End of October

Saturday - Here is my spooky Halloween true story for this year. Saturday morning I woke up at 5 am to the sound of a doorbell. Or, I could have SWORN I heard a doorbell. By the time I got to the hallway Rusty was getting up saying he heard a doorbell too. We went to both doors at the same time and NOBODY was there. In 8 years of living here that is probably about the 4th time that has happened. And we stop and listen for giggles or rustling leaves or signs of kids nearby and stuff. But there is never a peep, and the dog was fast asleep. The kids sleep with their tv's on real low so maybe I heard something off that. Who knows. But we both woke up hearing the same sound.
We cancelled band on Saturday because the singer had a scratchy throat and the drummer had to go somewhere and Rusty had a bunch of cigarette work, etc etc etc. But I did get him to do 3 things for me Saturday: searched for the leak in the bedroom shower, finished sealing the bath tub and fixed my attic fan. He did the bath tub in like 30 seconds. OUr bedroom wall has had an awful spot in the sheet rock ever since we bought the place - right outside of our shower. I wanted to make it clear that it was NOT us who did this bad sheetrock job I have in the picture. But we've been wanting to redo it forever, so he went ahead and cut it out so he could search behind it for the shower leak. The leak is not coming from anywhere obvious like we hoped it would. It seems to be coming from up UNDER the shower somehow, like maybe where the drain goes in the floor. So we decided to stop right there. The last time we tried to fix a leaky shower, we ended up doing an entire bathroom remodeling and we just are NOT up for that again yet. So we're just going to stop using that shower til later on. And I won't discuss the fixing of the attic fan, the time it took, nor the amount of cursing that occured. It was indeed a broken belt that he had to replace, but it was a bit trickier than anticipated. ANd I finally got to take the attic fan cover down and paint it white instead of rusted looking1964 semi-gold. ANyway, I was intrigued as I usually am at home improvement stuff. I don't know why I find it SO incredibly interesting to see the insides of walls and how things are set up. So I took some pictures of our mumbling grumbling Saturday of home improvement:

Ok, so once all that was finished on Saturday, I went shopping with my friend Micheal (pronounced "Michelle") for bonko gifts. It was mine and her turn to do bonko this month and she graciously offered to have it at her house and I would just help her buy gifts and food. We had a great time - went to the outlet mall, Cracker Barrel, Wal mart, Penneys, and had a great time visiting. In the process of buying the gifts, I found something so incredibly adorable I had to have it. I thought I had found something totally unique, but everyone I have told about it has seen one before. It is a decoration for our front yard tree, that I'm going to leave there year round I think. I love it:

Saturday night around 8:30ish Tyler called me to come pick him up from the "barbarian weekend". Gosh I should have taken his picture now that I think about it. It was POURING down raining, and they had been out in it. They camped out in their sleeping bags the night before and ate stuff they cooked on a bonfire. They had played paintball games and something called "airsoft" gun games and numerous other "guy" activities. All of them were decked out in camouflage clothing from head to toe and he said they had gotten about 2 hours sleep that night before. He was so tired, soaking wet, and telling us about his paintball games. If you didn't know what he was talking about you'd swear he had just returned from a real battle hehehe. They had to search for forts and then try to take them over and stuff. Sounds like it was a blast. We came home and watched movies for the rest of the evening. Man, Saturday was BUSY.

Sunday - Took Tyler to church but I stayed home to catch up on some chores and rest. (Of course I find out later in the week that the service was really great that day and they showed a video collage that had Tyler's baptism in it.) Our friend Kevin had invited Rusty and Tyler to go with him and his boys and Ken to see a Christian rock band called 3rd Day in Jackson so they all piled up and went to that. Mom was taking Chris and family to eat at El Sombrero for Chris's and Kyle's birthday so Tanner and I went along. We had a good time visiting with Chris and kids, we don't ever get to see them much anymore. We gotta fix that. We came home and Tanner watched his FIRST EVER horror movies. I was watching one and he just had to be in my lap so he ended up watching and his said they weren't really that bad after all. We watched the movie "Halloween" and the new version of "Dawn of the Dead". He enjoyed them he said, but he slept in our bed that night.

Monday - Had band practice that evening. Had been 2 weeks this time and things didn't seem as good as they had been the time before, but we worked up to it towards end of practice. Not much else happened that evening I guess.

Tuesday - Tyler's last football game, and it was against my alma mater, or however you spell that. They didn't win. But, as always, Tyler kicked butt. He made a hit so hard one time that the whole crowd simultaneously went "ooooohhh!". And he told me later on that one of the referees called him to the side once to tell him, "Son, you need to back off a little and quit hitting so hard." Tyler told the guys on the sideline about it and jokingly told them he had lost faith in the game of football if they are starting to tell you NOT to hit hard! I will include some new awesome professional game pics at the end of this post. I ordered 8 of them this week. But here is Tanner helping out big brother and carrying his stuff to the car for him.

Also on Tuesday, Tanner was sent to the office and got 2 licks with the paddle. It's been brewing for some time now, and it was probably high time she sent him. I think that might calm him down now for a little while, I hope.

Wednesday - Something unusual happened with Tanner. AT the end of the school day my boss came to me with a parent of a kid in Tanner's class. Apparently Tanner has been picking on a kid that's smaller than him. I was shocked. I don't know what I was more shocked about - that Tanner was picking on someone, or that there was actually someone SMALLER than Tanner. Anyway, Tanner has just been aggravating him and the kid is one that is probably easily aggravated. Tanner pokes him on the shoulder over and over, or says goofy stuff to him all the time. He's not really being MEAN, just aggravating kid stuff. So I had a talk with him later on, and told them to let me know if he doesn't stop. Wednesday was the only night this week we were all home in the evening, so we watched a couple of movies together.

Thursday - Bonko night. We did the usual bonko thing, I didn't win anything but it was fun as always. I ate 15 bean soup and it was good. It was my job to make desserts so I made some pumpkin bread and some "hole-y" cake - that yellow cake with the hot fudge dripped down into holes. Whenever people tell me they really like something I have made, it's usually something of Mamaw's Gin's hehehe.

Friday - Today Rusty has gone to Columbus with the old band he used to be in. They have rented his sound equipment for some show they are doing, so he's going along with it to run it for them. It has FINALLY stopped raining, and I am running my attic fan til it gets too cold tonight. But pretty much I"m planning on doing NOTHING this evening, and enoying it immensely. Get some rest that I'm due.

Coming up: I'm gonna try to search out a Halloween carnival to take Tanner to tomorrow somewhere, I think the church is doing one. Tuesday we will be trick-or-treating with Mom and Terri and Donnie and their kids over in Chris's neighborhood. Next Friday is my 6th grade program and I'll be glad to finish it, but I must say it's been pleasant working with them this week.

Football pics:

Here is one of Blake, then the 9th grade team entering the field with Tyler #56 on the left there:

Clash of the Titans!

3rd Week of October

Saturday: Got up EARLY to catch the bus for the auditions in Jackson. One of my girls was sick so I only had 4. They did a pretty good job on auditions I think. But none of them did as well as they were doing the whole week before! I was home by noon thank goodness. I did some fast cleaning before Danny and Marilyn got to town. Saturday night we all went to eat at El Sombrero's and once again I left my camera home on Mariachi band night so I missed some good pictures. The rest of Saturday night we spent visiting and catching up with Danny and Marilyn - it was so great to see them!

Sunday: Took Tyler to church then returned to my cookie experiment from the weekend before. I've been trying to make boiled cookies and they totally FLOP. So it became a mission of mine to figure out what was wrong. I made 2 batches on Sunday and finally the 2nd batch of that day was right. I had to adjust the amounts of cocoa and oats and various other ingredients. Anyway. I then met up with Marilyn to go shopping for shoes and make up. I needed shoes for the wedding that afternoon. We had a great time just doing the girl shopping thing, I don't do that too often. Usually I have 2 boys with me. Who hate clothes. That afternoon was Jon's wedding. (Jon is the drummer in the band that Rusty used to be in.) It was a really nice wedding, and really impressive that Jonny did a lot of the planning and preparation for it. They were married in his backyard. We saw several people we haven't seen in awhile as well. Here are pics of the wedding party, us and Danny and Marilyn. Also I finally got a picture of Steve T. and his new wife. I got a picture of Keith and Angela as well - poor Angela had had surgery less than a week before the wedding but she still looked great. Tanner WANTED to wear his suit and tie for the occasion but it does not fit anymore. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on one just for one wedding, so I just bought him a new shirt and he was happy. Tyler did not want to go to the wedding and he whined enough to get his way.

Also, a very unfortunate thing occured on Sunday afternoon. My beloved attic fan broke. I think the belt broke, we don't know for sure yet. Danny and Marilyn stayed and visited for awhile Sunday evening before they had to drive back to Orlando on Monday morning. We are planning to go visit them next summer.

MONDAY: Back to work with no rest and no work done at home lol. It rained 5 inches on MOnday so we cancelled band practice that night so we didn't have to take equipment out in the mess. We laid around and watched movies til midnight. Watched "Frailty" - it was good.

TUESDAY: Football game. Kids played good as always but lost by 2 points. Tyler had numerous tackles. And they finally took him off of offense for REAL this time so he didn't get so worn out by the end of the game. He liked that, I didn't. Dale went to the game with us as well. Got to see my brother also for about 2 minutes, and enjoyed visiting with mom during the game. We stayed up late AGAIN watching movies.

WEDNESDAY: Bought Tyler and Tanner each a robe because Tyler keeps getting in trouble for using Rusty's and not putting it back.

THURSDAY: The busy weekend and lack of sleep through the week caught up with me and I got sick and went home early from work and, oddly enough, baked a turkey. Got a short nap and by evening felt a good bit better. Also rained again the entire day.

Report Card update: From what I hear, my 2 nephews did very well on their report cards - A's and B's with a C or two each. One of Tyler's D's got changed to a C. The teacher was absent the day report cards were printed and she said she was going back to give them the drop grade she promised them. So now his 74/D in biology is a 75/C. I told him I wanted to see it on paper, so he got her to write me a note that said his actual grade for biology was a 75/C lol.

I've become popular with my oldest son in the last week or so. First, I made some changes on the cell phone plan that bumped him up from 200 text messages/month to 3000/text messages a month. He sent me a text message telling me I'm the greatest mom on earth lol. Then he wanted to order a book from amazon. It was the first of trilogy. You could save money if you just ordered the whole trilogy at once, so I got him all 3 books and he was ecstatic. And for some reason I have taken to catering to him after football games. He has picked up on it and takes advantage of it, which is fine by me I guess. It seems like I remember my mom catering to my brother after football games and stuff so maybe that's why I do it. I remember I thought it was so silly, like, Mom make him fix his own plate, geez! But Tyler is so darn tired after the games and I just feel so sorry for him. I fix his food, drink, bring it to him, find him some clothes to change into, just whatever lol. Dale pointed it out this week, that I was catering to him. Tyler said "yes she is and I like it too!" I told Dale it's because he plays so hard in the games, and Dale says it probably has a lot to do with whether or not he's winning or losing the games too lol. BUt I think I'd probably do it even if they win. Just feels like I'm 'sposed to. But anyway, I think I'm ranking pretty high in the Mom approval polls this week. Guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts lol.

Tanner has always loved to tell jokes but he's always been TERRIBLE at them. He's starting to say some funny ones every now and then though. And getting a lot of witty one-liners in lately too. He's been pleased that people are starting to find him funny more often. Rusty fixed up a kid sized guitar for him this week and has started to show him some things on it. I'm hoping he will be our little musician kid.

Well I guess that's it in a nutshell. Coming up this weekend - Tyler has "Barbarian Weekend" at the church, he will be gone til late Saturday night. We have band practice Saturday. And next week I begin rehearsal with 6th grade for their play.

Mid-October

Terrific Week !

Friday: Tyler went to watch the high school football game with 2 friends. They all ended up coming back here to spend the night. And with Drew here also, I had 5 boys that night and the next day. But I enjoy it and I thank God everyday for boys. Rusty took me to eat at El Ranchero's and Tanner went to visit with Mom for the evening.

Saturday: The boys all played football in the street, Rusty included. Tanner and Drew rode bikes. Got some pictures I'm putting below. Took some video too but it won't go on here. Tyler hung out with his friends some more Saturday evening.

Sunday: Keith and Jenifer came over to watch football. We all went over to Donnie's for a birthday cookout, then came back home and watched more football. Tyler is getting big into the drama club thing at church. I can't wait to see him act.

Monday: Aaaah! Felt so good to NOT go to work. I did a lot of housecleaning and went to the gym. Over the weekend I packed in some major food so I went to the gym almost everyday this week. The kids apparently needed their day off too because they were like 2 zombies all day, just getting in their rest. We did band practice Monday night which was good. Keith is going to be joining us now - yay! Will be nice to have another guitar player, and we'll get to hang out with him more.

Tuesday: I did more cleaning, went to the tanning bed (which has been bought out and they tried to take away my 23 visits I had left! They decided to let me have them though). Terri came over to visit and we watched Madea's Family Reunion. Tyler worried all day long about the football game that evening. It was the toughest team they play all year. And they did indeed lose the game, but Tyler played very well. He got a lot of big hits. And, the coach had told him that he would take him off of offense now and he could just play defense so that he would not be so tired late in the game. Well that lasted for about the first 3 minutes of the first quarter - then he was back in on offense and defense both for the rest of the game. I know it's hard on him. But I have to say I enjoy it because it gives me something to watch the whole time.

Wednesday: Went back to work. Only elementary schools got report cards on Wednesday. Tanner did pretty good, I was happy with him. He had only a couple of C's and the rest A's and B's. This is his first year for grades in science and social studies, it's been hard to get used to. We watched the movie "Click" which was terrific. And we watched perhaps the worst horror movie ever made called "Cemetary Man". Even Rusty, who LOVES crappy B movie horror flicks, said that that one totally sucked.

Thursday: It was cold! Yay! We were so excited we went and bought a new electric blanket. I finally got to do that one thing that I look forward to every year - I turned the air conditioner button to OFF. And I opened up the windows and turned on the attic fan and it was like the clouds opened up and the birds started singing...........Tanner and I both get excited over silly little things like that. But we LOVE to open the windows and turn on the attic fan.

Friday: Tyler got his report card and it was "better than he thought it would be". He did well in everything but had a 74 in geometry and a 74 in biology. 1 point away from a C in each one. He thinks that is good. He was disappointed that I did not share his opinion. It's not the best he can do, but not the worst he can do. So we're going to let him go with the promise that he will step up on studying and completing work, particularly in those 2 classes. And I am going to stay on top of him and his work more too. Danny and Marilyn are coming in to town this weekend and I expected them tonight. But she just called and they haven't left yet so I guess it will be the morning when they get here. I have to take my 5 singers to Jackson for the All State Honor choir audition tomorrow. I hate giving up that time, but I feel like I"m not doing my job well if I don't give some kids that opportunity I guess. Maybe I'll have a kid to make it, that might be cool.

Not many pics this week, just these few. But I expect to have a good many next week.

1st week of October

Hehehehehehehe! It's October!

*I never got the witch head that I spotted at HOme Depot and wanted. Last weekend we went to THREE different Home Depot's and ALL of them were sold out and no more shipments would be coming of Halloween stuff. That will teach me to hesitate. But! I DID get that guy you see up there, along with the cool headstone. And I also got the wacky grim reaper that hangs in the door and moans and drops down in response to noises. And I did indeed buy 2 pumpkins last weekend as well.

*Saturday we didn't have band practice but we went to Jackson to the Guitar Center and if you ask Tanner he'll tell you that we spent 18 hours in there but it was really only about 2. We just had a couple of things we needed, but there was so much other stuff there to play with. I got a keyboard stand and small amp to play from at home. But check me out now.......with this set up I at least LOOK as if I am a keyboard whiz lol. Now if I can just add about 3 more keyboards and buy a ladder, I'll have everything I need. We actually had practice on MOnday evening without the singer - he couldn't make it.

*Sunday we realized that 2 books we had bought at the Guitar Center did not make it home with us so........yep, we went BACK to Jackson AGAIN to get the books. THen Keith and Jenifer came over to watch football and we had a great time visiting. Dustin and Cody spent the night Sat. night and Dale came to visit with Naomi. Surprisingly they were all pretty good together. THey had a good time I think, and I enjoyed it as well. There were only maybe two little fights lol. But that is a superb evening with 5 kids in the house.

*Tuesday we came home and Dale was finishing the limb work out back, and for whatever reason I developed a big migraine. There was no football game this week - it was an off week. Wednesday I don't remember much about it except I began to realize at work that the full moon was on it's way and the migraine persisted til late in the evening. THursday - same thing pretty much I think.

*Friday - I took the day off (gladly, due to the official day of the full moon) because I had to go back to the hospital in Jackson for an X-ray to see if the tube tie thingy worked, since it was a failure at the last test. I totally believed it would be a failure again but was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is now successful and I am totally infertile! Yay me! Before I left for the X-ray I watched "Rumor Has It" - awesome movie -get it and see it.

*We have Monday and TUesday off work. A relatively new thing that our district has started - Fall Break. I like it. Comes right at a perfect time too, when I'm totally running out of steam at work. Perhaps it will be refreshing enough to last til Thanksgiving. I'm TOTALLY gonna get some cleaning done 'round here.

*Coming up next week: Tonight - Tyler is going to the football game with some friends. Rusty is supposed to be taking me to eat somewhere. SUnday - celebrating Donnie's birthday, few days early, at their house. Band practice is unknown day and time-either Saturday or Monday. Monday and TUesday - house cleaning days. Wednesday - report card day, aka doomsday. And, God willing, I'll be writing about it all on next Friday again.

Heck, I almost forgot again. Two professional photos of Tyler playing football that I bought from a guy who takes pictures at games. They are awesome, he's number 58 in each one. Making the big tackle in the first one, and looking all seriously contemplative in the 2nd one. That's my boy!