And School is almost over.

Yesterday was Rotten1's award ceremony for 2nd grade, where he was given certificates for A-B Honor Roll, DEAR reading, and the Determination Award by his teacher. The Determination Award was voted on by his classmates - and he was the only one who received it - for always finishing what he starts, no matter what. Here is Rotten1 with his teacher after the ceremony.

Rotten2 also had her Kindergarten graduation last night, complete with caps and gowns and little diplomas. They sang several songs for the parents and showed a movie with pictures taken throughout the year. I know they all grew up this year, but wow. Looking at those first of the year pictures compared to the kids sitting in front of us....Truly unbelievable. And here is Rotten2 with her teacher after graduation.

I have to hand it to this year's teachers. They were both truly amazing, very caring, on top of things, and just all around wonderful teachers for the kids. Very special, wonderful ladies who made this year a joy, a great learning experience, and were easy to communicate with and work with. So, to all teachers, thank you. Without wonderful people like you to influence, teach and enrich, my kids would probably hate school.

ABC's mememememe

A is for Age - 28, almost 29
B is for Booze - Margaritas, Jack & Coke, Rum & Coke
C is for Career - I'm supposed to have a career? This deadend job does not qualify.
D is for Dad’s name - Lawrence
E is for Essential Item to bring to a Party - Drinks, chips and dip
F is for Favorite Songs at the Moment - Gotta be Something More, by Sugarland
G is for Goof off thing to do - Blogging, altho there hasn't been much time for that lately.
H is for Hometown - Of all the places I've lived in Texas, the East Texas area will always be home.
I is for Instrument you play - I played the piano for a few months, does that count?
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Strawberry jam, peach jelly, blueberry jelly
K is for Kids - As if we don't all know about the Rottens by now?!
L is for Living arrangement - House with DH and the Rottens
M is for Mom’s name - Jeannette
N is for Names of best friends - Tracey, Crysta, and all of you!
O is for overnight hospital stays - 2 - the birth of each child
P is for Phobias - Death before my kids grow up, Mice
Q is for Quote you like - "I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seemstoday, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow." OR "I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back." - Maya Angelou
R is for Relationship that lasted longest - This is a tie - 4 years each
S is for Siblings - one half brother, three stepbrothers, and one stepsister - altho the only one that counts and is a permanent addition to my life over the years is my half brother. The steps have come and gone.
T is for Texas, Ever been? - Do I really have to answer this one?
U is for Unique trait - Very little is unique about me, altho these days, honesty seems to be almost a unique trait.
V if for Vegetable you love - Corn on the cob, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, fried okra, squash....
W is for Worst traits - Stubborness, Hardheadedness, and Defiance
X - is for XRays you’ve had - chest, wrist, ankle, knee, and many dental xrays
Y is for Yummy food you make - Rotten1 loves my tacos, Rotten2 loves my spaghetti, and DH loves my meatloaf.
Z is for Zodiac sign - Leo

Saturday Musings

Rotten2 had a wonderful birthday and says thank you to momma's 'puter friends. She was thrilled about the entire day - so cute.

Now. Who in the world decided that mid-May was the time to bring on mid-90 degree temps? It's freaking HOT outside. I think its already 80 degrees and it's not even 9am. Gah. And I have to go sit at a baseball game at 11:30.

And now for my weekly chore list. Let's place bets on how much of this gets accomplished with no kids and no DH today. Dusting, vacuuming, bathroom scrubbing, mopping, cleaning my poor nasty truck (again!), grocery shopping, bill paying, and....it's my turn to clean the litter box. I need to figure out where the leak in the pool is. It's one of those above ground blue ones at Walmart and it's slowly losing air around the top. We've patched a few holes and apparently have missed one. I also need to drive 45 minutes to the jewelers to have my wedding ring inspected. Holy shit. That means DH and I have been married almost a year. Wow. Where does the time go?!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Update: I was in the shower after cruising the blogs and the dog went Nutz. I mean, insanely cuckoo. So I get out, wrap a towel around me and peek outside. The mailwoman came by and was on the porch because I had a package! A package! Yay! Wait. I didn't order anything. Hm. So I sneak onto the porch in my towel, grab my package and quickly get back in the house. It's a box from Monsty!!! And inside, just in time to head out to Rotten1's game - a Red Sox hat! Hooray! So I finished my shower, got dressed and wore my brand new Red Sox hat to the game.

Also, I got absolutely nothing on my list accomplished. Instead, I went to the game, window shopped, went to the bookstore, got my hair trimmed, window shopped some more, went to Walmart and then Petsmart. Then I came home and took an evening nap.

Happy Birthday to my baby girl

My baby girl is 6 today. I can't believe how time flies. It seems like only yesterday I was in the hospital, fully coherent (which was a complete change from Rotten1's birth) and scared to death that something was wrong. She had been taken straight from the OR to the nursery, before I could hold her because she still had amniotic fluid in her lungs due to the CSection. I was in recovery for only a couple of hours ... so afraid for her and wanting to see her and hold her that I forced myself to walk before I was really ready. In fact, I couldn't feel my feet yet but I managed to walk around the room so they'd let me up to go to the nursery. To this day, I have no idea how I managed that.

Today, she is a confident, outgoing, spirited child. So very girly and prissy, yet has her moments where she will play in mud puddles. Of course, those moments are usually followed by a check of her clothes and shoes and a desire for a bath. She's grown so much this past year - it's amazing how much she has learned and how much more of her personality has developed. She is entirely too much like her momma, that's for sure.

At 1 year...

And today....

Wednesday, already?

Where the hell has this week gone? Oh yeah....baseball, a church school program, and hell/work. Tonight is Lost, cake baking, present wrapping and laundry. Tomorrow is Rotten2's birthday and Friday is baseball. Whew.

Someone please tell me what it's like to have a life. Please?

Weekend Update

After baseball practice last night, Rotten1 & Rotten2 ended up going home with one of Rotten1's teammates and his sister. An unexpected night with DH! So what did we do? Went to sleep at like 9pm. *rolls eyes* It really has been a bizarre week.

This morning, we headed to pick up the kids and stopped at a garage sale on the way. Found a Gateway Pentium II for $15 that needed some memory...so we bought it! Stopped at a local computer repair shop and picked up two memory sticks for $10. Then spent the better part of 6 hours trying to get around the Administrator password on Windows XP Professional. And no, the folks we bought the computer tower from had no idea what the password was. *sigh* Redneck Techie Momma finally ... um ... managed to get it working for DH after he found a little program on the Internet *grin* Then we got the free Compaq working, too. So now I'm in search of two decent used monitors, a keyboard and a set of speakers so both kids will have their own computers again! Yay! In the midst of all of this, we picked up the kids and ended up bringing Rotten1's teammate home with us, too. The boys played and swam all day, Rotten2 left them alone for the most part, and we all had fun. Rotten1's teammate ended up spending the night tonight, too.

Tomorrow? Hopefully I'll get that long list of chores accomplished from below. At least DH got my truck washed today, and the kitchen and living room are clean. I think most of the laundry is done too. Hm...may not be so bad after all.

*smooch*

TGIF

No, really...Thank God it's Friday! I am so glad this week is over. It's just been a bizarre week all the way around. I'm trying desperately to forget that Monday will be here shortly.

The kids ended up spending the night with some friends tonight, so DH and I got an unexpected evening to ourselves. Of course, he crashed early since he was up all night at work and I'm tired, but not sleepy.

This weekend's excitement is geared toward finishing shopping for Rotten2's birthday, yard work, cleaning the house, watching the kids swim and not much else. Yay! What fun will you be having this weekend?

*smooch*

So.

I'm sitting here tonight playing on my computer and it hits me.

It's quiet. Entirely too quiet. DH is at work. Rotten1 is spending the night at his grandma's. Rotten2 is here, though and she usually makes enough noise for seven children. Where is she and what has she gotten into? Last I'd seen her, she was off to color in her room. So I go in there. And at 6pm, she's fast asleep at her desk coloring a My Little Pony page.

So cute, so sweet, so quiet. I didn't want to move her for fear that she'd wake up. But it didn't look comfortable. And besides, if I didn't wake her up, she'd never go to sleep tonight. But she must have been tired since she had a long, late weekend at her dad's AND she'd been there last night.

So I moved her to her bed. She didn't wake up immediately. About 5 minutes later, she came in the living room with me and asked to go to "that new website" her teacher told her about. Turns out, it is one we've been to many, many times - just not to this part of the site. pbskids. *snort*

She has entirely too much fun when it's just me and her. And so do I.

Randomness...

Have you ever bit your lip or the inside of your cheek when trying to keep your mouth shut around a problem employee, stupid manager, the in-laws, or some other annoying individual you are stuck with so often that you've actually caused a sore? I have. Today. And it hurts like hell every time my cheek rubs my teeth.

********

Kim (aka Weltek) is a goddess. Really. These brownies are absolutely wonderful!

*******

Rotten1 pulled his other top front tooth last night. All by himself. Sort of. I'd been helping wiggle and turn it, then he decided he wanted to do it. The look on his face was priceless when it popped out in his hand. I'll try to get the pictures of the former Snaggletooth off my camera soon.

Long, long day

After a nice, relaxing weekend...I went back to work. Argh. It's insane. Orders are up, production is up, you'd think all would be well, right? No. One employee is out with a family emergency and we don't know when she'll be back. Another employee is on light duty due to cataract surgery. Did you know that for a week after eye surgery, you cannot lift anything over 7lbs because you might strain your eye? No shit. I have the doctor's note to prove it. So, what does that leave? One employee who is fairly new and working her way through the year long learning curve. And me. Yay. /sarcasm

Rotten1 had a ball game tonight - a make up game from last Saturday's rain out game. They played very well. Rotten1 scored two runs and had 3 hits! Two of our worst players, and they are bad, even swung well. One actually got a hit! His first all season! Unfortunately, a couple of fielding errors cost us the game :( Ah well....they played very well over all.

Rotten2 is still cranky and crabby from her weekend with their father. I swear, I'm putting her to bed at 6pm tomorrow if this shit doesn't stop!

And on the job front, well. No news. No return phone call. So..no big deal. It was a good practice process for the next run. I sent out a couple more resumes yesterday. We'll see. Oh, and according to some news report? Unemployment is down and the job market is booming. According to Jay Leno, the White House Cabinet has enough job openings to cover all unemployed people. *snicker*

I give up.

I called the HR lady today, she was out sick. I left a message inquiring whether they had filled the position. We'll see. I still am giving up though. If they call, it will be a nice surprise.

The Tooth Fairy left a $2 bill + 2 $1 bills. Rotten1 was extremely excited about this because his best buddy also gets $2 bills from the Tooth Fairy, which I did not know. He's never, ever going to spend the $2 bill because it's very special to him. Color me impressed.

In other news, I went shopping tonight. I bought a new watch, a pair of very casual capris, a skort, two shirts and two pairs of flip flops. I will be taking back another skort and shirt that do not fit properly. I also bought new foundation - I'm trying this creme to powder stuff...we'll see. And, I bought some lotion, a few new hair scrunchy thingies, some Benadryl for Rotten1, dog shampoo, kid shampoo and body wash, and a new toy for the cat. No, they were not all purchased at the same place. I actually went to two different stores! Yay for me!

Now, I'm off to make the blog rounds and watch Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone for the first time.

*smooches and hugs to all my wonderfully supportive friends*

Hi.

As noted below, I still have not heard anything about the job. I'll give it til Friday afternoon and then call them to verify my thoughts. I don't think I got it :( But...what is meant to happen, will happen.

Other than that, not too much exciting is going on. I think we're getting Carey/Catt/mm's weather...it started raining Tuesday and has barely let up and isn't supposed to stop til Saturday. Blah.

ETA: It's mtw's weather too. Men. Sheesh.

And as for the lack of excitement? That went out the window as the evening drew to a close. I pulled Rotten1's very loose tooth, which made for some excitement and little boy happiness. This is his 3rd one - this time the top left (if you're looking at him). Then Rotten2's allergies went haywire and she had a minor nose bleed. Of course, it's just my luck that we're out of Children's liquid Benadryl. Crap. So I go digging in the medicine cabinets and all I can find are Benadryl capsules. Ages 6-12 and 12 & up. Well, she's close enough to 6, so she actually swallowed her first medicine pill!

Damn. My life is entirely too interesting.

Job Interview

So today was my job interview at the hospital. I called in sick to work because I just couldn't schedule another vacation day right now. I got there about 30 minutes early and was able to start some of the pre-interview testing. Did fairly well, if I do say so myself. Then I met one of the HR ladies. She was very nice, discussed benefits, the company, and other details with me and asked a lot of background questions of me. I hate "Tell Me Three Things about Yourself ..." questions. She seemed okay with my answers there, though. We talked a bit about her daughter, who is the same age as Rotten2 and her two older sons - one of them is in the Marines. She walked me over to the main building and introduced me to the guy who would be my manager if I am hired. He and I talked for a long time about the job, qualifications, experiences and personalities. The funniest question of all came after he told me the previous hire lasted for 3 weeks and a day. Mind you, I've walked through 80% of this department and seen the layout of it all on the way to his office. Would an open air environment bother me? I was dumbfounded. Totally stupefied for a minute, until I realized he was serious. Of course, the next question was almost as good...does certain "language" bother me when used in the context of a sentence on rare occasions, whether directed to me or another person or thing. I almost laughed at that too. Instead, I expanded on our slight humor we had going at this point and threw my hands up and said forget it, I just cannot handle that type of stress. He laughed, I laughed.

This job sounds wonderful. The lady I would be replacing, if offered the job, left her position to move up the ladder a bit. So she's there, would be my trainer and seems very nice. I really, really want this job. I was the last interview and it's between me and one other person, who is as different from me as night and day. Yep, that was the manager's exact phrase. I'm not sure what exactly that means, but we are both qualified candidates who are causing him extreme stress over which would be best for the job.

Wow.

I will know something tomorrow.

Double wow.

It's all Augie's fault.

I dug 50 holes in my big flower bed across the front of the house today with the kids' help. It's all Augie's fault. If she hadn't been talking about buying annuals for her flower beds, I wouldn't have gone into the gardening department with the Rottens today. And I wouldn't have dug 50 holes. And NO! I'm not exaggerating about those 50 plants. 8 six packs of petunias, marigolds (or something that looks pretty damn similar but didn't have a tag in it), two kinds of Celosia, Salvia, and Begonias plus two larger petunias. And they are all bright colors - pinks, whites, purples and yellows. And a red something...maybe that was the Salvia.

See how mean Augie is!

Redneck Hillbilly Moment

I went to the grocery store this afternoon after I dropped the kids off at their grandparents. Of course, I loaded my buggy (see also: shopping cart, cart) with the usual - bread, milk, chicken breasts, hamburger buns, bananas, pork chops, steak, veggies (frozen and canned), kids' lunch crap, Cokes, ice cream, etc. And on my way to the check out, what did I see? KC Masterpiece BBQ Beef Jerky. I love beef jerky, but hate paying for it. I usually only get beef jerky in the fall/winter and then it's usually venison jerky. I couldn't help it. The display was calling to me. I had to have some. I picked up a bag and put it in the buggy. I put the bag back. I picked it up again.

I ended up with 2 bags of beef jerky - Original and KC Masterpiece BBQ Jerky. Damn, it's good.

Minute by minute....- Updated

That pretty well sums up how I'm getting through my days right now. In bullet points, here's my life right now:
* DH is working with the insurance companies and his endo to get an insulin pump. I'm working with our finances to make this work for him. Update: Looks like this could go very well for DH. He is diabetic and has been for about 2 years. Given his career, the shots have not been as easily managable as the pump should be. He will have to have it on him at all times (most of the time).
* I'm looking for a new gyno who is on our insurance. This will not be good. Well, in the end, it will be, but the process of finding and going and dealing will not be good. Update: I have found 3 ob/gyn offices that I will be checking out. I am dreading this.
* Rotten1 got clobbered in the mouth/nose last night at his baseball game while playing 2nd base. He ran up to catch the ball and instead of it rolling, it bounced up and WHAM! He's fine, just has a fat lip.
* Rotten2 has a field trip to a local horse ranch on Thursday. She's quite peeved that I will not be able to go, due to work issues.
* Work. *sigh* I hate it, but I'm showing up and doing my job. Right now, that's about all I can ask out of myself. Update: I received a call today from the hospital next door to the hospital DH works for. They want me in on Monday for TWO interviews!!! Yay! The first interview is with HR, the second is with the Construction Project Manager, who I would be working for. Even if I don't get this job, it's given me hope that there is something else out there. Now. WTF do I wear to an interview?!?
* I actually got a full child support from my ex last week. First time in almost a year. I'm not holding my breath for another one anytime soon. Update: Unfortunatly, after a minor shopping spree for the Rottens, most of the money is going toward daycare. *pout*
* 27 more days of school for the Rottens! Yikes! This is a whole 'nother post in itself.
*I need a nap....like a long bear winter hibernation type nap. Not sure if it's stress or what, but I'm constantly exhausted these days.
* Best of all, I'm trying (and partly succeeding) in keeping a good, happy mood going.

A Rotten Easter

The Job Search is ON!

OMG OMG OMG.....I've gone and done it. I put in my resume to several different companies tonight. Only two are local. The other 6-8 are about an hour away, in what I lovingly refer to as my hometown. Tyler is the only place I've lived that I'd gladly move back to. It's big enough that I could be in town and still small enough that there is land and trees to be had.

Larry is currently working about 15 minutes north of Tyler, so finding a job for him is irrelevant. But...we own the house we are in, the kids' family is here. What the fuck am I thinking? I know, it's not like I was offered a job or anything. Hell, all I did was put in my resume. But, Larry and I have been talking about this off and on. He's never lived in Tyler, but he has really come to appreciate the area and made several friends in the 6 months he's been working down there. The kids' grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins go camping down around Tyler about once a month, so they'd still see them regularly - just not daily like they do now.

Cross your fingers for me. It's definitely time for a change - I just don't know how big of a change yet.

Tagged: Six Weird Things

Here are the rules-
1. Reveal six weird facts/things/habits about yourself and then tag six people
2. Leave a "You're Tagged!" comment to let the people you have tagged know they have to reveal six things (or the entire blogosphere will explode and it will be their fault)
3. Leave a comment HERE to let me know when you have completed your mission

SIX THINGS

1. I have worked at the same company for almost 7 years. I have had 6 offices (one, I've had twice) in that time, all but one within the same general subsidy in three different capacities.

2. I rarely watch TV. Maybe a total of 3 hours every week.

3. When I was pregnant with Rotten2, I knew it within days - with no symptoms or missed moments.

4. I have not finished college. I am one hour shy of my Associate of Arts degree. That one hour? was a PE class I dropped when I was 6 months pregnant with Rotten1.

5. I kept my middle name through both marriages and dropped my maiden name totally. The kids only recently learned what my maiden name was.

6. My high school class had 642 kids in it. I was #228.

TAGGING:
1. Bob
2. Boo
3. Arkie
4. Iggy
5. Seana
6. Zombie

Update, as promised

This may not be as exciting as you all hoped.

Friday did turn out to be a Good Friday, after all. After sending the kids to take a nap at 9:15 am, they straightened up within a few minutes and all was right with the world. We straightened up the house, played outside quite a bit, went to the grocery store, and just hung out. We (the kids and I, Larry was at work) ended up staying up until midnight watching movies and cartoons.

Saturday was busy. We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the church from 11-12, a baseball game from 12:30-2 something, then we came home and boiled eggs to color. Of course, it was another 80+ degree day, so we hung out outside most of the afternoon and the kids rode bikes and played baseball and drew a million pictures with sidewalk chalk.

Sunday was Easter! Yay! After Rotten2 woke up twice in the middle of the night to "check to see if the Easter Bunny had come" and walked past their filled baskets in the dark, that is. The Easter Bunny brought the both of the kids several different workbooks - word searches and mazes and such, a puzzle, a chocolate bunny, some Hershey's Kissables, a jumbo pen, a small toy, a paddle ball, some Rocket Balloons, and some other stuff that I've forgotten now. After opening their baskets, Rotten1 asked me if the Easter Bunny was real because one of the boys on the bus said that your parents are the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I didn't have the heart to tell him and Rotten2, who was sitting on the floor in the living room, that they aren't real. Not to mention, I'm not really ready to let go of that piece of their childhoods. So I got out of giving him a real answer by saying that he'd asked me if we could go out to eat Saturday night and I told him I only had $20 in my wallet so we would be eating at home, and asking if he thought $20 could buy all of the stuff in their baskets. He answered No. And it was left at that. We went to church Sunday morning, too. That was....wow. I haven't been in years, even though the kids regularly go to Wed night activities with the ex-in-laws. I grew up in the Methodist Church, while the ex-in-laws are Baptist. In most cases, it is the same beliefs, just a bit of difference in the practices. So, anyway, the kids and I head off to the local Methodist Church. Wow. It was definitely a sermon I could relate to and the members were extremely friendly and welcoming for it being our first visit on a day when they had many, many visitors. Sunday afternoon was filled with a small nap, lots of playtime outdoors, screaming whistling rocket balloons, bike rides for the kids and just general goofing off.

Today......*sigh* I so did not want to go back to work. But I did, and I managed to make it through the day with only one nasty remark to my boss, who is a complete imbicile. Baseball practice tonight and a quick spaghetti dinner and homework. Oh, and did I mention that we hit a record high temperature? 100 degrees! Yep. It's going to be one hot ass summer.

ETA: I was wrong. Channel 5 Meteorologist says that it was 101 today, the hottest day ever this early in the year. Also, it is 10 pm and it's still 91 degrees outside.