WARNING! You May Not Want To Read This When Consuming Food, After Recently Consuming food or About to Consume Food.
Yesterday I met with the gal who is going to take over my LLL job for me, but to spare her & her daughter the dogs I put Lilly & Princess in the back yard. That worked for a little while. It was a nice, not so hot day and they were happy.
but then we took a lunch break and the dogs could see us in the kitchen. So I let them in and they of course smelled doggy from being outside for most of the morning. So the 4y/o asked if I could put them back outside. Well the dogs wanted to be inside...there was food!
So I got a bright idea. I went to the freezer and pulled out my stash of soup bones (I buy these for Lilly as they are better for your dog than "dog bones" since they're still raw.) I gave Princess the smaller bone and gave Lilly the other one and separated the dogs. Princess took one sniff at her bone and promptly went for Lilly's. But there was no arguing and I was able to go inside.
Later, after my guests had left I go to check on the dogs and Lilly is in the process of burying the bone. She is digging the hole and has of course set her bone down. next thing I notice is Princess has stolen Lilly's bone while she is still digging the hole! I laughed so hard!
The rest of the evening was the dogs stealing the bones back from each other and hiding them. ("don't they both know that the other dog can smell them out just as well as they can?") Oh well.
Both dogs went to bed with very full tummies... but at sometime near 5am I heard one simple bark our of Lilly. I'm assuming she must have heard me tossing in bed because when I woke from the bark I realized I needed to use the restroom.
Lilly NEVER wakes me up that way unless it's urgent. So I rushed downstairs and let both dogs out and sure enough they both had to go really really badly. EWWWE YUCK the smell was just awful! I sat out there for about an hour or so with them, making sure they showed no more signs of intestinal distress before allowing them back inside...and even then I blocked them in just the kitchen...just to be sure.
I had intended to clean the back yard after I got dressed (I am still in my bathrobe) but I had to take care of the smell. So I was out picking up dog poop in my bathrobe. I'm sure if any of my neighbors could see me they were giggling like crazy. But at least I got the mess cleared up without puking!
Both dogs are now napping here in the computer room with me and I don't hear any gurgling tummies any more...so I think that I'm safe...for a bit.
Oh Yeah! I threw both bones into the trash with the poop!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
It is Finished!
nope! not Harry Potter...I finished that on Monday.
I had been planning this since I knew that Darly was going to camp. I was gonna clean the basement and toss out a bunch of her stuff. This of course didn't make Darly happy.
So I warned Darly that if she wanted to save anything it had better be put away...anything on the floor was a gonner! Did she clean it? Ah nope!
Today I was supposed to meet with someone but the canceled, so I no longer had any excuse to put it off...time to get busy. So I put the dogs outside and set to work.
When I got down there I was overwhelmed! Where in the world do I begin???
So I started at the door and worked my way back and in the beginning I got stuck in the same rutt that I normally do. Oh this goes over there...and before I go back I can take this and this and this...and oh this goes in the trash and that goes over there! So after catching myself do that maybe 2 times I just grabbed a box...made it empty and used it. I had a trash bag, a keep box and a give away box that I slowly dragged behind me to get each part of the basement.
I don't know how long it too...but I got rid of 4 lawn sized trashbags full of stuff, one large box of stuff to get rid of and there are a bunch of keep boxes all over...but everything is in someplace.
When Darly comes home she will be assigned one keep box per day and have to get rid of 5 items out of each box (trust me, she won't miss it!) and put the rest of the items away. If she doesn't finish a box...the entire thing is going.
Eventually I hope that we can get it so it is much more managable down there.
Course now DH will come home and ask where something I threw out is. LOL!
The comments~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heather said...
No before and after pics? Those are the greatest! Way to go mom!! You did it! :)
why is it that I always think “I should have taken pictures AFTER I finish?
Carmen said...
Wow, can you come over and clean my closet for me? :) I need to throw things out, but I keep thinking that I should just sell on ebay.
I found that for me it’s just easier to donate my items to charity…call them up and leave it on the porch. Then I can write it off on the taxes and I don’t have to do any extra work.
Haley-O said...
Congrats Renee -- that's a huge job! :)
thanks bunches! It was a big job and there’s still more to do. But at least it’s cleaner now. I’ve told Darly that she has to go through the boxes. She thinks that she might just dump them into the get rid of it box…I’ll have to get another get rid of it box.
Kailani said...
If she hasn't played with it for a while, hopefully she won't miss it! Great job! I need to so something like that with our storage room. I can barely get the door open! LOL!
I know the stuff I tossed won’t be missed as well as a bunch that is in the boxes for her to sort through. I’m hoping that like she said she WILL dump some of those boxes. LOL!
Bone said...
I have trouble throwing things away. I usually tell girlfriends that if they don't like something, just get rid of it without me knowing, and I probably will never miss it.
Brave Man! LOL!
Lynn said...
Great, now can you come and do my house? I start to 'declutter' and area, and invariably get sidetracked and never completely finish it. I like your system of dragging the 3 separate containers through the room, with you. Brilliant.
If you and Joan will pay for my ticket there and also offer me something to make it worth my wild…sure I’ll come out there and declutter your stuff…just know that you may find many things missing when I’m gone.
Joan said...
Wow...I'm impressed! What a great plan of attack...you sound so organized! Now...when can I expect you over at my house to lead me on the path of cleanliness???
I had been planning this since I knew that Darly was going to camp. I was gonna clean the basement and toss out a bunch of her stuff. This of course didn't make Darly happy.
So I warned Darly that if she wanted to save anything it had better be put away...anything on the floor was a gonner! Did she clean it? Ah nope!
Today I was supposed to meet with someone but the canceled, so I no longer had any excuse to put it off...time to get busy. So I put the dogs outside and set to work.
When I got down there I was overwhelmed! Where in the world do I begin???
So I started at the door and worked my way back and in the beginning I got stuck in the same rutt that I normally do. Oh this goes over there...and before I go back I can take this and this and this...and oh this goes in the trash and that goes over there! So after catching myself do that maybe 2 times I just grabbed a box...made it empty and used it. I had a trash bag, a keep box and a give away box that I slowly dragged behind me to get each part of the basement.
I don't know how long it too...but I got rid of 4 lawn sized trashbags full of stuff, one large box of stuff to get rid of and there are a bunch of keep boxes all over...but everything is in someplace.
When Darly comes home she will be assigned one keep box per day and have to get rid of 5 items out of each box (trust me, she won't miss it!) and put the rest of the items away. If she doesn't finish a box...the entire thing is going.
Eventually I hope that we can get it so it is much more managable down there.
Course now DH will come home and ask where something I threw out is. LOL!
The comments~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heather said...
No before and after pics? Those are the greatest! Way to go mom!! You did it! :)
why is it that I always think “I should have taken pictures AFTER I finish?
Carmen said...
Wow, can you come over and clean my closet for me? :) I need to throw things out, but I keep thinking that I should just sell on ebay.
I found that for me it’s just easier to donate my items to charity…call them up and leave it on the porch. Then I can write it off on the taxes and I don’t have to do any extra work.
Haley-O said...
Congrats Renee -- that's a huge job! :)
thanks bunches! It was a big job and there’s still more to do. But at least it’s cleaner now. I’ve told Darly that she has to go through the boxes. She thinks that she might just dump them into the get rid of it box…I’ll have to get another get rid of it box.
Kailani said...
If she hasn't played with it for a while, hopefully she won't miss it! Great job! I need to so something like that with our storage room. I can barely get the door open! LOL!
I know the stuff I tossed won’t be missed as well as a bunch that is in the boxes for her to sort through. I’m hoping that like she said she WILL dump some of those boxes. LOL!
Bone said...
I have trouble throwing things away. I usually tell girlfriends that if they don't like something, just get rid of it without me knowing, and I probably will never miss it.
Brave Man! LOL!
Lynn said...
Great, now can you come and do my house? I start to 'declutter' and area, and invariably get sidetracked and never completely finish it. I like your system of dragging the 3 separate containers through the room, with you. Brilliant.
If you and Joan will pay for my ticket there and also offer me something to make it worth my wild…sure I’ll come out there and declutter your stuff…just know that you may find many things missing when I’m gone.
Joan said...
Wow...I'm impressed! What a great plan of attack...you sound so organized! Now...when can I expect you over at my house to lead me on the path of cleanliness???
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
She's gone!
I woke up before 6am this morning. I don't know why because I had the alarm clock set for 6:15am...but I do that every time I know I have to be somewhere.
Darly asked me to wake her at 7am...I went in there about 6:55am...she didn't want to get up yet...of course. LOL!
She was already packed and I put the bags in the car last night so all we had to do was get her some water and go.
The drive didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, so we got there early. Luckily not the very first person to show up though as we were car #4. After parking we leave her bags at a horse trailor for them to drive them to the campsite and then head over to the dining hall to meet the counselors and wait for a group of girls (at least half) to show up. We learned that she would be in a camp with 22 other girls...
We also learned that unlike when I went to camp, she won't get to go shopping at the trading post each day. The folks who run the store only come on opening & closing day so she has to wait until I come to get her. When I went to camp your parents would leave you some money on account at the trading post. Then every time you were finished with meals you could head over and shop until you were out of money. I don't remember how much money my parents gave me, but I do remember buying a Monkey's Fist necklace kit...that one of the counselors put together for me since it didn't come with instructions.
Parents got to walk with their daughters to the camp site. Darly & I were both very suprised to learn that she would NOT be camping in a cabin with bunk beds...instead she would be in a Platform Tent with 3 other girls. Darly didn't understand what that was but after I explained it to her she cheared up "Oh! Just like Molly?" Me: "Yes, just like Molly."*
So we get to the campsite...boy is it a HIKE from the dining hall! I told Darly to try to eat as much as she could because she was going to need the energy! I'm sure by dinner tonight she'll be hungry. And learn that the girls don't have "flushies" they have "biffys."** And they have to hike to a shared bathhouse for showering...this is also where their toiletries will be stored to keep critters out of their tents. Quite a bit more rustic than either of us were thinking acording to the camp brochure! But Darly wasn't upset about it at all after the Molly realization, before she had expressed some disappointment that she wouldn't be sleeping in a bunk bed.
I stayed as long as I could. The counselor had told me politely that I could leave whenever I wanted. I was waiting for Darly to tell me it was okay for me to go, but she kept saying that I could go if I wanted to. I guess that was as good as I was gonna get.
So with a heavy heart, I started to leave. I didn't look back, so I don't know if Darly was watching me or not. She has an assigned camp buddy, so hopefully they get along well. As I was leaving Darly suggested that she & M go check in the other tents to meet the other girls. YAY! I guess she got the idea from another set of girls who were visiting everyone.
I wanna be camping too...but instead I get to clean my house. *sigh*
*from the American Girl Books. Molly goes to Camp Gowonagain.
** flushies are toilets that flush, biffys (short for "bathroom in the forest for you") are outhouses. I think they have flushies in the showerhouse.
Comments & answers:
Goofy Girl said...
Awwww, I bet she is going to have a great time. :) I know you'll miss her a lot!
Yes I do miss her a lot…even though if she were home right now she would still be asleep in bed. LOL! It’s mostly that I know I can go get her until tomorrow afternoon. Last night we had a thunderstorm and I was worried about her being in a tent for that…not the wet, the noise. She is sensitive to loud noises.
Lynn said...
Wow. Reading your description, makes me wish that I could go to the camp. It sounds like Darly will have and absolutely fabulous time, and will return with loads of great stories. (Have I mentioned that I don't like BIFFY's, and that I like cleaning them even less!)
I know that she’ll have lots of fun. I hope that has made friends with everyone. I was worried because it seemed that the majority of girls in her camp were also from the same troop. I didn’t want her to feel left out. Luckily the girl that she got buddied up with was also a “solo” so at least she’ll have her and perhaps the other girls will be true scouts and accept her as another sister like they’re supposed to.
Joan said...
I'm jealous. Your description of the camp sounds wonderful and certainly more fun than my experience at "sleepaway" camp when I was young. I'm sure Darly will have a fabulous time and will come home with lots and lots of great stories to share.
I’m sorry to hear that your sleep away camp experience wasn’t as fun as a Girl Scout camp. I have such fond memories and that’s why I love camping so much. I can’t wait to hear her stories and hopefully get a great letter from her.
TC said...
I wanna be camping too...but instead I get to clean my house. *sigh*
Sucks to be an adult sometimes, huh?
You said it!
Catzee said...
Aw, are ya furry sad? I can come an' tear aroun' yur house fur ya a coupla times. I'm furry fast.
and give the wolfies someone to chase? That’s very sweet of you. We’ve already had one of the neighbor kitties try to come through our backyard twice so far. Lilly & Princess had to run him off and make sure he knew that he was not welcome. I suppose you could stay upstairs though since the wolfies aren’t allowed up there…but they would have a very hard time staying downstairs if they saw you.
Leigh said...
Sounds like the girl scout camp I went to an eon ago. Except I think we got store every day too. I know she'll have fun, but will you???
I kept comparing it to when I went to camp. I had planned to go clean up her mess in the basement and I’m having a gal come over to learn my LLL job. So I have stuff planned. Not necessarily fun though.
Jen said...
It's not too late to come camping with us!
I wish I could, But Lilly AND Princess with Heather’s poochies? Hee hee!
Heather said...
How sad for you but exciting for Darly! Oh the stories she will tell!
I sure hope so!
Uisce said...
biffys -- that sounds so... rustic? :)
yup! Rustic. I just hope not too smelly and that Darly uses them. She may just hold it and hike to the bathhouse to use the flushies instead. She can be determined that way! LOL!
Judy Thomas said...
Darly will have a wonderful time. Some of my fondest memories are of summer camp. We had camp store every day too.. what's up with that??? Anyway, I know you'll miss her.. but you can spend your time doing memes :-) BTW (speaking of memes) you've been tagged: http://jhthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/because-im-brain-dead.html
The thing with the camp store is that they don’t have anyone to man it. So someone from our counsel comes up at the opening & closing (when the money is there!) and brings the supplies from our counsel store… so I could just get her stuff here in town, but I know that’s not the same as getting it from camp. Funny though. I was reading her camp paperwork when I got home and it said she was supposed to go to the Lodge first to check in, then to the trading post and then the dining hall, but the gals there told us to go straight to the dining hall. Oh well…I bet the trading post folks weren’t happy about that. Hee hee.
Heather said...
I want to go camping too! Sounds like she will have a good time - I hope you hold up well. Clayton went for the first time this year by himself and I was a little nervouse....
Darly had been getting more and more nervous about this for the past month. I wasn’t completely sure that she would even want to stay. So I was very happy when she cheered up about the tents and she seemed really chipper when she suggested they go meet the other girls. That made my heart feel good about leaving her. I was just so worried that she would “shut down” and just refuse to have a good time…as she has been known to do sometimes when she’s unsure about a situation.
LadyBugCrossing said...
Enjoy your time while she's at camp. She'll be fine. She'll be more than fine, I'm sure! I try to do all the things I can't do while they are home... Like paint the dining room :-)
Or clean out a basement? LOL! I warned Darly that everything that wasn’t put away would be given away. Did she go take care of the mess? NOPE! I’m not sure I’m willing to really get rid of it all…but there is always the crawl space. HAR HAR!
Darly asked me to wake her at 7am...I went in there about 6:55am...she didn't want to get up yet...of course. LOL!
She was already packed and I put the bags in the car last night so all we had to do was get her some water and go.
The drive didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would, so we got there early. Luckily not the very first person to show up though as we were car #4. After parking we leave her bags at a horse trailor for them to drive them to the campsite and then head over to the dining hall to meet the counselors and wait for a group of girls (at least half) to show up. We learned that she would be in a camp with 22 other girls...
We also learned that unlike when I went to camp, she won't get to go shopping at the trading post each day. The folks who run the store only come on opening & closing day so she has to wait until I come to get her. When I went to camp your parents would leave you some money on account at the trading post. Then every time you were finished with meals you could head over and shop until you were out of money. I don't remember how much money my parents gave me, but I do remember buying a Monkey's Fist necklace kit...that one of the counselors put together for me since it didn't come with instructions.
Parents got to walk with their daughters to the camp site. Darly & I were both very suprised to learn that she would NOT be camping in a cabin with bunk beds...instead she would be in a Platform Tent with 3 other girls. Darly didn't understand what that was but after I explained it to her she cheared up "Oh! Just like Molly?" Me: "Yes, just like Molly."*
So we get to the campsite...boy is it a HIKE from the dining hall! I told Darly to try to eat as much as she could because she was going to need the energy! I'm sure by dinner tonight she'll be hungry. And learn that the girls don't have "flushies" they have "biffys."** And they have to hike to a shared bathhouse for showering...this is also where their toiletries will be stored to keep critters out of their tents. Quite a bit more rustic than either of us were thinking acording to the camp brochure! But Darly wasn't upset about it at all after the Molly realization, before she had expressed some disappointment that she wouldn't be sleeping in a bunk bed.
I stayed as long as I could. The counselor had told me politely that I could leave whenever I wanted. I was waiting for Darly to tell me it was okay for me to go, but she kept saying that I could go if I wanted to. I guess that was as good as I was gonna get.
So with a heavy heart, I started to leave. I didn't look back, so I don't know if Darly was watching me or not. She has an assigned camp buddy, so hopefully they get along well. As I was leaving Darly suggested that she & M go check in the other tents to meet the other girls. YAY! I guess she got the idea from another set of girls who were visiting everyone.
I wanna be camping too...but instead I get to clean my house. *sigh*
*from the American Girl Books. Molly goes to Camp Gowonagain.
** flushies are toilets that flush, biffys (short for "bathroom in the forest for you") are outhouses. I think they have flushies in the showerhouse.
Comments & answers:
Goofy Girl said...
Awwww, I bet she is going to have a great time. :) I know you'll miss her a lot!
Yes I do miss her a lot…even though if she were home right now she would still be asleep in bed. LOL! It’s mostly that I know I can go get her until tomorrow afternoon. Last night we had a thunderstorm and I was worried about her being in a tent for that…not the wet, the noise. She is sensitive to loud noises.
Lynn said...
Wow. Reading your description, makes me wish that I could go to the camp. It sounds like Darly will have and absolutely fabulous time, and will return with loads of great stories. (Have I mentioned that I don't like BIFFY's, and that I like cleaning them even less!)
I know that she’ll have lots of fun. I hope that has made friends with everyone. I was worried because it seemed that the majority of girls in her camp were also from the same troop. I didn’t want her to feel left out. Luckily the girl that she got buddied up with was also a “solo” so at least she’ll have her and perhaps the other girls will be true scouts and accept her as another sister like they’re supposed to.
Joan said...
I'm jealous. Your description of the camp sounds wonderful and certainly more fun than my experience at "sleepaway" camp when I was young. I'm sure Darly will have a fabulous time and will come home with lots and lots of great stories to share.
I’m sorry to hear that your sleep away camp experience wasn’t as fun as a Girl Scout camp. I have such fond memories and that’s why I love camping so much. I can’t wait to hear her stories and hopefully get a great letter from her.
TC said...
I wanna be camping too...but instead I get to clean my house. *sigh*
Sucks to be an adult sometimes, huh?
You said it!
Catzee said...
Aw, are ya furry sad? I can come an' tear aroun' yur house fur ya a coupla times. I'm furry fast.
and give the wolfies someone to chase? That’s very sweet of you. We’ve already had one of the neighbor kitties try to come through our backyard twice so far. Lilly & Princess had to run him off and make sure he knew that he was not welcome. I suppose you could stay upstairs though since the wolfies aren’t allowed up there…but they would have a very hard time staying downstairs if they saw you.
Leigh said...
Sounds like the girl scout camp I went to an eon ago. Except I think we got store every day too. I know she'll have fun, but will you???
I kept comparing it to when I went to camp. I had planned to go clean up her mess in the basement and I’m having a gal come over to learn my LLL job. So I have stuff planned. Not necessarily fun though.
Jen said...
It's not too late to come camping with us!
I wish I could, But Lilly AND Princess with Heather’s poochies? Hee hee!
Heather said...
How sad for you but exciting for Darly! Oh the stories she will tell!
I sure hope so!
Uisce said...
biffys -- that sounds so... rustic? :)
yup! Rustic. I just hope not too smelly and that Darly uses them. She may just hold it and hike to the bathhouse to use the flushies instead. She can be determined that way! LOL!
Judy Thomas said...
Darly will have a wonderful time. Some of my fondest memories are of summer camp. We had camp store every day too.. what's up with that??? Anyway, I know you'll miss her.. but you can spend your time doing memes :-) BTW (speaking of memes) you've been tagged: http://jhthomas.blogspot.com/2007/07/because-im-brain-dead.html
The thing with the camp store is that they don’t have anyone to man it. So someone from our counsel comes up at the opening & closing (when the money is there!) and brings the supplies from our counsel store… so I could just get her stuff here in town, but I know that’s not the same as getting it from camp. Funny though. I was reading her camp paperwork when I got home and it said she was supposed to go to the Lodge first to check in, then to the trading post and then the dining hall, but the gals there told us to go straight to the dining hall. Oh well…I bet the trading post folks weren’t happy about that. Hee hee.
Heather said...
I want to go camping too! Sounds like she will have a good time - I hope you hold up well. Clayton went for the first time this year by himself and I was a little nervouse....
Darly had been getting more and more nervous about this for the past month. I wasn’t completely sure that she would even want to stay. So I was very happy when she cheered up about the tents and she seemed really chipper when she suggested they go meet the other girls. That made my heart feel good about leaving her. I was just so worried that she would “shut down” and just refuse to have a good time…as she has been known to do sometimes when she’s unsure about a situation.
LadyBugCrossing said...
Enjoy your time while she's at camp. She'll be fine. She'll be more than fine, I'm sure! I try to do all the things I can't do while they are home... Like paint the dining room :-)
Or clean out a basement? LOL! I warned Darly that everything that wasn’t put away would be given away. Did she go take care of the mess? NOPE! I’m not sure I’m willing to really get rid of it all…but there is always the crawl space. HAR HAR!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
HP Frenzie!
Well last night was the big night for Harry Potter fans everywhere. At 12:01am they started letting us have our copies of the final Harry Potter book.
In celebration of this event our local library held a party that went from 8pm to 12am. We signed up for it on Monday I think? Who can remember?
So yesterday we get home from a Chocolate tasting class (we got to sample different levels of chocolate...I was at my max at 60% cocoa! LOL! Darly says she liked the 88%, BLECH!) and Darly wants to set up her pool cuz it was H-O-T HOT! out there. We need to get an electric air pump as that took forever!
Then we were running around trying to get our costumes for the Party. Darly had to help me find my glasses (for the costume...I don't normally wear glasses) and we finally got dressed up as Professor Trelawney and Hermione.
We leave for the party and get there a bit early. The library is closed. They won't let us in yet! I was shocked...but apparently they weren't ready for us yet. Oh well. so I was heading back to the car when more people began to show up...so we ended up staying there on the sidewalk.
This one lady & her friend show up and are asking me who I'm supposed to be. I try to tell them and they have no idea who Prof Trelawney is...see they haven't read the books, just saw some of the movies. (Why are they here? I dunno.) So when we get in we are "sorted" into our houses and given a list of events. I was waiting for something more of instruction...but it never came. Folks were lining up to do the Jelly Bean Guess(Bertie Botts's Every Flavor Bean, of course!) and I overheard one say that it was to sign in. I guess they were wrong! So after waiting a bit Darly & I head into the library to begin some of the events.
They really had it all set up very well. I took my N.E.W.T.S. but have no idea how I did on them. The highest score got an early check out of the book. It went to some kid who got 61 out of 63 correct! I know there were 3 I didn't even answer so good for him! But remember that lady who hadn't even read the books? Well she glumms onto me and is asking me for the answers! WHAT? This is a contest lady! I'm not telling you if you didn't even bother to read the books. One of the questions was which book is the longest...course I didn't know and guess which books were mysteriously not on the shelves? I guessed "Order" I don't know if that's right or not...yet.
We also did a scavenger hunt. That was cool. They actually had mini statues or other stuff you can get from the movies at each point in the hunt. Like one of the clues was to find Dobby with a dragon. They have a doll of Dobby...it's cool and freaky. LOL! Another clue was to find an owl and some of them like to eat fish. Well they had real owls there...but it wasn't that owl. They had a stuffed owl on the fishtank. LOL! For our efforts we got a bookmark.
In the end we did NOT get to check out an early copy of the book. But I'm #13 on the hold list, and my copy is waiting for me to go & get it at the Library today. So I'll be at Hogwarts here for a bit...actually, I might not be there as Harry said he wouldn't return to school for his final year. Hummm? I'll be in England then...or Albania...or wherever he has to go.
In celebration of this event our local library held a party that went from 8pm to 12am. We signed up for it on Monday I think? Who can remember?
So yesterday we get home from a Chocolate tasting class (we got to sample different levels of chocolate...I was at my max at 60% cocoa! LOL! Darly says she liked the 88%, BLECH!) and Darly wants to set up her pool cuz it was H-O-T HOT! out there. We need to get an electric air pump as that took forever!
Then we were running around trying to get our costumes for the Party. Darly had to help me find my glasses (for the costume...I don't normally wear glasses) and we finally got dressed up as Professor Trelawney and Hermione.
We leave for the party and get there a bit early. The library is closed. They won't let us in yet! I was shocked...but apparently they weren't ready for us yet. Oh well. so I was heading back to the car when more people began to show up...so we ended up staying there on the sidewalk.
This one lady & her friend show up and are asking me who I'm supposed to be. I try to tell them and they have no idea who Prof Trelawney is...see they haven't read the books, just saw some of the movies. (Why are they here? I dunno.) So when we get in we are "sorted" into our houses and given a list of events. I was waiting for something more of instruction...but it never came. Folks were lining up to do the Jelly Bean Guess(Bertie Botts's Every Flavor Bean, of course!) and I overheard one say that it was to sign in. I guess they were wrong! So after waiting a bit Darly & I head into the library to begin some of the events.
They really had it all set up very well. I took my N.E.W.T.S. but have no idea how I did on them. The highest score got an early check out of the book. It went to some kid who got 61 out of 63 correct! I know there were 3 I didn't even answer so good for him! But remember that lady who hadn't even read the books? Well she glumms onto me and is asking me for the answers! WHAT? This is a contest lady! I'm not telling you if you didn't even bother to read the books. One of the questions was which book is the longest...course I didn't know and guess which books were mysteriously not on the shelves? I guessed "Order" I don't know if that's right or not...yet.
We also did a scavenger hunt. That was cool. They actually had mini statues or other stuff you can get from the movies at each point in the hunt. Like one of the clues was to find Dobby with a dragon. They have a doll of Dobby...it's cool and freaky. LOL! Another clue was to find an owl and some of them like to eat fish. Well they had real owls there...but it wasn't that owl. They had a stuffed owl on the fishtank. LOL! For our efforts we got a bookmark.
In the end we did NOT get to check out an early copy of the book. But I'm #13 on the hold list, and my copy is waiting for me to go & get it at the Library today. So I'll be at Hogwarts here for a bit...actually, I might not be there as Harry said he wouldn't return to school for his final year. Hummm? I'll be in England then...or Albania...or wherever he has to go.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
I'm so honored!
I am honored to say that I have been awarded "The Thoughtful Blogger Award" (seemingly also known as the Creative Blogger Award) by Lynn at A Tired Mama how thoughtful is that! I figured that I would post both awards.
For those unfamiliar with the award, here is a little explaination of the award:
The Thoughtful Blogger Award...
For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.
I'm supposed to think of five creative/thoughtful people to give this award to...there are so many to choose from, and some that I would choose have already received the award...so, here I go: Traveling Chica, Ladybug, Bone, Barbara, Gina and to anyone else that I forgot to mention...consider yourself awarded...you can choose the Creative Blogger and/or the Thinking Blogger Awards...it's up to you, you are all worthy.
I would be okay if only my head would stop spinning!
Well since we last spoke (he he) Princess has calmed down some. She's not quite as bouncy and Lilly is not barfing water anymore...so that's a good thing. Princess hasn't peed in the house since late Monday...so that's even better. But I'm not entirely trusting her. So right now she's on a leash at my feet so I can keep an eye on her.
Monday evening Darly's friend came over for a sleepover...that went great except for the mess! Darly's room is a disaster! She promised to clean that up today and I canceled our hike (thank God for the rain & thunderstorm) so that we wouldn't get hit by lightening and now she has a chance to clean up...of course that means I have to clean up too.
Tuesday I took the girls to see Ratatouille. It was great again (we saw it on June 29th too!) and except for the theater being filled with figity kids it was a good time. I was glad for the break from the Princess. The friend went home Tuesday night because I was tired of stressing out about what to feed this kid. I thought that Darly was a picky eater but this kid takes the cake! She claimes to be vegeterian...but she isn't because she won't eat veggies or even fruit either!!! *sigh*
Then yesterday I took Darly to Park Day...that was fun but we stayed until 3pm and by the time we got to gymnastics the poor kid was wiped out. Her coach almost sent her home, but she did great. She did lots of pull-overs with no spot! I'm excited for her because that was one of the few skills she needs to move up to the next level. I don't think that we'll ever do more than recreational gymnastics but it would be fun for her to know how to do the stuff the competetion gals do...she could do commentary for me. he he I think the only skill she doesn't have that I did (at a much older age) is a front handspring. She can do a back handspring on the trampoline but I never had a trampoline so I never learned that.
After the gym we went to dinner and Darly's meal was 99 cents! YAY! And she liked it. We learned that it pays to ask questions about the menu. Darly wanted grilled cheese, but most places use American Cheese. She doesn't like American cheese (she's a bit spoiled cuz I only buy the good stuff!) so we asked the server what kind of cheese they use. She said American...but that they have other cheeses and we could order it with a different cheese. So Darly asked for Cheddar and got it! It was a yummy sandwich for her. She got so full on it that she barely touched her fries.
Last night when we got home and I let the dogs out I decided to try Princess on the leash so I could reaquaint myself with my couch. It worked for the most part. She kept pacing so I kept letting her outside. At one point I left her outside but Darly felt bad for her and offered to watch her for me. YAY! I zonked out on the couch.
Course when we finally went to bed Princess protested being put in her crate for a good 30 minutes at least...but she finally quit...at least I think she quit. All I know for sure is that suddenly the noise quit. Maybe I'm just a good sleeper.
Monday evening Darly's friend came over for a sleepover...that went great except for the mess! Darly's room is a disaster! She promised to clean that up today and I canceled our hike (thank God for the rain & thunderstorm) so that we wouldn't get hit by lightening and now she has a chance to clean up...of course that means I have to clean up too.
Tuesday I took the girls to see Ratatouille. It was great again (we saw it on June 29th too!) and except for the theater being filled with figity kids it was a good time. I was glad for the break from the Princess. The friend went home Tuesday night because I was tired of stressing out about what to feed this kid. I thought that Darly was a picky eater but this kid takes the cake! She claimes to be vegeterian...but she isn't because she won't eat veggies or even fruit either!!! *sigh*
Then yesterday I took Darly to Park Day...that was fun but we stayed until 3pm and by the time we got to gymnastics the poor kid was wiped out. Her coach almost sent her home, but she did great. She did lots of pull-overs with no spot! I'm excited for her because that was one of the few skills she needs to move up to the next level. I don't think that we'll ever do more than recreational gymnastics but it would be fun for her to know how to do the stuff the competetion gals do...she could do commentary for me. he he I think the only skill she doesn't have that I did (at a much older age) is a front handspring. She can do a back handspring on the trampoline but I never had a trampoline so I never learned that.
After the gym we went to dinner and Darly's meal was 99 cents! YAY! And she liked it. We learned that it pays to ask questions about the menu. Darly wanted grilled cheese, but most places use American Cheese. She doesn't like American cheese (she's a bit spoiled cuz I only buy the good stuff!) so we asked the server what kind of cheese they use. She said American...but that they have other cheeses and we could order it with a different cheese. So Darly asked for Cheddar and got it! It was a yummy sandwich for her. She got so full on it that she barely touched her fries.
Last night when we got home and I let the dogs out I decided to try Princess on the leash so I could reaquaint myself with my couch. It worked for the most part. She kept pacing so I kept letting her outside. At one point I left her outside but Darly felt bad for her and offered to watch her for me. YAY! I zonked out on the couch.
Course when we finally went to bed Princess protested being put in her crate for a good 30 minutes at least...but she finally quit...at least I think she quit. All I know for sure is that suddenly the noise quit. Maybe I'm just a good sleeper.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Arrival of the Princess
I'm pet sitting a dog. Her name is Princess.
Her owner said she was housebroken... she isn't.
Her owner said she was crate trained... she isn't.
Her owner said that she was giving her frequent baths...I'll have to look up the breed before I believe that, cuz this dog is a mess.
Princess is not quite a year old, and she's already a mother. Poor thing. She is clearly still a puppy.
Princess got here and I made her go outside first. She played with our dog, Lilly. I can't remember if I saw her go potty outside or not. I just know that she decided to go on my floor rather quickly after I let her in the house. I picked her up and ran outside with her...she decided to continue urinating while I was running for the door.
Princess is a ball of energy that Lilly is tired of now. She's said many times to me that "Princess can go home now!" Yesterday Lilly was limping, but her paw seems fine now. Lilly has thrown up water this morning...I think she's a ball of nerves.
I can only blog now because everyone is napping. I hope they continue to nap later as I have to leave them this morning.
I think that I'm too old for puppies.
Her owner said she was housebroken... she isn't.
Her owner said she was crate trained... she isn't.
Her owner said that she was giving her frequent baths...I'll have to look up the breed before I believe that, cuz this dog is a mess.
Princess is not quite a year old, and she's already a mother. Poor thing. She is clearly still a puppy.
Princess got here and I made her go outside first. She played with our dog, Lilly. I can't remember if I saw her go potty outside or not. I just know that she decided to go on my floor rather quickly after I let her in the house. I picked her up and ran outside with her...she decided to continue urinating while I was running for the door.
Princess is a ball of energy that Lilly is tired of now. She's said many times to me that "Princess can go home now!" Yesterday Lilly was limping, but her paw seems fine now. Lilly has thrown up water this morning...I think she's a ball of nerves.
I can only blog now because everyone is napping. I hope they continue to nap later as I have to leave them this morning.
I think that I'm too old for puppies.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Alone
As you all know, DH is out of town. He wasn't supposed to leave until today and this has been planned since January (I think). Anyway.
I had planned on going to a few things this week that required that someone watch Darly and since DH was supposed to be here that shouldn't have been a problem. But since he left town early it became a problem.
One of those things was Teacher's Night Out. This is just a social gathering of the teachers in our homeschooling group where we basically unload/debrief/talk about anything and everything and usually end up cracking our selves up terribly.
I didn't get to go to that Thursday.
The other thing was a Book Club on Friday night. I read the book twice and was rarring to go. But no DH, what to do?
I talked to Darly's friend's mom and she agreed to take Darly for a sleep-over. It acutally worked out great because E's mom needs me to take E for a sleep-over on Monday so she can go do something. Ha ha! So we're all set.
Friday afternoon was our Girl Scout meeting, so we agreed that Darly would just go home with them after the meeting. That ended at 4pm. The book club didn't start until 7pm. What to do?
Well it was just silly and wasteful to drive all the way back home...that would kill an hour all by itself. So I decided that I would just go to the mall...plenty to do there. And I had managed to crack my thumbnail while putting away groceries the other day so it seemed that a manicure was in order. Yes, that would be perfect.
So I get to the mall and try to decide where to get the manicure. I only know of one place in the mall that does them, but I wanted to see if there was perhaps someplace else in case they were booked. Well I couldn't tell from the mall directory if any other place actually did manicures. So I thought I would try to ask someone where the best place in the mall for a manicure was. Where to ask? Ah HA! Claire's Accessories! They would have to know...right? So I go there and it is PACKED! I don't know what was going on there but it was wall to wall people and it seemed that there was just the one person there working who was busy with an ear piercing at the time. I figured that she would be highly annoyed if I asked her, so I didn't bother.
I went to the pet store to try to wait out the people in the store. The pet store was full of cute bunnies and of course cute dogs. But one had diarreha right in front of me...YUCK! That place does not have healthy animals.
I go back to Claire's and they are still busy beyond belief, so I just decide to go to the one place that I know. I figure that they must have competitive prices if there is any other place to go. So I go in and yes their manicurist is available and they take me right in.
The lady was a character. She was saying funny things about herself and singing/humming songs and chatting away the entire time. She gave my hands/arms an awesome massage...cleared up my sore mouse-clicking finger right away (I'll have to get one of these more often!) and she did a great job on my nails. Oh and she glued my cracked thumbnail back together...no problem. "My Specialty!" she tells me. You would never know that it is broken. I was a happy girl and tipped her 20%.
The nail place is also where I get my hair done and as I'm going up to pay I bump into my stylist. She recognizes me (course we were just in there last week to get Darly's hair cut) and asks where Darly is. I tell her that Darly is on a sleepover so I'm out playing. A lady behind me says something like I deserve it (she doesn't know me from Adam, but anyway.)
So after the manicure...I of course have to visit the restroom and of course I still have damp nails. The only noticable damage is a tiny bit on my one thumb where the polish was pushed back a bit and you can see my nail. Luckily I picked a dark color so the other spots can't be seen.
Then off for dinner...that was uneventful... well except for the family that sat near me in the food court and the toddler with a full diaper. (why did I happen to look up then?)
I shopped around a bit after dinner. Our Discovery Store is going out of business so they have the stuff on sale...but even at 40 to 60% off the prices are high for me...I'm waiting for 70% as I don't really need this stuff anyway.
At J.C.Penney there's a cute t-shirt that I wanted, but it was only 30% off...I'll wait! I should check to see if Kohls carries the same shirt because they're always cheaper.
Then I go to where the book club is meeting and I grab a copy of the book off the shelf in case we need to look anything up.
I get myself some coffee & a cookie. I swear that "barrista" did not put the shot of vanilla syrup in my vanilla latte because I only tasted coffee. I'm grumpy! Course I didn't say anything.
The book club was great! We talked about the book for about an hour and then just chatted about stuff. IT was like being at TNO! YAY! I loved it. We even got booted out of the place at closing and chatted some more in the parking lot. Oh and we all agreed that we want to do this every month. Woo Hoo! More playtime for me.
So I come home and all that's here are me & the animals. Lilly notices that Darly isn't here. She's like "Hey! Where's Sissy?" But she doesn't give me much grief about it. The rabbits of course enjoy the quiet.
And now it's Saturday morning and oh wow! It's now 10 am and I can call about getting my kid...only I haven't showered yet. YIKES! I should do that.... Later!
UPDATE: Showered & called over to friend's house. They had just got up and were playing. Mom said that she didn't need to be anywhere and the girls were out of her hair so we would try again at 1pm to talk about breaking them up. She suggested that I go shopping. Instead, I'm looking at silly videos online...
I had planned on going to a few things this week that required that someone watch Darly and since DH was supposed to be here that shouldn't have been a problem. But since he left town early it became a problem.
One of those things was Teacher's Night Out. This is just a social gathering of the teachers in our homeschooling group where we basically unload/debrief/talk about anything and everything and usually end up cracking our selves up terribly.
I didn't get to go to that Thursday.
The other thing was a Book Club on Friday night. I read the book twice and was rarring to go. But no DH, what to do?
I talked to Darly's friend's mom and she agreed to take Darly for a sleep-over. It acutally worked out great because E's mom needs me to take E for a sleep-over on Monday so she can go do something. Ha ha! So we're all set.
Friday afternoon was our Girl Scout meeting, so we agreed that Darly would just go home with them after the meeting. That ended at 4pm. The book club didn't start until 7pm. What to do?
Well it was just silly and wasteful to drive all the way back home...that would kill an hour all by itself. So I decided that I would just go to the mall...plenty to do there. And I had managed to crack my thumbnail while putting away groceries the other day so it seemed that a manicure was in order. Yes, that would be perfect.
So I get to the mall and try to decide where to get the manicure. I only know of one place in the mall that does them, but I wanted to see if there was perhaps someplace else in case they were booked. Well I couldn't tell from the mall directory if any other place actually did manicures. So I thought I would try to ask someone where the best place in the mall for a manicure was. Where to ask? Ah HA! Claire's Accessories! They would have to know...right? So I go there and it is PACKED! I don't know what was going on there but it was wall to wall people and it seemed that there was just the one person there working who was busy with an ear piercing at the time. I figured that she would be highly annoyed if I asked her, so I didn't bother.
I went to the pet store to try to wait out the people in the store. The pet store was full of cute bunnies and of course cute dogs. But one had diarreha right in front of me...YUCK! That place does not have healthy animals.
I go back to Claire's and they are still busy beyond belief, so I just decide to go to the one place that I know. I figure that they must have competitive prices if there is any other place to go. So I go in and yes their manicurist is available and they take me right in.
The lady was a character. She was saying funny things about herself and singing/humming songs and chatting away the entire time. She gave my hands/arms an awesome massage...cleared up my sore mouse-clicking finger right away (I'll have to get one of these more often!) and she did a great job on my nails. Oh and she glued my cracked thumbnail back together...no problem. "My Specialty!" she tells me. You would never know that it is broken. I was a happy girl and tipped her 20%.
The nail place is also where I get my hair done and as I'm going up to pay I bump into my stylist. She recognizes me (course we were just in there last week to get Darly's hair cut) and asks where Darly is. I tell her that Darly is on a sleepover so I'm out playing. A lady behind me says something like I deserve it (she doesn't know me from Adam, but anyway.)
So after the manicure...I of course have to visit the restroom and of course I still have damp nails. The only noticable damage is a tiny bit on my one thumb where the polish was pushed back a bit and you can see my nail. Luckily I picked a dark color so the other spots can't be seen.
Then off for dinner...that was uneventful... well except for the family that sat near me in the food court and the toddler with a full diaper. (why did I happen to look up then?)
I shopped around a bit after dinner. Our Discovery Store is going out of business so they have the stuff on sale...but even at 40 to 60% off the prices are high for me...I'm waiting for 70% as I don't really need this stuff anyway.
At J.C.Penney there's a cute t-shirt that I wanted, but it was only 30% off...I'll wait! I should check to see if Kohls carries the same shirt because they're always cheaper.
Then I go to where the book club is meeting and I grab a copy of the book off the shelf in case we need to look anything up.
I get myself some coffee & a cookie. I swear that "barrista" did not put the shot of vanilla syrup in my vanilla latte because I only tasted coffee. I'm grumpy! Course I didn't say anything.
The book club was great! We talked about the book for about an hour and then just chatted about stuff. IT was like being at TNO! YAY! I loved it. We even got booted out of the place at closing and chatted some more in the parking lot. Oh and we all agreed that we want to do this every month. Woo Hoo! More playtime for me.
So I come home and all that's here are me & the animals. Lilly notices that Darly isn't here. She's like "Hey! Where's Sissy?" But she doesn't give me much grief about it. The rabbits of course enjoy the quiet.
And now it's Saturday morning and oh wow! It's now 10 am and I can call about getting my kid...only I haven't showered yet. YIKES! I should do that.... Later!
UPDATE: Showered & called over to friend's house. They had just got up and were playing. Mom said that she didn't need to be anywhere and the girls were out of her hair so we would try again at 1pm to talk about breaking them up. She suggested that I go shopping. Instead, I'm looking at silly videos online...
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Four Things About Meme
I was tagged this week by JUDY to do the "Four Things About Me" meme.
FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
Selling watermelons on the side of the road
Pet sitting
Landscape company
Data storage manager – long story there!
FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
Babe
Madagascar
Ratatouille
Harry Potter (1,2 & 3)
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
Benton, LA
Tampa, FL
Clarksburg, WV
Osan South Korea
FAVORITE FOODS:
Steak
Shrimp
Squash
Stuffing w/ turkey & gravy & mashed potatoes – yeah, I was trying to come up with all foods that start with S
PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE NOW:
Camping!
Disneyland
Busch Gardens
TNO
FOUR PEOPLE I TAG TO DO THIS MEME
Jen
Maura
Lynn
Joan
The long story for the job: I was working at an Electric company in their mail room. Which was really misnamed because we answered the phone “reproductions” and mostly made copies for the company. But anyway, my job fell under the department of (gosh, what was our department called? I don’t remember…but we took care of everything that had to do with paper really.) Anyway the Data Storage manager found a new job in a different department and they needed to replace her. I don’t know why but somehow she was leaving the job before we could find a replacement for her. It was suggested that I apply for the job but I didn’t have enough experience for it…they wanted two years and I had only been with the company for 1 year and I had ½ a year of college which would go as ½ a year of experience…so I was only short by ½ a year. You could tell my boss really wanted me to have the job…she took a long time in hiring the replacement. But in the meantime I was trained to do the job so I could fill in and train the next person. I was GOOD at this job. This was like the perfect job for me, but alas I couldn’t have the job. So eventually they hired someone else to do the job and I trained her and eventually I went back to my old position. You could tell that the temp that filled in for me was REALLY disappointed that I came back. Oh well. Turns out that the person they hired was very lazy. There were times when I stopped by with her mail and she would ask me about something…just so I would do it for her. I also spent a lot of time there filing documents that were to be destroyed.
See one of our coal fired turbines exploded. So we were being sued by the nearby farmers and we were suing the manufacturer of the turbine…so lots of documents had been removed from the archives for the law suits. As part of the settlement it was agreed that all of these documents would be destroyed (we musta got big bucks for that!) So I spent about an hour each night working overtime filing these documents back into their boxes so the entire box could be destroyed. I ended up leaving before that was all finished.
FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
Selling watermelons on the side of the road
Pet sitting
Landscape company
Data storage manager – long story there!
FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
Babe
Madagascar
Ratatouille
Harry Potter (1,2 & 3)
FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
Benton, LA
Tampa, FL
Clarksburg, WV
Osan South Korea
FAVORITE FOODS:
Steak
Shrimp
Squash
Stuffing w/ turkey & gravy & mashed potatoes – yeah, I was trying to come up with all foods that start with S
PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE NOW:
Camping!
Disneyland
Busch Gardens
TNO
FOUR PEOPLE I TAG TO DO THIS MEME
Jen
Maura
Lynn
Joan
The long story for the job: I was working at an Electric company in their mail room. Which was really misnamed because we answered the phone “reproductions” and mostly made copies for the company. But anyway, my job fell under the department of (gosh, what was our department called? I don’t remember…but we took care of everything that had to do with paper really.) Anyway the Data Storage manager found a new job in a different department and they needed to replace her. I don’t know why but somehow she was leaving the job before we could find a replacement for her. It was suggested that I apply for the job but I didn’t have enough experience for it…they wanted two years and I had only been with the company for 1 year and I had ½ a year of college which would go as ½ a year of experience…so I was only short by ½ a year. You could tell my boss really wanted me to have the job…she took a long time in hiring the replacement. But in the meantime I was trained to do the job so I could fill in and train the next person. I was GOOD at this job. This was like the perfect job for me, but alas I couldn’t have the job. So eventually they hired someone else to do the job and I trained her and eventually I went back to my old position. You could tell that the temp that filled in for me was REALLY disappointed that I came back. Oh well. Turns out that the person they hired was very lazy. There were times when I stopped by with her mail and she would ask me about something…just so I would do it for her. I also spent a lot of time there filing documents that were to be destroyed.
See one of our coal fired turbines exploded. So we were being sued by the nearby farmers and we were suing the manufacturer of the turbine…so lots of documents had been removed from the archives for the law suits. As part of the settlement it was agreed that all of these documents would be destroyed (we musta got big bucks for that!) So I spent about an hour each night working overtime filing these documents back into their boxes so the entire box could be destroyed. I ended up leaving before that was all finished.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Answers to Comments from “What a Monday!”
Nicole said...
Oh, boy, I love it when the mice come out to play.
LOL! We mice love to play. I know we need to pick up some supplies for Darly’s camping trip and we’ll probably go see the Titanic at the museum.
Goofy Girl said...
Phew! Sounds like a busy time!! I think I must be an adrenaline junkie or something, cuz I thrive on this kind of insaneness! LOL But taking breaks like today are welcomed.
TC said...
Wow, sounds insane!!!
I think I'd say I'd prefer to work with the preschoolers than to answer that phone :) You take the preschoolers, I’ll take the phones any day instead. Hee hee I’m not a fan of a room of small kiddos. Taught DD’s prek Sunday school class and was not a happy camper. I suppose most of my problem was that we did the class in the playroom and the kids would just scribble through their art work so they could go play.
Lynn said...
One of my jobs when I was in college, was at an answering service. I remember my dads advice to me at the time, which was 'Just take one call at a time'. Sounds like you had a really crazy day. Twelve would suggest that you and Darly go shopping while DH is out of town. I like the way Twelve thinks! I hope we just shop and not buy too much though, cuz I would like to save the extra $$ that DH is earning on this trip for our trip to see my mom.
Jen said...
Man, I've had paying jobs where I didn't have to work that hard! I hope they really appreciate you :-) they do appreciate me, but their hands are tied really in how to reciprocate that. They’ve offered to take me to lunch, but by lunchtime I really need to get back to Darly.
Oh, boy, I love it when the mice come out to play.
LOL! We mice love to play. I know we need to pick up some supplies for Darly’s camping trip and we’ll probably go see the Titanic at the museum.
Goofy Girl said...
Phew! Sounds like a busy time!! I think I must be an adrenaline junkie or something, cuz I thrive on this kind of insaneness! LOL But taking breaks like today are welcomed.
TC said...
Wow, sounds insane!!!
I think I'd say I'd prefer to work with the preschoolers than to answer that phone :) You take the preschoolers, I’ll take the phones any day instead. Hee hee I’m not a fan of a room of small kiddos. Taught DD’s prek Sunday school class and was not a happy camper. I suppose most of my problem was that we did the class in the playroom and the kids would just scribble through their art work so they could go play.
Lynn said...
One of my jobs when I was in college, was at an answering service. I remember my dads advice to me at the time, which was 'Just take one call at a time'. Sounds like you had a really crazy day. Twelve would suggest that you and Darly go shopping while DH is out of town. I like the way Twelve thinks! I hope we just shop and not buy too much though, cuz I would like to save the extra $$ that DH is earning on this trip for our trip to see my mom.
Jen said...
Man, I've had paying jobs where I didn't have to work that hard! I hope they really appreciate you :-) they do appreciate me, but their hands are tied really in how to reciprocate that. They’ve offered to take me to lunch, but by lunchtime I really need to get back to Darly.
Monday, July 09, 2007
What a Monday!
I was scheduled to work at Church this morning...this was planned about a month ago. I had talked to the Office Manager last week because they were changing over the phone system and she needed to not be there this morning...so she had me come in Friday so she could go over the new system with me.
As it turns out when they were setting up the new system there was a glitch with our Pre-School's line. So for now all their calls go to the Church's main line and then have to be transfered back to them.
Yesterday at Church we learned that one of our Members had passed away. So I checked in with the Office Manager to make sure that I didn't need to have any info to give out to other members. At that point we still didn't know anything. Our pastor was out of town on vacation and was flying back that day for the funeral, that we assumed would be on Tuesday.
So this morning I get there and the phones start ringing right away. The first call wouldn't talk back to me (I have my suspicions about this later on) so the second call I didn't answer with my greeting and they of course were concerned that they had misdialed. I appologized for that and had to put them on hold as the other line was also ringing. It was a call for the Pre-school. I sent it to voice mail and went back to the first call. It was the florist confirming the funeral...that I didn't have any info on and I was the only one there...except for the maintainence man. So I took a number to call the florist back.
Turns out the funeral was scheduled for 10am this morning! :O
Call the florist back and get that all arranged. Meanwhile tons of calls are coming for the preschool (they have a summer camp) and no one is there yet as they don't start until 9am and won't get in until 8:45am! I've got moms wondering if they need to bring in snacks and all sorts of weird questions that I don't have any idea about.
I don't know how many calls I took for the preschool. I know of at lest 3 where the calling party was shocked that they had gotten the Church office insead of the preschool. I got another 3 where the calling party had paid no attention to my greeting and started rattling off preschool questions. Finally I had confirmation from another person at the Church that the preschool director had arrived...so I could just forward calls to her. I tried that and no one was answering.
Was there a problem with the phones? I don't know.
So the next call, a lady who called in a few times before, I suggested that I take a message and run it downstairs so I could see what was up. I take it down there and the director says she was with a parent and didn't answer...she didn't know about the routing problem yet. About 2 calls later (after a call from her mother) she comes upstairs to find out what is going on with the phones. I explain it to her and she starts appologizing like crazy for not taking that one call. Turns out the parent she was talking to was just chatting.
I think the calls I got (about 3) were either someone who thought that they had dialed the preschool and were confused...or we have some weirdo who calls up churches and doesn't speak.
Since no one was expecting a funeral today...the Church was not ready for it. So we were all scrambling trying to straighten the place up. I had to hide the sign-up for the annual "Habitat for Humanity" golf tournament in the office along with the Food Club (buy supermarket certificates and the Church gets part of the money.) I also moved a few things and picked up a broken cookie from the floor.
The funeral went very well. The preschool calls calmed down after about 10:30 or so. LOL! I feel sorry for the person on phones tomorrow. Hopefully they get that all straightened out quickly. The office manager did come in for a few minutes at one point. She was mostly there for the counters though as they always have questions.
That's about it...I'm getting the laundry done now so that DH can leave town on Wednesday. Darly & I need to start planning some fun stuff to do while the cat's out of town. hee hee any good ideas?
As it turns out when they were setting up the new system there was a glitch with our Pre-School's line. So for now all their calls go to the Church's main line and then have to be transfered back to them.
Yesterday at Church we learned that one of our Members had passed away. So I checked in with the Office Manager to make sure that I didn't need to have any info to give out to other members. At that point we still didn't know anything. Our pastor was out of town on vacation and was flying back that day for the funeral, that we assumed would be on Tuesday.
So this morning I get there and the phones start ringing right away. The first call wouldn't talk back to me (I have my suspicions about this later on) so the second call I didn't answer with my greeting and they of course were concerned that they had misdialed. I appologized for that and had to put them on hold as the other line was also ringing. It was a call for the Pre-school. I sent it to voice mail and went back to the first call. It was the florist confirming the funeral...that I didn't have any info on and I was the only one there...except for the maintainence man. So I took a number to call the florist back.
Turns out the funeral was scheduled for 10am this morning! :O
Call the florist back and get that all arranged. Meanwhile tons of calls are coming for the preschool (they have a summer camp) and no one is there yet as they don't start until 9am and won't get in until 8:45am! I've got moms wondering if they need to bring in snacks and all sorts of weird questions that I don't have any idea about.
I don't know how many calls I took for the preschool. I know of at lest 3 where the calling party was shocked that they had gotten the Church office insead of the preschool. I got another 3 where the calling party had paid no attention to my greeting and started rattling off preschool questions. Finally I had confirmation from another person at the Church that the preschool director had arrived...so I could just forward calls to her. I tried that and no one was answering.
Was there a problem with the phones? I don't know.
So the next call, a lady who called in a few times before, I suggested that I take a message and run it downstairs so I could see what was up. I take it down there and the director says she was with a parent and didn't answer...she didn't know about the routing problem yet. About 2 calls later (after a call from her mother) she comes upstairs to find out what is going on with the phones. I explain it to her and she starts appologizing like crazy for not taking that one call. Turns out the parent she was talking to was just chatting.
I think the calls I got (about 3) were either someone who thought that they had dialed the preschool and were confused...or we have some weirdo who calls up churches and doesn't speak.
Since no one was expecting a funeral today...the Church was not ready for it. So we were all scrambling trying to straighten the place up. I had to hide the sign-up for the annual "Habitat for Humanity" golf tournament in the office along with the Food Club (buy supermarket certificates and the Church gets part of the money.) I also moved a few things and picked up a broken cookie from the floor.
The funeral went very well. The preschool calls calmed down after about 10:30 or so. LOL! I feel sorry for the person on phones tomorrow. Hopefully they get that all straightened out quickly. The office manager did come in for a few minutes at one point. She was mostly there for the counters though as they always have questions.
That's about it...I'm getting the laundry done now so that DH can leave town on Wednesday. Darly & I need to start planning some fun stuff to do while the cat's out of town. hee hee any good ideas?
Sunday, July 08, 2007
blogger doesn't want me to have a title for this post??? weird. I'll keep trying, might give me time to come up with something new.
right now I am supposed to be doing the budget for LLL...I should have done this back in April, so you can see how important it is. LOL! Okay yes it is important but I've been putting it off very well. Like right now I'm blogging instead of working on it. I did print out our Profit & Loss statement...now I just have to transfer those numbers to the budget worksheet and guestimate what we'll want to spend for this year 07/08. loads of fun.
DH will be leaving sometime this week for a trip to Arizona. I hope he remembers to drink plenty of water (no Pepsi!) while he is gone. The trip is scheduled for Saturday but he may leave early. The advantages of leaving early are that he'll get to fly commercial and will earn some extra money. The disadvantages are that he'll be gone on two nights that I was planning on going out and I'll have to find someone to watch Darly for me. Fun!
Dh also informed me that if his brother doesn't visit that I should go over to MIL's house to mow her lawn for her. Not a big deal realy, it's just I've never used her mower before (yes, I do know how to mow a lawn...you'll be suprized to learn that in my past life I actually own and ran a landscaping company! Yes! Really!) But MIL's mower has it's own quirks (don't we all) so DH was explaining them to me.
Well all of that didn't amount to much to tell you. *sigh* Now I've gotta get back to that budget. bummer.
right now I am supposed to be doing the budget for LLL...I should have done this back in April, so you can see how important it is. LOL! Okay yes it is important but I've been putting it off very well. Like right now I'm blogging instead of working on it. I did print out our Profit & Loss statement...now I just have to transfer those numbers to the budget worksheet and guestimate what we'll want to spend for this year 07/08. loads of fun.
DH will be leaving sometime this week for a trip to Arizona. I hope he remembers to drink plenty of water (no Pepsi!) while he is gone. The trip is scheduled for Saturday but he may leave early. The advantages of leaving early are that he'll get to fly commercial and will earn some extra money. The disadvantages are that he'll be gone on two nights that I was planning on going out and I'll have to find someone to watch Darly for me. Fun!
Dh also informed me that if his brother doesn't visit that I should go over to MIL's house to mow her lawn for her. Not a big deal realy, it's just I've never used her mower before (yes, I do know how to mow a lawn...you'll be suprized to learn that in my past life I actually own and ran a landscaping company! Yes! Really!) But MIL's mower has it's own quirks (don't we all) so DH was explaining them to me.
Well all of that didn't amount to much to tell you. *sigh* Now I've gotta get back to that budget. bummer.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
The one with pictures
The kids playing on the turtle built by their grandfather.
The flower girls (Darly is on the right)
"Here come the flower girls..."
Darly & the Bride
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
What I did for my Summer Vacation...
he he
Well Tuesday (June 26Th) I called up my step dad and got the go ahead to leave for the wedding. At that point mom was still in ICU but doing very much better and starting to return to her same cranky self.
So Tuesday night I was running around after doing all the laundry so everyone would have plenty to choose from to pack for the trip. I made sure we had all our travel documents (print outs of our boarding passes, car rental, hotel reservations...etc...) I was choosing and packing my things in the suitcases...making sure that Darly had everything that she needed and that she didn't pack anything unpractical...making sure the dog and rabbits were all set, ya know doing everything and fuming because DH & Darly were mostly playing.
Wednesday morning I got up early (I always do when we travel!) and I did some last minute things...making sure everything would go well.
I should mention here that if you don't already know this...I'm a very anal plan everything out control freak kind of person. Which in some cases works out very well for me and in others backfires in my face when something unexpected or unplanned happens. So I made for us a "day planner" on my Excel spreadsheet...where I had everything all scheduled. I also made packing charts for each of us...It had what all was going on that day so we would know when to pack what...like for the day of the wedding we needed not only our dress clothes but something to wear before the wedding. All planned out...perfectly.
So we get going at 8:05am (we were supposed to leave at 8am...but I'm a smart gal...I added "cushion" time into the schedule because DH is ALWAYS dragging his feet!) Everything went well with traffic and we get to the kennel to drop off Lilly. She of course did NOT want to be left there. The guy had to drag her back to the kennel while Lilly was trying to run towards me. I really wish I knew more of what happened when she was there, but I doubt that even the kennel staff really know as they just pop her into a run and feed her. The kennel suggests that you allow an hour for dropping off your dog...it NEVER takes that long so there was my cushion.
Next we head over to the car park. (BTW: the kennel & the car park are both off the same main road that we always use for getting to the airport. Very handy!) We parked the car and the bus came to pick us up right away. We were at the airport with plenty of time.
I headed to the bathroom while DH & Darly went to wait in line for the baggage check in. I got back in just enough time to show the ticket agent my ID so she could verify my boarding pass.
Security was at level ORANGE so the screening was wrapped all the way around to near baggage claim. The official there said it would only take about 45 minutes from that point. I teased that it might take as long as 5 hours and she wasn't impressed. Some folks just can't take a joke at all. Oh well...I think it actually took less than 45 minutes as whenever the handicapped line was not being used they would allow regular folks to use it too. We might have been in line for about 30 minutes..probably less...it all went very quickly.
Then we head to get lunch and bump into someone we know from Church. He was on a flight directly to Detroit but on another airlines...we had to stop in Nashville first. Our flight was delayed due to weather. We were flying Southwest.
Ever flown with Southwest before? Well they don't have seat assignments. Instead you get a boarding assignment which determines when you get to get on the plane...then you can sit anywhere you like...unless you are traveling with children...then you can't sit in the emergency row. So when you are waiting for your flight...you notice folks standing in line for boarding LONG before there is even a plane to board. I still laugh about this as it happens every single time. They are standing and waiting and there is no plane to get on.
The rest of the flight to Nashville was uneventful but trying to get to Detroit was not the same. We were supposed to leave at 4:30pm. We were all in line waiting to board when the captain comes out to announce that due to weather we weren't going anywhere for now and would get more info at 5:15pm. So I go to get some food. We eat and at 5:15 we learn that we aren't going to get any more news until 6pm. Finally at 6:30 they tell us to HURRY UP and board so we can make a small window to get into Detroit. We board but of course we didn't do it quickly enough and we missed our window. So next we are told that we will sit in the aircraft for an hour with the engines off to save fuel hoping for a chance to take off. they will have the fasten seat belts signs off so we can use the bathrooms and they will serve us water...but we can only go to the bathrooms one at a time in case we get the go ahead to take off so we can leave quickly. But the pilot forgot to turn off the fasten seat belt sign...the flight attendant reminded him to do that and some other person jumped up before I could go. And of course as soon as that person was out the captain said we had the go ahead to leave...so no potty break for me. We ended up leaving Nashville around 7:30 or so. The captain never turned off the fasten seat belt signs because they were expecting bad weather (we never got any!) but I had to go so I went and got scolded by the flight attendant. after I got back Darly announces that she has to go too but we were already on our decent so we made her wait until we landed. I think we got out of the airport at around 10:20pm! We were supposed to be in Detroit at 7pm.
We ate a very late dinner at Bob's Big Boy. You know how you have great memories of a place from when you were a kid and then if you go back as an adult it isn't so great? So was the case with Bob's Big Boy! DH & I both had fond memories that were totally dashed by this place. The service stunk and the manager was the worst about it. We stood there to get a table for about 10 minutes and it was because all the staff were just avoiding coming up there to get us. Bah! We'll never eat there again!
We start the drive to Birch Run and missed our turn off because I was looking for I-75 not US-23. We got almost all the way to Lansing before we realized that we had made a mistake...about an hour out of our way. So DH gets this idea that we should take a back road north to get to I-69 that will take us back to Flint & to I-75 where we want to be...but the back road doesn't go there directly and we missed our turn because a tree was covering the sign. We wanted 52. The sign said for 49 turn left and for 52 go...well we don't really know that because the tree covered that part up. We assumed that we go right for 52 since for 49 it was left. We were WRONG! So we're driving along for a long time and I keep trying to convince DH that we are going EAST instead of NORTH...but he doesn't believe me. Finally we find a 7-11 and ask for directions. We were heading East and were now only 10 miles from US-23...so we continue back to where we needed to be but not where we wanted to be.
WE finally make it to our hotel in Birch Run at 3:10am. The desk clerk was NOT amused to be checking us in at that hour. Can't say that I blame him one bit...but that is his job.
We get to our room and finally get to bed about 3:45 am. DH is all worried about us missing the free breakfast in the lobby that ends at 10am. Sorry it couldn't be helped. We ended up at Bob Evans instead. GREAT breakfast! Loved it!
So our plan was to hang our on our own on Thursday (28Th) and just enjoy Frankenmuth without our relatives. But at breakfast a Bob Evans, I say "what if we run into one of your relatives?" DH says "Nah, it will NEVER happen. What are the chances that we'll run into someone we know?" We bet $10 on that. What should we do first? Darly wants to go to the park. This is the park that has the turtle that her grandfather made (that has no identification on it. the only folks who know that FIL made this are FIL's family. I think we should do something about that, but I noticed that there are some cracks on it now so it might not be around long enough to bother now.)
We played at the park for a while, visiting all the important stuff and I turn towards the park entrance and notice a white van (very much like Dave's) driving in. I say to DH "I think that's your brother's van." He says it can't be. As the van is getting closer I can tell the front licence plate is a Harly Davidson plate...it has to be Dave's van as Michigan requires plates on both the front and back (Dave lives in NC.) Sure enough we watch as Steve, Denise, Dave and all the kids climb out of the van. Darly is so excited to see her cousins that she runs right over while DH is trying to hide from them as we didn't want to see them yet. I can't let them think that Darly is at the park by herself so I head over. Dh heads over eventually...beaten.
The kids & adults played. it was fun. We then decide to head over to Bronner's to look for a Wedding present from Darly to Niece. DH tries to loose Dave while we drive over, but Dave finds us with no problems...I guess the bright red car with Maine tags was a give-away. So all 6 Adults & 5 kids head in. (check my last blogging about going to Frankenmuth for a link to Bronners.) This place is HUGE and there were many times when Dave's kids were with DH & I or with Steve & his friend instead of with Dave & Denise. In the end we all made it out okay, the kids were returned to their parents and nothing was broken.
Dave & the gang decide they will try to get to St Lorenz to hear the bells go off... We decide to do some more shopping downtown. We end up at Rau's Country store for some candy. WE buy a mixed bag of candies...taffy, hard candy, caramels, etc. After this we are hungry and Zehnders is right next door...so we decide to give that a try.
Darly orders a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich...DH & I share a 3 piece chicken dinner. Zehnders is famous for their all you can eat chicken dinner...but it is $17.95 per person. If you order the 3 piece dinner you get all the same stuff and you can share it for just $18.95. Trust me, there's plenty of food! First she brings us some bread, butter, Cranberry sauce, Cottage Cheese, Cole Slaw and paté, cheese spread w/ toasted baguette. I tried my first paté (not bad), Darly tried her first cottage cheese (she loved it!), Dh joked with the waitress about the Stollen bread.
After this course, we were brought noodle soup. very yummy!
finally she brought out our dinners. With our chicken dinner we got mashed potatoes, stuffing, a bowl of vegetables and a bowl of gravy. I soon found that the very dry Famous Frankenmuth Chicken tastes much better if covered in gravy. Our family of 3 could have easily all shared this one dinner...I don't know if we were charged for the extra soups or not...but who cares? It was good, we were very stuffed and although DH teased that we should eat everything...even he knew that was going to be impossible.
After our dinner we headed over to Debbie's house. It was chaos as everyone was over there (as always.) Let me introduce the cast of characters here for you...
At first I was using SIL & BIL instead of names...but it gets complicated quickly...so here are the names:
Debbie - DH's oldest Sister
Pam - The bride & Debbie's oldest child
Nicole - Debbie's second
Eric - Debbie's son...the recent graduate
Jake - Debbie's youngest
Wendy - DH's second sister
Bob - her DH
Rachel - Wendy's daughter
Dave - DH's oldest Brother
Denise - Dave's wife
Avery - Denise's son
Harley - their oldest daughter
Nick - their son
Trevor - another son
Katie - their baby
(not here were Danielle, Dave's daughter who lives with her mom & Jessica who was with her dad.)
Steve - Dh's second brother who is single
MIL
Lynn - DH's cousin
Tom - her husband
Melissa - their daughter
Rich - Debbie's EX husband & father to her kids
Dionne - Rich's new wife
Okay, I think that's everyone that I'll be mentioning...I'll pop up to make changes if I need to.
So at Debbie's house we had Dave & his family staying there; Steve & his friend (a coworker); Wendy & Rachel; and us.
I was trying to find out all the stuff I needed to know for getting Darly where she needed to be for the wedding, but it was hard to keep track of everything as Debbie didn't know all of it and she also had to tell Wendy & Steve where they needed to be. I was disappointed that Pam hadn't provided more info, but she was busy and not even there...she lives in Saginaw.
We finally get back to our hotel after 10pm and we're bushed! The sun stays up longer in Michigan than in Colorado...the mountains hide it from us.
We get up on Friday morning and have a bit of time to do things before we head up to the wedding site. So we see that Ratatouille is playing at the theater next door to our hotel...but it doesn't start until 12. So we go play put-put golf. Darly beats us both...she got 3 hole in ones! She's happy...and then we go to see the movie. It was great! Very funny and highly suggested. Everyone will have fun and it is totally family friendly. Then we start our drive north for the wedding...and right away hit traffic.
It seems that everyone in Michigan drives north for the weekends...they either own a cottage up north or know someone who does so they all go. The roads were packed! We were barely going 10 miles per hour. And DH decides that he wants some of the candy we bought at Raus. It's in the trunk. Ya know how most cars have back seats that fold down so you can stick large items in? Well these seats do fold down, but we have no idea how to do it. I climbed in the back seat to try to figure it out. I was fussing with it for a bit and we all had a good laugh, but never did get to the candy. The traffic finally let up about 20 miles or so and we get going. I'm now paniced that we will be late for the rehersal as I wasn't quite sure what time it began. When we finally get to the turn off we get lost...it seems there was a conflict between what the directions were and my understanding of them. Luckily we found an police officer who directed us where to go...we weren't that lost. But then we get to the resort and don't have any directions as to where the wedding is. We drove around to the lodge and the restaurants but didn't see anyone's cars...so I called Debbie. We needed to be at the Club House (???!!!) she sends Nicole to the road to flag us in. Nicole thought that her mom was talking to Dave and was wondering who we were (she didn't recognize our rental car - go figure!) when we waved at her. DH had bet me the $10 I won earlier with the not seeing the relatives bet that Dave would be later than we were...he was right...Dave pulled in as we were walking up to the wedding site.
I sent DH to get gas in our car and get us checked into our hotel (which was down the road from the resort...much cheaper!) This creates a problem later...
The wedding site is behind the ClubHouse...it overlooks the golf-course and has lots of wooded area for a nice back drop for the "altar." The bridal party is lined up as they would be for the wedding and they practice leaving the wedding first (???)...then they go stage up for the entrance.
first Eric takes MIL to be seated...then he comes back.
then Jake takes Debbie to be seated...and comes back.
then Eric takes Dionne to be seated and comes back.
then Ryan - the groom takes his parents together to be seated...he gets to stay up front now.
Then Jake takes his stepsister (she's a bridesmaid) to the front. They both stay up there.
Then Eric takes another stepsister.
Then more groomsmen & bridesmaids go up and finally the Best Man & Maid of Honor (Nicole) go up.
Finally Darly & Harley (the flowergirls) go up...they aren't throwing petals...they are going to hold smaller bouquets.
And of course the bride & her dad come down the aisle.
DH, Dave & Denise are not back from checking into the hotel...but we are finished rehearsing (I'm just an extra for all of that, but I got some pictures) so we get on a bus to drive to the Lodge for the rehearsal dinner. I'm tripping out because DH doesn't know that the rehearsal dinner is at the Lodge...shoot they didn't tell us the wedding was at the Club House! DH also didn't bring his cell phone so there is no way of calling him...had I been thinking I could have sent him with my phone...but more on that later.
We get to the Lodge and wait for the others to join us...we finally give up after about 45 minutes and begin to eat dinner. They show up about 5 minutes later. DH was frantically driving around everywhere trying to find us...he asked at the Lodge but the front desk had no idea that we were having the dinner there...the Club House didn't know and of course none of the restaurants knew either. Luckily, Nicole went out to find them all and brought them back to the dinner. They were serving steaks buffet style. I told the girls to just take anything that they thought they would eat as I knew they are both picky and I figured it didn't matter. I thought I would be sharing my steak with the two of them (I couldn't eat it all!) but when I got back to our table I see that they were both served HUGE chicken finger dinners! There was no way they could eat all that food.
I told DH that he was sharing my steak when he arrived. We all had plenty.
At dinner we learned that Denise was NOT happy with her room at the hotel that we were supposed to stay at. It was too rustic for her. Seems that she was wanting to stay at the resort. They did end up staying at the resort...we gave Dave a hard time about that later.
Our room was rustic too...but I was expecting it. The description said that it was a Loft with two bunk beds. Well I misunderstood...the room was in a building they call The Loft and there weren't any bunk beds. I don't know how that got mistranslated...but we did have a loft in our room. It was small and had 4 twin beds in it...two downstairs and two up a ladder like staircase to the loft. Darly was in heaven and climbed up the ladder right away to claim her bed. She had DH sleep up in the loft with her in the second bed. I stayed on terra firma in a bed down stairs. (thankyouverymuch!) also crammed into our tiny room were a table, two chairs, two closets & a 3/4 bathroom. It all worked out just fine for us...once we got the temperature right.
Oh hair appointments had been set up for the girls months ago to get their hair done up for the wedding. Dionne (the bride's step mom) set them up with a place that she knew of. I was told the appointment was at 12pm on the day of the wedding. No one said any different until the day of the wedding. Dionne didn't have the directions to the salon with her and was going to have to call her parents to get them, but she would call me with the directions so that we could find the place...thank goodness we went to get the directions that morning at 10:30 because the rest of them had already left without us (and no call) our appointments were up to 12. (???!!! who sets up appointments like that???!!!) So we get our directions and head over there. Dionne, her girls and Harly have all been done up and are leaving when we get there. All the others had their hair done in a half up, half down do. The stylist says that Darly's hair won't do that...so instead we go for a ponytail style that ends up being more like a fancy bun. Oh well...this kid is cute no matter what you do to her.
We get back and take Darly to the Lodge at 2:45 so they can take pictures before the wedding. I forgot to pack Darly's necklace, so I send DH back for it. I help Darly get changed into her dress and all set. DH gets back with the necklace right about the same time they need to be meeting with the photographer. They will be driving all over the resort to take pictures..so DH & I go back to our room to get ourselves ready. We then go get some lunch that we share because we don't want to be too full.
At 4pm we go back to the Club House for the wedding and everything goes off beautifully. The flowergirls are perfect (well Harly was a bit fast walking up the aisle...Darly tried to make her slow down.) And the bride only cried a bit (Darly told me she had a hard time not crying too...we're an emotional family...I cried too.) After the wedding it's time for photos. It took a long time but finally they said that we could go to the Lodge for the dinner. One of the caddies said we could take a gold cart to our car...we had been telling Darly that she should learn to drive a golf cart before a car and she really wanted to do it, but we didn't think the caddie would really let us have the 9y/o drive us. So we walked.
The reception hall (the picture at the top, not the drawing below) looked very lovely. It seemed to me that she had the Groom's family in the first row of tables, then her mom's family and then her dad's. I think it worked out very well although I expected that we would be seated farther back from the front. Oh well...she had the flowergirls together and me & her mom in charge of them. Dave & Denise were at the next table over.
The dinner was HUGE! First we had appetizers of a cheese plate, a veggie plate, quesodillias & meatballs. Then salads, and then our dinner plate had two beef fillets and a chicken breast with potatoes & greenbeans on it! We were so stuffed and for dessert the groom's mom had made a ton of cookies, cup cakes, other treats & the wedding cake! I don't think I've ever had so much food...okay I just mentioned the Zehnder's place...but you know what I mean. Again the girls didn't really eat much, but that was okay.
And we partied all night. The DJ's played really good music...although I had no idea what some of the songs were. Denise gave me a very hard time about not dancing to Fergielicious...the one and only time I ever plan to listen to that. YUCK! And I did an awesome Air Guitar solo to "Let's Go Crazy!" I don't care if they're talking about it for ages...it was fun. ha ha
Zie Leben Hoch was done at 10pm instead of the traditional 12am because we only had the room until 12am and there is always more dancing afterward. The Bride & Groom chose "I Like Big Butts" for the song after that. I don't get that one, but they had fun doing it. DH & I played something nice and slow for ours. Oh well.
We headed back to our room and zonked out quickly...but then at 2:30 the sprinklers came on and were shooting right at the windows of our room! I heard them about 3 times...DH said he only heard them twice.
On the way back to Frankenmuth we stopped by Lynn & Tom's cottage near Higgins Lake. We finally met their daughter Melissa who got engaged that weekend. She was so cute asking for details about the wedding for ideas for her own wedding. Lynn & Melissa had just been up to a lodge near the lake to see about having the wedding there. The owner doesn't do weddings there, but might be talked into it. It's very lovely there and I think they could have a very nice wedding there. I'm debating on if I should send Melissa a note telling her that her bridal party might appreciate a better organized schedule of when and where they are supposed to be...but it seems that I was the only one bothered by this.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We got in late lastnight...too late to pick up Lilly so I went to get her this morning. She was so happy to be out of there and is very happy to be home. The first thing she did was run to her couch and rub her face all over it...as if she were saying "AH! My House! My Couch! I missed you!"
I've missed you all and will now go read through a ton of blog entries...right? ;)
Well Tuesday (June 26Th) I called up my step dad and got the go ahead to leave for the wedding. At that point mom was still in ICU but doing very much better and starting to return to her same cranky self.
So Tuesday night I was running around after doing all the laundry so everyone would have plenty to choose from to pack for the trip. I made sure we had all our travel documents (print outs of our boarding passes, car rental, hotel reservations...etc...) I was choosing and packing my things in the suitcases...making sure that Darly had everything that she needed and that she didn't pack anything unpractical...making sure the dog and rabbits were all set, ya know doing everything and fuming because DH & Darly were mostly playing.
Wednesday morning I got up early (I always do when we travel!) and I did some last minute things...making sure everything would go well.
I should mention here that if you don't already know this...I'm a very anal plan everything out control freak kind of person. Which in some cases works out very well for me and in others backfires in my face when something unexpected or unplanned happens. So I made for us a "day planner" on my Excel spreadsheet...where I had everything all scheduled. I also made packing charts for each of us...It had what all was going on that day so we would know when to pack what...like for the day of the wedding we needed not only our dress clothes but something to wear before the wedding. All planned out...perfectly.
So we get going at 8:05am (we were supposed to leave at 8am...but I'm a smart gal...I added "cushion" time into the schedule because DH is ALWAYS dragging his feet!) Everything went well with traffic and we get to the kennel to drop off Lilly. She of course did NOT want to be left there. The guy had to drag her back to the kennel while Lilly was trying to run towards me. I really wish I knew more of what happened when she was there, but I doubt that even the kennel staff really know as they just pop her into a run and feed her. The kennel suggests that you allow an hour for dropping off your dog...it NEVER takes that long so there was my cushion.
Next we head over to the car park. (BTW: the kennel & the car park are both off the same main road that we always use for getting to the airport. Very handy!) We parked the car and the bus came to pick us up right away. We were at the airport with plenty of time.
I headed to the bathroom while DH & Darly went to wait in line for the baggage check in. I got back in just enough time to show the ticket agent my ID so she could verify my boarding pass.
Security was at level ORANGE so the screening was wrapped all the way around to near baggage claim. The official there said it would only take about 45 minutes from that point. I teased that it might take as long as 5 hours and she wasn't impressed. Some folks just can't take a joke at all. Oh well...I think it actually took less than 45 minutes as whenever the handicapped line was not being used they would allow regular folks to use it too. We might have been in line for about 30 minutes..probably less...it all went very quickly.
Then we head to get lunch and bump into someone we know from Church. He was on a flight directly to Detroit but on another airlines...we had to stop in Nashville first. Our flight was delayed due to weather. We were flying Southwest.
Ever flown with Southwest before? Well they don't have seat assignments. Instead you get a boarding assignment which determines when you get to get on the plane...then you can sit anywhere you like...unless you are traveling with children...then you can't sit in the emergency row. So when you are waiting for your flight...you notice folks standing in line for boarding LONG before there is even a plane to board. I still laugh about this as it happens every single time. They are standing and waiting and there is no plane to get on.
The rest of the flight to Nashville was uneventful but trying to get to Detroit was not the same. We were supposed to leave at 4:30pm. We were all in line waiting to board when the captain comes out to announce that due to weather we weren't going anywhere for now and would get more info at 5:15pm. So I go to get some food. We eat and at 5:15 we learn that we aren't going to get any more news until 6pm. Finally at 6:30 they tell us to HURRY UP and board so we can make a small window to get into Detroit. We board but of course we didn't do it quickly enough and we missed our window. So next we are told that we will sit in the aircraft for an hour with the engines off to save fuel hoping for a chance to take off. they will have the fasten seat belts signs off so we can use the bathrooms and they will serve us water...but we can only go to the bathrooms one at a time in case we get the go ahead to take off so we can leave quickly. But the pilot forgot to turn off the fasten seat belt sign...the flight attendant reminded him to do that and some other person jumped up before I could go. And of course as soon as that person was out the captain said we had the go ahead to leave...so no potty break for me. We ended up leaving Nashville around 7:30 or so. The captain never turned off the fasten seat belt signs because they were expecting bad weather (we never got any!) but I had to go so I went and got scolded by the flight attendant. after I got back Darly announces that she has to go too but we were already on our decent so we made her wait until we landed. I think we got out of the airport at around 10:20pm! We were supposed to be in Detroit at 7pm.
We ate a very late dinner at Bob's Big Boy. You know how you have great memories of a place from when you were a kid and then if you go back as an adult it isn't so great? So was the case with Bob's Big Boy! DH & I both had fond memories that were totally dashed by this place. The service stunk and the manager was the worst about it. We stood there to get a table for about 10 minutes and it was because all the staff were just avoiding coming up there to get us. Bah! We'll never eat there again!
We start the drive to Birch Run and missed our turn off because I was looking for I-75 not US-23. We got almost all the way to Lansing before we realized that we had made a mistake...about an hour out of our way. So DH gets this idea that we should take a back road north to get to I-69 that will take us back to Flint & to I-75 where we want to be...but the back road doesn't go there directly and we missed our turn because a tree was covering the sign. We wanted 52. The sign said for 49 turn left and for 52 go...well we don't really know that because the tree covered that part up. We assumed that we go right for 52 since for 49 it was left. We were WRONG! So we're driving along for a long time and I keep trying to convince DH that we are going EAST instead of NORTH...but he doesn't believe me. Finally we find a 7-11 and ask for directions. We were heading East and were now only 10 miles from US-23...so we continue back to where we needed to be but not where we wanted to be.
WE finally make it to our hotel in Birch Run at 3:10am. The desk clerk was NOT amused to be checking us in at that hour. Can't say that I blame him one bit...but that is his job.
We get to our room and finally get to bed about 3:45 am. DH is all worried about us missing the free breakfast in the lobby that ends at 10am. Sorry it couldn't be helped. We ended up at Bob Evans instead. GREAT breakfast! Loved it!
So our plan was to hang our on our own on Thursday (28Th) and just enjoy Frankenmuth without our relatives. But at breakfast a Bob Evans, I say "what if we run into one of your relatives?" DH says "Nah, it will NEVER happen. What are the chances that we'll run into someone we know?" We bet $10 on that. What should we do first? Darly wants to go to the park. This is the park that has the turtle that her grandfather made (that has no identification on it. the only folks who know that FIL made this are FIL's family. I think we should do something about that, but I noticed that there are some cracks on it now so it might not be around long enough to bother now.)
We played at the park for a while, visiting all the important stuff and I turn towards the park entrance and notice a white van (very much like Dave's) driving in. I say to DH "I think that's your brother's van." He says it can't be. As the van is getting closer I can tell the front licence plate is a Harly Davidson plate...it has to be Dave's van as Michigan requires plates on both the front and back (Dave lives in NC.) Sure enough we watch as Steve, Denise, Dave and all the kids climb out of the van. Darly is so excited to see her cousins that she runs right over while DH is trying to hide from them as we didn't want to see them yet. I can't let them think that Darly is at the park by herself so I head over. Dh heads over eventually...beaten.
The kids & adults played. it was fun. We then decide to head over to Bronner's to look for a Wedding present from Darly to Niece. DH tries to loose Dave while we drive over, but Dave finds us with no problems...I guess the bright red car with Maine tags was a give-away. So all 6 Adults & 5 kids head in. (check my last blogging about going to Frankenmuth for a link to Bronners.) This place is HUGE and there were many times when Dave's kids were with DH & I or with Steve & his friend instead of with Dave & Denise. In the end we all made it out okay, the kids were returned to their parents and nothing was broken.
Dave & the gang decide they will try to get to St Lorenz to hear the bells go off... We decide to do some more shopping downtown. We end up at Rau's Country store for some candy. WE buy a mixed bag of candies...taffy, hard candy, caramels, etc. After this we are hungry and Zehnders is right next door...so we decide to give that a try.
Darly orders a Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich...DH & I share a 3 piece chicken dinner. Zehnders is famous for their all you can eat chicken dinner...but it is $17.95 per person. If you order the 3 piece dinner you get all the same stuff and you can share it for just $18.95. Trust me, there's plenty of food! First she brings us some bread, butter, Cranberry sauce, Cottage Cheese, Cole Slaw and paté, cheese spread w/ toasted baguette. I tried my first paté (not bad), Darly tried her first cottage cheese (she loved it!), Dh joked with the waitress about the Stollen bread.
After this course, we were brought noodle soup. very yummy!
finally she brought out our dinners. With our chicken dinner we got mashed potatoes, stuffing, a bowl of vegetables and a bowl of gravy. I soon found that the very dry Famous Frankenmuth Chicken tastes much better if covered in gravy. Our family of 3 could have easily all shared this one dinner...I don't know if we were charged for the extra soups or not...but who cares? It was good, we were very stuffed and although DH teased that we should eat everything...even he knew that was going to be impossible.
After our dinner we headed over to Debbie's house. It was chaos as everyone was over there (as always.) Let me introduce the cast of characters here for you...
At first I was using SIL & BIL instead of names...but it gets complicated quickly...so here are the names:
Debbie - DH's oldest Sister
Pam - The bride & Debbie's oldest child
Nicole - Debbie's second
Eric - Debbie's son...the recent graduate
Jake - Debbie's youngest
Wendy - DH's second sister
Bob - her DH
Rachel - Wendy's daughter
Dave - DH's oldest Brother
Denise - Dave's wife
Avery - Denise's son
Harley - their oldest daughter
Nick - their son
Trevor - another son
Katie - their baby
(not here were Danielle, Dave's daughter who lives with her mom & Jessica who was with her dad.)
Steve - Dh's second brother who is single
MIL
Lynn - DH's cousin
Tom - her husband
Melissa - their daughter
Rich - Debbie's EX husband & father to her kids
Dionne - Rich's new wife
Okay, I think that's everyone that I'll be mentioning...I'll pop up to make changes if I need to.
So at Debbie's house we had Dave & his family staying there; Steve & his friend (a coworker); Wendy & Rachel; and us.
I was trying to find out all the stuff I needed to know for getting Darly where she needed to be for the wedding, but it was hard to keep track of everything as Debbie didn't know all of it and she also had to tell Wendy & Steve where they needed to be. I was disappointed that Pam hadn't provided more info, but she was busy and not even there...she lives in Saginaw.
We finally get back to our hotel after 10pm and we're bushed! The sun stays up longer in Michigan than in Colorado...the mountains hide it from us.
We get up on Friday morning and have a bit of time to do things before we head up to the wedding site. So we see that Ratatouille is playing at the theater next door to our hotel...but it doesn't start until 12. So we go play put-put golf. Darly beats us both...she got 3 hole in ones! She's happy...and then we go to see the movie. It was great! Very funny and highly suggested. Everyone will have fun and it is totally family friendly. Then we start our drive north for the wedding...and right away hit traffic.
It seems that everyone in Michigan drives north for the weekends...they either own a cottage up north or know someone who does so they all go. The roads were packed! We were barely going 10 miles per hour. And DH decides that he wants some of the candy we bought at Raus. It's in the trunk. Ya know how most cars have back seats that fold down so you can stick large items in? Well these seats do fold down, but we have no idea how to do it. I climbed in the back seat to try to figure it out. I was fussing with it for a bit and we all had a good laugh, but never did get to the candy. The traffic finally let up about 20 miles or so and we get going. I'm now paniced that we will be late for the rehersal as I wasn't quite sure what time it began. When we finally get to the turn off we get lost...it seems there was a conflict between what the directions were and my understanding of them. Luckily we found an police officer who directed us where to go...we weren't that lost. But then we get to the resort and don't have any directions as to where the wedding is. We drove around to the lodge and the restaurants but didn't see anyone's cars...so I called Debbie. We needed to be at the Club House (???!!!) she sends Nicole to the road to flag us in. Nicole thought that her mom was talking to Dave and was wondering who we were (she didn't recognize our rental car - go figure!) when we waved at her. DH had bet me the $10 I won earlier with the not seeing the relatives bet that Dave would be later than we were...he was right...Dave pulled in as we were walking up to the wedding site.
I sent DH to get gas in our car and get us checked into our hotel (which was down the road from the resort...much cheaper!) This creates a problem later...
The wedding site is behind the ClubHouse...it overlooks the golf-course and has lots of wooded area for a nice back drop for the "altar." The bridal party is lined up as they would be for the wedding and they practice leaving the wedding first (???)...then they go stage up for the entrance.
first Eric takes MIL to be seated...then he comes back.
then Jake takes Debbie to be seated...and comes back.
then Eric takes Dionne to be seated and comes back.
then Ryan - the groom takes his parents together to be seated...he gets to stay up front now.
Then Jake takes his stepsister (she's a bridesmaid) to the front. They both stay up there.
Then Eric takes another stepsister.
Then more groomsmen & bridesmaids go up and finally the Best Man & Maid of Honor (Nicole) go up.
Finally Darly & Harley (the flowergirls) go up...they aren't throwing petals...they are going to hold smaller bouquets.
And of course the bride & her dad come down the aisle.
DH, Dave & Denise are not back from checking into the hotel...but we are finished rehearsing (I'm just an extra for all of that, but I got some pictures) so we get on a bus to drive to the Lodge for the rehearsal dinner. I'm tripping out because DH doesn't know that the rehearsal dinner is at the Lodge...shoot they didn't tell us the wedding was at the Club House! DH also didn't bring his cell phone so there is no way of calling him...had I been thinking I could have sent him with my phone...but more on that later.
We get to the Lodge and wait for the others to join us...we finally give up after about 45 minutes and begin to eat dinner. They show up about 5 minutes later. DH was frantically driving around everywhere trying to find us...he asked at the Lodge but the front desk had no idea that we were having the dinner there...the Club House didn't know and of course none of the restaurants knew either. Luckily, Nicole went out to find them all and brought them back to the dinner. They were serving steaks buffet style. I told the girls to just take anything that they thought they would eat as I knew they are both picky and I figured it didn't matter. I thought I would be sharing my steak with the two of them (I couldn't eat it all!) but when I got back to our table I see that they were both served HUGE chicken finger dinners! There was no way they could eat all that food.
I told DH that he was sharing my steak when he arrived. We all had plenty.
At dinner we learned that Denise was NOT happy with her room at the hotel that we were supposed to stay at. It was too rustic for her. Seems that she was wanting to stay at the resort. They did end up staying at the resort...we gave Dave a hard time about that later.
Our room was rustic too...but I was expecting it. The description said that it was a Loft with two bunk beds. Well I misunderstood...the room was in a building they call The Loft and there weren't any bunk beds. I don't know how that got mistranslated...but we did have a loft in our room. It was small and had 4 twin beds in it...two downstairs and two up a ladder like staircase to the loft. Darly was in heaven and climbed up the ladder right away to claim her bed. She had DH sleep up in the loft with her in the second bed. I stayed on terra firma in a bed down stairs. (thankyouverymuch!) also crammed into our tiny room were a table, two chairs, two closets & a 3/4 bathroom. It all worked out just fine for us...once we got the temperature right.
Oh hair appointments had been set up for the girls months ago to get their hair done up for the wedding. Dionne (the bride's step mom) set them up with a place that she knew of. I was told the appointment was at 12pm on the day of the wedding. No one said any different until the day of the wedding. Dionne didn't have the directions to the salon with her and was going to have to call her parents to get them, but she would call me with the directions so that we could find the place...thank goodness we went to get the directions that morning at 10:30 because the rest of them had already left without us (and no call) our appointments were up to 12. (???!!! who sets up appointments like that???!!!) So we get our directions and head over there. Dionne, her girls and Harly have all been done up and are leaving when we get there. All the others had their hair done in a half up, half down do. The stylist says that Darly's hair won't do that...so instead we go for a ponytail style that ends up being more like a fancy bun. Oh well...this kid is cute no matter what you do to her.
We get back and take Darly to the Lodge at 2:45 so they can take pictures before the wedding. I forgot to pack Darly's necklace, so I send DH back for it. I help Darly get changed into her dress and all set. DH gets back with the necklace right about the same time they need to be meeting with the photographer. They will be driving all over the resort to take pictures..so DH & I go back to our room to get ourselves ready. We then go get some lunch that we share because we don't want to be too full.
At 4pm we go back to the Club House for the wedding and everything goes off beautifully. The flowergirls are perfect (well Harly was a bit fast walking up the aisle...Darly tried to make her slow down.) And the bride only cried a bit (Darly told me she had a hard time not crying too...we're an emotional family...I cried too.) After the wedding it's time for photos. It took a long time but finally they said that we could go to the Lodge for the dinner. One of the caddies said we could take a gold cart to our car...we had been telling Darly that she should learn to drive a golf cart before a car and she really wanted to do it, but we didn't think the caddie would really let us have the 9y/o drive us. So we walked.
The reception hall (the picture at the top, not the drawing below) looked very lovely. It seemed to me that she had the Groom's family in the first row of tables, then her mom's family and then her dad's. I think it worked out very well although I expected that we would be seated farther back from the front. Oh well...she had the flowergirls together and me & her mom in charge of them. Dave & Denise were at the next table over.
The dinner was HUGE! First we had appetizers of a cheese plate, a veggie plate, quesodillias & meatballs. Then salads, and then our dinner plate had two beef fillets and a chicken breast with potatoes & greenbeans on it! We were so stuffed and for dessert the groom's mom had made a ton of cookies, cup cakes, other treats & the wedding cake! I don't think I've ever had so much food...okay I just mentioned the Zehnder's place...but you know what I mean. Again the girls didn't really eat much, but that was okay.
And we partied all night. The DJ's played really good music...although I had no idea what some of the songs were. Denise gave me a very hard time about not dancing to Fergielicious...the one and only time I ever plan to listen to that. YUCK! And I did an awesome Air Guitar solo to "Let's Go Crazy!" I don't care if they're talking about it for ages...it was fun. ha ha
Zie Leben Hoch was done at 10pm instead of the traditional 12am because we only had the room until 12am and there is always more dancing afterward. The Bride & Groom chose "I Like Big Butts" for the song after that. I don't get that one, but they had fun doing it. DH & I played something nice and slow for ours. Oh well.
We headed back to our room and zonked out quickly...but then at 2:30 the sprinklers came on and were shooting right at the windows of our room! I heard them about 3 times...DH said he only heard them twice.
On the way back to Frankenmuth we stopped by Lynn & Tom's cottage near Higgins Lake. We finally met their daughter Melissa who got engaged that weekend. She was so cute asking for details about the wedding for ideas for her own wedding. Lynn & Melissa had just been up to a lodge near the lake to see about having the wedding there. The owner doesn't do weddings there, but might be talked into it. It's very lovely there and I think they could have a very nice wedding there. I'm debating on if I should send Melissa a note telling her that her bridal party might appreciate a better organized schedule of when and where they are supposed to be...but it seems that I was the only one bothered by this.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We got in late lastnight...too late to pick up Lilly so I went to get her this morning. She was so happy to be out of there and is very happy to be home. The first thing she did was run to her couch and rub her face all over it...as if she were saying "AH! My House! My Couch! I missed you!"
I've missed you all and will now go read through a ton of blog entries...right? ;)
Monday, July 02, 2007
home again home again! and update on Mom
We're home, I'm bushed, so I'll keep this quick.
The latest I heard on my mom is that she's been moved back into her own room at the hospital on Friday (29th). I will call tomorrow to get a better update as it was after 10 when we got home tonight.
more later. Thanks so much to everyone for the prayers.
The latest I heard on my mom is that she's been moved back into her own room at the hospital on Friday (29th). I will call tomorrow to get a better update as it was after 10 when we got home tonight.
more later. Thanks so much to everyone for the prayers.
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