Thursday, April 30, 2009

It's a new dawn, it's a new day...

..and I'm feeling good. Go ahead, sing along with me! I was just thinking how many of my posts refer to music. There are so many songs that take me to particular moments in time or the lyrics just seem to fit my mood at the time. Must be why my musical tastes are wide and varied!

But the reason for my feeling good? The day before yesterday Robbie brought home a letter from the school saying they wanted to put him in advanced math next year. He'll be in fourth grade but would be doing at least fifth grade math. I wasn't suprised since he can often grasp Katie's homework before Katie, and even me sometimes, can. I was a little surprised after this school year that THEY finally acknowledged his abilities though!

Then in the mail yesterday I got a letter from the school district saying that Robbie had tested well enough to be placed in the entire advanced program! Whoo-hoo!!! I had to pick him up early from school for a doctor's appointment so I took both letters in with me to ask why we got two different letters. The secretary gave me a somewhat twisty/turny explanation but said he did qualify for the advanced program. There's an info meeting next week we'll be going to to get more answers. I'm just so happy for him! And I have to admit the mama lion in me said "HA!" when I thought of certain school personnel! (I never claimed to be mature all the time!) Robbie said he wasn't sure he wanted to do it because he wouldn't be in the same class with one of his friends but when I told him his teacher had already told me she was recommending they not be in the same class next year because she thinks they "might visit too much" that seemed to help. I also hope that means he won't be in the same class with the little snot that's been tormented him all year....and "snot" is not the word I wanted to use!

I'm just going to enjoy being happy over this "win" for him in a school year that's been so topsy turvy!

It's a new dawn, it's a new day and I'm feeling goooooooooooooooooood!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Summery Sunday

We have by-passed spring and went from cold to hot it seems. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not a fan of the cold temps but I could use a little springtime action too! It's been hot and a tad muggy today. And right now I'm wondering which of my neighbors is outside using some sort of power tool in the dark! It wasn't THAT hot that they had to wait for the sun to go down to play with electricity in the dark!

We're having some computer issues here especially on Facebook. It will just lock up and you can't even ctrl/alt/del out of it without waiting an eternity. I tried deleting some stuff today and defragmenting it and tonight I deleted a bunch of Facebook apps off my account (I'll leave Mark's for him) to see if that helps but so far no luck. I'd love to get a new computer but that's just not in the budget right now. (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh) I was planning on getting a new camera (mine is slowly dying) for a birthday/Mother's Day present but thanks to dental bills and vet bills I don't see that happening either. Sometimes being a responsible adult is highly over-rated!!!

But in less than two weeks now I'll be headed to Rankin, IL for my 25th high school reunion. How the heck did that happen?!? I don't feel old enough to be out of school for 25 years.......well, ok, somedays I DO feel old enough but that's besides the point! Right now it sounds like we have 2/3 of our class coming back for it. We had such a large class too......15 graduating seniors in 1984! Boggles my kids' minds! LOL I went from a big elementary school in Louisville, KY to Rankin when I was in the sixth grade, biiiiiiiiiiiig change! I was talking to my BFF from high school (for the third time this week) today and we were talking about things and we agreed that there were times we were more like a group of squabbling siblings than just classmates. There are several people I don't think I've seen in 25 years and it's funny the closer to Alumni it gets the more memories start crowding back into my brain. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go to it this year for a variety of reasons but the closer it gets the more excited I get! It will be fun to see everyone who shows up and then everyone else at the banquet from the other classes too! '84 parties more! Didn't we have great poetic rhyming skills?! lol

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Biggest Loser

First I'm going to talk about the show and then how it applies to me so if you've recorded this past week's episode and not watched it yet then you want to stop reading my blog now! Okay, then I guess that means the rest of you have either watched it or don't watch the show at all and don't care, if you don't watch it then this first part won't matter to you but here goes........... I was SHOCKED at Ron's whispered conversation with Mike! I feel for them and I like Mike but Ron has been rubbing me the wrong way for a few episodes now. I was starting to feel like he was shifty and he just confirmed that on this week's episode. And from her comments before leaving I think Kristin had his number! She was my favorite and I really wanted her to win but I bet she wins the "at home" prize. Mike WAS my second favorite but after his "Yeah, I think I'm going to win it" at the elimination table I don't know. He HAS broken records and he has worked hard but I'm wondering if I haven't misjudged his true character. And yes, I do realize I'm talking like I know this people personally but I think most of the fans of this show DO feel that way! Now I don't know who I want to win. Not Ron. Helen irritates me. I lost respect for Fillipe when he blamed Jillian for not working with him and not taking the blame for his over indulging during their "night of luxury". Tara has seemed cocky to me but maybe she's entitled to that after this season? Right now I think she's my favorite but I do think Mike will win.

I really related to a lot of the things Kristin has said in her interviews. I've related to a lot of the contestants but this week when Kristin said she's afraid to voice the things she wants for fear of them being yanked away I SO got that! That is me. It's a mentality of "if people know how I really feel or what I really want then something in the universe will prevent me from getting it" so you plod along in the same self destructive habits while getting angry about it but not feeling entitled to voice that anger or brave enough to do something about it. Don't draw attention to yourself, keep your head down and put up barriers so people won't look your way. I ask why I bawl during every episode but I know why. I could be one of those contestants, I get what they're saying.

And after a recommendation from my friend, Sarah, (I don't know how to turn her name into a link but she's here too) I read the book "The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl". I wanted to cry during parts of that book too. Excellent book but if you're like me be ready to possibly see yourself in the proverbial mirror when you read it! She would eat out of frustration, boredom, anger, etc. I DO that! And you (generic 'you' there) tell yourself it's the one thing you can control, what's going in your mouth, but you really aren't in control. In a way it's like taking every crappy thing ever said or done to you and just putting it into your gut.

So how do people get beyond that and maintain? I wish I knew. I wish I could do that.

And now I have my 25th high school reunion in two weeks which is just bringing all these careening into the forefront of my mind for me. I weigh considerably more now that I did when I graduated. I've gained more than my son currently weighs. Imagine how having that visual smacks you in the face! Ugh, ugh and triple ugh!

And I wish you could hear my "tone" as I'm typing this. It's not boo-hoo, woe is me, but more of a quizzical "how do they do that and why can't I?"

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Bring on the rain....

the thunderstorms forecasted for today that is. There's just something about a stormy Sunday afternoon. I don't feel as guilty for being a slug when it's storming outside! Strange philosophy but it works for me!

We will be trekking down to one of the Indy malls today though so Katie can use her "free animal" gift card that Build A Bear sent to her for her birthday. Slick marketing ploy if it works for them but I've already laid down the guidelines about how we will NOT be accessorizing this animal beyond a shirt! Katie and Robbie both have several animals from BABW that they got during the timeframe Sam worked at the one in Wichita. I don't think one "bare bear" in the bunch will be too catastrophic for anyone!

Katie has once again earned her Bronze Award in Girl Scouts. She did it with her troop in Kansas and now again with her troop in Indiana. All the girls did a good job Friday night during the event and clean up went pretty fast. There were a few moms (not from our troop) who were standing around talking and not showing any signs of leaving until one of our troop dad's called out "Oh, you all stayed to help clean? Great!" Feet started moving pretty quickly after that! LOL

Yesterday we went to part of Robbie's scout pack's camp out. Since they were forecasting rain and he missed a day of school last week due to the crud we didn't think camping out all night was a healthy idea for him but he did just about everything else. Katie and I left early but the guys stayed a couple of hours longer. We were there for the raingutter regatta, unfortunately Robbie didn't place but he had a cool looking ship! Once I get the pictures onto the computer I'll have to post one.

I THINK my schedule is relatively clear this week (I probably shouldn't say that too loudly! lol) other than Katie's b-day on Saturday. She wants her cake to be chocolate with chocolate frosting and with the green decorator icing. Any guesses as to what sort of "theme" she'd like it to have? She asked if we'd take her to Ireland when she graduates high school if that tells you anything! The child knows my lacking cake decorating skills so this should be interesting!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

I want money, lots and lots of money.....

c'mon...sing with me...hopefully you're old enough to know the words to the song!

To say life has been stressful lately is an understatement. But I've been just bobbin' along, going with the flow, as much as possible, hence no dark and twisty posts! I'm not even going to go into it all because I just don't want to rehash it or think about it. But I will say to those that pray keep Mark in your prayers that his health issues clear up ok!

But today while cleaning and looking at the sunshine I thought "Tomorrow maybe I'll go out and maybe do some scrapping shopping." Because I just knew that $645.80 bill we got from the dentists' office had to be a mistake and they just hadn't filed something. And I just knew that someone in scouts had made a mistake and we didn't still owe $90 for Robbie's scout camp this summer. HA! My luck doesn't run that way, you'd think I'd quit attempting to be optomistic in that way! I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the dentists' office today. I did manage to get $90 taken off the bill because they told me at Katie's appointment that our insurance company said Katie's panoramic x-ray would be covered but apparently they didn't cover it so the office charged us for it. And they found a $3 charge off they should have taken off so now we ONLY owe $532.80. I still say that we've never had a discrepancy of that much before, I think our old dentist may have written off more than this new one will.

And Robbie's pack dues are more than I realized so the check we wrote in February covered that and the DEPOSIT for camp so we DO owe that $90. Throw in the $175-some we'll owe on Katie's camp in July on top of every other bill and Katie's birthday coming up and I will NOT be going shopping anywhere tomorrow.

It is what it is and it's all part of being an adult but for this moment I'm going to stomp my foot and say "This stinks!" ;-) I need a PAYING job!

I DO get to spend my Friday night helping at Katie's scout troop's event to earn their Bronze Award even though Katie has already earned hers in Kansas. I SHOULD feel good about being a good person and helping out and that should be its own reward but when I wanted to do something for myself for a change that's not much comfort! lol

And my tentative plan for someone to watch Katie and Robbie while Mark and I drove to Illinois for my 25th high school reunion (ouch!) fell through because the neighbors are going out of town so now I don't know if I'll be able to go to that either. It's the night before Mother's Day so I don't want to ask any of their friends' moms if they could spend the night. Nobody wants to watch someone else's kid on Mother's Day.

So now I'll go back so singing about how I want money and go chop up meat for stir fry. A couple of good WHACKS on the cutting board out to help!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

spring break

It's the kidlets spring break this week. It started last Friday so we headed to Arkansas to see my parents and the oldest kidlet who drove in from Kansas. Yesterday everyone headed home because of work or work and school. We drove through snow, rain, sleet, hail and some high winds during the course of the day. Just a typical springtime drive!

We stopped at a McDonald's in IL for lunch. I ordered a Big and Tasty with cheese. I got a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. I went back up to the counter and asked for my lettuce and tomato. The crew chief asked if there was mayo on it so we looked and nope, there wasn't so the counter person yelled back for some mayo but the crew chief said "No, make her another sandwich!" I said I was fine with slapping it on there myself but she insisted. So I get a new sandwich and go sit down and check. Tomato? Yes, we have tomato. Lettuce? We have lettuce. Mayo? We have mayo? Cheese? ............................ At that point I said "This is how this all started so forget it!" Then I dropped a ketchup laden french fry on my shirt. Luckily I was wearing a red shirt but Katie said "Mom, this just isn't your day!"

We get back into the car and head up I-57 until Effingham where we grab I-70. There is a giant cross on the side of the road and I opened the window to try to get a picture without having a bug splattered windshield in the way. Apparently there's a good seal on that window because when I opened it everyone's ears popped and there were several "OW!"'s heard! And I didn't get a good picture either because I got part of the window frame in it. So we sacrificed for my art unsuccessfully! lol

We're about 15 miles outside of Indy when suddenly traffic is screeching to a halt and then we see a pile of cars and a small trailer sitting in the left lane of eastbound I-70. Mark pulls off the road and runs over to see if he can help while I call 911 and try to distract the kids (unsuccessfully I might add! Katie kept staring and watching it all!) 911 said they had to connect with me the state highway patrol and the phone rings FOREVER! I finally get someone and I'm telling him what I see and trying to guess at where we were. I had been reading so wasn't paying attention to mile markers but I was able to narrow it down and then describe a sign I could see and apparently that let him know where we were. From what Mark was told the accident had happened just a few minutes before we stopped. There was a small trailer sitting in the front of the mess and the SUV pulling it was in the median. There were three other cars involved and the one in the rear was totaled. She didn't really have a front end of her car anymore it was all shoved up into the dashboard. Mark said there were only a few inches from the steering wheel and the back of the front seat. Fortunately a doctor heading westbouhd had stopped and a RN pulled in in front of us and ran over too. There was a kid, late teen/early 20s I'd guess, that was stuck in the back seat of the middle car. Mark and another guy helped get him out after the nurse said it was ok to do so. Mark said 23 years of all that first aid and safety training in the military kept going through his head. I'm very proud of him! It looked like everyone was moving ok, a lot of chest pain from airbags and hitting steering wheels and head lacerations. That kid from the back seat had a blood stained t-shirt against the side of his face. Once the state patrol got there and asked Mark and the nurse if they had seen the wreck (nope) he stopped traffic so they could both get back to their cars and clear the area. That's about the time I got the shakes. I'm fine when I have a task to do in an emergency but once that's over then forget it apparently!

Then we're stuck in traffic. We are literally sitting in Park on the interstate. From what we could hear on the AM radio traffic update (very hard to understand electronic voice!) they were doing clean up from another accident four miles up the highway. All the vehicles were gone once we got to that spot but from the looks of the tire tracks on the road and in the grass I'm guessing two semis hit. That and the fact there were oranges in the grass all along the side of the road! Must have been a produce truck!

We finally get home, much later than anticipated, and started to unload the van. I went out for my second load and was commenting on how spongy and wet the ground was. I don't know what happened but Mark said he thought I caught the edge of the driveway but the next thing I know I'm trying to keep myself from doing a face plant in the driveway. I managed to just bang the heck out of my palms and knees instead. I laugh/cried to Katie "It really ISN'T my day!" My knees and back are hurting this morning. Nothing major but enough that I don't forget it happened!

Today I think we'll just stay home where hopefully it's safe! lol The kennel was full so the neighbors came over and dog sat for us and apparently Daisy and her exciteable bladder christened almost every room so I'll be cleaning that today. Then again declaring it Reading Day sounds good too!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Mini catch up

I'm supposed to be getting things ready to go visit my parents so I will keep this entry brief...well brief for me anyway! lol

First, I just want to thank everyone who offered their condolences over my uncle. I appreciate it very much. Monday was the funeral. How does one describe a funeral??? Saying it was "nice" seems odd to me but I guess as funerals go it was nice. I saw a lot of family I haven't seen in five or six years and some longer than that. The kids did really well. I was impressed by them both. There was some family drama over the week-end but thankfully we missed it! Back in B.C. (Before Children) it always seemed exciting to witness family drama firsthand. The older I get the less I want to see it! Just give the Cliff Notes version and I'm fine! I'll spare you the details but I wasn't surprised by the names I heard that were causing it! I told my mom that it wasn't a family get-together without drama and then quoted from St. Elmo's Fire, "It's not a party until something gets broken!"

My uncle was buried close to where my grandma is buried. I went over to her marker and bawled like a baby. It's been 15 years and I can still lose it like she just died yesterday. I really miss her and wish Katie and Robbie would have gotten the chance to meet her and that she'd see how well Samantha is doing. She would have been so proud of her!

Tuesday I went on Robbie's third grade field trip to the art museum. I want to go back sometime just the family and really check it out. Some cool art there! I'll go into further detail on that trip later maybe.

Today I met one of my online AOL Scrapbooking message board friends! Elaine and I have e-mailed for a few years now and she's been one who has really listened and talked to me over all the stuff Robbie's been going through. I had a great time visiting with her and her daughter over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. None of us had any cheesecake though! I was stuffed after my crabcake sandwich but I did bring some cheesecake home for me, Mark and Katie to eat later tonight. I'll try to get Robbie to eat some but I bet he won't!




And lastly here's a layout I worked on last week. It's from our first trip to the Children's Museum last summer. I used one of Becky Higgins' sketches for the layout idea. I took her idea and tweaked it so it worked for me. Did you notice there were ten, count'em TEN, photos on there?! I even used some Bazzill chipboard letters I've had for awhile! The ones I covered are covered with Bo Bunny's new birthday paper line. The papers are double-sided and I used the "non" birthday side. I originally planned to use more of it but decided there were enough colors in the photos so I kept it simple.