The weirdest things to worry about

Last night J played his last fall ball baseball game. They lost but they actually played pretty well. J took a ball to the lip in warm ups and one to the ear in the game. He was pretty tough about the one to the lip but not so tough about the hit to the ear. This morning however, the ear wasn't mentioned at all but he was laying on his bed whining when it was time to get ready for school. It turns out he was worried that "dey" will pick on him for his fat lip. All that whining and not talking and near tears over a fat lip! He picks the weirdest things to worry about.

I said, "Oh bunk. You got it playing baseball. It's like an award." He was not convinced. I let him be for a while and finally told him that he was going to school so please get ready. I told him he could wear the Spiderman costume, the King of Hearts card costume or put a headband on and be the Karate Kid. T told him his fat lip would look good with a Karate Kid costume. He was not convinced.

After another time telling him to get ready for school he finally came out in regular clothes. I asked him if he was going to dress up and he said no. He pouted 'til part way through breakfast and then decided he wanted a head band. Sigh....I got online quick and found his name translated into Chinese (I'm sure it's a very loose translation) and wrote it in marker on my dishtowel, I mean his head band. He was finally convinced. (Oh please, Lord. Don't let anyone make fun of him.)

I knew we wouldn't have time last night to carve a pumpkin so he did it on Wed. A free-handed a beautiful owl for him with instructions on where to "skin" it and where to cut completely out for a very cool effect. He didn't "get it" and proceeded to cut the entire outline completely out. Oh well. It looks kind of cool.
And even cooler in the dark.

The two cats and one dog were lined up at the screen door the other day. This is not where I wanted this pic to go but it will not move. Apparently it likes this spot.

A carved pumpkins last weekend with her friend, E. They put pix on FB. I don't have those. She also carved one of those little "baking pumpkins" last week. Those little buggers are hard as rocks and she actually had to "seesaw" (J's word for saw) the side of the pumpkin off to get to something she could work with.

This is what she carved.

It ended up molding and she threw it at a tree. J threw his little pumpkin at a tree too. Apparently it's fun, sort of like a potato cannon. Whatever.

-A got her "formal drape" senior pic done last night. A hundred bucks gone, "snap". Just like that. For one 8x10 and 8 wallets. Sigh...at least we have a friend who can do the rest of the pix.

-Mom and dad got back safely. Mom seems to like the window shelf we put up for their anniversary but dad doesn't seem impressed. I think it looks great and really helps frame the window out. We have two in our house and I'd like to do more.

-Please keep Mrs. H's grandson in your prayers. He has something called ADEM ( http://www.adem.org/ ). He's doing really well but would appreciate prayers. He still has 4 weeks of hospital re-hab ahead of him.

-We are thankful that we didn't blow away in the storms the other day. I was driving on Tuesday when a gust of wind hit me and it made my stomach flip flop. It really slammed into me and scared me. There were tornadoes near our family in WI that evening too but thankfully they didn't have any damage.

-I'm having some weird heel pain. Usually my right, top forefoot hurts but this time the left heel is giving me fits. Sigh...my grand parents always used to say to me, "It's heck to get old, kid."

-I guess that's it for now.

'Nother li'l update

Nothing big going on, just busy, busy, busy.

A made more candles and took them to a United way fundraiser to sell. She didn't sell any candles but she sold some hot cocoa and some cookies for me. Yay!

J has been bored and is ready to go back to school. Yay!

My parents are heading home this week. Yay! (I think. Ha!)

Led music at church this morning. It went well (yay!) even though I rambled some and couldn't think of the right words while talking between songs. Stupid fibromyalgia. It steals my nouns.

T got everything he wanted to keep back into the tool shed. Yay!

We have storms with possible tornadoes heading our way. Not yay.

J is supposed to have 4 games this week. One Monday, one Tuesday and two on Thursday. I'm thinking the Monday one may get rained out but we really need the rain. This will be the end of the Fall Ball season.

R and JT hopefully have a plan. Please pray that this can happen for them, if it's the Lord's will. I'll let you know more when things are more concrete.

Must go read to J. We're reading "The Swiss Family Robinson" to him and he's really into it. I hope we can locate the old Disney movie after we're done reading it to him.

Li'l update

My parents are still on the beach, week 2 or maybe they're starting week 3. They saw a group of about 30 dolphins one day playing just off shore and my mom found a big chunk of pottery estimated to be 1000-2500 years old. Did I mention that already?

The girls lost their soccer game last night so that is the end of the season for them. They did a great job considering that they had no coach all summer and no soccer camp. We're proud of them.

I'm thinking about doing a play again. We'll see what next season's line up is.

J's baseball games are back on. He has a game tonight.

T and the kids are on fall break this week. I'm still working but that's fine because we can use the money and didn't have plans anyway. Spring break though, we are going to see T's sister in AL for a couple days and then on to FL. Or that's the change subject to plan.

We've had some beautiful fall days. T got all the stuff out of his tool shed, sold some, is taking a load to the dump and plans to get some wood to reinforce the floor and put it all back in. We shall see.

We have no milk in the house. Who is drinking all that milk?

Out of control

Recent conversation with J;
Me; Did you get hot upstairs?
J; Huh?
Me; You're wearing shorts.
J; Yeah.
Me; The last time I saw you, you were wearing pants and now you're wearing shorts. Why?
J; I don't really want to tell you.
Me; Why? Did you pee your pants?
J; Well, I had to go de bafroom really bad and I got to de bafroom but I had to go so bad that it just...got...out of control.
Me; (Laughing) Did you clean up the bathroom after it got out of control?
J; Yup.

More pix

It rained just a little bit last night. We are glad but we need so much more. The sky was gorgeous this morning and the air had a much cleaner, fresher smell to it.

My camera wouldn't take a pic last night. I finally discovered that it would take one if the flash was turned off. I changed the batteries but it didn't help. Maybe they just weren't charged enough because I changed them again this morning and it started working again. Whatever.

I wanted to take a pic of Dexter last night because he was laying on J's baseball glove. What is it with those cats where they just have to lay on something?

Someone drove into McDonalds last night. Like, they literally ran into the building. Takes "drive through" to a whole new level.

I am "puttering" around the house today and I love it. I do have practice this evening, A has soccer practice and J has a game but for now I am puttering.

Pix! This is the balloon face that J made on the front door for his birthday party.

Is it my imagination or is he looking older? He is about 1/8 inch shy of 5 feet tall.

He put the basketball player and basketball on his cake. It's kind of funny because he's playing baseball right now. We played games, visited and had cake and ice cream.

This is Misty, the no-legged cat. At least it looks like that. Don't you wish you could sleep like a cat?

This guy turned 13 yesterday. J was quite concerned that we didn't get him anything for his birthday. A friend of mine says I know way too much about my animals if I know their birthdates. Actually, Dexter's is the only one I know.

Trixy, otherwise known as "Trixy Licksy" or "Trixy Dipsy Ding Dong".

Bridgette!

Oreo. Also known as "Yo-yo".

Red

Debra Parker is doing a "Shades of red photo challenge". Check her out at http://www.debraparker.blogspot.com/ . They adopted Ronel from Haiti. I remember seeing him on Lori and Licia's blogs and praying that he would find a family. Plus, you can't have gone through a Haitian adoption process and not feel bonded to others who have also gone through the process. They "get it". And, you know, after spending 4 years in the process there was a lot to "get".

Anyway, I love red and I have lots of shades of red around my house. Here are some of the last tomatoes from the garden.

There is red in the quilt I made a few years ago.
I LOVE my red clawfoot tub. I wanted one since I was a kid and when we built this house I was thrilled to put this tub in it.

T used to work for the Singer Sewing Co. This is an old logo in stained glass.
I dried off with a red towel this morning after my shower. I didn't even know about the photo challenge at that point.

Little cabinet above the "twalet" (J's word for toilet).

I wandered outside and found lots of red and shades of red.

Red fence posts.

Our boat is red.

J's baseball practice bouncy thing.

The bush hog. (If you know what a bush hog is, you might be a redneck.)

An old red trailer. This one and the "See Rock City" birdhouse are a couple of favorite pix from today.

A bush that is changing to it's fall colors. My parents red brick house in the background.

A bell in shades of red.

Our house with it's red cedar stain on it.

Trixie the red(ish) dog.

Thanks for coming on this red(neck) tour with me!

The rest of the story

Ok, I still get the creeps when I think about this. Yesterday morning A informed T that the bathroom sink was plugged. She said it had been draining slowly for a couple days and now it was completely plugged. T took a plunger to it but it didn't help at all. He knew he'd have to take it apart later but he had to get to work.

I worked all day, went to praise team practice and then to the ball field. J's team lost this one. Anyway, T worked all day, got J, they ate and did homework and got to the ball field. So at 9 o'clock last night T had to take the bathroom sink apart. He said somebody had to have stuffed something down there. J kept saying, "Not me!" and A was house sitting so she wasn't there. He unscrewed something and let the water drain out and said it was plugged further down than the usual hair that gets captured in the plug.

He finally got the water drained and pulled the "P" trap down and we could see all this hair. I jokingly said, "It's a rat." and J came running so he could see. I told him it wasn't really a rat and to go get ready for bed. Then T pulled the pipe off the rest of the way and said, "I think this really is a rat," at the same time I noticed it's little legs and ran away screaming/squealing, "It's a rat! It's so gross! Yuck! Gross! Ewww! It really is a rat!!! I have to call A!!"

J came flying out of his room to see it and to laugh at me. Then the smell hit him and he pinched his nose and went back in his room. I grabbed the phone and called A and then T came through with the dead rat in a pan and said, "Take a picture........heave." I yelled at him to get it out of the house and he gagged several more times. I was giving A a play by play and she said, "I know dad's gagging. I can hear him."

Of course we texted everybody and my brother wanted pics. T told him that about the time he told me to take a pic was when the gagging started. My brother said he was a sissy and he wanted a pic. So this morning T went and looked where he had thrown the thing last night and managed to find it. In the light of day it was determined to be a squirrel and here's the pic.

The only thing we can figure is that it's been so dry here that the squirrel went looking for water and crawled up the pipes by the lagoon and couldn't get turned around. So it had to keep going until it ended up in the septic tank. The easiest way out of there was the pipe into the house and it randomly picked the kids' bathroom sink as it's way out. It was a "crappy" way to go but I'm having a hard time conjuring up much sympathy for it. Why we didn't hear it or smell it, I'm not sure. Once the water drained off we could smell it.

T washed his hands multiple times and scrubbed his nails. Then he cut his nails and scrubbed them again. He gets grossed out thinking about pulling that thing out of the drain. He was relieved to figure out that it was a squirrel as he feels much better about having touched a dead squirrel than a dead rat. J seems unfazed by it and seems to think it was quite funny. He requested a few times this morning for me to get back up on the stool and scream because he found that "hellious". I refused so he got up on it and imitated me until he was laughing too hard to stay up there. Weird kid.

I was told by J's ESL teacher about a live rat she found in her toilet one day. She said they looked at each other and she closed the lid and flushed. Ewww. I'd rather have a dead squirrel in the sink than a live rat in the toilet. And the moral of that story is look before you sit.

I really hope we don't have any more teenage mutant "linja" (J's word for ninja) squirrels in our drains. RIP Mr. Squirrel. I hope you were the one who has been chewing on the carport.

EWWWWWW!!!!!

T just pulled a dead rat out of the "P" trap of the kids' bathroom sink. Major heaving was involved. The rest of the story will be tomorrow. We must go recover right now. We have the heebee jeebees.

Life

A's toothache was in a tooth that has a previous filling in it. Neither one of us remember her getting a filling. Weird. They're just going to watch it for now but she has another small cavity that needs filling. All this is much better than a crown.

I cut J's hair last night. He had a late night Tuesday which made for a not so good day Wed. plus his skin is dry and his hair was too long and his scalp was dry underneath. So, we cut the hair, conditioned it and lotioned him up. He's like a little dried up chip. I need a new clipper. It took for.ev.er. to cut it and it doesn't look good. Any recommendations on a clipper?

T went to the chiro yesterday morning and the adjustment eased his dizziness quite a bit. Thankful for that.

I'm leading Sunday. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. Thankful for that.

A is house sitting again this weekend. It makes us kind of nervous but we're glad she can help friends out and make a little money too.

J has another game tonight. Hopefully it won't be so late and so cold.

Recap

T still feeling puny but determined to go to work Wed. We'll see.

A has dentist appointment in the morning.

A's soccer team lost their last game. They still have district play offs.

J's baseball team won their game this evening. Woot! We froze our butts (and the rest of us too) in the 45 degree weather.

I have a funny story of a conversation with J but we've been home for an hour and I haven't warmed up yet plus it's late so I'm heading to bed. Story will have to wait.

Prayer please

Please pray for my co-worker and his family in the loss of their son/brother/uncle.

T is home sick for the second day. He's very dizzy which makes him sick to his stomach.

A has a bad looking tooth. Like, possibly root canal/crown. Sigh...appointment tomorrow. No dental insurance. Sigh...

Mrs. H is feeling better so we're thankful for that.

J's attitude was good last night and he really wants to do better.

Had one other stress relieved last night so we're thankful for that.

Monday morning blah

How is it that Monday mornings can be so blah? But it can only get you down if you let it.

J told a lie again this morning. We were having such a nice morning and he just said not two minutes before his lie, "I hope I don't tell a lie again." Yeah, more like he hopes he doesn't get caught. It's a habit. He did it without even a thought about it. Just opened his mouth and out popped a lie about something as simple as did you brush your teeth? Sigh...what to do, what to do?

The son of a co-worker was hit by a car last Monday. He has no brain activity. He's 27. Please pray for that family.

Mrs. H is sick again. Please pray for her too. I'll keep you posted.

Celebrating J!

J is a teenager. Zoiks!! I asked him if he felt any different than the day before and he said no. Too funny.

He did okay in 5th grade last year and he's doing well in 6th grade so far this year. He still struggles to read but it's coming. He has one of the highest math grades in his class and I was reading his English to him the other day and he could quickly identify the verbs and then the noun that went with them. One year home, people. That's amazing.

We still struggle with abandonment type issues. He can't stand to be in a room by himself. He is sleeping ok but if he's awake he can't stand to be by himself. He has huge fears of being left out or left behind.

He still loves gum and tv. Those are the two great loves of his life. Well, that and eating. Any kind of meat. As long as there's meat involved he's a happy camper.

He asked for a sandbox for his birthday. The sandbox is in place. He also asked for a DS. We ordered one off of ebay. Please pray that it comes today.

I dropped him off at school yesterday and then rushed home and made cupcakes and frosting to take back to school all before work. I think he was impressed, asking me when I made the cupcakes.

This morning on the way to school J and I saw Mrs. G going down the road and we both said, "There goes Mrs. G." at the very same time. When we do that around here, which is often, we always laugh and say, "We must be related." It had never happened with J before. We looked at each other and laughed a little and I said, "We said the same thing at the same time. We must be related." and J smiled big and said, "We are! We are related!" So precious.

Tonight is a family party and on Sunday we're taking J and a few friends to an indoor pool.

Happy birthday, J! Hope your gift comes today! We love you.

Happy birthday to E too!!

In other news, A's soccer team tied their game Tuesday evening and won yesterday evening. A didn't play last night because she was running a low grade fever and feeling yucky. She must be a little better today as she went to school. I've heard some others having similar symptoms so something must be going around. Hope J doesn't get it.