Saturday, March 18, 2006

tim's sick

                      

 

Ok I'll go back three day from the start of my running faucet nose  and that would be Tuesday.  Both my niece and my monitor were sick.  Then tonight my son calls me from Nashville where he and a few of his buddy's flew down to have a fun long weekend.   They flew out Thursday night, the night we were supposed to have the huge snow storm.  Poor guy has been sick the whole time.  SOOOO  I bet HE gave it to me!!

I am not going to the baby shower tomorrow, Lord know I don't want to give my sister-in-law or anyone else this dreaded drippiness (is that a word???).

BTW Airborne is a fizzy pill that you drop in water.  It's a supplement that has herbs and vitamins in it that help you fight off your cold ... makes it go away faster.  When I worked as a phone operator for software company I used to swear by Vitamin C.  This stuff has that in it also.

I am off to rest.  I am watching the babies in a week and there is NO WAY I am going to miss out by being sick still.

Have a good one!

 

PS Did you know that Wrestling is actually on network TV???  Is that even a sport?  ;).  Actually I need to let my husband have his guilty pleasures.  I already wrecked his beloved NASCAR by telling him that was pretend too.  It's all about the $$$ and the sponserships.  I am bad!

Friday, March 17, 2006

friday---finally

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. The rain falls soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.


-Irish blessing

                      
 
 
     I am not Irish and I didn't even pretend to be Irish today.  Someone, maybe a little tyke gave me THEIR COLD!!  Here I was all smug, thinking I had escaped the flu (for me that means barfing and the other end), and all the other various illnesses that had been floating around for the past months.  I had been a good girl and washed my hands, sprayed my bus, and used sanitizer at the Curves, THE CURVES!!  Oh I bet those lovely ladies at Curves gave me THEIR colds!  I am pretty much used to the germy little creatures that inhabit my school bus.  BUT those LADIES!  They did it!! 
 
Oh well, I dealt with my runny nose long enough today with cold pills that didn't work to head over to Walgreens and buy their version of Airborne, it's that herbal stuff that a teacher came up with and was able to quit work and get rich.  People at work swear by it and I am just miserable enough to spring for the four bucks (on sale of course) to try it.  I'll let you know if it works.  Anything is better than a red, running nose, especially on the weekend.
 
 
Mark's going back to work Monday as we did not get the huge snowstorm the professional weathermen were predicting yesterday.  So the ground is dry to work.  Thank God we only got less than an inch (not the 4 to 12 they said we would) and it was gone by noon.  Hopefully (fingers crossed) we are done with snow for the season.  I am so ready for warm weather, and green grass, and plants.  And all the great outdoor fun that comes with the warmer weather.  I so should live somewhere where it's warm all year long, but for now my life is here.  Maybe a winter home somewhere in Florida in the future???  Could be!
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

a normal day and a joke

here's a joke someone sent me...

YOU GOTTA LOVE CHICAGO WOMEN!! 
  
  
A woman from Chicago and another from the East coast were seated side-by-side on an airplane. The woman from Chicago, being friendly and all, said:
 
So, where are you from?"
 
The East coast woman said, "From a place where they know better than to use a preposition at the end of a sentence."
 
The woman from Chicago sat quietly for a few moments and then replied:
 
"So, where are you from, bitch?" 

That pretty much sums up Midwest woman.  

Anyway, work has been it's normal soap opera that I try to stay out of.  The place is basically filled with retired guys of various ages ranging from 55 to the 70's.  Woman too, but mostly housewives.   There's a few old gals who are still driving, mostly for the benefits, which we have great ones.  This past year we have done a lot of hiring.  Sure they always had the HELP WANTED sign up in front of our bus shop, but either we really weren't hiring or no one was coming in.  This year is different.  With the growth steams the problems.  AND we got the usually office gossip, back biting, and regular old fashion bitching.  Makes me mad because I think we have the best job around.  Guess some people will never be happy!

Hubby must of known he ticked me off because he made me the best Chicken Salad for dinner last night.  He still hasn't done much around here other than the dishes, but the complaining has stopped.  I'll settle for the dishing being done all day.  He's a good guy, but he's a man and they sure are different than we woman, which I know is the point!  I am glad he cares so much about Liz, and I do haveto remember he was just as overly protective with the boys.  I guess I have a short memory.  Besides when you are in the midst of it, it's easy to forget.  The boys turned out nice repectable types so he did do a good job with them, and I should trust him with this one too.

Eric called last night.  The kid that got in trouble went to the management company of the townhouse and told them he was the responsible one so he would move.  The rest of the guys can stay, but he has to have his name removed from the lease.  They have to pay his part of the rent.  Since it's college style townhouses  they only have a month left of rent, but can stay until the end of July.  And then they are all moving out.  They will be keeping the naughty kid's security deposit.  I guess the life of a college student is a nomad's life.  I hope when Eric's girlfriend graduates he gets out of the college type apartments.  Too much turmoil.  He wants to eventually transfer out to my area when the new Menard's store is built.  He'll probably be a department manager by then!  Yippeee!  His store will be closer for mom to shop! 

This weekend is a baby shower for my sister in law.  I haven't heard from them in weeks, hopefully no news is good news!  I would like to see how their bedroom turned out.  They are so busy with the other two very active kids so I am sure they are off to a soccer game or some other event.  I remember those day very well. 

Tomorrow I am off during my midday and I am going to go baby gift shopping at Kohls.  They always have great sales and you can get a lot of quality for your money.  Rylan I am sure is still tiny so he can grow into a lot.  Fun stuff indeed!

 


 

Monday, March 13, 2006

monday

We had huge storms last night, a lof of thunder and lightening.  AND wind!  Lots of wind.  My morning was made even more joyous by my darling husband.  He's been off for a week and will most likely be off this week too.  All the rain has made the ground really too wet to work.  Liz's boyfriend is home from college and of course they want to spend time together.  And since my husband is bored he is fixated on them....how much time they spend together, where they go, what they do.  He blew his stack  right before I went to work.  He misread a premissions slip Liz had so Mike can go to her dance this Saturday.  He was on a roll so he kept rolling. 

By the time I got back from my am route he had found something to do.  He decided he better cool it with the griping.  He was messing with his Motorcycle that is sitting in the garage needing brakes and a few other things.  This is his mission for the week, thank GOD!  He found somebody to help him put it back together.  He found something to do other than complaining.  Give me a break.  I am sorry the kid is a girl.  If she was a boy he'd be a-ok with anything she did.  But daddy's are way more protective of girls.  At least Mike's a good kid, and so is Liz.

So he stopped complaining.

Good thing because I was just getting ready to write a list of things that could fill his time!

 

Saturday, March 11, 2006

my kid, Eric

My son Eric is my middle child.  He's 21 and has all the traits (real or imagined) of the middle kid.  I always down played the whole middle kid thing.  When I remarried he was 10 and ended up being toward the young side of the age range.  When you marry a guy with 5 kids your kids do change.  I'd like to think all three of mine did, for the better. When my kids were little I was from the kinder, gentler school of thought, you know kids shouldn't be spanked, talk out our feelings, and all that stuff.  All that stuff is great, but there is a time and a place for discipline and thankfully I figured it out before I remarried and got 5 more kids.  I didn't spank, but I did make sure my children showed me respect and thankfully they have all pretty much grown up to be respectful hardworking members of society.

When Eric graduated High School in 2003 he decided he wanted to be a teacher and went to a University about 1/2 hour away.  Eric is a smart kid, but he never wanted the pressure of trying too hard in advance classes like his older brother Tim did.  He's the type that has always marched to his own tune.  His first year of college was horrible, he did nothing and flunked out.  The summer before this he had been working in the Menards warehouse, then at the store near the college after he started college.  After the whole college thing, he decided to go for his job at Menards with gusto.  He's now the Assistant Manager in the large hardware department.  I could not be more proud of him.

Over the course of the last two years Eric has shared housing with two different groups of guys.  All college kids who go to school full time.  Eric works A LOT.  He also has an income.  The first group partied too much flunked out of school and left the apartment trashed.   He paid a price for that mess.  The group he's with now are a bit more responsible.  Except for last week.  Seems one kid took some drugs went nuts, kicked a wall in, and slammed his fists into some parked cars.  All this while Eric is at work, the place he's been working at for 12 straight days.  The landlords were none too happy so they are being evicted.

Brings me to last evening.  Eric visits are not real regular, usually when his girlfriend is home on school break (she goes to the same school he want to) or if he's in town visiting his friends.  Eric tells us about the situation, of course my husband is "oh sure Eric you can move back here until next fall when you move in with your friends (these are guys he's grown up with).  Which I think is ok too.  We have the room and it would be nice to see my kid on a regular basis.  I am just glad he's grown up enough to stay out of trouble.  Very glad it wasn't my kid running around bashing in walls.  I know my children are NOT angels.  I know they drink, as a matter of fact 3 of my kids have some rather nice bars in their homes.  But for me I've been there done that.  They are young they have their own lives to live.  Choices to make.  I am glad though that they at least have the sense to come home and talk things out with mom.  Oh yeah his girlfriend is driving him nuts too.  That one is all on him!

Besides his experience at the store has him offering to help me build a pond this summer in the backyard.  And my old house need a bunch of updating...besides he gets a discount!!!

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

 

Yesterday was the vote for the Executive council for our union.  I did not get voted in, which as I said before I would not be upset.  My feeling is this...if I got voted in I would do the best job possible, if not, well, my life is really, really full right now.  I've rediscover my 'me' time and I don't want to part with that.  Besides the ones that did get voted in, there were five, are a nice mix of our department.  Now hopefully they will get a good contract written up for 2007.  At least as good as the one we have now.  I really, really like my job and the benefits are great.  I'd like to retire there.

Mark is with Jeremy today doing remodeling stuff (oh when is it my turn??? My old house I mean!), and he called me to ask if I wanted to watch the boys over Spring break and I said, "heck yeah!"  Liz is going to DisneyWorld for show choir so I'll be here probably wasting time, so why not hang out with my two little guys!  My break is the end of the month so hopefully the weather will be good.  It's 50's now with some chance of rain, but the snow is almost gone.  Glad for that. 

Liz's concert was according to her, JUST AWFUL!  She's in an all girl dance choir, I guess the group was fighting all evening and some didn't want to perform at all.  I could tell that they hadn't practiced enough when I watched them.  Hopefully they will get their act together.  They tend to depend way too much on the teacher.  And not practice on their own.  The younger girls don't want to listen to the upperclassman.  No respect I expect.  It's a shame, they were really good last year.  But they still have time to get their act together.  Hope they do!

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Tip of the Day......
  Always keep several get well cards on the mantel... so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've been sick and unable to clean...

It is now a few weeks before spring and I can feel the buzz on the school bus!  Kids are ready to be OUT!   Lucky for me spring break is a few short weeks away and their parents can enjoy them.  Don't get me wrong I love them all, but they sure do get loud and wound up this time of year.

Went to water aerobics class last night.  As a district employee it's free!  My monitor wanted to go so I went too.  It was a lot of fun.  If I had to do all that running on dry land I am sure I'd faint.  But I wasn't too sore at all.  All this exercise is going to make me one buff grandma!

Speaking of, Mark was with Jeremy today doing guy stuff.  I guess my sweet grandson Jacob has been looking for me!  Oh gotta love the grandbaby!  <3!  He's into Monster Trucks, and Tracey broke one of his favorites on accident.  His daddy said he'd take it to the shop to 'fix' it, that kid was sure mad at his mommy!  It's so funny to see how kids entertain themselves.  My oldest loved Fireman stuff, and my middle son...Ghostbusters, Liz loved dollhouses and Barbie.  She could keep up with the boys though in a mean touch football game!

Liz has a concert tonight so I am off to that.  See ya!