Strange bedfellows

So Thing 4 wanders in and crawls into mom and dad's bed last night. I am too lazy to take him back to his own bed. I suffer for it with knees and elbows in my ribs, and finally, feet in my face. Needless to say, my self-discipline will be improving, and the kid will begin being tucked back into his own bed as frequently as needs be. Yikes.

Feast or famine on the work front. I had three days off this week, now I have 5 in a row, four of them two-job days. I'll keep bright sunny pictures of the bills I want to pay firmly in my mind. Blech. Off for a little feet-up time between jobs. Honestly, that's the only real problem. I've been having a great time at both jobs lately; everyone's happy and easy to get along with and we've been having fun. But multiple shifts on concrete floors with thin industrial carpets are taking a toll on me poor old dogs. On two-job days, I try to put 'em up for a while. So that's where I'm goin'. You all have a nice day.

What? I need an interesting title, too? Sheesh...

Let's see, another day of random ideers and no connecting theme. Eat that, essay teachers everywhere!

***

Read this recently, and have blatantly stolen it to use here. Apologies for the all-caps thing. Some good points for those of us feeling less-than-worthy:

THE NEXT TIME YOU FEEL LIKE GOD CAN'T USE YOU JUST REMEMBER....

NOAH WAS A DRUNK
ABRAHAM WAS TOO OLD
ISAAC WAS A DAYDREAMER
JACOB WAS A LIAR
LEAH WAS UGLY
JOSEPH WAS ABUSED
MOSES HAD A STUTTERING PROBLEM
GIDEON WAS AFRAID
SAMSON HAD LONG HAIR AND WAS A WOMANIZER
RAHAB WAS A PROSTITUTE
JEREMIAH AND TIMOTHY WERE TOO YOUNG
DAVID HAD AN AFFAIR AND WAS A MURDERER
ELIJAH WAS SUICIDAL
ISAIAH PREACHED NAKED
JONAH RAN FROM GOD
NAOMI WAS A WIDOW
JOB WENT BANKRUPT
PETER DENIED CHRIST
THE DISCIPLES FELL ASLEEP WHILE PRAYING
MARTHA WORRIED ABOUT EVERYTHING
THE SAMARITAN WOMAN WAS DIVORCED, MORE THAN ONCE
ZACCHEUS WAS TOO SMALL
PAUL WAS TOO RELIGIOUS
TIMOTHY HAD AN ULCER.....
AND

LAZARUS WAS DEAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW! NO MORE EXCUSES!
GOD CAN USE YOU TO YOUR FULL POTENTIAL.
BESIDES YOU AREN'T THE MESSAGE , YOU ARE JUST THE MESSENGER.


So there.

***

I have lots of stuff to get done today, but I have birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, and a strong desire to go shopping. Perhaps the Lord is calling me to shop? You never know, maybe I'll bump into someone that needs a Word, or make a connection, or find a revalation. Work with me here! Mama needs a new pair of shoes (literally.)

***

Got my birthday card from my "folks" yesterday. I lived with my best friend's family my senior year in high school. My dad was dead and my mom alrady in a nursing home. I had been living with my sister, but they were moving, coincidentally on the weekend of my 18th birthday. I wanted to finish out my senior year in place. I had a little job, but was supported by SS orphan's benefits, and had to refile after I turned 18 because I was still in high school. I had planned on staying until I got my social security straightened out, then getting my own place, but the folks said maybe I should just stay there. Probably a wise parental decision. An 18-year-old with her own apartment? Trouble on the hoof there, and their kid my best friend! So I stayed, and my card yesterday reminded me that I had joined the family 20 years ago. They even said they were glad about it. Wow. There's a special place in heaven for folks like that.

***

So far, I have kept the foreboding cold down to some manageable sniffles and aches & pains. Knock wood and all that. I have managed to do a few little things around here so far today. Hopefully I can just keep pinging at the chores to keep them at bay.

***

This in my inbox from my sis:

So, happy belated Thirty-Quitch! ( As was posted recently on a friend’s blog, “you don’t go directly from 37 to 38. First you go to thirty-quitch. And next year you’ll be thirty-wip, then thirty-tocle, and then you’ll be thirty-eight. There’s a number void there, and people keep forgetting about it.” Where those numbers came from I don’t know, but it sounds funny!)

***

Oh, and this post is now titled "Amityville Horror", because the flies around here are so (#*(!! thick! We've always had bad windows and thick flies in the fall, but I thought this year would be better because we got some new windows in and never had to open the screenless ones anymore. I thought wrong. I can live with the flies as long as we have no demons, though.

***

This also in my inbox:

Bid on the Doodlebops Live Front Row Seats Auction

Surely you must be joking. I can think of no greater torment than those seats. Buy 'em for someone you hate.

***

Off to work. Have a swell evening!

Hippo Birdies to Me!

I survived the busy busy weekend relatively unscathed. While I did the two-job thing, Hubs cracked the whip on the Things and the house was pretty well picked up. We had a quick red alert on the floors Sunday after church, because Hubs invited his folks over. I couldn't complain because they were coming to give me presents. So all I've had to do this past couple of days is patrol the house to keep it from backsliding.
After presents, and watching the Vikings snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I wandered outside and got the firepit going, and we didn't put it out until after 10. Got a little bit of my brushpile cleaned out, but more of the chunk of neighbor's tree that fell Saturday. It was really old and dry, so it got good and hot and we could feed in the wet stuff of mine that sat in the rain all week. We chatted with neighbors and friends and ate junk food, and had a lovely time.
Yesterday was a big fat day of nothing, but it was kind of nice. Aside from the aforementioned upkeep, Hubs and I got a little time to just knock back and chat. Later, we took Thing 4 for a drive around the lake, let him throw rocks in the water and play at the rec area playground. It was a lovely lazy day. I could use more of those. Unfortunately, I could feel a cold coming on all day as well. So far it is not as bad as I feared it would get, knock wood and all that. I just keep pounding fluids, blowing my nose and washing my hands. I'll save meds for when I have to go back out in public.
I have vowed not to spend my birthday with my butt glued to the chair in front of the Mac, so I am off to do something productive. What I haven't quite figured out yet, but Thing 4 wants some watermelon, so I guess we'll start there.

Weekend on the horizon...

We're getting ready to head into fall, which steps things up around here a bit. When the neighborhood crops start to come out, Hubs will head back into the field to do soil sampling. It is an annual gig for him, that he mostly likes. The days are long and tiresome from bumping around muddy fields in a pickup with a hydraulic soil probe, but he can pack up whatever books on tape or other iPod treats he likes for his own entertainment. Hours will pick up at Job 2, as the locals will start staying home and our tourists will start coming for hunting. Today and tomorrow are two-job days, but I switched and got Sunday off completely, so it all comes out in the wash.
The sugarbowl has caused some buzz offsite as well. Just to prove he does pay attention to what I have to say (!), Hubs asked if I wanted one for myself. I said no, but he started wondering where the one wound up that they had when he was a kid. In the process, we found out his mother doesn't have it, but would like one, so it's of to eBay!
The kids have the day off school here, so all are sleeping in except the one I packed off to feed the wolves at Yellowstone. I wish we could take more spur-of-the-moment trips like that. Our Black Hills foray was great, but it seemed like i spent longer planning and organizing the dang thing than we did on the trip. Don't tell anyone, but I kinda groove on the planning stuff, but not so much that I wouldn't like to just jump in the car and take off once in a while. Now I must do just that, but I'm only going as far as work, so no adventure there.

Hold on, we're swerving all over the place today...

Since I haven't written in a couple of days, I have all sorts of little, mostly insignificant, sometimes noteworthy thoughts, feelings and impressions floating around in me noggin. One may think I have no other outlet than to spew these things all over you, my loyal audience (I hear you rustlin' around out there behind the crickets); however, Hubs and I have managed to get in some quality conversing lately, about stuff other than (as well as, this is real life, you know) kids' schedules, bill paying and the like. Often, though, stuff just flits through my mind that I would like to explore, when there isn't someone to talk to older than three who is not affected by geriatric dementia or occupied by work matters. So that's when you get treated to my blather, dear interweb, or sometimes even after, when I thought the conversation yielded blogworthy tidbits of it's own. Some of these are related, others completely random, and maybe someone other than me out there will find them interesting (show me the comment love, if so. Amen!)

***

Had a couple of completely nostalgic moments this week. The warm fuzzy kind, for me, and one for Hubs.

I was fixing a cup of coffee for a resident who takes hers with sugar. I cannot put sugar in coffee without a visual impression of this sugar holder: and a really warm feeling about the place I used it.

I was a tail-end baby; I am separated by my blood siblings by 16 years. My folks were older, and so were their friends. Such folks were Hank and Hannah. They were a lovely NW Iowa Dutch couple, married nearly 40 years at that time. Hannah was the eptiome of a Grandma, although I never made the connection until years later, because my Grandma was plenty different than most. Hannah was pleasantly plump, had an easy laugh, and a houseful of crocheted items to dress it up. Her home was always neat and pretty, but I never felt scared to mess it up by playing. Hank had an infectious chuckle and wire-rimmed glasses that fascinated me. He could also wiggle his ears. It was the. coolest. thing. EVER! As I got older, my mom's unknown-at-the-time neuroligical disorder made her isolate herself, and my dad by proxy, from their friends. While they still were getting out and about, however, we would sometimes go to Hank and Hannah's for coffee. Sometimes my mom and I even walked down there ourselves (small town, and stay-at-home moms and grammas. Wow.) Hannah always had good toys (including the Tupperware lock blocks--I'm seeing a definite pattern here) and would tell me and Mom about her grandkids, especially KayLynn, and Loren and Leroy, who were close to my age. I wouldn't set eyes on them until years later, but I always felt like I knew those kids. Inevitably, we would sit at the kitchen table for coffee, and I was always offered some, just like a grownup, and they would pass the Tupperware sugar bowl. There was always laughter, and easy chatter, and those brief, too-few moments of my childhood are treasures. I take cream these days, but if I even think of sugar in coffee, I feel the warmth around that table, and I smile.

***

Hubs' nostalgic foray has been humming around the back of his head for quite a while. His paternal grandma died the week after we married, and since then, her farm has been sitting empty. He has frequently wondered about the apples on the backyard tree there, as he can never get an apple pie like hers. Tuesday evening, we drove out the the farm, scavanged some apples and a branch, and had them identified at the local orchard as Red Barons. After sampling some the grower had on hand, Hubs concurred, and we have a bagful atop the fridge for pie making. I should do that later...

***

My brother and his wife dropped in for a visit Tuesday night, too. I felt a little guilty were so busy, but they stayed over and we got to spend some time together yesterday. I love to hear my brother's voice from another room. After an overseas stint (which we will revisit shortly) my brother and his wife were stationed in Omaha, and visits home got much more frequent. I would wake on a long weekend or holiday, and hear he and my folks visiting in the kitchen. It was always a sound I associated with vacations and fun.

While overseas, stationed in the Netherlands, my brother and his wife would send home packages with interesting, supersized comics in English with a little hero named Asterix. The whole family was immediately hooked. Years later, Asterix would show up in American video games and a cartoon, but folks in the US just don't get it, for some reason. When Bro returned to the area a few years ago, he camee to housesit for us, and we found him some Asterix books as a Thank you, since his and mine had been scattered away over the years. He now has collected most of them again, and has loaned them to my kids, who eat them up. Hubs recently found a copy of the 2002 movie, and we watched it on our big screen yesterday with the whole fam damily, and had a great time.

***

Hubs has cobbled together a home theater over the years that is starting to be company-worthy. We have all sorts of old sound equipment to rig together surround-sound, he painted out one side of a chalk board for screen, he uses the digital projector to show movies from DVD or VHS, and we have some old dual seats from the church basement for theatre seating. It's tucked into what used to be a tiny room with tinier windows, now a lovely little, easily-darkened alcove for comfy movie viewing.

***

I really like the word "dustbin" today, and I have no idea why it is bouncing around my subconscious. Speculation?

***

Need to go tote Thing 1's clothes to town for her. She is going with friends on a long weekend trip to Yellowstone. Cool. Have a great Thursday!

Arrrrrrrrrrr!

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!!!!!

I am so gonna drive people nuts.

We do more before 9am...

Today could have gotten off to a very bad start, but I made some conscious decisions not to let it. I did get some snarking in on my kids, but that was quickly forgiven by a ride to school.
I thought I had set the alarm last night, but it's one of those dual jobbies and I set the wrong one. I rolled over and looked at the clock about 15 minutes after the kids should have been at the bus stop. I got 'em up, told 'em I'd give 'em a ride, and rode herd as they got themselves and Thing 4 ready. Luckily, I had set the church alarm, so dad was up and ready to take charge of Thing 4 while I went to town.
Our itty bitty town is about 6 miles from the town with school, work, etc. Even though gas prices are calming down a wee bit, we try to be conscientious about trips to town, so after I got the kids a breakfast treat at BK, I dropped 'em of and ran my errands. Having to tote them got me out of the house a lot sooner than if I had gone on my own. I will have to return, as paychecks weren't ready yet, but that means I can treat the kids to a ride home and the library after school while I get the oil changed, which is all good. One nice thing about small-town living: the qwikky-lube of choice is half a block from the library. For now, my groceries are bought and put away, I got errands run, and I've had a few minutes to nip around the web with a cuppa joe and a stanky candle burning. I should get up and moving before I lose momentum. In a minute...
I've signed up for a "pastor's wife" ring. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that next to women of great grace and inspiration, I find others with the same sorts of struggles, quirky sense of humor, and potty mouths as me. I'll do a linky thing when I get that kind of info and motivation. Until then, I'll just keep polishin' that halo...

My thoughts on Vikings 16, Panthers 13

Love that "edit" widget. I was unable to view the end of the football game today, so I went to minnesotavikings.com. An hour and a half after the game, and they still had 13-13 posted. I thought we had tied during NFL regular season play, and I was absolutely perplexed. I was set straight at the church coffee hour tonite, and athough a bit chagrined, I feel much better about today's game. Way to go for the first Vikings kicker EVAH to throw a TD pass. Yay Childress for taking some risks. Time for the happy butt dance! (|) (/) (|) (\) (|) (/) (|)

In other news, with enough lighter fluid you can get soggy stuff to burn. Firepit should be nicely primed for further use next week. Seem to have developed a knack for writing sentences without subjects. Bad English teacher! Bad! (Those were interjections.)

A big interweb welcome to my newest Blogger buddy, the Cosmic Junkie over at the Cosmic Junk Drawer go over and leave him a warm fuzzy comment. He's single, girls!

With that, I'm off to herd the cats to bed. Night all!

Dang wormholes...

So after Job #2 the other night, I could not find my car keys. I have a very bad habit (though usually not at work) of tossing them on the floor of my car. Maybe TMI, but if you want a GEO with no bluebook value because its been totalled once already, has no exhaust system, and your need is that great, I'll even post directions to the blessed thing. Anyhoo, I thought that must be the case, as I could not find them inside, and I did not carry a purse that night. I looked thru the car. I went back and looked again. My boss offered me a ride home and while I waited for him I took a garbage bag and went through the car a third time on my hands and knees and gutted it. Yes, I know, if there is that much garbage in my car there is a problem; however, I have been doing this more often, and trying to police myself and the Things about packing out our junk (Hubs is on his own...) so it really isn't as bad as it has been. Anyway, again with the digression, I was on the flippin' floorboards of the car and no keys anywhere. So Hubs brought me to work with the spare keys yesterday, and lo and behold, when I walked by to check, there they were on the floor of the drivers' side, fully visible from the passenger side window. There.is.no.WAY. I could have missed them. Either someone is messing with me, or there is a wormhole under the seat of my GEO. I wonder where it opens out?
Thinking of wandering outside and lighting up the firepit. We've had thundershowers the past couple days, and while the sun is out and pretty today, it is decidedly cooler outside. I have a brushpile to pare down where the tree service dropped our tree earlier this year. Those aforementioned showers may make burning a bit of a challenge, but heck, I have a Sunday off and nothing better to do. Sounds like a lovely way to rest on the Sabbath.

A present for you, my best buddy ever

I tend to sit here and space off while watching my blue lava lamp, so I though you would enjoy it, too. Since I don't have a webcam (8 digital video cameras in the house, and no webcam...I can hook 'em up but they have power save and shut off after a few minutes if not recording) to point at my lovel lamp, I went and found you this, dear internet. It's not as realistic as a couple VR lamps I found, but it requires no download and is Mac-friendly. Enjoy!

A typical Thursday

Some non-sequitr-as-usual observations from around the Casa del Goose:

*Nothing funnier than a three-year-old boy belting our the lyrics ro Barlow Girl's "Never Alone" over milk and cereal at the breakfast table.

*Someone always has it worse than you, and can put your day in perspective in a real quick hurry. Wow.

*I have never lived in Texas, but I will still miss Ann Richards.

*Laundry sucks.


With that, dear interweb, I leave you to go organize my day, and get ready for the final performance of Much Ado, which happens to be a local road show, so I don't even have to haul my butt to Marshall.

See ya after strike.

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

What have we done to these kids?

I told Thing 1 (13) to go grab some movies to keep herself and the other Things (12, 8, 3)occupied during tonight's line-thru. She said, "Here's 3 we all like." She had The Breakfast Club, Dogma, and Braveheart. More frightening still, she's probably right, 'tho Thing 4 still likes cartoons. My poor, poor kids...

You may want to scroll down a few posts and work your way up...

castingcrowns
Originally uploaded by Gette.

...if you really care, that is. I am using flickr to post because Blogger is being a crabby pants. I have got to be missing something about posting more than one photo to a post, or something, but bear with me...


Casting Crowns were the Saturday night headliners that brought us out into the damp and the mud, and they were the highlight for the kids and grownups both. If it hadn't been for them, though, we would have missed the other completely cool bands we saw there. For little miss "I don't listen to Christian rock" (and you know who you are...;)) there's some really edgy, hardcore, awesome music in the current batch of CC bands. Besides, anyone who listens to Def Leppard had to also have listened to "Honestly" by Stryper about a gazillion times.
Digression aside, these guys not only rocked off many faces, the lead singer is a great communicator as well. Told fun stories and made an impact, I think. Ok, off to haul all the little dancing girls.

But seriously

minijer
Originally uploaded by Gette.

This is how close we really were to Jeremy Camp.

Jeremy Camp...

jumbojer
Originally uploaded by Gette.

...is really big on the Jumbotron.

From these cool seats

woohoo
Originally uploaded by Gette.

Oh yeah...

Stellarkart

stellarkart
Originally uploaded by Gette.

Why can't I do more than one pic in a post? Hmmm. I'll dig deeper some day when I have more time. I should be doing this in reverse order... Anyway, this was our view of Stellar Kart

Superchic[k]

superchick
Originally uploaded by Gette.

After the kids' stuff, we went to see Superchic[k]. Good view of our view, and some mud.

Lifelight Pics via Flickr

viking
Originally uploaded by Gette.

This is new, and seems kinda backwards to me, but here goes. Thing 2 got a balloon hat at the kids' activity booth/balloon haberdashery.
(I can already tell this blogging method is gonna be clunky but Blogger will.not.let.me. post photos... I may go beta.

Another op'ning, another show...

Much Ado is off the ground and flapping. The weather is agin' us, as this is Shakespeare in the Park after all, and it's been overcast and cool. People that will freeze their heinies at a HS footbal game won't do the same to watch Shakespeare for some reason. I am wearing my longjohns under my costume tonite, even if it does make me look fat. Sounds like a cast excursion to Applebees after the show tonite too. Yay! I have a gift card to use up.

I attempted the lifelight picture post, but Blogger is being a crank again. Hmph.

Off for a little tubby time before the show.

Picture Time!!

Yesterday when I went for coffee with Bossy, I noticed while I was taking pictures that my screen read "full memory" so I thought I was using too much resolution and had filled 'er up. I did not realize my kids had filled my camera with a bunch of schlock pictures of things like toast, table legs and the cat. So, none of my coffee pics turned out, so I stole these brazenly from Bossy's site for those of you who don't go there. But you should. She's a hoot.
She snuck this one in while I was cleaning grunge of Thing 4. It's my new desktop.

















Thing 4 and Boo Bee driving somewhere. Dunno where they're goin', but they're cute as heck getting there.

Blogger is bein' poopy about pics, so I'll start a new post with the rest.

Wheeee!

Hubs had a night shift, so I cleared myself and Thing 4 out of the house and took a little drive to have "beverage of choice" (soft, it was before noon...) with Bossy, and share some idle chitchat while our two adorable children played in the Burger King habitrail. Yes I got pictures, but my dang camera is wonky so they'll be posted when I get all the rest of 'em ready. Then neighbor Al and I made a speed run thru thrift stores for last minute (oy!) Shakespeare stuff.
Now its off to dress rehearsal!

A day off...mostly.

Wow. Got to sleep in this morning. Had nowhere to rush off to work, visit or do something pressing. Took a leisurely trip to the Evil*Empire for school supplies (must visit the Death Star outlet in Marshall this evening, as ours was out of a couple things. Waited too long, I did...) On the way home we treated the Things to McDonalds and took them to the monstro playground to run a bit. The only "must do" event on today's agenda was a rehearsal we added in on Thursday. We bumped up the time, so I should be home relatively early. I'll be able to get my ducks in a row and get ready to roll into those two dreaded words in any theatre geek's vocabulary...
...Production Week.
I may be a bit scarce around here due to that, but bear with me. I'll put some pics up when they're ready.

I'm too young to be this old

It's the morning after an all-day, outdoor, alcohol-free concert, and I feel like I've been on a three-day bender. Here and here are a couple of stories that describe the conditions as well as I can. All the walking, fresh air, and requisite jumping around has left me feeling like whipped puppy. By the time we got there, the clouds had broken up, and it was partly cloudy and pleasant, if you could deal with mud, and lots of it. You could tell we were in farm country; there were plenty of folks of all ages wearing barnyard work boots. No dummies there. There were also plenty of bare feet. It's an impressive setup. We got up close and friendly for Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns. We had to haul the Things up onto our backs from time to time so they could see, but we were also strategically placded under the jumbotron so they could see when we were tired. An exta 65 pounds of kid will sink you about half an inch deeper into the mud, by the way. The concert was over at approximately 11:15-11:30. We didn't get out of the parking lot until 12:50am. The park is out in farm country that is rolling over to urban sprawl. Parking wound through recently devloped neighborhoods, but there was a pasture full of cows directly to the west of the main stage. I wonder what they thought of all the commotion. The parking lot was obviously in corn relatively recently, telling from the ruts and field stubble under the grass. Bits of shattered sporting clays and rubber shell wadding made me wonder exacly how recently the gun club gave up use of the property, as well.
We're going to enjoy a leisurely dinner with grandparents, then make our way home via Sprawl Mart for school supplies. I'll see how my pictures turned out when I get to my home computer. Have a great Sunday!

Off to the races...

Labor Day hijinks ensue! We had been planning to go to Sioux Falls for the Lifelight festival this weekend, but Thing 1's win at the fair altered that a bit. After discussion and negotiation, the Thing insisted that the rest of the family should not miss because of her, so she is going to the fair with G'ma. The rest of us are soon out the door to the other G'ma who lives closer to Sioux Falls, where we will enjoy an abbreviated version of the festival. The abbreviation is more due to the crappy weather than anything. We'll hang with G'ma if its soggy, then venture out into the rain for the headliners. Meanwhile, should Thing 1 win, we'll rocket back across the state to see her in the State Fair grandstand Sunday night. We'll amble back home sometime Sunday or Monday and gear up for the first day of school. I know, dear internet, that you have nothing better to do than wait here for updates, so I will keep posted on developments as I am able.