The Tales of the Unknown Mommy

I’m still here

2010-06-12T20:40:00.001-05:00

It’s been way too long, I’ve missed you but I haven’t had a lot of positive things to say. So I decided to take the advice given by all mothers. If you don’t have anything nice to say, the don’t say anything at all. So I’ve been silent, at least silent on the blog. My poor friends and parents have heard plenty…a girl has to vent after all. I’m trying to figure out ways to generate some extra income. The lighting business is still going but seems to have slowed down a bit. I seem to recall hearing something about a recession. I wonder what that’s all about? So what does a girl who works 6 days a week most weeks do for extra money? When you figure it out let me know, I seem to have a brain blockage.

Let’s see what else is going on…I’m still knitting nothing exciting but I have managed to finish one pair of socks. Of course by the time I finished the wool socks it was spring. No matter, I’m really proud of those socks. I’m working on another pair but these are going slowly because life keeps getting in the way and lately I’ve been way too tired to do much.

Work has been stressful to say the least. It worries me but I’m sure that everybody else is in the same boat. I feel like I can’t do enough to stay relevant. I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and being that I don’t know the word “no” it leads to mistakes and in this environment mistakes are considered unacceptable, particularly by management. Too much to do and not enough time. That’s the mantra of most people I know right now.

Kiddo is doing well, we still haven’t achieved being potty trained yet but we are working on it. He seems to be really starting to get it. Please get it, I’m tired of buying diapers. We took him fishing for the first time last week. He had the best time. He even threw the fish back a few times. I left the diapers in the truck and we had a bit of an accident. My kid hates having wet clothes and had to take off his shorts and diaper in the boat. Good thing we were in the shade and had lots of sunscreen. I have no idea how I would have explained a sunburned “dingus”.

Well, that’s enough for now. I promise I’ll try to start writing more often and if I can swing it I’ll get some way to start uploading pictures of life and knitting projects.

Talk to you soon.

Time to March on…(or so long February)

2010-02-28T22:06:00.001-06:00

February has now come to a close. I for one am grateful and have high hopes that March will be huge improvement.

It’s been a rough month at work and home. It’s been one of our most expensive months as well. Being the shortest month it has created quite a bit of turmoil at the Unknown homestead.

So with high hopes I look toward March, it’s time to start thinking about my fantasy garden and hopefully I will be able to bring some of it into reality. I have plans to use part of the front yard for herbs and I want to use a lot of containers.

We will have to build a new fence this month and I guess I will have to face doing the taxes and keep my fingers crossed that we won’t have to pay much or at all. So there are some obstacles to contend with. But with Spring on the horizon our grotesquely huge electricity bill should decrease and I have plans to decrease some of the other monthly bills.

So I have hope. I think that’s important, it would be so easy to just give up but I can’t. Too much is riding on me keeping it together.

Well wish me luck that March doesn’t turn out like its predecessor February.

So long February I’m not sorry to see you go.

Talk to you later.

It’s another Monday

2010-02-01T20:58:00.001-06:00

Let me think…where to begin…Well it’s often good to start at the beginning. I woke up and managed to get the kiddo up and out the the house with minimal issues. As the car started I realized that I needed gas, so after dropping the boy off at daycare, it was straight to the gas station. While there an epiphany occurred it was cold and they have hot chocolate. So I got a large hot chocolate. Not a terrible way to start the day. Once I arrived at the lighting Mecca of Dallas I wandered around to the passenger side and “oh Crap” I had a flat tire. Great. I should tell you that my inspection sticker is a bit out of date and I’ve been putting off getting it because I needed two front tires. Of course the flat tire wasn’t one of the tires that was scheduled for replacement. That meant I needed 4 tires instead of 2. A bunch of poop. So this evening I spent a good bit of time at NTB waiting on them to replace my tires. I did get to work on my knitting a bit. But as I was leaving I noticed two lights that were on that weren’t there before. Oh and the car was jerking forward and the breaks didn’t want to work. Dooky times 4. So immediately I turned around and went back to the tire shop and they fixed what was screwed up. Somehow a piece of plastic got in somewhere and started making the car go amuck. That happens when you open the hood and all I asked you to do was change the tires. So finally I was on my way home and as soon as I get home I noticed that our friendly neighborhood code inspector had visited us again. Apparently when he was here two months ago (twice in 4 days) he missed our fence leaning. Apparently it leans in a way that offends him. I’m starting to think this person has something against us. He’s been hanging out in our alley which backs up against a metal fence. Nobody behind us for us to offend but we seem to tick this guy off for some reason. So tomorrow I’m going to call this annoying pest of a person and question his motives in attacking our home. He’s ticking me off and I want to know why I feel like we are being targeted. The guy next door had a broken old cabinet in his drive way for two months and nothing. We had bushes (that’s being generous, more like shrubs) that had been there for years before we moved in and they weren’t far enough away from the alley for his liking. I’m less likely to offend this person tomorrow than the hubby so I’ve volunteered to call. Problem is I’m extremely annoyed and might not keep my temper in check, hopefully I’ll keep it civil. So all in all and extremely expensive day. I’m going to binge on chocolate chip cookies and try to stop thinking of the running commentary I’ve got running through my head of what I want to say to “the man”.

Talk to you later the cookies are calling me.

Bad to the Milk Bone

2010-01-26T21:17:00.001-06:00

I took Zsa Zsa our 14 year Shih Zhou to the vet today. She has been having trouble getting up and has also been having potty issues. She’ll get up to head to the door and go to the bathroom before she gets to the door. Once she’s finished she keeps going to the door like she is going to go outside to potty. So we’ve let this go for a while but finally decided to make the trip to the vet. We had a hard year with pets as we lost our buddy Luther last year and then Jimi had his issues (which seemed to have straighten themselves out) as well. So anyway we have been putting this trip off because we were afraid of the bill and the outcome. After all she’s 14 years old and I fear her time might be coming. It will be a particularly hard friend to lose. My hubby has had her since she was a puppy and it will be devastating to lose her.

Anyway off to the vet I went. When we got there one of the first things that happened was they had me muzzle her. Did I mention she’s 14 and I’m not sure she has all her teeth. They took her temp and then the Dr. came in. We have a great vet, he will go to great lengths to save an animal. Of course it’s often at great expense as well. He sees sucker written on our foreheads and we do pay these extravagant fees. After looking at her he let me know that her back knees won’t stay in their sockets, she’s obese (I figured that one out already) and that’s she’s most likely senile. He ran some expensive blood work and informed us that the rest of here was fantastic, which was good news. I have anti inflammatory meds and senility meds to give to her. And I’m a bit lighter in the wallet, but not as bad as it could have been.

When they took the Zsa Zsa away to do the blood work I knitted. I heard a dog in the back making a large fuss, it sounded as if it was crying and putting up a fuss. For a minute I thought it was baby girl, but discarded that idea as crazy. So I knitted for a bit and they brought her back, and I knitted some more. One of the girls came in to see if I wanted some water while I waited and we talked for few minutes. She’s been working there for a long time and remembers our hoodlums vividly. She remarked that Zsa Zsa looked tired after her ordeal. Apparently that was Baby Girl making that racket. At that I was informed that Zsa Zsa has a note in her chart to muzzle because she tries to kill them every time she goes to the Dr. What’s more our cat Snoopy has the same note. Apparently our animals are a menaces to society. It cracks me up that our animals are considered dangerous. With Snoopy there’s good reason, we’ve always had to pay the “bastard fee” I’ve never noticed it with the dog though. Well I have to go let her outside. Here’s to hoping that the drugs work fast.

Talk to you later.

Eventually we start to turn into our mothers.

2010-01-25T21:22:00.001-06:00

When I was in the third grade my mother taught me how to cross stitch to earn a girl scout badge. She was very adamant about the back of the design to look as good as the front. It was a pain in the butt but I did it and my little owl cross stitch was a masterpiece. So much so the scout leader felt my mother did the work. I wasn’t well thought of with most of the troop leaders, being a tomboy who didn’t care to wear the ugly green uniform. But that’s another story. The point is my mother taught me to take pride in my work and to do it right, even if you have to undo that that which has been accomplished.

I started my zig zag poncho late Saturday night and worked on it quite a bit all day yesterday. Last night I took a look at it and noticed several mistakes. I pondered over them most of the night and thought I resolved myself to live with it. I figured that it was a first attempt and there will be mistakes and I will eventually get better. But today at lunch I was looking at it and was thinking about all the issues that I’ve been dealing with and made the decision…I don’t have a lot of control at work or home but I do have control with my knitting. So my mother's lessons took over and I frogged the entire thing and will start again maybe tonight or tomorrow but I will be proud of the finished object whenever it happens.

Thanks mom.

Talk to you later.

Monday, here we go again.

2010-01-25T06:04:00.001-06:00

Monday mornings are stressful. Not an earth shattering statement by any means but there you go. After having 1 –2 days off depending on the week. I have to go back to work and try to get motivated to push forward. Of course one look at the rapidly dwindling check book and that usually helps, but brings along its own set of stress that likes jump on board. I have 5 days to come up with enough money to get a commission check. It doesn’t look good and I have been awake a good bit of the night going over all the situations and possible outcomes in my head. Most are not pretty. January is always a tough month but it seems as this one is particularly painful. I am figuring out what to pay on time and what I can push back several days. I’m scared.

Well I need to head to work. Keep your fingers crossed and send me all the positive thoughts you can spare, I appreciate it all.

Talk to you later.

Family Sunday

2010-01-24T08:35:00.001-06:00

I’m so happy it’s Sunday. I will get to see my parents who have been in town for several days and there has been no chance to visit. More importantly Jacob will get to spend some time with them. I wish he could seem them more often but they live all the way in Nacogdoches and its 3.5 hours away and since I work so many Saturdays we never seem to have the opportunity to go see them.

So today Jacob will get to play with Gram and Papa and we will have a nice day with family. Plus there is football so the men folk will be happy even though the Cowboys didn’t make it this year. Go Colts! They seem to be the most objectionable team. Food will be yummy, we’ll have chili, ham, potato salad, baked beans and chocolate chip cookies once Jacob and I make them. Not too shabby don’t you think.

So for today I wish every one a happy Sunday with the people you love and a tiny break from the stresses of life.

Talk to you later.

Tomorrow is a whole new day.

2010-01-21T23:08:00.001-06:00

It was a very long, very busy, mostly crappy day. And I am very happy that it’s over. I will avoid the negativity that I could so easily spew and instead focus on the positive…tomorrow is FRIDAY. If I can make it through tomorrow with very little drama then it will all be okay. I hope. Of course I work on Saturday but it’s a different stress.

So I’m going to work very hard to put today behind and go in to work with the attitude that I will be able to take care of everything and perhaps it will all work out.

Wish me luck.

Talk to you later.

And the winner is…

2010-01-19T19:32:00.001-06:00

So a decision was made and last night I pulled the trigger on the pressing issue of yarn…I went with the marlin color it seemed more me that lilac and also added a couple of balls (okay 8) of wool so that I can make a bag for my cute little netbook. I’m going to try my hand at felting. This should be fun, I have no idea what I’m doing but that doesn’t seem to matter. At the moment any way I’m very excited. When I’m deep in the throes of the project, that might change. At least I have few projects to look forward to. Yay! So far the projects to be are, a poncho, my first pair of socks and a netbook bag to be determined. Now what do I do until the yarn comes in? I guess I can practice some knitting patterns and keep working toward the socks.

Talk to you soon.

New week and new things to worry about and decide.

2010-01-18T20:56:00.002-06:00

Well, we’ve started another week. Hopefully things pick up at work. I hate to think of the consequences if it doesn’t. But it’s important to stay positive and not get mired down in the quagmire that is negativity.
So on the plus side, my mother has started her own blog. How cool is that? I have a feeling that its going to be great. After all she has lots of material living with my father. He’s usually up to something and often there are twists and turns to his adventures that unusual. I look forward to reading it.
I’m trying to decide on a new knitting project. I’m having a small block on trying socks. It’s hard to find a socks for idiots pattern. I’m nervous that it won’t work plus I really need to find new needles in the correct size. It seems like you can never have enough needles. I am also trying to decide on a color for a cool poncho that looks like it’s in my inexperience level. Hard to choose between lilac and something called marlin, kind of a turquoise. I’m leaning toward the marlin. Just seems difficult pulling the trigger on this one.
Well I’m going to mull it over a bit more.
Talk to you later.

Barney Free Zone…sort of

2010-01-17T20:48:00.001-06:00

Our house is a BFZ (Barney Free Zone). The purple monster has been declared an enemy of the state in our home. This is mostly the hubby’s doing but I don’t disagree too much with it. That being said the kiddo is aware of who Barney is, he learned from daycare. I’m okay with it, but there are times when we have Barney sightings on television and I usually try to get past it as fast as possible without comment. So far it seems to work.

On New Years day one of the tv channels had a Barney Miller marathon. The hubby and I both were sucked in for pretty much the whole day. Every time we mentioned Barney, the kiddo popped up with interest and then we had the discussion that it wasn’t the Barney he thought it was but it was Barney Miller. The upside now is any time we mention Barney he automatically asks if it’s Barney Miller. Tonight he heard the theme music while he was in the tub and recognized it as “Barney Miller, Mom?”

I think the purple dinosaur has been beat. How cool is that?

Talk to you later.

I have internet access at the house...finally.

2010-01-17T15:09:00.000-06:00

I have finally have a new computer...a netbook actually. Kind of a baby laptop. So far it's pretty cool, not terribly fast but nifty none the less. There will be some challanges that I will have to overcome. I'm going to need an external drive so that I'll be able to upload pictures and perhaps a wireless mouse, because the little pad thingy can become cumbersome. But I'm just tickled to be online. I was feeling very out of touch with the world without internet access at the house.
Now I can be portable and be able to join the family instead of being relegated to the guest room. Then again I like the guest room, its the one room that has stuff I brought to the family, my decor and my color choice for the room. I find it a calm room. I'm able to relax in this room and be myself for a few minutes. Plus it has the added benefit of being able to lock out the animals. If I hang out where they can find me Jimi (my stalker) will waller all over me. He's doing it right now, so forgive me for typos, they are most likely cat induced.
It's amazing how much we rely on the internet. Most of my news comes from there. I'm able to cherry pick what I will and will not listen too. Since having a child I find that I have a very low tolerance for stories that involve harm to children. Mostly I skip politics, the hubby and the rest of my family listen to enough of that for me. I get to hear both sides very passionately whether I want to or not.
Work is over an hour away from the house so I don't have a big social life outside of the hubby and kiddo. I get up, go to work, go home. So most of my contact with friends is though the internet. Without that I would probably go nuts, sometimes a mommy needs other women around. Well I'm going to go play with my new toy for a while.
Talk to you later.

A few ideas for the coming year.

2010-01-09T14:00:00.000-06:00

Well, the holidays are now since past and we had a fantastic time. We hosted our first ever Christmas with our guests being my FIL and a family friend. Not a big event but lovely none the less. This was the kiddo's first real Christmas, he's finally starting to grasp the idea of Santa. He had a great time and has played with everything that the Big Man provided. His favorite toys being the Spiderman figure and his easel and the "blue one" Bass boat and Hummer that he specifically asked for from Santa. He has requested a bath every night since Christmas because of that boat. Sometimes more than one a day.

New Year's wasn't a big deal. We had a lovely dinner with flank steak, bruschetta, black eyed peas, pico de gallo and fudge. A little eclectic but tasty. I was asleep before midnight and I think the hubby wasn't too far behind me.

But now it's time to look backwards and forwards and figure out what I can reasonably improve or change. So here are my "ideas" for 2010.

1. Try to be healthier. Walking more and eating better are good ways to accomplish this we'll see if I actually do it. Odds are that this is the first idea that will go out the window.

2. Learn how to knit socks. As soon as I finish my scarf/wrap, I'll start this project. I'm very excited about it and a little nervous. It seems very difficult and I'm pretty sure I don't have enough experience to even attempt it.

3. Post more often. This has been hampered by my home computer crashing on me. I'm now waiting for Dell to build my cheap netbook and ship it. Should be here by early Feb. Can't happen fast enough. I just hope it works.

4. Get out of the house more often. I'm hoping to join a local knitting group. I don't make friends easily and it scares the dookey out of me to put myself out there. What if they don't like me.

5. Figure a way to decrease our debt. I know...spend less. I'm trying but unfortunately life keeps throwing obstacles in my way. (the aforementioned computer crash).

6. Figure out alternative sources of income...any ideas?

7. Be a better mother and wife...spend more time in the moment with both husband and child.

I think these are somewhat do able. I don't want to call them resolutions because that is a definite road to failure. But they are some ideas that have been germinating in my little brain of fluff.

Until I get the computer posting is going to be hard to do. I will shoot for minimum once a week but don't give up on me if it doesn't happen.

Talk to you later (soon I hope)

Bah Humbug and the evil of premade cookies

2009-12-09T17:15:00.001-06:00

Bah Humbug…yeah you heard me. I’m having a very hard time getting into the holiday spirit. If I could get away with it, I would cancel it. I know that the holiday isn’t about material things. But it’s expensive no matter what. As mentioned in a prior posting, everybody is pretty much getting whatever I can knit. It’s saving money but it is still not cheap. You also need to know that it’s baking season and that costs money as well. Our heat is electric and we discovered last year the hard way that is very, very expensive. Every time I hear the heat come on, I sneak around and turn it off. The outflow of money is exceeding the inflow of money and I’m almost at my breaking point. Work has me so stressed out with the need to make my numbers and then some that I’m pretty close to a breakdown. It’s the end of the year and everybody is trying to return products that they didn’t use and it is making my numbers go backwards and my heart rate go upwards. What to do? I need to make Christmas happen for the kiddo, this will be his first that he starts to “get” Christmas and the concept of Santa. The tree needs decorating, I can’t seem to get that done, the tree has been up since the day after Thanksgiving and I’ve plugged in the lights and put one crystal on. I’m trying, I really am. But, I’m scared of what will happen if I fail at work and that’s probably what has put the biggest damper on the holiday. It’s starting to keep me up at nights. Either I can’t fall asleep or I do fall asleep but wake up at 3:00 am and just lie there thinking in the dark. Hopefully things are as bad I think they might be. I am a worry wart after all.

Also shouldn’t people be nicer and more accepting at this time of year. Last few years my experience has been the opposite. People are grumpy (present company included) and demanding. In our world of instant gratification people refuse to accept that things take time. Processes have to be followed on all fronts. In part, I blame the pre-made cookie dough for the deterioration of our society. Because of this little wonder of science, people and children expect things to just appear as soon as they think of them. Want cookies? Take the preformed dough out of its little package, place on a baking sheet and voila! You have cookies. What’s wrong with the ritual of baking cookies from scratch? It shows children that things don’t instantly appear out of thin air. It forces you to think about what goes into the cookies, the time, the ingredients and the caring that someone puts into each batch. Only on rare cookie emergencies are the “fake and bake” cookies allowed in my house. I just can't do it.

Sorry for the rambling, I just needed to get this out to the universe. Wish me luck, send me good thoughts and I’ll reciprocate. If you are extremely wealthy send me money…j/k. Sort of. Don’t worry I’ll keep trying to build the Christmas spirit and hopefully by Christmas Eve I’ll be overflowing with spirit or cookies. Perhaps both.

Talk to you soon.

I'm back

2009-11-28T09:52:00.000-06:00

So I've been away for a while. I don't have a good reason except that I haven't been motivated to write for a while. Work has been extremely busy and we have had an episode of strep and an infected toe to be dealt with. Because of that there was the Halloween that wasn't as we stayed home and handed out candy. My poor son hasn't had a Halloween costume in 2 years due to illness. Next year buddy, next year is your year.

That brings us to November where I have been busy trying to knit scarves for Christmas, since I'm so slow at knitting that leaves little time to post. But I'm making progress. See...I think I'm improving.

I think I'm improving the hardest part is staying on task. It's very easy to get lured in to all the pretty colors and ideas. I have to fight to finish each and every project. Otherwise I will end up with at bunch of half finished projects of various colors and styles. I keep telling myself that after Christmas I can actually work on something for myself. I have a ton of things that I want to work on. Of course I live in Texas and by the time that I finish my projects for myself it will be summer and I'll either have to turn A/C way down or wait patiently for cooler weather in sometime in December. Well back to knitting. I have a scarf I want to finish by the end of the weekend.

Wish me luck.

Oh and I promise I'll be posting more often.

Talk to you very soon.

Sometime's mommy wants a beer.

2009-10-19T17:05:00.001-05:00

Friday was a rough day. Work and stress had me in tears by 9:00 am. By the time the work day was over my only thought was to get home and be with my family and to have…a beer. I’m not a big drinker. I have nothing against it, it just doesn’t work out very often that I’m in a position to just sit relax and enjoy a beer. The hubby buys me a 6 pack of Corona light about once every 6 months or so and usually I’ll end up drinking maybe half of them before I figure they go bad. (if you get grossed out you might want to skip the next few paragraphs)

Friday night, we finished dinner, the dishes were done. Jacob was in his room playing quietly. Now was my chance. I retrieved a bottle from the fridge, poured it into a glass and sliced up a lime for it. Took one look at my drink and started to take a drink. Before the glass got to my lips I hear “Honey the cat yucked up in our bathroom, would you clean it up?” (I have less of a gag reflex for this stuff than he does). So I head towards the bedroom and Jacob comes running down the hall. It took a second to recognize that he was covered in poop. He hadn’t had a BM in a couple of days and I was expecting a big one. What I wasn’t expecting was a total nuclear BOOTY BOMB. It was everywhere. He had pants on and it was inside and outside. It went completely down both legs. At some point he had stepped in it and was making little foot prints on the floor. The hubby decided to take the floor and I took the boy. He was stripped and placed in the tub where he was so freaked out he cried the whole time. The pants where thrown away. Once he was clean, I checked the floor and found more that was missed, I followed the trail to his room and found a lot more. Sheets were stripped, comforter was washed, and floor was cleaned some more.

After all this occurred, I went back to my original plan of cleaning up the cat yuck. Located the original and some additional of that as well. Cleaned it up and found some more of “The horror”. Cleaned up some more.

So and hour and a half had passed and I suddenly had the thought. “Didn’t I have a beer?” I went back to the kitchen to get my beer and it wasn’t there. So I searched the house to see if I left it somewhere else. (I often put things down and forget where they are). After about 15 minutes of searching I went and asked the hubby “Have you seen my beer? I can’t remember where I left it.” “I put it in the freezer for you so it wouldn't get warm” A very sweet gesture. So I headed to the kitchen and was waylaid by the kiddo to come play, so off to his room we traipsed and had a grand time for about 20 minutes.

It soon became clear that the sheets and comforter weren’t going to be dry in time for bedtime. So we decided to take him for a ride to see if he would drift off. Well, we didn’t take into account that it’s allergy season and he’s coughing, so after driving for about 45 minutes we decide to head back to the house and give him a breathing treatment. After that he was worn out from all the excitement, so we let him drift off to a Spiderman DVD in our bed. At that point I remembered. “I had a beer”. So off to the freezer, I opened the door, took my drink out of the freezer and went to see the hubby in the “man cave”.

“Hi honey, look I have a beercicle.”

I never did get that beer.

Talk to you later.

Jacob's Birthday Party

2009-10-14T08:16:00.001-05:00

Jacob's birthday party was on Saturday and it was a hit. It had been raining for several days prior and was windy and at 55 degrees much colder than the 72 that the weather man had predicted. So there weren't as many people as expected but that didn't matter. Everybody had a great time at the farm. I would recommend Owens Spring Creek Farm to anybody who want's to have an reasonably priced party. There was a hay ride (we didn't get to it), feeding pen, hot dogs, a pumpkin patch, horses of all sizes, donkeys and chickens.

At the end of the party the kids got to pick out their very own pumpkin. My friends son had no trouble locating a pumpkin. He just wanted the biggest. My niece helped Jacob pick out his pumpkin. His main criteria seem to be to find the cleanest pumpkin. He'd pick up a pumpkin by the stem, see the grass and dirt stuck to it and say "It's dirty" then he'd replace the pumpkin and start the process over again. Eventually a pumpkin was located that was deemed clean.

Me stressing out about how great the party needed to be was a non issue. Everyone had a great time. I don't think that Jacob even realized that the whole thing was for his birthday. Though he has got the concept of birthday cake. Every night since the party he wants birthday cake. Keeping him out of it has been a chore. Well that's it for the moment.
Talk to you later.

The Fair Workout.

2009-10-04T18:32:00.000-05:00

On Friday we went to the Texas State Fair. Both the hubby and I were very excited, we figured that this would be the year the Jacob would really start to get the fair. We had visions of corndogs and funnel cakes, rides and just plain fun. So Friday morning we got up early and got ready to go. Both of us independently made a decision not to take the wagon. We figured it didn't work out last year, so this year we would skip it. That's a decision we came to regret.

We had to run a few errands before we actually headed to the fair but we got there soon after it opened. Our first stop was the petting zoo. That was a huge hit. Jacob was totally in his element checking out all the cool animals. So it was onward to other side of the fair to get the holy grail of corndogs. Fletcher's corndogs, the original. Right away Jacob decided he didn't want to walk. He wanted "mommy to carry you". So mommy picked him up and we were off on our quest. Daddy kept trying to carry him but he wasn't having it.

So we demolished out corndogs and headed off to find more fun. Big Tex and the trains were a hit. But then we started back towards the rides and mommy had carry him again. And again daddy tried and met the brick wall of preschooler reluctance. It was just one of those days that he wanted mommy. We did get to ride one ride. Some little whale ride that was a little overwhelming for the exhausted one. I did have a small reprieve after that, for a whole 10 minutes daddy got to carry him. But then Jacob realized that I was still there and back to mommy he came.

At that point we decided to start heading toward the car. I wanted a funnel cake but unfortunately none were to be had in the section we were. I guess I have to wait till next year for that yummy goodness. We'll also take the wagon and perhaps wait until after naptime. Also hubby and I will try to sneak off to the fair alone so we can actually see the boring stuff mommy and daddies like.

The next day I realized just how out of shape I am. My arms and legs hurt, that was a heck of a work out.

Talk to you later.

Birthday Pressure

2009-09-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

So next month my baby boy turns three. Hard to believe it's been three years. So of course we are planning his birthday party. This is always a stressful chore. What should be fun becomes my nightmare. If it was left up to me I would have the whole thing planned and ready to go, on a date that I selected. But I happen to have the mythical beast rarely seen. In my house lives the husband who is "involved". I originally planned for the party to be on the 24th which is the week before Jacob's birthday (I have to work the following Saturday). But since we finally have chosen the location, a local farm with petting zoo and hayrides, he now has decided that the third week in October is be too dicey with the weather. So now the date has been pushed up two weeks. That gives me 12 days to get this party together. I will have to get invitations, figure out the theme, bake a cake, two actually (allergies), make sure there are sufficient things to entertain, put togeter goody bags, etc. Did I mention that I work full time? Hopefully people will be able to attend, since I've been prepping people for the later date. What my darling hubby doesn't understand is that a lot of people plan ahead especially this time of year.

If we had decided on the location earlier this might not be such an issue but he likes to have "input" this usually leads to procrastination and last minute decisions, because most places are deemed insuffiecient, this forces us to throw things together. For example the last two birthdays, our wedding (which turned out beautifully). I figured this year we were on top of things. It's a almost a whole month in advance, until the date was jumped up 2 weeks.

So, I think we are going to go with Disney's Cars theme even though we are going to be at farm. Well keep your fingers crossed that people will attend and that the weather will hold. All I really want is for Jacob to have a great time. I think the location will be a lot of fun, Jacob loves animals and anything outside is always a winning situation.
Well I've got to go. I need to figure out the cake situation.
Talk to you later.

Age is a state of mind,

2009-09-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

Every so often I start to feel my age. I'm not saying I'm old. Though tonight with my wrist bugging me coupled with the new pain in my right shoulder that showed up today I'm feeling every bit of 37. Most of the time there is no conscious thought to my age. As a matter of fact I only gave up comics a little over three years ago and that was a purely financial decision not an age related one.

I was having a conversation last night with one of my very best friends and realized that we have been friends for 22 years. Thanks to Facebook, I'm in contact with people from even further back in my past. The oldest friendship dates back to the late 70's. It doesn't seem possible that its been that long even though the math is right. It's true what the grown-ups told me as a child that time goes faster as you age. I remember waiting for holidays to arrive, thinking that they were never going to arrive. Now I can't believe how fast they arrive.

Most of the time I don't even feel like a qualified grown-up. So when is it that a person becomes old? I've seen people younger than me with old decrepit personalities, and older people with way more youth and energy than you would imagine possible. I do truly believe that age is a state of mind. So why is it the body has to remind the mind about my age? Well that's enough pondering tonight. This somewhat old lady has knitting to do.

Talk to you later.

The alpaca farm fantasy

2009-09-24T21:48:00.000-05:00

I recently started to knit. So far I’ve finished two scarves and am about 2/3^rdsof the way through the one that I started for the hubby. Not too bad. The afghan I started for my father-in-law is at a standstill, I’m rethinking the project. I’ll most likely start fresh. In the meantime I’m trying to teach myself new things, like how to read knitting patterns and how to knit a cable pattern. Learning to crochet has been put on the back burner, but an attempt is made at least once a week.

One of the reasons that I started knitting is that it relaxes me, a few people have mentioned that I seem much calmer when knitting. I find that it gives me time to empty my brain of the everyday minutia that clogs it up. So recently, I also started a new mystery series by Maggie Sefton, the central theme is knitting. I often find a series that coincides with something that interests me. The stories are entertaining and have inspired a new fantasy for me. I’m fantasizing about winning the lottery again, this time to move the family to Colorado to raise Alpacas. That way I could learn to spin and weave. I love the idea of doing something creative. Crazy huh? Especially since I've never even been to Colorado. It’s okay, crazy’s good as long as you don’t act on it. Crazy is what can keep you sane at times. Crazy is what gives you new ideas and sometimes solutions to the problems that are troubling you. As long as I have my little internal dreams, the outside world is manageable. I recommend to everyone to escape into a fantasy world for a little bit every day. Well I'm off to the mountains to hang with the alpaca.

Talk to you later.

Sometimes you see a darker side to humanity. The retail perspective.

2009-09-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

In the course of my job periodically, I have to deal with the public.  For those of you who work in retail you will understand when I say that you meet the best and worst of humanity. The best customers will make you want to move heaven and earth to help them achieve their goals. Then there are the other customers that you wish would disappear. In the last 15 years of dealing with the general public I've had the following occur.

I've been at Denny's at 3:00 am after a night at the clubs when a customer came up to me wanting to discuss her ceiling fan order. I sobered up enough to tell her we could discuss this on Monday morning.

Had several cranky old men come up to me and ask to speak to a man. This is when I worked at a lumber yard/hardware store. This was my cue to go locate Buddy, not the sharpest crayon in the box. They just said a man, they never specified intelligence. I would then assist Buddy with whatever needed to be accomplished.

Upon arrival at work there would often be customers who would meet me at my car before I even had a chance to get out and start questioning me about their orders. I'm a bit of a crank and need a little time to myself before I can start dealing with others.

I had one customer who informed me that he was the owner's wife's Dr. and he expected special treatment. Truth was that at one time he did take care of her but that she hadn't seen him in several years because she couldn't stand him.

Along the same lines are the ladies who would expect preferential treatment based on their marriages, ie. "Don't you know who my husband is?" Usually those were Dr's wives. Apparently entitlement were included in the marriage vows. Small towns are so much fun.

One time I greeted a couple of people with a cheerful "Hi there! What are you guys doing here?" The response was a snide "Paying your salary." Since they were using another salesperson I informed them that unfortunately that wasn't exactly true. That was a family member who made that remark and I pretty much stopped speaking to them.

This weekend I had a couple of people who arrived 20 minutes to closing and informed me that I was "going to have to work." After looking around for 30 minutes they decided to purchase a clearance fixture. The wife had told me she was a designer and wanted a discount on the already marked way down fixture.  The husband went to pay, when the total was stated he balked and said it was supposed to be another price. When informed the difference was the tax he grumbled that he didn't want to pay the tax.  Finally he paid then told us that he and his wife received $60,000 back on taxes this year. I felt that it was in bad taste to say something like that. Am I wrong?

I think the part that upset me the most is that they knew we were closed and decided to just wander around even after they had purchased the product. He especially found it funny that he was holding us up. The thing is that I will give my all during the work hours. But after work I have things to do and places to be and people who rely on me. I don't understand why people feel the need to treat others without respect.  He didn't just keep me from leaving others were affected, the receptionist/cashier, the manager who had to close up the store, someone in the warehouse who might be needed to pack up the fixture.

Now for the record there are some fantastic customers who everytime I see or think about them I smile. Most of the clients I work with are really neat people.

Well I've talked way too much tonight, I'll stop babbling.
Talk to you later.

Toxic Kitty

2009-09-18T09:41:00.001-05:00

Our much beleaguered cat Jimi, has been sick lately. The poor cat has lost a lot of weight and had some “intestinal issues”. Having lost our cat, Luther, a few months ago I wasn’t prepared to deal with Jimi illness and the monstrous vet bills that come with it. Luther cost us around $1200 of which $500 could have been avoided, if I hadn’t let the well meaning vet run yet another panel of tests to try determine what was causing his illness. But that’s another much sadder story that I’m not wishing to get into today. Today’s story is about Jimi.

I’ve been foolishly thinking that Jimi issues were from stress. He’s got a preschooler who terrifies him and worries about cat food on the floor. But after coming to the realization that Jimi is not getting better on his own, I took him to the vet on Wednesday. Vet bills are crazy outrageous and this particular vet is excellent and the prices reflect it. So I corralled Jimi into the kitty carrier and packed him into the Saturn. I made sure to turn it facing me so that I could reassure him that would be alright. The poor baby looked at me pitifully and proceeded to poop in the carrier, then having nowhere else to go, he sat in it. Now we all know that poop stinks. Well this particular cat’s droppings are beyond anything you might have smelled before. We are actually able to identify which poop is his by just how bad and pervasive it is. He can clear a room in 30 seconds. Within moments the smelled invaded the car. I call my husband to say my farewells, because I was sure, I was going to die. I rolled down the windows hoping it would help, it did some but I failed to mention that it was raining. So I had to decided death by poop or dealing with wet interior and grumpy hubby. I chose death. The next 10 minutes were some of the longest in my life. Arriving at the vet, I cheerfully with a green face told them that we had brought our own stool sample and were hoping it would help temper the costs. I warned them that it was toxic, I think they thought I was kidding. The first assistant turned a little green herself when she caught a whiff. They were very nice about it though, they cleaned up the carrier and the cause itself.

Unfortunately for Jimi and my pocket book our “sample” was free from parasites and he had to have the dreaded blood work. Is it bad I was hoping for parasites? The somewhat good news is, he appears to have a bacterial infection that is affecting his liver. So we are on a course of antibiotics and a new diet. So keep your fingers crossed and let’s hope he gets better soon.

Talk to you later.

2009-09-13T21:27:00.000-05:00

So it's been a interesting and nice weekend. Here's the run down. Saturday, Jacob got a haircut, looks great, still has his curls. Got into a minor car accident, everyones ok, Jacob keeps mentioning that Daddy's truck got bonked in the head. Spent the rest of the afternoon, dealing with insurance companies, good news not our fault so we shouldn't be out anything. Whether or not that actually occurs we shall see. Spent the rest of the day just hanging out inside the house due to a very rainy weekend. Today, got up early and started straightening the house. The first Cowboy game of the season, and hubby was having company. Baked from scratch Chocolate Chip cookies, (my personal favorite). The hubby tricked up a couple of frozen pizza's and I managed to forget to take the second one out of the oven on time, so it was a little crispy but salvageable. Took the kid for a ride so I could get some rest, it worked! he fell asleep. Then knitting and goofing off for a couple of hours. After the nap was over it was quality time playing with his trains. Now I'm hoping he'll fall asleep and I will finish the laundry that has piled up all weekend. Well wish me luck.
Talk to you later.

Are you ready for some football? I am.

2009-09-13T07:29:00.000-05:00

NFL football starts today and I'm so ready for it to be here. I cheer for the Cowboys, I live in North Texas after all and am married to a rabid Cowboy fan. I hate certain teams, redskins, eagles, and the steelers (see didn't even capitalize them, not worthy of a Cowboys fan's respect). And living in Southeast Texas when I was very little, I have a soft spot for the Oilers from back in the 70's with Bum Phillips and Earl Campbell, Love Ya Blue. And yes I know they don't exist anymore. That's why the hubby thinks it's okay for me to have been a fan.

All that being said, I don't really care for football itself. If I'm going to sit down to watch a game it is more likely to be baseball or basketball. But football's arrival is always a welcome one. For one, it gives my husband a chance to relax, something he rarely does. But the big reason I like football...it truly is the start of Fall. My favorite season. That means in the next few months we'll have better weather, my anniversary, Jacob's birthday, the Texas State Fair and the big three holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Days will rush by, there is always a feeling in the air of excitement, of what's coming next. People seem to be nicer to each other during the fall as well, I figure they start realizing that the Big Guy is watching (Santa) and they had better straighten up and fly right.

Football's here! Let the festivities begin. Oh, and don't forget GO COWBOYS!
Talk to you later.