Fragmented Friday

This is a something that I have discovered over at Mrs. 4444's place.  I tried this last week and it seemed to work pretty well, so thought I would continue it this week and see what happens.


I have been curious about a lot of different things this week.  None of them make for a full post on their own, so Friday Fragments it is.


What things?  Well, things like this:


I have been scouting out other blogs online.  (Duh, right?! Where else would they be?!)  Anyway...where do people get the little buttons like the one at the top of this post?  Do they have someone in the 'know' make them for them or is this something so easy even I can do it?

According to that little follower spot over there to the left, I have four people who are following.  I wonder...after again scouting other blogs, how do these people get the hundreds of followers that they have? I guess they are a lot more interesting than I am!  Mind you....like I said in the beginning...this place is for me.  If others want to see what I am thinking/doing, they are more than welcome to follow along.



Why do parents/teachers send a kid to me and ask me if something is broken?  Especially when there are no bones sticking out?  Really.  If I could look at an arm/leg/finger/foot and tell you if it was broken, then don't you think I would be rich and famous and not working at a school???


And, while we are on the subject, just how am I supposed to know if a kid has strep throat/mono/sinus infection without the same equipment that your local doc has?  Do you really think that I am just that brilliant?  If you do, then thank you!

Did you know that you can tell the what the weather will soon be by the way a classroom full of children are acting?  Trust me.  You can.


How can I be exercising for 30-90 minutes every single day, eat next to nothing and gain two pounds within 24 hours?  How exactly does that work?


Why oh why does it have to snow and keep us out of school just so we can make the darn day up later?  Why??  Yeah, a day off is a good thing.  Just don't make me have to come back later.


That is about all I have today.  Other than I am glad that it is Friday.  Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and you spend it someone you love and who loves you back!

Doctors

I have decided that I want to become a doctor.  Yep.  I don't want all the stupid stuff that goes with that title, but the money would be really nice. 

I mean really.  Where else can you walk into a room, listen to someone complain, look in an ear and a throat, walk out 10 minutes later and charge $255?

If I figure that right, that is $1,530 an hour. And in an eight hour day, that would be $12,240!  If you multiply that by five days, you would make $61,200 a week. Multiply that by 52 weeks, and your paycheck (before taxes of course) would figure out to be $3,182,400.

Yeah, I know.  Don't get all mad and fill my comment area telling me all the things like they have lots of liability insurance and they have to pay their office staff out of that amount and they have to go to school for a bunch of years.

I know all of this stuff.  You forget.  I'm a nurse.  I understand what type of schooling and the crap they go through to get to where they are.  But still.  $255 for me to walk in for a follow up visit where he looks at my labwork, tells me that it looks good and to continue to do what I have been doing?!  Please.  I want that job!!  He couldn't just call me and tell me that the labwork is fine?  Or, as is normally the case, look at the labs and tell the nurse to call me?

I have also decided, (while I am at it making all sorts of medical decisions) that going to the doctor's office should be like going to Wal-Mart.  

Sounds crazy, but bear with me here.

If your doctor tells you that he wants to send you to a specialist because he can't provide what you need, then you shouldn't have to pay.  After all, if Wal-Mart doesn't have what you need, but Target does, do you have to pay Wal-Mart for not having it since you went there to look for it??

Or, if your doc diagnoses you with something and gives you meds for it saying that you will feel better soon, but it doesn't work....should you have to pay for the visit?  Wal-Mart has a return policy.  If you buy something there, get it home and it doesn't work, you can return it and get your money back.  Shouldn't a doctor be the same way?

I know.  None of the above is going to happen.  But it sure sounds like it should!  Guess I will just go back to being the lowly little hick in the sticks that I am and grudgingly write out my check to hear that all is fine (despite the fact that it isn't) and make another appointment in 6 months to do it all over again.

Redneck Fire Alarm + Autism

On the way to work/school this morning, I showed this picture to The Boy.  I thought it was amusing and figured he would too.  What I didn't know was just how he would react.

The Boy looks at it, kind of chuckles and says: "At least you would never have to change the batteries on it."

Now really.  Was that the first thing you thought when you saw that picture?!

He proceeds to then tell me all the reasons why this would not actually work.  What are those?  Well, first off, who would hear the popcorn popping and know that there was a fire?  And then there is the whole deal of the house would probably be already destroyed by the time the heat really caused it to even start popping.  Plus, the picture was titled as a Smoke Alarm.  It would never detect smoke, but if it was a Fire Alarm, then it might work...over time. 

I can only assume that this is the autistic way of finding the picture funny.  For me, I think it is funny because...well, because it is so crazy I guess.  I mean, really.  Using Jiffy Pop as a fire alarm?!  C'mon! But what The Boy immediately finds amusing is that he wouldn't have to deal with batteries!

Autism has also been showing itself in other mysterious ways lately.  Or at least I am going to blame that.  I would hate to say that The Boy is just not nice.


The Boy has a class during 6th hour at school called Transitions which I have discussed before.  Before Christmas, there was only one other boy in the class.  Since the new year, two more kids have been added.


One of those kids is also in The Boy's freshman class.  However, this child has severe delays (they say they are related to him having seizures) and can not read.  


On the ride home from school one day, The Boy asks me how someone can go through life without knowing how to read.  I tell him that these people usually find ways around it by knowing where things are and using visual cues.  He asks me how they can use a phone if they don't know their numbers or how they can pay for anything if they don't know numbers or letters.  I told him that some do know their letters and numbers, but just haven't figured out how to put them all together to form words.  He asked why they can't read.  I tell him that just like his brain is wired differently than mine, so is theirs.


When I asked what brought this line of questioning on, he told me that it was because what had happened in his Transitions class.  One thing they do as part of this class is called a Copy Center.  The teachers complete a form telling what they need, how many and when it is needed.  The kids in the class get it all done for them.  Kills two birds with one stone that way.  Saves the teacher time and teaches kids responsibility and a life skill.


Evidently the two new kids in the class were being shown how this whole system works.  Their teacher filled out a fake request sheet and gave it to "L" and told him to ask questions if he needed help.  "L" took the paper and began looking at it.


The Boy asked him if he needed help.  "L" never answered.  The Boy asked again.  No answer from "L".  Finally, The Boy just looks at him and says "L. Do you have a question?  Can you even read that paper?"  


"L" tells The Boy that he can't read it.  The Boy proceeds to tell him, "If you can't read it then how are you going to know what you are doing?  You are going to have to ask for help you know."


All that The Boy said may have been true.  But he needs to learn a little tact!

I did remind The Boy that maybe "L" is a little embarrassed about the fact that he can't read, so it may be hard for him to ask for help.

Yeah, autism sucks.  But sometimes it is funny too.  Plus it helps remind me that some things that you don't even think about that come naturally to most others has to be taught.  Like tact! 

What a Crazy Man

My name is Ima Hick and I am a coupon cutter.  I am not ashamed to say that I do this.  I am also not ashamed to say that I save money because of it.  And, I am also not ashamed to say that I will only visit one specific supermarket when they are having things on sale for a dollar...and then take in my coupons to be doubled, therefore giving me items for free or very close to it.

So how can I honestly spend one single night in a hotel room that costs as much as a car payment...and doesn't give me a free breakfast in the morning?!  Easy...I'm getting that one basically free also!

See, as a truck driver, Crazy Man has to spend the night out on the road for his job, usually at least once a week.  He has been doing this for years, but until he got his current job, he would just sleep in his truck.  Now, the company pays for his night in a hotel.  He joined a frequent sleepers club (or something like that) and he has been racking up points for over a year and half.

On Sunday, he told me that he was going to cash in some of those points.  His plan is for us to go to Nashville for our 2 year 6 month anniversary.  He made reservations for us to stay at the Wyndham Union Station Hotel.

Holy cow!  Have you seen this place?!  The pictures are amazing.  I am really looking forward to getting there to see it all in person...and to take my own pictures.

Last year, we went to Nashville too.  This year he wanted us to go to St. Louis, but there were no rooms available.  So back to Nashville we go.  Which is not a problem for me.  I ♥ Nashville!

I would not ever want to actually live there though!  I am not a big city girl.  Way too many people.  But, to visit is wonderful.  I have been a bunch of times, but there are still things that I have never done.  And I can't think of anyone that I would want to do them more with!

**Hopefully, my computer will have been returned back to me before then so that I can get my pictures in order.  I am having withdrawal!**

Not Me Monday

 Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is going to be a dual post.  The first part will be for Not Me Monday.  The second part will just be for Monday.

So, what did I not do this past week?

I did not talk to the GPS voice who told me where to go and how to get there on my trip to Jefferson City.  Because that would just be ridiculous since this is not a real person, and he couldn't answer me back.

I did not walk out of a meeting with five others without looking back, knowing full well that the person in charge was going to tattle tell to someone more in charge than her.

I did not lay on the floor of the state capital building in the hopes of getting a cool picture.  Nope.  And I definitely did not do that more than once!

I did not get upset that I still have not gotten my computer returned to me so that I could show you the pictures that I did not take while lying on the floor of the capital building.

I did not laugh at some guy in the Wal-Mart parking lot yesterday attempting to place his cart in the the little cart wrangler area.  Why would I laugh at something like that?  There is no way that could ever be funny...unless he slammed it against the blue 'not this side, dummy' bar...and then slammed himself against the cart...and then started to loudly question "wtf"!  I would never laugh at something like that since he could have been hurt.

I did not thank God yesterday at the restaurant that it was not my autistic child who picked up a pickle with the tongs...twice...and dropped said pickle straight into his mouth...and then lick the juice off the tongs before putting them back into the pickle container.  I also did not laugh since I was so glad that this was not The Boy.  I did not contemplate if this had happened to us if I would have just acted as though nothing had happened, or if I would have gone to the manager and confessed as to what my teenager had just done.

I did not refuse to answer the phone when I saw who was calling me because I didn't know what they wanted since they have never ever called before.  And, since I also was afraid that they were going to ask for money.  And I would really hate to tell them no and get a cussing.  So, I didn't just let it ring.

Those are just some of the things that I did not do this past week.  Who knows what will happen in the next week!

___________________________________

And now for my thoughts for today.  Which I know that you have been waiting patiently for.... 

I really think that schools should only be in session for four days a week.  Although, I am not sure which day we should take off.  

Not having to attend on Friday would be great.  We could start our weekend sooner, and who doesn't want that?  

Then again, maybe not going in on Monday would be better.  That way everyone could recoup from the weekend.  And, I think that maybe people would be in better moods and there wouldn't be as many kids who think they are sick.

But, maybe the best day to take off would be Wednesday.  That way we could work for two days, be off a day, work for two days and be off for two days.  We would always have a day off to look forward to very soon.

And, if I was off every Wednesday, I could schedule all of our appointments on that one day instead of something every day after school.  This week, we have an orthodontist appointment on Tuesday, a counselor appointment on Wednesday and a doctor appointment on Thursday.  All of them scheduled between 3:30 and 4:00.

Yep...Wednesday would be the best day to be off and for us to only have a four day school week.  I would definitely be willing to go for a little bit longer each day if we could get to that four day week.  And, I would not even complain about which day is chosen for us to be off.  As long as there is one chosen!

Friday Fragments

It was suggested by Georgie that some of my posts would be good for something called Friday Fragments.  Evidently I am not alone in discovering that by the time Friday finally decides to roll around, none of my thoughts are in line anymore.  I am so glad to know that I am not the only one!

So, with that discovery, I am linking up to Mrs. 4444 for the first time ever.  Will probably be doing more of that in the future.

I am tired today.  And nauseated....still.  Have been like that since I woke up on New Year's Day all icky sick.  Hoping this goes away soon.  Really really hoping.  

Made my trip to Jefferson City.  The weather was foggy until I got almost there and then the next day it was all rainy.  Lovely.  And the meeting was totally useless...which I made sure to comment about on the evaluations.

Stopped at the Capital Building.  Got some nifty photos.  Had actually planned to make a post today with them in it and tell about all sorts of things that happened on the trip. Unfortunately, my computer was not at home with me last night.

How does this happen, you ask, since usually computers do not have legs?  Well, I needed to download some updates but don't have internet at home, so brought the tower to school where the IT guy was supposed to do this stuff for me....and it isn't finished yet.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it is done today and I will be able to show and tell Monday.

Is it normal to worry about someone you don't actually "know"?!  The reason I am asking is because I hadn't seen where Georgie had posted anything until yesterday while I was gone.  Guess I had gotten used to being able to snoop into someone else's world instead of having to always focus on mine!

I am so glad today is Friday.  Have nothing major planned for the weekend at this moment.  Maybe it will stay that way....nice and calm.  Yeah...right! 

 

It's Triplets!

Yesterday I was at the high school building giving some medications to a couple of kids.  I was in the hallway and I hear someone say to me "Hi, The Boy's mommy!  I love you!"  (Of course, she said his real name, but you get the jist!) I just looked at her and told her that I loved her too and she went on to class with a big smile.

This girl is a friend of The Boy's and in his class.  I don't know a ton about her, but I do know that she has kicked the butt of a male classmate.  I know...maybe I shouldn't let The Boy hang out with her.  But, everyone needs a friend and hopefully some of The Boy's calmness with shed onto her.  Besides, she treats The Boy well.

I laughed with The Boy this morning telling him about it.  A few years ago, another boy in his class decided to call me mom also.  The Boy wasn't too excited about that happening and told him that he had had me longer.  They discussed all of this and it was decided that he would be called Son Too.  He didn't like it at first because he said that since he was actually a month older than The Boy, then he shouldn't be the second son.  I told him that was not the way too was spelled.  That seems to have satisfied both of them!

Now, it seems that I have a daughter!  My grandmother will be so happy to have another girl in the family.  I told The Boy that his list of siblings was growing by leaps and bounds.  I also let him know that since they were all basically the same age, then that made him a triplet!  He just grinned and said that he was okay with that.

I always wanted a bunch of kids.  I am thinking that this way of getting triplets is probably much less inexpensive.  Plus, I didn't have to go through a triplet pregnancy!

Lost

I have to say that I love my camera.  I also have to say that despite the fact that I have owned it for more than half a year, I still don't know how to do a lot with it.  

I do know how to use the zoom and all that stuff, but as far as figuring out how to use the "f" number and the aperture stuff....I'm lost.  I have read the manual that comes with it and have even tried to look up online as to what it is that I should be doing.  After all, it seems a major waste of good money to just point and shoot!  If anyone out there has any easy way to teach me this stuff, I would be more than willing to listen!

 

And then there is the whole photo editing stuff.  I have been drooling over the Photoshop programs for years, wishing I could have one of them.  But, I felt that it was better to feed The Boy than to spend the money on a computer program to play with. Or at least that is how the Department of Children and Family Services feels.

 

Last year around fair time, Crazy Man, Boyfriend and His Wife, and I all visited this little fair.  We ran into a lady who had a tent set up selling her professional photography skills to anyone willing to pay the money.  Now, Boyfriend and I are big photo buffs and we spent some time talking to this lady.  We asked about what she used to edit her photos.  I don't remember the exact name of the program she used, but she offered to send us a copy of it.  We gave her our names and addresses and went on our merry way.

Weeks passed and we never received anything from her.  Boyfriend called her and she told him that she had lost the paper we had written on, so asked if he would text her our information.  He did.

 

It has now been months and we still have heard nothing.  Don't get me wrong, I am not surprised.  Seems to me that she would be silly to send us the program without us having paid for it.  But, she offered.

Last week, I was talking to a friend who has Photoshop 7 who offered to let me have it to install on my computer.  I took it home and install I did!  

 

And that is when I realized that I am simply not the very smart.

I can not figure out this silly program.  You would think that it would come with some type of directions included, wouldn't you?!  Well, it didn't.  It did come with a very short, not well written manual which mostly told me how to install the darn thing.  It did discuss, briefly, that you could download photos into the program from your camera, a scanner or the hard-drive of your computer.  So why can I not find any pictures saved to my hard-drive?  Because it doesn't tell me how to get them there, only that they can be gotten.

 

I can not possibly be the only person out there that is totally lost with this program.  Maybe it is because I have not upgraded from a previous version and am starting my photoshopping with Photoshop 7.  I don't know.  

I am hoping that when Boyfriend gets back from his military training in about 3 weeks, he can teach me how to use this silly program.  And keep me from feeling like I am outright stupid!

Non-Cohesive Thoughts

Let me just say this....I am so glad it is Friday.

It has been a long week.  For whatever reason, I am thinking that there were two Mondays and maybe even an extra Wednesday thrown in for good measure.

I got my report done yesterday and even got it in the mail.  Good thing since it had to be postmarked by today!  Of course, when they receive the report, it isn't going to say what they wanted to hear.  But, I can only do what I can do.

I also got a hotel reservation for the meeting that I am required to attend next week in Jefferson City.  At this very moment in time, it looks like I am going to be lucky and a friend is going to go with me.  Not sure what time we will be able to leave though.  Not that it matters, as long as I don't have to go by myself!

Crazy Man's aunt and uncle are supposed to be leaving for Hawaii to visit their daughter and son-in-law on Saturday.  Last weekend we were talking and told them that we would take them to the airport if they wanted so they wouldn't have to pay to park the car for two weeks. (The closest major airport is a couple hours away.)  The uncle said that would be great and that they would pay us for the fuel.  Crazy Man tells him that we could just drive their car and then they wouldn't have to worry about paying us anything.  

Next thing I know, we are being told that they would rather pay the money to park their car!  

Crazy Man is a good driver.  Actually, he is a really good driver.  He drives a big truck for a living and has done so for many years.  Without problems.  Now, they don't trust him to drive a normal sized car?!

Whatever!

When we got our house refinanced recently, we had a little bit left over to do a few home improvements.  I think I am going to try to convince Crazy Man to look for whatever we need to finish our front patio.  It has only been halfway completed with a tarp over it for 16 months!  I think it is time to do something about that.

After talking it over with the principal at our elementary building, we have decided what we are going to do to bring in money for our Pennies for Patients campaign next month.  I know that I said that it would be too cold for water or outside, but it has been decided that we would have the kids buy water balloons or use a super soaker water gun aimed at our music teacher.  And, he did agree to this!

We are also looking for donations of things that we can raffle off that the kids would like.  So far, we have collected a school blanket, one of next year's yearbooks, a couple of certificates for painball games, some posters and backpacks.

I am trying to contact stores to see if they would be willing to donate gift cards that we could raffle also.  And, there are two movie theaters in town (not the one our school is in, but 20 miles away) and I am going to see if they would be willing to donate some tickets.

I am hoping that this is going to go well.  Last year, it was a roaring success, so hopefully this year will be even better.

Can you tell that all of this is just a rambling thing?!  I can't seem to get all my thoughts in a nice neat little package that makes sense and flows well.  Oh well, as long as I can follow it, then it makes no never mind!

Any Suggestions?

I need ideas!  Last year at the Elementary building of the school I work at, we participated for the first time in something called Pennies for Patients.  This is a drive to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  If the school raised over $300, then the winning classroom would get a pizza party paid for by the Society.

We did things just a little different from they way they suggested it to be done.  Instead of the class raising the most money winning, we decided to do it by pounds.  If we had paper money, then we weighed how much a dollar worth of pennies was and added that amount.  

Over three weeks, we had the kids bring in their money to put in their classroom buckets.  On each Friday, we would weigh what they had brought and announce who was in first, second and third place.  And, the last two Fridays was something special.  We had a hat day where they could pay a dollar and wear a hat.  The last day, we used duct tape to tape a coach to the wall.  Each kid paid a dollar for a strip of duct tape.

We raised a total of $674.74.  And, instead of just the first place classroom getting a party, we split the money they were sending to buy the pizza and also had smaller parties for the second and third place groups.

Now, we are revving up for this year.  We are going to be doing this the first three weeks of February this year.  We have been brainstorming ideas, but nothing is set in stone yet.  We know that we want to go by weight and have three parties again.  But other than that, we aren't positive.

These are some of the things we have considered:

-- pay a dollar to wear a hat

-- pay a dollar to chew gum in the afternoon

-- buy a candy gram to be passed out for Valentine's Day

-- find folks to donate some good stuff and offer a raffle

We had also considered taping the coach to the wall again, but thought we should try something else this year to keep it from becoming old.  Don't think that we are going to be able to find any staff member that will let us shave or color their hair!

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would be more than willing to listen and consider them.  Just remember that it is really cold around here in February, so nothing that involves water or outside.

Or, if you want to donate something or know of someone who would, leave a way to contact you and I will do so.

Yeah, I know this is a long shot since there aren't many who even know that I am around, but it never hurts to try!

---------------------------------

Other stuff.....

The Boy brought his grades home on Monday.  He got all A's for both the quarter and the semester!  I am so proud of him.  And, even better, he is proud of himself!

Yesterday was the first day in a lot of days that the temperatures got above freezing.  A heat wave!  Matter of fact, it felt downright warm in the sunshine!  Of course, it fell way below freezing overnight.  We have been keeping drinks (like gatorade) out in our garage.  No need to use electricity to keep them cold!  Opened one earlier and it was slushy!

Got a hotel reservation for my meeting that I have to make up for when the weather was bad.  Trying to convince a friend to go with me so that I don't have to drive it by myself.  The only problem is that if she goes with me, then we will have to leave closer to 5pm, so that puts us not getting there until sometime between 9 and 10.  If I go alone, then I am hoping against hope that I will be allowed to leave school around noon to drive it.

I have been trying to use my Wii Fit everyday for at least 30 minutes of step. And, I have taken to weighing myself on it in the mornings right after I get out of the shower.  Loosing some weight would be great, but if I could just tone things up a little to get back into some of my clothes, that would be good too.

The DNA Donor wants a copy of Crazy Man's insurance card that covers The Boy.  He says it is "just in case I need to take him to the doctor."  This is causing a little tension.  Crazy Man says that he won't let DNA Donor have a copy because it is secondary.  Therefore, it won't change what the DNA Donor's insurance will do.  And, then there is the fact that DNA Donor would have no idea which doctor to take him to if he were sick, and he better be letting me know so that I can be there if he needs to take The Boy to the hospital.  Maybe I am crazy, but it doesn't seem like there is a need for DNA Donor to have a secondary insurance card.

Realized on Monday morning that our water softener was not softening water.  Lovely.  The thing is less than six months old.  It shouldn't be giving me problems yet, should it?!  Have no idea what the problem is/was, but have coaxed it into softening water again.

Still haven't gotten my report that is due Friday done.  I'm trying!

Have been trying not to cry lately.  All the time.  Don't know what the deal is, but tired of it.  Maybe I just need a vacation.  And a winning PowerBall ticket.

Photographing Potties

My decision about what to do with the incoming snow last week was decided.  And I know you all are waiting on pins and needles to hear about it too!

 

I just decided to stay in the country and see what happened.

 

What happened was that when I went to be around 11pm, there was no flakes (except us, inside the house) to be found.  By the time Crazy Man called me at 6:30, there was about 2 inches on the ground.

 

School was called off at 6 am.  I talked to one of the folks in charge of the meeting I was scheduled to attend who lives near me.  We decided that it was too slick outside for either of us to safely go to the meeting.  So, The Boy and I stayed at home where we attempted to stay warm.  Now, I have to decide which of the other meetings around the state I will try to attend.

Late in the afternoon, The Boy did walk down the lane to get the mail for me.  Which was very nice of him!  And it also got him out of the house for a little bit, which he needed to do.

 

On Friday, we were out of school again because the roads were still slick.  One of the teachers who lives close to me went with me that morning to pick up our pay checks.  There was still a lot of snow covered roads, but if I took it nice and easy, it wasn't too awful. Seems crazy, but living in the sticks, they don't send people out to plow roads and such.  Matter of fact, there is still plenty of snow and ice on the roads to school/work this morning.  But, because it was mostly on the gravel roads, they decided it was ok for us to come.

 

When I headed into town on Saturday, I passed a house that had something in the yard that caught my eye, but I couldn't be positive of what it was.  I decided that when we came home on Sunday I was going to stop and take a picture of whatever it was if it was still there.

It was!  This is what I saw:

I was curious as to whether the inside looked the same, so I lifted the lid to find out:
As you can see, it does!

I know you are asking yourself, "now why would this be in someone's front yard?"

Well, I am glad you asked!  According to the note attached at the base of the toilet on the board, this is part of a fundraiser for one of the local churches.  It said that this "paintball potty" could be removed from their yard for the "small donation of $10" and for another donation of $10, they would place it in the yard of someone else!  The reverse of the note had information on it concerning who to contact to get the thing removed from your property.

The Boy and I had a laugh over it.  We thought it was actually pretty cool.  Don't know if we would pay to have it removed or not!

Just a side question here....why is it that the first picture that I put on here lines up in the middle, just like I requested it to do, but any other picture just goes where it wants to position itself?!  I have tried everything I can think of to get all of the pics in a post to stay in the middle, but to no avail.  I used to be able to get them all in a line in the center, but that has suddenly stopped being possible.

Anyway, I guess I need to get these reports done for the state.  I have at least two of them that are due on Friday and I need to get them done.

Snow Decisions

Everyone is talking about the snow.  Mind you, there is none on the ground or even flying in the air attempting to make it to the ground at this point in time. Rather, everyone is talking about the coming snow.

They are forecasting anywhere from one to seven inches of the white stuff.  Last I heard, it was supposed to start this evening around 8 or so.  Then, while we sleep peacefully and warmly in our snug little beds, it will accumulate to some inch level.

This is not normally a big deal.  Let it snow!  I have plenty of food in the house to make it through a giant blizzard.  I have a generator that is sitting in the garage just waiting to be started.  And, when Crazy Man gets home tonight, I will have 10 gallons of gas to fill said generator.

There has been no mention of the word ice, and I am hoping it stays that way.  Dry snow is not a problem to drive in since the roads are so darn cold it won't melt it all and then turn to ice.

So why are people making a big deal out of this weather forecast?  Well, because they do!  I am certain that today, there will be a rush on the grocery stores and by the time the first flake actually falls from the sky, there will be nary a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread in sight.

I am sure that people who live in other parts of the world where it snows every winter would think it was strange to not have bread and milk in the grocery stores.  Living where I live, however, we don't get snow all the time.  That is not saying that it doesn't get cold, because it definitely does that!  We just don't get a lot of snow.  All of our kids around here have seen/played in the snow, it just isn't a daily winter thing.

I think that the worst thing about getting any decent amount of snow, is the fact that school will close.  A day off is a great thing, so don't get me wrong!  But, since I work at a school, that means that I will have to make that day up at some point.

Even worse than that, is that I have a mandatory meeting that I have to attend whether school is in session or not.  And if I attend with no school in session, then I don't get a different day off in return.  Nor do I get extra pay.  If the weather is bad enough that I can not go to the meeting, there are other days this meeting will be held.  But to attend one of those, I would have to drive 5 or 6 hours.  And the last time I had to go that far, the school would not pay for a place for me to stay overnight and instead insisted that I drive it the morning of the meeting....and then back home after the seven hour meeting. That makes for a really long day!

So, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to make the meeting and that we have school tomorrow.  There is just too much that sucks if we have enough snow that it cancels school!

I also have to decide if we stay in the country and chance being able to get out, or if we go into town and stay.  When we got married, Crazy Man owned a house in town that we stay in over the weekends or when the weather gets bad.  The problem is that we don't usually keep a lot of groceries/clothes there.  If we stayed there tonight, then it is only about 3 miles from where my meeting is.  But, if school is still in session, then I would have to travel 25 miles to get The Boy to school, and another 25 miles to get me back to the meeting.  I feel like I just can't make the right decision with this situation!

I will probably just keep my fingers crossed that it won't be too bad and I can get us where we need to go without too many problems.  My car has four wheel drive, so that is a good thing.  I just want us to keep safe and comfortable.  Not so much to ask, is it?!

Its Time

I got up on time this morning.  Yay for me, right?  Yeah, I thought so too since I definitely did not want to climb out of my nice heated bed to face the 4 degree weather.

Everything was moving along the same as any other workday.  And then it happened.  I looked at the clock and noticed that it was time to leave.  Normally, not a problem, but this morning I wasn't even dressed yet.

How does that happen? How can you be doing everything the exact same way every single day and some days you are ten minutes earlier getting done and some days you are way later?  Does the clock speed up and slow down on me?

I don't think the weather could be a factor.  After all, why would time go faster when it was colder?!  Wouldn't the second hand freeze up in these temperatures? 

And don't they always say the days are longer in the summer?  That would mean that time slows down then.  But have you ever had a summer vacation that didn't go by too fast?

Why don't I get to choose when I want time to speed up and slow down?  I want it to speed up when I am sitting in a doctor's office with a sick kid.  Or when I am wanting my hot chocolate to cool down enough so I can drink it without burning the top layer off my tongue.

And I know that I can't be alone when I say that I want time to slow to a crawl when The Boy hugs me, or smiles at me with love written all over his face.  I want time to come to a screeching halt when I visit with my grandparents so I can keep them around forever.

I sometimes wish that I could go on what I have heard called "Indian Time".  This has been explained to me as being able to come and go as you choose with no actual time constraints.  I think I would be good at that!

Maybe someday I will be able to figure this time thing out.  Until then, I guess I will just take it as it comes....or goes.

Good, Bad and Ugly

The Good:  I'm back!

The Bad:  Being back and having access to a computer to leave this post also means that I am back at work/school.  

And, having been gone for so long means that I may have lost the four folks who have unwittingly signed up as followers!

The Ugly:  Got to work/school this morning only to find out that there was no heat.  Someone who supposedly is in charge of these things let us run out of gas.  Therefore, no heat.  And it was only about 7 degrees when I left home!  My fingers are not working well because the thermometer in my office reads 63 as I type this....after over three hours of having heat on!

The milk truck did not make their delivery this morning, so someone had to got to the local quick mart and clean them out of gallons of milk so our kids could have breakfast.

And, do you realize just how many kids don't really get to eat when school is out?  I guess that unless you work in a school, you probably wouldn't know about this, huh?  We had a huge amount of kids eating breakfast this morning, even though it was only cold milk and cereal. We always worry about our kids when we are out of school because of this little known fact.

The Good:  We had Christmas with most of our family with minimal tears to be found.  I still have The Boy questioning Santa!  How else would a gift wrapped in Santa paper have made it onto his bed since none of us had been in that house for over a week?  The Boy received his first Lionel Train.  And he loves it!  I will have to post pictures later when I am able to finally sit down and go through them all.

The Bad:  My cousin did not bring himself, his wife or two little boys to Christmas at my Grandparent's house, so that kind of put a damper on things there.  Another cousin had shoulder surgery the week before, so he spent most of Christmas in a drug induced haze.  He was not his usual chipper self.

The Ugly:  I have to preface this by saying that it is not the number of gifts a person receives, it is more about the way people are treated.  When we went to Crazy Man's aunt and uncle's house for that Christmas get together, I nearly lost my mind all over one of the aunts.

It is known that all the kids get a gift from the adults.  That usually means that each kid gets 4 or 5 gifts.  They usually are not overly expensive, just little somethings.

Last year, one aunt came in and started handing out gifts.  She looked at The Boy and said "I didn't get you anything. I forgot."  She then walked away.

This year, at least she didn't say it to his face and in front of everyone else.  Unfortunately, The Boy could see that he was left out again.

When we were getting food ready for Christmas Eve supper, I noticed that someone had set out a shrimp ring.  That is all fine and dandy, except that The Boy is allergic to shrimp.  I didn't really think a lot about it since he knows to stay away from them, but then I realized that if they pick up the shrimp with their fingers and then reach into the bowl with potato chips, they have just transferred the shrimp to the chips.  Or if they pick up the shrimp and then touch a serving spoon, guess what?!

So, I said to my mom, "We need to be really careful with those shrimp because if they...."

I was cut off by her abruptly telling me that, "He will be fine, it is just shrimp and he knows he is not supposed to have them." 

I tried to finish what I was saying, but was told, "He will be fine."

Luckily, I was able to tell Crazy Man (when he trailed me to the garage to find me crying) and The Boy.  Between myself and Crazy Man, we made sure that we were the ones who served him and got in between him and anything anyone else may have touched.

The Good:  I am starting to feel a little better.

The Bad:  I missed the first couple of days of 2010 because I was sick.

The Ugly:  I woke up to the tune of vomiting (my own unfortunately) around 6 a.m. on New Year's Day.

Now, if I had done something to bring this on, I would not have been so upset.  You know, like if I had drank to excess or something.  But, I had not even had a drop of alcohol the night (or any night) before. 

Nope, instead, some little bug had decided to celebrate in me instead.  Today, I am still with a stomach ache and some nausea.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this ends really soon.

The Good:  My Big Little Brother is out of the hospital, I assume.

The Bad:  I am not supposed to know that he was sick, let alone in the hospital.

The Ugly:  On New Year's Day, Crazy Man called my grandmother to let her know that we were planning on stopping by, but I was too sick to do so.  She has called each day since to make sure that I am doing better.

Yesterday, she called around 10 a.m. to see how I was, and made mention of the fact that my Big Little Brother was scheduled to see the doc on Monday since he had been sick since Wednesday.  She asked if I had any idea what was wrong because she couldn't get anything out of either him nor my parents.  I told her that I did not know that he was ill.  She said that she had tried to call and check on him before calling me, but figures he was in the shower since he didn't answer the phone.  We talked a little longer and she hung up.

About 10 minutes later, she called to tell me that an old girlfriend of my Big Little Brother had called and said that she had taken him to the hospital.  She said that she would probably be in trouble by him if he knew that she had called my grandparents, but felt that they needed to know.  She said that he had just been taken back into an exam room.  My grandma said that was all she was told and that she would call me back if she heard anything else.

A few minutes after that, she called again saying that Big Little Brother had seen that Grandma had called and wanted to let her know that he was fine, but that he was in the ER getting pain meds.  Through all that she was told, Grandma felt like he may have a kidney stone.  She then asked me if I thought that my parents knew and I told her that they more than likely did.  She said she would call them just to make sure and see if she could find out anything else.

A couple hours later, I called my grandma to see what else she had heard and she told me nothing.  She did say that she had called my parents and that they were fully aware of what was going on, but didn't really tell her anything.  She asked if they had called to tell me anything.  I told her that I had heard nothing from them.

Our phone rang around 4:30 p.m.  We had been home for less than an hour at that point.  We were still getting things settled after having bought groceries and such.  Crazy Man answered.  His side of the conversation went something like this:"Yes, she is starting to feel better.  I'm sorry I didn't call to let you know the other day that she was sick.  We called Grandma because we were going to go over to visit. OK. Good bye."  

He said that it was my mom calling because Grandma had mentioned that I had been sick when she called earlier in the day and she wanted to see if I was feeling better.  She mentioned nothing about a sick brother.  I asked if she had wanted to speak with me.  He said that she did not ask to do so. 

I told him that if I had left my feelings on, then that would have hurt.  I lied.  It did/does hurt. 

I called Grandma around 8:30 p.m. to see if she had heard anything else.  She said that she had not.  She asked if I had talked to my parents.  I told her about the phone call, but that my mom did not want to talk to me.  She was nearly as upset as I was. 

I am hoping that there will be more good than bad or ugly this year, although it isn't starting off very promising, huh?!  I will keep my cold fingers crossed though!  Hope everyone out there had a great Christmas and New Year!