Another Day on the Farm

What do "NORMAL" people do when they get overloaded and start to feel a little overwhelmed?  I'm feeling a tad bit that way at this particular moment, so I decided to blog about some more of the insanity that goes on at my farm (I don't really have a farm...more like a "funny farm").  That is Jeff scaring the poo out of me outside of my bedroom window a couple of nights ago.  He WAS being too cheap to turn the air conditioner on and made us open windows.  It was nice that one night, but when I saw 80+ degree temps all week, I got the air turned on :)

Tony also enjoyed his easy access to the outside.  He went in and out quite a bit this particular night.  NO SCREEN...thus an unhappy ending to the night when a moth attacked me.  I don't do flying bugs...crawling ones (most of them, unless they have hair) I can handle, but things with wings go in the same category as clowns and carnies and gnomes...I CAN'T HANDLE THEM.  I think Jeff measured for screens, but either way, the window got closed.  My heart really couldn't take anymore.

I have finally decided to conquer my fear of public speaking.  It could be what made me quit school the first time......just saying....so I am doing it now....as in WEDNESDAY.  AS IN WEDNESDAY I HAVE TO STAND IN FRONT OF MY CLASS AND WORDS HAVE TO COME OUT OF MY MOUTH FOR A GRADE.....see why I'm blogging.  I can't face it.  I even shaved my legs tonight.  I'll do anything to keep from writing a speech.  Trust me shaving my legs is like the WORST thing to ask me to do.  You long time readers may remember the time Jeff and I had a contest to see who could go the longest without shaving and I WON!!  I used to at least shave every two weeks before I went to get my pedicure...I didn't figure the girls wanted to massage my hairy legs.  Then I got to know them and now I don't have to worry about that anymore.  I tell myself that ladies in the chairs next to me are staring because they are jealous.  They only WISH they could grow hair that thick on their legs :)

I'm babysitting tonight, too.

This picture covers a LOT of ground.  The cushion got put back on the couch (by me) and I revived that plant.  What are those anyway???  You CAN'T kill them!!  I call it an Easter Lilly, but I might have made that up.  AND that is DUKE a.k.a. Ducas with his head looking out the window freaking touching my curtains by just standing there.  His dad went somewhere with Jeff tonight and left him with me.  I took him out for a walk and it was very much like walking a horse.  He cried and cried when his daddy left him (so sad...I didn't know what to do so we went for a walk).

Izzy was NOT happy about his presence.  She's cool unless I'm in the room.  She doesn't like Ducas anywhere near me.  I had to tell her she better settle down, I think Duke could take her.  She finally got up in her chair and got in her "spot".  We just have furniture for the dogs...

I learned that Duke does NOT like the flash on the camera and since I don't know what all of his barks and growls mean,

I decided to make that the LAST picture I took of him without his father being present.  After all, the dog weighs at least as much as I do.  He could probably take me, too.  (I think he's a GIANT pushover though).

Recognize this space???  That's where the Christmas decorations were until Saturday.  YEAH for public humiliation!  Sometimes it works.

I got all creative yesterday morning.  I knew I needed to be writing a speech or doing an essay or something so instead I decided my camera needed a new strap.  I just went back and whipped one up....

It will do for some scraps and it got me out of speech writing.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to just wing this one and pray for the best.  The anxiety has caused me to go on a diet and make drastic changes to my hair.  I'm not sure I can take much more.

kacy

.....lots going on today....

Sometimes "public" as in blog humiliation works....someone cleaned off his night stand.  He employed a little slave labor from his co-hoarder.

Isn't he cute when he works??  He has a particular obsession with receipts, for EVERYTHING.  I understand most of them, but the ones for gum, or a coke at Mickey D's....I don't really get those.

For Valentine's Day this year, I got him a purple box.  Purple is his favorite color.  I know, it was romantic...It was so he could clean off his damn nightstand and have a place to keep all of those receipts!!

Blue and I did some shopping today.  We put a hurting on Jun Lee.  If you are local, you know where I'm talking about.  If not, let me know and I'll hook you up with the inside scoop on a great little Memphis hole in the wall with some serious jewelry.

No makeup, pictures were all post shower.

LOVE THIS!!  Can't wait to wear it.

Savannah was doing tonight's photography and she is one of "those".  You know the one's that ALWAYS have to take a picture of themselves. :)

Trying out some Biore strips...Anybody remember those??

And I ended the night with some homework :(  NO FUN, but it had to be done.

Tomorrow wraps up our Spring Break.  We managed to get the laundry done today and since tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day, I'm thinking we may need to get out for a little more shopping.  Hope your weekend has been as great as ours has.

kacy

Back to the REAL WORLD

We made it back home today!!  We HAD to.  Blue is doing some Physical Therapy for her foot.  Jeff and I were a both a little skeptical on the front end if it would do any good or not, but I decided we needed to do EVERY thing we could to keep this foot in tip top shape.  After her first two sessions, Jeff jumped on board and says she needs to complete all 8 appointments.....  So, we rescheduled one to get a couple of days away but didn't want to get too far off schedule.

We were already getting bored in the waiting room...Friday afternoon P.T. was apparently a popular place.  We had to wait a few minutes for Matt, our P.T. with mad skills.

We did have the TIGER game on the ole tele, and at this point it was going good, but it didn't end on that same note :(  Oh well, we always have next year.

We finally got going....

Warming up...

She actually thought this was pretty fun.  We are trying to strengthen that left foot.  These balance skills are good for that foot and she actually enjoyed this little "game".  From the looks of the place, kids are NOT the main age group they see.

This one freaked her out for some reason.  She was afraid she was gonna fly off the end every time she jumped.  Proud of my girl for hanging in there.

I got major bored.  Have you ever seen my manicure look THIS bad?  That would be NO!! 

I totally split this middle finger.  Blue's look just as bad.  I think I know where we are headed tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed your Spring Break.  I think we did.

kacy

How do YOU keep kids from killing each other??

I'd like to go on record here and officially say that from this point forward, I want adjoining rooms with these monsters!!  A hotel room is NOT the funnest place to be cooped up with two EXHAUSTED pre-teens in a hotel that doesn't even have Pay Per View!! 

WHAT KIND OF HOTEL DOES NOT HAVE PAY PER VIEW??? 

We can't agree on anything to watch.

We had a blast today at the Aquatic Center.  I didn't take my camera because I actually got in the pool.  I apologize to all of those that had to endure me in my bathing suit today :)  Now we are all tired and stuffed and in bed and fighting over what to watch....  I think the only way to solve this is to give one of them the computer.  SO, I'm out for the night.  Heading back home tomorrow.

kacy

Spring Break!!

Welcome to our home away from home for the next few days.  I mean, after all, IT IS SPRING BREAK!! 

What's better than going 30 minutes down the road and checking in some place where they clean up after you, serve you dinner in your room and, oh yeah, have a swimming pool?  NOTHING if you ask my kids.  I was up for a little something more this year, but considering we all got REALLY sick this week, this will do JUST FINE!!  and even better if you ask JEFF...IT'S PRACTICALLY FREE!!

Dalton IMMEDIATELY found the remote.  Luckily, we brought his laptop and Jeff just set him up on Netflix...have at it my little grasshopper.

I'm about to chug from the Nyquil bottle and pray I never have to relive today.  I'll keep you posted on the fun this mini vacay or should we call it a "staycay" has to offer.

kacy

Meet my new friend Duke.  He's actually not a new friend...he's been around for a while just not AT my house.  Here lately, he is a daily visitor.  He is a Great Dane (A BIG DOG) and yes, those are my Christmas decorations behind me in the picture, but no worries, the meds are working well today.

Check out this huge monster.  He can lay his chin on my kitchen counter without even stretching.  He gets along well with everyone....thank goodness!!  He even talks...he can say "I love you!!"

He's talking in this picture.  He's too big to bark.  He peed a couple of nights ago in the house.  I thought a pipe had burst or something.  He's got skills.  (How about my pajama skills?  I'm not shy)

Here is my best friend Izzy.  For those of you that don't keep up with me on Facebook, which by the way is a MUCH easier way to "keep up" (just not a good journal) she got hit by a car on December 3rd.  She almost lost her left leg.  To be honest, I can't believe we saved it.  It had a drain in it for a week that I had to flush three times a day and not enough skin to sew together.  BUT, we did it.  After we pulled the drain, I let her go back inpatient for 5 days for intensive wound care, but that was all I could take of her being away.  We took care of it just fine at home in 7 short weeks without a single infection, she came out of that huge E-collar and all is well.

She has some permanent swelling and will more than likely experience some arthritis in that leg, but other than a scar that's actually hard to see now, you wouldn't know if I hadn't told you.

Of course, Tony still rules the roost, or at least he thinks he does.  Right after we got Izzy to the point we knew she was going to be able to keep her leg, Tony got in another fight and had to have a toenail removed.  Did you put it together that all of that was during Christmas??  Needless to say, Izzy's left leg was my Christmas present and Tony's toenailectomy was Jeff's gift :) 

Blue invented this contraption last night.  Her book light on her binoculars....I don't get it, but she thinks it's nifty.  She did clean her room today.  Only because my head spun around backwards last night and I spit pea soup...public blog embarrassment doesn't hurt either.

I'm having a hard time keeping up at the moment.  I don't know why...it's Spring Break.  I thought I was supposed to feel relaxed.

Here is a look at the planner on Spring Break....not much of a BREAK.  Blue has PT pretty much every day.  She broke her foot twice in 6 months...NO GOOD.  We are working on some PT to see if that will help.  She's been twice so far...we shall see.

Over and out.  Time to bleach the ole mustache...don't act like you don't have to do it too....

kacy

anybody know why some of last night's blog had things underlined in orange?????  that bothers me.

Spring Break 2011

I wish I had something really GREAT and INTERESTING to come back at y'all with, but I don't.  Just another old boring day in my crazy life.  Today, was the first day of Spring Break.  For those of you that don't already know, my nutty self decided I didn't have enough on my plate already so I decided to go back to school FULL time to chase my long lost dreams of becoming a nurse.  Someone should have reminded me I was pushing 40, and things just don't roll the way they used to say (parts of me have a lot more rolls).  I am happy to say, though, that after 2 semesters I am still carrying that 4.0 and I got into the fall nursing class.  Zippidy Doo Da...Now if only that would get my house cleaned and my laundry done, all would be right with the world, well, maybe.

Even though, I am on Spring Break with the kids, I STILL have to work.  Jeff took the week off and mysteriously disappeared today, so this is what I came home to....(have I mentioned I'm sick as a dog..sinus/allergy problems)  Savannah was in my bed where she excitedly announced she had been reading since 2:00 o'clock.  That's great and all but not when my kitchen looks like a tornado blew through.

Then we have Dalton.  He's your typical 12 year old boy, oblivious to anything that happens outside of his video game of the day.  He despises anything that has to do with the word clean.  This unfortunately includes his personal hygiene.  I think that brushing his teeth is TOP on his list of the things he hates most along with the d word...deodorant.

So, as these two went about what ever it is they did today, let me show you a little bit that was going on around them.

This is Jeff's box.  It wouldn't be such a problem if it hadn't been sitting in my living room for a week now.  I found it on my front porch a week or so ago.  I hoped it had something great in it that we needed to finish the fireplace project that we started months ago.  Unfortunately, I think it had lawn mower parts in it...not anymore.  NOT for a week or so, but I guess he likes the box and paper.  Have I ever mentioned that Jeff was a hoarder??  I know I have shared before that Savannah, or Blue, as she likes to be called these days is a hoarder.  She comes by it honestly.  Let me share his night stand with you...

This, my friends, is just the top of it, would you like to see the things that have fallen off....

I didn't think I was going to be able to handle it.  After trying to break up, twice, and failing, I decided to just take meds and now for the most part it doesn't bother me....EXCEPT on days like today.  I could handle just this, but NOT all of this...

Here is that fireplace project, that has yet to be finished...a girl can dream.  It works, it heats the house, it just doesn't have walls.....

This picture says a lot....we have a soccer ball in the living room, with a couch cushion falling off the couch and the one and only plant in the house SCREAMING for water.  Apparently, no one noticed that today.

Let's switch gears and move to the kitchen...I'll be glad when computers can convey odor...

Do you ever wonder why an empty cereal box can land on the floor right beside the trash can, but NOT in the can itself??  That one always blows my mind, but no matter who did it they will have a perfectly logical explanation.

This is a view down the counter from the trash can toward the sink.  That's an EMPTY Barnes and Noble bag that Blue's new books came out of.  Empty....the trash can is less than two feet away???  Those are the thermos bottles from the weekends soccer tournaments, they still have water in them on Monday night.  LOVE IT!!

Now, keep in mind, I haven't eaten a meal in this house since, oh, last Thursday....ALSO keep in mind there is a totally EMPTY dishwasher less than two feet from this scenario.  Are you feeling me??  Do you see where this is going?

THIS, my friends, has Jeff Acree written all over it.  He is the only one in this house that would heat up a whole bowl of beans and then let them sit for several days.

And across the kitchen, we have Saturday's biscuits, Sunday's egg skillet, and I'm not sure what was in the cake pan, but it involved melted cheese.

I'll take the blame for the coffee cup with the pink ring around it.  That is mine.  NOTHING else on this counter is.  And let's just see this one last photo.  This one might win the prize.

Those are my Christmas decorations that I took down and packed up for Jeff to put away either in the attic or out in the HUGE shed he built for things like this.  I took the tree down between Christmas and New Year's and it's oh what??? March 14th???  Yes, I could put them up myself, but then that would defeat the purpose of the meds I take to deal with him.

And this is the gray hair that my family has caused and I am too poor to go have it colored because Blue now requires her hair to be highlighted and Jeff is still in sticker shock.

I really do apologize for my long absence, and yes, I realize I am apologizing to myself since I no longer have followers.  Lots of things have gotten in the way.  Myself, mainly.  The whole undertaking of school was HUGE and I've been scared to let too many people know.  As cheesy as it sounds, it's what I've always wanted to do and that's a lot of pressure.  I wondered if I could do it and if I could, would I have what it took to get back in to school?  Now that I've answered some of those questions I feel a huge relief.  I'm not there yet, but at least I'm in.  I hope at almost 40, I have a useful perspective that some of these 19 year old young ladies can learn from.

I've also had an ongoing internal battle over my blog and putting my personal life out there for the public to read.  Do I say too much?  Do I not say enough?  Do I portray a skewed picture of our life?  In the end, I don't really care.  It's my life and it's my journal and it's my story.  So I have the freedom to tell it however I please.  I also have the right to share as much or as little as I like.  If you prefer blogs about the weather, or the disasters in other countries or the soaring price of gas, I may not be the blog you are looking for.  If you are interested in a tired haggard mother of two pre-pubescent children married to an insane man who thinks he is God's gift to humanity and loves reality television and somehow finds time for it then you have found the right place.

GLAD TO BE BACK!!

kacy