In Hindsight

Regret is a terrible thing.  Life is short and every so often, that fact slams you right in the face and you wish you’d taken more of the opportunities when they were there instead of waiting until you only WISHED they were there.

My uncle (on mom’s side) passed away over the weekend and although he hasn’t been in good health for many years, it’s never easy to lose someone you love.  He didn’t live close by and it was hard to get away to go down there, but now I wish I’d made the trip a few more times before now.  I wish, I wish, I wish. 

I drove down yesterday morning to be there for the receiving of friends yesterday evening (and yes, it felt like too little, too late, but I needed to make the effort) and then drove back home afterwards so I could be here to take the kids back to school this morning and would only have to find a couple of hours of childcare between after school and KC getting home (by the way, huge thank you to KC’s mom for doing that).  So while I was sitting there in the funeral home last night, I got to listen to my uncle’s brother (who I had never met before) talk…he sounded SO much like my uncle.  It was wonderful and sad at the same time. 

I’ll never forget my uncle…he called everybody “Sug" (like short for Sugar), he “carried us to the store” to get candy when we were kids, he would bring us vegetables from his garden, take us for rides on his tractor, he was famous for his barbeque, I loved listening to him talk to my dad about his jobs pulling wire for the electric company, he loved people, I don’t even remember how many times I heard him talking about “the good Lord above,” he could send a kickball sky high with his fist for us kids to chase…and he did…many times, he loved his diet pepsi and nutty bars, and even though I wasn’t one of his grandkids, he loved me like I was.  I didn’t see him as much as I wanted to, or as much as I should have, but boy, I sure do miss him. 

Makes you stop and think about taking the time to appreciate the ones you still have around. 

My goal is to live life with less regrets…because they stink. 

Another one of those things that is way easier to say than to do.  But anyway, I’m beyond exhausted from everything over the last couple of days, and I feel really foggy and maybe this doesn’t make any sense (which is normal, no matter how tired or rested I am), but it’s what I’ve had on my mind over the last couple of days.  And I’m going to end it here and put myself out of this fog and into the bed…may not solve anything, but it might improve it.  =/  Night. 

Adaptation

In Star Trek….not that I know much about it except that I saw the last couple movies that came out…the Borgs were terrible to defeat because of their incredible ability to adapt to the weapons of their enemies.  They were almost impossible to kill because as soon as you phasered or tasered or whatever the star trek weapons are (see I told you how much I don’t know about them)….anyway, as soon as you shot them, they adapted to the frequency and became immune to further hits.  LOL  Somehow, I think Munchkin must be Borg.  No matter how many frequencies we try, she takes a hit and then immediately adapts and is immune. 

You ground her, she’s upset for a minute and then she twists it around to make it a non-consequence…and then she’ll suggest it as a consequence the next time.  “You can ground me from the computer, mom…no biggie.”  “Oh, I don’t get to go do the fun thing I wanted to do this weekend…but I’d rather stay home anyway.”  “Oh this terrible awful no-good homework assignment….it’s fun…I love reports.”

Whaaaaaaa???

Resistance is futile…next I’ll be assimilated. 

If it wasn’t so stinking frustrating trying to train and stay a step ahead of this EIGHT year old, I’d be really appreciative of her talent for turning bad things into good….

Except, it’s really backwards…when we do fun, awesome things….she finds everything to complain about and turn it into bad.  Lord help us. 

How do you parent a contrary Borg?  

Ill-equipped

Some days I just don’t feel like I know what I’m doing.  I could go into detail, but that old saying comes to mind: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” 

And so, I just muddle on through….one day at a time.  Some days I LOOK like I know what I’m doing. 

Other days I just drink an extra Dr. Pepper….or three.

I thought about quitting again. By the third one, I decided that was a bad idea.  It’s not such a bad vice, really. 

I’m really into changing the subject at random. 

Today’s Facebook Status: Teachers are GROSSLY underpaid. I have 18 kids in Munchkin’s third grade class by myself for two hours so the real teacher can get a two hour lunch....how DO teachers do this every day, all day without violating the sixth commandment??? Lol ;-)

The sixth commandment part was just being funny…don’t take me seriously on that one.  LOL.  Also, it’s not the one about committing adultery…lol…I checked and triple checked to make sure I didn’t put that one….lol. 

I think I’m not so well equipped to be a blogger either sometimes.  There is literally no point whatsoever to this post since I’ve already decided I’m not going to talk about what’s REALLY on my mind. 

I shouldn’t blog after midnight and three (large) DP's.  Bad idea.  But after three (lg) DP’s, sleep isn’t working either. 

However, this is worse, so I think I’ll go try sleep again.  If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll start writing out the terrible awful homework assignment on Honesty and the Negative Effects of Being Sneaky for the little miss in the house.  Pooh…I don’t know what we’re going to do with her…I can’t figure out what she’s thinking.  This is like the 15th time we’ve had this conversation on Honesty, and the 4th for this very specific issue of disappearing papers between school and home.  So.  The terrible awful no-good homework assignment for this weekend…I’m thinking I’ll start with making her look up and copy off some definitions of honesty and deceit and then write a report comparing the two (because sheesh, that’s what they do in third grade these days!).  I’m not sure if I should add to that or not…or what I should add to it.  All I know is somehow, she’s got to figure out that she needs to use her amazing intelligence in ways OTHER than manipulating the system.   Kids are gonna be kids…that’s just all there is to it…I get that…but I don’t get lying when you know everyone has proof of the truth already and that all you’re gonna get is trouble for your efforts.  What would make you do that?  Or how do you deal with a kid who does?

Okay, I spent enough time on that thought to make me sleepy…night now. 

Soo.

I don’t even know where to start. 

First of all, I’m not saying fall is my favorite or anything, because I am fiercely loyal to flip-flop and pool season, but the colors turned GORGEOUS while we were gone.  It’s making my fingers itch to pick up my sketchbook and pencils and try to copy God’s awesomely colorful landscapes. 

Second of all, our internet is making me insanely and unreasonably angry.  I shouldn’t blame the internet…it’s actually a router issue.  But what’s making me angry is that one computer will be working fine and the other just randomly bombs out….and a while later…vice versa.  UGH.  But I suppose as long as I’m not being violent or hurting anyone, everything’s good and I can pass on anger management classes…lol.

On the subject of classes I don’t have to take…I got a surprising email from school that my classes I took in 2001 will transfer to current.  Last time I considered going back to school, the other school I was looking into told me that I wouldn’t get transfer credit from those classes because they were over 10 years old.  So I was expecting to have to take them again, and I was super excited to see that email saying that’s four credit hours on my current transcript.  Might have done a little tiny happy dance…lol.  Now, fingers crossed that it wasn’t a mistake.  Haha.  And with the price of credit hours now, it will be BEAUTIFUL if it’s for real!  *grin*  So I’m just waiting for registration to open in November so I can get back to this thing. 

Internet’s still down….and it’s late…I don’t know why I’m still typing because this won’t post until it’s working again.  *sigh* 

Oh, one last thing…I took pictures of my cousin’s kids this week.  They are SOO adorable.  They aren’t real keen on posing, but I snapped until I had something to work with…

So as usual…I’ll spill a little secret here and say this next photo only had two kids in it originally, and in the original photo, only one kid’s head was turned toward the camera.  There was one thing I couldn’t change though, so every time I look at this one, I know it’s photoshopped because I see it.

It’s a pretty major issue, so let’s see if you can figure it out.  *grin* 

And now, I’m going to go see if I can figure out how to make my computer get back on the internet so I can post this.  =) 

Overflow

Holy COW, the pictures!  There is NO shortage of pictures from this vacation…that’s for sure.  But I’ve gone through them all now (except for the ones on KC’s video camera) and picked out a few thousand to post on here….lol. 

So we left on Friday the 5th at lunchtime, drove 9 hours and spent the night about half an hour above Orlando, then got up the next morning and drove through Orlando…

Past all the Disney signs and subtle MICKEY clues. 

 

No, we didn’t stop.  We drove for another hour down to Legoland!  And THEN we stopped…much to the kids delight!  K-man was in seventh heaven.  It was really really cool! 

		Legoland VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then, we called it a day there about 4pm and hit the road again down to Fort Lauderdale for the night (another several hours driving). 

The next morning, we got up and got moving, KC took K-man to Target for any last minute things on our list and I took Munchkin over to the laundromat near the hotel to wash up our weekend clothes so everything would be clean before we got on the ship. 

Laundromats are a great place to see strange people…just saying.  This one strange person gave me a complex while I was there…she kept looking at me and cackling under her breath.  Awkward.  lol

Anyway, then we got on the ship and the next seven days I felt like a princess.  Didn’t have to cook, or make my bed, or clean the bathroom or ANYTHING. 

So enough talk, I’m out of time….here’s a thousand pictures (or maybe just 119)…lol  =)  The usual disclaimers apply…=) 

Cruise 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Oh yeah, one last thing: MY WASHER WORKS AGAIN!  Hallelujah!!!  I called tech support and talked to someone who barely spoke English, and they told me what was wrong with it and how to fix it.  Apparently there is a filter in the bottom of the machine that I didn’t know about…and hasn’t been cleaned in the entire life of the machine (almost three years).  Dur.  But it’s fixed…for free!  And laundry mountain has been reduced to a molehill.  Now it’s Ironing Mountain that must be moved.  *sigh* 

Home Again

Well, last week was great….

I knew it would be, when I was washing the last of our clothes to pack, and a pair of socks came out of the dryer almost perfectly matched up and ready to fold.  Just like that.  Hahaha.  Of course, then the washer went on strike and didn’t cooperate with my schedule at ALL, so I’m not sure what that was about. 

We just left it and now we’re home and I’m thinking about how in the world I’m going to get all those suitcases full of dirty laundry clean again. 

But vacation was awesome….and now for the frustrating part…trying to get the pictures uploaded.  I am so annoyed with this crazy expensive photo package we bought from our trip that is not uploading and unlocking to let us get our photos.  UGH! 

It gave me these, and while I’m thankful for that, we had a TON of good ones that I wanted to grab off there and it won’t let us.  So KC is trying the un-install/re-install thing, and we’ll see how far he gets or if I get to call Tech Support tomorrow to try to get our pictures that way.  SO annoying.  

Oh! Oh, OH!  That WORKED.  I love that Hunny of mine.  He’s so handy.

Anyway, so in a nutshell, we went on a cruise (kids, too) and it was an amazing trip.  However, we got off the ship at 6:30am (after getting ready and eating breakfast at 5:30am) and then left Fort Lauderdale at 7am and drove non-stop back home to NC and I am exhausted and it still feels like the world is rocking around me, so I think I’m going to go walk the dogs and then go to bed and worry about pictures and details and washer repairs tomorrow. 

Savvy?  Yah.  I agree.