Karens chaos called...life

We made it!!!!

We arrived last night at 4:40pm about 10 minutes late due to having to wait for a flight attendant that was running late from another flight.  The flight was great, nice and smooth!  Just uncomfortable.....I can't sit that long!!!

We got our luggage no problem!!

Headed to the car rental, handed the lady my confirmation paperwork and she tells me that she can give me a sweet deal on a Volkswagon Bug convertible, I asked if all of our luggage would fit and she called a guy over and he said no but it would fit in a Chrysler Seabring convertible.

She called the guys in the lot to see if they had one and they did.  She THEN tells me it will be $140.00 more.  I told her I didn't want it for that money, when she told me a sweet deal, I figured the same as I was paying for the original car (Grande Am).  She then tells me that they are already bring the car up to me.  I told her that's not my fault, I don't want it.  She does something on the computer and tells me she put in a discount code and will give it to me for $50.00 more.  I agree to that!!

Here it is!!!

It is SWEET!!  But not very functional!!  Can't have to top down when anything bigger than a "pea" is in the trunk!!  This is on our way to the grocery store this morning.  The top had to be up on the way back since the trunk was full of groceries.

We headed to the grocery store this morning at 7:45am since we got in too late last night to go.  We were starving and needed breakfast!!

I woke the whole place up!!!  I was trying to figure out how to get the top up and the "panic" mode went on and the horn was going crazy and I couldn't figure out how to stop it!!!

The boys about died!!

Then once I figured it out and the top was down and we hit the road....I cranked the radio and sang and held my hands in the air!!  The y kept yelling......keep your hands on the wheel!!!  HA HA HA

By the way...PJ....Ryan says I am as bad of a dancer as you!!!!  HA HA HA HA

We made it back from the grocery store and ate breakfast and hit the beach!!

Here's a few pictures!

This would be our building from the beach.

The building from the front.

The view from my bedroom.

There are two balconies, the boys' bedroom and the dining room share one and my bedroom and the family room share one.  The view is the same from both.  I shot that picture this morning while sitting out there from my room waiting for the boys to wake up.

My parents are coming to take us all to dinner tonight to a place called "Pinchers Crab House", it's right on the water and the kids are so excited!!!  (I am too!!)  They were here last night to greet us also, they had pizza waiting for us when we got here, they were with Ellen and the girls waiting on us!!

The whole trip of getting here went fine, although I do have to say, I was REALLY missing my "Dolly" when the whole car rental thing was going down.  I was thinking half the way here if the lady "took" me on the "sweet" deal offer.  It was dark, I don't see well in the dark, I missed a turn and it was dark in the car so I could see the directions!!!!!!!!!!!!  AND, because of the whole "sweet" deal....I didn't get the GPS that I ordered because she forgot to ring it up and I didn't want to wait for her to do that, we were already really behind!!!

So honey, I was wimpering...."I need my Dolly, when he is here, I don't have to worry about a thing!!!  I miss ya in general too, wish you could be here!!!  Someday.....when you quit that CRAZY job!!!!

I have to go, I left the kids in the Gulf alone!!!  HA HA HA  Just kidding Monica!!!  Ellen is with them!!

Talk about the kids in the Gulf, when Ellen and I were taking pictures of them out there, I told ellen that I wanted to yell SHARK.....just to see what they would do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I laughed for 10 minutes thinking about what that would look like!!!

I'm not spell checking, sorry for any errors!!  I did this really fast so i can get back outside!!!

Hello to all!!!!

Have a good one!!
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  

It's November!!

It's November here......and that means leaves!!!

Lots and lots of leaves!!  It is almost a full time job!!

Last weekend the guys were cleaning them up, so I snapped a few pictures!!

They have a system.

Don blows them out of the gutters and landscaping and them mows over them.  The mower has a mulcher on it so they magically disappear.  The ones in the parking lot he let Tyler do.

He was proud as punch that his dad was letting him operate the "equipment".  When I tried to get a picture....he turned into stoneface Joe cool.  I FINALLY caught him smiling!!!

The dog......................she had them same thought as I did!!!

OH NO!!!!

HA HA HA  Check out her eyes.....they are opened really big!!!

Weird!!

She was probably wondering if he was going to try to run here over!!

They will do this for weeks until the leaves are all gone!!

I love fall!!!
 
 
  
 
 

Season comes to an end

Tyler's fall season has come to an end.

No more mud, rain, wind, cold.

No more washing the uniform everyday and hanging it to dry.  I'll will not miss the laundry or this view in my laundry room all week!!

Even with all of the above, we still really enjoyed watching him play.

They ended their season with 7 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie.  We won't know the divisional points standings for a couple more weeks.  The rest of the teams still have a game or two to play.  The season goes to mid November, but our coach doubles up a couple of games during the season so that we are not playing one game a weekend for ten weeks.  He likes to be done by Halloween.  After that the weather usually gets nasty.  However, this year...the weather was nasty even earlier!!

Looking at the standings now............we will probably take 2nd or 3rd out of ten.  Let's hope for 2nd!!

The boys played a great season, they had to get familiar with all the new teammates.  They blended real well.

Now..we can actually eat dinner together for awhile, practice every night put a damper on that since August!!

November and December are quiet.  Only one night a week is footskills.

January, February and March are practices once a week with the indoor season having games on the weekends.  Last year they played 3v3 indoor.  This year is full team/field indoor.  This should be really fun!!!  Can't wait!!

Then the outdoor season starts again in April and goes through June. 

Tryouts for next season are the first week of June.

Camps are in July.

Then fall season starts again in August!!

We only really get July, November and December off.  Even then, there is stuff going on in those months. 

KIDs...................they keep us busy, therefore, keeping us young!!  Somedays, but other days.....feeling older than dirt.  Like now!!!  As I sit and write this....I am just home from the eye doctor where he dialated my eyes.  Upon leaving, they asked me if I wanted a pair of the sunglasses that wrap around your face....you know...the big, ugly old people ones!!!

I quickly responded.........."NOOOOO thanks, I would rather crawl home on my hands and knees feeling my way home than wear those things!!!"  The lady replied laughing......"Have a good "trip"!!"

And a trip it was!!!  I have never had it this bad before!!!!  I left to run errands and had to turn around and go home!!!  I think he poured the bottle in my eyes!!  I have this done all the time and it never has done this before!!!

THEN...I walk in the door to find my husband sleeping and he woke up to tell me he is tired and sore from hunting this morning!!  The groans coming from the chair are hilarious!!

Hopefully we make it to the indoor season, let alone the spring season!!

I know Tyler WILL!!  He is continuing to practice taking shots on goal whenever he can....at the picture window in the family room, in the garage, at the shower door in his bathroom...pretty much anywhere or anytime the spirit moves him to try to drill one in the net (the net being what ever he sees as an oppertunity at the time)  At this rate...he should be David Beckham by the time indoor rolls around!!  Any more shots at the picture window and he may NOT make it!!

I'll keep you posted on the standings, I will post some pictures later too.  I did not take the pictures myself, a dad of one of the players does them and then I just buy them from him.  I will be placing my order later this week, when I get them...I will post a few!!

Have a good one!

Here ya go Dad!

I know you are sitting in Florida wondering what's happening back here.

So, here it is!!

Yes...you are seeing double!!  This is the field next to us.  Scott is out there making up for lost time!!

I have to admit, seeing them go double is really cool!!

The semi's and wagon's just keep coming and going.

It's kind of hard to tell, but they are dumping on the fly.  All in the name of time!!!

I can almost bet you that these guys are operating on no sleep!!

Well, that's it!!!  A little taste of home!

We just pulled in the driveway from Don's parent's and I said I have to get the camera and get some pictures for Dad.

Now go back to your reclining lounge chair on the patio in the sun and warmth and ENJOY IT!!!!!!!

Talk soon!

 
 
 

Flowers

This is the bouquet for this week.

I know I have told you all that I buy fresh flowers every week for my kitchen!

I don't know, but the sun is finally out, the rain has stopped and the temperatures are in the low 60's!!  All that and these flowers to look at makes my day!!

I am just amazed at how they brighten my day! 

I LOVE them!!!
 

Fun with food

Every year it is a tradition that I make a "Halloween" dinner.

The weeks leading up to Halloween, I buy those little cook books at the grocery check out and I go online to get ideas for this dinner.

This year I didn't actually make it on Halloween, it was a bit crazier than usual, I don't know why, it just was.  So, I told Ty that since I didn't get it done on Halloween, we would just forget it this year.

He had a fit, you would have thought I just told him he had to throw all of his candy away.

He really wanted that dinner.  He said he liked seeing what I would come up with.

So I made it last night.

Here it is

It was spaghetti face and candy corn garlic cheese bread.

It was good, everyone enjoyed it!!

Who knows what I will come up with for next year!!
  

BOOOOOO!!!!!

Yes, another Halloween has come and gone...however...the sugar rush will be here for a few weeks!!

This was Tyler! 

Yes...there are no more Disney Characters or cute fuzzy animals.....just horror and gore!!

YIIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

He had a friend invite him to go trick or treating with him, but he chose to go with his cousin Stephanie.  She and her boyfriend did not dress up, they just walked him around the neighborhood.

Don't know where the boyfriend was....he was really sick!  Oh wait...I see his white tennis shoes in the lower right hand corner!! 

They arrived back to the house 45 minutes later............with this!!

They had a good time!!

Until next year!!!!!
 

11 yr old boy!!

There is never a dull moment raising a boy!!

The weather here has been rainy.  That's putting it mildly!!!  It's been downright nasty wet!!

Rain plus soccer equals mud!

Tyler has soccer practice every night.  It has been raining just about everyday.  And if it didn't rain it was still muddy.

The typical routine for coming home from practice soaking wet and muddy is....

1. Strip in the garage

2. When entering the house through the laundry room...open the washing machine and drop all wet and muddy clothes in.

3. Run naked through the house to the bathroom and jump in the hot soapy shower to thaw out and get clean!

This has been the routine for weeks!!

Of course, Ty just can't do that, he has to fool around!!  Thus, the 11 yr. old boy!!

He has to chase me with the wet and muddy clothes, or dance naked or something else out of this world that just may pop into his mind at the time because he is all wired from practice.

The other day I heard him laughing while putting his clothes in the washing machine.  When I entered the room and asked him what was so funny...he of course replied....Nothing!!  And he ran to the shower.  I let it go and considered myself lucky that he wasn't trying to wipe mud on me while I ran from him!!

A week later, I was walking through the laundry room and something caught my eye!! 

I looked up and this is what I saw!!!!!!

Yes....you are seeing correctly!!

Those would be "whitey-tighty's" hanging from the ceiling fan!!

I was mortified!!  Like I said earlier............a WEEK had gone by!!  I immediately tried to figured out who had walked through the laundry room and possibly had seen this!!

I was relieved to think that no one had.  EXCEPT!!!  HA HA HA HA

AUNTIE ELLEN!!!  She was there the day before my discovery!!  She sat at the desk, just about right underneath them while helping me with my computer!!

I figure the "eye spy" that she is..................that if SHE didn't notice them, that no one would have noticed them!!

I do find it funny that she was sitting with underware over her head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know what is soooooooooooooooo funny about taking your underware off and kicking it up into the air off your toes and when it hits the ceiling.............it produces a belly laugh beyond belly laughs for an 11 yr old!!!!!!!!  "Boy" humor I guess!!!

Again....it's never really dull around here.

The really funny thing............I noticed this last week, I still have not taken them down!!  Two days ago, my husband noticed them............they are STILL up there!!!!!!!!!

Even worse............when my husband saw them and asked me why they were up there and I told him the story of how his son kicked them up there......................he LAUGHED!!!!

I think I will go remove them NOW!!!!

Gotta go!!! 
  

Princess..............

Yes, that's right! 

Princess!!

Yesterday, Butterscotch went to the beauty shop to get her bubblebath spa day.

So while she was gone, I went out and bought her a new bed.  The old one was flat, Icould fluff the stuffing no more. 

The new one is filled with therapeutic/memory foam.  It is very thick, much like a regular mattress.

She ran into the house when she got home and jumped right in!!  She stayed there most of the afternoon.  So far today, she hasn't gotten off of it!!

I don't know................you tell me!!!

Do you think she likes it?!!??!

Thus, the princess name!!

She LOVES it!!!

Oh to be a dog!!
  

I'm going back to bed..............

I normally do not post my "mug" ANYWHERE!!!

However, I looked in the mirror a few minutes ago and about died laughing!!  Upon reflecting my day so far.....and it's ONLY NOON...I had to just laugh and surrender to it.  It is what it is!!

Get ready...use only one eye...you don't want to damage BOTH!!!

I started my day fine!

I was getting ready to serve a "Viking" lunch to Tyler's fifth grade class today.  Apparently it is Viking day today and the teacher thought it would be fun for the kids to make Viking helmets out of construction paper and eat lunch with their fingers like the Vikings did.  After lunch they went and "ransacked" (sp?) a second grade classroom that was empty because that class was at PE then.  They took all of their chairs, some of their supplies and decorations from the room to make it look ravaged (sp?) That meant I needed to go to Dominick's to buy paper plates, napkins, handi wipes, ice and bottled water.  A few other moms were bring all the side dishes.  I also had to pick up 60 grilled chicken legs from KFC.  The order had been placed by our head room mom a few days earlier and she had called me to pick it up and deliver it since she was not home today.

All was good!!

It's now 10:15am and I have to curl my hair and get a few more things done and head out to the store and be to KFC by 11:15 to pick up the order.

The phone rings at 10:15, I answer it.  It's my parents neighbor and friend and also a friend of mine.

She is on the other end crying and very hard to understand.  She just keeps saying that they have a problem down there.  I am confused and when she said they have a problem down there I think of my parents.  I start to panic thinking that something has happened to them.  My mind was spinning.  Then I remember that my parents are gone for the winter. (they just left last week..so I'm still getting used to the fact they're gone!)  So I knew it wasn't them.  She is very hard to understand when crying...so the next word I understand is......sewer!  Again......trying to figure out what I have to do with her sewer!!

Then she gets a grip and is able to tell me that the sewers in the neighborhood have backed up and that I need to come and check my parents basement.

I hang up with her.  I spin around in a circle twice...now starting to panic again!!  I immediately start to dial the phone to call my husband....then remember that I can't or he'll be fired for using a cell phone at work...so I now am swearing in my head at my husbands boss.

My hair is not curled, I have no jewelery on, my teeth are not brushed and the cooler for the lunch is not in the cleaned and in the car yet!!

I decide to only brush my teeth and throw the dirty cooler in the car and take off.

I call my sister on the way and tell her what's going on so that she can take over so I can leave for KFC, I only have 45 minutes before I have to go.  We get there, Fox Metro talks to us an explains what happened and tells us what they are going to do.

Apparently, their pumping station quit working and the alarm on it did not go off to alert employees so no one knew it wasn't pumping!!!  Therefore, all of the sewage was backing up into everyones basement!!

It's now time for me to go, Ellen stayed and waited for Service Master to come and get started.

I'm now all wet because to add to this lovely morning, it was raining!!  My hair was a mess and my clothes were damp.

I get to Dominick's and purchase all the supplies, when I get to my car I see that the cooler is full of cobwebs, dog hair and dust.  We store it in the garage and I was going to clean it before I left, however, after the phone call...no time to clean it.  So.......afraid that no one would want to take a bottle of water out of the dirty cooler and risk looking like a "hick", I proceed to try to clean it the best I can!!

I was wearing two shirts, so I lifted the outer shirt up and hold it under my chin and proceed to wipe the cooler off with the shirt that was underneath!!  I was worried about being a "hick"....I wonder what people were thinking seeing me in the parking lot like that!!

I cleaned the cooler and put the ice in it and then dumped all the bottles of water into it.  Towards the end of my packing the cooler, the young man who is mentally challenged that works as the "cart boy" for Dominick's stands next to me and talks to me waiting to collect my cart.  Mind you...it is still raining!!

I see notnhing wrong this this young man, he is actually really nice and I love it that Dominick's hires these folks.  I think it is a great opportunity for them and it is just wonderful!!  On a good day...ask anybody...I would have stood there and carried on a lengthy conversation.

However, today....in the rain......I had to tell him I had to go.

I beat it over to KFC, it's now 11:10, the order was to be ready for 11:15-11:30.  I figured I'd go in and just wait. 

I go to the counter and ask for the order..................................they don't have it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The manager never put it in the system and today is his day off!!!!!!!!

I told the lady I need 60 grilled chicken legs by 11:30, since I have to have them to school by 11:45.

She tells me the earliest she can get me 60 grilled is 12:00-12:10. 

I tell her to get me whatever kind of legs she could by 11:30, she said 20 grilled, 20 original and 20 crispy.  I said whatever!!!

The teacher specifically asked for grilled because he wanted it to be healthy.  I made an executive decision on the fly!!!!

I finally get the order at 11:45...I get in the car and call the office and have them radio to the teacher that I just left and that I will be there at 12:00.

I break the sound barrier and get to school and have to park far away, I'm dragging a cooler and carrying a huge tin of chicken in the pouring rain.  I get it through the school, into the elevator and to the classroom.  The entire time while dragging the cooler.....it is banging off the back of my heels!!  I think my heels are raw by the time I get to the classroom!!!  The entire class stood up and clapped as I walked in!!

I was wet, out of breath, sweating and flustered by the time I got there!!

I can only imagine how I looked, because the look on the other mothers faces were of horror!!  In fact...the one mom got a chair out and told me to sit down and that I didn't look good!!  I told her I was fine and that that's OK and she said...no really sit down.. and pushed me into the chair!!

There's my sign......................it wasn't good!!

The lunch and "raid" on the other classroom went well, just in less time than they had hoped for!!

I took everything back to my car in the pouring rain!!

I got home and walked past a mirror on my way to flop down and caught this glimpse of myself!!!  I just busted out laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It was either that or cry!!  I laughed and laughed at myself...it felt good!!!

So I took the picture and decided to share my day with you all!!!  It's NEVER boring around here!

I then went back to my parents house to sit with my sister to wait for Service Master to finish up.

We never seem to have a dull moment together................we have so much fun even sitting in the empty stinky house alone.  Many, Many laughs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We even called our parents and informed them that they owe us a LOBSTER dinner when we come down to Florida for Thanksgiving!!!  Dad agreed!!

Well, that's all for tonight!!!

I'm bushed!!!

See ya!!