Almost New Years Eve

I can't believe that we are about to enter 2009. I still remember when the saying was RUY2KOK? What the heck happened...how did nine years pass so quickly?

Tomorrow, we'll have a low-key party and my friend from college will be joining us -- Yea for longtime friends (sounds better than old friends).

Tomorrow Mark and Kevin return from their Boy Scout camp -- Yea to have them back. I'm sure Kevin will be leaving soon for Lubbock -- where his life is!

Kat mentioned today that she can hardly wait until we can really start shopping for college and I know that the next few months will just fly by and then she will be in Stillwater! - Yea Go Pokes!

Yea for my 50th post!

December anniversary and Christmas

In the last week, our family has celebrated my dh's and my 27th anniversary and Christmas!

For our anniversary, we went to Hooters. This has become a tradition for us -- many years ago, when we were still in the single digits, we went were going out to eat and I wanted wings. Well, I happen to like Hooters wings the best so that's where we went! Nobody believed us when we told them that we had gone to Hooters so it sort of became a joke. Since then, we have celebrated anniversaries that don't end with a zero or a five at Hooters and then we go somewhere fancy on the zeros and fives. We took the kids with us this year and had a great time. They also serve my favorite beer, Blue Moon, on tap. I loved Kev's twitters that night -- as we were leaving he twitted "going to Hooters with the family for my parent's 27th anniversary. Yes, my family *is* cooler than yours." Then when we were done he twitted "20 wings, an order of fried pickles, 1/2 pound of peel and eat shrimp, 6 mini burgers and 3 pitchers of Blue Moon later, we are back home." For what it's worth I didn't eat any of the mini burgers and I know I only drank 1/2 pitcher of Blue Moon!

The next day was Christmas Eve which starts out lazy but becomes a busy day for us. I made two kinds of soup because although it would be nice to have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve -- that just isn't possible for us. Our church has services at 4, 6, and 8 o'clock. Kat's little kid choir sings at the 4:00; her teen choir and Mark's choir sing at the 6:00 and at the 8:00 Mark's men's choir sang, Kat's bell choir played, and she and I were scheduled for altar guild -- helping with communion. So in our tradition of not knowing who will be home when, I have fixed two kinds of soup for Christmas Eve -- and you eat it when you have the chance.

Then the next morning was Christmas! It is a little more low-key than when our offspring were younger -- but we still enjoy it and they still have their stockings filled! I got what I had asked for -- outside trash cans with wheels. Somehow it has become my job to take the trash out and I wanted new trash cans. Our old ones were over 20 years old! I also got a new camera which I desperately needed as my old one broke a week ago! My son is getting older -- he asked for and got an attache case! He also got money for clothes so that he can look good next semester when he is student teaching! My daughter got knitting tools -- one that she is very excited about is a yarn meter so that she can measure her leftover yarn. She also got a wonderful OSU blanket and an OSU magnet to put on her car and an OSU purse. I think my relatives in Tulsa are very excited that she will be close to them while she is in college. Oh Kevin also got a Jayne Cobb hat which you would know what is if you are a fan of Firefly. Kat, of course, knitted it for him and it looks great on him! After all the opening of gifts, etc. We went to my sister-in-law's house for a yummy Christmas dinner!

December musings

I have much to do on my to do list. Mail Christmas cards, wrap presents and mail them to Birmingham, Tulsa, and Denver. Today is bunco so on my list today was to get 2 tables and 4 chairs over to the house where we will play bunco, check the vanilla vodka and creme de cocoa supply, get chocolates, make an appetizer and wrap my bunco Christmas gift. I've accomplished all that and also went to the dentist. No cavities - yea!

I decided to have a break and have a cup of white chocolate coffee -- YUM!. I have also been watching Doogie Howser MD on hulu.com. I have watched about 6 episodes. I used to love this program -- I still do!

I used to be proud of the fact that I didn't take any pills. Not so anymore. I guess getting older means pills. I was recently diagnosed with low thyroid and low iron so now I take a thyroid pill in the morning on an empty stomach and then a multivitamin with iron at night. Somewhere in between I also have a calcium chewy.

Tomorrow is my tap class Christmas party and on Thursday Kevin comes home. I have a little more shopping to do for my kids but I don't know what to get them! Right now, though, I have to go to work for a couple hours!

Happy Day!

I had a mammogram last Thursday and got the call Friday that more pics were needed. I couldn't return the call until Monday morning. At that point, the earliest they could see me was a week; but then they called back because they had a cancellation. Today I went back, more pics were taken, doctor ordered an ultrasound, and my did they find cysts -- I counted at least 4. The radiologist came in and looked at the ultrasound and said that I was a "cyst maker" but no signs of cancer. Woohoo! He does want to check again in six months, but that's ok.
I was on a totally natural high when I left the medical office. I ran some errands and nothing bothered me...not the mercedes that parked way too close to me, not anything!

Yesterday I had lunch with my good friend, Kathy. We have known each other since high school and became good friends in college. So much fun to catch up with her. We only live about 30 miles apart -- we really should get together more often. My GPS told me that there was a Bakers Bros Restaurant close to where we were and I said maybe we will meet there next time. However, when I left, I decided to let the GPS take me there. I was directed to drive around a bit going past apartments into a very nice neighborhood, turn this way, turn that way, and now arriving at destination -- except that I was in front of someone's house with no restaurant in sight! GPS's are great -- but they are not perfect. I laughed and wondered why my GPS thought there was a restaurant there! Oh well, next time, we will pick a new place and I will look up the address before I go and just enter the address into the trusty GPS.

It's November?

Wow -- already the 11th month of the year! I spent the last week of October driving to Birmingham, visiting relatives, and driving back. Technically, I didn't drive, I rode. I also read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris outloud! That way, dh and I heard the story together. It is the first of the Southern Vampire Mysteries. It is what the HBO show True Blood is based on. I haven't decided whether to continue the series or not, but it was pretty good for a vampire love story.

Today was busy. A couple weeks ago, I decided that I HAD to exercise and I found my DVD of Walk Away the Pounds. I decided that I could exercise every day and this would be an easy way to do it at home. Well this morning when I woke up I had this conversation in my head -- get up now and walk, I'll do it later, no you won't because you don't have time, I'll do it later really, no you won't because once you put on makeup you won't want to sweat it off -- and with that I got up and fed the dogs and did my 2 mile walk with Leslie Sansone and her buddies.

After the walk, I went to my Thursday morning breakfast group, tutored College Algebra for two hours, ran to Cabela's to pick up a package, came home and wrote to TCC for permission for dd to take 3 classes in the spring, called OSU to see if she needs more Spanish (probably not) and then went to work for 3 hours. So see if I hadn't walked this morning, I really wouldn't have done it.

Now, I'm off to bed and I'm going to try to work the NYT Thursday puzzle. Tomorrow I have to catch up on my BSF and I HAVE to walk again!

Time for a post

It's been awhile and although nothing earth-shaking has happened, I thought it was time for a post. I'm still trying to get scrapbooks finished before starting new ones. I'm currently working on daughter's volume 2 book. It is from about age 10 to 14. The next for her will be a high school one.

I thought that I wouldn't have very many pics for her high school book but we had her senior pics made last week. Now I have many pics to put in there. We went to Portrait Innovations and they did a superb job. They are very reasonably priced and even though I spent more than I had planned -- I still have spent less than other people I know!

Last week, our Connections group from church met for our first meeting. We will be studying parables. It will be interesting and we have great people in our group.

Work is pretty much the same. Math, algebra and geometry. I love it when I can get a kid that hates being there to smile. I also loved it when recently a high school girl told me that she brought her grade up from a 79 to an 89 since she had been coming for tutoring. I may not be making a lot of money -- but I am making a difference!

Tweeting!

Hey Guys -- Right now I am following a few of my friends and relatives on Twitter. Lately only my kids are updating. I love hearing from my kids, but I would love to hear from you too.

Please join twitter -- it's free and you can choose to have your updates read only by friends if you wish.

My wonderful nurse SIL has twitter -- but updates very seldom. My other SIL should twitter because she doesn't have time to blog. You can twitter from your phone if you want and you only have 140 characters to say what you need to say. For instance if you had been at the Flower Mound game, you could have tweeted "weird -- a banana just chased a gorilla across the field".

I have a sister that I follow; she has a twitter account, but never updates. I'm getting lonely out here in twitter land!

Just click on "follow me on twitter" at the right and start tweeting.

Surgery etc

It was an interesting week last week. First at BSF, I ran into a friend who I hadn't spoken to in almost 10 years. We were very good friends and our sons were friends; then something happened, we disagreed, and never spoke to each other again! It wasn't too hard, her family changed scout troops and I started homeschooling around the same time so we never ran into each other. However, periodically, I would think about her and think that it was one of the things in my past that I regretted -- I regretted that our friendship had ended so badly. Occassionally during the last seven years at Bible Study something in the lecture would remind me of it and I would pray that she was ok and that God could help me get past it. Well God does work in His own way and who do you think started going to BSF this year! So I talked to her and we hugged and put the past behind us!

That was on Monday. On Thursday, Mark mentioned that his stomach hurt. Then while he was driving home from work he said that his stomach hurt real bad and he was going to the doctor. I went to work and he came home and said that the nurse practitioner that he saw ruled out apppendicitis but he would go have a test on Monday for something else. I texted his sister who is a wonderful sister and (more importantly at the time) a nurse. She went over and realized that he probably should go to the ER. I met them there later where the doctor looked at him, poked a litte, and told us that he needed his appendix removed. So he went in for surgery around 10:30 and now is appendix-less. Friday he stayed at the hospital until his doctor told him that he could leave. Fortunately they were able to do it with laparoscopy (sp) so Mark is well on to the road of recovery.

Yesterday I rode with Mark to West so that he could go to a Boy Scout meeting. I didn't think he should drive but he insisted so I was just there. West isn't the most exciting town to spend three hours in -- but they do have good kolaches.

Que Sera Sera

A week or so ago I read a great chick-lit book called "The Think About Jane Spring" by Sharon Krum. Jane was a tough no-nonsense attorney, but she seldom got a second date. She really wanted romance and love, but couldn't seem to get it. In a funk one weekend, she watched a Doris Day marathon on tv and realized that Doris always got the guy. Well, the next day, Jane becomes Doris Day including trading her fullsize bed in for a twin bed. It's a good, funny, cheerful book.

A few weeks ago, my daughter kept telling me that she wanted to get rid of her twin over full bunk beds and replace it with a twin bed so that she would have more space in her room. Last weekend we bought the bed, sold the old one on Craigslist and she now has a twin bed. I don't think she did it for the same reason as Jane Spring but the timing is humorous and I keep humming Que Sera Sera.

Here's pics of the old


And the new:

Oh Poo! and another thing

We have four pets -- two cats and two dogs. We have a cat because many years ago dd wanted one and someone who worked with dh needed to get rid of theirs. A few years later, another cat wondered into our garage and our lives. We have a dog because ds and dh wanted one when dd was born...the dog came a few years later. Now we have two big dogs. So the cats aren't technically mine and only one of the dogs is mine.

Why am I the only one living here who can clean out a kitty litter box and pick up poop in the yard?

The other thing -- totally another subject.
In tutoring math, I am amazed at the number of times that a student says to me, we don't use a book. This is frequently right after I say, "let me see your book". I am usually saying this because I am a little lost and math books frequently have good examples right before the exercises. If I can see an example, I can usually understand it -- and then I get it! Fortunately, I have many math reference books. But why don't they use math books anymore??? The kids usually offer me their notes -- but would they really need tutoring if they took good notes?

Another Saturday afternoon

Nothing new and fancy in my world. My son, however, has had his first column published in the school newspaper. You can see it at dailytoreador.com Just search his name. I think he will have one weekly. Already someone has commented to call him an idiot. You just aren't a good columnist until someone calls you an idiot.

My dh's car got broken into in San Antonio while he was there on business. Stupid crooks took the broken GPS and left the new one. Also left the pistol that was in the glovebox next to the broken GPS. Also left a few drops of blood from cutting themselves on the glass. (Please no comments on the gun -- dh is licensed to carry and all that).

DD is back at school taking 9 hours this semester. I think she is off to a good start and she has made her decision as to where to go next year. Oklahoma State won that contest. I knew it would! (I know I already blogged about this... however, we have now given OSU money for a dorm). She is also making me a cool shawl for Christmas in OSU orange -- so next year when I go to visit, I'll be styling!

I'm back at work usually working about 10-12 hours a week. If anyone knows of a cool job that I could work at for 20-25 hours a week, let me know. I just need to leave by 3:00 to get to my other job.

Hand Raising

I attended Women of Faith last weekend -- a pretty good weekend. While there I was just wondering about hand raising during the praise and worship singing. Some people raise 1 hand, some people raise 2 hands and some people don't raise their hands. I don't think any choice is wrong, and I happen to be of the "don't raise my hands" group; it just got me to wondering about it.
Is it a "denominational" thing? Is it a taught in some churches and therefore becomes standard practice there. Some people think that it is the Holy Spirit moving people, but I can't believe that HE moved that whole group of people in red shirts but didn't move too many in my group of green shirts that happen to be of the "frozen chosen" denomination. I know the Holy Spirit speaks to me, I've heard it, but I've never heard "raise your hands now". I don't mean to offend anybody -- I was really just wondering!

It's hard to remember what day it is!

Actually I know it must be Thursday because I worked today -- and I was only going to work on Thursday this week. But it has been an interesting week.

Saturday, we had a party because Kev was home, Kat and some others are now seniors in high school, a daughter of a friend was leaving for her freshman year in college -- anyway time for a party. Good time and good food was had by all! My dear husband grilled bulgogi for awhile on the grill -- I had bought LOTS of meat for it.

Sunday, another friend, her two daughters, Kat and I headed down south to see Texas State Univ. We stayed in a Hamptom Inn and I got upgraded to a suite! (DH has lots of Hilton points). Monday, we toured the campus. Friend's daughter was quite enamored with it and enjoyed it a lot. My dd, on the other hand, doesn't like humidity, needs it to be winter some of the time so she can use some of the stuff she knits, and she HATES stairs. The university has stairs everywhere. It is built on hills so you go up stairs to this building and then downstairs and back up another set of stairs to that building. In other words, it isn't going to be her college. It was worth looking at though.

Monday afternoon, we drove to Fredericksburg and stayed for a couple days. We relaxed, read and ate muffins (inside joke), and shopped. Good times. Then yesterday we drove back completely on back roads. It was so much fun. I love traveling with someone who doesn't mind that I drive on the back roads if I can.

OH -- last Friday, we were notified that two of dd's classes were cancelled so we went up early Saturday morning and got her enrolled in a history class with the professor that she really likes. However all the other classes were full until payment time came which was that night. Husband went to the college Monday morning and got her enrolled in a government class too. So all is set for fall semester.

Today I worked and this weekend I will be at Women of Faith.

Good news for my lovely offspring -- Kat has been accepted into the Honors College at OSU and Kev has been selected to be a columnist for the Daily Toreador at TTU! Now Kat just needs to be accepted to OSU from their admissions office. They were missing my transcript--which I think I mailed, but I mailed them another one anyway.

An End of the Week Update

It's been another week (longer in the blog world). I've worked, I've begun tutoring an adult taking college algebra, I've volunteered at the library, and last but not least, I've helped my daughter apply to college. Yes her first application is at Oklahoma State University. I requested her transcripts from various colleges be sent to them (3 hrs at SMU and 14 so far at TCC). I'm sure she'll be accepted. She also applied to the Honor's College. So far, she hasn't been able to apply for housing which is the most important - better dorms go quickly. However, at OSU each dorm (including suites) must be at least 50% freshman. This means she has a better chance at a suites style dorm.

In a couple weeks we are traveling to San Marcos to look at Texas State Univ. I'm pretty sure though that she will think it is too humid and she doesn't want to have a "bad hair" day everyday. We just found out that some friends are making this trip with us -- so that will be alot of fun.

Kevin should be home in the next couple of days for a few days. We need to eat at Babes, Waffle Way, get new phones and a new phone plan that allows texting, and see some movies while he is here. Maybe next week will be more exciting than this one!

Maybe I'm just weird

Kathryn has been cleaning her room - alot! Today she found an old notebook that I used to take notes on our 2000 cruise and on homeschooling way back then. (Kev didn't like to do math problems once he got the concept).

Anyway, one day the kids and I drove to South Ft. Worth for a writing class led by two homeschool moms who had actually been published. We did a 10 minute writing exercise that had 3 rules -- don't stop (keep hand moving, don't fix anything), don't worry about spelling, grammar, or mistakes, and Let Go! (They did talk about editing later)

Part of what I wrote about was that we had driven there in the rain and I had almost got lost but I turned around as soon as I realized it. However, it made me wonder what would have happened if I hadn't turned around -- we would have left the metroplex and been on an adventure. Now I quote myself from 8 years ago -- "Sometimes I want to get lost and just go on an adventure. Just go where the road leads me. Sometimes it's a pain to be the prompt one, to be the one who has to be where she said she would be when she said she would be -- you know, THE responsible one. Sometimes I just want to be free! Oh well back to the rain. It almost made me late and I hate being late. I must have an inner conflict within me -- being responsible and being carefree. Are they really at two ends of the spectrum or can they coexist together?"

I'm still conflicted! I guess it's part of adulthood.

Crying over nothing

Have you ever had one of those days where you just need to cry? That was today for me. I goofed off all morning and then went to the library to do my volunteer hours. DD was at church helping with daycamp so she didn't go with me. She has been helping the middle school girls do a servant event -- they have worked at the Feed The Children program, the local food bank, and organized closets at our church. Last night they had a lock in and dd was a pseudo chaperone for them. In other words dd was very tired.

After the library, I stopped at the McDonalds to get an ice cream cone (also called a 3 pointer) and almost cried remembering taking the kids there before it was attached to a Chevron station and them playing forever in the playground area.

I came home and shortly afterward dd came home. I told her that we really needed to nail down the dates to go to Fredericksburg and then I sensed that she was about to cry. So we just hugged each other and cried for a minute -- then we laughed. We felt better!

Another Decade!

I had my birthday last weekend and my new age ends in a zero! It isn't too big of a deal as long as I don't think about it too much.

DH was at Boy Scout Wood Badge training on my birthday -- something we had discussed before he signed up for it. So DD and the dogs and I drove to Tulsa to spend the day with my family there. They really know how to treat a birthday girl. First I had a massage at 10:00 at a ritzy salon. Then met the parents and daughter for lunch. It was nice enough to eat outside which is unusual for Tulsa in July. Later in the day, dd and I had pedicures/manicures. Later sisters and their husbands came over for dinner which was great. DS called and he and his friends sang happy birthday to me. It was a wonderful day.

Drove home the next day to celebrate my birthday with my husband. We went to our favorite Italian restaurant and out for ice cream afterwards.

Now back to normal!

It's Sunday!

This is the week that I turn a year older and wiser! I've already had one birthday party. Three of our Thursday morning breakfast group has birthdays in July so we partied on Saturday night at another of the group's house. It was fun to get together in the evening.
I'm still doing doggie duty and going out with them several times a day. I am looking at secure pet doors -- although at the moment we still don't have a fence.

At church we are having a sermon series on the Beattitudes. So far we have had three of the sermons and they are pretty good. Today's was "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth". These are pretty good sermons and I am learning from them. After church, we have breakfast in the big room with others from church and visit. One of the things that the pastor mentioned earlier on was that the Beattitudes aren't a to do list -- they are about blessings that we have from God. In other words to be meek is a gift. So much of what the Bible teaches us goes against what the world teaches us. i.e. the world teaches us that we need to win at any cost. The bible tells us that we have already won -- Jesus did that for us. (nuf preaching).

I realize that I have a year before I have to buy dorm stuff again -- but I am already getting choked up about dd leaving in a year. I don't cry or anything -- I just think about it as I walk through Linens n Things, etc. In a couple months though, they will take all the dorm signs down and put up Christmas decorations. I'm very proud that my kids are sure enough about themselves to leave home and venture out!

Oh another thing that is totally unfair that I had forgotten until dd got home from her conference in DC. She had to wear professional clothes for part of the conference so we bought her a suit from Dillards. Well, she came home and mentioned how unfair it is that guy's suits have an inside pocket and women's suits don't. I totally agree! Why can't we have an inside pocket -- even if they have to make it a little lower due to pleats or whatever.

Also...why does our cat like to catch geckos?

Friends etc

Last weekend, we spent the 4th at a friend's house. They have an annual 4th of July party. These are very good friends that we go to church with. I don't remember meeting them so I'm not sure how long I have known them -- probably 10 years; but we have been close friends for about 5 years.

On Saturday, we had dinner at some other friends' house. We have known this couple for 19 years. I don't exactly remember meeting them, but we met when our boys were 2 years old and in daycare together. We get together periodically and just talk and have fun. The boys are grown and not usually with us anymore when we get together.

Monday of this week, I spent it with Sandy (of the first paragraph) as it was her last day of vacation. We had an adventure as we tend to do -- we drove to Weatherford for peaches and I bought some zipper peas. Then we ate lunch at Babes (ok ready for my kids to really be annoyed by that). Before spending the day with Sandy, I had coffee with Karen. I sometimes refer to Karen as "my smart friend". She really is smart! I've known her for as long as I've homeschooled (9 or so years) and we started homeschooling at the same time. Her son and my daughter will graduate together next May.

Tonight, I had dinner with my friend Sandra. I've known Sandra for about 8 years and I met her through homeschooling. She homeschooled her kids through middle school and then sent them on to public high school. Her youngest has graduated and is off to college in August. We get together about once a month and just catch up -- good times.

Tomorrow - my great friend, my daughter is coming home from Washington DC. It'll be fun to talk about it and be together again.

Sometimes I take my friends for granted. I'm not the type of person to have tons of friends, but the ones that I do have; I am close to and I cherish them.

Late Wednesday update

Just an aside because I just wrote Wednesday and I explained why I got married on a Wednesday to my neighbor recently. I didn't just get married on a Wednesday because Friday was Christmas, I had always wanted to get married on a Wednesday because when I was a little girl I though Wednesdays were for weddings because they both started with wed!

Today at work which was four hours of tutoring, I tutored a college student on logarithms, real roots of polynomials, and basically helped him prep for the final; I also tutored a young man who is going into high school -- who definitely did not want to be there! I also tutored a delightful young lady who is going into high school and realizes that her math abilities need some work before August and she just sits down and starts working. Then for the last hour, I tutored 2nd grade math -- subtraction without borrowing. So from roots of a polynomial to subtraction without borrowing -- it was quite a spread of my academic knowledge tonight.

The house is quiet -- we are empty nesters at the moment. I apologize to my son for never telling him that his sister was going to DC for a conference -- didn't withhold the information on purpose, just never got around to discussing it with him. Perhaps I was in denial!

Got a couple more pages done on the scrapbook -- still far behind my goal but doing much better this week on the goal than last week. Twinkie, the scrapbook room cat, clearly likes me to visit her as long as I don't accidentally bring the other cat! Hope I'll get more Twinkie time tomorrow.

My Hair is Short

The title is a takeoff of my son's recent blog entry -- "My Hair is Long".

A couple days ago, I went to get my haircut and told the stylist that I needed a change. I am having a birthday soon and will be eligible to wear a Red Hat! I told her I needed something more fun -- so now it is short and sassy. I really like it although I can't make it look quite as cute as she did. I probably have 1/4 the hair my son does now.

After the haircut, I went to church to help with the Feed the Kids program. We went to the site where we hand out lunches and the supervisor told me that the "reading ladies" would be there that day. The main reading lady is a retired librarian who wanted to give these kids book so she visits each site once a week, reads to the kids, and gives out books. Pretty cool. Well, she needed to leave and left another lady there -- her pastor's wife.

I looked over to where the reading and book giving was taking place and mentioned that she looked very familiar. No one else knew her though including my daughter. After awhile, she came up to introduce herself and she was someone I graduated from high school with! Small world!

I'm excited about working tonight. Today, one of my favorite students is coming back for tutoring. I'm not happy for her that she needs some help -- but I'll be glad to see her again. After that, I think I'll be going to Babe's Chicken for dinner -- so I shouldn't eat much for lunch.

And that's that!

Just a simple update

Not a lot new in my life. My daughter volunteered all last week at the cop camp "Chillin' With the Heat". The police dept here decided a few years ago to sponsor a day camp for middle age kids so they would get to know the local police in a fun manner. The crime prevention officers, school resource officers and some of the Explorers help with the camp. She had fun but was exhausted.

This week she is volunteering with the Feed the Children group from church. They provide lunch to disadvantaged children who usually get fed at school -- during the summer this program steps in. I helped today and it was fun even though it is HOT.

Today I only tutor for an hour - but that's ok -- I had lots of hours last week.

I have set a goal to get 15 pages done on my scrapbooks each week -- at least until I finish the ones that are already started and my son's college book which hasn't been started. I don't do real complex pages -- so it shouldn't be too hard to meet this goal.





I couldn't sleep this morning so I got up around 5:30 and fed the dogs, talked to the cat, worked the NYT crossword puzzle, completed the Babble puzzle online and then went back to bed! Should have scrapped -- but was still bleary eyed.

Twitter is fun

I'm using twitter for quick updates. Check out twitter -- you should join too!
http://twitter.com/kimingvtx

Scrapbooking update

UH OH. This is what happens when you look at the far back of your closet -- I found an old CM album that is empty. That means I need to make one more album before I can start the new true 12x12. (Besides the ones I mentioned in the previous post).

It doesn't have to be fancy -- I just hate to see an album go to waste.

I might just use it for insurance purposes -- like put pictures of valuables that we own (not that we own a lot, but dh is a collector of WW2 rifles). I could put the picture there and write in the serial number, etc. Some day we may even own a digital television!

Any other good ideas for this album???? Does anyone want it???

Scrapping

I like to scrapbook. It is the only sort of crafty thing that I can do! I have many albums of our family already done. I am currently working on the family 2007 album. I recently finished an album for my niece. It was her college graduation and my parents asked me to make an album of her entire life! I finished it about a week before graduation, said a prayer, and sent it by UPS.

I am not a scrapbooking snob, but I only use Creative Memories albums and mostly their papers, etc. This is what I started with and I like the quality of the albums. I occasionally buy some paper elsewhere, but my albums are 95% CM. CM stuff has never been true 12x12 like most albums and paper. However, they have now decided to switch to true 12x12. That means that the page protectors, papers, etc are going to change. I have to finish my 2007 album; my daughter's second album; and my son's college album before I can start a new true 12x12. My first true 12x12 will be for 2008. In other words, I should be scrapbooking instead of blogging.


Now that my son is at college, I actually have a scrapbook room. I share the room with his cat who hates the other cat. This cat sort of likes me and does like it when I come into that room to scrapbook. Last time my son was home, we packed up his books so that I could use the shelves for scrapbooking stuff. Now I have my scrapbooking stuff out all the time. The room isn't too far from my computer which is useful for printing out titles or journaling boxes. Gotta go scrap!

Dreaded appts

I was dreading two appts this week. The first was taking my dd to the endocrinologist because I thought the dr. was mad at me. Six months ago, dd and I thought that she said she would take her off one of the medicines she is using to treat dd with. So I didn't refill it. Then doctor calls 3 weeks later to say to leave her on it. I told her that I hadn't refilled it and then she said well don't bother then, I don't want her on it, then off it, then back on it in such a short amount of time.

So I go to the office thinking she will be snippy with me. Our appt was at 11:20. We got to the exam room around 11:45. Around noon, a nurse came in to apologize and say the doc was called to the hospital -- we could wait and they would give us dining cards to use at the hospital cafeteria or we could reschedule. Well, we were ready to get this over with so we decided to eat lunch and come back.

After lunch, we ran into the doc as she was coming back from the hospital and she was as apologetic and as nice as she could be. I told her that I understood getting called out on an emergency and it was fine. Well anyway, she was so nice through the appt and then the meds were decided upon and off we went. We go back in 6 months and then I think dd will be graduated to a non pediatric endocrinologist. Guess I should start researching them now and see which ones are on our insurance.

Dreaded appt #2 was this morning. Dentist. I don't mind the dentist, it's the hygienist that I don't like seeing. I should mention that she is a very nice person, but she pokes my gums with a sharp instrument and then says "oh my your gums are bleeding!" Well duh! They just got poked! But today she told me how much better they are since the last check! I've actually been brushing better! woohoo. They do some kind of measure on them with numbers of 1-5. Apparently 1, 2 and 3 are good...4 and 5 are bad. Well I had mostly 1's, 2's, and 3's with only a couple 4's. She said that was much better -- last time I had more 4's. So yeah me. Also, No Cavities or reasons to go back until next cleaning appt.

Then I had lunch with a friend and tutored her daughter on College Algebra!

Ready to go to work on my real tutoring job now.

Corner Gas and other TV stuff

I watch alot of tv shows with my family. There are certain shows that we record to watch together. So when I am alone at home, I had to find something to watch that no one else in the family watched! I found a quirky Canadian sitcom called Corner Gas. It is so much fun! I record them all and then I just watch whenever I want!

But now I have a few questions -- they are somewhere in Canada (Saskatchewan I believe) and it never snows! Also, even when most of the regular characters are wearing coats, Lacey aka "The pretty girl of the show" is wearing a tank top! This is a phenomenon of tv shows everywhere. Even on SVU, the guys will be wearing suit jackets and the "pretty girls" are wearing lowcut shirts. One of the most stupid things we have seen along these lines is on the cop shows (CSI, Law & Order, etc) some of the gals even get V-neck lowcut bulletproof vests to wear! OK that is stupid!

Parenting Plus

I started to write an entry about being the parent of an adult child. Then I realized that I don't really have anything to write! It's sort of like being a parent for the first time--you do your best and pray a lot.

The parent is no longer required, in fact is not allowed, to fix anything that may be wrong in the adult child's life. This is ok, if it needs to be fixed, the adult child will get around to doing it.

You are still allowed to encourage and love your adult child. That's it! (and pay for college if possible, food when the ac's food account is running low, etc).

I like this phase!

Not quite adult daughter did very well on her SAT. We were sitting at IHOP having our Thursday morning breakfast -- which no one showed for except dd, dh, and me. All the others were out of town. Anyway, dh has a new Kindle (see Amazon if interested). Anyway, I said hey can't you get on the internet and check her scores -- they should have posted. Well he did and we went woohoo!

Work is going well -- one of my best (most interesting) students told me that she will be coming for tutoring over the summer. She hated coming at first, but now I think she sort of likes it. She always has good stories to tell about the comings and goings of people at the local high school!

Senioritis

Both my kids are seniors now. One a senior in college and one a senior in high school! Wow! How in the world did this happen?

Daughter's history teacher asked her to take a Western History/Philosophy class next semester from that professor and another one. It is worth 6 hours and she needs to apply to get into it. Her professor said she would sign the application. Now we just need to go to the college and see if she can take that class and two more as a dual credit student.

Son came home last night. It's fun to have him home again -- even if it's only for a little while.

It is happening!

I may be turning into my mom! I was watching the weather last night and saw that there were storms in Lubbock. I actually called my son to see if he was ok! Good Grief! (Nice talking to you son).

Figured it out!

Yea for me. I think I am good at math because I just can't stand not figuring something out! So I have solved the Sam's not printing the 12x12 problem.

I remembered that Sam's prints 12x16. So after creating and saving my 12x12, I created a 12x16 and put the 12x12 at the top. I then had room to add 2 regular photos at the bottom. An hour and $3.81 (including tax) later, I had my 12x12 with the 2 pictures attached. No problem, I have a paper cutter to separate it all.

Cool!

If you are a TG, you can see the 12x12 on our photos.

Fever

Time for an update. It has been way too long since I updated, but I have come to realize that I don't have the most exciting life. April was very busy for me. It's TAKS time in Texas which means extra tutoring. I also tutored a little SAT math. Should probably have tutored my daughter more -- but was too busy tutoring others! One also wanted tutoring on the English portion -- not my specialty and if you haven't been reading novels since you were 10 then your vocabulary isn't up to par and there isn't anything I can do about it. For an improvement, try reading SAT novels available online. (just google SAT novels). Now SAT is over for now and TAKS is over for the year.

TAKS is so important to publicly educated people that they are shocked when they are told that homeschoolers/private school students don't take it. It's like the test of all tests in Texas Government Schools that they think no one can get into college or live a good life without it. My kids are proving them wrong as are many many others!

Daughter went to homeschool prom a couple weeks ago. She took a friend who is in college as her date. We had the updo done where I get my hair cut and she looked absolutely beautiful. She had a great time. Her date had fun too and told her he will go with her next year!

Son has finished his junior year at Tech and is coming home for a few days. He and his dad are off to Vegas this weekend (yes over Mothers Day) and are meeting a friend from California who we named our son after. Hope they have great time and don't do anything stupid. Maybe I'll get some special M&M's out of the trip (from the M&M store on the strip).

I got the most cool scrapbooking software -- Creative Memories Storybook Plus. I have created a 12x12 page of the prom and I've created some 5x7 cards. So cool and so fun. Unfortunately, Sam's doesn't print 12x12. Many places online print them but then I have to pay more and pay for shipping. Costco prints them for $2.99 but I don't have a Costco membership. This is not just a financial dilemma although it is that too; it is also a moral dilemma. I used to have a Costco membership in the next town over, but then Sam's opened in my town. I don't need a membership to two warehouse stores and I would much rather my tax dollars support my town instead of that other town across the bridge! I emailed Sam's and asked if they were going to add 12x12 printing to their options and they emailed me back that they forwarded it on to whoever. Ritz/Wolf charges $14.99 and that's way too much. I guess I will wait until I have 5 or 6 to print and order them online with only one shipping fee.

I'm listening to Michael Buble and that's why the title is Fever and I'm ending with

How Can you Mend a Broken Heart

The End of an era

It's the end of an era -- sort of. I went no-mail on a homeschool email list that I have been since February 1999! That's when I began the wonderful journey of homeschooling. I haven't really been homeschooling since August of 2007! It's just hard to admit. I mean daughter is still here -- she's still at home -- but she is taking classes at the community college for dual credit and she doesn't even need my help! All I need to do is finish her transcript and then I'm really done! That won't be until May 2009.

So if I'm not a homeschooler anymore -- what am I?

Naptime

I took a nap yesterday as I sometimes like to do. In my dream while I was napping, I dreamed that I was napping. Does that count as two naps? Is it nap squared? You have to be really tired to dream you are napping when you are actually asleep!

Weird Dreams

I've had two unusual dreams lately. One very funny and one just sort of weird.

The funny one -- I was talking to someone about traveling to New York and she told me that she got a great deal on an airline ticket because she got an elephant ticket. I decided that I could do that too and save some money. So I bought an elephant ticket to wherever I was going. It was a large plane with a normal seats separated by a huge aisle. After everyone is seated in the normal seats, they board a bunch of elephants that stand in the aisle. If you are willing to sit on an elephant for the duration of the flight -- it is much cheaper! Weird!

Weird -- Some of you know that I have "imaginary" friends. However, these imaginary friends are real people -- we just don't know each other. They aren't celebrities either. At the beginning of my dream, I was in the town where one of them lives and we ran into each other and started hanging out together. Then she introduced me to another one (not knowing that he was an imaginary friend of mine too) and I went to his apartment where another imaginary friend was fixing dinner. He fixed this wonderful fish dish which had a sauce made from Laphroaig Scotch! This is not my favorite type of scotch but this sauce was to die for! Anyway, another weird part of the dream was that some of the time I was my current age and some of the time I was about 22 years old! No one seemed to notice this about me!

Can hardly wait to see what I dream about next.

My Town has a Night Life

...and I'm too old for it! My husband is in a play at the local theatre. That means that sometimes after the play we go out with the cast and crew. There is one local restaurant that decided to stay open late after the performances and see if they could get a crowd of people that just want to go out and have a drink. We went a few times (they started this during rehearsals). They advertised in the program that they were doing this. It was announced in the director's announcements.

Then the second weekend of the play -- they stopped! We went after the performance on Friday and they were closed! So we ended up going to another restaurant/bar. The only problem with this one is that it is definitely for a younger, single crowd. It was also so noisy that you couldn't converse with the person next to you.

The following night, we had a VIP table set up at the Glass Cactus courtesy of one of the girls in the play who works there. If I had thought that Friday night was noisy -- I was wrong. The band that was playing was semi-ok and the dance floor was full. We had a couple drinks and tried to talk to a few people. I'm glad that I can say that I've been there -- but it's not my kind of place.

This town needs a bar where everyone knows your name and has music like Michael Buble playing in the background.

The Eccentric One

My son has sat for the past 24 hours in his orange upholstered chair near the student union at Texas Tech. Why? Because he is eccentric. He also handed out sheets of paper with the word "Fjord" on them. Why? Because he is eccentric. The whole thing may also be called performance art.

Why is he eccentric? Because I chose to procreate with this eccentric guy I met in college!

I think the whole thing is rather odd, but I am proud that he is so comfortable in his own skin.

Prom Dress

How can a $155 prom dress cost a little more than double that amount?

Add a special bra, petticoat, alterations, purse, earrings, necklace, bracelet, and shoes!

She does love it and says she will pay half of it!

The dress - $155
Everything else - alot!
The joys of shopping with my teenager (we really had fun) -- priceless!

Knee Socks

Where have all the knee socks gone?

The evil sock makers decided that they could make more money by switching to "trouser" socks. I hate trouser socks and I want my knee socks back!

Black Cat

I was sitting in my chair in the living room working on my NYT crossword -- when quietly down the hall walks a black cat (probably from my bedroom)! We own a white cat which lives upstairs and we own a gray cat. We do not own a black cat. I called dd and she put the gray cat in her bedroom, white cat is already in ds's bedroom and dd comes to help.

We open the door and black cat runs away.

Being Alive

It is 2008 and this is my first blog of the new year. Hopefully, I'll remember to add more this year (thanks Kat for the reminder)

I check blogs too. One of my favorite blogs is about a guy who graduated from Texas Tech a couple years ago and is now a banker in Dallas. I found his blog in a rather weird way and I started reading it when he was still in graduate school. I had googled Texas Tech and Lubbock and found another blog and this guy was on her friend's list.

I knew my son had a blog, but I didn't really read it very often -- actually very seldom -- because I don't always want to know everything that is going on in his life -- Ignorance is bliss. However, last month in an unusual conversation with his ex's parents, I was forced to read something on his blog and ask him about it. I also had to ask him to remove something that I had said -- so the secret was out -- His mother knew of his blog and his ex was still reading it and so were her parents!

So my very smart son has moved his blog to livejournal and has private posts (which I can't access) as well as public posts which I am allowed to read. Son, please put those esoteric thoughts like "the tyranny of the commonplace" on a public post occasionally. I Ike to think that the money going toward your degree is causing you to think like a scholar (which it is).

My daughter finished her semester at TCC with A's -- Yea! She now has 10 hours of college credit (she already had 3 from SMU summer program). She begins Spanish 2 and History on Monday. I sometimes forget how very smart she really is. She didn't score high enough on the PSAT to be a merit scholar but she doesn't have an asterisk so she is in the running. (I checked online what it really takes, and she wasn't there -- but she was a few points higher than her brother when he took it at the same age). She also made a perfect score on the reading section of the ACT. -- enough bragging.

I am back at work at Knowledgepoints and I am constantly amazed at parents who can't do homework with their kids. They end up fighting instead -- that just didn't happen here. I understand it does happen, and God Bless them, it gives me a job to go to! So I spend my evenings doing math mostly with middle school or high school kids. Sometimes I even get to tutor reading to younger ones -- but I definitely do more math than reading. One kid comes 9 hours a week! We (and I mean I) do all of his homework with him!!!!

That's it for today! Hopefully it won't be months again before I post.