People of their word

I have been on disability for almost 10 yrs and Mike quite a bit shorter then that. And if there is one thing that we have painfully discovered is that there is no way we can live on our disability. We just found out today that the government in its infinite wisdom has decided that we need to pay out $95 a month for Medicare. Mike will opt out of Medicare because he has the VA, but I have to have this and we can ill afford to loose close to 100 dollars a month. So to this end we have been trying to get some work at home gigs going. We thought we had a sure thing going. About a month ago we got a free dinner and had to listen to a sales pitch for Master Guard fire alarms. To make a long story short Mike got a job offer from one of the gentleman in charge of selling this Master Guard alarms. It took us two weeks just to get an interview set up with this guy. He tells Mike that he will pay to get us set up with Ignite Electric(another long story), give Mike a cell phone to make calls and contacts to call. We were suppose (according to this bozo) be able to make good money. Well we were suckered. The old adage that if it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't proved true to us. Mike has been calling this guy leaving phone messages at his home and on his cell phone and has been sending him emails but he has not bothered to return one phone call. Not even a "Hey I'm really busy but I haven't forgotten about you". So Mike is going to call this guy and tell him to stuff his job where the sun doesn't shine. And we were really counting on this money to pay bills and pay to bring Tara & Elisa out here for the summer. We are currently talking to a lady online who will pay us for posting on forums. I can only hope that this isn't a scam either. If it is we will be in a world of hurt. It is frustrating and annoying to have people tell you something and not keep their word. I can't stand liars.

Spring storms yet again

Spring has definitely come to the state of Texas. For the past month we have been having storms once a week, usually on a Tuesday. For us in The Colony we have been fortunate in that the worse we have gotten was lots of rain and lightening. Others in the area have gotten tornados and flooding. This evening was not much different with the exception that we actually had tornado sirens going off in our area. We had a friend of ours from our church over for a visit and first we had to power go off. Then I was standing at the back door listening and could hear the sirens. At first Mike thought that it was a police siren, but then it got louder and we realized that we had to move to the hallway. We had candles lit in the living room and we just sat and talked for about 5 minutes or so, then Mike opened the front door and the sirens were off. We got power back about half an hour later. We were lucky there also. Just down the street from where we live, the power had not been restored as of about 9 pm. I will be curious to see if any of the other cities got tornados. I know some areas had a lot of flooding. This will help the drought immensely.

Texas Tornados

Ah Spring, the time where a young mans' fancy turns to love and everyone who lives in tornado alley holds their breaths, waiting to hear that dreaded siren and run for their lives. We have had two storms over the past two weeks that have produced tornados. There has been only one death when a young man hid behind a stack of lumber and suffered a heart attack when the wood fell on him. Not to bright, but considering we have had a total of 12 tornados in the Metro Plex, it could have been worse. Yesterday we had some storms move through and Fort Worth area had several tornados touch down. Mike and I were taking a nap and when our alarm clock went off the radio station was telling everyone about the tornado warning. We got up and turned on the TV and watched with much concern the line of vivid orange and red colors that were heading our way. Sandy had an appointment with her therapist and we called and canceled that when we heard that Denton county (where we live) was also under a tornado warning. We had told her we would pick her up after school so when the time arrived, Mike went out to get her. She comes home and tells us that the school officials had them in the halls because a funnel cloud was over the high school. She said the sirens were going off and the principals were on the PA system, telling them to stay where they were. What worried me was that the sirens were going off and we did not hear them! More then a slight concern. So we are going to get an all weather radio alarm clock that is connected to Noah weather radio and will go off if there is an alarm of any kind in our area. I will admit that I am terrified of tornados and if it were possible I would spend March through October in an under ground shelter. Perhaps when we build our own house we can do something like that.

Yet more proof that men don't have a brain

Mike did something yesterday evening that confirms what I have been saying for years. Men have no brains. It got chilly last night and we decided to build a fire. We had used sticks and boards we had found around the neighborhood. One stick, while brittle, was too long to fit in the fireplace. Mike goes out into the garage to break it. He leaned it against an empty kitty litter bucket, with plans to snap it in half. He puts one foot on the bucket (you can see where this is going) lifts his other foot and at that time the bucket crumples and shoots out from under him and down he goes. I am in the living room adding pieces of wood when I hear a thud then "Ouch, that was really stupid". My first thought was "Oh God! He has fallen and hurt himself." I go out into the garage to find him on his feet, holding his right upper arm. I ask if he is OK and he says he doesn't know. I look down and find the bucket in pieces and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what has happened. I ask him what happened and he tells me the sordid details. He is fine, thank Good. He has a bruised arm, scraped back and shoulder and wounded pride. I told him that from this point forward, if he gets anymore of these "brilliant" ideas to run them past me first. He will never live this one down.

How stupid can you get?

There was a story in tonights (4/4/07) news about a woman who came home to find her apartment being burglarized. She watched until they left and then followed them. At some point they realized that they were being followed and started shooting at her. She was very lucky, she walked away with only a flesh wound to her lower arm. What really upsets me is that this idiot woman had her three kids in the van with her. They were unharmed, but can you imagine the terror these poor kids felt as bullets were hitting the car that they were riding in? This poor excuse for a woman admits that she shouldn't have done this absolutely stupid stunt. My take on this is that she should be charged with reckless endangerment of her kids and CPS should be brought in and those kids taken from her. At least until she proves that she is putting the kid's welfare above her own.

Terrorists, Grandma and coughing teenagers beware!

Not only do terrorists and your grandma need to be aware that they may be booted off a plane, but now our teenagers need to be worried. There was a sixteen year old girl who was booted off of a plane because the pilot felt that "she was a risk to the other passengers". She was on a class trip to Washington D.C. and New York. She caught a cold while she was there and when she boarded a Continental plane to come home she fell asleep. She woke up and started coughing and couldn't catch her breath. After a few minutes she was fine. Her friend said it was just that annoying little tickle that you just can't seem to get rid of. She was examined by a doctor that was on the plane and was determined not to be a threat to the other passengers. But the pilot insisted that she leave anyway. She had to spend an additional night in New York with a teacher. Continental left them to find their own lodging and they had to pay for clothes and toiletries because all of their things were on the plane on the way home. Continental said they would pay for the hotel room only. The mother talked to someone from Continental who said the matter would be dealt with internally. If any of my daughters were treated this way I would sue Continental for everything I could get. You just don't boot kids off of a plane because they have a cold. You best be sure you don't have allergies or asthma if you fly on this airline. Especially after they have been examined by a doctor and deemed not to be a threat. You can be I will never use Continental Airlines.

Hot topic

We have a very sensitive topic around here. It's called illegal immigration. There are several states that are on the front lines as it were in dealing with this growing problem Texas, California and Florida. There is a small city where we use to live called Farmers Branch. There is a large Latino population living there and local law makers have put a ballet forward to make it illegal to rent apartments to undocumented immigrates. Now I am of the opinion that if you are here illegally, then you have no business being here. What sort of ticks me off about this is that there are people who don't live in Farmers Branch who are contributing large amounts of money to the against camp. Which means that these people are tipping the scales toward making it legal to rent to illegals. Somehow this seems wrong. If you live in Farmers Branch and are swimming in the bucks then by all means contribute how you feel toward this ballet. But there are rich cities around Farmers Branch who are sticking their noses in business they have no real right to be in. If you feel that strongly about illegal immigration then start your own ballet,. Now I know that what happens in Farmers Branch will set a precedence for the rest of the country, but it seems wrong that other cities can and are swaying the outcome. I have also read that a person who is working in the against camp was arrested for removing for signs from businesses and some people who live in Farmers Branch are afraid to put signs in their lawns for fear of reprisals. I feel for the people who live in Farmers Branch and I am glad we no longer live there.

Trying a new angle

As you are aware Sandy is in JROTC and wants to join the Air Force. You are also aware of some of the problems we have been having with Sandy. Today we had some rule breaking, snotty attitude, disrespect, ect. Mike & I have decided once and for all that we are sick and tired of all this "typical" 15 yr old behavior. So we are going to implement a military household. She will respond with "Yes sir/Ma'am-No sir/Ma'am". And we will call her by Cadet or Cadet Bacon. We are going to start implementing Non Judicial Punishment. Which basically means that she will be written up and treated as she would be if she was in the military. Since I am the Commander in Chief I get to decide what her punishment will be. At first it was 24 hrs without her computer as a night light, 5 push-ups, 5 sit-ups, 50 jumping jacks and running around the block once. She took this pretty well. Then I was reading a report that she has to do in ROTC. It has to be 8 minutes on any subject. I suggested that she write about wolves. She has been working on this since Saturday. She had three pages computer typed. As I read this I realized that most of what she had written was taken directly from the information she got off of an internet page we printed for her. I made the comment that I should make her do it over completely when I came across a sentence that went something like this. Pups will pounce on each other and old bones to practice their hunting skills and as people say practice makes perfect. Add that to a statement about wolves hanging out together after they have hunted just didn't work for me. When I made that comment she stomped off in a huff and it went down hill from there. Mike was talking to her like a DI (Drill Instructor) would and all she could do was stand at attention and laugh. That ticked him off more. She was not taking this seriously and we were very serious. So her punishment was doubled and she was told that she would get it added to if she kept up the stinky attitude. It will take a little time but she will come to realize that we are serious about making this a military household and anything she does that breaks the house rules will be dealt with in this manner.

Where NOT to go to school!!!!!

A few years back I decided that I wanted to improve my lot in life and to that end I initially decided that I would attend Capella College online. I went there for about 8 months and for various reasons I decided that this college was not for me and that I needed to take a break from school. I recently decided that I wanted to take up the college torch again. Mike & I had looked into the possibility of going to Kaplan online. We contacted them and the admissions rep, one very nice gentleman by the name of Dwight Fields contacted us. We started the looong process of filling out the initial entrance paperwork (online). We went in and changed our FAFSA and sent the confirmation to Dwight. We then talked to Trica, the financial aid adviser. She then transferred us back to Dwight. We talked to him for a bit longer. Then we got transferred to a Donna Herman, who was suppose to be our school adviser. This broad was, for lack of a better word, ditzy. At one point she bubbled "Isn't this fun?" Uh-huh, yeah right. We were then told that to insure that we were "serious about going to school we had to come up with a $95 admission fee which would not be part of our tuition and would this be a problem". We said it would be a major problem as we are on disability and can't afford that kind of a fee. We were then told of a scholarship that is available to students in financial need that they would be more then happy to help us get. We said sure, why not. We were told that we had to write a 250 word minimum essay on why Kaplan College, why now and why we needed this scholarship. OK, no problem there. At no point was it indicated that this essay had to be done today. We filled out more forms then told Dwight that we had to break for dinner. Our first phone call from him was at 2:00 p.m. and this was now after 6. We broke for dinner and I wanted to go for a walk. While Sandy was doing the dishes, we get an email with someone Else's information on it. Very sensitive information like SSN, address, phone ect. Whoops! Someone frucked up big time there. Dwight said he must have sent the information to the wrong person. NO!! Ya think!!!!???? That should have been our first major clue. He seemed to be alittle put out that we had to break for dinner. There was more information that he was trying to send to us but was not showing up in Mike's email fast enough. More phone calls ensued. He said he would call us back after checking on something. We waited a bit for him to call back, but finally decided that we would go ahead and take our walk. The phone was ringing while we walked out the door. Sheesh! Talk about over enthusiastic. I wondered aloud to Mike if perhaps he was working for a commission. I've dealt with used car salesmen who weren't as pushy. We get back and by this time I am mentally and physically exhausted, so while Mike was occupied with other things, let the phone ring......and ring............and ring. Mike calls Dwight back and he is wondering if something was wrong. We told him we had to run an errand. He starts pushing us to get the essay in right away. At first we reluctantly agree then decided that we needed to take a break and emailed Dwight that we would get to the essay later that evening and he would have it on his desk in the morning. We get another phone call from Dwight, again saying we HAVE to get this in immediately. Mike trys to tell him that we have hit a brick wall and need some down time and he puts the director of the admissions scholarships on the phone. Mike talks to her for a minute or two then says to me "You talk to her, maybe you can get through to her" and hands the phone to me. She trys to tell me that this damn essay just HAS to be in right now, that her staff is already working overtime to get us processed and that this is a one time only deal and if we don't get it in right now it won't be available later. I ask for just an hour, that this essay needs to be good and if it is going to be good we need to recharge our batteries and she tells me that if I give her a chance she will walk us through it to make it easier for us. Now how is she going to do that I might ask? All she is doing at this point is pressuring us to do something that we are willing to do if she just backs off and gives us an hour. We did not ask anyone to stay over and work overtime. I told her to forget it that we are no longer interested in going to Kaplan and hung up on her sorry ass. We get one more phone call which we did not pick up and whomever called did not leave a message on our voice mail.

We have since received a very insulting email from this lady saying that obviously we were not serious students if we needed to take a break. We have written an email to the head of Kaplan informing him of the practices of his Florida office (where we were going to go), the email we got with someone else's sensitive information on it and that we have no plans of ever going to Kaplan. We have also emailed the gentleman whose information we received by accident, telling him what happened and we are also going to try phoning him tomorrow. It just amazes me how hard these people were pushing us to get this one little thing done. Makes me really wonder if these people do get some sort of a commission if they get students in by a certain deadline. I mean, we were not going to be able to start classes until April 18, so what was the all fire rush to get us to submit an essay in less then 20 minutes? Did they wants us to do a sloppy job so they could say no to the help we were getting? Did they think that if they turned us down for the help on the admissions fee we would be able to cough up the money after all? Did they not want to give us the assistance? Gotta wonder.

Lazy Sunday

Today we were kidless so decided that we would sleep in a bit and just go to church. I was surprised at how few people showed up. I tried to call Tara & Elisa today but nobody was home. I tried calling yesterday but the first time I got a busy signal and the second time I got no answer. This is typical. I keep a phone record of when I call and when he calls. More often then not I am the one who makes the calls. Which is in contempt of the Missouri court order. He is suppose to let my girls call me every other week. I find myself lucky if they call me once a month. I checked the log yesterday and discovered (not to my surprise) that it had been a month since I had called and talked to them. I don't know if I can do anything about this right now seeing as the Missouri courts threw out my petition for a GAL. I think any other legal work that needs to be done will need to be done with a lawyer and that will require us to wait until we have more free money available. It really makes me angry that he gets away with so much crap.

Mike and I have started walking again. We only walk around the block but ya gotta start somewhere. I feel good about starting again. Another exciting day in the Bacon household.

Happy & Sad

Today we had a health fair at church. It was very good. There were several booths with various health topics. They had some senior citizens come in and play ukuleles and sing. At one point a gentleman's dentures came flying out. He made a good save and went on with the song. Too bad I didn't have a camcorder and could have sent it to American's Funniest Videos. There was a labyrinth that was very relaxing and enlightening. Basically it was a huge sheet that had a winding path painted on it that you followed to get into the middle. There was a basket with pieces of paper that had little scripture saying in it. You could journal if you felt the need. They served healthy lunch which for the most part wasn't too bad. Sandy has next week off for spring break. Our friend Mary offered to take Sandy for a few day to give everybody a break from each other. Mary use to teach ADHD kids so knows how to deal with Sandy's temper tantrums. However she did confide in me that their elderly Shetland Sheepdog Nikki is dieing. Neither one of us took that news too well. I don't know at this point if Sandy knows or if Mary will have to put Nikki to sleep. She is an old dog and lived a good long life. She is a sweetheart and just loved going out into the back yard and playing with Sandy. She will be missed. It brought up memories of when I had to put my dog Max down. He was as old as Nikki is now, but sometimes I wonder if I had done enough to save him. My parents went back east to settle my grandfather's accounts after he died a year before. I was going to my fiancé's grandmother's birthday party. We put Max into a kennel and they did not follow our directions on how to take care of him. I got him home and he had lost a lot of weight. I went back to work the next day and found that he had made about four messes (most of them in my parents room), justice if I ever saw it. I had asked that he be put down knowing that he would not survive being in a kennel, but my father couldn't do it. One of the few times that my so called mother didn't over rule him. So I took him to the vet and she gave him some fluids and he seemed to perk up, but she couldn't tell me if that would have been enough to keep him from making more messes and my mother was very clear that when the dog started messing her carpet up that she would put Max down. So I figured it would be easier to do it then rather then hear my bitchy mother complain about all the messes. I wouldn't have put it past her to take it out on the poor dog. But sometimes I wonder if I gave up on him too soon.

Thursday grocery shopping

Every Thursday Mike & I (or one of us) will go to an organization known as CCA. It stands for Catholic Community Action. It provides all sorts of help to people who need it. They have helped us get caught up on our utility bill and provide food vouchers. The food that you get there for the most part is pretty good. The amount of food you get is determined by the income and number of people in the house. They have frozen meat like hamburgers, chicken, turkey rolls, sometimes diet food and today gallon containers of ice cream. I was really tempted to pick up some of the ice cream. But we are allowed three frozen items and I figured it would be better to get actual food as opposed to junk food. Besides our freezer was filled to the brim with bread. Each time we go we are allowed five loaves of bread. Which is far more then what we normally eat. We have tried to tell them that we don't need that much but they are very insistent. We finally got to the point where we pulled out what we thought we would not eat and gave it away to the neighbors across the street. So we did our good deed for the day. Now our freezer isn't as full and we can put other things into it (no not ice cream as much as I would like to) we can go out and buy some meat on sale to give us a little more variety.

Invasion of the kitty snatchers

I don't know if any of you have seen the old movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? But it's a movie (and I am sure I will get this wrong as I have only see it once and that was in 8th grade. Memory is not what it use to be and SOME of us don't have a brain filled with useless movie information) about these plants that suddenly appear on earth and these plants change you while you are asleep. You look the same but don't act the same. Now you are asking what this has to do with our four footed kids. We currently have two cats and one kitten. Jenny, our Calico, is the oldest at 4 and is the "typical" cat in that she will give you affection when she deems that SHE wants it. She views her humans as people who are here to cater to her.....i.e a cat. Shadow is our black Siamese mix and he is 3. He is a talker and thinks he is a dog. He will wag his tail and play fetch with you for as long as his toy will hold out. He use to be the lover of our family until we brought Mac into the mix this past June. Mac is an orange Tabby who will purr the moment you pick him up. He loves to make bread on me and the down side to this (other then his claws that need to be clipped every two days it seems like) is that while he is making bread he will also make a puddle of drool. He is also the resident bully. He loves to torment Shadow to distraction.

Now the past week or so Shadow and Jenny have traded places. Shadow has turned into a butt head. He has been growling at Sandy (something he has not done in about a year) and he wants very little to do with me (which is unusual). He will stiffen up when he gets picked up and he complain when you pick him up and put him down. He will not sleep next to me at night, he might sleep next to Mike, provided that Mac hasn't chased him off. Jenny on the other hand has been super affectionate to me, jumping in my lap, sleeping next to me (which in very rare) and following me around the house. It's like these two cats have traded places.

Rain, rain please come again another day

As Mike mentioned we got a storm that moved through about 4 p.m. The sky got all dark and soon we had rumble booms (my name for thunder) then it started to pour. Our little town even got on the news as one of the areas that got the most rain. Usually when we have storms we are missed. If we are lucky we will get some gusty winds and maybe some sprinkles and that will be it. I use to be terrified of thunder and lightening as a kid but somewhere along the line I find them fascinating. I will stand under an overhang or porch and just watch the storm move through. I love the smell of rain and hearing it on the roof is so relaxing. I do have some concerns as we are living in tornado alley, so in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning I will stay up just to be sure that there no tornado warnings I should be aware of. Until we get a decent underground shelter, not a basement, I won't sleep easy from the months of March through November. But then who am I fooling, I don't sleep much anyway, so there is not much difference.

Oldie, moldy poems

I have dredged up some poems I wrote way back when I was in high school. Some of them are upbeat and others are...................well...............a bit depressing. But what can I say? I was in high school, I was a walking hormone. I hope you like.

Rain:

Down came the rain in sheets of dismal gray. To fall upon the earth, to bring forth new shades of green. Spring has come, life has begun. The cycle is renewed, life is complete.

Glory:

Laying alone in the dark I let my mind and soul rise above the strife and poverty. And as I drift over the crowded tenements and crime infested streets, my heart is saddened at the thought of leaving. But there is peace in my heart also. For at last I have triumphed over all.

Awakenings:

Standing on the hill facing the rising sun, my heart flies like a soaring eagle. As the horizon slowly turns crimson, my soul is freed to roam this land. As I drift above the earth I see the boundless beauty that can only improve with time. Beauty that will last for countless generations.

Spring has arrived in Texas................for the moment

I noticed while out doing yard work yesterday that the trees and birds think that spring has arrived. A few trees in our neighborhood had burst into flower. We have a male and female Cardinal feeding at our feeder and sitting in our big tree. I heard the first lawn mower today and the balmy air feels nice. But there is a motto here, if you don't like the weather in Texas just wait five minutes. This could change, after all it is only March. And the old saying goes March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I have to say my favorite season is Spring. I have a poem about spring that I will have to post soon. However I am not looking forward to summer's heat. Oh well, at least it doesn't last as long as the heat in Phoenix.

Yard work

Yesterday was Saturday and it was a perfect day for doing some yard work. I raked the leaves in the back yard and Sandy followed picking them up and putting them in the trash bucket. We didn't get the entire yard done, gut it looks alot better. Note to self tho *Self, be sure to do this activity in the fall when you are not fighting with the growing weeds*. Mike & I got into yet another row with Sandy (what else is new). She had decided to spend last Sunday with a friend from church (and of course she couldn't decide to do her laundry on Saturday). She got home too late to do her laundry on Sunday, so it waited until this Saturday. We have told her over and over that doing her laundry while we are still sleeping is not a problem, but she "forgot". Now while I understand she was trying to be thoughtful, we have given her permission to use the washer and dryer to get her clothes washed. Seeing as I was barely awake when she started her laundry I didn't pay attention to what she was doing. About 20 minutes into the wash cycle I look over at her basket and see that it is empty. She had taken two weeks of laundry and stuffed them into my washer. I have showed her over and over just how much laundry constitutes one load and yet she still stuffs all of her clothes into my washer. Well we had more then a few words with her. The washer finished with out exploding or dieing in the process but I will see what happens when I do our next load. Since I can't trust her to do as she is told I will have to do her laundry on top of all the other chores I have to do around here since Mike is laid up with his back. We both cleaned/raked so much that both of us didn't make it to church today.

We still don't know about her World Geography grade as the teacher hasn't posted the test that she took at the end of last week. However we did find one project of maps that was worth 400 points that she managed to loose. She made no attempt to talk to the teacher to see if she could do something to make up these points and there was another project that she had 5 days to complete and in typical Sandy fashion put it off until the last day (probably Friday morning) and she "didn't get enough time to complete it" and did not turn in what she had done (if anything). I think that project was worth 200 points. So while she did thinks she did well on her test and had brought her grade up to just below a D, we don't know what it is at this point. We will have to contact her contact teacher Coach Herrod to see if she can find out what her final grade is in this class. If she has flunked this I don't know what this will do to her chance of graduating from the Freshman class. I can hope that she will be able to take summer school, other wise she will have to repeat her Freshman year, or at least that class which will put her one class minimum behind where she should be through the next three years. We have an ARD meeting in April to discuss her future options. We will also have to contact the Air Force, Army & Navy to see if they have a minimum grade GPA to get into basic. Let's just hope and pray that she makes up her mind to graduate and make a life for herself. Mike & I certainly can't make her do the work let alone turn it in. She has to be the one who wants more for her life then flipping burgers or ending up with 5 kids on the welfare system with a boyfriend who will not work to support his kids and beat down Sandy.

Start of spring cleaning

Today Sandy came home early because she had testing. Mike put her to work washing and waxing our car. And naturally it is suppose to rain on Sunday. Oh well, it needed it. Anyway I took the time that Sandy was otherwise occupied to clean out her dresser and closet. Any clothes that she had not worn in the past three months or was what I determined to be too small was put into a large garbage bag. I ended up with two bags stuffed to the gills (do garbage bags even have gills?). I put the bags in our room figuring that if I put them in the garage Sandy would go through them and pick out what she felt she still needed. However I forgot to take into account that we have two kittys that just love to shred plastic of any sort. So I walked into our room a few hours later to find one bag shredded. I hope no one swallowed any pieces. I guess we will find out soon enough. Mike then tried to get Sandy to rake our back yard. She had no clue and did not get a clue on how to do it even after Mike showed her several times. I will have to go out tomorrow and finish what she didn't do and she can follow behind me and pick up the piles.

We got an email from Sandy's contact and Algebra 1 teacher. It seems she is a distraction in the tutoring class as well as her Biology class. She takes after her father, she talkes too much. She is no longer allowed to have any time on the school computer unless a teacher insists on it. The only reason Sandy is doing and turning in her work is because of this teacher. Both the Algebra and the Biology teacher feel that she can do the work, she is just lazy and refuses to do it. Mike and I feel that it would be better if Sandy was put into Special Education classes, at least for the time being. Until she decides that she wants to pass her Freshman year and eventually graduate. In a strange way this news is encouraging..................to us anyway. It's kind of nice to know that we are not the only ones that Sandy is giving a hard time to.

Busted again............................naturally

I keep thinking that someday Sandy will learn that she can't get anything past us. This morning I got up with Mike. I was going to my ladies bible study and Mike was going to the food bank to get our weekly allotment of food. At 7:45 this morning (the time that Sandy is allowed to leave to catch her bus) I hear her trying very hard to walk quietly down the hall. I look up and she is about to walk out the door and see that she is walking out with sandals on her feet. It was far too cold for her to wear them to school and she did not ask if she could wear them. So I told her that she needed to turn her butt around and change into sneakers and that she is not allowed to wear sandals to school. She turns around, goes into her room for about 30 seconds and stomps out the door, yelling bye over her shoulder and slamming the door. I turn to Mike and say "She was not a happy camper about changing her shoes". He says "Oh well, she will get over it. I would have considered letting her wear them if she had asked and it was the last day of school". Since we can't trust Sandy to do as she is told I decided that I would take her sandals into our bedroom so she would have to ask before she can wear them. I search her room top to bottom and could not find her sandals. I figured she put them in her backpack. When she walked in the door this evening after school, I searched her backpack, but could not find the sandals. I asked her where her sandals were and she gets this "Oh crap I'm busted again" look on her face. She just gives me a blank look. Mike asks her if they are in her locker and she said yes. I asked her how they got there and she gave me another blank look. I said you took them to school after you were told not to, didn't you? She was honest enough to say yes. I told her to bring them home and that she was going to loose them. She was not too happy but right now she is lucky to even have shoes. I will not tolerate disobedience and lying.

Something I did not know

I have lived with animals, mostly dogs (well one dog) and several cats all my life. I used to work at the Toledo Zoo and have watched all sorts of animal programs. I have also read lots of books on how to take care of dogs, cats, horses ect. So I consider myself, well not an expert, but knowledgeable on the animals that live with and around us. But I have to say that today I learned something that I was not aware of. I guess you could say that a day you don't learn something new is a day that is lost to you, but this was something that I can honestly say that I would have been happier not knowing. I was in the bathroom taking care of a few necessities and our black Siamese Shadow wandered into the bathroom to see what I was doing. After rubbing up against me a few times he wandered into the shower. About three seconds later I heard my cat belch. Yes, a full blown, very rude sounding belch. I was so surprised. I did not know that cats could belch. I know that alot of animals fart, but a belching cat was a new one on me. I moved the shower curtain and said "Goodness sakes Shadow, need a napkin or something"? He ran out of the shower and stopped in the doorway. He had the good grace to look embarrassed. So I have learned something new today.

Huh?

Sandy's high school has been offering a program after school to help students who want help with core subjects-Math, World Geography, English ect. The program offers teachers and students who can help tutor kids who need help. These people are available in the library from 4:15 when school is dismissed to 6:15. Busses are provided to bring students home. Sandy has been taking advantage of this program for the past three weeks or so. When she started staying late she would walk through the door about 6:45. We were not too happy with this time frame but we did notice right away that Sandy was turning in her homework and thus bringing up her grade in World Geography and was getting additional help with Algebra, which has helped keep her grade at a even level. However as time went by she was slowly getting home later and later. At first we thought that she had taken off on us. This was on a day that Mike & Sandy had gotten into a fight before she left for school. As it turned out she was on the bus, it was just that the bus had alot of kids who needed to be dropped off. Well tonite she didn't get home until 7:45. Sandy told us that the bus driver lets off each student riding the evening bus at their home. Mike and I admitted that as much as we like having her take the bus at night, it was time for us to pick her up at 6:15. Thank goodness we now have a car to do this with. For about two months we were without any transportation. We sent an email to the 9th grade principal complaining about the late drop offs and suggesting that maybe a second bus would be advisable. Each grade has it's own principal. That is a first for us. Sandy's principal sent us an email back saying that there is not enough students riding the bus home each night to warrant another bus. Excuse me? This program runs until 6:15. Sandy's bus route is the longest route on the school run. The bus driver lets off each student at their house. Sandy isn't getting home until a minimum of an hour and a half after she is dismissed and I am certain that she is not the last student that is dropped off. By the time she finishes eating it is after 8 p.m. Her bedtime has been moved from 8:30 to 9:00. At this late hour her Adderall is no longer in her system, which means she can't stay focused on her homework. This principal was also yelping at parents the importance of students getting 8-10 hours of sleep a day. You do the math. And she can sit there and tell us that this doesn't warrant another bus? Again, what is wrong with this picture.

Missouri, the state that refuses to come into the 21st century

As some of you may or may not be aware we have two other daughters who currently live with my jerk of an ex. I won't go into all the details because that would take all night, but I have filed child abuse charges against my ex. I filed all the appropriate paperwork, was given leave by the courts to proceed as a poor person. My ex was given the same permission. We get assigned a Guardian Ad Litem or GAL. This person works for the state and is assigned to cases of neglect and alleged abuse. This person will investigate the home, talk to people and more importantly talk to the kids without the parents around. They are specially trained to spot the signs of abuse and they are the voice of the kids rights in court settings. Well this, and you will excuse my language as I am still extremely angry, bitch sends both of us a letter stating that she wants the two of us to deposit $500 "to insure that she gets paid seeing as she has been stiffed (not her term) before". Now what is wrong with this picture? You are going before a judge in a court of law and ask that two people who have been given permission by the courts to proceed as poor people (in other words we are too damn poor to pay the courts fees) to pay a grand to do a job that the state pays her to do!!!!!!! I send her a copy of the court order giving me permission to proceed as a poor person and tell her that I am on disability and can't pay her fee. She petitions the court to have the case dismissed. The first court date was set for February 26th. The big day arrives and the only one to show is the person who is having charges of child abuse filed against him. The GAL had a case in another county and could not be there and seeing as her fee had not been paid she wanted the case dismissed. The judge rules that since my ex was the only one who shows, and he can't hear a case with only one person there, the case will be rescheduled for a date to be determined later. This past Saturday, March 3, I receive a letter for this wonderful employee of the state, wanting the judge to dismiss the case set for MARCH 1!!!!!. Say what???? What court date???? Nobody bothered to inform me of this. This paperwork is dated February 28th. Now granted I couldn't be there in person, but I should have been notified of this date. If I had known that the date was set up I would have sent more information to the judge against my ex. And to add insult to injury, I get paperwork from the court informing me that the hearing had been set for March 1 and that the case has been dismissed. This paperwork was dated March 2. Upon further looking at the calender I discover that only three days had passed from the original court date and the second. Hearings only get heard this fast in soap operas. Yet again I try to do the right thing for my kids and the state of Missouri kicks me in the stomach.

As I see it the state of Missouri just told me that unless you are rich and can afford to hire a lawyer don't bother to fight for your kids rights. You will get screwed, glued and tattooed.

Was this really a good idea?

I was born and lived 10 yrs in Indiana and lived another 10 years of my life in Ohio. I grew up in tornado alley and knew all the steps to take if I was in a car, building, school, church or even out in the open to avoid being hurt/killed when I encountered a tornado (and if you live in tornado alley it will be a when). Two days ago a massive storm tore through parts of Alabama, Georgia and Missouri. Twenty people were killed, eight of them students at an Alabama high school. The town of Enterprise was warned three hours ahead of time that the storm would be moving through. Warning sirens blared at 10:30 a.m., the tornado hit at 1:15 p.m. School officials moved the students into the hallways at that time the sirens went off (what you are suppose to do). The officials dismissed school at 1:00 p.m. but most decided to stay. Survivors at the scene told of huddling in the auditorium. Now the way to survive a tornado if a basement is not at hand is to get into an interior room, hallway or bathroom and huddle under a blanket or mattress (yeah like most of us are capable of hauling our mattresses off our beds and into a bathroom). That being said why in the bloody hell did the teachers move the students from the hallways into the auditorium? Why did they even have school in session when the administrators were warned that morning that a massive storm was going through the area. I think it would have been far better (to a certain degree) that the students be left in the care of their parents at home. Yes you still would have had fatalities but you would not have had frantic parents rushing to the school, trying to find their kids. You wouldn't have had distraught parents digging through piles of rubble looking for their kids, and even worse then that, finding them dead. I can't even being to imagine shifting through tons of rubble, wondering if I was going to find the arm or leg of my dead child. I just shudder at the thought. I saw satellite images of that storm, so the people living in that area had to have seen it also. There is no way I would have sent my kids out in that kind of a storm, knowing that a tornado is always a possibility. There is not one state in the United States that doesn't have the capability of producing a tornado. It's just some states are at a higher risk. My prayers go out to the parents of the dead students and the survivors of those storms.

Trying something different

I could rant yet again about Sandy, but I'm sure you are tired of hearing me rag on the kid and have made your own opinions about my parenting abilities. But I will say this, Mike & I are trying something new. With a help of a friend (and you know who you are) we realized that we can't make Sandy do her homework or hand it in. We extended her bedtime and told her that we were no longer going to argue with her about doing her homework. She knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be turned in. We will help her if she needs it, all she has to do is ask. But beyond that, she is on her own. We are done with the fights and snotty attitudes. We have told her that she has to get passing grades in three of her four classes and that if she fails any of them she will either have to take summer school (if the school even offers those classes during the summer) or she will have to repeat her freshman year. We don't know yet if the Air Force has minimum requirements grade wise to get in or if she fails any grade how that will effect her ability to get into the Air Force If she ends up taking summer school then she will be missing out on some time with her sisters and the fun things we will do with them. She won't be entirely left out but I won't sit at home with Tara and Elisa while Sandy is in summer school. The kid has to learn the hard way on her own.

Bad day for Sandy

Sandy had herself a bad day all the way around starting with breakfast and not ending until well after dinner. I guess she got difficult with Mike this morning. We had fixed sausage scrambled eggs with hash browns. Mike asked if she wanted bread and she said no. Then I guess she changed her mind and wanted bread after all, so Mike said she could have butter bread. Then she decides that she wants peanut butter and Mike reluctantly agreed, more to shut her up then anything else. Well I guess she tried to spread it with a spoon and that just set Mike off, which in turn set Sandy off. She also was dawdling to where Mike had to boot her out the door for school. I don't know what kind of a day she had at school, but she almost got reamed by us when she was almost 15 min late getting home from school. Mike and I were certain she had taken off as she was mad at Mike when she walked out the door before school. As it turned out her bus was running late so she didn't even know that we were about to chew her a new one for making us worry. She has been know to take off, not be where she said she was going to be, stop at a friends house or stop to play with a young animal. So we are justified when she is late thinking that she is pulling something. We asked her if she had any homework and she said a little that wouldn't take her but a few minutes to do. During dinner she announced that some boy at school was going to cut her a CD. We told her we wanted to listen to it first as she admitted that she did not know what this boy was cutting for her. That started a battle in and of its self. By the time we were done with dinner it was 7:45 and her normal bedtime is 8:30. I asked her about her homework and she said all she had to do was Algebra which she needed help to do. I talked to Mike and we agreed that she wouldn't have to do her chores and could stay up until 9:00 to try to get something done on her homework. When she said she would need help from her Algebra teacher to get her homework done I told her that her bedtime was back to 8:30 and low and behold she has World Geography to do. It had just "popped" into her head as she and I were talking. Well I blew up and I told Mike that he needed to deal with her as I was not in the right frame of mind to do so. That started yet another argument that led to a lecture that went in one ear and out the other. I don't know what her problem was but she best be in a better mood when she gets home from school or we all will butt heads yet again. Both Mike and I are sick and tired of her crappy attitude.

General update

This is the latest from the Bacon household. Sandy went back to school today. Yeah! She claims to have gotten caught up from the three days she missed. We shall see soon enough. The teachers post the student's grades on-line, so we can see for ourselves. As Mike stated Sandy got caught with her Ipod. She admitted that she did think we would find out and was just being stupid. I applaud her honesty if nothing else. We haven't decided what her punishment will be yet, but it will be a good one.

Mike's back was feeling a little better so he tried to help me out by doing some of the cooking. Now his back is messed up again. We just can't seem to win with that. The only thing I can think of doing is taking over again, he relaxes and I sleep in while he gets up with Sandy in the morning. That seems to work for the most part. I almost wonder if walking on his back would do any good. Knowing my luck I would break his back and then I would feel like a shit. We need to hire a masseuse to give him back rubs and me back and hip massages. If only! It would also be nice to get a hot tub. Ah some day.

The Missouri courts have ruled that my court date will have to be rescheduled. The GAL couldn't be bothered to show up. As far as she was concerned the case should be thrown out because we didn't pay her $1000 fee. Her excuse was that she didn't want to make the trip into Fulton if she wasn't going to get paid. So now she will have to make a trip out when the judge reschedules the court date. So I still have a chance to get this thing investigated. And if I feel she isn't doing a good enough job I will request that the courts censure her and ask for a different GAL. Brian just may give in just to get me to leave him alone. Yeah, as if. But a woman can dream alittle.

Free to good home, one 15 yr old daughter

I just amazes me, and it shouldn't, just how much Sandy thinks she can get away with. The past two days we have been battling with her to brush her teeth. Last night she went to bed around 8:30 pm and went straight to bed without brushing her teeth. I went into our bathroom at the same time she did went into hers and when I came out a minute later she was already in bed. I asked her if she had brushed her teeth and she said yes. I replied with "What, in two seconds?" And she came back with yes, in one second. I told her that one second brushing is definitely not brushing one's teeth and she needed to redo this task. She came stomping out and ten seconds later closed her bedroom door. So this evening she went to bed and I suspected that yet again she had not brushed her teeth, so I went into her bathroom and looked high and low and could not find her toothbrush. I have no idea what she did with it or how long she has been without a toothbrush. We will have to soak one of our old toothbrushes in peroxide so she has a toothbrush seeing as we don't have the funds to get her a new one. And even if we did have the funds to get her a new toothbrush I wouldn't buy her one because she is still sick. I would normally wait a few more days and was sure she had thrown the cold off before I would buy her a new toothbrush. SO not only do we have to check to be sure she takes her pills morning and night I will have to stand there and make sure she washes her hands and brushes her teeth. Just what I want to do with my morning and evening, police a 15 yr old who is acting like a two year old.

Sick kid

Sandy has gotten herself a head cold and has been out of school since Wednesday. She has been coughing and sniffling and feeling sorry for herself. We have been keeping her confined to her room. She has been taking this personally, like we are punishing her or something. We keep telling her that neither one of us can afford to get sick. Me especially with my suppressed immune system. But that just garners tears of pity. We contacted her teachers and she will be getting her homework so that she doesn't get too far behind. What I am not sure about is that she was in the middle of taking the standardized tests when she got sick. So I hope that this doesn't affect her grades too badly. She will have her work cut out for her this weekend trying to get caught up in her school work. I suppose you think that I sound cold. In some respects I do. I am very angry with her right now. She has taken an Ipod that we had taken from her because her grades slipped. She has so little regard or respect for Mike & I and I just don't know what to do with her anymore. She is not being treated horribly, tho she would say otherwise, but she is not getting any "perks" that would be afforded to her if she hadn't taken the Ipod. I will be glad when she gets back to school, but her spring break will be coming up soon. That ought to be fun!

Clepto Kid

We have been having a problem lately with Sandy. She has been getting up in the middle of the night and eating any candy that we may have in the refrigerator. We had caught her stealing some Tootsie Rolls, we found the wrappers in her bedroom. We have a rule about no food in the bedrooms. She was caught red handed and had no reason why she did this. Then she got some candy from her prayer partner and I had told her that she was to ask before she ate any of it. And again she got into the candy when she was not suppose to. And now Mike and I have some chocolate chips in the refrigerator and she has been eating those also. We haven't confronted her about this yet mostly because I am not sure what her punishment will be. And if that isn't bad enough she got an Ipod for Christmas from a friend at church. I had my reservations about her having it but we told her that the charger had to stay in the living room and if her grades dropped the Ipod would be taken away, with the ability to get it back when her grades came up and if her attitude stayed good. She had it taken from her a few weeks ago due to bad grades and getting caught with candy in her room. Today I checked on the Ipod and found it gone. The charger was still there but the Ipod itself and the ear buds are missing. The only thing that could have happened to it is she has taken into her room or to school with her. We were going to confront her about it, but now we are going to wait for her to trip herself up. That Ipod won't keep a charge for very long and I have taken the charger and put it in our room. At some point she will ask where the charger is and that is when we will nail her. At that point we will either make her give it back to the friend who gave it to her with the explanation as to why she is returning it or we will give it to her sisters. It really makes me angry that we have to lock our TV, Mike has to lock his computer (which is in the living room) and any candy I don't want her to have has to be hidden in our room. It also makes us angry that she thought that we would not notice that the Ipod was missing. She keeps breaking all the rules. She has no respect for either Mike or I and our belongings. There is no reason for her to be raiding the refrigerator. She gets to eat all she wants at dinner. Mike thinks the only reason she is eating candy when she is not allowed to is because she is not allowed to. That is a blatant sign of disrespect and we are not sure what we are going to do about it.

Chili cook-off

Our church had a chili cook, proceed benefiting the youth group. Mike and I didn't make it to church today so we could attend the cook-off. No, Mike's back isn't any better, as much as he would like to think it is. This is a learning experience for the both of us. We are finding out what we will need to have prepared for when this happens again. It also made us realize that we need to have something in place in regards to Sandy if the both of us end up in the hospital at the same time. This is the wake up call we both needed.

Anyway, the chili cook-off went pretty well. Maybe 7 people made chili. One person made a chocolate chili. I know what that sounds like but it really wasn't all that bad. And after everyone had gotten their bowls of chili and hot dogs there was a dessert auction. These proceeds also go to the youth group. It was disappointing in that this turnout was smaller then last years. Last year we had a bidding war between two people for a banana pudding that went for over $125 dollars. That was fun to watch. But this year the totals didn't go above $45. Kind of a let down really. I see this youth group slowly dieing and I don't like it much. Two years ago this youth group was vibrant and outgoing. Now it's fizzled to almost nothing. I am worried that it won't be here in another two years.

How can some women be so uncaring

There was a story on tonights news about a new born infant who had been left on a park bench in 15 degree weather. It was left in a medical rehabilitation facility and two blocks from a firehouse. We have the safe baby law where new mothers can leave their babies as old as three months at a hospital or a fire station with no questions asked. The authorities figure that the little boy was left on this park bench for at least six hours. He was wrapped in a blanket and they think he is a preemie. It just amazes me to no end that these mothers just leave their babies in dumpsters, in parking garages, on park benches and in public toilets in freezing cold weather with absolutely no remorse. I could never abandon my new born period, however if I was so inclined to do so, I would leave it at a police station, hospital or some other medical facility or fire house. Some place warm or cool as the weather dictates and where I would know that it would be found. And how in the living hell can you leave an innocent baby out on a park bench in the freezing cold? This person carried this infant for 7-8 months and had to feel this little guy moving and kicking inside her. I carried my two girls for 8 to 8 1/2 months. I can say with all certainty that when I felt my girls kicking me for the first time, that is when I bonded with them. That was when my pregnancy became real for me. How could she just leave him out in the cold to die like that? This may be common practice in places like China, but I would like to believe (if only for a little while) that we in the United States are more civilized then that. If you didn't want this little baby then get an abortion in the first trimester or give it up for adoption. There are countless couples who can't have children of their own who would dearly love to have a new born to love and raise. This woman will never come forward and admit to her heartless act, but if she did I would put her in a meat locker with only a blanket for at least 6 hours, just so she knows what she put her little boy through.


And in case you were wondering, the little boy will be alright.

Cold Valentines Day

Today is Valentines Day and the temperature didn't make it above 30 degrees and that was at midnight. But with as cold as it is here it's nothing compared to the northeast. I was watching the nightly news with Tom Brockaw and they were talking about the 10-12 ft snow drifts, airports canceling flights and snow plows that couldn't keep up with the drifts. Ah yes, how well I remember those days.........................and I am damn glad I live here in Texas. I don't have to worry or deal with that kind of crap again! But I did have to applaud the florists that were bound and determined to deliver their Valentines orders. I think they should take on the motto of the mailman too. "Neither rain, nor snow or dead of night shall keep us from completing our appointed rounds". Hmmmm, lets take another look at that phrase. Dead of night. Now how in the hell did someone come up with that one? Does the mailman have to take target practice so they can make the night dead? And if they do, why? I mean it's not like they have to shoot at a tiny target miles away. Night is pretty all encompassing. Then again all you have to do is close your eyes and you have instant night. But that would make it hard to complete your appointed rounds wouldn't it? Ah well, such is the workings of a bored, tired, hurting blonde wife/mother's mind. (I know, what mind)

Anybody know of anyone who is competent at back replacement? I know of at least two people who would like to trade in their original backs for new ones. I don't have as much of a reason to complain, mine isn't as bad, but it is bothering me more lately. Wouldn't it be nice if every ten years or so we could trade in whatever is bothering us or broken down for newer parts? Can you imagine how long people would live? Would want to live? I know I wouldn't mind living a longer life if I could do it with the ones I love and pain free. Perhaps in my grand children's life time.

Much improved

Mac is doing so much better today. He finally wanted to eat his dinner last night and it was so funny. I was just going to put it in Tara's room where he had been deposited when he was being a grumpy butt. He came out of the room so I just put down the dish of food. He started snarfing his food until he saw Shadow. He looked up and started growling. He then went back to eating but he continued growling while he had a mouthful of food. I wasn't too sure at that point if he was still going to be hissing and growling at me, so I quietly said his name. He looked up at me, gave a little mew and started rubbing against my legs. I put my hand down and he rubbed his head against my hand. That was when I knew that he had returned to us. I have to say I gave a big sigh of relief. I wasn't sure for awhile just how he was going to turn out. I had horrible visions at one point of having to put him down because he was trying to bite people. What is even more interesting is that Shadow and Mac are now getting along. I have reason to hope that the two of them will become best buddies. It will be a nice change of pace where Mac would torment Shadow to distraction.

One downer is that Mike's back is no better. This doesn't happen often but when it does it's a concern. There isn't much I can do to make him feel better. It just kills me to have to see him grimacing in pain from just getting up from the couch. He feels bad that I have to take up all the chores around the house. I tell him to look at it from the point of view that at least I CAN do all the chores. There was several times where I couldn't get up out of the chair without help. Mike had to take care of me. Help me bathe, dress, cut my food for me, help me to the bathroom........basically everything, plus he worked 10-12 hours outside of the house to pay the bills. Not one complaint did he make. We would be in treap of hubble if my weakness came back and his back went out like it is now. I don't even want to consider how we would deal with that.

Poor Mac!

Poor Mac got neutered today and he is one very unhappy kitten. I can't say I blame him. I am not happy either but for a far different reason. We were suppose to drop him off between 8-9 a.m. When we got down to the reduced clinic it was total bedlam. There were two dogs already in a teeny tiny intake office. I had to fill out some paper work while Mike paid the bill. While I was doing this another two dogs came through the door. One was on a leash and one was in a wire kennel. While the staff was taking one dog back to be fixed (I assume) that dog and the dog in the kennel were trying to fight with each other. I was not happy over the fact that nowhere on the form I filled out was there a place for Mac's name. I handed the paperwork over to the gal behind the desk. Another person comes up and grabs Mac's carrier. Now by this time the potential dog fight had ended but the dog in the wire cage was still barking her fool head off. And what does this caring kennel staff do? She places Mac's carrier on top of this barking dog's wire cage!!! This poor kitten has never been exposed to a dog and all of a sudden he is exposed to barking and fighting dogs and some moron puts his only safe place on top of something he is terrified of! We got him home around 3 p.m. and he is growling at anyone who walks past. We were told when we picked him up that he may hallucinate for a few hours and that may cause him to hiss, spit, claw and bite family members and we should be sure to keep him separated from kids and other animals. What bothered me is we have had 4 other cats spayed or neutered and not once were we warned that our cats might growl or bite and none of them have ever growled or hissed at us! I know each animal reacts differently to anesthesia, but I have never worried that my kitten, who is a mommy kitten, would take a swipe at me as I walk past. I will never take an animals to the reduced clinic again!

Misc blog 2

Tomorrow is the big day. Mac will officially become an "it". He will not be a happy camper tomorrow morning when his brother and sister get fed and he doesn't. He was not allowed any food or water after 10:00 p.m. and about an hour after being fed he was sniffing around the areas where we normally have water dishes. He had this very confused look on his little face, like "where did the water go? I know it was here before". It didn't stop him from jumping on the counter to get after the tea pitcher I was bleaching. So I sprayed him in the face with the sink nozzle. He looked so bedraggled and funny. He looked like he had a mohawk in between his ears.

Yesterday Mike and I did not make it to church. Well we made it to church and sat through about thirty minutes of Sunday School. Mike messed up his back and was in more pain then usual. I didn't sleep well either, so I think we looked pretty pathetic. I talked Mike into going home before services. He felt bad and kept apologizing to me and I kept telling him that he has nothing to be sorry about. It's not like he set out to mess up his back.

Sandy got some candy from her prayer partner the other day and we told her she was not to eat any unless we gave her permission. I discovered today that she had been into it and ate one piece. Now I know that doesn't sound too bad, but considering we have been having battle after battle with her not listening to us, not doing as she was told and not following house rules, this is a big deal for me. I ate her remaining piece of candy and threw out the cheesy container they came in and I am waiting for her to discover that her candy is gone. She wants us to trust her but she continues to break the rules and ignore what she is told. At this rate she will be lucky if she gets her drivers license when she is 30.

Saturday Woman's Retreat

Our ladies at the church held a woman's retreat.............quick sound the retreat. Sorry....................well not really, but it does sound strange. A woman's retreat, what were they retreating from you might ask. And it wasn't really what I would define as a retreat in the truest sense. We were all gathered in Ramsey Parlor. My definition of a retreat is to go away for longer then a few hours. There is a place called MO Ranch that I haven't been to yet but have heard that it is quite beautiful, relaxing and spiritually renewing. That is a someday. Anyway to get back to the retreat, it was very nice. There was a speaker by the name if Dr. Carol Stalcup who came to speak to us. She has talked at MO Ranch. The message she had was very good, but went on a little too long. When you are sitting in cold metal chairs, every minute seems like hours. The food was very good even if the serving of it was a bit chaotic. There was eight tables of seven and one table of five. Each table had its own server and the server was to bring the food to each person at their table. Well there was a miscommunication. The servers thought that they had to bring each dish out one at a time. With that many ladies it would have taken hours to get everyone served. So then it was announced that each server had to go and dish up each plate and each person had to get their own plate. There was a mad dash to the hall where the food was being dished out. The servers couldn't get to the food for all the ladies standing waiting for them to dish up their food. Everyone eventually got served their lunch but the so called caterer did not know how to count and did not make enough desserts. It didn't really matter much to me as I am trying to loose weight, but some of the ladies who got served a different dessert were not too happy. The planning and execution of this retreat left a little to be desired but it was a fun time. So I was glad I went. It also gave me a chance to get away from Mike and Sandy for a few hours.

Double rant

I saw in the Dallas Morning News today that a sicko in Pittsburgh, who was angry at his almost 2 yr old daughter, hit her hard enough to knock her unconscious and left her to die outside in single digit temperatures. She was found at an abandoned playground about a 10 min walk from her home. He is charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports and simple assault. Simple assault Gracie? What pray tell is simple about ANY assault, let alone an assault against an innocent and helpless toddler. His story is that she got up before him and he could not get her to go back to sleep. So he hit her so hard that she hit her head and was knocked unconscious. Then this Daddy of the year wrapped her in a blanket and left her still breathing beside railroad tracks near a bridge. She was wearing a sweater and a diaper. The police found her footprints in the snow, so she got up and wandered around. Authorities could only guess as to how long this poor baby survived in temperatures that hovered around 2 degrees. It took two days to find her body. And if that isn't bad enough, this (I'll be nice and say jerk) was in custody for another charge of sexually abusing another child shortly before this baby died. My take on all of this is that this asshole (sorry, I can't call him anything else) confessed to hitting and abandoning this poor child in single digit temperatures. He is guilty and should be sent to prison in general population and let all the cons know what he did. It won't be long before the taxpayers will no longer be supporting this sick child abuser.

I am also ticked over all the hoopla over Anna Nichole Smith's death. She was a "star" ala by a sleazy one. But that not withstanding, why is her autopsy being moved ahead of others who died before she did? I hate that celebrities get different treatment then us "common" folk when it comes to criminal matters. Whenever celebrities get into trouble all they get is slaps on the wrist and lots of media attention. However if you or I were to do the same thing we would get thrown in jail, have to wait for a trial date to be set and do whatever time is given to us. Celebrities seem to get off with a fine and community service. Something is wrong with this whole system. What is good for one should be good for all.

Ignoring house rules

I got really angry with Sandy this evening. We have a little candle that our friend gave us for Christmas and for weeks Sandy has been wanting to light it up. I kept telling her that I didn't want it lit. I liked it the way it was. Well she took it upon herself to light it. Her reasoning was that she wanted to know what it would smell like. I told her it wouldn't smell any different then the solid candle. She deliberately disobeyed me. She told Mike that she wanted to light it for our romantic dinner she was going to fix. Which she never did as she doesn't really know how to cook and Mike told her to leave the candle alone. Sometimes I just want to shake her and ask her what she was thinking. If her CO told her not to touch something she would listen to him, but not us. We all know that we have these rules of the house just so Sandy can ignore them. I am soo tired of telling her something and having her ignore it. I told her that if she can't listen to my rules I won't take her out anywhere. I don't need a 15 yr old daughter deciding that she wants to take off on Mom at the mall just because she doesn't like Mom's rules. I won't have it and I won't take her anywhere until she can prove to me that she respects me and will listen to my rules.

I will be going to my church circle meeting. That consists of a bunch of ladies getting together, laughing, talking, praying and studying the bible. It's a lot of fun and it gets me out of the house and away from Mike for a few hours. I also have a luncheon this Saturday that I will be at all morning. We will be served Continental breakfast and a special lunch. Should prove fun.

More money coming in

Mike finished his testing today and he can now start back to work. What is nice is that he can decide when he wants to work and he doesn't have to leave the house. The downside it that it tends to mess with his puter (which causes much swearing on Mike's part) and there is no guarantee of an hourly rate. His pay is based on how long he is on the phone with a customer. He did this before, while he was applying for disability. All we had coming in was my disability and it was not enough to pay the bills and food. So this job was a supplement to my check. It got us through until he got approved for his disability. So I figure this will be a supplement also. We also talked to Sandy psychiatrist and she told us she would help us get Sandy back on her own SSI. If we can get that back then we will have more money to pay bills and put aside for the girls coming out.

I got notification from the MO courts that unless we deposit $1000 my case will be dismissed. We don't have it and Brain won't pay for it. So I will make copies of the courts order to proceed as a poor person and hope that the judge will decide to proceed with the case anyway. It is the GAL (Guardian Ad Lidem) that wants the grand and she is the one who is petitioning the court to drop the case. Which makes me mad. It sounds to me like the GAL is saying that unless you pay my fee, then your case isn't important enough to investigate. I was under the impression that the state paid for this broad's fee. But then again this is Missouri and they have not come out of the 19th century. If this gets thrown out then I guess that it is a sign from God that He wants me to wait on getting custody. That is hard for me to do knowing what he is putting Tara through and the crap he is feeding Elisa.

Super Bowl Winner!

I actually won a bet! That doesn't happen very often. Mike lost two bets. He and Sandy had a bet also. They bet TV time or computer time against being a slave for an hour or two. Sandy decided on TV time. She now has to decide on what to watch. We told her that would depend on her homework. I now have to decide on where I want to go out to eat. Such hard decisions. There is Romas, a very good Italian restaurant, Joe's Crab Shack, a seafood joint that puts on live entertainment, Stan's Steakhouse, pretty self explanatory there, Angelina's, a Mexican joint or Remington's, a very snazzy seafood restaurant that Mike & I went to a few years ago. We came in third place during a game we played at a marriage course we attended at our church. We won a buy one get one free coupon. We went on Valentine's Day three years ago. I think I am in the mood for seafood seeing as we can't afford to eat it on a regular basis. So that would be Joe's Crab Shack or Remington's. I will let you know what I decide when I decide it.

Mike made very good Nachos and we had a fire going in the fireplace while the game was on. I wasn't sure I would win, especially when the Bears made a touch down thirty seconds in the game. There were so many fumbles going on it was hard to keep track of who had the ball. Mike & I decided that we are going to do this from now on. If we have kids at home we may even have side bets going on. Should prove interesting and fun.

Bacon's Super Bowl

Mike and I have decided that this year we will make this Super Bowl more interesting. Usually we just watch it for the commercials and not really focus on the game or who will win. This year we are doing things a little different. We are going to make nachos for dinner (nice and fattening to blow the diet) and each of us are going to pick a team. The bet is this. If Mike's team wins I make him whatever dinner he wants including dessert. If my team wins, when we can afford it, Mike will take me out to a restaurant of my choice without Sandy. I have picked the Indianapolis Colts and Mike has picked the Chicago Bears. I don't normally like to do these kinds of things because I don't like having my nose rubbed in it. I guess I am a sore looser. But I don't figure Mike will do that and it may be fun to be pitted against each other for a change. In the past we have picked one team on a lark together and rooted for them. This year it will be a little different. It might prove even more interesting if Mike & Sandy were to make their own bet.

Fine for parents

There was an article in the Dallas Morning News out of Austin. Law makers are pushing a bill through that would fine parents if they did not show up for scheduled meetings. It seems that teachers are contacting parents to discuss educational or behavior problems and the parents are not showing up. Some parents seem to feel that the raising of their kids are up to the schools. I disagree with this sediment. I know from experience that the education and raising of our children is a joint effort from all adults who are a part of our kids lives. This bill wants to fine parents $500 if they don't show up after three attempts to meet with them. Now this seems a bit extreme. I know a lot of parents, well let me rephrase that, some parents just sit back and let their kids do whatever they want and don't seem to care if their kids graduate or not. However fining them doesn't seem to be the answer either. If these parents are not willing to show up to discuss problems that their kids are having, what makes these law makers think that these same parents would pay this fine. And would this fine be per kid or just a lump sum? And how would this fine be collected? Would these parents of the year be forced to sit in jail until they come up with the fine? And what would happen to the kids if this did happen? What if the parents didn't have the $500? I know this amount would be far more then what Mike & I could afford. Not that we would not show up if we had a meeting scheduled. There would be acceptable excuses, but these would be left up to the districts and schools. This seems unfair to me. It would be better to have set standards all across the board. And what proof, if any, would you have to produce to prove that you had a legitimate reason? A note from grandma perhaps? I don't claim to have answers to these important issues, but it seems to me that there has to be a better way then fining parents.

Annoying Kitten

Our kitten Mac is usually a very sweet kitty. But about an hour before feeding time he gets a little overbearing. He likes to curl up on the couch cushions next to me. He will get up every few minutes, walk over to me and either meow loudly in my ear or bites me. I'm sure he thinks he is giving me love bites, however it tends to be more painful then his standard love bites. He likes to walk down my chest, giving me a very good view of his ass. It's a nice ass, but not something I really want to be looking at. This evening he did this four or five times in a space of 30 minutes. At one point he comes over and bites my cheek a little hard. Now maybe I am more sensitive because I am in more pain then usual. Or maybe it was because I am very careful about getting my face next to an animal that can potentially leave me with scars. But whatever it was I reacted, and not to Mac's benefit. I was working on the daily crossword puzzle and when he bit me I reached up and whaped him on the head and pushed him off the couch. He comes back a minute later, licks my cheek where he bit me and then gave me a real Mac love bite on the nose. He then turned his shoulder to me, expecting me to hit him again. It was obvious to me that he was trying to apologize for biting me so hard. He then spent the rest of the time meowing in my ear and trying to bite my ear. I will be glad when we get him fixed. I hope this will cut down on the hard bites.

There may be hope yet

Mike and I approached Sandy this evening about her breaking the house rules. All she had to say was "Sorry". That doesn't work for us anymore. We have heard it time after time and nothing changes. So we took her big night lite (computer) and Ipod away indefinitely. We are having her write 5 pages of the house rules, she will loose her first available O meet or drill (JROTC functions). She will have an inspection every Saturday afternoon, and spot inspections whenever we feel like it. She will stand at attention at the foot of her bed. Mike will make the first inspection. He is the "Commanding Officer" When he is finished I will make my inspection. I am the "President" of this house. If her room fails inspection then all her clothes in her drawers (With the exception of her JROTC uniform) will be scattered all over her bed and floor. Or as it is called in the military "Turning your room". I won't be cruel and flip her mattress, only because it is too heavy for either of us to move safely. But her bedding will be pulled off the bed. Other then a brief hissy fit when I told her her Ipod was gone, she took it very well. I think she thinks we won't follow through. We have told her we would do this before and did not follow through. Not this time. I am tired of her breaking the house rules whenever it suits her. So we shall see what happens over the coming weeks.

This and that

Sandy got home from her youth group function about 2:00 or so. It was nice having a few days without her. Anyway she comes in and tells us that she knows she has homework and will start on it. I tell her to do her laundry while she is doing her homework and she says "yes Mom". We lay down for a nap until 6 p.m. I get up and start dinner. Sandy comes out to give me a hug and I ask if she has done her homework. She replies that she is still working on it. Hmmmm, I'm a little suspect, but I let it go. I then ask her if she has done her laundry and she tells me no. I ask why and she tells me that she was afraid it would keep us awake. Translation: I didn't feel like doing it. So she starts her laundry. How in the world a kid can end up with two loads of laundry when she does her laundry every weekend is beyond me. Mike and I can go for a week and a half between laundry days and we don't have two loads. So we finish dinner about 7:45. At 8:30 Sandy comes out and wants to go to bed. She wants me to take her dry clothes out of the dryer, put the wet ones in the dryer and when those are done, remove them from the dryer. I am unwilling to do this. If she had done this when I told her to she would have gotten it all done. Then I ask if she had gotten the litter boxes done. This is part of her daily chore routine. She about bit my head off. If she wants a guinea pig she is going to have to clean up her attitude and be more responsible. Mike & I will be revealing her candy stash and the repercussions of this. I am anticipating a battle royal.

Shadow our black Siamese mix was acting really strange this afternoon. We usually take him into our bedroom and let him sleep with us. He is the only cat who will not go wandering into the bathroom and trash it like the other two will. He would not settle down. He kept pacing back and forth like an expectant father. He did this for about a half an hour. He went under the bed at one point and I tried to pet him and he jumped back and gave me a dirty look. He finally jumped up on the bed right when I was drifting off. I scratched his ears and snuggled down to go back to sleep. He comes up to me a few minutes later, purring and licking my ear. He eventually settled down but he did not curl up at the end of the bed like he usually does. He was lying on his chest. He has been pretty jumpy all day. I am not sure what is bothering him today.

Yesterday on the news

I saw something on the local news that has been bothering me. Moms have been setting up play dates for their kids for years. But now there is a new element to these play dates. Mommy dearest is drinking wine. Now I am in no way a tea totaler, however when I did my drinking my kids were in bed or were not with me at the time. There were shots of two year olds watching mommy drink out of a wine glass. Yeah, that's right, encourage your kids to become alcoholics at an early age. One lady was talking to the camera, saying how the wine relaxes her. She was holding her, what I would guess to be a six month old infant. And at one point this baby reaches for mommy's glass of wine. What is wrong with this picture? And who is doing the driving after these play dates? Is there a designated driver at these things? Somehow I think not. And what if one of these kids takes a drink out of mommy's glass? Would mommy be charged with child abuse? Would the kid be taken by CPS? Knowing how our society punishes child abusers and murders, if there was any punishment it would be a slap on the wrist and the kid would be returned to his loving and caring mother. It bothers me that our society puts such a low value on our future.

We are kidless!!!!!!!

Our kid just left for the weekend! Yeah! She will not be back until sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. We won't know what to do with ourselves (Oh yes we will). It's a shame we don't have the money to go out. Oh well, perhaps in a month or two. I decided that part of her punishment for taking candy into her bedroom will be removal of her computer, which she uses as a night light, and the loss of her Ipod. Beyond that I am not sure what else we will do. I don't know if I am angry with her or disappointed. It really bothers me that she feels like she can break the rules whenever she wants to. Nothing we do seems to make an impression on her.

On a nice side note. I weighed myself this morning and I am now 179 pounds! Yeah for me. This is the lowest I have been since I had kids. I started seriously loosing weight about four years ago and I figure I have lost a total of 25 pounds so far. Let's go out and celebrate with a hot fudge sunday!

Just when I thought she had learned her lesson

A couple of days ago I got a craving (no it's not that) for chocolate. Sandy had brought home a brown bag filled with Tootsie Rolls and Hershey's Miniatures a few weeks ago. I went looking for it in the refrigerator and it was not there. I asked Mike what he had done with them since he had cleaned the refrigerator. He said he had not touched them. So then our suspicions fell on Sandy. I looked through her room the next day and did not find any candy wrappers, so we concluded that Mike must had thrown them out by accident. Today I was pulling out some clothes for Sandy to take with her on her youth group trip this weekend. And what do I find? You guessed it, the bag of Tootsie Rolls all eaten. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So I did some further pawing and every one of her drawers in her room had paper and junk in them. I don't even want to go into what the bottom of her closet looked like. AND we have reason to suspect that Sandy had gotten up in the middle of the night and was watching TV. Now we have the channels we don't want her to watch blocked, but it was just the very idea that she had gotten up when she was not suppose to that makes us angry. She even admitted a few days ago that she had woken up at 2 a.m. and was quite proud of the fact that she went back to sleep. Looking back on this now, I should have realized that something was wrong because when I ask her what time she gets up and eats breakfast on Saturday mornings when Mike & I sleep in she can't tell us for sure. The fact that she was so sure of what time she woke up should have been a red flag. At this point she has no clue that we know about her candy thievery, but she will have repercussions when she gets back on Sunday. I don't know what yet, but I can guarantee she won't be a happy camper.

Not as bad as I had feared

Well I got my boobs squished and it wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. It was uncomfortable, but not extremely painful, like some procedures I have had done in the past. They are tender now, but nothing worse then what I would get during "that time of the month". My doctor will get the results in 5 business days and if there is something wrong then I will get a phone call from the person who did the mammogram. Otherwise I will get something in the mail.

Sandy will be gone this weekend. Yeah! She will be going to a youth group function. She will be leaving Friday nite and will be returning sometime Sunday afternoon/evening. She will have her work cut out for her getting her homework done. Yesterday she did just about everything she could to get out of doing her homework. The grade she got on the test she took yesterday (the makeup) was the same as the grade she made the first time. I have a sinking feeling that this will bring her grade down again. We really need to contact the school and see about getting her a tutor in Biology and World Geography. I don't want her let this go too long to bring the grades back up.

Typical Tuesday

This is not really a typical Tuesday, but I wanted the title to rhyme. What can I say, my life is pretty boring at the moment. You recall in yesterday's post I mentioned Sandy and her messy room. To her credit she didn't pitch a fit over having to clean her room again. She did spend a lot of time goofing off, talking to me and tacking a poster of Orlando Bloom on her ceiling. Obstensively so she can gaze in adoration on his face before she goes to sleep. Uh huh, well I can remember being ga-ga over some movie stars when I was her age, so I will cut her some slack. She has to stay after school today to retake a test in Biology that she failed last week. She also has a test that the class normally takes on Tuesday plus she said she had to redo something else from yesterday that she didn't get done in class. I don't know when she will get this done. She also mentioned that she wants to spend some time after school in her World History to get caught up. She wanted to do that today and we said that wouldn't work with her having to retake a test. I applaud the kid's desire to keep up on her work, she just needs to plan this better. She also needs to let us know how she will be letting us know when she is done. She didn't have a clue as to when she would be done taking her test and she didn't know if she would have access to a phone.

Sandy has been bugging us the past few weeks. It seems her Biology class has two baby guinea pigs and the teacher has thrown it out to the class that if anyone wants one all they have to do is take them at the end of the year. We told her we would think and talk about it. Well it seems like once a week she asks if we have talked about it. To be honest we haven't talked about it at all. I figured that if I waited long enough she would loose interest. No such luck. I have a lot of reservations on getting this rodent. First and foremost is that we have cats. One of these cats is a kitten. Put two and two together. Second is room. She wants to keep the pig in her room and the way her room is now there is no room at the inn. Sorry bad joke. Anyway she brought it up again last night while I was building a fire in our fireplace (I just love that fireplace). I pointed out the responsibilities of having an animal and what she would have to do to prove that she is mature and responsible. I like guinea pigs but I just don't know how well this little critter will fit in right now. And on a side note, Tara wants a fish tank in her room. The Bacon household is turning into a regular zoo.

Tomorrow I am going to get my first mammogram done. On the one hand I want to get it out of the way. I can't get a breast reduction until I get one and I do need a baseline seeing as I am of "that age". But I don't look forward to getting my boobs squished and I imagine I will be pretty grouchy when I get home. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.

A teenager and her messy room

I didn't make it into church yesterday because of my pain. After Mike and Sandy left I went back to bed. As I was walking past Sandy's room I couldn't help but notice how messy it was. Books on the floor, pieces of paper scattered everywhere, clothes that she was not wearing under her sheet (Sandy's equivalent of making her bed) and worse of all batteries on the floor where kittys can swallow them. So after dinner I told her that she needed to go back and clean her room. I also told her that I found batteries on the floor. Her response was "They are probably dead anyway". And I came back with "I'm sure the cats will appreciate that when they swallow them and they have to have emergency surgery". I also told her not to ask for batteries for anything for awhile. She stomps off in a huff. Fast forward to this morning. I check her room and I find that her version of cleaning her room was to stick everything that was on the floor on her night tables or computer desk. There was still paper all over the floor, CD cases on the floor, two coats that could be hung up tossed on top on her spare bins and her garrison cap toss into one of her spare bins. She also, in flagrant disregard to house rules, did not fold and put her clean laundry away. Not acceptable! Soo Mike and I have decided that when she comes home from school she will spend the time until dinner cleaning her room yet again and when she has it cleaned to HER satisfaction she will notify us and stand at attention at the foot of her bed. Just like she will have to do during inspection when she goes into the Air Force. Then the two DS (drill sargents, us) will go into her room and inspect it to OUR satisfaction. I have no doubt that the two opinions will not meet. Should prove to be an interesting evening to say the least.

Weather only a duck could love.

We woke up yesterday morning to rain. All day it rained. It was cold, damp and totally miserable. I knew it was going to be a miserable day when I tried to get out of bed and every joint said "I don't think so lady". I thought perhaps it was because I was overdue for a pain pill. Nope, it seems my joints had other ideas. Yesterday was one of those rare days (Thank God) where my pain pills and muscle relaxers don't work. We had to go to the store to pick up a med my doctor had prescribed and I found out that I don't want to go grocery shopping on a Saturday afternoon. The lines were packed...............well not really that bad. But when you are in extreme pain, even one person ahead of you makes the wait seem like forever. AND when we went to pick up a poster board for Sandy and her project (which she found out she needed on Thursday but didn't tell us until Friday evening) she informs us that she also needs notebooks to take notes with. This was the first we had heard about this. If she had told us this Thursday we could have made a side trip to Wal-Mart and gotten this far cheaper then we got it at Kroger. As it was we told her she had to wait on the notebooks until we get our checks on February 3. We keep telling this kid that if she needs supplies she needs to tell us when she realizes she needs them. Her excuse is "I wasn't thinking". Ya think!!!?

I thought she had learned her lesson

Here we go again. We got an email from Sandy's Biology teacher telling us that she did not turn in an assignment, failed a test and did a sloppy job on a booklet that she had over a week to complete. Because she is getting a 69 in Biology she will be unable to go to any of her JROTC functions. Her Algebra teacher, who is also her contact teacher, is helping her complete her assignments. According to her, Sandy is almost caught up. However this Tuesday Sandy will have to take a test in whatever subject she is on now PLUS she will have to stay after school to retake the test she failed. Her biology teacher is asking us if she is doing any work at home. She is making a half assed attempt to do the work, but it all comes down to the fact that she is lazy. And to add insult to injury, we asked her about a specific assignment we helped her do and she told us that she had turned it in. She didn't and lied to us about it. Sandy is claiming that she doesn't have enough time to take the notes before the teacher moves on. I have no doubt about this, however Sandy needs to go to the teacher and make an attempt to correct the problem. If the teacher won't help her then she either needs to go to her contact teacher or come to us. We have allowed her to continue to do her homework in her room, however we have taken her Ipod away from her until she brings her grades up and gets her consequences done. She isn't happy about the latest developments, but she has only herself to blame for this. We are not going to have a repeat of the problems we had getting her to do her English work and her Team Leadership. The classes she is taking now are required classes. She can't flunk them and get away with it like she did with her Team Leadership class.

On a separate vein, I have finally set up an appointment to get my boobs squished for the first time. This will be done Wednesday afternoon. Oh what fun.......NOT!! I also went to see my Primary Care Physician today. It was a follow up to my visit a week ago. She put me on antibiotics and wanted to be sure that all was well. The cough is pretty much gone but I still feel run down and I am still running a low grade fever. What is hard to figure out is if this is a viral infection or my Lupus flaring. I was told to wait another week and if I am not feeling any better, then call my Rheumatologist. *Sigh* I hope it is the viral infection. I really don't need to be going through a flare.

No such luck

As a typical 15 yr old kid, Sandy was hoping for another snow day, but alas it was not to be. She had to get up and get herself off to school. She was able to get the majority of her homework done. We take what we can get. Unfortunately I have a feeling that she will end up with even more homework due to the snow day. She doesn't get home until 4:45 p.m. so that limits the amount of time she has available to her to finish her homework. She is suppose to have a JROTC meet on Saturday however we are suppose to get another round of rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow. We will have to see what happens. On one hand if the weather is inclement, then she will be able to get her consequences done.

Also on Saturday I have an appointment to get a procedure that every woman over the age of 40 looks forward to with eager antisapation...........................NOT! What am I referring to? A mammogram. Or as I refer to it......getting my boobs squished. I was told by the receptionist that there is now some rubber pad on the bottom pad so it is not as painful as what my mother got done. Since I am not talking to my mother right now I wouldn't know. But I do know that it is yet another torture device thought up the Marque De sod. I mean, if men had to have their testicles mashed by a cold plate, or if a woman invented the mammogram, I have no doubt that the machine would have been made differently.