I do NOT think so

Let me rant here.
I realize I live in the back woods of the world, but give me a freaking break.

The idiots who run our school system have asked for my kids SS number every single year they have been in school. That pisses e off enough.

My youngest is in the 11th grade this year.
Want to know what she came home with yesterday?
Let me tell you any way.

A A***** County Public School Registration form.
Let me point out, if you count Kindergarden this is her 12th year in their school system.

Want to know what information they want?
Well let me tell you anyway.

Her SS# as usual, but they have added a new twist to it.
They want her Birth Certificate Number... WTF? She is going to school not going under cover for Homeland Security.

They are NOT getting it.
Let the school wars begin. Mama Bear is pissed and there is NO WAY I am trusting these idiots with this information.

To big to squish

You all know. You see it. You want to kill it. Then you think....Ewwwww that thing just has way to much guts going on to squish. If parts of it stick out from under your sneaker, it maybe time to rethink the whole thing.

Well lately that is the story with my little beagle. Who keeps laying with her head right where I put my feet down to get off my stool. As annoyed as I get. I keep thinking, she is a little to big to squish and I bet beagle is a real bitch to get out of the carpet.....lol

Blessings

I've lived in the same small town for the last 22 years.
I'm not sure live is correct word. Maybe existed is.
I raised my kids here. Did the school mom thing, the baseball mom thing, the Pioneer girl thing, the cub scout thing.
Yet I would still use the word exist, because I never really connected to any of the people who I did these things with. Once the game, meeting or event was over we all went out separate ways.

Then at the beginning of this year we started going to church.

I'm not going to tell you that nothing bad ever happens to church goers, because that would be a lie.
I will tell you when you give yourself to Jesus and attend church, the blessings do start pouring in.

Our Pastors Sister and BIL moved here six weeks ago to open up a restaurant.
They happen to have a 16 year old daughter, new to the area and in the need of friends.
I happen to be the mom of one of the friendliest 16 year old girls there is...HHmmmm See where this is going?
Because the girls hang out. We've had reason to spend time with her parents outside of church. I really like her parents. Which of course gives us another common link to our Pastor and his wife.

Think of the Game "6 degrees of Kevin Beacon." The same theory applies here.
We are all connected in different ways with church being the common link.

After all these years I finally feel like, I live here. I finally have that sense of community that I have been missing for so long.

Where have these people been, all these years? If wanted to be honest, I know where they have been. They have been right here. They are the same people I have barely glanced at in the store. Barely nodded at, as I passed them on the street.

They are also the same people I would see as they interacted with each other. Which left me wondering, how is it they all seem to know each other? Why is it that my kid and their kids are on the same team, in the same class, belong to the same club. Yet I'm off to the side. What is their common bond?

Now I know. Because when you find your church. It's like finding your family. When your surrounded by family, your never alone.

The Greatest American Dog

I waste an hour of my life every Wednesday watching this show. I'm hooked on it. I'm fairly convinced the young good looking easy going guy is going to win it. The judges seem to really like him.

As much as I like watching it. It's some what depressing to me as I look over at my own dogs and realize there is no hope.......lol

Besides the fact that both of them act more like slugs then dogs. They do nothing on command.
Sure they lay down. All the time. Cody sits cause it's easier then standing. Molly she doesn't do any thing at all. Well she would probably excel in the Stay command competition. Cause not staying requires movement and she just isn't in to that at all.

If they had a category for laying in walk ways. Cody would win for sure.
Molly would take home any prize at involved shedding.
Here they are doing what they do best.



Now that I think about it. Do I really want 2 dogs that are running and jumping all over the place?

I'm thinking these two are okay just the way they are.

A Big People Dinner

Bill and I had a couple from our church over for dinner.
Since we are pretty new to the church, we really do not know the couple well.

Every thing went great. They were right on time. The food was good. The conversation was good. We even got to go across the street for the 3 year olds birthday and have some cake.

After cake we came back and settled in for some more conversation.
It was then that Libby decided to drop the F-Bomb in the middle of our talk.

This is Libby


Gwad I love that kid......LMAO
Dinner $35.00
Desert $25.00
Your kid letting your church know, what your really all about PRICELESS.

Yea, I all ready have the MOTY award, but I did go dust it off after that.

What I wanted and What I got

What I wanted was a yappy little little lap dog.
You know the ones that scream, put a bow in my hair. The ones you see sitting on people laps while they drive down the road.

What I got was this

This is Molly.
Molly is a mini beagle. Her look is the only part of her that resembles a beagle.
She is not a happy loves everybody type puppy, the way most beagles are.
She is also not much of a lap dog.
In fact Molly's favorite past time seems to be doing her Eeyore impression. As you can see in this picture. Head hanging looking sad is by far her favorite look.

Just about the time I think I need to find a good doggie therapist. She snaps out of it and acts like a happy go lucky dog for about 5 or 10 minutes.

As you can see from the photos, I tied a bow to her collar. She isn't the least bit happy about it, but then I'm not to happy with her either. If she isn't going to live up to being my lap dog. She can at least look like one while laying under the table.

Tag your it.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

Gee thanks Lori.......lol
First I don't have 7 songs I'm in to.
Second I don't have 7 people that read this blog.
I'm going to give it half a try.

Avenge7fold Seize the Day
This song sums up my sons life when he went to jail.
I can still barely listen to it with out crying.

Poison
Every Rose has a Thorn
This one pretty much summed up one of my kids love life 2 years ago.
It just screams teenage love.....lol

Aerosmith
Just Push Play
Because it's just a fun song.

Guns-N-Roses
Paradise City
Sweet child of mine.
I love 80s rock and I just never seem to get enough of it.

Nickleback
Rock Star
Just a fun song to listen to

Rascal Flatts
Highway I think that is the name of it.
Just another fun song with a catchy beat.

As far as tagging anyone.
Let's just say if you read this, your tagged.....lol

Verizon Oh how I hate you

Where have I been?
Well July 4th we had a thunder and lightening storm come threw and I believe my router and modem were hit threw the phone line. I say phone line because they worked with each other after the storm, but not with the rest of the internet. So I need to order new stuff. Can't do that until Monday.
So I spent the weekend interntless. Not as hard as I thought it would be...lol Cleaned some, read some. By the time Monday rolled around I was amazed that I was okay. No shakes, my appetite was okay. I could still focus. Didn't snap at my family or anything.
I decided not to push my luck and get on the phone and call Verizon.
That is when the shakes set in. Along with the loss of appetite and the anger issues.
WTF is up with that stupid ass menu of theirs? 10 minutes to get transferred and the line they transfer me to is out of order....Grrrrrrr So I get to hang up and start again.
I hate, hate, hate the recorded voice they use. I swear when you start coping attitude with it. It cops attitude back.
I thought about slamming the phone down on the table a few dozen times, but I'm pretty sure Miss Recorded Bitch doesn't have ears.
When I finally got to a human I was so pissed off, it took every thing I had not to take it out all over her. Then to top it all off. I find out they only ship UPS ground.
Whatever I'll be off line for a month. I don't care just as long as I don't have to call Verizon back.
Turns out it took one day to get here and now I'm back.
Anybody miss me?

Happy Birthday Buddy

He's 5

Because that is the answer I would have given...bawahahaha

Grandmas don't know everything


Little Tony was staying with his grandmother for a few days He'd
been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked her, 'Grandma, what's that called when two people sleep in the same room and one is on top of the other?'
She was a little taken back, but she decided to just tell him the
truth. 'It's called sexual intercourse, darling.' Little Tony
just said, 'Oh, OK,' and went back outside to play with the other kids.
A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, 'Grandma, it
isn't called sexual intercourse. It's called Bunk Beds. And Jimmy's
Mom wants to talk to you.'

Mail Call or not

I live in a small town and for the most part, it's nice.
It does have a few bleeps. Mail is one of them.
When I first moved here they had no mail delivery at all. You had to get a PO Box. We did. In fact we got two. One for us. One for our company.
Every year the cost of the box got a little bit higher. People started complaining. Then we find out that if you can not get mail delivery, the Post Office must provide you with a PO Box. A small box. The kind of box that a standard envelope gets mangled in.
We opted to stay with our current larger boxes.
Over the years they started delivering to some parts and we fall in those parts.
Last year when the company box hit 70.00 Bill got pissed.
This year when it hit a 100.00 he really got pissed. So pissed in fact he built us a mail box.
This mail box.


As you can see the mail box is made out of stainless steel. Thought behind that was in case some punk tried to take out the mail box, the mail box would take the punk out instead.

On to the change of address.
Putting up the mail box has cause our mail to just about disappear. Well it's out there some where, just not in our box.
It seems our mail comes to our post office and they send it some where else to have a forwarding address put on it and then if we are lucky it gets sent back t our post office and then put on the truck to be delivered to us .......ugh.

My new theory is, if I don't get my bills I don't have to pay my bills. It's the little things that let me sleep at night.....lol

They're Dino shaped

Libby has a rule. She has to text me when she gets to school. Two days in a row she forgot. Two days of wondering if she had an accident on her way there was more then enough for me.

So last night during dinner, I told her if she forgets again she would lose the car for a day and she could take the bus.

The look of death, the eye roll and the "How long am I going to have to do this?" Would have been a whole lot more impressive had she not been pushing dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets around on her plate.

In fact it make her look like such a kid I added two weeks to the time frame :P......LMAO

No really it's a true story

I wanted some water. So I went to the cabinet to get a glass.
I decided there was no point in dirtying a glass I would just go upstairs, get my water bottle. I needed to get it filled any way.
Got half way up the stairs and decided, I might as well take up the clean close on my way.
So I went and got them. went up the stairs and started putting them away.
I opened the closet and noticed Bill had hung one of his shirts on my side
That caused me to take a good hard look at the closet, which I then had to over haul.
While I was in our room I figured I might as well give the bath room a once over.
After getting done with all of that. I grabbed the dirty laundry and carried them down the stairs. While by the washer I decided to start a load of wash.
Came back in to the kitchen and realized I had forgotten the water bottle
So back up the stairs for the bottle.

No one in this family can figure out how filling a water bottle made me tired

It's a milestone

Well it's official. My youngest is driving.
The milestone is as much mine as it is hers.
No more carting her around. No more phone calls "Mom can you come pick me up, I don't feel like walking. Mom can you drive Kyle home? Mom can you take us....?"
It's a bitter sweet one. We both have new freedom. Which is good.
It also means My youngest child is almost a full grown adult. It makes me wonder what life will be like when the day comes that she is moved out and living on her own.
Of course it has also cause it's own stress. Every time she gets behind the wheel I worry.
My new found faith does not stop that worry. My Pastor and his wife lost their son 2 years ago in a traffic accident. He was 19.
Sort of makes you wonder how any one who has been put threw that can have any faith, never mind faith as strong as theirs.
Well Tammy ( Pastors wife ) answered that question for me.
It all comes down to free will. If God stepped in and stopped all the bad from happening, then we wouldn't have free will. We would have his will.
There is God doing good. There is Satan doing evil.
Just like God will nudge you in the right direction. Satan will nudge you in the wrong direction.
So this is something I have to keep in mind. Believing will not keep my daughter safe. Praying will help, but it's no guarantee. I can only pray that she listens to the good nudges and not the bad ones. That the people on the road with her are doing the same.
I also made her the saying to hang on her mirror.
It says " Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly" Just a quiet reminder.
So until I am use to this new way. Until I'm sure she can handle the traffic and these narrow bumpy roads, with ditches on the sides in stead of shoulders. I will be a little more distracted.I will spend a little more time watching the clock. I will be alot happier when she comes threw the door.

What keeps you sane?

For me it's turned out to be church.
I realized it gives me a lot of things I've been missing.
Besides the fellowship, which is so important. Today's topic at Sunday school if finances.
HHmmm something I could use some help in.
My point is our church covers real life issues. Things that we can use and apply every day.
It amazes me how when we walk threw the doors to the church. Everything else just fades away. It has turned out to be two very stress free hours, that I look foward to every week.

It has also helped me let go of some things.
One being my myspace. In case anyone noticed it missing. I deleted it.
It was really just a sorce of stress. Don't ask me why, it just was.
Two, I feel calmer inside. My worry level over my kids has dropped.
In fact my worry level over a lot of things has dropped.

Stuck in the middle with you

My mom went and had hip replacement surgery. Which puts her pretty much in recovery mode for the next several months. Right now she can't even be left alone.
Her SO's daughter is an RN and came to stay to help out.
Only her father ended up in the hospital with Ecoli bacteria in his blood stream the day after my moms surgery.
So I've been making a daily trek to my moms so Carole can go see her father.
He should be coming home today with a pic line so he can get his meds.
I now know what people are talking about when they say they are trapped between their kids and their parents being the care giver. Lucky for me 2 of mine are adults and the youngest is 16.
Although she has had some where she has had to be dropped of at or picked up from almost every day since this has been going on.
I think I have developed a permanent headache.

How would you survive?

I just finished reading a 2 book series called Last Light, Night Light By Terri blackstock.

If you've never heard of her, she is a Christian Fiction writer.

Basically the story is about the earth being hit with an EMP pulse. That lovely little thing that would knock out and destroy all of our electronics. Only in this story they determined that the pulse is coming from a star that died back in 1998 and has just now reached us. The real downer is as the star is spinning in space it keeps on hitting us with these pulses as it rotates. We can't even build new stuff and have them work.

The story follows one upper middle class family.

It totally gives you something to think about.
Have city water?
Well that won't be working.
Have a well water?
Nope not working either because of your pump.

Do you live any where near a body of water?
One that you can walk to? Because your car is no longer working.
Your neighbors are more then willing to kill you for your bicycle if you have one.

See where this going?

Can't count on any government help. They are all in the dark too. In fact the whole world is.

It also pointed out a few terrifying things for us parents.
What if your at work 10 miles away from home and your kids are at school 5 miles from home in the other direction? That is a 15 mile walk just to get to them.

How long would it take an out of shape 35 year old woman to walk 15 miles? Worse yet what if she still had a baby she had to bring with her?

Then there is the fact that you can't get to a hospital or the police can't respond.

Oh and just hope you weren't in a plane because they all fell out of the sky.
If a loved one was away traveling, don't plan on them getting home at all.

These books instantly throw you in to survival mode.

If you enjoy a good story that makes you think. I highly suggest these books.

I own it, yet I don't

My lovely youngest child is entering the world of driving.
As we did with her older siblings, we are giving her a car.

In this case the best choice was our company owned vehicle.

So yesterday we bought back our car, from our company, so we could give it to our daughter.

I don't know about any one else, but to me this is wrong on "oh" so many levels.

Yet another good screwing from our lovely government. It just maybe time to send them some flowers :P

Went to the mall today. Went to go to the candy store and noticed it was gone. In it's place they are putting in a jewelry store. Next to the jewelry store that is already there
You can form your own opinion on that.

The Best Water Filter ever...NOT

About 10 years ago, we invested in a Rain Soft top of the line water filter with a reverse ozmosis system for the our drinking water.
$5000.00 financed dollars at loan shark interest rates.
Took us forever and a day to pay off.
We did this because we live in a small town, who's idea of keeping the water clean is to add chlorine to it.
So for the sake of having clean soft water and because I was tired of having my washing machines and dishwashers rust out on me, we went ahead and put our selves in major debt that we couldn't afford at the time and bought it.
Now it's many years later it's paid off and we own it.
Since we have paid it off and the warrenty has expired every once in a while this thing loses it's little electronic mind. Today is one of those days. It has kicked in and backwashed it self 4 times to far. Which I am sure is doing lovely things to my water bill.
Unplugging it does no good. It just continues on with what it is doing. So right now I'm sitting here waiting once again for it to stop. I'm hoping unplugging it while it's not doing anything will stop it from starting back up again. Because when you cut the power to something electric it's suppose to stop it from being able to work, right. RIGHT?
At this point I'm not so sure and I have no freaking idea what so ever how one un-possesses a possessed water filter. If you can't tell the fact that it still runs with out power to it, has me we bit freaked out.
This is one of those blog posts that will require an update at a later time.

Lifes Mysteries

I walked in to my daughters bathroom this morning and found this

If your wondering what "this" is. It's what's left of a tubeless roll of toilet paper, sitting on top of the empty tube.

How does this happen?

Really, don't bother to answer. Because I'm sure I don't want to know.

Jake

He is turning 5 this summer and starting kindergarten in the fall.
If you know Jake at all, then you know he is a very old soul in a very young body.
When you look in to his crystal blue eyes, you can see the depths of his mind working.

He is also a master manipulator. He threw me in to a guilt trip a couple of weeks ago and melted my heart at the same time.

One of my favorite things about Jake is he is much like talking to a small adult. He has the vocabulary of one and his range of topics are way above his age level.

I think the one thing that I admire most about him is, he is highly organized.
I was warned by many a mom to avoid Play-Doh at all costs.
That even having him sit at the table I would still be peeling it off my drapes.
Well not with Jake. The Pay-Doh has always stayed on the table on the mat I provide, with the colors separated.
In fact he is like that with everything I give him to play with.

The problem I do have with him is his self imposed goal of perfection. If he sets out to do something he wants to do it and he wants to do it well.
If it doesn't turn out well, we risk melt down.

Like the day we gave him a kite to fly. There was no wind, but he tried. He ran the length of our field until he couldn't run any more. He wasn't to happy when he had wore himself out and still hadn't gotten the kite to fly.

I think one of my most enjoyable days was when I went to watch him play soccer.
Maybe I should say when I went to watch him check out the grass growing on the soccer field.....lol
He had no interest in the sport at all. Plus he was a foot shorter then every other child on the field. As much as he tired, he spent most the day running towards his team mates because he just couldn't keep up....lol After a while he completely lost interest in the game and found interesting things on the ground and in the sky to look at.

It was a total delight watching him be a 4 year old, while watching his father slowly figure out that Jake was not going to be the next Beckman.
This year I believe it will be T-Ball. Maybe Jake will be a little more focused. I doubt it, focus is not his problem. In fact he doesn't have a problem. Jake is artistic like his Grandfather and his Aunt Libby. Give him some paper and something to draw with and then sit back and watch the magic happen.
Magic happens when you give him anything he can create something with.

Beautiful things come in little packages.

Wash with like colors

In cold water, no bleach.
The shirt is white, with Red, blue and pink lettering on it.
So do I have to find other pieces of clothing that are white, red, blue and pink?
Can I just find some thing that is white, some thing red, some thing blue and some thing pink?

Lets face the ugly truth here.
First the shirt is mostly white so every fiber of my being wants to toss it in hot water and bleach with the rest of the white cloths.
I can't do that.
Because the shirt is mostly white if I toss it in with the colors, even in cold. It' s not going to white for to long.
So the fact is. The assholes that made this shirt. Also made the 4th pile of laundry.
Whites
Darks
Lights
This shirt