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.