It was a bad burn...

After spending a lot of time reading over at Mama's Losin' It, I've finally decided to take the plunge and participate in Mama Kat's Writers Workshop. Her writing prompts are always great and there's always something that I can relate to. The prompt I've chosen to write about today is...

"It was a bad burn. Tell about the worst sunburn you ever received. How did that happen!?!"

Now I must confess that with living 25 years of my life in sunny Florida I have had many, many sunburns. Bad sunburns. Some were self induced as I was often trying to get the perfect tan. I admit to slathering on baby oil as a teen and other stupidly unhealthy tricks of the trade. But the bad burn I'm going to tell you about was one that occurred when I was a kid and I can totally blame this on my parents! Ha! Not only is this a story of a bad sunburn but also of being humiliated. I can blame that on them, too. The opportunity doesn't happen often so I should certainly take advantage of it, right?

The year was 1986 I think and we had taken a cruise to the Bahamas, stayed a couple days on the island and then cruised on back to South Florida. I don't think there was as much awareness about the importance of protecting our skin from the sun back then, but hello! common sense. I was sent to spend many hours swimming in the pool and in the Caribbean Sea, playing games like the limbo and all that good stuff. I had a blast. But without a drop of sunscreen. Needless to say I also had a burn. The bright red, lobster hued, hurts really bad type of sunburn.

That night as the full effects of the burn made itself known, I hurt. Very.Badly. My dad tried to ease the pain by putting soaking wet cold towels on my back while I was laying in my bed. As the heat from my burning body would make the towels hot, he would refresh me by pouring more cold water (maybe the water from the melted ice bucket?) over me on top of the towels. Bless his heart, he tried to help. I'm sure you can imagine that the bed was soaking wet.

For the rest of our vacation I swam with a t-shirt on to keep the sunburn from getting worse. And my dad would repeat the cold water process at night so that I wasn't in too much pain to sleep. But a peculiar thing started to happen...I began noticing that every time the housekeeping staff would see me they would start snickering amongst themselves. It took a little while for me to realize that they were laughing at *me*. I was a kid at the time, but old enough to put two and two together. I think they thought the reason for the wet bed of mine that they changed each morning was because I was um...not properly potty trained. They must have thought I was wetting the bed. And that I had a HUGE bladder as the bedsheets were super soaked. I mentioned I was a kid, but I was a kid that was too old to be wetting the bed.

Upon this epiphany, I was so embarrassed. Mortified.

So there you have it. I'm not sure it was the worst sunburn I've had as far as burn and pain. But it was certainly the worst.sunburn.ever. And just so you know, I'm a sunscreen tyrant with Kelley and Bethany. They'll thank me one day!

Read more...

Caught up in the hype

Have you ever been caught up in the hype? You just have to get the newest whatever-it-is that everyone's talking about?

Y'all I have to confess, I am caught up in the hype and coveting the iPad! It's like I have to get one NOW or else.

Really, I don't need it. Well not that anyone needs it, but you know what I mean. I have a lot of gadgets that I've collected over the years. Some of them don't even get used often. There might even be one little thing I just had to have that I still haven't opened. Now that particular thing wasn't like this, it wasn't a brand new thing I had to have. They'd been out for quite awhile and I actually had a planned use for it, it's one of those little flip camcorder thingies. I was going to capture lots of fun moments with the girls and maybe vlog. OK probably not vlog. But you can see that I had a reason for wanting one.

The iPad? I have no reasons for my desire. None. There is nothing that I can come up with to justify such a purchase.

So instead I've been entering giveaways to win one. And I keep saying I'm going to win it for Mr. H. Yeah I don't think he believes that for one second either, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Well, you'll never guess what happened...The Pioneer Woman had a giveaway and one of the prizes was an iPad. Of course I jumped on that chance. Today I was catching up on my blog reading and PW had posted the winner of the iPad. The winner was Heather! OMGOSH! is what I said out loud to nobody. Guess you could say I was a little bit excited!

Upon further investigation I realized that Heather is a rather common name. Darn it!

So congrats to the Heather who actually won! And I'm back to coveting this silly gadget.

Read more...

some thoughts to ponder...

Brought to us by The Law of Chastity and the Modern Mormon Girl...

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your
computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize
you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was
younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. Just how the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5, as I'm pretty
sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.

9. Bad decisions make good stories.

10. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the
rest of the day.

11. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after BlueRay? I don't
want to have to restart my collection...again.

12. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if
I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did
not make any changes to.

13. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn
it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to
voice mail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run
away?

14. I hate leaving my house confident and looking really good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste!

15. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.

16. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

17. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than with Kay.

18. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

19. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and
suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw
it.

20. I would rather try to carry 10 grocery bags in each hand than take 2
trips to bring my groceries from the car into the house.

21. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish
a text, change my shoes or finish applying my mascara.

22. Sometimes I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom
and hunger.

23. How many times do you suppose it is OK to say "What?" before you just
nod and smile because you still didn't hear, understand or you just weren't
paying attention to a word they just said?

24. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to
prevent a jerk from cutting in to your lane. Stay strong, brothers and
sisters!

25. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,
and you can wear them forever.

26. Is it just me or do teenagers get dumber & dumber every year?

27. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going
down after leaning your chair back just a tad too far.

28. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not
know what time it is.

29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys
in a pocket or purse, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the
Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3
feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, pitch black, first time, every
time!

Read more...

Easter Eve...

Did you know that Easter Eve is actually a holiday of sorts? Well it is. Not quite like Christmas Eve. It's more of an anniversary. One of my bestest of friends, Krissy, and I picked Easter Eve as the anniversary of our friendship. Tonight is somewhere around our 23rd anniversary. (Wow-that makes me feel very old). Of course there is a story that explains why we picked Easter Eve as our anniversary.

Growing up in our neighborhood was full of awesome. There were a lot of kids. On just our street were three of us girls who were all the same age. And there were older brothers. And, well just a lot of us. It was a big neighborhood. We always had fun-every day! One of our traditions was playing *manhunt* at night. Some of the guys actually wore camouflage, and us girls usually just wore something dark. Another habit that Krissy and I had was telling each of our parents that we were spending the night at the other's house. This always worked out easily and we had many fun nights "out". (Kelley and Bethany better not ever try that. I'm really hoping that my experience as a kid will enable me to know when they are trying to pull one over on me).

So back to Easter Eve...It was one of those nights where we were "at each other's house". We decided to deliver Easter Eggs filled with treats to all of our neighborhood friends. Our brilliant idea was to sign each egg with a marker from the "camo bunny". No joke! As we spent several hours that night filling the eggs with candy, signing the camo bunny's signature, and delivering eggs throughout the neighborhood...it was then that we decided that Easter Eve shall be the anniversary of our friendship!

All these years later, I think back to the good old days. We had so much fun. Of course back then all we really wanted to do was grow up and be adults. Because adults could do whatever they wanted. If only we knew then what we know now...sigh. These days I see the same in Kelley and Bethany, wishing they were grown ups. They have big plans. I tell them all the time that their days as a grown up will be here before they know it, and it will last forever...but the fun days as kids will be gone. And they'll miss them. Like all kids before them, they just don't believe me.

Happy Easter!

Read more...

tween-ese...and mom's a dunce

we're learning a new language here at paisley-place, tween-ese. i really need to start writing things down when they are spoken so i don't forget. tonight i'll share a couple.

kelley had a bit of a last minute rush after her shower tonight, packing up her homework that had gone missing this morning.

i must at this point tell y'all about this particular homework assignment real quick. it as a 4 page group of papers that was handed to me last night to be stapled. which i did and handed it right back i'm sure. this morning as mr. h was getting them ready for the bus (yes he does that for me-uber sweet!), kelley could not find the homework. they searched until it was time for the bus and she ended up going to school empty handed. mr. h and kelley knew this would result in a phone call home this morning so that kelley could tell him that she didn't have her homework to hand in. (as if he didn't know, but teacher's rule). both kelley and mr. h explain to the teacher that the assignment went missing when it was in "mom's hands".

needless to say i felt really bad as i am searching this evening for the papers *i* lost. searching unsuccessfully. readily claiming this as a major mommy FAIL, i write a note to the teacher explaining that the homework was done, i lost it, please give kelley the credit.

lo and behold...bethany finds the missing papers. under her bed. mmm-hmmm now that was definitely not my doing. i was so totally framed. fortunately for kelley, she will be able to turn in her work and get credit. and her teacher will be left to believe that i am a complete dunce.

now that i've gotten that out, i can move on...

kelley had forgotten to hang her wet towel up and her excuse? "but i was all commotioned with my making sure i packed my homework up so i wouldn't miss turning it in again". all in all, it was really cute the way it came out. it was worth being known as the mom dunce.

bethany's current gem is "BRB". i was proud to be able to easily translate this to "be right back".

in fact, the girls seemed to be amazed and even a bit miffed that i can speak their language. i believe that they think i am really...old. and probably a dunce.

Read more...

i guess you could call us quiverfull

***this blog post has been sitting unpublished for several days now mostly waiting for pictures to be added. but also because i'm trying to anticipate the reaction this will get. my intention? just a cute little (or big) history of why i could very well end up as "the old lady with the cats". the situation we have right now is not ideal. and i hope that it is very much temporary! also this is in no way meant to offend large families. i am not the product of one, even though having siblings and a large family have been life long desires of mine. and we are not in the situation to have many more children, for several reasons. one? you will soon see!***

i'd never heard of the term "quiverfull" until the duggar family became popular. and even then i wasn't quite sure of the exact meaning so i glanced at wikipedia. according to the first little blurb it says that "children should be received eagerly as blessings from God". and i definitely do agree with that. but ok it's true we don't have a quiverfull of children. and although i really do want a "large" family, to me that means three or four children. not exactly very duggar-esque.

however, i also view animals as blessings from God too! sometimes i prefer them to humans as they never lie or cheat. pets just warm my heart and make me smile because they are true, pure and full of love. i definitely believe the studies that say pets are good for you. ever been comforted by puppy kisses or kitty purrs? now i won't say that my pets never get grumpy, they do! especially theo who often walks around the house complaining about this whole quiverfull mentality i seem to have. which i guess i should explain.

i've always been an animal lover. my dad says i've adopted strays my whole life (though he actually has included some people as strays too, but that's a whole other story), and i have rescued many, many strays in my lifetime. some i've kept as my own pets and some like a few litters of kittens i've rescued from the elements i've worked hard to find them good homes. this is no easy task. all in all, i've always had pets. and for a few years it was surprising because i had only one pet, ferris. he's my 16 year old best buddy, a manx cat that i adopted from animal control when he was only 5 weeks old. i say my best buddy because he is! he's been with me for my entire adult life, all the ups and downs, growing, maturing, college, working, boyfriends, marriage, kids, sickness, etc. not to mention all of the pets and strays that have come and gone. ferris has seen it all!



about four years ago or so theo joined us. a little kitten in the yard who was hungry and getting wet when it started to rain. of course we brought him in. he quickly bonded with mr. h and became "his" cat named theo. (the bonding could explain the grumpies theo is prone to). for the next few years it was just the two cat guys.



kelley did have a puppy from the humane society for a little while, but no matter what we did bethany was terrified of him. and like lots of "mutts" he got pretty big which made bethany even more scared. fortunately he found another good home. we had a few hamsters who were quite sweet but they are now running on the big hamster wheel in the sky.

kelley still desperately wanted a puppy. she first asked when she was just 2. on her eighth birthday she got daisy, who we all adore and is the "pug princess". i have to brag about daisy...puppies to me are A LOT of work. i've had one who seriously was more of a challenge than a newborn! not daisy though. she was easy to housetrain. she went through a flip flop chewing phase but even that passed quickly. so i don't know if it's daisy or pugs in general. i just know that our princess is the best.dog.ever. the boys-ferris and theo didn't mind her at all. we then became a nice little family with not too many pets. nice and normal.



last december we acquired another cat. he belonged to a patient of mr. h's who had passed away. the family said that mr. h was the man's favorite nurse and asked if we would like to have the cat. (i have to mention that i was always interested in hemingway cats-the ones with extra digits that are often found in key west at ernest hemingway's estate. and it turns out that this cat had extra digits though i'm not sure if he is a hemingway cat-he actually has six digits on all but one paw and seven on the other! and a few other oddities...also a manx and has the strangest ears i've ever seen-they are curled. he's really a sight to see!). so vader came to home to stay. we didn't name him, i'm not sure if it's from darth vader or not. but according to ferris and theo it is short for IN-vader. yep, after all that ferris has tolerated he drew the line with vader. theo doesn't like him and the grumpies have gotten worse. the feeling is mutual, vader doesn't like them either. but to us and even daisy he is completely lovey-dovey.



ok so now we're getting a bit packed. our house is small-it was my "batchelorette pad". we don't have a farm and really i'm a pretty big believer that house cats belong in the house. but everybody claims "their" spot and it works out. sort of. but we're not at quiverfull yet, not anywhere close!

have you ever told your children something that has come back to get you? well, i sure have. kelley and bethany often mentioned that they would like a turtle. i love turtles as well. and i told the girls that if they ever found a turtle that was in trouble they could bring it home. after clarifying that the huge tortoises that they see from time to time were not included, i figured this would never happen. right? nope! not in my life. the girls rescued an itty bitty tortoise that was about to be eaten by a friend's dog. of course! so they brought the little thing home and true to my word, we kept it. we never did see any "missing" signs, so for now alex or speedy (nobody can stick with one name) resides with us.



it's here that i have to mention that i've always adored orange cats. never had one though. since i've brought this up, i'm sure you realize that is all about to change. oh dear has it changed! my parents noticed a very small orange cat hanging around their yard. she was probably still even a kitten, as much as she could be. and then her belly started to grow, and grow. oh no! she couldn't be pregnant could she? she was much too young. then her big belly was gone. we figured she miscarried the babies. my parent's neighbor had been trying to catch the cat to keep, but they were unsuccessful and ended up moving. some time later that's when we saw kittens, they had survived. five, adorable, tiny, orange kittens! and some time after that the neighbors came back and the mom cat was gone. we guessed that they finally got her, which was great! except for the babies left behind. i guess they didn't realize that she had babies.



this was no problem for me. my resume boasts several litters of kittens that i rescued and found homes for. so that's exactly what i was going to do. except wow, they weren't too friendly or brave. i had to go back and forth many times to catch them all. and i did get all of them except for one. meanwhile back at home we had four little guys (yep all boys) sequestered. they were not at all happy. first order of business was getting rid of fleas and other gross things that wild kittens get. yuck. but we got rid of those. then the challenge of eating, they were very young and i believe still nursing when their mom disappeared. got them eating. they took right to the litterbox. so it was then all about teaching them that we weren't going to eat them and that we were nice. this was a slow process. it was sad though, as we knew there was one kitten left and how scary for that kitten-lost mommy and brothers. i tried and tried to get that kitten. and i failed. my mom however (with my dad's advice) got her! yes she was the only girl. she was terrified, but reuniting with her brothers was so sweet!



now of course the plan was that after we got them socialized a bit that i was going to find homes for them. that would be easy, they are adorable! bethany did bond with one she named julian and since she didn't have her "own" pet like the rest of us, i figured what the heck-we'll let her keep her julian. the rest got names too. gabriel, eli, lexi and, and, well the last one we can't decide on a name for. he's the only one who isn't orange. he's a beautiful cream sort of color that i've never seen before, with dark rusty colored eyes. kelley named him cream puff. mr. h really likes the little guy and named him spooky. and though we call him all of those names, he's most often called pooky. lexi, the only girl and last to join us, is super shy. really shy. in fact after months she is just now comfortable and friendly. poor thing really had a hard time. she's super sweet now and very spoiled.



you may have noticed that i said "months" and that is no mistake. remember how i was easily going to find all of these kittens homes? well, it's not been easy. i have found not one home. not a one! we have mostly tried word of mouth. after it became clear that wasn't going to work i called the humane society. not what i wanted to do, but i had to do something. well that was a bust too. they didn't exactly say no they won't take the kittens. but they did tell me that they had so many kittens and cats that they were completely overloaded and not having any luck with adoptions. my heart sank. so i asked for suggestions and mentioned placing an ad in the paper. they told me not to do that because cruel people tend to answer ads for free kittens and do all sorts of awful things to them-using them as lab animals, satanic rituals or just all around horrible things. oh.my.gosh. by the time i hung up i was on the verge of tears. i just can't imagine these sweet babies being hurt. i refuse to call animal control as i've read too many articles in the paper about their adoption vs. put down ratios. i've called the vets in town. and i've even called animal rescue places out of town. so right now i'm stuck. we're stuck. if you get nothing else out of this long, rambling story of mine-please get this: spay and neuter your pets!



so now we are officially a quiverfull family. it's going ok. the girls think it's the coolest thing ever. daisy doesn't mind them at all. ferris has seen it all, nothing phases him. theo is grumpy and often heard saying all sorts of bad words in cat language-which is kind of cute. vader, poor vader. well he doesn't care for the grown cats at all but i do believe that he feels like he is in charge of the kittens. a surrogate mom maybe? he herds them around, bathes them, it's all very sweet. but i can tell that like any "mom" with five kids he is absolutely worn out. i try to tell him that he doesn't have to be in charge of them but he doesn't seem to understand that. mr. h grumbles about them half of the time and then spoils them the other half.





recently all of the kittens received their vaccinations and were spayed/neutered. wow! that whole thing cost a small fortune. ha-ha maybe i need to set up a "donate" button! but of course it was the necessary thing to do. my hope is that the kittens will be more appealing to people if all of the vet stuff is taken care of already. atleast i tell myself that. we are keeping the makers of kitten and cat chow and cat litter in business. and if only i got paid for my manual labor of litterbox duty...

sometimes there's a lot of work and it can sure be tough...



but the good news is that every once in awhile an unusual friendship is made.







and there's always a laugh to be had!



so there you have it, we are quiverfull!

would anyone like a kitten?

Read more...

happy halloween!

Read more...

some past funnies

blogging is really starting to take some time. i have a few posts that i've been working on for several days now. in the meantime, i came across some funnies from my caring bridge journal and thought i'd share them. these little jewels were from 2007. kids really do crack me up!

***

So Kelley thought she'd be slick and write an answer to a test on her shoe. It didn't all fit so she abbreviated it. She must've thought she was just too smart to actually come up with something like that. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember what the abbreviation stood for and she missed the question anyway. It was a good laugh!

(i have saved the shoe and here it is...)

***

dinner time conversation...

Picky Kelley who does not eat meat is trying steak for the first time.

Bethany: "Hey Kelley did you know steak comes from cows? You're tasting cows. Dead ones!"

***

and a cute little picture of part of our "crew". one of the posts i'm working on is telling this story...



hope this post gave you a giggle. and stayed tuned for new posts...including awards!!!

Read more...

totally dig this!

Read more...

the weather outside is...

frightful?

delightful?

how about darn cold?

and to think... i have spent how many months complaining about the oppressive heat and humidity, thanks to florida's bright "orb of melt"?

listen to anyone who knows me and they will tell you that i incessantly complain about the lack of seasons in florida. i want to move back up north. i spent my first ten years in northeast ohio where there was a lot of snow. as i hear about it now the snowstorms of the 70's and 80's got nothin' on the snowstorms of today. and i did just fine then. maybe it was the one piece snow suits and moon boots?

cause right now, i know that it likely isn't that cold in the big picture of our country. let me go check the temperature...ok i'm embarrassed to tell you all this, it's um 60 degrees. ahem

but let me give you my defense...

i am a firm believer that living in the tropics thins the blood as they say. cause i have little tolerance for coldness anymore. wonder how i can thicken that blood up? because i really DO want to move to where the season's change.

and then there is the chemo effect. this has made things so much worse. it has completely ruined my internal thermostat. i am either pouring sweat or shivering with my teeth chattering. there is no middle ground to that...none.

oh and one of the effects of a certain chemo med is peripheral neuropathy that leaves your fingers numb. this only lasted a few months til after chemo passed, but i noticed that as it got chilly my fingers are now numb. thumbs too!

but still i am convinced that even though it may take some time to get used to it, a new wardrobe and lots of UGG boots that i could survive up north. in a blizzard. but don't expect to see me shoveling. no, i will riding down hills in sleds! do they still make those? and making snowmen and snowangels and etc. after all my only experience in any winter wonderland was as a kid.

i'm probably not fooling anyone am i? are there any places that the year round temperature is say 70-80? maybe that is the place for me!

you may have to remind me of this post down the road oh say about thanksgiving to new year's when our highs will be back in the melt range. but what would i really love for christmas? a white one. i would definitely be cool (chill) (frozen) with that! because the chilly weather in florida never lasts long. i will be sweating before the week is up probably.

one last thing, despite my shivery post...could you all do a little "keep it chilly in florida" dance? the girls have so many adorable sweaters to wear this season!

Read more...

comedy break!

<a href="http://www.cmt.com/video/" target="_blank">Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping</a>

Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping

Read more...

the trouble with school supplies.

school supplies. that's innocent enough right? just something we have to do every year, some moms even look forward to shopping for them. me, i prefer to get excited over the new clothes, shoes and backpacks. but of course i do buy new supplies every year.

there is a lot of pressure in something so simple. i certainly don't want to mess up on the supplies and have the teacher think i can't follow directions. some years the school supply lists have been incredibly long. this year they weren't so bad. i have heard stories about a very expensive calculator that some kids are required to have. and i really hope that is just a school supply urban legend.

but i have to tell you a secret. please keep this just between us as i wouldn't want people to think i am crazy. the secret? i have some sort of school supply trouble, maybe a hex or something. see why this could raise an eyebrow among non-believer's of hexes and murphy's law? for many years we got the supplies easily enough. sometimes having trouble finding a specific item-but usually we'd find it or something similar eventually. i was always putting forth effort, so i don't think that is where i caught the hex.

i have to confess that i purposely skipped over one request year after year. tennis balls. yes, you read that right, tennis balls. i'm sure you are asking why on earth?!... me too. the purpose of tennis balls is to put them on the legs of chairs so they don't scrape the floor. now i would have gotten the tennis balls except for a couple of things. first of all any that i could find came in packs of 3. between my girls there are 8 chair legs so that would be 3 packs of tennis balls. but have you seen the cost of tennis balls? i never did find a generic brand. and that money could have been spent on a new pair of shoes. and really chair legs have scraped the floors for ages. but i digress...



perhaps that is where i went wrong. because the past two years i have been absolutely tortured by school supplies. ok maybe it's the creator of the school supply lists. or maybe it is karma. whatever.

school supply trouble number one: the year that we could only find our school's particular list in spanish. every place that had lists only had the spanish version. and the school had not yet become techno savvy enough to put the lists online. we passed over the opportunity to shop for útiles escolares a couple times. our thought was eventually we'd come across the english list. i even asked the store clerks if they could please find me one i could understand. they'd walk away and never come back.

time was ticking and we were faced with just doing the best we could with what we had. the list. in spanish. i figured i might do ok as i had studied the language in high school. but when i looked over the many, many items i realized this was going to be very hard. nobody else seemed to be struggling. they were following their lists and picking out supplies. i peeked at their lists and of course they were always from another school.

i became resourceful. i grabbed a list from another school, really how different could it be? we ended up with pencils as el número dos actually meant something to me-#2 pencils! beyond that i was really stuck. i could figure out glue, but was it a stick or in a bottle?

then i had the brilliant idea, find a translation dictionary in the book department! that helped a bit with items like tijeras, paper, erasers, colored pencils, tissues. we were crossing items off the list pretty swiftly. but then the well went dry and there were still several items we needed. i tried looking up all sorts of things based on what the girls usually need. no luck.



in the end, i had to do some people profiling and find a person who might speak spanish to help us. do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to go up to a complete stranger and ask if they by chance spoke spanish and could help us with a school supply list? but i did it and was fortunate to find a kind family to help us finish off the list.

school supply trouble number two: or the pencil debacle of 2009. i can giggle about it now, but at the time pencils were no laughing matter. each girl got a new pack of pencils for school. now it's important to note that we have a lot of pencils here at home. but for starting the new year off on the right foot i still buy new pencils.

apparently one of the packs of pencils was defunct. as in there was no lead in the pencil. now i'm not sure if this was a couple of pencils or all of the pencils. the story changes. the daughter in question told her teacher and asked to borrow a pencil. and with that she was supposed to tell us so we could get her new pencils. but that must have slipped her mind.

what ended up happening is just crazy. and it's pencils for pete's sake! the daughter never told us about her pencils. and she didn't grab any pencils from home to take to school. but she must have continued to ask her teacher for pencils. and this teacher must have thought i was really peculiar, why would i not get pencils for my sweet child?

one afternoon papa (my dad) comes to visit and hands me some pencils. i was confused. he tells me that the teacher told him we needed pencils. confusion quickly turns to embarrassment. embarrassment quickly turns to anger. of course i can provide pencils, they're pencils! where is this coming from?! poor papa gets blasted. i'm left like a crazy woman mumbling pencils? i don't get it? pencils?

in the end the story is unraveled. the daughter had bum pencils, either some or all. she borrows pencils from the teacher. she never tells us. she never gets new pencils from home. papa happens to send an email asking how the first week of school went. the teacher replies and then because apparently we were not responsive to the request of new pencils, she asks him to please get some new pencils. papa delivers new pencils to a very confused me. i then become very defensive because apparently nobody seems to think i can get pencils since this is the first i have heard of it.

that evening we had a mass collection of pencils from around the house. i count the pencils. the perfectly good and most brand new pencils. in total there are 63. yes, 63 pencils. not including the pencils that papa brought over. this was followed by a family lecture about responsibility and communication, apologies to papa, and an explanation to the teacher. thus we have the pencil debacle. pencils.



and that is the trouble with school supplies. surely i have a hex. i must.

Read more...

y'all i have made a typo!

now i'm guessing you are wondering why this is worthy of a blog post-just a typo right? wrong!



i received a comment today asking if i had her when i was 15? i sat and pondered this a bit-had who when i was 15? my synapses are firing a bit slow. then it occurs to me, check the post dedicated to kelley's "birth" day...

oh holey crow! no! yes! there it was-"kelley's 10th birthday was on my 25th birthday". she is now 10. born 10 days early. lots of 10's!

did you all notice this too? please say you missed it. ok?!

and the really pathetic thing? i proof read my posts over and over, i'm picky like that. i am a spelling bee (but not a grammar queen). and since that was spelled correctly...well heck!

ok so in case any of you were wondering, especially those of you who knew me when i was 15 and don't remember this event...kelley's 10th birthday actually occurred on my 35th birthday (gosh i am old). and she was my 25th birthday gift.

and THAT my friends, is a great example of chemo brain. yep, i have it.

p.s. to my lovely family including the father of miss kelley morgan-could you not have caught that oh say...a month or so ago?!

Read more...

ponder this with me...

i have heard a question come up several times over the past few months that i've never heard before in all of my life.

not one to believe in coincidences i am certain it means that we should finally answer this question once and for all...

if a turtle loses it's shell would it be naked or homeless?

(now the obvious answer would be that the turtle would likely be R.I.P.)

but for the sake of deep thought i'm going to go against the many who say homeless.

i believe the turtle would be naked...why?

because you can't furnish a shell.

seems like an easy answer to me, what do you think?

Read more...

busch gardens

last saturday we took our first family trip since BC (before cancer) to busch gardens. we were originally supposed to go a year ago but i was just not up to it and ruined the plans. i was determined to not ruin it again this year. i decided to leave the camera at home and just let the day be about fun, plus we've been having afternoon monsoons lately and didn't want to ruin my camera. of course there was no monsoon that day, not even a drizzle...just bright, hot, oppressive sun. all.day.long.

we are the true griswold family on any trip, so of course we had fun. there were the four of us, my parents and my grandma. papa griswold rented us a couple of scooters to make our way through the park. without this i wouldn't have made it very far. and i learned first hand that park go-ers don't understand the concept of "yielding". i promise i didn't plow into anyone. can't say the same for papa, but if he did...i didn't see it. =)

a few highlights of the day...

kelley and bethany's first "up side down" roller coaster the scorpion. kelley rode it just to say she did, but bethany loved it. in fact we rode that one with her more than once.

then there was the gwazi. a wooden roller coaster with speeds up to 100 mph. we are a family of coaster enthusiasts and other than bethany...we all hated it. it was the most brutal coaster ever.

we did love kumba, but unfortunately both girls are about a half a foot too short for that one. so that was left for my parents and me.

there is also a zoo at busch gardens. that's always neat. we saw lots of chimps and gorillas, fabulous elephants, gators of course. the girls fed a rhinoceros some apples. but by far our favorite were the big cats. gosh they are just so gorgeous!







by the end of the day, we'd had lots and lots of drinks, our fill of treats including yummy ice cream. the girls made out like bandits at the souvenir shop. it was definitely a day of fun.

by the end if the day, we were all feeling pretty rough. but were ecstatic that papa griswold had learned about valet parking too!

Read more...

dear inventor of daylight savings time,

i don't like you or your idea to rob good, honest people of an hour of time each spring. i don't care that you give it back to us in the fall. that in my opinion is not good enough.

my dislike of this fiddling of time goes way back to my childhood days. being sent to bed while it is still light out. not too mention that other kids on my street were still able to be outside playing. i would sit at my window sadly watching them. my inner child is surely still wounded from this.

now that i'm older, it still stinks. i lose an hour of precious beauty sleep and believe me-i need all the beauty sleep i can get. sure some people like that it stays light outside well into the evening hours. well, not me! the evening is my quiet, relaxing time. and i enjoy the sunset and knowing i have a few hours of that beloved quiet time before i go to bed. with the change, i feel like i'm being robbed of even more than that one hour. it's dark and next thing i know-it's time for bed. where did my evening go?

as if that is not bad enough, the time of fall back has been shortened by probably a good month or so. and again i don't like it. there is such a thing as the opposite of seasonal affective disorder and i believe that i suffer from it.

what can i do to get our clocks to fall back for good? do i need to start a petition? or perhaps a class action lawsuit? i'm sure i can find a significant number of people good and ticked enough to join the cause. first of all they are tired. and to add insult to injury, the past two nights they couldn't get their children to go to sleep at bedtime. why? because it was sunny and bright outside.

i hope you will consider this letter and give us our hour back. back to what is referred to as "standard" and "normal" time. if not, you can expect to hear from me again.

sincerely,
ms. hater of daylight savings time

Read more...

this is why every man needs womenly input...and...help!

so i've mentioned that mr. heather is going to be buying his very first home. he has one all picked out and right now he is just waiting for a final acceptance on his offer. i'm really proud of him, of course!

and i've been resisting urges to buy things for the new home. first of all it isn't final and secondly though i'm going to be living there, i figure he might have some ideas for the decor.

so this recently came up in conversation, and he does have some ideas.

oh. my. gosh.

now really, i'm flexible on things. i would never pick out decorations that mr. heather hates. and i really, really would like to let him have some input for a sense of his accomplishment.

but...

i need help y'all!

here's some things he's picked out. this...



and this...



and oh my gosh, something like this...for the inside!



please, please, please! help me to help him understand that this just can't be done!

Read more...

size does matter!

i've been having a food craving lately. and since i couldn't give in to it, it sort of turned into a little obsession.

it's burgers, not regular burgers-i wanted little burgers! it all started when my friend reagan mentioned krystal burgers. just a little mention, and i doubt reagan ever thought it would spark such an obsession...but it did.

so i'm sure you're wondering why i couldn't give in to such a harmless little thing. well...we don't have a krystal here. or a white castle. and now you are probably thinking-just grab a burger and cut it into smaller pieces. nope it's not the same. i even tried a small burger appetizer at chili's and it was just a burger-not anything like i was craving. and those frozen krystal's from the grocery store-forget about it! yuck!

then i saw it on tv...a commercial for burger king's new bk burger shots! yes prayers really do get answered. ok so i didn't actually pray for little burgers but surely this was no coincidence!

mr. heather ran right out and got me some burger shots that night. they were pretty good. not krystal or white castle good-but good enough. and then mr. heather got them again for me last night for dinner. (he wasn't quite as enthused this time around).

my tummy is singing!

so i'm wondering if i would really be pushing it too far, to ask for a third night in a row for bk burger shots? probably. but they are only around for a limited time, so i have to take advantage of it now.

Read more...

dare i go to sleep?

i'm taking a new medication that can cause "strange, vivid or unusual dreams" and other "sleep issues". ok so i can attest that this indeed must be true. it's been less than a week on this medication, and whoa!

night #1: i see my husband lean over in bed to me real close and say in the sweetest voice..."i just finished reading twilight". and me so excited, "really?! what did you think"?! no response. so i say louder "well honey did you like it"? "honey"? i look over and he's sound asleep. once my mind starts pulling it all together, well duh! he'd NEVER read twilight.

night #2: my husband said it started with me talking in my sleep. i do believe this because i startled myself awake a couple of times. i guess i was just a gabbin' away. then he watches me laying there. my arms start reaching out and it looks to him that i am organizing the kitchen cabinets. then i finish that and my legs start going. not sure if i'm jogging or riding a bike, but i'm enjoying it...giggling the whole time.

night #3: i wake up in the middle of the night and head into the bathroom. the tiny bathroom. the one that i've used for years. and i CAN'T find the toilet. i'm trying to see in the dark and reaching out at everything trying to find the toilet. it must have taken me five minutes. seriously.

night #4: well that was last night and it was just plain full of nightmares. terrible, scary, horrible nightmares. i'd wake up from one. calm down, realize it was a dream and go back to sleep. only to have another one. the process repeated all night long. finally i couldn't take it anymore and just gave up and woke up, 3 hours earlier than normal. and if you know me, you know i don't give up my sleep very easily.

so tonight is night #5. and i'm starting to feel like one of the characters from nightmare on elm street. how they would try and try to stay awake? yep that's me.

Read more...

crafty ADD and just when i thought it couldn't get worse...

it has been awhile since i have tried sewing anything. it's not lack of desire, i really do want to create things, beautiful things. and fabric, how i adore it. and i have so much of it.

the problem i think aside from lack of skill is something that my friend becky at the kankelfam described as crafty ADD. i definitely have this. lots of ideas, LOTS of ideas...but somehow the focus just doesn't keep up with the ideas.

well last night i decided it was time to make *something*. the girls always love my projects (no matter how crazy they turn out) so i decided on personalized name pillows from you can make this. i love the projects from YCMT as the instructions are so easy to follow and perfect for someone like me.

so i set out to make a pillow and followed all of the steps. this was the first time i used fusible interfacing. but hey, how hard can it be? hmpf! i picked out some cool fabrics. start tracing. and pressing. and cutting. (kind of wondering why i didn't give my girls shorter names). it's all coming along fabulously until...

the letters are all BACKWARDS. yes. backwards. it never occurred to me that i should apply the interfacing to the "wrong" side of the fabric. even the fact that the letters i cut out and traced were backwards didn't clue me in.

so there you have it...crafty ADD does get worse-when you include crafty dyslexia!

at that point i didn't know if i should laugh or cry. and my instinct was to pack it up and be done with it all. mr. heather encouraged me as he i'm sure was trying to suppress a good laugh. he said take this as a lesson learned and move on. so i did...and i repeated the process and now have a name fused to background fabric with the letters the right way.

ok so, i am sure that there will be many more (mis)adventures along the way. especially considering that i haven't even fired up the ole sewing machine yet. stay tuned...

Read more...