Non-Stop Mom

Questions and answers

2013-06-18T23:55:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, when I can't come up with anything to write about, I ask the people on my facebook page to ask me questions so that I can answer them in a blog post. We did that tonight, and here are the questions....and answers!

Wendi asked: Any advice for a mom and daughter who are going to do their first 5k?

Resting after a 5K is always important.
Just ask Emily.

Coming from someone who ~~runs~~ ~~jogs~~ occasionally gets out and walks as a hobby and not seriously, the best advice that I can give is to just get out there and do it. Don't worry about your speed or your pace or anything like that - get out there and have fun. Of course, you should train beforehand, but you have to do what works for you. There are lots of great websites and apps that can give you pointers, but for me, I found that the best thing to do was to get out and walk/jog as much as I could in the months/weeks leading up to a race. I tried to steadily increase my distance but haven't really worked on speed yet. Hopefully when life calms down a bit I can get out there and do it again.

Shannon asked: Do you watch any reality tv, like The Voice?

Honestly, I don't watch any TV. Shocking, huh? But, I don't have cable (another bill from my past life that needs to be paid off but it's not a priority) and although I have a converter box to get the local stations, it died. So I have a TV that is useless, other than for DVDs. I don't even watch anything online because my internet connection isn't good enough - and honestly, I don't miss it. Once The Dude and I get moved into our new place, we will have cable though - and really at that point the only shows that I plan to watch regularly again are Parenthood and The Biggest Loser.

I did watch the first(?) season of The Voice, and I really liked it!

Sherrie asked: What compelled you to blog? Do you regret it?

See that picture of my boots up there at the top of the page? A couple of years ago, I had posted that picture on my personal facebook with a caption that said something like "oh, my old ugly boots, how I missed you!" because it had just gotten cold and I had dug them out of the closet, and I love those boots. Anyway, my friend Kat over at High Heeled Country commented and said "you should start a blog!" Discussion ensued, and I was convinced to do it. I believe someone actually said "I bet you could get 30 followers in no time!"

As for regretting it, the only thing that I really regret is not staying totally anonymous. There are many more things in my life that I could write about, but without anonymity I won't do it. And because this has gotten so much bigger than I had ever planned, I do try very hard to keep some things private - like our last names and specific information about where we're located. I don't ever want my kids to be embarrassed by anything that I've ever written.

Brandon asked: If you were a woodchuck and were able to chuck wood, how much wood would you chuck? On average, of course...

Enough to build a dream house for me, The Dude, his mom, and all of the kids.

Bianca asked: You share so much already!! Ok. If you could go anywhere on vacation, with no worries about cashola or the logistics, where would you go and, if you don't mind sharing, why?

Right now, that's an easy question to answer. I would without a doubt head back east to Pennsylvania to see family and friends, take the kids back to DC (for more than a few hours this time), and visit our friends in Virginia again. My parents can't really make the trip out here anymore due to their age and health so it's up to use to get out there to see them. We make an almost-annual trip to do that and had planned to do it this year for a family reunion and high school (not a) reunion, but finances won't allow it. We have to focus on moving instead. Sometimes being a grown-up stinks.

Pam asked:How awful or not as bad as one would think is working where you do?

It's both. Since it's fast food, when we're busy, we're busy. Today, I ran my butt off from 6:30am until 2:15pm without a moment to breathe. People are cranky, coworkers snap at each other, and there are times when I have to do so many dishes that I could be buried under the pile of them and no one would notice. But, at the same time, the vast majority of my coworkers are really cool (even if I have clothes older than some of them), most of the customers are decent, and when I'm on drive-thru first thing in the morning I get to see some amazing sunrises. And occasionally half-naked people. Or men in dresses.

Bruce asked: If they made a movie about your life...what actress would play you?

Oh, that's a good one. I think most of them are too glitzy for me.....but if I had to choose I'd have to say Sandra Bullock. She's one of my favorites and she just seems so down-to-earth and easy-going.

Gayle asked: What kind of work do you do?

In a nutshell, it's fast food. I can't say which one (not that I would anyway) but while I'm there I mainly run register, prep all of the food for the grill on the mornings when I open, clean the dining room, and do lots and lots of dishes. It started out as just a few hours here and there while the kids were in school, but it's kind of fun...... on the good days. So I work when I can, without taking too much time away from the kids.

Suni asked: How do you manage I stay sane, or semi sane with how you busy you are?

Ha! Sane?? You call this sane???? OK, seriously..... I don't know. This crazy life is just normal to me. I live by my datebook, which keeps me somewhat organized but for the most part it's just what I'm used to at this point. When I don't have anything to do, I go insane with boredom! Playing around online and blogging is a great stress reliever for me, as well as sewing and doing crafty stuff, so I have my outlets when things get to be too much.

On a mission...

2013-06-17T23:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what's gotten into me over the past few days, or even a week, but I've been getting so much more done around the house that it's kind of scary. I've actually been keeping up with the laundry (more or less) and keeping the kitchen clean and really just staying more on top of things than I usually do. I've been sitting here thinking about it tonight - because God forbid I should just take it at face value, and instead I have to sit here and over-analyze it to death.

I think a lot of it has to do with our impending move. I'm super excited about it, but there are so many stresses and so many questions and so many variables right now, and it's ....... I don't know ...... I think it's one of those things where right now, there are so many things that I can't control, so instead I have to go all control-freak-crazy on the house.

The Dude and I have looked at a handful of houses. Some have potential. Some..... not so much. But they are all within our price range if everything else falls into place.

My income is supposed to increase significantly around the end of August. I know about how much it's supposed to increase, but not exactly. And I can't find out the details yet, because well..... it's Social Security. And they don't like to answer questions. I just have to wait a couple more weeks to get the letter with the verification, assuming that what a worker told me several months ago was correct. A lot is riding on receiving that letter.

My credit score is so close. I bit the bullet and I'm paying to get my credit report cleaned up and looking respectable. We already went through Round One of their efforts, and it paid off big time with one of my credit scores going up just over 100 points! They think that by the end of this month when they complete Round Two, my other scores should be where they need to be in order to qualify for financing.

And of course, we have to find the right house.

At this point, even if we found the perfect house and were able to make an offer tomorrow, we still wouldn't be able to be moved before school starts. So that leads to more questions about what to do with the boys - do I enroll them in school here for the first month or two, and then transfer them when we move, or do I enroll them over there and drive them back and forth every day until we move? There are definitely pros and cons to both, but I'll figure that part out soon. I hope.

Walking home from the
grocery store with survival
food for the next couple of
days while I'm working.

So with all of these questions and random scenarios playing in my head, I've gone into uber-cleaning and organizing mode - which serves two purposes. It gives me control over at least part of my life AND it's getting the house ready to be packed up and moved. (I swear I will never be as unorganized as I was for the last move - I still apologize to this day to the people who were kind enough to help me with that disaster.)

In the meantime, I'm just trying to work as many hours as I can so that we can save up a little bit more money to put towards all of this mess. The Dude has been amazing with his willingness to watch the ~~monsters~~ kids while I work and I am forever grateful to him for it - especially when he has to be over here by 5am some mornings in order to make it all happen (like tomorrow). I'm just ready for us all to be in one house so that life will be just a tiny bit less chaotic.

Of course, I don't think he's going to complain too much tomorrow when he actually sees the 2 loaves of banana bread that I made for them tonight.

Fishing and Father's Day

2013-06-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

The Dude and I decided to take Daniel and go for a spur-of-the-moment fishing trip late yesterday afternoon. We grabbed some hot dogs and s'mores fixin' stuff and took off for a few hours. The fish were absolutely NOT biting at all, but we still had a nice, quiet, relaxing time (in spite of the drunks at the next campsite). The fish started biting after it got dark, but none of us caught anything.

Heading out

Always a gorgeous drive

Lakeside

Relaxing

Still one of my all-time favorite views

Why, hello there Mr. Turtle. Now go away.

Bored out of his skull

Beautiful sky

The sunset was amazing.

Discussing the finer points of s'mores, I'm sure.

Fishing by the light of the moon.

Love nights like this.

This morning, we all slept late - even me. By the time that we got up and got moving, we were all hungry and so we decided to take The Dude out for a Father's Day lunch. Daniel gave him a card that he had picked out and signed all by himself, which totally melted my heart - and I think that The Dude was pretty darned happy with it too.

Walking to lunch

Stopping to check out the scenery under the bridge

The card.

Not a bad weekend, if I do say so myself.

So we got a few things done today....

2013-06-14T23:20:00.000-05:00

Every now and then, we have one of those days when we just don't stop moving and we get tons of stuff done. I'm sitting here trying to think about everything that we did...

I started out by getting up and making the kids pancakes for breakfast. They all ate and got ready to go and then we took off and picked The Dude up at his house, then I took the older kids to Ex1's house and The Dude (and Alex and Daniel) and I went and met with the realtor to look at a couple more houses. They both had potential, but were a bit smaller than what we really need. However, like the other ones, we haven't ruled them out yet.

Then we came back to town and went back to his house and parked the van and then walked back a couple of blocks to a local store that was having a sidewalk sale.

I threatened to buy a big goofy hat to wear while fishing...

But instead we opted for lunch from the hot dog truck that was there. Two naked dogs for the boys, a bacon-wrapped dog for me, and a fully loaded Mexi-dog for The Dude.

In typical Dude fashion, he had to pose with Sr. Weiner.

After that, we went back to his house again, and we loaded up a bunch of stuff that needed to be donated elsewhere. We took a bunch of books to a local used bookstore, and a bunch of clothes and other stuff to the local thrift store. Then we stopped at one of the city offices to get our landfill coupons for the next project.

Back at his house again, we started on the yard. It had gotten pretty overgrown along the fence and was making it difficult to mow, so I cut all of the branches down and we loaded them into his truck and took off for the landfill to get rid of them.

After we got done at the landfill, we went back to his house and I got the yard mowed - so much easier without having to battle branches the entire time! Then I gathered up the boys and we ran into my work to get my schedule for next week and to grab something to eat before we took off toward our house. Once we got home, we inhaled our food and then I mowed my yard and Nice Neighbor's yard. After I got done with that, we ran to the grocery store to get laundry detergent and then BACK to my work to get the milkshakes that we had forgotten to get with our food earlier. Then it was back home again and baths for all 3 of us.

After doing all of that yard work in 99-degree heat, a shower was mandatory for me.

And now that we got all of that done today, I can lay around all day tomorrow and do absolutely nothing - and not feel guilty about it at all.

And that is my plan.

Such a slacker

2013-06-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

I haven't really posted anything for the last week or so, and most of it's because life has been so uber-chaotic again. So here are some random tidbits just to get everyone caught up....

Random sighting on the way to WalHell the other morning
to get a certain little boy his birthday present.

So Daniel turned 6 years old the other day. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 years already, but it has.

Yes, he still sucks his thumb. We're working on it.

Birthday donuts.

Irresistible.

All he wanted was that blasted blue
soccer ball.

Recovering from birthday spankings from
The (Very Scruffy) Dude.

Delayed cake and ice cream when I could finally get
all five of them in the house at the same time.

Killing time at a park in between girls' basketball games.

Love seeing them actually getting along and not
beating the hell out of each other.

I have no words.

The park was covered in honeysuckle. Such a heavenly
scent that took me right back to my childhood.

Killing time at another park this morning.

It's never going to go away. On my blog, I can see what people
type into search engines to get here. Over the past month, these are
the most popular searches.

And just because The Dude is so awesome, I have to say this....

He hasn't been working lately, so I've been picking up some more hours. But in order for me to work, someone has to watch the kids. By default, it's him. Without him, I wouldn't be able to do this, and I am so incredibly grateful. He has leads on a couple of jobs, so we're just waiting to hear back at this point - and then once he starts working, I won't have to put in as many hours.

So the other day, he had the boys and my phone. So he took them out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and caught this picture of them enjoying their chips and salsa.

And then today, while I was at work and he was keeping an eye on 4 of the kids instead of just 2, he managed to surprise me and put an end to my dish jenga days - and he fixed my broken dishwasher. I thoroughly enjoyed loading my toxic cancer-causing ugly plastic dishes into the energy-hogging inefficient water-wasting cancer-causing-dish-detergent-using dishwasher tonight instead of washing them in the sink. So sue me. I have better things to do than to wash dishes.

And we are officially on the prowl for a house. We looked at a couple today, and both of them had potential, although one had way more potential than the other. Of course, along with more potential comes more money, but.....we'll see. The realtor that we are working with seems really cool and she knows what we're looking for so we're actually going to meet her again tomorrow and look at a couple more that she thinks could possibly work. We really want to get moved before school starts in August, but I don't know if that's going to happen or not - but one way or another, we will get moved. Soon. All of my kids will be in one school district next year, or I will lose what little bit of my mind I have left.

So that's the past few days in a nutshell....hopefully things will calm down around here and I'll be able to keep up a little better.

How many times...

2013-06-08T21:44:00.003-05:00

....did I sit down today to fold laundry?

Honestly, I lost count.

Non-Stop Dork

I got up this morning and once I got moving, I was on a mission to get some laundry done. I even donned the infamous purple bandana that usually helps to keep me motivated for some weird reason.

But I kept getting distracted. Sometimes it was my own fault, and sometimes it wasn't.

Of course, I kept watching that silly picture of my dishes that I posted last night and was again amazed at the number of people who shared it. I always find it ironic how the dumbest stuff can go viral (remember this foolishness???) but important stuff doesn't. But whatever - it is what it is.

But it also seemed like every time I turned around, the kids were yelling for something. Someone fell off of a bike. A chain fell off of a bike. Someone else fell off of a bike. The chain came off again. Someone is thirsty. Someone's being mean to someone else. And so it went for most of the afternoon.

Then the kicker.

"Mom, the garage door is broken."

Wait, what?

Sure enough, when I went outside to look, my already ghetto-esque garage door was hanging at a funky angle. I got closer to investigate, and found that one of the wheels had broken and come out of the track, and so it was hanging there by one wheel. Very carefully, I got the door opened the rest of the way and grabbed some tools and pulled the broken wheel off of the door. Cool Neighbor came over to see what I was up to this time, and he went to his garage and pulled out an old wheel to see if it would fit, but of course it didn't. So, the kids and I loaded up in the van and took off to the hardware store.

Yeah. I need to clean that dump up soon.

$10 later, we had a new wheel. A matched set, actually. A little bit of cursing, a few ninja moves to get cobwebs out of my face, and about 30 minutes later and I had both wheels replaced.

In the 2 1/2 years that we've lived here, that door has never opened so easily. And I got it done and was able to get the door closed before some thunderstorms came rolling into the area, so that's always a plus.

But of course, while all of this was happening, I wasn't getting my laundry folded. Instead, it just kept piling up on my bed. So at the moment, Mt. Laundry is sitting behind me, patiently waiting for me to tackle it. And now that it's this late, I have no desire to do it.

However, I'm going to force myself to do it - otherwise I'll be sleeping on the couch, and honestly, I don't want to do that tonight.

Maybe I'll surprise myself and actually get it done though. We'll just have to wait and see.

Trashy gardening

2013-06-07T23:55:00.000-05:00

It was quite a productive day.

I had to get up early to feed the kids before I went to work and as I was making the waffles, The Dude came flying into the house muttering something about having to go back to the store. It took me a few seconds to figure out what he was talking about, but as it turned out he had stopped at the store across the street to get some soda on his way over here to watch the kids, and his truck died. Again.

Long story short, we ended up pushing it from the parking lot across the street into my driveway so that he could figure out what to do with it while I was at work. I got dressed and took off for my shift.

By the time I got home, he had pretty much figured it out, and it appeared to be a relatively easy (and cheap) fix, so the kids and I followed him to the auto parts store, he got the stuff that he needed, swapped out the stuff in the parking lot, we followed him home, and then we came home.

Once we got home, I decided that it was too nice to stay inside, so the kids played around on their bikes while I finally got started on my "garden" (after a quick trip to WalHell). I can get a hold of these wonderful green buckets from work, and since I can't have a real garden here at the house, they will have to do - and once we find our new house we'll be able to take the stuff with us. You know, assuming that it actually grows.

Making drain holes - not so easy with a drill with
dead batteries.

Our "trashy garden" - peppers, squash, gourds....and something
else that I can't think of off the top of my head.
(I know, squash and gourds might not work in the buckets.
It's an experiment.)

Another experiment - morning glories in bags. I'm hoping that they'll
grow and vine and I can just wrap them around
the hooks. So far, they're growing.

Rosebush that was here when we moved in to the house.
It's going nuts this year.

Love the color.

Seeds sprouting in pots on my other porch.

After the outside productivity was done, we came in and the kids started to get baths while I made supper. During that time, I decided that no matter what, the kitchen was getting cleaned tonight. I just couldn't take it anymore. I have been totally slacking in there, and when I do that things just start to spiral out of control. You know, the dishes are dirty, so we might as well go out to eat instead, blah blah blah. Anyway, I cleaned it tonight. And I dumped all of the moldy leftovers in the fridge (that was scary). And I washed all of the dishes.

Before...

After.....first time in months that I've actually had the runner
on the table....and visible.

The silly picture that made my page go nutty tonight.

Oops. There's a dirty glass that I forgot.

So yeah, there's proof that my house does get trashed (don't they all?) but I did clean it up once I got started. Now I just have to keep up with it so that it doesn't get that bad again.

Who am I trying to kid? It'll be just as bad again within days.

Catching up

2013-06-05T00:09:00.000-05:00

I know I've been totally neglecting the blog over the past few days. Things have been hectic, to say the least.

Between working and taking care of the house and spending time with The Dude and being sick and fixing vehicles and life in general, I just haven't really had time to sit down and breathe - and when I do, I instantly fall asleep.

And from what I found out tonight, it's only going to get worse. The girls are involved in basketball, volleyball, and weightlifting during the summer. Jared is going to be taking swimming lessons. Alex and Daniel are both in Scouts. It's crazy. If I thought that I was running non-stop before, it's only going to get worse now.

I found out today that some of the plans that we had already made for the summer are going to have to change for a multitude of reasons. It does appear that we are going to have to cancel TMOART:13, which makes me very unhappy but this is one of those times when I have to make the grown-up decision to focus more on the most important things - and right now our biggest priority is to get moved so that all of my kids are in the same school district before August. That has to take precedence over anything else.

Now, if we happen to win the lottery.....that could change. However, I'm not going to count on that happening anytime soon.

So over the next few days, I have a bunch of projects to work on around the house, and lots of things to get done so that I can feel like my head is on straight(ish) again. Hopefully the remains of the allergy fog will lift and I'll be able to function a bit more efficiently and I can just get back into the swing of things again. I've been lazy for a few days and now it's time to get back to reality.

Right after I pass out for the night.

Totally random shot. Just thought that it was cool -
and not seen very often anymore.

Speedbumps

2013-05-30T23:34:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure what we did to deserve this.....

I blew out the head gasket in my van.
Then the water pump went out in The Dude's truck (while I was driving it).
My dishwasher crapped out on Mother's Day.
My lawnmower died the other day.

Then this evening, The Dude was out running a couple of errands, including picking up supper for us, and he called me to say that the truck had broken down. Again.

Anyway, it ended up being really minor. I took the boys, went and got him, we ran to the auto parts store and back to his house to get his tools, replaced the solenoid in the parking lot of the pizza place, and boom - back on our way again, all in less than an hour.

Still.... it's frustrating. It seems like just when we fix something - another thing breaks. Luckily this time, it was cheap and easy to fix. But I'm getting tired of fixing stuff. Besides the fact that it's generally really inconvenient, it's also getting really expensive.

We keep spending money on fixing stuff - and it's money that we're trying to put towards other stuff.

We're trying to figure out a way to make TMOART:13 happen (if you're new around here, that stands for The Mother Of All Road Trips: 2013 Edition) but at this rate - it looks like it might not. We want to rent a bigger van to do it so that the kids are more comfortable (and let's face it - if it's a rental and it breaks down, someone else has to pay to fix it) but from looking into that, a rental will easily tack another $1000-1500 to the total cost of the trip. We just might not be about to do it this year.

Even though we keep breaking stuff, we
have fun fixing it.

We're still trying to get moved so that we can have all of the kids in the same school district, and moving takes money too. Funny how that works.

But still, even though this is all so incredibly frustrating, we're still plugging along. We're still making plans (and adjusting them) and we're moving forward and we're looking into doing some other things that involve some really big steps (no, not THAT kind of a step) and all in all, no matter what, life is good. We might keep hitting speedbumps, but that's all they are - they might temporarily slow us down a bit, but they're not sending us off into some other direction.

I figure at this point that if we can deal with this much broken crap, we should be able to handle just about anything. We'll just keep going over the speedbumps, one by one.

We might lose what little bit of our minds that we have left.....but it'll just make the ride more interesting.

Camping videos

2013-05-30T00:18:00.001-05:00

Had I thought about it while we were out there, I would have recorded more stuff because there were some truly priceless moments. But, I never think about it at the time.

This first one though..... oh my wow. Let me apologize now for the shakiness but I was laughing so hard that I couldn't hold the camera still. The boys were playing in the sand by the water, and Alex wanted to tell Daniel something. I heard him say "Daniel! Come here!" several times, but Daniel wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that Alex wanted to show him. Finally, Daniel looked at Alex and said "No! I want to do ballet!" and ran off and started dancing up and down the shoreline. I managed to catch part of it on film...

Then this one - this was Sunday afternoon before we left. We ventured to a different part of the lake to try to get out of the wind (and failed) and we really wanted Daniel to catch a fish (Alex had left with his father that morning). So The Dude managed to hook one and then handed the pole to Daniel.

He was quite proud of himself!

Eye Candy (not THAT kind)

2013-05-29T21:42:00.001-05:00

This is MY kind of eye candy - the kind that I can stare at all day, every day, and never get tired of it.

You guessed it. More pictures from our camping trip.

The view from our campsite back down the road.

One of my favorite views. Ever.

Thursday sunset

Night fishing by the light of the moon.

Friday sunrise

The view from the other side of the lake

Starting to figure it all out.

You can see how low the water level still is - that tree should
be at the water's edge.

Whoa. A moment of focus.

Friday sunset

S'mores!

Friday night fishing. Seriously, that's the moon.
Not the sun.

Saturday sunset

The supermoon Saturday night.

Supermoon

More supermoon

I'm definitely ready to go back out there again.

A little bit of wildlife

2013-05-28T20:09:00.003-05:00

While we were camping this weekend, we saw lots of wildlife - although some of it was much more alive than others. It was wonderful to just kick back and watch everything without the hustle and bustle of the real world to interrupt it.

Here are a few shots of what we saw.

ZOMBIE TURTLE!!!!

Crane. There were lots of these.

Ducks. Lots of them too.

Snakes. They were all over the water, and some of them
were extremely persistent.

Signs of raccoons.

This just makes me giggle.

I think he was trying to convince us that he
was to be feared....

....or that he was Loch Ness's cousin.

Crane - see the fish in its mouth?

Hey look! A crane!

Not sure what kind of birds these are, but they're
fearless. And fast.

Dragonfly - one of the few bugs that we saw the
entire weekend.

I waited all day to get this picture.

Another shot of Speedy.

Flying crane.

This little jerk was extremely persistent. He would NOT
go away, and he thoroughly enjoyed hanging out about
5' away from where I was sitting.

A pelican. In Kansas. I had to google it to be sure.

I still have a ton of pictures to go through and post....slowly but surely!!!

A couple of (good) interruptions during camping

2013-05-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

Part of our goal when we went camping this past weekend (besides celebrating The Dude's birthday) was to totally disconnect from the "real world" for a while. Luckily, this goal is pretty easy to attain out at the lake because cell phones are really nothing more than paperweights in the entire area. Making a call is impossible and getting online is even more impossible. About the only thing that even sometimes works is a text message here and there - but even that is iffy.

I kept checking online to see if the Boy Scouts had publicized the results of the vote on whether or not to allow kids who are gay into the organization, but nothing had been posted by the time that we left town. I figured I'd hear about it one way or another during the weekend because I had already planned to make at least one or two trips back into town.

(Just in case you're new here, this is a subject that I've written about a couple of times. You can find those posts HERE and HERE.)

I'm not sure what time we got out there Thursday evening - we picked the boys up from school and still had to do a few things around town before we even got to leave. We were still unpacking our stuff when suddenly my phone went off in my pocket. Surprised, I pulled it out to look at it, and it was a text message:

Not sure if you're disconnected from the internet but they passed the allowing gays thing

I let out a happy yell and showed the phone to The Dude, who also smiled. I managed to fire off a thank you text to the messenger before my signal totally died and I put my phone away for the weekend.

Granted, I wish that the ban was totally lifted and that adults who are gay were also allowed - but to me, this is a step in the right direction. And it makes me feel better about allowing Alex to continue to participate in Scouts. He and I had a long talk about it and while he doesn't understand all of it, he still thinks that it's pretty cool that ALL boys are allowed in now and that it was "pretty stupid" that they weren't before.

So because of this, I did use my phone as an alarm clock to wake the two of us up at 6am on Saturday (ugh) to go back into town to meet up with a bunch of the local Scouts to put flags up on the graves of the veterans at the local cemetery. This was a new experience for both of us, as we walked around our section of the cemetery with a bag of flags, a notebook with a map, and a list of names. He had a blast, and we talked about the different wars as we placed flags on graves of men who had fought in the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, and Korea. He loved looking at the dates on the stones, and I kept getting distracted by the stones in general since I love old cemeteries.

At the same time, it also made me realize that I really need to brush up on my history because I had to struggle to remember details that he asked about some of the wars. Leave it to a kid to make me realize how little attention I actually paid during some classes in school!

I'm glad that we got to do this, and I'm glad that the vote passed. I know that it is going to have some immediate effects on his pack because there are several people who had already made it clear that they would leave the organization if it passed - but at the same time I can now feel more comfortable with him (and soon, Daniel) participating. I believe that they can learn some wonderful lessons (with 'tolerance' being one of them) and participate in some great activities and that it will be a great thing for both of them.

So we caught a couple of fish...

2013-05-26T21:23:00.000-05:00

I've pretty much decided that since I took well over 400 pictures on our camping trip this weekend that I would sort of divide them up by subject and post them that way. It's a little less overwhelming for everyone that way!

So, since the main purpose of our weekend getaway was to fish, I figured that I'd start off with everything that we caught. Forgive the cheesy collages - but I didn't feel like posting each picture individually, and once I found a cheesy online collage maker, it was essential to make them as cheesy as possible.

First - Thursday night. OK, these aren't the cheesy ones. I just did these myself before I figured out that there had to be an easier way.

Then there was Friday. We spent pretty much the entire day with poles in our hands.

Saturday was fun. The lake was stocked that morning, and although it took a while for the fish to make it to our end (we were way at the end) they eventually made it, and we got some good ones.

Today, we packed up to leave and decided to head to the other end of the lake to try to get out of the wind - we had steady 15-20mph winds non-stop for the entire time that we were out there. Alex's father picked him up and so we just had Daniel - and he "caught" the only fish of the day today.

Of course, no fishing trip would be complete without the "one that got away" stories, and we each have one. I hooked a huge carp last night, battled it to within about 10 feet of the shore, was getting ready to say "I need some help" to The Dude, and *boom* he got off of the hook and swam away. We're not sure how big he was, but I feel pretty confident in saying that it would have been the biggest fish that I had ever caught - you know, if I had actually caught it.

After it got dark last night, The Dude got a hit on his line. He let out a yell because he knew that it was a big one, and just like that, it was gone. Along with his hook and sinker. Snapped the line. We didn't catch a glimpse of that one, so we have no idea what it was. But it was big.

We didn't keep anything that we caught, but we had so much fun out there. The boys tried to fish, but they don't have the patience to sit there and do it so they'd try for a few minutes and then go and get into trouble somewhere, and then try, then get into trouble - I think I actually have more pictures of them playing in the dirt than I do of them fishing.

So other pictures that will be coming in future posts.....boys fishing and getting in trouble, wildlife, a zombie turtle, the supermoon (woot!), sunrises and sunsets, and various other shenanigans. We'll just have to see how long it actually takes me to get them all posted.

I thought I could let it go....

2013-05-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

....but I can't.

To put it mildly, I'm pissed. I mean it. Absolutely livid.

A couple of months ago, I went off on a little tirade about the Boy Scouts' ban on gay members. I got it out of my system, and life was good. I made the decision at that point to keep Alex in Scouts until after the vote on whether or not to lift the ban happened. Anyway, it was delayed, and from what I understand from our meeting tonight it will be held on Wednesday.

We didn't have a regular Scout meeting tonight. Instead, we had our committee meeting - the grown ups sit around and talk about boring stuff like finances and planning outings and stuff like that. The subject of the vote was brought up, as apparently there had been some question as to whether the church who charters our pack and troop would continue to charter it if the ban was to be lifted. We were informed that regardless of the vote, the church would continue to charter the Scouts. I was happy to hear this.

Now, at this committee meeting there were 5 or 6 other adults, plus me. Our leader was trying to plan things out for the next few months, and was informed by several of the other adults that they would be leaving the organization if the ban were to be lifted - which left the leader in a bit of a bind, because he can't plan any outings for the boys until he knows if he has any adults left or not.

Seriously?

(For the record, as if you didn't guess already, I informed the leader right then and there that if the ban is lifted, he can count on me to be more involved than ever before.)

OK. I understand that the Scouts is a Christian-based organization. I understand that it is a private organization and can make its own rules. I understand that when people joined, they knew about those rules (except for me, the clueless one) and they were ok with them.

Now the rules might be changing. So they want to leave. Keep in mind that BSA is not looking to change the rules for adult leaders - only for the kids.

So these adults, who are supposed to be role models for these young boys, are going to bolt straight out of the organization because they might have to be in the same room with a kid who is gay??? Really?

News flash: There are gay people everywhere. They're in the grocery stores and the libraries and the public pools and in schools and hospitals and banks and post offices and shopping malls and *gasp* maybe even working IN THE SAME OFFICE WITH YOU!!!! If they haven't turned you gay yet, what makes you think that they're out to do that to your kid too? If you are so worried about your kid being exposed to someone who is gay, then you'd better not ever allow that child out of your house. Really.

Look at these two images. Read them. These are pictures that I just took of Alex's Cub Scout Tiger Cub Handbook.

Where exactly does it say that the purpose of Cub Scouting is to shun someone who does something that you don't like? Where does it say that someone who is different than you doesn't belong in Scouts? Where does it say that a boy who is gay is not worthy of being a Scout?

It doesn't.

Character Development. Is there a better way to develop your child's character than to show him that it's ok if someone does something that you don't necessarily like? What is so wrong with teaching your son that it's ok to agree to disagree? Doesn't that build character?

Respectful relationships. A relationship doesn't only have to be between a man and a woman. It can be the relationship between a group of kids. There is a group of kids that I see playing together after school on a regular basis - just judging by appearances, there are girls, boys, blacks, whites, Hispanics, and even a little Muslim girl who all play together - and they are great friends. They are all so amazingly different from each other, but they respect each other's differences and have a great relationship with each other.

Values? They want to preach about values? Look at that list: Compassion. Courage. Honesty. Respect.

RESPECT.

Right there, in black and white. The eleventh Core Value in Cub Scouting.

Respect.

How in the hell can we teach our kids respect if we don't show that same respect to ALL other people?

Respect for kids shouldn't be selective. They're KIDS. Show them respect. Show adults respect (unless they give you a damned good reason not to do so).

Seriously people. Get over it. Yes, you have a right to your beliefs, just as I have a right to mine. You're not right and I'm not either. But as adults, we have the responsibility to be positive role models for all kids today. Do you want to teach them that it's ok to be close-minded and exclusionary, or do you want to teach them that it's ok to accept someone who is different from you? You can accept the person without accepting their beliefs.

Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.

St. Augustine originally said that around the year 424, give or take.

Know what that means?

Love the sinner, but hate the sin.

You don't have to agree with everything that everyone does. But learn to respect the fact that everyone is different.

It was a dark and stormy night. OK, not really.

2013-05-19T23:27:00.001-05:00

It was kind of a typical Kansas springtime afternoon and evening here in this neck o' the woods. There were thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings all over the state, we've been warned for days that it could get ugly today.

My immediate area got nothing but wind and rain, but there were tornadoes in other areas that in the grand scheme of things - are not that far from me. Some of my friends have damage to their homes, but luckily nothing is severe.

I enjoy the storms. I don't know why, but I do. I watch the radar and I stay aware of what is going on, but I don't get scared. I did get a little worried tonight, but as usual we just didn't get much. Anyway, here are a few pictures.

Obviously, the storms don't bother him either. He looked out
the window for a few minutes, then took a nap.

After the storms

Another after shot.

Just to give you an idea of how hard the wind was blowing -
this porch is completely covered by a roof - yet was soaked
along with the walls because the rain was coming in
horizontally.

Front yard

Water flowing down the street. And my glorious crocs.

After.

The joys of living in town - can't get a decent shot
without power lines and buildings.

The calm after the storm.

And some video of Round 2 from tonight:

Last minute change of plans...

2013-05-18T23:46:00.000-05:00

...and sometimes those are the best.

We didn't really have plans to do much of anything today. Well, I was going to clean and do laundry and stuff, but that was about it. Then a friend of mine texted me to let me know that she and her son and her girlfriend were going to be at the lake near our house and we should come out and say hi.

I mentioned it to The Dude, and he said that we should go fishing while we were there.

The mad scramble ensued.

I got a quick shower (yes, before I went fishing) and dug the fishing poles out of the garage and tossed them into the van along with the chairs. The boys and I went and got The Dude, we ran a couple of errands, dropped Alex off with The Dude's mother (he, uh, had some issues and lost the chance to go fishing) and took off for the lake.

We stopped at the bait shop first, where Daniel swindled The Dude out of a quarter...and we got our fishing licenses for the rest of the year. Now, we are free to go fishing whenever we want to go - and I fully intend to do exactly that.

Then we cruised around for a while until we found our friends. The joy of that lake in particular is that there is virtually zero cell phone reception - and that's a good thing when we just want to unplug and get away.

A few random shots...

Getting situated.

Trying to figure it all out.

Giving a few more pointers.

There was the threat of severe weather.

Across the lake.

Travis's first catch - and yes, photobombed by some punk who
wouldn't leave us alone, even when the park rangers sent
him back over to his parents.

Love this view. Even with the crocs and
ugly pants.

Raven's foster puppy. She was so tired.

He got bored with fishing and decided to dig holes.

And he caught one...

First catch - for him.

It was actually clear for a while.

My big - and only - catch of the day.
I even sacrificed a worm by throwing him straight into the water
in an attempt to appease the fishing gods and allow me to catch
just one fish - but it didn't work.

Budweiser can - a quick google search placed it from 1996.

His second one.

Christine and Travis, giving each other a hard time like only
mothers and sons can do.

Like a little old man...

Raven wasn't thrilled about being this close to it.
But she was a good sport about it!

And his third catch. The big showoff.

And of course we had to do the goofy couples pictures, just for the heck of it.

Me and The Dude (obviously)

Raven and Christine

So anyway, we had a blast but had to scoot out of there fairly quickly as the weather started to roll into the area. We got back into town, picked Alex back up, grabbed some pizza, came home, ate, did baths..... and now I have to do all of the cleaning that I didn't do today while I was out drowning worms. I get to work bright and early in the morning (yay - extra hours!) so The Dude is going to be hanging out here with the kids while I go and do that, and then maybe I'll get to take a nap in the afternoon. Ha.

This...

2013-05-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

...is my happy face.

So I was trying to watch the road too.
You get the idea.

That is how I looked as I drove my van home tonight.

My van. We have it back. And it runs like a charm. Actually, I think it runs better than it ever did, but I'm going to reserve final judgment on that until I drive it for a few days, just to make sure. But I drove it about 20-25 miles tonight and had no problems - so I think we might be good to go for now.

I am so incredibly thankful to have it back. It will make all of our lives so much easier and so much less stressful. And for everyone who helped out while I was wheel-less....THANK YOU. The last month or so has been so incredibly stressful, and just having it back is such a huge relief - not only on me, but on The Dude and the kids as well. It'll even help Ex1, since the majority of kid transportation has been falling on him lately.

One less stressful thing to have hanging over my head.

Life is good.

A glimpse inside my head.

2013-05-15T23:55:00.000-05:00

...and it's kind of a messy place to be right now.

Ever have one of those days when you just have so much stuff on your mind that you can't even make any sense out of it whatsoever?

That's me today. This is the 4th attempt at writing this post.

I don't even know where to begin.

I'm tired. I'm cranky. Actually, I'm just downright exhausted, and everything keeps piling up on top of me higher and higher and I'm getting really tired of it.

Between not having my van, and dealing with the recent breakdown of The Dude's truck, and working more hours at work, and him not working because of his injured shoulder, and trying to handle the normal household stuff, and still trying to figure out how to get us and The Dude moved into one house, and our newest project of trying to get him into school in the fall (I'll be dating a college student - how weird is that?), and handling the kids' attitudes, and preparing for summer vacation, and trying to plan a weekend getaway for me and him - I'm pretty sure that I'm about to lose my mind.

Not that there's much of it left.

To be completely honest with you, I had a bit of a meltdown (or three or four) on him tonight. Sometimes the stress just gets to be too much and I lose it, and I take it out on him. And I hate when I do that and I feel horrible about it - yet he just takes it all in stride. I kind of freaked out on him because there was no way that I could plan anything for this evening, because anything that we wanted to do was contingent upon other people deciding what they were going to do - and I snapped. What was the subject of my snapping?

World peace? Global warming? The economy?

No. It was what to make for supper.

And how did he handle it? He got up and starting digging through the fridge and freezer, and he made supper for us and the kids.

What did I do? I let him have control. I walked out of the kitchen and went and stretched out on my bed and I fell asleep. I have no idea how long I napped, but I did it.

I still don't know why he puts up with me - and I told him that again tonight. Whatever the reason is, I'm thankful for it and I don't know what I would do without him. I know that we're going to get through all of this BS at some point in time.....but I really wish that it would happen sooner rather than later.

At some point, we need to catch a break. But at the same time, at least we know that we can handle the rough stuff - because we've sure been through a bunch of it already - and we still kinda' like each other.

Can't really complain about that.

Late night cleaning observations

2013-05-14T23:55:00.000-05:00

~ I get much more cleaning done when The Dude is here using my computer - because I can't get distracted by it and sit down "for just a minute" instead of cleaning.

~ Crayon chunks multiply and hide in every nook and cranny of this house.

~ Pieces of crayon wrappers multiply exponentially and find even more interesting places to hide.

~ I am thankful that my kids aren't into Legos - but stepping on a toy car is also painful.

~ Sand should be banished from every playground in the world. Or shoes should be made so that they are sand-proof.

~ Hardwood floors are easier to clean than carpet when sand is involved.

~ The kids bring home entirely too many papers from school.

~ I don't have the burning desire to clean off the top of my desk until someone else is sitting there using it.

~ All couch cushions should be permanently attached to the couch, with no way for anything to slip underneath them. On second thought, hard plastic benches that are able to be powerwashed might be a better idea than anything that is upholstered.

~ Knowing that my mop is broken and unusable makes me want to mop the floors more than usual. Knowing that I can't do that is irritating me to death.

~ Sitting here making a list of late night cleaning observations while The Dude runs home to get paperwork that he needs is just enough of a distraction to make me not want to clean anymore tonight - but maybe if I get off of my butt right now, I can have the top of the desk cleaned off by the time he gets back over here.

More fun and games....

2013-05-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

A few pictures from yesterday....

We celebrated Jared's 9th birthday with our traditional cake and ice cream...

And we also celebrated Mother's Day with a big dinner with us and The Dude's mother and brother. However, somehow in the chaos we managed to not take a single picture - I'm still not exactly sure how that happened.

Although....I did snap this one right before the food was ready....this would be my dishwasher - that was full of dirty dishes and had just started to run when it decided to crap out and flood the kitchen. Luckily, I noticed it just a few minutes after it started so a handful of dirty towels were enough to soak up the water, but of course that left me with all of the dirty dinner dishes PLUS all of the dirty dishes inside of it that had to be washed. By hand.

So of course by the time I got done washing dishes, I had them piled up on every available flat surface in the kitchen - and I really need to get the rest of them put away - not to mention figure out why my dishwasher decided to spring a leak. Hopefully that's something stupid, but we all know the way that my luck with anything mechanical has been running lately.

I do find it ironic though - that dishwasher was given to me as a Mother's Day gift in about 2001ish - and it died on Mother's Day.

Alex had a Scout meeting tonight, and since we still don't have my van back (maybe tomorrow) we walked - which isn't that big of a deal since it's only about 6 blocks to get there. After the meeting, we decided to buzz over to the library since I had gotten a message that one of the books that they were holding for Emily was there and we had to go get it. We went and got the book, and started walking home. We got within about 2 blocks of home when Alex realized that he had left his Scout book at the library. So we turned around and walked back to get the book, and then turned around again to go home.

By this time, of course Daniel decided that he just couldn't walk another step - so he ended up on my shoulders. Thankfully he's still small enough that I can do that - but it does make tying my own shoes a little bit more difficult. But, that's what kids are for, right?

He did it!

2013-05-11T22:55:00.002-05:00

I was going to post a whole bunch of pictures of my yard and flowerbed - you know, the whole before/after thing - because we spent most of the day out there working and getting things cleaned up and prettified.

But honestly, the best part of the day was right here....

First time ever - on two wheels. And he did it all on his own.

And yes, you can hear me squeaking like a deranged chipmunk. Stupid allergies.

Random observations and happy stuff

2013-05-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

I know I've been doing more random posts lately, but that's pretty much how life has been going for us. Nothing is nice and neat and tidy anymore - including my brain (not that it ever really was)...

HAPPY DANCE: The Dude got his truck running again! He showed up here around 6am this morning, got the boys up and ready for school, and then took them to school and let me sleep in a little bit before he took me to work - AND he gave me a ride back home AND we picked the boys up from school. It was so nice to not have to walk everywhere for the first time in weeks.

RANDOM COMPLAINT: Thanks to my latest allergy attack, I have totally lost my voice. It squeaks in and out occasionally, but for the most part all I can do is whisper-yell. I have come to the conclusion that trying to yell at/for the kids with no voice makes me sound like a pissed off chipmunk. Seriously. Stop laughing.

HAPPY/HOPEFUL: The Dude took some more car parts to the guy who is fixing my van (we bought him some other parts as payment for fixing it) and the guy said that he had my van about 95% taken apart and from what he could see, there was no other damage to the engine from the blown head gasket. I still refuse to believe it until he's completely done with it, but at least it's looking promising at this stage of the game. And we might even have it back by the end of the weekend.

RANDOM ACCOMPLISHMENT: I have been totally slacking on laundry lately - between my work schedule and having to take the extra time to walk everywhere, I've just been washing and drying everything and piling it up in the laundry room. But I can now say that all of that in the picture is folded and put away with the exception of a few random things that still need to be done - and I've also done and put away about 4 other loads tonight. Baby steps.

RANDOM WEEKEND PLANS: Tomorrow has been deemed Official Yardwork Day. The grass needs to be mowed and the flowerbeds need to be weeded - and it's all going to get done tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be decent. Sunday is Jared's birthday - so far he has requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Snickers/peanut butter ice cream with his cake, and meatloaf for supper. And a football - but it has to be a real one, not a dumb one.

On that note, one more laundry flip, and then I'm going to dump all of the stuff off of my bed, and I'm going to go to sleep. I will kick these allergies if it's the last thing that I do.

So I was walking to work...

2013-05-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

Since both of our vehicles are dead, I've been walking back and forth to work a lot over the past couple of weeks. I don't always go the same way - but I made sure to go a certain way today specifically to get pictures of this.

Doesn't look so bad from here...

Then as you get a little closer, you realize exactly what is going on...

Yes, that is a dog - doing its best to scare the living crap out of anyone who walks past its 6' tall privacy fence.

The first time I walked through here, I had my head down and my headphones on, and all of a sudden there was really loud barking and growling coming from above my head. I'm pretty sure that if someone filmed it, they are very rich right now because I squealed and jumped and just about ran, thinking that I was about to get attacked. There are at least 2 dogs in that fence, and they throw a royal fit every time I walk past - because of course I keep forgetting about them and so I keep walking past them. Like an idiot.

Just a few blocks away from the psycho-dogs, I get to walk past some Kansas skyscrapers.

Hopefully, today was the last day that I have to walk for a while. The Dude *thinks* that he has the truck fixed, but I refuse to believe it until I actually see it for myself - because I just know the way that our luck runs. I did manage to hitch a ride home after work with a coworker, so that was nice. And a friend took the boys to school for me this morning - and that was a huge help.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In other news.....in case you didn't catch it on my facebook page, it appears that the Tooth Fairy has to make another visit. Luckily, a letter isn't necessary this time around since the boys don't seem to trash their room as much as the girls do.

Now I have to go throw a load of laundry in the washer so that I have clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow....and I think I'm actually going to try to get to bed at a reasonable hour again because for whatever reason, my allergies are kicking my butt. Blah.

Day in pictures

2013-05-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

Walking to school.

Walking home from school.

Love this old bridge - and it's still used.

A box of gaskets.
On top of a pile of laundry.
On top of my unmade bed.
Because that's how I rolled today.

My empty driveway after my van was towed away.
*sniff*
*PleaseLetHerComeBackFixedQuickly*

Just trying to catch the colors.

"Mom, I'm stuck!"

Aunt Doris's peonies.

Pouring rain water out of the swing seats.

I really need to mow again. Already.
Totally not complaining though.

Ah, the irises. Symbolic of so much for me.