And Now, The Baby!
I went with “smiling” baby. It’s been a week, but I finally made it over to the new baby house. And I only took a few pictures. I know. I was having an off day I guess. It’s hard to take pictures though, while you are holding the baby, so there is that. I tried though.
And since this is pretty much all the baby does right now, I didn’t stay long either. I told my brother to call me when his boring kid starts doing stuff and I’ll come back over. I think he is still convinced (hoping) that this is how puppies look before they start growing fur and a tail. I’m going to let one of my sisters break the human news to him. But, he sure is cute isn’t he?! Later.
Smokin’ In The Boys Room
And by “boys room”, I mean the outside. While I work this weekend, my BF has decided to do many manly things, like, work on his motorcycle, cut large tree limbs with a chainsaw, and smoke much meat. It sounds like so much fun I just wish I could have had these days off to be here for all of it. Ahem. No, really. (Not really). I like to spend my holiday weekends working and taking care of sick people and listening to their families tell me what a crap job I’m doing. It’s what I got into this profession for. That rewarding feeling of spending more hours with other people’s families instead of my own. Without sarcasm, I really do like my job. It’s just some families make it very difficult to keep calm. The patients are fine. It’s just the families sometimes. Still, I think it will be better than the manual labor that needs to be done here. Sweaty, with heavy lifting. Oh wait, that’s my job too. Ha. OK. Enough. That’s my work rant. Back to the meat!
Apparently this is stuff you need. Along with a starter tube thing that gets the coals going, a temp gauge, (actually two temp gauges, one for the cooker and one for the meat), water for steam, spices, herbs, liquids, “rubs”, side dishes, buns, etc…and of course: The Meat. This will all cost you approx. 90 dollars or so. If you had to buy your own smoker, that could be an extra 100-500 dollars, depending on quality and advanced smoking technology. Or something. This smoker in the picture was the gift the BF got for working so hard at his job for this many, past 15 years. It seems like it’s nice smoker machine. I have just been informed that the meat is at 162 degrees. The number we are looking for is 190 I believe. We are doing pulled pork as the maiden smoking. I keep typing “we”, but I literally have done NOTHING except take the pictures and type this. Soon, I will get dressed and leave, so I won’t even be here for the big finish. But, of course I have a preview. Please feast your eyes below on three hunks of pure animal flesh, cooking and smoking, slowly, and at a certain temperature, for maximum tenderness and pullability. It really smells good too:
Two on top, one below. That sounds like a good name for a band or a book title. The key to cooking this right, I am told, is slow and low. Also, coincidentally a good band name or book title. At any rate, what we want is to put it in our mouths and not even have to chew. The meat should literally pull apart and melt like butter on our palates and slide juicily and effortlessly down our throats to our waiting tummies without any pesky chewing involved. But usually it’s on a bun with sauce, so please, family, while I am gone, chew a little, please. Bread mostly needs to be chewed, somewhat, to break it down. Then swallow. No need to ruin a good weekend with “Heimlich’s” or “ambulances” or “hospitals” or “morgues”. Thank you.
Thus ends the meat post for today. I hear and smell lots of manly things going on in the neighborhood today, so I need to get the hell out of here! The outside temp is up to 75 degrees. Sunny and beautiful for the Midwest. The meat temp is at a cool 165. The BF is cutting sticks with the chainsaw. The boy/son is playing XBox in his room enjoying none of the outside weather. The daughter is still at my sissy’s house and will prob go from there to her cousins house to spend the night, after she stops here first to eat meat. She loves meat. Yes, I see what I typed there, but I’m leaving it. It’s too early (for me) to try and fix the innuendo. She’s 14 for cry-yi. Some girls are salads and try a vegetarian phase, not mine. She is steak all the way.
Let them eat meat! And don’t forget it’s Memorial Weekend. Hug a vet! Thank a soldier while you are grilling those hot dogs and drinking that beer! Even if you just send up a big toast and a cheer into the great unknown. It’s all good karma to the universe. Later.
Stevie Pic #6 The Tree
It blooms, white as can, be for about one whole day, then it fades like all the other trees. This is not her best picture, because I think we missed the high bloom, but it’s here for “filler”. Fast pic. Fast post. Stay in the game because I have to go to work now for the long weekend. It’s my holiday. But I am not going to complain too much because unlike the military people, I, at least, get to come home every day to my family. Hopefully I will post more as we go through the next few days. Nothing groundbreaking or relevant to any particular thing, just whatever I have on hand and can post quick and efficiently. If you are home this weekend, please enjoy it and take a few moments to think, about all who have, and still are, out there making a difference, so we can have a barbeque and hang out in the sunshine. Although the sunshine is not available right now. Looks like rain. I guess that’s OK too. Cozy up inside and have a nice cup of coffee and I will check back later. Hug a vet (or a soldier) if you have one near. And as my cousin always says, (who has a son in the Army (Rangers–Special Forces)—AND my other cousin, who also has a son in the Army (Bomb Squad)—which I need to give a personal shout out too–hey Brett–(and momma) you’ll get your own dedication soon—SO SO proud of both, she says in case you forgot already: Freedom isn’t free. Our kids are out there carrying on! Mine says he’s going too after high school. Then I will really be on the soapbox shouting the word. Wow. This is a sudden heavy turn for a post about a picture of a tree. Ending now. Get those flags up and hanging! That’s what I’m going to do right now! Later.
Stevie Pic #5! And Updates Galore!
Posting to stay in the web site game today. Trying to get hits. It’s a total head thing. Posting because Stevie takes good pictures. Posting to use up all the ideas that are rattling around in my head and driving me crazy. While, in between, doing laundry. That damn laundry.
I have actually had 2 days off. This is my third. Third. (!) Why am I not all posted and getting tons of new followers? Why do I have a giant pile of crappy clothes and never worn shoes on my bedroom floor that are supposed to be purged? Why have I not seen my new little nephew in person?? Why is the laundry NOT done yet???
I have been doing things. Things like, helping my kids with this last week of real school. The boy’s last final is today. He is stressing big time too, trying to finish without any D’s. It’s been a tough and lazy year for this kid. His XBox is riding on this last grade. All he needs is a C. Seriously. And the girl has Algebra and her state Constitution to worry about. Math is killing her, but I told her to focus on the Constitution and forget the rest because at this point 8th grade is all about getting out and moving into high school. She needs to pass the Constitution, everything else, realistically, does not matter. No one EVER asks for your 8th grade transcripts. It’s all about the high school now. Fresh start. I may not be the best mom on the planet today, encouraging my kids to do mediocre, but at this point, on this Friday, with nothing left to lose or gain, passing is going to have to be good enough.
On a more “me” note, I exercised. Yes. I said, and typed, ex-er-cise. I did a workout AND ran a 5K. Yes. Ran. (Jogged. Shuffled. Walked a little. And maybe missed about 1/2 mile of the course…for a total of about a 3.9K) Two and a half miles at least. The course was kind of confusing and didn’t have clear markers at every point, but that’s not too bad. It wasn’t an official timed race, mostly fun. I finished in approx 40 minutes. Not a record breaker, but not last! And it was exercise. Outside, with other people as witness. My daughter helped organize a charity/community run for her school and I took the day off to participate. It was actually quite fun and I feel extremely proud and impressed by my daughter and her school and the whole event in general. There was about 60-70 runners and 100’s of spectators. That may not sound like a lot, but it is pretty damn good for Jr. High. My girl came up with the name and the theme and even designed the facebook page to promote it. Of course it helps that her aunt is a professional event planner and fixed all the details, but hey she’s only 14. Today the little village, tomorrow the big city! Check out the site here, if you like, just to get a feel for the kind of thing it was, and maybe next event you can come too! Here is my number bib as proof:
And holy poo-poo, my legs are killing me! The tops of my thighs seem to have taken the brunt of the exercise fall-out, and they are not allowing me to walk properly, or sit and stand with any kind of grace or fluid motion. I have to push myself up and lower myself down using my arms as brace so I just don’t fall over. So stupid.
The other thing I have been trying, “trying” being the key word in this sentence, is a new exercise craze you may have heard of called: Hip Hop Abs. More like Hip Hop Flabs for me (Sorry, that’s my one joke I keep repeating. It’s not the most original, but it usually gets a laugh.) and Hip Hop Jiggly Butt. (On another rambling side note, I have to say that when I was running, the most distracting thing was my jiggly butt. I could feel it moving. Yuk. So gross. I need to use this burst of exercise rejuvenation and keep doing it. It’s bad when you can feel all the flab actually moving. Yuk again.) My friend at work is like the new spokesperson for Hip Hop Abs or something, and texts me everyday harassing me about this shit. So I finally did it. I have discovered that I may be too old for the hippity hop, or any form of exercise that requires me to dance like a young person in a club and jerk my body all over, and into weird contortions that I probably couldn’t have done even when I was younger. My hips and shoulders don’t necessarily hip and hop in those directions. I just don’t have the rhythm or moves and ability to dance and exercise at the same time, and I never really did. Butt. I am going to try and continue anyway. If you are following along on the body pain tally, this particular tape set hurts my shoulders and arms. My abs are actually fine with this. They have probably just given up and are like, whatever lady, the layer of fat you kindly blanketed across our middle will protect us. Nice try though! Stupid abs. One day I will have a sort-of six pack and a non-30-year-old-ass. That last sentence is all for you Amanda. One day Vegas will see us again and we will ROCK that pool. We will cut through the water like sharks in the ocean. Although I will have to upgrade to a non-40-year-old-ass. Eeek. Time is a ticking.
I will continue now, to update my exercise status, again. I just re-read that, and I didn’t mean right now, but in the days and weeks to come. I even have a plan. I mean, I always have a plan. I just need to carry through. I even have a goal. Fer reals. Wanna see? I might as well just post it now, since this is already long anyway.
It’s a pair of jeans. That’s pretty much it. My entire weight loss/get healthy plan around a pair of Hollister Laguna Skinny 9L’s. I can almost squeeze my ass into them. Literally. They go right on up, and over my legs and thighs, but then stop dead at the ass portion of my body. I can almost tuck it in but then my front poochy area tries to make a stand and it’s just all-around ugly. There is no way I could zip them up and I feel bad for anyone near if I did. The pants would suffer, my flesh would suffer, anyone who has eyes and was looking at me would suffer. The jeans seem to be made of very high quality, strong denim and fasteners, but I don’t know, wearing these right now would require a lot of tensile strength that might be asking too much of a simple pair of pants. But that’s the ultimate goal.
The goal was also to have these on by my daughter’s graduation party in, oh, 22 days. I had a slim-down plan, like I did a few years back. The category heading is still over to the right there. 34 Day Summer Slim Down. Obviously I was going to modify that to account for my new timeline, but guess what? 34 days came and went and now I have 22. I aimed for that date so I could impress my whole family, current, new, and old, with my skinniness, because that’s healthy, right? Like my daughter’s teacher just said to me at the race when we were talking about it, “Oh well as long as you are doing it for the right reasons.” HaHaHa. We laughed. No one loses weight to impress themselves. Anyhoo. I am also trying to grow out my bangs. Which is taking way longer than I want. But I was using her party as goal for that too. I figured if I could keep them longer, and survive the bad stage where they poke at my eyes, without cutting them, at least until then, I could probably make it the rest of the way to the long stage again. So far so good on that goal! I use headbands at work. I feel weird about my open face but half my patients can’t see me clearly anyway so who cares. As I always say, I look much better blurry.
Well I should wrap this up. Hours have been spent here. I swapped a few loads of laundry, but I need to fold all that crap and put it away and try to clean up this house a bit. I defiantly told the BF that I would have all the laundry done by the time he got home. I am so stupid sometimes when I am trying to be all smart. I think I hit all the major updates. No, wait…
Thursday was my daughter’s Spring Band Concert. Done. Today is the 8th grade dance. Exciting! We had Mother’s Day. I had to work. There was the annual Crawfish Boil my sister and her hubby have every year. Fun! Here’s a pic:
I have GOBS of bird pictures and wildlife in the backyard. The bird feeders are back. The fat squirrels are eating everything and making me mad. The hummingbirds are back too. I saw them. I have street money that I am still collecting. My niece graduated high school!! Congrats Jesse!! I have new things involving trucks with crazy stuff on them. And tires. Lots of tires. I don’t even know why. I probably have more random things that I can’t even think about because now I am trying to hurry and finish so I can do a fast clean sweep and get back to the computer. My son just texted. Geometry final is over. He’s one class away now from sophomore year. I need one last picture though to end this mish mash. And there are always more pictures. In my phone and on my desktop. Hmmm. How about superheroes? My kids are a daily reminder that you are never to old to build a blanket fort in your room to keep out the bad guys:
Or too old to goof around in Target. Hurry up mom, and take the picture!! Come on now…
I. Am. IronMan.
You won’t like me when I’m angry.
Saving the world one word at a time. “Mommmmmmm.”
“Come on already.” Later.
Update 2. What did it mean??
Tomorrow Weed For Women Behind. Click here for the original post and question. Since the story is pretty basic, and straightforward once you hear it, I will just explain without a lot of writing. It was a note left by my daughter to herself. The “woman” that lives “behind” us, asked my daughter if she would “weed” her garden area “tomorrow”, for money, so that she could plant the next week. So my daughter left herself that note so that she wouldn’t forget when she got home from school the next day. However by spelling woman as women, she added that little bit of mystery and confusion to the whole note. Never believe that your words don’t matter. And never believe that punctuation or one wrong letter cannot change an entire thought or meaning to a random message. Spelling matters!! Every letter counts!! Every comma counts!! And I should know, because I use A LOT of both! (And let’s not forget the under appreciated exclamation mark, which I also roll out on a regular basis to make extra points.) The flower was simply there so that she would be sure to notice the note. Makes all kinds of sense right? Now it does. And FYI, she did weed the garden and she did receive some cash. End of story. Mystery solved. Now we can move on to the next silly thing.
Extra FYI, those are the kids being cool and funny above. But since they take, like, a million pictures, all the time, they can’t all be gems. So I put one of those below. I swear my daughter just holds the phone up and presses the button constantly, capturing these exciting moments for me to cherish. It makes me laugh every time I see it. Blah blahbbity blah. Bleahhh…
Updates!
One baby born! This little boy was actually born last week, but as you all know, I am lame. Hopefully any family people saw it on facebook. I mean, you can just go with this site for your local, state, national, news, but you will be getting very specific, and very late updates. Specific to me and my life and the things I feel strongly about, and, more importantly, anything I actually have time to post about. Good thing it’s not my job. Anyway, this is my brother’s new baby. About a week old now with several names. John Thomas James. It’s a nice strong set of names. I just looked up the date and it was May 16th. Now all of my siblings have children in May. (My one sisters kid was actually born June 1, but I’m counting it because it’s close enough and I still have to send the card in May) I guess I know what everyone’s been doing in the fall. Labor Day Fun Times. Ah love. So he is pretty cute huh? And he’s already got that look in his eye that my brother has most of the time. Congrats!
And a special thank you to my brother for telling me the good news in a hilarious and awkward fashion. It made me laugh all the way to work. You know you want to know, and I hope it translates here as funny as it was when he did it. He calls me and of course I figure it has to be about the baby so I just say, “Hello? What’s going on?” And he says (very seriously and literally), “Uh, well, um, well, you know, uh, we, uh, um, the baby, you know, um, well, it’s here. The baby is born and you know, it’s, um, it’s born now…” That may not be word for word, since he was mixing those “ums” and “uhs” and “wells” up all over the place, but it’s pretty damn close. I said, “Geez Tom. Could you tell me any more awkwardly? Just say ‘we had the baby!’ It’s not like, Oh hey, you know that thing that’s been growing in April? Maybe you noticed that she’s been getting kind of fat lately? Well, we went to the hospital because she was complaining about some pain in her stomach, and well, turns out it was a baby! So they, uh, got it out of there and it’s here and we have one now that we get to keep and take home!” Man, I love my little brother!! Hopefully he won’t be mad that I shared in this public place! Love and all that stuff. Later.
Baby Watch 2013
They tell me this is a baby picture. For some reason, when I got this on my phone, in a text message, after my brother’s wife went for the ultrasound, I just could not figure it out. I couldn’t “see” the baby in here. After some help from an outside source (another pregger lady in my family who happens to be another sister-in-law) I was able to see the image. At any rate, this is the little one we are waiting for. My brother texted me last night that they went to the hospital late to start the exit process. As of this morning, no baby yet. I hope he doesn’t get mad that I posted this. It’s a beautiful day to have a baby and become a new daddy! Good luck little brother and mama! Hopefully not too long now! Later.
Happy Mother’s Day! Feliz dia de las Madres!
Guess who the “Mother” is in this picture?? Trick question!! We’re ALL mother’s! Even the man…sort of. His wifey is preggers and should be having that baby soon. Technically not a mother but still a parent. I think I already went over this in an earlier post.
So here is another family pic. I am really expanding here, including self portraits now and everything. But of course I have to work. They need to make Mother’s Day an unofficial holiday for nurses because I have worked two years in a row and that doesn’t seem fair. We should have to switch off like other holidays. Next year I guess I better be smarter and plan ahead and take it off like probably every one else does. Live and learn.
Anyway, this is my official Mother’s Day shout out to all the Mother’s in my life! I included the Spanish version too because that’s how my son greeted me today. He’s actually nearing an “A” in Spanish, and he’s very happy and proud, and he’s really trying to use his new language to remember. Everyone do something fun today! The weather even seems nice. A bit chilly but sunny and perfect for outdoor things like walking back and forth between a house and a car or a car and a restaurant!
I am about to go call my mama and take a shower. Maybe we can do a breakfast in the morning, on Monday. Rita…maybe?? That way we avoid all the Mother’s Day rush and crowding! I know it’s last minute as usual, but why plan ahead anymore? Anyone in?? You can comment here if you like, but we should prob do a text thing or phone calls. Unfortunately I have to go now. Have a fab day to one and all! XO Later
Awww. 57 Degrees As The Car Drives.
It’s not really raining. And it’s not really 57 anymore. The temp is inching up again. And this wasn’t even today. I know that I should NOT be taking pictures, with my phone camera, while driving, on the expressway, in the rain. But I did. I saw the car ahead and sometimes you never know when you are about to drive past something cool. Be alert! The world needs more lerts! (That’s from an old poster I used to have about a billion years ago when I was young. It really stuck with me.) Anyway…it’s a picture I took and I really have no other use for it except to show my son and then delete it. So here it is, headlining a world famous blog on a semi-cloudy-sunny-sneaking-can’t-decide-if-it-should-be-dreary-or-not day. Man, I can really stretch out a sentence. Anyway anyway…
I’m about to go into the 3-part Tire Drama, I spoke of last night, told in HD Camera Phone Picture Quality Storytelling. That is a patented technique for my new posting style, basically more pictures so there can be less words, not successful so far, that I will let you adopt as your own for a small fee if you find it works for you too. Or just works at all. But here, you are getting it for freeeeeee….(Bedtime Story Style. Look it up.) Stay with me now, because, as usual, it will be a long and round-a-bout, drawn out, possibly all day and night, tale for the ages. In fact, you may not even see the thread or the connection in the beginning and will most likely forget the original idea for the story in the first place. That’s OK though. It’s Monday. And it’s Tax Day. I have a whole money post thing that I do. Truly. Today might be the day to update that, 3 years late, feature too. (Yes. 3. THREE. Years. Late.) It’s called “Found Money.” It’s real and it’s kind of interesting and cool, I think, but I am sooooo far behind. I have kept all this loose change, for 3 years, in different containers, (to tell each year apart), in my hall closet, without even tallying it all up! My whole family knows it’s there and just leaves it alone. FOR THREE YEARS! We even add the most current change to the most current container, and never disturb the previous ones. You know how when you live with crazy people, but you don’t realize that they are crazy, because you have never known them any other way, or even known any other people, for that matter, all up close and personal, until you spend time outside your small bubble of family, and suddenly realize that your normal is other peoples abnormal, but because you are deep in the crazy too, you just go along?? You know?? Well. Then you find that you have three years of loose change sitting in a closet that everyone is very careful not to move, or knock over and spill, or mix up, every single day, when they are just trying to get a towel out to take a shower. Thank you family!
So today may be our lucky day! The madness ends. Well, this one point of madness. Maybe. It’s not like I am counting that change yet. In fact, I haven’t even ended this long-ass post, and I have gotten so far off topic, and even started 2 new ones, maybe three, (I can work alot on very little) that I can’t even remember how I was going to end this thing. Tires. Money. Weather updates. Flowers. That’s four actually. And I really can’t (don’t) want to go anywhere right now anyway until I get my car back. Oh yeah. My car. The reason I don’t have it right now. That’s it. I found the start of breadcrumb trail! Lo and behold and the laundry shall never get done! More time a-wasting over here. Maybe I will just throw a load into the washer and switch the dryer real quick and then type some more. There’s no time schedule for crazy. I mean creativity. Later.
New(ish) Feature! Posts In Pictures! Because, Seriously, Sometimes These Things Go On Too Long.
Sorry Sisters. This exactly displays the horror we feel on many occasions. This one was for our brother, who’s having his first baby, after emphatically denying that he would EVER have any children, for most of his life. We took this after the baby shower (haha–baby shower–family and friends, all women, focused solely on him, (and his wife of course. Which reminds me of marriage, another thing he said NO to for most of his life also, if we are keeping track. Which I am.) giving him tiny baby items that he could not care less about or even identify a mere two weeks ago, and will now become the center of his entire universe, when this new little human being will be awake and crying at 2 AM. We took this at his house, while goofing around on his new IPhone, yet another object of the 21st century that he also stated he would NEVER own. We jest because we love.
It’s also the kick-off picture, for what I am hoping will be a new kind of posting, that allows me to post faster and more efficiently, with less words. You know, let the picture “talk”, and me just kind of “caption” the event happening. Although I see I am not getting off to a great start here. That “horror” look is for how long my posts can go on for. And, as a bonus representation, it works for the horror I personally feel, because I never, NEVER, ever, EVER, post a picture of myself. And with good reason if you check the title of this blog site and this stunning picture proof of my “almost good looks”. I am the one on the bottom left as you are looking at the pic. In my defense, I photograph horribly. No lie. People say they take bad pictures, but I truly do. Even goofy, silly pictures. I am not photogenic at all. I look much better in person. And that is a hard truth I accept as fact now, and avoid the camera like it’s on fire or will give me a disease. Or get me pregnant. HA. My sisters look good either way. Luckys.
Once again, I must go, quickly. My stove timer is beeping, telling me I need to get showered and ready for work. (I set a timer for myself for more efficiency and that doesn’t work either.) I am still racing the clock, all the time. More posts to come if I can actually make this picture thing work. I have the pics. I just have to utilize the time. Enjoy your Saturday. I’m out for the next 8-10. (Hours. That is. That reference is to the hours I will be gone. Ugh. Stop typing!) Later!
just shy of pretty 