Mother-in-Law

I forgot my Mother-in-Law's birthday yesterday. This is the first time I believe I have EVER done that. Totally, completely forgot about it, until today. I had already issued an invitation to her to come eat with us tonight, but it had nothing to do with her birthday, because I FORGOT ABOUT IT!!!! I know it hurt her feelings. I usually take her to dinner somewhere nice, and she probably spent her birthday at home, alone. Needless to say, I have been to Wally World in an attempt to maintain my "favorite daughter-in-law" status.

I AM BLAMING IT ON THE PAINTER!!! He has totally distracted me this week.. Yep, it is ALL his fault.

Slip and Slide

I purchased the grandkids a slip and slide at Wally World for $5.00. We set it up yesterday in my front yard for them to enjoy. BT went after it with everything he had, and I was surprised. He doesn't just jump into new things as a rule. He has to warm up to them. BK was very hesitant about doing it at all and I thought she would be all over it. She is fearless this way. But, she opted to sit in my lap and munch on a bag of peanuts while she watched her brother enjoy the fun. After a few minutes, she stood up, handed me her bag of peanuts and said "hold these G" and took off toward the Slip and Slide. She stopped suddenly, turned around and pointed her little finger at me and said, "And don't eat em." She was serious too...

Then, she ran to the slip and slide, flopped down, and wiggled her way down to the end.

Painting

I am having my bedroom painted. It has been 8 years since it was last painted, and it was time for something fresh and new. Man disagreed, but I finally wore him down. It was not easy. He does NOT like change. And, his favorite colors are black, forest green, burgundy and navy blue. Yes, he is stuck in the 80s, and he probably isn't going to leave there any time soon. The room was painted a dark green, not forest green, but close. It is now painted Key Lime Pie and I absolutely love it. Or I will love it if the painter EVER finishes it!!!! We have the best handyman/painter in our State. I swear we do. He is extremely thorough, very neat, cleans up his messes, is not overly expensive, etc. BUT, he does not show up when he says he will. He was supposed to start painting EIGHT weeks ago. I picked out the color, called him to give him the paint number, and he said he had to call me back. Three weeks later, he called me to get the paint color. He said he would start the job the next week. That was FIVE weeks ago. Out of the blue, he calls Tuesday of this week and says he is on his way to my house to paint. He had two helpers. They primed it and got the first coat of paint on in less than 4 hours. He told me he would finish it that night, or first thing yesterday morning. DID NOT HAPPEN! I texted him at 1:00 yesterday, he called me and said he was in an important meeting, but he would finish the job yesterday. I went home after work, job NOT finished and Painter is nowhere in sight. I started doing laundry and cleaning the stuff I could clean, like blinds, windows, ceiling fan, light fixture, base boards, etc. STILL no painter. After I did everything I could, without being able to put my bedroom back together (we are sleeping upstairs because we cannot get in our bed because all the furniture is pushed to the middle of the room), I proceeded to blow off the deck and water a few plants. Still no painter. So, I painted my toes, put a color on my hair, waxed my eyebrows, and then got in the shower to finish hair color. As I am rinsing, dogs go berserk.. HUGE indication someone is at the door. Man is not home. I get out of shower, throw on PJs, wrap hair in towel, go to door... PAINTER HAS ARRIVED AT 8:15 P.M.!!!!! I open door, inform him he is on my shit list, he says he is sorry and asks can he start painting at 8:15 P.M.. Of course I said yes. Who knows when he might come back!!! He goes in bedroom, closes door, starts painting and I don't see him for the rest of the evening. He knows I am pissed. I usually offer him a beer when is working at my house, but I was not in the mood to share my beer last night for some reason, and I was about out and didn't want to go to the store in my PJs, no make-up and with freshly dyed, wet hair. Man comes home at 10:00, wakes me from nap on the couch, and tells me to go upstairs to bed. I inform him Painter is there, and he says he will stay up with him. Painter leaves at 10:45. Job still NOT FINISHED!!!!

Man said Painter said he would be back early this morning. I left my house at 6:15 for a trip to Wal-Mart, and guess who is not there! Not sure what qualifies as early to Painter. I will do a discreet drive-by at lunch to see if he is there.

I don't know if Cappy's Jiffy Mart has enough beer to get me through another night of this drama!

Shred It!!! Level II

Yep, it is official. I have moved up to Level II. Daughter told me how hard it was, and how sore she was from doing it after the first day, but I feel fine today. The only thing I struggled with in Level II was a lack of coordination during one of the easier exercises. I have never been a good dancer (and we ain't talking about ballet dancing), and apparently I am not a graceful exerciser either. If you ask me to move my feet while moving my arms at the same time, I become extremely clutzy and have a tendency to stagger, whether I have been drinking or not. But, I am hopeful that after a couple of days, I will improve my ability to lunge forward and raise my arms over my head while holding hand weights, and then immediately take a giant step backwards and raise my arms over my head while holding hand weights.. Surely I will improve with time. Surely.

Treasures....

These are my treasures...

T-Ball... He still doesn't want to play..

Yesterday afternoon Daughter picked the kids up from their new daycare and I met her at her house to spend some time with them. It had been 4 days since I had seen them, and I was having severe withdrawals.. Seriously! Because they started a new daycare, they needed new mats to nap on (although I am not sure these two EVER sleep during the day), and she needed to run a quick errand to find the mats so they would have them today.. So, I had their undivided attention for a brief period of time. We rode down the road in the Grave Digger (this picture is in the Ford F150, but you get the idea), until the popsicles were dripping faster than they could lick them, and then we headed back to the house to clean up the mess. They offered to let me lick them, but I declined.. BT and I played frisbee for a while, and then BK wanted to play with the t-ball stand. This t-ball stand is F-A-N-C-Y in that it has a battery and an arm that takes the ball out of the basket and holds it at just the right angle until you are ready to swing. BK totally missed the concept and took the balls out of the basket, layed them on the ground, pretended she was playing golf, and when she made contact with the ball, she cheered for herself (which was actually very funny). After a while, BT got tired of watching her do it "all wrong" (his words, not mine) and promptly started knocking the CRAP out of the ball. If I had had my poms-poms handy (don't ask why I have poms-poms), I would have done some FANCY cheer to let him know just how excited I was that he was playing ball, even if it was in the front yard, approximately 3 miles from the ballpark where he made his ONLY appearance in his uniform this year. Unfortunately, no poms-poms were close by and I had to settle for a "WOW" and a high-five. I really should have stopped right there, and said nothing else, but I just had to ask.. "BT do you want to go to your team's last game this Saturday and play one whole game." He threw down the bat, told me "I am not a ball player, I am an artist and a musician" and went inside to watch Tom and Jerry.

G is not a quitter.. I will have a ballplayer by this time next year!!!!

Weekend... and still Shredding it!

Daughter and I are helping plan an engagement shower for one of her long time friends who is getting married in July. We worked on decorations for that Friday night and then went home to watch a movie with one of her friends. I fell asleep and they left. I am fun, fun, fun.... Truthfully, hot flashes are eating my lunch again. They wake me up about 2:30 AM and then I can't go back to sleep, which is why if I get still during the day or late evening, I promptly fall asleep. Yep, I am fun, fun, fun...

Saturday, we made our weekly trek to eat crawfish. It is unreal how much bigger the crawfish are now when compared to the first batch we had this spring. They were huge and good... There were about 10 of us partaking in this feast, and everyone left full.

Saturday night I went to eat with mother-in-law. More good food. Usually crawfish don't fill me up, and I can easily eat something later in the day, but that was not the case this time around. I barely touched my food and it was really delicious. Mother-in-law ended up taking my dinner, and some of her own home to enjoy again later. On the bright side, I was able to eat half of the piece of cheesecake we ordered.. DELICIOUS!!!! It was topped with fresh strawberries and caramel sauce.

Late Sunday, my niece surprised us by coming to spend some time with us. She and Daughter did their own thing Sunday night, but I got to spend some time with just her Monday morning and we had fun.. Did a little shopping for some things for her new apartment, and then we all spent the afternoon sitting on my deck, while I grilled ribs and tenderloins. I am becoming quite the "Bobby Flay" of the grill, if I do say so myself.. yep, I am. We then watched Bride Wars, which I had attempted to watch Friday night. It was a good movie.

Now I am back at work, and I can think of at least 10 things I could/should have done around the house this weekend, but didn't. I did do the Shred over the weekend and I can actually tell a difference in the places I had hoped to see a difference. That is a good thing because if I couldn't actually see improvement, I would stop doing it. And, I saw results very quickly. It is working!!!!

Remember our soldiers...

This is my nephew.. He is in Afghanistan.. I pray for him every day. Please remember our soldiers this Memorial Day.

"What you doing BK?"

"I's painting my toes G".... I was talking to Daughter on the phone when I went in search of BK who had gone to potty, but was taking longer than usual. So, I found her in her mother's bathroom, with the door closed. When I opened the door, she was sitting in the middle of the floor with the polish open, one foot completely covered in a lovely shade of Geranium, a puddle on the floor, a couple of brush strokes on the cabinet doors, and a streak down the front of her dress. One-half of a bottle of finger nail polish remover later, we pretty much had it off everything but the dress. Although this is the 4th time BK has done this, Daughter still refuses to relocate her assortment of nail polish and all things associated with nail polish. It is Daughter's opinion she should be spanked. It is my opinion some things need to be kept out of reach of small children. Especially if they are accustomed to having their toes painted regularly and was apparently of the opinion her toes needed to be touched up, and we had not put this on our to-do list. I will give her a pedicure tonight.

Shred It! - Day Nine

IF you do the math, I did skip a day. I didn't have 20 minutes that one day to do one more thing. Seriously. But, I am starting to see a little improvement, especially in my ability to move continuously for 20 minutes without stopping. I am now getting up at 4:45 A.M. and starting the Shred by 4:55 A.M. and am in the shower by 5:20 A.M. I am one "those people." A morning person... yep, that's me.

I don't get it...

Who voted against this?.....

Weekend... and Shred-it!

Still shredding it, and it seems to be getting easier. I only got lightheaded once at 5:10 A.M. this morning when I was shredding it. I don't know if I will ever make it to Level II. Daughter did Level II yesterday, and I am pretty sure I know why there are three levels. Level I is for the "almost 50 is the new 40" age group. Oh, and I had to start shredding it in the morning so as not to interfere with "happy hour" in the afternoons. Priorities!!!!

We had an uneventful weekend. Daughter and I are part of a group planning an "Engagement Shower" for one of her friends who is getting married in July. We had a meeting with the other ladies who are acting as hostesses Friday night. The event was my idea, and my idea was to keep it VERY SIMPLE!!! Wine, cheese, and a couple of easy finger foods. It is a couples party, and it is on a Saturday night! Eat BEFORE YOU COME PEOPLE!!! It will last for 2 hours, and I am the bartender. No one will touch the bottles of wine but me. Grandparents will be present and we will not be entertaining people who wish to imbibe too much, and there is an ABSOLUTE NO BYOB rule in effect. One of the hostesses wanted to know if people could bring their own beer since "everyone doesn't drink wine"... The answer to that was not just NO!!!, but H*LL NO!!!! If you don't drink wine, drink before you come, drink after you leave, or drink the bottled water. We are serving wine, bottled water, 4 finger foods, dessert and that is it. It lasts 2 hours, and when it is over, everyone is supposed to leave, except the hostesses who are expected to stay and help clean up. It is not a redneck event, and it is not going to be turned into one. Good grief people!!!! I was getting so aggravated, I had to leave the meeting. I am sooooo glad the event is NOT at my house. Daughter volunteered to have it at her house and that works for me.

Saturday I took an elderly friend (used to be my neighbor) to the beauty shop. Although she can have her hair done at the facility where she resides, she refuses to do so. She will go an entire month without washing her hair, waiting on me to be available to take her to see Marie at her usual beauty shop. She said the lady at the facility does not know how to "back comb" as well as Marie can, and it does not hold up as well. I am not real sure what it has to to "hold up" too, since all she does is sleep, eat, sit in her recliner and sleep some more. She NEVER leaves the facility unless I go get her, but that is her choice. They have excursions, but she refuses to participate. She said the excursions interfere with her taking her medicine in a timely manner. I am pretty sure at 85 she is not going to change, and since I have enough stuff on my plate, I am not going to try to persuade her otherwise. Since she cannot get in my SUV, I have to borrow Daughter's car each time I take her to the beauty shop, and I had to inform her Daughter is trying to get rid of her car and get an SUV, and I won't be able to take her to the beauty shop anymore. She was very disturbed over this. I hate it, but she can't climb into my SUV, and that is all I have. I will still go see her, and take her supplies, but I just won't be able to take her places.

The rest of my day was spent going to lunch with the family, including Daughter, BT and BK, and then taking a much needed nap. Daughter took kids to a birthday party, so I was able to nap and catch up on Housewives of NYC. Those women are tough!!!!

Yesterday, Daughter and kids spent the entire day at the house. I cooked, we ate, watched Shrek, Shrek 2, Veggie Tales, played Crazy Eights, etc. BK refused to take a nap earlier in the day and at 5:00 P.M., she was laying on the kitchen counter for some unknown reason, and all of a sudden she got very still. She was SOUND asleep! Daughter only let her sleep for about 45 minutes. When they left at 6:30 and I ran straight for the couch..

The other secretary in the office comes back tomorrow!!!! Yippeeeeee!!!! I plan to take a two hour lunch tomorrow! I have not been able to go to lunch in over a week..

Enough blubbering.. I have work to do.

B.K.

Since BT graduated from Pre-K yesterday, we told him we would take him to our favorite local pizzeria to eat and then let him and BK take their scooters (BK calls her "scooter" a "cooter" - her words, not mine) for a ride around the lake. Daughter and I ordered our usual salads and crawfish bread. Man got BBQ pizza and BT wanted cheeze pizza, wherein he promptly removed the unapproved cheese and ate the crust. Go figure. BK wanted crawfish bread and salad. She made Daughter take the pizza off her plate. Primarily she wanted the tomatoes off the salad. She is 2 1/2 and she eats stuff I didn't eat until I was an adult. She eats salad, made of spinach and romaine lettuce (I didn't know there was any other kind of lettuce except iceburg lettuce when I was her age), tomatoes, croutons and comeback dressing. This past weekend while in Alabama she ate spinach salad, with dried cranberries, croutons, and raspberry vinegarette dressing. She loved it. I am absolutely loving having a child around that will eat absolutely anything. BT only eats cheese pizza (provided he approves of the cheese), grilled cheese sandwiches (cheese approval required here too), PB sandwiches (he will eat jelly if you are sneaky and don't let him see you mix it with the PB) and chicken fingers, without condiments. He will eat carrots and apples. On rare ocassions he will eat sausage and bacon. He will eat grits, provided they are the correct color of orange. They can't be yellow or white, they must be orange. BK will eat anything, and she prefers fruit over junk food, and she loves vegetables. Could they more different?

Shred It! - Day Four

Ok.. I can almost finish the push-up routine without feeling faint.. Almost..

And, I can almost finish the jumping jacks without feeling faint.. Almost..

By the time I get to Level II next week, I should be seeing some results.. Just trying to think positive.

Graduation from Pre-K...

BT graduated from Pre-kindergarten this morning. I was not going to go since I am the only girl in the office this week, but in the end, I decided keeping BT happy was way more important than keeping the guys who sign my check twice a month happy.. Anyway, I now believe BT when he says he wants to be a musician. Not only did BK sing for us along with her fellow classmates who are all 3 and under, but BT and his classmates sang three songs as well. He was the "maestro" for one of the songs, and when I tell you he was TOTALLY into his job, let there be no doubt. He sang the loudest, moved around the most, and was totally into what he was doing. When it was another classmate's turn to be maestro, Benton was still "maestroing" it up. He was definitely giving it 100% from beginning to end. Daughter has pictures and hopefully she will send them to me soon so I can share.

At the end, the graduates all gathered in the center of the room and threw their hats in the air.... just like I remember doing a few years ago when I graduated from high school... :)

Shred It! - Day Three

The morning after day three of Shred-It, I can barely sit and when I do sit, I can barely get back up. I have cut back on my in-take of fluids... for obvious reasons.

Shred It! - Day Two

On the morning after day two of Shred-It, I almost had to ask Man help me put on deoderant.. Almost...

The Wedding..

was absolutely beautiful! We had a great time with great friends and look forward to seeing them again soon. We talked about it all the way home...

The Wedding Planner did a fantastic job with everything. It was all perfect. We enjoyed seeing everyone, hanging out at their pool with the kids, reminiscing about the good old days of endless weekends at the ballpark, the wedding, dinner after the wedding, the reception, etc. It was wonderful, and way too short. The bride was truly breathtaking. The dress was fabulous. They are an awesome couple and it was obvious they are very much in love.

Of course, there is always some drama. Although BT had been advised he was not going to the wedding, and would be staying with a sitter, when the sitter arrived, he was not a happy camper. The sitter (Miss Dot) could not have been nicer. BK and MM liked her just fine. BT told us we were leaving with him a stranger, and that we knew he did not like babysitters. Of course BK started repeating BT and caused more drama. As we were walking to the car to leave for the wedding, he ran to the car, got in and buckled himself in his carseat and announced he was going to the wedding, in his swimsuit... D-R-A-M-A!!!! Former Boss came and got him and took him back in and we left. Wedding Planner and Former Boss ordered cheese pizza and all was well with the world again. But, when we got home, he was asleep and when I picked him up, and he realized it was me, he almost started crying again. Next morning he told Daughter and I we lied to him because we said we would only be gone for a few minutes, and we were gone a very long time. I told him the wedding took longer than expected. I didn't dare tell him we went to the reception too! Good grief!!!

Pictures are coming!

Shred It!

Day one of Jillian Michael's Shred-It was unbelievable. It was non-stop and left my legs feeling like jello. I wasn't sore when I got up this morning, but as the day has gone on, I am getting sore, and I still have to do it when I get home! All I know is my belly better look like her belly after 30 days!

Headin to a weddin....

Yep, in less than 48 hours, we will be loadin up BT and BK and driving 6.5 hours to the wedding of a long time friend's son in Alabama. Daughter used to babysit him and his two little sisters when we lived next door to them. That does NOT make me old. He is still a youngun! He may even be too young to be married yet! ID please!

We are excited about this trip to say the least. We have not seen the son in about six years, or at least my memory tells me it has been that long. Once upon a time I used to be the "friend" he and his sisters wanted to take to the beach for the weekend. They loved to play with me (or at least I thought they did - it could have just been all the junk food I took to the beach when I went - whatever works!), and I loved playing with them. We would put on floatation devices and go way out in the water and just float and talk. You would be surprised how chatty three children under 6 can be when they want their "older" friend to stay in the water with them. What great memories.

We will be staying with other long time friends (the lady friend is also the "wedding planner") while in the big "D". Daughter is beyond excited about this. Wedding Planner's husband used to be my boss. Their daughter is Daughter's childhood friend, and was one of the surprise visitors for Daughter's birthday weekend recently. They have not seen each other this much since high school. This time their own children will be in attendance. We can't wait for them to meet. Wedding Planner and Former Boss are being very generous in opening their home to 4 extra people on such a busy weekend, and we greatly appreciate it. Cold adult beverages may be involved.

Well... B.T. played his first t-ball game Saturday...

It will also be his only t-ball game. And, I really use the term "played" very loosely.. Daughter got BT dressed and he didn't like the pants. They made his legs itch. I truly thought it would be the new cleats he would have issues with. Not. And, he didn't like his ball jersey. Or the hat. Or being at the ballpark. He refused to sit in the dugout. Or go on the field and warm up. His team was home team and they took the field first. BT sat in the bleachers with his fan club. We begged, bribed, pleaded, threatened (Daughter did the threatening part), etc., and he was not interested. G'mere, who is not a morning person, was at the ballpark shortly after 11. She wanted her money's worth. She asked him was there ANYTHING she could do that would get him to go on the field. There was not. Finally Daughter told (kind of sounded like yelling) him if he would bat one time, we would go home. He told her she was being difficult. His words, not mine... although she is difficult. Sometimes. He decided he would bat one time if he could leave as soon as he was done. He walked up to the plate, RELUCTANTLY, hit a shot to left field, and I do mean a shot, (the best hit of the game so far) and ran straight back to the dugout to his mama. He was ready to go. He was crying. There is a picture, but I have not received it yet. He NEVER agreed to run the bases. In our negotiations, we didn't mention he would need to run the bases after he hit the ball. We just asked him to bat one time, and he did. The season is over for him, and he could not be happier about it!

How do you explain these things... ?

Daughter and grandkids came over to eat grilled chicken and hang out last night. I had set up a little pool on my deck this past weekend for the grandkids, and filled it with water in hopes it would at least warm up a little from all the sunshine we have had this week. This was the first time they had been to my house since I put the pool up. BT said the water was still too cold to get in. BK did not share those feelings. She wanted to know where her swimsuit was. I have a drawer where I keep clothes for them, and I told her her suit was in the drawer and she went and got it, raved over how cute it was (it was cute), and asked for assistance in getting it on. BT saw his swimsuit, deemed it the coolest swimsuit EVER, and decided to give it a go since he did not want to be outdone by a 2 year old. BK is fearless, and was immediately doing the "cannonball" every 5 seconds. She just takes a diving jump, yells "cannonball" and lands flat on her belly in the water. BT was a little more reserved since in his opinion the water was cold. After a little while, BK decided to take her swimsuit top off. When Daughter realized she was naked from the waist up, she told her to put her top back on. BK promptly told her BT didn't have his top on.

How do you explain these things?

BT proceeded to tell his sister he was a boy and boys could go without shirts. She disagreed and remained topless.