Aaaagh!

It's thursday already???

Well Tuesday night we had a major wind storm come through, knocked our power out at 8:30pm, we set our cell phone alarms, plugged them in and wished for the best.
When we awoke the next morning, still no power.
Hubby and I went off to work when hubby's friend called to say that his salt water fish were dying. Hubby has a salt water tank as well, and he was honestly having a panic attack about his tank. For a moment, I was worried about the fridge and freezer, but really... there is more $ in the tank than in food.
Luckily Hubby's dad was in town, he went to Home Depot and rented a generator. We lost 2 fish and a shrimp... Could've been worse.

I have been working on remodeling a house... which means... I have a valid excuse to wear my hot pink tool belt!!!!!

My babies leave today for Ohio, going to visit grandparents and cousins and hopefully have an absolute blast.

Gotta get ready for work... Have a fantastic day!

Contract writing

It is Sunday night, and I thought of roughly 437 interesting things to write about and share with you monday morning... I currently can remember zero of them...

Why? Probably because I made a deadline for myself, from invisible to visible contract to you... If I don't have something for you Monday morning, you won't come back on thursday.
So I found out today/yesterday that my MIL is coming tuesday and taking the kids back to Ohio for a couple weeks, as she does every summer...

Why is this one stressing me out? For one, the girls just returned from camp and I have roughly 37 loads of laundry to do, I have been working like crazy, saturdays too which means my own house has been neglected, and after the Ohio visit my MIL wants to fly the kids to florida and meet hubby and I there when we take our family vacation. She keeps pushing and pushing to fly there verse home here in TN, hubby is too polite to explain that we are taking a family vacation, just the 4 of us. Even my mom, who lives in Florida, will be out of town. I think it would be easier to just tell her the truth...

Ok I have a question for you...
When company is coming... not company but say, your best friend, does that mean you have to spring clean, to an excessive dregree to make them feel special?
Or if you are the BFF do you expect your BFF to do that? Do you want to feel like that is necessary for you to come visit?
Yes... of course this stems from an event.

It would seem that a couple summers ago when my cousin came through there was a ramdom apple core that one of my kids left somewhere... Well, this "random" example has been used to explain to me how a guest should feel special.
I look at this completely different, if my cousin feels as though every thing needs to be perfect, then I feel like a "company" or a guest... an unwanted guest.

I like my house tidy and clean, but there is just gonna be an apple core around once in a while, we live here. The sheets are clean, rugs swept, and toilets scrubbed... but there is also a dish in the sink, shoes in the living room floor, and a hamper full of clothes.


So do you forgo having a friend over if the house isn't perfect or do you invite them in despite the condition?

Invisible contract

I was reading a blog about successful blogging... tee hee.. Anyways, the point of the article was the "invisible contract". That you may or may not know it, but as you develop a pattern of posting, your readers begin to depend on that pattern, or invisible contract. You may not even know you have a contract until you break it.
This past year, has been an adventure, my posting sporatic and my readers vanished... I am going to make a visable contract with you to post every Monday and Thursday. Yea, I know it's only twice a week, but I need to get back in the rythmn... It very well could increase in time, who knows.
Well there you have it, come back on Monday.

I'll leave you with this:
Irrational fear #3 - Dehydration. I have roughly 3 glasses of water around the house, in my car and at my office at all times... I'm like the little girl from the movie "Signs"

Anyone else have a ridiculous fear/quirk they want to share? Please, so I don't feel SO silly alone!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Lucky Wife

Time - Irrational Fears - Other randomness

Let's start with something ridiculous...
My irrational fears.
The biggest one is that I will be wearing the wrong shoes for a tragic event... example: My car breaks down on a dark county road and a hooked killer comes to the door and I need to RUN! I can assure you I will have on flip flops, and they will the the source of my demise.
The next one? That I will undoubtly have on the most uncorfortable/elastic lacking/wedgie giving panties I own when I am shipwrecked/airplane crashes on a deserted island.

Time:
I consider my time to be valuable, if not to you, it is certainly valuable to me. SO. When we make plans to do something at 7:30, and you find at 5:30 your propane tank is empty, and then go to the store to swap it, and then decide to get groceries while you are there, and only then start cooking dinner for your family at 7:15... Don't wait until 8:30 to finally call me and say you can't go. You knew by 6 o'clock you weren't coming. Grrrrr.....

Other randomness - My babies are at church camp and hubby and I are paralyzed with excitement to have a couple nights to ourselves!
Also, I just bought a Colgate 360 toothbrush and LOVE IT! The tongue cleaner tickles my mouth while I brush my teeth. It's totally awesome.

feeling a little lost

Do you ever feel like a lamb that's wondered so far from the flock, that you just aren't sure how to work your way back in?

Hubby and I are struggling with our church/attendance/functions... We LOVE LOVE LOVE our pastor, he is absolutely incredible, straight forward, like it or not, humorous... all around fantastic.

The problem? That accessability of any functions other than sunday morning service. Children's/Teens/Small Group starts at 5:45 on Wednesdays. I work until 5pm, then drive 40 minutes to home, and then another 25 Minutes back to the church. Assuming that traffic is a dream, that I don't need to eat, and my children are standing on the porch ready to jump in the car, we will be, at a BARE minimum 20 minutes late.

This was all FINE when I worked part time, but since I began full time work, I have had to quit small group and the kids had to quit wednesday church... then that small wedge has been driven even deeper by interferring with sunday service attendance...

Blah...

I don't like feeling disconnected like this... It just seems that everyone waits around for me to make a stand/decision but then once i do, it's challenged as well.

Grrrrrr

Finally June!

The inlaws are gone, the parties are over and school is out!

Can I get a A-Men!

On the other hand, now that I have finally had a chance to breathe, I have noticed that my garden is a joke, the weeds have out numbered the flowers and I never even got around to planting some pretty annuals this year...

The north side of the house looks grungy, I want to paint my shutters and front door, and I def need to clean out my closet! Yikes.

My oldest daughter is becoming a total drama queen which difficult, I want her to share with me, but the over exaggerated extreame-ness of each situation is challenging.

My baby is not much of a baby anymore, heading to middle school in the fall. I am noticing quite a difference in her maturity lately (for the better)

That's about all, other than, did I tell you hubby and I celebrated 16 years of marriage the other day? I am proud of that accomplishment, being all the mountian tops we have climbed and valleys we have drudged through...

til next time...

Are you out of Gravy????

So as you may or not know I have been couponing... I feel like it has been hugely successful being that currently I am spending a hair less then normal, but have WAY more supplies than normal.

So I was telling my in-laws about my success, to which they were all "ohh" and "ahhh", "clever girl"!

Then yesterday, while I was at work, my MIL kindly prepared dinner for the family. When I unsuspectingly arrived home, I was surprise attacked by the MILwith "ARE YOU OUT OF GRAVY? I looked and looked for gravy, in the pantry and in your stash, and I couldn't find GRAVY anywhere!" when FIL piped in "She didn't have a coupon for gravy! If there is no coupon you don't get to eat GRAVY!"

Seriously?

You would think I forgot to buy a supply of oxygen to keep the children alive for the next week.