Two Days of ME Time

Yep, that's right...I'm taking my annual weekend to hang out with my girl buddies and we are heading to Canton Trade Days!



I am so excited to not be MOM for just a few hours! I am so excited to be able to eat and drink whatever I want, without someone wanting to sample my food! I am so excited to be able to cuss like a sailor, if I feel like it (not that I will, but you know what I mean?). Even more excited to not have to stop every 30 minutes or so and trek off of to the nearest potty barn -'cause I'm a big girl - I can hold it!

As usual, I don't really have anything on my 'to find' or 'look for' list, so I'll just stroll along with the gal pals and ooh and ahh over anything and everything and wait for the next round of margaritas to be made! :)

Woo hoo... bring on the fun! How crazy - a bunch of 40 year old women acting like we don't have a care in the world! Count me in!

Well???

Let's just say this... TGIF!

This week hasn't really included anything blog worthy, and I wanted to make sure you knew that I hadn't fallen off of the Earth!

Just not in the bloggy bloggin' mood?

I'm looking forward to the cooler temps that have moved into the metroplex and maybe I will come back next week with some news about my fall decorating. I really want to make over my porch again from summer decor to fall decor, but as usual I'm short on ideas - for right now. I'm sure I'll gain inspiration while visiting all of the wonderful friends in Blogland.

Have a great weekend!

Remember my disillusionment with gardening?

Little did I know that out right neglect of my plants would offer such a bounty?

I started out with the healthy green plant from the store - so very proud of my efforts to repot and using the miracle grow dirt.

I continued to water and fertilize this little bell pepper plant, in hopes that one day I would have my very own bell peppers to eat that didn't cost me a whopping $.65 each, purchased at the grocery store.

Well... my plans weren't going as well as I had hoped.... my bell pepper plant quickly turned to what appeared to be barren - not going to put out any peppers for me to enjoy - nadda, zip, zilch!

Along the time I accepted defeat and started sluffing off my watering and fertilizing habits, the puny bell pepper plant was just left to fend for itself. I totally neglected this little plant. After all, if it's not going produce for me, well then I'm not going to stand among the mosquitoes and scratch and itch for it? Ya know?

Fast forward about 6-8 weeks and all the while the bell pepper plant has been suffering in the heat with no love from me whatsoever, and suddenly I discover that this plant is covered in bell peppers! It's a miracle! Who Knew? Neglect it and it will grow? Sadly this theory hasn't worked with any of my other plants?

I am so excited. I will finally have some fresh bell peppers to enjoy and maybe even a few that I can dice and freeze for cooking with this winter? The mother in me wants to bring this little plant back under my protective care and start fertilizing it, but no... I'm going to continue with the 'tough love'. Obviously it needs to do it's own thing without any help from me.

Here we go again.... Homecoming

Yep, it's that time of year again - HOMECOMING! Complete with the mums and all of the week long hoopla that surrounds homecoming activities, including the one time wear $10 t-shirt that WE HAVE TO HAVE, and the Big Sister Volleyball gift that I have to put together for some kid I've never met and don't really care to know what her favorite candy and drink are?

Never mind that our school's football team STINKS and can't win a game. Never mind that we are a little podunk district in the middle of nowhere and we don't exactly have much of a venue for fun homecoming activities.... oh never mind that, 'cause we got MUMS and we've got a hick town parade that wanders down through town - the entire city block - throwing out cheap candy to the few that have off during the day to attend a parade at 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon. (So maybe we don't want to get me started on this soap box. I'm sure you can imagine my sarcasm on this!) Oh and the orange ribbon really isn't orange...it's a very pretty gold that matches the rest of the gold in the mum? Not sure what that's all about?

I remember wearing/wanting homecoming mums from my years in Jr. High through High School. It was the 80's - we were living large, don't ya know? As the mean Mommy that I am, I've managed to prolong the need for my girls to have homecoming mums until they reach High School. Now the real crisis for me during those formative years was that my meager little mum was ordered by ME, for ME, and paid for by my mother? I never seemed to have a boyfriend when I needed one. It was sheer humiliation to have a mum purchased by your mother? What can I say, I guess it didn't scar me as badly as I anticipated.

Fast forward 20 years or so and the diva, Brittany always had grand plans and ideas of what she expected and as usual I did my best to accommodate those plans. Lucky for HER, we have a great store near our town that specializes in MUM junk and Wedding junk and pretty much any other type of party supply or hard to find items you could want. Their prices are half of what you find at Michael's of Hobby Lobby. So yes, I made all four years of Brit' mums (she never seemed to have a boyfriend at the right time, either?). Our school colors are Black and Gold, but one year Brit's mum was black, hot pink and silver with lots of bling. But then would you expect any differently from her?

In direct contrast, Bailey announced to me on Tuesday (yes, two days ago) that she wanted a mum for FRIDAY (yes, tomorrow). She's the kid that would not have even realized it was homecoming if someone hadn't said something directly to her about it! I mean, they could have huge signs hanging around the school and announce it every morning and she would still be totally oblivious! Anyway, since I'm so excited to have her participate in these lovely events, (NOT!) I trek off on my lunch hour and go pick out all of the decorations and garb to create for her a one-of-a kind mum. I can honestly say there's much less stress involved in planning and preparing for Bailey. When I brought in the basic mum that I build and add on to, she was tickled to just have the basic boring stuff. I almost hated to tell her that I would be putting more stuff on it? Ya' know? I would kinda like to keep her expectations of my creative ability - LOW - for as long as I can! :)

So two hours later and only one hot glue gun burn (my pinkie finger will not be the same for a while)... I finished Bailey's mum. I'll tell you one thing, that kid appreciates every little thing I do for her, like that! She's totally overwhelmed by how much effort I put into it. Shhhhhh.... I'm not going to burst her feelings of gratitude and tell her that it's pretty much easy enough a kindergartner can do it? I'm not even going to let her know that there's about a million more things that I could have put on it? It's just going to be my little secret and I'm going to keep letting her think that I ROCK!

The more I look at it, I kinda feel bad that I didn't bling it out like I did Brit's so I might end up making a quick run to the Mum Store for a few more things. I do have a heart, I'm just lazy! LOL

Update from the Dr

I went to the Dr yesterday for the results of all of my tests and apparently the stuck valve in my heart is not the problem! Whew...the ideas he had thrown out at me about how to fix this little situation, did not appeal to me, AT ALL!!!
The Cardiologist seems to think that all of my issues are related to weight (go figure?), high blood pressure, and mounds and mounds of stress! Gee.... Ya' think? By the time I finally get into the examining room, after waiting for 2 hours... I have developed a slight twitch? Stress? Anxiety? Really now?

I've been trying to tell the Neurologist, the Internist and now the Cardiologist about how much stress and anxiety I have in my life - they all think I'm crazy! MEN!!! They don't have a clue! No one seems to quite understand that the minute my feet hit the ground in the morning I'm running a flipping marathon!! It's a mad dash to get the girls up and out the door and on the way to school. Now, I know what you're going to say... "maybe I should get up earlier?". Well... uh... I don't know how much earlier I can get up, unless of course I just fore go sleeping all together? These people will not get out of bed! They are not morning people - and neither were their decedents....on their father's side! At 70 yrs old, the great grandmother would still be lying in bed at NOON, with a cigarette in one hand and cup of coffee in another? See... this is deep rooted!!! The stress just continues to carry on throughout the day for me - once I hit the office door - the fun starts!

Anyway, after the Dr. elaborated on my issues and what I needed to do to adjust my lifestyle, I left there with 4 Rx's and hopefully something will help. The panic attacks/heart palpitations are getting worse and more intense and just seem to wear me out. Oh and I got a nifty new prescription for Xanax! LOL Woo Hoo......I"m good to go! LOL

So there you have it....I'm not dying yet! I need to loose weight, I need to exercise more, and I guess I just need to keep watching what I eat (as if I don't already!). Now the only sure fire way to relieve my stress is to meet some nice, rich, handsome man to take away all of my worries and promise me the moon!

OUCH!! You didn't have to pinch me! I know I'm dreaming.

Just 'Cause

Maybe it's the rainy weather we've had for the past 5 days, I'm not sure? I'm in some sort of weird melancholy mood and really missing my grandmother, so I thought I would share some pictures of the flowers in her yard.

I think a coke from Sonic will make me feel better? LOL


OH and the Collage Maker feature on Picasa is really fun too!

Ehhh??? I've got nothing!

How odd is this? I've got nothing to ramble on about?

I supposed I could discuss the much needed buckets of rain that we received over the weekend?

Maybe I could tell you about how I gave in and sent Briley to school today with her packet of Fundraiser Forms filled out and I'm proud to say that she sold a grand total of FIVE (*5*)! That's just enough to get her into the prize party! I've already told her that we will not be participating in this mess next year - do you think she'll remember that? Well of course not! I'll have to go through this entire process of rant and rage again, next September.

I suppose I could talk about the area festival that was rained out and how disappointed I am to have spent $65 on the arm bands that were designed to let the girls ride unlimited rides, for the three carnival days? But due to rain - they rode a grand total of 10 rides!!!

Or, I could choose to go off on my funky tangent about how I spent my entire weekend waiting on a phone call from Bailey to come and get her from school, because they were finished with their Volleyball tournament. Because you know, it's just too much to ask that they actually follow a plan of events or have a calendar that is accurate? Oh no... it's much easier to just fly by the seat of our pants and have the parents just hang around town and wait for the call... "come get me, we're done!"

Oh well, I really have nothing wonderful and exciting to talk about, so I guess I'll just go about my way and get busy at work. Not that I really want to, but I've got nothing to blog about today?

*** Don't worry, I'm sure someone or something will cause me great angst today and I'll have something more to rant and rave about tomorrow? I'm rarely at a loss for rambling words?***

Do you ever need a good cry to clear things out?

That's exactly how I feel - but not for me personally! I wish it would rain for a couple of days - just good, solid, down pours! The air is so thick and heavy and the heat is just about to pinch out every life form. Crazy? Yes, well we've already discovered that about me! LOL

The ground around our house is so hard and cracked, it's dangerous to walk across our backyard - you could lose a foot, or worse - a flip flop. Nightly, I venture outside to brave the mosquitoes and stand and hold the running water hose around the edges of our foundation and sidewalk/driveway. There's nothing else we can do - if the ground continues to split open, the concrete will too.

Let's not even mention the dust in the air that's wreaking havoc on my family's allergies - so I have determined that my little part of the world just needs a good cry - let it all out - wash all of our worries away! A few thunderstorms would certainly do the trick, at least in my opinion?

Anyone know a good rain dance? I"m off to google 'Rain Dance'.

Three Day Weekend Blahs!

Hope everyone had a wonderful three day weekend or Labor Day, if the entire weekend wasn't all that you had hoped for? Crawling out of bed this morning was less than exciting; the girls are suffering with allergies and not exactly the most cheerful folks to wake up. The shortest hour of the day is from 6am -7am... it has to be. There's no way I really hit the snooze button so many times - seems like the time just flies by while I'm lying in bed trying to scheme and plan an alternative idea to working for a living. :)

We are all back into the full and busy swing of life, and I just realized that I don't get another 'free' holiday until Thanksgiving!! That just sounds so depressing, doesn't it?

So now that summer is officially over and I've taken down the 'springier/summerish' wreath off of the front door, I'm going to be encouraged by weather reports that we are going to have cooler temps. How silly of me? This is TEXAS!! The only cooler temps we are going to see will be in the 80's... not much to look forward to -- but I'll take what I can get!!!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

I feel a RANT coming on

I haven't had a justified reason to RANT OR VENT in quite some time, but NOW I do!!!

Two Words For You..... SCHOOL FUNDRAISERS

I hate them! Make no mistake - I hate them, I want them abolished and outlawed for a few reasons - misrepresentation and being worthless crap!

The promoters of this crap come into the schools and hype the kids up on all of the neat stuff the money does for their school and all of the fun and exciting prizes they get if they sell a particular number of items and the prize items are just junk --Worthless CRAP! Right now Briley is pumped up about the opportunity to ride in a limo and go have lunch for selling 15 items. That doesn't sound too bad right?

Here's the misrepresentation part - What child hasn't been promised and excited for WEEKS over a stupid radio reading light for selling the magic number of wrapping paper rolls or tubs of disgusting cooking dough, and then when this wonderful item arrived it was a dollar store quality item and never worked properly! SERIOUSLY! Where's the form to sign to have my child 'opt out' for this mess - just let me send you a check for $20 and be done with it.

Well - REALITY CHECK HERE!!! All of the items are $15 - it's cookie dough (gag), coffee( we don't drink coffee), or pretzels. NO THANKS! First of all, my kiddo isn't going to walk up and down the neighborhood trying to peddle this mess, it's bad enough that we have a neighborhood full of kids at the exact same school that are selling it too - you can't expect dear, sweet old Mrs. Smith at the end of the road to buy 12 buckets of cookie dough ($15 each) from all 12 of the little innocent faced munchkins that come to her door? It's not practical.

Additionally, how can you expect Granny and Grandpa living on a fixed income, to buy this mess from each of their grand kids (in our family that would be 10 or so? I lost count) that are going to call local or long distance, and hit them up to buy this junk? I mean - really now? It's not right!

In all honesty, if my child were to sell the magic number of cookie dough tubs to qualify for the fabulous prize, the school is only going to earn $20 off of her order - so what's the difference? Just take my check and be done.... don't make my innocent child feel like a failure because she didn't or can't sell 15 boxes of pretzels and can't win the ride in a Limo!!!

What's more, don't make ME suffer for DAYS, by having to listen to her BEG me to constantly sell this crap to strangers or drag it up and down the neighborhood street! Up until this year, I've just always thrown the fundraiser paperwork in the garbage and we didn't participate, but this year the school played hard ball and had a huge pep rally of sorts. Now that she's old enough to remember the promises of grand fun in a Limo, I'm dealing with is a constant nagging to sell 15 freaking items! UGH...she's sold 4, so far - and I'm just about ready to throw it all in the trash if she nags at me one more time!!!

I did call the school to complain and the snippy little *witch* (you know what I really wanted to type) had the nerve to tell me that I'm the only parent that has ever complained! Oh yea right! I'm so sure! Maybe I'm just the only parent with enough nerve to not worry about the public shunning that is going to happen when I/we don't go along and get along with all of the other snippy little *witches* at the click... uh, I mean school!

Okay - so maybe I need to take a Xanax after this post, but this makes my blood boil!

I know I'm not the only parent that feels this way - reassure me that I'm not a heartless mother thinking very ugly thoughts about this and wishing bad things to happen to whomever the head whoohaa is that came up with this idea!

What do you think about Touring Italy in 2010?

Well? Guess What??? Bailey gets to!! Bailey has been selected as one of 16 girls in the US to play Softball in Italy this summer for the USA team! We are so proud and excited for her. Obviously this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, that we would have only dreamed of for her. Honestly, it couldn't have happened to a better kid - she loves softball and the passion for the game is obvious in how hard she plays! She's always the kid that gives it 150%, each and every time she steps out on the field.

None of us had any idea that she was even being considered, so when we got the official invitation letter last night- we were shocked and excited beyond words!! Luckily the organization will pay for about 80% of her trip costs and then we will have to either raise the funds for the rest or just pay for it out of our pocket.

You can bet that we aren't going to let her pass up this opportunity! This is one of those things that we'd sell the farm over - ya' know? I plan on starting to scrimp and save for MY ticket too, 'cause I guarantee you that my 14 yr old isn't going out of the Country without her mama! NOT HAPPENING! LOL

Next up on my list is to start digging through my fabric stash and selling off stuff that I'm not going to use. This is way more important than any sort of cotton print or quilt pattern that I think I NEED! Ya' know?

This whole idea just brings me to tears in sheer excitement for her and chills to think that she was selected, out of so many wonderful players across the US!!!

**We have until July 2010 to get the money saved up, I'm just going to keep praying that God blesses us with the funds and the way to make up the difference in monies that we are going to need!**