Leaving grandmas. :-/

*Twitch*

I wonder if I can call this week without internet a “fast” if it wasn’t really by choice?  LOL.  Probably not, but I know I’m sure ready to have internet back.  So tempted actually, that the idea of going out in Grandma’s driveway right now, at 10:21 pm, in my jammies, to see if there is any way I could catch some hint of access…well, we’ll just say that sounds like such a good idea right now.  LOL. 

You’ll be pleased to know that I am resisting.  (Mother, you can breathe again, first of all because by the time this posts, the moment is long past, and second of all, I’m not going to sit out on the street in the dark in the middle of NY, even though my sheriff cousin DOES live like 2 doors down, LOL).  ;-) 

This has nothing to do with personal safety and much more to do with the fact that I let my battery get too low on my computer and now I’m sorta restricted to the kitchen table since that’s the only outlet in the house that fits a three prong plug.  LOL. 

Oh well.  I’m sure nothing is going on in the internet world of you peeps.  Not that I would know…haven’t been online since I drove by Wegman’s the other day to post that last update.  *sigh*  I’m not twitching….much.  ;-) 

Grandma still worries me.  I wasn’t used to it at first because last time I was up here, she wasn’t anywhere NEAR this bad, and even though I’ve kinda gotten used to how she is now, I still feel bad for her.  It’s so sad. 

Uncle M got back from his camping trip with my cousin on Wednesday night, so last night my aunt and uncle came over to hang out for awhile.  They ate here and my uncle mowed Grandma’s yard.  Sheriff cousin came over for a little while, too, which was cool.  I’ve been really bad with taking pictures, so I don’t have any from last night…which is not cool.  *sigh*  Anyway.

Today we went and got my uncle and went out on the hunt for yard sales.  I got my camera out today.  LOL.  That was cool.   

This one yard sale we stopped at, I didn’t even get out….I told Uncle M that MV (my friend that got roped into coming with me to help me drive), K-man, and I would wait for him in the car because it was a MAN YARD SALE.  LOL.  So I sat in the car and took a picture.  LOL.  My uncle is over in the middle of all that guy goodness.  LOL.  Tools, gadgets, and guns.  Not my cup of tea.  Hahah.  I did find a few things at other yard sales, but I was so picky that I didn’t get much.  ;-)  Oh well. 

Then Uncle M took us to this little pizza joint in Fairport.  They had great food…my favorite part though, was this Proverbi Italiani on the wall over our table. 

I don’t know if you can read any of those or not, but they’re pretty good…haha…

the best one:

Nulla si fa senza volonta!  

These Italians…they so smart.  ;-)  ;-)

And then, before I hop off for the night to finish getting my stuff together to get ready to leave in the morning (can’t believe the week is already over!?!), here’s one last picture I took of MV at the park earlier this week when we took K-man out to burn off some of his energy.  (You know, watching musicals in grandma’s living room just doesn’t burn off too much of little boy energy.  lololol)

      Looks like she’s walking in the treetops or something.  LOL. 

And on that note….goodnight.  *twitch* ;-)

Temperature

Oh dear sweet mary...inside the house it is 86*. i think i may pass out. and its after six already....supposed to start cooling down now...NOT heat up....*moan* lol and grandma says its comfortable. Oh dear. I think i might take a cold shower.

Wegmans candy store

Kcs favorite kind of beans...man i miss him more than candy. Lol

Oh Mothballs.

Well, I’m at Grandma’s this week.  No air condition, no internet.  JOY.  LOL.  Staying with Grandma for the week so my uncle can have a break and he’s taking his son (my cousin) camping for a few days. 

Poor Grandma, I didn’t realize how much her health had deteriorated since the last time I was up.  She seemed better today than yesterday, so I guess maybe she has good days and bad, but she spends a lot of time slumped over in her chair dozing off.  She kinda scares me a little because I’m afraid she’s going to just roll right off the chair but Uncle M says she does it all the time.  *sigh* 

I feel bad for her.  She doesn’t remember much either.  She asked me at one point if I had ever met her son and his wife…and she was talking about my parents.  She does know who I am, because when I pointed out myself (at around age 13 or so) in the picture with her son and his wife, she was like, “Oh, that’s right.  There you are.”  Poor thing.  I feel terrible for her.  I guess it’s been a couple of years since I was up last, but I just didn’t realize how far downhill she’s gone.  Speaking of that, I need to go look in on her….she’s getting ready for bed and she sits on the side of the bed and falls asleep instead of laying down.  =( 

I really can’t complain at all about my forgetfulness or being tired.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we could be a lot worse off. 

Oh, and the mothballs in the title…well, they’re also in my grandma’s basement.  I’m not sure what memory the smell of mothballs brings back, but there is something that just lurks at the edge of my consciousness every time I open the basement door and am smacked in the face by the odor.  I’m not positive, but I DON’T think it was exactly a happy memory.  LOL. 

No internet.

Will blog again someday....probably a flood of posts thanks to live writer. :-) am here at grandmas and nooooo internet. *Sigh*

Communion PopTarts

Well, peoples, I have found it.  We can shorten our communion service next time.  Kelloggs now makes communion poptarts.  Well, okay, they don’t CALL them that.  But this is unleavened bread and grape juice if I’ve ever tasted it.  Not exactly at the top of my list of preferred breakfast food.  ;-)

It’s a PIRATE!

 

“Mom! Look!  Look, mom!  It’s a pirate!!”
                                    -K-man

“K-man!  Yes, he does look like a pirate, but please don’t point!  Hey, friends, say CHEESE!” 
                                    -Mom

(as she pointed her camera in our friend’s direction who happened to be standing near pirate dude and then snapped the pirate dude instead…lol)

I’m not sure which is more entertaining at the zoo….the animals or people-watching. 

;-) 

My friend, Kat, and I got a kick out of this guy that we passed on our way to the exit.  He was evidently wore out.  Take a picture, she says,…lol…so I did.  :-P

At this point, we were so tired ourselves that the benches DID look comfortable.  LOL! 

Anyway, now I just need to go upload the rest of the zoo pics.  =)

Early Morning Drives

Well, in my last post, I mentioned that I wasn’t a morning person.  However, one very cool thing about driving (well, okay, actually I was just riding, but I DID stay awake with KC to keep him company while the backseat snoozed in the darkness) that early in the morning was getting to see the really cool foggy morning in the blue ridge mountains coming up through Virginia.  Pretty awesome. 

 

Yeah, it was quite the view!  ALMOST worth the early morning.  =)  And getting up here at lunchtime was TOTALLY worth the early morning.  Something about getting somewhere and not feeling like the whole day is already gone…but then again, when we did get up here and puttered around for a couple hours til we could get into our hotel room, and then finally got into the hotel room…

Well, we pretty much walked in, dumped our stuff on the floor, laid the kids down on one bed and then crashed on the other for at least an hour or so…man, we were exhausted. 

You know the night before when I was supposed to get in bed at 9 so the 3 am wake up wouldn’t be quite so rough?  Well.  It was after 11.  And we got up at 3.  Didn’t get on the road till 4:30 though…had to take a shower to wake up, then get ready and finish the last bit of packing and load the car. 

Long, long day.  Oh and did I mention that we stayed out til midnight tonight hanging out with old friends?  LoL.  This is NOT a vacation…I’m wayyy too exhausted.  ;-)

On the road again....

Have i ever mentioned i dont do mornings??? *Yawn*

9 AM

With half an hour before leaving for errands…

• Coffee - Check
• Shower – Check
• Dog’s fed/walked – Check
• Kid’s showers – Check
• Teeth brushed (mom and kids) – Check
• Hair fixed (mom and kids) – Check
• Kitty litter cleaned – Check
• Kid’s breakfast – Check
• Devil cat captured – Check (with minimal damage)

ten minutes before leaving…

• Vacuum - check
• collect library books - check
• blog - check
• abandon blog for later – CHECK
  

9 PM

• finish packing
• everything else
• post blog
• try to get some sleep before getting up to drive at 3am

9:52…see all the things that aren’t checked? oops.  goodnight.

I Just Don’t Know…

What to do with myself…

LOL…except that’s the only part of that song that fits right now.  LOL! 

And really, I know lots of things that myself should be doing, but myself is just not in the mood.  Like the kitty litter should totally be changed because I forgot it this morning when I took out the trash.  And there is laundry scattered all over my bed.  (I did it today, so we won’t be naked tomorrow…teehehe).  Not to mention there are a zillion things I could be doing to get ready for our trip to the state of the big O on Thursday.  But I don’t want to do anything.  Yuck.  Need some motivating.  *sigh*  Tomorrow is errands and then the MIL will be here tomorrow evening to house/kid/puppy sit the little mama and little baby and the two crazy puppies while we’re gone. 

I think tomorrow morning sounds like a great morning for coffee.  Maybe that will motivate me to pick my little self up and get all 11 hundred things done by the time I need to leave for errands at 9:30 in the morning.  LOL. 

The bad thing about being unmotivated is that Munchkin copies EVERYTHING I do.  So on the days when I am at a complete motivational loss, HEY…so is SHE.  Except that I can be perfectly happy vegging with a book or a magazine and NOT SO for her.  No, when SHE is at a complete motivational loss, it’s my job (she thinks) to be her entertainer.  Hello, I have my hands full trying to find my OWN inspiration, much less entertaining you while I’m at it.  LOL.  Maybe I should teach her that song.  It could be her theme…she goes through it at least once or twice a day.  (Like once in the morning when she gets out of bed and it lasts until lunch and then again after lunch and it lasts till bedtime.  LOL…j/k).  It hasn’t been so bad until the last couple of days when the rains and storms have killed pool time…lol.  Oh well. 

Anyway, so that’s life in our house.  In other news, some of the other pressure has started easing off.  ;-)  And that’s all I’ll say about that.

I think that’s the majority of the mess around here…the van was in the shop the last couple of days…getting the timing belt changed so we won’t have any issues in our travels over the next few weeks, so I stuck around the house the last few days since I wasn’t keen on packing us all in the batmobile to go anywhere unless it was an absolute necessity.  *grin*  Van’s back though, so tomorrow’s errands should be pretty simple. 

Would have been a little difficult packing 5 of us in the batmobile PLUS devil cat (I mean Snowball…hey, if KC can insult my dogs with every breath, I am SO not going to be forgiving of her hatefulness highness) since one of my errands is to get her hatefulness highness a rabies shot and grooming.  Heaven knows she needs to have that rabies shot…if she insists on sleeping on ME at night and then having the nerve to chomp into the back of my leg when I move the slightest half inch in my sleep….GRR.  At least my dogs are friendly.  They might knock ya down but they are totally loving on you while they’re knocking ya down.  ;-)  Hey honey, you know those titles you suggested awhile back?  I have one…Cat For Sale - $1 (Disclaimer: You could possibly die in your sleep with this purchase) ;-)

LOL.  Time to head for bed…later (if I don’t get eaten before morning….teehehe)!

Cricut Fun

Well, I used the borrowed Cricut (it's like a printer with a blade instead of ink) today…actually FINISHED a project. WOOHOOO!

Check it out. From icky thrift store sign:
*let me clarify...nothing personal against the flag or the statement...icky because it was sloppily done and kinda junky*

To laundry room humor:

Vinyl + Cricut = AWESOME! I love it. Except for I am totally anal about the letters and they were really difficult to line up and still not QUITE perfect. But it’s okay. I made it, I like it, and I hung it on the wall. I’m happy. ;-)

Cowboy Jesus?

K-man just walked in circles around the coffee table.  He’s playing with the little cowboys and indians set (you know, they are like the cowboy/indian version of little green army men?). 

Overheard:
The helicopter is in the lions den!  He’s in the lion’s den.  *Whirrrrr…crash!*  Jesus is in the lion’s den.  Yep, he is.  Jesus is in the lion’s den.  *insert cowboy/indian war scene sounds*

Well okay then. 

Pics From Last Night

And the rest of them are here: Private Blog

Easy Week

Well, this week was great.  Except for Tuesday morning when I got up and was all laid back and relaxed and in no rush and then Lil Mama comes down and asked me if it was the sixth because she had an appointment…oh yeah, it was on my calendar.  Helps if you look at it.  LOL.  So we had to make a quick change of plans and no relaxing after all. 

KC’s mom had K-man from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening so it was just me and munchkin and the lil mama and the baby for those couple of days.  Munchkin did surprisingly well considering she had no one to fight play with.  LOL.

Went up to a service in the mountains…message was great…I actually took notes in service…that felt a little strange…haven’t done that in forever.  Of course, the biggest reason I haven’t is because I’ve been so busy keeping after the kids in service for the last couple of years.  Anyway, I might have to post my notes later…or not…lol.  

I actually read a couple of books this week (mostly while waiting on somebody or an appointment or something, but it was still nice.  *grin*).  Now I just need to go back to the library and get a few more reads.  I’ve figured out a great way to get reading time in…I just do it when I take the kids to the pool.  That way I’m doing something productive (supervising swim time) and still getting some me time.  LOL.  Not to mention working on that Pocahontas tan that KC is so jealous of…teehehe. 

Had the followup appointment from the testing that we had Munchkin do to try to pinpoint her issues.  We were right about the attention disorder.  We said all along that there wasn’t a hyper problem but it seemed like she had trouble focusing on anything for longer than a minute or two.  According to the test, the doctor said it was very cut and dry results…according to her IQ level, the range of her impulsivity was SUPERIOR…meaning the hyper is not an issue.  Actually, they said that superior is unusual to find and it’s two levels above average.  But according to her IQ level, her attention and focus was very very low and far below what she should have had.  The testing also confirmed an anxiety issue which the therapist had already mentioned might be a possibility based on her behaviors.  SOOO….moving forward, therapist said that we will work on skill building with her to improve her focus and help her deal with anxiety in a positive way.  Not sure what that will entail but hopeful.  Especially since a new teacher is right around the corner and I’m not sure how that’s going to work out if she gets one who doesn’t work well with her issues.  We shall see. 

Also this week, I went by the craft store and picked up some fun fabric to play with.  After the VBS sewing, I feel strangely capable of anything, so I decided to follow a tutorial I found online and turn THIS –>

into

THIS:
<—

 

 

I also got a couple yards of fleece to tie up a blanket for a departing gift for Lil Mama and baby since she loves blankets.  I was going to make a baby one but decided at the last minute to just go for one that she could snuggle under WITH the baby.  *grin*  Haven’t put it together yet. 

Anyway, went to a church friend’s b-day party tonight…

It was kinda funny because the invitation said “Wear your favorite team shirt” and we walked in with (of course) Ohio State shirts on (except our kiddos outgrew theirs so they were just in Ohio colors…lol) and everyone was wearing Volunteer Orange (*gag*….hahaha…j/k).  Actually, it was just the birthday boy’s family that was all wearing Tennessee, it just SEEMED like everybody because they have a really. big. family.  LOL! 

But it was fun.  It was just nice to have a somewhat empty schedule this week.  And what wasn’t empty was pretty relaxed so it wasn’t all stressful or anything.  SWEET! 

Anyways, thanks for reading…love ya’ll…mean it.  ;-) 

Anonymously

I want to blog.  Really, I do.  But when I have things going on that I could talk about, I’m too busy to blog them, and when I don’t have things going on and time to actually blog, I don’t remember all the things I had to talk about and am left with what’s floating around in my head…and I have this gut feeling that if I posted those thoughts I’ve been thinking of late, it would stir up some trouble. 

I saw a blogger the other day talking about a blog that she writes completely anonymously that is totally unconnected to herself…she called it a Pink Apartment.  I just googled it and apparently it’s a type of blog where people go anonymous so they can talk about their life using lots of caps and foul language…which is totally NOT what I’m looking for…but anonymous…now that does sound appealing.

I have started so many sentences and erased every one.  Except that one.  I’m going to leave that one.  LOL.  Even though it doesn’t really fit.  Just trust me…it’s better that way. 

There are just so many opinions and so many topics that seem to get people all stirred up for whatever reason…I hope I don’t sound whiny but I have to wonder sometimes…why can’t we all just get along?  I don’t want to stir up controversy but it’s almost like you can’t say anything without making some people mad.

So yeah.  For now, it will all just stay in my head. 

I Have The Best Hubby…

In the whole wide world…

He leaves me comments like this one. 

My top ten list of ideas for your blog:
1) I'm learning to say NO
2) Refer to number 1 (
3) I have the best hubby in the whole wide world
4) Refer to number 3
5) My life is busy, but it's better than being dead
6) My pool life is killing me...
7) I'm giving Pocahontas a run for her money
8) I'm giving the Highway Patrol a run for their money
9) My dogs are up for sale for $1
10) Refer to number 3
Love, your hubby

And while I had to chuckle at his title ideas and I DO agree with #3…I have to say…honey, if you make many more comments like #8 and #9, it might make me rethink this particular title.  ;-)

But see, he does things like THIS for me:

when I buy pieces of furniture like this:

so that I can turn them into THIS: 

And okay, he does lots of other really sweet things, too.  Except for dissin my dogs.  That’s not sweet.  I’m still working on forgiving that.  ;-) 

And okay, a little confession…I don’t have any recent pictures of him.  Except for his hand in that project when I was taking before and afters…lol.  So that’s why I threw this project in there…And speaking of that project, not too shabby for $15 (not counting the wood putty we had to buy to fix the hole, or the paint which we already had).  Got it for Lil Mama’s room so she’d have something to put her stuff in/on.  Lucked out on it though, it was a brand new piece…hardware included but not even put on yet, and I hit it on half price day at Habitat Restore.  It had what looked like damage from shipping on the top and one side and I didn’t care for the color but it’s got “made in Italy” stamped all over it, and I figured all the negatives could be fixed pretty easy.  *grin*   LOL.  And they were…just a few hours of elbow grease and painting. 

And that was a project from a few weeks ago but it’s been crazy around here, so let me just finish with: My Life Is Busy, (but it’s better than being dead!)  LOL!