. I'm going to try not worrying about it until fall. I want to be able to enjoy my summer. Maybe this is a sign that I really didn't belong there in the first place and should focus my attention elsewhere.

Edit: Ok, now I don't know what to think. I just got a call from the district office, offering me my job back. I've been let go and re-hired all in the matter of a few hours.

Doggie Bed

2009-05-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Funky Princess and I worked on cleaning up the yard today. She had raked up a big pile of leaves earlier in the week that the dogs claimed as their bed. They weren't to happy with us when we scooped them all up and hauled them away. That's why Maryjane claimed this pile and practically buried herself in it.

A blonde week

2009-04-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

I'm having a blonde week. Not a blonde moment, a blonde week. I've managed to do at least 1 stupid thing a day this whole week. It started on Monday when I was making dinner. I opened a can of green beans and stuck them in the microwave, but never turned it on. We sat down for dinner, Hubby took a spoonful of beans and they were still cold.

Tuesday I gathered up all the library books I could find. The kids have way to many books checked out and it's hard to keep track of what's due when, so I just grabbed everything and returned them all whether they were due or not. I didn't realize that one of the books I returned belonged to the school library, until I got a call from the county library where I returned it.

Yesterday a load of wash in the dryer and forgot to start it and didn't realized it until today when I went to start another load. So I had to rewash this load because it's been sitting there wet since yesterday morning.

This morning I was taking a shower and tried washing my hair with facial cleanser. And out on the playground I would yell at the kids to go down the slides. The slides are all different colors. There's yellow, red, blue, and green. I kept mixing up my colors. I'd be looking at the kid on the blue slide and yelling at him for climbing up the yellow. There was a disconnect between the color of the slide I was looking at and what was coming out of my mouth. I'm sure I confused more than a few kids.

I get goofy when I feel over stressed and lately I've been feeling very over stressed. Although it hasn't gotten to the point were I've forgotten where I live. Which has happened. I wonder if this could be an early sign of Alzheimer's?

Recess in the rain

2009-04-29T14:20:00.001-07:00

We had a little misting on and off rain this afternoon, but had recess outside despite the weather. It was just enought to wet the sidewalk and that was about it. I had one 4th grade boy come and ask me if we were going to call indoor recess because it was raining. I told him, "No, it's not that bad out here. Besides a little water won't hurt you. You take showers, right?" To which he answered, "NO." (That was a tidbit of infomation I didn't need to know) When I saw him later in the day I said, "Hey, doesn't look like you melted out there.

A dog's life

2009-04-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

I stepped out the door this morning on my way to work when I noticed our two dogs laying out in the yard. I envy them. What a life they have. They get to lay around in the sun all day long, bark at a few cars, and go play when they want. They have nothing to worry about, they don't have bills to pay or housework to do or kids to worry about. Basically they just sleep, eat and look for a little attention now and then.

Yep, I want to be a dog. Or I did until I saw the cats lounging in their chairs by the water dish. Now there's the life. Sleep all day by the pool, nobody expects anything of you and yet they still feed you, and you can act like you deserve it all. In my next life I want to come back as a pampered cat.

"Mom! The cat has a woodtick!"

2009-04-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

JC came home from school and informed me that the cat has a woodtick in her ear.

"Well, pull it out." I tell him

"NO! I don't like touching them!" he says

"What makes you think I like touching them?"

"I don't know. Because you're Mom."

Guess it's time to get the tick repellent out again.... Oh I'm still not touching it. I'll make Hubby do it.

Careful what you wish for...

2009-04-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

When I said we needed new drinking glasses this wasn't what I had in mind. Hubby heard me and brought up a box from the basement that, judging from the amount of dust, had been there quite a while. He opened the box, handed me one and said "Will these do?"

They're beer mugs with Santa's elves driving tractors. He bought them off ebay because he collects beer mugs and tractors but didn't realize they were Christmas glasses (not that it makes it any better) until after he got them.

Luckily there's only 4 of them and I'm hoping the kids use them and they get broken so I can go buy new drinking glasses.

Honey, leave the buying of new dishes to me.

Oh it gets even better

2009-04-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

So the email I sent to the tech support for the computer program I was having trouble with, came back to me undeliverable. I'm taking the cd back to school today and talking to the technology teacher myself. This stupid program isn't worth the headache it's caused so far.

Note to other parents:
Don't buy the computer programs that are offered through the school book orders. This is the second time we've done this and have had problems both times. From now on I'll be buying programs from an actual store where I can take them back if I have problems.

Pan's Labyrinth-Movie Review

2009-04-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

Pan's Labyrinth has been on my Must Watch movie list for a long time and I finally got the opportunity to sit down and watch it earlier this week.

Ten year old Ofelia lives with her pregnant mother and her tyrannical step-father, who is a Captain in the Spanish military fighting rebels in post civil war Spain. Ofelia finds an old decaying labyrinth in the woods guarded by a demonic looking creature who claims to know her destiny. He tells her she's a princess from a lost world, and in order for her to return to her kingdom she must perform 3 very dangerous tasks. Forced to decide between the dangers of her reality and the promises of the creature she's not sure she should trust; she reluctantly accepts the 3 tasks. In either world she finds herself in great danger.

It's a foreign film, but don't let the subtitles put you off; it's an excellent movie. One thing it's not is a feel good fairly tale where everything ends happily ever after. It's very dark and more along the lines of the Grimm fairly tales. Not for children.

One foot in the grave

2009-04-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

As a teen I had a strange fascination with cemeteries, and the older the better. I don't know if it was morbid curosity or what it was. In our little town there were several of these forgotten cemeteries spread all over the country side, but most were now on privately own land or inaccessible by over growth.

One day when I was 15, I was out for a bike ride and on a whim I decided to take a rode I’ve never taken before. Before long I came across a small grove of trees that seemed out of place along the side of the rode. As I got closer I realized why.

There was a small worn sign that read “Black Brook Cemetery”. The trees had been planted in a square around the cemetery to provide some sort of protection. Although it was old, it looked as though somebody came once in while to care for the cemertery. It wasn’t terribly over grown and even without the sign you could tell what it was.

I parked my bike in the ditch and climbed the small hill into the cemetery. There were about 10 -15 stones at the most and I had to wonder if this was once a private family cemetery. The stones were so old that their faces had become unreadable.

As I walked around, the ground felt a little spongy and uneven, but I didn’t think to much about it. I found one stone in the back where the dates were still some what visible. Wanting to get a closer look I had to step over the grave. As soon as my foot hit the ground it sunk in about 4 inches.

Having watched way to many horror movies where the dead reach up out of the grave to grab the living, I let out a blood curling scream, pulled my foot from the hole and ran for the road. I pulled my bike out of the ditch and pedaled as fast as I could all the way home.

That was the end of my fascination with cemeteries. I never went back. Every once in a while when I'm traveling along the back roads looking for something to photograph, I come across an interesting cemetery that I'd liked to get a closer look at, but I try to avoid the ones like Black Brook.

I got spoiled

2009-04-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hubby's work is seasonal, so he's home all winter and he just went back to work this week and will work 7 days a week until the middle of November. While he's been off he's taken over the laundry, grocery shopping, and most of the cooking. I didn't have to even think about those things all winter. It just hit me today that those will be my responsibilities again for the next nine months, in addition to the house cleaning, yard work, running errands, and chauffeuring the kids around. Oh Yay (sarcasm). The joys of single parenthood.

All about the playground

2009-04-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

The things I find on the playground

As part of my job, I go out and check out the playground before the kids come out to make sure it's ready for them. I make sure the slides are dry, the puddles are marked with a plastic cone, check the condition of the fields to make sure they're not to muddy, pick up garbage or other things that shouldn't be out there, etc.

Four times now I've gone out there and found surprises. Earlier this year there was a used condom, this winter there was a pile of dog poo, a few weeks ago after we came back from spring break there was a chair. And then today I walked outside and from the building I could see what looked like a big duffel bag. I walked over to it and kicked it over and out fell a baseball glove and an athletic cup. Ewww! I didn't want to touch the cup to put it back in bag, but I knew I couldn't leave it out there, so I took the glove and kind of scooped it back into the bag and took it to the office.

Dress up day (again)

So most of the kids came dressed up today. It was really kind of funny seeing all these elementary kids so dressed up & running around the playground. There were a lot of girls in dresses that ranged from junior bridesmaid to Easter dresses. This one little girl came down the slide and her dress came out from underneath her as she slid down. She got to the bottom of the slide and gave this funny look and said "OHHHHHHH! Now my butt's cold."

Guess I should be wearing sunscreen

See my lovely burn lines?

Dress up day

2009-04-09T06:55:00.001-07:00

Today is dress up day at school. For the last week or so JC has been bugging me about getting him some "fancy clothes". I told him I wasn't going to run out and buy him a suit and tie just to wear one day at school.

Last night he was doing his homework and said "Tomorrow is dress up day. I don't have anything to wear, AND I CAN'T WEAR A DRESS!"

"Yeah, you're right. A skirt would work much better for you." Hubby told him.

The Defective Easter Bunny

2009-04-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

One year for Easter Mom thought it would be cute to get my sister, Z and me live bunnies for pets. She took us to a neighbor who raised and sold rabbits. I'm not sure if these rabbits were meant as pets or food and frankly I don't want to know. When we got there, we were welcomed into the house and in one corner of the porch was a small penned in area where there were maybe 10 bunnies to choose from.

We were encouraged to climb in to play with the bunnies for a little while and pick which one we wanted. They weren't the easiest to catch, when ever we'd reach for one they would all hope away as fast as they could, except one. He was the biggest out of the bunch. Z claimed him as hers and sat down next to him and pet him gently as I tried to catch the one I had my eye on.

After a while I was able to corner my bunny and grab him. He tried to squirm away from me when I picked him up, but quickly gave up and hntent to sit in my arms as I pet him.
Having our bunnies picked out, it was time to get out of the pen and put them in a box to take home. As Z tried to pick up her behemoth bunny he scratched her arms up pretty good. Now I don't know if the farmer knew something was wrong with this bunny or not but he suggested she pick a different one. She wouldn't hear of it, "Besides," as she reasoned, "he's easy to catch. And bigger is always better."

When we got the bunnies home, we let them loose in the kitchen to play for a little bit. We put some lettuce and carrots on the floor and watched as my bunny hopped over and began to nibble. But Z's bunny just sat there. She moved the lettuce closer to her bunny hoping to entice him to move, but still he just sat there. Then she got down on the floor and crawled towards her bunny. As she got closer, instead of hoping away, he just kind of pushed himself backwards across the floor.

"Why won't my bunny hop?" she cried.

"Maybe he needs to learn yet." I suggested

She picked up the lettuce and waved it in front of him while I got behind him to push on his back side to make him hop. Once again he just pushed himself backwards across the floor.

"He won't hop! My bunny's broken!" She started to cry.

Mom called the farmer to ask about exchanging the bunny and a few days later we packed him up and took him back. The farmer met us at the door, "I hear you got a defective Easter bunny." He laughed.

Z handed him the box with her broken bunny and went to pick out a new one. This time around she picked one of the smaller ones. She picked him up and beamed, "This one maybe small, but he knows how to hop."

How do you spell EXPERT?

2009-04-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

I had a kindergartner come up to me today and he told me he knew how to spell EXPERT. I asked him to spell it for me and he said, "EIXPET". Not to bad for kindergarten.

Missing the simple things

2009-04-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a small farming community in Western Wisconsin that I couldn't wait to get out of. I thought it was so boring, there was nothing to do. It was always exciting to be able to spend a weekend in the city at my aunt and uncle's, where we could go shopping or to movies anytime of the day or have a whole neighborhood of kids to play with. These were the things I thought I was missing living out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere surrounded by pasture land & corn fields.

When I was 20 I moved in with my aunt and uncle for a while and thought life would be so much more exciting. I thought for sure eventually I would move out and find myself the coolest apartment in the warehouse district, have a really cool job and live the exciting life I'd always dreamed of. But as I found out, your hopes and dreams at age 20 are pretty far removed from reality.

As I looked for an apartment I soon discovered that anything in my price range was nowhere I wanted to live. My cool job turned out to be a receptionist in a medical clinic paying just over minimum wage and the fact that I was to shy to go out and meet new people lead to a very unexciting life where I was in bed by 9:30 every night. My uncle made the comment several times that I was the youngest "old person" he knew of.

After I had dated Hubby for awhile, he asked me to move in with him. We're still living in the same house he bought 20 years ago. This feels more like where I belong than my Aunt & Uncles'. We're out in the country, not to many neighbors, this time surrounded by sod fields rather than corn fields. But yet every time I make the trip back to visit my parents I can't help but feel a little bit of nostalgia for the cows in the pastures, the back roads that whine past numerous country churches, the little known swimming holes, and the simple things that came with growing up in the middle of nowhere.

What's the name of that movie?

2009-04-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got a movie from Netflicks. Hellboy II. I came home and saw the envelop sitting on the kitchen counter and asked Hubby what movie it was. He said it was something the kids wanted to watch but I had to ask JC what it was. So I asked him, and he gave me a sheepish look, started to giggle and then quickly covered his mouth with his hands.

"I can't say it." He mumbled through his fingers.

"What?" I asked

Uncovering his mouth so I could hear him, "I can't say it, because I'll get in trouble."

I knew then what the movie was, but wanted to see how this was going to play out so I kept pressing him for the title. "Well, I don't think I can let you watch a movie if you can't tell me what it's called." I looked at Hubby who was trying very hard to keep a straight face but doing a very poor job of it.

You could see the wheels turning in JC's head as he was thinking of an alternative title that wouldn't get him in trouble. Finally he blurts out, "The Opposite of Heaven Boy...Two."

Hubby and I burst out laughing. "I don't think I've ever heard of that movie. What's it about?" I asked.

He pauses for a moment, "I'm not sure, but it's about The Opposite of Heaven Boy."

Laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes I asked, "Well, what's his name?"

"I can't tell you!" He said getting aggravated.

Even after we assured him he wouldn't get in trouble, he still wouldn't say it. This morning I asked, "What was the name of that movies we watched last night?" He gave me a dirty look and said "You know what it was! Now stop asking me!"

It's done! It's all done!

2009-04-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

Cookie season is over! I turn in my final paperwork this afternoon. Despite a few of my freak out moments, things went pretty well. We were able to sell all of our cookies, I was able to get all the money turned it and deposited on time. I'm breathing a sigh of relief knowing I'm not going to be responsible for $3,000 worth of cookies. Our troop leaders asked if I'd be interested in doing it again next year and I think I will. Having had the experience this year, I know what we can to next year to be a little more organized and make things run a little more smoothly next year. I'm pretty sure, come next February I'm going to be cursing myself for saying I'd do it again, but hopefully the freak out moments will be less.

The Couch Dilema

2009-03-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

We need a new couch. It should be as simple as that, but it's not. The way our living room is, the furniture can only be set up one way. There's absolutely no other way to arrange the furniture other than the way it is now.

A few years ago we had been toying with the idea of a sectional, which would change the flow of the room slightly, but at that time it made sense. Since then we've done a remodel and changed a few things that make it easier to get big items in and out of the house, but has set the living room up so things can't be moved.

Hubby is still set on a sectional, and thinks it would get more use because it would be easier to see the TV from where the sectional would sit as apposed to the separate couch and loveseat we currently have. I'm not totally against this idea, however it will change the traffic pattern in and out of the house and the living room. To complicate matters even more, I'm thinking ahead to Christmas and this will leave us with nowhere to put the Christmas tree.

So we have three choices.

Buy the sectional, and figure the rest out later (this is how Hubby's mind works)
Buy a couch, and leave the love seat where it is
Or don't buy a couch and move the loveseat where the couch currently sits.

Option 3 leaves us with less seating, but because of where it sits now, the loveseat doesn't get used anyway.

Pet Clinic

2009-03-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

There was a free pet clinic today at the ice arena, so we took our two dogs and MIL's dog to get check ups & shots. It opened up at 9am and we got there shortly after 9 and had to wait in line for at least 45 minutes before even getting into the building.

Our dogs are untrained and don't do well on a lease or around other dogs. We had to constantly get after the one for growling at the other dogs around him. Our other dog was fine with the other dogs, but she didn't like standing in line. She gets to excited and we had a hard time controlling her. After awhile they did settle down.

MIL's dog though whined the whole time we were there. He came from a shelter, so I suppose having all those other dogs around might have reminded him of the shelter and made him nervous. Other than his whining he wasn't to much of a problem, so I wasn't paying to much attention to what he was doing. At one point I happened to look down and catch him peeing on Hubby's shoe. I took him out to the grass hoping he'd finish up on the grass, but he didn't seem to have to go anymore. After getting back in line, we stood there for a few minutes and then I heard the people behind me go, "Ohhhhhhhhhh" I turned around to see what was going on and they told me the dog had just peed on my leg. Sure enough there was a big wet spot on the back of my pant leg. As we got closer to the door, he peed again but this time it was on a sign post. And just as we were going in the door he peed on the wall. I've never seen a dog pee so much in a 30 minute time span.

Once we got in the building and the vet checked them over, all 3 had to have blood drawn and shots. Ours are used to it because we take them to the vet on a regular basis, but MIL's dog I don't think has been to the vet since she got him. They went to draw his blood and he started in with this really loud weird whine. At first I didn't know what it was. I thought it was some body's kid whining for something and then I realized it was the dog. Poor puppy. And they had to poke him twice because the first time they didn't get enough blood. So before they even stuck him the second time he knew what was coming and started in with the whine again.

A three were happy to leave but I think MIL's dog was the happiest to go home. When I dropped him off at MIL's he went and hid. I don't think he likes me right now.

A D minus!?

2009-03-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've been hounding Funky Princess for her report card for the last week and she kept telling me her teacher didn't give it to her. I know darn well her teacher did because I work at school and went to ask her about it. Tonight I asked Funky Princess again for her report card and she gave me the run around again. So this time I threatened to dig it out of her bag myself. Guess what she handed me about 30seconds afterwards. Her report card.

A D- in math, a C- in social studies and a note saying that she's choosing books for the accelerated reading program that are below her reading level. WTH!

She tried to blame her bad grades on her teacher saying that her teacher won't help when she needs help. But the other side is I haven't seen her do one single piece of homework all year. When I ask her about her homework she tells me she finished it at school, or that they did it together in class. And I have yet to see any finished and corrected papers come home too. I knew she was struggling in math when we went to conferences in February and found out she was pulling a D+. There were a couple missing assignments that her teacher had her do quick that night and after turning them in it bumped her grade up to a C-. Still not the greatest, but an improvement. After conferences I told her she needed to bring everything home, but once again nothing came home. A few weeks later I checked with her teacher to see how things were going, she said everything was looking ok and now she comes home with a D-.

I'm ticked! She's a B student. There's absolutely no reason for a D. There's just 2 months of school left. She needs to bring those grades up to at least a B this last trimester or run the risk of a D or F for a final grade and have to attend summer school.

Blood

2009-03-23T13:58:00.001-07:00

What is it about blood that fascinates kids so much? I've seen it more than once at school. Somebody's bleeding and they all just want to gather around and look at it. It must be the same thing that makes people want to look at the car accident on the side of the road.

When there's blood or other body fluids we aren't allowed to clean it up. We need clear the area (keep the kids from touching it), call the janitor and wait for him to come with some special spray and clean it up.

I had a boy today who's nose started to bleed pretty badly. I ran to get him some paper towels and sent him down to the nurse. Then I quickly scanned the floor for spots. I found them but not before the other kids did. It was like they were suddenly mesmerized and drawn to the little red dots on the floor. All at once flocking around to look and ask what happened. Asking to touch it to see if it's real. Asking all kinds of crazy questions. But once the janitor cleaned it up it was back to playing as usual.

I need to go shopping

2009-03-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm a t-shirt and jeans kind of a gal. I have a few nice things for when I need to dress up but other than that you can usually find me in pretty much the same thing (clean ones of course, come on I'm not a slob) everyday. So it's no wonder that a lot of my t-shirts get ruined because I use bleach based cleaning cleaning products. I just had no idea I was down to one good t-shirt.

All winter I was able to hide the bleach splatters with a sweatshirt. But now that the weather's getting warmer I won't need those sweatshirts much longer. And I can't really go to work with clothes that look like they belong in the rag box. Being the typical man he is, Hubby said I could solve my problem by only buying white. But who wants only white? And how am I suppose to pull off wearing a white t-shirt everyday? Lets have some variety here. lol

Wordless Wednesday

2009-03-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I did a Wordless Wednesday. I didn't have any photos worthy of sharing, but a recent trip to the zoo lent itself to a great photo opportunity.

What's in a name?

2009-03-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

Jepup Man has been asking me to change his name on my blogs. He never liked Jepup Man. I thought it was cute. He likes ketchup. Has to have ketchup on everything and when he was little he called it jepup. Hence the name Jepup Man. But now that he's older and can pronounce ketchup correctly he's requested not to be called Jepup Man anymore.

From now on (when I can remember the name change), he will be called JC on my blogs. He's much happier with that.

I thought there was something different about you

2009-03-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I dropped Funky Princess off at her friend's house for a couple hours. When I came back to pick her up one of their neighbor kids was standing in the driveway waving at me. I recognized him from school, but I don't know him personally, so I waved back at him. When I got out of the car he said "I'm going home right now. Just so you know."

"What?" I asked wondering why he was telling me this.

"I'm going home right now. Just so you know." He repeated.

Then it dawned on me that he had me mistaken for the friend's mom. I told him, "I don't live here."

"OOOOHHHHH! I thought there was something different about you."

The funny thing is I don't look anything like the friend's mom.

No more snowpants!

2009-03-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

YAY! Tomorrow, for the first time in what seems like forever, I can go to school without snowpants. It's suppose to be up to 50 tomorrow. The last couple days the temperature has been rising and the snow melting. It'll be so nice to do recess duty and not have to dress like I'm going on an Arctic excursion. It's been an extremly long winter, I didn't think spring was ever going to get here.

Girl Scout cookies are driving me crazy

2009-03-09T17:44:00.001-07:00

They're keeping me up at night. Giving me nightmares. And not for the reasons you'd think. Last night I dreamt that I went to turn in my final paperwork and nobody turned in any of the money they collected, leaving me to pay for $3,000 worth of cookies and then the troop accused me of stealing the profits.

I know I shouldn't be worried about this. The people in our troop are good people and I know we've never had a problem before. It's just that we're getting down to the wire here and I'd just like to get this done and over with. I was thinking of doing this again next year, but not if it's going to cost me my sanity.

I survived cookie booth

2009-02-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

We had our first cookie booth today and it was a learning process, but really we did pretty good. We were there for 4 hours and sold 55 boxes. It was about 20 degrees outside and windy, so it was cold. Luckily the store let us set up in their entryway, so we were out of the wind. The girls made signs, so we hung one in the window, one on our table and the girls took turns in groups standing on the corner with a sign to let people know we were there. We actually did get some customers come in just because they saw the girls with the sign on the corner.

Just a couple things I'd change for next year.

Split the booth time into shifts. We had the whole troop there working in a tiny little corner. Sometimes there was more goofing off than trying to sell cookies.
Make sure the girls come dressed for the weather. We had girls show up in tennis shoes and no hat or gloves. Luckily somebody brought extra gloves, but next year I'm reminding them to bring snow pants too.
Sandwich boards for advertising. The girls stood out there holding a tag board sign, which was hard to hold on to in the wind and made their fingers hurt after awhile.

Aside from that, I think it was a success. The girls want to do another one, but being this was our first year I wanted to see how things went before I made that decision. For now they'll have to wait for next year, but I think we can plan for a couple booth sales.