Concert mode

As we head into December, that can only mean one thing...no, not panic that I haven't bought any presents yet (that panic will hit the week of Christmas)...it's concert time!

The season usually kicks off with the annual Hometown Holiday parade in downtown Conyers. The church always put a float in. The parade is directly followed by the Tree Lighting in front of the courthouse. Guess where the parade doesn't end? Which means whichever child is performing at the tree lighting (they invite schools and area dance studios to come out) has to be hustled from the high school where the parade DOES end, down backroads back to the courthouse and try to get there on time. Usually as school staff personnel, I've been roped into being a child corraler for the school's chorus, too. Last year we decided the better course of action would be to stop the float momentarily on the parade route and have Jo and me hop out. Easier said than done for Miss Graceless here. Apparently the sight of me hopping over the side of the float last year was truly a wonder to behold as year later I'm STILL getting Lorie's eyebrow popping up when she talks about it. In my head, of course, I looked like a gazelle I tell you!

This year I lucked out. No one is involved in any dance troupe/class and Jo's elementary school teacher is out on maternity leave. It was lovely to ride the float without worrying about time, get off the float at the high school, go my car and drive home...especially given the temperatures. Visions of Lorie's almost frostbitten feet one year after walking through a wet parade route and then singing in freezing temperatures still haunt me.

Monday and Tuesday the high school had their Prism Concert, which is their name for the fine arts showcase. I went on Tuesday and was so impressed with the performers. It really was beautiful. It could have been so much better if the audience had behaved better. I don't think I'll ever understand how you can go to a performance and talk the whole time, or burst out laughing at inappropriate areas, or spend the entire time texting! Seriously, one teen behind me would talk louder when the music got louder! Then he decided that it was necessary to whistle to get the attention of a girl in the audience! But it wasn't just teens...it was adults, too. Listen, I like a cute kid as much as the next person...but I came to listen to the performance not your kid hitting a toy or cup against something or jabber and have you jabber back to them. It boggles my mind that people cannot go to a performance and let the performers have their attention! But off the soapbox.

Next Monday and Tuesday I have the middle school band and chorus concerts to attend. Those are always lessons in futility. I support my kids and support the fine arts in the schools, but those performances are usually things only a mom can handle. :)

Follow the middle school concerts with the adult choir performance on the 20th and then I'm footloose and fancy-free. Guess that means I won't have any more excuses to not shop!

Remembering little Lorie

Lorie turned 15 today. She's beautiful...inside and out. I can't take any credit for her physical beauty...she looks more like my sister than she does me. I hope I can take some credit for her inner beauty, but seeing that I act more like a temperamental, immature 12-year old boy (my apologies to any 12 year old boys) , I'm not sure I can take credit for that either...that would be due to the calm, solid nature of the Hubby.

On her birthday I can't help but remember the first few weeks of her life and just how scared I was. She had jaundice, but that was something we'd gone through with little Kenny. I knew as soon as her system decided to kick in, things would be fine. Jaundice and breastfeeding kind of go hand-in-hand. But the day she was cleared by the doctor, he gave the news this way, "We have good news and bad news for you." Never a good sign. I was by myself with Lorie. Mom (if I remember correctly) was at the house with little Kenny, so I had to deal with whatever the "bad news" was all by myself as this was before the cell phone became part of my life. The good news was that her bilirubin levels were fine so the jaundice situation was over. The bad news was that they detected a heart murmur and I needed to take Lorie to the hospital immediately and get an EKG. I still remember thinking, "crud, I'm in white pants", which will be a duh moment for anyone that has been one week postpartum...if you haven't, you don't want to know. Anyhow, the doctor's office was right next door to the hospital so I packed her up and drove her over to the hospital. I remember walking around the hospital being directed to where I needed to go with a big diaper bag and that mammoth-feeling car seat. The technicians that hooked Lorie up to the EKG machine weren't really very soothing. They were nervous because they'd never done this with a child so young. Stoic and strong...that was the word for me. I'd called Mom before going to the hospital to let her know not to expect me home and to let her know what had happened. She got in touch with Kenny and somehow, someway he tracked me down. The phone rang and it was him...that's when I lost it. I can remember being numb and just needing to get through it and then as soon as I heard Kenny's voice, it all became very real and very scary.

She was eventually diagnosed as having two VSDs (ventricular septum defect) and we had to make a number of visits to a pediatric cardiologist. Those were heartwrenching as Lorie was a very healthy, robust type of child and when we'd go to the cardiologist there would be parents in the waiting room with their babies who were thin and obviously not doing well. Lorie was released from the cardiologist's care when she was two. They determined that the holes had closed.


Seems like yesterday sometimes...I am so grateful for my girl!

Fall, fall, fall

It must be fall...the weather is turning cooler, if not downright cold, and Halloween is right around the corner. Right now I've got a definite case of the blahs. It's hard to get excited about anything and I seem to be able to find fault with EVERYTHING! If I dressed up as a Whiney-Butt for Halloween, I'm afraid I'd just have to dress as myself. What's even worse is that I can't stand to be around people who act like I am! Guess I need to figure out how to get my act together...get those ducks in a row...and all those other cliches that mean "for crying out loud, put your big girl panties on and deal with already!"

Sleep! I just want to sleep!

It seems like all I ever do is sleep. I'm afraid my kids' memories of me will all center around me being in bed. It just seems like I'm always exhausted.

I went in for my thyroid check-up and according to those levels, I should be feel quite perky! (I found out in the spring that I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which means that my thyroid antibodies attach and destroy my thyroid hormones. The symptoms of which were all things that the principal had mentioned having a problem with so if I'd found out about the H.T. sooner, I might not have lost my other position. Dang it.) I shouldn't be as draggy as I am and I shouldn't be bothered by temperature like I am. They suggested getting my iron levels checked to be sure I haven't developed anemia. Great...just what I want more needles stuck in me.

Plus, there's the whole exercise thing. I cannot escape the fact that I resemble a Weeble when I walk. (you know, "Weeble wobble but they won't fall down.) I just wish I wasn't such a procrasinator/exercise-weenie. I hate exercising because it makes my legs and rear itch so badly. Plus, if you exercise properly you will sweat. If you sweat, you will stink. If you stink you need to shower. And I don't have that kind of block time! Now, I realize that really sounds like a load of bad excuses, but they really are valid when you think about them. Of course, I have my kids and their bad habits (modeled after my own) staring me in the face begging me to make a difference.

It really stinks being an adult sometimes. As a child you are told what to do and you can choose to do it or not and face the consequences...but, hey, you're a child. You have an instant "out." But as an adult, knowing what you are supposed to do and not doing it affects your kids, too.

Victory...tastes so sweet

Okay I know that pride goeth before a fall, and I have a nasty habit of tripping over my own feet, but I've been feeling so down about my new position, that surely, SURELY, I can gloat just a teensy-weensy bit without fearing retribution or karma taking a huge hunk out of my rear! (Although, truth be told...there is enough to spare back there.)

I just managed to fix 3 separate computer issues by just using my wits (and my notes, but I had to know what to look up, so that totally counts in this case). I almost danced down the hallway, I felt so good. One was a printer issue, I so don't know what in the world I did but it didn't work when I walked in and it did when I walked out, so it counts. The teacher said her printer wasn't working so I jiggled all the connections, sat down at her desk and tried to print something...AND IT WORKED. So...onward. I had to change computers that the teacher's ActivBoard was connect to. This isn't hard, just irritating because of all the different cables you have to play with. Plus, the cables from the 4 computers in the same area were one big snake pit. The USB cord wasn't long enough so I ended up having to physically move two computers, then replug them up. Just before I left, I remembered that this teacher had a Document Camera (think really cool overhead projector that puts the picture through the computer and onto the ActivBoard so you can interact with it...only thing is is that it looks like something from outerspace), so I went about installing the software that went with that and in checking to see if I did that right, realized that the new computer I'd hooked up to the ActivBoard didn't have the software on it to run it! I added that (with just a little help from my notes) and before I left had the ActivBoard AND Document Camera running. Then I popped into my friendly library to check on the media specialist's laptop and try to figure out if I could get her connected to the wireless network. Thanks to my amazing notetaking skills, I was able to come up with a solution and teach her something new...which we all enjoy.

Then I did the Big White Girl Rump Bump all the way down the hall to my office.

YES! Well, the glory of that moment is now over and done. Back to life as I know it. But at least I have this documented for all posterity (or until something happens to Blogger) and can come back and read it to enjoy the thrill of victory another time when I'm down in the dumps because all I could do is say, "I don't know how to fix that. I'll have to check with Lisa."

you can take the momma out of the home...

But you can't take the momma out of the woman! So I'm at work and as happens in humans I eventually need to use the facilities. All of the adult restrooms here at school are one-stallers and all are on the classroom halls except for the one off the teacher workroom (which is ALWAYS busy) and the one in the principal's office (which is kinda off-limits). So I'm taking care of business and hear this noise...and it's not coming from me! Now I'm not one of those who likes to use public facilities in the first place. I like to have my own space with my own things and I really like to feel that I can control my surroundings a bit. After all, in my own bathroom I no problem announcing to whoever it is outside the door that, "I'm in the bathroom. Unless someone is about to bleed to death or the house is on fire...LEAVE ME ALONE!" But I've found that that kind of attitude is just not as acceptable in the workplace.

So I'm hearing this noise that somewhat like feet scuffing...not an uncommon sound on kindergarten hall. But I purposely planned this bathroom break for a time when the little crumb-catchers are supposed to safely be in their rooms at naptime! I try to crane my ear to catch more sounds to help discern what it is that I'm hearing while at the same time concentrating on the task at hand so I can leave the room as quickly as possible. And then it hits me...the sink is dripping. That's the sound I heard that caused all this internal ruckus in my head.

Sometimes I just have to shake my head over my own insanity!

High and dry

So the last few days have been cuh-razy! Rainfall that hasn't been seen for over 100 years and rivers flooding all over the place! Our county closed schools yesterday because there were so many roads that were flooded or bridges that had water OVER them and engineers couldn't get close enough to check for any structural damage. The news shows were absolutely horrifying. So far there are 10 deaths directly caused by the flooding. One shot they showed over and over was a school in Austell had water up to their eaves. In fact, the school had to be evacuated because the water was coming into the school while students were still there!

We have families in our school that have been evacuated and have no idea what's going on with their homes. I think it's a wakeup call that our lovely "emergency" plans aren't quite what they should be. Now, noone thought the rivers would ever rise to 20+ feet, but they did. And they may do it again. But if they do...will we be ready? Or will we bury our heads in the sand, forget about the lessons we should be learning from this, and say that everything is fine?

My heart goes out to those who are now at the mercy of others. Everyone WANTS to help, but who actually does put action to words? I also wonder just how much finger pointing and blame will be shoved around while those whose lives have been put on indefinite hold end up being poster children for whoever screams the loudest!

To flu shot or not to flu shot

So it's that time of year again, the county nurses come and set up shop for about 45 minutes and give flu shots. Usually there's a cash-only $25 fee, but with our new insurance we just have to provide a copy of the front and back. Bing, bang, boom and Bob's your uncle! So this morning as I turn on my computer and open my Outlook I see a reminder that today is flu shot day. I've gotten a flu shot every year that I've worked here (5 years now) and never had a problem other than a vaguely achey arm. My boss however shares her story of how she and her husband came down with vicious flu-like symptoms within 30 minutes of their flu shot and she's never having one again. Ah well, to each his or her own. But that's now in the back of my head...have I ever mentioned that I have real problems with being open to suggestions? Anyhow, I fill out my paperwork, make my copy of my insurance card (front and back) and dutifully go the conference room to get my shot.

It's now four hours later...my head is killing me and feels like I've got a 10-lb brick inside it, my body aches and I just don't feel like being nice AT ALL! Luckily my boss is in a meeting and I've just got to get through 1o more minutes and I can blow this joint. I do have to rally enough to make dinner and put in an appearance at the ladies meeting at church. But I plan on going home and taking a small nap to get me over the hump...I hope.

Good thing I didn't get cocky and get the pneumonia vaccine and my tetanus booster!

Thoughts from the kindergarten hall...

So my "new digs" with this job is a room that is not quite a closet on the kindergarten hall. We're starting our 7th week of school (cuz here in Jaw-ga, we start school in the freakin' summer...but don't get me started on my opinion on having the same school year start date nationwide, which would be after Labor Day, like normal people) so I feel that I've got the "vibe" down here now.

For the first thing, it's very loud down here. Little people like to make noise. The teachers are over-emphasize, over-enunciate, over-everything to make sure these crumb-catchers listen and understand. While we're still in the "getting used to school" days, the kids like to sing loudly in the bathroom. Instead of having one room for boys, one room for girls with multiple receptacles, they have individual rooms that have a small toilet and lowered sink: 4 for the boys and 4 for the girls. When the kids go into the rooms, there's a lovely echo because it's all tile. We get serenaded many times during the week...reminds me of Boo from Monsters, Inc.

Speaking of bathrooms brings me to the second thing I have to get used to here on Kindergarten Hall...the smell. The grout in the bathrooms apparently holds onto things. Depending on how good their aim is, sometimes the overwhelming Habit-Trail smell gets to me. I've put Renuzits in my office, but that doesn't always help. Funny anecdote: Kenny came and visited me a couple weeks ago, so I showed him my new office. Kenny came just inside the door, talked to Lisa and then I walked him back to the car. He asked, "Does Lisa have a problem with B.O.?" She doesn't, I promise...it's the kindergarten bathrooms!

The last thing to get used to is the popularity problem, it's virtually impossible to sit in here with the door shut without feeling claustrophobic (did I mention it's close to being a closet and there are two of us in here?), so that means as the 100+ kindergartens go up and down the hallway, they pop their heads in and say "hi" and some of the more adventurous ones actually come into the room with a "whatcha doin?"

But now I'm listening to the theme song of "The Letter People" which brings back memories of my kindergarten time...waiting for Mr. T with the Taaaaaaaaaaall Teeth to be introduced. "Words are made of Letter People. A, B, C, D...follow me!"

Rock on (rock on)!

So last night I went to my first non-Christian concert since the Go-Go's concert in the late 80s. Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick came to a local amphitheatre. Let's jump back to the beginning of this saga...

Last Spring one of the teachers who is friends with Jeanmarie (the school's bookkeeper) sent an email saying that Poison and Def Leppard were coming to Atlanta. She knew I was an 80s band kind of girl. I sent an email saying how neat that was and that we ought to go together...not thinking about the fact that these people actually GO to concerts! :) So the next thing you know I'm part of a group of 6 women who are forking over $85 to get tickets when they came on-sale. I figured that it was the perfect 40th birthday present to myself.

Fast forward six months...I'm no longer in the office and the teacher who brought this up in the first place is at another school. But we all met up in the school's parking lot to drive together. Should have realized how auspicious this would be when some of the tickets were lost. Jeanmarie and the one teacher each bought 3 tickets (Ticketmaster would only you purchase 4 tickets at a time. They each bought 3 figuring we'd trade seats out with other concertgoers so we could sit together). Jeanmarie's dad passed away a week ago, so she gave her tickets to the other teacher in case she didn't make it back. And those were the tickets that came up missing. After about 45 minutes of angst and phone calls to the teachers family asking them to look through pocketbooks and gym bags and the family van, it was brought up that Ticketmaster would give us new tickets since JM bought them via credit card. So she called Ticketmaster and the cloud over the night magically lifted.

After an "interesting" drive to the amphitheatre, we found parking and got to see females using the parking lot as a restroom. (I ask you, what kind of friend lets you cop a squat out in the open without find a jacket or other way to block you from about 5,000 sets of eyes? Or at least points out a convenient patch of trees 10 yards away?) Hmmm...well, since the concert started at 7 and it was 7:02 when we parked, we threaded our way through the parking lot to the Will-Call window to pick up the rest of the tickets. The people-watching was in full swing and so was the boozing. Gotta question the choice of not only attire but shoes for those women who KNEW they would be getting plastered before they even walked (tottered, stumbled, whatever) through the gates.

Tickets in hand, we got through the line at the gate and found our seats. Cheap Trick had about 3 songs left in their set when we got there. We ended up being able to sit together because of empty seats. Funnily enough I saw a couple from the church. I knew they were going to be there, they ended up being 2 rows in front of me. Kind of glad they were in front of me instead of vice-versa cuz I'm well aware of what I look like when I dance. That kind of sight might irrevocably change the way they viewed their pastor's wife. Ha ha.

Cheap Trick ended and they had about a 10-15 window to set u for Poison. I gotta tell you, the Poison set was full of C.C. Deville. I like guitar, but hmmmm. However, that man should really give a shout-out to his dentist. His teeth are amazingly white! I could see his teeth almost better than anything else on the stage!

Def Leppard came out after a quick stagechange and the atmosphere got just electric. The hair on my arms stood out. I couldn't believe I was actually there doing the big-butt White girl dance, but I was. I'm truly surprised that my arms, legs and feet don't ache and I'm REALLY surprised that I actually have a voice!

As truly amazing as I found the concert and seeing these people LIVE that I've only seen on video, I gotta say that the concertgoers gave me almost as much of a show. There are a lot of people my age who really should know better than to drink as much as they do in a public area...especially dressed as they chose to do. You KNOW that in their heads they think they look goooooood and sexy and a heck of a lot younger than they are. The ladies behind me were taking pictures of bad outfit choices and shared them with us during one of the set changes (thankfully, we weren't in the mix) so I know I wasn't the only one thinking this. There were two couples sitting in the row in front of us that were the most, ahem, entertaining. They started the night as two distinct couples, the women slow dancing for the men or on the men, or turned around snuggled up to them...ick, ick, ick. Some time during the first couple Poison songs, the ladies traded off gentlemen and then traded back. Some time in the last couple Poison songs, both ladies managed to drop their beers. The two men looked at each other, threw back what was left in their beer cups and off they and the women went. The rest of of breathed easier (and didn't have to block that part of our peripherel vision anymore...MY EYES!) because Def Leppard was up next and we were all determined to enjoy every second of that set. Two songs in one couple (which was the same man/woman that left) came back. The man sat in a chair right in front of me and leaned back so that he was kind of laying down. The woman sat on his lap and performed a dunken lap dance followed by laying face up on the man as he proceeded to feel up her chest and she texted. They finally...finished (???) and got up to dance drunkenly together again. The other couple came back two songs before the end of D.L. set. Absolutely bizarre.

Def Leppard finished their set with Pour Some Sugar on Me and then came out and did Rock of Ages for their encore. Then it was time to try to get the six of us back to the car. We managed to get there really quickly (probably because we WEREN'T drunk and could weave in and out of bodies without falling over or getting dizzy). However, it took us 30 minutes from the time we got to the car until we hit the blacktop. Considering if the car had been pointing the other way we could have DRIVEN onto the laptop, that was pretty bad. But with Jeanmarie's master skills behind the wheel, we made it back to Conyers by 12:45 and I was in the house relating my night to Kenny.

Oh, and how did my husband take my girls night out? Well, his first text to me asked if I was stoned yet. ("Why yes I am" was my response even though the smoke that got blown in my face was strictly cigarette, no doobies anywhere I saw). He second text was "Do you still have your bra on? Which prompted Jeanmarie to ask if Kenny knew who I was with (My answer to Kenny was, "I hang down to my belly button without my bra...not exactly how to bring the sexy back!").

Right now, it's back to being something "not real" but I know I did it. I have my ticket and I have a couple blurry pictures I took on my phone. I also have some sneakers that smell like beer.

Now to talk Kenny into taking me to the Journey/Night Ranger concert in September! :)

So I have a new job

So far my new job has mostly been answering the question, "how do you like your new job?" The answer is, "I don't know." I'm still pride-sore about being booted from my other one and get a secret nasty pleasure from leaving the front office when it is jam-packed with parents and whatnot and walking down the hall to the closet where my desk is and closing the door. I SHOULD jump in and help because I know very, VERY well how intense the front office is. But, then I figure, if the principal wanted me in the office, she would have kept me in the front office.

My new job is, in a nutshell, basically a computer troubleshooter. Now, ask me how much I know about computers. The answer to that is, um, not much! The way things were supposed to have worked is that I was supposed to have a full semester of training for this new position last year, but with the office as crazy as it is, desperately needing 3 people instead of 2 but instead of adding the 3rd person...that 3rd person replaced me, I didn't get any training. So now I kind of follow along behind the Instructional Technology Specialist (my supervisor) with notebook in hand and try to learn stuff as I go. Today she was out of the office in an all day meeting. Luckily I had inventory to take...I can check a computer for its tag number and mark it off on a piece of paper. Someone asked me to switch a CPU position for them, and I know how to unplug wires from a computer and plug them back in...match shape to shape and color to color!

I just wish I didn't feel so blasted unnecessary. All the stuff I'm doing the ITS could do, or a half-dozen other people could do. I even got pulled for lunch duty 2 days in a row because my job is so unnecessary.

Boy am I sucking lemons or what?!
But life happens and I'm, while not making the BEST of it, am at least showing up for work every day.

You should be dancin', yeah!

So I'm doing laundry the other day and I walk into my room with my arms full of clean laundry to put on the bed and sort. As I come into the room I catch Johanna waving her arms and booty around and watching herself in the mirror. I dump the clothes and look at her. She giggles and runs away. A little while later as I'm walking through the house with another load I see a hair bow look like it's moving on its own out of the corner of my eye. Johanna is in the kitchen sliding around on the floor. I ask, "What are you doing?" and, again, giggles and running out of the room is the answer I get. Later on, I'm laying down on my bed and watching the tube. I hear these muffled grunts and huffs coming from my floor. I sit up and there's Jo watching herself in my floor-length mirror. She's on the floor and doing her version of a move that I call, "Here's My Crotch" from the So You Think You Can Dance show. You can probably figure out what that looks like. Anyhow, when I realized that the new season of SYTYCD is now on, all the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit together...Johanna was dancing! Either she's stopped her "auditioning" or she's gotten better at noticing when I'm in the room.

Shall we dance?

My baby is growing up so fast! Lorie is at her school's 8th grade dance. (Kenny wasn't interested in attending when he was in 8th grade.) This is our family's first "major" dance. We went out and got a new dress. (We'd just finished getting the shoes when I got the call about little Kenny's accident.)  I'm just about to go pick her up. We stopped by the ballfield so that big Kenny could see her before she left, so she got to see some of her ball friends that don't go to her school. I know she felt beautiful. I was so proud of her when I dropped her off...especially after seeing some of the stripper shoes and taa-taas on display from some of the other young ladies being dropped off. When we got the dress she said she felt like Cinderella. Awww...she's definitely a keeper.

My man's a College Grad!

23 years after graduating from high school, Kenny is now a college graduate! I know his mom and dad are so very pleased and proud, the kids and I are a close second. He's now working on a Master's in Religion and then will pursue his Master's in Divinity. Who knows? He may end up with a Doctorate one day? He's really enjoying his classes (well, not so sure he enjoyed English all that much). If he holds to the course he's setting now, he'll get his

Master's the same time little Kenny's getting his high school degree.

He's quite a guy!!

The words you don't want to hear

"Kenny's had a little accident." Oh, I wish I had been paying more attention and maybe I would have heard something in his voice to give me a heads up about what had happened. Actually the conversation started like this...

"Tracy, where are you?"
"I'm on my way to Burger King to get dinner before Lorie's class."
"Kenny's had a little accident. Can you come get the girls? They're stuck in the car while I deal with it."

So off I drive to the "little accident" site. As I'm driving through the back roads of Conyers I can remember telling Lorie to keep an eye on the sides of the road so I didn't accidentally pass them. I

should have known better. As I get closer to the main intersection

in town I can see emergency vehicles and my heart jumped into my throat. I zoomed across the intersection noting an ambulance, fire engine and police cars; little Kenny's truck and another huge truck and lots of glass all over the place. I drove into a nearby Eckerd's parking lot, told Lorie to keep still and ran to the middle of the intersection. As I was running I finally focused onto little Kenny's head in the bundle of people and realized he was upright and seemed okay. I got to my boy, did a quick frisk and pulled him into a major mom hug. Scared the total hoo-ha out of it, it did.

He'd been trying to keep up with big Kenny. They were all heading

to Chick-fil-A for dinner and then to a ball park on the southside of town for the men's team game. Kenny was driving his truck so he could pick Lorie up from her acting class and help me out. That intersection was where his knowlege of where to go stopped so when big Kenny turned left, little Kenny just followed and ended up plowing into an F250. The other driver ended up being transported to the hospital to get checked out after he noted to a paramedic that his back was hurting. Little Kenny broke down a little when I got there, a little while he was telling me what happened and really had a hard time when they strapped the other driver into the backbrace.

I think he's got a better appreciation for airbags now, seeing that he walked away from his truck being totaled with just some airbag burns and his knee being scratched up a bit from where it hit something.

Adding insult to injury, the accident happened at a major intersection in town so not only did we have a church member suddenly appear beside us at the accident site, but people were calling, emailing and Facebooking comments AND his classmates at school would come by and say they saw it! Bless his heart!

Spring Break 2009

How can it be that there is only one day left of Spring Break? It's kind of sad, really. We had such a good time at Disney. We don't usually do anything for school breaks. We don't go anywhere because of money and I'm too lazy to plan anything in the Atlanta area. I need to do better at that because I only have a few years left with all the kids still at home. As it is I'm feeling guilty about tomorrow. We didn't have a chance to go shopping for Easter outfits before the trip and no one felt like shopping this morning. Lorie's wearing an old outfit of mine, Meg's wearing an old outfit of Lorie's, Jo got a dress from someone at church and I ran to Dress Barn between big Kenny's softball games this afternoon after I tried on some of mom's spring dresses and didn't find any that fit right (darn it all). Plus, I haven't done a single thing for Easter baskets. Feeling kind of like the worst mom in the world right now, but then I have to realize that the kids are still on a Disney high right now. That should come to a screeching halt pretty quickly once they realize that there's no food in the house. But for right now, all is well in the world.

Hmmmm...

There was a news report last night about the dangers of social networking sites, blogs and the like. The point was that when the sites take the place of face-to-face social interaction or interfere with daily actions, than you are probably doing too much. Funnily (because of how I'd written how out of control my house was in my last blog), the "expert" specifically said, "if you aren't getting your dishes done" as an example of interference with daily actions. Makes you think..."hmmm, maybe "the man" is watching my blog?!" Ha!

Sometimes seeing is believing

Okay, so the house is out of control. I don't think there is one area in the whole house that I wouldn't be embarrassed to have seen right now. (Yes, I can see how there would be an obvious question of why I'm sitting here blogging instead of cleaning my house, but I don't come out looking well in the answer so I'm going to choose to ignore that and move on.) So, as I'm traversing the Basement I step over something yet again but this time something in my brain says, "hmmm, something's not right." Now, the something not right isn't that I'm stepping over something again and not picking it up. That's another something not right and not part of the story. It's that I realize that there are no dolls or other things sitting around this something. I look at the "something" and realize that it is a shoebox top sitting on the carpet in the living room right in the path from the girls' area to the kitchen. I then notice it has writing on it. Apparently, they came across a bug. And instead of killing it with a shoe, they decide that the best course of action is to trap it and to leave a note. If you can't see it, it says, "Bug! (under this) Needs to be Killled. Meg and Jo" with an arrow pointing down.


No, I didn't lift up the box top to see if the bug was under the box top and yes, the box top is still sitting in the same spot I found it. Killing bugs is Man's Work.

Not much to see here, folks

I've been feeling guilty that I haven't posted more blogs, but there really hasn't been that much to report! That'll all come to a change soon since today officially starts the Spring softball season for the adult league and next week is opening weekend for the youth league. Then I just hang on for dear life and try to keep my head above water. This season we're back to 4 kids on 3 divisions (Lorie and Meg are back in the same division). Add in the adult co-ed league and the men's team big Kenny plays on and its "All Softball, All the Time"

On a better note, I have a Jewelry Show next Sunday afternoon and the Hostess is super psyched about it, Monday is Kenny's and my anniversary and then the next Saturday we head down to Florida for our Disney vacation and Spring Break!

Training the new secretary is going okay, I guess. I really enjoy working with this lady. She's super sweet, super nice, funny as anything and thinks I know a lot. It's still a little tender to me that I'm not going to be the one making the decisions and being the go-to girl next year. But that's pride talking, and we all know I've got no shortage of pride!

Being a grown-up bites sometimes.

The one, the only...Meagan

My dear sweet middle child. The one I used to call "doe-di-doe" because she just went along with the flow. She's killing me. Seriously. In the mornings as we drive to school, the radio station we listen to has a thing called "the Jr. Joker" where kids call in and tell a joke. Every day it's the same. We'll be driving down the road, the Jr. Joker will come on and tell the joke and then beat...beat...beat and you'll hear an "oh!" and then quiet laughter out of Meg's corner of the car as she finally gets the punch line. And these aren't hard jokes, people. Today's was, "What do you say to the hammerhead shark after a test?" "I don't know, what DO you say to a hammerhead shark after a test?" "You really nailed it!"

Now I wish I could just leave it at that but in writing this post I couldn't remember what the joke was today so I went to the girls' rooms and asked Meg and Lorie if they remembered what the joke was and Meg's response was, "I don't remember it exactly but it had a hammerhead shark and a nail in it and it took me a really long time to get it."

'Nuff said!

Updated pictures: snow

Above: These are pictures I just took. In the picture in the post below, the girls are standing right in front of the tree and to the side of the bushes, just to give you some perspective.

Below: I'm attempting to post my snow video again. We'll see if it'll show up.

Snow in Loganville

So yesterday the news was all over this 70% chance of snow, which means that the stores were beyond crowded....bad time to be out of bread and toilet paper!!

This morning it was just raining but the temp was in the low 40s and dropping so I thought I better let the car warm up before I headed out to church. In the 15 minutes my car was warming it went from a light drizzly type rain, to freezing rain/sleet! I don't like driving in that kind of stuff! Anyhow 2 hours later we left church to snow covering everything and coming down in big ole snowflakes. The winds were blowing pretty hard so it was sheets of snow blowing straight at you. The girls were so excited during the drive home...I was petrified. Both of my driving skills on icy roads but also because Kenny is driving a group of 30, including kids and sponsors, home from the youth convention on Hilton Head Island. I wanted to call and see where he was but didn't want him talking while he was driving. I did call one of the sponsors and she said that they were about an hour outside of Macon so they'll hopefully be home in 2-3 hours.

In the meantime I'm sopping up water from snow that blew in through the cracks around the doors and the girls are out making a snowman (I had to stop them from coming inside to blowdry their shoes and mittens because of the stink, however. Not going to win Mom of the Year!).

Kenny just called to let me know that they made it to the church parking lot safe and sound. He said that the last two hours of driving have been "interesting". I'm sure! As I've flipped channels on teh Tube, any time I've been on a local station, there's been a scrolling thing listing all the traffic accidents. I'm glad they've made it this far, but I'll feel better when they walk in the front door!

I love my minions!

Here I sit playing with my FaceBook page and blog while my minions WILLINGLY make dinner! I love it! They all came home talking about how much homework they had so I got things going for dinner. The next thing you know I've got kids telling me that they didn't have as much homework as they thought and they'll take over dinner prep! Boy am I glad I was making spaghetti, which is one of the things Lorie can cook from beginning to end without any coaching. She even answered a question Jo had about her math homework while taking care of dinner! How absolutely freakin' cool is that?

I'm beyond thrilled!

Disney planning

Phew! The worst part of the Disney planning nightmare is now over! Lodging and dining plans have been paid for and now we're on the hunt for good prices on tickets. It's been a long haul from me saying to Kenny, "I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could go to Disney over Spring Break to watch Kenny march there?" to "That's all I need. Have a magical night." from Mario of Disney's Magical Gatherings last night. (The high school marching band was invited to march at Disney over Spring Break.)

Kenny spent many an email conversation with someone named Pam of Kingdom Konsultants and my wonderful sister, Lori, sent lots of emails with info and questions to try to get this show on the road. Kenny finally realized he didn't really have any oomph left after school, church and softball to devote to getting things decided for our Disney trip and put the whole kettle of fish in my lap.

First thing I did was get in touch with Lori with an "oh crud...we need to start from square one because I wasn't paying attention...help!!" email. After a couple days of gentle reminders from the long-suffering Lori, I finally got my procrastinating keister going and Lori called and we started going over all the good/bad/ugly aspects of this. We got pretty far in my quest for Disney Planning knowledge when she had to sign off and do some actual work (bless her heart). In the meantime I played around with several scenarios online trying to figure out pricing and all. She called me back that afternoon and already the "cheap" rooms at the value hotel we'd been looking at were gone! She volunteered to call the Magical Gathering phone number to see what was up and to find out how to keep our group together (ain't she the best?). What we found out was that, yes indeedy, there were only two rooms left during the time we wanted to go at the value hotel! My awesome sissy put on her Director's hat and quickly booked rooms for herself and froze those two rooms for Mom (who will take 2 of the girls in her room) and me AND was able to use her passholder's whatever-it's-called to get a decent price and dining plans. We'll buy the tickets later.

But hark! That couldn't be the end of the story could it? Of course not! The rooms were only froze until 10 p.m. and I couldn't get in touch with mom OR Kenny. By the time Kenny came home at 8 p.m. I was a babbling idiot and I think he told me to just book the rooms to get me to shut up about it! I called mom with my fingers crossed and when she answered (hurray!), she got front row seats to Act 2 of the Babbling Idiot Show.

All's well that ends well. I called Disney and suffered through their automated answering system (okay, confession time, I hung up on them twice out of frustration, but 3rd time's a charm!) and finally spoke to Mario who took my credit card numbers and confirmed we had lodging and food and all was well.

Just typing this is making me breathe heavy again!

Eye exams

I've needed to get Johanna and Lorie's eyes checked for awhile now. I kept putting it off and putting it off because of money and time issues but finally got a jump on the calendar and scheduled them for Winter Break.

I wish I could have read the thoughts of the optician because Johanna was ON! The way she was talking reminded me of game show contestants from the 70's and 80's..."I'd like to buy an E for $300, Jim" in that overly-loud, overly enunciated way they talk. So funny. "That's an H, then an I, then either a G or an O, then a T. Wait let me go back to the G-slash-O and I'm going to say it's a G." She also read the letters from right to left, which threw us all for a bit. Add into it all that with the thing you look through in front of her face, she was stylin' a little like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars I getting ready for a Pod race, and you can understand why Lorie and I giggled our way through Jo's exam.

The glasses should be ready Monday. I'll post pictures after we pick them up.

Auditions

Lorie has really caught the acting bug. It became apparent that her being part of school plays was no longer going to be enough for her. While we were at the dance studio for our ballroom dancing we noticed that they are actually more of an Arts studio. They offer all sorts of dancing, vocal lessons, acting lessons, etc. Dakota Fanning was part of that studio once upon a time. We took home one of the brochures and called the acting coach. We found out that they allow a lesson audit to see what was involved so we went to one. While the audit lesson wasn't all that great (how can it be when half the class is auditing students with their parents alongside). We decided to try it for a month to see how Lorie liked it. After her first REAL lesson, she was starstruck. She went on her first open cast call for casting agents for TBS and CNN and Tyler Perry Studios today. She's scheduled to get her headshot by a professional photographer (the amazing Roger Cannon) on Thursday but needed to take a photo with her to her audition so Kenny took her outside last night and didn't do half bad! Her teacher helped her with her resume, picking out a monologue for the audition and picking out her headshot from the shots Kenny took. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I'm excited about her excitement and proud of her going all out for something that she wants. She's a heck of a lot braver than I am!

Princess Ball

Tonight is the Princess Ball at Hightower. (We changed the name from Father/Daughter Dance so that girls without fathers in their lives would feel more comfortable coming with their stepdad, brother, uncle, granddad, etc.)

Jo's been complaining for awhile how hard it is to be the last kid...she has to go to bed first, she doesn't have a cell phone, she doesn't get to do Youth Group stuff, etc. Tonight she got to go to the Ball with Daddy all by herself...something her sisters never got to do because there was always another sister there! But now she's the only kid in elementary school so she doesn't have to share. She started getting ready at 3:45 for their 6:30 "date". He's going to take her to Golden Corral for dinner.

I tried to get a picture as they walked out holding hands and Kenny opening the car door for her but the dumb camera didn't work right and it started sprinkling so I didn't want to make them come back to the house and do it again. (I'm such a good wife and momma!)

Facebook, baby!

Kenny has "allowed" us to start using Facebook. For as long as I can remember he's had this major thing about MySpace and Facebook...mostly the ads on MySpace, not trusting the security of those places AND how easy it is to stop communicating face-to-face and relying on the web, txting, etc to be your communication with other people. I don't know what changed his mind about FaceBook but he came home last night and gave the okay and actually did the technical part of setting mine up. I'm adding photos left and right and trying to figure out the ins and outs of it. It's all very flustering to me to have instant messaging popping up as I'm adding captions or writing on someone's wall, but it's interesting just the same.

And can anyone tell me what a "poke" is on Facebook? And why am I poking people back?

Monday, monday

Well, the alarm clock won again. But not without me sticking my tongue out and reminding it that next week is Winter Break and I get to sleep in! Today was one of those weird kind of days. The bookkeeper had a meeting at county office and was gone most of the morning. The principal was in meetings almost the whole day. The lady that will be secretary came up and worked with me for about 45 minutes. I didn't get to work with the lady who will train me, but I really wasn't in the mood anyhow, to be honest. I'm so tired these day. I'm trying to up my water and make sure that I take a vitamin everyday, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to start actually start exercising.

Ah, the weekend

All day long the mantra has been, "I love Friday. The day just gets better every minute!"

Today was a weird day. I spoke with the Employment Manager yesterday about my job position change since my reviews have all been good and was told that the principal could do anything she wanted. Today Kenny spoke with our lawyer and he said, "Since she's not in the union, there's nothing we can do." Um, Georgia is a right to work state so the union has no say. I did find out today that the change won't happen until next year instead of in a month. There's a lady from the County's Technology department that is a whiz and a half who will come in 2-3 days a week to clean up the helpdesk problems so I'm going to start walking around with her and training for the new job and the lady who will take over my position will be coming up on Fridays and whenever she has some free time to learn my job so maybe next year won't be such a slap in the face for her.

Little lost Kenny

Well, little/tall Kenny had his first experience of panic behind the wheel. I'd ordered new contacts for Meagan and him and they'd come in. I'd tried to pick them up over the weekend only to find out after I'd driven to the store that they weren't open on Sundays! So I asked l/t Kenny if he thought he could handle driving to get them. There are four turns within three miles of the house and then it's a straight shot to Lencrafters. 8 miles in total. He said he could do it so I wrote out the instructions and drew him a little map and off he went.

He managed to get there with no trouble. But, bless his little heart, the old male logic thing obviously didn't hit him too hard in the head because it somehow didn't occur to him that if he just followed the directions in reverse, that he'd get home. He drove the wrong way out of the parking lot and managed to drive about 10 miles before he figured out that he wasn't seeing anything familiar. So he turns around and gets the first turn back okay but at the next turn...he turns the wrong way again!

Since I was in someone else's car on my way to a Premier training, he called big Kenny and over the course of 30 minutes (remember, our Lenscrafters is a total of 8 miles away!!!), got talked through the whole getting home thing. Big Kenny said that when he got to the house he ended up crying because besides the whole getting lost thing, he had no money and was worried about running out of gas and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere!

Sometimes, there are no words.

Job woes

As with everything, the economy is hitting education. It always occurs to me when these things happen that maybe someone should take a look at the salaries and perks of those at the highest levels and do some reducing there, but those that make those kinds of decisions are the ones whose salaries and perks would be touched, so that doesn't happen. Instead it's up to the peons at the lower levels to take the brunt of it all.

Here in Rockdale County, the School Board just revealed each school's points and the Title I money for the next year. And, indeed, there are teachers and parapros who will not have jobs at their current school so there are transfer requests flying all over the county to the few schools who will be adding teachers. At our school not only are we adding 3 teachers, but the principal was able to crunch the numbers so that all of our parapros will have a job next year, but they have to take one hour less a day. I'm being moved from my secretarial position to the INTEL position. It's a $7000 a year cut, plus I'm a little upset about how the job change not only because it wasn't my choice, but that how it might be perceived by the staff. After all, perception is everything. I'm going from a job that has my thumb on the pulse of the school and access to pretty much everything with the trust and responsibility that goes along with it to a position where I troubleshoot computers. Ask me how much I know about computers.  That's about how much. Hmmmmm...

Can you tell I'm a little frosted about the whole thing? It makes me want to curl up in bed and eat Pringles (that's not a random thought, it's actually how I spent my Friday evening.). I used to look forward to going to school on Mondays and now? I can believe I have to go to school on Monday...

Lorie gets to third base

Tonight I forgot that I had nursery duty at church. I'm supposed to have it every fourth Wednesday but for whatever reason, I haven't been in the nursery for awhile. Johanna stayed home sick from school so I was keeping her home from church when Lorie called to tell me that I had nursery and there were 4 babies there. So I grabbed Jo and got to the church. I made Jo stay in Kenny's office and told Lorie to help me out in the nursery. There ended up being only 2 babies but in the end I was glad to have her in there because of the humor factor.

One baby hadn't ever been at church before and when she got sleepy, she got more than a little unhappy. She was actually unhappy at Lorie. For whatever reason, she decided that Lorie was mocking her pain and would cry and sob whenever Lorie would laugh. I rocked her and sang to her and eventually she went to sleep. That's when the fun started and Lorie got "lucky".

The baby she was holding started stinking. Lorie got a panicked look on her face because I told her that she'd have to change him since I didn't think that my baby would let me put her in a crib without waking up and screaming bloody murder. That's when Lorie informed me that she's only changed one other baby "and that didn't go well." I told her tough luck, that she was a smart child and needed to just get on with things. So she takes the baby and get a diaper and wipes out of his bag. Then she sits him on the changing table and looks at him. I suggest lying him down. Apparently this is the point where the other baby she'd attempted to change started pitching a fit and rolling around. She got a scared look on her face and gingerly laid the baby down. This baby, being a bit more good natured, lay down nicely and kept playing with whatever toy Lorie'd given him. He was dressed in overalls, so I told Lorie to look for the snaps between the legs. She said there weren't any and hauled the baby up and started unbuckling him from the top while we argued about whether there really were snaps or not (by the way, I was right...there WERE snaps). So she gets him out of his overalls and laid back down again. In the meantime, I'm laughing as hard, yet as quietly as I can, because I have this sleeping baby on my chest. Lorie crosses her legs and informs me that she's really got to pee. Well, seeing that I've got dead weight on my chest and she's got a half-naked baby on the changing table, I told her that that would have to wait. She tentatively opened the diaper and SURPRISE! false alarm...he'd only been passing gas. She got him in his new diaper and then back into his overalls (sooooo funny) and then back on the floor so she could run down the hall to use the bathroom.

When she got back, her baby was unhappy. She got the bottle out and him in comfy-to-him-horribly-uncomfortable-to-her position and gave him his bottle. At which point he put his hand back and copped a squeeze. So between the open mouth kisses she got at the beginning of the night, him "feeling her up" and her getting up close and personal with his privates, I told her that she'd gotten to third base and didn't even get dinner and a movie out of the deal.

It only got better when as we are leaving the nursery, I caught sight of her from the rear...she really HAD needed to go to the bathroom!!! Add to it being in the car with little Kenny and her arguing about whether or not her knowing how to change a diaper in theory was just as good as being able to actually do it (and from her recent experiences, I'm not sure why Lorie was so adamant about her position) and then them arguing about Kenny's usage of the word "airy" (Lorie said it was "ar-ry" as in saying the letter "r" with a "ry" on the end) only to find out that what Kenny really meant WAS airy and what Lorie really meant was "awry"...well, it was a classic Stokes night!

Inauguration memories

Because the Inauguration was on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year, it was considered a "critical day" for Rockdale County Public School employees. That means if you were absent, you better have a note from your doctor. But the cool thing was that it meant we were with all the kids to watch the inauguration festivities! AND we got to watch TV during a school day! I got to work around 6:45 as usual and started getting things ready for my day. As soon as the school's live newscast was over at 7:45 a.m., we changed the channel and watched all the festivities unfold. I got attendance done for the day and then turned in my chair and watched TV and chatted with other school staff and school visitors as they came in. The principal had the swearing in ceremony broadcast on a big screen into the cafeteria so that the kids eating lunch wouldn't miss any of it. The principal and assistant principal went into the cafeteria during the actual Oath so that they could be with the kids. They said that they didn't have to say a word, the kids (5th and 2nd grade...about 200 children, were in the cafeteria at that time) went dead silent. The cafeteria is 3 sides concrete block and one side windows. Once President Obama finished taking the oath, the kids all stood up and clapped and screamed and shouted. What was really fun was during the speeches and different addresses, whenever the crowd would cheer, there would be this surge of cheering swelling throughout the hallways. I doubt they had any idea of why they were cheering, but they were so excited to be part of this. Several parents came in to be with their kids for this historic moment and they were so appreciative of the school letting the kids experience. Johanna had Program Challenge so she was at a different school so I couldn't go down and be with her. I got to leave school as soon as buses left (my hours are such that I have another hour after buses leave on a normal day) because our principal wanted us to be able to be with our families for the rest of the Inaugural stuff. Usually Jo goes home on the bus so when I had her come to the office at dismissal, she was a little taken aback. As we were driving home and I was explaining to her that we could get home in time to watch some of the parade (not knowing it would be late), her response was "I had to watch inauguration stuff all day at school. Can I watch something else?" Ah well, hopefully someday she'll understand and appreciate the significance of what she saw. But then she doesn't comprehend why being black should make a difference to whether someone should be President or not! That's the world she lives in even here in the heart of the Redneck South! She has friends of different colors who repeat what they hear at home and her response is, "Why does his being black mean anything to being a President? Shouldn't everyone be worried about if he's going to do a good job or not?" Out of the mouths of babes...

Happy Birthday Grandma Huddy!

The photo above is the kids running around Grandma Huddy's house when we went up for her funeral. I didn't have a picture of Grandma on my computer but I wanted to have some kind of picture for this blog. It's hard to imagine that Grandma would be 104 today if she were still living. She was a bit of a spitfire: her stances on open mouth kissing and not eating alone still make me giggle. I still miss her and wonder what she would think of what's happening in our world right now.

Hair issues

Okay, so yesterday at the Premier Designs Rally I'm feeling goooood. I'm feeling fiiiiiine. I'm feeling like I actually have it together! I'd spent extra time doing my makeup (even remembered to put the green concealer on to tone down my red areas) and doing my hair. I'd gotten lots and lots of complements on the jewelry I had on (no mean feat in the company I was keeping) and my outfit (again, no mean feat seeing that I am fashion-challenged in a mighty way). During our lunch break I used the ladies room and when I went to wash my hands I, naturally, checked myself out. Unfortunately, the vision in my head of what I looked like did not quite match up to what I saw in the mirror. I'd obviously been rubbing my eyes (a horrible habit I've picked up lately) and my eye make-up was smeary. My red areas on my face were shining through the foundation, leaving those areas looking mottled and my hair! My blasted hair looked like I'd cut it myself!

If you look at my family photo in the slideshow, you can see that my hair had some length to it. Right before school started I got it cut off to my chin in a bob. That was the hairstyle I was sporting. That morning, it looked good, but by lunchtime some of my curls had fallen out and the frizzies and the gray hairs were popping out to say, "how do you do?" (Now, I have nothing against gray hair...I just wish it wasn't a totally different texture!!) My head has curly, wavy, slightly wavy and straight hair. It's a pain in the patoot to deal with, but yesterday I thought I'd put enough product in it to make sure it lasted all day! Not so! So today I decided enough is enough, time to go a little more drastic.

My friend, Bonnie, is a hairstylist and puts up with all my whining about my hair and helps me try to tame it. My hair likes Bonnie and willingly does whatever she wants it to do. Then it comes home with me and give me "nanny, nanny, boo-boo" stuff and nonsense. I just got my 'do done. Hopefully the hair likes what Bonnie did and gives me a little cooperation. I had Bonnie cut it shorter in the back and stack it so that when I straighten my hair, it has a little oomph, then I had her go in and layer the heck out the rest of the hair to try to lighten the load for the curls. When I got home, Lorie came and kind of "hmmmed" but I'm going to overlook that non-comment (and the look on her face) and pretend I'm jim-dandy fine with it.

I just want to feel like I have a hairstyle and not just a mess of hair on my head! Most of the time what my hair looks like has nothing whatsoever to do with me or what I've done. How sad that a big part of my "look" is up to weather and how my hair feels that day. I really, REALLY hope my hair likes this style and backs off for just a little while!

Warren T! You're A Rat...

When I look at our cat I get reminded of that line (or a line somewhat like it) from the old An Amercian Tail movie where Fievel uncovers the truth about the villain and takes off the cat costume and reveals that Warren T is a rat. (My very favoritest part of the movie is when the rich mouse, vocalized by Madeline Kahn, talks, "We-wees da secwet we-pon!" for "release the secret weapon.") I shall probably burn in hell because I'm getting the giggles off my poor, poor cat.

Prince, it seems, got in a cat fight and the poor kitty got the worst end of it all. He got his heinie tore up! The vet ended up having to shave his bottom and all but the end of the tail. When Kenny called from the vet, he said that Prince's tail had been shaved so I envisioned a bare, rat-looking tail, but when I got a look at him, there was this tuft left at the end. (Why?!) But the wounds are really icky, icky bad! Just blogging about it gives me the heeby-jeebies. I tried to get the picture far enough away to not give your stomach a jump but close enough to get the full "aw, poor kitty" effect.

Oh Deer!

I've finally had my first run-in with a deer and it was NOT fun. I've had some near, squeaky misses in the 5.5 years we've lived out here but it was all over on Tuesday morning. One thing you learn pretty quickly is that if you see one deer, it's a pretty safe bet there's at least one more not too far behind. They roam around our neighborhood a lot so you start "feeling" that they are there.

Tuesday morning I was driving to school and suddenly a deer passes right in front of my bumper. My internal dialogue went something like this, "I hate this song, I'll just change channels, oh crap, look, a deer" as the deer darted front of my bumper I remember saying out loud, 'Crap, a deer! Quick, Lorie, see if you see ano..." and that's as far as I got before the second deer popped out. I smashed into it with my front right side and it went down. I asked Lorie if she saw what it did and her answer was that it just kind of bounced from view. Since I was on a dark county road and first wanted to make sure I could keep driving safely, I drove a couple hundred feet down to a little county church's parking lot and used the lamppost there to check out my car. I could see a cracked headlight and some fur stuck in my bumper, but that was all. The tire looked good and there wasn't a smooshed anything in any part of the car. I called Kenny and he said to go ahead to the school and he'd come up when the sun came up and check it out. As I drove back I couldn't see a deer, which bothered me a bit because I didn't know how badly he was hurt (I refuse to share the sentiments of some of the good ole boys when I told this story later.).

Kenny came by eventually and there's actually more damage than I thought at first. It looks like the deer banged into my headlight and busted part of the front grill and then when he went down he got caught in the tire and some part of him bang into the front right panel of my car...not fixable by the great Ken-dini!

We JUST got that car paid off, too. Ain't them the roadapples of life!

Oh, I found the camera, hence the picture. Cute update about the truck: Tall Kenny got to drive his truck to church. During youth group one of the boys asked if the red truck in the parking lot was his and when Kenny said yes, he got a "cool" for a response. Kenny took a side look at me and grinned. So funny!

Oh crud, he's a country boy

You must sing the title of this post to John Denver's "Thank God I'm a country boy" tune.

My baby, my sweet little firstborn curly-top adorably chunky little boy is now a 6 foot whatever, deep voiced, 16-year old almost-owner of a TRUCK! (Almost-owner because we bought it and he will be granted driving privileges. If he wants to own it he's got to get a job and pay us for it.)

So anyhow, last night Big Kenny and Tall Kenny (he won't answer to "little Kenny" anymore) drove an hour away to Pendergrast, Ga (I have NO idea where that is. All I know is that if I live in the boondocks, and I think I do, it's halfway between the boondocks and Timbuktu!) and came home with a red Dodge Dakota truck. Big Kenny called me on the way home and said he'd let Tall Kenny drive it when they got to town. So when Big Kenny got home he made me come out and stand in the rain (okay, it was sprinkling...but I was in my jammies and it was cold) to see the truck when Tall Kenny drove in. So we're waiting and waiting and I'm getting wetter and wetter (not to mention crankier and crankier). Finally we see headlights but instead of coming down the driveway, the kid drives around the other side of the house and around the backyard! I watch my child in this brand-new (to us) truck driving over wet grass that belongs to my in-laws in the dead dark and then head around the pool...towards trees. Hubby takes off running around after him (okay, so THAT part was a little bit funny) screaming, "What are you doing?" Turns out he decided he "needed" to try out the 4x4 part of the truck. He's so 16!

I'll post a picture of the kid and the truck (I've GOT to stop calling it a car) as soon as I figure out where Meg put my camera. I've still got to get that dumb General Lee photo posted, too!

Celebrity Watch 2009

How is it that my last blog was in April? How sad that I'm still on the same woe-is-my-weight train since my last blog was whining about how big I'd become, too. It's just a little irritating that at the start of January 2009, I am almost back up to my January 2008 weight. Now, granted, it's not like I've been working out and watching what I eat (as I sit here scarfing down pizza and a Mountain Dew...the dinner of champions). But still, well, anything I say is going to sound stupid so I may as well leave that one right there, finish eating my pizza and move on.

I had a wee "oh my gosh" moment this afternoon and couldn't get the satisfaction of getting a "oh, wow, you're so lucky" kind of response, so all I'm left with is being able to type it here and see it in print.

Are you ready to "squee" a little? I was actually, truly and honestly, driving behind the General Lee today!!! That's right, the actual General Lee from the old Dukes of Hazzard show! And yes, I know there was more than one General Lee, and this is probably an imitation one, but barring those minor details...the General Lee, people!!

So, okay, that's not too terribly exciting. But heck, I live in Loganville, Ga...it don't get much better than that! Anyway, as the story goes, I'm in my car with Meg on my way to my friend who lives in Covington to close her Premier show. I'm at the entrance to the subdivision looking for a break in oncoming traffic when I see coming down the highway an old-timey looking cop car. So I tell Meg, check out that cop car! That's the way they used to look. And she nicely said, oh, wow. (She's my favorite) Then right behind the cop car drove the General Lee! Now big Kenny has this fascination for the dude that played Bo Duke (whose name escapes me at the moment). John Schneider. There we go, caught up. Anyhow, Mr.Schneider was apparently a celebrity honorary coach for his kiddie baseball team and he has pictures of the game that Mr. Schneider showed up at that he likes to show off. It's one of his Major Moments from his childhood. Well, dang it, I'm driving down the highway behind the General Lee! So I call my man and all I get for my troubles is, oh yeah, that's nice. Come ON!!! Seriously??!!

Anyhow, after THAT disappointing response I had Meg dig out my camera from the Black Hole (my pocketbook) and take a couple photos. I obviously need to have the kid get more practice with the camera because when they turned left and I told her to take a picture so we could see the 01 on the side, she got the cop car and not the side of the General Lee. They turned into Wendy's and instead of taking the picture like I told her spent the time chattering at me and by the time she remembered that in order to take a picture, you had to do something with a camera, it was too late. So all I have to show for my 10 minutes of being close to something vaguely famous is the back of the General Lee and my dashboard. Well, and a nifty picture of the stupid cop car. And when I figure out where she put my camera I'm posting it here, baby, for all (well the two who sometimes mosey over here to read this blather) to see!