Brrrr it was cold!!!

Saturday night it started with the freezing rain and continued on and off for a few days. Also late saturday night early sunday morning my furnace decided to stop working correctly so I had to shut it off. Luckily I have a fireplace and have been running it as well so I put some more wood on the fire and it maintain the temperature for awhile. Sunday morning the sprouts dad dropped them off and we got ready and headed to church. There was a little bit of ice on the roads but they were not bad. However the further north I got the worse it got, but we made it safe and sound. I had to hang around my parents house for the day because the sprouts had the childrens christmas program that night at church. While waiting it was freezing rain most of the afternoon. We headed to church and saw a wonderful program with about 30 children participating. The sprouts and I headed for home. Since the fire ran out because we were not there the house was a chilly 61. I started a fire and it got up to around 66. We all slept on the couch in front of the fireplace. Monday morning the furnace was diagnosed and parts were summons. The schools were cancelled because of the ice. I went bowling that night with the furnace not fixed yet. Upon fixing the one part it was discovered that another part was going to be needed. SO, another night without no heat so to speak. I had no idea how cold it was in the house when I got home because the thermostat was shut down as well during the repair. I do know that it was 59 when I left for bowling. I started a fire again and slept on the couch. Luckily I did not have the sprouts with me, they were with their dad for a scheduled visitation. Tuesday I slowly got ready for work. My heated office looked better than hanging out at home today. Schools were closd again because of ice issues possibily. They could have gone today but decided otherwise. It really did not matter to me today because I did not have the sprouts this morning. ALthough it did cause the music program to be cancelled again. Finally in the afternoon I had heat. The last part was gotten from the supplier and all is warm now. I just have to get back into the swing of things and get stuff done. I have my family christmas this weekend and then the extened family christmas the following weekend and I still have to finish buying for the sprouts. They wish to have everything they see on TV. :)

FINALLY!!!!!

I have finally got all the papers in my office filed. There were some dated back three years. That was when my divorce was final. I had one stack of papers that was probably 18" high if not higher. As of this afternoon, there is not one paper to be filed in my office. I have a lot of room in my office now. A little poetic justice you might say. I have been given the responsibility to supervise the people that I did not like working with at work. They are actually all for the supervision. I thought that was kind of odd but what ever. So far things have been going smoothly at work now. Not much new happening on my end. The snow has finally made an appearance. Normally I would be head over heals over that, but I have injured my foot some how. I have inflamed one end of the arch in my foot where it attaches itself. There are two points it attaches itself, one is in the heal and the other end is just below your toes near the ball of your foot. People most inflame their heal, not me I have to inflame the other end. So anytime I walk on an uneven surface that makes contact with my arch it is like stepping on a Lego block in the dark. So snow covered sidewalks and such are not that great for me right now. Hopefully this will heal quickly, I am getting tire of it. I finally have a few days this weekend to my self. The sprouts will be at there dads. Because of the holidays I have had them the last three weekends in a row. So hopefully the weather will be nice so that I can get some things done. This is the last weekend I am going to have to go shopping without the sprouts. Hope You Are Having A Great Day!

Update on spooky story Part 2

Well, I never got the information on where to meet this person, so we never met. Of course later she says she sent me that information, but never sent a hey where were you message since I never showed up. Of course that could be because she never went there either. On November 9th I decided to end the so called friendship. I was not the one that initiated it in the first place. I actually refused the online invitation and she kept sending me an invite until I did accept it.

I sent a quick message that asked how her vacation was. She did not get the drift of that message because she played the I am not the person you think I am roll. I stopped and talked to my ex on my lunch hour that day, and we discussed a lot of different things. The up coming holiday schedules for everyone, the sprouts events they have coming up. It was a very pleasant conversation. Then I told him what I think his wife is up to or has been up to. I got the deer in the headlights look of course. I told him that this person had contacted my sister as well and that I have never given out her ID to anyone and the only way this person would have gotten it was from his list. He claimed that he has not been chatting online for a very long time. That I believe. I told him that she has been logged into his account though because he has come up available on my list and I know it was not him because he was at work where he cannot chat online. And there is no way to get around that at his work that I do know as well. He said he will ask his wife. I told him that doesn't really matter that I do not believe a word that either one says for the most part. It was a very peaceful conversation, I did not loose my temper I laid out everything I knew and headed back to work which is all of a two mile drive.

After I got to work about 20 minutes after I had finished the conversation with the ex guess who pops online to chat. Yep, my so called friend. I knew that would happen. That is when she wanted to know what my message about the vacation met. I did not explain it. She started right in on me, saying that I have not moved on in my life and that I am jealous of the ex's wife and that I am like one of those crazy people that go around shooting people. I need to see a counsellor because I am crazy. I seem to be so much living in the past and don't move forward in my life. Blah Blah Blah.....

After bantering back an forth for a bit, I finally asked her about knowing who my sister is, without giving away that it was my sister. Here came the lie. She said that she had no idea who that person was never her of that person. I told her that was funny because that person was on her friends list. She said yes that she was, but that she just clicked ok to accept her so that she could get on with her job. This person continued to ask my sister to be friends online even after she kept declining her.

So we banter back and forth for about an hour which was about 59 minutes to long for me. Funny thing is that my "friend" gave up on the conversation she finally ended that conversation abruptly after I had said something. And she has NEVER done that. I was always the one to end the conversation, mostly because she kept pissing me off. After going back and looking at some of the archives between us. The person, never gave up on anything she kept needling and needling and needling at things, and would never give it up, until this last conversation. Interesting I think.

Anyways I have not lost any sleep over this. I am glad I decided to file for the divorce. I have so moved on in my life, and being Jealous of the ex's wife has never entered the picture at all. She has nothing to be jealous of.

I have seen the ex's wife once since this all happened. The ex and I have talked several times and all since this has happened. He has actually gone out of the way to make conversation and actually be on top of things since all of this started. Kind of strange but nice now. I had to drop the sprouts off at his house yesterday and she was there, she made an big effort to stay out of eye contact with me which I though strange, because it was her house. I stood just inside the doorway. I hate even going in and I wouldn't have except I had to sign one of the sprouts planner for school which he kept at his house for the weekend, so I had to go in to sign it. Her brother was just inside of the doorway as well, and yet she stayed out of eye sight for me, not that I was trying to see her either. She carried on a conversation with one of the sprouts. The sprout said that I was signing her planner for school and the wife said what your dad cannot do it. I wanted to say apparently not because he did not sign it last week when he had them. But I just went about my own business. The sprout said that I was signing to show that the sprout read over the holidays. The kids in class get a party if they read for so many days in a month. The wife said that was nice that I remembered to do that. It is not a memory issue. It is a parenting issue.

So there you have it. I am glad it is over. My sister and I were going to set her up but I did not want to play the game. I have played their games for to many years. That is one reason I end one of the games when I filed for a divorce. Now I ended another and hopefully the last one.

E Y E check ups....

I thought it would be a good idea to finally get my eye check, since I had not that for several years. I also decided to get the sprouts checked as well, since their dad kept telling me he was going to do so, and never made the appointment. I got us in last Friday, the sprouts had the day off from school for fall break so that worked out well.

Word of advise. Never take your sprouts with you at the same time to get your eye checked. The assistant took all at the same to the the room and she started in with the oldest sprout, while I finished up some paper work. The assistant went through the read this line on the screen on the wall, and went through some other tests. Then it was the youngest sprouts turn. It was a first time visit for the youngest sprout. Then it was my turn. So as I was reading the letters that I could make out on the screen in front of me, I hear from the chair in the corner. My youngest sprout say, "Mom, you missed a letter."

That would probably be one reason that I have a new prescription for lenses.

Pumpkins and Spooky stories....

Well here are some pumpkins for this year.

The University of Michigan Pumpkin

The University of Texas Pumpkin

The Oklahoma State University Pumpkin

The Happy one was done by my 8yr sprout, the other is my 5yr sprouts. The white dots are clear pegs that let light shine through for a added effect.

This is my pumpkin for this year.

I still have two more university logos to do. All the university logo pumpkins have been given away as gifts. Hopefully I will get a picture of one of my stainglass pumpkins as well soon.

A spooky story sort of. I had a online friend that I talked to long before my marriage went south. I have not talked to this person for some time most of the summer and on and off before then. She just kept making me mad a lot, and I did not want to put up with it anymore. I did some digging and some thinking and I think that this person is my ex's now wife, former other woman before the divorce. I could always count on this person trying to chat with me a day or two after something controversial may have happen between my ex and myself. Sure enough something might have depending on how you look at things.

This past Tuesday there was a major fire in my city, and the former spouse is a firefighter. Although he was not on duty the day of the big fire, it was an all call for pretty much every firefighter in the county. I could see the column of smoke billowing from my office window. Turns out I was less that a mile from the fire. The fire started around 10am, and it was not suppose to be my night to have the sprouts. I did start to wonder if he was at the fire and if they would be done in time for him to pick them up for their swim lessons later that evening. I did not call him to find out. I just waited to see what he would do.

He did call me at work around 3pm to let me know that there was a big fire today and that he probably would not be able to get the sprouts in time for their lessons and could I possibly do it. I wondered where his wife was because she usually takes care of the sprouts for him most of the time anyways, but was glad he asked me. I returned his call and told him that I would take the sprouts to their lessons but that I would have to leave at 6:30 because I had a meeting at 7.

He thought that would be doable. SO I began to figure out how I was going to get all their swim stuff around in time and go pick them up and head to swimming in the half hour I have from the time I leave work to the time swimming starts. I knew where on suit was at home I had no idea where the other one had a suit at. I figure the suit would not have a matching top and bottom, but I found a one piece that fit and grabbed two towels and out the door I went. When I stopped by the house to pick up the stuff the fire alarm went off again for a potentially large fire again at a different location. I was thinking now there is no way I am going to make my meeting.

He left a message on my phone when I was picking up the swim stuff to make sure that the oldest got to her lesson and put the youngest in the child care. They have different lesson times. I got the impression that I could leave after I did that and that he would be there to pick them up. I called him back and left a message on his phone telling him that I was not leaving the sprouts until either he or his wife showed up. He called me back and told me that he would be there before 7 but probably would be after 6:30.

He did show up just before 7, I got their stuff out of my car, and gave it to him. He got the youngest out of child care, and I helped the oldest get dressed since her clothes were in the ladies locker room anyways. He and I chatted a few minutes about the next two weeks schedule and we went on our separate ways.

Yes, I was late to my meeting, but I was not mad about it. Anyways my friend contacts me on Wed which I expected because she always did that. I finally told her who I thought she really was. The only way to clear this up was to meet face to face. I have offered that before and she has backed out of it. So I let her pick the date and time, and I agreed to both, especially since it was going to be on a weekend that they were going to be on vacation. She played the did I get booted routine when it came to the location. SO the location has still yet to be determined. She says she sent me offline messages on the location, but the only offline messages I have gotten from her was the one where she tells me she sent me offline messages. So will see what happens in the next few days.

What a tangled web you weave when you try to deceive.

The next few days should be interesting.

Woo Hoo an Anniversary.....

NOT!!!...

Today would have been my wedding anniversary, today it is just another day. At the end of the month will be the anniversary of my divorce...I so love October.. NOT!

Halloween is approaching soon. Costumes have to be got yet, since their dad has plans on being out of town this year, I get to help the spouts with their costumes. This would not be such a hard task, if they would just decide what they want to be. LOL. I have plans on carving about 8 pumpkins this year, hopefully I will get to start them this weekend. I have been working on mass production of some stainglass Halloween pieces. Everything has been slow going because I just have not been in to mood to do anything.

I have been looking forward to this weekend. I am hoping to get a lot done, since the sprouts are spending the weekend at his parents house. A complete weekend for me, sprout free. Most people would enjoy a weekend to themselves. I am not even that excited about it anymore. Before he asked me if the sprouts could spend the weekend at his parents, I was going to tell him that I was not going to be able to have the sprouts for him this weekend anyways. Only because I am going out with a friend on Saturday night, and I did not want to have to find someone to watch the sprouts for me then. And, I hardly ever get a complete weekend to myself, so I was going to pick this weekend. But, I am in such a mood that it really doesn't matter if I have the free weekend or not. I am looking for to Saturday night though. My friend and I are going to listen to a lady speak at a local church. I have heard her before, she is a speaker in the divorce class I took a few years ago. This "seminar" that she is speaking at is for everyone, married, single, divorced, widowed...so it should be a fun evening. We both are looking forward to it. She and I have decided to make an evening of it. We haven't seen each other in awhile, so it will be fun. Hopefully!

I mentioned earlier that I was going to carve about 8 pumpkins. Most of them I plan on giving away, that should be fun. Same with the stainglass pieces, I am hoping to get about 20 little stainglass pieces done. Yes, I could sell them. God knows I could use the money. But, it is just more fun an exciting to give them away. I just have to get them done. The sprouts have some arts and crafts stuff they want to do, so I have to make some space for that at the house. That should be interesting, since my house looks like a tornado went through it. Since my grandma passed away about three weeks ago I have not landed at home long enough to do anything with the house. I have had to do laundry early in the morning, just to try to keep up with that. I have been helping my mom with some of the stuff she has had to do finalizing issues from the estate. My younger sister could have helped her out more easily than me, but she has her own agenda to be on, but is always at mom and dads asking for money for some stupid thing. That is another story.

Well, I hope everyone gets a chance to catch the fall colors. Until next time, HAVE A GREAT DAY, AND A BETTER TOMORROW!

Forgot to tell you....

I really hate my job. The only reason I hate my job is because of the people I have to work with, or the two people that I have to work with in the office of 25 people.

I am the only engineer at this company and my main responsibility is to generate prints for the six plants that we have and to make sure that the sample parts that we manufacture are correct before I send them off to the customer. I have other duties as well, these are the main two that take up most of my time. I do not have another person that helps me out. I use to have a college student but then they graduated and of course it is cheaper not to hire another one.

I do have the flexibility to leave and pick up sprouts from preschool, now kindergarten and return back to work. It is not that far for me to do that and that was usually my lunch hour. My boss knew that I was doing that as did his boss the Vice-President of the company. Well there are two women that work up stairs for my boss who apparently think it is their job to keep track of me as well. (Side note: my boss cannot stand working with them either)

They are always commenting on my coming and going even when I came in after hours when we had a second shift. I came in to get some work done on a new project we were trying to get the business for and had some 50 prints to generate for it. I finally had it when I went on a long weekend with my sister and mom and came back to a message on my answering machine from my boss saying that they were at it again.

I finally decided to hide my time card, except on Wednesday my time card had been moved and it was not even near the location I had put it, not to mention that I hide it behind the salesman's card who was on the road that week, so I know he did not touch it. I keep it in my office now. My boss know this. Before taking 2 of my allotted 3 days for my grandmas visitation and memorial service, I sent an email around to certain people most I just added to the list to make it look good, explaining why I was going to be gone. Not that I normally do that but apparently some people feel the need that have to know where I am at all times.

I only got a funny response from one of the plant managers. The next day one of the girls downstairs came up and asked the girls if they wanted a complaint free world bracelet to wear. Of course the girls up here took offense to that as well. One of the girls thought she was being harassed. Of course no else thought that way, but again they were not the reason for the email in the first place though.

When I came back to work after my grandmas memorial there was a hand written note in my mailbox from the owner of the company, and stapled to it was a copy of my email, except the to and from parts had been removed from the version he had. He wanted to know who I addressed the letter to, and what was going on. I only needed to let the HR person know, which she did and I sent the email to her as well.

I have not responded back to him, and probably won't unless he brings it up.

I am still here....LOL

After a very long two weeks things are back to normal I think. My oldest is now 8years old. A strawberry shortcake was the requested theme. A good time was had by all.

The family began bickering about stuff. Nothing like a death in the family to bring out every ones ugliness. The memorial service was very nice. I think grandma enjoyed it. I did get up and say a few words. No one that spoke could get through their part. Grandma had such an impact on a lot of peoples lives.

I have had a couple of nice conversations with the former spouse. That was nice, f course the wife was not around either, so that made it even nicer. He even called me today to let me know about the oldest homework, that got done last night. He never calls for stuff like that. I am still up in the air on whether to call and let him know stuff since his wife check his email now, or send an email still. I am not thrilled that she can preview it and prepare him on what to do first. I will still think about this one. I did mention to him that I was not that thrilled about not being able to talk to just him about the kids.

I finally get a weekend to myself, what will I do?

I am sure I will find something.

To My Grandmother.....

A little tribute to my grandmother who gave up her life here on earth to be at a better place this morning. What a life she lived.

When she was born her mother carried her around on a pillow because she had a heart condition and wasn't suppose to live long at all. Always out to prove everyone they were wrong about her. At 94 she has seen ALOT in her life. From going to school in a horse and wagon to seeing people travel by plane.

She was an identical twin, just like I am. In this case it was everyother generation. I always enjoyed listening to her stories of her life. Living through the depression and having nothing to baking 17 pies in one week before Thanksgiving at the age of 92 and her family not seeing one of those pies. They were all given away. She would turn around and bake 7 more for the family dinner.

Everyone has some regrets in their lives that they wish they could have another chance at. I have no idea if my grandmother had any. She always talked about the things she did to help others, and still get things she wanted to do done.

My only regret is that I did not get to see my grandmother lately, within the past month or so. I saw her at the family reunion July 29th and what a time she had then. She could hardly walk but was as sharp as a tac that day. I wanted to take the sprouts to see her this past weekend, but did not because my cousin was in town and went to see her. She got really tired if lots of people came to visit her in a day. So I gave the day up and now I am glad for that but sad still the same. Life will go one in our family and we will all be better people when looking at back and remembering the good times we had when grandma was around.

Back to the working world...

A great labor day weekend for all. At least it was for me and I hope it was for you as well. The only work I had to do was drive and walk all day yesterday. Saturday I took the sprouts to one of their appointments then we went to mom and dads to celebrate to only grandson of the families first birthday. He was not all that excited about getting his hands dirty with frosting, but eventually he caught on for a brief moment. Then the presents were opened and he was having a great time. He is such a character.

Sunday I took the sprouts to church, and they had to behave in order to go to a fair on Monday. That may be taken as a threat by some but if knew these two sprouts you would under stand. I occasionally run the computer at church, the one that puts the words up on the screen an such. Well Sunday was my day in the rotation, the two sprouts have joined me before up front when I have be manning the computer, and they were not angels then. The pastors wife took them back downstairs for me. That was awhile ago, but that telling them they have to be good works for now. After church they went to mom and dads and I ran home to get the annual school fundraiser information so that my family can take part in the fun since they were all down for the weekend. We all headed to a relatives for a family gathering on my dads side. This is always interesting of a time because we hardly get together on that side. He has two sisters and we went to one of his sisters house because the other sister was in town from her house in the west. We had a good time. The kids had fun playing outside all day. There could have been a few less mosquitoes, but all in all it was a nice time.

Monday was fair day. The sprouts were good so my family went to the fair. This fair was an hour away. It is the fair that my mom went to when she was growing up. It is a really nice fair. The sprouts rode rides all day. Mu dad took my niece and oldest around and I took my youngest around. They never quit. My youngest didn't even fall asleep in the car on the way home. The other did. I even tried to but the youngest kept waking me up.

So today brings me back to the great office of a loving kind....NOT. To start the day off I had the sprouts with me this morning because the school had its first fog delay of the year. Hopefully that will not happen often.

Bowling has started again. So live is not all that boring anymore. Kind of challenging since I threw a 192 in my first game, which is not really good to establish an average on, but I am sure I will get that down to a manageable number.

That time of year....

School has begun finally. I now have two sprouts in school. This makes my morning a little more easier. Would be much more easier if the schools traffic flow was fixed to something that worked more efficient.

The youngest sprout and I met the teacher yesterday morning per the teachers request, instead of at the open house. This was much nicer because then I did not have take her to the evening open house to hang in her sisters class room. She would have been bored to death and would have pushed all of my buttons before we were done. She was excited to meet the teacher and got to play in the room and get familiar with it while the parents went through the rules for the year.

Thanks to the most upstanding people in the area, parents are no longer allowed to walk the child to the classroom or even enter the building unless it is official business. If child forgets gym shoes, parents drop them off at the security office and that is as far as you get. That will be interesting when the science fair comes up and the kids have big displays to bring in. Oh well will cross that path later.

The oldest sprout and I met with her teacher at the open house last night. Should be an interesting year for her. Hopefully getting all the information that comes home from school will happen this year. The teacher has a totally different way of doing that so I really have to keep on top of sprouts stuff. She is a second grader and will have a planner and all info will be in the planner. If I need to send a note to the teacher I have to put it in the planner. Not sure how that is going to go over with the ex.

Today all went well. I dropped them off and they headed into school. The oldest was going to walk the youngest to her room for the first few days then she will not need to do so. I picked up the youngest at lunch time and asked how her day was. I got "Not Good" usually that means we hit someone for something stupid like looking at us....lol. She was just mad because they did not get a snack or get to go out for recess, rain came rolling through this morning. Hopefully a nap a daycare will change her mood and make for a nice evening for me.

With the high heat index these last couple of days and no central air working in my house, the ceiling fans and a window unit have almost made it bearable to stand for the evening. I am not a very warm weather person. I prefer snow be on the ground. Hopefully this weather will be moving on soon. I will be escaping it this weekend and heading back up north for the weekend.

A girls weekend is going to be on the agenda. My mom, my twin sister and I are heading to the upper peninsula of Michigan for the weekend. We did invite my younger sister and she opted out. No tears here for her not going. We are going to partake in the local seafood fest. That is the only reason we are going. Driving nine hours for seafood. or nine hours to get away for a brief time. Either way we are all looking forward to it. The weather is suppose to be sunny and high 70's perfect for me.

Reality has set in again......

The party (vacation) is over, back to reality (work). The sprouts and I were on vacation last week. We traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a relaxing week at the family cabin. My twin sister and her family, along with my mom and niece were there as well. My dad and younger sister had to work. They are working on rebuilding a large orchard that burnt down on July 3rd, and it is apple picking time. The cold storage unit for the apples is not finished yet. My dad is only responsible for the electrical part of the rebuilding of three new buildings.

We arrived at the cabin Saturday night, mom and my niece came in Sunday. We had no big plans of leaving the cabin much at all for the week. My aunt called and said that there would be a power outage on Tuesday and Thursday for an hour in the afternoon. With only one TV station available to us on the TV this was not a big issue.

The weather was perfect for the week, mid 80's or less, sunny blue skies. No rain at all. Lots of fishing, mostly for me. My sister would help the two 5yrs and 7yr catch fish, but I had to do all the baiting of the hooks and releasing the fish off the hook and back to the water. She drew a line when it came to that. Eventually towards the end of the week, I could actually get some fishing in myself. It was fun watching the kids catching the "big one" some where so small I could not get my thumb in their mouth to get the hook out. I did get the hook out though.

There was little "Chip" and "Dale" chipmunk hanging around the cabin all week. There are weeks when no one is at the cabin so it is not like they are use to people being around. We have an A frame cabin on a full walkout basement. I was outside the basement door on Friday taking care of the kids water shoes, when "Chip" came running down the sidewalk and right between my legs from behind me. That startled me just a bit. I turned around to see "Dale" heading back up the hill and "Chip" was just sitting at the end of the sidewalk looking at me. That was about the extent of the wild life, for the week. No bears, or spotting of a moose, there were two deer spotting's but I see them here at home.

The sprouts had a great time. They got to go for a canoe ride, compliments of me or me and my sister. That was a challenge to get the two 5yrs and a 7yr to not lean over in the canoe. Of course we then had to deal with the I have to go potty out in the middle of the lake, or the I want to go back now and we have not even been in the canoe for 5 minutes.

Everyone had a great time, the kids got to enjoy a big playground, and see a great lakes freighter up close getting loaded. They evening got to walk to the beaches of Lake Michigan on the way up.

I woke up this morning, with the dreaded task of getting ready for work. Tonight I have to mow my yard and call the tech support guys to get my Internet working again. I came home and have no Internet upon starting up my computer. That would not bother me as much if I had air conditioning in my house working but I no longer have that either. So now I have a warm house and no Internet. That equals a cranky person with an addiction to the computer and no fix in sight. Hopefully that will change tonight.

A good time was had by all.....

I have finally recovered from a long two weeks worth of helping my mom get ready for a family reunion. This would be a reunion from my grandmothers generation on down. We use to have this every year, for as long as I could remember as a kid. One of my favorite events to look forward to during the summer...NOT! Now I helped put one on, NEVER THOUGHT THAT WOULD EVER HAPPEN.

This all started about two weeks ago, when some of the relatives in Seattle, WA called and said they are coming our way and would like to see my grandma and her twin sister and some others. Hence the reunion begins. The Seattle people are going to be staying at my parents house for the weekend. It is just one of the families coming from WA. We stayed at his moms house when we were in Seattle a year ago. So Mom starts making the phone calls to let people know this is going to take place and when. I get the job of getting the house ready. My dad has had shoulder surgery so he is a wing down for 5 weeks and mom has a bad leg so she can not do alot of the work either. My twin sister is two hours away with a 10 month old and a 5yr so that was out as well. My younger sister lives closest to mom and dad and is practically at their house everyday, except these past two weeks. When she know there is work to do she will not be there. That left me. The sprouts and I went up the weekend before and we cleaned the garage on Saturday. They loved pushing the brooms around the garage floor. I cleaned all the walls and ceiling of the garage and all the windows and doors as well. I also got the front porch and back porch cleaned as well before I called it a day Saturday night. I had to take the sprouts back home Saturday night because their day was going to pick them up Sunday morning after he got off work.

Sunday morning, I head to church early to get the computer ready for the service then we attended the church wide picnic for lunch then back to mom and dads. Mom had to leave with my younger sister for the rest of the day and evening to catch a show that my sister got tickets for. That left me with a list of things to get done. Clean the three bathrooms, move all the furniture out of the grand living room and vacuum the floors because the carpet was getting cleaned the next morning. Wipe down some chairs, clean some tile floors, dust,...blah, blah, blah.... Got it done on Sunday. Left mom and dads at 11pm.

Was back and forth to mom and dads all week. My younger sister helped on Tuesday night to restring the lights on the flag pole. It is a two person job and dad is a wing short and I was busy doing other stuff. Her daughter was moving the yard because the mower that dad has take two hands he has only one available. She was covered in dirt when she got the yard done. We had not had any rain for months here but that does not seem to bother the weeds in the yard. On Wed. night my younger sister was commenting on how she help put up the lights on the flag pole, like what more do you want. I told her if she was looking to compare check lists of things done bring it on. My dad about died laughing at that one.

Thursday night, I went up and got all the final touches done. Ready for people to arrive for the weekend.

Friday night, the sprouts and I head up to mom and dads. We finished up a few more items that mom wanted done again. The guests arrive from Seattle, and the pizza party for the evening begins.

Saturday we head back to mom and dads, for just a small family gathering for lunch. We brought my grandmother out to the house. She is on hospice care and in an adult foster care house, now. We just cannot take care of her. My aunt who is a nurse and her husband brought grandma to the house. Grandma about sat on the ground when they tried to get her in the car. She just has no strength anymore. But she was glad to see the people from Seattle. She was asleep by 3pm though. They had a hard time getting her back in the car. Her twin sister came as well.

After they all left we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, kind of. We changed the sitting arrangements for the reunion tomorrow, so that my grandma and her twin sister could have comfortable chairs to sit in for the day instead of my grandma being in her wheelchair all afternoon. So, back to moving furniture again. They got the two reclining rocking chairs for the day.

Saturday night, my twin sister and her family and the sprouts and I head to my house for the evening. I stopped by the store to pick up some stuff for cinnamon rolls and dip for the veggies that I had to cut up this afternoon. I also had to cut up all the fruit as well. Yes I know I can buy it all done, except the store let me down on that, so I had to do it the old fashion way. I got all the stuff, we got all the kids asleep finally. I called it a night as well.

Sunday we all got ready and headed up to the festivities. I realize that I have forgotten to make the cinnamon rolls when I am about a mile from mom and dads. Then my mom asked if I brought the veggie dip. Forgot that. My twin and I offer to go back and get it. We got shot down. We have a tendency not to be right back. LOL. So we improvise. People start to arrive. I was apparently left in charge of getting all the food that we had out on the table. The reunion was a potluck. I felt like I was on one of the food reality show challenges. I got it all out there.

Grandma and her sister were there in their height of glory. Two 94yr olds dressed to kill for the day. They knew everyone. It was a perfect set up that we had for them as well. People could just pull up a chair and sit and chat with both of them or just one of them as well. My grandma who was asleep by 3pm yesterday afternoon, was awake the whole time today. People did not start to leave until about 5pm.

We all realized that was probably the last time grandma would be able to get out. She realized that as well. She has come to terms with how much work it takes to get her out and about now. It is not because we do not want to, she just cannot stand anymore and it gets hard to move her. We were all glad to have her here for the reunion. That was the first time any of us has seen her so awake for such a long time, and alert as well. There were three people there from her generation and she called them by name as well. We all had a hard time sending her back to the home on Sunday night. Her twin sister was there saying good bye to her as well. My grandma has congestive heart failure and it is finally winning. We have finally reach a point where changing meds might help in one area but will hurt a different area. Yes, it is a matter of time. But again, A good time was had by all, and it is those times that we will all remember.

Why is it.......

Last week flew by for me. I had the sprouts all week. They went to vacation bible school at church so we spent the night at my parents all week. That way I could drive back and forth to work and mom could take the sprouts to church. Why is it, that is was easier for me to be to work on time when I had to drive 25 miles through the country then when I had to drive 2 miles in the city? A good time was had by all last week.

We celebrated my nieces birthday this past weekend as well. It was a little early but she doesn't care. A pinata was the main entertainment for two 5yrs and a 7yr old. That pinata did not give up easily either.

It is know wonder that I do not like speaking to my younger sister. She has done nothing but complain all weekend. Of course she has complained to my mom about my twin sister and I but she will not say anything to us thought. She complained about my sister not getting our niece anything for her birthday last month. She has the gift and just forgot it when she came down. Niece was not around for her birthday, and they usually have a dinner for birthday but that never happened either. Then she complained about my sister and I planning a vacation together. My twin sister and I have kids the same age. Mine are 7 and 5, hers are 5 and almost 1. The two 5yr olds are 6 months apart. We try to get them together at least once a month if possible. My younger sister as a 13yr old, who babysits for me this summer. My twin and I are planning a spring break vacation for this up coming school year. It will probably be the last vacation together for spring break because her daughter will be in school next fall and will have different spring breaks. We live in different states. We invited my younger sister to go if she would like. She is mad because we plan everything and she either takes it or leaves it. I prefer the leave it, but I do not get so lucky all the time. She was mad because last year she went to Seattle with us and it was like this time or not at all. We had a scheduled bowling time and fit the Seattle trip in around our bowling. The rest of the family was going and she was the only one who had not been out there yet. She will never go anywhere unless there is a First National Bank of Mom and Dad near by. She and I are in the same boat except in many ways. We are both divorced, we both have children, we both have a house and car. Well I have my own car, she gets alot of her cars from dad mostly. The difference is I do not depend on my parents as much as she does. Granted my parents have helped me out, but I do not factor them in if at all possible. My sister factors them in all the time. My twin sister and I know this, my mom knows it, and she knows that it has not gone unnoticed between my twin and I as well. That is the way my younger sister will always be. Guess what we told her that we were going to beat our family cabin up in Michigan and that she is welcome to join us that week also. I am hoping Margarittaville will be set up for the week. :)

I have the day off today, which is nice again. The sprouts and I are going to tour a candy factory and hopefully catch the Fort Wayne Wizards baseball game tonight. Weather permitting. It is raining right now.

A Terrible Weekend......

My not so lovely weekend started on Friday night. I drove a couple of hours away to meet a friend, we talked for a long time that night/morning. We met for breakfast had a great time. We went to a water park, found a nice spot to park our stuff, friend went to use restroom and never returned. Car was gone from parking lot as well. So home I went but not making a phone call to said friend and expressing my displeasure with choices that were made. Especially since friend just got out of hospital a week ago from having a stint put in artery of heart. I later found out friend was OK, but friend did not tell me that personally though. Don't have to worry about that person when Christmas comes around. On my way back home I called and chatted with the sprouts. I have not seen them all week because they have been camping with their dad at a local campground. I have talked to them about every other day. They both informed me that my dog passed away. He must have passed away Thursday night, Friday, or Saturday morning. That was really hard to take at the time. He was actually my ex's dog, but ex never took him after I asked him to leave the house. We each had a dog, beagles. I got mine on my birthday and a few months later we picked up his at the pound. Both dogs were about the same age. They loved each other, and were fun to be around. They both loved to go for walks and play outside. We had to put mine down shortly after I found out what ex had been doing most of our marriage. That was very hard at that time. I took care of the other dog for awhile, but he got to demanding after awhile. I live in town and have a fenced in back yard with lots of shade, but if I was not home before dark he just barked, and that pissed off the neighbors. I finally asked my ex's mom if she would like to take care of him. She loved him and had lost one of her dogs, so off to grandmas he went. At least the sprouts got to see him. I missed him. He really loved the walks more than my dog did. It was hard to hear the sprouts tell me that he died. It was not a big thing to them, they are only 7 and 5 and did not know him very well, like I did. So my Saturday really sucked! Sunday was not much better. I went to church early to get the computer set up for the first service in a record amount of time. Then I went and picked up my grandmother with my mom and we brought her out to the house for a few hours. She has been in an adult care home for a couple of weeks now. My aunt that is a nurse and can take care of her has been gone, and no one else in the family is really capable of taking care of her. I am about the only one able to lift her. My dad is having surgery on his shoulder this week, so he is not able to lift her now. She enjoyed the day at the house. She was glad to get out. But then she started in on how she hates it there, and that they yell at her, so now the family has lots of decisions to make and will be making them ASAP. I absolutely hate being caught in those decisions.

Family Matters.....

My parents were suppose to go on vacation together to the great family cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They were going to meet my Aunt and Uncle there. The plans changed a bit while I was bowling in NC. My dad has to have surgery on his rotator cuff next week, so he has pre-op things to be done this week. Mom was not happy after all he has been dragging going to the doctor for a few months now, and now he decides he has to get it done. My mom left for the cabin on Sunday, so I spent the day with dad after church. In some ways we are close in other ways we are not close. We both are pretty up to date on current events and have a little bit of knowledge of each other professions. He is a master Electrician, he can wire a house. I am an Electrical Engineer, I have no idea how to wire a house. I can make a plug for you that plugs into the outlets of your house though. We have never been real close, he has no idea of all the stuff that went on before my divorce, he does know the reasons behind the divorce and that is all. That is all he really needs to know. Some of the stuff would probably cause a family feud.

Of course he had to work for a little bit in the afternoon, so I cleaned up the house a bit and washed the dishes so that he would have enough forks for the week since mom was going to be gone. He eats frozen dinners when she is gone. When he got back, he and I went out to dinner and then grocery shopping. I think dinner was just a bonus for me to go shopping with him. I pushed the cart while he stocked up for the week. It was nice to hang around with him for the day. I have not done that in years. He was joking that some people might think that he fired my sister and hired a new girl to work for him. My younger sister is his only employee, and has red hair. I do not have red hair. We were traveling around in his work van as well. I play along at times. Gives me something exciting to do.

Tonight I am golfing with my Uncle. This should be interesting, since he and I have never golfed together at the same time, we have been in the same golf outings but not on the same team. After words we are having dinner at his cottage on the lake and my dad is coming over for dinner as well. I just hope I do not hit a house tonight like I did a few weeks ago.

I hope my air conditioning is fixed today. It died on me again last Friday. At least it has not been to terribly hot. I finally got screens in my front and back doors to at least let some air flow through. The windows are painted shut. My air condition repair man was my ex, however he was not that interested in fixing it this time, considering he worked on it a month ago. SO, I have found a new guy. My ex referred my to something that might come out on Saturday. I am not interested in paying premium time for a weekend. Then my ex called me today to let me know he is having a guy stop buy to look at it today, he probably has the part I need according to my ex. I told him, I already have a guy lined up to look at it. I am not sure if my ex just did not want to do it, or did not want to do it because he was on vacation. Yet, he was making service calls while he was on "vacation" because he told me that he might be dropping the sprouts off at daycare to make some service calls. They are suppose to be camping with the sprouts this week in the county.

Everyone have a safe Independence Day!

Back home in Indiana......

Have you ever had that feeling of wondering if you are ever going to get home? I had that feeling yesterday.

On Tuesday I flew to NC to bowl in the women's national bowling tournament. All went well getting there. A side note though, I have never seen so many lazy people working at the airport. I want their job. I got into NC in the afternoon, my twin sister and her family picked me up we did some sightseeing then headed back to my cousins house for the rest of the day.

Before we got ready to bowl we took the her sprouts to the pool for a little cooling off in the 90+ degree weather. Off to the bowling center she and I went. It was the team event which started at 7pm for our squad. There were people at the bowling center that had serious issues with the dress code rules. People that should have got written up didn't and those that should not have gotten written up did. I have never seen that before. Then there were the rookie attendees that were mad because you could not drink beer or liquor while bowling in the tournament, so I had to listen to that the whole time, because the team we were bowling against did not like that rule.

The team did OK, my sister and I did well, all three of my games were over my 146 average that I had for this tournament so that was a good thing. I was happy with my scores for the team event.

Wed. we hung around my cousins place for the day, then got ready to bowl again for the doubles and singles portion of the tournament again at 7pm. In order for us to make the bowling center on time we had to leave at 4pm. Mind you this center was at the other end of town just off of the bypass that went around the town. Traffic in Charlotte, NC can come to a stand still for no apparent reason and does so, everyday. Had to factor that in.

So we endured the doubles and singles event. When the sixth game came along I was ready for the agony to be over with. I was actually to OK, not great but OK. The last game however, was my worse at a 112. I was not happy but you will have that from time to time. We had to hang around after it was over with to see if we won any money in the side events that we entered in. We won some the night before, but did not think we would be that lucky tonight, but you never know, everyone else might have had a bad night as well. Turns out we did win some. That was the only highlight of the evening. We got back to my cousins house at 1am Thursday morning and I have to be on a 7:55am flight for home. I got a lot of sleep...NOT.

I got up and ready to go, and woke up my brother-in-law and we headed to the airport. We got to the airport just after 6am, and was waiting in traffic to get to the departure area, I finally got out of the car and walked up to the doors, and we were not even up to the sidewalk at the start of the departure area. All I had to do was go up to the kiosk type in my info and get my boarding pass. I got into the airport around 6:30am and finally got my boarding pass just before 7am. The place was packed for of happy travelers that were stuck there over night because of the storms that went through over night. Now I have to find the end of one of the 4 security lines, as opposed to the lines of people for check in. I start to realize that making my 7:55am flight is going to take a miracle. The security line I was in went past two front doors of the airport before evening turning into the maze for happy travelers before getting to the security people. I made it through security at 7:33am and was not even near my gate yet. I finally made it on to the plane with about 7 minutes to spare. Otherwise I was going to have to call my sister to come and pick me up and I was going to have to ride home with her.

I land in Cleveland to discover that my flight to Chicago is delayed, and later discover that it has a maintenance issue, and by the time it makes it to Cleveland and ready to depart for Chicago my flight out of Chicago will have already left. I am screwed. There are people in Cleveland left over from the night before for Chicago so all flight to Chicago are booked on all airlines. They are correct if your flight is delayed or cancelled you are screwed for days or it is going to cost you lots of money for a new flight. Since my parents dropped me off at the airport on Tuesday I had no car to pick up. I called them and updated them on my status and they headed for Cleveland and picked me up. I was at my house by 6:30pm originally arriving around 3:30pm with golf at 4:30pm. I missed the golf but at least I made it home the same day. There are still people stuck at the airports.

The airlines have no plans to deal with mechanical issues, and they do not care either about that. The people that worked the ticket area in Charlotte, need a few customer service lessons as well. That was just by observing them.

I am glad to be back in Indiana today.

Weekend Ramblings......

For the first time this summer, I had the sprouts for the entire weekend. It has been a long summer so far, because I have only had them for a few different days. I decided to take them to the zoo. We had a great time. It was not very hot, or crowded. My went with us, but she just sat a read a book while we toured the zoo. The sprouts had a great time, so did I. It was nice just the three of us hanging out for the day.

On Sunday, after church, we went to my parents for lunch. The sprouts got to play with my niece's dog/puppy. It is the size of a puppy but full grown. I have no idea what kind of dog it is. They enjoyed throwing toys at it. He drags everything he can get his mouth on. Size is no problem for him.

Tomorrow is the start of the big tournament for me. I head to North Carolina to bowl in the big tournament with my sister. Now I can only hope that my ball will not get an attitude... LOL. It will be nice to get away for a few days at least.

A couple of tributes, and misc ramblings......

A little tribute to Dominoe. Dominoe was a cat of a friend of mine. This weekend Dominoe became sick, and had to visit the vet. Dominoe was very ill and finally had to be put to sleep. A final resting place under a tree and their new home is the resting place now. I was never a big fan of cats and still am not a big fan of them either. Dominoe was Ok though. When I visited, he made sure to make his presence known to me, and seemed to know when to cross the line and when not to. Eventually, he just move on to another room and call it an evening for awhile. I loved his name. I thought it was perfect for a black and white cat. I had never her of that name before for any animal as well. I know he will be truly missed.

Another tribute to my oldest sprouts softball team. They were runners up in the league tournament that ended tonight. We were the home team and the game was back and forth every inning. We just could not pull it off in the last inning. Tied going into the last inning, the other team scored two runs and we could not put any across the plate. But the real accomplishment of this team was the mear fact that they were in the championship game at all. Their first game they last 21-1. It was not until the forth game that they finally won a game, and putting runs on the board was hard then. They worked hard at hitting and that finally started coming around, but the fielding started to fade away. But, when it came to the tournament everything fell in place. We got an awesome draw for the tournament, and the girls played their hearts out. We lost tonight 14-12. But everyone was a winner. Four out of the five teams in the league received hardware this year. The league winners and runner-up received trophies, and the two teams in the championship game received trophies as well. Yes, the league winner and runner-up were eliminated earlier in the tournament. That in itself made this game great tonight.

Now ball season is officially over for the sprouts, this year. My youngest finished her season on Saturday. She just has a team party this weekend. I am hoping that her dad will take her to the party since he is one of the coaches, and the oldest and I will go do something for a few hours. I am not thrilled with him right now so I have not decided on that yet. The tournament game was switched from a Saturday night game to a Saturday morning game to a Friday night game. When it got switched to the Friday night game, I found out about it from the coach, only because when they called the ex to let him know his wife was apparently giving the assistant coach a hard time because he had to work Friday night. The assistant coach called the coach who then called me, because she wanted to make sure that the sprout was going to be able to be there Friday night. The league games were on Friday nights, and the ex only came to two of her game all season. He was either on vacation, or unable to get off work. Either way with his job there is not much I can do about that, nor can anyone else for that matter. I called the coach to see if the second game was going to be changed as well, because I had plans for that day that I could change if the sprout had a game, that is when she told me the game was going to be on Friday and the story about the conversation with the assistant coach. I told her yes because I had the sprouts that night anyways for my summer time visitation. I call the ex later on that evening, and asked him to drop off the sprouts softball gear on Friday when he drops them off at daycare, because her game has been changed to Friday night. Then he proceeds to tell me that his wife wondered if I got that message. I got that message because I talked to the coach who was going to call me later, but I beat her to the punch. I called her in the morning and she was going to wait until she thought I was on my lunch hour, because she knew I was at work and did not have that number.

My Twin sister and I have been practicing our bowling these last few weeks, as we head to the National Tournament next week. All I have to say is that I hope my ball performs better than it has lately. She kicked my a$$ this weekend.

My golf game on the other hand is getting pretty good. I am shooting better than I have in a long time and I have only been out twice. My friend and I have found this nice little course that has ladies day on the days that we can make it so we get to golf for ten dollars and that includes a cart. Perfect for us. Not a lot of people of the course and just the right price. Of course we hit the Ball so much in a round that we definitely get our moneys worth.

What a week! or two.....

Since my last post, I have been kind of busy. The sprouts had ball games on Friday night and Saturday morning. I missed the Friday night game with the oldest, that was the first game I had missed. The youngest had an appointment so I took her and the oldest went to the game with her dad. I met them at the game and got to see the last few innings. I did not get to see her bat though. Saturday morning I went to the away game with lots of hesitation again this year. The game was being played in the ex relatives back yard practically. I went with and open heart though. I did not run into anyone last year, but figured this year might be different and it was. I did chat with one of my ex's cousins and he and I had a nice chat. I gave him a pic of the sprouts to give to his grandma. She always did like to see pics of the girls. He was glad to do that.

I have fought with engine issues on my car, and finally got those taken care of. Two items I got replaced for free. Not bad considering the car has over 150K miles on it. I don't think the dealership was expecting to say that they put the parts in less than two years ago. He did some checking and I got a new part for free. So, my car is running great now.

I have been trying to get back into the swing a bowling since I am in a tournament in a couple of weeks. Thought it would be a good idea to throw a few games since I have not touched my ball in about a month. That showed. I am still trying to figure out my new ball. My sister beat me in four games twice this weekend. I have got some work to do yet on my game if I am going to keep up with her at the tournament.

The sprouts have been on vacation with their dad all last week. I finally got to see them this afternoon when I stopped by daycare to say HI! to them. I will not get to see them until my night Tuesday night. My youngest is not very happy with that either, but is dealing with it.

I chased a golf ball around for a little bit on Thursday for the first time this year. My friend talked me into going and we decided that we should do that every week. Hopefully the winnd will not be so strong and the temperatures not that high either. All in all we had a good time, considering the one club I was using. I had just taken the plastic off of it that morning. The margaritas afterwards were not bad either. :)

I had to go sit with my nephew and niece this weekend. He is just starting to be mobile. My sisters life is over with as she knows it. LOL. This kid is going to give her more grey hairs....LOL. He and I had a good time though. It was funny when I first arrived at my sisters. She and I were standing side by side and his eyes were just going back and forth between us. He knew one of us was his mommy, but was starting to doubt which one it was.

I have been Tagged.....

.....so here it goes.

I am suppose to list 8 uniques things about myself. One of my favorite things to do NOT:)!

1. I really do admire the work that fire and policemen do. Having been trained to do part of the job that the fire/rescue personel do, it is not an easy task. I just to do admire one particular person in that field anymore :). This from having to sit in traffic in my downtown area for about 10 minutes at lunch today because of stupid drivers.

2. I have an uncanny ability to remember where I put things, and were things were when I left. In college my twin sister would come into my room and I would know instantly that she was there. The keyboard to the computer would not be exactly where I put it. My friend and sister would make a game of it, for when I came home from class to see if I would figure out what was out of place. They lost a lot. :)

3. I love fresh peaches and fresh strawberries. Can peaches are NOT peaches, not sure what they are but they are not peaches. I do not like peach/strawberry candies or drinks. Just not the same.

4. I cannot stand the smell of coffee. Sorry that might offend some of you. I can not stand the smell of beer or wine either.

5. Being a twin I have the uncanny ability to wear almost the same thing as my twin sister. She hates that!

6. I really do not like cats. The only cat I like is Garfield, the cartoon cat. That might offend some as well. Sorry Dominoe, you were ok.

7. I hate shopping! I only go shopping when I know I need something. I hardly go any other time. I say hardly because my sister drags me out when I visit her.

8. I am a borderline computer geek/hacker. I only use that knowledge when absolutely necessary.

I do not have anyone to tag, so please feel free to list a few unique things about herself if you would like.

Another School Program Over.....

The school year and activities are finally winding down. Last night my oldest had her school program. In preparation for it, I got her hair braided for her part in the play that they put on. She had one of the leading parts in it. I also got 4 dozen cookies for the little reception afterwards. Thanks to a local cookie company that job was easy. The program was great, all the kids did a great job. They all received three awards afterwards, and gave a decorated poem to their parents.

My former spouses parents attending the program last night. They did not make the pre-school program a few weeks ago. I thought that they were just unable to attend. I knew my former spouse knew about the pre-school program and I figured that he told his parents about it as well. I was wrong. He did not tell them until after it was all over with. He then called his mom to let her know about it. I did not know she did not know about it until after I emailed some pictures of the graduate at the program. I figured I could at least do that since she was unable to attend. She responded back to me and thanked me for the pictures and asked me if I could let them know of any special events that the sprouts are in. She would have gladly attended the pre-school one if she had known about it. I told her I could do that if she would like, although I let her son know a long time ago that that was going to be his responsibility to do not mine. Being that these are her only grandchildren, I felt kind of sorry that she had to miss the program.

She made it last night to the program and I have also given her the information to the gymnastics recital that is coming up as well. This woman amazes me most of the time. He husband is handicapped due to a stroke and has been for many years. Her son was a teenager when his dad had the stroke. He rides a motorized scooter when out and about. The program was in the gym and there were alot of wires taped to the floor, so instead of running over them she point him to go around them, and then she came and sat down. Well he did not do or understand what she said, so I had to help him out, because she was to busy with her own stuff going on. She did thank me afterwards and said that she was not paying attention to what he was doing. Par for the course, she was like that when I was married to her son. Everyone would file into the resturant and leave him by himselve to eventually get to wherever they were.

Another interesting happening at the program last night was an encounter with one of the "other women" that was involved in my former spouses life, was at the program as well. I have seen her around town in passing a few times, but never a face to face encounter. This was a person that I knew more than a name to a face. On Friday night, my parents, niece, the sprouts and I met up at a local eatery for dinner after one of the sprouts ball game. My parents had to take the other sprout to her appointment that was in a town 40 miles away from me, at the same time the oldest sprout had a ball game. Their dad has been out of town the last two weeks on vacation, that is why my parents had to help me be at two places at one time. Anyways, when we were being seated the "OW" was a few table from us with what looked like her family. I did not say anything to her and she did not say anything to me. That was fine by me as well. Last night I saw her enter the gym just before the play started, that gave me a warm a fuzzy feeling for the evening.....NOT. Afterwards, I start to take all the stuff outto the car while the sprouts enjoy a cookie or two. On the way back in the building, she was leaving the building and for that moment it was just the two of us, and quick eye glance at each other and that was it. Neither of us spoke, but it was that moment that I could tell she knew I knew about her. There was really this calm that came over me. I knew there would be a possibility of running into her some day and I truly had never prepared for that day. Who knows maybe the next time I will extend a simple greeting and move on. Would have been interesting if the ex was there I think, but at least I did not have to deal with that either. Well off for the next sprout adventure, I have two left this week before the long weekend.

I have been tagged.......

I have been tagged. Here are the rules:

1. Go to Wikipedia and put in your birthday, without the year, in the search bar. 2. List on your blog 3 events, 2 births, 1 death and 1 holiday that happens(ed) on your birthday. 3. Then tag 5 more friends to do it!

August 5

3 Events

Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey

The Mayflower departs Southhampton England

Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air traffic controllers.

2 Births

Neil Armstrong

Patrick Ewing

1 death

Marilyn Monroe

1 Holiday

There were only 2 so I will listed them both.

Burkina Fasco - Independence Day

Croatia - Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day

No Friends to tag, they already have been tagged. Please feel free to participate if you so desire.

Stainglass Piece and Graduation

What Graduation? My youngest graduated from pre-school last night. They had a little program first which was a dinosaur theme. 15 "dinosaurs" WOW! They all did very well. Then out they came in their cap and gowns.

I had to take most of the day off from work, because my daycare person had her baby that morning. So, I had to scramble my day around in a hurry. It did not help that the school had a two hour fog delay which turned to a three hour delay, which really messed up my day. I dropped the oldest off at school finally, zipped a few blocks away to pick the youngest up from preschool and get her to her hair appointment. She got her hair braided for the festivities later on that night. She and I spent the rest of the day together. She had no nap, and I really should have worked on the stain glass piece that I wanted to get done. I was up in the air about getting it done for the preschool teacher to have at the program or to deliver it this morning for the last day of class. I decided today would be better. So here is a picture of the piece I did the last two all nighters. It is a duplicate of one I did a year ago, but this one has a couple of different colors in it. The sprout in the pic is my youngest and the other is her teacher who was the recipient of the piece. The piece is 12" x 13".

A great effort......

Summer ball has arrived for the sprouts this past weekend. On Friday night the oldest had the first game of the season against a team coached by Mr. "Not Here For Fun, Here To WIN". We finally scored a run in our last at bats, but the other team ended with 21 runs. My sprout did not get on base, but had some nice foul balls. Will have to work on that a bit more. Our team has a lot of kids that are in their first year at this level, mine included in that category. They played well for their first time out this year.

On Saturday morning, it was the youngest sprouts turn to play. In this league, everyone hits and gets to runs the bases. They hit off a tee most of the time. It is fun watching the ball roll past kids who are pre-occupied with other things going on. They all have fun and that is the important thing.

On a different note, I actually got to enjoy a nice weekend by myself. It has been a long time since I have gotten to do that. Once in awhile is kind of nice. The sprouts dad picked them up at 7am Saturday morning, and I confirmed that they were going to be at the ballgame later that morning, because I know they are going to Indianapolis sometime on Saturday as well. He told me that earlier in the week. He asked for directions to a party that the sprouts were invited to later that evening, and I gave him the information knowing full well they will not be attending. He called me later to have me bring ball pants to the game because the ones they have are to small for the sprout to wear, and he asked a few more questions about the sprouts invitation later that evening again.

After the game, I tended to my car. Finally got the tires rotated, and the oil changed. It was nice just waiting for those to be done without having the sprouts wonder when they can go because they are tired of waiting. After the car issues were taken care of, I went and got a new cell phone. I was tired of the one I had had for 5 years, and was tired of some issues with it. After about 15 minutes at the phone place I left with new phone in hand and it was not even noon yet. I had no idea what to do for the rest of the day. Actually I wanted to finish up my spring yard work. I had lunch and was putting off the yard work because it was overcast out and I did not feel like getting wet today, but eventually I headed out to conquer to tasks. The ex called late in the afternoon to let me know that he was not going to make the girls party tonight, that they were still in INDY. This was not a shock to me. Not sure why he even called to tell me. They were in Indy to spend time with her son and his wife. I finally finished up my yard work around 9pm or so, and glad that is done.

On Sunday, my mom and I went shopping after church. I had some gift cards I wanted to use up. We had a nice time. I found an outfit I liked, which made the day even better. I hate shopping, and am very picking on the clothes I wear as well. But, all in all, it was a good day.

The rest of this week is filled with, work ball practices, appointments for the sprouts, gymnastics, preschool graduation, about 4 programs to write to finish up an online class that I am taking and a stainglass piece that needs to be done by Thursday night and I have not cut the glass yet. Yes, that will probably be a couple of all nighters to get that one done. So, I am off to tackle some of my list of things to get done this week.

I love being a twin.....

Sunday I went to my twin sisiters church for my nephews dedication. All of our family on my side were there except for my sprouts, and some of my brother-in-laws family were there as well. I think there were 15 of us total. We arrived a bit early for the second service which is when the dedication was going to be. So I headed down the one hallway and this lady smiles at me and I knew then she thinks I am my twin sister. She says Good Morning and I play along, because that is the fun part of being a twin for me. :) I come back and my mom steps up to me and tell me that the lady did indeed think I was my sister. My sister was in the first service with her daughter. The first service is a childrens service.

Late on while we are waiting for the first service to exit the sanctuary another lady steps up to me and asks me to confirm that my nephews name is spelled correctly on this paper that she put in front of me. Of course I confirm it and then say that I am not his mother however, but I will play along for fun.

We finally take our seats in the sanctuary and another lady steps up to me smiling, but has a confussed look on her face. I finally answer her unasked question, and say I am the twin sister. She finally laughs and wondered because she thought my sister had darker hair. She does, we have the before and after pictures from hair coloring. I have the before look and my sister has the after look. I keep telling her that when she finds a color I like, then I will color my hair. Truth be told I have colored it a couple of times, but honestly have better places to use the money it take to color my hair.

Needless to say I enjoyed my Sunday Morning.

Benefit WHO?......

I wish I knew the exact rules of my ex's game..... I called him Wednesday afternoon to see if the youngest sprout has practice. I do not have the number of the coach, and ex is an assistant coach for that team. No practice due to the rainy weather, I figured as much, but it has been know to rain in my town and not the town where practice was to be taking place. I am in a good mood now because we can be to church on time tonight, another one of those in two places at the same time nights. Before I end the conversation with him, he asks me if it will be ok for him to drop off the sprouts an hour earlier on Saturday morning, because his wife is having surgery and has to be an hour away at the time he normally drops them off to me. The only reason I was having the sprouts on Saturday was because he was to be working that day, so I get them when he is working, but now he is not working because of the surgery on Saturday. Not sure about you, but I have never really heard of scheduled surgeries on a Saturday, but that is not my problem. He asked me, if I wanted him to ask his mom instead to watch the sprouts or not, but I should have already had plans for them. I told him that was his call. If he wanted to ask his mom fine, if he wanted to drop them off early fine. He knows that I would have picked them up the night before because we just got done arguing over that with the lawyers a month or so ago. He decides to drive 13 miles out of his way to drop them off by 6am which means they get up around 5 - 5:30am.

I am ready for the day when the sprouts arrive at the house. I finish up a few things, and take them out for breakfast. We do not go out for breakfast very often. They had a great time. I went into work for a few hours, and they had a nice time watching a movie in my office as well. They enjoy hanging out in my office. We head home and since it is a nice day out. We spent the entire day outside. I worked in the yard and they played with everything possible that we had to play with. I tried to get them to take a nap, but was not successful.

The ex called me around 4pm and wanted to know if it would be easier for me if he picked up the sprouts tonight instead of in the morning. That way they could get to sleep in. I told him no that would not be easier, and they could have slept in this morning if he would have let me pick them up the night before. I had to break the silence on his end by asking him yes or no. He just said that he was planning on having them sleep in. He just wanted to sleep in and not have to get up to pick them up at their normal time at 7am. That is when he picks them up the next day when he gets off work. I had to be ready early anyways to head up to my sisters for my nephews dedication at church, and I did not have the laundry done to have the sprouts clothes packed for the next few days at the dads anyways. So, they spend the night with me.

I finished the yard work and we got everything put away. We cleaned up for dinner, and headed out for a bit to eat. After dinner we layed on the couch and watched a movie for all of about 15 minutes, they were passed out then. Which I knew they would crash early as well.

I got up early in the morning Sunday morning and did a few loads of laundry and got the sprouts clothes packed and ready for when their dad arrived. They were already to go when he pulled up to the house. The wife was with him as well, that was a surprise to me, since she just had surgery the day before. They were off and I was on my way as well to my sisters.

Freeing up the schedule....

Thanks to the rain which should be sticking around all day, I should not have to worry about trying to be at two places at one time tonight. The sprouts Wednesday night activities are ending tonight for the remainder of the school year. So we should be able to make the awards night on time, since I am sure ball practice for the youngest sprout will be cancelled. I will be the last one to find that out today. I always look forward to having my spring and summer evenings free with the sprouts. They love being outside. Next week I am kind of hoping it rains on Tuesday night, so that I do not have to worry about being at two places at once. I am ending my one and only night activities to myself until fall.

New Treasures and Memories.....

I was cleaning out some boxes that I moved out of the sprouts rooms almost a year ago to paint. I finally got tired of them sitting around the house. They contained some of my "treasures" from many moons ago, and some items that were obtained through out my marriage way back when as well. Some of the things I decided to keep, most though will go out with the trash later on this week. What perfect timing, it happens to be city wide clean up this week, so everyone had their junk out for others to seek out their treasures. Some of the stuff that I pitched could have probably been placed on the curb for others to discover their treasures, but I just decided to pitch them. There was only one item, that I waivered on briefly, but only until I reached the garbage bag.

Some may be asking why I did not ask him if he would like the stuff. My theory is this. He has been gone for over two years. If he really wanted it, he would have asked by now. I have delivered some things to him within the past year, because I really was not comfortable with tossing them. I was comfortable with tossing these items.

I do not toss pictures, and I came across a few of them this weekend as well. Some of the pictures were of the two of us before we were married. After thumbing through them for a bit, I boxed them back up and they will head to storage with the rest of my stuff. Some day I will weed that stuff out.

Speaking of weeds, I finally hacked down the jungle, commonly know as my front yard this weekend as well. After two passes with the lawn mower, the sprouts could finally play in the front yard without me having to go find them. :) That also made it easier for me to puts a few items out to the curb for city clean up days as well. My items were gone this morning when I woke up, I did hear a few of the items go around 1am when everyone else were out doing their "shopping" and had no consideration for the time of night that they were out and about. At least this time, they left most everyone else's stuff on the curb if they did not want it. Usually they sort through the piles of stuff and leave half of it in the street. That makes for interesting travels to work in the morning. My neighbor, mowed his yard as well, except it was just enough area to put his treasures out. Apparently appearance of your yard is important, when placing your trash to the curb. I only mowed to keep the sprouts visible.

My great morning part 2......

Well after arriving late to work, I get and online chat message for the ex's wife. Amazingly enough that did not surprise me. I knew she would try to contact me after everything that went on this morning. This time I just chose not to respond back AT ALL. That did not stop her from sending lengthy messages though. My favorite one was this one, I edited out the names... "I am really working on getting (ex spouse) to just talk with you but as you can see not much success on my part. I am sorry for that. I will keep working on him. He is a great guy, just short on talking with you, but I think he has always been short on talking with you."

Yep, he has always been short on talking period and now she has that figured out. Of course she wrote this... "I would really like some good communication between everyone." before she sent the previous message. All I can say is that we do not always get what we want out of life now do we. I am not going to be the great communicator with her...yes, my life may have a few less bumps in the road if I go through her since he does not communicate well with me, but I am not going down that path. When she tells me what I have to do for the sprout for a school field trip that they signed everything for sprout to attend, I draw the line. They did everything without notifing me of it, but now I have to provide everything for it. Now there is great communication between everyone.

I still talk to him about the sprouts schedules and I get with him on whether he is going to be taking them to the ball practices that they signed them up for or am I going to have to do it because he is to busy on his day off to do so. Some of those questions I have answers to some he still has to get back with me, after he checks the calendar. Which usually means, when I get back to my full time job in two days to get on that computer to check that calendar because I only have dial up here at the house and do not want to wait that long to check the calendar here. If I am lucky I will not have to remind him of it. I never have been that lucky of a person. But I am just so blessed to have communication from the wife and not the ex spouse.

I was even more thrilled when my youngest sprout informed me that her sister told the wife that I do not buy anything for them, I always just spend my money on me. Not sure where that came from, but that one really hurt. Considering that I just bought them summer clothes, and roller skates, and ball equipment for the summer as well. I did by myself a new bowling ball a month ago, as for clothes I have not bought a new outfit in probably 3 years. At least not with any of my money. My family usually gives me gift cards at Christmas for me to buy some clothes with. I still have some yet to spend. I have not decided how to approch that issue yet either. I probably will just let it be between the youngest and myself right now.

I Can not do it!!!!

I can not deal with a 40yr guy that has no control of his life! I am at a complete lost on how to deal with the sprouts dad. He asked me to switch weekends a few weeks ago. The weekends he wanted to switch are coming up in May. Him thinking that far ahead if a major feat in itself, because I can never get him to tell me whether he can watch the sprouts in a couple of days without having him get back with me because he has to look at the calendar first. Anyways, I orginally I told him No on the weekend switch because the girls had a year end church picnic that weekend, and they have been looking forward to going to it for a long time. They have missed the last two because they were with their dad and he would not take them. He said that he would put it on the calendar and take them. Yeah, right! He is taking the sprouts to INDY that day and I know they will not be back in time for the picnic. They are going to be taking his wifes daughter, husband and two kids to the airport because their furlough is over and they are heading back into the mission field. Of course he says he is preparing the sprouts in that they may not get back until late, which the oldest says that it will be ok to go to the picnic late. She does not realize that late means not going. I confronted him with that this morning when he called me to tell me that the oldest was not going to school this morning. Another issue I am not going to get into. Apparently she was not feeling well. I am not there I can not make that decision. I did talk to her for a bit. She brought up that she wants to go to florida over next spring break with her dad instead of spending spring break with me. GREAT!!! NOT!

You see back in March, he and I sat down to discuss the sprouts and he asked me then if he could take the sprouts to florida next spring break. I told him NO that was my year to have them for spring break and I already have plans for them. I would have changed my plans to this year, but this was his year to have them for spring break, and I was not going to interfere with his time. Which he did not take them for the week, this year. He asked me what I had planned for them, and I told him. Well the next day the sprouts got mad at me, and wanted to know why they had to go to Pennsylvania, which is where I was going to take them. I was mad because I knew he told them, because he was the only person that knew the spring break plans. When I called him up he said that his wife must of said something and that he was sorry because he did not think she would say anything to the sprouts. Well this morning when I was talking to the oldest, I was informed that they want to go to Florida for spring break next year. Wonder who put that in her head again. Of course when I asked him about it he said that the sprouts brought it up. NOT without some coaching I am sure of that. I love being made to be the bad parent by his wife.

My youngest who is 5, is now complaining because I get her hair cut all the time, and that she wants it to grow out long. One of the reason is because his wife is growing her hair long, and she use to have long hair before, treatment of cancer. I have told my youngest, that when she can take care of her hair and brush it herself then she can have her hair long, until then if I have to do it, it will be short, because it does not tangle as bad then.

My life just seems to be a game of not knowing the rules that he keeps changing on me.

I so miss.......

.....people with common sense. :) The school systems these days are so not right. Mind you that yes I did attend a public school and there are many educators in my family and in the ex's family as well. I grew up and went to school in a different state. There were no book rental fees when I went to school. The schools had to go to the tax payers for more money. Which was interesting at times. I have a first grader and have to pay around $380 for lunch and book rentals this year for just one child. As a single parent of two children that is a big stretch for me right now. Yes, I finally have gotten some of that money from the ex, after I had to drag him to court for it, so needless to say it cost me a lot more to get a few bucks from him. I supposedly make to much to get assistance from the school as well. Funny thing about that is, a friend of mine went to sign up a child for school and since she was in between address because they were building a home. The school listed them as homeless, and since they were "homeless" then they could get assistance with the school fees, just like that. I thank god for the roof he has put over my head, and the struggles he has chosen me to endure.

I so miss my venting specialist. Only because it was nice just to chat about the fun and games that I have to play with ex, and he has the rules and I get to figure them out before he changes them on me. Of course the vent specialist would be right about things and then I would have to admit that she was right. I really hate when that happened. :) The ex and I have been in a stalemate for a bit on a field trip for school, for the oldest sprout. They turned in all the paperwork and everything long before they even notified me that there was even a field trip happening. Of course I am to pay for said field trip of sprout, and still have yet to receive any information on it. SO, I will have to go have a chat with the teacher soon, and change some ways that the school information is set home. Normally I get the papers and he gets a set mailed to him from the school per his request to the teacher. He use to give me all the papers if he had the sprouts that evening. Except I never saw that paper, and since he apparently is going to pick and choose what papers I get, guess I will have to make sure they do not go home with the sprouts on his evenings. I have not figured out a better way yet. He did admit that they got the information, and that was it. I love this game of life.

Two places at the same time.....

I never did figure out how to be at two places at one time last night, so I improvised. I took my oldest to her ball practice which got over a half hour later than the start of my bowling league. I figured if I drive fast enough I could make the last two bowling games of the night. I was 45 minutes past the league start time and they were already into the second game. I did make it by the third frame and the other team did allow me to bowl the last two games. We lost both games, of which I threw over my average, and they won the first game which I was not there for and had a score of ten below my average. Just does not add up. Oh well. I managed to get both in and didn't even get my blood pressure up that much in doing so. I did have to take the sprouts with me to bowling which usually ups my stress level, as they like to push all my buttons and forget all of the rules we discussed in the car on the way there, but over all it turned out to be a good evening. I only have to do that one more time. Hopefully my mom will be available to help me out then.

Spring is a scheduling nightmare.....

With the summer ball season coming up for the kids, comes practices now. So now I have to work around gymnastics, church activities, end of school activities, various medical appointments and ball practices, which is actually three different days because they are on different teams this year, and the oldest get to practice twice a week. Along with my last month of bowling and 6 more weeks of teaching/facilitating a class, there is not much time between any event right now.

Luckily, the sprouts dad is willing this year to help out with getting them to their ball practices, something that has not happened the last two years, unless it fell on his night to have them during the week, so that is a little relief. I only have to figure out how to be at two places at once on a couple of days that he is at work, and unable to leave.

I will leave you with a little phrase I use at work: "The difficult we do immediately the impossible just takes a little longer"

What A Weekend.......

At the beginning of last week, I had nothing big planned for the weekend. A conversation with the former spouse changed all of that though. Yes, we communicate a little more now. Last weekend was his weekend to have the sprouts. I was going to have them on Sunday because he had to work, and when he has to work I get the sprouts for the day. He wanted to know if it would be ok for the sprouts to spend Saturday night at his parents house. His mom has been wanting to have them for quite some time, but apparently they could not get there schedules worked out to make that happen, or someone (adult not sprout) has been sick. So, I was more than happy to let them spend the night and most of the day Sunday with the grandparents. It was the first full weekend to myself this year.

Now the dilema came as to what to do for the weekend. On Tuesday, I thought it would be fun to redecorate one of my bathrooms. No sprouts, No problem. I told my mom what I was going to do, and she got on my dad to come down and fixed the toilet. It had a tipping issue, which it has had long before I was divorced. Now was the perfect time to pull it and figured out what it needed. Turns out it needed a complete base for the bolts to function properly. So he pulled that on Saturday and put it back on Monday. The plumbing supply place was closed, until Monday, for the parts that we needed. I already had the room cleared out and all the stuff off the walls, when my dad says "Would you like a switch to turn these 2 lights on and off at once?" He is an Electrican so that was a piece of cake for him. The problem lied in the fact that what I want does not always happen in the time frame that I need it to. I said sure are you going to do it before I paint. Yep, he got it done and changed most of the wiring there as well, he was not happy with who ever did it, some 20+ years ago, before I even moved in. He hooked up a little light for me to see better since most of the light fixtures had to come done to be able to paint. I was all set.

Saturday morning, I started taking off the very old wallpaper and border that was on some of the walls. Got the walls ready for primer and paint. I quit at about 3:00am Saturday night/Sunday morning with not all the walls primed yet. I have a deep closet in this bathroom that took most of my time and the ceiling as well. I know some of you may not even have bothered with the closet, who is going to see it anyways. Well the last people that had the house had that attitude and it was really bad. I am a some what perfectionist when it comes to that stuff. Yes, that is an annoyance to me at times.

Sunday morning came quickly as I had only about three hours of sleep and off to my parents for a shower and to get ready for church. I was painting the only bathroom with a shower in it, and did not want the moisture in the room until I was done. I made it through church and even stayed awake as well, which was a good thing because I was running the computer that puts the worship words and verses up on the screen for all to see.

After church I stopped at the store again and picked up some more supplies for the day. I got right back into finishing the room. My parents came down after church as well. I finally found the colors I wanted to use on Sunday. My mom and I picked some out on Friday night, but did not find any matching rugs and towels that we liked. Apparently that is an issue with some people, not really with me, but I rolled with it for awhile. Saturday I primed with no color picked out yet. I went to a different store and found what I was looking for. I grabbed two different wash cloths to show my mom when she got there. The one color was what we picked out on Friday and she liked the contrasting color as well. Cool! They went and got the color paint that I needed while I finished up priming, and painting the ceiling.

With only a few hours left, before the sprouts where to be back, I started in putting the color on the walls, actually the closet first. What a pain that was. I had to take a little break when the sprouts arrived, but got right back to work, and they were content with just sitting on the couch and watching a movie. They did discover some arts a crafts stuff, so while watching the movie, they created their own master pieces. Only once did the oldest ask if she could help me paint the bathroom. She was ok with, I don't think so today.

At 1am I was done, and had everything picked up and cleaned up, ready for re-assembly Monday. My dad came down while I was at work on Monday with my younger sister that works with him as well, and they put my bathroom back together. With the exception of a few things, because I might change the look of those as well.

I am changing the closet doors for one thing. My dad is going to make them for me, and I am going to put a stainglass panel in the top part of the door. I am pretty excited about that. I think I am going to paint the trim in the room as well, just to change it up a bit. That will not be as big of a project as the whole room was. The only reason I am thinking of that is because the people before me did not care if they got paint on the wood work or not.

A funny note though, I patched up a couple of spots on the walls, one was from the people before me who had decorations on the wall with tape and pulled some of the wall out when they packed up. The other was when my youngest tip something over and it put a whole in the wall. My dad while working on the toilet, saw one of the spots and put his finger through it, because he wondered what it was. He said "Did you put something on the wall?" My response was "Why did you just put your finger through it?" So, needless to say I had to patch that up again.