And This Is How My Mind Works Most Days...Scary

Although Bethany can walk to and from school, now, I still hop into the van some mornings and give her a lift anyway. It is my time to have a quick exchange of silliness to help start our days off right. Usually something on the radio gets us started.

This morning it was one of the bunches of local radio personalities talking about some 'meeting' with Andy Taylor...formerly of that androgenous late 70's/early 80's band known as Duran Duran. They were talking about Andy's separation from the band and the book he wrote about his days as a member of said band.

So...who was the rock and roller that first decided they could write a book about their days as a rock star...ppl would spend lots of money on it therefore saving them from having to go back out on the road and wear themselves out playing at State Fairs, mall openings, etc.?

Back to the original thought: Andy Taylor's book and the 'meeting'. They were talking about a place in the book that described Andy's single most awful day with Duran Duran. I looked at my daughter and said, "It was the day when he mysteriously ran out of lip gloss, eyeliner and hairspray all at once! The trifecta of terror!" She just started giggling! I told her I was never much of a 'Duran-ee' (as their fans were being referred to) but her Aunt Dawn was. I told my daughter that I do believe it was Andy Taylor that liked to swap make-up with his wife...although I think there was another Taylor guy in the band...I don't know. I wasn't much for 'wild boys' that wore way more make-up than I.

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I got into the parking lot and instead of getting into the drop-off line I pull into the first row of parked cars and Ms. Divine scoots across to the sidewalk. This morning I was just about to pull into a spot when the oh-so-thotful soccer mom in front of me pulled in and straddled both places! so, I pulled ahead...behind the scooter that apparently some employee of the school rides there everyday. And in pulling out of said parking lot I almost side swiped the scooter.

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I was having a chat with someone last night that mentioned that, financially, he was trying to get 'ahead'. And me, being the weird thinker that I am said that everyone was always talking about getting 'ahead' and I wondered just where that is and do we know when we get there? Can we tell if we pass it? AND if we pass 'ahead' just where are we?

I look around me and wonder if I am there. Am I 'ahead'? Or is 'ahead' like that carrot that is dangled on a stick in front of a horse...it is always out of reach.

Troy asked me what I want for my birthday and with much consideration I said, "nothing. I think I am at that place where I have pretty much everything I want." He rolled his eyes and said, "Okay...is there anything you NEED?" Well, if I have everything I WANT, then why would there be anything I NEED? I mean, wouldn't you WANT anything you NEED? Therefore, given you WANT anything you NEED and there is nothing left that you WANT, then wouldn't you have everything you NEED?

Okay...I should go find something else to occupy my brain. Y'all have a good day!

Blog Parts Put Together

This post is a compilation of some posts on the other blog I have:

Post from Saturday:
I have joked about how strange I am but I am really beginning to believe that it is not a joke. Did my mother raise me on some alien book of etiquette?

We ended up with 8 out of the invited 10 girls last night...and one of them didn't spend the night becuz of some early morning commitment. It was a SLEEPOVER BIRTHDAY party. 4 of them didn't bring a sleeping bag, blanket, pillow...nada. AND only 3 of them brought a birthday present!

When my daughter is invited to a sleepover birthday party she takes a present and a sleeping bag and pillow! These parents just dropped their daughters off with a small carry bag with what in it? PJ's.

Luckily for them I have a large supply of extra pillows and blankets. They all picked a spot on the floor of the back family room and passed out.

As I sad...I must have been raised on alien 'rules'.

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She didn't want a cake...she wanted one of those really large chocolate chip cookies with the decoration. I make them myself...I am NOT paying some store $12 for a big cookie! And I can decorate with the best of them. Besides, this way my kids can get what they want on it for decoration and I don't have to order it way ahead of time.
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The noise level was phenomenal last night. My husband was in total shock! He could not believe that girls could be so unruly! I think he has been living with his head in the sand.

Post from Sunday night:
I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut. Yesterday I was being thankful that I was cleaning up after a teenage girl sleepover party instead of a hurricane. The whole thing came around and bit me in the butt today. We got it...Gustav blew thru here like, well, a 'tropical depression' today.

When I woke up, the skies were blue, the sun was shining and it was hot. By about 2 p.m. things were getting darker and the wind was getting stronger and I decided I'd better make a mad dash to the grocery store to get provisions for dinner. I took the next side street over that leads straight to the grocery store and it looked like a war zone! Limbs and trees down everywhere! It was like driving an obstacle course! Then, while in the grocery store, the power went out. I left.

My son was on his way home from Steven's and I was saying my prayers. He made it, by the way.

While I was in the florida room talking on the phone with my mother, I noticed the neighbors gathering on the sidewalk and pointing over our house. I said something to Troy and he went out to investigate. There was quite a huddle forming. He said it was nothing.

A few hours later he summoned me to look out the front door. The big tree in the front yard of the guy across the road was leaning...the roots were coming out of the ground. Troy said that he and Corkey had been discussing which way it was going to fall. Troy told Corkey it was going to fall across his driveway and hit his truck. Corkey said it would fall straight across the road and hit our garage. I grabbed my keys and told Troy we were going to move our cars out of the driveway and around the corner where there weren't any trees to fall on our vehicles. We no sooner parked them and got out, when the neighbors all reappeared from their homes just in time to see the tree go down. God was merciful. The tree laid down ever so nicely on the road...missed everyone's home and vehicles...even Derek's SUV still parked along side the road.

It looked like a block party out there! Everyone was laughing and some were even exchanging money...they had bet each other when/where the tree was going to land! [[EMOTICON:LOL1]] I ran in and grabbed my camera to get pictures and by the time I got outside, a city truck was already there surveying the thing and a crew showed up and cut the tree up and pushed it off the road! [[EMOTICON:SHOCK1]] Dang!

While everyone was gathered in front of our house watching the crew cut up Mr. Kyle's tree, the guys lamented that we were without cable, too, and couldn't watch football. I looked at them and said, "Oh...it came back on about 10 minutes ago!" [[EMOTICON:SHOCK2]] Suddenly, the group thinned out. [[EMOTICON:LOL1]] I guess when it comes to a choice between watching some guys using a chainsaw to cut up a tree and watching football... [[EMOTICON:GRIN2]]


Mr. Kyle's fallen tree



OH! AND BTW...Here's the birthday cookie!

Sharing Before and After

Here are just a few pictures of the house before changes and after changes.


part of the old kitchen


Another part of the old kitchen.


part of the new kitchen


Another part of the new kitchen


What Troy's office looked like BEFORE


Troy's office as he is moving in...no curtains.


Old master bedroom


New master bedroom...before moving in and before curtains

I have other pictures of 'before' but I haven't taken the 'after' ones yet. next time!

Sprinklers

Yesterday was a day of entanglements. But, after taking a deep breath and heading out into the wild blue yonder, I got things taken care of to a point that helped me calm down a bit.

There are only two things left that I can't seem to conquer on my own: 1)having a washer I can use; 2)getting my printer installed. There is one little glitch message that comes up and Troy said he could take care of it. I did my homework for my Wednesday night class but couldn't print it off. So, I emailed my teacher with an explanation and attached it. He printed it off and brought it to class.

I have got caught up so far with my homework and started on the next batch. BUT, it is not due until midnight Sunday night and not too difficult. I am taking some time to unload some boxes and get some areas organized PLUS help my son with his math.

I have been waking up every morning at 4:30. Sometimes I can roll over and go back to sleep, sometimes not. This was one of those mornings. But I figured it out. Troy has set the sprinkler system to go off at 4:30. It takes it 2 1/2 hours to finish becuz it waters one section at a time and he has it set to water each section for half an hour!!! The lawn doesnt' need THAT much watering and I REALLY hate to see the water bill! Since my van is in the driveway, the back and one side of it gets a bath.

I still haven't gotten the pictures of the house. Troy's sister has them and she sent them to Troy and he STILL hasn't sent them to me. I haven't had time to mess with it anyway.

Now Where Did I Put That?

We got the house and remodeling was done...lots of it. Then came the moving. I spent a WEEK cleaning out the old place...the rental. But, finally everything is in our house. We are still making slight adjustments to things around here and it will take me quite some time to get everything put away and organized.

In the meantime, the kids have both started school and so have I. I missed the deadline on my first assignments for two of my classes becuz they are online AND my computer caught a deadly virus. We tried everything to get rid of it all but it was a goner. I had to upgrade to Office 2007 anyway and my old clunker of a computer wouldn't be able to handle it. So, hubby got a new hard drive. Now I have to play catch up with my assignments. It really shouldn't be too bad.

I hope to soon post some before and after pictures of the house.

I think we have met most of the new neighbors...they wandered over during the renovation/remodeling stage. Most of them seem quite nice. It is much quieter here than where we were living.

Tomorrow: homework catch up and putting things away.