The Daily Grind

One Nation Under God...

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Independence Day.  Please remember who to thank for our independence and freedom and keep those who are still fighting for it in your thoughts and prayers!

Holy Clap! It's June already??

Wow.  I so suck at this blog thing.  I have thought about posting many times.  I have even fooled myself into thinking that I posted.  Right now, I'm sitting here telling myself that I have in fact posted, I'm sure of it.  Typepad must of just went behind me and deleted my posts.  That sounds plausible, doesn't it?

Well things around here have been going good.  Busy I guess, but good.  We had a great vacation in Florida (I will post pics soon.  No..really.  I will.  Promise.), first going to Key West for a week then spending a couple of nights at Daytona Beach.  We all had a great time.  It was much needed for us all, but especially for my hubby who has been working very hard.  We mostly just hung around the pool at our rental house.  We enjoyed walking a lot, since you don't really drive anywhere on the island.  Just a nice relaxing time.

Now we are in full "we NEED to finish this school year!" mode.  We are always that way this time of year.  We tend to just go with the flow, so to speak, for the rest of the school year.  Then June rolls around and we panic.  Well, I panic.  LB1 is almost coming apart at the seems, waiting for that glorious day when I can finally tell him "that's it for this year."  He just takes my OCD in stride, and does what I tell him to do.  Or he at least tries to do what I tell him to do.  The hubby never, EVER gets his panties in a wad about anything.  His attitude in regards to just about everything is "it'll happen when it's supposed to happen" or "worrying isn't going to solve anything, is it?"  So, he's just kinda here.  Me on the other hand...well let's just say that those near and dear to me wonder if they need to call in the "special" doctor.  You know...the nice man that prescribes the nice drugs so mommy stops drooling and mumbling while sitting alone in the closet? 

I'm sure everything will work out fine.  It's just that at the end of the year I get all crazy about the homeschooling.  All year, I am so freaking happy that we homeschool.  Everytime another story comes on the news about kids beating the crap out of each other and/or drug problems among middle schoolers, I just sit back and say "see??? and you wonder why I homeschool?!"  But...at the end of year, I always have that nagging fear of failure.  What if LB1 doesn't know what he's supposed to?  What if he just isn't ready to finish the 3rd grade?  If something is wrong, this would be a good time to have a school system to blame. :o)  Eventually, I will let my sane friends and family calm me down and I will relax.  Logically I know that LB1 is doing just fine and is right where he is supposed to be educationally.

As for the summer, well it's going to be a busy one.  I direct a day camp for cub scouts in June.  While it's a lot of fun, it's definitely time consuming.  It will all be worth it when the boys enjoy themselves though.  After camp, we will be doing some camping (hopefully) and taking some "field trips" with friends.  We love visiting the Fernbank Museum of Natural History and plan on going there at least once this summer.  We are also hoping for a trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  In August, we have the boys birthday party and then Labor Day weekend we have DragonCon!!  Woo hoo!!  Thanks to THB, we will once again be on staff and thanks to the bestest brother-in-law ever, we are once again totally hooked up with Marriott.  Yay for us, the masters of mooching! :o)  I can't wait for DC...some of the people that are going to be there that I am looking forward to seeing:  Sherrilyn Kenyon - my current favorite author, Adam Baldwin - love him as Jayne from Firefly, James Marsters - cause he was Spike on Buffy and cause he's...well...he's hot, Sean Astin - how could you not love this guy?  (Even if he is stumping for Hillary...something I am willing to overlook because he was Samwise Gamgee) and many, many more.  It's going to be fabulous weekend and I can't wait!!!

Well, that's about it for now.  I will post some much needed visual aides soon. Oh...yeah...my sister-in-law and me have started dieting together.  I like to tell myself that it's not so much a "diet" as it is an "opportunity to have a healthier way of life."  Or some crap like that. :o)  Anyway..hopefully I can stay strong against the temptation of the demon that is Ice Cream. 

Happy Birthday to Me! :o)

Yeah I said it.  There is NO shame in my game.  Bring on the "Happy Birthday" song and everything that goes with it!

Really, I'm just kidding.  My birthday was Wednesday, the 16th and I kept it pretty low key.  Dinner and some Firefly episodes with the family.  I did want to make this post about my birthday because my Dad sent me one of the greatest gifts.  I love my family.  I love memories.  And, I love pictures.  I love looking through old pictures and sharing them with my kids.  I was sitting here Wednesday night, had just just finished eating when I get an email.  In this email, my Daddy tells me that he still loves me and there is a picture attached.  This is the picture:

After my tears dried up (hey...I'm a girl!  I cry at everything!!), I showed my boys this picture.  And I told them that "today I turned thirty...err...thirty-something, but this is Mommy when she turned 2!"  How freaking awesome is that?!? :o) Believe it or not, I am STILL Daddy's Little Girl! :o)

Thanks Dad!!

In Better Late Than Never News...

Yeah, I know.  I suck at keeping this up sometimes, don't I?  Well, here is a little catch up...

We had a good but busy Easter weekend.  With all of the family that we needed to go see, we ended up having 3 egg hunts with the boys.  That Friday the boys colored a few eggs.  Can you believe that LB1 is almost 9 and this is the first year that we dyed eggs?!?!  We always just did the plastic filled eggs, I don't know why.  Anyway...we realized we were being totally lame, so out came the coloring kit.  The boys had a good time, and so did we honestly.  Brought back a lot of childhood memories for both me and the hubby.

Here is LB2's efforts.  If you don't mind, just ignore the absolutely filthy shirt he is wearing...he had just finished spilling eating his dinner and we decided we may as well let him wear that shirt to dye the eggs, so he wouldn't mess up another one.  :o)

Here is LB1 and his works of art, lol.  He's so silly.  But oh so cute...

Here are a couple shots of them hunting eggs at Nanny and Papa's (their great-grandparents) house that Saturday:

After the hunt here, we went to the other side of the state to see family there.  Again, we had fun and the boys enjoyed visiting and egg hunting with everyone.  They got to have a hunt with Uncle J at Memaw and Grandpa's house, then headed over to Aunt S and Uncle M's house with their cousins Si and No (nope, I'm not bilingual...that's just the first 2 initials of their names,lol) for the 3rd and final egg hunt.

Memaw and Grandpa's:

                                                                                                                     Aunt S and Uncle M's:

When all the egg hunting was done, everyone was worn out but happy.  We had a good Easter dinner with my folks and enjoyed talking with the boys about the reason we celebrate Easter.  I was so proud of LB1 when he told me that it's not about the Easter Bunny but about Jesus.  Just when I thought he didn't retain anything other than info about his video games...

LB2 was funny...he takes everything SO literal, we struggle with explaining stuff about faith.  He needs visual proof of everything and he takes all explanations at face value...for instance when we told him that Easter is when Christ rose from the dead, LB2 wanted to know why God let Christ come back.  Well, we went into that as best we could with a 3 year old.  Then he wanted to know if God would let Babbette (Nanny's doggie that passed away a few months ago) come back from the dead.  When we told him no, it didn't work that way, those of you that know him can probably imagine the hours we spent with him after that with the questions of "if Jesus came back, so can Babbette" and "well why not?  that does NOT make me happy."  Poor guy...lol...he'll get it eventually.

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend! :o)

This and That...

So things have been busy around here, as per usual.  Constantly working, but that's a good thing, since we have to pay bills.  Did you know we have to pay them every month?! 

We are working on LB1's pinewood derby car for cub scouts, which has been fun.  I will post some pictures later when I have a chance to take some.  It's fun watching LB1 and his daddy interact while working on the car!

Soccer season is once again upon us as well.  LB1 has officially started his 8th season.  (he plays every fall and every spring, and he's been playing for 4 years!!) He's excited because he's on a team with some kids that he's played with before and he likes that.  This is the 3rd time that he's had this coach, so we'll see how it goes this time around. 

We are also counting down to our vacation.  5 weeks from tomorrow we are headed to the Keys!  Woo Hoo!  We desperately need this vacation, but isn't that how it always goes...by the time anyone gets around to their vacation, they desperately need it, lol.  We can't wait.  We have been before, back in 2006 and are really looking forward to being there again.  We are going with my folks, which is good because we really enjoy their company.  The atmosphere down there in Key West is absolutely amazing...the whole "Jimmy Buffet, flip flop, hey dude it's all good" thing is what it's all about down there.   Yippee fun. :o)

You know those conversations you have with your kids....I have another one.  LB2 was looking for his truck last night.  LB1 and daddy were working on the derby car on the porch and LB2 walks out and asks "where's mine truck?"  Both LB1 and daddy said "I don't know."  So LB2 looks around a little bit and turns to daddy and asks "does God know where mine truck is?"  Daddy chuckles and says, "yep. God knows everything." At this point, LB2 gets this look on his face, real stern like, and says "well then I need to go see God."  It was so stinking cute!  We tried to explain to him that we wanted him to wait to go see God for quite some time, the same thing with the rest of us...we all want to be with God eventually, but not ANYTIME soon, lol.  As you can imagine, trying to explain to a 3 yr old that yes, God knows where your truck is, but no, you can't go ask him about it yet, proved to be an interesting task.

Well I know there's no riveting new news or anything, but hopefully my next post will be more thrilling.  Ha. Ha.

Until then....

Happy First Day of Spring!

Flogging Molly concert!

My husband and I have been together for over 12 years.  In that time he has been to a couple of concerts (long, long ago) and I have been to quite a few myself.  I love concerts!  The live music is great and I love the atmosphere.  Anyway...in all that time, we have never been to a concert together.  Why?  Well...because he hates people.  Crowds of people make him antsy and angry.  And because more often than not, we don't listen to the same music.

For Christmas I got him 2 tickets to see one of his most favorite bands, Flogging Molly.  They are an Irish punk/rock band.  When I went to get the tickets, my dear friend TB (no...that's not short for tuberculosis) went with me and she and her husband decided they were going to go with us.  As well as another couple, R & C.  Yay!  We were excited because we genuinely like all these people.  Now, I know that sounds funny...but my hubby and I have found ourselves in the position of enjoying the company of only ONE person in a couple more often than we would like.  You know...you like the husband but only tolerate the wife because you have to (or vice versa)?

As the big day drew near, we were all excited.  On the way to my parents, something hit my back tire on the interstate.  That sucked.  It busted my hubcap/wheel cover and bent the freaking rim.  UGH.  Anyway...we went and dropped of the kids with my parents (OMG...a night out without kids?!?! We were a little lost at first, lol) then headed to the Tabernacle in Atlanta.  We got down there early, as that was the plan, so we could get in line to get in.  The only tickets available were general admission, so it was a "first come, first serve" thing to get where you wanted to be inside.  We waited for TB and SB to get there then we went and grabbed a bite to eat and rushed back to get in line.  See...I knew the hubby would want to be as close to the stage as he could be so I kept rushing everyone to get in line early so we can get down to the stage.  I now regret that, but more on that in a bit.

We had fun in line.  TB and I laughed a lot, but then again we always do.  We talked about how interesting the locals were.  The phrase "NO I don't have any money for you" was said way too much.  We listened to a homeless guy serenade us.  Funny.  R & C finally got there and our little party was complete.  We about knocked down the poor guy who came around to issue the over 21 armbands that would allow us to drink.  He had such an important and prestigious position, that man, issuing drink bands.  Heehee.  When we finally got inside, we were pretty impressed with the Tabernacle.  It's a 100 year old church that was converted into a concert venue.  Pretty cool.  It holds 2,600 people, so it wasn't a huge place.

We went and got our concert t-shirts then our drinks and got back down on the floor in front of the stage.  Where we proceeded to laugh and giggle like idiots.   I have to share a little back story here....

I don't do well with people's gas.  I know, I know...everyone has to fart, burp whatever.  Hell...I'm like an 8 year old boy in that I think the sounds are funny.  However...BIG however...I DO NOT like to smell people.  Who does, right?  So back at Christmas time, me and TB were shopping at the local dollar store.  Filling our buggies and moving right along through the crowd of people.  At one point, TB turned to me and she had a funny expression on her face.  I didn't pay any attention, cause I was running my mouth.  When I finally stopped talking long enough to take a breath, I inhaled a big whiff of stink.  Completely taken aback, the words "SWEET JESUS" blurted from my mouth, and did so loudly.  At the same time, the fingers of one hand went up to pinch my nose while the other hand started flailing wildly, trying to get the smell away from me.  I realize now of course that my reaction was a little child-like and obnoxious, but at the time, it's just how it was.  TB started to laugh so hard that I thought she was going to stoke-out, or at the very least pee in her pants.  Since then, we have gotten many laughs out of that experience. 

Ok...back to being on the floor at the concert, laughing like goobers.  Here we are, the crowd is growing behind us, we are talking and laughing and all that...and all of a sudden I once again blurt out "SWEET JESUS!"  I thought the dollar store experience was bad...OMG!  We are so close to people that I can feel the damn fart before I smell it.  UGH!!!  Seriously??  Well, TB heard me over the crowd and once again proceeded to laugh so hard I was concerned for her health.  Once that moment passed, we decided to take a couple of pictures.  We didn't have a camera because we weren't sure they would let us in with one.  But...I did have my handy, dandy iPhone.  So we tried to take a couple of pics of the stage and of us.

Here is the stage before anyone came out.  You can see the backdrop and see how close we were to the stage.

This is the best shot we got of the 6 of us.  A cool guy that TB knew from DragonCon happened to be in front of us, so he snapped this for us.

Finally the first opening band started.  It was The Mighty Stef and his band The Honkytonk Nosebleeds.  No, I'm not kidding.  They were actually really good, and it was funny because at one point TB and I looked at one another and we were like..."those 4 guys up there...thats our 4 boys in about 10 years."  Kinda spooky.  After that band, came the second opener, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.  Ok...you HAVE to click on their name and go to their site to see them.  Imagine these 3 people (well...the drummer looked normal, so imagine the other 2) coming on stage...Rev Peyton looks like he just stepped off the Beverly Hillbillies set, wearing "high water" pants and sporting suspenders and a big bushy beard.  Then there's his wife, Washboard Breezy.  No...she doesn't have that nickname because she has washboard abs.  It's because she PLAYS a washboard.  Yes, I said played a washboard.  She is a bigger girl (which I can say cause I'm "fluffy") but she was freaking awesome!!  She came on stage in what looked like a red nightgown and black cowboy boots and she played that washboard so hard we thought her ta-tas were going to come tumbling out of her nighty.   I must say...I was impressed.  Not only could they play, and play really darn good, they were absolutely hilarious and very entertaining!!

This is Washboard Breezy.  I know it's not very good, but it's all I got. :o)

Then came the wait for Flogging Molly to come out.  When the other bands were playing, the crowds got a little rowdy, but we thought it was good...we could handle that, no biggie. 

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flogging Molly ran out on stage and then 2,000 people rushed the stage.  All of a sudden I'm being stepped on and pushed, my eyes are bulging out of my head, I'm spouting off Hail Marys (and I'm not even Catholic!), I'm becoming much too acquainted with ass end of the guy in front of me, I've gotten what felt like half a gallon of liquor dumped on me and I'm covered, COVERED in the sweat of strange people.  Just as my life flashed before my eyes and I had what I thought was my last thought ("oh God please let there be enough left of me for them to scrape off the floor so my family can bury me"), I caught the eye of a security guy who was able to get me out of the crowd.  Initially I think the plan was for him to lift me up and over the railing, but he was able to help me to walk the rail and step on everyone to get out.  The rest of the gang followed suit.

What in the name of all that is holy was I thinking?!?!  Or any of us thinking for that matter?  Anyway...we made it out of the crowd and ended up on a balcony.  We went from front of the stage to this:

Oh well...at least we were still able to see and of course, we were much more comfortable, not having people plastered to us.

As the guys hung out and watched, TB and I took a seat just outside of the room.  Where some little dude walked up and sat on my lap.  Huh?  TB and I were like "what the...?!"  Then he turns around, looks at me and says "what day is it?"  He finally got off my lap and we laughed.  Mostly we just sat and talked about how old we have gotten.  Back in the day, we would have toughed out the moshing crowd.  Hell, we probably would have crowd-surfed with the best of them.  But apparently that time has passed.  Now we sit back with our bottle of water (we had already sweat out all the beer and shared it with common folk below), and just talk about the young ones.

You know...as we were leaving, still laughing about everything, we all knew that we had had a blast.  We will definitely be doing the concert thing again, only next time the balcony seats will be good enough for us.

Thanks TypePad!!

I'm one of those people that will, for whatever reason, fill out surveys when asked.  I just like putting my opinion out there I guess.  Anyway, recently I did a survery for TypePad.  Honestly, I can't remember what it was about, but I think it was regarding new themes.  Maybe. 

I don't EVER win anything.  EVER.  EVER.  (get my point?) Imagine my surprise when I check my email and see that I was one of 5 winners (chosen out of those people that did the survery) of a $50.00 Amazon.com gift card.  How cool.  I was all giddy.  And of course I went right to Amazon.com and spent it.  So, yay for me!!  And THANKS TypePad!!  :o)

So much for that time management thing...

You know how I said I would try to practice better time management skills?

Well to quote Qman (a friend) "I failed.  I failed BADLY."

Between 2 part time jobs and 2 boys...I have just not been able to get everything done that I needed to get done.  Fortunately 1 of the part time jobs, the tax one, is winding down and coming to an end.  Thank God!  I have been going nuts lately.  Don't get me wrong..I have had a blast meeting the...uhhh...colorful?...people at the tax office.  But I'm ready to be done.  My hubby is ready for me to be done and my boys are ready for me to be done.

To be honest, I don't have a lot to say right this moment.  So I thought I post some family photos and let everyone see me and my and beans. :o)

This is the fam at a 4th of July celebration this past summer.  Note to self:  LB2 does NOT like fireworks!

My dad is a biker.  He always has a "do-rag" lying around and the beans wanted to wear one for a while.  Made for a cute photo op, dontcha think?!

This a good one of my beans and their bestest buds, Q and Z.  We were at a Halloween thing at a local museum.  Given their stances and the globe thingy behind them, we call this one "Saving the World." ;-)

I have lost a week.

No really.  I have NO idea where this week has gone.  A full 7 days.  Just gone.  I remember last Friday.  And now it's this Friday.  Hmmm....I wonder if I've been drugged.  After all, that's what Britney Spears family is claiming as her reason for being so nutso lately.  I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I stole their excuse.

So last Friday we got our neices, ages 17, 12 and 10 for several days.  They actually stayed until Tuesday.  It's always fun to have them, but it's always hard too.  I know boys.  Period.  I may be a girl, but that doesn't mean I know what to do with them. Not to mention, different families, different rules.  But anyway, they are home now so all is good, lol.

On top of that, it just seems like I have been going non-stop this week, literally.  What's worse is my brain keeps going even when my body doesn't want to.  So when one day finally comes to an end and I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep, I can't because I'm too busy planning and worrying about everything I have to do the next day.  Ugh.  But, it's alright.  The plight of a mommy and wife I suppose.  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.  I wouldn't mind chasing a horse tranquilizer with a couple (dozen) shots of tequila once in a while, but I wouldn't change a thing. ;-)

One cool thing that happened this week was the eclipse.  I kept running in and out of the house, trying to watch the eclipse, yet remain involved in a chat that was going on with some fellow bloggers.  Didn't work too well, but I did get a chance to say hi to everyone and to gain a little more information about blogging.  We had a terrific view of the eclipse.  No clouds or anything.  LB1 was impatient the whole time.  "Mama, is it almost over YET?"  "Why won't it be covered already? I really want to see the moon covered." It was funny to hear him.  He wanted so badly to see the moon completely covered by the shadow, he just didn't want to wait for it to happen.

LB2 on the other hand, was a totally different story thanks to Daddy, who apparently FORGOT what child he was talking to.  He stated that the moon wasn't getting darker, it was getting eaten by the Earth.  While some kids might find this funny, LB2 did not.  Not even remotely.  While some kids may know that their parents are just teasing and funning with them, LB2 did not.  Not even remotely.

Remember the half hour tirade about the HUGE underwears??  Yeah, well that night we had another tirade.  This one, as the fine folks at NASA probably heard, was "BAD EARF!  THAT'S NOT FUNNY!  I DON'T WANT THE MOON TO GET EATED!!!"

While funny at first, funny eventually gave way to "Seriously. Stop.  Please? Pretty please? We'll let you have ice cream. Really.  All the ice cream you want, if you just stop. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP!"

At some point before the eclipse was over, he did stop, and we ended up laughing and enjoying the evening.  The eclipse provided an excellent lesson in Astronomy and we just had a good time, thankful that we had the opportunity to watch it as a family.

For those that were not able to see the eclipse, here are a couple pictures thanks to my dear friend, TB, and her fabulous new camera.

Hopefully next week will better and I will remember to practice my time management skills.  Well.....that might be asking too much.  Maybe I will remember to try to practice my time management skills. 

What show are you happy to see return?

We all know how happy I am that I can dust off my DVR remote and return to life as it were...with my late night "catch up" of all the TV shows that I love but didn't get to see because...well, because I have kids.  Kids and TV time do not go hand in hand, unless it's the latest episode of The Backyardigans or Avatar the Airbender.

Thanks to a great idea by a fellow blogger, Topsy-Techie, I decided to poll readers to see what shows they missed the most and are the happiest about returning.  Just post your favorite shows in the comments section (considering that I watch WAY TOO MANY, I will not put a limit on how many you can list) and in a few days I will report which show is the most missed. 

I'll start.  Remember, I have already admitted to my severe addiction to all things scripted.

I am happiest to see, in this order:

Criminal Minds
Bones (hellloooo David Boreanaz!)
CSI: NY (Lieutenant Dan!  Lieutenant Dan!)
CSI
CSI Miami
Grey's Anatomy
Law and Order SVU
Ghost Whisperer
Without a Trace
Numbers
Smallville (one of the few things me and the boys watch together)
Medium

Well, that's most of them anyway.  My DVR pulls a lot of overtime, huh?  Ok, so.  Who's Next?