Housekeeping

No, not REAL housekeeping. Psshhheehh. Please, not on a Friday!

Blog housekeeping!

My girl Kristen tagged me with posting about the husband and his favorite things.

So here goes.

I saw on someones blog who got tagged with this (I think it was Stacee) and she started off by saying "besides the obvious"....I liked that. So,

Besides the obvious loves being God, ME, the boys, family and friends...

1. Team Roping.It is his passion, his favorite past time, his love, his joy...

...it is also the reason why this former Houston girl is living amongst the dirt and cows and horses and poop and general upheaval. Otherwise known as primo blog fodder.

2. Golf...because team roping is not expensive enough.
3. Country music. Of all the horrible things to like, he had to choose this music. It makes my ears bleed.

4. Coffee. Straight up black. No flavors & nothing added.

5. He is a meat and potatoes man all the way. We have lots of meat.

6. The Andy Griffith Show. Sure it is cute...once in a while. But he watches the marathons on Nick at Nite. (I should mention he does not think The Office is funny. Blasphemous, I know. Flat out does not get it. It is where we agree to disagree)

7. Clothes, boots and sunglasses. He has twice the clothes I do. Honest. He has very particular taste, and sadly champagne taste on a beer budget.

8. He LOATHES being late. I mean drives him nutty. (Guess who thinks time is just a bunch of numbers? he he he)

9. Since we mentioned it in #7, he enjoys a good cold brew. That is where we see eye to eye!

10. Lastly, seeing how he just had shoulder surgery last week...



I tease him because we could not be more opposite, but all funnies aside he is a great person. Very hard hardworking & dedicated to his career, providing for his family. My most faithful friend and president of my fan club. I love that man!

Well, blogger is being a booger and not saving. I was going to post about an award I got (...who me?) but that will have to wait until blogger is better.

I missed book club last night because hub's getting home from work and blonde rascal's football practice did not coincide very well time wise. Boo hoo. (Jen A. did YOU go to book club?!?!)

But tonight...oh yeah baby it is scrapbook night with the ladies!!!! It is time to laugh hard, very hard and maybe scrapbook on the side. Better go print some pictures now.

Well, well, well...

...what do we have here? Nothing. I have nothing today. So I will do what I do best, blab about totally insignificant things.

Book club is tonight. We read A Thousand Splendid Suns and I really enjoyed it. It drew me in. My heart broke for the people of Afghanistan. Specifically the females. Made me so thankful to be a sassy, free, lazy American woman!

Speaking of being a free American...I am so bored with politics and the debates. I'll be honest and say I am always bored with politics. This will make my wonderful Aunt Diane sigh, she is eat up with it! Don't get me wrong, I am a voter and strongly believe in our right to vote. Thank goodness for that. But the campaigning? Seriously, it is lip service. Neither one of them will stick to what they are blowing up our skirts right now.

I think my disinterest in politics goes back to my Political Science class my freshman year of college. God help me it was at 8am, the professor was completely monotone and looked like Abraham Lincoln. I failed that class. It had nothing to do with the underage drinking, the slumber party like atmosphere of my dorm or frat parties that I may or may not have been involved in. Nope, none of that was a factor. It was purely my dislike for poli-sci.

The real injustice of the whole situation was that I re-took it the next semester....and what professor walked in that first day of class? Yep, Mr. A. Lincoln himself. Doh! I pulled myself together and squeaked out a C. I was traumatized by the whole thing really.

Oh glorious Fall is in the air! I am a cold weather girl through and through. The past few weeks we have had a lot of rain. This week it cooled off and the lows were in the upper 40's. Bring it. It has been rainy and misty most of this week.

Here is what blonde rascal does when it gets cold...Time for a tent in the living room. It is the mother of all messes. Couch cushions from his room, every pillow and blanket within a 100 mile radius. But let's be honest, we all did this as children and loved every minute of it.

This was quite an elaborate set up, as far as forts go. It involved the air mattress which allowed for a two story fort.


Select stuffed animals got to camp out on the top story.
You know what else happens when it rains consistently? I'll tell you what happens, the long dirt roads that I must traverse to get to my neighborhood turn to soup. Muddy, nasty, pot hole ridden, slippery soup.

I must preface the remainder of this story by saying that hubs has been in the wholesale auto auction business for the past almost 4 years. It is his perfect fit...since from the age of 16 to the present (47) he has probably traded his vehicles 500 times. Am I right pesky brother-in-law Mark? The joke is that when it needs an oil change...he trades it. Now that he has free reign to just drive whatever he wants off the car lot, guess whose car he trades? Yep, if he can make a buck off of what I am driving, then I get the "go clean out your car" phone call.

It is all over now however. The last trade resulted in me getting a Volvo sedan. That was almost 2 years ago. A record. I threw down the gauntlet with the Volvo. I. Will. Not. Trade. It. I am crazy in love with it. I can't describe it, it is my "soul car" I guess. That explains why you still see those boxy preppy Volvo's from the 80's. The owners love them...and they will go for 400,000 miles. I will be in my Volvo in 20 years and it will then have that nerdy/preppy look! I can't wait.

However, the engineers at Volvo never anticipated one of their masterpieces be turned into a country road driving machine.

Can you guess what this is?I know that is a loaded question since I live amongst livestock...but this is not cow manure! No, but it is a car turd.
Yep, when it rains that is dirt road remains that slide off of my wheel well when I pull into our garage.

Somewhere in Switzerland right now an engineer has his head in his hands wondering why I would subject his (formerly shiny white) car to this. Sorry Mr. Swiss, I love your neutral country and your brilliant cars really I do. It may not make it to 400,000 miles at this rate.

I need an amphibious car. Don't tell hubs.

That is all I have for today. Don't say I didn't warn you. Erase all of this nonsense from you brain and move on to a more worthy, meaningful, uplifting and educational blog!

What I have learned from hours of mindless blog browsing

I have been inspired by all the blogs from girls who have beautiful homes....beautiful not because of size or style but because they have put love and creativity into it. I don't mean going to an expensive fancy store and buying the latest trends, no these women shop frugally and use their imaginations. Their homes are in turn so welcoming and full of charm.

The Craigslist bug bit me and I am a faithful junkie now. But I am determined to branch out to garage/estate sales....and the thrift stores. I was by the Goodwill Store a few weeks ago and stopped in. I do not want a house full of other peoples crap but have been amazed by enough blogs to have an idea of the diamonds in the rough that could be re-purposed. Then there are just good deals in general...on ONLY useful items. No clutter!

So here was my haul...for a grand total of $20:

A Santa platter. Glass with no chips or cracks. Never enough Christmas! This would make a cute gift...homemade cookies, cellophane, ribbon and I'm done for just a few bucks total.

A ginormous bag of tealights. I love tealights because there is no mess like a votive. $1.99 for that bag. Then of course a cute Christmas candle...still in the wrapper.

Pink fabric box with lid. This is for the pink sewing room makeover that I have been teasing you about for months. The makeover is mostly complete just still kind of a disaster in there...I need to put the fine touches on my organization. Hence the box.

How about a mini chiminnea? (I have NO idea how to spell that. Chim-en-a-ah) Perfect for our patio table with a citronella candle inside to keep away the rodent sized mosquitoes!

These are my favorite. They will need a little work...can you see the pots painted? For Christmas...maybe red with white polka dots? The tree part spruced up with ribbon...tiny ornaments...who knows, but it will be fun! They could make a great holiday table centerpiece. For 99 cents a piece, from Target originally...how could I go wrong?

That's all for today. Making my house a home on a minimal, borderline non-existent, budget!!!

It seemed like a good idea to waste $6 today...

...at PetsMart.






It's the dread Pirate Missy.While I laughed big hardy belly laughs, Missy was not so amused.


I fear she might now try to run away with her ship mate...
...Captain Band-Aid Leg.


Argh!

The good drugs

Hubs had rotator cuff surgery today. It had been causing him discomfort for quite some time, so he finally decided to bite the bullet and get it fixed.

The surgery took a little over 2 hours. The dr. said everything went fine but that he will be more than uncomfortable for a few days. Then he must keep this crazy sling contraption on for 6 weeks. Then he will be in therapy for who knows how long. The most disturbing part is that his hobbies.....roping and golf... must be suspended until, at the very least, Spring. Oh dear. He will have driven me crazy by then!!!

We got home around 6:00 tonight and I got him all fixed up in his recliner. The anesthesia of course will wear off slowly so that has kept him groggy. Plus I am being the good nurse and keeping his pain meds going. One for him...one for me...

Besides the pain meds he also got sleeping pills. Whoa. I questioned that, to make sure I don't kill him by overdose. The dr. said sleeping will be uncomfortable for him for a while so if he can't sleep have him take a sleeping pill. I clarified that this was in fact O.K. in conjunction with pain pills. Affirmative said the good doctor, whom I should add looked like Nick Lachey. That is always pleasant.

Rock on for a pain/sleeping pill cocktail. That will assure a soundly, and comfortably, sleeping patient!


Do you guys do this at your house? You know how you always get more pain pills in your prescription than you will take, do you then hoard them? We always keep the extras in a secure stash in the medicine cabinet. It is reassuring knowing they are there for any unexpected injuries or pains or calamities that Tylenol just won't cut.

Hubs has been in pretty bad pain for about the past 2 weeks leading up to this surgery, so I have been accusing him of depleting the stash.

Blogging this late at night is a total stretch for me. However the next round of pain pills is due at midnight so I decided it would be easier to stay awake, get hubs all situated for the night and then go to bed. If I am rambling it is all due to it being past my bedtime.

In the waiting room today I watched "Practical Magic" on my computer. This after many rave reviews from Amber the ever adorable Shabbee Chick. She watches it because the house in the movie is to die for ...and after watching I agree. That kitchen was the stuff dreams are made of. I paused the movie on a kitchen scene just to take it all in. Besides the fab-o house, the movie was pretty sweet too. What's not to love about Sandra Bullock? She is so dang cute.

Blonde rascal had a football game tonight, of course hubs and I did not get to attend but M-I-L kindly took him. They won! His team is undefeated! Woo-hoo! All of that excitement AND (I'll brag here) he brought home a stellar report card. I just adore that boy!

How much do I love the blog list thing that posts the time lapse since each persons last blog? That is immensely cool! I still have a few more sights to move over from my previous list, that was a pain the rear. Probably an easier way to do that than one by one, but computer savvy ways elude me most days. Anyway this new list now shaves off HOURS of my blog loafing. Which may or may not be a good thing. Right? Blog reading is, although agreeably a huge time drain, definitely enlightening and always entertaining!

I must go put on my nurse hat now!!

So last Thursday night...

...blonde rascal was out of the shower and goofing off preparing to brush his teeth. He comes out of the bathroom proudly announcing that he pulled out a tooth. This is all well and good, he puts it in his cute little tooth holder snuggled safely under his pillow.

Fast forward to hubs and I getting ready for bed. Luckily I remembered the tooth fairy gig and went to get my wallet. Nothing, empty...nada. Back in my day the tooth fairy left a quarter. Now, with inflation and all, the going rate is a buck or two.

I go to hubs and he gets his wallet....and the smallest bill he has is a $10.

We toss around a few possible scenarios: leaving an I.O.U. from the tooth fairy, writing a check, borrowing from blonde rascal's own (large) stash of cash, telling him in the morning that the tooth fairy is not real...

It was late, we were tired... so the tooth fairy left $10.

The economy is going to hell in a hand basket and we dish out $10 for a tooth. Doh.

Of course blonde rascal was delighted when he woke up. I made up some elaborate story that out of all your baby teeth, the tooth fairy randomly chooses one and leaves $10 but from there on out it is $1.

I have also stashed a dollar bill tooth fairy emergency fund in a drawer.

I'm still here!!!

I don't know where the past 2 weeks have gone. A sick boy at home one day, room mother duties, football practice, getting the car serviced, errands, laundry, blah, blah, blah. You all know the drill. ANYway I decided to chill this morning with my coffee and blog, real quickly.

It is the high point of allergy season in West Texas. I never had allergies as a child...but somehow they got me now, every Fall. I have been popping my generic 24hr Claritin religiously each morning. Yet the past few days it has not seemed to help. I feel yucky, like more of a cold than allergies.

I can't help but think back to last week when I was in the Sprint store, which can usually bring on the mother of all headaches in and of itself! But amazingly I was the only one in the store and the salesman was very knowledgeable and helpful. Brilliant. I was due for an upgrade and so we were discussing plans and phones.

I noticed by his voice that his head was totally stopped up. At one point he excused himself and stepped into the restroom, proceeding to blow an alarming volume of snot out of his nose. After which, there was no hand washing. To his credit he did come out and use some hand sanitizer.

That amount of snot blowing seriously requires hot water and soap. Purell is not going to cut that. Naturally I was totally grossed out from that point forward. Especially as he was fondling my new phone as he activated it!

Hmmmm....wonder why I now have a cold. I did Lysol wipe the heck out of the phone when I got home, but perhaps it was too late, the damage was done.

I am totally wrapped up in reading the Twilight series. It is really good. Brain candy, easy, light reading but totally engrossing and entertaining. I breezed through #'s 1 & 2. I could get #'s 3 & 4 on Amazon cheaper than even Wal Mart. So I made my order (and added a few cute Fall books for blonde rascal..... Hey I had to get free shipping...and you can NEVER have too many books.)

My Amazon box arrives on my door step yesterday. I happily rip it open, as we are about to leave for football practice so that I can start reading #3 as I sit on the sidelines.

Much to my disappointment I see the title.... Eclipse, en Espanol.

Whoops, I guess I did not review that order as thoroughly as necessary. I took 2 semesters of Espanol in college, however I am a tad rusty so translating a 400 page book could be a little tedious. Plus I don't think I ever learned the Spanish word for vampire.

I'll be making a return shipment to Amazon. Should have just paid $3 more and bought it at Wal Mart. Ay.

I am busily washing sheets, Lysoling the place down and opening the windows to eradicate any lingering "Sprint" germs. Opening the windows during allergy season is not exactly the wisest choice... but it feels so good to air out the house.

This weekend consists of Saturday football practice, Sunday football game followed by a church picnic complete with a kids vs. parents kickball game. I must get well by Sunday in order to unleash some wicked old school kickball moves on those punks!

Out of my league

Blonde rascal's first football game is tomorrow afternoon at 5:00. After practice this morning I decided we should go to Academy to buy an "athletic supporter"... giggle. Hubs is out of town but I figured how hard can it be to buy an 8 year old a jock strap?

The Marine played h.s. football but all of that was school issued equipment that I never had to worry about. I was obviously about to enter uncharted territory.

I found the athletic supporters....but they did not have cups in them. There were no cups sold separately that I could find. I was a little perplexed. I mean isn't the purpose of a cup to cushion a blow, from a knee or helmet, to the "boys"? Up until that very moment I had never given a jock strap a moments thought.

We wandered around Academy for a while while I gave the whole equation lots of consideration. I was hoping to run into an unsuspecting friend whom I could drill on the ins and outs of jock straps.

There were 10,000 people in Academy and not one friend in sight. I could have called hubs but did not want to yell out all of my questions into the cell phone! The staff were all running ragged helping customers, not that that mattered because I just did not have it in me ask some 17 year old pimply faced teenage boy employee to clear the air for me on this subject.

So, due to my confusion, no purchases were made in that category. I did however find my favorite style of Nike running shorts IN PINK. Oh yeah baby I bought those. Blonde rascal got a new mouth guard. I know how to protect his teeth thank you very much.

Hubs called when we got home and we had a most colorful Q&A session. I'll spare you the details.

For now, I guess that leaves the "family jewels" hanging (no pun intended) in a lurch for the game tomorrow.

My life raising a boy was so uncomplicated until today.

Tag! I'm it.

The cutie patootie Handmade Housewife tagged me! Go and see her, her blog is fantastic!


Let's see....6 random things about me:

1. Bananas make my stomach hurt. Just within the past 5 years or so. I used to be a regular banana eater! I keep telling myself it is in my head or just a coincidence, so I will eat one every once in a while. Sure enough, feel really pukey within about 30 minutes. Weird.

2. My favorite actor is Martin Lawrence. Well two favorites really, John Cusak too.

3. One time when blonde rascal was a baby I drove away from the gas station with the hose still in the car. Yep. THAT was entertaining! No damage thankfully.

4. My freshman year in college we had these odd girls that lived at the end of the hall. They did not fraternize with the rest of us giggly goof balls, they were way too serious for that. They were weird dungeons and dragons type people. One night they were playing with a Ouija board...which I had always been taught that was not something you want to mess with, it is potentially playing with fire. But we didn't have any beer, all of our over 21 contacts were unavailable, so what else was there to do? (Kidding! Kidding Mom & Dad! I did NOT have a sip of alcohol until I was 21. Not counting of course the sips you LET me take!) Anyway I was laughing at the Ouija board and the freaky girls told me that because of that, the board said I would be hit by a bus on campus! I made it through 4 years with nary a bus incident.

5. I am a morning person. Not a happy sing songy obnoxious morning person. More of a morning person by default. Only because I cannot stay awake past 10:00 most nights. I think I would rather stay up real late and tinker around in the quiet house, but I just get way too sleepy. However there is something really wonderful about getting up early and being the only one awake in the quiet early morning.

6. My most favorite book ever is To Kill A Mockingbird.


There I did it. Now consider yourself tagged!! The only specific person I will tag is Mary because she is new to blog land and needs to be tagged!

Notes from the pick up lane at school

While I patiently wait in my car for school to get out every day, I usually have my nose in a book. Sometimes I cannot help but pause to people watch as some parents park and go into the school to pick up their kids.

I have collected my thoughts and decided on my top 3 disturbing & unforgivable sights from the carpool line:

1. Do not wear your Disney pajama pants into your child's school.

2. On that same note do not wear your slippers into your child's school.

3. Always, ALL~ways wear a bra.

Coming in at a close 4th place would be buy clothes in your size, for crying out loud. I don't care if you buy clothes at K-Mart or Neiman Marcus...it makes no difference. Look in the mirror before you purchase! If your muffin top is hanging out in the breeze for all the world to see, please reconsider your shirt size.

I am not making fun of people with muffin tops...ahem...I just sayin' cover those things up! I don't show you mine, so don't show me yours.

Also I am not judging how people look, because heaven knows I am sitting in my car looking like a Clinton and Stacy project just waiting to happen. However I am not traipsing through a dirty nasty parking lot and sidewalks in my warm, cute, cozy slippers. Eww. Nor any Eeyore pajama bottoms. AND I have on the appropriate undergarments!

I am also all for wearing my pj's for as long as possible on any given day and have even worn them in the car to run somewhere quickly...only if I was 100% positive that I would not have to get out of the car.

On that note if you can get away without wearing a bra with an appropriately thick top and it is not noticeable....then I say have at it.

However if your bewbies look like clock pendulums and you are wearing a thin dingy white t-shirt without a bra...that makes people want to loose their lunch.

So while I am having all these snarky thoughts about people walking by my car...they in turn are wondering why this freak show is taking pictures of herself!!!Because I got all my hair cut off! Yippee

I had grown my hair out fairly long and it seemed to be up in a messy bun 99% of the time......so what is the point of long hair then? I knew it was time to say adios.


Now I am free...whoohoo! And I checked when I got home, I can still get it into a short stubby ponytail.

Look who lost his front tooth at school yesterday....I was sad. That is when kids look bigger, when they lose their front teeth and the permanent ones come in. The "baby" look is gone forever. Sigh. Oh well I guess I am lucky because 8 is on the late side to be losing front teeth.

It rained about 8.5" yesterday. No joke. It was bizarre. There is no record of a rain that big in our city, this was a first. School was cancelled for today because of flooding.

Hooray for no school. I love it!!! I made blueberry muffins this morning and we cuddled up on the couch. Now blonde rascal is outside. Who wants to make a wager on how many loads of muddy laundry I will have to do today?

Blonde rascal is spending the night with a friend tonight and hubs had to go out of town today to see a customer, so he won't be home until late. I am going to rent movies...if I the roads are passable...and curl up with the weenie dog tonight!