Stream of rambles...

So it's been a little while since I've blogged. I figure that getting back into the groove will most likely take the form of a "stream of rambles" my version of the popular "stream of consciousness".

Hopefully everyone is having a great summer vacation! The girls have been busy with all sorts of activities that their Papa arranged for them...art camp, VBS, swimming lessons. Next week they will be visiting Tennessee with their Mammie and Papa. We are definitely blessed to have my parents. Mr. H is estranged from his family so my parents also fill that void. Very thankful for them! I must admit that I am jealous of not joining them on their upcoming trip. I've never been to Tennessee and not only do I imagine beautiful mountains but have met several great friends in an online group who live there. Tennessee has long been on my list of places I'd love to move to.

Meanwhile down here in Florida it has been oppressively hot and humid. It's awful. Lots of people think they would love to live here. It is true that there are lots of great locations like beaches, Disney World and all of the theme parks nearby. But honestly, I think Florida is great for a vacation destination. When you live here, and aren't on "vacation" it's not so exciting. It's just very hot and humid. Fortunately it's our "rainy season" and most afternoons are blessed with a thunderstorm. It is such a relief when the clouds cover the sun and the rain pours down. A little trivia...some say Florida is the lightning capital of the world but according to NASA, Rwanda takes the top place. Perhaps Florida is the lightning capital of the country then? Maybe. Though I love our afternoon storms, I prefer to watch from the safety of our porch!

Another blessing of relief from the heat is the pool. Mr. H got it all set up a while ago and the girls have turned into fish. Well little wrinkled prune like fish. Actually they are a lot cuter than fish or prunes. They have perfectly tanned skin (despite high powered sunscreen) and lots of sun-brightened blond highlights. I haven't been brave enough to don a bathing suit, so no pool time for me yet. I have a nice pool float waiting for me. All in all though, the pool has been worth every cent.

Kelley and I had our birthday. It is hard to believe that Kelley is now ELEVEN. Middle school is less than a month away. I have no idea why Kelley insists on growing up so fast. I have kindly asked her to remain in a state of little girlhood. But nope, she and Bethany are growing up fast. As for me-I'm just old. In fact, I would prefer to not acknowledge the ever increasing numbers. Do you all have the same shock when you actually realize how old you are or is it just me?

Back to our birthdays...we both had a great party. Kelley opted for a brownie cake, while I chose a yummy Carvel ice cream cake. It worked out well-cake and ice cream! Kelley's gifts were kind of ridiculous-not that she got too much, not at all. It's just the high tech gadgetry. It's pretty amazing! My baby girl is more technology advanced than her mom (and dad). And that is what's ridiculous! Do you remember the original Nintendo system, Super Mario Brothers and saving the princess? That was the coolest.thing.ever. Now? Not so much.

Mr. H is still without a job. There are some complicating issues that make getting a new job in his field a bit difficult. I hope there will be resolution to this soon. In the meantime, he's being resourceful and things are OK. He's also taking classes at the local college. Depending on the outcome of the complicating issues, he may have to change his course of study. I'd like to see that not happen, but all in all I'm trying to not get overly worked up about it. I've had to cut back on shopping which is good thing on many levels. But I do love to shop.

We had quite a traumatic event a week or so ago. Bethany's kitty got scared and literally flew through the screened porch leaving a huge hole and disappeared into the night. The whole thing was bizarre. I spent a lot of time out searching for him and cried many, many tears. He's a year old but very tiny and not at all prepared to deal with life on the street. I was reassured by friends that he was likely hiding some place close and would be home sooner rather than later. The lot behind our house is empty and overgrown Florida scrub and that's where he was hiding. I called and called for him, shaking a container of food and after 24 hours he appeared...absolutely terrified. He wouldn't come to me. Mr. H has a way with animals, I call him Dr. Dolittle, and he went to catch the cat. Took him a little while, but now the little guy is home safe and sound. The other cats are none too pleased that they can no longer hang out on the porch.

I'm sure there's been more that's happened and more to share. I'll save that for future blog posts. This has been quite the stream of rambles.

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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!

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Stream of Rambles...

Bloggers have been doing a lot of "Stream of Consciousness" posts lately. My thoughts are really disorganized these last few days so I'm going with the "Stream of Rambles" type of post. I imagine there won't be any pearls of wisdom here and it might even cause you to get kind of sleepy. If you aren't able to take a nap as soon as you're done reading, you might want to skip this one.

You may have noticed that I've been quiet for a little while. I managed to lose access to my blog! Kind of like locking yourself out of the house, but not really. I changed my template and then could not access any of my pages or dashboard. There were no links or ways to get to my profile. Somehow I found an "open window" that I could crawl through and so I did just that. Hopefully I'll remember which way I did that, cause I do like the new template. It's still not my goal of a personalized custom template, but it's cute.

Speaking of goals, I didn't share a March update on my 65 in 365. Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. I'm fairly certain that I accomplished nothing on the list. And that is down right shameful! Hopefully there will be something to share before April is over.

Can you believe we're already half-way through April, or is it just me? I checked the calendar today and my gosh, where did the time go? Nobody's asked me where I've been lately, so I guess I wasn't abducted by aliens. But really...did the world somehow skip a week or two?

This has been a downright awful week, really the kind that it can only get better. Which is a relief I guess. Kelley and Bethany have both been home sick all week. Kelley had a cough last week, but it wasn't until Sunday that she clearly was sick. And by "clearly sick" it was one of those nights that includes vomiting. Not to get stuck on the subject because it's gross, but as parents do you find that vomiting always seems to commence at night, when everyone is in bed? That is always how it happens here. Bethany had a bit of a fever, so I knew she was headed for sickness as well. Monday was spent at the Pedi's office, which with waiting times is always an hours long, miserable event. Bethany had an ear infection and allergies. They suspected Kelley had strep or the flu, so they sent us for stat rapid tests. I bravely asked if they were testing for seasonal flu and swine flu, which the answer was yes. Big mommy mistake right there. Kelley heard *swine flu* and went into a panic. Turns out she had none of the above, which was a relief. But still had something, just not sure what. We came home armed with five filled prescriptions and I've been taking care of my sick babies all week-just wishing I could take the icky stuff from them. Though neither has much of an appetite, things are looking better and fevers are gone. Today they had such a case of cabin fever that I broke the "too sick for school" rule and let them out to get some fresh air and play for a bit.
So it's back to school tomorrow. They are ready! And would it be really bad if I said I was ready too?!

My missing tooth spot has healed. And I do feel much better. Though I feel uneven. I have this weird OCD thing with my body, things are supposed to be symmetrical and my mouth is not. That's been annoying. Also I've been a teeth freak my whole life so I was definitely sure that I needed to get a replacement tooth. Now I'm having trouble justifying spending $3-4,000 on it. That is crazy! Hundreds maybe, but thousands? If it was a front tooth then I'd have no qualms. But this is the next to last tooth in the back. What would you do? That's a lot of money.

As for money, Mr. H has once again decided to look at houses. He found one that is really great. It's a new construction, much bigger than ours, in a quiet, secluded location and is on the water. The price is good. But with us, nothing can ever be easy. It's not finished. So, that means more money. However if we can offer a bit lower, even with the costs to finish the home, it's still a pretty sweet deal. We're kind of excited about it and nervous at the same time.

Well, I think that about wraps up my rambles for now. Hopefully, I'll be getting back in the blogging groove, that is if I can find a way back into my blog.

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