Random Childhood Memories

I truly didn't have that bad of a childhood.  When I talk about memories it seems that the bad ones are discussed more than the good but...... I think that is only natural.

I never really knew my maternal grandfather.  He divorced my grandmother many years before and I can only assume that upon starting a new family his old one suffered.  Mom never really talked about him much but there were visits - just not often.  About the only real fact that I know about my grandfather is that he died of cancer.  He knowingly and willingly worked in an environment that exposed him to asbestos.  Granted back in those days I know people didn't realize the effects of working with this deadly material.  Now days there are Mesothelioma lawyers to help people.

My paternal grandfather was a pretty big part of my life.  He died of cancer when I was in the sixth grade.  His cancer was caused by my grandmothers chain-smoking habit.  He is proof that second hand smoke kills.  She would light a cigarette and most of the time it sat in the ash tray just burning.  He was not a smoker but his lungs were as damaged as a lifetime smoker.  Oddly enough my grandmother is still going strong at 95.  

The other day I was trying to determine if I had any relationships in my life which I refused to speak to family members.  My initial answer was no but now I remember that I have no desire to ever speak to my grandmother, and I didn't speak to my dad for a couple years.  Other than that I am good.  

Could it be......

that I have a reader on my site that I am unaware of?  I have never given the address to this person but after the "encounter" the other day, that would be my only guess.  Oh well, I guess I should only blog about "those things" on my other blog.  

Busy Summer

It looks like CAL is going to have a very busy summer.  I am happy for him because we definitely will not be taking a vacation.

It is a fun, yet stressful, time for him.  He is still only twelve but is on the verge of being a teen. At church, after you have officially completed the sixth grade, you are considered a teen and can then join the teen youth group.  He has made the jump in a few areas but he has made a few friends that are not ready for the jump so he is still very active in the younger youth group.

CAL's summer weeks will look like this.  

Sunday - Two church services

Monday - Day of Rest

Tuesday - Day in the Park.  They get together and play sports at a local park.

Wednesday - Church - Summer Blast thing they have at the church

Thursday - Community Service 

Friday - The Lake 

Saturday - Depends on the week, but trust me there is always something.

I think the Saturday we are going to try to get the "night games" going at the house again.  Of course, we will try to use a totally different group of kids.  Hopefully these kids will be talking about the best acne treatment and not who drinks, smokes, and has started having sex.  They are only twelve.  That seems much to young for that type of talk.  

There are also several other events that are scheduled.  He is trying to talk his dad into letting him join the paint ball group but so far dad has refused.  Once school starts again he will leave the younger group and be a part of only the teen group.  This jump will bring many new and exciting activities.  I am so pleased now I don't have to plan everything.  

Extremely Disturbed.

I listen to PLR.org out of Washington State.  

I have turned the station off today and sit here listening to myself breathe.  This is a much better choice considering their programming today.

They are "honoring" Michael Jackson.  They have come up with a song montage and you cannot go more than a couple minutes without hearing some Michael Jackson nonsense.  

I find this incredibility disturbing.  This "man" is not someone we should be "honoring" in anyway, shape, or form - lets not forget the fact that you are a Christian Station and claim to be family broadcasting.  I don't care to have my child exposed to this individual.    

PLR it is very disappointing that you have taken this stand considering when I first started listening to your station I sent you an email to enquire as to why you didn't play more Amy Grant.  Your answer floored me......  It was something along the lines that you stopped playing her when she was having her martial problems.  I thought this was strange considering the fact that you played Sandi Patti during that same period.  Now you are "honoring" Michael Jackson.  

Soccer

Now Soccer is my game, or at least it used to be.  I played on my high school team from 7th grade through my senior year.  I loved it, as a matter of fact one of my reoccurring nightmares that I am too fat to play soccer in my senior year and I am forced to sit out.  

CAL never enjoyed soccer, he was a baseball man.  I signed him up for youth soccer when he was in first grade but he never had the love for it, like I did.  Oddly enough this never bothered me.  He said he didn't want to play and I didn't force it.  I dislike it immensely when parents force their children to play.  It is not fair to the child and it is not fair to the team.  

Today CAL received a letter from his school encouraging him to try-out for soccer and gave tips and conditioning suggestions.  My Boy says he wants to play soccer.  I am so happy.  I just spent the past half hour teaching him how to juggle.  This type of exercise is going to help me win my contest with him, and if it doesn't I might be checking out a diet pill.

It is amazing how bad I am at this sport now.  Then again juggling was never my real talent, knocking people down, now that was my talent.  

Facebook

I am officially hooked on Facebook.  I usually have it open in a browser at all times.  I enjoy the games but mostly I enjoy reconnecting with people from my past, but most of these people I honestly could do without. 

I came from a very small town in New York.  The Southern Tier is what we called it.  I have other names (but I am trying to keep my blog clean) and I could not wait to get out of the hick town and for the past 25 years I basically have not looked back.  I do miss things about my hometown.  Off the top of my head I cannot think of much but there has to be things, right?

The other day I noticed a girl that I went to high school and college with.  She was in a picture with her daughter (who was holding a can of beer).  The caption under the picture read something like "enjoying another 3 a.m. party together".  I emailed the girl and said wow I didn't realize that your daughter was 21.  She emailed back and said "she is not, she is only 18 but that never stopped us when we were kids, right?"  Right you are..... but with one major difference.

I never partied with my MOM!

You might be from (my Hometown) if you are almost forty and party with your underage children.  

Contest

CAL and I have decided to start a summer contest.  

The challenge is to see who can lose five pounds first.  Yesterday we both had an official weigh in on the Wii.  I won't tell you what I weigh but I think I have this in the bag.  I mean it should be much easier for me to lose five than for him.

CAL is getting a little chunky and he most certainly can  afford to exercise more and eat less, we both can.  

But then again I might be a little too confident.  CAL is rather active and yesterday he spent five hours doing raking and other yard work as a community service.  I guess I should have skipped the Dunkin Donuts this morning.

Next week CAL will spend camping with the church.  I think he might eat less and exercise more that week too.  Who knows he might lose all his weight within a week.  

I just might have to purchase some of the best diet pills in order to win this competition.  

Actually I am going to get off this computer and go for a bike ride.  

Pet Peeve

I have many pet peeves,  but one has been on my mind all day.

When we first moved to this neighborhood there were only a few family that had kids CAL's age. Because CAL was only 15 months when we moved in, there were not many kids younger than him.  During the past several years we have seen a major shift in the make-up of families. Now the age seems to be five through eight, and there are tons of kids that fall into that age bracket.

Now on to my Pet Peeve.  These parents allow their kids to SCREAM!  When I say scream I mean that blood curdling scream that makes you come running because you just know that someone has been severely injured.  

I cannot stand this.....  There is a house a block away that has a pool and the entire day I have listened to kids scream to the top of their lungs.  Now it is not just a few kids it is like ten to fifteen kids.  Their screams are not just a little ahhhhh they are constant drawn out screams.

I don't mind kids, as a matter of fact I kinda like kids.  I just think that kids can play quite nicely without all the SCREAMING.  I never allowed CAL to scream nor did I allow kids that played with CAL to scream.  I never even allowed the kids playing on the playground at school to scream.  It is totally unnecessary.  

Mom's if you allow your kids to scream to the top of their lungs during play....... you are WRONG.  It is not only annoying but how in the world do you expect to know when something might be horribly wrong if you become immune to the screaming.  

Computer Issues Again?

Yes I have just about had it up to my neck with computer issues.  

Several months ago my computer started shutting down with no warning and for no apparent reason.  Then the USB ports started fading in and out.  One minute they would work and the next they would be gone.  Then just last week the keyboard starting shorting out.  It would only function if you pushed as hard as you could on the space right above the keypad.  This was a major issue so I dug out an old lap top that I had and started using that.  The problem was,  that computer is pretty old and would take 30 minutes to boot up.  I am not exaggerating that time by one second.  Then after it was up and running you would click and literally wait 30 seconds to a minute between clicks.  

It became very clear to me last week that I needed a new computer.  I have also made a promise to myself that when the time came we would only purchase a MAC.  I am so tired of all the nonsense that comes with the others.  

After looking at the Apple Store I knew that, frankly we are months away from being able to afford a new computer.  I talked to The Hubby about upgrading to ddr3 on the memory but he didn't think that would help because all the computers are so old.

So I had to make a deal with my son.  I took the PC out of his room, that is older than both lap tops) and that is now my computer.  I have to be honest folks, I don't think I will go back to a lap top for my computer again.  This thing is like lightening.  I am so happy that I finally made the switch.  There is no reason why this computer cannot last for several months until we are able to purchase the MAC that we really want.  Even then the MAC will become the main business computer, CAL will get the Toshiba that The Hubby uses, and I will stick with the PC until..........

Worth every penny.

The Hubby and I have been married 17 years. During the majority of that time we accumulated a lot of "toys". There are several aspects of our live that The Hubby and I are a roll reversal. I love tools. There have been many things that we have purchased that we have not gotten our money out of. We bought an air compressor that is huge. It has a complete set of heavy duty tools. They have never been used. The biggest job we have used the compressor for is blowing up a pool.

One of the best things that we have purchased is pressure washers (really it was only one but...). It is the best thing since sliced bread. I love to use this machine. I have pressure washed just about everything that we own. I usually use it to clean the driveway, windows, wash the car, clean the garbage cans, and I know this is not recommended but I will spray the water directly in the air and let the kids run through the mist.

If you don't own a machine really it is worth the investment.

PBS needs to GO!

I have not liked PBS for years. It was little things that they broadcast when CAL was small that would ruffle my feathers. Most of the time they kept their liberal nonsense for the later hours. I also liked that fact that they would give opposing viewpoints. Now that will all stop. Now they will only be pushing the liberal ideas and "theories". There will be no more balance.

PBS will being to phase out religious programming from the airwaves. According to the article board members have turned a blind eye to religious programming for 25 years, and have just now started to enforce the rule.

I hope they realize that anything to do with evolution, big bang, and the other nonsense is considered a religion.

I stopped supporting and allowing CAL to watch PBS many years ago. The final straw for me was when I found out that Denny Doherty, was the star of Theodore Tugboat, a show on PBS. Just in case you don't recognize the name, Denny was part of the musical group The Mamas & The Papas. That may not seem like a big deal until you watch the documentary that they did about The Mamas & The Papas. Denny seems to be the star of the show and they interview him several times. During his interviews he laughs and jokes about the fact that the members were HUGE and heavy drug users. It is quite the joke to him. He is very proud of the fact. That is not a person that should be associated with children.

PBS has not been a family station for years and I hope this will mean the end for their liberal dribble.

Baseball and more baseball

CAL is in a baseball league and they came in second place overall. The past week we have been playing for the championship. It is a double elimination. They lost their second game but have won the past four games in a row and have one more to go. If we win the next game we will then advance to the "cities".

Don't you love how I keep saying "we" like I am playing the games with them.

It seems that CAL has been in a hitting slump. He usually hits safely in games but the past three he has come up dry. He would love to hit one of those steel buildings out in left field but so far that has not happened. His biggest hit has been a double. There have been several games that he has hit 3 for 3.

His defense has been outstanding. He snagged two line drives the other day and today he was responsible for turning a double play.

He is a good little player.

No good deed goes unpunished!

My neighbor called the other day to see if I could run a few errands for her. "Sure no problem". You might be asking yourself. "Self, is this the same neighbor that told Lukie that she didn't want anything to do with her because she was the most negative person she knows", Yes that would be the same neighbor.

Her daughter had an appointment. She was not feeling well so asked if I could take her, then drop her back at school. The appointment was about an hour, maybe more. I had no problem doing this because as most of you already know "I am a great person". Anyway I digress.

I had not heard anything from this friend since them. I just assumed (rightfully so might I add) that I would not hear from her again until another "favor" was required. This is fine with me, if this is what makes her feel better I am ok with that.

Today the phone rings and it is this neighbor. She was calling to thank me for doing the errands that day. Oh I almost forgot. The daughter decided to stay after school and she called to see if I could pick her up (on this same day). She didn't know how long it would be but she was still pretty sick. Again no problem. Fifteen minutes later the daughter called to be picked up. She stayed after for fifteen minutes. Had that been my child............ I digress again!

She called to thank me. She was sorry it took so long to call but they had all been sick with...... wait for it....... the swine flu - doctor confirmed. The first thing out of my mouth was you better not have given that to us. She responded with we would have it by now if they did. I asked "is that what took you so long to call".

If we come down with the swine flu I am going to be ticked. We no longer have health insurance so this could be a MAJOR punishment for doing a good deed.

Too Much Farmtown

OK so there is a game on Facebook called Farmtown. I am officially hooked.

The object of the game is to plant crops and harvest them when they are ready. If you hire someone to harvest you get more coins and they get coins for doing your work.

There are several crops that you can plant and each time you earn a new level you get a new crop unlocked. Each crops costs a certain number of coins, take a certain period of time to grow, and you earn a certain number of coins at harvest time.

I have it all written down as to how much each crop earns. For example the Tomatoes cost 50 coins to plant, at harvest you will get 140 coins. Sunflowers cost you 115 coins to plant, and at harvest you get 277 coins. In reality the Tomatoes are a better deal.

Yesterday after going to KFC for dinner we were riding down the exit ramp and I looked out the husband's window and looked at the grass growing along side the road. Without hesitation I said "those crops need to be harvested". He just looked at me with that expression that means I have totally lost my mind.

Personally I thought it was a very legitimate concern. You don't want your field to go to waste for not harvesting on time.

PTO

Several years ago when I was very involved with the PTO at CAL's school, the nurse put in a request for an AED machine.

Most of the parents thought this was a "must have" item but one single parent was concerned that an untrained person might use the machine and she didn't want her child in that type of danger. I thought this was the silliest argument that I had ever heard. What is the alternative. If the machine is not needed it won't work. Almost anyone can use these machines and training is simply following directions.

Because of this single parent the school never purchased the machine. Personally I think it should have been put to a vote. Maybe that parent could have just written a note. Something like: I don't care if my child is dying or not - please do not operate the machine unless you have been fully trained.

Field Trip

CAL had his final field trip of sixth grade on Friday. They went to Jordan's Furniture to see an IMAX movie and then into Boston to take a tour of Fenway Park. I was really surprised but CAL was desperate to have his dad go with him on this trip.

CAL was spreading is wings this year and has not wanted either The Hubby or I to take part in much at school. I did sign up to work the school store for one day a week, but that was the extent of our involvement.


A good time was had by all - except when CAL and dad got separated at Jordan's and they didn't get to sit together during the movie. CAL is still complaining about that......

Desperate

Today I was desperate for some good news. I held off on logging onto the news sites as long as possible because they never seem to have any good news anymore.

I need good news! I am desperate. I have had so much bad news these past few days, I just need something positive.... like baby announcements, wedding announcements, or "I am free of cancer" announcements.

On Friday I received news that a wonderful lady that we have known since moving to our city is only weeks away from losing her battle with brain cancer. She is just a wonderful person and I thought she was really going to win the battle.

There is also another lady that I worked with briefly at the school that is battling a rare form of liver cancer. I guess her one request from people has been privacy - I can totally understand that - so there is not much information to go on, but I don't think she is doing well. She is also a great person that only weeks ago was still trying to help me with my computer issues. She never said a word about being ill. My wish for both of them is that they know Jesus.

Taking Pictures.

It is almost impossible to get pictures of CAL at baseball. We sit out in left field beyond the fence and my little point and shoot camera just cannot zoom in. The other day I asked CAL to pose for a few photos. Now taking pictures with him is an exciting adventure. He will NOT hold still so I end up just doing this rapid fire picture taking. Usually I do pretty good with this method and over the years have taken some pretty good pictures.

The baseball pictures turned out pretty good. I didn't realize the sun was as bright as it was. CAL has his eyes virtually closed in most of the pictures.

If you want to see more pictures of CAL head over to my other site.

Busy Summer.

I was worried about this summer because we really don't have the funds to plan anything special. Once again, however, God is taking care of everything.

Shortly after school is out CAL will be going with a church group to the White Mountains for a week. We are very excited about this "vacation". He will be doing things that as a family we would never do.

We will be very active in church this summer. There are several events planned. CAL has Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Friday's booked through out the entire summer. On Thursday's he will be doing "mission trips" in our neighborhood.

If things turn around we are also going to plan some Orlando vacations, and go see Rachel for a few weeks. It has been years since I have seen her, and I have not been to Orlando since I was a kid. CAL would love to spend a week in FL with his big sister. I am not sure if she would want him for a week but.......

I am also planning to spend a week in Addison this summer. I know this is not really a vacation but it has been several years since I have been home. I have not worked out the details on this trip but I am very determined to make it happen.

The church has tons of activities for the kids during the summer. Did I tell you how happy I am with our church. It has been such a blessing for us, but mostly for CAL.

Goodbye!

Goodbye Jack. CAL's gecko Jack finally succumbed sometime during the night on Saturday. I felt so bad for him as his health had taken a significant turn for the worse.

CAL took it quite well, and we had a nice burial in the back yard.



I noticed that Eugene is having the same eye issues that Jack did and his one eye is gone. I was brainstorming reasons that the gecko's have become some sickly lately. It could be the fact that they have survived two ice storms (several days without electricity - we almost lost them both times). The other idea is that we started feeding them city water several months ago when we stopped using the water cooler. They were several years old but I thought they should last longer. Maybe they were just not good quality geckos to begin with. They didn't seem to grow like we thought they would.

My to do list!

We have a hard time with "to do lists". I am very good at making them but lack the willpower and commitment to actually do what needs to be done. I was not always this lazy, but the stress that we have been under these past few years has taken all motivation out of me.

Today I am actually in the gardens pulling weeds. I enjoy the task when there are big weeds and you can see an improvement after a few minutes of work. I hate the small weeds, you work for an hour and cannot even tell where you have been. Grass seems to grow every where except on my lawn. My flower beds are full of grass and it always grows up the middle of all my plants making it virtually impossible to get it.

I have so many small tasks to take care of and soon. I am going to have to call a plumber to fix the leaky shower that seems to have caused a never ending drip in the garage. I am hoping that simply replacing the faucet with one of those Grohe faucets will fix the problem.

I will be spending this weekend fixing the deck that I had to tear apart in order to get to the stray kittens that were under there. That should be a quick job, but every time I say something like that it will end up taking me hours.

Now that I am officially 40 these simple tasks seem to take longer and longer to accomplish. I still have the broken drawer in the kitchen. Someday I will purchase the right materials to complete that job.

As I sit here typing this post I just pulled several nasty black flies out of my hairline. Those little guys can bite.

Young Con

Bonfire

We are having so much fun with our bonfires on the weekends. I have no idea why it took us ten years to do this.

When we first moved in our neighbor complained one day when we started the fire, so we didn't light it again. Then she moved and we just never thought much about it.

I know the one year we bought the chimenea and would only burn the manufactured logs. The problem with that is one time we wanted to go to bed and the log was not done burning so we put a cover over the pit thinking it would extinguish the log. It didn't, it kept burning and we had the worst chemical smell in the backyard for days. It woke us up in the middle of the night it was so strong. Don't ever cover one of those logs.

This weekend CAL had a baseball game on Saturday and then there was an ice cream party at the coaches house afterward. We didn't get home until late but we still wanted the fire. We sat out there for a couple hours and CAL fell asleep. Now all he can talk about is falling asleep at the fire this coming weekend.

Could shoes really be the problem

Because summer is here I have been wearing my sneakers more often. The other day I noticed that my feet and back were killing me, especially my heels. I decided to go buy some heel inserts because the sneakers are new/old ones. (I purchased them several years ago but have not worn them much. They don't even have dirt on the soles.)

After buying the inserts my heels, and back seemed to get better but.... I didn't feel comfortable with my walk and the inserts kept moving around in my shoes causing an entirely different "problem".

On Sunday I decided that the inserts just were too uncomfortable and I would try the shoes without them gain. So far after two days of use, the heel issue has not returned. I am hoping that it will all work itself out or I might have to invest in a pair of Dansko shoes.

The Hubby has also been complaining about his feet hurting him. His sneakers are about five to six years old and I know that his problem is the shoes.

No more Double dipping.....

Shortly after arriving at church on Sunday I became very sleepy. It didn't surprise me because they, for some strange reason, don't turn the lights on in the chapel during bible study. It is on the dark side and it is pretty early in the morning.

As the time ticked away I because ridiculously sleepy and my head kept bobbing. Now this is very rare for me because, unlike The Hubby, I have to "allow" myself to go to sleep. I cannot just fall asleep sitting in a chair. I was also very fidgety as I fought to keep myself away.

I thought for sure things would get better during the morning service but I was wrong. I just could not stay awake. At one point I actually fell asleep with my eyes open. I was looking ahead and listening to pastor when my head sudden took a nosedive. I was in such a fog/haze. I was really racking my brain to try to figure out what was wrong.

I started thinking back to my morning routine. I remember taking a Benadryl, but was having a hard time trying to decide how many I took. At one point I distinctly remember taking only one pill and then another time I remember taking two pills. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed but came to the conclusion that I actually double dipped. I normally take one pill when I wake up. At night I will take either one or two depending on how I feel. There are times that I will not take any and then wake up in the middle of the night and I take two.

Sunday morning was a first however, I must have taken two when I woke up very early and realized that my allergies were bothersome. Then when I was totally awake I took my regular one dose. I am a baby when it comes to taking medicines. They knock me off my feet. Normally I won't take anything stronger than a Tylenol. When it comes to the Benadryl I know to never take two unless I plan on going to bed.

After church I rushed out of the service, as much as I could rush half asleep, and came home and slept for what my husband and the clock tells me was an hour and a half but what felt like ten minutes. I was pretty good for the rest of the day.

I really have to be more careful the next time. I am sure the deacons were second guessing their membership choice when I kept nodding off and then refused to shake hands or talk to anyone leaving the service.

I also remember grabbing my son by the ear.... had to ask The Hubby about that. CAL was being a "little" rude and I took care of the situation even though I was half asleep. Now I think I deserve Mother of the Year.