Monday, December 7, 2009

12/7/09

Holy crap, it's December.


Frost on top of my car.

The halftime show was awesome.  Definitely a cool experience.  I'm sure this will probably start being an annual thing, as long as Pnut goes to this studio.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lc1vUH6SpQ

Thanksgiving was fairly tame, as usual.  Besides Lisa & Angel leaving Captain’s stall door open and him dragging a bale of hay into his stall, not a lot of action happened. I think Laurie had one glass of wine and I polished off the bottle. No one else drank. Booo.


Saturday we took Lisa & Angel to their first “big” craft show. We’d never been to Ford II, so we didn’t know it was HUGE and packed with people ! Crazy. But I got a few little things like a really cool wood pedestal bowl that this guy made out of the reclaimed apple wood. Love it!

Randy got home safe & sound Monday. Heehee, I’d gotten Jack a collar with a necktie on it and left it on him so Randy would see it. He’s not crazy about the dog wearing clothes, so I see what I can get away with. I won’t do shirts, but he’s got several bandanas, a scrunchie thing that goes over his collar and now this. I asked and he said he was ignoring Jack’s new threads.

Last week was pretty uneventful. I did manage to get out of painting the girl’s bedroom until after the holidays!! Her cheer pics finally came in at school. I’d been waiting for them for weeks so I could put them in Christmas cards. So Monday night she said they’d come in, but she doesn’t go by the office to get them. Ok, so go out of your way to go by there! Tuesday they’d been moved to a classroom and she didn’t know where it was. As if she couldn’t ask someone. Finally, Wednesday (I was in a bad mood anyway) was the last straw. Yet again she had some lame excuse why she didn’t bring them home. I told her that if she couldn’t do a simple little task like that for me, than I can’t be bothered to do make the effort of painting her room. It can wait until I’m good & ready to do it. We were all ready to paint, too. All her stuff was boxed up and in the living room; the bed & dressers were in the middle of the room, etc. I told her to move it all back in, I wanted my living room back.

However, since we had the primer, I went ahead and primed the room Friday night. Mistake! I would have been better off getting that expensive paint & primer combo. The fumes off Kilz primer are HORRENDOUS! I did get most of the ceiling and upper halves of the wall covered, but not the corners. Good enough! I was starting to feel dizzy & nauseous & I asked Angel and she felt dizzy, too. So I hurried us both outside. As we went thru the kitchen I smelled different fumes in there, but I was confused enough that I couldn’t figure out what it was. We started to feel better so we went and turned on the TV in my room, since the fumes hadn’t wafted into there yet. After a while, they drifted in and I really got concerned. So I called Mom and asked if she wanted some company – a lot of company. There’s no way I could have left the cats here! She said we were all welcome, so we packed everyone up and had a sleepover with Grandma!

Jack settled down nicely for the night, once he figured out where his bed was. Angel put a blanket down by her but he couldn’t get to it. I had to step over sleeping bodies to grab it and he was fine. Skeeter & Maggie adjusted pretty well. Skeeter snuggled with Mom for a long time. Poor Chester wasn’t happy. He didn’t start wandering around until just a couple hours before we left. He hid the rest of the time.


Cross Dressing Chester

Randy was doing Skywarn Recognition Special Event at the NWS, so he didn’t get home until 8ish Saturday night. On his way home, he figured out what the other fumes were coming from. When the furnace was leaking before, he’d put a bowl behind it to catch the drips. He never moved the bowl. So apparently the water had evaporated and the plastic bowl was getting hot. Guess we’re lucky it didn’t catch on fire.

So yes, I wasted almost all of my Saturday, since we didn’t head home til past 8:30 PM. OK, it wasn’t wasted. I spent quality time with Mom and we went to a candlelight memorial service at the funeral home. It was very nice. They talked about how to cope thru the holidays and read a nice poem, etc. Then we lit candles and they went around the room and you were supposed to say who your candle was for. I was so classy, I can’t even begin to describe. My turn came along and I said my dad, James Owens and my father-in-law and then my voice cracked. I made this awful noise somewhere between a wheeze and a snort and it was loud. Like Dad always said to me – if it weren’t for low class, I wouldn’t have any class at all!

I think we’re about ready for the holidays. The Christmas cards will be going out tomorrow and then I’ll have to start wrapping. I need to get just a couple more things, but I already know what I want to get and where. So it’s just a matter of going to the store. I have the prime opportunity to get a lot done this Friday, because Angel will be at the dance studio for the annual Lock In (basically a sleepover for the kids at the studio). Or I could use that time to go on a date with my honey. Hmmmm. Forget wrapping!

Mom, Laurie & Lisa are spending Christmas Eve & Day at Frankenmuth, since Mom didn’t think she could do the usual Christmas thing. They expected us to go, too! Ah, no. Linda & Dave are more than welcome to go, but we’re not. We want to spend Christmas Eve at home with our tree & our presents and be able to get up and do our thing on Christmas morning. We learned last year that it sucks having to haul Christmas presents somewhere else. Then Mom said Angel could come spend the night with Lisa! Hello! No she’s staying at home, too. Sorry. I think we’re going to be going to Christmas Eve Service at our church (which by the way moved out of the gorgeous old building where we got married – sniff!). We haven’t gone to any services in way too long. We’ll go up the Frankenmuth C-mas day and spend that night. Still don’t know what we’re going to do with Jack. I don’t know if I could get him into the kennel at such short notice.



Alrighty! Think it’s about time for bed. Angel’s going to her meet & greet at the doctor’s office tomorrow, which could be a good thing, since she just told me tonight that she had a sore throat & I just heard her in there coughing.


OMG !  The first time ever my Christmas cactus has bloomed!! 
I've had it for years.  Right now there's only the one flower, but there are lots of buds!

12/7/09

Holy crap, it's December.


Frost on top of my car.

The halftime show was awesome.  Definitely a cool experience.  I'm sure this will probably start being an annual thing, as long as Pnut goes to this studio.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lc1vUH6SpQ

Thanksgiving was fairly tame, as usual.  Besides Lisa & Angel leaving Captain’s stall door open and him dragging a bale of hay into his stall, not a lot of action happened. I think Laurie had one glass of wine and I polished off the bottle. No one else drank. Booo.


Saturday we took Lisa & Angel to their first “big” craft show. We’d never been to Ford II, so we didn’t know it was HUGE and packed with people ! Crazy. But I got a few little things like a really cool wood pedestal bowl that this guy made out of the reclaimed apple wood. Love it!

Randy got home safe & sound Monday. Heehee, I’d gotten Jack a collar with a necktie on it and left it on him so Randy would see it. He’s not crazy about the dog wearing clothes, so I see what I can get away with. I won’t do shirts, but he’s got several bandanas, a scrunchie thing that goes over his collar and now this. I asked and he said he was ignoring Jack’s new threads.

Last week was pretty uneventful. I did manage to get out of painting the girl’s bedroom until after the holidays!! Her cheer pics finally came in at school. I’d been waiting for them for weeks so I could put them in Christmas cards. So Monday night she said they’d come in, but she doesn’t go by the office to get them. Ok, so go out of your way to go by there! Tuesday they’d been moved to a classroom and she didn’t know where it was. As if she couldn’t ask someone. Finally, Wednesday (I was in a bad mood anyway) was the last straw. Yet again she had some lame excuse why she didn’t bring them home. I told her that if she couldn’t do a simple little task like that for me, than I can’t be bothered to do make the effort of painting her room. It can wait until I’m good & ready to do it. We were all ready to paint, too. All her stuff was boxed up and in the living room; the bed & dressers were in the middle of the room, etc. I told her to move it all back in, I wanted my living room back.

However, since we had the primer, I went ahead and primed the room Friday night. Mistake! I would have been better off getting that expensive paint & primer combo. The fumes off Kilz primer are HORRENDOUS! I did get most of the ceiling and upper halves of the wall covered, but not the corners. Good enough! I was starting to feel dizzy & nauseous & I asked Angel and she felt dizzy, too. So I hurried us both outside. As we went thru the kitchen I smelled different fumes in there, but I was confused enough that I couldn’t figure out what it was. We started to feel better so we went and turned on the TV in my room, since the fumes hadn’t wafted into there yet. After a while, they drifted in and I really got concerned. So I called Mom and asked if she wanted some company – a lot of company. There’s no way I could have left the cats here! She said we were all welcome, so we packed everyone up and had a sleepover with Grandma!

Jack settled down nicely for the night, once he figured out where his bed was. Angel put a blanket down by her but he couldn’t get to it. I had to step over sleeping bodies to grab it and he was fine. Skeeter & Maggie adjusted pretty well. Skeeter snuggled with Mom for a long time. Poor Chester wasn’t happy. He didn’t start wandering around until just a couple hours before we left. He hid the rest of the time.


Cross Dressing Chester

Randy was doing Skywarn Recognition Special Event at the NWS, so he didn’t get home until 8ish Saturday night. On his way home, he figured out what the other fumes were coming from. When the furnace was leaking before, he’d put a bowl behind it to catch the drips. He never moved the bowl. So apparently the water had evaporated and the plastic bowl was getting hot. Guess we’re lucky it didn’t catch on fire.

So yes, I wasted almost all of my Saturday, since we didn’t head home til past 8:30 PM. OK, it wasn’t wasted. I spent quality time with Mom and we went to a candlelight memorial service at the funeral home. It was very nice. They talked about how to cope thru the holidays and read a nice poem, etc. Then we lit candles and they went around the room and you were supposed to say who your candle was for. I was so classy, I can’t even begin to describe. My turn came along and I said my dad, James Owens and my father-in-law and then my voice cracked. I made this awful noise somewhere between a wheeze and a snort and it was loud. Like Dad always said to me – if it weren’t for low class, I wouldn’t have any class at all!

I think we’re about ready for the holidays. The Christmas cards will be going out tomorrow and then I’ll have to start wrapping. I need to get just a couple more things, but I already know what I want to get and where. So it’s just a matter of going to the store. I have the prime opportunity to get a lot done this Friday, because Angel will be at the dance studio for the annual Lock In (basically a sleepover for the kids at the studio). Or I could use that time to go on a date with my honey. Hmmmm. Forget wrapping!

Mom, Laurie & Lisa are spending Christmas Eve & Day at Frankenmuth, since Mom didn’t think she could do the usual Christmas thing. They expected us to go, too! Ah, no. Linda & Dave are more than welcome to go, but we’re not. We want to spend Christmas Eve at home with our tree & our presents and be able to get up and do our thing on Christmas morning. We learned last year that it sucks having to haul Christmas presents somewhere else. Then Mom said Angel could come spend the night with Lisa! Hello! No she’s staying at home, too. Sorry. I think we’re going to be going to Christmas Eve Service at our church (which by the way moved out of the gorgeous old building where we got married – sniff!). We haven’t gone to any services in way too long. We’ll go up the Frankenmuth C-mas day and spend that night. Still don’t know what we’re going to do with Jack. I don’t know if I could get him into the kennel at such short notice.



Alrighty! Think it’s about time for bed. Angel’s going to her meet & greet at the doctor’s office tomorrow, which could be a good thing, since she just told me tonight that she had a sore throat & I just heard her in there coughing.


OMG !  The first time ever my Christmas cactus has bloomed!! 
I've had it for years.  Right now there's only the one flower, but there are lots of buds!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

11/25/09

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!


This week has been crazy! First of all – Pnut became a woman! Too bad she started probably Monday (said she didn’t know when she started!!!) and the little booger didn’t tell me and was trying to use TP instead of a pad. Jack found some of her undies in the laundry. Unpleasant surprise! Just found out tonight, so we had a little chat. She was really embarrassed! Helloo? It’s nature. Can’t fight it. I don’t know why she didn’t tell me. She’s gone thru a girly health class in school and I also got her a book all about “the care & keeping of me”. At least she had a clue about what was going on, I never knew. Mom never said boo to me about it, so it freaked me out when I started mine the first time. But all is good now. I won’t post it on Facebook like one of my friends did when his daughter started hers. Heehee, my blog is OK, tho!

Then Monday night, Tuesday night & tonight, she’s been downtown at Ford Field until past 9:00 each night for the halftime show. I figure there are at least 150 kids dancing to a “Tribute to 50 years of Motown” by 6 artists I’ve never heard of. They sounded good, tho, so I guess that’s what matters. The director wanted all the parents to stay in one section (behind the stage of course) until invited around to the front. So the security guy (he was hysterical!!) came by and told us to be patient, etc. they’d let us know when we could actually go see the performance. One of the moms asked him when that would be. He just looked at her and said when they tell you! He looked at me and the rest of our studio moms and said he thought that had been pretty clear. Yup, we thought so, too! Then we got to talking to him about the game tomorrow. They’re playing Green Bay, so he was saying Detroit (the city, not the team!) doesn’t stand a chance cuz if the Packers win, the Cheeseheads will burn stuff down. If the Lions win, both the Cheeseheads & the Lions fans will burn stuff. We just cracked up. But the show is really good.  I recorded it until my batteries died - I was mad!


At Ford Field


The whole Dancer's Only group

So tomorrow, I’ll take Pnut to the mall & throw her on a bus with the rest of the kids and go home to pack & work on clearing out her room some more. They’ll be leaving Ford Field right after halftime, so I’ll pick her up and we’ll head straight out to Laurie’s. Check it out – I made a chocolate pumpkin pie with an Oreo crust that is only 4 points per slice. A regular plain pumpkin pie is 9. Do I rock or what? And it’s SO good, too.  My cookies left much to be desired, but the pies are awesome.


Had to put the cutters on them to tell what they are!

So I’m working on clearing out her room a bit so we can paint. I took out 4 big bags of trash. And don’t get me started on what we’re donating. And I’m not done!! We finally decided on colors that we’re happy with. We’ll do the walls green and put a wide teal stripe thru the middle and put random pink polka dots around the room. But I draw the line with the ceiling. I’m going to prime the heck out of it and paint it cream. I may even use the leftover living room color. I also found some funky flower mirrors online, so I’ll order them for her, too.

Now.  Yes - the trim on the door is purple.


Our inspiration

So Randy is heading out to his Mom’s tomorrow. He didn’t say why he didn’t leave today, but his mom told him not to drive after dark. She usually goes to bed early anyway. So he’ll spend a few days with her, I’m sure she’ll have a honey-do list for him. She always does! He’s supposed to be home Monday. Of course the weather is going to turn exceptionally crappy tomorrow night. It’s been hovering around the 50s the past couple days.

But that’s OK. The furnace is working good and I got the spiral trees, Gingy and the plastic Santa out in the yard today. I saw this ad for a 4 foot tall gingerbread man, balanced on 3 gumdrops and I fell in love with him. Even better yet, he’s in the “Dad pose”. I got the last one! Woohoo! Yay me!


Gingy!

My doctor appt went fine, I just went to meet the doc and have a little chat with him. I like the place, so I called and set up an appt for Angel, too. May as well have us all at the same place! Her current doc is OK, but English is not his first language and she has a hard time understanding him. So I asked for a female doc for her. She wasn’t happy about going, but she’s OK with seeing a female. I’m glad I made that decision! This place is a lot more convenient to home and I like everyone I’ve dealt with so far.

We went to the second of our annual craft shows last weekend. Mom was a trooper with her hip. She had Ben Gay pads on it and Linda carried around a metal folding chair so whenever Mom needed a break, she had a chair handy. She’s apparently game to go to another one this Saturday! Alrighty then! I got the cutest metal gecko sculpture. I love it! I think it’s going to go in Angel’s room, up near the ceiling. And a funky turkey with real feathers on the tail. And I finally found a little something appropriate for Randy’s mom. A stained glass nativity. I think she’ll like it. I got a really cool wood ornament that was hand-carved & polished by a guy who looked a lot like Santa, too. I wasn’t going to take any chances passing him by!



Saturday night, Angel’s friend Taylor came over for the night again. Angel wanted to use the gift cards she got for her birthday, so I had to drag them to the mall. They did their shopping in places I would never go (American Eagle, Hollister, etc) then on the way out, Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee thought it would be a good idea to go UP the down escalator. Taylor is short & chubby, so she only made it about ¼ way up before falling twice. I told her to ride it down and use the stairs. Angel made it almost to the top before getting cocky and tripping – 3 times in a row! The last time she really looked panicked, so I told her to ride it down. When she came up the stairs, I saw her knees were dirty. One was covered in grease and the other had a hole in it. When we got to the car, I heard Taylor ask if that was blood on her pants. Sure enough – little Doofus had 3 perfect escalator tread sized gouges in her knee. Nice. She hasn’t mentioned it bothering her, so I guess it’s OK.

I got some serious Super Mom points, tho. Angel’s had the release date for the movie New Moon written on the calendar since she found out when it was. I told her there was no way I was taking her to see that on opening weekend. I am not insane! But I checked online and was able to get tickets for the first showing Sunday morning. That was the choice time to go! The theater was only half full and tickets were $5. Can’t beat that! I gave it one thumb up and one down. I’m just not impressed with Rob Pattinson or what’s her face that plays Bella. She bugs me since she’ll stare at the person’s chin that she’s talking to and it’s obvious since they’re wrapped in each other’s arms.

Guess I should wrap it up now, since it’s almost 1 am and I have to get Miss Sunshine up & in costume (which by the way is NOT my idea of Motown!) fairly early. Out!


I had her sleep on the couch becuz there are boxes on her bed.


Chester attacking Jack's rope.