I'm going to go ahead and pretend that it hasn't been 5 months since I last blogged.....

So it's time to close the pool, well, that's easy to say isn't it? but i was told that you can't just take all the water out of the pump and throw a cover over it and call it 'winterized'. NO! you have to kill all the algae that's been growing for the past month or so...yeah. Well, 10 gallons of bleach later the pool water is now blue (not clear but blue). Now comes phase 2, baking soda. By the way, there seems to be a limit to the amount of baking soda that you can buy before you get weird looks.....I think that it's about 60 lbs but I'm not quite sure. (?) I told Chris that we were going to go swimming one more time before we closed the pool. It's been about 78* during the day so it is possible.

Tonight is our little elementary school's homecoming. :) My little Melia is a cheerleader and seems to have a little admirer from the football team. awww. I find all of this very fascinating, the whole cheerleader/football player thing. I was in the marching band so I got to see such things. It's high school all over again! LOL. Anyway, tonight is the dance and tomorrow is the big game! I love our home games! Go team!

Some Ranting and Raving

It's that time of year again....end of course tests! These tests are pretty much a reflection of how well the teacher is teaching and then how well the student grasps the material. With that said, THERE IS WAY TO MUCH PRESSURE PUT ON OUR LITTLE 3RD, 4TH, AND 5TH GRADERS!!!! Every year Sydney becomes a stressed out mess! This year is no different. She took her Science EOG (end of grade test) and scored a fantastic 99%! She's an A/B honor roll student and has no serious problems until this time of year. Well, today I get a phone call from the guidance department at the school. They said that Sydney had a melt down in class because, Sydney's words, "she made a stupid mistake". She was excused to the bathroom to collect herself but when a teacher found her she was on the floor rocking back and forth and saying that she hated herself! (poor kid!) I know that Sydney goes through this every year but the school seems to get really concerned and we go through all the bullshit of talk about counseling and talk of home life and any major changes....yeah, that's it...every year at this time our home life falls apart but all the rest of the year we're just fine......hhhhhhhhh!!!! I'm just so tired of this run around crap! I know my kid and she's just stressed out about the testing, but there seems to be a team of people that don't trust me or her. I keep telling them to just let it go, let her work through it in her own way but all they want to do it keep talking about it which bothers her/embarrasses her and makes her even more upset and then they think she has more of a problem! I'm all for the help if there were a serious problem but this is just what happens every year when the teachers put the pressure on about the EOGs. Did I mention that the test scores help the teachers keep their jobs? Yeah, it's real cut throat for everyone...nice.

Butt Drugs!

For all my health needs I turn to Butt Drugs!

I got pranked!!

Last night Mr. Cat went outside for his usual pounce-on-bugs-in-the-yard excursion and was nowhere to be seen when I put Melia to bed (he sleeps with her). Well, it came time for me to hit the hay and still no cat. I was not in the mood to stand outside calling, "kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!" in that higher tone of voice in which you call a cat, nor did I wish to sound like a crazy person for all the valley to hear, so I just went to bed. I figured it was a warm night and he could just camp out somewhere. I got the girls up and off to school, did my normal morning things, and still no Mr. Cat to be seen. I asked the dogs to go find the cat but they just looked at me like I was ridiculous and were no help whatsoever. I got a little worried that Mr. Cat had gone off somewhere and was in trouble! So I did the whole, "Kitty, kitty, kitty!" in the higher tone of voice in which you call a cat....still no cat! hummm...this is not good. I went into Melia's room to turn off her fan, went up a few steps of her bunk bed (so I could reach the switch on top of the fan that is sitting on her dresser) and Mr. Cat jumps up from the bed and I was like, "Holy Moses!!" and I nearly fell to the floor!! He then starts purring and pacing back and forth obviously very proud of himself for pulling off this funny April fools day prank! After I got over the initial shock and rush of adrenaline I had myself a good little chuckle! Oh, Mr. Cat!!

Need A Laugh?

I was just 'cleaning up' some of my bookmarks and came upon this. Thought I'd share it with you! Seems to cheer me up when I'm having a tough day. I hope it does the same for you...

Turns out I'm a Baboon

I took a personality test that my sister Marsha took (she was a sheep) and it turns out I'm a baboon. Go figure! :)

http://animalinyou.com/results.php

The Baboon

Aah, the lighter side of the animal kingdom. It takes brains to be quick witted and amusing and the baboon has plenty of them. But, these are also affectionate creatures, and if you were to watch a family of baboons at play, you'd be struck by the relaxed attitude and the constant touching that goes on between them. There is also a very clear hierarchy in the baboon family. Parents rule the roost, ever ready to teach and chastise misbehaving youngsters, and the husband assumes his role as dominant male. But the ideal of all work and no play makes the baboon's skin crawl, so games and lighthearted fun remain the primary focus of its genteel life.
Baboon personalities come in all shapes and sizes, but are usually powerfully built smaller individuals with bright appealing eyes. Intelligent and shrewd, they are highly adaptable individuals, and as students of the lighter side of life there is nothing they enjoy more than indulging in complicated practical jokes or impromptu comedic performances.
Arguably, they are neither handsome nor plain, and their robust personalities are engaging and charming. Little value is placed on physical exertion and they have a tendency to gain weight in later life. Their most noticeable physical characteristic is an elastic and expressive face, and with their animated communication style they delight in being the center of attention.
Intensely social animals, they work hard to maintain their large, well-run families and insist on order in their households -- brooking no disagreement from their mates or children. They'll never back down from a physical confrontation, although they are rarely aggressive towards members of their own family. When threatened, they are formidable fighters and even larger animal personalities think twice before initiating conflict.
Disdain for physical work leaves them dissatisfied with manual labor unless it contains a strong creative component. In fact, the Kung people of Southern Africa believe that baboons are able to talk but are careful not to let people hear them, lest they be made to work. However, their curious nature makes them perfect for investigative work or journalism. Ultimately however, they only find true happiness when performing as comedians or actors. They function best during the daylight hours, preferring to spend nights quietly in the company of their family.

The Most Useless Machine Ever

If only the music came with this little machine, I'd play with it all day! It's like the thing does NOT want to be turned on and if you keep flipping that switch then he will just keep coming out and flipping the switch the other way...he's stubborn like that!

Guy: "ON"

Machine: "OFF"

Guy: "ON! ON!"

Machine: "OFF!"

Guy: "ON! ON! ON!"

Machine: "OFF!! Dude, quit bugging me!"

Things got worse...

So things with the driveway got bad. People/me/Terry kept getting stuck and the driveway became impassable. Well, it has been at least 15 years since the drive has seen any new layer of gravel. We got 13 inches of snow before Christmas, a bunch of rain, and it's been freezing and thawing ever since. Something had to be done! So, I bit the bullet and hired my man Terry to reinvent our driveway. (how else can I get him to finish the pool deck?? ;) ) He pulled out the posts (that Chris has been meaning to pull out for years) and moved the drive over about 30 feet and is going to put ditches on both sides, which should solve the washing/draining issues. Terry made all the arrangements to have about 50 tons of gravel delivered to build up my drive. He spent 9 tractor hours (that's how he's payed after all) pushing dirt around enough to have the gravel dumped. Luckily, he likes me enough to only charge me half price. (good to have friends who know how to do stuff I always say) Here's a picture of the progress. When I woke up that morning Terry was just a plowin' away and there were 3 dump trucks just waiting to get at it.

At the end of the day though, it looked just AWFUL! basically like the above picture! Everything was covered with the classic red Carolina mud. Boo hiss! I felt like, OMG "I spent $1,500 for this????" BUT...we got a hard rain that washed all the mud off of the pricey rocks that I had put on the drive and the driveway is actually passable now and looks like something has been done to it. After things dry up a bit we'll get another load or 2 of gravel and then some crush'n'run dumped on top and then we should be set for the next 15 years!(?) Again, it is all looking great in a birth-is-messy sort of way.

Pool Deck and Driveway Issues

Construction on the pool has begun! The deck wraps around the back half of the pool and is going to be 8 ft wide. It looks much bigger, wider, and is pricier than I expected but is exactly what I wanted so...I'm happy! All the space under the deck will be mulched and used for storage of pool equipment. I've hired my friend Terry to build it since I've seen his work and he's such an anal perfectionist. (exactly the type for a job such as this!) It took him and Carlo about 6 working hours to get it framed up and during this time he asked me why I couldn't just have a square pool because he would have been about half way done by now!? Look, he knew what he was getting into! He drew up the plans for cripes sake! I told him just to be quiet and get on with it. LOL. Yup, that's how we roll! Anyway, things are looking great, in a birth-is-messy sort of way.

I seem to be losing my yard, but hey, less to mow right? That pile of stuff in the bottom right is a pile of mulch. We need more....lots more.

I'm in no real rush to get the deck finished because, well, there's still about a 6 inch layer of ice floating around on top of the water and I/we don't plan to become part of any polar bear club any time soon!

So while construction continues in the backyard, major construction needs to happen on my driveway! OMG it's never been this bad!
Piles and ruts of icky, sticky, red Carolina mud!
I don't know who, or how, or how much it will cost (basically the details), but I know it has to be fixed! Ok, here's the problem:

the construction/dug up yard + the mud in my driveway

+ two smallish dogs who like to frolic = serious (red) dirt/mud in my house! ugh!

Just picture eight of these (but much dirtier) jumping onto the couch, bed, anywhere they please....

But my dogs know the drill. I stop them at the door and say, "hold up!" or "hold the phone!" or "back the truck up!". They know my tone and Max just stops and Tater...well, she's working on it. So, if they're outside and I'm not ready for them yet I shut the door in their face and they will give me the what-do-you-mean-I-can't-come-in-right-now? look. They completely understand when I come back to the door with my sleeves pushed up or, worse yet, a towel! ooooo... Yup, they know that if either of those things happen it's feet cleaning time! If the feet situation requires, I snatch them up and plop their little rumps on the side of the sink and they get a feet bath! Max will sit very quietly. I like to think that he is thinking, "I love you, thank you so much for caring for me." but what he is probably thinking is, "Oh man, this is so degrading!"

I sure can't wait until things dry up!

Name Tags

Today I went into work as a shadow....ooooo...creeeepy! So, during my time there I basically just watched the experienced people prepare tax returns. It was great and I learned a lot. (people itemizing and all that) This has been the first job that I've had where time actually flew by! The best part of my work day (yeah, I have a "work day" :) ) was that I got an official NAME TAG! (it's the small things really) This name tag is magnetic! The name tag itself has a metal strip on it and there's a magnetic strip that sticks onto the name tag through your shirt, so much better than the pin type! so cool! AND it has MY name on it stating that I'm a tax preparer! I know!! can you believe it??? how super fab is that? ::giggles::

So, after 'shadowing' I now feel great/confident and really excited about doing it on my own. Did I mention how everyone in the office is really nice? In fact, Sandy (the office Accountant) made chili that tasted like heaven! I'm so happy with my job!!!! I once had a job as a cashier in our local Ingles and I absolutely HATED that job, lasted all of 6 weeks! I was afraid that I would never be happy working out 'there'. Well, as it turns out I will be! yay! I'M SO EXCITED!

New Job

About a year ago, after I graduated from GWU, my aunt Meda suggested that I talk to a woman that she goes to church with who owns a Jackson Hewitt about the tax class that they give every year. So this summer I went in and had a job interview with the office manager, Stacie (a true gem of a lady!) and got some info about starting tax classes. Long story short, I took the class and got the job! Yay! (not everyone who takes the class gets the job.) It kinda felt like back in high school when I went out for a part in a play...I got the part, I got the part!!! Yeah, it was like that. So I had to go out and buy new clothes for my "work wardrobe" because no jeans allowed! I went shopping and was very successful! (that's a rare occurrence) I came home with 3 pairs of slacks (LOL! slacks...haha! sorry that's a word that older people use and now I'm using it. ::giggles:: ), a sweater, and new (high heel platform type) shoes. The shoes were a must because well, I'm short and the pants weren't so I pretty much NEED the platform type shoes. Funny thing is that when I come home and take them off I feel SO short, like I've come down a few stories! Anyway, I've been in training for the past week. The super fabulous thing?....I actually get PAID to learn things! again I say...YAY! Well, today I passed all the state required tests and tomorrow I get to shadow people and Monday....I get to be the one on the other side of the desk (dressed all professional) and looking like I know what I'm doing! Things are going great!

I'm so glad to get out of this house and join society again! It got to the point where I would wake up, take the kids to school, and sit in front of the computer until I finally got around to take a shower. Of course there's always laundry, dishes, yada, yada, yada....you know, all the bitch work (yeah, I said it). BOOO!!! I'd clean the house but to no real end! The kids come home and put their stuff everywhere anyway (not to mention the blanket fort that is always in the living room!) sigh. Needless to say, I'm enjoying this new era in my life!

Another Interactive Adventure with Chad Matt & Rob

The Murder...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNGhSk_gamk

I had some trouble loading the video but here's the link. Take a look...it's like one of those create you're own adventure books from days gone by.

Surprised Kitty

Surprised Kitty

The Farmer's Daughter

catchy little tune!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken by a wonderful photographer, Brian Streett. It was such a fun day and the pictures turned out better than we've ever had done before! Actually, we've never had a family picture taken but we're VERY happy with them. Chris and I had our picture taken with Sydney when she was a baby but the four of us have never had photos taken all together so this was a real treat! We went to South Mountain State park and it was a gloomy day I'll have you know, but it turns out it's perfect for photos! Yay! So, we sat on rocks and walked around acting "natural" which is really hard to do when you know that your being photoed! I posted most of the pictures on FaceBook and played around with some too. This is my favorite of me and Chris. It looks great in color too.

Our little Sydney Liz is growing up.

and the camera loves her.... Truely lovely...and so interested in the world.


I played around with this one. I put a teal tint on it. This is Sydney if she was in the Twilight movies....

Melia has the most expressive face I've seen on such a little person. One minute she looks like she has the powers to kill you and burn down your house... the next she is melancholy in the woods...or a thinking little cutie...but all the time lovely.

Just Cute

No real story here just cuteness. It used to be that these two wouldn't lay anywhere near each other and now...awww...

Runaway Train

This is Rosanne Cash's 'Runaway Train' that I woke up to the other day. It drove me CRAZY because I could NOT figure out how to find this on YouTube! I kept getting other songs about other runaway trains. Well, I finally asked my good friend Kenneth about the song and he knew all about it, who sung it when it was recorded and on and on...funny he's a HUGE 80's hair metal guy, but he seems to be a whiz on any type of music trivia. I should have called him the first thing that morning to ask who sung it! Next time....

I still have no clue who runs that neighborhood....

Alarm Clocks

Chris and I have a sort of alarm clock system. His clock is set about 10 mins fast (something about tricking his brain to think that it's later than it actually is....whatever) and mine is set on regular time. His alarm is set for the radio and mine is that annoying buzzer and we each take turns pushing snooze until it is actually time to get up. Well, this morning his alarm went off and it was a female country singer singing, "our love has turned into...." then he pushes snooze and I sing (although half a sleep) ...."a runaway train". Now I'll have THAT song in my head for the rest of the day and I'll search all of YouTube to find the artist and hear the entire song so that one phrase doesn't drive me mad. (who sings that song anyway?) Then nine minuets later the news comes on, "...The van was found to have musical instruments and police also found (they said the weight but like I said before I was half asleep) heroin. (they said some other words that I don't remember) "and the neighborhood is run by....." THEN HE SHUTS IT OFF! Who runs the neighborhood???? Is it the cops? a gang? the neighborhood watch? WHO? I ask Chris, "who runs the neighborhood?" He says, "I don't care. I shut it off." WHAT?! how is it that he isn't even a little curious?, how can he hear half a story and not wonder about the rest? So, I'm left wondering and pondering....who runs that neighborhood? where is that neighborhood? what happened to the van filled with heroin??? Why do we have this stupid alarm clock system anyway?!
BTW~ Rosanne Cash sings the song runaway train. took me until 10:25 pm to find out

Lazy days with Mr. Cat

Melia has a cat. Yes, the cat is most definitely Melia's. He sleeps with her, he follows her, and he purrs whenever he is around her. He is definitely her cat. His name was originally Smokey and has since changed to Mr. Cat. It seems that all of our pets get their name changed, actually it's a family tradition. You name your pet then give them a nick name and the name just sticks. My sister Marsha is the best at this. She once had a black cat named Licorice and the
cat ended up with the name "Moose". The cat lived a really long time and turned psychotic...just FYI. But I digress, as of late Mr. Cat is going through a growth spurt....he eats and sleeps...and grows....Last week he was racing around the house, would stop and then just jump in the air and then run away, you know, normal cat behavior, this week.....snooze city!He's really cute and we have no problems with him at all! A big difference from the cats that Chris and I got when we first got married! We had weird problems with them! Our girl cat had some crazy bowl problem where she would spray crap all over my kitchen! I had her checked by a vet and she was perfectly healthy but would have crazy crap attacks all over my kitchen! WTF? She soon became an outside cat...no such problems with Mr. Cat.He does have an appointment on Monday to get fixed and declawed.....it will take him awhile to forgive me for that, I'm sure! He still has issue with me for the ear drops! Man, cats are ornery!

But he's cute and sweet and soft and fits in perfectly and we love him!