March Ends

This has been a TERRIBLY busy week! I say that every time, don't I?

Saturday was Cody's birthday party and I left my blasted camera at home. He had a great party though, and the kid picked one of my FAVORITE cakes for his birthday - strawberry! Woohoo! Then Saturday evening Terri and Lysa came to hang out here and we had a good time sitting around talking about old times and such. For once, the MEN were outnumbered! (If you don't include boy children....) I didn't get any pics from the birthday party but Terri did and she has them on her blog: http://notsoexcitinglife.blogspot.com/

Sunday was the first rehearsal of the revamped "Big Hair Affair" and I thought it went pretty darn good for a first rehearsal. Oddly enough, an old old friend of ours was interested in playing drums for this band - Steve Auttonberry. Whaddya know? So now Russ can move to guitar and there will be 2 guitars. The keyboard player has a tight work schedule and can not always be around to practice, so I agreed to fill in at practices on keyboard. But I insist they keep him as the actual keyboard player because he is a really TERRIFIC singer himself. But I did also agree to maybe play some shows sometimes if he is unable to make it due to his job. So this could be interesting from time to time. I had fun at the first practice, expect to have fun this weekend also - we'll see.

So Rusty and I have spent most of this week learning songs. The singer requested we know like 15 or 16 songs for this weekend - he wants everyone to be caught up to the level that he was already working at. Which is around 40-50 songs. So, it's been a week of tedious work in the evenings.

Tyler's report card last week was not as good as last time. But not just awful. A's, B's, C's, and a 69/F in biology. Tanner's F was in science too. Guess my kids are just not scientifically inclined. I always hated science too. So we are buckling down on them, particularly in the homework area which is usually where the problems lie.

Sometime last weekend I took a walk around the yard and I must have looked at some poison ivy or something because I came down with the worst case of it that I have had in many years. Both elbows, one upper arm, the back of one leg, a spot on my back, and one foot. We have not even BEGUN mowing yet, I just passed by some while walking I guess! Gonna be a long spring. I may have to get Pat to bring me home a couple of jars full of lake water. Tyler is already dreading the mowing. I asked him today if he had the choice of being out of school all summer but having to mow grass once every 2 weeks OR going to school all summer long but not having to mow. He said he'd rather go to school all summer long than have to mow grass every 2 weeks. That's pretty bad.

Cingular came out with "unlimited mobile to mobile text messaging for $5" this week. It's the answer to Tyler's prayers. He's been using up his 3000 text messages/month in only 3 weeks each month, leaving him textless for the last week of each month. That's 1000 text messages a week! But luckily all his friends are on Cingular so now they are free to text as they please.

Tanner has been counting the days til Brooke gets here. I really hope he gets to see her as much as he is planning on it. I think the 2 of them have planned an entire week with Mamaw and Papaw in their little minds. He thinks he should be able to stay out of school the whole week. But I will probably let him miss at least a day or two.

Today is Friday, and I rushed both kids to a haircut this afternoon, kicking and screaming. Tyler doesn't want anyone but Steven to cut his hair and Steven was not in today. Tanner just flat didn't want a haircut at ALL, even though it's hanging in his eyes. He said he'd just put a bunch of hair gel in it and comb it to the side everyday. So I forced them to the mall for a haircut, even though I hate mall haircuts myself. But they did ok. I had to get their haircut today because we're going to Earnest's church for a family portrait. When Earnest came by a few weeks ago I bought a family portrait that they were doing for a fund raiser, so today it's time to go get it done. I am SO NOT POPULAR around this house this afternoon. NOBODY wants to go do this picture lol. I may have to play the female card and CRY before it's over with to get them to do this with a happy attitude.

Rusty has a tooth that's bugging him this week. And I had a filling to come out. And Tyler ran out of contacts. And it's time for the dog to go to the vet. So we had eye doctor visits this week and we have dentist appointments, and vet appointments on schedule for all of next week. And I have an honor choir concert next Tuesday night, and Bonko also. But then we get EASTER weekend, yay! Every time I think things can't move any faster or get any busier, I get proven wrong.

Sorry no pictures this week :( But I will try to do better next week.

Middle o' March

This week, going back to work and all, has been like a whirlwind. Kinda like, “back with a vengeance”, it’s been extremely busy yet unfruitful for me. Constantly doing, but nothing ever getting DONE.

Last Friday night we went for another bonfire at Mike and Cheryl’s and took Tyler, Tanner, and Drew. We had a great time, even Tyler said the next day he couldn’t wait to do it again. Just something about sitting around a fire. Anyway here are a few pics:


Just had a thought - let's do a bonfire at the lakehouse this summer! Woohoo!



















Later Saturday evening, we went to hear Scum Gumbo at the Loft – they were pretty good. Same story – dressed in 80’s wigs and clothes and singing 80’s songs. That is apparently THE thing to do nowadays. There is a big demand for it it seems. This particular band plays at numerous fraternity parties at numerous universities in Alabama and Mississippi both (http://www.scumgumbo.com/). So college age people are digging the 80’s music I grew up to??????? Here are a couple of pics:













Which brings me to…….The Big Hair Affair audition last Saturday. Rusty and Russ auditioned and it sounded awesome, and the band voted them in. But various difficulties came up with various details and so on, so forth, and etc. (Musician drama) So now it looks, at this time, like half of that band and half of the band Rusty already has are going to merge together to make an all new one, possibly of the same name, don’t know for sure yet. The story changes everyday. It’s going to work out to be a really TERRIFIC band for sure though. Dressing up and doing 80’s music as well. First practice is this weekend. I’m still excited for him. But that whole audition day was totally nerve-wrecking to me. It doesn’t take much to get my nerves in a wad these days. I don’t know HOW I intend to be a teacher for 20 more years lol.

Sunday Rusty's dad and stepmom came to visit. His dad is trying to make me FAT - he keeps bringing me a loaf of home made bread that he makes every time he comes over here. Impossible to not eat it. Tanner got him a bit of sun on Sunday while I was working on the laundry room.


Tyler stayed with a friend from pretty much Saturday til Sunday afternoon. Rusty put up my laundry room shelves (see my special spring cleaning edition lol). Monday was back to work where hardly ANYONE has done their windows updates in no telling how long. So the whole school was in an uproar over the time not changing on their computer. Some thought we had a virus, because every time they changed their clock it changed right back. Aargh. It was a LONG week for me getting all those fixed up. But I just singled out the time change update fix and put it on my handy flash drive and just installed that one update – was the quickest way for me.

Myspace is becoming more and more of a pastime. It’s CRAZY, I know. But I’m on there at least once a day now. I put up a bunch of old high school pictures last weekend of just about everyone that is on my list. Well, my friends on my list liked them all, and they sent links to them to all their friends. And then they told other friends that didn’t even have a myspace – who then went out and got a myspace so they could see them and comment on them lol. So I’ve ended up making contact with even MORE people from school now lol. And me, Terri, Shari, Heather, Lysa continue to do the surveys and questionnaires everyday for fun. And sometimes Rusty and some other guys will do one too. Tyler told me, “You know mom, only goofy Jr. High kids do those stupid bulletin survey things.” Oh well! I guess grown folks like to be silly sometimes too. I guess it’s just a unique way to be in touch with people without having to go out of your way to visit them. I also found out an old friend of mine has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which is terrible. 35 year olds aren't supposed to get cancer.

Tuesday evening Lisa came over and she and Rusty began learning some of the set list for the new band. Also, Jamie Wicker came by to visit and to buy one of Rusty's numerous guitars.

Tanner got his report card Wednesday. He came to me and asked me if I wanted the good news first or the bad news. I said the good news. He said, "The good news is that I made all A's and B's, the bad news is that I made a F in science and it's all the teacher's fault." And indeed he did make an F in science. I think the teacher is trying to teach him a lesson in responsibility. He says it's her fault because she wouldn't let him turn in homework late. I spent the rest of the day explaining to him how that was HIS fault, not HERS. Tyler warned me all week that his report card might contain surprises. He gets his this afternoon so I'll have to report on it next time.

Tanner has been chatting with Brooke on the internet using the Yahoo Messenger thing. It's great that they have ways of keeping in touch with each other. Tyler talks to Chloe and Allie and maybe even Hannah a good bit on the internet too. Every now and then I'll tell him some news I've heard about one of them in Alabama, like Chloe's swimming records, and he says "Yeah, I already knew that before you did." On the Yahoo Messenger you are able to create your own avatar to look like yourself to kinda go along with your name. I noticed the one that Tanner had created to be "him" this week and it just struck me as so funny and cute. Took a picture of it to show here. He's got the "mysterious, dangerous, angel of death" thing going on, but still able to chill at the beach and build sandcastles lol.

One thing good about this blog for me is that I'm starting to hear from people. I've been emailing with both Brandon and Dustin this week and catching up with them and what they are up to. Susan has started a blog now and I had a blast checking it out. Mom has the lakehouse blog going. And Terri started her blog this week also, I'm looking forward to checking in on these blogs each week. It might not be as good as sitting and visiting with each other, but it's the next best thing when you CAN'T sit in and visit with each other.

The Spring Cleaning Edition, or "The Airing of the Dirty Laundry"

I took a quiz this week and found out what I already know:

You Are Very Messy

You are a slob, and you really don't care if other people know it. You don't love messes, but you just can't be bothered to clean on a regular basis. While being messy and disorganized feels easy, it's probably making your life harder. Maybe it's time for you to get a maid.

Are You Messy?

Well, heck, it didn't tell my anything I didn't already know!

Lol..anyway. I'm hesitant to do this. But I figure, what the heck, we're all family huh? lol

No, these are NOT photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. No, these are NOT photos of the aftermath of a tornado. These are NOT crime scene photos of a ransacked home. These are photos of what happened to my house between Christmas and Spring Break when I have had NO time and NO help around the place. And these ARE photos of what I had to face this week for my Spring Break. lol. I really let things go sometimes. BUT - I am glad to have times like Spring Break to CATCH UP on all this mess. GEEZZZZZ!!!!!!!



*Disclaimer: Don't feel sorry for me and don't judge me by these photos lol. I'm not the greatest housekeeper in the world, but we usually have it better than this. I'm just having fun with myself here, and only showing it cuz I know only family is seeing it. And I guess I'm just comfortable enough in the world that I'm not afraid to show the bad stuff too lol. ANyway, none of it is really as bad as it looks on here lol. I just thought this would be a FUN way to make light of my recent situation and having NO TIME to do ANYTHING!!!!

Anyway, now that all my apologies are out of the way.....


First, a few photos of my laundry room and my wonderful organization skills and storage arrangements.These are the before photos, then I did a major overhaul to be shown at the end.

In photo 1, notice how I have meticulously designed a walking trail from the door to the dryer area. Walk straight in until you reach the fallen over lawn chairs, then move to the right til you bump into the laundry basket, then move 1 step forward to reach the dryer. The fallen over lawn chairs make an easy step up to reach into the washer for clothing. Notice the clear plastic tub I use to put laundry detergent in. And the empty detergent box, well I just use that as a "garbage can" for the dryer lint. Impeccable planning skills if you ask me. Also visible in photo 1 are my Christmas decorations (boxes to the right), dog food ( lower left), and ironing board I use once a year and space heater that is never used.

MOving on to photo 2. CAn you tell we are game fanatics? Or, actually, we USED to be game fanatics. We have played in board games in a hundred years, but we've got loads of them should we ever need them I tell ya! And some of them we even have TWO of just in case we need TWO. Notice the vintage 1964 shelving - totally antique. Can't forget to mention the jigsaw puzzles, which I am considering donating to the lakehouse - Mom? Whaddya say? ANy room in those new kitchen cabinets?



Photo 3 - Underneath the vintage 1964 shelving is fantastic organization skills at their finest. All masterminded by myself you can plainly see my Halloween decor, numerous camping gear items, the before mentioned ironing board and space heater, a tile saw, and gosh knows what else. My decorating and storage styles were inspired by Sanford & Son.



In photo #4 you can see the stacks of Christmas decorations I mentioned earlier. This one I am proudest of. lol.










IN photo 5, my laundry room light fixture which I HATE with a passion. No civilized home in 2007 should have a single bulb, uncovered fixture in it in any room of the house. UNACCEPTABLE.






Last but not least, the terrific paint job done by the people who owned the place before us:




Gotta love it. At least some of that mess can be blamed on bad decorating and shelving before we bought the house. The following messes I have no excuses for other than I've been too busy living to clean up or to make anybody else clean up. This is my kitchen in the state that it was in the day we began Spring Break:













Next is my beloved living room which somehow has gotten turned into a laundry folding room. Notice the highly expensive laundry folding "tables". Only the BEST for our laundry I say.




Next is the DEN, aka "Rusty's Room". In my defense, I have not been allowed to touch anything in this room for the last 2 weeks. Rusty had an amplifier go out on him and he's taken it totally apart and is trying to replace parts and fix it and whatever else he's doing. It's really just best that I not go in there because if something goes missing he'll automatically blame me if I have straightened up. So I guess this room stays "as is" until the amp gets fixed:
Moving down the hallway.....we have Tanner's room. Don't even know WHAT to say about this one. But anyway, this is how it looked when Spring Break began:






I was going to post a before picture of my own bedroom too. However, I never got around to cleaning mine so I don't have an "after" picture - so just leaving that one off lol. Tyler's room was actually the best looking room, but when he realized I took a picture of it he made my PROMISE I would not put it on the internet. So rather than scar him for life by embarassing him and showing his room, I'll just leave it off also. My bathroom was in immaculate shape because I had just cleaned it from top to bottom the Wednesday before Spring Break. So I didn't worry with a picture there.

I took a little inventory outside the house to see what work the winter left for us out there. Gotta clean all the leaves out of our drainage ditch:

Found a limb hanging on our cable wire - got that off myself:

But my clover bed is sprouting rather nicely this year. I'm being sarcastic there. This is actually the very spot that I WANT TO PLANT BUSHES and I still have not figured out what I want or how to do it and all that stuff. So for now I still have an empty flower bed - full of wild clover.

Initial photos were taken Saturday March 10. Follow up photos were taken Wednesday March 21.
________________________________________________________________

AFTER SHOTS:

I single handedly redid my entire laundry room. Actually, Rusty put up the new shelves :). But I ripped out the old shelves and painted the whole room and cleaned it up. That took most of my week really. I also replaced the dryer vent hose by myself, which I am very proud of. Notice how I CAN be organized when I really try. I'm not a TOTAL slob lol. Anyway, I'm very proud of my hard work in the laundry room. Our initial efforts to unclog the stopped up washer drain pipe failed. We had just decided that we were going to have to call in the "big guns" (Papaw Pat and Papaw Tommy) when, all of a sudden, the thing fixed itself. I just started doing laundry and on about the 3rd load it quit leaking out in the floor. Crossing my fingers that it stays fixed. Anyway, on with the pics.....

I even have a few extra shelves to spare, with nothing to go on them. Bet that doesn't last long though.

Christmas decorations are much more organized:

And so are the games. We still have too many games, but at least I sorted through them some:

Camping equipment is in much better arrangement as well. And the path through the door to the washer and dryer is much better laid out lol.

Now, for the rest of the house. I cleaned the kitchen pretty decent and took a picture as fast as I could because I knew it would not stay straightened up - and it didn't. I got the laundry done and put away from the living room. And we got Tanner's room cleaned up pretty decent too. Rusty's den is still in the same condition as above, possibly even worse. The amp is still not fixed and is in pieces all over the floor. I am not allowed to clean the room any until he is finished, which could be this summer at this rate lol. I never made it to my room, and Tyler did not do much in his either. But oh well, I still feel like I accomplished some things over Spring Break.

So goes my first Spring Cleaning attempt of this year. It's been lots of fun making fun of myself, hope yall enjoyed it too lol.

Spring Break Week

Me with a whole week off work=really long blog post. So get ready to read, or skip it if you don't wanna read a long time. lol :)

Saturday night we went to a cookout at Mike and Cheryl's house in Redwood. They built a bonfire and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and cooked hamburgers and sat around the fire talking til about 9:30 I guess. It was really nice, been years since we've been to a bonfire and I forgot how relaxing and pleasant it is. We are going back again this Friday and we'll take the kids this time. The kids stayed at Mom's house because we were going afterwards to see the D7 band play at the Loft. I had used myspace to invite an old friend of ours (Lysa) to meet us out there, and asked Donnie and Terri to meet us there also. We ended up having a blast. We stayed there til 3 am. And with the time change that ended up being 4 am. Not something I can do too many times in my life I don't think - geesh.



Here are some pics of us all at the Loft:




















Two of last weeks activities have turned into something interesting this week:
1. Our trip to see the "Big Hair Affair".
2. My evening on myspace.
The combination of those two things has landed Rusty a new playing gig it seems. When we watched the band play that weekend, we briefly met the singer and spoke with him. Then the other night when I was lost in the myspace fun, I found the band on myspace and added them to my friends list. The singer messaged me and thanked us for coming to see them. He asked if Rusty was still playing with D7, etc. I messaged him back and said no, that he had something else going, etc. He messaged me again and gave me his phone number and asked for Rusty to please call him right away because he wanted to know what Rusty really really thought of the show last weekend. It was nearly 11:00 but Rusty called him. They talked for about an hour. To make a long story short, the guy was interested in having Rusty in the band and Rusty is interested in being in the band. It's just right up his alley - dressing up in 80's gear and playing 80's music! I'm totally excited! He met us out at the Loft Saturday along with everyone else to discuss it further. Looks like it might become a thing here in a month or two, or maybe sooner. I'll keep it posted.

SAturday Tanner made another ebay purchase - this time it was a more sensible one. TWO lego men for a total of about $10.70.

Sunday was a pretty day. Tyler, Tanner, and me went to church - the teen band was going to be playing at the adult church session. They did a good job. I had to force Tanner to go, he hates to sit still so long. Rusty bought all of us and Mickey a steak and we cooked out on the grill. Rusty made Tyler wash both of our cars (with Tanner's help). Tyler ended up having to wash Rusty's twice - thought he and Rusty were gonna go round and round the WHOLE DAY. Rusty worked on a guitar amp all day long just to find that it was not fixable without more parts or more electronics expertise. So Steve T. is supposed to come help him with it soon.

Monday Tanner and Drew went up to the hospital all day to wait on Drew's baby brother to be born. They didn't even know if it would be a boy or girl, the parents did not want to know before hand. But they were excited when it was a boy, that is what Drew and Tanner were hoping for. He was a 6 lb. 11oz. "Sebastian Marquis". Of course the grandparents are just beaming!


Tyler actually left his room and went outside and played some football in the street on Monday. I took lots of pictures to try to inspire myself to do some spring cleaning, then I thought of doing an entire blog entry about my efforts - kind of a before and after thing. Just trying to find a way to make it fun for me lol. So later in a week or so there should be a "spring cleaning" edition in the blog. Then Monday evening we had Mickey and Buddy (the singer previously mentioned) over for dinner, and Lisa and Russ came to visit also.


TUesday Tyler forced me to go to the gym. He's terribly worried that he will lose all the strength, agility, and stamina that he has built up since Christmas if he does not work out all week. So we went, and he found that he had a hard time hanging with me on the elipticycle thing. Mom's not so outta shape lol. He made it for 25 of the 30 minutes though. THen we lifted a few weights and such. He wanted me to get the gym owner to give him some advice on some certain things he wanted to tone up on so we went and asked him what excercises or weight lifting he could do to tone up the chest and abdominal area. He said not to worry about the weight lifting, just do the weightlifting - but the thing to be concerned with is NUTRITION. He told Tyler to write down every single thing he eats for 4 days then bring it back to him and he'll discuss it with him, and he also gave us a copy of the "Wyatt diet" that he would be putting him on. ACtually, the Wyatt diet looks kinda good. It's for body building as well as fat loss, but it's very close to Atkins. I might do it with him, what the heck.


Also on Tuesday, Tyler's shoes that he designed himself FINALLY came in. Took exactly 4 weeks. He went to converse.com and designed his own pair of shoes, special order - it was lots of fun. Here they are, special order!


Also on Tuesday, Tanner and Drew got to put the sprinkler on the trampoline for an hour. THey did yet another hour on Wednesday also. Drew has been here the whole week, thank goodness. Drew's severe allergies have been awful this week, but the waterhose actually seems to offer some relief. I've never seen a kid with allergies that bad. THey may both be sick as heck next week from being out in the water, but they've had tons of fun.


On Wednesday I had so much fun demolishing my laundry room. Demolition is therapeutic, I suggest it to anyone for stress relief. I ripped out old delapidated shelving and I primed and painted the ceiling and walls. I also went and bought all new state-of-the-art shelving to replace the 1964 shelving I had ripped out. Man, I've been wanting to do this for a LONG time. We also put some stuff down the drain pipe to clear the clog that we've been hoping would just go away. Still not sure if it's completely gone.... Also, I replaced the dryer vent hose all by myself. I used the leftover primer and paint from my bathroom and had just enough for the laundry room. And - note to self - the name of that awesome thick really good paint I bought was Glidden "America's Finest" paint, white, from Home Depot - gliddenpaint.com. Anyway, more on this week's home improvement and spring cleaning in the special "Spring Cleaning" edition of the blog that I post, if I EVER get finished with my spring cleaning.


I've gone myspace crazy this week. I've found a couple other friends now. And we leave little funny notes to each other each day. And we're planning a pool party for the summer, and possibly a girls night out sometime if a few can make it into town at the same time. Myspace is cool. lol. It occured to me this week that in 2009 I will be attending my 20th year class reunion good LORD. As old as that makes ME feel, it should make the rest of you feel REALLY OLD!


Wednesday evening our neighbors (Drew's grandparents) came down to visit and give us the news that Angie (the grandmother) is retiring effective today and she will be home all the time like her husband now. She offered to keep Tanner any time he is home sick from school and talked about all the cakes she intends to bake and the cleaning she intends to do lol. We're excited for her.


Thursday I did odd jobs around the house. I"m kind of at a stand still in the laundry room until Rusty has the time to put up the shelves. The kids got in the water hose yet again - no telling what my water bill will be. I've been totally enjoying mom's blog she FINALLY made about the lakehouse. http://the-lakehouse-smk.blogspot.com/ Now if we can just talk some other folks into starting theirs! We could all have weekly updates from each family in our emailboxes every weekend, that would be awesome lol. Candie (old roommate from Gulfport) called and we talked for 2 hours. She has been on the exact same cruise that we went on, and we're discussing going together some time. She told me her Hurricane Katrina story, and we made plans to go to the Gulfcoast Marching contest together next fall lol.


Today is Friday, sadly my last day of Spring Break. We will be going to another bonfire cookout at Cheryl and Mike's tonight, then on to see "Scum Gumbo" play at the Loft. Tomorrow Rusty meets with "Big Hair Affair" to play together and discuss everything - I'm so excited! THen Sunday I'll probably cook all day and whine about going back to work.

Was gonna wait and spring this on ya during a time when I didn't have much to post, but what the heck. Before I started this family blog I toyed with the idea of a creative writing blog but I lost interest at first. But while off this week, I went back and picked it back up and decided to put it on again for fun. I like finding writing prompts, or especially LISTS of stuff. Doing a lot of that with friends on myspace right now too. So - anyway - as if I have not given you enough stuff to read thus far - here is the link to my goof off blog http://summerof71.blogspot.com/
These are the couple of things I wrote last spring, but hope to add some current stuff as I get the inspiration or find an idea lol. I love lists - it's an affliction.

And just like that, spring break is HERE!

Rusty and I did go and see the "Big Hair Affair" last Saturday night and we had a good time. A lot of people were there to see them. They're just a bunch of guys with decent day jobs that put on wigs and sing all the old 80's songs everyone loves, it's a trip! http://www.bighairaffair.com/

Sunday I cooked all day, was in the mood I guess. Cooked everything to eat for the whole week and I was glad I did. We had band practice on both Monday and Tuesday nights which was difficult to swing for me. By Wednesday everything at home was piled up. Argh! But at least we did get to practice. Practice was difficult as well, having been 2 weeks since we played. Hopefully that won't happen again.

I was happy to see Brandon checked out the blog, thanks! It's nice to know people read it now and then lol. I'm really hoping now that you'll start one of your own too, wish everyone would actually. The pictures of Emma are gorgeous, almost gives me baby fever lol. And I especially love the black and white photos, those always have that antique look to them - just something about them. I think she looks just like Brandon with dark hair and dark eyes.

Well, Tanner got sent to the office this week but he swears he "didn't do it". His write up said: "Tanner has been refusing to follow directions throughout the day and has been given many warnings. He refuses to stay in his desk and refuses to stop talking at inappropriate times although he has been warned of the consequences." Now surely we all KNOW Tanner wouldn't do anything like THAT. According to him, he stayed in his seat all day and didn't say a word lol. He was sent to in school detention for the rest of that afternoon.

Tyler stayed home sick on Tuesday with a headache but he was better by the time I got home later. He got in a tad bit of trouble on Thursday. He was running a relay race and taunting the guy that he had just passed (in a friendly way). BUT - he used a profane word when doing so and a female girls' coach nearby heard him. She grabbed him and the other boy demanding to know who said it and neither of them would tell. She hollered and threatened them and they still wouldn't tell. So she took them to the football coaches and explained what she had heard. The coaches told her..."Yes ma'am, we will find out which one it was and they will be PUNISHED SEVERELY!!!" When she left, the football coach said "ok, who said it?" Tyler confessed. The coach smiled and laughed and said "Don't do that no more" lol. So luckily he got out of the trouble with the mean lady coach. Tyler is getting into the weightlifting, even though he doesn't like it. He doesn't like doing it much, but everyone else is doing it and he can't stand being outdone by anybody. So he's working everyday trying to add more and more weight, and he has improved a good bit. And the coaches told him he runs pretty fast for a white boy lol.


I fell into the myspace trap Thursday evening. We've had myspace sites since last year we just hardly ever mess with them much - not like some people who are addicted to myspace lol. Anyway, I was tired and bored so I signed in and starting looking at the people's sites that are on my friends list. Saw some new people that I knew, started checking them out. Saw more people I knew. Saw I had some messages so I responded to them. Then I saw this cute little questionnaire thingy everyone was passing around so I filled it out. Sent a message to my friend in Gulfport. Sent a message to another old friend. Surfed through Tyler's friends. Before I knew it I had sat there 2 hours lol. It's a neat place.

There really has not been much exciting happening this week. It's attic fan weather again and I'm enjoying it. I've just been counting the days til Spring Break and glad it's finally here. I can catch up on my life, my house, and maybe read a book. We are going to see the D7 band Saturday evening. Seems to be lots of bands playing at the Loft lately. And we have not seen them in awhile so figure we'll go.

I didn't take any pictures this week because we didn't do much. So guess I'll just post some old time favorites. So, speaking of the "Big Hair Affair", here are some of my favorite vintage bighair photos from the 80's:

Me and my best friend at USM, and Rusty in about 1984 or 1985:

Mom made me and Chris get our picture made together at prom one year. We thought it was embarassing but now I'm glad we did it lol. And here is one of my favorite 80's pics of Brandon, Dustin, Chris, and Eric:

And this one is actually in the year 2000, but it's one of those priceless kinda photos lol:

March Begins

It's already March.

Last Saturday was Dustin's birthday party, we had a great time visiting and I think he racked up pretty good on his birthday it looked like. He's 12 now - that makes me feel even older than my own kids make me feel. Once DUSTIN becomes a teenager, we all might as well buy rockers for our front porches cuz we're gonna be SO old.

It's bad that I don't remember Sunday. Or maybe it's good, it might mean that we actually relaxed and did nothing Sunday - sure needed it.

Tanner talked Rusty into helping him buy a toy he wanted off Ebay. It was $25 and he had $15 saved up. I don't think Rusty ever even looked at what it was before agreeing. But I knew what it was. Once it came in, Rusty couldn't believe he had helped him spend $25 on a single lego man lol. But apparently it's a "rare" one. It's a Spiderman "Venom" lego man. I told Tanner he better not lose it for at least 6 months - get $25 worth of playing with it at least.

There was no band practice this week, couldn't work out a day for it. So we resume next week.

I went to bonko at Terri's Tuesday night and I won the most games, woohoo! It's nice to have some luck now and then. And nice to get together with folks and not have to cook also.

Tuesday Tanner's teacher told me she needed to speak to me about something that she was concerned about. I thought....oh boy what has he done??? She said, "Tanner wrote a paragraph in class yesterday and he said some things that alarmed me and I simply MUST know if it is true." By this time I'm wondering what on EARTH...... She said, "TAnner wrote about who he admires most. And he said that he admires his mother most because she makes up his bed for him and cleans up after him and he never has to do ANYTHING." lmao. I was relieved, but embarassed a bit too. I said, "Well, if and when his bed actually gets made up, it's by me. And he's probably right about the cleaning - nobody does anything but me most of the time." She then let me have it. She said that her 5 year old daughter makes up her bed EVERY day and does it as well as a grown up. And that she has her kids doing housework daily. Honestly - I have tried to give them chores, but I lose track of it or get busy and don't stay on them about it. But she made me feel really dumb lol. She was totally SHOCKED. Like she had never even HEARD of the likes of somebody like me lol. Well, at least he DOES ADMIRE me for it. I don't think it's all that unusual myself. BUt maybe it is. Maybe it's time to look into a change....Also on Tuesday morning I had to go to school with Tyler and meet with the principal. He had been given after school detention (for being tardy too many times) the week before and had already served it. But they were trying to give him in school detention on Tuesday for not serving the after school detention. So I went in there, they went and asked the guy who holds after school detention if Tyler had been there and he said yes. So then they took him off the in school detention list. This is the 2nd time this year we've had such a problem.

Wednesday I got evalutated at work. EVerything went as well as I could expect it to. I haven't heard anything back from my boss yet, but I can just assume it was fine. I have been the "windshield" at work this week, and things have gone well again.

Also Wednesday was restaurant night and we went to El Ranchero. Tyler had been asking for it for days. They even had a mariachi band of their own this time, it was nice.

Since I've been trying to become a better financial planner and stuff and create a budget for us, I decided to write down and account for every single penny I spent in February. So for the whole month of February I kept a log of EVERYTHING I bought or paid for. I closed it all out yesterday and totaled it all up and it was quite shocking. I won't even admit to amounts right here in front of anyone lol. But GEEZ. And the only things I bought that were not just totally necessary were a small crockpot and a purse. I'm going to do the same thing in March and see if I can't cut down on my totals for stuff like groceries and such. It's kinda fun to look at it all. And it's nice to have in writing where all my money goes. And to be able to show kids and hubby and all just how much it costs to eat, drive, stay healthy, and wear clothes around here.

Tanner dressed up as "the phantom" and creeped around in the dark early Friday evening. Also, Terri and the kids came and hung out with us Friday evening. We are planning on seeing the "Big Hair Affair" at the Loft on Saturday evening. I'm also hoping to catch a glimpse of the copper colored full moon tonight - there is a lunar eclipse this evening.

Today is Saturday, we slept in - all except Rusty of course. But once I woke up this morning there was a knock on the door. It was Ernest. I taught Ernest in music class when he was in the 4th grade. He was such a good singer, and the most positive and happy little fella I ever met. I just loved him. Anyway, Ernest is now a senior in high school and he was out selling stuff for the choir. All of us sat and visited with him and he told me has has received a full music scholarship to Ole Miss. And he wanted to thank me for being an inspiration to him when he was a kid. Unbelievable. Just when you think what you do for a living doesn't make a bit of difference. Out of the thousands of kids I've taught in 11 years, one of them is going into a music career woohoo!! I'm very proud of him. I should have taken his picture, darnit.

I have one more week of work until Spring Break and I can not wait....