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So this Monday so far has been a very bad day. Not because it's Monday, of course....just happens to be a really bad day on a Monday. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's hard when people that you love are hurting.

Just a little bit of laundry to do......

I have so much laundry to do that I separated not only into colors, but into the people they belong to as well. The girls have a TON more clothes than the boys, and I needed to make SURE that some of the boys' clothes got washed. I did four loads of laundry Saturday and it's almost still the same amount of laundry I have to do today! My tough decision of the day is shall I continue to work on darks or do I start doing brights today? I'm thinking I'll keep doing darks until every pair of jeans are clean.

For the past couple weeks I've been working on getting the rocks out of what's supposed to be my rose bed. This whole summer I've noticed we have a whole lot of grasshoppers....but this is only our first summer here so maybe there are just a lot of grasshoppers around here, what do I know? But the weird thing is, these grasshoppers don't seem to be afraid of anything!! When I was tossing rocks into my rock pile I was startled to see a large grasshopper sitting on a rock right next to the one I just threw....and he just turned a little to see what I threw at him and didn't move! He didn't move for over half an hour while I was STILL throwing rocks in the pile! (I did try to not hit the little thing.)

Well the rest of them are the same. I found this one on my gate and he just sat there while I opened the gate, walked through it with all my bags, and then shut the gate. So I took a picture with my hand nearly touching him. He didn't care. When I touched him he just moved over a bit.

This is strange in MY book but again....what do I know?

So laundry today, maybe work in the basement some more....I have a meeting at the school so I'll need to shower & be out of here in a while.

I hope your day is going a lot better than mine!

AmyG

Story of my LIFE

I have three puppies. One is 12 and 1/2 years old and nothing in the universe phases him (probably why he's lived so long LOL). Two are brother and sister and they are four years old. They will be five on New Year's Day.

Butterfly is my little girl puppy and even though she is beautiful she is also dumb as a box of rocks (possibly dumber). She absolutely HATES it when I sweep, and she absolutely HATES it when I vacuum. I understand the vacuum is noisy and it can scare a sensitive puppy.

I have been working on training her to not react as much while I'm vacuuming, and I was working hard on it today, because I'm cleaning the basement.

She was doing relatively well all day, then I started cleaning under the stairs. This required me to first clean off the stairs, then get under the stairs with the shop-vac and suck up all the cobwebs. Butterfly was on the stairs watching me (I can only hope to see if the vacuum killed me so she can attack it) and then I hit a stair wrong and it bounced out and sucked on her leg.

This dog went absolutely insane. She tried to get her head through the stairs to bite the vacuum and when she couldn't do that she got RIGHT ABOVE me and then peed.

On the stairs.

Which then dripped.

Down the stairs.

And THROUGH the stairs
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 onto
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 ME.
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I was less than pleased.

Kids are running down wondering why I'm screaming.

Butterfly runs away and hides in her bed [cage].

When I realized what was happening I thew the hose to the shop-vac on the ground (still on) and I got out from under the stairs.

At this point ALL the dogs are in their cages because I'm yelling obscenities LOL.

I actually think I was angrier that there was dog urine on the stairs I had JUST. CLEANED. AND that I had been stacking things on the stairs that needed to go upstairs/in the garage and now all of THAT had dog pee puddling under it than I was that there was pee on ME. (I'm a mom ~ pretty used to it.)

In any case I gave the two other puppies a treat and put them all to bed while I went upstairs (writing this) to take a break. (I did put down dry-sweep on the pee and shut off the vacuum.)

Needed a break anyway ~ I haven't left the basement except to walk the dogs (which incidentally I had done within ten minutes of getting peed on) ALL DAY.

I have maybe a fourth of the basement done. I didn't realize how bad a job people were doing cleaning down there. They were actually doing the OPPOSITE of cleaning. I found the sour cream we've been missing for two weeks (hint: it was NOT in the refrigerator) and some clothes behind the dryer (WHY??). I had to spend over an hour cleaning off the table I told people to never put anything on because I needed it as a folding table (I've been using the pool table as a folding table today and putting the folded clothes in baskets on the ground).  When the kids set up the filter system for the turtle's aquarium they just threw the cord on the ground where it's been getting stepped on and kicked and stuff and quite frankly it would be dangerous for people to walk over there, so I reran the cords behind the other things along the wall like a normal person. The last time we got food for the turtle (last weekend) I told Tank (the turtle's owner) to dump the bucket after he gave the turtle the fish.....it was still there, complete with about a dozen dead fish and three dead crawdads (wtaf?).

And all this has just been in the fourth of a basement I've gotten cleaned.

So yeah.....I'm going back down there soon to keep on a'truckin' and I will walk the dogs again and they will still be able to watch me..........but only after I'm done with the stairs.

:)

What I'm Reading

I thought I'd post what I'm reading right now since I haven't done anything noteworthy lately (I was in a homecoming parade but that's on Facebook).

Today I will be cleaning the basement. All of us except for the Mr take turns cleaning the basement but it seems to me everyone else does the BARE minimum. Now it's my turn and I plan on spending the day cleaning it up the way it SHOULD be and maybe rearrange it a bit. The Mr AND some kids are using it as their personal junk drawer and that will stop RIGHT NOW!

Anyway here are the books I'm reading right now:

My "Easy Read"....this happens to be a book I read when I was a kid but the easy reads are just what they sound like. Something I can rip through with minimal thought. "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I've been moving through the entire "Little House" collection (that I own, anyway).

Bathroom Book ~ the book I keep in the bathroom for when I'm waiting for the tub to fill up or waiting for the straightening and/or curling iron to heat up or when I'm sitting there....you know. Star Trek fanfiction ~ "Devils Bargain." Not bad, really. Still on the fence as to whether I'm keeping it or not.

Van Book ~ might actually need to be called my "purse book" because I don't just drive the van anymore. I carry this book in the backpack I'm currently using as a purse to read whenever I'm sitting around (waiting for a train, waiting for a kid/husband to come to the vehicle.....recently when I was broke down and waiting for help and yesterday while sitting in the high school office waiting for children). "Airs of Night and Sea." I actually bought the first book of this series from the dollar store a couple years ago and read it. I liked it and thought the kids would like it so I kept it (it's still in the garage since we moved). I found this book at the Dollar Store when I realized I left the house without a book and saw that it was a continuation of the other book from this author...and even better it was on sale for THIRTY-FIVE CENTS!!! Heck ya, I'mma buy it! So I'm reading it now. It's just as good as the first one. :)

Officially Reading ~ The Once and Future King. I started it a while back but it's an old book and when the cover got ripped off I stopped reading it. Now it sits at my computer desk so I only read it when I'm over there. Poor old book.

The Bad Day

My husband had fixed my BMW and since it was my only other vehicle I took it to my dentist appointment.

It's a pretty long drive to get to my dentist so on the way I stopped to get gas and use the restroom. When I came back out my car was DEAD. It refused to even TRY to start!

I called my husband and he told me to see if someone would be nice enough to jump-start my car and then get it home immediately.

I was pretty frustrated that I had to cancel my dentist appointment, but I did manage to get one guy to jump the BMW and I headed home. However at the stop sign I had to hit the brakes (because, you know...it's a stop sign and it's there for a reason) and it died again. I pulled over to the side of the road and called The Mr again, and he said he'd "see what he could do."

Here's the photo of where I was stuck:

Car after car after CAR went by (not to mention about 50 semis) and NO ONE stopped to help me. So I figured I was too far away from anything resembling a town to walk anywhere so I did what I do best and read some of my "vehicle book."

TWO (2!) people stopped, but only one offered to turn around and jump me again. So we got the BMW started again and I took off, not wanting to use the brakes or turn signals or anything else that required use of the battery.

However I only made it a mile or so when the car died again. Here was my new view:

So I called the Mr back and he had to take off work and come rescue me. While he was there I had to hold up the hood for him and even though MOST semis and vehicles that went by switched to the other lane to pass us, ONE semi drove so freaking close to me I thought his/her mirrors were going to hit me. A bunch of rocks were thrown into my car (convertible top was down) and the gust of wind that went by with the truck felt like it was going to rip the hood clean off the car and take my skirt with it!

Anyway, the Mr charged up the BMW's battery in the van and that got me home where he finally fixed the alternator and I've been using the BMW ever since.

That actually started a week of stress for me. I had the BMW fixed but it cost me money, which put us on a short week, which always causes marital fights.

I didn't sleep for three days STRAIGHT and was less than sunshine and bubbles.

Luckily last night I DID get to sleep.

Last night we also had two extra kids and decided on a spaghetti night. This picture isn't very good but here:

Lastly.....my bedroom has been full of BEES lately!! I don't know how they are getting in!!! I'll have to check the attic for a beehive. Every time I sit down at the computer two or three bees will show up and start buzzing around my head. I'll open the window for them and usually they are smart enough to exit the building, then I'll shut the window....and another bee will show up! It'll drive me nuts not knowing how they're getting in here. Only my bedroom so far....no one else has bees.

So I hope you all are having a fantastic week.

Photo day!

Okay, another week means another round of pictures :)

First off, I have been trying to draw more. I have some of my mom's drawings and I am very happy to have them. So I started sketching whenever I felt like it, and I'm working on a drawing of one of my kids right now.

Here's a sketch of an eye I did while on hold (on the phone). Eyes are the only thing I can draw without a reference photo.

 and they're not even that good. :)

I can sketch other things, but they always look like a cartoon, which is okay. Here's a sketch I did of my stepson the football player:

It's out of proportion but it ended up okay.

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 It's getting colder pretty quickly which for our house means hat weather!!

Over the past year or so I've been picking up hats for sale and now I can finally start wearing them! I look pretty cute in hats if I say so myself. :p

So I didn't blog about it, but we've had really bad luck with cars this past month!!  My husband was driving my stepson's car, and the fuel pump went out of it. So it went to the shop. A couple weeks later my husband was driving my stepdaughter's Monte Carlo and had to slam on his brakes from hitting some fool who peeled out of a driveway, and that snapped a brake line apart. So he limped it home to work on it when he had time. Those two cars weren't a high priority fix, because we still had the van and the BMW.

My daughter got sick (Hand Foot Mouth aka Enterovirus ~ BLECH) and I took her to the doctor. The doctor prescribed her some medicine and we went to get it. On our way the BMW started acting funny.....lights flashing and the turn signals suddenly didn't work. It suddenly died while I was driving it. It managed to roll into a parking lot and I even parked it in a space correctly, but it would not start up again. I had to call my mechanic and wait for him to get all the way out to where I was. While waiting I got my kid's prescription and walked around an air-conditioned store, but we also had to sit in the car. We took the top mostly off but still had some shade inside.

My mechanic showed up and I had to buy a brand-new battery, which would at least get us home....but I was forbidden to use any electronics all the way there. My daughter rode in his air-conditioned truck while I drove the car. The Mr (my mechanic) told me to take the "back way" home so if I did break down again it wouldn't be on the freeway that has had MORE than it's share of accidents and even deaths this year, but it turns out the back way had massive construction and I ended up getting sunstroke just from sitting in the BMW!

Anywhoo, I did get back home and then the family was left with just one car that worked. The Mr HAS to get to work and back, so I was stuck at home with no vehicle. Then another kid got enterovirus, so I had to drive my husband to work to take that kid to the doctor. That was enough for the Mr to go ahead and get the BMW fixed up.

I was very happy to have a car back!!!

He even fixed the radio! Hooray!

Then he fixed the Monte Carlo so he can drive it to work and back for now.

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Everyone is feeling better and THANKFULLY (so far, knock-on-wood) only the two kids got sick. We seem to have it contained.

So I started on my annual closet purge.

I needed to get out the winter coats and gloves and scarves and go through the clothes I put in there "to go through later," and while I was in there I decided to go ahead and get the Halloween decorations out and clean out the entire closet.

Here's how it looks empty and clean: :D

 And we were very happy. Unfortunately now comes the hard part...going through everything and cleaning up the mess I made in my bedroom LOL:

So I have plenty to do today!!!

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As my facebook friends know, this morning I fell down the stairs. I did not injure myself but I was out of commission for a while with ice on my ankle. While I was recovering from my highly embarrassing fall, my daughter told me she wanted to use some of my perfume. I told her to go ahead, it was in my closet.

She came back down and told me she didn't like my closet at all. I asked why not and she said it was just scary.

I said ridiculous....Spot is in there keeping an eye on things!!

Then I realized she probably wasn't afraid of my CLOSET....she was PROBABLY afraid of the closet IN the closet....the door you see here:

And I will admit if you don't live in my closet and USE the closet-in-a-closet every day, it might be considered "scary." The people who lived here before must have thought so, because they put an extra latch on it LOL.

I laughed about it and said, "I JUST cleaned that out! All the *scary* stuff is now behind the couch in the living room! Ha ha ha ha.

And one last LOL for ya...........the texts I sent my stepdaughter when I heard she was singing in a hallway for her friends:

I'm just mean I guess ;).

Random photos again

Nothing much this week. I've been happily busy and getting things done. Here's some random pics for ya, though. :)

I was cleaning the kitchen and noticed that some burned smudges on my glass-top stove. It made me laugh.

Unhappy stove is unhappy.

I tried to clean it off but it is still there. I have yet to look up something strong enough to clean it that won't damage my glass-top.

While perusing the dollar store I came across this sign:

I looked down the isle and didn't see ANYTHING marked "$0.00" so this sign is inaccurate. They should fix that.

Sometimes it feels like I've only been with my husband a couple years. But while visiting with my mother-in-law she mentioned that she was getting rid of the play set. She has had this play set for at least 13 years....which was a couple years after my husband and I got together. Thirteen years.....it's amazing how quickly that time goes! So I took this picture of the last kids to play on the play set before it leaves for a new family.

Ah, the feels.

Thinking about my family in Hawaii having to deal with lava flows.

AmyG

"What Did You Do To Me?!?"

So last night, my husband and I decided to patronize our local bar and a have a few drinks and a pizza.

When we paid our tab and left, we were walking home when my husband announced, "I don't think they charged us for the pizza...." So we went back and double checked and we were correct, they did not charge us for the pizza. So we paid the remainder of our bill and left again.

We were halfway home when my husband yelled, "What did you DO to me?!? Fifteen years ago I would have realized I didn't pay for the pizza and thought to myself, 'YES! I just scored a free pizza!!!!'"

I had to laugh. It's funny because it's true. He's a completely different person than he used to be. He used to just throw his trash out the car window until I slammed the brakes and went back and picked it up because I DO NOT LITTER!! Now he uses the car trash bag. He used to get into fights when an arguement got too heated and now he uses much more diplomatic ways to deal with it (thank goodness since he's a manager lol). And yes, if I had realized I hadn't paid for something I would have gone back and paid for it, and apparently that has rubbed off on my husband, too.

My husband has also quit smoking, although I really didn't have anything to do with that. I was certainly thrilled when he did!!! He has now been smoke-free for four years.

I think his spoken vocabulary has gotten better thanks to years of listening to me, also.

What's even more amusing is when we first decided to be together, his ex-wife said, "teach her to be the wife you want her to be" because she thought she knew everything and I knew next to nothing. I'm guessing it's because I couldn't cook ANYTHING. I could BARELY boil water. But I could raise kids and clean so I don't know why she said it (just to be mean, I'm guessing - it's hard to accept someone who's going to raise your kids for you).

But it turns out, it was the other way around. I taught my husband how to be a good person. He's such a different person from his previous marraige I'm not sure his ex-wife would even know who he is!!!

But I'm glad he's turned out to be a pretty good guy for me.

Puppy love has sure worked out for us. :)