bad car-ma

Friday the 20th we went to Indy to visit family and for Thomas's scope in Cincinnati. I was so proud of us -- we picked Mike up from work almost 30 minutes earlier than we normally leave for the airport. The past few times we've headed to Las Vegas the traffic has been horrible and I've been sweating making it to the airport early enough. My paranoia stems from one really bad Atlanta airport experience with security lines nearly snaked outside the building and missing our flight. Not fun.

All was going fairly well - stop & go traffic, but not bad and not feeling antsy about making the flight at all. Then the air conditioning stopped working. I looked down and the temp gauge was on the H. Crap. Dang Taurus. We were not even planning to still be driving it - stupid title issues with the new Honda! So we made our way off the interstate with the temp gauge fluctuating between the normal range and hot. We were kinda near the strip, so we dumped the car in a mall parking lot across from the Trump. Mike called the number on a cab that was parked in the lot. The company actually called that driver and he came out and drove us the rest of the way to the airport. We checked our bags and Thomas and I went through security. Mike stayed outside the secure zone hoping to be able to hook up with his aunt who lives in Vegas and hand off keys to her. No dice - she was off work that day and they were off playing somewhere. So Mike arranged for the car to be towed to a dealership and came on through security.

Our flight was late and we got to Indy around 1:30 am. Got our luggage and went down to the car rental place. We had a car reserved with Avis, but they had left. They're *supposed* to stick around until their last flight gets in so they don't leave people stranded. Niiiiice. Fortunatly Thrifty still had agents at the counter and they honored our Avis rate.

Got to my mom's at 2:30 am and were able to sleep in a little the next morning. Mike and I spent some time with our respective best friends and we hung out with my parents a good bit.

My best friend just got engaged so we spent part of our Saturday at a David's bridal flipping through the wedding gowns. Since when did it become impossible to make gowns with sleeves?? Seriously, not even the plus sizes had sleeves. We asked and you can get them with sleeves, but they have none for you to try on with sleeves. What?? How are you supposed to know what it will look like? Who wants to gamble with their wedding dress for crying out loud?!? Whatever!

Carrie and I also went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner that night. We were hovering in the bar area by a column hoping to get a table there so we wouldn't have to wait so long. Nearly got accosted by some women claiming there had been a line for the tables. It was first come, first served, nutters. We let them have the table because, really, not worth it. We got the next table that came available a few minutes later anyway. When we were done with dinner, but waiting for dessert (Dude, I do not go to the CF and not have dessert - that'st just wrong.) stinky-too-much-perfume-wearing-middle-aged-ladies came up asking if we were going to be leaving soon. We said we had just ordered dessert but would be leaving after that. So they stuck around and HOVERED over our table. WHAT?? It got worse. Their socially-inappropriate husbands came over and began admiring our desserts. Seriously, one guy literally stuck his head between us and said "Oooh, that looks good! Is it strawberry shortcake?" with his face 2 inches from Carrie's plate. WHAT??? I had to just put my fork down and wait for them to get the hint. Idiots. When we got up to leave one fo the ladies said "I hope we didn't disturb you too much." CRAZY!!!!!

Thomas's scope was Monday and that went off without a hitch. We got his biopsy results back a few days later and he was all clear. So we get to keep that group of trial foods and re-try a set that had been "iffy" before when he was also off prevacid. Also Monday, Mike fed-ex'd the keys to the dealer so they could work on the Taurus.

Tuesday Mike came back home. The car wasn't ready so he had to take the shuttle from Las Vegas to St. George and get a cab back to the house. Mike worked Wednesday and then drove to Phoenix to stay with his parents and go see Purdue play in the Sweet 16 game. When he passed through Vegas, he picked up the Taurus from the dealer and parked it at the airport so Thomas and I could drive it home Sunday.

Thomas and I went to stay at my sister's and had a good time with the cousins. Thursday Carrie met up with us and took the kids to Krannert pool and to Cracker Barrel for lunch after. Turns out Krannert pool is the Nazi pool - no fun for you! When we walked in and paid we were told no pool noodles. Okay, I can see that - a zillion kids with pool noodles = mayhem. So we took the noodles back to the car and walked in. As we were walking in, one of the lifegaurds saw my niece's swim mask. "You can't use that kind of goggles here." What?? Turns out they won't allow face masks with a nose piece "because we've had some kids go under water and try to breath with those on." Um, okay. Seems like that would be a sort of self-correcting problem. Nose full of water is no fun, so don't do it again, kid. When Carrie asked about that and the noodles, she was told that they could use one of the life vests if they wanted. So she had one and was just holding onto it, floating. "Ma'am, you can't use a life vest like that." And, just so you know, we were the only ones there besides one kid who was there with his physical therapist. Crazy.

After a late lunch at CB, I took the kids to see my grandparents in the nursing home. It's so depressing. My grandpa looks worse each time I see him. He's the one I'd like to visit with, but between his hearing and my grandmother's constant interruptions, it's hard to have a conversation. My grandmother had saved some Mardi Gras junk from the activities room for the kids - silly hats and beads. Then she proceeded to fuss constantly at the kids about not breaking those beads. Lady, it's plastic fused on a string. If they break it, they won't have a necklace. Lesson learned. At one point, after I had told her this, she actually treatened that if one of the kids broke their necklace she was going to take the rest of them away. Seriously. All of a sudden it got to be time for us to leave.

Friday, I had dinner with some friends from high school. That was fun. Saturday was my sisiter's step kids' birthday party. So lots of family was out at her place and the kids all had a fun time together.

Sunday, Dawnn made a huge breakfast and Thomas and I packed up to come home. Our flight was delayed a bit and it was really, really bumpy. We had a stop in Denver and the next leg of the flight wasn't full, which was nice. The leg from Denver to Las Vegas was even more bumpy, though. They had to stop beverage service twice. Some guy a few rows in front of us was hurling his guts out. My back is still sore from being bounced around so much.

We got to Vegas and found the car just fine. Except that I *just then* realized that Mike had sent my keys to the dealer. Aw crap. Used the handy-dandy keypad code to get in the car, unloaded the luggage and checked the console and the glove box for keys. No dice. Crap. We went over to the edge of the parking garage to use my cell phone. I had bars, but the call wouldn't place. Crap. I've never successfully used my cell phone at the Vegas airport. Went back to the car and though to check under the floormat. Score. The wind was crazy and it made me really nervous driving in that.

Thomas's legs fell asleep from being cooped up so long, so I pulled off the interstate for him to stretch. Mike has me programmed to not turn the car off for a stop like that in the dessert - why risk that the car won't start back up? But when we got back in the car, things were wonky. My ABS and brake light were on and the traction control light said it was off. Weird. I gave the brakes a few test pumps and drove cautiously on. As we were nearing Mesquite, NV the headlights went out. I flipped the knob from 'auto' to 'on' and back to 'auto' and they came back on. Weirness. That happened one more time before I stopped in Mesquite to get a little gas. I was thoroughly freaked out by this point and had decided that if the car was still acting funky that I'd just get a room in Mesquite and wait for Mike to pass through. He was still in Phoenix. Purdue lost the Sweet 16 game, but he had stayed to watch the rest of the games and his boss had given him an assignment to call on a customer in Phoenix Monday before he drove back. But, when I started the car back up, all was fine. I'm thinking it was some electrical weirdness, maybe something blew into a connection from the wind?? Whatever, the Taurus was fine the rest fo the way home and I don't think I've ever been so relieved to be home.

garden

So it's not much, but I'm glad to have it. Because we're renting here (due to being here temporarily for Mike's work), we can't make changes to the landscaping. I was so excited when I found this little raised bed in the yard. Last year I didn't take full advantage of the garden. Mainly I grew tomatoes. A few other things were tried but didn't pan out spectacularly.

Anyway, I improved it a little bit this year. I brought in 3 big bags of soil and put down landscaping/weed-stopper fabric. I changed out a few of the irrigation heads to see if I can get a better watering system down. Instead of using the green poles like tomato cages, I decided to see if a 'wall' might work. We'll see. I pruned the Lady Banks rose bush early this year and am using a little piece of decorative metal fencing that was back there to see if I can contain it a bit more this year. It definitely encroached last year.

I've got sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes & early girl tomatoes in the back row. Then 2 pepper bushes - serranos & bells. Then on the left up front is the flat-leaf parsley that wintered over. It died back some, but managed to make it. Then 4 basil plants. We use a lot of basil. Then in containers on the patio I have a few other things. Cilantro, which I vow to water the heck out of this year. It didn't make it in the bed last year, so I'm trying it in a container this time. Thyme, which may not make it because it likes shade. I have it up under the patio roof, but we'll see. Oregano, which I have hopes for since it likes full sun. I also have a small container I threw some summer crunch lettuce seeds in. I had the container & some soil left, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

I think I might give some other things a try after these are through in the early fall. Any suggestions?

I'm sleeping with my kid's Cubmaster

Remember this?

So yesterday around 5:30, as Thomas and I were about to leave the house so we could run a few errands before den meeting, I got a call from the Cubmaster/Committee Chair asking if he and the Unit Commander (or somesuch official scouty-type-title -- I don't know all the lingo) could come over *that night* to talk about volunteering. Um, sure. Thanks for the advance notice. So, instead of running errands before den meeting, Thomas and I picked up the living room & I loaded the dishwasher.

So he said they'd be over around 8:00. And got there around 8:45. And stayed until 10:00. And he brought his 2 boys with him -- which meant that mine got *all kinds of wound up*. Apparently we don't have company often enough because Thomas gets all kinds of fired up about anyone coming over. The Committee Chair's boys are in the 10-12 year range. One is in Webelos and one is in Boy Scouts. So believe me, they were not nearly as thrilled as the 7 year-old was.

Anyway, Mike is now somewhat-officially the Cubmaster. He needs to have the background check and then it's official. Oh no, I hope they don't find out about the incident! Seriously, anyone who know my husband should be cracking up over that. Mike SO walks the straight and narrow.

So now Mike has to plan his first pack meeting. Did I mention that he's only been to one and it was the banquet? Yeah. So it's not like we really know what typically goes down at a pack meeting. This should be GOOD, people.

How did I not know this???

My favorite actor from my favorite show has a blog. Dispatches From the Island . Wicked

lazy days

So much of the time it seems our family is dashing from one place to another. Not day-to-day, my-kid's-life-is-overscheduled-school-karate-Monday-scouts-Tuesday-church-Wednesday dashing. We don't do that. Thomas had been activity-less for a long time before we joined Cub Scouts. I'm talking about our constant traveling. We've been staying put since New Year (except for my grandmother's funeral and that was just a few days and just me and I don't think it counts, right?) and I like it. I mentioned this to Mike's mother when they were here Valentine's weekend. Mike gave me a look. So I asked him about the look. It meant he was going stir-crazy and is getting the travel bug. Like a friend said, I think he's part Gypsy.

So we've really just been hanging here at home. So nice. I've been pretty much staying caught up with the laundry and the housework. There are no suitcases in various stages of packing and unpacking littering my bedroom. Things are downright calm. So calm and mundane that I'm not finding much to blog about. Nothing seems really *noteworthy* so the blog had gone without much updating. Sorry folks. I can tell you the mundane things we've been up to. Hold on to your seats, kids . . . ;)

Cub Scouting is going along swimmingly, despite what appeared to be a rather unorganized and haphazard first few den meetings. I think the poor lady running the den is just overwhelmed. I've offered to help, but she's not taking me up on it. Oh well, we'll just truck along and do our thing. Thomas finished his Bobcat stuff and one Wolf requirement after the first week. He finished 2 more Wolf requirements the next week. This week we'll turn in 3 more requirements. Sadly, I think that puts him ahead of a few of the boys in our den.

We went to our first pack meeting last Wednesday (an aside . . . WHY WEDNESDAY?!? Do these people not know LOST is on?? Seriously, it's the only show I really care about on TV.) which happened to be the Blue and Gold Banquet. They asked Mike to be the Cubmaster. Did I mention that it was our FIRST pack meeting?? The guy who is doing it now has been for the past 3 years, I guess and is ready to not be Cubmaster anymore. And they know that Mike is an Eagle Scout. I guess that's all they need to know?? Now, we did mention when we signed Thomas up that we'd be happy to help and asked for adult applications. "Help" and run the whole show seem to be two different things to me, but we'll see.

Speaking of LOST . . . DANG! It is sooooo good this season. I'm geeking out over it every week. Just about every Thursday I'm ending up spending the morning over at The Fuselage reading what the other geeks are thinking and theorizing. Then my pal Toni and I hole up in a corner at park day on Fridays and talk about it. BEST. SHOW. EVER.

We've been making it to the library regularly again. Regularly enough that we're not paying fines every time we check things out now. I've been having time to read again. So nice. Mike's sister, her husband and I are doing an A-Z challenge over on Goodreads . We're supposed to read books from authors with names beginning with every letter of the alphabet. The group is open to anyone, so if you're a reader and want to participate, you can find me on Goodreads and join in. Right now I'm reading A Prayer for Owen Meany. That would be my 'I' selection. So far, so good. Except that it was seeming really, really familiar to me, yet I knew I hadn't read it. Wikipedia to the rescue. Turns out the movie Simon Burch was loosely based on the first part of the novel. Weird. Why only the first part?

Brown Day

We love our UPS drivers!

Yesterday we got most of our Amazon order and our Rainbow Resource order. New stuff for school! Yippee!

What we have here:

more logic books - Thomas LOVES these and was really irritated when he finished the last book of them.

the teacher's manual for Thomas's new science - still waiting for the student books to come, but at least I can start picking up the supplies now

window chalk markers - I'll let Thomas practice his spelling words on the patio door

new mazes & dot-to-dots - I call these his brain warm-ups. Really I have him to them for fine motor practice, but he doesn't need to know.

knights stained glass coloring book - another sneaky fine motor activity

Case Closed - a little book of mini-mysteries to solve using clues in the story and illustration

In other news, Thomas is still very enthusiastic about Cub Scouts. Today we will be working on a banner to display his collection of National Park Junior Ranger badges. This will complete another requirement on the Wolf trail. You know I'll post it, right?

25 Random Things

This has been going around Facebook. And since I'm in a blogging slump, I thought I'd post it here, too. If you read this and you have a blog, consider yourself tagged.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I felt compelled, nay, duty-bound to correct the open parenthesis in the instructions of this thing.

2. I have a brown streak in my right eye. Mike calls it the sh!t streak.

3. Speaking of sh!t, I used to curse. A lot. It sometimes still trips me up. It's a terrible habit and I hate it about myself.

4. In 4th grade I lost a tooth in music class and got in trouble. I was chewing a Starburst candy when I wasn't supposed to be, which took out my loose tooth.

5. In 4th grade I cried in class one day. I can't remember why. Probably because of the teacher. I hated my teacher that year. What I do remember is the girl sitting behind me making fun of me and calling me a crybaby. I got up, slapped her across the face and said "Who's crying now?" 4th grade was a really bad year for me.

6. I went to Purdue just because Mike was there. I never admitted that to my parents and fed them a bunch of baloney about it being a great school for my chosen major, etc. But really, I was following a boy. Good thing that worked out.

7. I changed my major half-way through college. I decided I did not want to go to graduate school, so why major in psychology? I chose my new major based solely upon what I could still finish 'on time'. Why? Because I knew I wanted to marry Mike and didn't want to wait for that or be separated for school. Kids, I love my husband and my life, but don't do this. I now have a degree in social studies education that I pray I will never have to use.

8. In order to finish 'on time' I had to do some crazy stuff. I took all summer school available and took 21 credit hours + worked the semester before I student taught. Consequently Mike and I got married on a 3-day weekend I had from 'Maymester.'

9. Even though I don't want to do it, I have great respect for good public school teachers. One changed my life and I hope everyone had someone like Mrs. Wade. She saw potential and challenged me to do better than I had been doing in school.

10. The semester I took 21 hours, one of my classes was History of WWII. I think I might have failed it. The first day of class the professor made some sexist remarks. I showed him (ha!) by never returning to lecture and rarely cracking the book. The class had only 2 grades: the mid-term and the final. I got a D on the mid-term. When I checked my grade on the professor's door at the end of the term, he had me down for a B. It was barely mathematically possible, and not highly probable that I had aced the final. Still, I never said anything because I needed the class to graduate. I still feel guilty whenever I think of it.

11. My parakeet and my sister's hamsters all died one Christmas day. My family was heating with a wood-burning stove that winter because we were BROKE. My dad stoked the fire up really high so it would still be warm when we got home from visiting grandparents. It got too hot in the living room and the animals literally roasted.

12. Mike and I had the first fight of our marriage over a pot roast. I bought a roast that I had planned to get 3 meals out of. I didn't know it, but Mike didn't really like roast much. So he ate the *whole thing*. Makes sense, right? He did it so that he wouldn't have to eat it day after day. Mike didn't have a job yet post-college and I was still in school and working part time. We were broke and there was no more grocery money until my next payday.

13. We play card/board games as a family nearly every day. Our favorites are Blokus, Stratego and Apples to Apples Junior.

14. Despite going to nearly every GHS football game in high school, I never understood how the game worked . . . until Mike begged me to play Strat-o-Matic Football with him.

15. Not only was I a nerd in high school, I was a State Champion Nerd (English Academic Bowl senior year). Just because I used the past tense there does not mean I am no longer a nerd.

16. Thomas was born at 27 weeks gestation because I had pre-eclampsia. He weighed 1 lb. 14 oz. and was in the hospital for 2.5 months.

17. I totally believe that happened so that God would be glorified in his life. See John 9:1-3.

18. http://www.biblegateway.com/ and http://www.apologeticsindex.com/ are 2 of my favorite websites. And, um, FB if that's not painfully obvious by now.

19. I should be ordering homeschool curriculum *right now*. I promised Thomas we would do chemistry after we finished his astronomy text. There are only a few lessons left of that.

20. I didn't want to homeschool Thomas when we first started. I thought it was the best among some not-great options we had at the time. I love it now and cannot imagine doing anything else!

21. Sometimes I laugh so hard that I get tunnel vision and feel like I might pass out. This is usually Carrie's doing.

22. People who have known me awhile don't believe that I am an introvert. Really. Myers-Briggs even says so - INFJ for those who know the lingo. I am terrible at small talk and get incredibly nervous being around new people. I rarely make the first move in a new friendship. I often come across as self-centered because I am too nervous to ask people questions about themselves. I'm working on it, though.

23. I speak fluent Sarcese.

24. I went to 10 National Parks in 2008.

25. Mike and I were the Phi Kappa Theta Disco Dance Champions of 1990. Seriously.