whew. *shakes head*

who knew cancelling internet service could take 11 minutes and 12 seconds? and that was only the time spent actually speaking to someone! i called to cancel our lovely peoplepc - dh found a better deal and i really wasn't thrilled with (okay, i hated) the software you are supposed to use. reminds me too much of the old aol. so i call to cancel. she asks why. i tell her because i want to. she offers me 30 days free. no, thank you. just cancel it. well, blah, blah, blah-bitty-blah...she can give me 60 days free. no, thank you. i appreciate it, but just cancel the account. well, they can host my old/new email addys for half price without any internet access - only $1.49/month. now, why the hell would i do that when i can get a bazillion email addys for free?! no, thanks. just cancel all services. thank you. okay, she's really really sorry to hear that i'm leaving, please hold for the 45 digit cancellation number. okay...so it was only 17 digits long. shit! who the hell gives out 17 digit cancellation numbers??? that ought to tell you something, if they started at 1. or even 1000.

*sigh* why do the simple things in life have to be so difficult? and did i mention i made this phone call with the cat in my lap and the dog on my feet freaking out because it's effing storming complete with cloud to ground lightening strikes within a mile of the house? gah.

hi - updated

i got nuthin'.

********************

updated to say: i got somethin'.

Rain - July 10th - 1 inch in under 45 minutes

Rottens - still at the lake with the ex-in-laws

Child Support -i actually got 2 weeks worth of payments in a row. this is worth noting. i'll probably go into cardiac arrest if we go a full month.

Telephone Service - phone went out yesterday. by the time the verizon man came, it miraculously started working again. went out again tonight during the rain/thunder/lightening storm. miraculously started working when i unplugged the brand new phone line from the back of my computer. hm. is my modem dying a slow painful death? or is it the rain, as previously thought? dh ran all new phone lines in the house this morning.

bb8 - hm. i kinda like it. i kinda don't. it's still early. however, i'm favoring dani and dick. joe is the love to hate. jen is a whiny baby wannabe porn star. the rest? meh. i don't know who they are really. and dammit. i don't get showtime and don't have tivo. and i'm sure not going to buy either for this bunch. and what's up with hamsterwatch and rtvw feed updates? this svcks.

Rain - again. now. and tomorrow. and 30-50% chances from now til sunday. WTF? when did texas move to seattle and the rest of the country move to texas?

okay. so that's all i got at the moment. *waves*

*shakes off water*

July 2 - 3.5 inches
July 4 - 0.25 inches
July 5 - 2.75 inches
July 6 - 0.25 inches
July 10 - 1.25 inches
July 11 - 0.25 inches
July 13 - 1.25 inches
July 28 - 0.5 inches
July 29 - 2 inches

And it's still freaking raining. But there may be an end in sight - Monday and Tuesday show only partly cloudy - no rain! Yay!

I need to learn Spanish again. I now have three fluent Spanish/English speaking employees. And I only know bits and pieces of what they are saying.

Frito Lay Munchies are the perfect breakfast/snack food. Today's bag is cheese flavored with Doritos (no peas), cheetos, sun chips and pretzels. Yum!

The Rottens leave tonight for 8 days and nights at their grandparents'! Yay! A whole week of quiet. I only wish I'd planned a couple vacation days in there.

rain, rain go away

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day,
If you don't, I will say,
Rain, rain go away.
Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day,
We want to go outside and play,
Come again some other day.
Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day,
If you don't, I don't care,
I'll pull down your underwear!

In the last month, we've had well over a foot of rain - 14.3 inches according to the flood control district. And it's supposed to continue raining.all.effing.week.

Yay!

Apparently, I'm not the anti-parent that I thought I was. Thank you.

So, does anyone have any extra plywood or 2x4s that are not being used? I think we are going to need to build an ark.

In other news, DH thinks I've lost my mind. The Rottens each had a friend come over Saturday and spend the night. They were all there til afternoon yesterday. They had fun with their sleepover "party" playing Uno, swimming, watching movies and eating cake. To me, this is the stuff of summer. DH thinks I'm nuts for dealing with that many kids for that long. *snort* I just think he doesn't remember what being a kid is like.

Am I the Anti-Parent?

The present suggestion thread on OT got me to thinking again about something that has come up in my world many times before. I'm starting to think I'm the weird anti-parent or something. I seem to be the ONLY parent I know (IRL and online) that buys her own kids markers (washable, of course), acrylic and watercolor paints, glue, stickers, play-doh, googly eyes, construction paper, scissors, beads, legos and the like.

Yeah, it could lead to a disaster. Yeah, I could probably kill myself on beads or legos. Yeah, I might end up with my hall walls painted or something.

But you know what, even though my kids have most of this stuff in their own rooms, I've only had two what-you-could-possibly-call-problems in all these years. Rotten1 made a sticker frame around his tv once and Rotten2 drew on her white wood dresser. The stickers came off with minimal effort, and I even let them stay there for a good while. The dresser is still drawn on a year later, primarily because I haven't redecorated and repainted her room.

So I guess I'm just the bizarro parent for letting my kids have this stuff, buying it myself, and letting them keep most of it in their rooms so it's accessible to them.

*yaaawwwwwwwwn*

I am so.freaking.tired.

Ugh.

Wake me up!

Gmail

Okay, with the sale of our current ISP to People PC, DH and I are on the hunt for new internet. In doing so, I've gone to gmail so hopefully I don't lose anything. Eep. Anyway, if you have my email address, it still works - for now. But you can go ahead and change it in your address books to txmomma26@gmail.com

Ramblings from Grandma's

* Spent the day with my aunt and uncle today going thru what's left of Grandma and Grandpa's stuff. Next weekend is supposed to be the "garage sale" and shelter donations.

* WTF are people supposed to do with 87 bazillion sets of Corning Ware? You know what I'm talking about. White plates, gold leafy type funky pattern around the edges. Everybody's Grandma (and probably many of us) had them at some point. Just when I get rid of all of my paternal Grandma's, someone wants me to take the maternal Grandma's. Ack!

* Does anyone still use a steel colander? What about wool blankets?

* I am now the proud owner of two sets of china and two sets of crystal - my mom's that I got last summer and now my grandparents'. I have no where to put or display these beautiful pieces of dinnerware. I feel totally guilty for stacking the boxes in the laundry room.

* At what point does the couch that's been around for 30+ years finally get disposed of? It's been recovered and re-fluffed at least once that I can remember. And it's still trying to stay in the family. As is the freaking console tv that I watched Captain Kangaroo on as a child.

It's been a long ass day. And maybe, just maybe, now I'm okay with my aunt and uncle buying Grandma's house and making changes. Maybe. I'm glad I went down, feels sort of like I closed another chapter. And I'm glad I decided to go down there alone.

The Rottens

*shakes head*

Today they are spending the day with my ex-sil and 13 mo old niece. They've packed chocolate donuts for breakfast, peaches and jello for snacks, movies, Magnetix and workbooks. Totally normal stuff, for the most part. However, Rotten2 is wearing my black heeled dress shoes. *sigh* Why? Because she didn't want to wear her black flip flops with her black skirt. The shoes are way too big for her. *shrug*

What are you wearing for Hump Day/Pantsless Wednesday/today?

New Day, New Post

I had a "Carey" moment last night. DH *pooted* while playing Playstation with Rotten1 last night. This led to Rotten1 running thru the house complaining about the smell. To which I replied, I'm the one who has to sleep with DH. Rotten1's response? I feel sorry for you. My response - Everyone farts. Rotten1 - You don't. *snort* This led to a 5 minute hilarious conversation involving the entire household about who farts and who doesn't. And according to DH, girls don't fart. They *poot*. Rotten2 says she does fart.

Welcome to my house. Isn't it fun?

Grrrrrrr! It's Monday

And what a Monday it's starting out to be. DH and I are primed for our first very large fight - on our 2nd anniversary, no less. Well, I'm not sure he knows what's coming, honestly. But it won't be pretty. Two of my four employees called in today for bogus reasons. I have a very large list of work related crap to do that will not be worked on at all today due to missing half of my staff. We are under severe storm and flash flooding warnings. Oh, and I have no phone at the house again due to the massive rains this weekend. Which means no internet since Saturday.

How's YOUR Monday?

One Word Answers

One word responses: copied from Bravie

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. You're single/taken?taken
3. Your hair? blond
4. Your mother? Dead
5. Your father? Gone
6. Your favorite thing? Rottens
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Jack
9. Your dream car? Mustang
10. The room you're in? office
11. Your ex? fuckingdumbassmoron
12. Your fear? death
13. Where were you last night? garden
14. What you're not? Awake
15. Muffins? Yes
16. One of your wish list items? Lottery
17. The last thing you did? Blogs
18.What are you wearing? Jeans
19. Your pet or pets? crackheads
20. Your computer? old
21. Your life? crazy
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing some one? Yes
24. Your car? Shiny!
25. Your work? work
26.Like someone? Yes
27. Your favorite color? pink
28. When is the last time you laughed real hard? Saturday
29. Crush's first name? who?
30. Dream job? counselor

Vacation: The Farm Finale

I'd show you a few pictures of the car show and much of my hard work, but I have yet to figure out how to get pictures off my Razr. So, if you know how, tell me and I'll share. *grin*

Day 8 - The car show went well - DH was the only one out of our three cars to win in his class. Ah well, FIL and I had stiff competition with many other gorgeous Mustangs. And all proceeds went to benefit the community center. Fun, fun day.

Day 9 - We came home Sunday morning. I dropped the Rottens off at their dad's on the way in. Then DH and I spent half the day baling our own hay. Okay, not really, but that's sure as hell what our yard looked like. Ugh.

All in all, even with the pissed off bitch crackhead attack cat, we're glad to be home.

Ow.Ow.Ow.

Day 7 was spent washing and waxing and massively detailing a barn-kept 65 Mustang Coupe that hasn't seen the light of day in over a year, probably closer to two years and finishing the 67 Mustang Fastback. The front pasture of hay was moved back by the corral. My SIL brought my 12 year old niece up for a couple of weeks, a week later than she was supposed to be here. *shakes head* I'm sun burned for the third (or fourth) day in a row. We've also discovered that DH doesn't much need his insulin or pump when he's outside from 9am to 9pm working his ass off. *snort*

Day 8 is the car show and Day 9 we will head home. I'm hoping a praying our cat doesn't totally hate us when we get home. A friend has been checking on her a couple times a day and taking care of her needs, but hasn't actually seen the cat since Sunday. We know she's there and alive - the litter box requires daily cleaning. But....I'm thinking the cat is pissed. Eep.

*piggymoopoot*

Well. Here it is. Day ...... *counts on fingers* Six! Yes, that's it. Thursday = Day 6. Full of hay baling and old car scrubbing. I am sunburned in true farm fashion - tank top, shorts, and flip flop tan lines. I so need a pool and a Nemo.

Miss you guys! *smooch*

Ow. Farm Day 5

I am so freaking sore. Day 5 started off like the rest - up at the ass crack of dawn. *sigh* I don't get up early easily, and neither do the Rottens. But for some sick reason, this week, we've all been up and more or less okay with it by 6:30am. Ugh. I ran to town for some playing cards and crayons in the morning. Then I washed the 66 Fastback and detailed my car. The boys started baling hay. And that? was the entire day.

And Moooooooooooo to You!

You guys are too funny.

Days Three and Four (because they kinda run together) on the farm...*whew* Would someone remind me why I was worried about what to do for 8-9 days? This vacation shit is more work than...well, work! Somehow or another (and I'm blaming DH), I sort of got volunteered to wallpaper the back patio room, which is about 15x8. This has been a unfinished (read: the area was drywalled 5+ years ago) project of the mil's. So, that is what I did last night and this morning. Until I ran out of the three rolls of wallpaper. And did I mention the place she bought this red brick with gray mortar hard as hell to match up wallpaper went out of business 2+ years ago? Eeps. Of course, I have two walls completed. The other two walls will have to wait until the other few rolls we ordered this morning come in next week. When I will not be here. And the curtains? Well...the material is around. Somewhere. *sigh* Yesterday afternoon also was the beginning of hay cutting on the farm. Much of this morning and afternoon are all about mowing with ginourmous tractors. This evening is the county-wide fire department meeting. FIL is Fire Chief for this area, so guess where we're probably going. The upside? Sometimes, fire station food is pretty damn good. The downside? Most of these firemen are not calendar material. Hell, I'm not sure I've seen any that are. Ah well. It's good for a laugh, at the very least.

Farm, Days 1 & 2

Saturday was spent cleaning out the garage and attached storage area. Holy.hell. That was an insane mess! DH was volunteered to clean out the garage and I decided, after walking into the storage area and nearly killing myself on crap, I'd clean that area. That was an all day project for both of us. Saturday night we went out to eat and to the junk auction. Came away with a 25 piece tool set, some ratchet tie down straps for towing and something else for $10. Not bad.

Sunday the kids and in-laws went to church. DH finished cleaning and organizing the garage and started putting a roll on bedliner in his truck. I planted a few things for my mil, but didn't do much else. Had a massive sirloin steak and potato lunch. Yum. Of course, mil had to remind us which cow (Ferdinand) the beef had come from. *snort*

Hope you guys are having fun. *smooch*

So.

Tonight we leave for the farm for 8-9 days. I'm excited, but now I'm stressing....What am I going to do with myself for that long without work?! I have books, and the Mustang to get ready for the car show. But....that's not going to fill every day.

What do you do on vacation? What do you want to do? What do you think I should do?