Okay, my friend, Kathy, asked when I was going to blog again since I've been missing-in-action. Of course, I talk to Kathy everyday so it's not like anything has happened that she doesn't know about.

*waving at Kathy*

Let's see...what have I been up to? Hmmm, apparently life has been boring, thank goodness, because I'm drawing a blank here. Tuesday before last, I had the migraine from hell, which lasted through Wednesday evening. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of, home remedies, massage, and strong drugs, but nothing helped. I refused to have another $600 ER visit for a shot so my doc prescribed a drug in addition to my normal one to see if it would knock out the headache. It did.

David and I have been fighting so much lately due to repercussions from TSTSNBD that I contemplated leaving him. Since then, I've decided to look on the bright side, be thankful for what I have, and stop worrying. Our marriage needs time to heal. It's been a good two days so far. Hopefully, I can keep it up.

David and I met some friends for Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant and had a wonderful meal. The best part was nobody had to cook or clean up. KJ was supposed to have Thanksgiving with his stepmom's family, but the great-grandmother is in the hospital so they had Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital cafeteria. Now, I have to say that this cafeteria has excellent food! We stop in there to eat sometimes when we're in the area. Please keep KJ's great-grandmother, Me-Me, in your prayers.

Remember the tent KJ was sleeping in? He has moved back in to his bedroom now so I took over the tent. No, I'm not sleeping out there, but it is a relaxing place to meditate, read, or journal. Yes, I've created the clubhouse I always wanted as a child. Yes, it's odd, but those who know me in real life also know that is pretty much me. I'll take pictures of the interior later.

KJ and I went to see MCC's production of Romeo and Juliet last Thursday. Our co-op is performing an abridged modern version on Dec. 12th. We both really enjoyed the play and KJ said it was very helpful for his own acting. He was Tybalt, but the director has switched him to Paris due to KJ's flirting skill.

Sammie got in BIG trouble yesterday. On Wednesday evening, I bought a pecan pie from a church bake sale outside the grocery store. David and I both had a piece that night. It was soooo good. The pie was in a large ziploc bag on the kitchen counter. After dropping David at work yesterday evening, I came home to find that Sammie had gotten the baggie down, torn it open, and eaten a large quantity of pie. I spanked him with the pie pan.

KJ had Taylor spend the night Saturday night and they decided to camp in the woods behind our house. You can't see the campsite from the house, but it's back in there somewhere.


They didn't decide to do this until it was nearly dark so I didn't venture back there with the camera. This is a pic that KJ took.


Here is one I took after the tent was put away.


Oh, did I say "put away?" KJ decided to leave the tent up for a while. He slept in it Sunday night and this afternoon for a nap. He was too scared, however, to sleep way out in the woods soooooo guess where he set the tent up?


Are you wondering what he has plugged in and is causing that lump in the side?


Voila!

#@%%!#%*&%

TSTSNBD is not going well. Today, we got bad news with a teeny bit of good in it. The case will most likely not be resolved soon, and we are looking at setting a trial date.

Crap, crap, crappity, crap crap crap!

random updates or tidbits of info

- TSTSNBD is looking up. I'm afraid to say more for fear I'll jinx it, but it may resolve positively by Friday. THEN, we can finally move on to addressing underlying issues such as the state of our marriage.

- I've discovered that all community college courses are not created equal. Some courses may be on an upper high school level, but some are friggin' HARD, HARD, HARD! For anyone living in my area, General Biology with Professor Justice is not a good first college course and will be MUCH harder than any high school Biology class you've ever taken. KJ is hanging on by the skin of his teeth, but I think he'll pass with a "C" which is what he needs to continue with dual-high school credit. He is learning stuff that I don't remember learning in college and I had Human Biology, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Genetics.

- KJ loves his History of American Music class and will make an "A" or "B."

- We have dropped out of history co-op for several reasons.
* We are using History of the Ancient World but the co-op is using Story of the World and I'm having difficulty lining up the texts. I don't want to switch to Story of the World since we used it the first time around and KJ is too old for it now.
* KJ learns more history by reading and discussing one on one with me. When with the other teens, he just wants to socialize.
* The already-mentioned MCC classes and the time they consume.
* Next semester, KJ wants to take Commercial Music Ensemble: Rock Band which meets during our history co-op time.

- I have found out that the community college has a new program where I can get a tuition waiver for the dual-credit classes. I was wondering how we would continue to pay for them, so this came along at the right time.

- Neko, our deaf cat has been missing for 5 days and we are presuming she is dead. The odd thing is that she is an INSIDE cat and never goes out, doesn't even try. Seeing as how we have turned the house upside down and are not smelling anything... she must have gone out at some point. We have foxes, a bobcat, owls, hawks, and coyotes in the woods surrounding the property so I'm not sure she couldn't survive. I just can't figure out when or why she would have gone outside. The only other inside cat I've had run off turned out to be terminally ill and had left to die. Apparently, that is fairly common, but Neko didn't act sick... *sigh* I'll miss her middle-of-the-night meowing in the bathroom (her hangout).

- KJ wants to go with his church on a mission trip to Peru next summer. We'll see.

I just love the after-Halloween clearance sale. In addition to stockpiling candy, I picked up some dog costumes for $3 a piece, so we had a fashion show this evening. Sammie was a little bigger than I realized, so his costumes were too snug.

First, we tried to make Sammie a ladybug. Taylor was over and attempted to help me, as Sammie wasn't thrilled.


He REALLY did not like the hood.

Let me down!

You people, get away from me!!

"Awwww, this is much better. I feel more like a jack-o-lantern."

"This is me, totally me."

"I'm much happier when I get my own way."

Roscoe's turn was next. "I don't think I'm feeling like a devil."

"Do you have an angel, perhaps?"

"I don't have an angel, Roscoe, but how about a bumblebee?"

"Maybe.....no, I don't think I'm bee material."

"It is good to be king."

"This is sooooo me."

"I'll take my dinner now."

"Just wait a darn minute. I'M IN CHARGE AROUND HERE." (They didn't have any costumes in Curly's size.)

"How may I serve you, my queen?"

"I bow before you, Queen Curly."

"That's more like it."

Halloween

KJ was a decomposing corpse or a person whose flesh is rotting off or something like that for Halloween this year. He wore a "latex appliance" instead of a mask, which meant it had to be stuck to his face with spirit gum, and the edges blended with liquid latex.

What ghoul is complete without his iPod in a skull case? Maybe they bring their own haunting music?


We also made a cut and a burn on one hand.


Not in focus for some reason.

He and his buddy, Taylor, looked so cute together, but don't ever tell them I said that.

What do you get when you take one hard-headed dog...

who really likes to chase after things...

and add one mommie who in an effort to stop said dog from chasing a chicken decided to stick her leg out to trip up said dog? OUCH! He hit my leg with his head going full speed! I had a moment where I was worried he cracked something in my leg or gave himself a concussion. We're both fine though.

Sammie LOVES to put the chickens up. He loves it so much that he will go in the coop to get them to come out, just so he can herd them back up again. When the chickens are out, I put Sammie on his run until time for him to herd them up.

Sammie spends a lot of time destroying stuffed animals when on his run. Misplaced aggression, maybe? Yes, I know the run is not high enough, but I wanted him to have plenty of room to either side. It's a 100 feet long and he can go about 5-6 feet to either side. He's only on it when I let the chickens out.

Where stuffed animals go to die...

Thanks Mom #1

Mom #1 gave me an award.


"This blog invests and believes, in 'proximity' [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?"

I have to give the prize to 8 more bloggers who in turn must paste the above text. (which is a really long run-on sentence, but with a nice sentiment)

I'm passing the award on to Bridgett, Dy, Redneck Mother, Karisma, Rosie, and anybody else who wants to claim it.

Good news and Bad news

The good news is that my PCKidz employer needs a teacher to take over her most-profitable area, and that I'm taking the job. I have already quit Dairy Queen *happy dance* since I'll start this week. I'll make at least the same amount of money and work half the DQ hours. *more happy dancing* No more late nights for me! I found all this out Thursday night and my euphoric mood lasted until Friday afternoon when I got the bad news.

The STSNBN (situation that shall not be named) is not going well at all. It is looking highly likely (though we haven't given up all hope) that David will have to do two years in prison. His health problems (insulin dependent for 40 years, blood sugar out-of-control, no colon, neuropathy, retinopathy) will probably have him dead or severely impaired before his sentence is up. He is trying to get his affairs in order and do what he can for me and KJ, but is working under the assumption that he won't be back. We'll know more in a couple of weeks, but there should be a resolution (good or bad) by the end of the year. Ironically, if he was under indictment for the same crime in ANY other county, besides the one he is being prosecuted in, he would already be on probation. (That's what our lawyer says anyway.)

FYI - Updated post

I updated the "nice excursion" post with pictures.

Took a little trip

My friend, Debbie and her son, Rodney invited me and KJ to join them on a little trip to San Antonio. We left here early Friday morning and returned Saturday night. We went to the San Antonio Zoo Friday morning. In case you didn't know, KJ dyed half his hair hot pink and the other half is kind of a lighter pink.





Debbie wasn't super thrilled about being bombarded by hungry lorakeets.


This is a tad bit better.


Awww, this is more her style...until this bird started nipping her ear. I tried to shoo it off and it got tangled upside down in her hair. Sorry, I was busy removing the bird and didn't get a pic.


We had lunch at the Rivercenter Mall and then went on to the Alamo.

Rodney had some ancestors at the Alamo and was taking a picture of their names.

I wonder what was so funny.

After leaving the Alamo, we just relaxed at the hotel. Saturday was SeaWorld! (Debbie had 4 free tickets.)

The park was directed for Halloween.

Guess who I got to meet today?

I'll give you a hint. She has five of the sweetest, well-mannered children I've ever seen.






She is on my blogroll.







I've read her blog through her last three pregnancies and through two cross-country moves.








It's Dy from Classic Adventures!
Her hubby was going to be in the area for work so they packed up the whole family and came to visit central Texas. She is just as nice in person as she is on her blog. I only wish I had half her patience and wisdom. And the children...I was serious when I said they are sweet and well-mannered. James and John are such responsible young men. I'm sure they are a terrific help to their mother. They both have such a developed sense of humor. They make up their own jokes that you have to really think about to "get." Many times, children aren't that interested in conversing with adults, but I could have informative discussions with James, John, and even Jacob. (He's getting so big!) Emily is just a little doll. The boys, especially Jacob, dote on her. She has the sweetest expression on her face even when proclaiming that she doesn't like something. Then there is baby Jason who I gave serious consideration to sneaking home with me. He is so HAPPY! As long as he was fed and had a clean bottom, he was perfectly content. I don't want you to think Dy is raising little robots or Eddie Haskellish polite children. Authentic and genuine are the best terms I can think of. They're still kids, but self-assured kids...if that makes sense at all.

Thanks for lunch, Dy! Have a safe rest of your trip!

nice excursion - UPDATED with pics

Edited - I wrote this up Thursday afternoon, but did not have time to post the pics, so I just saved the post without publishing. Unfortunately, it is now SATURDAY and I finally have time to finish it. Guess who took the camera card with him to his dad's for the weekend? Oh well, I'll post pics later. We had a lovely day today. KJ and three other children from co-op have been volunteering at the World Hunger Relief Farm on Thursday mornings for several weeks. We parents take turns dropping off and retrieving the group. I usually pick up and take everyone to our history co-op, but today we were going on a field trip instead. I had given serious consideration to skipping the field trip, because I wasn't sure how relevant it would be to our history, wasn't sure KJ was interested, and knew KJ still had lots of Biology homework. Boy, am I glad we went on the field trip. KJ was absolutely fascinated by the museum, the architecture, the auditorium, the whole experience! The museum even had some artifacts from ancient times so it tied in with our history nicely too. KJ took tons of pictures, but I'll only post a few.

Here are the other three World Hunger Farm volunteers. (besides KJ)
This is H. KJ doesn't want to go unless she will be there. He says she makes it fun.


This is C. He is a jokester.


This is Rodney. He quietly observes everything that goes on.


The lodge had some really interesting architecture.














The inside was just as fascinating as the outside. Unfortunately, KJ forgot to take pictures of the ancient artifacts we actually went to see, a 3000 year old rock with cuneiform writing on it, some beads from ancient Egypt, and a couple of things I've forgotten.

These are pics of a gorgeous stained glass window in the memorial room.






This is a stage from one of the auditoriums. KJ is presiding.


These are pics from the Holocaust section of the museum. KJ was really moved.




I think this was Sam Houston.


KJ took MANY more pics, but this is enough for you to get the idea.