I am a wealth...

of information. I found this site and thought I would pass it on. Our friend Snatch is deployed, but he has a lot of friends and family that hook him up with goodies, and he shares the extras. BUT there are a lot of men and women overseas who do not have anyone to send them anything, and that makes for a very, very long tour. I think we are going to adopt a soldier or two to show out deep thanks.

http://www.anysoldier.com/

who woulda thought?

I live in Tabor, Iowa, population oh roughly 1000 (on the generous side). Today the local school which has less then 600 students k-12, had a bomb threat. The only way I knew anything about it was I just happened to be going up to the school to take Bubba his glasses. Chick called me like 1/2 hour later to come get her from a church. The kids were evacuated to two local churches right before lunch. The kids that didn't get picked up had to return to the school and maintain their day. No one ever thinks that something like that will happen. Apparently it was written on a bathroom mirror so, kinda fishy. BUT what does it say that kids today think making these kind of threats is a joke?

Better

I am not so stressed today, just tired. I took a sleeping pill last night because I just knew that I was going to have trouble sleeping from all my inner turmoil. So instead of waiting till 3AM and going 'why didn't I think to take a pill?' I went ahead and took one. Here it is almost 11 Am and I am still groggy. That is why I don't hardly ever take one but sometimes, you know, it is nice to get solid nite nite time.

Chick is working on her fundraising for our trip to DC. Her and I are going to work the concession at the track meet in Glenwood tonight and she is trying to sell magazines. I HATE that one but they do get $8.00 for each subscription, even renewals. If anyone wanted to know how to help over the Internet, I would be happy to email you the info. That is all I will say on that.

Dude learned to dial 911. Unfortunately, he didn't listen when they said EMERGENCY ONLY because all he heard was 'talk to a fireman' . Yeah that is fun, telling him the firemen have more important things to do then talk on the phone.

411's soccer season is in full swing, she is loving it. Still doesn't like the running though. Bubba got glasses, he is amazed at how much better he can see now.

ya know...

There has come a time when I just want to throw my hands in the air and go, what now? what did I do to deserve this? who did I piss off in which previous life so bad that I deserve this stress? To be fair, there is nothing life threatening or catastrophic, it is just a plethora of minor irritations that piles on day after day. So what is new in my life? Nothing, just the same old, different day. The toilet overflowed, AGAIN, guess who got to clean it up. I had to run a kid to the hospital last night, guess who got to clean up the dinner mess from last night. Mr needs a test done, guess who gets to take him. Chick took too long of a shower, guess who's fault that is. Someone left the freezer standing open all night, guess who got to clean up the melted ice cream mess all over the floor. There are no clean towels (see #1) guess who gets to do the laundry. This is wrong, it is my fault. That is wrong, it is my fault. Being a responsible adult is no fun.

We heard from our friend Snatch. He is in the middle of nowhere, an hour away from phones and any kind of shopping or mail even. I am guessing he will be wanting a care package sooner then later.
I am looking forward to May, we have a sisters breakfast, Mothers day, my moms bday, my trip to get away. I am not looking forward to June with all 5 kids home all day every day.

I told you so

Every since I have had the option, I have chosen to be barefoot. I have taken a lot, ALOT of grief over this but today, I am gloating just a tad when I found this article.




Barefoot is better
Shoes do more harm than good, as the human foot is nearly perfect, a writer says. » Walking wrong NPR.org

Flying turdballs

I have two sons, Bubba and Mr., they have been potty trained for 6 and 2 years respectively. Occasionally, they have bowel issues. This could be stress related but more probably is sheer laziness. I have bribed, yelled, threatened, harassed, begged, pleaded, asked nicely even for them to stop crapping their pants. Apparently they have figured out that I do not enjoy cleaning up after them (or making them do it) because now they have taken to hiding it. You know that expression, it all comes out in the wash? yeah, that is where I am going with this. I was doing laundry this morning and my dryer starts to sound like I am drying a pair of tennis shoes. Which, since I am the only one that does laundry, I know to not be true. So I open the door to see what is making the noise, and out flies a cupcake sized turdball. Lavender fabric softener did nothing to make that smell better. Of course, no one knows anything on how it happened to get there. Happy Monday to me indeed. I love my children, I love my children, I love my children

AAAHHHHHHHHH

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Wednesday mornings? All 5 of the lovely children are at school for 4 hours. No babysitting, no Mr., whatever shall I do? Take a deep breath and luxuriate in it I spose. Let's see, Blondie and Chick went to school laughing together. As I write that I am beating on my desk to ward of whatever juju comes from NOT knocking on wood. I keep saying a little prayer that they each will discover that the other is not the handmaiden to satan and that they actually can get along.
I am loving the weather, 70's yesterday and today. Then mother nature has to go and get PMS and give us a rainy 48 degrees tomorrow. All the more reason to spend as much time outdoors today.
I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about a bill that is going to Mayer of Omaha, Mike Fahey, about letting under 21 people into concerts at music venues (bars) where they normally wouldn't be allowed if they have a notarized permission slip from their parents. I think it is a good idea within limits. Like say 18 and up with permission slip and 16 and up with an adult. It is a smaller venue, easier to keep track of who is doing what. Like one mom called in and said,' I would rather my son be somewhere everyone knows his age then somewhere he is sneaking it.' As for myself, I guess I am having a hard time understanding the big deal. I used to go to the clubs in Colorado Springs when I was 16. I had to pay a $20 cover charge(regular cover was like $5), get a neon wristband and surrender my ID. If at anytime I didn't have my wristband or I had been caught doing something naughty, they would have called the police to come escort me home. It was a ball, the $20 was hard enough to come by that I didn't wanna waste it by getting tossed out let alone be escorted by cops. I was easily intimidated though so maybe that makes a difference.
2 weeks and 2 days till my mini vacation with my sister and my mom. That is how I am choosing to look at it as opposed to going to Kansas (the evil state) to see my nephew graduate (from a 2 year program at age 28). It'll be the first time I have seen Terrie since '05 I think. I am trying to remember, I know it was Christmas. Anyway, it will be nice to go be a grown up.
I am so excited, it is officially yard sale season. There are three I am looking forward to going to this weekend, one of which is my sister in law, Dianne's, work is having their annual sale. All the employee's donate stuff to it, I will just have to go down to it. HEE HEE Then two weeks after that is a sister breakfast. Chick was asking me the other day when her and Megan can start coming. I think I will have to get with Chelle about starting another tradition because I am selfish and don't want to give up it being just the sisters. Even though I am just a lowly in law. I forget that once in awhile, my poor kids are so confused. "If Aunt Dianne is your sister, how can she be my Gramma Diana?" no no Dianne is Mike's sister, Diana is my mom. yeah, 411 is 8 and still gets all the relations mangled. At least they knows that everyone loves them, that is most important.

ideas......

Here are some ideas I can up with to maybe make for Chelle's party. She hasn't made an announcement of it yet, but we all know and love her and parties are her thing. And the earlier I get started, the better. So anyway, here are a couple of thoughts.

1. Fruit cocktail- pineapple, coconut and banana

2. Tiki surrounded by 'Hawaiian' print (hard to do in crayon)

3. Sunset- Palm tree, beach and of course a sunset (again, hard to do with crayon)

4. Flip Flop- shoes and ribbon

All colors are subject to change, I have to work with whatever Crayola's I have on hand. I am still pondering so I may have more options later. So what do you guys think?

Why is it?

My children have taken a page out of their father's books and delight in making my blood boil. For some reason, they think that my twitching is humorous. They are incredibly disrespectful and hateful to each other. I have made them sit and hold hands, write letters to each other, apologize face to face, hug, tell each other 5 nice things about the other, everything I can think of. And within 5 minutes, they are smirking, making some snide comment, 'accidentally' bumping into one another or doing something else to piss the other off. All 5 of them are just as guilty as the others. I was raised as an only child and maybe that is why I don't understand the delight in torturing a sibling. I swear they get it from Mikey.
I need to get the kids' pictures taken, I am so slacking. I was just looking at all the framed pictures I have sitting above my desk, they have changed sooo much. But not at all. It is weird, I can look at a picture of Chick at 6 months and totally see how she got to where she is now but for the life of me, I couldn't begin to imagine what she would look like. I look at the baby pictures of Bubba and I can see that ornery little glint in his eye even then. I love pictures and wish I had the drive to scrapbook them as wonderfully as Whimp, Karen and my mom does. I have tried, just don't have the creative drive for that. I would rather think up a pattern and make a quilt or stocking. Yet another siiiiigggghhhhhh goes here.
It is snowing/raining/windy out, really yucky. Can you tell from my mood?

I can't make this stuff up.....

I was surfing around because I had a whole two hours to myself and I found these stories.


Parents Fight Over Which Gang Toddler Should Join
Police: Mother A Crip, Father A Westside Baller http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/15851207/detail.html



Panel may rule if sex practices protected

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080409/od_nm/bondage_odd1_dc;_ylt=AqbwFKyVP2FH4BdvwyHQ5zDtiBIF

Some things...

My sister in law recently asked me why I made the cancer ribbon quilt, if I knew someone that had it. I made it for my friend Shawna who is a fundraiser extraordinaire. She is a committee member for her local RELAY FOR LIFE( http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=5818&pg=entry ) and works very hard to beat the previous years goals every year. We have had a lot of luck raffling quilts that I have made up here so I thought I would share. I designed it with RELAY FOR LIFE in mind.
Now to answer the other part, I have been fortunate in that cancer has touched my life peripherally. My grandfather, PK, ended up passing away because by the time they found it, it was in all his major organs (I was in another country). My bestest friend from elementary school, Brandy, had cancer in her sinus' when we were 16 (I was in another state by that time). Make a wish granted her a wish and everything but she ended up beating it and now has 2 kids. A guy that used to follow me around, Greg, wrote me in high school (again another state) that he had it somewhere ( I don't remember where but he ended up beating it too). My mother's husband, Art,(yeah, enough said about him) had Leukemia. A lady from our town, Susie, had stomach cancer and lost her battle last year leaving 3 small children. And a close friend of Mike's had a daughter, An Marie, that lost her battle at age 6. I didn't get a chance to know her very well but it is heartbreaking all the same. I have been very blessed to not have a closer knowledge of it and I support fully anyone who will take the time to raise funds to try to find a cure.
In other news, our friend Snatch has left the country. Mike is really bummed and worried, he is like the little brother that Mikey never had. I am going to be putting a box together for him soon, just have to decide what to send.
Kids are all relatively unexciting this week, other then 411 had her first soccer game. It is fun to watch these kids, they are starting to get the ideas of passing and teamwork. She is a goalie helper, doesn't have to run much which is a good thing.
The next quilt I am planning will have a luau theme for the party at Chelle and Jason's. I am thinking tiki maybe..........

Here is a quilt I made for my youngest out of his old recieving blankets. Might I point out I only intended this to be big enough to cover the top of his bed, like a throw.....

















This is my latest, it is a cancer ribbon quilt, every color represents some form of cancer. TEAL- Ovarian SILVER & BLUE- Coping with cancer PINK- Breast GRAY- Brain GREEN- Kidney/Leukemia GOLD- Childhood LAVENDAR- Unspecified/Gynological WHITE & TEAL-Cervical BLUE-Colon


















And this is why Mikey has been so excited, this is the new camper. I'll get some insid eshots later....

WAHOO!!

I am done clipping my latest quilt. It kinda turned out a tad bigger then I was expecting, which seems to be a theme with me. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I am so excited by this one!! The only thing that would make it better is if I had good pictures of a certain ark one that I made. Gee, I wonder if I could get someone to take some? Hmmmmm

OK, I stand corrected, I do have a picture of the ark quilt on my blog so I just lifted it from there. It was sent when I had my old puter so that is where my confusion was.

Lifelines

Oppositional Defiant Disorder. This is what I live with. Let me give you examples I say "you need to take a shower everyday, you have gone through puberty, you have adult odors, you need to bathe". No shower, bath, or even wipe down happens for days on end. I say "it is 30 degrees outside, you need a winter coat on". It is carried out the door on an arm, while a nylon running jacket is worn. I say "you have a chore to do, get it done". A sleeping pill is taken and off to dreamland with no chore done. On top of another child with anal retentive tendencies, another one hell bent to destroy everything he can as quickly as he can, another one with serious illusions of neglect, and yet another one who is passive aggressive enough to make you pull your hair out. Is it any wonder that I am counting down till my weekend getaway, birthday breakfasts, lunches with my mom, etc. These are my sanity lifelines.

AARRGGHHH

If I were to go into a courtroom and lie my ass off, there would be a consequence. Instead, there is a person I know who did just that and was rewarded for it. I am really frustrated and I know that it probably happens all the time. The truth will come out eventually and all the appropriate cliche's but seriously, how many chances should one person be given?
And on another note, I am sooo tired of teens. Why do I get to be the bad guy every day, every time? You guys can't imagine what kind of anticipation I have for May 2&3. I don't care if I do have to go to the evil state; two full days of grown up peoples. YAHOO!! I have got to find something decent to wear for the grand occasion. Which means I will have to buy something because my closet is pathetically casual. It is depressing to try to find something that doesn't make me feel/look like 250 lbs of hell.
So Bubba brings home another detention slip. He gets these because he doesn't do his homework or is messing around in class not working and gets sent to study hall, after 2 in a weeks time, he gets detention. This is something that has gotten really really bad this year. He almost refuses to attempt to learn anything that doesn't interest him. If it doesn't explode, shoot or die in some way, he isn't interested. They were looking at sending him to an excel program at the beginning of the year, now he goes to remedial math because he doesn't listen to the instructions and then is lost when it comes to doing the work. Math especially is a layered learning, if you don't get the basics, you can't do the rest of it. And Bubba doesn't/won't see that he HAS to pay attention. It is frustrating.
411 has started soccer. They changed soccer camps this year so they won't be selling raffle tickets this year. Instead they get to sell tickets to a chicken dinner so the soccer club can buy a concession trailer. They have a week to do it. And all of the money for the camp comes out of pocket, it is a 3 day camp instead of 5 and they don't get a cool ball. She was very disappointed but I am sure she will like it just as well.
Chick is struggling with her 'tude. Sometimes she catches herself but most of the time not. It is getting to where I am looking forward to summer.
Blondie will be with us for at least another 4 months. I am not sure what she thinks of that, she doesn't like to talk about it. I can't imagine it is easy to not know long term. We'll see how things go....

Mikey got his new camper, already we have to take it back in. We looked at it a couple three different times, they did the walk through, we are very happy. When we got it to Kevin's, the couch slid away from the wall ( didn't know it would do that) and there is damage to the wall behind it. So he called the place we got it and they are going to fix it. He was all happy about that , so his car decided to blow up. We knew it was coming but it still is -for lack of a better word- frustrating.
I have made a new dental appointment for the 26th. Chelle highly recommends them so I am a bit less stressed about going. I am not looking forward to it by any means but hopefully, it will be a good experience so I will be good to go back. Speaking of dentists, I have to take all four of my kids to get a checkup here soon. yuck. Chick is going to need braces soon, when she loses all her baby teeth. She will be 14 in June, you would think she'd be losing them already. That is ok, a little more time to financially prepare. At this rate, 411 will be getting them at the same time :)