Monday, July 27, 2009

The Tales of JOEY. . .

Look at these pics. . .this is what my neighbor saw when she was driving up the street early one morning. She was a bit horrified because it was EARLY and she thought that there was a dead or lost kid on the side of the road. . .Nope, no kid. Just Joey.
The tale of Joey is a bit of a long one, but I will try and shorten it as much as possible. Joey arrived at my house after my son, "Skamp" went on a trip to Vegas with his friend. They found Joey at a second hand store and decided they HAD to have him.

The first night Joey arrived at my house with my son, we hid Joey in "Nutmeg's" bed. She went into her bedroom and FREAKED out when she saw him laying there. I went walking by just as she picked Joey up and threw him out into the hallway. I caught him and immediately threw him back at her. As I did, she tried to slam her door and Joey's neck got caught in the slammed door. His head was peering in my daughter's room, and his body was caught on the outside of the door. This of course made her freak out even more.

That night, her loving brothers took Joey and put him in Nutmeg's bathroom. The next morning she woke up and went in to get ready for the day. . .again LOUD SCREAM! The boys continued to taunt their sister with Joey until she threatened to rip him to pieces and throw him away.

Over the next few weeks, I found Joey in the tree, hanging from the patio, on top of the street sign, you name it, he was probably placed there. He went to countless friends homes to scare them and so on and so forth. Joey was quite the hit of the party around here.

So, one night after they had been using Joey as part of their capture the flag night games, apparently, someone forgot to bring him in. Thus, the pictures Alicia took up above. So, Joey spent the night out on the front lawn and Alicia had the ba-gee-bers scared out of her thinking it was a real kid.

Alas, poor Joey has seen better days and seems to have fallen apart from all of his fun and games this Summer. At least the memory of Joey will always remain with us.

Until next time. . .

Friday, July 24, 2009

Survival. . .

I started Summer semester with a bang. . .15 credits after being away from school for 18 months (yet again). I knew it would be difficult to have that many credits after being on hiatus for a while. I had to get the cobwebs out and get my brain to work scholastically again. Even though I knew it was going to be hard, I don't think I realized how hard it would be.

My class schedule consisted of being in classes from 9-5 each day and then 5-6+ hours of homework each night. I started classes on May 18th and finished them up on July 23rd.

My house was being run on auto-pilot during the week because I was too busy to deal with it. My older kids had to take the responsibility of watching my two younger kids ALL day. I have to give kudos to "Bones" because his sister was gone most weeks with volleyball, EFY, camp, etc. So, he did have the most babysitting to do. He was a trooper. I can't say that he never complained about his babysitting duties this Summer, but he didn't complain often.

The craziness continued to gain momentum when my sister arrived with her kids on July 4th to stay for a month. We were excited to have them come and stay since we don't get to see them often. . .they probably wondered what they had gotten themselves into when they saw how crazy my life is right now.

My sister is still here and now we can finally take the time to have some fun because I SURVIVED and finished up finals yesterday. I officially have 15 more credits towards my bachelors degree and I am still sane after all that the past 12 or so weeks has dished out to me.

Now to enjoy the 4 week break before I start Fall semester and live the craziness all over again ;)

Until next time. . .

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Finals Week. . .Need I Say More???

Since I am so busy with finals, I don't have time to write much. So, enjoy my FaVoRiTe Lance Armstrong commercial until I get time to blog again :) I find this commercial so inspiring!!!

Monday, July 13, 2009

qUiEt. . .

Things are awfully quiet around here! My hubby took my two little boys up north to visit with their grandparents and cousins and so the three of them are gone for the week. "Nutmeg" is back from EFY, but she is at volleyball camp from 8 am - 11 pm everyday this week. Kam doesn't live with us anymore, so all that is left is myself and "Bones".

"Bones" is still grounded and I think that he is bored out of his mind. I am liking the peace and quiet for now because I am getting all of my homework done. I am sure that I will be missing my two little boys before too long though. At least I know that they will be having fun.

I just freaked myself out because I took a sneak peek at the Praxis test that I have to take before they will let me student teach and um, well, it looked stinkin' hard!!! YIKES! and YIKES AGAIN! Deep breath. . .calming thoughts. . .deep breath. . .okay, so I am not going to think about it again for a while, I won't have to worry about taking it for a while. Maybe it won't seem so hard once I get a few more classes behind me. Here's hoping!

I best be off for now. I have to finish my homework and then do some church stuff.

Until next time. . .

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Waiting. . .

for my husband and my daughter to get back in town. We thought that waiting to eat lunch with them was a good idea, now I am STaRViNG!!! I hope they get here soon!!!

I have been working on my talk this morning. I get the "opportunity" to speak at church tomorrow. I don't mind speaking in church, I am just always a lot happier when it is over :) So, around noon tomorrow I will be breathing a sweet sigh of relief. AHHHHH!!!

My day also consists of oodles of laundry and running a bunch of errands. The grocery store is calling my name because it has been a week since I have gone and stocked up on things. My kids are also feeling picked on because they don't have any snacks. Boo, hoo. Don't you feel sorry for them? ;)

My hubby just drove up!!! YAY! TIME FOR LUNCH!!!

Until next time. . .

Friday, July 10, 2009

Day OFF!

From school that is! YAY! Gotta love that, & boy I sure do! I think I might even do some creating tonight with my scrapbook supplies!!!

We went back to the Insta-Care today and had the stitches taken out of my baby's head. He was a trooper. I am surprised at how great his head looks. For as deep as the wound was, the scar isn't going to be too bad.

I sent out Luau invites for my parents today. Glad I can check that off of my to do list.

Photobucket

I wanted to post one (with the info blurred out of course!) because they took FoReVeR and a day to make! That little hula girl was 9 separate paper piecings and then I had to draw her face and cheeks. I did some inking on her as well. What was I thinking?? LOL! I had to make 25 of those things! Next year perhaps I should do something not quite so time consuming. We shall see.

Well, I do have laundry to do and the Tour to watch, so I suppose I am off for now!

Until next time. . .

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

SFAC Guest Designer!!!

I was asked by Scrap for a Cure to be their Guest Designer this month. WAHOO! Know what that means? I got a free kit that I was able to get creative with! What is better than FREE and CREATIVE in the same sentence??? Not much! ;)

The slide show is of the layouts that I made with the kit. I LOVE the idea behind SFAC because they donate a % of their sales to a different cause each quarter. So, when you buy from them, you know that some of your money is going to a good cause. Doesn't that just make spending your money worth it?

Wanna check out their site??? If so, click here :)
http://www.scrapforacure.com/


Until next time. . .

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Hangin' With The Cousins :)

My sister made it here safe and sound all the way from South Dakota. The kids are having a great time with all of their cousins. I wish that I could join in on more of the fun, but with my school schedule, I am gone more than I am home it seems.

The cousins never take long to warm up to each other. . .even though it has been almost a year since they have seen each other, they never act as though they have been apart for more than a day or two.

It didn't take long for our annual visit to the ER. . .it seems that at least one time during the visits at least one person ends up with a broken this or that or something that needs to be stitched up.

Luke cracked his head open on Sunday morning. He was riding his bike (when he was supposed to be getting ready for church) and he wrecked into a construction trailer. When he came into the house, it looked like something out of a horror movie. He was covered in blood from head to toe. Pretty scary!

I ran him to the ER and the cut on his head was so deep that you could see the bone on his forehead when they cleaned it out! UGH! I don't deal well with blood, so I am always amazed at how calm I can be when I need to for my kids sake.

They ended up doing three layers of stitches and so I have no idea how many stitches he actually has. He was a trooper though. He toughed it out and hasn't really complained much except to ask for medicine when his head is pounding.

So, hopefully that will be our only visit to the ER while the cousins are here this Summer :)I have midterms tomorrow, so I am off for now.

Until next time. . .

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Just Have to LAUGH!

As everyone knows I am back in school this semester. Taking 15 credits during the Summer is a bit insane and crazy. Yes, the classes are only 8 weeks or shorter in length. . .however that means that 1 class period a day is equal to approximately 1 week worth of classes in a normal semester. So, class periods are 2.5 hours each and the homework load each night is a week worth of homework due the next day.

Anyway, after sitting in classes hours on end each day and then going home and doing hours of homework and then waking up and doing it again, I have decided that taking a break during those 2.5 hour long classes is probably a good thing.

I was zoning out a little bit towards the end of my Multi-Ethnic American Lit class. . .I mean, give me a break! By the time that class is nearing its end, I have been in classes for 8 solid hours. That is a LONG time to continually digest information! So, here I am zoning in and out of the lecture the teacher is giving. . .

Dr. Barry: (reading a question from a student's paper about our text) ". . .part of the KKK. I would too."

Me: (suddenly SHOCKED out of my zoning) I look up at Dr. Barry, he looks at me, gives me a quizzical look, I look back at him. . .at that moment I realize that he meant that he would ALSO like to know about the KKK's involvement in the scenario in the text.

OH DEAR! Guess what my first thought was? I THOUGHT he said he would like to be part of the KKK!!! OOOPS! My bad!

Me: Upon realizing what just happened, I begin to giggle. It was involuntary. I could not help it.

Dr. Barry: "Lori, would you like to share?"

So, I explain.

Class: Uproarious laughter!

Dr. Barry: (laughing as well) "I think we need to take a 10 minute break."

Sorry Dr. Barry! I truly did not mean to disrupt the class! At least he took it all in stride.

Until next time. . .

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Lost It!

What did I lose??? My sanity, my patience, my cool. . . . .

It doesn't happen often, but today it did. After spending all day long in classes and knowing that I was coming home to HOURS of homework before going to bed and waking up and doing it all over again, I walked into the house and here my kids sat in the mess that they had created all day while I was gone.

Life is pretty easy to understand around here. We have a calendar that states who is supposed to do what and when. Chores have been assigned (and there aren't that many), babysitting times have been assigned and all the summer events have been scheduled.

All I ask is that while I am at school, that my kids do their chores before they take off and hang out with their friends and do their summer activities. That's it. Pretty simple, right? Well, apparently not, because I walked into a messy house and kids off doing this that and the other and not one, that's right, not one chore was completed.

I felt defeated, then I felt frustrated, then I felt angry, and then. . . .I lost it.

I called the missing children and told them to get their little fanny's home. I told the children that were home to send the friends home and to start their chores.

I started on the kitchen. . .UGH! Nothing like cleaning up dishes from breakfast at 6 PM with bowls that have dried up oatmeal on them. Lunch dishes with burnt cheese from grilled cheese, and a container that had been emptied of its contents and the juice and syrup from the fruit spilled out all over the counter-top and the floor.

Nope, nothing like an overflowing garbage can that didn't have a liner in it and had fry sauce all down the sides and bottom of it.

Nothing like it. Home sweet home I tell ya!

After the house was back into presentable shape, I made the kids their dinner and then told them that I was heading out to be alone for a little while. . .I needed to put myself in time-out :)

I decided that a short drive and some In & Out fries would soothe my frustrated soul. So, I headed over to the drive-thru at In & Out.

As I ate my fries and drove the long way home, I decided that life could be worse. At least my kids were all safe and nothing bad (other than sheer laziness) had happened to them. At least I had a home to come to, dirty as it was. At least I have a family to love and who loves me (even when I am upset).

After my therapy session of driving and fries, I made it back home and sat down and had a talk with the kids. . .they are going to try harder to help me out by doing their chores. I sure hope so!

Well, homework is calling my name. I am off for now.

Until next time. . .