Road Trip!!!!

My grandma has been in and out of the hospital and a rehab facility since Thanksgiving. It's been frustrating for my Dad (they are in Arkansas, and obviously, I'm not, lol) as he tries to deal with all the medical staff and decisions and etc and work full-time all the while he and my step-mom try to get a Bed and Breakfast up and running. So, I'm packing up the kids and their school books and myself and heading out to help in whatever way I can.

I'll be headed up to Jacksonville and then on to Nashville and then Bentonville (in NW Arkansas) at the end of March. I'll be there for a while, as long as necessary, anyways. I kept trying to figure out a good time to head out financially and timewise (appts and etc.) but I got a call from my cousin offering to keep the girls in Nashville while I go out there. I guess I figured that I wasn't really NEEDED, and there was always something going on down here, you know. But when she called me today, she really seemed concerned for my dad and my grandma. She has a preemie newborn and two older children in public school, so she just can't pick up and go. So, Miguel and I talked about it and the planning begins. Other than seeing my family, I hope that I get to meet up with a few of my online friends along the way, so give me a shout to let me know if you are up to lunch or coffee or whatever if you're in those areas. And pray for my sanity, k? I'm normally a "fly-by-the-seat of my pants" kinda girl, but I plan on doing school thru this one, since we don't know how long we'll be out there, so I've got some serious planning to do. Oh, and if we have to stay past the 15th of April, I'll be putting my oldest on a plane back home for testing. I don't normally test my children, but since he'll have to take standardized testing to get into college, I figured I might as well get on with it. Of course, now I'm smacking myself for not waiting one more year, but oh well! :p

Exciting news around here...well, if you like flushing anyways...

Almost nine years ago we bought our first home out here in the Acreage. We thought we'd love having the big yard, and we do, and we thought that having a well and a septic tank wouldn't be all that big of a deal, we were wrong. About a year after moving in, our drain field began to fail. Eventually, it just plain gave out and we resorted to pumping our septic tank every year, or more, babying it too keep it from being too bad. It's not been fun for us, but the price tag to repair/replace it ran about $5000. I don't know about you, but that kind of money is just plain hard to come by for us.

Finally, a plumber friend of my husband has taken pity on us and, in trade for some computer work, is helping us repair the drain field. We are basically bartering for most of the stuff, except the rock and sand for the bed of the drain field. But even that we are getting at a great price because of a friend who works for a company that provides that kind of stuff. We've bartered for everything else and done some work ourselves. I'll have to get some good pictures to post during the process. :) Maybe I'll end it with one of me flushing my toilet with sheer abandon, LOL. Okay, maybe not, but I will no longer fear nasty back up once it's done! The strange things that will bring a smile to a grown woman's face, sigh...

So, is it bad that your 10year old can recognize "White Wedding" in the first few notes?

I'm thinking it may not go over so well in our homeschool group, sigh...


Yes, we have Rock Band 2 and we play it, well, way too often, apparently. LOL.

My 13year old son just mentioned he wasn't born to play 80's metal. Well, no, DUH! You weren't born until 1995. He figures he's was born to play Eric Clapton, "slow hand". HA! That kid!

Actually, he's doing quite well teaching himself guitar. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to post some of his recordings. He's been searching out guitar tabs online or in some of our books and teaching himself. It's fun and interesting. Or not, but I can pretend, right? And it will last until Football tryouts and practices start, and then he'll obsess over football. LOL. Then he'll be showing me a bazillion and one plays that he's drawn up and tell me all the reasons that it will work and I'll be all like, "yeah, great Jake." As it all goes WAY over my head.

Monday Morning

February 23rd Questions:

1. Does blogging make you fat? Do you find yourself sitting around and eating more since you started your blog? Or do you get so caught up in the whole blogging routine that you forget to eat?

Blogging does not make me fat. I was fat before I started blogging. However, since I started blogging I've lost over 60 lbs. (actually, since May 16th of 2008) I don't get so caught up in blogging, I wish I would though. I start to feel guilty when I forget for, oh, a week that I need to post something. The worst thing is that during the day I'll have a great idea for a blog entry but by the time I get home, it's gone. Hopped a train to some far off corner of my mind, unreachable by a poor miserable wretch like me.

2. The one topic I will not touch on my blog is __________. Why? What sorts of topics do you receive the most comments on? What sorts of topics do you receive the least number of comments on?

I don't know, yet. I haven't done politics, mostly because there are a number of poly blogs out there that would do it sooo much better than me, it's not worth it. That may change, who knows.

3. Spring is coming. How is your wardrobe? What sorts of clothes do you usually wear in the spring? Where do you normally shop for your clothes? How successful are you in finding clothes for yourself?

Spring is here. I live in South Florida. We had the requisite 3 or 4 days of winter and now it's spring. Check out my mulberry tree for proof:

SEE!?! Berries are on the way. As for clothes, well I pretty much just wear the same ones I wear in the winter, without the sweaters and the jackets. It's all good. Shopping since losing the 60 lbs is sooooo much easier, but I'm not doing that for a little while. Another 30 or so pounds and I'll need a shopping trip to tide me over till I reach goal. Otherwise, I'm making do. Clothes are $$$, you know.

4. We should treat every day as a special gift - we’re alive, right? What made this past week special for you? (And if you’ve already talked about that special something on your blog, then think of something else - something little perhaps, but had a big impact on you or your loved ones).

This past week is special because I have my family. All of my immediate family and most of my extended family. I love them, all of them. Other than that, this past week has been boring, maybe we'll get something more exciting this week, hmm?

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday

I spent a boatload of money today, sigh...

Well, more than I'm used to spending lately, anyways.


It all started with paying the bills, you gotta do that at least once a month, right? We like lights and telephones and all, you know.

So then the next thing was scheduling the Minuscule Pupster, aka Minnie for surgery. Shhhhh, we don't want her to hear. You know? THAT surgery, uh huh, the one that ensures no other minuscule dogs will be entering our lives. Cause, while she's cute (picture evidence provided)
See? She's adorable, we don't want anymore. We've got the "Big Dogs" also, and three is definitely enough. She hit the nine month mark and promptly "became a grown up" so to speak, :( So any way, I'm scheduling that surgery, ASAP. Technically I haven't spent that money yet, but it's "spent" :P

Then, I gather the troops and we head off to the pet store to purchase her new collar. I'm sure she'll be thrilled once we strap that baby on her. See, we have an invisible fence. It works great for the big dogs, but we have yet to train Minnie to it because she was too young. But now, bwaaahaaahaaa, zap zappity zap. Okay, not really. We'll humanely train her by putting the nifty white flags up and walking her and letting her know where her boundaries are. Then eventually removing the flags in an appropriate pattern until she has learned the boundaries of "her yard". It will be nice not to have to chase her across the street anymore. So there was nice pretty penny or 7000 or so. :( Still cheaper than a real fence.

So then it's off to shop for shoes for the older daughter. Let's just say, that was fun, NOT! And a hair cut for Jacob. He seriously needed that. Then off to Costco. Let's just say I very nearly quit breathing at the check out. Oh, my. Not that we didn't need it, but we've been living on bare bones for so long, sigh, that amount was a real shocker. Then I headed off to Albertson's to grab a few things that were amazing deals, like the ribs that were buy 1 get 2 free. I'm sure that they were marked up some, but still a great deal. Now my freezers and fridges are full for the first time in a very long time. So, I spent a boatload of money today and I'm good with that.

Another Day in Paradise

Actually, it was a good day.

We did not do any "real" school, but we did learn some things. I think the very best part of the day was listening to my 13yo son giving his sisters a music lesson today. A few years ago, my husband began teaching my ds a little bit about guitar. My son, Jacob, then became obsessed with learning as much as he could on his own. He studied and practiced and now has a pretty good basic understanding. Perhaps he'll go further and choose more advanced learning. We'll let him make that decision. But, even if he doesn't, he'll be able to impress the girls ;)

We did get the living room cleaned up, well, everything except my new desk. It's amazing how fast things can pile up. Crazy even. Speaking of my "new" desk, here it is:


Cool, eh? Dual monitors! I'm so geeky, lol. Here are some more photos of all the moving around I posted about earlier this week.



This is my old computer desk with the computer the girls use. Looks pretty good there.

This is what my son got out of all the moving around of furniture and computers. It's a hutch from an old computer desk that fell apart during one of the many furniture moving adventures (my dh NEEDS to move furniture at least every 6 months or so). I think it looks pretty good up there and gives him some much needed shelf space.

And the reason for all this switching and moving:
Our new network server/media center connected to the big TV in the living room. It has multiple internal drives and an external hard drive. He has some other internal drives that he wants to convert to externals, something about IDE something or another. I'm really not that geeky, y'all. :D But I do love my dual monitors!!