YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a big moving truck at the neighbors house!!!!! THANK GOD!!! Emily says "Good now we can play out front and not have to worry about the mean dogs!" No longer will we be woken at 6am to GATORGATORGATORGATOR. UGH. No longer will we have to endure their loud screeching fights. No more!!!!!!!!!!!

Macy

Did I mention that I'm at odds with the "i" in her name? It makes me feel strange, like it's not quite the "Macy" sounding name. When I say her name, I picture that "i". So I'm dropping it personally until I figure out what to do with it. Officially she's "Maicy". Unofficially, to me at least, she's Macy, Maycee, Macey, who knows. But doesn't it look off now without the "i"?

"Shew"

Macy's motto must be "pick a word and do it right". Shoe. Pronounced SHEW. To be more accurate, elongate and whine: shewwwwwwwwwwwwww. Every shoe is pointed out. Every shoe that's on has to come off "SHEWWWWWWW". She's even progressed to whining "shews". A shoe on the floor? SHEW. On a person? SHEW. What if my foot is resting on the chair where she wants to sit? With a sweep of her hand to dismiss the offending shoe, it goes something like this "yabba dabba yabba dabba SHEW!"

Someone died today....

Someone died today on our block. We're still not sure who, but we think it's the elderly alzheimers victim who lives two doors down. I was looking out the window and saw 2 cop cars pull up, quickly followed by 3 undercover cars, a traffic unit squad car (??) and a large supervisor type vehicle. High drama! My first thought was the gal across the street called the cops on the boys who play ball in the street all year long. Next came an ambulance followed by the fire chief's car.

The undercover cops run in with their hands on their guns, the EMTs grab the gurney and go flying in the house. Not one minute later, out they stroll, gurney empty, pack it up and zoom off. One minute after THAT, the zoom back up, jump out again without a gurney, grab their bags and rush inside. Odd. We joked "maybe he wasn't dead after all?" Just cracking jokes of course, we didn't think there would be a death in the house. But by that time there was a crowd of people on the porch crying, so we figured it had to be a death.

All but one cop leaves, ambulance leaves, Chaplain pulls up, detectives pull up, and Coroner pulls up. Detectives? Interesting. They're there for over an hour and then leave. Of the 3 people that live in the house, only the elderly man was unaccounted for. Yes, we stood in the neighbor's yard and counted. We're that bad.

So what started out as high drama ended very sadly. I'm thinking perhaps it was suicide by gun. That would explain the guys running in with hands on guns, the 8 squad cars, the chaplain, the detectives, the EMT guys walking and and then coming right back out (because clearly he was dead), stuff like that. Very sad.

OK, so I'm an idiot.....

Has anyone seen those FOREYES commercials where the guy says that? "OK, so I'm an idiot".

OK....so I'm an idiot. I just told BBW that I would be more than happy to be their summertime manager, perhaps even permanently.

OK, so I'm an idiot. To emphasize how much of an idiot I am, please read #8 of 10 Things Said To Me Lately.

In the realm of all things rude....

This one just takes the cake. Literally. It's the Kitty Litter Cake that I made for Reilly's 8th birthday party. It was beyond disgusting. And served in a kitty litter pan with a litter scoop.

Dumb Neighbors

I can't wait until the neighbors move. They have a sold sign on their house, but it hasn't closed yet. They have two pitbulls, Gator and Venus and they are SO FREAKING OBNOXIOUS. Every morning at the crack of dawn, the lady is out there yelling GATOR GATOR GATOR GETHER GATOR GETHERGETERGETERGETER GETER VENUS NO NO NO NO NO NO VENUS NO and the dogs play while she wakes up the neighborhood. They're cute dogs. I thought they were docile dogs. But lately I've been waking up to snarling and fighting and GATOR NO STOP IT GATOR STOP while Gator attacks Venus.

Nice.

Now my kids aren't allowed to play in the front yard. Don't tell me that Pit Bulls are fine unless they've been bred to be nasty. These dogs have not been bred to be nasty. They WERE nice friendly docile dogs. But now out of the blue I hear snarling and fighting? WRONG. I've heard enough stories of Pit Bull maulings where the owners and all the neighbors, even the victims, say "oh and he was such a nice dog, too, never aggressive".

They can't move soon enough.

Ten Things I Would Never, EVER....Own or Do.

Sorry, Cat but I needed a second topic on the Ten today.

Again, in no particular order. And if I offend someone who DOES do this stuff, I apologize. It's just not my style.

1. Have long hot pink nails... I saw a lady at the store yesterday, trying to look young and hip, and the long hot pink fake nails was NOT helping the cause.

2. Drive a Pearl White Escalade... Again, no offense to the people that I actually KNOW that drive one of these. It just seems so Soccer Mom to me. It screams Soccer Mom more than a minivan screams it. The lady above that I saw at the store? She jumped into her Pearl White Escalade. I just KNEW she would.

3. Go in a submarine... That scares the crap outta me. Anything that involves being covered up and in an unescapable place, small or large, scares me. So on that note....

4. Go in a cave...Or an underwater cave for that matter. Gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

5. Own a small long haired (or short haired) dog...I HATE SMALL DOGS. I am SO not a small dog fan. I can't stand them. They smell, their eyes run, their hair gets matted. GAG. My friend Colleen wants a small Lhasa Apso. UGH UGH UGH. The only exception to the "I HATE SMALL DOGS" rule is the Boston Terrier.

6. Go to Branson, MO...Is it just me or does that seem like the tackiest place on earth?!?!? It might be a wonderful place, but I'm not willing to spend the money or the time to find out.

7. Put a Ribbon magnet on my car...Again, sorry to those who do, that's fine by me, but NMS. You know, like the Save The Troops ribbon magnets? That come in every type of color and style? The ONLY exception would MAYBE be an SMA Awareness magnet, but again, it would have to be really small and not tacky.

8. Go on Survivor...I hate being wet and I hate being tired, and wet and tired and hungry are what that show is all about. And arguing and alliances and back stabbing. I've had enough of that in my life, so no thanks. Not even for a million dollars!!

9. Wear/Own a pair of Mom jeans...Why do Moms wear those jeans? You know, the high waisted LEE jeans? They're always LEE jeans. Always, and they're always too tight and so MOM-ISH. They would do much better to buy a smaller pair of low waist jeans, you can get them several sizes smaller than the typical Mom jean size.

10. Own a tanning bed...Again, if you do it, that's fine, but so NMS. I'm not a tanner. Skin cancer and wrinkles are just not my thing.

Catching Up....

Since I started this whole blog thing late, I'm playing catch up on all of the Top Ten lists. So here's a couple of past ones.

Ten Things I Never Thought I'd Be....

At age 34:
1)Driving a minivan. I swore up and down that I'd never have a minivan. But, I wanted something with a sliding door for baby #2. That was a plus. Then, I started having kids around me often, or having the need to cart kids around. I love that I have that ability. So, my minivan is here to stay. Yes it hurts my feelings when people laugh at me, but oh well.



2)Done with having kids.I wanted 4 kids, but would have settled for three. But I had trouble getting pg instantly with #3, and by the time this baby would be born, Emily would be 7-1/2, May would be 2, and honestly I'm just not ready to do that baby thing again.


3) Wanting to be a surrogateThe big problem with #2 is that I don't get to have any more babies. I love having babies, the whole labor and delivery part is thrilling for me. But then Baby can go home to another Mom. Ahhh that would be ideal.

4)Living hereThis was always where I would come for vacations, to visit relatives, never to live. If someone had told me even 3 years ago that I'd be living here, I would have said they were out of their minds. But I'm glad, I love it here.

5)A pilot I LOVE planes. I've always loved planes. I loved flying until I was about 18. Then I hated flying. I was so afraid of flying, it consumed me. I thought about my fear of flying alot. Then I had to jump on a plane one day and fly home without even having time to think about it. And guess what, I loved flying again. My Dad said to me "next thing you know, you'll be a pilot!" I laughed and said that will never happen. Wrong again!

6) An exercise fanI never thought I'd like exercise at ANY age, much less at age 34. But I do, it's becoming an obsession, and in turn, my desire to pig out and replace those burned calories is also becoming an obsession. But exercising is good for the mind, not just the body.

7) A fan of all things Tudor Since when do I even remotely care about history? Yes I have a minor in fine arts/humanities, which is fancy talk for art history, but English history? Yawn. Not any more, it fascinates me. Crazy Tudors.

8) Anything past age 30I remember as a teen I tried to picture myself as a 30 year old, and I just couldn't do it. I just figured I wouldn't be alive that long!

9) A housewifeYes I work from home, but I never thought that I would consciously make the choice to stay home with my kids. They love it, it bores me to tears, but it is what it is.


10) Insanely happy. Considering the rough time I had a few years ago, I never thought I'd see the future with me being so happy with my life, with the kids I have, with the marriage I'm in. Happy to the point of tears happy. Silly happy. But I am, and it's wishful thinking for it to stay that way.

Ten Things Said To Me Lately....

1) "Why does a cow have gudders?" This is from Emily. She gets gutters and udders confused. So a cow has gudders.

2) "MOM!!! You need to buy Leaf Guard Gutters!" Not to be confused with gudders. This is followed by a complete description of why I need Leaf Guard Gutters.

3) "DADEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" This would be from Macy. She's not sure who I am, but she's positive I'm Daddy.

4) "Mom, have you had some chew today?" Emily thinks that my weight loss taffies are "chew" and calls them such.

5) "You know alot about flying, you must be a stewardess". This was from a fellow passenger on a bumpy flight, following a pretty scary landing. No, I'm a pilot. Just becuase I don't fly "big iron" doesn't mean I'm not a pilot. I even have the license to prove it.

6) "Why don't you sign up to be the PTO President?" Are you KIDDING ME? No. I have had enough drama in my life in the past, I surely don't need any more. People think perhaps my skin is not tough enough for conflict, but the problem is the opposite. It's TOO tough, and push me just a little bit, and watch out. Not my favorite characteristic, and one I'm learning to temper. So, no triggering events such as PTO drama.

7) "Are you from Kokomo, Indiana?" This was kinda neat, a lady chased me down in the gym the other day because she saw me wearing a Glenndale t-shirt. SHE was from Kokomo, grew up there, and thought it was so neat that she ran in to me. Of course I had no clue who she was, only living in Kokomo for 10 years.

8) "Do you want to come back to work for us in management?" AGAIN, a big NO. No no no no no no NO NO NO. NO. I will not, cannot, WON'T go back to BBW as a manager. Period.

9) "You have muscles!!!" This was from my friend Colleen the other day, she noticed my arms when I was stretching. That made me happy.

10) "NO and I don't wanna". I hear that all the time from both kids. Makes me want to run away and tear my hair out.

Game Ball!

Emily was given the game ball yesterday! It's given to a different team member each game, and yes I know that eventually she would have gotten the ball one way or another, but it's nice to have her awarded the ball based on performance instead of because they ran out of other kids to give it to! LOL!

She did great, she was focused and knew what was happening. She started off standing at the pitcher position, and actually caught a bounced line drive (is that an oxymoron) and threw it to first. She was so happy, she looked at me before throwing it. LOL a slight delay, but she got the point in the end. Her next great event was as a right fielder. The batter popped it out and she shot out her glove and attempted to catch a fly ball! It grazed the top of her glove, but that wasn't the point....the point was she anticipated the ball coming her way and attempted to get it! YAY Emily! For those that know my hard to stay focused child, this is a great accomplishment. What might come easily and naturally to others is a struggle for Em. GO EMILY!

Happy Heavenly Birthday Devon

You are loved and missed by people around the world. Run free and play in heaven with your brother and other SMA buddies!!

http://www.our-sma-angels.com/index2.html

Vindication....and defeat again.

SO I found out the secret to the old lady kicking rear on the elliptical. For those who haven't heard the story, which is few of you because I have a big mouth, I was at the gym the other day, proud of myself for busting my hump on the elliptical and burning 300 calories. Well, the little old lady next to me finished at the same time, so I peeked at her machine. 491 calories!!! Talk about bursting my bubble. "She must have cranked up her weight" is what everyone said. Possible, but highly doubtful.

The next day I tried her program. Failed miserably. Big time. I did it for a minute and went back to my 300 cal burner. Man that sucked! I justified myself by saying she doesn't lift weights for 30 mins prior, nor does she row or stair climb before hand. Yeah, that's it.

So today I see her again and tell her I failed at her program. She shows me how she sets her machine....and wait a minute....her weight is 165? OK so that explains part of it. Her time is 62 minutes? Ok that explains it all. I swear when I peaked the first time, her time said 35 minutes. Well, maybe it did, and this time she's burning 800 cals. LOL doubtful.

Vindicated!

So I felt pretty good about myself again. Came home and talked to the older lady next door to me. She's pretty fit, but I just came back from the gym, so I'm feeling good. She tells me "I'd like to try and get my 30 mile bike ride in before the rain."

ARGH! Defeat again.

Top Ten....

Well, again sorry Cat I'm a day late on your Top Ten. Maybe you should start calling it the weekly Ten? Anyways, here's my 10...

Ten Things In My Grocery Cart...idea courtesy of Lisa.

1) Beer...how sad is that?

2) Tortillas

3) Milk for Maicy

4) Special K cereal, I eat that stuff all the time.

5) Bread

6) Coffee Creamer and/or flavored Tea.

7) Some variation on a baby product or baby food.

8) Goldfish Pretzels...again, an addiction of mine.

9) Waffles, the kids are obsessed with them. "Papa Style".

10) Diet Coke. No store run is complete without a car load of Diet Coke.

Interesting Story.....

Pilot on cell phone when plane crashes into Lake Pleasant
Mark Phillips
12News
May. 12, 2007 11:43 AM

The FAA says the pilot of a plane which crashed into Lake Pleasant Friday night was talking on a cell phone to a friend in a boat below.

According to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor the pilot asked the friend to shine a flashlight into the air so he could see him. The pilot was flying very low over the lake. Witnesses say about 20 feet above the water. The plane crashed directly infront of the boat he was trying to find.

The name of the pilot has not yet been released. But 12 News learned the plane was rented from the Southwest Flight Center in Scottsdale. The owner of the company told 12 News the pilot was certified to fly commercial aircraft. He had been renting planes from the company for 20 years.

The crash occured shortly after 8pm Friday. Saturday morning recovery crews returned to Lake Pleasant. They will try to recover the victim as well as debris from the aircraft.

Tough news.....

I took Bubba to the vet todayfor a nasty, nasty, NASTY ear infection. So nasty that when I called, the receptionist said "how do you know it's an ear infection, is he scratching alot?" And I said no...his ear is dripping pus. BLECH!

While I was there, I asked her to check into his coughing and hacking up fluid. I told her I thought it was Congestive Heart Failure, but was hoping that instead it was related to his insane weight gain. Probably not, she said. She took an x-ray and showed me the results. Very cloudy, fluid filled lungs, and a bottle cap lodged in his stomach. I asked if it was very mild or just mild heart failure. She said "this is very severe, if you don't get him on meds, he has about 2 more weeks left to live".

WAH!

I told her we knew he was dying, he is an old dog, but he's full of life still. We were hoping that he would just go in his sleep. She said that doesn't happen with this type of heart failure.

I told her we'd agree to the meds to make his life more comfortable. She gave him a one month supply and told me to prepare my family for his death, because we don't have alot of time.

WAH!

Bubba is still very active and full of life. He can't get around like he used to, but he loves playing with the kids and still wants to act like a puppy.

As for the bottle cap, she suggested x-rays and surgery. FOR MY DYING DOG?!??!? NO. Not even close. It could have gotten lodged in there today, it could have happened 12 years ago. Not worrying about it at this point.

Sorry to share this so publically, but I really don't want to tell the story more than once.

Pictures!

YAY Spring is finally here. However fleeting it may be, it's nice when it's here. All of the trees are in bloom, when I moved here I thought it was so far north that I'd never see a flowering dogwood or crabapple again. But their is more HERE than where I came from. And tons of lilac bushes. Mine's always a late bloomer, so it won't be ready for another week or so.

I took the girls to a friend's house and used her tree for a photo shoot. Enjoy!

Ten Things I Like About ____________

Sorry ladies I'm late doing my Top 10. I didn't see a post on the board so I stole this topic from LK....

And is it supposed to be like about or love about? I'll do both.

In no particular order....

1. Emily: The fact that every day when she gets off the bus, she runs up to me yelling "MOMMY" like she's so happy to see me. She's the only person in the world to show that much enthusiasm for me.

2. Maicy: Her very determined big girl way of doing things. She has no clue she's little and can't keep up. If the big girls are on the trampoline, she's on the trampoline.

3. My husband: He makes me laugh, he's always so funny. The other night the girls were talking about what they look for in a man, and they mentioned all of these body parts and I'm like "he just has to make me laugh".

4. Arizona: Well of course I'd write about home. I love the desert in the winter and spring, I love the mountains in the summer and fall. I lived there for 23 years and I miss it very much.

5. Where I live now: There's so much to do here. Indiana had NOTHING to do. Nothing. One park for a town of 60,000, and no recreation district to speak of. We move here and it's like a whole new world of opportunities.

6. My friends: What a great group of people that I've met up here. I enjoy the camraderie and the open door policy. I like that I can come home from being gone and find a bag of peaches and corn on the counter as a surprise from a friend. Or have another friend invite me over for impromptu drinks on a Sunday afternoon. Or another friend who will watch my kids at the drop of the hat, and if I'm angry, she will get angry right along with me, even if she doesn't agree with me.

7. Exercising: OK so it doesn't show, but I go to the gym 4-5 days a week, not for the weight loss (even though that would be nice) but for the fact that when I'm there, I'm not a Mom, not a wife, not an employee. I have no labels to define me and I can just be me. And get lost in my thoughts. Which I do quite often. That and listen to a whole lot of Green Day. Their NEW stuff, which who would have thought that I, a staunch right wing republican, would like the new left wing political Green Day.

8. Flying: Of course any pilot would mention flying. I like flying for the mastery of taming a large, complicated machine. I love the way my leg feels when I stomp on the right rudder to keep the plane on the runway. I love juggling my altitude, attitude, and airspeed to keep level flight. I love manipulating all of those and more to get back on the ground. All the while looking for traffic and working the radios. I like flying for the control and mastery of the task. Yes it's the engineer in me.

9. Roe Conn Show: Has this been the most constant thing in my life? Yes I do believe it is. I've been listening since 1998 and it still makes me laugh every single day. Well 5 days a week.

10. My Board: OK so some people don't get the fact that I can be friends with a group of internet gals. But how's that so different from a Pen Pal? I've met nearly every single one of the 20 gals on the board, talked to the majority of them on the phone. They're not strangers, I've known them since April 2000. Seven years now. They've been through every single complicated moment of my life and never stopped supporting me or being my friend. Ok so maybe a couple of them did, but who cares. They have been my sounding board, my "what the eff are you thinking" group, and just all over good friend group. And yes, I do keep some things secret from even them.