Thankful Thursday

Wii-U Wednesday

Stud has been obsessed lately with getting a Wii-U.  He's been talking about it, non-stop, for weeks.  And, yes, he's been annoying the bejeezus out of me with it!  The thing that was bugging me the most is that his car insurance is due in the next couple of weeks, and we told him that HE needed to pay it this time.  His father and I have been paying his insurance since he started driving.  He didn't really have a "real" job then, so it wasn't really a big deal.  Plus, I DID have a "real" job, and we could swing it.

Well, as you all know, I no longer have a "real" job, and Stud now has two jobs, so we felt it was time for him to start pulling his own weight around here.  (And, for the record, we KNOW we should have done this years ago, but we can't go back in time :-/  )

Anyhoo, like I told you the other day, I threw a surprise party for him this past weekend.  Thanks to my VERY generous family, he received enough money in gifts to pay his insurance AND get his new Wii-U. 

He went to buy it last night.  I swear, he was like a little kid on Christmas morning.  I can't believe he didn't try and set it up last night when he got home.  He went to buy it with a friend, and then they watched a movie.  But, today, when he finally came up from his "cave," he started setting it up in the living room.  Unfortunately for him, he couldn't even play with it until he charged the main controller, which took a couple hours.  But, as I sit here typing, he's in the living room, having a blast.  Moments like this make it even harder to believe that he's actually 21 now.... 

I guess he'll always be my baby boy. =)

Tidbit Tuesday

I know I dropped the ball this weekend, and didn't post Saturday or Sunday.  (Hey, I said I was unofficially doing NaBloPoMo...)  But, I got busy and just didn't make it here. 

Saturday, the son of one of my besties got married.  The ceremony was at 12:30, and the reception was at 6, so it turned into kind of an all-day thing.  Everything about the day was beautiful.  We really had a nice time at the reception, too.

Then on Sunday, I threw a surprise party at the bar for Stud's 21st birthday.  He was truly surprised.  It was a fun night.

Have you ever known me to keep a post so short?!  There are basically zero details here, huh?  Very out of character for me, as you already know, I'm a total over-sharer (yes, that IS a word!)  But, I'm tired, and not feeling so great, so that's all you're getting, sorry.

Must-read Monday

My sweet friend, VodkaMom, wrote an awesome book. 

Every one of my teacher friends will relate to the hilarious stories and anecdotes in this masterpiece.  Even if you're not a teacher, you will laugh your ass off!!  If you've never checked out Vodka's blog, you have no idea what you've been missing.  She is hysterical!

If you have any teachers in your life, this is the PERFECT little gift for the holidays.  Actually, it would be a great gift for any parent.  Hell, it would be an awesome gift for anyone with a sense of humor!

I'm so proud of my girlfriend.  This was a true labor of love.  And, damn it, she makes me miss being in a classroom with her stories about her babies!

I was blown away when I opened my copy, and got to the third page of her "Acknowledgements."  She included me in a list of Bloggy Buddies that she was thanking! I'm still a bit weepy over it.

Please go check out her blog, and her book!!

Freaky Friday

My Bloggy Buddies who have been around for a while might remember this guy.

Yeah...well....we had breakfast together today...

Freaky Friday, indeed....

Thrilling Thursday

I got to watch the "Winter Finale*" of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal tonight, live.  Yep, I wasn't needed at the bar again tonight.  Poop for the lack of business, and lack of paycheck for me, BUT yay for live vs. DVR.

*Ok, when the hell did THIS become a thing?!?!  I hate that my shows won't be back until January now. >:(

Wonderful Wednesday

So, around 11 this morning, I got a phone call.  All I heard when I answered the phone was, "Lee Lee?  I was wondering if you would like to come ovuh?"  It was my Monkey!!!

I jumped in the shower, and got dressed, and an hour and half later, I was at my brother's.  (Have I mentioned how much I HATE how far he lives from me?!?!)  While I was driving, it occurred to me that tonight is an overnight for him, and I immediately started plotting in my head how I was going to get to take her home with me. ;-)

Later tonight, we are having a Girls' Night at my mom's house.  My mom, sister, sister-in-law KC (Ok, my brother's long-time girlfriend, but after almost 15 freakin' years, we consider her our sister-in-law!), a good friend of ours and myself try to plan these Girls' Nights every couple of months.  We usually do them at our friend's house, but this time, my mom volunteered to host.  I started thinking I would ask my brother if Monkey could join us for Girls' Night for a while, then he could come pick her up later.  I was really going to play up the angle that if I took her with me, he could run errands, go to the bar and get some work done, or just nap.  I was prepared to pull out all the stops until I wore him down, and he let me take my Monkey home.

Minutes after I walked in his door, I casually asked, "So, you have Monkey overnight tonight, right?"

"Yep..."

"Well, you know, Mom's hosting Girls' Night tonight.  I was thinking maybe she could join us..."

"Yeah, I know, KC mentioned it to me.  She actually said the same thing."

SCORE!!  Way to go, KC!!  Long story short, my Monkey is currently sound asleep in my bed.  When she gets up from her nap, we are going to make cookies to take to Nonna's house for Girls' Night.  Yay!!

Tundra Tuesday

When Stud left for school this morning, the windchill was -11°.  Like his mother, he tried to walk out of here in just a T-shirt and hoodie.  I finally got him to put a coat on, convincing him that a hoodie is fine if he's running from the car to the building, but God forbid his car broke down, or he got stuck somewhere, a hoodie wasn't gonna cut it for more than about 5 minutes.  (In fairness to me, I always keep a coat in my car, even if I don't wear it.  I also have gloves, mittens, ear muffs, and hand warmers.  I like to be prepared, ya know.)

I guess we nearly broke a record for our low/high temps today.  Apparently, the average high temp for today is 47°, but we only hit 19°.  Ahhhh, refreshing....

Yeah, I know, this post is painfully boring.  But, hey, I needed an excuse to use my newly discovered degrees sign!! ;-)

Is there something you want to tell me?

For the second Monday in a row now, my brother told me not to bother going to work at the bar tonight.  You might remember he had me stay home last Thursday, too.  Did he fire me and not tell me?!

Actually, it's been a little slow lately at the bar, which is why he doesn't really want me to drive all the way out there.  It would be a waste of my time.  Plus, it saves him on some payroll.  I'm ok with it, really.  Once again, I get to watch my shows live, instead of on the DVR in the middle of the night. 

It's so funny to me that my two favorite nights for television are Monday and Thursday, and those are the two nights I work at the bar.  Anyhoo, I'm off to watch Dancing with the Stars.  LIVE! =)

Ahhh...gotta love that crisp, morning air...

Like I mentioned the other day, I barely sleep anymore.  So, I've been up for hours now (it's about 8:15am) and I've been watching our outdoor temp slowly climb each hour during the weather segment of my favorite morning news show.  Right now, it's all the way up to a balmy 13°.  =)

The best part of this post?  I finally figured out how to insert the degrees sign!!!!  It's about damn time!

Really?! Well, it's YOUR money...

So, Magnum bought another snow blower today.  I guess the flurries and slight (SLIGHT!) accumulation we had yesterday scared him or something.  I had absolutely nothing to do with this decision.  He didn't even tell me until after he already bought it online.  He only mentioned it because we had to clean out the back of my truck so we could pick it up.

I know I posted about the snow blower we bought last year.  I don't know if I mentioned that immediately after we bought it, the one we have at his parents' house stop working.  We had bought a second one so we wouldn't have to keep transporting the one we already had from house to house, and in the windup, that's what we ended up doing all winter anyway. :-/

I guess at some point this summer, unbeknownst to me, he actually had his brother-in-law help him take the broken blower to a guy to see about getting it fixed.  This goofy guy told him he only fixes lawn mowers in the summer, and snow blowers in the winter.  HUH?!  He told Magnum to bring it back in November.  That makes absolutely no sense to us, but he wouldn't budge.  So, bottom line, it's still sitting in his parents' garage, not working.

Magnum's plan is to keep this new one at his parents' house, and then get the old one fixed and keep it at MY parents' house.  (They have the smallest amount of ground that needs to be shoveled.  Our house and his parents' both have very long, double-width driveways)  That will definitely make it a lot easier to take care of their snow.  It's not that easy to drag that huge snow blower around, taking it in and out of my truck.  We did that with our lawnmower for years, too, before my parents just decided to get a lawn service.  You should see how torn up the back of my truck is from dragging these two huge machines around.

Just for the record, I thinks it's excessive for us to own three snow blowers, but like I said, it's his money.  However, I will admit that I'm grateful I won't have to shovel the huge snowfalls anymore, and that I won't have to wait for Magnum to be around to take the machine in and out of the truck for me.  I like to be able to do things by myself, ya know?

Anyhoo, that was our excitement today.  We really live a wild and crazy life.  We should really try and take it down a notch, don't you think?

(How obvious is it that I'm unofficially participating in NaBloPoMo?!  For the two people who hadn't figured it out, that accounts for the super boring, super rambling posts lately.  But, it was the kick in the pants I needed to get back into the swing of posting regularly again.)

So, as I was saying...

We visited with my mom for a while, telling her the whole saga of the missing phone.  Then we eventually said our good-byes so we could head to the bank.  As we were walking out her door, Stud says, "Hey, where are my glasses?!" 

 ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!??!

I seriously wanted to punch him in the throat!  If I was Suz, I would have shanked him!

I KNOW he had them on his face when we were walking out of Walmart, so we figured they HAD to be either in my car, or my parents' house. But, lately, he has gotten into this habit of hanging his glasses on the collar of his shirt.  You know, instead of actually WEARING them!!  So, there was no telling where the hell he might have actually lost them. My fear was they fell off his shirt when he was either helping me put our bags in the car or when he was putting our empty cart in the cart corral.  If either of those had happened, all I could picture was his glasses smashed in the parking lot, having been run over by who knows how many cars. 

He and his grandmother looked all over her house, while I searched every nook and cranny of the car.  Nothing.  We decided we had to drive all the way back to Walmart and search the lot.  Grrrr!

We drove back to the area where I thought I had parked, and looked up and down the parking lot, and in the cart corrals.  No glasses.  Stud went into the store and asked at customer service if anyone had turned in any glasses.  Nope.  He then went and looked in every single cart at the entrance.  Nothing.  We did one more drive through the parking lot, but didn't find anything.

By now, my blood pressure was sky-high, and I may or may not have been screaming at him about how damn irresponsible he is, and how HE was going to be paying for a new pair of glasses, while listening to him whine about how now he can't even drive because he needs his glasses.  The whole scene was something out of a bad reality TV show.  I'm not proud of it, but I know how I can get. :-/

We finally left Walmart, and headed to the bank, then went home.  Magnum was already home when we got there.  I walked into my bathroom, and the first thing I saw on my sink was a pair of men's glasses next to my own glasses.  I asked Magnum if they were his, but they weren't.  I called Stud over, and you guessed it.  They were his! 

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

I haven't got anything close to a rational explanation for how those glasses ended up in my bathroom.  Well, other than Divine Intervention, that is.  The entire time I was driving back to Walmart, I was praying and praying for us to find those glasses.  Right now, we really can't afford to be replacing glasses that cost over $350.  Plus, like Stud said, he can't drive without them, and it would have taken a minimum of a week to have a new pair made.  I would have had to drive him everywhere until the new ones were ready.  I should probably mention that he DOES has a second pair, but they broke about a month ago, and we never got around to bringing them to the eye doctor to get repaired, mostly because I was afraid of how much it would cost.  So, yeah, I was praying hard to find this pair.

Not only do I KNOW he had them on his face when we left Walmart, there would have been no reason for his glasses to be in my bathroom in the first place.  Magnum and Stud are basically barred from using "my" bathroom.  They share the bathroom in the basement, and I have the upstairs bathroom all to myself.  Magnum is lucky I let him occasionally pee in there so he doesn't have to go down to the basement every time.  But, Stud just about NEVER uses my bathroom.  MAYBE once a week, if that.  That's mostly because he never ventures up from the basement unless he's at work or school. 

My point is, I have no freakin' clue how or why those glasses were in my bathroom, but you better believe a sent up a giant prayer of gratitude.  My mother was completely freaked out by this whole thing.  How about you?  Does it freak you out or reaffirm your faith?  I'd love to hear what you have to say.

F@%* Me, Friday

Stud and I had a very busy day today.  He worked early this morning at the grocery store, then when he came home, we took a drive out to his school to take care of a few things.  He needed to pick up his paycheck, and find out about, what we thought were, missing checks.

We were there for quite a while, and walked from one end of the campus to the other.  We walked back across the campus to the car, and as we were getting in, Stud realized his phone was missing.  UGH!  He frantically searched the car, but it wasn't in there.  We then realized we were going to have to retrace every step we had taken in the last hour and a half.  Double UGH! 

Now, let me back up a minute and get some bitching out of the way.  When Stud came home from work, he changed out of his uniform.  He put on a T-shirt, and his flippin' pajama pants.  I can't STAND it when he wears his pajama pants out in public, which he does all the damn time, including to class.  Granted, they are solid black and fleecy, as opposed to plaid flannel, or something like that, so they sort of just look like sweatpants.  But, still, I think he just looks sloppy, because they are so loose and baggy.  I asked him to put jeans on, but he refused.

So, now let's go back to school.  We established that the phone must have fallen out of his pocket.  He got back out of the car, and started retracing his steps.  Oh, wait, I forgot to mention that as we walked from building to building, I used to concrete walking paths.  Stud, on the other hand, took the "short cut" and walked across the grass.  I'm pretty sure it was just to annoy me. :-/ 

He started to walk across the first patch of grass he walked across when we got there, then went into the building.  I originally was going to wait in the car, since it was freezing outside, plus I was pissed at him for being so irresponsible.  But, after about a minute, I figured, what the hell, I might as well look, too.  I took about 5 steps across the grass, between the same two trees he JUST walked between, and lo and behold, there, buried in the carpet of ivy on the ground, was his damn phone.  I think I was more annoyed that he had just walked past it a minute ago and didn't even see it, than the fact that he dropped it in the first place. 

Stud seems to have whatever that gene is that most men have.  When they are "looking" for something, unless it jumps up and bites them in the nose, they can't see it.  ANNOYING!

After I found the phone, I still ended up having to literally chase Stud all around campus.  Gee, if only I could have called him on his PHONE to say I found his PHONE.  He was too far ahead of me to even try yelling across the open campus for him.  I had to just hope that at some point, he would stop long enough for me to catch up.  Luckily, that's exactly what happened.  I finally found him in the department office where he works, on the phone with security, trying to see what they could do for him.

Ok, so we walked ALL the way back to the car again, and went on our merry way.  From there we went straight to my favorite store (yes, Walmart!)  We were there for a while, then had to stop at my parents' on the way home to pick up one of his paychecks before heading to the bank.  That's when the next part of this craptastic day happened.  But, I'm going to save it for tomorrow, so I'll have something to post about. Besides, this post has already been WAY too long, and WAY too boring!  ;-)

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....

Thankful(?) Thursday

My brother just told me not to bother coming in to work again tonight.  While I'm thankful for not having to leave the house, I'm feeling a little guilty for not going.  Even on nights when we aren't super busy, I like that I'm there to be his eyes and ears.  But, since it's after 6, and I STILL haven't gotten dressed today, I'm thankful to not have to go out.  Did I mention it's been snowing on and off, and it's in the 20s right now?

I am also thankful that I'll be able to actually watch all my Thursday night shows live instead of on the DVR in the middle of the night like I usually do when I get home. =)

Wasted Wednesday

Ever have one of those days where you don't do a damn thing?  No?  Just me, huh?

I didn't do a damn thing today.  I never even got out of my pajamas.  Now, I DID wash my face and brush my teeth, but that's as far as I got.  Other than putting the dogs out a couple times, I didn't even get off my bed until about 2:00.  I emptied the dishwasher, then moved to the couch.  Oh, yes I really did.  I stayed parked there, catching up on the shows on my DVR, until Stud came home from school.  Then, I warmed up some left over chili for us for dinner, and went right back to the couch.

Now, I'm snuggled up, back in my bed.  Some day, huh?  It's kind of like the world knew I needed a day like this.  I didn't get one single call or text all day.  That NEVER happens.  I haven't been getting much sleep lately.  I'm lucky if I get about 3 hours a night these days.  So, this was the perfect day to just rest up.  Let's hope I can get to sleep at a decent time tonight.  Actually, that's not really the problem.  It's the STAYING asleep that gets me.  It would be great to not be awake until midnight, only to wake up around 3, and then be up for the rest of the night.  Ugh.  Well, if that happens again tonight, it'll probably mean that I'll get a call to take Monkey tomorrow.  That's what USUALLY happens when I haven't gotten any sleep.  But, that's absolutely fine with me!

OK, enough jibber jabber.  I'm going to finish watching the news, then try to hit the sack.  Sweet dreams, my Bloggy Buddies!

Happy Veterans' Day

Grab your Kleenex before hitting play...I just spent 10 minutes and 3 seconds sobbing... 

There are a million more like this online.  I don't know how many more I can take, but I'm off to grab a new box of Kleenex, and find out.

THANK YOU, VETERANS!

Manic Monday

So, Stud had to take the day off work today to attend traffic court.  What a joke!  About a month ago, he got pulled over by some cop who clearly had nothing better to do, and got THREE tickets!  (And, as the ex-wife of a cop, and someone who comes from a cop family, I'm allowed to bad mouth cops! :P )

One ticket was for a headlight that was out.  Now, granted, it was NOT shining, however, there is a short or something in the light, and you have to literally smack it to get it to come on.  Magnum has been doing it for years.  Did I mention Stud was driving Magnum's car?  Magnum even found a couple things online about this particular problem in Mazda 6s, which is what he has.

The second ticket was for the tiny little light above the rear license plate being out.  I didn't even know that was a thing!

The third ticket was for not having insurance.  Hang on, OF COURSE we have insurance on that car.  Unfortunately for Stud, he couldn't find the insurance card because he was driving his father's car, and didn't know where Magnum put it.  After the cop walked away to start writing the tickets, Stud found the card.  When the cop came back, Stud told him he found it, but the cop basically told him it was too bad, he already wrote the ticket.

While the cop was sitting in his car writing away, Stud called me to tell me what was going on.  When the cop came back, Stud just set the phone down, so I could hear what the cop was saying.  He told Stud that all he had to do was come to court, show receipts for the light bulbs and bring the insurance card, and it would all be thrown out.

Sure enough, that's what happened.  Now, trust me, I'm thrilled that there was not even a court fee or anything, and we walked away without having to pay one cent (other than the replacement bulbs).  But, it just irritates me that Stud had to request the day off, and that we had to sit there for over an hour before being called.  The courtroom was chock-full of people, the majority of whom were there for basically the same type of tickets (headlights, plate lights).  Apparently, that must have been the focus of this town's police force last month.  The thing is, every case was being dismissed, so the city wasn't even making any revenue off these cases.  What exactly was the point then?  Just to inconvenience people?  I don't get it.

I realized while we were sitting there that I could have just gone by myself, in Stud's place, and he wouldn't have had to give up a day of work.  A few people who were there were there in place of others.  I wish I had known that.  Since Stud is in school full-time, his availability for work is limited, so he needs all the hours he can get.

Ok, I'm done complaining.  Well, for tonight anyway.... =)

Strange Sunday

I never slept last night (long story) so I've been dragging all day.  I seriously considered skipping church this morning, since Magnum had to work, and thought about just sleeping for a few hours.  But, I decided to go anyway, especially since one of my 5 jobs now is working for our church.  Anyway, I wasn't home 5 minutes when Magnum came rushing through the door.  He was still working, but had to stop home for something.  I ended up leaving with him, and hung out with him while he worked for a few hours.  Afterward, we came home, I made a giant pot of chili, and now I'm snuggled up, waiting to watch my Sunday shows.  I probably won't make it through the first 5 minutes, though, because I'm freakin' exhausted.

Just to give you an idea of how tired I actually am, my brother called while I was cooking, to tell me he was on his way to our parents' house, with my Monkey.  I actually told him I was too tired to drive over there.  I passed on seeing my Monkey!!  Yeah, now that I just typed that out, I may have to reconsider.  Especially since my parents only live about 20 blocks away, for Pete's sake.

Simple Saturday

My local Walmart has been undergoing some remodeling for several months now.  I have not shopped there in months because of it.  It was just too chaotic and confusing. 

I can only imagine how much money I have saved by not going there.  I'm not even exaggerating even a little bit.  Magnum and I always made a Walmart run every Saturday as part of our errands.  Then, most weeks, I would stop there at least one other day during the week, sometimes even two or three days.  It was almost an illness. :-/

I went there today for the first time in months.  I should be too embarrassed to even share this, but I was there for almost 3 hours.  Yep, seriously.  Three.  Hours.  I just slowly strolled up and down the aisles, taking my time, checking things out.  I even went in the Christmas room, just to look around.  It was a great way to kill an afternoon.

The best part?  I walked out of there for under $65!  Really.  The whole reason I went there is because Junior somehow lost his collar about a month ago.  We've looked everywhere for it.  I'm fairly certain it is probably under our deck, since it's the only place we can't look.  He likes to go under there, and I'm thinking it probably got caught on something, and slid off when he pulled himself free.  Anyway, I kept meaning to just pick up another collar at Walmart, along with a new tag.  So, a quarter of what I spent was on the goofy dog, which makes me feel even better.  Oh, and about half of what I spent was for Stud.  So, bottom line, I spent almost nothing on myself.  I consider that a win!

Does anyone else think perhaps I should have titled this Sad Saturday?  I really am a loser, aren't I.....?

Fabulous Friday

I got a last-minute call to take my Monkey today.  Yay!!

We had an AWESOME day, full of "adventures."  As soon as I picked her up, we jumped right on the expressway, and drove up to the school where I last worked. I won't bore you with too many details, but she basically was in her glory!  This baby desperately needs to go to school!  I'll leave it at that, because I don't want to start complaining about her parents...

From there, we drove to meet Magnum for lunch.  We had a blast.  She is just so damn cute.  She instantly won the heart of the woman who owns the restaurant where we ate.  Her uncle was thrilled to have her all to himself for an hour.

It was quite a long drive to get back home, and I was hoping she'd fall asleep and get a good nap in, but that little trooper fought it almost all the way.  She finally conked out about 10 minutes before we got home.  That actually worked out better, since I was able to get her out of the car without waking her up.  After a nice nap, we got up, and she got to sing Happy Birthday to Stud, and have some birthday cake.  Score!

Then there was just enough time to watch a little Lion King, before going to meet her mommy.  It was just the most fun day!

Lucky for you, my phone is currently too full to take any pictures.... ;-)

I hope you all had Fridays that were as fabulous as mine!

November 6, 1993

21 years ago today, at 4:43 am, the greatest love of my life entered this world, weighing 8 lbs 2oz, and measuring 20 1/2 inches long.  

Ok,I know none of these are new.  Truthfully, all of them were pulled from this blog.  I just have not had a chance to look for any new ones.  However, that doesn't make them any less adorable, right?

Happy 21st Birthday, Baby!  I love you with all my heart!!