Saturday checklist

Scrub basement floor. Check.
Mulch one more flowerbed. Check.
Blow tire on van. Check.
Leave donut at home. Check.
Trade vehicle with iPastor. Check.
Lose brakes on pickup. Check.
Go to bed and start over. In progress...

Charity?

It's funny what illness brings out in people. MIL has been inundated with food and offers of help. I just cleaned her fridge (AGAIN!) and tossed various bits and blobs of food. Most people have been really gracious. Case in point: last year MIL took bids to pave her decrepit blacktop driveway. The contractor hemmed, hawed and didn't show up until about 3 weeks ago. When he was done, he came in to check with MIL who said, "Are you gonna send me the bill?" to which he replied, "No, I think God's telling me to donate it." He went on to say he wasn't sure, but who wants to take that chance. ;)
Then there are those other responses. There was the lady who stopped me at work to ask about MIL. " I need to bring her carmel rolls," she said, "She loves my carmel rolls." I replied that indeed she does, and she had a pan earlier in the week. "Someone else brought them?" she said, "well I know she craves MY rolls, so I'll have to bring some by." Oh my.
Most people are very kind, though. Our pastor's wife decided WE needed some TLC and brought us Tuesday suppers for a month. It was much appreciated, and helped to take a little bit of hectic out of our lives. Hopefully I can pay that back some day.

All the cool kids are doing it...

Curse you Groovy Mom and FlipFlopBossyBritchesRockerMom. Peer pressure is awful.



Anyway, this is the result of my first outing at Singsnap. I had to do some futzing with my technical settings, which in my case means putting the speaker closer to the mic and standing in different places to not overblow the mic. I think at one point you can hear our cat, Fuzznut, on background vocals. I guess I need to add to my timewaster list.
(plus the transvestite picture for Jeff's amusement)

A little late for Memorial Day but...

...this one smacked me in the face while browsing tonite. Lifted from FARK.com, titled "Two Kinds of Goodbye." Ouch. Click to embiggen and read text.

10 on Tuesday: Time Wasters

Oh, dear...

I could lump them all together under one Evil Category: The Internet. If I did that, however, I'd have to come up with nine others, so I'll list my biggest time wasters from the 'net, and maybe some real life stuff, too.

1. Blog reading. Of course I read all your blogs to gain valuable information and pearls of wisdom from them, so that's really time well spent, non?
2. Scrabulous. Just one more match...
3. Rand Mc Nally Road trip planner. I spend more time planning trips than we actually spend on the trips when we finally take them.
4. My firepit. I can diddle out there for hours burning various and sundry bits of stuff from the yard (for recreational purposes of course, because of course I know it's illegal to burn yard waste) but unfortunately, it never seems to improve the condition of the yard.
5. iTunes. I can always find something to look for. Lots of performance tracks to browse. Interesting podcasts to subscribe. Bad.
6. icanhascheezburger.com
7. fark.com
8. YouTube
9. startribune.com
10. My bathtub. Soapy warm bubbles calling to me...

OMG!

I was trolling trough old blogs to find posts for the blogstock book. On a lark, I typed in an ID I thought might lead to my very first blog, and lo and behold, I found posts from August to December of 2001. It said I had last posted in 2007, but I think I was using the same domain but posting with other apps. I had blogger set up to use the template but post remotely to our site. I need to reconfigure it to post to blogger, because I can currently only access the posts through the editor. Watch for a linky. Or maybe not. The posts might suck.

Stormy Sunday

Morning Thunderstorms rolled through before church today. They were actually rather nice thundershowers; except for the mugginess it's been nice today.
***
The extra time at MIL's has been good for catching up on movies. MIL has DirecTV. Last night iPastor took the batch that had not yet seen Indiana Jones to see it; the rest of us watched Pirates...III. Then I watched Next and Pride and Prejudice before I finally pried myself off the couch and went to bed. Sweet. Tonight I hope to get some reading and paperwork done. There are a million things I should be getting done at home before I go, so I'd best get back at them.

Update 6:45pm.

Whoa. Counting blessings today... Prayers for these folks. So far no deaths reported. Let's hope it stays that way. AP just reported one while I typed. Poop. Enjoy your weekend folks, while remembering these people.

Gone with the wind

As could have been predicted, my apple trees bloomed this week, thereby guaranteeing strong winds to blow the blossoms off. Oh well.
***
Weekend has blown away, too. No-one else is available to stay with MIL, so our family is tag-teaming around work, and we are going nowhere that we had hoped. Alex also has strained ligaments in her ankle, so she is puffed up and sore, so it would have been awkward to get out to Arnold's Park or anywhere else. I did want iPastor to get over to Home Depot for a mower, though. We're working on knee high by the fourth of July in the yard. While we were out, someone came by and helped mow a little. I had asked kids to clean up the yard in anticipation of the mowing. They did not comply, so whoever helped mowed around the junk. Around the bikes. Around the lawn chair. It's fairly hilarious. Time to tag off with iPastor.

No go

The job hunt continues. Drat.
Not much else going on. Two job day today, then our family spends Saturday with Elsie. Should be a nice weekend. Enjoy yours.

Nervous Nellie

I think the interview went well. It felt good. It's a VERY small district (this year's grad class was 25) but that's very cool. Until they decide to consolidate, anyway... The good news is that they hope to decide by tomorrow, or early next week at the latest, depending on when they can get references called. Nice not to have to be on pins and needles too much longer.

This is weird...

So I've mentioned before that we have a MAME. It looks something like this:


Imagine cords and a keyboard coming out of the coin slots on the front of the machine (Thing #4 refers to this as the "Big Bachine") Imagine typing on this keyboard while manipulating the various trackballs, fire buttons and joysticks to navigate the internet. This is what happens when my kids hog my computer... I suppose it IS their turn, after all, but still...
***
I hd a lovely little allegory last week when I was too frenzied to type about it. iPastor and I were bringing dogs in out of the rain. He brought in Tiger, and unleashed him and his furry, mud-encrusted paws while he went back for another dog. Needless to say, I had big, muddy pawprints all over my floor. He wandered all through the downstairs before heading to the mudroom for food and his bed. Had iPastor left the leash on, he would have guided Tiger right to the same spot, much quicker and with less collateral damage. How much like that are we? Humans have a guide, or "leash" if you will, in the Bible and it's commandments. When we stick to them, things go much better for us. When we "free" ourselves from that yoke, we make a big mess of things lalong the way home. Often, we wind up back at a save haven, but not before we've muddied our path quite a bit. Just a little something for y'all to chew on. (Don't worry, I'm not after JD's pulpit...)
***
Decided exactly what I wanted to wear for the interview tomorrow, then tried t on (Thankfully!) to discover it looked like crap because it doesn't fit right. So off to the Evil*Empire I went, where nothing they had fit, either. Did find something I liked in the wrong size. So it goes... Managed to scrape together an outfit; got it in the wash ready to press and go first thing in the morning. This interview is 37 miles away, which is relatively close when talking rural school districts. Better get my loose ends tied up before morning. Nite!

Tuesday, Grommit...

Didn't get much of anything done. Started to putter around the house, but got called to MIL's. Had a nice visit, watched Dr. Phil's brat camp (my kids look like angels in comparison) then came home. In the meantime, I got an email to go for a job interview Thursday. Yay. Now to find clothes that fit...

Woohoo!

Only one job days all week until Friday, and I actually get all day tomorrow off! What'll I do with myself? No more dishes; my hands are hashed.
A job in the neighboring school district came up on the boards today. Our little town actually sits within both districts, so we have two different buses go through town every day. Our first exchange student went to that school because we were out of openings at our school. I would love to find something so close in the neighborhood. The next closest one I've seen is half time, the next is 37 miles. Anyway, keep praying on the job situation for me. I want to make sure I go where I'm supposed to, and I hope to be able to discern where exactly that is.
I'm either hearing a really echo-y nailgun or a dog with a weird bark. Maybe both. Someone is working on re-roofing the decrepit little store downtown. They keep some weird hours.

Day of rest my foot

Had a gorgeous day here that I used to try to catch up the stuff I couldn't get done earlier in the week. Tried to rally the kids for some help but that was an exercise in futility. They were too enamored of the nice weather themselves to be much help. One helped finish with mulching of a flowerbed, and the other made a small pile of yard clippings that never got picked up and disposed of. I sat in the shade and shaved a dog. Poor thing couldn't see. The winter coat was pretty thick, not unlike shearing a sheep. Now all the other dogs will make fun of his bad haircut. Hopefully by July he'll be grown out enough so I won't be ashamed to take him to Marilyn for a real cut. Did some trimming and clipping in the yard, and tried to get my garage-sale trimmer to start. Pastor Bob will check it out for me tomorrow. The yard is nearly ready to bale, so I may as well wait. Off to herd the cranky kids to bed. Best bet is to let cranky mom get there first.

Done!

Two tired but happy dancers, and two parents chilled to the bone from standing directly under the AC vents in the back of the auditorium to produce the !*&@%&^!! dance video (that pays for the lessons...) Viscious circle.

Dance Mayhem

Two days of long rehearsals and two equally long shows. AWOL until Sunday...

Little things...

Today was full of little things. I didn't get anything big done, but lots of little things. Sent off two application packets. Mulched a flowerbed. Wrangled kids for some help in the yard. Scrubbed the basement stairs. Did some laundry. Worked a little. Looks nice when I write it all down.
***
Little things also have a way of surprising you. Something like writing the date. Like yesterday. It happens every year. Writing a check, dating a paper, I suddenly realize its May 14. The day my dad died. 26 years ago. It always catches me off guard. The I feel guilty. Because I don't remember what day my mom died. I know it was the first half of December 1989. Maybe because she died a sanitized death in a nursing home hundreds of miles from me or anyone else in her family, rather than collapsing in front of me. I don't know. It makes me feel bad. I owe her more than that.
***
We're supposed to be compiling favorite blog posts for a book of Blogstock attendees. I've been cranking out such drivel for the sake of Blog 365, and previously NaBloPoMo, that I can't think of any favorites. Do you guys have any? Look back in the archive linkies, or comment if you liked the one where I wrote about ________. I'm supposed to send them by May 23rd, so be snappy about it, would ya?

Hump day.

So how ya been? Busy here as always. Had choir concert for the oldest girls and worked most every day. Been sending out resumes and having phone interviews. Sleeping lots. It's a good thing.
Not much to report. iPastor's mom is no better, but no worse either. She came along to the concert.
I've been tucking some bloggable bits (tm) in the back of my brain to drag out later, but I'm tired and want to go to bed! Nite!

10 on Tuesday

Today's topic: Ten things I'm really good at
Hard to do this with a sense of humility... Oh well, I'll take a shot at it.

1. Singing
2. Acting
3. Making really beautiful children
4. Embarrassing those children in public
5. Prepared public speaking (impromptu, not so much, but I can do it in a pinch)
6. Planning trips. I love randmcnally.com, hotwire.com and sidestep.com
7. Napping anywhere. Car, mall, you name it, I can get comfy and catch a few zzzzz
8. Eating. For you D&D geeks out there, I have a plus 2 cast iron stomach of holding.
9. Taking care of the elderly. I got out of it, but I rock at it.
10. Making up songs for my kids.

That was hard. Try it and see.

Insightful...

Why are married women heavier than single women?
Single women come home, look in the fridge, then go to bed.
Married women look in the bed, then go to the fridge.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today dawned sunny and with much more promise than yesterday. Job 2 was an absolute riot; full speed ahead from the word go. Everyone was out for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, in one instance this included a family with grandma, two couples and seven overtired and cranky children. Those poor kids did amazingly well, considering the protracted wait. The only exception was the apx. two-year-old girl screaming her lungs out for the majority of their stay. We brought crackers, fruit snacks and colors, but that little one was too far gone. Grandma looked too frail to be much help, but dad could have taken her out to the car. As it was, the Moms' "special" meal consisted of lots of "Whisper!" "Sit down!!" "Eat your food before you get a treat." kissing pinched fingers and wiping spilled water. Their Mother's Day next year had better include the dads staying home with the kids while the mom's pick up grandma and head out for cocktails ALONE.
One of my most interesting Mother's Days was iPastor watching the kids so I could take my cruiser to test and tune at the track, then head over to Watertown to race. Very thoughtful.
When I got home, I got out and started a fire in the pit while I cleaned up the yard a little. Then I got my hands dirty and planted the tomatoes and peppers I started earlier. Then I had a lovely bubble bath to get the smoke smell from the fire off me!
My kids had their first adventure biking the seven miles to town. I may never see them again. Argh. They have tasted freedom under their own power.
Off to bed now. Job hunt starts in earnest tomorrow.

Rainy

Nasty, dreary cold rain all day today. Yuck. Job 1 was very slow, but we spent our time cleaning and prepping for tomorrow. After Mother's Day, Job 1 isn't open Sundays until fall. Yay!
I am too tired to come up with anything good to post. Maybe tomorrow.

Craziness comes in assorted flavors

So, the classroom work is done. Now time for the paperwork. Also, while I was out turning in finals, I got a call for an interview. Cool.
iPastor has been holding down the homefront. We survived prom. We've done several with exchange students. Hopefully a couple years until my own need to go, unless they start dating upperclassmen. Thing 1 already has her prom dress picked out. She needs to save her pennies, though, because it's this:

The kid has taste, now she needs a date who'll wear a kilt well.
Off to catch up on the neglected stuff around here.

Frazzled

So what's new? Still plugging on school until later tomorrow. Then maybe I can poke my head up for air.

Still writing

That's about it. Got an extension. The light is at the end of the tunnel...

Better...

After work I had a lovely soak in the tub, then went to lie down for a few minutes and wound up sleeping the clock around. I sound like heck, but I feel much better. Now off to write.

Sick

Like I needed this on top of everything else.

Sunshine!

Got MIL into the car and headed to the local drive-in and out for a ride around the lake. Now it's off to Job2 and then to wait for the "bring me home from After-Prom party" call.

Lost Friday

Often when I am working at job 1, there is quiet time when I compose lovely posts in my head while I clean and stock. Think I can ever come up with these gems while I'm at a keyboard?
Worked two jobs today, ran home for a change of clothes, now I am at MIL's for the night. Her keyboard has a gitchy M, so spellcheck lights up like the proverbial Christmas tree. I am completely uninspired tonight, so I'm off Bloghopping.

MayDay!

Indeed. Many meanings to that word. School work got completely sidetracked yesterday, but iPastor and I got some really good time in to explore some stuff, and just catch up on the mundane details of life.
Right in the middle of my finals crunch, I got a very positive and entirely unsettling follow-up call on an interview I had at the job fair. No firm offer, but a really good vibe that opens up a can o' worms, because it involves a move. A big move. Trying very hard not to overthink this, and to keep a careful eye and ear to any leading I am getting. Prayers along these lines are appreciated.
Alex has Prom #2 this weekend, and we are so scattered and hectic I hope we don't lose too much in the shuffle.
Thing 3 helped her brother take care of May Baskets this evening. They had a good time. Cute as bugs. No pics this year, though.
Off to reboot for tomorrow.