Another Field Trip

This morning I swear I was falling asleep on my way to work. Thankfully, I usually call my friend on my way to work, even though it's early, and that kept me awake. I even went to bed early last night, well earlier than normal I should have been fine. I am getting ready for a field trip with Myles tomorrow. A boat tour in Chicago. It's supposed to rain. High of 61.
I have so many posts going through my head and can only write so much at a time. Maybe next week I will have more time, since I will have a week off inbetween my next class. Maybe I will get a book read in the pile that keeps growing out of control. There is some drama im the mom's club that I love, and it has been on my mind as well. I finally went grocery shopping for Gramma today. She was driving me crazy. I finally just had to go before I had to flip out on her!
Luke still has an ear infection and keeps complaining about it, he's been on two antibiotics and ear drops now and I was giving him Motrin too. It's still bothering him. I am going to have to take him back to the doctor.

A day in the life

I have a lot to do today. Church this morning. Shopping, grocery and other. I would like to go to Toys-R-Us for the 50% off sale that they are having, but I can not take the kids there and have no one to watch them, so that seems out of the question. I have dinner already started in the crockpot, chicken and dumplings (I'm so glad I found that recipe). Dustin and Myles are going with their Dad tonight, so I have to get them there as well as the other 10,000 things that have to get done today. Laundry...always laundry.

Thoughts I had before 7am

1. Luke woke up twice last night with this ear infection. I just had him to the doctor yesterday. Have to call later to see if we can get the ear drops.
2. I can't believe I'm up so early. It's 5am!
3. I have to finish an assignment and submit it today and start getting ready for the finals due next Sunday.
4. I have to call my MaMaw today, she's probably wondering what happened to me. Haven't called her for two days.
5. What's going to be for dinner tonight?
6. It's freezing in here.
7. Buck has to put the crockpot back together. I broke the handle last week.
8. Make a grocery list.
9. Gramma called me last night at 11:30pm. She's so lucky that my phone was on silent. What is her problem. I'm gonna have to kill her, she's driving me crazy!! I know she wants me to go to the store, but I have not had time yet. Doesn't she understand that I have a family to take care of?? She gets on my nerves. Can't get started on her this morning!!
10. What am I going to wear to church tomorrow. Nothing fits right anymore.
11. Put the clothes in the dryer.
12. Why am I thinking about so much this morning.
13. I have to check my email.
14. Read my blogs.
15. Start Buck's coffee and make his sandwiches.
16. OMG, it's gonna be a long day. I better get started.

Field Trip

I went on a field trip with Dustin today. We went to Navy Pier in Chicago to see the Space Shuttle Movie and then shopped around Navy Pier. We went on the Ferris Wheel there. It's the second largest in the world.
Wow! That is all I can really say. You could not pay me enough to be a teacher. To have to deal with 30 sixth graders all day! Not my idea of a good time, but he wanted me to go. So I did. I will post some pics maybe later tonight.

Just depressed today

Ever feel like you just want to go back to bed and stay there for, um, like a week? That's how I am feeling this morning. Nothing is going right this morning. I am worried about bills as usual. It just sucks. I hate the fact that I do not have a better job. And although I will be finished with my associates degree in December, well, that does not guarantee that I will be able to find a job then. And if I do not find a better job by then, I don't know what I am going to do. Luke's birthday is next month, Myles's birthday is at the beginning of December, Christmas, and then Dustin's birthday in February. I just don't know how I am going to do that this year. I guess I am just stressing today. I always worry about money, but this is just getting ridiculous. Or maybe I am just letting it get the best of me today. But, really, I just want to go back to bed.

Yeah...

I am so excited! I have all my assignments completed for this week except for one that is not due until Sunday!! I can not believe that I am that far ahead. It's a good thing though, because next week are finals and I will have tons of work to do, so I am a little ahead of the workload for next week, which is great!

Tomorrow's another day

My Lukey Bear has been complaining about headaches all weekend. He has an appointment with Dr. Dhana tomorrow. I don't know what is wrong, but this is totally not like him. With Dustin having asthma so bad and Myles having surgery for cancer, well, Luke seems to be the healthiest one out of the bunch. So we will see what they have to say at the doc's office tomorrow.
It has been such a long busy day. I have been working on homework like crazy. I have finals next week, so I will be a crazy lunatic next week until they are finished. If I keep up like this, I may finish early, we'll see. I am only one more nine week class away from my associates degree. I can't even begin to say what an accomplishment that is for me. I'm so excited! I'm actually going to have a degree, well, in nine weeks...
Tomorrow I have to go back to the office and see if anything was cleaned while I was at my other job today. I will be cleaning up from that flood forever over there.

Found an interesting Quote

I found this fascinating quote today:
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”- Martin Luther King Jr.
Fragments From Floyd, Sep 2008
You should read the whole article.

I'm not a political person, but this caught my eye.

Font Changes

I changed my font at pYzam.com

I will remember you...

I don't know what my problem is lately. I have been so emotional. And let me clarify, No, I am not pregnant and No, it is not that time of the month!
Today while I was at work cleaning up the mess left over from the three feet of water we had through the building, a man came to the gate that lives behind the junk yard in the neighborhood back there, if you can call it a neighborhood. (There are a few very modest, run down houses, but people live there.) My boss took this guy back there on the loader, which is the only thing making it through the water still standing on Chase Street and the whole area around it. This old man completely broke down. It was heartbreaking. It really was. The look on his face was just...heartbreaking. His whole house is totally under water. You can see the top of his house, but that is about it.
This old man has lost everything, because no doubt, his house will be uninhabitable when the water goes down. And these people that live back there are poor to begin with. He will never recover from this. He will never be the same. It just makes me so very sad.The look in that man's eyes, I will never forget. He was just devastated. I started to cry and had to go in the back to my office. I just can not handle seeing people when you know that there is nothing you can do to help them. I swear, I will always remember that mans face. He said he's lived there 55 years and it has never been this bad.
I just can not stop thinking about it. And God only knows when the water is going to go down. It sure isn't going anywhere fast, it's been a week already.

The clean up begins

The floods are going down. Two major highways are still shut down, but more roads are opening everyday.
I did not have to clean up water and mess at home, but I get to do it tomorrow at work. Our whole building was under water. All the computers...ruined. I don't even think that he had back up of our files. The phone system...ruined. Filing cabinets full of water and mud. My desk full of water and mud. Everything.
Ugh, I don't even want to go to work tomorrow!! I'm sure that my allergies will be a mess after that.
Well, at least I'm getting paid to clean it up, right? Although I am having a hard time seeing how that is a good thing...

Flooding Update

The area is crazy flooded. The water is not going down yet either. The major roads are closed and many of the smaller roads are closed as well. We have to go WAY around the water to get anywhere, to work, the store, daycare, school...
I have lived in this area most of my life and have never seen it this bad. People have lost everything. It's devastating. So sad, people are not being allowed to their homes due to the severe flooding. Almost everyone that I know got water in their basement. I don't have any photos, I wish that I did. It has been all over the news. I thought that the water would go down in a day or so, but that clearly is not the case.

Flooded

The whole area is flooded.
It took me four hours to get home yesterday. Flooded bad. The last couple years we have got floods around here that have shut down the major roads and highways. This rain and flooding is supposed to be from that Hurricane Ike that went through Texas and wreaked havoc down there.
I drove through some water that was deep. At least twice, I thought for sure that I was crazy for driving through instead of turning around. One of those idiots that you see on TV, stranded in the water that have to be rescued because they should never have been driving through that deep water. Well, yesterday, that idiot was me. I did not get stranded, but the water was pretty deep. I did not get stranded, thank God! And we finally made it home.
But we are blessed. Some people have flooded homes and are evacuated. We have no water in the basement and are able to stay at home, so, we are blessed.

Tomorrow's another day....

It has been a rainy, dreary day here today. The perfect day to cook meals for the coming week and bake. Today, I made a big pot of potato soup, a crockpot of this wonderful chicken stew that I found the recipe for from another blog, fried green tomatoes, cut watermelon, cantaloupe, and put a crockpot of a breakfast casserole that a good friend sent to me. I didn't get much homework done that is due for tomorrow, but I feel like I got a lot accomplished.
Tomorrow, after church, I have to do some laundry, get my assignments done and hopefully relax a little before beginning another busy week.
There has been a lot on my mind today, the argument with the ex about the boys medication, which still has not got picked up and I can not afford to just go get. There is a really long story there. A dear friend of mine is going through a hard time and I have not heard from her. She has been on my mind. I really would love to take off to Kentucky to be by my MaMaw, but that is nearly impossible with gas prices and I can not afford to take off work right now. I am behind on a couple bills. I'm just feeling depressed today. Tomorrow's another day. Hopefully I will be feeling a little brighter tomorrow.
Until next time...

Ranting Again...

My ex husband is an idiot! We have joint legal and physical custody of the kids. Tuesday he let Myles stay home from school sick. Now, Myles will try to pull that everyday if you let him and you have to just tell him that he is going to school, unless he's obviously too sick to go to school and you can usually tell when he is. So Myles stays home from school sick, does his father take him to the doctor? No! Myles goes back to school on Wednesday. Wednesday at 1:00pm, I get a call from the nurse that Dustin is in the office and he has a terrible headache, can I come to pick him up? She said that she had called his father about 11:30am over the same issues and he said that he was at work and there was no one to pick him up from school! Send Dustin back to class. He did not even call me to see if I could pick him up! I went to pick him up when she called me. Then on Thursday, Dustin stays home from school because of a headache at his Dad's house. Does he take him to the doctor? No!! Now two days in a row the kid has had headaches that have literally made him throw up and he can get sent home from school, but his Dad can not take him to the doctor! So, Friday after I pick them up from school, I take them to the doctor. Myles just has a virus, got some decongestant. Dustin's asthma is acting up. The doc said that the headaches were most likely sinus problems and pressure, prescribed Dustin four (4) prescriptions.
Well, the deal is that their Dad is supposed to pick up the prescriptions because the insurance makes you pay 100% at the pharmacy and then will reimburse you 100% a few weeks later. Well, I don't have that extra cash to pick them up, so he is supposed to do it. And do you know that he tells me I should go pick them up. It's crap that he has to do it! HELLO, he makes 10x the money that I make. And it's not like he took time off work to go pick the kid up from school and it's not like he took either of the kids to the doctor when they stayed home from school sick like he should have. It's not like he took them to the doctor at all, and he can't go get the prescriptions!! I was so pissed off. He's an idiot!

Recant

Sorry for the rant last night. It seems less aggravating today than it was yesterday while I was making dinner. I really am not some heartless monster that does not care about animals. It may have seemed that was the case from the last post, but really, I love animals. Just not trying to claw in through my screen. :)

My rant...

Ok, this is going to be a rant. Sorry, but be warned.
So, the neighbor got this cat. Real pretty cat, I have nothing against cats, obviously because I have one! So they get this cat and the cat stays outside. Ok, fine, well, yesterday, we were eating dinner outside and here comes the cat. Well, me being the germophobe that I am, Luke, don't touch the cat. Luke don't feed the cat. Luke don't touch the cat. Luke get away from the cat..... You get the point. Well, I have a cat THAT I KEEP IN THE HOUSE!!! And cats can pass feline leukemia, fleas, etc, etc... Well, I don't want Smokey getting fleas, he doesn't even go outside. So, I don't want the cat around in the yard. And it came because we were eating outside. Buck shooed it away a few times and it went back across the fence and sat there watching us eat dinner.
So, tonight, I am making dinner. Salmon patties, fried potatoes and corn. Well, I am frying the potatoes and the salmon patties and I have the back door open with the screen, and the next thing I know, this damn cat is scratching at the screen to get in the house. Obviously, it smelled the salmon. This cat is sitting on the stairs, scratching like crazy, itching itself like mad, meowing while I am making dinner. Smokey notices and goes to the screen then they are hissing at each other. You have got to be kidding me! So, I get the squirt bottle, because this is what I do with Smokey when I want him to stop doing something or be quiet. I squirt the cat, it leaves. A few minutes later, it's right back, scratching at the screen, meowing! I squirt it again, it leaves. I literally turn around to flip the salmon patties and the cat is right back again. Now, I have squirted the heck out of this cat twice. This went on like another three times. Well, I am getting mad, I'm sure this cat does not have shots and it has fleas (it was scratching like crazy) and it's right by the open back screen.
I finally got pissed and I got a big bowl from the cabinet, filled it with water and threw it out the back door at this cat. The cat ran. This cat was soaking wet. Do you believe that, IT CAME BACK A FEW MINUTES LATER!! Seriously, I thought that cats were smarter than that! I threw the bowl of water out the back door another two... two times before the cat finally stayed off the stairs. And it was still at the bottom of the stairs meowing, licking itself, because it was soaking wet. And do you know that she had enough nerve to say that I should not have thrown water on the cat!! I did not argue with her. I told Buck he should talk to her husband. MAYBE SHE SHOULD KEEP HER DAMN CAT IN THE HOUSE if she does not want me to throw water on it for scratching up the screen and trying to get in my house! I swear if Smokey gets fleas from that cat there will be hell to pay!

Family friends and so much more

When I started attending my church in 2001, we instantly became good friends with this family, the C's. They truly are a blessing. They are great people with big hearts. So, it only was natural that when Luke was born that they become his Godparents at his baby dedication. They love that kid so much, well, they love all my kids. And I have watched Heather and Ashlee grow into the best young women that I am so proud to love. These photos were taken when Ashlee graduated High School. It is so hard to grasp that they are all grown up now. No more are the days when they are calling wanting to spend the night at my house. No more are the days that they are coming over just to hang out. They are all grown up with busy lives of their own. Heather even has a serious boyfriend!

Luke seriously loves them so much. They are extended family to him and all of us.
Ashlee has became such a responsible smart young woman, it's hard not to see her as the sweet little girl that she was when I first met her.
Heather just started her 3rd year away from home at college. I am so proud of her, even though I miss her terribly. She is doing good.
This is Ashlee with all my kids. We love them and really they love us back just as much.

**Note, I could not find good photos of Mary and Alan, their parents, but we love them too. :)

Top 20 Things

Top Ten, no 20 Favorite Things

1. Fried Green Tomatoes
2. The stand up wire/mesh Laundry baskets (but mine are all wore out)
3. The computer (desk top and laptop)
4. The new sprayer on the kitchen sink
5. Tide Laundry soap but it HAS to be Clean Breeze scent, with the matching Downy Softener sheets
6. My camera (Canon Digital EOS Rebel xti :))
7. McDonald's Sweet Tea (they actually know my name there!)
8. My crock pot
9. My Mom's Group (wonderful ladies there and good friends)
10. Swifter Sweeper - I can not believe that I actually swept my floor with a broom before this! That thing is great! Cat hair goes right to it, like glue. It's amazing!
11. Bags - I love bags, canvas, leather, handbags it really does not matter and I seriously can not have too many. And I use them. I carry around so many I am officially known as the bag lady around here. But, such is life...
12. The Coffee Pot - I make sweet tea in the coffee pot, not coffee.
13. The Ped Egg - That thing is just as good as a pedicure and for the $10 you pay at Walgreen's for the Ped Egg, you save so much money going for pedicures, especially when I walk around barefoot all the time, ruining the pedicure!
14. Ink Pens - I have this obsession with ink pens, every time I go to the store, I buy ink pens. I guess if there is ever a shortage on ink pens, I got your back! Lord knows we will never be able to use them all. And I carry a bunch around with me too. Damn OCD!!
15. Quilts - They are so much better than just regular blankets. They are so country. I just love them.
16. Yankee Candles - It seems that these smell the best and last the longest. I really think that they are worth the money. And Geez...they sure cost.
17. Winnie the Pooh
18. Lighthouses - I collect them. I have a rather large collection of lighthouses. All over my house. They have meaning for me about being lost and being lead the way back by the light. Not like the Poltergeist or anything, but in a good way.
19. My Hair Dryer - Without it, my hair would be a frizzy nightmare. Some days it still is.
AND
20. Clumping Cat Litter - That's all I can say. Clumping Cat Litter!!

What are some of your favorite things?? Or maybe things that you absolutely abhor??

My family Sticker...

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

I could totally get addicted to these fun sites!!

Smokey's Chicken Suit!!

Smokey's Chicken Suit!!
Originally uploaded by fuzzybunny2

We totally pissed off the cat tonight by putting this chicken suit on him. I had to give him lots of treats to talk to me again. I guess we can forget about him actually wearing it for Halloween. Oh, well, it was a good laugh this evening at the poor cat's expense.

The ultimate gift of organ donation

Are you a registered organ donor? I believe very strongly that this is a simple thing that we can do in death for the sake of another person, another family. Organ donation saves lives. I would seriously hope that if one of my kids needed an organ and I could not give it to them that because of someone else's kindness and grace my child would be able to live. When I die, I want to be able to do that for someone else. Certainly when you die, you aren't going to need your organs in Heaven, the afterlife or whatever you believe in. I have researched this and in my opinion, it is the best thing that we can do. It is a way to help save a life, but it is also a small way for part of you to go on in someone else. The link below is to a site that allows you to register to be an organ donor, because sometimes it just being on your drivers license is not enough. Please give it some thought.

http://www.donatelife.net/CommitToDonation/index.php

Little Miss No Name

When I was growing up, my MaMaw had this doll. Well, she still has it. That doll was the toy that all the Grandkids and now the Great-Grandkids talk about. I used to play with that doll all the time. Dress and undress it. Carry it around like a baby. And, I have to tell you, I think that doll is probably the ugliest doll I have ever seen! Truly, it is. This doll has a burlap dress under the little jacket that my MaMaw crocheted for it. It's just creepy looking. Infact, when Dustin was young, he was terrified of that doll. He's not the only Great Grandchild that has been afraid of it either. But no matter how ugly that doll is, it is always a part of going to MaMaw's house.

Look at those eyes, tell me, is that not the creepiest doll you have ever seen? But secretly, I want that doll.