Another One Bites the Dust

Here we are, the end of the month, and still no child support. Hmmm ... can we say repeat performance? What's different about this month from the others? Why is it what the ex always seems to miss a payment just about the time I am getting back on some sort of footing financially? Who the heck knows! I could be jumping the gun here a bit, after all I won't really know he has missed the month completely until I check my account next week. Sometimes when he pays it on or near the end of a month, it won't show up in my account until about 7 to 10 days later. So I'll wait to sing that ever popular tune ... "another one bites the dust, and another one's gone, another one's gone, another one bites the dust" bump, bump, bump, dadada da da!

Yeah :/

PS It's a good thing we got our Christmas bonus early on November 1st, it paid the rent, so "Merry Christmas" and thank goodness we have all our needs met this month in spite of the ex's absent behavior! Tomorrow is a new day :)

Surprise, I'm Home!

Wow, what a fast three days this has been! We were prepared to meet my daughter; Pamela, in Wilson on Tuesday morning, but I was awakened by a call around 5 a.m. letting me know I could sleep in as she would arrive at the house around 7 a.m. Her ride had decided to bring her all the way to my house and spare me from having to make an early morning trip. Thank goodness!

She pulled in the driveway about 20 minutes before Ryan and Jenn headed out the door to school for the day. Since she had been up all night, we talked as I got ready for work, and then she headed off to bed for some sleep. Pamela works as a waitress in an all night diner and sleeps during the day, so we did our best to allow her to set her schedule for the visit.

When I got home on Tuesday we all spent the evening together, catching up on our lives, and as the evening ended everyone turned in for a good night's rest. On Wednesday I was surprised by a car load of guests for lunch. My boyfriend had arrived for the holiday weekend and brought the entire family in town to take me out of the office for a quick bite to eat. It was a great!

I had to work both jobs in order to have the next five days off. Yes, I said five days! I'm sure I'll end up working as much while on vacation as at my regular jobs, but I'll get to spend it with loved ones, and that is not work but a labor of love. Even though I knew today was going to be a long one, it seemed even longer at work knowing that my daughter would be going home to NJ sometime tomorrow. Hopefully later in the evening but not too late; I want both she and her friend to arrive safely at home before midnight!

So much for making this a short post, everyone is still awake, they have fixed a pizza and some snacks, and they are ready to start the movie. So, more about our vacation later ... and "Happy Thanksgiving!"

A 10 Day Stretch

As I mentioned earlier, this ten day stretch is going to be a dozy! Pamela will come in on Tuesday morning, she'll sleep while I am at work, then we will get to spend the evening together before I go to work on Wednesday. Thank goodness the kids are out of school that day, they can all spend time watching movies, talking, and having some fun. The around noon my boyfriend should arrive adding one more to the mix of fun. I'm hoping to see him for lunch should he sneak by the office first before going to the house.

I'm not real happy about having to work while either of my guests are here, but at least we will all get to spend Thanksgiving day together at my parents house. I just wish Pamela could stay longer as she and I rarely get to spend time together. Fortunately, this will not be her last trip home, she is planning one around her birthday during tax season. Let's hope she comes before our mad rush and long hours. She will leave Thursday afternoon and drive straight through to home. Ever notice that now matter how old our children are, we worry about their safety?

Friday we all plan on relaxing around the house. Saturday we want to get the dryer hooked up so we won't have to go to the laundry mat again. Perhaps Sunday we can find some alone time for just us, "Mr.D" and me of course. Right now, I'm just hoping I'll have the time to get all of the things done before anyone arrives next Tuesday. Laundry and work today, work and housework tomorrow, I'm going to be like that lady on television in the bathtub ... Calgon, take me away! We definitely need one of those cast iron tubs ... yeah!

:)

Sheesh, is my hearing ever going bad!

The other day I was talking to my daughter who loves doing wild things to her hair. She has changed the look of her hair at least five time in the last three years. She offered to style my hair next time she visits, which will be this coming week. Both Pamela and Jenn think it's time for me to get rid of the 70's style long hair. I like my long hair! During our conversation we were reminiscing about some of our favorite hair salons in Virgina, and I could have sworn I heard her say she had been looking for an opening for one of the Manhattan jobs she had seen in the newspaper. When I asked what Manhattan had to do with Madhatter's she laughed so hard she fell off the couch. I really didn't think it was that funny, but she said it was more the look on my face and not the mix up on the words that made her laugh. Great, now not only am I hearing funny, but I'm funny looking! :/ Remind me not to use the web cam next time! :P

A Busy Week Ahead!

This afternoon I had the opportunity to talk to the administrator at Jenn's school. We set up an appointment for Monday at 8:30 a.m. which is normally my day off from my bookkeeping job. I had planned on working this coming Monday in an effort to maintain my pay for the week. If the meeting with the administrator and campus officer is completed before lunch, I should be able to get in at least 4 hours of work for the day.

After work I'll need to get home to prepare for the week of visitors. We are expecting my daughter Pamela to arrive on Tuesday afternoon, my boyfriend sometime on Wednesday, and my daughter Lisa, and her husband late Wednesday or early Thursday. It should be a wonderful week filled with family, friends, fun, and lots of good cooking! I even get to work on Thanksgiving day! Thank goodness it's in the earlier part of the day (7 a.m. to 11 a.m.) ... LOL!

Next week is going to prove to be a busy one indeed!

Diet Pills for the Mind?

If you think about it for a moment, it may make perfect sense. How so? We live in a day and age when there are so many different types of media, where people are continually being bombarded by images and ideas both positive and negative. Wouldn't it makes sense then, that limiting the negative input we feed ourselves might be a lot like taking diet pills for the mind? Why not?

Seriously. What you feed your mind and body, is what makes you who you are, in more ways than just physically and mentally. So the next time you think about feeding your children visual imagery that is not positive, remember that it will stay with them for a lifetime. It makes perfect sense to utilize effective diet plans to eliminate the affects that junk foods have on our physical health. Why not have a similar plan to limit the "junk food" that affects our mental health?

I wonder if you can have too much positive input for the mind? Nah!

Waiting for the other shoe to drop ...

Today when I arrived home from work, I watched my daughter head to her room to take a nap. She was emotionally drained. Why? This week has been a hectic one for her. There is a classmate who's ex-boyfriend decided that he wanted to pursue someone else and asked Jenn if she wanted to "go out" with him. Jenn was excited to say the least, but her happiness would soon be threatened by the old girlfriend. You can read more about the kinds of verbal intimidation and cyber-bullying this classmate has put Jenn through over at Adventures in a Lifetime.

We are still waiting for the administrator to call to set up an appointment to talk with the officer on campus. News as it develops ... sigh ... hopefully good news!

Chewy or Crisp?

A couple of weeks ago, two of my coworkers and I went to one of our favorite lunch spots instead of ordering out. It's famous for its Greek cuisine, but the also cook American favorites. Since their large subs are too much for one person to eat, and only a $1.00 more than their half subs, Joann and I will split a large BLT sub, and order a large order o onions rings.

As we began to eat our lunch, Joann and I both gave each other a puzzled look. At nearly the same time we asked, "Is your bacon chewy or crisp?" The answer was a resounding "raw"! There is nothing worse than undercooked bacon on a BLT. We asked the waitress if she could have them cook the bacon a bit longer and send our sandwich back out. She said they would just have to make another sub, and then huffed off.

For a moment before realizing that the bacon was undercooked, I thought perhaps the restaurant had joined some kind of bacon of the month club and were experimenting on their customers. Boy was I wrong! For the time being, when we order lunch from this restaurant we do not order our usual BLT, instead we stick with the tried and true Veggie sub. I guess you could say we are "pork" shy from the experience.

Chewy or crispy, I like my bacon COOKED!

Who's Got Senior-i-tis Now?

Meet Ryan, he turned 18 this last summer as he entered his last year in high school. He's a Senior. He is active in the FFA, plays on the high school's club lacrosse team as a co-captain, and is looking forward to graduating this coming June. He plans on attending college about an hour from home at a private school. We went yesterday to participate it's "Visitation Day" only to find out that the administration assistant had emailed us an announcement of the day's events from last year. It's all right though, they invited anyway us up for a private tour and lunch.

Meet Mike, also a senior in high school and one of Ryan's best friends. Mike is active in the FFA as Sentinel on the officer's team, he is on the wrestling team, and plays lacrosse for the high school's club team. This is Mike's third year as an officer for the school's FFA chapter. He previously served as Reporter as in his sophomore year, and as Secretary in his junior year. Last year, he, Ryan, and their friend Andrew, all served as part of the officers team. In fact, last year's team was what some might call a "Dream Team" of sorts. More about that another time. As we arrived at the college parking lot, we met up with Andrew.

Photographed below are some highlights from our tour.
Enjoy!

Arts & Science Building

Ryan and Mike head to admissions to meet with
the admissions assistant while Andrew
went back to class until after lunch.

One of the first stops on our tour was a visit to the Cafe.
One thing is for sure ... these boys will not go hungry!

As we left the cafe we got a glimpse of some
sunshine and a beautiful view of the gazebo.

We headed over to the library, but stayed outside
as we didn't want to disrupt any real studying. The
building that linked to the library houses several
classrooms for the Science and Math departments.

As we crossed the campus to see where the music
department was located we passed by the Chapel.
Apparently you can earn a scholarship by simply
committing to work 80 hours events for the year.

Next we stopped by the weight room, aerobics
classroom, gymnasium, and racket ball courts. We had
completed our tour, it was not time to discuss what
was required for the guys to attend the college.

Finally, after a nice hot lunch, we met up with Andrew.
He had a couple of hours before he had to head to work
on the campus, so he gave the guys a tour of the dorms.

This is the Freshman dorm room. As you can see it's small.
As you enter the room there are two single beds and a small
refrigerator. The chair is to the desk on the other side of
the closets seen to the right of Andrew.

The other side of the room has a desk, bookshelf,
dresser, and closet on each side.
Can you tell they don't do much cleaning?

The guys stopped for a few minutes to play guitar.
All three of them have played music together
for the last two years. They are hoping to all
share an apartment in a couple of years.

Andrew escorted us to our van as the guys all
said their goodbyes. All Ryan and Mike could talk
about on the way home was how ready they are to
get to college. Seems I'm not the only one suffering
from senior-i-tis!

When was YOUR last Tetanus Shot?

My doctor asked me that very same question and I quickly answered the spring of 1999. Wrong! After talking with Lisa I was reminded that we both had our last tetanus shot on the first of our Disney vacations with her high school marching band. So that means it was in the spring of 1995 thus making us both overdue for our shots. Ryan may be overdue for his too! At this point Pamela, Ted, and Jenn are probably the only ones who are up-to-date on their immunizations.

If you've not had your shots lately, please, stop by your doctor's office or local health department and get them soon. I'm getting mine before the end of the month, as there's no need to wait until we go to Disney next year with the marching band and color guard!

"See you real soon!" ;)

Teens & Appropriate Jobs

Ryan started his new job this week and is finding it a bit overwhelming. He is cashiering at a local gasoline station and one of the duties is to sell tobacco and alcohol to customers. Most adults are able to handle this since they have life experiences that help them identify those that are trying to pull something, or are too drunk to have another drink. For someone who is not accustomed to dealing with people that are deceitful or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, it can be very intimidating. His new boss has told him that if after a week's training if he feels that this line of work is not something he wants to continue doing that she will understand.

At this point he is already looking for another job at something a little less intimidating, and less danger of personal and physical harm. This past week alone there were over 20 robberies in our area, most at convenience stores. Apparently the store that Ryan works at keeps a scanner on site to stay atop these types of situations. Regardless, he is not comfortable with either the prospect of selling tobacco or alcohol to the wrong person, or putting himself in harms way should there be a robbery at his station.

Hopefully one of the jobs he has applied for at the grocery store will call soon!

Class 5A

Last night Jenn and her fellow guard and band members performed their last show for the season. Thought they are normally in a Class 4A classification for competing they were bumped up to compete with six other Class 5A bands. Since I had to work until 5 p.m. today, I made it down to the competition just as her class was to perform on the field.

The bands were great! They really had their work cut out for them. It was a good thing that the host band was not competing tonight as they would have been an additional threat. The most interesting and best performances of the night was by a band who were all dressed in black and white. As the musicians would turn to the music it was like an optical illusion.

Their uniforms were like a circus outfit of sorts, all black on one side, and all white on the other from head to toe. Their color guard changed outfits at least three times from white with diagonal stripes, to solid white, then to solid black. Their flags were also varied but all were black and white as was the name of the show.

The most thrilling moment of the night for Jenn was not so much the competition as it was the air gram she got as she entered the field. As the announcer read them we heard, "Jennifer, I said I was going to ask you something tonight ... will you go out with me?" Jenn is now officially no longer single. The look on her face was priceless!

Their band finished in 4th place out of seven, receiving Superior marks for a grade!