Background that should probably be mentioned;

Since my husband had his revelation that 'all the mess in the bedroom is mine' and picked up his things, our bedroom is clean, dusted and vacuumed pretty much at any time now. The nightstands are empty save for 2 books, a candle, lamp and clock on my side and a lamp and phone charger, and name badge on his. We have always kept our master bedroom door closed, as the cats are not allowed in there, and the kids never go in our bedroom... not that they aren't allowed, but really, it's a boring room with a bed and a couple dressers and well, why would they? LOL.

Well yesterday the kids were all occupied. My son and his friend were in the basement. My oldest daughter was out with friends and my youngest was at a sleepover at a friends home. I had gone upstairs to the bedroom and closed the window shades next to my bed and nightstand and then came downstairs and read news online while Coffeehusband sat on the couch with his laptop, online as well. When I returned upstairs to go to sleep I walked to the side of my bed to turn on the nightstand lamp and my electric blanket.

There, on my nightstand was a ring.

A big sparkly, glittery ring. I recognized it as a ring that my daughter bought at a fun 'teen' jewelry store at the mall last year but... why was it in my room?

As I have said before - the kids don't bother going into my room as there is nothing there for them. Plus - (and more importantly) no one had been home all night. I was just upstairs 2 hours previously to close the blinds next to the nightstand and it hadn't been there. Both girls were gone, my husband hadn't been up to the bedroom, nor had my son. I was the last person to be in the room and had been next to my nightstand when there was no ring there. Now, there was.

Someone left me a gift of a sparkly ring.

Then I remembered something my daughter had told me the night before and I smiled.

It seems she is having some 'ring' issues as well.

My oldest daughter is a cheerleader and when they cheer they are not allowed to have any jewelry on at all... not even belly button rings or tongue rings. Nothing. So the night before, she had taken off her jewelry and placed it into her purse.

After she was done cheering and was getting on the bus she was standing on the sidewalk with one of her girl friends and she opened her purse to put her rings on but they were gone.

Determined that they had to be there... she took everything out one. by. one. and her friend Amber held each item as she did so.

No rings.

Then her friend did the same... one by one. No rings.

At this point BabyGirl was almost in tears. Gone was not only a beautiful ring that a past boyfriend had given her but her class ring as well.

After they got to the school and got into her car her friend and her again went through her purse. Everything was taken out one by one, shook and returned. There wasn't that many things in there. A billfold, her cellphone, a couple gas receipts, a couple tampons... no hidden zippers or pockets as it's just a basic white bag style purse.

Her friend assured her it would be ok... they would call the school the game was held at and see if they fell out of the purse and if anyone turned them in. If anything, her class ring may be found as it had her name inside it so who else would want it?

My daughter put all her things back into her purse and zipped it closed. It was on her lap.

She dropped her friend off at home and then tossed her purse onto the passenger seat. Almost crying over her lost rings, she stopped by the gas station to get gas. As she unzipped her purse on the seat to get her debit card out, there, right on top, sitting side by side... were her two rings.

No. We have no explanation at all.

But it seems we have a 'ring' theme going on around here right now.

Labels: ghosts

It's just after 6:am now and I'm pretty sure my son and his friend Nick just fell asleep within the last 30 minutes. They've been up all night playing video and eating Doritos... with my blessing. I even gave him $10 to buy the Doritos and energy drinks.

The original plan was to go out TP-ing with friends. Regular readers of my blog are looking at me with an incredulous face right now and saying; 'With the a-hole cops in your little town? Are you insane?' - exactly. Which sums up my conversation with him yesterday afternoon. And... his 17 year old sisters conversation with him as well;

"Coffeekid that's stupid. Don't do it. I drove into town last night and there were THREE cops. One was pulling someone over, the second one blew through a red light right in front of me and the third was just sitting on the side of the road a block ahead waiting to pick someone up. They've got nothing to do and you'll be caught." (PS: You readers know our town isn't even big enough for 3 cops. One... part time would be enough. And the whole red light blowing? Just because they can. Just because they can.)

I pointed out to him the freak-residents in this town that call the police for insane reasons. (Did I ever tell you about the huge drama surrounding the little red car in our neighborhood? The neighborhood email chain was FLYING with emails warning people to watch out for their children, a strange red car was seen near one of the bus stops every morning, pulled into a drive way where no red car actually lived. The residents were up in arms. Spies watched them every morning. The police were called.... and the poor little guy in the red car? Was just CAR POOLING! Picking up their co-worker every morning and going to work. Oblivious as to the hullabaloo surrounding them as they simply tried to be nice and conserve gas by sharing a ride.)

Ok... so you get a little bit of the background of living in Mayberry right? (Oooo the stories I could tell....)

I told Coffeekid it ultimately had to be his decision but I stood firm saying that IF he was caught and brought home by the cops at 2:00 am he wasn't going to his friends house tonight (that he is really excited about going to as his current 'crush' is going to be there) and that I didn't care if he and his friend Nick stayed up all night long and played video and ate Doritos until 6:am... as long as they stayed home and didn't go out TP-ing.

I heard him and Nick on the phone to the group of guys he was going to go with; "Yeah, we're thinking about staying home tonight... "

Whew.

I didn't hear the security alarm beep last night signaling the door opening... and I did hear tiny noises from the basement tv once in a while when I would wake. Best of all; no phone calls from the cops at 1:30 am.

Dorito's, energy drinks and exhausted boys? I can deal with that.

Labels: coffeekid

I haven't had time to post my thoughts on the Oscars and Spirit Awards and a couple thoughts I had. Not that I WATCHED any of it (Uh, remember, I stopped watching TV in the Fall of 1998) but dude, I don't live in a cave. LOL.

Ok, so I'm glancing at red carpet photos and I see this one.....



My first thought; "Who is that old woman? She looks familiar...."

Ooops. Not an old woman. Heidi Klum. Granted, other photos of her looked beautiful, but I admit... I saw this one first and thought it was a 60 year old woman!





OK... I saw this one and IMMEDIATELY said to myself;


No, I don't know that she is and it hasn't been announced (that I know of) but it's instinctive of the husband to place his hand on his wife's tummy when they are pregnant. They don't even know they do it... it's subconscious. Protective I think. And really... with that dress? Looks like it could be about a 3-4 month pregnancy. I hope so! I know they've been trying since last year!






My thoughts.... either she 'popped' as a lot of pregnant women DO - going from almost a flat tummy to a ball within a week or two (not with the first pregnancy but with the second and third it happens quickly this way...) OR she and Brad are having a little fun with the media???? It's totally their personality to do so.

I don't know.

But I thought the two photos, taken from the same angle just a couple weeks apart was interesting.

Labels: Baby Fever, News, rambling, Useless information

So... people are asking what I used to get the red wine stain out of the carpet. I will tell you... but begrudgingly. You see... I don't really like the product. Until last night it hasn't really worked well on anything else I've used it on!

It's called Spot Chomp and I bought it at Costco when what I really wanted was Spot Shot... but there was about a 10 dollar ($10) difference in price. Spot Chomp was cheap... Spot Shot was not. So I went with the 'cheap' and then regretted it.





I need a refill of coffee... mine is cold. I'll be back!

Labels: Useless information

Tonight all plans went out the window and before we knew what was happening we had one child cheerleading at playoff games, another child going to the game to watch, a third child going to a church youth group meeting... and Coffeehusband and I were down to dinner for two. I wasn't hungry but he was so I went into the kitchen and made up something for dinner. It was beef patties in a mushroom wine sauce with steamed organic green beans. Since I opened a bottle of red wine to add a splash to the sauce it just meant we had an open bottle of wine....

After dinner we both sat down on the couch in the family room with our laptops. I sipped while I was reading and without looking at what I was doing I reached to the side and placed the wine glass on the table. Only I missed. I had moved the table last week while vacuuming and it was now about 4 inches farther back than it was previously. Hence my glass landed on the edge and tipped over onto the couch, spilling dark blood red wine over the arm and cushion of the brown leather couch, my shorts and champagne white carpet. I immediately jumped up to get white paper towels and a carpet cleaner spray and by the time I blotted up the wine on the carpet I was shocked to see the splatters on the couch already disappearing.

Yes, disappearing!

Now, about 20 minutes later it's unbelievable. Where I had about sixteen (16") inches of splattered wine over the arm and cushion of the couch there is now nothing. It's wonderful! I had no idea that red wine could disappear completely when spilled on a brown leather couch.

Labels: Useless information, What More Can Go Wrong

Strawberry Pie
The sun is shining this morning and it's brilliant! If I look out the window and concentrate only on the sky and not let my eyes wander south to the snow, ice and naked trees, I can almost pretend it's really Spring and it may even be a balmy 40 degree's out.

Yesterday I had a fresh mango for lunch, we had grilled salmon burgers last night for dinner and well, my heart says it's Spring. Shhh.... don't ruin my false world right now. I'm even in the mood to make this yummy dessert for tonights dinner.

This is a recipe I've made about 20 times since August of 2003. It's so quick and easy and sooo yummy. From my recipe blog;





Double Layer Strawberry Pie

3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
1 c heavy cream
1 - 9 inch pie shell, baked and cooled
1/3 c white sugar
2 T cornstarch
1/3 c water
1/3 c grenadine syrup
1 T lemon juice
2 c fresh strawberries, hulled

In a mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar with vanilla and almond flavorings. In a separate bowl whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks, don't overbeat. Fold this into the cream cheese mixture. Spread over the cold pie crust.

In a cold saucepan turn the burner to medium heat. Mix the sugar and cornstarch and stir in water until smooth. Add grenadine and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook until thick, which should happen within minutes. Allow to cool then stir the strawberries into the gel and spread over the cream cheese layer.


*I've also stirred the strawberries into the gel and topped the pie and then chilled it. It's fine for 1 day but the gel will melt pink juices onto the white whipped cream if it's stored for too long. This is why you fill the pie just before serving. Simply for presentation.

Also: Many times I've made this when I was out of grenadine. In a pinch I've instead used a bit of amaretto liqueur with some corn syrup to thicken it and added about a tablespoon of dry jello mix and a teaspoon of water. I added this instead of the syrup and it turns out great. I've done this about 10 times and used grenadine the other 10. So improvise with what you have!

Labels: cooking, Happy Housewife

Yesterday I was finally able to set myself down and do our taxes. Federal is nothing, but our state taxes? Who designs these things? Are they on crack? Every year since we've moved to this stupid state I've asked myself that. State always takes double the time that federal does. (Figure the percentage of a percentage of the weight of your vehicle in order to write off a portion of your car registration fees.... uh, ok.)

But they are done. Halleluia because that's been a black cloud hanging over my head for a week!

I have a few friends from 'real' life that read this blog and they know me well enough to know that I don't like answering the phone and I don't care to talk on the phone. I'd much rather email. I gave up watching tv almost 10 years ago and I gave up talking on the phone around 5 or 6 years ago. But once in a while a friend will call on the phone and we end up talking for awhile. As in... a few hours. And yesterday, when fellow blogger 'Kel' called me let's just say that I found out that my cordless phone goes dead after about an hour and a half and hers lasts about an hour longer than mine. And then we both end up switching phones in the middle of the conversation and are on corded phones for the remainder of the call. I had moved up to the bedroom phone and laughed at myself afterwards. Do you know how many years it's been since I laid on my bed and talked on the phone for hours like a teenager? Yeah, that would be back when I really was a teenager! LOL.

One of the more interesting sentences in our phone call actually was near the very beginning. She told me thought I would be louder. Hmmm. Louder.

So readers, do I type loud? Do I seem like a loud person to you? LOL. Apparently in real life I'm a bit more diminutive than I come across in cyberspace.

Interesting! LOL.

Labels: Friends, rambling

Back in 1997 or 1998 I learned about contacting the Direct Marketing Association to get my name off mailing and telephone lists. In the past 10 years whenever we've moved to a new home one of the first things I do is sign up with the new information to be sure I cut down on junk mail and junk phone calls. It honestly does work and in the past decade I rarely get sales calls.

Tonight the phone rang Coffeegirl brought it to me with a confused look on her face. That face meant; "I have noooo idea who this is Mom." A voice called me by my first name and when I replied in the affirmative she immediately launched into a spiel that had to do with well, I'd like to tell you but I'm afraid I wasn't completely listening. It sounded like vinyl replacement windows but since that doesn't make since I'm going to assume it was vinyl siding and something or other replacement windows.

Because I'm regularly quite patient and also very polite, I waited while she was reading her little book or cards or computer screen... whatever it was she was reading her text from and waited for her to take a breath. Part of their selling tactic to get you to not hang up is to keep talking and not give you a chance to speak. However, since most people hang up on them, when someone like me let's them ramble for a little bit I'm afraid it just gets their hopes up. I can tell by the sound of their voice that the longer I let them speak, the more excited they are and sure that they have a potential sale just because I didn't tell them to go jump in a lake and slam the phone down.

So when she finally got to the part of her written text where it probably says something like;

"Wait for the customers response", my response went something like this;

"May I ask you how you got my name?"

"Yes, it's from a card you filled out at a home show."

"But I've never been to a home show."

She got a little sarcastic with me at this point.

"It could be at any time over the past two years."

"But I've never been to a home show... in my entire life."

"Well it's a card you filled ou...."

Again I repeated myself; "But. I've. Never. Been. To. A. Home. Show. In. My. Entire. Life."

"Oh. Well, maybe someone filled your name out then."

"Yes... or maybe your company purchased my name on a list and I need to have you take it off now."

"Fine. I'll rip your card up then."

"Thank You."

Click.


Hmmm. I don't think she liked me.

Labels: I should be sleeping, rambling, Useless information

Every year when we head to the beaches of South Carolina for our Spring Break, we pack (among other things) Ocean Potion Burn Ice... when you have a husband who is basically the same color as the inside of an Oreo cookie, you never forget the cooling gel for sunburns. However! Right now they are running a Spring Break contest featuring their OP Xtreme Tanning Products.

What is funny is that the whole idea for the contest comes from their marketing director (Robb) complaining that everyone tells him they could make a better commercial than he can so he basically says "bring it on" - except, uh, he is standing there in front of a chalk board in a button down maroon colored dress shirt and a tie and for all purposes looks like a high school English teacher. That's not going to sell beach products! So... my commercial makes it easy. All you need for a beach product commercial is... a pretty girl working on her tan!

The benefit of Xtreme tanning accelerator is of course - a darker, deeper, quicker tan! And those who chose 'other' lotions or sunblocks? You have a choice. As white as the inside of an Oreo Cookie or as red as a lobster. *Grin* You'll see from my video the difference between a deep, dark tan in one day verses the white Oreo cookie look my husband is sporting. Of course that means he'll be using some of the other Ocean Potion products - like the after sun gel (which by the way, we've used for the last 4 years and have a bottle of in our bathroom cupboard this very second!). We're on our way to the beach next month and not only will the Xtreme tanning products be packed for my oldest daughter (working on her tan for prom) but the sun block for my youngest daughter, the regular tanning lotion for me and my son and the icy cooling gel for that Oreo Cookie husband of mine!

So for sun care products, check out Ocean Potion site and for the chance to make and enter your own commercial, check out www.officialspringbreak.net. Hey, you could win like, thousands of dollars... it's worth a shot!

Labels: PP, YouTube

This weekend I stopped at a gas station here in the heartland to fill up the truck. As I was leaving I checked my rear view mirror and the passenger side to make sure no cars were pulling out in front of me and what did I spy?





Was that?

Oh yes... it really was.

Suddenly the chorus of the country song popped into my mind... 'She thinks my tractor's sexy....'

A tractor. At the gas pumps. In the middle of town.

LOL.

Granted, even in the heartland we don't typically see tractor's gassing up as the farmers all have diesel and gas tanks at their home. But it is typical to be stuck behind a tractor going 15 mph through town or down the highway. In the Spring and Fall it's normal to see a line of cars snaking along the highway and as you crest the hill you see a tractor or other farm implement chugging along about 8 cars ahead. When the road is clear and you can safely see ahead, one by the one cars will pass. Sometimes the farmer or his sons driving the tractor will pull over to the side and let the cars pass, or drive as far off to the right as they can to allow for passing.

Such is life in the heartland.

As I pulled away from the gas station I quickly snapped another photo of the tractor at the pump and as I uploaded it this morning to post on the blog (for all the city slickers out there who have never in their life seen a tractor at the gas station...)

I realized that the name of our gas station would also make a few of you snicker.

Kum & Go. Yes... I said the word Kum. I hear a few of you giggling as if you were 11. LOL.

So this mornings blog photo is (by accident really) a double whammy.

You get a sexy tractor at the gas station and the gas station name brings sexual connotations to your mind.

Aren't you double lucky this morning?

Labels: errands, rambling

Yesterday my 12 year old asked to go to the mall with friends (a parent was driving). I said sure... and since I knew there was a swimsuit she wanted and I had already approved, I suggested she take some money and buy the suit, as she'll need it next month when she goes to Florida with another friend for Spring Break. She was hyped.

Later, while I'm buying groceries she calls to tell me there is a cute blue suit in Abercrombie that she wants instead. (Again - I need to point out that if you have seen 10 Things I Hate About You - my two daughters ARE Kat and Bianca. Obviously the older one is Kat and this younger, mall-rat would be Bianca. Perhaps I need to rename them here on the blog!) I ask if she's tried it on (yes) and if it fits well (yes) I told her fine as long as she could afford it. She thanked me and we hung up.

Later I got another call and she excitedly told me she found one instead at Hollister. Same questions; "Did you try it on? Did it fit good? Did it cover everything?" Since Abercrombie and Hollister are fairly expensive stores I asked the price, but I was informed that with her cash and the gift card she had from Christmas, she was able to purchase it. She was omg-excited.

We both got home around the same time last night, and with her friends in a semi-circle around her she showed me her purchases for the day. The swimsuit, although a typical string bikini, was completely cute and I nodded my approval. It's smaller than what I what I would personally wear, but it's 'the style' of swimsuit right now for any age between 8-25 that has a body that can pull these things off.

BUT THEN!

Last night my husband and I were in the Family Room. She excited ran downstairs to where we were and said "Dad... now don't freak." And she walked into the room wearing her new swimsuit.

OMG. DAD don't freak? What about MOM. The laid-back, fairly cool Mom that said the swimsuit was 'cute' 2 hours earlier? How about MOM DONT FREAK. Because I'm tellin' ya... once she put it ON I wondered where the rest of it was.

It went from a 'cute' swimsuit when you hold it up... to being barely there when it's on the body!

By the time you put this puppy on, half of it disappears to the underside of the body so only this tiny, itty bitty triangle remains that barely, and I mean barely covers what God gave her to make her female. The fact that she would be mortified to buy a size "small" means she also purchased the "X-tra Small" size which really, was made for a 12" Barbie doll... not a human.

I was not happy.

I ended up going up to her room and lecturing her and showing my displeasure over this particular purchase in this size - but sure enough, she had already taken the 'protective paper covering' out of the bikini bottoms and had cut off all tags. It doesn't look like we can return it for a size 'small' instead of 'extra small'. A fifty dollar swimsuit that would fit a barbie doll. Sigh.



*EDITED TO UPDATE*

We are home... victorious!! I did not ASK for permission. I walked up the counter with a replacement in my hand and a smile on my face. I announced that "my daughter bought this swimsuit yesterday and accidentally bought two different sizes... the top is the correct size but the bottoms were not. Here is the one I want to exchange it for."

She hesitated and went over to the shelf for something but came back and did it. Yeah!!!!

Labels: Bianca

My 12 year old insisted I watch a video online. I'm so glad I did... you've got to see this~ It's so cute!

Labels: kids, YouTube

Story here

Can you even IMAGINE being the person that has to say; "Yep, I'm the one that crashed a 1.2 billion dollar stealth bomber..."

Kind of makes doing something at work like, oh, accidentally emailing everyone your list a picture of you drunk that weekend seem like a mole hill compared to this mountain, eh?

Labels: News

I was almost posting at 1:30 (or 2:00 or 3:30 or even 4:24) a.m. Yep - one of those nights.

I woke up yesterday morning at 4:20 am and couldn't get back to sleep so I was up for the day. I was so tired I fell asleep at 9:30 pm last night but at 12:54 woke up and there was no sleeping until almost 5:00 this morning. I hate that! Everything seems so important at 3:00 am.

Warning: I'm going to talk about my dream. I know... no one likes to read about other peoples dreams. I don't either. But this one seemed to be important - enough so that the person in it made me repeat his name and actually made me get a pen and paper in my dream and write it down and then asked to see if I got it right. See? Important. I woke up repeating it in my head.

For whatever reason I need to know about a guy named Zack Dale and his band is named Malstorm (or Maelstorm) - Zack had me write down Malstorm but Google thinks it should be Maelstorm. From what I can tell there may have been a black-metal (kind of like death-metal, but not black the color) band from Norway with the name at one time but no Zack Dale in a band called Maelstorm right now.

Don't ask. I have no idea. It was important though so I swore I'd write it down.

(When I fell asleep at 9:30 pm though I dreamed that blogger-friend Kim and her daughter Andi were visiting me and that Andi went potty all by herself! OK - she ignored the toddler potty and went into a large plastic container we had on the table... but Kim was excited that she was going somewhere other than her diaper). In real life I have no idea if Andi is potty trained or not yet... I think her biggest frustration right now is that her dog, Fiona is not! But I dreamed about Andi.

Yesterday I was L.A.Z.Y. I was tired and Coffeehusband was 'off' and here.... underfoot. It threw the day off and I really didn't accomplish much outside of downloading an order for TurboTax, ordering varsity cheerleading photos and organizing my spice cupboard. For the record I fought the urge to alphabetize the spices... I really wanted to but I realized it does tend to work better to organize them by frequency of use.

I need to sip some coffee... and look at my list of 16 things 'to do' and prioritize so I only have to do about 5 of them. ;o)

Good Morning! Have a cup of coffee and join the coffee talk if you have anything to say! Doesn't matter what... join on in!

Labels: rambling

I think my regular readers have figured out that my husband isn't what would be known as a 'handy man' and projects around the house or with our vehicles are averaging about one every two years. Granted, when he does them, he is much better at them than I would be, as he is a perfectionist and will toil for hours to make sure something is just right when I would have said "good enough" long before. So although he doesn't do many, the projects he does are usually quite nice in the end. Now... if only I could get him to clean up his mess.

Although it was my idea to move the saw inside the house and set up shop in one of the bedrooms, I had a good reason. You see, it was 10 below zero on the day he started installing the floor and he was running down the stairs, down the hall, out the door and into the garage every 15 minutes to make a cut and then reversing to go back upstairs. My concern had more to do with the icicles hanging off my nose and the fact that our furnace hadn't quit running trying to heat up the house with him opening and closing the door every few minutes. He finally decided to set up shop in the bedroom to do the cutting and without a care or thought, he commandeered my (expensive) household Dyson vacuum to suck up the saw dust mess he made. Do you have any idea how much saw dust cutting wood for 3 bedrooms and an open landing makes? In the end I truly wish we had invested in something like a Milwaukee Cordless Vacuum from Ohio Power Tool because not only does it have a 2 gallon capacity, a 20% higher suction for fast clean up, runs continuously for 16 minutes and has a 5 year warranty, it's also a wet/dry vac! This means any other crazy project ideas he comes up with, I'd be covered whether they involve sucking up saw dust or sudsy water spills.

So six weeks ago he put in the flooring and... Yes, there is still a saw sitting the floor of my sons bedroom, and believe it or not, still surrounded by saw dust from cutting the floor boards he installed in the bedrooms and the upstairs landing. But? Gee the floors look beautiful!

Labels: PP, shopping

It's Friday.
Eh.
Ok.
Whatever.

Last night two of my kids excitedly mentioned "Tomorrows Friday! YES!" I sat there looking at them and thought;

"Hmmm. So?"

LOL. I get a little more excited about Mondays myself. On Sunday night after a busy, crazy weekend, the thought of my husband being at work, the three kids off to school and a quiet house with just me and the cats brings a grin to my face.

I suppose my Mondays are their Fridays.

Labels: errands, kids

Although it's 10 degree's outside and warmer than has been all week, it's still freakin' cold to this reptilian cold blooded woman that I am.

So the fact that I am out of whole coffee beans (I have a backup emergency container of Folgers Gourmet Supreme Dark Roast - already ground but - only if I'm desperate) means that I really *should* venture out into the cold to get coffee.

And I need to window shop for some hugeassed wicker baskets to go into my Family Room.

But I have managed to talk myself out of going all morning.

And now it's after noon and I still haven't gone.

And I'm out of excuses (except for the fact that I only have - literally - $8.00 in the checking account and no cash) but that's enough to buy a small bag of coffee beans.

So to push myself to go I started the truck, turned on the heater to 78 degree's and turned on the heated seats.

And I still haven't made myself leave yet.

And I even promised myself I could use my coffeehouse gift card and swing through drive thru to get a hot Americano on the way... if only I would just GO already.

And yet I'm still here.

And with gas at over 3 bucks a gallon you would think I'd be running to get into that truck that is warming up and using up my three dollars in gas...

And yet I'm still here.

I've mentioned I want to move back down South right? More than a few times?

Just checking.

Labels: coffee, rambling, shopping

I'm sitting here deciding if I want to post the short version or the long version of this post in my head.

I think... I'll do both as my readers are divided. Some of you email me to say you love the long rambling 'coffee talk' posts and others I know like to surf quickly, glance and leave. I'll do both posts and make everyone happy. (Or no one happy... LOL).


POST ONE: SHORT VERSION

You guys know how I've debated the pro's and con's of the birth control pill for reasons other than sex... the ease of scheduling and knowing when you'll get it, the lighter periods, shorter length of period, clears up acne, and most recent studies show up to 50% protection against ovarian cancer if you are on it 3-5 years.

I just got off the phone with the medical clinic and I have an appointment next Friday to discuss the birth control pill with the doctor for my oldest daughter. :o)

Labels: Kat, Medicine Talk, rambling

Although I don't talk about it frequently, those that have read my blog off and on since this particular blog baby was born in 2004 know that my husband is pretty much a single guy who just happens to have a wife. You could call me his housekeeper, personal assistant, accountant, laundress, cook and nanny... but wife will do just fine. He pretty much lives in his own little self imposed world and doesn't look any farther than the nose on his face. (No, really, he doesn't. He goes to work and comes home and on Monday mornings takes out the trash. That's about it for responsibility.) Once every 2 years I convince him to do a project for the house that is too big for me to tackle, but then I have to back off for another 2 years.

After we had been married about a year his new job involved a changing schedule that was never the same, and we never knew more than a week ahead of time what it would be. Sometimes he was the 2-11 shift. Other times it might be 5-2. As he moved up in rank with the company with promotions he got a few more pennies tossed his way every hour but he also went to 10, 12 and 14 hour shifts so 12-12 and 8 am - 10:pm or odd hours like that were our 'normal'. He also has never had weekends off. His days off during the week are a Tuesday or a Thursday. Depending on the time of the year he also works 6 day weeks and only gets 1 day off, and I never knew what day that might be.

For this reason, about 18 years ago I started to ask him to please remember to write his schedule on the calendar. Sometimes I had to beg, nag, remind, ask, demand or hound.... but the end result was and is that he 'forgets' more than he remembers and part of our daily conversation goes like this;

"What do you work tomorrow?" or "What do you work today?"

And part of the reason I always like to know this information is that I have to save his sorry butt when he oversleeps or confuses his schedule.

The short version of what could be a very long story is that over the years I've saved his butt by waking him in time with a "Honey, don't you work at 7:00?" or "Didn't you have to be up by 8:00?" more times than he would like you to count.

But I can't do that when I don't know his schedule, right?

About 4 years ago, for the most part, I stopped. Once in a great while I'll make sure he wakes up in time, but he has his schedule, he has his own alarm clock and frankly, I was sick of saving his butt when he refused to write his schedule down and I had to continually ask; "What time do you work tomorrow?"

The end.




Ok, you knew that wasn't the end. LOL. And my regular readers know some of that background already but some of the newer ones may not. (There is OH SO MUCH MORE to that but again - you only get about 15% of the story and details... there is always the 85% I don't bother typing out.)

This morning!

I'm up at 6:10 and dressed, coffee brewing and high school announcements checked, homework listed, cold lunch made for one child and I'm starting my day.

The calendar says my husband works 8-5 today. He always has a meeting with 'his guys' at 8:00 on Thursdays too so I know that 8-5 is really, indeed what he works, (because many times his schedule changes and he doesn't think about changing it on the calendar, if infact he actually wrote it down this time).

7:21 I kiss the first kid goodbye as she leaves for the bus.

No husband getting ready.

7:35 the other two are getting ready to leave.

No husband? He should have left the house 10 minutes ago.

7:40 the kids are gone to school and I'm debating. Do I wake him to ask about the schedule or let him sleep? I'm sooo tired of waking him only to be told "No, I changed it. I work at 11:00."

7:47 I decided to chance it. I walk up the stairs.

From the bedroom I hear his voice on the phone with someone.

"Yeah, I work at 10:00. Yeah, just start the meeting and go over the numbers... yep. Oh, he'll be there too, but just start without him. Uh-huh. Ten. Yep. At ten."

I stand in the doorway, watching him talk on the cellphone while he is still laying in bed. Apparently one of 'his guys' called him from work.

Finally he hangs up.

"You work at ten? You changed it? I was going to ask you how you thought you could get to work in 10 minutes."

"Yeah I work at ten. It's on the schedule."

"It says 8-5."

"No, it's wrote on the calendar."

"Yeah, I know. It says 8-5."

"On the schedule?"

"Eight. To. Five."

"Are you sure you're looking at the right day?"

"Eight to five."


I close the door and go back downstairs.

He's just insisted to his place of work and me that he works at 10:00 but infact... HE looked at the wrong date.

He jumped out of bed, got ready in 8 minutes and was out the door.

I calmly suggested that perhaps he should look at our calendar the night before from now on, as I sipped my coffee.

Labels: Coffeehusband, rambling, vent

For those that tune in to see what 'odd occurrences' we've had lately, you know that it's been awhile since I posted anything. As crazy as it sounds to some people, you get so used to some of the small things that it's common place and hardly worth mentioning.

Two nights ago however, we had another visit to the bedside.

At 4:24 am something hit the metal bedpost so incredibly hard that it not only made a huge booming noise but the vibrations of the bed shook for about 4 seconds. It wasn't as if someone simply knocked it with their toe, but as if something heavy and large banged against it with some force.

I laid there waiting to see what would come next and it sounded as if something or someone was lightly walking around the bedside. Parents, especially mothers, know the sound of a child standing quietly next to the bed in the middle of the night... this was similar to that. Like a child or one of our cats quietly walked up to the bedside. The sound of the carpet and the creak of the floor.

I was facing towards the wall of windows, not the bedroom, so I laid with my eyes closed, but barely opened the right eye, next to the pillow and waited to see what would happen.

I heard something move or touch my husbands lamp shade on his nightstand and I did consider that perhaps our youngest, who is 12 could have snuck into the room, but she hasn't done that in years. Even if she is sick in the middle of the night she just goes into the bathroom, gets sick, and goes back to bed without telling us. And on the weirdest off-chance she would come into the bedroom, it would be me the kids come to... never, ever my husband.

We sleep with our bedroom door closed (actually, it's closed 24 hours a day since the cats are not allowed in the master bedroom) and I would have heard the floor outside our door creak and I would have heard the door open had someone came through.

A couple minutes of the sound of someone walking on the carpet, and moving my husbands lamp on the night stand and then quiet. I laid there waiting but after 20 minutes I went to sleep.

Labels: ghosts

This morning's post on my recipe blog isn't actually a recipe and since I found it rather interesting, I decided that cross referencing here might be a good idea. It's a video of a news report that tested the lemon slices we regularly put into our water and our soda's in restaurants. I know I just had one in my water last weekend when we went out for my husbands birthday!

The results, although aren't alarming, are enough to make you hesitate the next time you order a drink... See the post here.

Labels: cooking, cooking mishaps, Useless information, YouTube

Coffee: Eight O'Clock French Roast - strong
Mug: Harry & David

After my post yesterday I did look into (briefly) the cost of classes - online as that would work best for our family and my schedule of full time Mom, all-but-single parent and all... Far too much $$$ right now. Thanks Mrs. P for the vote of encouragement though. I would dearly love to teach high school. It's funny that I never once regretted not getting my degree... until now. The first time in 20 years it's ever mattered to me.

As I look around for inspiration for a post I admit I've got nuthin' this morning. I see the pile of tax papers. Nope, still not done. They would be, actually, if I had $40. You see, I use Tax Cut software to do them and I am ready to do this years, but it's $39.95 for the 2007 upgrade and I don't have forty bucks until Friday so they just sit waiting on the counter for me.

Oh - had a "thats odd!" moment yesterday when an old high school acquaintance emailed me. I had left my email addy on a high school reunion site years ago. I recently went in and updated it since we no longer have that email. She saw it and emailed me to see what I was doing now and if I knew who was going to plan our next reunion. It was only after the shock of hearing from her wore off that I figured out the point of the email. She and her 'group' are supposed to be planning it.... but for all those nitty gritty gossipy details that I can't put in my blog because I'm not as anonymous as I'd like to be - I can't tell you why this is important.

LOL.

But it all made sense when after I told her who I believed had taken over planning it (since no one else was) and I shared some other info and some photos I got a "thanks for sharing" have a great day - answer and that was it.

Just like in high school I thought perhaps she was being friendly this time, but was really on a fishing expedition. LOL. I am still going to email her again, as I promised to once I knew the date they were looking at holding it... but I do so with a knowing smile on my face.

I don't think she is happy with the two people planning our reunion. Nope, not happy at all. LOL.

Labels: Childhood, Friends, school

Coffee: Eight O'Clock French Roast
Mug: White Ceramic with Embossed Design

I woke from a dream where I was in a vehicle with a little boy and another person and we had screeched to a stop in front of a downed power line in the street just have a huge thunderstorm. Our internal navigation system showed a hot line on the ground in front of us and counted down the feet we were as we slid to a stop. We thought we stopped at 9 feet but it suddenly flipped to 1 and then we rolled ahead just enough for the line to hit the minivan or SUV or whatever we were in.

Someone ran up on the drivers side to see if we were ok and we were literally screaming "NO! STAY BACK!" but they approached the vehicle and touched the door. I squeezed my eyes shut at the last second. When I opened them the person was being led away by someone else and I couldn't tell how badly they were shocked or if they were dead, etc.

Then I woke up.

And I laid there realizing that I am not really sure (in real life) what to do if I run over a live wire. I know I'm 'grounded' because of the rubber tires and shouldn't be hurt if I stay in the car, but other than that, I'm clueless. I don't know! Do you stay in the car? Can you open the car door and jump away from the vehicle? Can you touch the metal handles on the door? What the heck do you do? I guess they never taught that back in drivers ed and I've never needed to know until now.

Labels: rambling

I can't tell you how many ingredients I've taken out of the cupboard over the last 3-4 days and stood there and stared at the r