Family

I don't talk about my family much but with the holidays just around the corner. I emailed my sister a few weeks ago to see if she would help surprise my mom for Thanksgiving. She email back with a non answer and I have not heard from her since.

I guess I am the black sheep of the family. I am the person that they try to hide every thing from. This past summer my grandmother died and I had to find out from a friend on facebook. My family had no intention of telling me.

My grandmother was in her 90's. We thought she was going to outlive us all. One area that always gave me concern regarding her was her lifelong problems with her thyroid. I remember her having hypothyroid treatment austin pretty consistently.

I know those types of conditions can be hereditary, I don't know of anyone else in the family that has been affected but I am sure some of these conditions can come later in life. I am not the spring chicken that I once was.

The King of Questions

Cal is the worst with questions. Dante and I can be in the room talking and every few seconds Cal will have to interrupt to ask questions about our conversation. The funny this is that we scold him every time, but he still continues.

Right now we are watching the football game and every time we make comments to each other Cal has to ask what we are talking about. I think the boy needs to get outside for a while.

Today was a day of rest. We have not left the house and I think it is starting to get to everyone.

Basketball

We had our third basketball gathering last night. I think that I am improving and not as much of a handicap to my teammates. I am probably one of the oldest ladies on the court and I am definitely the most overweight.

Basketball is so much exercise and manly exercise at that. I think I might wear my ed hardy trucker hats the next time.

I think this event is turning out quite nicely. We had eleven ladies show up last night and five of them do not attend our church. That makes this ministry an outreach and so far a pretty successful outreach.

Disappointed

The lady at the coffee store talked us into trying the "pods" instead of the k-cups. We tried a sample and then immediatley purchased the holder and 36 pods.

So far that has been a mistake. The pods are breaking in our unit and our coffee is full of grounds. The taste of the coffee is good and they have many more flavors but in the end, if the coffee is full of grounds, it is not going to work.

Fantastic Day

Dante suggested that we go for a hike to some falls that are a few miles from the house. What a perfect day. I thought it might be a little cold but in the woods it was perfect. We didn't complete the entire hike because Dante and Cal wanted to turn around but I made them promise that the next time we would do the three mile one-way hike.

We had tried this hike this summer but the bugs drove us crazy and ruined the entire trip. Now the bugs are gone and it was perfect.

It was such a relaxing hike, I didn't think about any of my problems/stresses for the entire time. I could have stayed out there all day.

We brought the camera and took a ton of pictures. We took so many that our
nimh rechargeable batteries ran out, next time I will remember to have them fully charged. I will try to post some pictures later but this computer does not have a memory card slot.

Waiting Patiently

My high school friend that I have been looking for for quite some time (the same friend that is in a relationship with a famous person) made contact with my Florida LPGA friend. She relayed the message that I had been looking for her and gave her my contact information. Now I wait patiently for her to contact me.

I guess this will determine just how close we really were.

Halloween

Some people don't like to celebrate Halloween because of what it stand for, in their minds. Personally I love Halloween. I don't get into the zombie, vampire, evilness, or scary side but I do love the pumpkins and other cute decorations. It is what you make of it.

That being said our church offers an alternative to Halloween. We get together and roast hot dogs over barrels and have games for the kids and so on. However, this year our family has decided that it will be more beneficial to our community to stay home hand out a treat and tract. I think we will reach more people by doing that rather than providing a free food night for the 20 or so families that might wander onto church grounds.

I wonder if it would go over well if I dressed up in sexy nurse costumes to hand out the candy at my door. Actually it would probably scare the daylights out of more than just the kids.

First Volleyball Night

We had our first volleyball night at the church the other day. While it was fun I think basketball is going to be more popular. You not get nearly as much exercise during v-ball. The b-ball nights I left the gym with sweet dripping from my body. V-ball, I barely broke one. I think I am probably better at v-ball than b-ball but I am looking for exercise.

The other problem with v-ball is that it was just a get-it-over-the-net game. There was not much bump, set, spike. Granted I probably would have to invest in some thrust bearings in order to get this large frame off the floor to actually execute a spike.

All that to say, we really had a great time and even better fellowship. There are some ladies that I have not had a chance to have a personal conversation with and, this gives us all a great opportunity.

High School

I cannot believe that my little boy is in high school. Yes, he is in 9th grade this year. Things are not much different for us but, for him it seems more different than he expected.

His school had a significant increase in high school enrollment this year and I think the school itself is having some adjustment issues. Hopefully they will iron out before long and the kids can settle down and get serious about their school year.

Unfortunately this year he will have another Science Fair. Oh I cannot tell you how much the parents loathe these silly events. He would like to do something with his paintball gun but what that is is still up in the air.

The other big change this year is that he has to start thinking about SAT's and then a little bit later comes gmat prep. We do have a few years to think about the best way to handle those tests. Right now VeritasPrep looks very promising. This means that Cal is going to have to start putting his nose to the grindstone and get those grades up where they belong.

Pumpkin Festival

This weekend is the Pumpkin Festival. Dante and I have volunteered to work at one of the booths selling food but after that the day is ours. They block off most of the oval and a side street. It seems to be a little smaller than last year but the food seems to be significantly better. Who in the world dips onion rings in pancake batter. YUCK.

I love our little town. We will probably walk ten miles today going back and forth, it will be a blast. Last night after Cal's soccer game (which they won! First win this season) we headed over for a few minutes and watched the corny pumpkin lighting ceremony and awesome fireworks.

Oh that reminds me...... we are not going to the church this year for Halloween so I need to get something to give the 1,000 kids that might come to our door!

Sisters are Nuts

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

We got Home-Alarm-Systemsat the house and Lord, if my sister didn’t have the hardest time working the thing. She’s always coming in really late as it is and she’d always set it off and forget the code forcing me to get out of bed to stop the alarm. I’m glad we have it since it’s not the safest neighborhood and the house we live in was bought by my dad who would KILL us if anyone ever broke inbut I really wish Karol would listen the next time I try to sit and show her how to work the thing. My younger sister Katie is talking about moving in, too, and she’s not only ditzy, she’s messy, so we’ll see how that goes. I have a feeling if she does that she and I are totally going to get into it at some point but I guess that’s all part of being sisters and learning to deal with each other as adults. No one tells you about how hard that part is!

Some added exercise.

I started a basketball/volleyball evening at church. Because the facility is so busy we cannot start until 8:30 and last week we went to almost 10:30. We are having a great time and I am doing much better than I imagined I would. So far we have had one volleyball night and two basketball. The basketball has been better attended but hopefully volleyball will make a come back.

Work has been much better recently with my boss finally having more confidence in me to make decisions without constant micromanaging. I keep joking with the hubby that he might have to look into Network Installer Jobs because I don't see becoming a full time employee anytime soon. I really need to get a job that offers benefits. The ideal situation would be that our business starts doing the amount of sales that we did 15 years ago, but I won't hold my breath.

I think getting involved in church things outside of work has actually helped me to start enjoying my job more!

No goal yet

Cal has not scored a goal in soccer yet but I fully expect it to come before the end of the season. He is getting better with each game.

I had forgotten how much I love this game. I most certainly cannot play the way I used to and that makes it difficult for me. I don't dare slide I might break a hip. I don't know how to play without sliding. I also cannot run the way you need to run when you play halfback.

I need to get back to the gym and build up my running stamina, not only for soccer but for ladies basketball.

Reveal my "secret identity"

I have some pretty strange news that has the potential to reveal my identity but it is just to strange to keep a secret.

I will try to tell the story so that it is not searchable on google.

One of my good friends in high school has just announced her "relationship" with a certain famous person.

I have tons of picture of us together and told Cal that I should go dig them out and sell them and get rich. Obviously I am kidding about selling the pictures. This person is in at least one of my pictures on facebook.

I cannot tell you how I feel about this entire situation because that would not be fair to anyone involved. I am not "happy" but it is probably not for the reason you would expect.

Hard to believe

It is so hard to believe that I have not blogged in over two weeks. Work has been wicked (a word we say a lot here in New England) busy at work. I have been working over my scheduled hours almost everyday since school started.

I have added many new responsibilities since the school decided to use an entirely new software. It causes me double the work when I have to schedule facilities or vehicles. Now I have to pull the information off their system and add it to the church system. It is a little on the silly side but I do see the benefit for the school.

I have many topics to wrote posts about so come back again soon!