You wanna know scary?

Try a roomful of 7th and 8th graders at a junior high Halloween dance.

Nah. The kids were pretty good, actually. It was very loud and my feet hurt, though.

Candy Corn Day

That's all. I got nothin' else. It's candy corn day. Enjoy.

Internet Day

And it's not about Al Gore. I've been keeping a calendar of whatever silly days I can find on the 'net since the kids got such a chuckle when I put Talk Like A Pirate Day on the board back in September. So today was the day in 1969 when s couple of geeks hooked up two computers to communicate with each other, and the infant internet came into being. Little did they know the addictive nature of their embryonic creation. Curse you internet, you have sucked me into your grasp!

Mom's Taxi Rides Again

It's fundraiser season. Meh. Today I ran Thing 3 around to deliver the items she sold as a fundraiser for a playground at her school. Apparently when the built the school about 10 years ago, no-one thought a playground was necessary for middle schoolers. Middle schoolers think otherwise. So we had the dinner Friday night and the choir kids are also selling butter braids, with community discount cards in the near future. It's popcorn season for the Boy Scouts, and nut time for girl scouts, and magazines for all the schools in the four-county area. I'd go into hiding, but these kids have parents I have to hit up for chaperone duty, so I have to play nice. *sigh*

But now the windows look crappy

I'll live with it. Soffit went up tonite!!!

Four letter words on Sunday

iPastor and I looked out the window from our separate floors and both made rude noises at what we saw there: snow. It didn't stick or last long, but it was enough to put a damper on the whole day. The snow wasn't so bad on its own, but in conjunction with the 40mph winds, it was not fit for man nor beast. Church called off the scheduled hayride, and had a game night instead. A much nicer way to spend the evening.

Zing!

Lots of running today. The girls and I ran to town for haircuts this morning, then iPastor and I headed for Willmar in search of a dryer. We picked one out at Home Depot, then headed downtown for lunch. I had a mind to go to a little real Mexican place, but on the way from the retail strip to the downtown area, a St. Andrew's cross flapping in the breeze caught my eye, and we turned around to discover a little gem called Gilday's It's a little import shop with a few tables and awesome food and tea. A joy to find so much closer to home than Minneapolis. Unfortunately, our visit there was marred by the call bringing news of the death of iPastor's uncle. He was battling lung cancer, but had a heart attack. He wished to be cremated, and there's is no hurry for a funeral, as he was very adamant that it be a celebration, so the family is taking their time to plan it.
From Gilday's we made our way to Harvest Church, a distribution site for Angel Food Ministries. Our church is considering becoming a distribution center, so we wanted to check out the product and the setup. They have a well-oiled machine there at Harvest. I came home and went immediately to work a shift at Job #2. Days like this keep me on my toes, but I surely don't enjoy stretching a couple of them together. Sleep!! Now!!

Evening in Italy...

...was the theme of the choir fundraiser. That translates to a $14 styrofoam plate of lasagna with a floor show. The food was awesome, and the show the kids put together was topnotch. They served 250 of those plates, so hopefully it raised a little cash for the kids. The less I have to pay to send two kids to NYC, the better.

The siding crew is here!

The gaping hole in the checkbook is being plugged with shiny, white, vinyl siding. Rock!
One of the siding crew actually speaks English. Bonus!
Now If I can just get all the cats into their trailer before they leave...

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

OMG.

I went looking for house pics to do a before and after with the siding, but instead I found my old racing page.
Check it out!!
(I thought it was a direct link, but you have to click on the "Team G4" button when you get to the startup page)

My kingdom for a dryer

My dryer is on the fritz. About this time last year the old one conked out, but a friend found us a free one. I suppose I shouldn't complain about using a free dryer for a year. Considering the present economy, I've been working at drying clothes the old fashioned way. After all, how many years did our ancestors last before the automatic clothes dryer was invented. Pastor likes to remind me that those who did without dryers also usually had a stay-at-home mom to oversee laundry duty. They also didn't have nearly as many clothes.
I have fallen woefully behind in the laundry department, and sadly I can't blame most of that on the dryer. Tonight I decided to catch up by taking everything to the laundromat in the strip mall where Thing 3 has dance class. As I was loading up, the thought flittered across my mind that I could probably throw everything in the load away and we'd still have plenty of clothing left in our closets and dressers to live in. I packed more summer stuff from the loads I washed, and threw away a few hopelessly stained items that we were saving...why? I bagged up items for the charity store that were between kids. No need to save something two years for the little sister. By the time she grows into it, it will be out of style. That, and if I keep it around she will find it and wear it to school looking like the little match girl in her ill-fitting clothes.
The poor kids were less than thrilled to spend their evening in the laundromat with me, and I was pretty frustrated with their constant bickering and straying off task. We each managed to come home with a basket of clean clothes, and enough rags to clean for years. I think I'll ask for towels for Christmas.

Nothing says Monday like...

...wet dogs.
...coming home to a houseful of kids that aren't mine.
...smacking a deer.
...learning that the siding crew is on the way (yay!) and that means I have a bunch of stuff to take off the walls and clean out of the yard (not so yay.)


Waiting for Tuesday...

Back to reality.

Here at Casa del Goose, we're gearing down the weekend and getting ready for the school week ahead. Rested and ready to go back to work. That backlog of grading I was gonna tackle over the weekend? Not so much. Oh well...

How come...

...the kid who can barely get out of bed in time for the bus, can be ready to go fishing with her auntie at 530 am?

So, anyway...

I got some puttering done around the house, and tried to motivate the kids to help a little. I finally accepted reality and stored the rest of the summer clothes, pulled out the long underwear and sweaters, and stripped the bed. As long as I am doing some drying at the laundromat now and then, I figured I may as well do my comforter in the big washers there, too. As the zero-hour approached for depositing Thing 1 at her McDonald's job, she seemed to exponentially move slower. Of course, I mistakenly thought I was ready to go until I couldn't find my keys. So I grabbed iPastor's and took off. As it happened, Thing 1 had fudged her start time (some sort of reverse schedule psychology, or something) so she had plenty of time. I dropped by MIL's to pick up some clothes I'd dried there, and a load of thrift store donations. I headed for the nicer laundromat, and found it packed to the rafters at noon on a Friday. Hm. So I wandered to the other, deserted, broken-down laundromat. There, the change machine would not function, and there was nowhere in the congregate shopping facility to get change. I drove the couple blocks to pick up some dry cleaning, where the oldest, most confused woman in the world helped me at the counter. Poor little thing. I dropped the load at the thrift store, then realized I left the soap at the laundromat. My day was quickly becoming an exercise in futility. I headed back (thank heaven for small towns) and passed iPastor at the railroad crossing. I thought he might be looking for his keys. Of course my cell phone was not in my purse where it was supposed to be. As I headed back in the other direction, I saw him turn up the hill, so I followed him. He's quite elusive, so I jogged a couple blocks over to a friend's house and gave him a call. He told me he was on his way to the ER with chest pain. Construction on the main route through town adds a few minutes travel time even in a little place, but I made it there nearly as he sat down. After lots of scary tests and machines that go ping, he was pronounced nearly normal, presenting with "atypical chest" pain, most likely due to inflammation. They started him on treatment for that, and let him go. So the good news is, we got no vibrant, flapping red flags, but he still feels pretty crappy. The rest of our day was fairly subdued, and I'm ready for bed. Wrings a body out.

It's a brand new day!

So the day off is stretching before me, loaded with potential. I have ebay items to mail, laundry to dry, dogs to bathe, kids to ferry...
I think I'll go back to bed.

Long weekend in 3, 2, 1...

Yay! The official state holiday, MEA Weekend, has begun!

Only in farm country

Wheeeee!
Minnesotan arrested: DWI with a combine

Parent Teacher Conferences

First conferences today from this side of the desk. Hope I don't smell...

Fall

Today is dark and rainy, but oddly warm; 75 degrees at last check. Not complaining in the least...

Now this is what the weekend should be like.

We puttered around the house aimlessly, did some chores and errands at a leisurely pace, and called iPastor's dad and stepmom over for pizza. I've enjoyed the past few weeks of getting out and about and visiting, but it was also nice to have a day with no agenda, no pressure to be anywhere, and no long drive to dread at the end of the day.

Friday!

Seemed like a long week. Ready to kick back a little with no plan of action.

Another one for file "C"

We get the kids off to the bus very early here. They get breakfsat at school, but I try to have something quick to tide them over on the bus. On Thing 4's off days, I feed him right away, but I usually wait and eat more of a brunch to hold me over until after school. Thing 4 is a grazer, however, so I try to offer him some of whatever I'm having. He wasn't interested today, but he came back a couple minutes later:

"I would like some bacon that you can cook."
"Maybe daddy will make you bacon for lunch."
"Daddy sucks at cooking bacon."

I daresay iPastor is a better cook than me. I pointed this out to the Thing, but not before I dang near snorted my tea through my nose.

Wordless Wednesday

see more pwn and owned pictures

Divine justice?

Or something.

Rolling along

Got through the first choir concert of the year (blissfully short!) and parent meeting for the choir trip fundraiser. Love to hear the kids sing, but all the other BS is a pain. The fall concert is fine, but at Christmas, they combine the choirs and bands and it is a mess, with teardown and setup between each group that takes longer than the concert. Yuck. Two hour marathon...
The next fundraiser is "Evening in Italy." Guess who's emcee? Cliff, send me some jokes!

Third Day on the Third Day (minus 2)

I follow the Third Day blog somewhat sporadically. Kinda depends on what else is going on in my life and how close I am to an upcoming show. I poked my head in and found out Mark Lee was late to his own party with the Third Day meme, so I'm right in there with him.
I've been working on tickets for Spencer, IA. Someone on eBay is selling $32 seats for $143. Good luck with that. I'll wait for the next general admission show. Geez.
We've recently "returned" to Christian contemp music at our house. We have limited radio coverage for that genre in this part of the country, and a lot of what gets airplay can be kind of, well, saccharine. Glory glory joy praise yada yada yada. We somehow stumbled across Casting Crowns and were pleasantly surprised to hear them singing about the Christian walk from a "real" perspective. It's not always easy, but it's worth the struggle. We started tuning in and paying more attention. While commuting to school I found a more modern Christian contemp station (the Refuge) and it was there I heard Third Day for the first time, and they blew me away. It took me until last March to scrape together the money and day off to take in a show, but I finally got to see them on the Live tour in Sioux Falls last year. Too much fun. Gotta love boys with a little southern rock in their soul along with Jesus. ;) Looking forward to catching the next installment of the Live tour this fall. We kinda wanted to go to Music Builds in Minneapolis, but it would have been a real struggle to get there on time from this far away. I've got my meet and greets reserved, and a daughter itching to meet Tai. iPastor and Thing 3 are bassists, so we'll be sneaking a little right of house as the night progresses, I'm sure...

Garage: Sold

Posted time for sale 9:00 am.
Time people started crawling all over the yard: 7:20 am.
People buying stuff for ebay or resale who thought they were being subtle but weren't: 4.
Number of cats given away: 0

But you've got to haggle...

After school today, it's off to MIL's house to prepare for her garage sale. Then I have to post a ton of Snowbabies to eBay. Yikes. It'll be nice to stick close to home, though, and I think the forecast is pleasant, so there are worse things than hanging out in the yard.

***
Edit 9:30 pm
***

So I guess I know all the good places to go for excitement. I was near the garage door looking back toward the house when I heard a crash and saw lights flicker over the roof. The first thought through my head was "Thunderstorm?" but the forecast is clear and the night was mild. Lights continued to flash and the banging and crashing continued for a few seconds. I had time to make my way to the end of the driveway to look up the street to where I thought I had seen the flashing. It actually came from behind and above her house (her block is built on a hill along a steep ravine; the alley is level with the roof of her garage, which is built into the berm.) Someone was clipping along in a white minivan and missed the curve, but caught a couple of light poles head-on, plunging our neighborhood into darkness. It was rather impressive. The kids piled out of the dark house to find me, just about he time I realized the garage door was open. I have no garage of my own, let alone one with an electric door opener, so I had no idea how to get it down, and the garage is now packed with her stuff. Thing 2 checked it out and found a quick release to get the door shut. So, that put an end to rummage sale marking for the evening. I killed time at Country Kitchen making the rounds of Friday night coffee drinkers while waiting for Thing 1 to get out of the movie, then headed home. If the power's not on by tomorrow, we'll have to drag everything out into the driveway; it's pretty dark in the garage. The adventure continues...

Stolen Firsts

So I stole this meme from Jeff, who stole it from somewhere else. It seemed kinda fun, and I'm a little dry on material this week, so here goes...
1. When was your first kiss? You know, I honestly don't remember. I suppose second grade, because that's when I had the first "boyfriend." Sadly enough, it must not have been so memorable as to stick in my mind. I can remember the first kiss with iPastor, though, and I can't call it up with anyone else, so that must count for something.

2. When did you first start buying holiday or birthday gifts for other people and stop thinking about what people would buy for you? It was an anniversary for my mom and dad, and I got them the stupidest presents ever, but they liked them. Little china figurines. I remember riding home from the store with the presents in my bike basket, and they bounced out when I went over railroad tracks. I was petrified they'd break, but they were well wrapped by the drugstore lady. Good thing. I still care what other people get me.

3. When was the first time you thought of yourself not as a kid/teen, but as an adult? When I was 15 and knew everything. Then I grew up and started feeling like a kid again.

4. What do you remember about the first time you drove a car? Putting a Gran Torino in the ditch, and my sister having to drive it out.

5. Tell me about your first pet. A curly black dog named Skippy, who went to live at the farm when I was about 5. Took me forever to realize the dog bought the farm he went to live on. Duh.

6. What was your first job? I started car-hopping and doing home care the same summer, when I was 16. No rollerskates at either job, but there was a really mean dog that tore my ankle open at the farm where I did home care.
7. Who was the first teacher to make a positive impact on your life? Dan Smith, reading Tennyson's "The Eagle" from atop his desk. I had lots of good teachers, but he's the one who sticks in my heart. As are a couple of awesome college Profs.

8. If you’ve lived in more than one house or apartment as an adult, tell me about your first one. Six of us lived in a rented duplex in college. It was that golden time, not quite grown up and responsible, but paying the bills and having an awesome time with friends. We had contests to see who could stay in bathrobes the longest, played marathon games of Michigan Rummy, alternated baking and preparing awesome meals together and surviving on Ramen noodles. It rocked.
9. What was it like the first time you got drunk (assuming you remember). It involved cold duck malt liquor and was not particularly horrible or fun. I was 13. The first smoking experience involved far more retching and angst.

10. Did you marry your first love? I thought I was in love a few times and was proven horribly wrong, sometimes by their behavior, and sometimes by my own. I also loved the man I married, and I've learned over the years that love is a lot more than we think it is when we are driven by hormones. I am still learning, and still loving, so I must be on the right track.

Wordless Wednesday