Counteracting the bad with the good

I was able to catch these beautiful little birds. Here's the best of what I have so far. Aren't they beautiful? They are so itty bitty!

Remember...

My post from a couple of days ago with my dotphoto show and I was so excited about the bobcat coming and leveling the land for DH and I?

Well this is what I woke up to this morning

The pictures don't really do justice to the damage. If I remember correctly, we have about 86 feet from the front of our house to the street. Those two trees are about 50 feet from the the street. You see the exhaust almost reaches the trees.

I should have put my foot in the second picture so that you can see the hole goes right above my ankle easy and almost fits my foot across.

I called the police because I knew it was the neighbors from across the street who backed all the way up on our property and got stuck. The police officer said the damage you see in the bottom picture is from their gas tank getting stuck.

Can you believe this?

Works For Me Wednesday

Last year when the kids started school we were inundated with paperwork and school assignments. With 5 kids it quickly got out of control and I found that I couldn't keep on top of it. There were letters that I had recieved 5 times and needed to trash. Assignments I wanted to keep to give the children when they are older so they can see how they got their start. Finally, I picked up a few baskets at the dollar store and came up with this.

Basically, I labeled the files with each kid's name and grade and placed them in this basket. When the kids come home from school they leave their backpacks at the door and have quiet time where they take a break and unwind before they start homework and chores. This gives me time to go through their papers. Anything I want to keep for them I drop in their folders. Any multiple papers I toss and either keep one copy in the front of the basket or record the info I need in my planner.

The best part, at the end of the year, all I have to do is place their folders in my filing cabinet so that when the time comes to give them these things I have a complete folder for the year for them to look back on.

Works for me! (For more Works For Me ideas go see Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer)

I'm so excited!

I tried to post my show on here but for some reason it won't connect.

Anyway, I am so excited because we had our land cleared. As you can see in the show it was still in it's natural state and we had it all cleared so we can start planning the deck, swingset, garage etc...

It's so exciting to me because 1.) this is my first house of my own and 2.) It is our first really big endeavor in said house and 3.) the kids and dogs have a place to play now even if it's just cleared land.

Breakfast of Champions

While I am waiting for my pictures to upload for my next post I thought I would share my breakfast with you.

WHOA! I just saw a new button....what is this VIDEO button....hold on. Figures, after I go through the whole setting up and uploading process over at YouTube they add it here. A day too late. lol

I ate this after my workout which is going just fine thankyouverymuch. I have lost 6 lbs in one week. Probably just because I have more energy to get around and have been getting things done.

Anyway, I was shocked at how filling it was. I guess I could've had a bigger glass of water, the frozen cherry limeade thingy only has 70 calories and the fruit...got me?

Anyway, it got me to thinking. I read something my oldest wrote to God asking him to "let [her] stay skinny."

It got me to thinking even more. I've never been on a diet. I don't eat anything diet or drink anything diet. Well, with the exception of today...I had these South Beach Diet wraps. But not because they were diet but rather because doesn't a turkey and bacon with cheese wrapped in a flour tortilla sound yummy?

I read the little note inside the box that told me if I was eating out to send back the bread basket so it wouldn't tempt me. I told DH..."the hell I would send back the bread basket." I mean our favorite restaurant brings up these warm little loaves of yummy goodness and I will eat three I tell you. Forget the steak and stuff....just bring me that bread. DH said "Oh, it's because it's part of the Atkins diet"

Me: "Whose Atkins?"

Basically...DH said no or low carbs.

I worry about the images I am showing my oldest of me and my current weight. I am overweight because I am totally stressed and do not get enough rest. I live on Coke just so I can get things done.

Am I happy about my current weight now? No. It hurts to be this weight. Will I diet? No.

I am trying to lose weight and eat healthy because DH and I have plans to have children or at least a child of our own. I don't want the doctor to chew me out and I don't want to prolong the process by having the doctor tell me I have to lose weight and eat healthy.

So, I am doing things the right way so when the time comes, DH and I can go in and start the fertility process without any delays.

Will I tell my oldest this? I don't know. I hope she sees me working out and I hope she sees me making better choices and yet still eating the things I love in moderation and I hope she sees that even though my body is a mess right now, I still love myself and do not base my self worth on what other people think and I hope that she will someday feel the same way.

Color me pissed...

I have some exciting news that I will post later because I need more time then I have right now to give it the proper attention, but for now I am so angry I have to vent.

I was walking the dogs on our property and basically trying to train them when the neighbor girl came over to talk to me...turns out we both believe our new neighbors have claimed one of the neighbor girl's cats as their own. But I hadn't noticed that my 12 year old dog had taken off on me.

I heard barking and I looked and noticed Ava wasn't with me anymore. Turns out she had gone to the neighbor's house to say hi to their dogs. I guess she had scared their guest's child. I apologized profusely over and over again for my dog being on their property, for scaring the child etc...I had called Ava but she wouldn't come, it was like she couldn't hear me. She was sniffing their dogs and their dogs were sniffing back...making friends.

Ava had no interest in the child or the people for that matter. Plus, let me tell you about Ava. She is older than dirt. She has arthritis in her hips and hind legs. She can't run or jump. She probably does have hearing loss and she has a huge lump under her front arm. Basically, I adopted her so she wouldn't be put down and she could live what's left of her life comfortably. She's so old she doesn't even get up to bark at things anymore and she hobbles everywhere.

I couldn't go get her out of their yard because I can't seem to train Dellyne to stay just yet. She heels but she won't stay in one spot without me. So, the guy had to bring her to me. I apologized to the pregnant woman whose child it was again because her kid was upset but then the bitch set me off because she told her kid "c'mon and get inside so you won't get bitten."

Yeah...bitch...kudos to you. That's sure reinforcing your kid's fear right there and unless the neighbor's dogs or she herself is going to bite her kid..wtf is she talking about? I told the guy...

"She's 12 years old. She doesn't have all her teeth and I'm starting to think she can't even hear anymore."

He was like "oh really?"

The kicker is that I was on MY property watering my trees and plants when their little chihuahua came at me like she was going to bite me and she was growling at me. I laughed and walked towards the lil shit and it took off screaming like I had kicked it or something. I was nice enough to go over and let them know that their dog was loose and, when asked, told them how she got out. PLUS, since they moved in I have lil bits o' dog shit all over my front yard...hmmm wonder whose doing that?

I've tried being friendly and waving to them and they turn the other way.

Finally the worst thing of them all is that they smoke outside and their smoke comes in MY house and lingers and I am so allergic to cigarette smoke as in my throat actually closes up.

Sucks. At least they are just renters. Hopefully they will be gone in 6 months.

Lightning anyone??

This morning I read this post and thought WOW!



Then this afternoon, this is what we saw *Pottymouth Warning* :

and this:

Ok. So like this storm started and I was curled up with a book by the window taking a break. I said "I love monsoons!"


Then all of a sudden all hell broke loose. As you can see in the video where I dropped the F-bomb.

But in my defense... WE WERE HIT BY LIGHTNING about 10 minutes before I started recording. As in OUR HOUSE was hit by lightning. DH was shocked in his electric chair when it struck and the smoke detectors were screaming at us.

What you don't hear is my brilliant hubby telling me to open the door and step outside to film it. That was my reply to him, other than that all I could really say was OMG! As you can hear *blush* But, yeah you might be saying "didn't you open the door anyway?"

Uh...yeah. But, the storm had slowed down.

WE WERE HIT BY LIGHTNING and OMG! because our homeowners insurance has lapsed and I can't do anything about it until I recover from back to school expenses.

Thank God there was no damage!

But let's play a hypothetical game of "Is it wrong?"

Is it wrong?? *cheesy game show music*

After hubby got shocked in his chair, I ran up to him to see if he was ok. (The shock sound was loud) He said he was ok but the shock ran from his face through him. (He drives with his chin and leans against his control.)

There was a second burst of thunder and lightning where I reached out and grabbed his chair and then immediately let go thereby seeing his amused face and seeing that he realized I would throw him to the wolves...or in this case, lightning in a heartbeat...

Was that wrong?

Productivity is my middle name

So, I got up bright and early this morning and got the kids up and going to get ready for school. As they were getting ready, I faxed out some documents that needed faxing, sent out DH's student loan paperwork and all my netflix dvds (catching up on Sex and the City) and got two loads of laundry folded and dispersed. The kids got about half their chores done this morning as well.

Since I was on a roll, I went ahead and popped in my walking dvd and did that whilst I was waiting for DH's pills to kick in so I could get him up and in his chair. After I got him up and he was enjoying his raspberry iced tea. I jumped in the shower.

What was all the excitement about? DH and I were going to the movies...AGAIN...we were going to get out and go see Ratatouille. It's amazing what such a small outing did for me. We walked the mall (where I got to reminisce about the old days when I fit into clothes from Wet Seal and places like that.) Watched the movie and then went to the food court where DH had lunch and I had a small vanilla cone from DQ.

Typically I hate malls. I used to go when I needed new lotion from Victoria's or an outfit for something. I don't like the crowds of half dressed people acting stupid. It just ruins the whole shopping experience for me. Even as a teen it just wasn't my scene.

But I didn't want to leave today because we were OUT and KID FREE. But we had to because we had to be back in time for the bus.

BUMMER!

However, DH and I have agreed to try and make this a weekly thing. Next week we are hoping to see Underdog. It's an expensive way to get out, but what else can we do during school hours that's close to home? The city with all the cool stuff is an hour away.

Hmmm...

Walk 2 miles...pluheeze..easy as cake...

Seriously, I must do that at the store that starts with a W like 4 times a week easy...


At least that's what I thought.

I've kept it no secret that I've gained 40 lbs er..possibly 50 lbs by now since last year. I say mainly because of lack of sleep and extreme stress not to mention an addiction to Coca Cola. I can actually feel that I am out of shape. Like gross out of shape.

I was worried about just throwing myself into working out on my machines and getting hurt so I wanted to do something slow. Walking sounded good. Walking in my house with a DVD sounded really really good. How hard can it be? It's not race walking for crying out loud.

So, off I go. I'm a little crampy and a lot PMS'y but I want to do this. Mile 1 was a breeze. It's not just walking, there are intervals of fast walking, side to side steps, and kicking and knee lifts.

When the mile 1 marker came up on the screen, I was like damn, I'm good! Not even a sweat....but somewhere near mile marker 2. I lost it with the woman on the screen. I was in the middle of what felt like 10 minutes of straight knee lifts when I heard..."cut the chit chat bitch and count." I saw the guy on the screen tell her to count...and I realized...*I* am the one who just called this woman on the dvd a bitch.

My legs felt like lead weights, but my back felt like it was being torn from the bottom up lifting my legs and just like I am trying to justify it now, I was telling myself she deserved it and I'm not strange for yelling at my dvd. After all she said 4 more like 54 more ago but she kept talking and joking like she's clever and witty AND HEY! Even the guy on the screen with her told her to count already.

I think they anticipated that this woman could work a nerve because also included in the dvd is the same work out with her voice muted out and louder music. I wil be using that one from now on.

I finally saw it!

Harry Potter.

DH and I got up this morning at 5 am so that we could be up and ready to leave by the time the kids bus came to pick them up.

After they were all safely on the bus...whooo hooo~!~!~!~!

We went to IHOP for breakfast because we had a couple of hours to kill.

We still had a lot of time after breakfast and the theater is located in the mall so we walked the mall, stopping at Build a Bear and the Disney Store.

If you haven't been to Build A Bear-- OMG...they are so cute. I'm trying to figure out a way to have a b-day party there with the kids and cousins. It looks like soooo much fun. I love the Disney Store. I was telling DH if the kids were smart they would behave because even though I have some problems with Disney stereotypes I believe that every one should feel special and I know there are some things in there for everyone.

We stopped at these messager recliners where I paid $1 for it to kick my butt for three minutes. Seriously, this chair hurt.

We then went on to the movie where we watched an obscene amount of equally obscene and offensive previews for the feature being Harry Potter and all. Finally, it started. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I still haven't decided.

One thing that was ticking me off was that I kept DOZING off! It wasn't a reflection of the movie just my exhaustion. I was a popsicle in there too. But I still want to go back and see Ratatouille and Underdog.

Gonna try anyway...

For some reason this blog isn't working. It's not updating as it should be and it appears with blogger Beta they took off the option to republish or re-whatever the entire blog.

I slept!!! I did NOOOOTHING and slept. It was good. I still have a ton to do but I let it go.

I'm cooking dinner right now. I gotta tell you, I'm pretty proud of this aquisition. I've had it for a month or so.

Clearanced for $15 or something like that from $30. It does it ALL for me. I don't have to fire up the grill or anything and it comes apart in the right places and makes cleaning soooo easy. The heat that rises from the dogs warms the buns.

Love it. Love it. Love it.

Wait...what's that sound???

*not even a cricket chirping* (just an occasional snore from DH)

Yet...why do I have this fantastic lump in my throat and why did I fight back tears as I walked back from the bus stop? The lump is almost gone and my eyes have almost dried ( My house is the second house from the bus stop). But I feel a bit sad. They ALL got on the bus. I could see them walking down the aisle. As I scanned from seat to seat and found each of my kids. Their faces lit up with smiles and they waved frantically to me. Even the eldest. I could feel the lump getting bigger.

Of course some stupid mom at the stop had to point out that I had half the bus stop with my kids so I should be the designated parent for the bus... tsk...whateva.

Ya know, I'm going to chalk up these emotions to simply not enough sleep. Since I've only had two hours. Yeah...maybe that's it. Or maybe it's inhalation from the fumes of the sharpie I was using to label everything for hours. Yeah...THAT'S IT!

*Looking around blankly*

I've been waiting for this day all summer and I don't even know where to start now.

Pathetic, eh?

Happiness is...

My sweet lil Betta boys. They are so beautiful. These pictures don't even do them justice. I'll start with the camera shy one. This is Venom. He would not pose for the camera at all. He's the shyest of the bettas...very reserved.
This is Betta Red. He is my gardener. He is the only one to successfully grow a plant in his vase. He's not so shy...most of my pictures of him that he posed for are too close for you to actually see his face.
This is Blue Eyes. He has beautiful bright blue eyes. Right here is Cheetah Betta. I used to call him Cheeto Betta, but he wasn't having it.

Here's Rainbow Betta. Named after Rainbow fish. See he's fierce! lol
King Betta--flaring for the camera. Almost was called Prince Betta but just couldn't do that to him.
Betta Blue. He's the second of my older Bettas. He's very reserved and laid back.
This is Alpha Betta. My very first and oldest betta. He was named after the grocery store chain but as my Betta family grew bigger, it took on another meaning.

Here's Opal Betta. This one cracks me up. He's afraid of water. Running water. Freaks.him.out.

These are my "handsomes". They all come towards me when I call out "Betta, Betta, Betta!" You should see their little fins go crazy when I tell them how handsome they are. They also get really excited when I yell "Breakfast Bettas" or "Who wants snack?"

They are really so smart and have very distinctive personalities. Who knew? They all picked me out at the store. When all the other Bettas were being lazy and not paying attention, these guys made sure to get my attention and the way their eyes just stared holes in me. I couldn't leave them there.

Anyway, They just make me so happy. I thought I would share them with you.

She has such a beautiful voice...

Yesterday when I was at the grocery store they were playing Janis Joplin's "Son of A Preacher Man". I went across to pick up a prescription and they were playing Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee".

All this Janis got me to thinking about Amy Winehouse. From the moment I heard her voice, I just thought it was amazing.

Although, I wanted to cry for her because sadly...in the state that she's in and the lyrics to her songs. She has no desire to change...well let me rephrase that... she doesn't realize that she needs to make the change and she seems to be waiting not really to change but to die.

They can keep putting all these girls in rehab but all they are doing is buying time. If they don't want to change it ain't gonna happen.

What's really sad is just how much Amy hates herself.

It scares me...because a song like this could easily become my little sister's anthem. I think they might even be the same age or very close to it.

Is that shame I see?

This is Dellyne... Dellyne doesn't look very happy. You see, yesterday when I went out to water the trees outside, I thought maybe it would be nice to let the dogs out to stretch their legs. Dellyne has a problem with getting over excited and jumping. So what typically happens is Ava demonstrates how to sit and gets let out before Dellyne and then Dellyne gets the idea.

But yesterday went horribly wrong. Dellyne forgot that she is to bow down and let me unhook her from her lead. Because her behavior is sporadic we keep her on a lead just in case she ever gets that fence open.

So, yesterday...she decides to run for it when I open the door to let her out after she has sat down. So I say "Dellyne...is that what you are supposed to do?" She stops in her tracks and proceeds to turn around and walk back towards the dog area. Except at the last minute she decides to walk behind me instead of in front of me.

I see this is not going to be good... I panic. I yell "Dellyne NO!"

She runs full speed into the dog area dragging her metal lead across BOTH my ankles.

I wanted to KILL her. It burnt for hours. I put cold water on it and it just felt like I was slowly being seared. I could feel the burn going deeper and deeper. I couldn't find any comfort for hours and they are in such odd positions that the ice packs wouldn't sit properly while they were still frozen solid.

Poor Ava, when it happened...she knew she wasn't going to get any stretching time. She bowed her head and escorted herself back into the dog area. I thought I heard her mumble something that sounded like "rumrass" when she walked passed Dellyne, but then that could of been me...in agony...

Adventures in Laundry

The other night I was up late doing laundry when I noticed a basket of laundry that I had done the night before sitting by the front door.

You see, the kids idea of helping me is to take the clothes out of the dryer, take what they need out of it leaving half of it strewn across the floor and the other half to become wrinkled in the basket.

I trudged over to the basket picking up the discarded items and pulling it over to my "laundry station" (translate: piles of folded clean clothes on the living room floor.) It's important that I note at this time I was braless and wearing a tank top as it was hot...why is that important? Let me tell you why...

As I grabbed the first beach towel and shook the wrinkles out a huge pregnant spider sailed in the air directly towards my chest where it landed somewhere in there with "the girls".

I.freaked.out.

I flipped my tank top inside out at the top and leaned forward where I preceded to beat the hell out of the girls who were flailing about from the pounding until I saw the spider land on the towel in front of me.

It was quite the scene let me tell you.

I am so glad I was the only one who was still awake. I laughed my ass off all by myself...

Am I a nut or what?