The Community of Blogville

When I first began blogging, I didn't know much about it. I thought it was just a creative way for me to share some of our family events with friends and family, not realizing that it would lead me to a whole'nother community; but, that is exactly what it has done.

Through this little hobby of mine, I have met some amazing people.

Through the stories that they have shared, I have met their husbands, their children and their pets. Together, we have celebrated anniversaries, birthdays and other important milestones that may occur.

We have shared best parenting practices and what NOT to do's. ;)

We have given each other support and advice.

Through the laughter and tears, we have come to know each other and we have grown into this community that I like to call Blogville.

In the Blogville community, there is one lady in particular with whom I felt an immediate connection. The stories she told and the comments that she made always made me smile.

Shorty after I met her in Blogville, she went away on the trip of a lifetime.

Here's a woman who had never traveled anywhere - she'd never been on a plane, she'd never been in a cab, and she'd never spent the night away from her family - and she gets invited to go on a month long trip across the Mediterranean.

While she was away, taking pictures of the public facilities in honor of me and her good friend Kenny, I did some catching up on some of the past stories In My her Life.

We had never met in 'real' life but I just knew if we ever did, we would quickly become the best of friends.

Almost immediately after returning home from her trip, she had to have back surgery and ended up on bed rest for well over a month. Once she was recovered enough to have visitors, I took a little trip to her end of Crazyville and we spent the day - and well into a good part of the afternoon - on bed rest together.

My prediction of us quickly becoming the best of friends was confirmed the minute I pulled into her driveway, greeted by Bo Shannon and escorted to the front door where this picture was awaiting my arrival:

Since that first trip to Crazyville, we have met up on several occasions and are indeed very good friends.

Currently, she is on an extended break from Blogville and I don't know when she will return; but, since returning from the trip of a lifetime, her life has been one blow after another: beginning with her back surgery, then her mom's knee surgery, next was her dad's stroke, plus she has two teenage boys going through teenage issues, and now their precious Allie - who has also had health issues since her return - is being put to sleep this week.

All this being said, I would like to take this moment to reach out to the Blogville community and ask that you lift her and her family up in your prayers during these difficult times and pray that the waters soon still so that they may enjoy some peace and serenity before the next storm arrives.

I <3>

need to talk. Ag Shame, My Skattie! ;)

Miscommunication

On Thursday's I pick her up from the library after tutoring.

As we were headed home, she is telling me all about her day and then she says that I have to be at the school at 7:15 tomorrow for early registration.

"Why are you just now telling me this?" I asked her, hating it when she waits until the last minute to give me important information like this.

"I just found out today" she replies.

Friday morning, she runs downstairs at 6:30. "Momma!" She says, concerned that we have overslept.

"Go get dressed, Sugar" I calmly tell her, as I roll out of the bed.

She comes back down less than two minutes later, dressed and ready - according to her.

"There's no way that you got ready that fast." I tell her, stunned at the speed she can actually go should the need arise.

"uh-hu" she says, trying to make me believe that she got dressed, including bra and deodorant, brushed her hair AND her teeth in under two minutes.

YEAH RIGHT!

"Get back up stairs and finish getting ready." I tell her, "and brush your teeth."

Deflated, she goes back upstairs and then I hear "There goes my bus right there."

"Don't worry about it, Sugar, just get ready."

"Okay," she replies, sounding relieved that she didn't get yelled at for missing her bus.

"Didn't you tell me yesterday that I had to be at your school at 7:15 today?"

"Yeah, tonight."

And THAT my friends, is why I was late for work this morning.

Note to parents of school aged children: When your child comes home the night before and tells you that you have to be at school at 7:15 the next day...be sure you discern if they mean AM or PM.

Happy Spring and Welcome Back!

Hi all!

Remember me?


Shelly. The one who gives stories from her shell??


Did you know that being a turtle has its disadvantages?


Oh yes, it's true!


Sure we seem to live a relaxed lifestyle, taking our time getting wherever it is that we are headed and our tough exterior leads people to believe that nothing can bother us. BUT, if someone or something comes along and rocks our world, tipping us onto our backs, we have a heck of a time figuring out how to get back on our feet again.


Work has been the windstorm that has me tipped over onto my back for these past few months. I finally recovered, but all that fast motion has given me a fright - it's still cold and scary out there - so I've burrowed down until the warmth of Spring beckons me, making me feel safe enough to come back out of my hole.


Meanwhile, plenty has been going on in my little corner of the world. Unfortunately, when things are stressful at work my creative juices get zapped.


Last weekend I took a little mini-vacation (I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter break!!)


On Friday we took Spice to get her shots for school - did you know that they have to have 5 shots now before they can get into kindergarten?? [GULP!]


Having only gone through this once before - six years ago, with Sugar, the world renown Drama Queen - I wasn't sure how well this 5 shots thing would go over with Spice, so we decided to give her two on this visit and we'll go back in a couple of months for the remaining three.


Well, let me just tell you....She was SUCH a trooper! She sat there and watched them give her the shots; she didn't move - not even a flinch - and she didn't cry.


I was SO VERY proud of her!


And Sugar....well, she was absolutely amazed! She didn't think it was even possible for someone to get a shot without crying at least ten minutes before they give it to you. ;)


With it being Good Friday, we had to get an early morning appointment because the offices were closing early.


Sugar wasn't very excited about getting up that early in the morning when she didn't have school... And after Sugar expressed her displeasure with a sticky note, Spice had to have one too...

I tell ya... Never a dull moment. :)

Just for Laughs

Sometimes at work, time permitting, I like to lighten things up a little by finding a cute little funny to tack on to the bottom of my emails.

Today I was scrolling through the comics and came across one that made me laugh out loud -Literally!

While I didn't think it was appropriate to share with the people I was sending my email to, it got me so tickled that I had to share it with someone; so, I emailed it to several of my close friends with a personal note of how it made me think of my poor kids - having me as their mother must be difficult. Bless their hearts!

Anyway... Since I'm not in the blogging boat alone, I thought I would share it with all of my blogging buddies as well - I'm sure you'll get as big a kick out of it as I did ;)

Enjoy!

Step Out of Your Box

Fast food marketing.

I'm not sure what the criteria is for a person to obtain such a position, but one would think that they would need to have the ability to think outside of the box; right?



In my opinion, the one working for Taco Bell may need to BOX up his stuff and move on (Isn't their most recent slogan to "Think Outside the Bun"a play on the common phrase 'Think Outside of the Box'?) In fact, I have an extra one - box, that is - that he can borrow.

Here it is, right here...

The one that they put my lunch in today.

Yep, that's right. They gave me this GREAT BIG BOX for two little soft taco's and a chicken quesadillia.

Now, I realize that this may seem like a lot of food to some; but seriously, was it deserving of an entire BOX??

Every other time I've ever gone to Taco Bell, they've been able to fit my entire family's order into one of their little plastic bags; so why, today, did they put three itsy bitsy items in a BOX?

I might feel differnly if the BOX they gave me were similar to the ones McDonald's uses for their Happy Meals; but nooooooo, they gave me a GREAT BIG OPEN BOX.

So, not only did I look like a great big oinker, carrying in a huge BOX of food; but, the wind caused the napkins to start flying through the parking lot, so I was the great big, littering oinker, carrying in a huge BOX of food.

Thanks Taco Bell! That's just the image I was going for.

What Will Become of Stenography

Do any of you remember the forgotten language of shorthand?

There is actually more than one 'type' of shorthand; for example, there's Pitman or Teeline.
And The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography.

I'll bet you've heard of that word...

Usually we think of a stenographer as the person who sits in front of the judge's bench during a trial, quickly depressing the keys on a that funny looking typewriter of hers. Her fingers seem to fly as she transcribes every spoken word. And then, when a defendant answers a question that the lawyer objected, and the judge sustained their objection, he will look at her and tell the stenographer to 'strike that from the record'.

People go to classes to learn this stuff!!

Did you know that a stenographer can write/type at speeds of up to 300 words a minute?? Fascinating!

What do you think will come of shorthand as this next generation grows into adulthood??

Do you think the stenograph will become a thing of the past, like the dinosaurs, as the upcoming language of texting takes over the world?

If you are the parent of a teen, or even a pre-teen, you know what I'm talking about.

I have a friend who doesn't allow her children to use txt, when they are texting. Her logic is that it creates problems in their schoolwork. They get so used taking txt shortcuts, that they make errors by writing the way they txt, or they forget the proper spelling of words.

Not to mention, as parents we reserve the right to view any and all of our children's text messages. And it wouldn't do us any good to review them, if we can't understand the lingo. Right??

Note to self: Next time you spell something wrong, use txting as your excuse. Yeah, that'll work!
I've not always been a horrible speller, it just happened when this texting thing came along. Y'all believe me don't you??

Okay, sorry; back to the story...

Anyway, since spelling has never been my strong suit this logic made perfect since and I Incorporated that same rule to Sugar when she got her cell phone.

The other day she texted me from the library. Our conversation was as follows:

Her: Hey moma
Me: Hey!

Her: Hey whats up i mean what you doing
Me: Working. What r u doing?

Her: Noting i am on my way to the library
Me: Okay, do ur homework and i'll let u know when i'm on my way.

Her: I dont have any homework
Me: Ok. u could get onto study island

Her: Ok love you
Me: Love u 2. ttyl :)

Her: What i am not allowed talk text talk i dont know what that means all i know iz lol
Me: Lol! I LOVE U!!!!

What??? I'm the mom, those same rules don't apply to me. ;)

Who's That in My Kitchen?

There are several things that I'm good at: Computers - check, Creativity - check, check, Organizing - check, check, check, shopping - check, check, check, check.

I am good at all of those things, as well as a few more that seem to be eluding me right now.

BUT, Domestic Diva I. am. not.

I believe that I've mentioned a time or two (or three, or four) before that cooking is not my thing.

It's not that I can't cook, I just prefer not to.

I am perfectly content so sit on my ass back, whenever the hubby's not home (I always said I would marry a man who could cook ; ) and let my twelve year old do the cooking.

She likes to cook, I don't like to cook. This arrangement works for us, right up until I walk into the kitchen and find the HUGE mess that she never fails to leave behind.

I swear, this girl is like a walking tornado. She leaves a trail of destruction everywhere she goes.

A couple of weeks ago, mom and I were shopping - at Target, if you can imagine ;) - and when we were in the book section, I stumbled across a book called Fix It and Forget It, Lightly.

I picked it up and started thumbing through it. There were several recipes in there that caught my eye. Not only did they look good, they looked easy.

Throw your ingredients in the crock-pot, turn it on, go to work, come home and voila, dinner is served. Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thinking that this would help eliminate our dinner doldrums, I bought the book.

After trying out two easy peasy and wonderfully delicious recipes, I have decided that slow cooker cooking is the way for me.

Last weekend I upgraded to a fancy-schmancy crock pot. Now, I can set the amount of time my meals should cook and when the time is out it will automatically switch to 'warm' until we get home.

Yesterday, I made my first EVER... insert drum roll here...

Meatloaf :o *gasp*

And guess what?!?!

It was eatable and, although I'm not a big fan of meatloaf - I left out all the 'yucky stuff' - it turned out pretty good. ;)

Shocking, I know.