Love thy neighbor's grass

I have recently had a run in with my HOA, for those of you unfamiliar, they are the dreaded neighborhood watch dogs. Apparently it is unforgivable for your grass to go uncut for a whole week and a half while you are out of town. The last time we went a little long between grass cuts Rocky was horribly sick and trying to cut the grass would have made it even worse. We were in a different neighborhood then, a friendlier neighborhood. I told everyone what was going on and we didn't get a single complaint about our yard even though the back got pretty bad at one point. I feel so sorry for our next door neighbor because they have harassed her into hiring a lawn service. I wish these people with too much time on their hands would stop and think before they write one of those tacky notes. I can just imagine some poor man finding out he has cancer and then coming home to a note from the HOA about his yard. Which do you think he is going to care about? If it bothers you so much maybe it would be a better use of free time to cut your neighbor's yard for them rather than writing notes about yard care. It could be that this family has something more important on their minds than measuring blades of grass. I can't help but point out the Bible has a lot to say about loving your neighbor and surprisingly little to say on the subject of yard maintenance. I don't recall "Thou shall not allow weeds to grow in thy neighbor's yard" being one of the Ten Commandments. Lucky for me there is also nothing in the big 10 about not toilet papering a snotty neighbor's yard.

To the movies

Rocky and I enjoyed the rare treat of going to the movies this weekend. Like everyone else on the planet we went to go see Pirates. It was a really good movie, but a devil of a cliffhanger. Now I have to wait until next year to see what happens. I hate that. I'm not good at waiting.Speaking of waiting, Rocky like to get there a good 45 minutes before the movies starts which leaves a lot of time to sit. After we have made fun of the ads that the theater runs on the screen because $8 isn't enough money, we turn to movie talk that, I'm sure, drives the people around us crazy. The problem is we often forget actor's real names and just go with whatever role we remember them best for. For example, if we were talking about Pirates we might say Edward Scissorhand, Legolas, and that girl who wasn't the girl in Star Wars star in the movies. The Shine guy was the bad guy the first time, but in this one it is Slartibartfast. Sure we can remember Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, but who can think of Bill Nighy or Jonathan Pryce? It is easier just to say the Tomorrow Never Dies guy. If you think that is bad you should hear us talk about X-Men. So if you sit next to us the next time we get out be sure and bring your pocket movie guide if you want to ease drop

Streaking at church

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Our church has a tradition of having a simple box lunch on this day so that all who want to can take their lunch hour to join others in prayer. It's a wonderful event, very low key, very informal, and still very nice. I was a little nervous for a couple of reasons. First of all any time I know there is a good chance I'll have to pray out loud I get a little nervous. Second, JD has learned to take his clothes off and does so whenever the mood strikes him. I'm picturing him striping down, breaking out of child care, and running through the lunch. Realistically I know this won't happen, but still the thought has crossed my mind. I got seated and started to relax with the other women at my table when one of the women says "I noticed your son has no pants on". I just knew she was talking to me, but she wasn't. She was talking to the daughter of one of the ministers on staff. Apparently, her son is in the home stretch of potty training. All he has left to work on is his aim. After wetting down the bathroom and his pants, his mom realized that the diaper bag was down the hall. She tried to sneak out and grab a new diaper, which her son took as his cue to make a break for it. He ran through the church office displaying all God gave him for the ladies who work there. It is one of those embrassing stories that we will all be sure to retell at his wedding reception one day. All I could think was "Thank God, it wasn't my child...this time."

While I've got your eye and since it is the National Day of Prayer, I'd like to remind you to pray for our country, it's leaders (even the ones you don't like), the military, and anyone else who service our great nation.
By the way, I did get asked to pray. I was assigned to pray for our Congress and the things they face as they head back to work at the end of the month, including the budget and immigration. I used my dad's advice and prayed silently before I opened my mouth and everything came out fine. I hear the more you do it the easier it gets. I hope that is true.

Drug Commercials

Remember the good old days when the only medication ads on t.v. were for over the counter drugs. Maybe if they had stopped with allergy and heart burn medication I wouldn't be so annoyed. As if the little blue pill ads weren't bad enough, now they are having them for STD's. I really feel that if the subject isn't something you would bring up at the family dinner table then it isn't something that should be in a commercial during the middle of the day. Isn't it bad enough that I had to explain what tampons are for to my daughter when she was five. Now she wants to know what erectial disfuntion is. How am I suppose to explain that to someone who doesn't know why one needs the function in the first ? I managed to cleverly dance around it, but my point is that I shouldn't have to. Is it so much to ask that they take the veiwing audience into consideration. How about if you show Viagra commercials on ESPN and ads for the pill on Lifetime and let me watch the news in peace.

We have a lot going on on the home front with JD. He is cutting what will be his last tooth for awhile. He will have 16 bright white baby teeth. This last one has been hard. It's taken it a couple of months to finally poke through. The past three days have been rough with the low fever and tummy trouble. He is so pitiful when he holds his jaw and whimpers. He had another first this week, but not a good one. He fell while we were waiting on the bus to bring Nix home and scraped his knee. He took it like a little man and barely fussed at all. It's his first real band-aid and he is proud of it. He has to show it to everyone. We are also trying to start introducing the potty to him. So far his favorite part is getting to take his clothes off, which he will now do at the drop of the hat. I am so worried that he is going to skin out at church one week. He also loves to wash his hands. Anything that involves water is fun for him. So far he is willing to sit on the potty and knows when he has to go, but he hasn't yet put the two together. It's a start and I'm trying not to rush him, but I am excited by the idea of no more diapers. Maybe by the end of summer we will have it worked out.

So what!

I'm all a buzz today. A local radio guy brought up a topic and then his show ended beofre anyone could call him on it and it is driving me crazy. The guy is Neal Boortz and he is a Libritarian. I agree with him about 75% of the time and today falls into the other 25%. Normally he is preaching about how people should not trust government schools to give their children a good education. We should all pay to send our kids to a private school that will teach the ideals we each personally hold. He is a huge believer in supply and demand. Government schools don't have to submit to this. They can be horrible schools and still not get put out of business. Imagine how shocked I was to hear him go againist his own ideas today by being upset at a private college for their policies.
There is a private funded college in Kentucky that has asked a student to leave do to openly practicing a lifestyle that is againist school rules. This specific student is gay, however the rules clearly say that any type of sex outside of marriage will be met with a request to leave. So, even if this guy were straight and living with a woman, he still would have been asked to leave. Now, if this were a state college I'd be right there with them saying they can't do this, but it isn't. It is privately funded by the Baptists who have set forth a strict set of rules for the behavior of the students who attend their campus. The people who send their children there count on these rules being enforced. The people who donate to this school want to safely assume that their ideals are being taught in this university. The students who apply there are made well aware of the fact that they are attending a college with rules of this nature. If you don't like it then don't support it. If enough people disagree with these rules then the school will either change or go out of business. It is as simple as that. I understand that some people are going to be bothered by this. What I don't understand is Mr.Boortz's attitude towards it, which I would have told him myself if his show hadn't ended right after he said it. Maybe he'll pick it back up tomorrow so I can call in. Then again maybe he won't and I'll just be frustrated at the hypocrisy. I'll just take it out on my blog, after all, it's what I got it for.

A quick cute kid story for you. Monday I got a rare baby kiss on the cheek from JD after which he looked at me and said "Oh, whiskers!" I was slightly offened until bed time came and he did the same thing to Nix. I guess he is so use to getting tickled by Rocky's 5 o'clock shadow that he just thinks that is what you say after kissing someone's cheek.

Go sell crazy some where else...

I read an article this weekend and I'm still trying to figure out if it's just an elabrate hoax. Rocky first pointed it out to me. There was a link on Drudge. There is a professor of biology at the University of Texas who says that the best cure for the Earth is to release the Ebola virus and kill off 90% of the human population. His reasoning is that since all life is equally important (humans= to dogs= to gnats etc.) and humans are making it hard on the rest of the animals on Earth then we should just kill off most of the humans. The way this would work is they would release the Ebola virus world wide and since it is 90% fatal, bam, 5.8 billion of us are dead.
Naturally, I assumed that this guy was dismissed as a total wack job and carted off to the looney bin. Boy was I wrong. Instead they gave him an award, naming him a 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist.
The funny part of this, to me, is thinking of the people who would survive the outbreak. Lets look at your typical survivor. It would be one of those people who might have graduated high school, and if we are lucky maybe even trade school. They have a stock pile of duct tape, gas masks, and ammo for their .22. If we were all rated by the amount of damage we would do individually to the enviroment these are the people who would score the highest. Irony at it's finest.
I know this guy is thinking that the Darwin idea of survival of the fittest would save the best and brightest, but his idea of fittest and the reality of it are two different things. In the case of surviving an outbreak, fittest means physically fit, and for the most part scientists who sit in a lab all day do not quailify. For that matter, if you are over 65 or under around 14 you can count yourself gone. If you are vastly overweight or underweight your chances are low (that makes me a goner). If you have any kind of physical problem be it a cold or HIV, you are gone, too.
Where do people come up with this stuff and why do other people cheer them on.
As for me I refer you to the title of this entry. "Go sell crazy some where else. We are all full up here."

Lame jokes

Nix has been trying to tell jokes lately. It's been almost painful. It remindes me of the days of the "Big Red Rock Joke Book". When I was in elementary school there was this book in the library that we all took turns checking out. The first joke in the book was "What is big and red and hard? A big red rock". It was beyond lame and we all loved it. Since then my humor has changed a bit, but I still have a love of the lame jokes.
A three legged dog walks into a bar and says "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw"
There are a few that will always make me laugh. No matter how bad I feel or what I'm going through. Rocky even whipped a few out while I was in labor, and I still laughed. Some are just plain weird.
Why did the frog cross the road? Because it was stappled to the chicken.
Some make you think to the point that they don't get a quick laugh.
Three men were walking down the street. Two of them walk into a bar. The third one ducked.
Occationally you'll have one that is religious.
What goes black-white-black-white-thud? A nun falling down the stairs
What is black and white and laughes like a hyena? The nun who pushed her
All are short, none will ever be repeated at The Comedy Store, and each is only as funny as it is told.
Today I have been in a strangely bad mood. I'm grumpy and short tempered. I hate feeling like that and so I found myself falling back to my old faithful friends, lame jokes. I'm still feeling touchy, but at least there is a smile on my face now.
I leave you with Nix's current favorite. Sadly, she hasn't told it right once, but she always laughs, and I love her laugh.
Why did the cow cross the road? To get to the moovie theater

Noprah fans

My mother-in-law informed me of a new movement that is spreading through the country called "Noprah". It is made up of people who are tired of Oprah and her ablity to turn the tides of pop culture and in some cases the stock market. If she says something, it is law. Books become best sellers, records go platinum, and everyone goes on a diet. Celebraties will agree to talk about anything just so long as they get a segment. What could she possibly do next? My answer, go to jail. It worked for Martha. Even I, a life long Martha loather, had to have respect for her after she took her lumps and served her time. I think an argument could be made that if Oprah has stock in a company and then features that company's product on her infamous "favorite things" show, then she too could be guity of insider trading. Her staff knows about the product before it is shown and knows a spot on the show is naturally going to increase sales and therefore make stock rise. Although I'm not yet ready to join the ranks of Noprah, I must say that I have watched her a lot less lately. I can't put my finger on why. It may just be another thing I can blame on TiVo. I've never been one to not like someone just because they are rich, after all I hope to be rich one day. Since I have my own very deveopled since of likes and dislikes, Oprah doesn't do anything to sway my opinion on anything, so that isn't it either. I think it can be traced to a promo ad for a special anniversary show. It was made clear that she thought Tom Cruise was nuts when he was jumping on her couch. Well then, why didn't she say something? Why did she continue smiling and nodding and sucking up? She is Oprah for Pete's sake. If she had looked at him and said "I think you have lost your mind and Scientology has sucked you in and turned you into a joke." then I would have respected her. What is going to happen? Will she stop being popular? Would people stop coming on her show? No she is Oprah. People would have cheered. Instead she waits for the rest of the world to make fun of him and then she starts in. Since then, my Oprah watching has been limited to when she has guests that I like, such as when Dave Ramsey or Josh Groban were on. I also watched when she talked about the town I live in. Sadly, she was talking about the racism she found when she was here in the 80's, and not on the progress we have made since then.
I guess it could be worse. She could have Martha Stewart on.

Cyber Reunion

A couple of years ago I was suppose to have my first high school reunion, but for some reason it never happened. You know that speech they give you when electing class officals your senior year, telling you to choose carefully because these are the people planning all the reunions Yeah, me either, but apparently they did try to warn us. The most popular theory is that our class president was in jail, but I haven't heard proof of that yet. Today I got a monthly reminder from one of the reunion type web sites that once again no one had updated anything and that since I refuse to pay them money I can not access any of the information even if it was there. It got me to thinking. Most of the people I really want to see again are people I have kept in touch with anyway. All I really want to know is if the cheerleaders are fat, if the jocks have lost thier hair, and if that guy who picked on me is as much a loser now as he was then. Instead of wasting a trip to TN to spend time with people, 50% of which I was never really friends with, why don't we have a cyber reunion. Sign in, post a full length picture of you and your spouse, list your job, the number of kids you have, and the number of times you have been married. Then we could have a gossip section to post things about people who haven't signed up yet. Maybe one of these days I'll feel like putting that together. For now I'll just have to wait another15 years and see if Rusty gets sprung in time to pull something together. :) (btw, I totally made up the jail thing)

I'll get things started. I'm still thin, I have two kids, and one husband. I'm a stay at home mom and loving it.

Oh, and I heard that Susan told Jenny that Ron is an alcoholic, but Sara doesn't know becase Tommy covers for him. the names were changed to protect the guilty

Confession time

Finally something has happened that is going to make me confess about one of my most guilty pleasures. I have a healthy obsession with the radio morning show Rick and Bubba. They are out of Birmingham and are shown on Turner South in the morning. They are Christians, Republicans, and most of all FUNNY. If you know me personally you are fimilar with my off beat humor, and these guys seem to think like Rocky and I do. Scary I know, but true. What has finally made me admit how much I love these guys is they have written a book. They are making the rounds today on Fox News, and it has been precious. I strongly encourage you to look this book up.
Speaking of healthy obsessions, Rocky has started eatting much healthier, and I am loving it. I don't know what is wrong with me that I love health food. Rocky got a box of these seasame ginger rice crackers and I can not stop eatting them. He wants to cover them in peanut butter to hide the taste and I'm planning a whole shrimp stir fry based around them.
Well, Rick and Bubba are about to be on with Hannity, so I better end this and go watch.
Sorry, no cute kid stories this time, Nix has allergy problems and JD is still getting over strep. Maybe next week they will be back to their usual cuteness.

It's bragging time

We had a follow up interview and photo shoot for the AJC today, but believe it or not that is not what I'm bragging about.
I had a parent-teacher meeting today with Nix's teacher. It is (almost) offical; Nix is brilliant. I say almost because they are going to test her in the coming days it make it offical, and to put her into Horizon classes (our gifted program). She is reading on the grade level of a kid who has been in 4th grade for awhile. She can read 97% of 5th grade words, and can read 116 first grade words in one minute, average is 70. Her math skills are also high. She has no problem understanding money or time or patterns. Then there is her artistic side. Her drawings are far more detailed than the other children so much so that her pictures stand out from the rest. Her teacher said that Nix was one of the most well rounded and well adjusted children that she has ever met. She is truely impressive. You can probably all guess that I am walking on clouds right now. Every parent wants to think that their child is special, but now I have proof!
To tell the truth, this does make me a little concerned for JD. He is obviously a smart little boy, but I don't want him feeling he is growing up in Nix's shadow. It is my goal to never compare their test scores or abilities. I'm just worried that others will not be willing to do the same. So far it has really helped that they are diferent genders. I hope that trend continues.

Super high to super low in 3.2 seconds

Super High
The AJC (Atlanta paper) is doing a couple of articles about our church and our unconventional Christmas offering which raised just over $335,000 for mission work. The reporter wanted to talk to one of the children who had projects to raise money, and the pastor gave them Nix's name. They called her and did a phone interview and they are coming later in the week to make her picture. We are all so excited about it, and I will probably post a copy of the article here when it comes out.
Super Low
JD has been feeling bad the past couple of days. He has been trying to cut his last canine tooth, which is famous for being hard on stomachs and sinuses. He is suppose to have his well baby check up today, but sadly it is now going to have to be a sick baby visit. The good news : no shots yet, the bad news: he has been hacking junk up all morning. Every half hour like clockwork he starts getting sick again. I think it is already well documented that I can not handle this. On top of all of that I'm having some health problems of my own, so Rocky is coming home for the trip to the doctor.
More Good News/Bad News
The doctor visit went well. JD wasn't even due for shots yet so he isn't missing anything by being sick. The healthy part of his check up (height, weight, etc.) was perfect. He is growing and learning perfectly. Sadly, he doesn't seem to have gotten over the strep he had last month. He is having to take a really strong medicine and we are having to give him something so he won't throw up. It has made him really sleepy, but not so much that he does wake up from time to time and wimper. It is so pitiful.
I'm starting to be really glad I started this blog. Venting here seems to help me calm down when the stress is high. Then again it may not be that great for those of you reading it. I promise to try and make the topics more light hearted in the future.

Our 10th Anniversary!

That's right, today is the day that Rocky and I have been married 10 years. I don't think I'm old enough to have been married that long, in fact I know I'm not. Looking back I can't imagine getting married at 19, but I am so very glad I did.
What are we doing to celebrate, you may be asking. We are hosting a family party to celebrate, but not to celebrate our anniversary. No, we are celebrating our son's 2nd birthday instead, and believe it or not, I'm excited about it. The house is clean, we'll eat out all weekend, and we have free baby sitting Friday night so we can squeeze a date in. I've got a bit of a cold and it is in the coughing phase which is oh so attractive.
Our church made the paper today, and not the small town one, the Atlanta Journal. It was all about the fund raising we did around Christmas and what we were doing with the $335,000+ we raised. It is so awesome. We are doing a lot of work in New Orleans, in Ethiopia, and here in our own county including building two habitat houses. I think we surprised ourselves with what we could accomplish when we went about it the right way.
I think my cold medicine has kicked in because I'm starting to have trouble stringing together sentences. I better sign off for now before I type something I regret later.
I almost forgot my cute kid story. JD has said his first full sentence last week. It was "I want Daddy!" Nix told me this week that if she died young then we should try to have another baby so JD wouldn't be an only child. I can't decide if it was really sweet or really morbid.

Rixie Flashback to 2004

Every time someone in my house is throwing up I tend to flash back to January of 2004, and I thought I'd share and maybe help rid myself of these thoughts. I was 27 weeks pregnant with JD and in the middle of planning Nik's 5th birthday party. It was a Sunday and we had gone to Popeye's for lunch. I had been craving their chicken with red beans and rice. For some reason Nix ate something different than we did, which turned out to be a good thing. Since I was pregnant my appetite was huge so I ate a lot. That night it became all too clear that I had food posioning. I was getting dehydrated fast so Rocky rushed me to the ER. When I walked through the door of the crowded ER all the attention shifted to me. The guy on the strecher who had been in a car wreck got less attention than I did. I must have looked really bad. They told me to have a seat, but would call a nurse to take me straight back. What they didm't tell me was that I was waiting on a Labor and Delivery nurse. When she got there and told me where we were going it didn't phase me at first. I just figured it was precation, and it was. It was when they got me hooked to the monitors and told me I was in labor that I paniced. It didn't help that they all looked paniced too. They finally got enough medicine in me that I stopped throwing up, but it also knocked me out. My parents got in the car and drove from Tennessee. It usually takes them 7 hours. This time they made it in 5 and a half. When they got there I insisted that Rocky and my dad take Nik home and Mom stay with me. For some reason I was thinking that if Rocky wasn't there then I couldn't have the baby. This turned out to be a good idea because Rocky spent the night at home sick as well. They were able to stop the progression of my labor, but not the contractions. I got to go home and host a tea party for 5 girls and their mothers and then my contractions got stronger and I was sent to bed until JD came in March. It was two months of contractions and not being allowed to be on my feet more than 10 minutes at a time. JD was a month early, but healthy and happy, so alls well that ends well, but it was one of the scarriest times of my life. Since it all started with a little food posioning I am now horrified anytime someone near me is sick. Being the mom of young children isn't easy when you want to run away when they are sick. Give me a scrapped knee anyday, but toss your lunch and you are on your own. It's a weird mix of guilt and disgust.

The Worst Valentine's Day Ever

It is offical, I have more luck on Friday the 13th than I do on Valentine's. In my long history of bad Valentine's, this one takes the prize. It starts off with cleaning the tail end of what we have been told is JD's stomach virus. Pun intended :) Then a man fron the gas company comes and turns off our gas. I proceed to call Rocky and chew him out for not emailing in the payment like we talked about. He's confused, but assumes that he must have forgotten, but promises to fix it and apologizes. I drive about 20 minutes to his office to pick up this week's check and then drive it to the bank, which is a good 45 minute away to Gainesville. It's a long story as to why I had to do that, but trust me when I say it was the only way. While I'm in Gainesville with JD, I decide to have lunch and then do a little Valentine's Day shopping. Since JD had been sick all weekend, it was the first chance I had. Just as we were finishing lunch JD throws it all back up. This means a trip to the doctor after a 45 minute drive with a sick baby. After geting back home and making my appointment, Rocky calls. The gas company made a mistake because we were never scheduled to be cut off. In fact they argue with him as to weither or not the gas is actually off. They can't reset it from there because the computer system doesn't know it's off. They have to send a guy out. We still have a large number of boxes in our garage some of which are blocking the path to the hot water heater, which has to be relite. I go out and move a tone of heavy boxes, pick Nix up at the bus stop and then head off to the doctor. The doctor does a strp test, but says she is sure it is still just a virus despite the fact that he is still throwing up after 4 days. The rapid test comes back negative and we go home with the idea that not only will he be sick for the rest of the week, but the rest of us will soon be getting it too. Our wonderful romantic dinner comes from Subway. After eatting Rocky starts feeling bad. It turns out to be heartburn, but we don't know that and decided that for health reasons he will sleep in the guest room.
On the up side, Rocky did have cards for me and Nix, and we had heart balloons for the kids. The gas was turned back on with their apologizes (and mine).
The next day the doctor called and said that JD's strep culture turned up positive after all so he gets a prescription and we don't have to worry about getting sick. He is mostly well now, but we are all exhausted and it looks like Nix has pink eye.
I NEED A VACATION !!!!!
Next month is our 10th anniversary so maybe we can squeeze a date in.

New Family Members

My daughter turns 7 this weekend, and more than anything she wanted a mouse for her birhtday. Since she already has every toy on the planet, the result of being an only grandchild for 5 years, and since she is very responsible, we agreed to get her a mouse. Rocky and I went to the pet store last night and got everything we'd need for a mouse. There is the cage with food dish an water bottle, food, treats, bedding, cage filler. Then we went to pick out the mouse and ended up getting two. We have one white with black spots named Molly and a white with gray spots named Milly. They are very tiny and very quick. When we were trying to get them from their box into the new cage, Milly got free and went running through part of the house. I had no idea they could jump so high. Rocky finally had to grab her by the tail and toss her into her new home. She squeaked at him, but otherwise went willingly.
We had some of my side of the family over for a small informal party. The weather was so wonderful that we all decided to go to Lake Lanier and walk arond Buford Dam. We didn't even need jackets. Last year at this time we were having ice and snow. I'm sure it will be back to winter next week, but it sure was a nice break for the weekend. Tomorrow will probably be rainy and gray again.
While my parents are staying with us they are discovering the joy of TiVo and I fear my dad may never want to go home to regular t.v. Mom doesn't think she cares, but then when I get to fast forward through commercials, and rewind live shows she likes it. If their past record with obtaining new technology means anything, they should have a TiVo in about 12 years.
I feel I should put a disclaimer on this post because I have a cold and my mind is not as sharp as it usually is. I've been doing really dumb things this week, but I've been able to blame sinus medicine. I haven't done anything major league stupid, just little things like making a shopping list so I wouldn't forget things and then leaving the list at home. I must sing the praises of Zicam. I didn't start my cold until Wednesday and I am already mostly better. I've been using Zicam all through it. I had too much to do to be sick this week. I'll probably crash Monday.
JD is learning to say bedtime prayers. It is so cute. He repeats after us and says "Dear Jesus, Thank you, love you, Amen" The Amen is his favorite part. It is more like "AAAAAAAA-men"He is already starting to be a good Baptist.

Doodles and other ungodly creatures

My son loves dogs. He has practically since birth. My husband has developed some strange allegery to almost everything with hair, even some people so actually owning a dog is out of the question for now. There is a pet store near me that sells puppies (not the puppy mill kind, they all come from registered breeders), and JD and I like to visit to see the puppies when we can. The other day they had several new babies in including a Chi-poo, which was very cute. This got me to wondering what other breeds you can cross with a poodle. Apparently there are some sick dog breeders out there. I think the weirdest so far has been the St.Berdoodle or maybe the one that was half doberman. I wonder how many poodles were eaten trying to make that one.


My week has been interesting to say the least. My husband had to make a quick trip to Denver, which quickly turned into a John Candy movie, but he is back and mostly alive so I guess it could have gone a little worse. While he was gone I learned a few very important things. First of all when you go into a drug store or any store for that matter, the Midol and Pamprin should be easy to locate. The person who is shopping for this item does not need the frustration of trying to figure out what the stock boy was thinking when he was shelving this product. By the way, in our Wal-mart they are with the condoms, as if that makes any sense what so ever. Number two, of all the medicine bottles that should be easy to open, arthritis pills, antipsychotics, etc. let's move Pamprin right to the top of that list. Once again I would like to point out that the person using this product has enough troubles. You are probably now getting a picture of how my week went. The third and most delightful thing I learned ths week is that TiVo, although clearly a product developed by Satan, is the greatest invention for a p.m.s.ing wife whose husband is out of town and the kids are finally in bed. If you don't know me personally you may be wondering if I'm off my rocker or merely kidding about the whole Satan thing. I am indeed teasing. I just mean to point out that maybe a few of us could stand to miss a few hours of t.v. instead of having it be made even easier to watch. Since I am clearly not one of those people :D I see no harm in having one.

Here is my kid story for the week, and once again it comes from Nix.
A 5 year old little girl on the bus said she was worried about Nix because she was her friend and she had learned at her Sunday "meeting" that anyone who didn't go to her church was going to be distroyed by Jehovah. You have to love those Jehovah's Witness people. The next day on the way to school Nix explained to her that Jesus came to save all people who loved Him. She told Nix that she was making her not trust her religion. She wasn't on the bus that afternoon and the bus driver asked Nix, very nicely, not to talk religion on the bus any more. I'm wondering if more will come of it.

Another Sunday Gone

Here I am at 3 in the morning quietly typing, and why?, you might ask. Because I was dumb enough to give into my craving for Coke ( Don't get excited - I mean pop, soda, or whatever you like to call that sweet dark caffine drink of bubbles). Now I'm sitting in the floor of my room bug eyed, in pain, and still wishing for another glass. I had semi sucessfully given up all carbonation. Afterall, it drves my stomach crazy. Over Christmas I started up again on a small scale, but it quickly became clear that I needed to stay away. When I got back home from my parents house I went cold turkey. There wouldn't be any in the house unless I bought it, and I'm not that weak. I just had to avoid ordering it in resturants. Thanks to my husband's renewed interest in only drinking water, this had not been hard. Then tonight came. Fresh from church where I had been studying cults. My daughter and I stopped at Subway for a little Mom/Daughter time, and there it was just staring at me, the soda fountain and all it's glory. I held myself to only one medium sized glass, but it was enough. Oddly enough, my daughter and I had a deep talk on addiction while we ate. Ah, irony.
It was the day for deep talks with Nix. Earlier she had asked if we planned on having any more children. Several friends of ours are pregnant at the moment and she wanted to know where she stood. She wants to have three children provided that she can find a good man to marry and that she can think of a name for the second girl. If she can't think of another name then she will stop at two, which will naturally be one girl and one boy. I love her logic. I really wasn't expecting to explain what birth control was on the way home from church this morning, but that is life with a smart 6 year old.
2/3rds of my hard work on this were just deleted by trying to check my spelling. My caffine has worn off and I can't remember a thing.
I'll repost the rest at a later date. For now I'm off to sweet sleep

My first post

Well, here it is, my very first post on my very first blog. I've been threating to do this for so long. I guess it was finally time. All I really wanted to do was catch up with an old friend, but that required signing on for this, so I figured why not. I'm an interesting gal after all.
Catching up with old friends has gotten me into alot lately. I don't know if it is because I moved so far from home or the fact that I'm turning 30 this year, but something has me wanted to reconnect with people. It could be from not having a high school reunion. I think a part of me wanted to really rub it in that I've had two kids and I'm still thin, and probably better looking than I was in highschool. Man, I was a dork back then. Don't get me wrong I'm still a dork. I just wear it on the inside now.
My sci-fi habit is probably as bad as ever. The difference now is that people are surpised when they find out how much I know about Star Trek. Now that we live so close to Atlanta we have actually been to Dragon-Con. I love to see the look on people's faces when they hear that. Half my friends want to come with me next time and the other half look at me sideways and say "You didn't dress up did you?" to which I always reply "Not yet, maybe next year"
My husband and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage this year. That seems like such a huge number. It takes us into the "old married couple" catagory. We will have outlasted every Hollywood marriage of recent years. These days it seems like people draw up divorce papers along with the pre-nup.
Well, I guess this is a good start. Maybe later I'll write on the evils Tivo and why I'll never give mine up.

I think I need to include something from one of my kids in each post.
This one comes from my daughter Nix.
She asked me the other day if it was true that you could get arrested for passing gas that smell in Publix. As with most of her crazy questions this one came from some little boy at school.
Now I really have to end this. My son is holding a tissue box, pretending to sneeze, and pulling out the tissues one by one.
Ah, motherhood. The joys never end