Stevie #8. But I’m Going To Stop Numbering These Now To Save Brain Power.
Four Leaf Clover! Looking a bit mangled up here because she had already been carrying it around for awhile after she picked it. Then we had to photograph it. Then she made her wish and let it go into the wind. Or at least into the backyard grass somewhere. I don’t know what the wish was because, you know, you can’t tell anyone or it won’t come true. I told her to be smart though. (Yes, I gave practical, helpful, “wishing” advice.) Don’t wish for something stupid like a billion dollars, because that would never come true. Don’t be greedy. Wish for good health or happiness or something like that. You make your own luck. But it can’t hurt to enlist the help of a random weed in the garden every now and then. Later.
Stevie #7 Mosquito Attack!
The white flower with purple veins. I asked her to go take another picture but with my phone and she said NO.
MOM! You don’t even know how long it took to get that picture! Like, 20 shots and then she was getting attacked by bugs and mosquitoes the whole time. BUT she persevered. And now you may enjoy the fruits of all her hard labor. This was also right before the big storm. And it was a big storm actually. We didn’t lose power (although it did its best to flicker and threaten) and we did not flood (although that water was rising and pooling dangerously close to the top of our foundation), but it was windy and the sky was green and the rain poured down from every direction. We also had hail chips at one point. Not balls. These were shaped like small potato chips. Stevie said they looked like small icy flowers. Because of course she kept running outside to make sure it was still “really” raining. She’s a free spirit. Dancing in the rain. She called it “temperature control”. I don’t know.
Anyway, I have some various pictures to put up later, but it’s a work day. Awww. Major sad face. So I have to shower blah blah and go. On a plus note, the village people (haha) are here laying the sod. It’s actually just one guy. And according to Stevie, he’s cute! So far it looks good. Nice and dark green without weeds in it. Apparently it has to be watered. A lot. I know the BF will be all over that this weekend, so that’s one less thing I have to. Also, more are storms a’ comin’ I hear. Free water!! I hope work is fast and quiet as I always do. I am off tomorrow and the weekend so I can really get some pictures and words up here. I mean, if you have to stay inside anyway, spend the time with me. You can’t go out or you’ll get electrocuted! We had real reports of lightening strikes and tornadoes last night so it’s best if you just curl up with the internet and call it an evening.
FYI follow up note: The sod guy was cute. Too bad I am in the invisible stage of my attractiveness/attention portion of life. Too old for the young hotties and too young for the old settlers. Although in this day and age I am too young all around. Those old guys are always going for the young ones too. Gotta go for real now. Time waits for no man. Plus the oven timer is beeping me off. 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.
Thanks Stevie! For #4.
My next favorite thing to take pictures of after birds and flowers and trees. The sky! Or more accurately: Clouds in the sky.
I saw this big space, just wide open in front of me, while I was driving to work yesterday, but I didn’t have the time or place to stop and take the picture. The sky is so amazing when all those clouds are up there, looking like they just got thrown across the blue, right in front of you, just waiting for you to arrive. You can see the curve of the Earth and almost feel the world turning under your feet, and you can imagine, for that one moment, that the road, and this life, can go on forever.
I can not be the only one who sees all that blue and just wants to keep driving until the highway ends and the water begins. If you have ever driven to the ocean, and I mean, driven straight on a road, for miles and miles, towards the end of dry land; Watching the sky change and seem to open up as you get closer and closer; And the air changes and the wind blows salty through your open window and you just know you are at the end of the world; Then you probably know what I mean.
But maybe that’s just me. I daydreamed of running all the way to work. And then I went in and forgot all about it until right now when Stevie sent me this to post here. All that from one photo. Pretty amazing. Thank you my lovely girl.
Stevie Pic #3
Not even going to comment. No time. Thank you Stevie! Your pictures are always good! Work now. More later.
Stevie Pic #2
Beautiful color here. Good eye my darling girl. This is pure Stevie work. Goes very nice with the above picture, don’t you think, my crusty lipped cousin?? Haha. Gotta work now! Later.
Stevie Pics!
She took the next few pics I will be posting. With her IPhone of course. I have to go to work, right now, but I don’t want to keep the same pictures, especially of some dandelions, on the front of this thing for days and days. Besides, I have endless pictures that she takes to use at a moment’s notice, so I could really go all lazy bones here and never post my own stuff again. She takes A LOT of pictures. Full credit to my sweet little girl! (Don’t worry cuz, I will get that lip balm picture up and in the books for posterity) Everyone have a great day! It is beautiful out here in the Midwest! 77 degrees and counting. Pity I will be indoors, but no one just hands me money for sitting at home typing words into the ether. Later.
I Suppose I Could Have Gone With Flood Flowers As A Less Creepy Alternative
The rain is over. The water is as high as it can get in this area now, with all the rivers cresting and reaching their flood points on Saturday and Sunday. The water should start receding and retreating, back into its proper channels, to lie in wait for the next big storm to arrive, and let it loose once again from its muddy shores. Poetic huh?
Reality check. We sit high on the block so we never have a lot of standing water, but my flower bed does get full and floats the timbers onto the sidewalk and onto the driveway. I just put them back in place over and over until the rain stops. Small problem. However, I might have created a bigger problem with my car when I drove through all that stupid water the other night, although I am desperately hoping not, because now it’s making a weird sucking or blowing noise near the engine, I think, that sounds like a fan, or a motor that’s constantly spinning, or something that is trying to suck or blow air under the metal box that is covering the actual engine. It almost sounds like a hose is disconnected, and creating extra wind noise, kind of like a vacuum does when the suction isn’t right, or when you’ve sucked up something that doesn’t quite fit in the tubes and it’s blocking the path to the debris chamber. At any rate, I need to get my tired, lazy bum self, up, yet again, and haul my ass, and the money drain, over to the repair shop for a quick, “Hey, can you listen to this and tell me how much it’s going to cost to fix?” early in the morning. Staying up and posting this is not helping my anxiety or bad feelings about this newest problem with the car. And I haven’t even gotten around to telling you the last few problems that have already occurred. I’ve hinted. I’ve teased. I have pictures to illustrate. But work, and time, are conspiring against me. There’s too much of one and not enough of the other. I even took more dangerous pictures on the expressway, in the rain, to add to my current backlog of exciting and entertaining, but foolish and irresponsible, life story posts.
I’m tired. I have a headache. I just took my blood pressure pill and I should go to bed. Because I am old. To beef up this posting I am including a few more pictures from the rain. They aren’t really good, but now I can file them under “used”. I will caption them up here: 1. The sky looking like crap to the North. 2. The muddy puddle, in the back lot, of our stick inventory. 3. Some of the really wet sticks, that used to be brown, but now look red, for some reason, hiding a bunny. (That one is a bonus, like one of those puzzle pictures.) See if you can spot the rabbit! Brain games! Later.
Day Quote. All Time Favorite Edition.
To be too large for worry,
too noble for anger,
too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
—Unknown
(Thank you Stevie for the excellent picture. XO)
just shy of pretty 