The Promised Pictures

I realized that I never posted the promised pictures of Jake wrapped up in saran wrap. He was wrapped all the way down to his knees and by the time he got home, he was overheating. He let me snap some pictures before insisting that he be released.
When we cut him out - because honestly, we couldn't find the end - he was soaked in sweat and needing a cold drink. He was bouncing around (because he couldn't walk) begging to be let out because he had to go to the bathroom.

High school boys are weird. His brother thought his plight was hysterical!

More Random, Because It's Fun

I've been trying to get some reading done, and I'll be damned if anyone will leave me alone for more than 30 seconds at a time! I read about half a page and someone asks a question, the phone rings, and dinner burns. I realize it's too late to continue the charade of reading so I put the book away for the next day. I got to read some at lunch today - outside under the mock apple tree at work - until I remembered that it buzzes with a thousand bees and wasps this time of year. I don't do stinging creatures. I'm terrified of them. So I went inside and was promptly noticed by my boss who thought it was time for me to work again - my lunch 'hour' was apparently cut down to a lunch '45-minutes' today. No biggie, I leave him high and dry almost every Friday afternoon. Even trade.

Speaking of being terrified of something, is anyone else afraid of spiders? I realized a week or so ago that I would rather not be knowingly within 10 feet of a spider. I left work last week and walked out to my car in the parking lot. I opened up my back door to put my bag (had to show you because it's cute and handy) on the back seat, when a HUGE, HAIRY SPIDER crawled across the seat. EEK! Now, I don't really like to kill something just because it's scary. I'll kill a mosquito because they'll bite (and three of my family has had West Nile Virus), a fly because they're dirty and nasty, but spiders serve a purpose and they aren't out to hurt me. I tried to whisk him out of the car but he kept hanging on or jumping back in! I killed him because I just couldn't stand the thought of driving along with him in the back seat. So, I'm terrified of spiders and I'm a spider killer. So sad.

Jake got a job a few weeks back. He's working for the best ice cream place I've ever been - Cold Stone. They have a Coffee Lovers Only creation that is to die for and he brought me a half gallon of it! Now that's love, people. I eat two scoops every third or fourth night and have banned anyone else from touching it. If you've got a Cold Stone in your area, go - run - and get some. Now! Go!

Poor Me

As the hubby's phone rang off the damn hook today (okay, so he got four calls) all I could think was, "Nobody called me so nobody loves me." sigh.... Okay, I'll get a grip.

Seriously though, I have two friends who actually call me. One is Crystal, we talk all week long but we have to take a break from each other (or some BS like that) on the weekends. She's got extraordinarily busy weekends so we just reserve weekdays for chatting and generally not working - well, she works, I act busy. I've got another friend, Amaya, who's been stuck at home for over a year because of a pretty awful knee injury. She calls me nearly every day, and when she doesn't call, I do. I called her twice today... I feel sorry for her - having to listen to me go on and on and on... I babble when I'm bored and I must be mind numbing!

I have several other friends but none of them are phone addicts like myself. There's one in Texas that works as a corrections officer and has odd hours, one in Washington who's a (fairly) new mom - her kids are 27 months and 9 months so she's really busy, my cousin in Greeley who's a single mother, works ungodly hours and has three kids ages 16, 12 and 9 (God help her) and my neighbor is one of the nearest and dearest to my heart (maybe because she's next door and her life is... interesting?). She works for the college, single mom, three kids, and ex-husband from HELL and she manages to do everything with grace and love. Or that's the way I see it. She devotes her spare time to her kids and hides from the world when life gets too tough to handle - I don't blame her but it makes me sad that she won't let me be her shoulder when she desperately needs one. I've been learning though, to each his or her own. I don't have to be everything for everyone - even if I want to be.

So I'm going to whine about how my friends don't call, how I'm totally unloved, and had to drink my Cosmo alone while reading a new blog tonight. Tomorrow I'll suck it up, chat on the phone (or email) Crystal all day, and generally get a grip on myself. Oh, yeah - I should also probably write one of the two final papers that is due on Tuesday night if I want to pass that class. I'm going to have to beat the sense out of the procrastinator that lives in me because it knows that my boss won't be at work on Tuesday and it can write the papers then...

First Soccer WIN!

Lindsay's team won their first soccer game! They played really well, finally finding that competitive streak!

For the record, I'm loving exclamation points these days! Sorry!

It was windy and cold this morning - the temperature was somewhere around 40-degrees with 18-20 mile an hour winds. We were cold. My ears hurt. I can't believe Lindsay survived.

I've got some pretty funny pictures of Jake from last week that I'll post later today. He let his friends wrap him in plastic wrap and he was helpless. The Girlfriend and one of her friends drove Jake home and helped him out of the car. He's such a goof.

Rain, Hail, Money Pits and STRESS

This is hail. It rained and hailed really hard for about an hour this afternoon. So, the season starts... it will rain, sleet, hail and we'll have generally miserable weather until about June. The pools won't be warm until sometime in early July and then we'll have 90-degree days that are miserable. I know, I'm a wimp. But how's this for suckey - I have neither heat nor a/c in my car. I'm miserable in the winter and in the summer.

Speaking of my car, also referred to as the money-pit-from-hell, it needs about $500 in repair work done. Well, I'm done. I'm not fixing it any more. Almost two years ago I put a used engine in it to the tune of $1,800. Six months later we dropped another grand into it. I've put two new sets of tires on it in the last year because of a problem that we thought was the bearings. Now we're finding out that it's not the bearings at all, it's a much more expensive problem!

The good news is that I think I've found a '75 Beetle that I might be able to afford. OMG - I've wanted one of these for almost 20 years! I'm hoping to be able to come up with the money but if all else fails, I've now got a car dealership stalking me, trying to get me to buy a car. I even told them that my credit sucks but they have a 'creative financing' department - right... that means they will charge me 30% interest. I don't think so.... Or maybe I do. I'm hoping the beetle thing works out because the last thing I want is to pay $15,000 for a $7,000 car!

I told my boss about the beetle this afternoon as I was leaving work and told him how much I love them. He said that he'd had one that he sold! I never knew that. I wish I had. Or maybe not since he is my boss and if something had gone wrong it would be really uncomfortable.

I wrote two of the six papers I have due Tuesday in my Intimate Relationships class. I feel really good about it since that's two papers in two days. One of my papers is actually going to be a collage - yeah, scissors, construction paper, glue, and a Cosmo magazine. I kid you not, this teacher actually likes it when you do something artsy. Go figure. I may even go crazy and do two collages! We'll see.

I'm starting to have some physical symptoms of stress. Whenever something mildly stressful happens, I get a lump in my throat - as if I were about to cry, except I don't feel like crying. My head feels like it's stuffed with cotton most of the time and my stomach is a mess. I have 6 days until I'm done with the relationship class and 18 days until I'm done with this semesters online classes. I'm hoping all these symptoms go away. Until then, I'm living in denial. Next semester I'm taking Behavioral & Stress Management (how's that for ironic) and Family Violence. They are the 5-week-1 and 5-week-3 sessions so I'll have 5 weeks off in between them - thank heavens!

Think positive thoughts for me - I'm trying to work some Power of Attraction for myself. If only I could get past the general drain on my brain.

Oh, so busy.... no excuse

Ooooo, bad me! Sorry to leave you hanging for so long. It's just not right! I should be whipped, beaten, flogged... or something like that.

I've been in total denial about my needing to actually do any school work at all. I've done the minimum. As in, I turned in the papers that were due but have not posted a thing in over a week, which is like not showing up to class at all. This is not the normal me, mind you. I'm an overachiever. I get upset when the grade that lands on my transcript is an A-! Look at me now, on my knees, begging for a C. I'm pathetic.

I'm up to my eyebrows in planning right now. (Unfortunately, it's not planning papers that are due in class. Bummer.) No, this planning is different and fun. First, I'm getting some ideas for Jake's graduation party, a party that's 14 months away. I know I've said that I'm a procrastinator; procrastination is the tool for dealing with 'not fun' stuff, graduation parties are fun. Anyway, I've found a 'suites' hotel that has a good sized, beautiful meeting room and a caterer that I like, all within our budget.

The second thing I'm planning is a potential business opportunity with Crystal. She's been on my butt for the past month or so to start my own bookkeeping business and then she suggested that we go into business together. This is much more appealing than doing it all on my own. Anyway, I've been researching General Partnerships, LLC's, etc and finding some pretty interesting stuff. I think that, if we actually do anything with the idea, it will emerge around the time the students are back in the fall.

On a sad note, it snowed here again today. I'm not sure how much more of this we'll be able to handle. I don't know how many more people will be able to say, "We need the moisture," before I go crazy and pop someones head off their shoulder like a zit! DAFFODILS! CROCUSES! TULIPS! COLOR!