Barnyard LIVE!!

I experienced the live version of the movie Barnyard the other day. For those that have not seen the movie, it is about all the different farm animals and what they "really" do when then farmer is not around. In the movie the cows take a car and go "boy" tipping.

So, on my way home the other night on a well traveled country road. There was a car coming at me and I caught a quick glance of shadows going in front of the cars headlights. I start to slow down because the deer are pretty thick in that area anyways, and I cannot afford to hit one right now. The other car flashes it lights at me, and I flash mine back to acknowledge that I saw the shadows. I eventually come to a stop because I see more shadows in front of the other car. With about 20 yards between us I realize that the shadows are not deer. At this point, there is 2 draft horses, be boppin down the road at me in my lane, followed by two cows fighting for position in the ditch on my left and bringing up the rear is another horse. This is a small horse that pulls the amish buggies, and this one acted like the class clown of the group. Granted they probably were a bit frighten by the two cars. They just kept going on down the road, with out a care in the world to them.

That story ranks right up with me practically drag racing with 3 draft horses that came out of the field at a full gallup right next to me as I was doing about 55 down a different road. I managed to get my car stopped with out scaring them and before they ran into my path. I am sure hitting a deer would have been much better than hitting 3 draft horses.

Progress....

As I was trying to figure out why things were the way they were in my life a couple of years ago when I was just going through my divorce, it was hard for me to get stuff done. Laundry would be piled up either to be done, or to be folded. The mail would be piled up on the table with just the bills pulled out of it, I couldn't even take care of the junk mail at that time. I was also confused when my venting specialist would say that I was making progress when I only did one load of laundry and had not folded it yet. It would just be piled on my bed and I would just sleep on the couch. Then she would say again that I made progress when I only had folded a few of the clothes and put them away. Being an engineer, that little bit did not seem like progress to me. I am use to progress being the actual visualization of something moving forward. From raw material to an actual part was progress for me. Having a large pile of clothes to start with, and only just a little bit taken from it, was not progress. It was procrastination in my eyes.

I bring this up because I started facilitating a divorce support group last night. It is a video series. Having seen the videos before, it was not until watching them again last night that progress is a slow process, little steps at a time. Example if you are a marathon runner and have open heart surgery, you have to walk, then jog, then run a mile, then slowly work your way back up to the 26 miles. Yes, I think the engineer in me has gotten in the way at times. Now, I realize the difference there and look forward to this new journey of differentiating between engineer and non-engineer.

....98, 99, 100.....98, 99, 100.....

I am sure I am going to dream about number tonight. Since we got the weather that was forcasted for us, 9.5" of snow later, I knew some people would not show up for work today. Being the bored engineer that I am, I offered to work out on the plant floor today. It was either that or continue to do data entry and filing which I am trying to get caught up for about 2 yeas now. Coincidence that was about the time I filed for a divorce? So, I have been counting to 100 over and over today. And having been up since 3:30 am to get bundled up to clear out my driveway and sidewalks. I was never glad to see 5:00pm roll around. Would have been better if the ex would have brought the sprouts back into town, but I was to tired to argue with him, and when I picked them up I realized why he did not want to leave his house. He only had a path cleared out in his driveway and it was not for any of his vehicles. At least the roads were pretty decent. Well, I am off to prepare for my class tomorrow that I am leading, weather permitting of course. Hopefully I will be able to stay awake long enough as well. I hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Day!

A Good Weekend....

Saturday went well. The sprouts and I started off with swim lessons and relaxing time for me in the therapy pool. Well, kind of relaxing, there usually ends up to be about 8 kids in there after there lessons are over with. Then it was off to the big city bowling tournament. This was the team event. As a team we covered the total number of pins we needed to possibly get in to placing for the event which is always a good thing. I personally threw my best score so far this year. I finally got my five hundred series at the tournament with games of 189, 153, 180. I was pretty happy with that.

My sisters birthday was yesterday, the sister I do not speak to that much. I am not sure I even wished her a happy birthday. Mom and dad took her out to dinner, and they asked the sprouts and I to go along so we did. My sister asked if she could ride with me, and I said sure. Guess that was her birthday present from me :) Dinner could have been better. The food was fine the service sucked though. It was just the waitress that we ended up having that sucked. The sprouts wanted them to sing to my sister and this waitress did nothing about it. The sprouts heard them sing to someone else and that really made them mad that they were not going to sing to our table. My sister really didn't mind it though.

Well, off to fight a headache and get the sprouts going this morning. I will also be holding my breath on an answer from the ex in regards to picking up a sprout on Wed. for me, that I asked him about last week. Wait, I will not be holding my breath. I will pass out if I did that. I already have a back up plan in place.

Communication issues.....

I am totally at a lost in reguards to communicating with my ex. If I am lucky he will answer any emails I send him with in a week of being sent. I try not to call him, unless it is a very time critical issue. He can never give me an answer right then, and if he does agree to something, he forgets about it when the actual time does come up. If I put something in the suitcase for him I tell him it is there before he even picks up the sprouts for that night from daycare. He will stick items in the suitcase for me, and I will never know they are there unless I go thru it. I came upon the new insurance card that way. I am not sure how long it had been in the suitcase. I have asked him to let me know when he does put stuff in the suitcase so I am aware of it.

I am at a point where I just rather not talk to him at all. Which is not good because of the sprouts. When he sends me emails I just read them and do not acknowledge that I got them anymore. Seems like lately he just sends me emails to let me know what I am not doing with the sprouts. This from a person that does not have much room to talk, but I do not fire back at him anymore. Waste of my time, and very pointless as well. Someday I may figure it all out. Until then I guess I will just have to take it one day at a time.

An Interesting Weekend Ahead.....

Last night I had another load of wood delivered to the house, since mother nature feels that it should still be cold for awhile and my supply was running very low. I did not have the sprouts last night, so I spent the first two hours after work stacking the wood up in my garage. Usually stacking wood is not an problem with me, except for now it is like a jig saw puzzle. Not only do I have to stack it, I have to stack it so that I can get in and out of my car as well when I am done. Not a very big garage, but big enough for what I need it for. Anyways, in the process of stacking the wood I tweaked the middle knuckle on my ring finger somehow. Normally this would not be a big deal except I am bowling in the city tournament tomorrow and yes it is my bowling hand. I do not think it is broke because it is not swollen or different colors, but it is very sore when I bend it. Typing on the computer is a problem at times. Luckily I only bowl with my finger tips and it is my middle knuckle that is sore. Nothing like a challenge to get an average that I have been failing to get the last few weeks during league play.

I have to swim with the sprouts first before bowling so I will be tired as well, or well relaxed because I will sit in it therapy pool for a bit before the sprouts are done with their swim lessons. After bowling it will be off shopping with my mom and the sprouts for a business type outfit, just to make thing interesting here at work. Then on to mom and dads for the evening. They have one of those message chairs, so a few rounds it that should put me out for the evening.

It has a crack....

I was headed to church with the sprouts Wednesday night and on our way the oldest says to me "Did you know that the Nobell has a crack in it?" Puzzled for a moment I said "The Liberty Bell has a crack in it." She said "but there is a Nobell" "Yes, but it is an award handed out to people."

Now, on to Thursday. I took the oldest to work with me because they had a delay in the start of the school, scheduled in for the teachers to do stuff. Since I have such a great standing at work lately, I did not care. At least I was at work in the morning and not two hours late. I ran downstairs at work to get some stuff and when I came back up the sprout asked "what does disqualify mean?" I explained that to her and she was good to go. She heard it on the radio when I went down stairs. Funny thing is the she heard the a person had "just qualified" to be in a contest that they are running right now. I got a kick out of it. There is never a dull moment with the two sprouts around and there minds going all the time.

Hey! Were are the sprouts?!!?

Last night I picked up the sprouts from daycare, as I normally do after work on my nights to have them, which is practically everynight. The ex had them on his normal week night, Tuesday night. We had made plans for pizza tonight. I ordered it on my way to daycare and we stopped and picked it up, before heading home. Apparently I got a call on my cell when I was in grabbing the pizzas. I didn't realize it right it away, I don't always check my phone right away when I decide not to take it with me at the time. After getting back in the car and on our way, the phone rings again and it is the ex. He is telling me to disregard the message he just left on my phone. He looked at the calendar wrong!?! I listened to the message which was about 25 minutes past the hour of picking up the sprouts from daycare. He wanted to know where they were because it was his night to have them. This explains why Wed. night the sprouts were questioning getting their hair cut on Thursday night because of their dad. I was confused by it because he had them Tues. night, and just left it be. He did show up at daycare, and she was surprised, that he did not call to let her know he was running late, she said he usually calls her for that, but was more surprised he was there.

I know what nights I have them. The calendar we use in an online calendar, and it highlights today for you so you know exactly what is going on today. I am always checking the calendar, because he has a habit of putting stuff in for the girls on my time and not telling me about it. I try my best to ask him first if something for the girls comes up on his time.

After he checked the calendar, he was ok with me having them for the night and we had a great time watching a movie and eating pizza, in front of the fire place keeping warm.