Squash update...

see below the picture.

go get a name already...

I was thinking about doing this for a long time and today I finally went over and checked out the list.

Did you know they only have 35% of the names covered for the 9/11 tribute??? That means that everyone who has a name needs to get two more people to get a name in order for every name to have a tribute.

come on folks, it only takes a minute to sign up and the tribute part itself will be pretty easy too.

Wouldn't it be great if every hero of 9/11 had some blogger out here giving them a tribute? If your answer was yes and you don't have a name...go get one now. And they have the cool code link you can put in your sidebar for your hero.

Wordless Wednesday

Update: This is a squash that is growing in my garden right now. I've never seen anything like this happen before and I've had my own garden for years. I should go and pick this thing, but I'm not ready to cook it up yet. Maybe I'll pick it tonight to eat tomorrow. I've also got pumpkins, zucchini, other mixed squash (came in a seed packet), green beans, tomatoes, carrots & strawberries. There's a chance that I've also got cucumbers, but I'm not sure yet.

Update #2: I picked the squash and from the back and all sides it appeared to be just somehow fused together. Well today I sliced it up to eat it and yup, just as I figured it was just connected by the one side. It looked totally normal on the inside and tasted just like all the other squash that I've grown & picked from my garden. I guess we'll never know why this happens. Darly says "God did it!" That's my girl!

Putting things into perspective...

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky
If you click on the pictures you can see them better.

Drop Everything... I'm doin another Thursday Thirteen!

Thirteen ways to explain My Black Eye 1. The truth! Last night DH, Darly & I were playing wiffle ball in the back yard. Darly was at bat, I was playing catcher. DH threw the ball, Darly missed the ball, I went to get the ball, Darly continued to swing and WACK! 2. I walked into a door... Does anyone believe that any more? 3. I fell. Hummm on my face, I'm not buying it. 4. The ball bounced off my glove and hit me in the face. Plausible 5. DH hit me. Not plausible...especially if you met my DH. He wouldn't hurt a fly. 6. Darly hit me. Not plausible either, at least not on purpose. 7. Lilly jumped up to lick my face and rammed her nose into my eye. Plausible but not likely as I don't allow the dog to lick faces and she knows it. She still tries, but only half heartedly. 8. The rabbits... Nah! No one is gonna believe that. 9. I was having a blonde moment while putting the dishes away and hit myself with the cabinet door...ouch! 10. Computer blogging eye strain...in just the right eye... yeah, that's the ticket. 11. Runaway battery operated massager. =o 12. I was breaking up that ice chunk in my freezer's icemaker with an ice pick and a chunk of ice went flying and hit me right in the eye! 13. I don't think that anyone's going to believe any of that garbage... When was the last time you had a black eye? And what would you tell folks who asked? Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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What happens in Vegas...

gets posted on my blog








Tuesday morning we got up and packed up the car. Lilly was getting nervous because we were packing up her things as well...this couldn't be good as far as she was concerned. But she loves to go riding in the car and went to the car willingly.

We get about 1/2 the way to MIL's house when DH asks if I remembered to pack his tennis shoes...."ummm I packed the dog, the kid and myself and now I'm supposed to remember to pack for you as well?"
So we stop at a Kohl's on the way to get him new shoes and apparently for the dog to embarrass me too because she decided to defecate on the sidewalk outside the Kohls store...two feet from a nice patch of grass! So I got to go find something in which to clean up her mess with.

At MIL's we get Darly & Lilly settled and then head for the airport. I started feeling weird about leaving Darly behind. This was our first ever trip without her. I got over it by the time we landed in Vegas. The flight was uneventful.

1st lesson learned in Vegas... Never use the ODS shuttle service! The AC doesn't work on the van and it was a very hot ride to our hotel... more about them later.

We arrived at our hotel after 6pm and DH leads me to the VIP check in. Woo Hoo! We then learn that the room we had been booked in was not yet clean. WHAT? Check out is at 11am. But they booked in another room asking DH which room he preferred...we really didn't care, but later learned that we should not have chose that room. It faced the pool (would have rather had strip view) and it had the access to the pool in the same location as our elevators...so it was always crowded.

When we checked in, DH got a VIP pass that entitled us to a lot of free stuff and allowed us to cut in line at any place with a line. cool! So we decided to have dinner at Sir Galahad's. We are small people and usually share a meal when we go out because most places serve way too much. So we ordered one of the queen cut prime rib dinners. It was an extreemly nice dinner. They roll up this huge cart that has a ton of prime rib in it...carve the meat off and serve it with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and Yorkshire pudding. YUMMY! We had more than enough food to eat. Oh and our waiter was kind enough to explain how our VIP pass worked. He didn't do much of the work that evening...I felt that the gal Nadia should have gotten our tip...she brought the drinks & the bread and made sure we were happy... maybe they split it.

I was kinda tired and overwhelmed by our trip so I went up to our room to plan out the rest of our stay while DH went to try to win some money. I had one of those What's On Magazines to help me plan everything. So I went threw and found all the shows that I was interested in and found a lot of coupons too.

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at Sherwood Forest Cafe. There was a line to get in, but with our line pass we zipped right up to the front. I'm sure that folks in the regular line were upset, but it couldn't be helped.

Lesson #2 learned in Vegas...It is good to be a VIP! :D

After breakfast, which wasn't all that great, we went to get DH registered for his tournament. They gave him his gifts, a shirt and two watches with motorcycles on all of it. The shirt is way too big so we'll be giving that to BIL who loves motorcycles. Then we headed down the strip to see some stuff.

We walked over to the half priced tickets stand to see what they had. I noticed pretty quickly that they were quoting the most expensive seats for what the regular price was and figured they must actually be giving you the cheaper seats. So like for one show they said the regular price was $182...so if they sold you the ticket for $91, you felt like you were getting a deal... but if you looked at the magazine, it said that the tickets start at $90... and they didn't even have tickets for what we wanted to see... Penn and Teller.

So we had lunch at Wienerschnitzel because I wasn't that hungry and DH really loves their chili dogs...again we shared.

Next we headed over to the Bellagio to see the inside & shopps. We also went by the Monte Carlo and finally the Venetian...where we caught the Deuce for our trip to Fremont Street and we heard the guy you hear singing on that website. He's a really good sax player and he wrote the theme song for the Fremont Street Experience.

We had dinner at Vic & Anthony's , which was nice...but I'm soooooo glad that we had a coupon for dinner. OUWCH! Again we shared and the waiter thought that we were cheap...ha! It was still too much food for us to eat.

Thursday was the first day of DH's tournament. The hotel provided us breakfast that day...WHAT A SPREAD! It was very very very nice and yummy too. DH had scheduled himself for the first round, so after we ate he played & I looked around the shops. The rounds are only 15 minutes, so I didn't get much time to spend money. But after his round he went to play in the casino and I went over to the Tropicana to see the Titanic exhibit. Click on the image galery (go ahead, I'll wait). When you first enter the exhibit you are given a boarding pass that has the name of a passenger who was actually on the Titanic. You learn the name and what class they were in. You get to see the accomidations they stayed in (recreations of 1st, & 3rd class rooms a picture of a 2nd class room) and you get to see items recovered from the wreckage. At the end you can touch an "iceberg"... sheet of real ice in the shape of an iceberg and finally you see a master list of all the passengers to see if your passenger survived. Seeing how my passenger was in 3rd class, I didn't hold out hope for her and I learned that she and her two children perished.

I returned to our hotel to have lunch with DH...we had Quiznos at the food court. It was good, but I was shocked at the price. Vegas sure hikes things up. We later learned that we could have had our lunch for free at the tournament. They didn't tell us that when we registered.

I think that we went back to our room after that.

We had tickets for the Tournament of Kings for dinner. Here, that doesn't do the show justice. Let me see if I can find a better link...Ah, much better! I didn't know I was drinking Dragon's Blood! It was quite tasty. They served us way too much food! I couldn't share unless I sat in DH's lap which would have made it hard to see the show.

After dinner we went over to the Bellagio to see the fountain show. We stayed for an hour and saw 5 shows (they go off every 15 min after 8pm). DH was hoping that they would do a fast song, but we saw mostly ballads. The second one was really cool with mist on the water. A great show.

Friday we had the tournament breakfast & lunch. I bought a bunch of stuff and got one of those Aquamassages...just the massage, I didn't buy the machine. :) It was quite nice, but I think I prefer a human massage.

Friday night's dinner was a buffet provided for the tournament players. Since the theme was a biker theme, that was also the theme of the food. They served, buffalo wings, quesadillas, collard greens, yams, blackened corn on the cob, potato salad, sausage, barbecued chicken, ribs & brisket. Not their best work. They then started the entertainment...which was 3 gals dressed in skimpy biker gear dancing like show girls...the one stripped down to her bikini. I was not impressed. Dh & I speculated that if the show had been after the awards that no one would have stayed for it.

And of course they had the awards for the winners of the tournament. Dh did not place in the top 4, who got $1,777; $2,777; $4,777 & $20,777. However, this tournament had a lucky 7 to it and everyone who's place ended in a 7 won $777. DH placed 17th! and yes the IRS already knows this.

We returned home on Saturday. Oh, I said I would have more to say about ODS shuttle service... the receptionist told us to meet the shuttle at the front door of the casino. But we were supposed to be at the back door and missed our shuttle. But the bellman called us another shuttle who was there before I could bother to sit down.

I had Slots of fun in Vegas. Darly & Lilly had a good time at MIL's house. I learned that MIL had not given my child a balanced diet while we were gone...so I'll have to try extra hard to make up for that.

DH mentioned at on point during our stay that we should find someplace to go dancing with some good music. So when I got home I started asking my friends where I should go. When I told DH Monday night that one had suggested that we check in a newspaper that he reads at work, he was confused about what I was talking about... I explained and then learned that what he meant was that we should find a place to go dancing while we were in Vegas. Silly me! I thought that he wanted for us to have date nights... I may try for it anyway, it just means that I'll have to figure out where to go and arrange the child care... wish me luck!

New Me!

I got my hair colored & cut today. The pictures don't really do the color justice...but you can kinda see what I look like.

Thanks to my professional photographer...Darly! :D

I missed my anniversary!

No, not my wedding anniversary. This one is somewhat more important to you. It was my blogging anniversary. I started this baby up on June 8th, 2005. I've gone threw a few template changes and I had two blogs there for a while. But now I've settled down to just this one. And here's a flash back for you...

hello world...

Well, first I should say that since my monitor is dying on me and my screen is permanently pink (well permanent until it dies) I have no idea what color this text is. Please let me know if it's revolting... k?

Second, my good friend Jen talked me into this... so I can blame most of this on her... right? ;o)

I don't know when I'll actually have the time to do anything here, but keep checking who knows... anything is possible. right?

The struggle continues...

This past weekend Darly & I went camping. (see post below) And when we got to our campground on Friday around 1pm we found that we had some "squatters" on our campsite. 3 cottontail bunnies. 2 were under the car in the next campsite and one was under the tree on our site. On Friday night I was startled by one running from our tent to the car as we were heading to bed and then on Saturday, just out of curiousity I picked up the corners of our tent and found that one we dubbed "Tenty" had camped out under our tent. The picture above was NOT taken by me...it's one I grabbed from the 'net. There was NO green grass at our campsite.

I had to explain to our neighbors in the next campsite that there was no need to give the rabbits a bowl of water...they were so worried that they wanted to take the rabbits home to care for them. And then I had to explain to them how I know so much about rabbits. Pretty funny since they probably didn't remember much of what I told them.

I came home from my camping trip and checked out my garden...only to find that my hard work at securing my fence had not kept the rabbits out of my garden...they had dug a hole under the back fence! But I still cannot find any evidence of them munching on my garden...just holes dug in the garden. It's so weird. DH found that one had tried to dig a way out of our yard by our second gate (the gate we actually use) it has brick pavers under the gate and sand in the gaps...the rabbit had dug the sand out of the gap trying to fit under the gate...I do not think that it was sucessfull, which is probably why there is the hole under the back fence... but now I have to patrol the yard and find all the breeches to repair and secure. I also have to find out what wormwood is so that I can get some to run off the rabbits. As my lazy dog doesn't seem to be enough of a deterant.

Update: I haven't seen any evidence of rabbit intrusion for the past 3 days. I don't know if this is from my stellar rabbit proofing abilities or if the rain has kept them away. Either way, the veggies are fine and I'm contemplating planting more as some of my seeds didn't come up...I think the birds got them!
I did learn that radishes that go to seed are not edible...so they went on the compost heap.

Camping with the "Hippies"

Well as Jen posted on her blog we went camping over at Bear Creek Lake Park this weekend.

We were originally scheduled to go camping over at Chatfield Reservoir, however the state has decided to have a state wide fire ban and Bear Creek is somehow exempt. So we went to Bear Creek instead instead.

When our Girl Scout Leader called to check out conditions at the Park she was told that there was a concert over at Red Rocks and the campground expected to be full of "Hippies" attending the concert. So instead of our trip being for just Friday & Saturday nights we decided to pay for Thursday night as well to reserve our spots...however in order to do that we had to go and physically have our tent up on Thursday night...even though we had no intention of staying Thursday night.

So after I got the call on Thursday (after a very busy Vacation Bible School where I wanted to take a nap) I drove over to the campground with my tent to get it set up. We were not able to get 3 spots together as the campground was filling up quickly, but we managed to get 3 nice spots. Since Jen's site was closer to the playground and bathroom it was decided that her spot would be where we had our fire and spent most of our time...this way the kids could go play and go to the bathroom without having to cross the street.

After setting up my tent I headed back home for a night of rest in my own bed before our trip. Friday morning I got up and started rounding up all of our camping gear. I printed out a checklist to make sure that I did not forget anything (even if I had there's a WalMart very nearby for emergencies...so no worries.) Darly and I tried to go shopping that morning to pick up a hatchet for splitting fire wood...the only ones that we could find were $20+ and I wasn't paying that much when I was hesitant to buy the ones at WalMart & BigLots for only $6.99 (they were sold out on Friday morning)...I really wanted one for only $3 but apparently that wasn't an option.
So we went to buy our groceries. I got some good stuff and we had to check out another store to get the fire wood.

We headed out after lunch. I decided on Thursday to leave Lilly at home for this camping trip as she tends to drive me over the edge and after you hear the rest of this story you'll see that I made the best decision there. I'm not sure why, but traffic was bad going to the campground both on Thursday and Friday...totally weird. By the time we got to the campground on Friday the sign indicated that the campground was full.

I got back to our campsite and was relieved to see that our tent was still there...as were all of our friends (Jen & her family along with our GS Leader M & her family). M and her family left soon after we got there to go get their groceries. So I began to set up our other stuff. I tried to set up our shade tent, but the wind decided to pick up...so I put the parts back into the box and kicked it under the car.

During the day even though it was very hot we had a nice time...doing crafts, playing and going over to the beach. Evenings were good too, except for our daily wind storms that ended up breaking the sun shades and all the tents that were over 4 foot high with shock polls (the fiberglass kind). We had to patch M's tent by duct taping a butter knife to her tent poll...which was very effective. Darly & I had our dinner in our tent every night so that we were not eating too much dead grass & dirt. Campfire smores were great!

But sundown was when the trouble began. Friday night the "hippies" began blasting the campground with their music and very loud announcements of drugs available or in need of. There were quite a lot of reminders to these folks that there were small children in the campground and that they needed to watch their language. I'm no longer sure when it began but at some point someone began playing drums very loudly...all night. I don't know how these folks were able to function, because they were up ALL NIGHT! There were fights, and lots of drinking.

Saturday morning I woke up because (although I have no idea when I was able to get to sleep any) I heard the man next to Jen's campsight telling someone that there were girl scouts camped there. I opened my tent window to witness a woman with dread locks standing in Jen's campsite complaining very loudly about girl scouts. ???
I got up and went to the bathroom.

It turns out that ms dreadlocks was in search of cigarettes and had rummaged through Jen's entire campsite (except for the tent) and was then complaining because she didn't have any cigarettes for her. Jen had poked her head out and asked the woman to leave because the kids were sleeping. We later learned from M that ms dreadlocks had been having an argument with herself and later could not find her way back to her tent. Later I observed her "sans pants" acting weird...she would look into her tent, then turn around and walk about 3 steps, then turn around again and look into her tent...she did this for a good 20 minutes.

Jen & Mr Jen complained to the park rangers about all the noise and were told to call the police if it happened again, but they were not given the non emergency phone number. M heard from her neighbors that the "Rangers were really cool and stopped hastling us after we passed them a couple of doobies." But in reality the rangers went off duty at 10pm.

Saturday was the day of the concert so the "hippies" were gone for a good chunk of the day...but they returned at 2:30AM and brought more friends with them. I'm guessing that I was able to get back to sleep around 4AM or so, but I woke up at around 5:30 to two men standing behind my car talking. I unzipped my window and informed them that I was trying to sleep. They moved on...but later after another nap two more men were walking back and forth in front of my campsite on the gravel road talking and using a lot of profanity...I asked them to watch their language...but they did not acknowledge that they had heard me...but they did move on. I got up at that point. My campsite was near an area with no more sites on it...there were 10 cars parked there on Sunday morning. There were also lots of people who were sleeping under the stars. Two on M's campsite so she got the ranger to run them off.

The Rangers appologized for all the noise and said they would try harder to make sure it didn't happen again...but I was upset because we were leaving (too little too late) and I knew that since the concert was over that the "hippies" would be leaving as well.

You'll notice that I have been referring to these people as "hippies." The reason for this is that none of them were what I would consider true hippies...ya know, folks from the sixties/seventies. They were all younger than us and while they looked the part...they didn't act very much like hippies. There were a lot of them that were stonned, but they were not very mellow. Maybe they were angry hippies. Had I known they were going to be like this, I would have not gone on this camping trip.

Oh, I was supposed to tell you why it was a good idea that Lilly stayed home. First of all there were quite a few other dogs there. Which would have been fine, but I would have had to keep Lilly on leash the entire time and she would have been whining and pulling to go see the other dogs. Second many of the dogs there were not on a leash and that would have been driving Lilly crazy...as it did to poor Gizmo (he was a very nice dog with good manners who was on his leash the entire time.) This one dog spent a good hour or so teasing Gizmo by coming close and then running out of Gizmo's leash range. The Second night the family camping on the other side of Gizmo brought their dog Lady and did not put her on a leash...then she teased Gizmo and barked at everyone who walked anywhere near her...her owner should have left her at home. And finally Third many of the hippy dogs were pit bulls...I woke up at one point to two of them trying to create more.

We've gotta find a better campground. :o)

Oh! I forgot the best part of the trip. When I came back to camp on Friday I noticed that I had some "squatters" on my campsite. 3 cotton tail rabbit bunnies. One even decided to hang out under my tent all day Saturday..."he" might have been the same one that startled me on Friday night when were going to bed by running away from the tent. =:3

Shamelessly stolen from Jen

My good buddy Jen over at Jen's Hoard posted this today and it's worth spreading around...so here it goes!

Make the Connection

Merck Pharmaceuticals is giving one dollar for cervical cancer research for every free bracelet kit people order here. I found this at Snopes, which has also listed a lot of important information about HPV and cervical cancer, so go check that out, too.

HPV is so common, and it seems like the word isn't getting out how many women are at risk because of this virus.

So, don't forget to get your superhappyfun yearly exams and go order a bracelet kit today! (Jen posted about her last exam, but I didn't tell you about my exam...just the mamogram. Oh well, maybe next year. Mine aren't quite as eventful as Jen's though...just the normal stuff. Maybe I should see her doc?

Bunnies still waiting to be hung....

Okay that title sounded really weird, huh?




This is the picture that Santa got me for Christmas this year. I would like to hang it in the family room, but I want to paint the walls first. And I have not gotten around to painting the walls yet. Been too busy.

So maybe if I get a week with nothing to do (yeah right!) I'll hang the bunnies. I'll let you know when that happens.

Right now the picture is propped up against the wall in my guest bedroom.

Ut oh! I feel like Mr McGreggor!

This morning after breakfast Lilly was whining very loudly at the back door. We look out and spy a rabbit. This is the second time that a rabbit has gotten into our back yard and we can't have this with my garden back there.

So I let Lilly out to take care of the rabbit (I know that she can't actually catch one). Well it turns out that there were two of the little buggers out there. Of course they took off in two different directions. Lilly and rabbit #1 went one direction and I took off after the other one who was heading for a dead end. I wanted to open the gate and let it out, but it ran past me instead and went straight for my vegetable garden.

Darly found it in the back of the vegetable garden, so I grabbed some shoes and went into the garden (remember the fence?) to chase it out. And it did get out. Apparently the fence is NOT rabbit proof. But as I was investigating the fence I noticed a hole in the ground that was not previously there before.

OH NO! Don't tell me that there's a bunny nest in my vegetable garden! So I get down on my knees to look into the hole.

Whew! No baby bunnies. Can you imagin the set up? A fenced area where the dog can't get to you and all the veggies you want, if you let the plants grow.

So I filled in the hole and adjusted the fence...mostly for the dog, the rabbits can get in anyway. Then I went to block off the areas of my yard's fence to keep the rabbits out of the yard. I thought that they had come in threw the second gate that is all warped. But we watched rabbit #2 leave threw the gap between the fence & house. So I blocked that off too.

DH thought that I should not have let Lilly chase the rabbits. But I think it was a good thing.

1) hopefully the rabbits will remember the dog the next time they think of coming after my garden.
2) Lilly has a great memory and everytime that she goes out she looks for the rabbits...instead of looking to bark at the neighbor dogs.
3) Lilly got plenty of excercise today... She insisted on checking for the rabbits in the front yard too. LOL!

Super crazy busy mom almost looses it...story at 11...

*sigh*

Well you know if you're a regular viewer that this is the blog of a very busy homeschooling mom. A mom who's so busy, it's a wonder that her kid learns anything...but she's a learning sponge I tell ya...learns and remembers everything.

So after Girl Scouts, Astronomy night, Home Depot workshop, End of Year party, Gymnastics, Prairie nature walk, Board meetings, Park Days, Teacher's Night Out, Living History Museum, Helping out at Church twice!, cloudy night Observatory tour, HayStack Goat Dairy, and all the stuff on my list from the other day where the dryer broke and I dried my clothes outside...

I was finally going to sit down and work on the donkey pinata for VBS next week. Oh I should say that I also had to fake a budget to figure out if we could spend $3000 to send some folks to a meeting in Chicago...oh I so hope we really have that money.

Anyway so I'm in the bathroom up to my elbows in paper mache and the phone rings. Darly says that she'll get it and she brings it to me. It's a mom needing breastfeeding information. After talking to her it seems like an easy enough fix but the mom really wants for someone to come and make sure she is doing it right. So I agree to come and then she tells me that she actually lives about 25 minutes away. There are two other LLL groups that are much closer to her...BUT I know that the Leaders with both of those groups are seconds away from retiring and wouldn't go help her.

So I clean off as much as I can, grab my books & keys (oh and my kid) and hop in the car to drive over there. Wouldn't you know it, that EVERY single stop light on the way turns RED...EVERY one. I just couldn't believe it.

But we get there and the little guy is cute and seems to be nursing just perfectly...his only problem really is that he wants to suck for comfort and hasn't figured out how to do that without getting a face full of milk. So of course he's mad...who wouldn't be?

I did my very best to help her out, I even called another Leader from my cell phone (SHOCK!!! I ACTUALLY USED THE DREADED DEVICE!!!) to make sure that I was on the right track. And mom gave me a donation for my group.

Which made things better. I guess I was just really upset because the paper mache donkey is still not any closer to getting finished and now I have even less time to do it AND I'm really mad at the other Leaders who live so much closer to this mom who probably didn't answer their phones for her.

Which reminds me, I need to email someone...but not about that. ;o)

no tt, just having fun...

Tu-tu cute! Matilda's a wallaby 1860s map kids petting kids front flower garden

Wordless HA HA HA Wednesday

I added the Ha Ha Ha because I never shut up...even when I don't have anything to say...

So here are the pictures

Garden first planted

Garden later

Garden now.... ha ha just kidding

No time to remember....

I've got no time for a monday memory today.

I've gotta pee Update: Done

I've gotta finish the laundry Update: Dryer died! Had to fashion clothes lines between fence and swingset to hang clothes out to dry. Worked pretty well. Clothes seemed to dry faster outside in the sun & wind. But now they are all stiff and scratchy feeling! Oh and it messed up me getting ANYTHING else done!

I've gotta do all this paperwork on my desk (includes making a deposit and entering the checks into the database...paying bills...filing) Update: None...they are all still sitting here mocking me!

And I've gotta make a paper maché donkey for our VBS. Update: Darly just came in here with parts of said donkey asking me to work on it. I'm too dang tired! Maybe since she's a ball of energy I should let her do it?


Later!

Friday Frizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well this is going to be totally random stuff...

Darly managed to loose two teeth. This is HUGE because they have both been loose forever and the adult teeth were both coming in behind the baby teeth. Apparently she was afraid that pulling her teeth out would hurt. These were teeth #3 & #4 to come out, but it has been a whole year since she lost the first two...which has me wondering...

Aren't they supposed to loose the two bottom front teeth (central incisors) and then the two top front(central incisors) and THEN the two bottom to the side of the first ones(Lateral Incisors)??? Well she lost the two on the bottom.

Okay I was RIGHT! http://www.gatorgripper.com/babyTeeth.asp

I know that DH will think I'm totally nuts, but I'm getting Darly this gripper thing! Then maybe her next teeth will come out quicker and I can stop nagging the poor kid about it! LOL

We went to a local fair here and can I just complain about how loud the music was??? It was so bad that we had our fingers in our ears durring the ride and when we got off the police officer across the street came over and told the carny to turn it down...YAY...but why couldn't he have noticed that sooner? I know that we as a family are sensitive to noise, but this was way beyond loud. Other people were saying it was loud too.

We live at our Church. LOL! We went in on Wednesday to fold the newsletters too. And I found out that another Church member died. I didn't know this one...but it feeds into that superstition that they go in "threes." And everyone in the Church office were agreeing with it too. Funny how we should know better but we believe it anyway because it does happen. We all feel better.

Darly decided to get her hair cut short like a friend of hers. She really likes this girl, who I don't see giving her all that much attention in return...but she isn't mean either. So we went and got it cut in a Bob about chin length. It looks so very cute. I seriously considered getting mine done the same way...but I've got all these dreadded layers in mine and it wouldn't look good. Besides I've got a horrible picture of me with a bob. What I need is it cut like it was in my Avatar picture. I should take that with me to the hairdresser. LOL!

I got convinced that I should become a Girl Scout leader. So I've been taking the at home class. They have where you can go to a 3 hour class or take it at home and they guess that it takes 12-15 hours to complete. Well I've got just one question left and in actual work done on it, has been more like one hour...maybe two. On the last page (yes, I skipped one question to do it last) it asks for my evaluation of the study manual. Okay, first ya don't wanna get my opinion...cuz I'll tell you! Ha ha ha ha So I told them that I wished that they hadn't scared folks by saying it takes 12-15 hours to do that thing! I don't think that even a slow reader would take that long.
A friend of mine has warned that I didn't ever want to do this because they will be asking me to do everything else. It aint happening... because I have a good excuse. "My Family is More Important" and there is seriously nothing that they could want me to do that involves my family...I've already said I would help with Darly's troop...that's it. I know...famous last words....

Dh is driving me nuts (what else is new?) He wants to go to Las Vegas. In one breath he asks me "When do you want to go?" and I tell him. Then he asks "Who is gonna watch Darly?"
Okay, maybe I'm taking this the wrong way. But to me it sounds like he doesn't want me to go because he doesn't want to impose on his mom to watch Darly.
So because I don't want to upset Darly by argueing about this in front of her, especially if he doesn't want me to go...then she doesn't need to get upset about me going unnecessarily.
I wrote him a note, telling him just what I told you. I can't tell that he really wants me to go. So I wrote that if he wants to go...go. And if he wants for me to come with him...he needs to call his mom to see if she can watch Darly.

How much you wanna bet that I ain't goin?

BTW: I hate Vegas. I'm just going for alone time with DH. It would be our first alone trip since Darly was born. The last time I went to Vegas, I was two weeks pregnant with Darly.

Okay, that looks long enough.

Monday Monday....

interesting day...

I should start this by filling you in a bit. When our Church's current office manager took over the position she quickly learned that she could not handle all of her responsibilities and answer the office phones on Monday mornings. I don't know how the previous office manager handled all of this just fine, but anyway. So she asked the Church council if she could ask volunteers to come in on Mondays to answer the phones...and they agreed. So Darly & I go about once a month now to answer the phones and do other office tasks.

Today I had to drag myself out of bed early (as in before 9am! I love homeschooling! ;-) and get Darly up too so that we could go answer the phones at our Church. {NO! Darly doesn't answer the phones.}

I'm not sure why but I didn't get myself to bed Sunday night at a reasonable hour...kept finding stuff I wanted to watch on TV, but fell asleep during them. Crazy, I know.

So I drag out of bed and get a shower, and then go to wake Darly who doesn't want to get up either. I made my coffee and get this... I did NOT TURN ON THE COMPUTER! Yes, I said it. I did not turn this thing on first thing in the morning. I am not addicted to this thing. Really, I swear it.

We get to Church and get the run-down on all that is happening and who is actually there(hardly anyone). The office manager(OM) tells me about how she is trying to get everyone to turn their phones to "do not disturb" when they leave so you don't have to wonder if they are there or not...but so far it's not working yet.

Miss S's Memorial is happening on the 16th (ooh! I just realized that I can now go!) and she asked if I knew all the details for that...which I did.
And that our VBS (Vacation Bible School) registration is now closed and full...so don't take any more registrations because we've already had to return money and try to get the CDs back and that just gets ugly.

The OM then gives me some paperwork that she is trying to catch up on and quickly shows me how she wants that done. It turned out that all the pages that she needed entered into the computer were already entered and I just had to print out the reports...but anyway.

The phone rang three the entire time I was there. Amazing! Usually it is ringing off the hook! But the one call was for our Youth Minister and he was outta town. It was about a reservation that he had made that needed to be paid for or it would get canceled. YIKES! Luckily the Pastor & OM took that.

I had two moms come in to try to register for VBS. The one was kinda in disbelief when I told her that we were full already. I found out later that another Church is doing the same program but is charging like 3 times more so we were getting flooded with kids trying to get in. Parents tend to get all cranky with VBS registration...like its politics or something. One year this lady came on the opening day and wanted to sign her kid up. Our director said that we were full and the lady says to her kid "Come on! They don't want you here!" ummm no, we don't wany you here lady. I'm just kidding. But anyway.

I got one call about Miss S's Memorial and I gave her all that info...including stuff she didn't even ask for, but hey I figured why not. There is going to be a Pot Luck reception afterward and A-M is supposed to bring Salad & N-Z bring Desserts. The OM & I thought it might be a good idea to ask the Salad folks to bring veggies & the dessert folks for breads...spread out the offerings. I hope it works out well.

Pastor brought in his dog. I never did find out why. She was very nice though.

Darly did some sorting in her usual way...work for 10 minutes and take a 40 minute break. But she did get it all done before we left. And she got a lollypop for her efforts. I didn't get a lollypop!

But we did get a nice lunch at Quiznos afterward.

update: there are two reasons for running out of room for VBS... 1) not enough volunteers we have a 1 adult to 6 kid ratio...and 2) we actually do run out of space for all the kids.
But the real reason we have a cut off is because if we didn't they would be coming to get in until the very end of VBS and then complain that it was over! We have to cut off registration so that we can buy all the t-shirts and iron on the decals before we start...we also have to figure out which crew the kids go into.
And no this isn't a Lutheran thing. Our program is non-demoninational, so we get all kinds of kids for it. It seems like most parents are using VBS as a cheep day care for their out of school kids.
And we charge because the program that we buy costs money. The Church budgets so much per kid and then we have to raise money to cover the rest and ask for donations of supplies (mostly food).
What the kids get for their registration fee... a CD of songs from the program, a t-shirt with decal from the program, 5 Bible memory verse buddies, program book, and 5 crafts based on the program.
Yeah, we could come up with a program of our own and it would be cheaper...but it is worth it to us to pay for someone else's creativity.
Here's the link to our program Group Fiesta

Welcome Home

Miss S


Mrs W






Today I got the news that the second of these two lovely ladies was called home. And while this news should not have been a shock, I was shocked.

The first picture is of a dear friend of mine Miss S. Her passing was a shock to everyone as she died quickly at home on Tuesday May 23rd. I was on a first name basis with this lady. She was so full of life and friendly. S was on so many different boards and in so many groups at our Church that I saw her everywhere and she could talk your ear off. She was an awesome lady and she'll be missed so much and not just for her lovely homemade greeting cards that she sold at Church with all funds going to our Crisis relief fund. She leaves behind her daughter who is in our Praise Band and her son who was in the Praise Band before he moved to Golden. While I've done projects with both of her kids, I was closer to her. Her memorial service will be held on June 16th so that the members of our choir who are touring in Germany can attend.

The second picture is of Mrs. W. I didn't know her as well as Miss S. We had chatted with each other a few times while getting bulletins and newsletters ready for Church. Mrs. W has been fighting ovarian cancer for over a year now and her death was expected. About two months ago, while on a field trip to a cemetary here in town I found Mrs. W's husband's grave. So I assume that she'll be laid to rest next to him. I don't know Mrs. W's family. Her service will be this Sunday at 3pm. I wonder if the choir will be able to attend (I'm not sure when they are getting back from Germany.) Mrs. W was a member of the choir for many years...at least as long as I have been attending this Church.

I won't be able to attend Miss S's service as we have something else on that day. And I still haven't decided if I will attend Mrs W's service. I think that it is less likely as DH didn't know either lady that well. I'm a big blubbering idiot at funerals. I don't know exactally why. I think a big part of it is that my parents chose to not expose us to any as kids. I would like Darly to not feel this way, but I fear that my reaction will influence her. I really don't want Darly's first funeral to be of family.

Time to have a deep discussion with DH...

UPDATE: It looks like I will be able to attend Miss S's memorial now as the previously scheduled event was canceled...I'm sure that someone had a hand in that. :D Now I have to figure out what dish I'm bringing for the pot luck.