Tuesday, March 24, 2009

HELP !

Seriously, I need help. I think I'm losing my mind. I had a slight headache so I laid down to nap for half an hour while the Tylenol kicked in; when I woke, my husband informed me that he had told the kids that they could bring home . . . (are you ready for this?) . . . a puppy !!! It's like the word 'no' just isn't part of his vocabulary !!!! URGH! How hard is it to say NO?!!!
Hailey, one of Heather's friends, has a grandfather whose dog had a litter of five pups that needed homes. Quentin, one of Jake's friends, wants one, but he and his mother are currently staying with his grand mother. The plan is that we were going to care for the pup until they find a house. I don't need more dogs, but since it's supposed to be temporary, and Roy already said yes, there wasn't much I could do. Roy loaded the kids up at 7:30 to go pick up the puppy. 30 minutes later, they returned home with, not one, but TWO puppies !!! Quentin can only take one of them, so we are supposed to find a home for the other one. Riiiiight. That's just not the way things work around here. Anyone, human or animal, that spends more than a week at our house becomes part of the family and they never leave. What the hell am I supposed to do with 7 dogs!!! Having five dogs was crazy, six dogs, even temporarily, is insane, seven dogs is way beyond insane. I already spend three hours a day walking dogs, and I am the ONLY one who feeds them, bathes, brushes, and cares for them, and does all the discipline.
Yes, they are cute and adorable, but I've got just about all the cute and adorable that one person can stand. In reality, I wouldn't mind having seven dogs, IF I had a huge farm house with plenty of space. So, I'm thinking that my husband had better get busy finding one of those for me - either that, or learn the word 'NO.'
I need Help !!!

Monday, March 23, 2009

My tiny little pity party

I'm just a tad bit miffed. All the girls, (my daughter, her friends, Jake's girlfriend, and all the teenage girls that normally hang out at my house, eating my cookies and giggling at my cute son) have mostly disappeared this weekend and left me all alone. 'Why?' you ask? And more importantly, 'why should I care?'
Because, they have all gathered together, in their constantly changing and rotating little cliques, and have spent this past weekend having multiple Twilight Parties, to oooh and ahhh over their personal copy of Twilight that has just been released on DVD. And not one of these snotty little brats has invited me to even one of their parties, nor have they offered to bring a copy to my house.

And because I have to pay bills, and shell out all kinds of time and money to bake cookies for these ungrateful little creeps, I have no moola to buy my own copy of Twilight until next week. (IF I'm lucky) Who was it that introduced them to Stephanie Meyer's work, and encouraged these silly little girls to actually READ the books to begin with? Who was it who loaded her mini van full of girls, and drove them to the bookstore for the midnight release of Breaking Dawn? Who was it who has loaned out all of her hardback copies of the Twilight Series to every teenage girl in the neighborhood; who then, loaned it to her friends, and her friends' friends? ME. That's who. It's just not fair !!! Oh well, I guess this is what happens when we get old. . . *sigh*

Friday, March 20, 2009

Matthew West - The Motions

The reason that I love Christian music is because it's written by real people going through real trials. This song is my new favorite by one of my favorite artists, Matthew West.

Spring Cleaning

I don't know what's going on with me. Last night, I went to bed early. (I mean EARLY) I zonked out about 9:30 PM, even before my husband! My plan was that I would sack out early and wake at the ass crack of dawn, ready to make my husband's birthday perfect. Ha - Ha - Ha . . . I ended up sleeping 14 hours !! Who the hell sleeps for a 14 hour stretch ?! (And I'm just having the weirdest dreams.) So you would think that after 14 hours of sleep, I'd be bright eyed and bushy tailed. Nope, I've been the crankiest mom on the face of the planet all day long. (of course, you know how I am, I hide things like that really well - uh, hem.) So now, here I sit, at 3 AM, and I can't sleep! I am really trying to reset my sleep patterns to resemble some kind of normal person, but it's just not working.

Tomorrow (or actually, today) is the first day of Spring, the kids go back to school on Tuesday, and until school lets out for summer, they only have ONE scheduled day off school. (Thank you, Jesus!) So, needless to say, my mind is a literal whirlwind of ideas and projects that I want to get done around the house. These are NOT things that I can do in the middle of the night. I've finally got Daylight Savings Time working for me and I could actually accomplish some things - if I could get out of this Vampiric sleep cycle! Is it possible that I have joined the ranks of the un-dead without even knowing it? You would think that the Kansas Blood Suckers Association (the KBSA) would have sent me some kind of memo or some thing.

Anyway, since I was in a pissy mood anyway, I finally threw down the gauntlet for my children. After the lovely Birthday dinner, complete with cake and ice cream, I informed my children that NO ONE would come or go from our house, no phone calls, computer, or video games are allowed until the back and side yards are cleaned up. Jake promised to do the work 6 weeks ago, I have already paid him ($20.00) to do the work, and he has managed to come up with excuse after excuse to avoid actually doing it. NO more excuses - today is the day that it happens. So before I finally fall into bed, I am going to make a detailed list of exactly what the job entails. For some reason, my kids have no idea what I mean when I say, "clean this or that." Usually, they go to whatever area that I've asked them to clean, and move stuff around, shove trash under large objects, and call it done. Not today. I might have let them off the hook if they had at least tried to do the job when I asked them, but I've waited far to long to see the results of my paid labor. So now, they will do it MY way. Told you I was feeling cranky.

While they are outside working, I'm going to be making notes on my plans for my inside spring cleaning, that will begin as soon as they get back to school. I'm going to have to make some serious changes once I am able to get all my plants moved back outside. In fact, I plan on working room by room, top to bottom, and making some big changes (re-arranging furniture from room to room, etc.) because, I'm just tired of things and I need a change. So why not do it while I do my spring cleaning? Who knows? Maybe, I'll even do some before and after pictures?

Okay, I'm starting to yawn, so I think it's finally time for bed. Good night.
Love,
Susan

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Happy Birthday to my Honey !!!!!


Today is Roy's birthday !
He's 49 years old.
(and VERY sexy !!! )

Monday, March 16, 2009

I gots an owie on my finger.


I think I might have broke my finger. Roy says, No, no, no, it's not broke. I think maybe so. All I know for sure, is that it hurts like crazy. It's all swollen and the knuckle area is so poofed out and full of fluid that I can barely bend it, or completely straighten it.
The whole thing is my neighbors fault. I was going to take my family to go visit with my mom this evening, and I wanted to get my dogs out for a nice long walk before we left. It was such a beautiful day and my dogs were doing so well at listening and behaving, until we came across the two ugly, obnoxious pugs that live two doors down - Crush and Tinkerbell. Their owners are complete morons who breed them. They aren't professional breeders, just a couple of irresponsible people who want to make $$ by adding to the already critical over population of pets. They just aren't smart enough to figure out that for every ugly, stupid pug they sell, ten (or more) are euthanized in shelters. And that's just one of the reasons that I don't like them. My major issue with these people is that they bought these two dogs to make money off of them, and they keep them cooped up in the back yard, un socialized, and half crazy with excess energy. In fact, today, was the very first time (in over a year) they have ever walked these two dogs. They spend their days in the backyard madly yipping at anything that moves and doing their best to incite my dogs to riot.
Anyway, as I was out walking Angel and Phoenix, I saw this couple walking towards us with their dogs on 12 foot leashes, pulling like draft horses. My two dogs started getting excited so I pulled them to the other side of the path and sat them down to wait for them to pass. The husband has enough sense to pull the male dog's leash in, and walks on by, but his wife, starts to freak out and let the female pug run right up to my dogs. My dogs were at my side with about three feet of leash, but Phoenix couldn't stand it, and yanked himself free. As this crazy lady starts shrieking for her husband to come save her, phoenix chases her dog until she stops so he can sniff her. As soon as Phoenix gets a whiff and determines that she is in fact a female, he comes running back to me, sits at my feet, and looks up at me as if to say, "yup mom, that's a girl - what do I do now?" All this happens in less than five seconds. By the time her husband turns around, it's over, and he just looks at her like she's crazy - which, I think, she is. She picks up Tinkerbell and walks away and I take my dogs and we walk the other direction. About a quarter mile later, I realise that my finger is throbbing from where Phoenix pulled himself free. Ouch!
When we got home I fed my dogs, and my family and I went dinner with my mom. As the evening went on, my finger got more swollen and more painful. Now, it hurts like hell. If it's not broke, it's seriously messed up.
Oh well, I guess I'll just take a couple of Tylenol and go to bed. I've got a busy day tomorrow. Jake and Heather want Jasmin to pierce their ears. (I think just the one ear for Jake) And Jasmin said she would do it for them - IF they help her paint her basement. I can't believe that she's going to give a couple of loaded paint brushes to MY kids. It should be interesting.
Goodnight everyone.
Love,
Susan

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Suspicious Minds

What does it mean when you crave fish? I know that fish is supposed to be good for brain functions . . . Is my body trying to tell me that my brain needs help? Well, I think it goes without saying, that most days, my brain needs all the help it can get. Of course lately, I've felt like I'm down to just two active brain cells. Sadly, one of them is lost, and the other one is out looking for it. So, when my husband asked me what I wanted to do for dinner tonight, I told him that I needed some fish. Since then, I've been compulsively shoving Long John Silver's fish fillets in my face. Really, I was full about three fillets ago, but for some reason, I just can't stop. My body is going to be so pissed at my brain tomorrow. (large amounts of fried foods does not mix well with diabetes medication)

Today has been a strange kind of day. My hubby had a couple of service calls to do early this morning, but he's been home since I got up at 9:00AM. Since things have been slow for him at work, and today is payday, we've been scrounging nickles and dimes to get by for the past couple of days. Yesterday, we finally reached the point where we didn't have enough for a pack of smokes. So instead of just quiting, Roy gathered up his change and bought pouch of loose tobacco and rolling papers. We've spent our afternoon sifting tobacco, and hand rolling cigarettes. I guess we should have been bummed about being broke; but as it turned out, rolling our own smokes brought back a lot of memories for both of us from our teenage years. (if you know what I mean . . .) So instead of being depressed and bitchy, we spent the day giggling about our rolling skills and techniques. Apparently, it's NOT like ridding a bike. It seems to be one of those "use it or lose it" skills. Or maybe, small motor coordination decreases with age?

In any case, I can tell you there was a lot of awkward explanation, when my teenage son came home from school with his friends, to find both his parents giggling and hunched over a tray covered with a "questionable organic substance" and a pack of rolling papers. Gosh! Some people are just so quick to jump to the wrong conclusions!!!

Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered, and we are expecting some warmer weather starting this weekend. YAY ! I woke up this morning with all sorts of new ideas and plans for our annual Halloween haunt swirling about in my head. It's just been too cold to get any projects started. Roy and I did some talking about it this morning, and we both think that we need to get together with the kids to make some plans, and decide which projects we should try to accomplish this year.

With the economy the way it's been, it doesn't look like I'll be enrolling at school this summer. Instead, I've been rolling around a few other ideas for bringing some extra income into our house. I still need to do some research and thinking about those, but it's starting to look like I need to do something. I'll let you know when I get that all sorted out.

For now, I need to get myself to bed.
Have a great weekend,
Love ya,
Susan

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Spring Fever


Is it finally Thursday? I am SO ready for a Friday, even if it is Friday the 13th. I don't worry much about all that garbage. It's been a long week. Nick was off work on Wednesday and today, it's just too chilly to be out hauling bricks, I guess. So . . .rather than hang out a Jen's parent's house, They came by here and just left this afternoon. I don't mind having them over, but it doesn't take much to throw off my routine.

I had to go to court today on my speeding ticket today. Court sucks, especially here in Johnson County. (they're such greedy little a-holes) I'm still fuming over a $342.00 speeding ticket - how absurd! And the judge looked at me like I was just going to pull that kind of money out of my pocket and hand it over to him. I told him, "Yup, I did that, I'm guilty, but I need time to pay." They gave me until April 20th. Gosh, I wonder if Obama can straighten out all this economy crap by then? I'm thinkin' chances are good, that I won't be much better off in a month. Oh Gosh, I really need to win the lottery.

Well, I guess the insanity will begin next week. Only two days of school, then the kids are off for Spring Break. I'm really praying that the weather warms up by then, so that I can throw them outside once in a while. Sheesh, I need to get outside myself! It was starting to look like spring for a while, now it's back to being cold! I need to get out, get some exercise with my dogs, do some yard work, and most of all, I really need to see some green and soak up some sunshine !!! The trees were just starting to bud, the spring tulips and daffodils had just poked up from the ground, when it snowed. I don't want another spring like last year - it took forever for the trees to fill out and the lawns to turn lush and green. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic with all theses house plants. It's obvious that they are longing for some real sunshine, instead of fluorescent light, and water that falls from the sky, instead of the chlorinated, fluoridated stuff from the sink.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, It's actually more of hoping and wishing. Winter was a big disappointment this year, I'm ready to move on to spring.

Well, I'm going to get myself off to bed.
Good night all.
Love,
Susan

Monday, March 9, 2009

I really need to get a life.

UGH ! Not only is it Monday, but I feel like death warmed over. I can't handle this transitional weather. One day it's beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees, the next, we have snow and temps in the teens, then it's rainy and warm, then windy and chilly. It's all just a lot of bullshit. Just get warm and stay that way, would ya?! I'm too old for this shit. Now days, I'm quite content with consistency. I just want to be able to count on something in my life. That doesn't seem like so much to ask for, does it? Well, I guess the weather won't be it. In Kansas, it never has been. It's like Mark Twain said, "If you don't like the weather here - just wait." In the mean time, my body does not see the humor in such things. My body has become too decrepit to adjust quickly enough.
Oh, to be 19 again ! Not only could I deal with whatever the world threw at me, but I was more than able to contribute some insanity of my own.

Of course, it doesn't help that I was up late last night, fooling around on that Face in Hole site that Mel told me about. Thanks SO much Mel, honey! ( Of course, you DID warn me.) So far, I've go a couple of favorites that I love. Nothing with me, of course, all the photos of me are total crap.

This is Jake and my Grandson, Christian. I think they should be Wayne and Garth for Halloween next year.

This is my Daughter, Jasmin. She is so beautiful and Photogenic, she is great in any of these.

I thought Heather would appreciate this. She is a big Twilight fan as well. But if you can believe this, she isn't crazy about Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen. I still think she is a wonderful Bella. My girls are so beautiful !

Okay, enough of this silliness. I have to get back to holding down the couch and feeling old and miserable. Oooh, I just heard that we have tornado warnings and flash flood watches in our area for tonight. Most likely just a lot of hysterical weatherman ramblings . . .

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Buzy Little Bee. Buzz, buzz . . .

Yipee! Our premature, faux springtime weather is back ! The past few days of snow and cold temps has made it hard for me to get very motivated to do anything. Today, I got up and got busy. I put Jake and Khris to work helping me clean out the garage. It was a disaster. Over the winter, the garage becomes the dump all room. Then, this past weekend, Roy and Nick have had a fire in the fire place. They used my garage to store the fire wood and when that ran out, they started sawing all the spare boards from Halloween projects. They managed to track sawdust and loose bark all over the house. As if that wasn't messy enough, on Monday, Roy put Nick to work taking inventory and cleaning out his work van. That means that everything got dragged into the garage and when he re-organized it, all the trash got left behind !

After I finished the garage, I needed a nap. When I woke up, I cooked dinner and tackled the basement. Since then, I have been steadily chipping away at the mountain of laundry that has piled up, and doing dishes and vacuuming in between loads. Amazing what a little nap will do for ya.

My pups are pouting because it has been a perfect day to take a walk in the park, and Mom has just been too busy. Poor babies. I feel so bad for them. (and just a little agitated too because, there are three other people in this house who are perfectly cape able of walking a dog - except they are just too lazy !) So I have come up with a plan. I am going to finish all this laundry tonight. And tomorrow, I plan on sleeping late, and after I get a long hot shower, I am going to do nothing but PLAY all. day. long. Jake goes back to school and I'll have the whole house to my self. I'm going to walk my dogs, and enjoy the fresh air, sunshine, and warm weather. If I feel like cooking dinner, I will; If not, screw them, they can eat left overs. Tomorrow is MY day. I think I've earned it. I'm excited just thinking about it.

Okay, I just heard the dryer buzz, so I need to get going. I hope that tomorrow is a wonderful day for you all too !!!!!

Love ya,
Susan

Sunday, March 1, 2009

SNOW ! . . . FINALLY !

Hey there,

It's been a pretty good weekend. The only negative was that I had to get bitchy with my husband. Ugh ! Sometimes, he makes me so crazy ! I think he's perfecting his procrastination skills. I ask him to do one little thing for me, and he puts it off. I remind him, and he promises to do it later. Half past later rolls around, and I ask again - he says he'll get right on it. A couple of hours later, I ask if he did it, and he gives me an excuse. The next day, I remind him again, he says that he'll do it now - a big fat lie. The next time I bring it up, he's come up with several reasons for not doing it and why the whole thing is just a bad idea. Finally, I have to get pissed and I raise my voice loud enough for everyone to hear,
"Why is this such a big thing ?!! I asked you to do it, you said that you would, so get off your ass and do it !!!!"
Then, after he Finally does it (it took him all of five minutes) He wants me to shower him with praise and gratitude. Wrong ! He pissed me off ! And now, I have to get it out of my system by demanding to know WHY it was such a big deal, that he felt it was SO necessary to push me to the limit of my patience? (and I really am a very patient and understanding person.) Of course, he has absolutely no explanation for that, which only pisses me off more. Suddenly, he just wants to drop the whole thing. UGH! I wasn't fit to be around people until I had an hour of quiet time.

Other than that little emotional explosion, I've had a fairly good weekend. I finally got my four inches of snow, so I got all my errands and running around done early and spent the rest of the weekend being a homebody, and feeling very domestic. I re-covered a duvet for our bed, I cooked meals , and baked cookies, and just hung out with my family. I've also planned out several projects that will keep me busy for most of next week. Most of the snow will be gone by Monday night or Tuesday afternoon. We are supposed to be back up to 60 and 70 degree weather by mid week.

Of course, I'll have Jake to keep me company until Thursday. He earned himself a three day out of school suspension for saying a couple of "naughty words." It seems a bit harsh if you ask me, but then, the whole public school thing doesn't make much sense to me.

Nick and Jen spent the weekend with us again. Since they left this evening, I've just been a couch potato. The History Channel is having some kind of "End of the world" fixation tonight. Apparently, we will ALL be history in about three years. December 21st, 2012, to be exact. Giving an exact date, sort of takes the surprise out of Armageddon, don't you think?

I got bored with the end of the world, (it's amazing how quickly doom and destruction can get dull) so I've been playing around on quiz sites. A blogger friend sent me this link: /http://apps.facebook.com/personalitypatterns Kind of interesting, not too many questions, but lots of results. (I guess it just depends on what questions they ask) These are mine. For the most part, I think it's pretty accurate - Let me know what you think, and tell me if you decide to take it, I'd like to see someone else's results.

Aesthetic
You appreciate art, beauty, and design; you know that they are not superficial but absolutely crucial to living the good life. You have good taste, and you're proud of it.
You don't think it's pretentious to be moved by art and beauty. You're not one of those who believe it doesn't matter what something looks like as long as it does its job.
Those with a high score on the "aesthetic" trait are often employed in literary or artistic professions, enjoy domestic activities — doing things around the house — and are enthusiastic about the arts, reading, and travel.


Intellectual
You are thoughtful, rational, and comfortable in the world of ideas. People find you interesting to talk to. You're the living embodiment of the saying "You learn something new every day."
You do not avoid abstract conversation, experimenting with new ideas, or studying new things. It bores you to stick to the straight and narrow of what you already know.
In general, those with a high score on the "intellectual" trait are employed in such fields as teaching and research, and are enthusiastic about reading, foreign films, and classical music.


Scrupulous
You are an honest, fair person. You don't lie or cheat to get ahead. You treat others with respect and hope for the same in return.
You do not feel that you are above the rules that everyone else follows; you are definitely not willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead.


Upbeat
You enjoy being around others and others enjoy being around you. You have a "live and let live" attitude; because you know that no one's perfect, you are forgiving and happy to give the benefit of the doubt.
You don't feel the need to be controversial or express contrary opinions all the time. You see no reason to go around rubbing people the wrong way.


Creative
You are good at solving problems, coming up with original ideas, and seeing connections between things, connections that most other people miss.
You do not shun abstractions and concepts in favor of the concrete and tangible.
People with a high score on the "creative" trait often are employed in such fields as finance and scientific research, and enjoy avant garde and classical music as well as literary fiction and scholarly non-fiction.


Buttoned-Down
You like to know that everything is in its place; it's somehow empowering to know that the world around you is neat and organized. For you, schedules and timelines are great ways to stay on track, and mowing down the items on your "to do" list is a source of happiness.
You do not believe that a clean, orderly desk is the sign of a person who doesn't have enough to do; you don't thrive on a sense of personal anarchy.


Warm
You have a genuine interest in other people. You're a natural host, and are always thinking about how you can increase the happiness of those around you. When friends have problems or are in trouble, you're usually the first person they turn to for aid and comfort.
You don't always say exactly what you're thinking; you don't like the idea of causing anyone pain because of your criticism.

Scoring high on the "warm" trait suggests that you are among those who enjoy domestic activities — doing things around the house — and are enthusiastic about charitable work, helping others, and making the world a better place.


Cooperative
You enjoy teamwork, play well with others, and prefer getting along to winning.
You're not compelled to win every contest nor to be right all the time.


Understanding
You are willing to take the time to find out what's going on with other people, especially if they're in distress. You're a good listener, you don't criticize, and you offer unbiased, respectful, honest advice when it's requested.
You don't feel the need to impose your standards on others or say things that, even though true, cause pain.
With a high score on the "understanding" trait, it is likely that you are enthusiastic about charitable work, helping others, and making the world a better place.


Empathetic
You are in touch with your own feelings, which helps put you in touch with the feelings of others.
You don't buy the logic that your happiness comes ahead of everyone else's because unless you're happy you're incapable of making anyone else happy.

Good night everyone - Have a great week.

Love,
Susan