The look of genius.

T-Man is writing. On his own. Without being told. He's focused and determined. ..

 WOOOO FREAKIN' HOOO!!!

Ok, truth be told, he received a letter from his pen pal today and was so excited, he had to write back- RIGHT away!!   I'll take it! Whatever gets him to write willingly-  woot!   Now I'll just cross my fingers he keeps it up!    

Fall Picnic

 OHVA Back-to-School picnics took place in various locations all over the state today. We only had to travel to the Falls to meet up with other OHVA families, friends and teachers. Games were set up around the picnic area and students played a 'Get to Know Each Other' scavenger hunt. Teachers divided the kids into groups by grade for activities while parents chatted and swapped stories. After eating lunch, the kids raced off to the playground to burn some energy letting parents and teachers continue conversations and pass advice for the new school year.  Was a great turnout for our location and everyone seemed to have a good time.  The kids played with old friends, made some new friends, swapping Webkinz IDs or email addresses.  Great day!!

Afterwards, I had to run for dog food, cat litter and coffee creamer- MUST have creamer!! Was totally out.  I didn't even have any of my back-up, last resort powder reserve left!  The situation was dire, let me tell you! ;-D  Dog food situation was not quite as bleak...they had a few days left.

Home now- kids are out and about playing with friends and I'm on the swing enjoying the sudden appearance of sunshine! Yay! Bonus!!  Thinking about holding dinner off another 30 minutes if the sun continues, Mr. FixIt hasn't even left the office yet and kids are distracted so I think I can stretch a little more sun time in this day. 
 Scratch that thought- he just pulled in. Crap. Oh well, was a good idea! :-D 

Have a wonderful weekend!!

It's the MOST wonderful time...of the year!

Truthfully, this time of year consists of tons of work to be done, but my favorite back-to-school commercial was years ago for Staples with the dad riding the cart down the aisles to the Christmas tune..."It's... the... MOST wonDERful time... of the YEAR!" and the kids dragging behind.
(click link to see commercial on YouTube)

Though I'm not sending mine OFF every day to school which was the whole reason that commercial at the end of summer was always hysterical, but it still makes me laugh. Yes, I tortured my kids and made them start lessons today. B even woke up early to get busy and was mostly done by 10 am. Monster Man didn't give too much fuss as he's super excited to be a first grader now! He will have double the work load from last year which will be an adjustment for him time-wise, but the smart little stinker can handle it- as long as I can keep him focused! That will be my chore for the year.

So this busy month of the year includes getting school started, dance intensives, reunions, cousins visiting, last minute vacations, church festivals---whew!! Time to buckle in and hang on!!

We can see the light!

At the end of the school-year tunnel--WOOHOOO!! Bright, uplifting rays of sunshine are filling the days and pushing out memories of the gloomy dreary previous months. Kids are anxious for neighborhood baseball games and bikes to consume their days as opposed to history and math lessons.* I'm as excited about approaching summer days as the kids are! Thankfully Monster Man has already completed his required hours, with only a few phonics/language arts lessons left and not quite three weeks of history. He's the tough one to keep focused on lessons with the sunshine peeking in the windows. Just two days ago, Monster Man got himself up, dressed quietly, and was outside riding his bike at 7:25 am! Guess he figured he'd get himself in a couple laps before mom could chase after him with a history lesson! At least he was dressed and had on his helmet! We do take advantage of the front yard swing to read and work in the fresh air. If during the day I "lose" B, she can often be found in the swing with her nose in a book, oblivious to the world around her or that I've called her name loud enough the next county is on alert. B is also nearing the end of her studies, though not as far progress-wise as Monster Man. She should be fulfill her hours by June 1, though will probably take another week after to finish her lessons to the 90% mark. She has been a tough one to keep "interested" in school work this year; her distraction has been a love of Thoroughbred series, Spiderwick, Goosebumps, Mostly Ghostly and RL Stein's Haunted series. The difficult task is getting her to turn her love of those books and direct some time and effort into writing about them, writing being her least favorite thing to do of course. Not necessarily book reports, but news articles, interviews, poems about the characters or settings and songs. She loves to sing and will talk your ear off about each story...my job is to get her to WRITE down her ideas. Though I can't complain too much, she has read over 100 books this school year- easily. Not counting the stories she reads to MM every night before bed. She is my bookworm. Now if I could only get math problems out of her as easily! :-D

At any rate, the countdown to summer has begun!


*Formal lessons anyway. Both kids always help cook, shop and do daily activities around the house in which math and problem solving skills are practiced incognito-hehehe.

A Week?

Have I really lost a week?? Holy schniekes man! Sure, I've kept up FB and email, but my bloggy world didn't fare as well.
---Delete, delete, delete
You really don't want to read about my completely shitty week/weekend. You don't need me to drag you down into that misery. SO... inhale, exhale. This is a new week!

The sun is blinding today, even though the temps are flippin cold, so it looks nice outside when you can stand to open your eyes. I need to run errands to get hay for rabbits (why couldn't I have been jolted out of the black cloud over the decent-temp weekend to do that??) and then drop off library books before I incur enough fines to finance a larger children's wing. Also wouldn't kill me to get my truck washed. Talk about nasty. The only semi-clean spots are where the chunks of snow have slid down from the top/sides. Though my side of the garage presently has a deer hanging and the tractor so I don't know WHERE I would put a clean truck if I had one! My dad would completely flip out if he saw how disgusting my vehicle is right now. I hate it myself, but not much I can do about it. Washing it every other day is not an option.

Both kids finished school work early today without much fuss or difficulty. B is progressing nicely through 4th grade math though she still needs work on her multiplication facts. Of course that's a load of fun, but she told me today after working on some 2-digit multiplication problems, "That went pretty fast, Mom. Didn't take me long at all." I grasped that tidbit of info like a blue ribbon and upped the anty with "The more you complete, the better you know them, the FASTER you GET!" Crossing fingers she is of the same positive attitude tomorrow with three and four digits.

Monster Man is learning about Asia in history right now. He loves the map work and using a globe, the readings and stories, but the paper work projects he really detests (coloring) so I think while I make dinner later I will have him build an Indian elephant from clay... or the Taj Mahal...or construct the Himalayas. HA! That ought to keep him entertained for a while- hehehe. He would do anything rather than color. Anything- picking up toys. I've never met a kid that despised coloring -even with markers- as much as he does. He writes well, so it's not a dexterity problem. Attentional difficulty would get my vote but even to color a small symbol or the shapes on math pages...no go. He will outline them usually at least, but you'd think I was cutting off his limbs to make him fill in anything with color. Sigh.

Poochie pooh is getting bigger and bigger. She is at my feet sawing logs currently. Ben still does well with her, though she is very submissive and steers clear of him for the most part, especially in the house. I keep them separated most of the time anyway. Outside she will run circles around him, trying to get him to chase and play. Some days he complies for a while. Some days he just snarls at her. Winter temps and cold snow packed in his paws are hard on the old boy.

Mr. FixIt is home finally and things are back to normal. Thank goodness. Somehow this "need" to have him home snuck up on me, and I don't know why really. For so many years he wasn't home- out of state, out of the freakin' country even, and I did everything on my own. Everything. For weeks, sometimes months, on end. Family hundreds of miles away. I was always thankful for a few really close friends during those years. I really don't mind being by myself with the kids and critters, but lately it makes me moody (ok, downright pissed off) alternating with being totally in the dumps like a complete nothing. School work, dance, and life pretty much go on as normal-we're all still alive at the end of the week, lol, so I should be proud of that. At least I use to be. Was kind of a wall or badge, I can DO this! I AM doing it alone! Strength I HAD to have, no choice. Must have lost my badge in the move because it's been missing since about that time now that I think about it. Maybe I'm finally getting use to the idea that he's home more often than not. I know I've gotten dependent on his help with kids in the evenings and his usual "I'll take the kids" for weekend errands...ok, weekends when he's home. Thank God deer season is OVER! Thankful to have two freezers of meat but I need my man back! He has some jobs around here that need tending to...like putting away the Christmas lights. :-D

Where am I?

I have fought with the idea in my head that keeping up with my bloggin’ friends and getting my own vents out on a daily or near daily basis was causing me to lose time and be really behind on my “to do” list…apparently NOT! I have hardly blogged over the past two months, just skimmed over a few blogs to try and not completely lose touch, and I’m still in the same office/basement/laundry disaster that I was previously! AAARRGGHH!! So I’m back!

I realize now that even though things are crazy busy I need to have my bloggy
time…if nothing else just to have a few minutes…or three hours-who’s counting?... to
myself. Things I need to get out of my head because the record is skipping badly up
there and it’s making my stomach hurt. First record I’m gonna bump off the turntable will be the Justification posts. I need to finish that. I really should email it to a few family members, but one step at a time! :-D

Let me catch you up on my nutty life:

* I did clear an area for school shelves, assembled those and have the school

books and supplies organized...and 8 weeks later it is STILL organized!! YES! I have
about half of the sewing stuff out of the Pit and down to the basement, but still
doubting that decision. I reorganized my desk in the Pit for more usable space, but
there are still 6 piles, elbow deep, of stuff scattered across the sides of the desk and on my filing cabinets.

* I posted about the new addition, Lucy. She is doing wonderfully and is turning
out to be have a great temperament and a huge appetite. She is currently at 4 cups a
day. I need to buy stock in Nutro dog food.

* Kids are doing well with school work. Miss B is finally “getting it” with
multiplication and division facts, and Monster Man did well on his Kindergarten
readiness test. He does well with phonics sounds, but we are still working on some
letter recognition. He loves math--flying through it.

* Fall dance classes and dance Team practices are underway! The kids love it! If
I could afford it, we’d be doing dance for hours on end every day. Keep dreamin’
guys!

* Deer bow season has officially begun which means Mr. FixIt gone most every
weekend. He will also be traveling a good bit this month, so we may not see him
until Thanksgiving. Then gun season will start so we won’t see him until New Years.
but my freezer will be restocked with lean ground meat, steaks and roasts. I really
can’t complain.

* Cold weather is here to stay, and I hate it. Though I love the changing leaves
and the fall festivals, farm outings and pumpkin festivals. I have to start layering
clothes again, I’m already cold. I took a 20-minute nap on the floor with the puppy
Monday because she was really warm. I was that cold. I woke up numb on my left side, but I was toasty!

* Work. HA! Work, schmerk. Not happenin’! I need to get working on my ebay boxes of stuff to sell, which is part of my office/Pit problem. Too many things piled up that I need to get rid of. I think the whole pile overwhelms me, so maybe I should
do one or two items per day. If I can stick to it until I can see daylight or heaven
forbid FLOOR in the pit, I’ll be in good shape. :-D FlyLady is frowning at me
because I can hear her saying, “Fling, fling, FLING that clutter!” Until my bills
are not putting me in the negative, I don’t have much choice I need to sell, sell,
SELL!!

* Fall TV. I don’t watch much TV, but I love CSI and ER. Woohoo!! Very sad
dramatic first episodes for both- pass the tissues! I'm so excited nonetheless!

Ok, I think that does it. At least for now. Carry on people.

I wrote this on Wednesday...today is SATURDAY! So I've not kept my blogging promise, but I did get a few things listed on ebay--woohoo!!

September-already?

Wow! Time does fly when you're as busy as a one-legged man in the ass kicking contest known as my life! Sheesh! We are back home, again. School is underway, both kiddos doing very well. We are still missing some materials, but we have enough to make do. Monster Man is doing surprisingly well, with only a slight bit of fussing the first day. We had a little discussion about what is to be expected and how much WORSE things COULD be, and he's been cooperating just fine since. :-D Slight bit of grumbling from Miss B but that is from her newly found love and addiction to Webkinz. Holy crap that is all we need- another distraction from school work and room upkeep. Though I have to admit they are pretty cool. Monster man has the Ty Beanie 2.0 version and the activities do seem more appropriate for his age.

We had a great vacation with Dad over the weekend on the bikes in southern Ohio. Awesome weekend- gorgeous weather, couple hundred miles of riding country roads, yummy fair-like food (yeah like I needed that, but the gyros and fried mushrooms call my name every year). Did I mention sun? LOTS of sun!! Of course Dad's best friend and a couple other guys joined them, but that just makes it more entertaining. We did get to visit a good bit through the long weekend with him, which we don't get to do through the year since dad works every day, all year long. We don't even see him for holidays unless we drive to WV and still, he'll be gone 10-12 hours a day. The man doesn't even get the day before or after Christmas off unless one of those happen to fall on a Sunday. Ironically, mom doesn't go on these trips. I think she went once 15 or 16 years ago. Then when I started going to the rodeos, mom kind of felt off the hook to not have to go. She's never been crazy about motorcycles anyway, so after I started going with him, that holiday wekeend turned into kind of a dad-daughter vacation...with several thousand other people, lol. I use to ride with Dad all over the place, though OH and WV during high school and college, even in different state. I'd drive there or he'd pick me up. After Mr. FixIt got his motorcycle, we started meeting on our bike so we could all have a weekend away and still visit Dad, some much needed catch up time with him. Hate to sound morbid, but not sure how many of those we have left since Dad seems destined to smoke and glutton his existing stents right out of his chest and into another heart attack or a stroke. He did cough hard enough to pass out on me last week, and though I thought at first he was being dramatic, he scared the crap out of me when I realized he wasn't faking. Mom says he's doing it all the time again. Great. He's with us riding full dresser Harley, down the highway at 70 mph, and he has potential to pass out if he starts hacking and coughing- nice. Every year I have this fear that when I call him in the mornings to meet for breakfast one morning he won't answer. Go ahead and have another half pack of cigs, dad- GRRRRR!!!

Ok back to positive. The sun is shining and warm weather is still here thankfully. School has begun, dance is about to start back up, and deer season for Mr. FixIt lurking around the corner. I'm not looking forward to cold weather, but I am excited for the leaves to change. Fall season- so far, so good!

**If you haven't visited Mon and I over here or you have tried but can't get in, send me an email ang_mt2 at yahoo you know the rest, and let me know your email so I can invite you. If you've already requested to join in, but have yet to receive an invite, that's because I don't have an email addy for you to send the request to, so please do the above. :-D

Summer- bout time!

School hours and subject completion are in the home stretch, the weather is nice enough to leave the windows open in the day (though only a few cracked at night so not THAT warm yet), dance recitals are on the horizon and both kids are growing out of shoes!! It must be SUMMER!!

WOOOHOOOOO!! Picture me doin' the happy dance!! Ok, well maybe not...anyway, even with pouring rain all day, the previous several days of sunshine have made me feel MUCH more content with the world. Thursday and Saturday I worked on some seriously cleaning that I had been neglecting-- windows washed inside and out, curtains washed and heavy LR curtains put away leaving the light sheers for summer, blinds from the kids' rooms pulled down/scrubbed/back up, and I even shampooed a couple carpets. Boy did they need it! I just need to work on a few more carpets and do some kitchen re-organizing and I'm pretty well wrapped up except for daily stuff. Of course the Pit of Shit/Office is in need of a stick of dynamite or a black hole to drop by and suck all the crap out I don't know what to do with, but I'm not letting it rain on my "Summer is finally here" and "my house is decently clean" parades!

I say again- SUMMER IS HERE!!! YEEEHAAAWWWW!!!

-sorry for screaming--I've been waiting for long, treacherous, frigid months for this!! Really.