Tiger's Eye

The year was 1982 and Marlina Watkins and I spent several days making up a dance to "Eye of the Tiger". We would work on it and try to perfect it and then perform it for our parents and ask them to judge us.

The song was on a little 45 and she had to put one of those little yellow plastic thingies in the middle so it would play on her record player.

I remember standing in her living room...on one wall was a large mirror..on the mirror was a painted picture of a tiger. While waiting for our "cue" to start the dance, we "had" to look right in the tiger's eye. LOL

There isn't a time that I hear this song that I don't think about that dance...and no I couldn't even begin to do it now! I love the way music does that..you can hear a song and be right back where you were so many years ago when you first heard it..or played it until you knew it by heart. I love thinking about the songs of my "girl-hood". I'll have to post more of my favorites and memories soon!!

Working Momma

My mom starts training for her job tomorrow. This is the same job she has had twice before and yet, she still has to train for it. Oh well, at least she gets paid..plus, I am sure there are some changes from last year. This is a seasonal position that she gets and it allows her to work from home. I have done it a couple years and HATE it!! I am SOOO glad I don't have to work for them again!

It's really a Godsend that this job became available again as she has been in desperate need of money and has been doing a lot of searching for admin jobs that can be done at home. They are few and far between though and just as she was toying with the idea of getting a job out of the house, they called her back for this one. Lucky her!

I am sad I am going to lose my daytime buddy though. It's been nice taking the kids to school and then being able to go out with her for coffee or lunch or to run errands with NO kids!! I'll be solo for awhile..and that makes me a little sad.

Grandmotherly Confusion

My poor grandma is not doing well. Well, she is doing fine physically..she really has nothing wrong with her. But she sure is confused and doesn't make sense sometimes. She is 87 (almost 88) years old and I suppose that is to be expected some what. But it still makes me sad.

She moved into a nursing home a couple months ago and sometimes when we go visit her (I try to go once a week) she thinks that her room is a room in a BIG house which belongs to one of her friends. Then the other day she was talking about having ants in her bathroom and moths in her pantry and wanted me to pick up some ant and moth traps. Now maybe she did have ants in her bathroom..I didn't see any and I can't imagine how they would have gotten there, but I know she doesn't have a pantry!

Poor Grandma. I feel so sorry for her. I am sure she is very lonely and with her getting confused..it has to be a little scary for her.

It makes me sad.

Zits

I can't believe how many acne products there are now. I think when I was in my teens and had most (I say most since I STILL break out and I am in my 30's) of my acne issues, my choices were Oxy and Noxema. Both of which burned my skin and made me break out more. I am thinking that with all the options there are now, it's probably not so bad going through the teen years. You know, because the ONLY problem with being a teen is the skin issue.

I worry about my boys having skin problems once their hormones (god help me) start raging. They both had infant acne--especially Logan, it was SO bad! I have no idea if that is any indication of skin as a teen. Oh!! I just remembered why I put those 2 things together: When Logan was a baby, I was at the grocery store and saw a lady I used to go to church with. We started talking about the infant acne and she told me that her son had it SOOO bad when he was a baby. I looked over at her son (now a teenager) and his face was COVERED with acne!! That's when the fear began.

Oh well, no matter what...I know they will have plenty of options in the acne products department if they should need them.

Hurricane Hannah

All these hurricanes have been something else, huh? It's like they just won't quit. One right after another. I did see that Josephine is now a tropical depression and seems like it will fizzle out in the ocean by Tuesday-ish. I've been watching the situation closely as we are leaving for Disney in about 2 weeks. As it looks right now..I think we will be ok. Of course anything can change. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ike is the last of it. It would be nice if "he" would just fizzle out too!!

I read that Hannah made landfall over night on the N. Carolina/S. Carolina border. I am praying for all the families there, hopefully any damage sustained will be minimal. I had some friends that were headed to NC to check out Wilmington NC real estate, I am wondering (hoping) they postponed their trip. I'll have to check on them.

Strangers in the Night

As I was leaving to take the kids to school yesterday I noticed a cop across the street from my moms house. When I got back, he was still there and the neighbor was outside in her robe.

I IM'd mom to ask her what was going on. (It's nice to have another set of eyes down the street..it really helps with my nosiness!!) She said someone had hit the mans truck across the street and knocked off his side mirror and made a huge dent in the door. I asked her if she went over to find out what was going on. She said that No, the cop had come over to ask her if she had seen or heard anything. She hadn't, unfortunately. Not surprising though since I can come into her house, talk to the dog, walk into the kitchen, go through her cabinets and then walk into her office and scare the daylights out of her because she didn't hear me come in!!

Anyway, it's a shame about that guys truck, especially since they will never (probably) know who did it. I suppose it will save him the time of hiring a truck accident lawyer though. And at least he wasn't in it when it happened.

Holy Big Spider, Batman!!

Laying in bed talking the other night I told Kyle about a spider I killed earlier that day.

"Dude! I killed a spider in the kitchen today--all by myself!"

"Didja?"

"Yeah, it was scary too!! It was crawling on the ceiling and was all weird looking and when it walked it would put out one of it's legs kinda like a feeler first. It was gross. So I took the kitchen spray cleaner stuff out and sprayed it, and it dropped down on it's web so I sprayed it again and I yelled for the kids to bring me a shoe. Dylan brought me one of my flip flops--usually I use your shoes to kill spiders but whatever-- and then I smashed it!!

"Didja just leave it smashed on the floor?"

"NO! I wiped it with a paper towel and even cleaned the floor in that spot. I thought about mopping the whole floor and then decided it wasn't that big of a spider."

"Yeah, it sounds smaller than the spider I saw in there the other night."

"You saw a spider? When? Where was it? How big was it? Did you kill it?"

"The other night--the night we had Joe's Pizza. I went into the kitchen and it was on the stove next to the pizza box. So I moved the box to kill it and it ran off the stove and went underneath it. I think it might have been one of those wolf spiders"

"It was NOT one of those wolf spiders...we don't get those anymore and we haven't seen one in a long time. NO WAY was it one of those. I'm sure it was the one I killed in there today. I mean how many spiders can we have in our kitchen, you know? I'm sure that's what it was. Don't you think it was probably the same spider I killed?"

"hmm, maybe"

"I bet it was the same spider--it has to be. I'm sure of it. "

"ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz"

Last night I was sitting on the couch talking to my mom and saw something run across the floor. I looked again and OMG! it was a spider a BIG spider..one of those wolf spiders.

"oh my gosh, there is a HUGE spider on the floor. Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh. Someone get me a shoe!!"

In the meantime I grab a section of Sunday's newspaper that is still scattered on the ottoman and roll it up. Since I took my eyes off the spider I can no longer see it. Dylan brings me the requested shoe--again with my flip flops. I'll have to give the kid a lesson on good spider killing shoes which is of course ANY shoe but mine!! I wave the newspaper over the floor and the spider takes off again. HEEB! My toes are curling and I think I am going to lose it.

"Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus"

THWACK!! I got it!

THWACK!! I got it again!!!

RUB RUB RUB--I grind it into the carpet to make sure no part of it is alive before I put my feet on the floor.

Whew! That was scary.

"Mom, you never even said anything during my whole spider ordeal"

"I said, Kill it Tricia"

"yeah, but you could have offered to walk down here and kill it for me or acted as appalled and scared as I was"

"Oh, sorry. What kind of spider was it?"

"I think it was one of those wolf spiders--you know like those ones we had in our basement that time?"

"Well where did it come from? I think I would sell my house and move if I were you."

"Ok, I'm going to go start packing, I'll forward you my new address"

"Goodbye, Patricia" (that's how I know she doesn't think I am funny--she uses my REAL name!)

Kyle comes in from work--he was on call last night and had to go in to fix an AC. Happy Labor Day to him!

"I think I found your wolf spider from the other night!"

"didja? where was it?"

"In the LIVING ROOM!!" I swear I about had heart failure! I was begging Jesus to help me and my toes were curling and I think it was going to eat me. It was going one direction and then started coming back for me. It was going to eat my toes, I just know it. That's why I kept my feet on the couch."

"I bet it was coming back to get you. You know they hunt their prey rather than just hanging out and waiting for them?"

"I KNOW" I say all wide eyed with head bobbing up and down.

"It was SUPER SPEEDY too!!"

"yeah, they're fast little suckers--It's hard to kill them 'cause they're so fast"

"I know..but I did it. Me and my trusty flip flop!! I sure hope that was the one that you saw in the kitchen and not it's mate. I hope we don't a nest of them somewhere."

"you never know"

"Um, the correct repsonse when I am talking about a nest of spiders in our home would be: "I'm sure you killed the one I saw, NO WAY do we have a nest of spiders in here--that's the only one there was and you got it. I'm sure of it!!""

"There's no nest of spiders, you killed the one I saw--that's the only one there was. Can we eat dinner now?"

"Thank you! Yes we can"

Date Night

It's been awhile since Kyle and I have been out on a date. A few weeks ago we made plans to go out to a Mexican place I wanted to try. I was really excited to go and then I got a headache and didn't feel like getting ready and going, so we stayed home.

Last night, Kyle's cousin called and invited us over so we decided to go. I took the kids to mom's and away we went stopping for a cheeseburger at Wendy's and a 6 pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade at UDF.

We hadn't been there longer than 10 mins when my cell phone rang. It was Dylan and he wanted me to come home and he was crying. I told him I would be home later and that if he behaved and acted like a big boy, he would get a surprise today. he immediately stopped crying but was a little whiney when we hung up.

At Mark's we sat around a fire outside and talked and laughed. I had one drink and stopped and told K I would be the driver. We had a really nice time and it was fun just relaxing and laughing really hard.

At 12:30 mom called to see when I was coming to get the kids. We talked about the kids staying the night, which was the original plan, but with littly whiney, hiney Dylan we were worried he would wake up at 4 and be freaking out to come home. So I told her I was leaving in about 5 mins and would come get them. She told me that from now on she is going to watch the kids at my house. Thank God.

I told K we needed to leave and after about 10 mins of conversation with his cousins about the best South Park episodes he was finally ready to leave. We stopped at Mickey D's on the way home and swung by moms. I picked up Dylan, but left Logan there as he was sound asleep in my moms bed, snoring away. Little baby Dylan was on the couch and had even refused a blanket. So I scooped him up and brought him home.

K and I ate our healthy dinner and then headed to bed. I don't even remember laying down. I was SO tired. Of course, it was 2:30 at this point. I go to bed every night before 10...2:30 is unheard of for me. I couldn't think straight I was so tired. I slept soundly until 7:30 this morning when Logan was banging on my bedroom window for me to unlock the front door. Of course, I couldn't go back to sleep after that..even after I told Logan he could watch TV or play on the computer--that I was going back to bed. Kyle is still sleeping though, of course. Mommy always gets the short end of the stick.

I am looking forward to our next date night when we will be in Disney. We're taking the kids to one of the kids clubs and going to have dinner at Epcot. I'm excited!

Now...I need to find something to give the kids as their promised "surprise".

Coolest plant!

We took the kids to the Children's Garden on Saturday. They had the BEST time. It was the first time we had been and was very nice. It was VERY HOT though.

One of the areas we walked through had a 5 senses area and then told about the different plants and how they related to the 5 senses. One of the cool ones was a plant that you touched and then smelled your hand and it smelled JUST LIKE chocolate mint!! It was so cool.

BUT..the coolest thing of all was the "touch" plant. Check out this video:

Happy Birthday, Amber!

***this should have been posted on 8/21***

When my sister was 16, she got pregnant. She gave the baby up for adoption. It was not an open adoption. We received pictures of Amber Nicole (what my sister named her) until she was about 4 months old and then, per the contract, all communication was stopped.

Today is Amber's 23rd birthday. I can't believe that I am old enough to have a niece that old!

Our hope is that Amber will decide to find Tammy and open her records at the adoption agency. We think of her often and really want to "meet" her again.

My sister still has a shoebox with Amber's hospital bracelet and the little hat she wore. I'll never forget after the baby was born and had been adopted and Tammy was home trying to get "back to normal" I walked in the bedroom we shared and she was sitting on the bed wrapped in a towel dripping wet from a recent shower. She had the shoebox in her lap and the little hat in her hands up to her face smelling it and sobbing. I tried to comfort her in the best way my 10 yr old self new how to. Now that I have babies, I fully understand what a HUGE sacrifice she made and just how much of an amazing person she is. I hope Amber realizes it.

So, Happy Birthday, Amber Nicole. I hope your day is full of all kinds of special-ness and lots of cake! I hope you are happy and healthy and feeling loved...and that you are wanting for nothing. You are continually in my thoughts and prayers and I hope for the day when I can wish you 'Happy Birthday' in person.

Helping Dylan

I hate to compare my children, but I do. I know you aren't supposed to, but I can't help it. I don't do it in bad way and I never tell them I wish they were like their brother...well, not ALWAYS.

Just KIDDING!! I don't do that!

Logan is such a quick learner..and I have to remember that when comparing Dylan to him. Logan takes after Kyle, in that they can watch someone do something once and they know how to do it. It's amazing! Dylan and I take more practice to pick something up. Practice and a few sessions of crying and crawling under the table and THEN we get it!!

In trying to figure out if Dylan where he needs to be "academically" and what I can to help him, I have answered some quizzes/questionnaires on line. The most recent one being the Leap Frog one over there in my right sidebar. I really like that one because it shows me which products pertain to his interests and needs. And that's what I need--someone to take me by the hand and say, "here, you need to get this and this and this and this will be good and this and Dylan will love this". If I have to try to make these decisions myself I tend to get overwhelmed and end up doing that whole crying and crawling under the table thing and end up getting nothing. And then who suffers?? my children! This quiz prevented all that, I did several of the quizzes right here at home, browsed through the recommendations and even printed out several free downloads!

I'm going this weekend to get Dylan some Leap Frog items that will help him with his writing. It's pretty scary right now..he needs all the help he can get and for some reason me putting paper down in front of him and telling him to write his name 57 times isn't keeping his attention. go figure.

Copper-y Cooker-y

I am beginning a love affair with Copper cookware. Do I have any? NO. Do I lust after it in catalogs and online stores? YES!

I have no idea what a paella pan is, but I saw one, in copper the other day, and now I REALLY want one. I know..it's silly...but I can't help it.

Of course, I won't be buying anything copper anytime soon. I am still using the cookware we got for a wedding gift 10+ years ago. Back when my favorite color was green and my kitchen was decorated with things like green ivy. So, yes, the cookware is green...and I pretty much hate it now. But some day...SOME DAY when I don't have a bazillion other things I need to/should spend money on, I'll upgrade my cookware and you better believe there will be a few pieces of copper in there!!

On another note, I saw a big copper bathtub that I fell in love with not too long ago.

Wonder what the sudden copper obsession means? Maybe I am lacking a mineral in my body that is making me crave copper.

Back to School

Today was the first day BACK to school...

Logan is in 2nd grade.
Dylan is in Kindergarten.
Dylan was a little nervous and I felt kinda sad about leaving him. When I picked him up at the end of the day he said he had a great day but he did cry a little because he wanted to come home. That makes me sad..but he survived and he is excited to go back tomorrow. Oh, and he LOVED the merry-go-round on the playground. Logan agreed that the merry-go-round is pretty awesome!!
Logan said today was the best day of his life. He did however, get 2 checkmarks on his behavior thingie and lost 10 mins of recess time. When asked what he did he said that he got one for talking when he wasn't supposed to, and the other he's not sure about..but he knows the kid next to him told on him for something. Hopefully he'll learn quick and he won't have a year of shortened recesses. I'm not holding my breath though!

I did enjoy the day alone. Well, I wasn't completely alone..since Amelia is still out of school. We spent the day watching recorded episodes of The Secret Life of an American Teenager. It was a very lazy day! Her last day is Thursday and then I will be totally alone! I am so excited!!

Swimming

The boys are done with their 2nd round of swimming lessons. They were both in Level 2. Logan passed and is ready to go to Level 3, Dylan unfortunately has to repeat Level 2. He is NOT happy, but I told him that Logan didn't do better than him, he just learned faster and that's ok. Honestly, I think them being in different classes will be good for him. Several of the kids have to repeat Level 2 and the instructor said it's not uncommon to have to take it more than once.

Logan has taken to swimming like a little fish, I swear. He learns SO fast. He must take after Kyle. Kyle is a MUCH better swimmer than I. Really, I am happy doing the doggy paddle and treading water..and occasionally swimming under water--but I don't like to get my head wet. Dylan takes after me.

Logan wants to joing the swim team but has to wait until he is done with Level 3 and Level 4. He can't take Level 3 until October as he would miss 2 lessons while we are on vacaton if I signed him up for the September class. I am going to take him (them) swimming at least once a week so they don't forget all they have learned. Here is a video of Logan doing his backstroke for his level 2 test.

Insomnia

My problem isn't GOING to sleep..it's STAYING asleep...and it's driving me nuts!!

I wake up all night long and turn from one side to the other, adjust my pillows and look at the clock. When I do sleep, I have really stupid, VIVID dreams. When I wake up, I lay there and think about the dumb dream.

Most times I go back to sleep before too long, but some nights, like last night. I lay there for an hour and then get up and get on the computer for awhile. I was up last night from 3:30 to 6:30!!

I have NO idea what to change, but something HAS to.

*yawn*

Back to School

School starts in 6 days. I believe we are all set.

School Supplies? check.

New Uniforms? Check.

New backpacks and lunch boxes? Check.

Orientation attended? Not yet--this saturday

Haircuts? check.

Teeth cleaning? check.

Yep..we're all set!! YAY!!

Olympics: Men's Synchronized Springboard Diving

Who are the people that judge these? I can't help but think it's some people who are anti-USA.

I thought the Americans did MUCH better than some of the scores they received. Especially when compared to the mistakes the other countries made! They definitely should have received Bronze.

I AM an expert on synchronized springboard diving. Just so you know.

Customer Service PITA!!

Good Grief!!!

A month ago I switched all of our cable to the phone company, meaning, the TV, the phone and the Internet. I did this because it is a little cheaper every month. While doing that, I became eligible for several rebates. $100 for the land line, $100 for DSL, $50 for Dish and $79.99 for the modem.

A couple weeks ago I rec'd information about the $50 dish rebate, I redeemed it and got a check yesterday. As of yesterday, I still hadn't heard anything about any of the other rebates so I called to check on the status. oh my goodness! What a pain in the hiney that was!!

I called the reward center first, the lady there said they only showed the Dish rebate and I would have to call customer service and have customer service call them on 3-way to tell them which rebates I was entitled to. So, I did.

The first lady I talked to was very nice..I was on hold for a long time, but she was getting everything taken care of so I didn't mind. Plus I was loading the dishwasher, making dinner etc. So, finally this lady gets everything sorted but only with the land line and the Internet, she has no record of the free modem offer so she tells me I have to call the DSL department and gives me their number. fine.

So, I call the # and the recording prompts me to enter my 3 digit transfer code. I don't have a code, so the system thanks me for calling and promptly hangs up.

I call the customer service number, I get a lady that looks at my account and says yes, I am eligible for the free (after rebate) modem, she will transfer me to the rebate department to get it taken care of. My mistake is that she called it the "rebate department", had she called it the "reward center" I could have saved myself a lot of headache and stopped her before she made that transfer--as I had already talked to the reward center first, remember?? and they couldn't help.

So, I get the reward center and am told they can do nothing. I asked her if she had a code for the transfer to the DSL dept. She said she has never heard of such a thing! terrific!!

So, I call the customer service number AGAIN! I get a recording telling me the call volume is high and my wait time is expected to be 10 minutes. Fine, I'll wait 10 minutes. Well......180 minutes later. YES,180 minutes!! I finally hung up!!

I called first thing this morning and talked to some guy in the DSL shipping dept, of course that was wrong, transferred to some girl in the billing dept, of course that was wrong--I was VERY annoyed with her because instead of just saying it was the wrong dept and she couldn't help, she started spouting off all kinds of false information...like just to get me off the phone. Finally, she transferred me to the sales department stating that she could only help me with billing problems! So, I got transferred to another girl that I had to about put the phone inside my brain to hear her. She also could not help me, said I needed customer care. Transferred again. this time to a man that I also could not hear, but thank GOD! he knew what he was doling!! He asked me how much the rebate should be for, I told him $79.99 he put me on hold, came back and said that he called the reward center and told them I am eligible for the modem rebate and to process it.

Mission Accomplished. WHEW!!!

Kitty potty

It must be more enjoyable to potty outside. If you are a cat anyway. I'm going to assume that YOU are not since you are reading this. (But wow, it would be SO cool if you were. If you are...leave me a comment, k?)

My cat is an indoor/outdoor cat. In the summer he spends most of his time on the front porch or back deck, basking in the sun. He comes in long enough to eat and cool down and to sleep at night. He also likes to serenade us with some very loud yeowling and running around the house in the middle of the night, aggravating Jack. When we crawl out of bed to grab him and throw him outside to Yeowl out there...he is super fast and runs down stairs...which usually results in lots of comments about "stupid cat".

ANYWAY..it has come to my attention that he doesn't use his litter box in the spring and summer when he is outside so much. So either it is more enjoyable to potty out in nature OR he is too lazy to walk downstairs to use the little box. I really don't care either way..less (nasty) work for me!!

Counting the Days.....

I am getting very very excited for our upcoming vacation. I think about it all the time and continually research everything I can on Orlando vacations. Of course it's too late to change anything now. But I could ADD something if I wanted to. Really, I think we are set, aside from booking the dinner I want to go to while we are hanging out with Shamu!

I have lots of stuff to do/buy before we can go. The list keeps getting longer. I did buy K another pair of swim trunks today, his are a little too big for him since he has lost weight and I read somewhere that having 2 bathing suits is good since it is so humid there and things don't dry quickly. So, I was at Sears today and saw a great sale and picked them up for $7!! I still need to get Logan another pair too. Old Navy has some on sale, I need to order he and D polo's for school anyway so I'll do that then.

Boy, I ramble huh?

alright I gotta go cut K's hair and watch synchronized diving....