Major brain fart...

Ok, so I was watching Grey's Anatomy (in REAL TIME, yay!) when Stud walked in the back door from school.  He brought a friend home, who I haven't seen in a while.  I had gotten up to see who was coming in the back door, but then literally ran back to my room when I saw it was them.  I yelled over my shoulder, "Hi!  Sorry, I'll be back at the commercial!!"

When the commercial break came, I ran down to the basement to say hello properly, and apologize again to his friend.  She just laughed, and said, "Don't worry about it.  What are you watching?"  Without even skipping a beat, I excitedly blurted out, "ER!"

<<>>>

What the hell just came out of my mouth?!?!  I instantly started laughing, as did both of them.  Stud then said, while rolling his eyes, "I think she means Grey's Anatomy..."

Man, it sucks getting old....

Best birthday presents ever...

I got to spend the whole day with...

While we were in the yard playing, these arrived from Magnum...

Last night, Stud presented me with this, since I never read it...

45 still sucks, but these things made it a little easier.
If any of my dear Bloggy Buddies are dying to help me celebrate my birthday, you can go HERE.  And even if you don't give a rat's ass about my birthday, go anyway.  It's for a phenomenal cause.

Thank you to all my Bloggy Buddies who keep checking in with me, and sending love and support.  I'm not ready to jump back into the Blogosphere with both feet quite yet, but I think things may finally be on the upswing.  (JWG, what happened?  I'm waiting...)

This week is making me feel really old...

21 years ago today, these two kids got married.
Who the hell are these two old folks?!How did those two kids end up with a son who's a grown man, IN COLLEGE!!??

By the way, I don't know what it says right now, as you read this, but as I typed this, my weather widget said it was 4 outside. Not 40, FOUR. It's about time.

Maybe I've taken things a little too far...

This is what my thermostat says right now. I just walked in the door from a long day. I stayed late at work, then had to drive to Stud's school to pick him up. We stopped at home just long enough to let Buster out, then we were on our way to the bank, then met Bestest Friend for dinner. From there, we stopped at my parents' for a quick visit, which turned into a much longer visit because my niece stopped by. It's nearly 10:30, and we're just getting home. I'm so tired, I can hardly think straight. And, sadly, we have to be up very bright and early tomorrow because we're going downtown to an open house at one of the colleges Stud is considering. WTF?! How do I have a child who is OLD enough to be considering freakin' college!?!?!?

I know he's old enough, though, because tomorrow, my 'baby' will turn 17. Seven-friggin-teen!!!! That's the age I was when I met his father. THAT is terrifying! I'm having kind of a hard time accepting the fact that my baby went from 0-17 in a nanosecond. I'm not ready to be the parent of an adult. His father made sure to remind him that if he gets arrested now, he'll be tried as an adult. Yeah...great words of wisdom, CSJ!

So far, the game plan is to go downtown to the open house at Columbia College, then just hang out downtown for a while. The weather will be playing a big part in our plans, since I'm not sure how cold it will be, and I don't think Stud will want to be walking around in the cold very long.

OK, my fingers are pretty frozen and numb, so I'm going to have to stop typing, and get under my covers. Alas, we didn't get any snow again today. Poop.

You can call me Al...

I received yet another new student this morning. (Did I mention I got 2 yesterday?) The funny thing is, I had one transfer out at the end of the day yesterday, and couple last week, so I'm still at 23. Thank you, Jesus!

This new boy is the cutest little thing I've ever seen. He has blond hair, blue eyes, freckles....yep, he's Caucasian! I know I'll NEVER lose him a crowd at the Hell-Hole. He glows like a beacon in the night! He is the first Caucasian student I've ever had at the Hell-Hole. Now that I think of it, he may be the only one I've EVER seen there.

Anyway, this cutey has an unusual first name. It's Curtlan. Unfortunately for him, his teacher's brain has slowly been turning to mush over the years, and I don't think I called him the right name all morning. I called him Cultin, Coltin, Coltrin, Curlan, and so on. Finally, after the 99th time that I called him the wrong name, he ever-so-sweetly said to me, "You know, Mrs. L, some people just call me CJ." I literally laughed out loud! What a smart boy! CJ it is!!

Random-ness, continued...

Here are a few things I've been meaning to post about this week. Somehow, it became Thursday night and I realized I haven't posted anything about the babies.

Monday, one of my babies, let's call him Pretty Boy, was absent. When he came back on Tuesday, I noticed his hair was beautifully (and freshly!) braided. I asked him why he wasn't in school the day before and he just kinda shrugged, and had this cute little confused smile. I asked, "Were you sick?" Shrug, with a goofy little grin. Then I say, "Wow, your hair looks nice! Wait, did you stay home yesterday to get your hair done?" Suddenly his face lights up, and he proceeds to tell me all about how he spent his day getting his hair done, complete with all the details (where he went, who did it, etc.) Now, you can see for yourself how cute he is (sort of) but really, how screwed up are his mother's priorities!!? You keep your child out of school for a day to get his hair done?! Why didn't you do it over the weekend, or after school? Screwed up, right?

Same morning, Twin Boy and Twin Girl come in, hang up their things, then come to their table to read. As Twin Boy was turning around to talk (surprise, surprise, since it's SILENT reading time!) I see this:

Apparently, he decided to give himself a haircut the night before, at least according to Twin Girl. As of today, it still looks like this. I don't know if this is Dad's way of punishing him, or what, but I can't believe his parents didn't just shave his whole head by now.

OK, so the other day, I was out shopping and picked these little babies up for myself: An hour later, I had this:Let me apologize now to all of you out there who actually know how to crochet and/or knit. I know this piece is horrific, with it's inconsistent tension and stitches. Sorry. But, hey, I'm tryin'! I actually learned how to knit and crochet when I was a child, and I used to love to do it. I never really made anything of any substance, just a couple of granny squares and bookmarks, but it was fun, nonetheless. Anyway, now my old, stiff fingers are having a much rougher time than my young, supple fingers did. It's still fun, though. I'm hoping this ends up to be something like a scarf. I'll let you know...

Finally, the other day, I had to run out for something, and when I rounded the corner of the house to the driveway, I was struck by the most beautiful sunset. These pictures don't show a fraction of the beauty I saw, but these were the only pictures I could get of the sky through my neighbor's tree. Still awesome!

More tidbits I keep forgetting to share...

The month of time from Sept. 15-Oct. 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. So, every morning for our Read Aloud, I've been reading a book from my Latino collection. There are many Spanish words for the babies to learn, and they love it! So far, we've been sticking to one book for the whole week, which was how the babies wanted to do it. So far, we've read Abuela, Manana Iguana, The Cat Who Came for Tacos, and this week's book, Elena's Serenade.

I just realized that I started reading Manana Iguana before Hispanic Heritage month officially started, which is why we're up to four books already. Anyway, one of the points of telling you all this is that the babies are sooo into learning Spanish words. About three days into HH month, I was getting all the babies to the carpet and settled for our story, and I hear J.L. say, "Delicioso!" (I hope that's spelled correctly.) I was cracking up! We've been trying to use the words we know whenever appropriate. We start with "Buenos dias!" when they walk in, "si" and "no" when we remember, as well as "gracias." Then there are some words that are especially fun for them to say. Tortuga (turtle) came from Manana Iguana, and they just love to say it. They also learned rabbit and snake, but both words are escaping me right now, sorry. Of course, they learned pinata and fiesta, which are both a big part of that story. They know that at the end of HH month, we will be having a pinata at our fiesta. Culebra! That's snake. Maybe rabbit will jump into my head, too. Wait for it... Conejo! Ah...I might be a little slower at flipping through my mental roledex, but eventually I find what I need. (God, it sucks getting old!!)

We also practice some Spanish when we do our Calendar Time. I've always done my calendar this way with my babies. We count the days of the month in English, but then we do 1-10 in Spanish, Italian, French, and American Sign Language. We use ASL every morning when we do our ABC Book, too. As we say each letter, we also make the sign. We learn some basic words, too, like Mom, Dad, brother, sister, yes, no, please, thank you, and so on. We really get excited about how it's our "secret language," and the babies love trying to finger spell words. Sometimes, I will test them on their Treasure Words (the sight words from our reading program) by spelling them in ASL. Yes, I know, they're sight words, but the kids love to try and figure out what I'm spelling. My absolute favorite thing to show them is the "I love you" sign. We learned it today, as a matter of fact, and the babies could not stop flashing it at me ALL day. I loved it!!

I always make sure they know to explain it to their Mommies and Daddies as soon as they get home so 1) they can flash it to them! and 2) so their parents don't think they're flashing gang signs of some sort. Trust me, some of them would surely think that. Hell, some of them might actually be proud of that.

I was planning on sharing some more cute stuff about the babies, but I'm suddenly freezing. Naturally, I have all my windows and doors open, to catch every bit of the delightfully fresh air coming in, but I'm suddenly feeling cold. Hmmm, maybe it's the capri pants and the flip-flops I'm still wearing? Oh, wait, I just glanced at the TV, and because the news is on, there is a time and temp stamp in the corner. It says 55. Yay!! This is MY kind of weather!! I'm going to sign off and go turn the oven on. I feel a batch of cookies coming on!!!! Man, I'm in a good mood! I almost forgot what that was like.... I'm going to put on my jeans and a sweatshirt (yay!) and get to baking. Have a great night!

Jeezaloo...

...when did I become a senior citizen? I feel like I've been run over by a mack truck. After taking Thursday night off from the bar, then being closed on Friday for the 4th, you would think I would have recovered. But, then I worked open to close again Saturday and Sunday, so I'm feeling it again today. I realize my brother has been doing this for months now, 7 days a week (and for years at the bar he used to own downtown) but hell, he's significantly younger than me, as he happily pointed out the other night. The little shit! I couldn't even be bothered/insulted by it though, because I had the exact thought even before he mentioned it. He's actually a little worried about me. I love my baby brother!

In case you were wondering, he's feeling better, but still not 100% yet. He came in Saturday night at about 9, and just mostly hung out with me while I worked. Yesterday, we met at Sam's Club before "work" to get some things for the bar, and then he was going to go home and take a shower and change before coming to the bar. Instead, he ended up meeting me there, and somehow ended up going outside and washing the windows. After that, despite saying 10 times that he was going to go home and shower and change, he never left. He just kinda hung out with me, which was fun. I was slow enough that I could handle all the bartending by myself, but it was nice to have him there to answer questions for me. One of our cousins stopped by at one point with his boyfriend, and luckily there weren't any customers there at the time, so we got to visit for a while.

Luckily for me, the handful of customers we did have were all great tippers, so I made some nice money again. I'm feeling horribly guilty, though, that my brother won't take any of it. He did the same thing Saturday night. He only worked one night this week, so I know he needs the money. His tip money is what he lives on and pays his personal bills with, so I feel really bad that he wouldn't take any of it on Saturday or last night. On the flip side, I know he feels bad that I've been putting in so many hours, mostly alone. He made reference the other night to my being able to make enough money this summer to pay my son's tuition for the year. Now, believe me, that would be great, but I don't want it to be at my brother's expense. Jeez, why can't we just hate each other and not care what happens to the other? Let me reiterate - I LOVE MY BABY BROTHER!

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich. ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, "Identity Crisis," M*A*S*H