Fabulous... and Disturbing

Our weather has been pretty fabulous here the last week or so - mid-60's overnight, and 80's during the day, and except for the storm we had a few days ago that brought water up to, but not inside, our garage, it's play-outside weather. The only drawback is that mosquitoes enjoy this weather too  :(

The locusts were thick this year! I took the dogs outside one night when we were still having 90 degree evenings and forgot to turn off the porch light, so when I went to get them back in, I had a bunch of locusts and other night bugs buzzing around the light. The locusts were like B-52's with a drunk pilot at the stick - flying all over the place and hitting the walls and each other. Naturally, the dogs get distracted by the bugs and won't go inside. So, while I got Ruby Sue inside and was trying to get Stella, a locust got inside the house... Wonderful... got the dogs inside, the door shut, but the stupid locust was flopping around all over the place. The dogs were going crazy trying to catch it, and finally the silly thing was quiet. I assumed Ruby Sue probably had squashed it, but then it started its buzzing and rattling noises again, and Ruby Sue jumped like she'd been shot, frantically trying to locate the thing. At one point she looked up at me with the most amazingly human look of frustration on her face as if she was saying "Well? Just gonna stand there are ya?" In fact, I answered her look with, "Well, if you weren't such a chunky monkey, I might be able to get back there to get it!"  But then Stella came to her (our) rescue and caught the locust...and promptly ate it with a loud crunching sound... eww!  And the whole time this is going on, Toby is in the family room barking. Can't imagine how the men in my house all managed to sleep completely through all that racket...

I posted last summer that what we call 'locusts' here are really cicada's, but for convenience sake I continue to use the term locust. It should also be noted that I get corrected by certain family members, who don't live in my house, and that certain others (you know who you are) get downright offended by using the proper name. So, we have locusts...not cicadas.

In my last post I briefly mentioned a rumor about the real reason behind our recent elementary school upheaval. Primarily, to save a certain administrator's job. Well, apparently it was not a rumor, but rather a disturbing fact.  We received a letter from the state, as did all parents of students enrolled in our district, that told us that the requirements for participation in the federally funded Title I program were not being met and the district has been identified for improvement in reading. "This means that the state will work closely with the district in analyzing why the district is not making adequate progress and will help in developing plans to address the problems." (directly quoting from letter) "Title I provides extra help primarily in reading and mathematics to students in schools with high free and reduced lunch counts, and requires each state to determine if Title I districts and schools are making adequate progress each year toward the goal of having all students meet standard by 2014." If they don't make adequate progress two years in a row, they are identified for improvement, and they will stay on improvement for at least two years as the districts/schools must show adequate progress for two years to go off of improvement. They determine the progress by testing, which is done on students from 3rd grade on, so now only one of the elementary school's is being tested, and that means that the person who was in charge of the previously failing school is now in charge of K through 2nd grades. It won't be tested, meaning that person will most likely have a job for a another year or two, if the parents don't grab their torches and pitchforks first. That particular person is not well-liked,  but what really bothers me is that she is governing my impressionable 1st grader. Indirectly, yes, but in charge all the same. Disturbing, yes.

I haven't fully researched Title I, but it looks like for schools/districts that don't make adequate improvement in the allotted time get their funding restricted, and then the state takes a more direct hand in the situation by replacing administrators, etc.  It also appears that if a state has too many under-achieving schools, that state's Title I funding gets restricted. That most likely results in inquiries into how and where that money was spent. Hmmm...interesting.  By the way, "high free and reduced lunch counts" is code for "a lot of poor kids". I've got news for anyone who cares to pay attention: soon, all public schools in all states will have "high free and reduced lunch counts". We're probably already there. My humble opinion based on my observations. Now, who wants to know where we're going and why we're in this handbasket??

Surviving

I have been trying to post all last week, and the week before, but just kept getting jimmy-jacked at every turn. Interruptions, internet outage, slooow computers, puppy...you name it!

One Friday night my ten year old (as of Aug 3rd) had a friend stay the night. He brought his turtle which he had caught when he was out fishing somewhere...yeah, he really did. My boys had a great time, but Bobby and I were a bit disturbed by a couple of things. I put the lights out and TV off at 11:30. At 2:30 I saw lights on and heard giggling. When I went in to check on them, they were watching a really stupid cartoon that was recorded on the DVR, and Legos were scattered all over the floor. When I hit 'live TV', Adult Swim was on - not good.

The boys were up at the crack of dawn, and after cleaning up the breakfast dishes, I saw our guest on the computer loading some Alien vs Predator game and drinking a cup of coffee...what the heck?? Bobby told me he was going to take the motorcycle down to get some gas in it...said he would see me in a couple of hours...he was joking, but I know there was a spark of wishful thinking there, hee hee.

Our guest went home at noon, and we all did some cleaning, mowing, and gave the dogs baths, and then the guys went to the city pool. I had a blissful two whole hours to myself - yahoo!! That almost never happens! In fact it's so rare, that I waste precious time trying to figure out what I want to do, HA!

Sunday we shopped for school supplies, and $45 later, we still didn't have it all. We are asked to supply tissues, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and baby wipes (not sure what those are for), in addition to all the other stuff. We still need to get the backpacks, too, although I think Sully's is still good, but Tucker definitely needs a new one. Thankfully, there was no expandable on the list this year- those things are expensive and they don't last. Last year we spent about $50 on all the supplies, including backpacks and expandable, which was almost $10 by itself. So this year, I've spent $45 and that's without the expandable, and I haven't finished yet...what the heck??  Oh, and they raised our sales tax from 7.3% to 8.3% - isn't that lovely??

Sunday the 8th was the last day of swimming at the city pool, so I took the boys Saturday afternoon. Wow! Quite the collection of hairy backs, tattoos and just all-around poor taste were on display. The boys had a great time, and when we got home we grilled some hamburgers, and I ate the last dill pickle my friend Angie made. So sad...but, we're gonna get together and make some...yippee!! Later, we put on a movie and one by one, we all fell asleep. Woke up just in time to see the end credits, ha!

We have had a horrible heat wave with heat index temps of 113, 115, etc and no rain. Lot's of humidity, but no rain, and we need some rain. Our backyard has cracks in it, it's so dry. Early Sunday morning we finally got some rain. It woke us up pretty spectacularly with, what I call a flash-bang; a directly overhead lightning strike with an intense  flash and immediate boom of thunder. There were actually two of them about 30 seconds apart. It lasted for a bit and then finally settled down to just a rain event. About 5:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that the house felt hot. I checked the digital thermostat in the hallway and discovered it was blank. Great...I woke Bobby up and told him and he went to WalMart to get another one. We got that hooked up and ...nothing. Fabulous...Bobby went outside to make some sun tea and found out from the next door neighbors that their tree got hit and the blast took out their A/C, 2 computers, 2 TV's, their phone, our A/C, and the neighbor's across the street A/C. The A/C guy was fixing theirs and he came outside right them and asked if we wanted him to come in & look at ours also...let me think- YES!!  Turns out it fried our thermostat, and the transformer in the furnace, and after replacing those two things we were back in business! WOOT! We went over to take a look at the tree and discovered that the lightning had traveled down the tree and exploded out of the roots creating a hole and debris that looked like a small grenade had gone off. I don't know if they make small grenades, so maybe I should say m80 - quarter stick of dynamite??  Anyway, it also blew the water meter cover off-you know those things in your yard that look like mini manhole covers and weigh almost as much. We also discovered that the blast had knocked one of our front transom windows out, and knocked the charger to Bobby's portable radio right out of the receptacle, and, our dishwasher will no longer run through the cycles on its own. Honestly though, we were blessed because every other electronic thing in the house from the Wii to the computers is perfectly fine.  Cool!

Open House was Monday. We got to go to two schools this year, and we thought it would likely take much longer as we don't know where anything is in Tucker's school. But, as it turned out, Tucker knew exactly where he was going because the incoming 5th graders went on a tour at the end of the school year. He even knew where Sully's new class was. I'm really not happy about the changes, and no one else is either. I heard a rumor that this was all to save one person's job. Apparently, when a school is consistently below standards, the state comes in and forces changes. The first person to go is the principal. So, that would mean that they did this to scramble everybody up and confuse the state??  Nice...

School started yesterday (Wednesday) and all in all it went well, even with all the confusion. And believe me it was mass confusion. The first day of school is always hectic, but this was a nightmare!  Bobby took Tucker and dropped him off no problems. I took Sully, and because he was in first grade and not quite as seasoned at this yet as Tucker, I planned on going in with him all the way to his room. There was nowhere to park because fully half of the parking they have available was blocked off for buses (they changed where the buses go) and people who had found a space, were not leaving. You parked anywhere you could which was up and down all the side streets, driveways, and alley entrances. I didn't see anybody get a ticket, but I know there were complaints about blocked driveways! The end of the day was not much better; Sully wasn't put on the bus to come home because his teacher, although she knew he was a bus rider, asked him how he was getting home, and being 6 years old, he told her his Papa picks him up. Well, he does, at the bus stop, and then takes them to his house until I get off work. I had mentioned that to her also, but it was Open House, new people, lot's going on, so she obviously didn't remember that part. And Sully didn't volunteer the rest. I also heard that there were supposed to be shuttle buses between the schools for the after school program, so that kids in two different schools could be transported to be with their siblings, but there were in fact no actual shuttle buses. Apparently whoever was in charge of that part, either didn't know he was in charge, or forgot about it, but nothing was arranged for transportation.

So, I have survived a sleepover, the heat, lightning, Open House, and the first day of school. Wow! I'm tired :)

What It Is

It's been a hectic and frustrating 3 weeks since I last posted. A lot has happened that has just had me completely distracted: I found out my pelvis is rotated - ouch! - gotta have special wedges to lie on to fix that; I had a root canal; I burnt my leg on the tail pipe of the bike - NEVER done that before; I caught a summer cold, the heat and humidity is totally out of control, I got my computer back from Geek Squad (minus a couple of parts), I am on the outs with my mother-in-law again (what a surprise!), and I now have a store on Etsy. Now I will attempt to tie all that mess into a coherent blog post, hee hee!

My mother-in-law; I'm not going to go into a lot of detail as I like to keep things positive. Yeah, we all know that life isn't always positive and uplifting, but I don't see the need to wallow in the negative, so I won't  :)  When I said that I'm on the outs with my mother-in-law, I really meant that she is on the outs with me. She is frequently just flat mean to my boys, she bad-mouths me to them, and she pumps them for info; how much time I spend on the computer, do I cook for them or make them get their own food, clean the house, do laundry...stuff like that...very much like a sitcom...hmmm, lol.
She has accused me of 'wearing the pants' in our house, which I find hilarious because if she really knew her son, she would be laughing too. But, what her accusation does for her is shift the blame of any given occurrence of non-compliance by Bobby from him to me. She also makes stuff up when it suits her, which is what has caused this most recent unpleasantness. The bottom line here is that with my mother gone, I and my boys should be able to count on her, and we can't. So I'm done trying to patch up this non-existent relationship, done with accepting insincere apologies, done with eating her burnt, dry dressing at holiday dinners! It is what it is.

And moving on to a much happier topic; I'm so happy to have my computer back :)  It was the graphics card - the built-in fan on the card went out and the whole card was a pile of melted slag on the floor of the computer tower. It was an add-on, so they removed it and I'm making do with the factory one until I get a new one. I had left a DVI adapter connected to it because when I disconnected the monitor, I couldn't get it off, and I left the power cable attached. Guess what my computer came back without? Yep, no power cable and no adapter. I did get them back, though.

My back is finally feeling some better, so I got the computer all hooked up last night, and the next couple of days will be spent getting it updated, etc. And I need it because I am selling Etsy shop graphics on Etsy. Gary's wife Barbie makes fabulous beaded jewelry that she sells there, and she thought I should make and sell banners, etc. So I am, and we'll see what happens :)

Last Friday Mike & Angie and family came over to our house for a cookout, and they brought some yellow squash and zucchini from their garden and it was wonderful! I was out of olive oil, so we sprayed it with olive oil Pam and put salt, pepper and garlic on it and threw it on the grill. Very tasty! Angie also brought over some home-canned bread and butter pickles that were really good. I don't usually care for that variety, but I really liked them. She said she did some dills also, and she would bring me some. Yum! We have both been trying to find a good and simple recipe for peppered dill pickles - there was a lady here in town that used to make them, but she is gone, so we're trying to figure out how to do it. She cut her cucumbers thick and she used fresh dill sprigs, and little red chili peppers, and an assortment of seasonings, and omgosh! they were awesome!! Of course the first time I had them, I was pregnant with Sully, but I had them again after that and they were still awesome, hee hee. So, if anyone has a good, personally tried and true peppered pickle recipe they would like to share, either send me an email or leave it in the comments. 

Ok, I'm going to leave off with a little pearl of wisdom from my 6 year old: "Did you know that girls don't have pee-pees? Nope, they have ra-gi-nas."

Reunions, Puppies and Brownies, Oh My!

Every five years something happens here that hardly happens anywhere else, and it's a big deal. It's called the All Class Reunion and I'm told that our town is one of the few that does it. All motel rooms in 3 other towns were full as well as those here.  I didn't go to school here, but I usually go along with my husband. Oddly enough, I've never been to one of my own. I was in Georgia for my 10 year reunion, and before the next one, I had moved to Kansas. They might have done a 5 year, but I don't recall it, or what I was doing...hmmm...

Last weekend was the big reunion, and everyone got to see everyone. There were slideshows displayed on building walls, several homegrown bands playing at various locations, quiet (and some not-so-quiet) get-togethers in homes, pubs, parks, two beer gardens - just about everywhere all over town. And it was HOT! We were in the middle of a heat advisory which had been going strong all week. That's a lot of hot sweaty people. 

After coming home from his class get-together at the pub, my husband said the sweetest thing to me. He told me he was SO grateful for me and for things that didn't work out. His big crush in high school had been there - roaring drunk -  and it was not a pretty sight. Wonder if anyone got any video??

I mentioned a ginormous new puppy recently, so I thought it would be good to post a picture of him.

and for perspective, here he is with my full-grown Bassett Hound, Ruby Sue

These were taken last week or so, and he's bigger now. He's now 9 weeks old.

The boys decided on Toby for a name. We kind of wanted Schultzie (from Hogans Heroes) since he's German, but the boys didn't like it. They didn't care that he was German,and they didn't know what Hogan's Heroes was. Oh well.

He's a lot of fun, and super sweet. He doesn't like being out of sight of the family, though. He has to have all of us in any given room or he whines and goes looking for the absentees. He camps out on top of the air vents, and wants back inside when it's hot outside. But, he is a giant furball, so you can hardly blame him, there. 

So far he hasn't messed with the lizard enclosure, but Skittles keeps his eye on him just in case. I don't know what he thinks he would do, but he sure does eyeball him and puff out his beard when he comes into the room.

I know this post is a bit scattered, but I just have to share something; Have you ever had Rocky Road Brownies?  I never had before, and I don't care for most Rocky Road ice creams, which is probably why I never paid any attention. I do like marshmallow creme though, so a hot fudge sundae with marshmallow creme does sound good. 

Anyhoo, lately my boys have been on a smores kick. We make them in a 350 degree oven with chocolate chips, and a marshmallow on top of one half of the graham cracker. After 5 minutes, we take them out of the oven and put the other half of the graham cracker on top & voila! Smores!  

Well, I still had chocolate chips and marshmallows, but was out of graham crackers. But I did have a brownie mix up in my cupboard, so I made the brownies and when they were 5 minutes from being done, I put some chocolate chips on top and I cut up some of the marshmallows and put them on top of that and put them back into the oven for the remaining 5 minutes. Oh my goodness! They were yummie!  Kinda messy, but still yummie  :) 

In fact, I'm thinking I need to do that again real soon, only get some mini marshmallows. Yeah, that would work better...

Garden Transplants

"Have you ever had one of them days, boy, have you ever had one of them days? When nothin' is right from morning 'til night, have you ever had one of them days?..." Those are lyrics from an old Elvis song in the movie GI Blues, if you didn't already know that. My mom was a true-blue Elvis fan, and I listened to a lot of him growing up. 

Every time I have one of those days, I think about that song, and I hear it in my head. My roots are no doubt one of the biggest reasons I really liked Jason Lee's new show Memphis Beat on TNT. His character is a big Elvis fan. I really did enjoy the show and am looking forward to the next episode. The nice thing about shows not on ABC, NBC, or CBS is that they get a fair chance at succeeding. So, I'm hoping for a long run for this one.

I'm having one of those days actually, which is why I have the song running around in my mind. I somehow got my lower back out of whack almost 3weeks ago now, and my chiropractor has been busy putting it back. For about a week, I thought it was just about better, but then I woke up this past Sunday morning and it was as if all that progress never happened. I think it was lugging around the new and HUGE German Shepherd puppy we have that knocked it back out...hmmmm...

Anyway, I'm walking like Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) and the only comfortable position for any length of time is lying down. You can't get much done that way, and it's starting to wear out my patience and my nerves. I now have a greater appreciation for people with chronic back trouble, for certain. I'm feeling a wee bit cranky, and having some trouble finding my joy, and I don't like it! 

So, when one of those random small-townish things happens, (like old guys driving their lawn mowers down the road for whatever myriad of reasons there are for that, and actually causing a traffic jam of 8 cars) it makes me want to scream. Rolling the windows down first, of course, so everyone can hear me lose my mind. Or, because my back hurts when I bend over or down to pick something up, I am constantly dropping things...or cleaning up something on the floor...ugh! And these cursed brick streets!! Charming to look at, yes, but secretly a devious method of torture, I'm thinking.

I did have one bright spot in an otherwise poopie day, however, that made up for the rest of it. A sales rep for an office supply company stopped in as she does from time to time, and we got to talking. We discovered a bit of common ground in that we are both transplants from larger gardens. I, of course came here from California, and she came from Houston, Texas, out of a desire to live in a more rural area, and smaller community. It was really fun exchanging our culture-shock stories and comparing notes on everything we had to learn here.

Some of those lessons are as follows:

1- People here are wavers, and they expect you to wave back. If you don't, you're anti-social. So wave, even if you don't know who they are. 

2- Toilets are called stools here. 

3- Dinner is lunch,and supper is dinner - breakfast is still breakfast. 

4- Your driving reflects directly upon how you are viewed as a person; they know your car, and they will talk. 

5- Your business is not your own; everybody knows your business better than you do, and if you keep to yourself, stay out of trouble, they will make stuff up. 

6- Stop lights and stop signs are suggestions, just like turn signals. 

7- Your designated trash day is also a suggestion - it could be any day after that day or maybe the following week, and complaining most likely won't help you out any. 

8- Don't ever, under any circumstances park your new shiny car way out in the Wal Mart parking lot by itself unless you want it to be hit by a shopping cart or have someone deliberately park their pile of junk so close you have to crawl in on the passenger side. 

9- The contents of your shopping cart will be scrutinized and commented on. 

10- Your neighbors will not pretend they didn't see you in your jammies and your hair in a towel trying to wrangle your dogs in the house at 6 am - they will instead wave and make sure you know they saw you.

Just a few examples of the quirky-ness here, but in all honesty, people are friendly, and genuinely concerned and interested. So when they ask you how your parents are doing, it's sincere. And when there is a need, these people respond! It does remind me of Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith show sometimes :)

Blueberry Dump Cake Recipe

My friend Angie asked me to post my recipe for Blueberry Dump Cake here, so I am obliging :)  It's so simple, it's ridiculous! Most people know how to do a dump cake,I guess-traditionally it's cherry & pineapple, but I don't really like that combination, so I decided that blueberries would be better. Also, when we went camping two summers ago with Angie's family and our friend Angela's family on her parents property, her mother made some absolutely fabulous blueberry desert in a dutch oven. It's haunted me ever since hee hee, so this somewhat satisfies that particular craving.

I'm posting what I did, but you can change it up however you want.

So here we go:

4 cups blueberries - can be frozen or fresh, canned too probably if you don't have anything else available

1 Lemon cake mix DRY- 2 if your 9 x 13 pan seems larger like mine does

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 stick butter - 2 if you are making a larger pan

Oven at 350

*Note, this is not a regular cake, so be sure to use a shallow pan (ie, no bundt cake pans), and don't follow the directions on the cake mix  :)

Combine your blueberries with sugar & cinnamon in the bottom of your pan. Sprinkle your cake mix over the top getting good coverage. Slice up your stick butter and place it on top of the dry cake mix. I sliced mine thin so I could get good coverage with just one stick, lol Then bake for 50 minutes if your blueberries are frozen, 30-40 if using fresh. If you're using canned, you might start checking after 20. The top should not be gooey, so just keep checking it until the top is light golden and not sticky to the touch, and kind of feels like a sugar cookie. That's it! Easy-peasy!

I made this last Sunday night to take to church. Sunday evenings are relaxed get-togethers, plus we had a missionary from Colombia visiting. I divided it into two pans-my large 9 x 13, and a smaller one , size unknown , that I inherited from my mom.  (Both of my 9x13's say what size they are on the bottom, but one of the two is deeper than the other, and just enough larger that I can nestle the other one inside it - go figure!) I used a whole bag of frozen blueberries and divided them between the two pans. I used two sticks of butter, and then just kind of guessed at the amounts of sugar & cinnamon. You can make this using a yellow cake mix or white, but the lemon just kind of sets off the blueberries, in my opinion, so if you aren't into the flavor of lemon, use something else. You just might want to adjust the amount of sugar you use as it might be too sweet - definitely adjust it down if your pan is small.

If you try it, I'd love to hear how it turned out, so feel free to leave comments or email me. Oddly enough, hardly anyone leaves comments, but I get lot's of emails lol.

Parade Photos

I thought it might be fun to post some of the pictures I took of our Good Ol' Days Parade. It was the 29th year for our annual festival. I don't know where it stands as far as being one of the oldest celebrations of it's kind in the area or whatever, but it's not alone. There are several, with Joplin's Boomtown Days being the biggest, at least for the 4 State Area, which is what we are called. I'm pretty sure it's because the name '4 corners' is already taken, that and our corners don't line up very well...

My hubby & kids are in there, but you can't really see them very good. 

It's ok-I know they're there  :)

Part of the color guard - and a good shot of our brickstreets.

Dolly the Trolley...except that now we have two of them so I'm not sure if the other one has a name...

They do run tours, and around Halloween they run a haunted one that sounds like a lot of fun.

A 1955 Chevy Limo that used to be a funeral car and belonged to my boss, Mike. 

A couple of firetrucks, and my Gary & Barbie's son Alex...say Hi Alex!

A guy on a vintage bike, which is the Good Ol' Days icon...looks uncomfortable, huh?

Ok, the stars are to preserve peeps' anonymity, etc. ...This just struck me as funny, so I had to post it. If you are the owner of this backside and would prefer I remove this from my blog, just contact me ;)

A truck towing a boat...

 

Some more firetrucks...

Big guy, little car....

a looong line of tractors

antiques

my friend Jenni and Kaylie, my friend Angie's daughter

and the horses bring up the rear of the parade, for obvious reasons, which until a few years ago, it apparently wasn't obvious to the organizers, because the horses were scattered throughout the entire parade.

awww...mini's are so cute, but baby mini's are adorable!

and there's the end of it - our grand parade  :)

There were a few more tractors, and other random entries such as all the trucks and cars with state and local candidates for various offices -I didn't take any pictures of them. They can campaign on their own blogs!

So there you have it, a small-town-Kansas-style parade.

As cheesey as it might seem, this little parade is a big deal to the kids who get to ride in it, and that makes it totally worth it. If at no other time in their lives, for that little while they got to be celebrities, with all eyes on them. 

How cool is that??

Good Ol' Days

Even though the calendar says the first day of summer isn't until June 21st, it's officially summer here the first weekend in June. Our annual Good Ol' Days celebration kicks off Friday evenings with a parade, in which my kids rode with their dad in his deputy cruiser, leading the parade along with a PD cruiser. To clarify, it's not like the Rose Parade, hee hee, but everybody has fun. Anyone can enter the parade, so you see a lot of pick-ups with tons of kids in the back, tractors, and of course fire trucks, antique cars & trucks, etc. One year some teens built a pirate ship facade onto a pickup truck and they were all dressed like pirates.  And of course it wouldn't be Good Ol' Days if it wasn't hotter than a firecracker and stormed at least once. Last year we had Dock Dogs as the main attraction, and this year we had a lumberjack show. It was so hot and my back was hurting so bad, we didn't really watch it. The big draw for the boys was a huge military helicopter parked on the grass at the fort that they could go inside of. There were some jeeps and a display of gear from each war. I felt so sorry for those guys that were dressed in that vintage gear. Saturday the heat index was 100 :( 

I'm thinking it's going to be a HOT summer this year. I don't know that it's a scientific fact or anything, so feel free to do your own research, but the lightning bugs (fireflies) are out early by at  least 3 weeks. Typically you see a handful here & there at this time of year, but they are out in force already this year. Wednesday night after Tucker's baseball game we went by sonic to get shakes (buy one get one free right now!) and we took a little drive to see the storm that was coming in. As we came around past the cemetery and onto the what used to be called the Lake Road but now has some stupid 911 name...I digress...anyway, out over a pasture there were thousands of twinkling lights hovering in the tall grass. Of course I was instantly mesmerized, and completely blocked out my children's requests for napkins. That should have sparked something since they think that napkins are superfluous due to the fact they have shirtsleeves, but I was oblivious. Wish I could tune out their arguing as well!

But the fireflies! I could sit and watch them for hours. I've mentioned this before, but I never saw them growing up in California. They fascinate me! We always went to Disneyland a couple of times a year, and one my favorite rides was (and still is) Pirates of the Caribbean. Yep, they had fireflies in there in certain areas that mimicked bayous, and I remember that my mom and I would always linger on the way out to look at them a little more. I think they had some outside of the Haunted Mansion, too, and maybe in a couple of other areas in the French Quarter section. Disneyland is the one thing I really, really miss about California...that and In-N-Out Burger   :)

Where There's Smoke...

Scandal in a small town is like a grass fire out of control; the smoke is everywhere and those that like a good fire are sorry when it gets put out. Our small Kansas town has had it's share of scandals lately, but the one that has all the gossip-mongers in ecstasy has to do with a young woman (over18) working at the high school and a male student (under18)...enough said. This young woman's situation is, to say the least, very sad. She is looking at real jail time, her family, her husband's family (yes, she was newly married in September) and the boy's family have been humiliated, and it's not over yet. It's really just getting started. 

The truly interesting thing, though, is that in this age of the internet and instantly available information, our little community has embraced the technological age and all of the current gossip is now online. The local radio station has a 'local news' page (I use the term news here, loosely) and everybody is posting their little hearts out. The station posts a news blurb, usually from the local newspaper's site, and then the 'community' posts comments. But, members can also start their own threads. That should terrify everyone, in my opinion, and not just because it shows that illiteracy is a problem here. While the biggest problem is the lack of facts, it is rather painful to read some of those posts. Kind of like listening to someone play the violin who doesn't know how. Back to the point; the potential for spiteful revenge should have us all concerned. There is a disclaimer down at the bottom in very small font and included in that is an admonishment to be polite, and it also states that comments may be deleted by the moderator, but I don't see a moderator anywhere. Yikes! I saw several comments that should have been deleted...

Monday was ca-razy! Both my boys had ball games; T-Ball at 7 pm & Baseball at 7:45. Every Monday is going to be like that for the next 5 weeks. The T-ball game was a lot of fun. The other team was a hoot to watch because every time one of our kids hit the ball, every kid on the field would run after the ball. It was swarm intelligence, lol. All of these little guys in orange shirts running after the ball would have looked like a swarm of insects if seen from above at a considerable distance. Or maybe an orange school of sardines, hee hee. Tucker's baseball team won their game, and this year he is in the Cal Ripkin League, so they are sponsored by local businesses. That means that when they win, they get to go to the local restaurant they are being sponsored by and get free ice cream. Which makes me wonder what the kids who are being sponsored by the other funeral home in town get when they win??  Think about that!  Ha!

Heroes and Legends

It's that time of year already...just 10 days left of school, baseball games start this week, and the tornado sirens are being tested. The school year has gone by so fast - Sully will be in 1st grade and Tucker will be in 5th. One more year until Middle School for him - there's a scary thought! 

This year will be different as the school board has decided to change the elementary schools into 'Attendance Centers'. K through 2nd in our current school, and 3rd through 5th in the other school. It means that Tucker and Sully will be separated and Tucker will go over to the East side of town for school. Nobody wanted this and they told the public in the beginning that it was to save the school district money. That was a huge lie because it's not saving any money and it's actually going to cost more money. They initially said it would reduce staff, but that's not true either as the only people leaving are those that were already scheduled to retire, which I'm glad that nobody will be losing their job. We know it will cost at least $20k more to run the buses now - possibly more. It's not that it's a terrible idea; it will help towards eliminating the whole East side-West side thing, true, but I think the bigger bite in the butt is that our leadership never listens to us, and they lie to us to forward their agenda. Yeah, I like that the 5th graders won't be able to pick on the little ones, and the bullying may be a little easier to get under control, but a bully is a bully and it will still happen. There's something to be said for having an older brother or sister around to help a little one out when they need it. I feel for the responsible adults of multiple children that will be spread all over town in different schools! Getting their kids to school will be less than fun. Not everybody likes to utilize the bus system - a lot of bullying goes on while riding the bus, and the kids learn a lot of new words. Yay! Isn't that what we all want??

We had our first tornado watch of the season last night. This morning there were a lot of trees down due to straight line winds - dodged a few of them on my way to work - down trees, that is. Yesterday was the funeral for a cousin of mine - my dad's niece. I have some awesome memories of her and my mom. They were close and always had a lot of fun together. Sandi, even though she stood a little over 5 feet, was larger than life, and as her brother said at the service, she walked around with rainbows in her pockets. (an old Elvis song) No matter what happened in her life, she kept fighting, and nothing got her down for long. Her son, Todd and I used to be really close, and then as happens a lot, we drifted our own ways and got out of touch. It was really good to see him again. Painful, yes - still pretty fresh for me, so seeing him like I was not too awful long ago, one of the walking wounded, was tough. It was like looking at myself just a little over a year ago. But still, we got to visit a little and reconnect, and it was great to have my friend again. We've added each other on Facebook, got emails, compared phones-he has an iPhone (awesome!) - so keeping in touch will not be difficult. 

There's a line from the movie Sandlot that I like that makes me think of Sandi.(it could actually be a quote of Babe Ruth, but I don't know for certain) "Heroes get remembered. Legends never die." She was a hero to some of us, but most definitely a legend.

Spring Cleaning

Last weekend was the city-wide yard sale. Yes, this is a real event here in which a large number of people have yard sales on the same day, and, the newspaper devotes a whole page to it. A friend of mine calls yard sales junk swapping only she doesn't use the word junk...but it is an apt observation. It would be interesting to conduct an experiment and track a few items to see how many different households they end up in over a period of time. It happens twice a year; in Spring and again in Fall.Unless I'm desperate for something and unwilling to spend an arm and a leg for it, or I've completely lost my sanity, I don't go out on City-Wide Yard Sale days. It isn't safe. Some of those people will run your butt over and not even blink over it. Seriously. There is always a spike in the number of traffic accidents, and a handful of property damage reports during these things. I like to compare it to the Running of the Bulls  :)

It is a good way to recover your property though. We have found several of our chairs from the funeral home over the years. They have the funeral home's name right there plain as anything. What's the thinking there??

Something even better than the City-wide Yard Sale began on Monday and it is City-wide Clean Up! This is even better than the yard sale because you can get this stuff for free! People just put it out on their curb to be thrown out! Imagine! Perfectly good non-working weed cutters and computer monitors just out there for the taking! Yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic, but it really does happen. It's an opportunity to get rid of anything you want without paying a fee to take it to the dump; the city hauls it off for you. Most of the time, though, the stuff doesn't make it through the night. Or, in our case, it didn't make it 2 hours!

We put an old rusted out charcoal BBQ'er, a couple of old non-working weedeaters, and several other miscellaneous things by our driveway Sunday afternoon around 2:30-ish and everything was gone but the cart by 4 pm. We didn't even see them do it, and it was broad daylight. Usually it's gone during the night or early morning hours, but I guess they didn't want all the good junk to get picked over. 

Honestly, driving by some of these places around this time every year, I'm amazed that certain of these houses with huge piles of accumulated crap outside on the curb had room inside for all of it - twice a year, no less! I can only assume they must be out salvaging others junk piles to replace their junk. Some of these houses are tiny, though, so where are they putting it all? It's a mystery...

Speaking of mysteries, I had an odd thing happen the other day at work. I've heard and seen some bizarre things working here at the funeral home, but this was a first. Someone from out of town and just passing by came in and asked to see some urns. I should point out at this point that this never happens. We aren't a shop in the mall and people don't just randomly walk in to see what all we have. Choosing a funeral home is a personal thing, and families typically stick to the same one. 

This woman tells me her mother had died about two years back and she had never gotten one. While we are looking at them, she tells me that she would really like a glass one so she can see out. The wheels were turning in my mind as I tried to figure out what she meant, and it must have showed on my face because then she went to say that her youngest child is really missing his grandma and wants to be able to take her to see him play soccer. At that point I knew what she was talking about, but was unable to come up with any response other than "Oh..." Then she asked me if it would be okay for her to buy something at Hobby Lobby to put her mom in...Yes, by all means, please do ... I was thinking it, but of course I didn't say it. Thankfully, I didn't say any of what I was thinking out loud...this time.

Feelin' Foolish

Yesterday was April Fool's day - the first day of April - April 1, 2010. I knew what day it was, and I still caught it - 3 times no less! Before I ever got out of the house this morning I got hit twice. 

Before I got in the shower, my darling husband tells me that when he let the dogs out, Stella got away from him and took off. "I'm getting ready to go run, so hopefully I'll find her while I'm out"  I should have been clued in by all the apologies...

When he gets back from his run, I have just gotten out of the shower and have a towel on my head and trying to get dressed when he pops open the door. He tells me that Frank wants to talk to me real quick and it's really important. Frank is the trash guy & super annoying and no conversation with him is quick. Bobby & I have this totally absurd exchange where I keep saying no - I'm not dressed - tell him I'm in the shower, blah blah blah, and he keeps saying Sorry, but he's out there waiting and he says it's important, blah blah blah. Finally I get fed up with the stupid conversation and tell him that I am NOT going out there and Frank can just come by work or something later and that's FINAL! "Gotcha!" Ugh!

Work has been crazy the last couple of days trying to get ready for a ginormous funeral, and the family is what I call 'Special Needs'. That means that they require extra attention, they focus on the minutest of details, and they change their minds frequently, which most generally leads to a last minute song or poem or something that we don't find out about until 5 minutes before the funeral.  In the midst of a minor technical dilemma, Gary asks me about the DVD case for the slideshow. I tell him I think it's in the folder, but he says he just looked and it wasn't, so naturally I open up the folder to show him where it is and voila! There it is with a large brown  - totally fake - cockroach on top. Looks very real though...*sigh*

My baby turned 6 on the 30th and we had his birthday party last night-nothing big, just family & pizza, and cake & ice cream. Sully is totally into 'army men' so I had a military theme cake done and we put Lego Toy Story Army Men on top. 

Totally cute, yeah??  

Even cuter :)

Grandma and Hand Baskets

My husband and my kids have this game they play in the mornings before school. He takes them to school in bad weather, so he swings by the house at around 7 a.m. and grabs some coffee and the boys. Whoever gets in the car last is 'Grandma',  hee hee.  Usually it is my youngest who always gets to be 'Grandma'.One morning, before Spring Break, Sully was moving at a speed I didn't think he was capable of - typically, my boys have two speeds; slow and slower. This day he was dressed, teeth brushed, shoes on, coat on, backpack loaded, and waiting by the front door, while Tucker was moving through the house looking for his coat and muttering about not wanting to be 'Grandma'. Finally, it's time to go, and Sully races out to the car. Tucker is still looking for his coat, finally finds it, and goes tearing out to the car, but of course, he's too late and he is 'Grandma' this day. What I didn't find out until later is that while they were waiting for Tucker, Sully was sitting in the back all smiles and humming to himself, and since he is just like his dad, my husband immediately asked him what he had done. He got no answer except a big smile and a giggle. About that time Tucker got in and told his dad that he finally found his coat -  in Sully's bed, under the comforter with a bunch of toys on top of that. Gotta admire the poise and skill with which he pulled that off, hee hee! He was tired of being 'Grandma' and so he devised a plan, implemented it, and achieved his goal. He's a pistol,that's for sure!

I told you all of that, so you would have a bit of background for what I'm going to tell you next. The first day back to school after Spring Break saw about 8 inches of snow still on the ground from the weekend. The boys thought maybe they would get another day off, but no chance. The roads were pretty good, so there was school.Bobby had spent a good portion of the morning pulling people out of the snow out in the county, so he was a little later getting back by the house than usual, so consequently, the boys were ready & waiting for him. They decided that Dad was going to be 'Grandma', so they moved his travel coffee mug to buy them a few seconds and when they heard, "ok boys - time to go" they made a mad dash for the car, which was funny because of all the snow still out there. That also bought them another 30 seconds, because the older you get, the less you like falling down. By the time he got to the car the boys were seatbelted in and yelling "c'mon Grandma!" Wonder what our neighbors think?? Never mind - I have a pretty good idea, lol.

The day before that, a friend of mine had an interesting Facebook status. It said, "Where are we going?...and why am I in this hand basket?" I thought about it and didn't get it right away, then promptly forgot about it. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know...  Anyway, the next morning while driving to work and looking at the snow, it suddenly popped into my head and I got it! Actually, to be honest, I was thinking about the new Health care Reform plan at the time...Yeah,this is not really related to 'Grandma' but it happened the same day  :)

Happy Spring??

The first day of Spring in Kansas was, well, less than Spring-y. See photo below:

This was taken early in the day. By the next morning there was about 8 more inches out there and it wasn't sticking to the trees by then because the wind had blown it all off. Ugh...

Crazy weather...2 days ago it was 68 degrees! Now today it's gray, drizzly, & dreary and 44 degrees. 

Of course it's not just Kansas, but the typical response is 'Welcome to Kansas Weather'

Since I am posting pictures, now is as good a time as any to post some of our Bearded Dragon, Skittles:

Here she is when we first got her at just 6 weeks. Such a little thing and so cute! She is in my 9 year old's hands, and perfectly happy.

Here she is now!

She is now 6 months old and her body is a good 8 inches long with the tail just about as long. To put this photo into perspective, the truck she is on is roughly the size of an adult-sized shoebox. 

Here is a close-up, LOL 

She is so much fun! She sees everything from her chunk of wood perch. When I so much as walk by the boys room, she spots me and gives me the head tilt as she watches. She loves to climb up to high places, so anytime she gets a notion to run she always winds up on top of the couch. Other times, she will sit on the couch and snuggle down into it like it's sand and watch TV, or watch the boys play with Legos.  Sometimes she will climb up onto my shoulder and peek through my hair like it is blades of grass and she is stalking something, lol.  Crickets, I imagine...

The Little Things

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Are you wearing green??  I'm not, but I do have some green with me everywhere I go 24/7. I have green eyes :)  I don't usually 'celebrate' the day, I don't really like beer, let alone green beer - ugh!  I'm sure it tastes the same, but for me what food & drink looks like has a huge impact on the puke-ability scale. I'm sure "bondaegi", boiled silkworm larvae on a stick, is yummy, but I'll pass because it looks like what it is - a bug on a stick. I don't eat bugs, at least not willingly or conciously. So, even if I drank beer, I probably wouldn't drink green beer...or eat green eggs & ham. Call me quirky...

A couple of weeks ago one of my wonderful bosses was shopping for some new equipment for the funeral home and one of the things he surprised me with was a new computer for my desk! I have to say, I LOVE Windows7! I liked Vista, even with it's issues, because it had many cool features and looked so slick, but 7 is smoother and faster and simpler. Anyway the same day, my desktop at home died. I think it's the graphics card - I can hear the Vista welcome chime, but my screen is black. It's not the monitor, I already checked it. Two days later, my laptop just shuts off! I think it's getting too hot, so I'll have to try buying one of those cooling fan thingies.

I'm just a little depressed. I can't afford to do anything about it right now - my little man is turning 6 at the end of this month. I don't have all my graphic stuff loaded on my laptop so trying to create on it is awkward. I do have a lot of my stuff on an external hard drive, but that just adds to the awkwardness. God help me if I have to get up in a hurry with wires and cables all over me - yikes!

I'm loving my brand new shiny work computer, though.*sigh* it's the little things in life that bring such joy, am I right?

Oh Canada!

I admit it - I am an Olympic junkie. Opening ceremonies were awesome!! I've recorded whatever I couldn't watch at home, I've been checking the web for updates on the various competitions, and reading all the little background stories. Of course the games have been operating under the dark cloud of the young Georgian luger's death during a training run - such a sad, sad thing.

But I'm so excited for Canada! Of course I want to see USA do well, but I also want to see Canada win too. When Bilodeau  won the first Gold for Canada this Olympics we were cheering here at home too. And what a beautiful personal story.

I'm really loving Canada!  Such diversity - much like our own country, but somehow they seem... more unified. Wonder why that is? Such a beautiful country! I am so enjoying all the clips showing more of the country.

Favorites so far have been the Speed Skating, Short Track, Snowboard X, Nordic Combined, Mogul, Downhill, Luge, and we're looking forward to the rest of the Snowboard events and the Bobsled, as well as more speed skating & short track.

Ok, figure skating...what are they thinking with some of these costumes?? Many of the men's costumes are decidedly feminine and I am convinced they are designed to strip the guys of any hint of masculinity so that they appear androgynous. Just my thoughts, lol...

Heartbreak for Lindsey Jacobellis today, bless her heart. Sooo close, and she had such good runs & then the final run for the medal - disaster. Still, she did fantastic and her country is proud of her :)

SO - What will we do when it's over??  I went through withdrawals after the Summer Olympics, too, lol, so I guess at least it will be familiar...Better go check my DVR settings...again....

The Great Cricket Round-Up

Been awhile, I know...all kinds of stupidity happening over the last few weeks, and to be honest, I cringed at the thought of reliving it. I have the feeling January will always be a crummy month for me, now. Mom died in January last year, so I think everything will be colored by that.  Two of my three dogs ran off last week, but only one of them returned. Lucy, the one I fully expected to come home, did not, but Stella, the one that had never done it before did. She was gone 3 days and then found her way home. Since Lucy hasn't been reported as needing to be picked up (either alive or dead) I can only assume she is with someone. She's an awesome Lab, so I can understand why anyone would want her...

The snow hasn't quite finished with us - we got another 8 inches dumped on us last Friday, and now we have giant icebergs on the street corners again.  The city used to haul the scraped up snow in the business district off to parts unseen, but they haven't done it at all this year. I'm thinking they didn't do it last year either. I am noticing big holes in the streets where the plows have torn up the bricks. I may have mentioned this once before, but our downtown area has brick streets. I'm not sure how many miles, but most of the paved roads have bricks underneath. Visitors thing they are so wonderful - try driving over them in a truck 8 1/2 months pregnant and we'll see if they still think they are wonderful. Having said that, they do possess a certain charm. When properly maintained, of course...

Last night on the way home from work, I went by the pet store and bought 4 dozen crickets. We were down to about 4, so it couldn't wait. Skittles eats twice a day, and there wouldn't be any for the morning. Normally they aren't a problem, but occasionally you get a noisy one. There was one in this batch that was chirping pretty loud. I had put the boys to bed early because I'm having trouble getting them up in the morning - well, not Tucker - he's Mr. Rise and Shine At The Crack Of Dawn - so, I thought ok, get the crickets out of there so he has no excuse to stay awake. I'm carrying the plastic container by the handles and I get all the way into the living room, almost to the exact spot I'm going to put them, and the bottom falls off.  Four dozen crickets in my living room...they're going everywhere, in all directions, and I'm hollering for the boys to come help me (Bobby is at the church doing whatever deacons do, lol).  I couldn't get either one of them to touch any of the crickets, so I had to round them up by myself. I tried picking them up by hand, but it seemed like they were getting squished - if you don't grab them kinda tight, they squirm out of your hand - so I grabbed a container and a lid to shoo them into. With the boys as spotters, I got most of them rounded up and then Bobby came home and helped me get the last three - that we knew of, lol. I didn't count them.  So much for going to bed early.

At the time I wondered how many of them would die from shock over the trauma they had just endured.  This morning I discovered only about 3 actual dead, some severely wounded, but several that appeared to be dazed. Possibly due to freedom being within their grasp only to be cruelly yanked away?? Who knows, but they looked like a train wreck. You had the walking wounded; missing a leg, but otherwise moving about as if they didn't know it was missing, those that didn't appear to be injured in anyway, but totally nonfunctional, and then the others. They were the obviously and grotesquely damaged of the lot. Back legs now in the front going the wrong way, feelers bent, wings missing - carnage!  Needless to say, Miss Skittles had several more crickets for breakfast than she normally would have gotten.  Saved them from a long drawn out death. Now the question was: How many survivors would I find when I got home?  Who knows? They aren't the smartest insects, I've discovered. They will happily drown themselves if they have access to water deeper than their own body, for example, so it's conceivable that they might get trapped under or around something and die. They've done that before on a good day with their orange slices...

I was happy to discover there had been no more deaths, and they all must have recovered from their shock, because they seemed pretty chipper. In fact, I think I heard chirping...

Is It Cold Enough For Ya? Well, Is It??

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate that question?  You get the same one in Summer, only substituting the word cold with hot.  I've always found it irritating in the extreme, but one day I found myself saying it *gasp*! That did not just come out of my mouth!  But it did!  One of those instances where you wish you could reel it back in like a fishing line.  Ugh!  I had become one them - I had crossed over...but maybe hope is still alive if I make a mental promise to never utter the foul phrase again!!  LOL

The temps here, and elsewhere from the Midwest eastward and southward, have been horribly, record-breakingly cold (I know that's not a word - I just made it up. I can do that. It's my blog).  Right now, as I type, the actual temperature is 9 degrees. The windchill is fluctuating with the breeze: -1, -12, -6...ugh!  A lot of people are saying that this is winter like it was back in the day...back when they were kids.  Others are saying the amount of snow is like it was back then, but not the temps. And they're not liking it, lol.  Of course this is the crowd that needs to worry about breaking a hip if they slip on ice, so no, they wouldn't like it.  I'm not liking it much either, though and I'm not part of that generation.  However, things can still get broken at my age so, caution is advisable.  We have had snow on the ground since Christmas Eve without a break.  I'm thinking this must be what it's like to live in Alaska, only not as beautiful.  So there is the trade off:  white, snow-covered everything 8 months or whatever out of the year, but it's a gorgeous view. Here - enormous piles of icky black & white scraped snow on every street corner...not as pretty to look at, I'm thinking.  Of course, the snow covers up the various piles of junk lying around in certain yards and manages to make them look rather fetching - until it melts. "Ahhh...there's your treasure" (quote from the first Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser, lol)

My mother-in-law had a New Years/Christmas get-together at her house New Year's Day.  Bobby's sisters were in town, and all the grandkids and great grandkids were there and it was a chance for everyone who couldn't get  together on Christmas or Thanksgiving to visit and exchange gifts. Of course this happened after the big announcement at Thanksgiving that there would be no more dinners at her house...did I dream that? Hmmm...Anyhoo, since they live just down the street from us, Bobby & I sent the kids on ahead and we walked down together.  Now, our street is a solid sheet of ice since the snow plows never even looked at our street, so we were walking carefully.  I was doing pretty good, until I got involved in something I was telling Bobby, and I wasn't paying attention.  It was like a ballet in slow mo, only not nearly as graceful.  It took me a minute to go down as I made a valiant effort to stay on my feet, but alas! It was not to be...down I went, and with my husband laughing his head off, no less.  Then we both started laughing wondering if the neighbors saw me go down and him not even trying to help.  I'll be paying more attention next time, lol.