Memorial Day ....
Before when I was younger and didn't really have a care in the world. My days were filled with running through the fields behind our house in Poway, Ca. going to the park, riding my bike, exploring the woods to the south of the fields, building tree forts, going to the 7-Eleven to get a slurppie and just having fun growing up with the security that all would be well in my own little world.
As I grew older, maybe even matured a bit I found I had a voice. I really didn't use it that well though, except for being the typical teen smart ass and thinking that I know everything! I would take off with my so called friends driving to the beach, skipping school, and yes getting into trouble. Even once in while I would join in a cause...mostly the Green Peace folks....you know the ones who protest against mass fishing and such. I would protest with them and really get involved with it, I found my passion, and learned to use my voice for the right purpose.
After high school and entering into my early 20's and college years...I still thought that I knew it all. I didn't. My family taught me several things through the years. My Father especially did, he always told me that some day I would understand why I had such a passion for our country, Our Great Nation.
See I was raised in a Military family and there is nothing finer to me than knowing that my Father gave of himself so completely to a country that allows it's people to talk so openly, no matter how rude or indifferent they may be. He is the reason that I can speak so freely today and share my love for our country. For if it wasn't for his sacrifices, the sacrifices of the many men, women and families before him I wouldn't be here writing this today.
Thank you to all the service men, women and many many families of the armed forces, for if it weren't for you who dedicated your lives for us, we would not be the Great Nation We Are Today.

Old Dan and Myrtle Anne

When my hubby first brought up the idea to have another basset in the house my first thought was "NO". The reasons behind this was quite clear to me....

Myrtle Ann had peed on my side of the bed, with me in it! Chewed through my favorite pair of tennies, eaten my flowers out of my new planter, constantly enjoys shredding up the toilet paper rolls, chewed through my once favorite cell phone, ate an MP3 player and many more items that are way too numerous to name. I'm sure you get the idea. I mean I love my Miss Myrtle Anne, she has brought me several hours/days of joy and happiness. Quite honestly I couldn't imagine our family without her. However the thought of bringing in another one was disturbing to me to say the least.

Well my kids and hubby wore me down, and convinced me that having another one around the house would help to keep Miss Myrtle occupied and give her someone to play with. Hmmm, I think I got horn swoggled into this one!

Old Dan came home on April 4, we drove all the way up to the twin cities in Mn. on a stormy Saturday morning. We actually drove through a blizzard to get him home! Yea stupid but hey I wasn't driving. Anyways from the minute we picked him up at the airport and I saw his eyes and face I knew it...my heart melted and I was in love with the little guy.

Once home I quickly nicknamed him "Odie" and it has stuck!! He is so playful and old all at the same time. I know a weird combination but it is so true. He will run around and play for about 30 min. then sleeps the rest of the day away!

Although Myrtle Ann has definitely been teaching Odie some of her bad tricks, he is still a keeper!

By the way for all who know about Miss Myrtle's antics, Odie now holds the record for most valuable item chewed!! yep he got a hold of Ry's iPod~guess my teen will learn to pick his stuff up now!! ~giggle giggle~

Why can't Men Handle Homeowner Stuff?

The other day I was away from home down in Des Moines at a childcare conference, my day was running smoothly until I received an emergency call from home.

Apparently my beloved hubby was rather miffed at the mail! Here's why~we received a letter of cancellation from our homeowners insurance group. Yea he has every right to be torked, however he could have waited until I was at break.......which is when I called him back after listening to his voicemail on my cell, my helpers cell and my MIL cell !

So I gathered all the information that I could, took myself to the restroom (the closest office so to speak) and proceeded to attempt to contact somebody on a Saturday morning. Now imagine me sitting there in a stall, dialing feverishly, leaving message after message, contact info and what not and then texting my hubby to tell him what was going on. Really makes me laugh too at the thought of it all! Not to mention this was not the end of it all....

After successfully dealing with that fiasco in a prompt and professional way, I was then headed back into my conference. Let me tell you there is nothing like walking into a crowed room full of over 500 women all in the daycare industry....talk about the looks of death as I entered the hall and the darn door just has to let out a pained squeak. Yea nothing like having all eyes on me, the speaker even stopped mid sentence and I felt so stupid for insisting on sitting in a row of seats down in the second row. Hmmm note to self never again!!!!

I just get seated and my cell goes buzzing off again in my pocket, thank goodness I remembered to set it to silent mode before I came back in! Lordy...guess who it was? Yep my hubby, apparently there is another catastrophe that only I can deal with too. So I wait it out until lunch break and then make contact again. I should have just let it be, but me being a Mom and always feeling like I have to be in control of everything............ugh!

Now there is a problem with a billing on my vehicle, one would think that this type of stuff could wait until I got home. Nope it's a matter of life of life and death for him, he needs answers and needs them yesterday! So I again gather the information, make several calls, sit on hold, drive to a fast food place, order, fill up with gas and several other fun multi-tasking things and then find out that there is no one available for me to talk to on a Saturday!!! Hmmm, I make that dreaded call back home, explain that it will simply have to wait until Monday and to just deal with it.

I then turned my phone off until the end of the conference, forgot it was off until I was home....some 6 hrs later.

Feeling Like Me Again!

Boy my thoughts have been running away with me lately. I have been so busy running from here to there and somewhere in the midst of it all I found something~ME!

Seriously today is just like any other day, only the differentce is I am taking control of my life, yet again. See for a while now I have been taking anti-depresants only because the Dr. told me that depression is like having a loose wire in your brain and not all your pistons are firing at the same time. He also said it was like having an illness and not taking your medication can hurt you in the end. Well I went along with this addage for a while-4 months to be exact! Now just like when I was sitting in that Dr.'s office and told him point blank that I thought he was full of shit, guess what I still feel that way!! I know me better than anybody else does, even my mom for crying out loud. So last week I took myself off of all those stupid pills, I now have control of my emotions again and can decide if I want to "feel" and how I "feel", instead of everybody telling me that there is no reason to be worked up over the minor things in life.............Why not? I am only going be on this planet once for all I know.

Who has the right to tell me how to feel? Nobody does, and I for one am sick and tired of letting things roll off of my back just to be pushed away and never dealt with. Ummmm last I knew I was a well educated, positive member of society and damn it I have a voice and expect to be heard!! Especially by my husband, and if he doesn't watch his P's & Q's he will be out with the trash............

Tell Me something I don't know...

Geez, is all that comes to mind right now!

I recieved a phone call from the High School Principal a little bit ago and nearly had to laugh my head off when I hung up with him. Apparently my oldest son is a 'Smart Ass' according to the Algebra teacher. She went to the principal complaining and whinning like a little baby that my son is not doing his work properly! Now mind you my son is on the 'A' Honor Roll and has already recieved several accolaides for his grades and character. Including an 'A' in her very class!!!
So after speaking with the principal for several minutes as to the nature of the call and the root of the problem~trying not to laugh the whole time. I finally find out that my son isn't showing his work on his papers. So I suguested that he ask my son directly why he is not showing his work. Well apparently the principal already did that and come to find out He (my son) is not showing his work because he can do it in his head. Hmmmm, wonder of all wonders!! Not to mention that my son had a smart statement for the Principal too.....
"Now why is it that when I was younger we were taught that we had to be able to do math in our heads. That using a calculator was for lazy people. And NOW this teacher is requiring us to use a scientific calculator to do simple aglebraic equations~Can YOU explain this one to me? Sense when is it a requirement to show all my work when the teacher can't even explain how to get to the answer in relative terms? Do YOU use algebra in your chosen profession? Can YOU name 3 professions that use it everyday and that can do it their heads or do they also need to write it out? Well???"

This is where I say I am so Happy that He is my son!!! What a chip off the old block!!! LOL

Can I make an Impact?

I think there comes a time in your life when you just need to look for something else. Now I'm not talking about looking for a new hubby, or a new home or new furniture. I am tallking about looking for another release, or maybe a another outlook or view.....does this even make any sense?
Lately I have been getting bored, so to keep myself busy I have invested in writting a book about how to open and run a successful daycare from home. Then I hit writters block, so that got shoved to back burner so to speak. Then my accountant needed some extra help again this year during the tax season~I jumped in with both feet!! I also thought it would be great to continue to coach bowling to the youth league on Saturday mornings. Which it is, and it is rewarding too (although kinda boring too). Then it came to me to start another business, a daycare consulting business on the web; where I can give advice, research rules and regs for a nominal fee etc. The only problem with that, is how?? See my mind keeps working, it never really shuts down even at night when i try to sleep! Now I am really not complaining here but there is really only so much one should do with their spare time (like I really have any).........me I think I can take on the world and conquer all the highest obstacles. Yea reality is still a hard one for me.
So my pal from Cafemom turned me onto blogging, now here I sit with tons of thoughts and ideas and they are jumbled up in my head~yep the same head that is full of conjestion too. So how do I get them all organized, how do I just put it out there.......hmmm I think that is what I am doing~don't you? Ok stop shaking your head and giggling at me~you know you are doing it! Anyways I have been doing this for a bit, blogging so to speak only I didn't know that was what I was doing when I was writting my journals and thinking outside the box so to speak.
So here I am at my table with my laptop and I just keep getting distracted all the time and thinking that I need to be doing something, making a difference somewhere, somehow...but what, where and how? I have had people tell me that I have touched them by my words of wisdom-those ladies on CM in my groups and other places too like at my kids schools and some of the parents that are my clients, even those people that I do tax amendments for....but that is all ok in my book. I guess I am looking for making an impact, even a profound impact on somebody or something. Who knows? but when I figure it out I will most deffinately tell you all~I just hope that when it happens I know what the heck I am doing!

Sometimes I think that I must be an ATM machine! Really everybody has their hand out.
Yesterday the tile guy decides that he now has to score/map the bathroom floor and then go cut all the tiles back at the shop and then bring them back this morning. I'm like ~OK~ whatever you think is best......really didn't mind because I am tired of seeing plumbers crack! He leaves, I start thinking is this going to cost me more? I call the store and speak to the guy in charge and he tells me that 'there will be more charges since the install is taking 3 days instead of the original 2 & that since "I" told the installer that "I" thought it would be best that he score/map the bathroom first so there weren't any mistakes.' I'm flabbergasted ~ummmm what?!~ So I explained that the installer made those statements and that I was not paying another dime for this floor. He was fine with my account of things and was curious as to why it was taking so long~I told him to ask his employee!!
Now mind you while all this is going on, I am searching for a new washer and dryer because my set is on its last legs. I am on the phone getting all the particulars and finally settle on a make and model and really don't go in for the color option as it costs more too.....I nearly had heart failure with the delivery and the stand for them it would cost me $2675.89! I thought good Lord!!! I just want to wash my clothes and dry them, throw in a few towels and maybe a blanket or two~I don't need them gold plated or anything!
Then I head off to the office last night at 6pm. At 6:15pm ~yea 15 min. later~my cell phone goes off, it's my hubby telling me I need to call the Plumber out asap!! My mouth opens and literally falls to the floor.....I utter the words 'why? what happened now?' My son now takes the phone, as my DH is trying to find the shut off for the water. Anyways I am informed that the sink in the daycare bathroom was running slow, so my DH takes a 'plunger' to it, hense the reason the sink and the drain are now broken and the pipes underneath the sink are all busted out!!! ~UGH~ So I call the plumber and ask if he can come out in the morning....he said sure about 8:30am in the meantime turn off the water to the house so you have no more problems. ~Farging Great!~ Wonder how much this will cost me????
Now if things can't get worse, I get home at 10pm, and my oldest son is up waiting for me. I instantly think to my self 'What Now?' He tells me the kitchen faucet is leaking and the sprayer isn't working at all. He shows me how the faucet is leaking~actually more like spraying out the side!! My first thought was 'How much more is this gonna cost?' Then he tells me he needs money for school tomarrow, he wants to buy his year book while they are still cheaper and he also needs money for his new lunch account.
My new name is going to be "CHA CHING"

Morning Ramblings

Have you ever had one of those mornings where it just seems that you should crawl back into bed? Well that would be my morning so far.
I have a terible head cold that is just killing me, however the Mom in me is saying shake it off, get busy, get on with your day!
Well my day has started (5am to be exact!), I woke to Miss Mrytle (my basset hound) whinning at me to go outside and play in the snow. Great now i have to find my robe and slippers. Where did I leave them again? Oh thats right on the floor ~ just like my teen leaves his stuff on the floor! Need coffee, now that M. Myrtle is outside playing, fumble fumble.......
Well a couple hours later and now here I am with 3 daycare kids already, one in the highchair, one at the table and the third crawling on the floor. The phone has had a steady ringing all morning from prospective clients to parents wondering if their child left their snow pants here yesterday. It seems that it never ends, that is dealing with public and being polite when one really wants to just tell them all to take a flying leap. To stop bringing their kids here sick, I really get tired of my family always being ill due to inconsiderate parents who would rather do anything than be a parent.
Now there I go again, thinking that all parents are bad, and I know this isn't so. It just seems that in my line of work I have found the parents who would rather go out all the time, drop their kids and run. I actually have one family that I could just slap silly~Why? Well because they haven't heard of the remarkable product called soap!! Seriously they don't bathe their 2 munchkins, these kids wear the same clothes all week, never get a face washed or hands washed and they eat like they have never seen food before. Yes it is my job to call the state when I feel something is wrong, and I have several times. All to no avail too.
It just really bugs me that there are some people out there that are trying desperately for children and would make wonderful parents too, and then there are those that just keep having them and really don't give a darn about the children or the life they are influencing with their own bull.............Just my thoughts