It's been awhile...

I told y'all I was anti-social! Or busy. Mostly, daily drama involving the teenagers in this house, coupled with multiple loads of laundry, various hours on the Wii, tilling a new garden, planting said garden, cleaning up, working, and sleeping.

I haven't touched my sewing machine to quilt in... months. I did, however, finish the "mending" pile that was threatening to take over the table. I can't convince the people in this house that the machine is only for quilting.

I visit my garden daily... and speak nice things to the very few plants that decided to spring forth from seed. I planted a little early (last frost date for here is Friday), and we had a couple of days of pretty good rain. I think it may have washed out some of the seeds. I purposely didn't plant them all, so that I would have some seeds left to plant at a more appropriate time! So, wouldn't you know, there is a freeze warning out for tonight. So my beautiful peas, beans, strawberries, potatos, and ONE zucchini may not make it through the night. I'm still hopeful though!

Other than that, my truck is in the transmission shop. (Insert really sad face here). It will be about a week and a half before I can drive it again, and I really miss it. I can't stand driving any of the kid's cars, and we have been playing car tag around here for a week already. It's a pain to see who has to be at work at what time, who can drive who where, or pick up who when. And we are all on different schedules. DH and I are at work before 6 am, DS works 10 pm to 7 am, DD is at school from 8 to 2, and my stepson works 4 pm to whenever. So it's been interesting.

So, I guess that's the update on the happenings around here. I'll try not to let it be so long next time!

Wii

So, my son (ultimate gamer dude) and I were talking about video games one day, and I guess I mentioned wanting a Wii. For the fishing games, because you can get a "fishing pole" to play with. So said kid goes and buys a Wii. Says it's for my birthday/Christmas. We have had an absolute BALL with this game system! Bowling, pool, darts, racing..... we are all together playing (instead of mom being attached to her computer at the hip!!)

My dad and his long time girlfriend live in Germany. My dad is one of those people who are impossible to buy for. He has everything, needs nothing. Yesterday, I get an email from my step-mom, saying my dad wants this balance board for his Wii. I'm instantly tickled, my dad has a Wii??? My kids proceed to tell me that he is the "cool pop" just like I'm the cool mom, because I play video games with them. So anyway, my step-mom can't find this balance board online for anything less than an exorbitant amount of money. Seems EVERYONE wants one, and certain sellers have figured this out.

So I go on a mission. It's not often my dad wants something that I can provide! The kids and I go to town, and hit the two "big box" stores that my smallish town offers. No balance board there. Too early for the mall to open (does anyone else's mall open at the really strange hour of 10 am on a weekday?). Decide we will have to go an hour up the road to the "City". Come home to get driving directions off the internet. Can you tell I don't go to the "city" very often?? LOL.

Step-mom said Circuit City still had the balance board. Just happen to check online for store availability..... nope, none at any store within a 100 mile radius. Well, crap. OK, how about Best Buy? Nope. Toys R Us? Yeah, if you want to spend that exorbitant amount of money, because theirs is in a bundle, with a bunch of other stuff. Check a few other online places. No dice.

OK.... the mall is open now. Let's go there, and check out the video game store. Walk in, look around. Nothing on the wall, or around the register. Ask the really nice sales clerk. She says SURE! We have them in the back!!! Tell nice sales clerk she is my new BFF. She laughs at me. But I don't care!

So today, I have to get this mailed off to my dad in Germany. And do laundry. And hopefully find time to make my nieces Christmas quilts. Which would happen a lot faster if I'd get off this computer!!!

Hugs!

Thursday Musings

So, long time, no visit. Sorry about that. The reality is, I'm antisocial. Well, I guess that's not really true, as I love to visit fellow bloggers and catch up on what is going on with you all! I just don't have much to say sometimes. Well, nothing very nice, anyway. And mamma always said.....

So, my 18 year old daughter will graduate from High School this year. I've already been informed that she is moving out and in with her boyfriend shortly after graduation. Not that I have a huge problem with this... I really like the young man. A LOT. He's a good kid, takes good care of my DD. He told her he didn't want her to get a job, because that would take away from the time they spent together, and that he would provide her whatever I couldn't (or wouldn't, how many new shirts can one kid wear?!?). And he does provide for her. Spoil her even. Fortunately for him, she's not the kind to take advantage of that.

My 21 year old son is anxiously awaiting the day his sister moves out. He thinks he's knocking out the wall between their two rooms. Little does he know, that will be my sewing room. But he said he's never moving out. He knows a good thing when he's got one, I guess. He pays his sister to wash his clothes, he pays a little rent around here. There's always electricity, hot water, food, internet. Someone to make sure he gets out of bed and off to work (kid has NEVER heard the alarm clock, but wakes up if you talk to him).

So how many of you have grown kids like my son? If he was bad, or disrespectful, I'd encourage him to move out. But with the economy the way it is, I feel like I'd be doing him a disservice. I want him to be able to save enough money to be comfortable when he finally moves out. He's a good kid, appreciates what we do for him, takes out the trash, and is enjoyable to be around.

Then I think, maybe he'll never move out? What would that be like? Wierd? Or not?

I think I'll go find something to eat. Enough thinking for one day.

Hugs,

A Letter to Myself

Brandi, over at The Douglass Diaries blogged about Brad Paisley's song, A Letter to Myself. She asked what we write in a letter to our 17 year old selves. WTG for the thought provoking posts, Brandi!! So, here's my list.

1. You do NOT know everything. Not even close.
2. Take care of your mom. She needs you now, issues and all.
3. Boys should not be the center of your attention right now!
4. School work is way more important than it seems.
5. Your dad is not going to send you to college to party. (My 18 year old self needed that)
6. Get involved in your family history now. When you decide you're interested, there won't be anyone left to tell you what you want to know.
7. Brandi is totally right about Tom Cruise. (Hey, I'm writing this letter now, right?)
8. When you get a job, skip the invitation to the beach. Everyone was asleep anyway, and you'll lose the job. Trust me.


There's more, but this post got me thinking about how cool my grandpa was. When my brother and I were kids, grandpa would write us these letters. They were always stories, written in his hand, but written as if the dog was talking. They were really hilarious stories, about what the dog was doing, thinking, etc. And there was always Monopoly money in the letters. The letter always ended with "Let me know when you find a place to spend this money".
We finally asked grandma a year or so ago where grandpa got the monopoly money from. She said he would buy the games at yard sales so that he had plenty of money to send in his letters.

He had a workshop in the backyard. The radio always played "easy listening", but it was more like old timey elevator music... no words, just music. And he'd hand us a hammer, and give us scraps of wood and a bunch of rusty nails in an old coffee can, and tell us to build something. Not that we ever built anything..... but it was cool, to be out there with him.

He made "special" dough balls, out of bread and something, and gave them to us with fishing poles to go fish in the canal. Never did get a fish dinner out of that, either.

He had a bunch of parakeet cages fastened on the outside of his workshop. Never knew what the fascination was with parakeets, but he had a bunch.

He drove a backhoe when they lived in Florida. He took my brother and I for rides around the yard with him. It was cool too.

Hey, Brandi? Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Hugs!

Something for Monday

In September, we went to visit DH's sister in N.C. for a couple of days. She had to work, so we jumped in the truck, to see what we could see. I found this old covered bridge. The road is closed off, so I took the picture from the other side. I love cool old stuff like this!

This was next to the covered bridge.


Across the street from the covered bridge was this really cool building made of logs. Underneath the roof, there was lots of OLD equipment, tractors, and stuff. Unfortunately, this area was also blocked off with a big locked gate. I stood beside the road (hey, I was out of town, bad place to get arrested for trespassing!) and took these pictures. I really really wanted to just walk around in there. I hated the yellow caution tape, it really ruined the "oldness" of the picture.



Next to this was an old grinding mill. There were old grind stones laying around. It's really grown up and was hard to get a picture (standing beside the road, with 18 wheelers coming around the corner and blowing you around!!)

Too bad I don't have a really cool camera with telephoto lenses. All I have is my poor Kodak Easyshare, with 5.0 MP. Even my DD's camera is better than mine! Ahh, one day, I'll be a grown-up, with a grown-up camera!

If you stop by, leave a comment!

Hugs!

I found a great giveaway!

A $50 Amazon gift card over at UnexpectedBliss! http://www.unexpectedbliss.com/2008/10/27/bloggy-giveaways-carnival/

Hurry, ends at midnight, CST, November 3, 2008!


Hey, and for your dry, cracked heels (come on, you know you have them!!) there's a giveaway on her review blog for a Ped Egg!
http://www.unexpectedbliss.com/reviews/2008/11/01/ped-egg-review-and-giveaway/#comments

Ends at midnight, November 5th!

Mental Mayhem

Lots of things going on in my brain today. Rumors of the company I work for going bankrupt (add to that the fact that DH and my DS who lives at home and pays rent also work there), and the fact that I can't seem to STAY above water bill wise.... ugh. I've checked out the couponing sites... I just don't see coupons a lot for what I use. Am I missing something? We really don't spend a LOT of money on groceries... I don't think. Granted, DH is a "meat and potatoes" kind of guy... well make that "meat and rice". The kids and I are the potato lovers. Beans and cornbread, or stir fried vegetables with minimal meat? Kids and I are all over that. DH says "Where's the meat?". I have pork chops thawed out for tonight's supper. DH's favorite. Kid's and I are blah to that. I have the other half of the beef brisket in the oven for tomorrow's supper.

We planted a "practice" garden this year. Bell peppers, a watermelon plant, lots of zucchini and squash, 2 okra plants (note to self, 2 is not enough), a tomato plant (which went CRAZY, and none of us really eat tomatos?), and a couple of cucumbers. I planted too late in the year, so the bugs really enjoyed a lot of that. Especially the fire ants?!? Next year's garden plants include some beans, a row of corn, a different variety of watermelon (this year's watermelons all developed blossom end rot)

In other wierd metal thoughts...

I love my washer and dryer. I got the washer when my old washer finally died. Not that DH (who IS a mechanic) tore the old one apart in attempts to fix it. Only to find out it was cheaper to buy a new one. So I got a front loader. I love love love it. Course, after I got mine, they came out with the really cool "steam cleaner" ones, but I'm content, and hope I get a good 20 years service out of this washer. Then DH said I needed a matching set. Which I don't. I'm not that kind of girl. He said he was going to get me one for my birthday. I said whatever birthday it was that the old dryer died. So of course, the old dryer died. Thanks (in part) to my DD, who uses the dryer as an iron. And overloaded the CRAP out of the dryer when she washed her clothes. So, unbelievably, the (used) dryer to match my washer was living at the appliance store my step-son worked at. With the pedestal/drawer attachment!! (That was another $100 I wouldn't spend on the washer). And because it was used, I got a GREAT deal!

So now, I love doing laundry. The washing, the drying, even the folding (mostly because of the wonderful space on the tops of the washer and dryer!). Now the putting away part..... lets not go there. I'm even back to washing most of the kids clothes (which I quit doing when they turned teens), but now I don't mind. Or maybe it's a survivalist instinct, because I want my washer and dryer to last.

Wow. I am scatterbrained today. Think I'll go find my camera, download whatever's on the card, and finish my Halloween quilt. And start on something new. Mostly to avoid housework.

If you stop by, please leave a message! Even if it's just HI!!!! I'd hate to think I'm out here blogging alone!!!

Hugs!