Yes, it would have to be

There's just no other "collection" it would fit in.

Truth or Consequences

We have one of those fancy wall clocks that also has the monitor for outdoor temps. The remote monitor died a year ago, nothing fixes it. My folks gave us a new, little desktop one last Christmas. This summer we noticed the wall one randomly started giving us a read-out for the outdoor temp, but it's only accurate from about 7pm til about 7am.....during the day it's ALWAYS wrong.....WAAAYYY wrong.

Right now, its 11am.......OOOHHHH, how I wish I could believe you:



But your little brother has ratted you out:


I wish my neighbor would move their outdoor remote to a slightly more reliable location.

Republicans that hard up for a candidate?

The license plate is not personalized...just the generic KY plate. I find it a little extra funny that they randomly received "666" to go with the "Republicans for Voldemort" bumper sticker.

For Ketchup Connoisseurs?

As a family, we go through our fair share of ketchup. All 3 kids like it (a rarity). Princess even dips the crust of her grilled-cheese in it.

But these did not go over so well. All agree that they d, in fact, taste like ketchup. But Craig, Princess and I all are taking a pass on eating more. Gman kind-a likes them. Al is the only real taker.

Aptly named

Get it? AWESOME!

Oldy but a....gourmet goody?

Today's Co-Blogger: Al!


(he gets the photo cred, too!)

Me: "Probably not very gourmet after it's been sitting there for a year."
Al: "How can they call it gourmet if it comes out of a machine for a quarter?"

No crayons for you!

This is the toy that came with the Wendy's kids meal:

Cute little case that snaps onto your backpack and 4 little sheets to color.
Color with what? It doesn't come with crayons?!!
Who ever came up with that plan was probably not "the brightest crayon in the box."

United HealthCare: Keepin' the faith!

Got a letter in the mail from them saying they "...value (our) membership and look forward to serving (our) pharmacy benefit needs in the future." They wanted to let us know that Al's antibiotic medication has been "...approved for coverage until December 31, 3000..."

So Al, if United HealthCare can stay in business and you think you can live to the ripe old age of 1,004.... Stick with them and you are good to go, Buddy!

Lost N Found

Obviously NOT belonging to Paul Bunyon!

Blog Give-away

My friend Melissa at Stockpiling-Moms is having a give-away of a cute thermal tote from 31. ( I mentioned her blog a few weeks ago)

To see details of the give-away, click here.

New Year's Resolution: Pointless

I pondered the first week of January what I really, truly wanted to change. Sleep. I want more sleep. I should've known better. My life is filled with way too many independent variables to ever accomplish any resolution.

Jan. 6th (aka Night 1): I average 5-6 hours on most "school nights." Got in bed a whole 10 minutes earlier than my usual "Way way toooo late." But, due to an un-warranted snow day, I got to sleep in! Hey, this is my resolution, it counts!

Night 2: Going into it, I knew Friday was a snow day but still got in bed at 11--over 30 min earlier than usual (yay me!) thinking, "Cool, I'll get to sleep in til 8 too!" That's when every. single. flippin'. independent variable conspired to sabotage me in one night.

Variable: Mother Nature. As I've been approaching the 4-0, I've sometimes suffered out-of-whack-hormones-induced insomnia. Kept me laying there for 1.5 hours.
Variable: Facebook. I'm only supposed to get FB texts up til 9pm. But for some reason, an 8:45pm text circled the stratosphere for 4+ hours and hit my cell at 1AM.
Variable: Alexander Graham Bell. A wrong-number phone call at 3AM.
Variable: Hubby. 6AM. Technically not his fault that he has to work, but he's been to blame for keeping me awake many other nights, so no extra credit.
Variable: Al. This is the kid I have to physically drag from bed at 7:20AM for school. So WHY? WHY would he intentionally set his alarm for 6:55AM when he knows it's a snow day?!? He's incapable of hearing alarms go off 2 feet from his head. I have to get up to turn of the alarm.
Variable: Princess. 7:05 wanders into my bed. Not a problem. She'll fall back to sleep. "I had a bad dream about alligators." 5 minute discussion about alligators vs. climate/living conditions.
Variable: Gman. 7:25 wanders into my bed. "I had a bad dream that I went to get a Pop-Tart and someone ate them all. Can I watch your TV?"

In need of your daily affirmation?

My friend Melissa

I've known her for about 11-12 years. She was a Home Economics teacher in her previous life. She's started a new website with TONS of tips and ideas on how to save TONS of money when shopping for just about anything. And updates on special sales from just about any store or website. Because of her savvy coupon & sales ads knowledge, she has actually left the grocery store with more money than what she went in with and bags of groceries too. SERIOUSLY! I've seen it.

You can check out her site here.

Most-likely-not cancer & other nuisances

I really hadn't intended on getting back into blogging. But I found myself in a situation where I HAD to make myself focus again on looking for all the funny things in life to report---the exact reason why I had started blogging in the first place--or else I'd go crazy with what I didn't want to be the sole focus of every minute of the day. You see, August 22 was a horrible day for more than 1 reason. It's a day that my former blog regulars will recognize for a couple reasons. The less important reason for it being a horrible day is it's the day some chose to magnify their petty pranks and jabs against me instead of using the entire day for celebrating and "showering" the pending arrival of Jenn's precious baby boys. The more significant reason for it being a horrible day is that it coincidentally was also the day that a very worrisome symptom that OUR baby boy has was also magnified.

Fast forward to a month later. Hearing a doctor say it's most likely not cancer, even though common knowledge tells you "this screams cancer," doesn't help. We've been put in sort of a demented holding pattern. Cautious optimism is a hard row to hoe when you have your child's damnable most-likely-not cancer symptom staring at you in the face almost every day. Holding patterns suck almost as much as most-likely-not cancer symptoms. But the method of determining the reason is horrifying to most 40 yr. olds, so why do it to a 4 y.o. if the odds are "likely" in your favor? And so, we wait-n-see. It's a continuous game...Most-likely-not cancer symptom wasn't here yesterday, Does that mean...!? Oh, damn, there it is today. And the petty jabs continue, too. It even seems to be more wide-spread for whatever reason. Sure, its a nuisance. But thankfully, there's 35 pounds of cuteness running around yielding his racetrack-turned-sword, and practicing his weather forecast for raining jellybeans, and blissfully unaware of how worried we are for him.

It's about priorities. Craig and I place great importance on our children, as any parent would. As part of remaining strong for them in a very emotional time, we also need to see happiness in life. And that's what I initially joined this blogging group for....to see more of the funny-ness in the rest of world, and boy, could I use some extra funny-ness right about now. I'm very thankful to those bloggers who chose to remain neutral in an argument they recognized as not being theirs. But to those who didn't, I'm asking you to stop. Stop the jabs on your own blogs, stop using the comment sections of the neutral people as your forum for continuing to brow-beat me on very old news. I'm not asking for your pity (although prayers won't be turned down). We need the love and thoughtfulness of family and friends, and for those who chose to not be in those categories to just at least let go of the pettiness and allow us to look for the brighter side of life in peace.

A Social Study

We had a yard sale this past weekend...a very successful one! There was a neighborhood sale going on 2 streets up, so I put up signs to mooch the traffic my way (Good thing since my newspaper ad didn't get much attention.) It's amazing what sold vs. what didn't...the exact opposite of what I expected in most cases.
Social Study A:
Me: "It needs replacement parts. You'd have to special order them. From Germany."
Buyer: "OK. I'll buy it."

Social Study B:
Truly fascinating to watch. We had 2 of the old spin-dial scales set out. I really wish I had counted how many people would get on one, wince at seeing the number, then get on the other one to compare! One lady was HILARIOUS. She got on the first and just stood there STARING in total disbelief. She probably stood there a full 2 minutes. Just staring. Willing the number to change. She commented to her friend something about how there was no way she'd put on that much weight. Her friend replied, "Wellllllllllllll.........you are holding a two year old. Let me hold him while you try again."

The initial disagreement was between Laura and me. No one else. I did not ask anybody to choose sides or get involved because I am a grown-up. I said my peace and walked away weeks ago. And suddenly I find several people taking cyber pot-shots at me via Facebook and blogs as if we are in a bad teenager mean-girl movie........people I have never said an unkind word to, and to whom I think I've been rather nice in the 1.5 yrs I've been blogging.

I've taken the time to remove myself from everyone's FB friends lists. For those of you haven't been involved, I'm sorry, but I'm smart enough to know that when it all boils down, loyalties would lie with whom you've known the longest and closest.

Just remember that there are two sides to every story. I wish you all the best as I am moving on with my life.

Saying My Goodbyes

HCBC,
For the better part of a week, I've just been pushing through trying to pretend that all is good and well. But pretending is just becoming too emotionally draining. The joy of blogging has been completely. sucked. out. And so, I think I'll just stop. Maybe just for awhile, maybe permanently, I don't know. I hope you don't mind if I pop in to read your blogs from time-to-time.

I leave you with this one piece of advice. Before you hit "Publish Post," ask yourself, "Would this person feel our relationship affords them a wider boundary of what isn't blog-material, and is this inside or outside that boundary?" Don't just consider whether or not that person would feel embarrassed. Embarrassment is temporary, no one ever really dies from it. But relationships die when one member suddenly feels betrayed and the other one can't or won't see why. I made a tragic misjudgment in thinking a boundary was wide, another thought it thin, and the gray area exploded. When all the dust cleared, I learned that I had made another tragic misjudgment. As an apparently unneeded "like-a-sister," I was expendable. Who knew?

Where, oh where...

have I been? Haven't blogged in an eternity. We have been B.U.S.Y. I tell, ya!! July has just been a whirlwind. We've actually done several Take Off Tuesdays and other adventures that I haven't posted. I am having major camera issues.

July 4th weekend--Family Reunion in Tennessee. Had a fabulous time! Great to see everyone again!

July 7th--Take Off Tuesday was to the Cincinnati Zoo (one last trip before annual pass expired) to see the exhibits we missed on Mother's Day and revisit the favorite exhibits. Then on to vacation: Great Wolf Lodge.What a needlessly expensive odyssey that turned out to be. But the kids did have a great time on the water slides--they didn't want to stay as long as we figured, and they didn't like the special wolf-den/bunkbed room! Also, snuck in a visit to the Aquarium before that pass expired and did a fun Duck Boat ride on the Ohio River.

July 14th--Take Off Tuesday was to the Old Kentucky Chocolates factory here in town. I won't bore you with more pics since Andrea posted her's from when she came to visit us.

July 16th-- Alexander became a teen-ager. He asked, in lieu of a party, to take him and 3 friends to Six Flags (thanks to my Mom for coming and keeping my sanity in check!) I figured it would be a nightmare, but the day went EXCEPTIONALLY well! THe boys had a great time and were overall, very well behaved; turned the neighbor's son into a roller coaster junkie.

July 21st--Take Off Tuesday was to the Valley View Ferry again, but 4x better since 4/5ths of the Funaholics went too!

Had an amazing visit with the Funaholics on July 22 Part A and Part B, as well as July 23rd!

July 24th--Left on a jet plane for Vegas, Baby!!! Had lunch with 2 of my great-aunts. Craig & I met up with Laura & Ash for a joint celebration: Our 7th anniversary and Ash's birthday. Blue Man Group was my favorite activity, but I am DIEING for my Ferrari delivery!!! The gear shift fits PERFECTLY in my hand!

July 27th--Al, Craig and I got to see the International Space Station fly by at 9:50pm!

Memory Lane Monday (#16)

Memory Lane takes us way back. Remember when my house looked like this......a week ago?
When it was being swallowed hole by those monster bushy/tree things. And if we hadn't kept trimming them, they'd be twice that size!!!












And today, it looks like this!!!











I discovered a nest the day before the landscaper was to come. It was up too high to see in it, so I held my camera up above to take a peak inside for eggs. The landscaper had started work before I could discuss options.

R.I.P. little red robin :-(











PS---Now when the Funaholics come to our house, they'll know which one is ours!

Dear Mom, Please send $$$

Only in Kentucky........So this guy, I'll call him McFly, is in need of a quick $1400. So McFly allegedly gets an idea!

McFly allegedly calls up mom and allegedly says something like this: Mom, these guys are holding me hostage. They said if someone doesn't meet them at the gas station and bring $1400, they're gonna rough me up.

So mom calls the police and they go into undercover sting, commando operations-mode at the gas station.

McFly allegedly shows up to pick up the ransom---McFly's all alone.
No kidnappers ANYWHERE.

For the real kicker......why didn't McFly call dad?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yeah, Daddy's unavoidably detained.....on death row.
Some apples just don't fall far, allegedly, do they?