TIME

I haven't posted in so-o-o-o-o long. I have thought about it....I have thought about things I wanted to share....I've sat down and read your blogs.....but that is as far as I've gotten. I've been a bad blogger friend.

I have really been waiting for today. I thought it would never come. It was like waiting for Christmas Day when you're a kid. It is finally here. YEA! Today was my last day of school. A two and a half month break is so very welcomed right now. I have missed my house. Looking around, I think it missed me too. :) I have so many little things that I want to accomplish around here. A few big ones, too.

It seems that the older I get, the more important time is to me. Sometimes I'm very stingy with it. I've learned to say "no" and not even feel guilty. (At least not all of the time.) There are so many things that pull on our time. All of the "have-to" things. i.e. work, kid's sports activities, laundry, LIFE issues, etc. I'm really trying to remember how important just a little "me" time is. Sometimes also a little "we" time. The other night Hub was out of town. I had the dishwasher, the washing machine and dryer all doing their thing/s while I was on the computer checking work e-mail. My son was quietly building with Legos by himself at the kitchen table. I turned around and took a look at this scenario. I turned off the computer and told my son "Get out your Uno cards. Mommy's fixing to take you on." Just what both of us needed. Mindless fun time. In case you are wondering, he actually creamed me on 4 out of 6 hands of cards. Time....priceless.

So a quick summary of what has been going on for the last month:

Went to see son - he looked better.
Attended (chaperoned)8th grade banquet - 14 year olds in 4-inch heels and semi-formals with cleavage. Oh my!
Took a weekend trip to see family - fun.
Pulled a ligament in my knee - no fun.
Had a birthday - Yikes!
Re-injured knee and spent birthday afternoon/evening having MRI & x-rays - YUCK!
Decorated Hub's new office - turned out well.
Received calls for the first time from older son's birthmother - (After 21 years, that's a story within its self.)
Went to a Women's Professional Football game - surprisingly fun.
Talked to a blog friend on the telephone - will have to do this again!
Took son to see the movie "Up" in 3D - three thumbs up!

I will probably be expounding on some of this later, but right now is "Me" time. I'm going to bed and dream of summer.

Later.

I may like playing the princess!

We got back last night from our little getaway to San Antonio. My luggage however didn't return until late this afternoon after taking a little side trip to Baltimore. Thank you American Airlines.

We had a fabulous time. Hub could have done no more to make me feel really special. Our hotel was so cool and our room even better. This is a historical hotel and has been kept completely grand. The lobby looked like a grand ballroom with huge crystal chandeliers and large columns. Notice the chandelier compared to the baby grand piano on the left.










There were pictures around of celebrities and events that had been there, including Princess Grace and Prince Ranier of Monoco, Maria Shriver and Arnold S., Texas governors, and many others that I can't remember. The staff took wonderful care of us.

Our suite was almost as big as our first house. It had a foyer that opened into a formal dining room.

When I walked in, the first thing I saw of the table was a bottle of champagne and the most beautiful yellow roses. Hub had ordered chocolate covered strawberries, but they substituted a fruit and cheese plate.

Is he good, or what?

This suite absolutely reminded me of old Hollywood. There was a living room with two large camel back sofas, Queen Anne chairs, art work, mirrors....okay, so the plasma TV looked out of place.

The bedroom was huge and had a big four poster bed. The bed looked like a big marshmallow with all of the fluffy white bedding and pillows. It was so high off of the floor that I literally had to hike a leg up to get in. (Attractive picture, huh. It was up to my waist.) Hub took some running leaps and did belly flops. What a big kid! :) The bathroom showed that this hotel was built in the 40/50's. It was smallish with one sink but was decorated really a bit art deco with black marble floor and black and white tile. Add a big walk-in closet and that is about it.

I probably sound like a big goober that has never been anywhere and I know that this is more detail than anyone will care about. This hotel was just so different to me. I'm sure that there have been many, many weddings there. The 10th floor had a huge terrace that could make for amazing parties/receptions. It was even suppose to be haunted. Just a good ploy to get the tourists.

Room service breakfast in bed has always been my sinful pleasure. Nothing better and they brought us some fabulous ones. They even rolled it in on a cart instead of bringing a tray like most hotels. I made Hub look under the table cloth. In the movies, there was always someone hiding under cart. :)

We did just what we needed to do for a 26th anniversary. We talked, talked, talked and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. We took the obligatory river cruise and took some pictures in the same places that we remembered taking pictures on our honeymoon. We spent a lazy day wandering around and relaxing at outdoor restaurants with a margarita...or two. (You didn't think I would tell you EVERYTHING, did you?)

Yes, I really did feel like a princess. Our suite was on the corner and this is the view out of one side. It's a lovely church steeple from across the street but I can imagine that it is a castle tower. Out the other side, there was a beautiful city park. There I couldn't help but notice homeless people while I was looking down from my castle. Brings you right down to reality. There by the grace of God.....


Happy Mother's Day, Y'all!

Where's my mask? I'm flying.

I'm really sick of listening to everything about this "piggie flu". I probably answered too many weird calls about it last Friday. I just sent them on to the nurse. (That was satisfying in a weird sort of way.)

I have a busy, yet fun week ahead. Thursday will be my 26th wedding anniversary. Man that sounds crazy long. I sound like a fossil! Anyway, Hub is leaving tomorrow morning on a business trip to the place we went on our honeymoon. (I'm sure it's a God-thing coincidence.) He will be done with meetings on Wednesday, so I am going to fly down and meet him. We will be back Friday afternoon. Short and sweet. It will be fun. My son is going to stay with my niece. She likes to play Mom. He has a late baseball game Tuesday night with pictures before. That means he and I will be a the ballfield from about 6:00 until 10:30. (Yuck) I'll have to pack us both up Monday night.

Packing is always so stressful to me. I do it to myself. I love going places - and I do pack really neatly - but I just stress over if we have everything we need or if something is left on. Usually I take way too much. I envy and am actually a bit amazed at people who throw a few things in a duffel and go out the door. I have to do better due to airline restrictions. Hub is planning on checking a bag since he will be there all week, so I'm going to send a few things with him. Can you imagine someone he works with coming to his room and seeing women's clothes hanging there? Hee-hee.

We've had a lot of rain here. Everything will be really green soon. I need to get out and get some more annuals going. Usually I have spent a lot of time outside by now. This "working thing" is really cramping my style! That and baseball. I guess they're only young once though.

Have a happy week!

....and a good time was had by all.

I would like to clone today and use it all again. I got nothing really accomplished today, but I think that's okay. I'll make it up later.

I slept in until about 9:00 after turning off the alarm at 6:00. (Forgot to turn it off for the weekend. Oops!) Hubby brought me up my morning cappuccino and a warm donut. Sinful, but so-o-o-o good. Then after watching some HGTV and a couple of episodes of Snapped....I finally got out of bed. Yep, it was good!

Then I got clothes on; gathered up some laundry; came down stairs and looked at the paper with Hubby. One load actually made it to the dryer. He mowed the lawn. We visited with a neighbor. Then we sat on the back deck; had a couple of glasses of wine and some great conversation.

Later we came in and I spent some time looking online at hotels for a little trip will be taking soon. Fun stuff! Then we finally all got showers and dressed and went to a place called "Dave and Busters". It is kind of like "Chuck E. Cheese" but for adults, too. We have always liked it but our son had never been, so we took he and one of his buddies. The food is usually pretty good. I had the blackened tillapia. (Yum!) Then there are the games. They hyped up everyone. They have a World War I Flight Simulator and since Hub's a private pilot, you couldn't pull him away from that. The boys were doing the Dance Revolution games and anything else that they could shoot. I usually stick with the even more mindless games. I usually do pretty good at skee shot. Nothing tonight. Then there was a game where a ball fell into these spinning hole for you to get tickets. I got lucky and it went into the jackpot hole and I got 402 extra. That was enough tickets to make me a hit with the two boys.

So a day that starts out with a big case of lazy; throw in a cool breeze and wine with your best friend, Then going out and being a kid a Little. Like my mother always say; "And a good time was had by all!) Like I said, I would like to clone today and use it all again.

Later

I need to throw up.

Why do some people just have to be mean spirited? I really don't think that God put in a mean spirited gene. It can't be fun. It really gets you nowhere. I would think that the thrill of bullying (if there is one) would be very short-lived. What's the payoff?

I witness it way too much. I see students doing it to each other. I see the referrals come in for discipline. I read them and just go "Huh? You did what?" Sometimes I see the victim looking pretty demoralized. When you are 13 and 14 everything is huge. You don't have to even be particularly nice to each other. Just quit being mean.

I think we teach our kids these ways of interacting. I see it all the time from parents. They want to know something about their kid and they come storming in demanding to see someone at that very instant. Almost everyone that works there is a parent. We get that we are dealing with our most precious resources. That's why we are there. I had a woman the other day mad because an assistant principal was in meetings all day and she would have to get an appointment or wait for her to call her back. She said "Well they are suppose to be here and available to the parents." In my sweetest voice I told her "No ma'am. Actually they are suppose to be here helping these students get a good education and that's what they are doing right now."

As you can tell, something really set me off today. Nurse Ratchett and her buddy swing hot and cold like the pendulum on a clock. One day very friendly and nice and then the next.... Never turn your back. I, along with others, came in to work today to find a small personal-sized cake at our desks fixed up really prettily and a card that said Happy Secretary's Day. No name. I took some bites and just bragged on it and then tried to find out who was the cake fairy. It was the Nurse! Should I have had a food taster? That was really a very nice thing to do. Then when I got back from lunch, I got this nasty, sarcastic e-mail from her buddy. She is suppose to catch the phones when I go to lunch and was out of her office when I was leaving. I asked someone else to catch them. They said where is so-and-so and I said that she was not in her office. That's it. Just an observation, not a criticism. No big deal. I don't know what this other gal said to her, but after lunch she wrote me that she had been in her office for a full 45 minutes before (no comment)and had just left for two minutes to go to the bathroom, and why would I say that I couldn't find her? I really hadn't given it that much thought. (Can you even believe we had this conversation?) She was the same one that said I needed to take a half day of my sick time when I left and hour early to take my son to the ortho. The scary thing is that she could go ahead a turn it in that way and wouldn't know it.

I am so very tired of this childish drama and today this little, stupid e-mail just pushed me over the edge. I was just about in tears of frustration. She has pulled many silly, petty annoyances on me, but this time....she put it in writing. I had asked the principal earlier to meet with me and look at some other things so I just took a copy of the email with me. I told her that I was so tired of having to look over my shoulder to keep from having issues and that it was getting harder to deal with. Anyway, I ended up being mad at myself. I always think that when you have a "gripe" meeting like that with a superior, you ought to have a outcome in mind that you are requesting/suggesting. Why am I telling her about this? What am I asking her to do about it? I really don't know. I don't think detention will work very well although I would be amusing to see. :) I felt like I was a kid "telling" on her. In the end, I still have a problem to work out but at least someone has seen a snippet of it with her own eyes.

Anyway this is today's segment of "As the Stomach Turns"; also known as "Just because you work in a middle school doesn't mean you have to act like it." Thanks for letting me throw up just a little. Between that and the margarita I had with dinner, I feel better now.

Later.

It's all in the newspaper

I'm really not sure why I feel the urge to post tonight. I have just been a dud this weekend. Just feeling a little blue. Everything seems just a little unbalanced. Hubby was in a mood, too. I guess we both just needed to be in our caves. I even saw in the newspaper today where a boy I knew as a child had passed away. Didn't even know that he lived up this way now.

Hubby use to laugh at me because when I have a little time on the weekends, I read the obituaries. No, I'm not looking for my name. I'm a little depressed, but not nuts. Anywho, people write the craziest things about their loved ones when they pass. Sometimes a little too much information. I'm still thinking about the one that talked about the man's love of his dogs and puppies. It said that they went with him to heaven! They sent his dogs with him???? On another they went on about what kind of beer that Aunt So-and-so really liked. Of course, most of them have a picture of the 92 year old person when they were 17. Does anyone really recognize them. Maybe I need to re-think my instructions to my hub to use the cleavage shot from Glamour Shots for mine.

I also read an article about a woman who lost her 21 year old son in a freak accident. She said that her son had always planned to get married and have children so she petitioned the courts to let her have his sperm taken and frozen. She wanted to use it with a surrogate and she said that several had already volunteered. She felt that he should have his wish. It wasn't clear to me if she wanted to raise these children or what. Her petition was granted and there's something new in the freezer. Have we all just gone nuts? She will probably be on one of the news show next week talking about it.

I did get a really neat surprise yesterday. My brother sat down and wrote basically his autobiography. I received in the mail a bound 100+ double-sided pages of his life story even illustrated with pictures. It was amazing! Out of everyone in my family, I still can't believe he was the one who did it. I called and asked him if he had been to a doctor and was there anything I should know. He made copies for his children and his two sisters. I even learned a few family stories in it. A few others were made clearer. When you're the youngest by several years, you miss out on a lot. Anyway, I treasure it and love and admire him even more for doing it. What a gift, especially for his children.

The Easter Bunny really took care of my eleven year old this year. The kid loves the color pink. He may just like the attention of it. He is quite the bruiser so it seems a little out of place for such a sweet color. Anyway, everything in his basket this year, including the grass, is pink. I can't wait to see him tomorrow. He will be howling. There is even a t-shirt rolled up with a pink ribbon that says something about the 5 reasons that he would wear a pink shirt. It ought to be fun.

It's late so I guess I should go to bed. Hope everyone has a good Easter Sunday tomorrow....oops, I should say today.

Later.

Spring is springing!

Although it has been a little cool today (by our Southern standards), it is getting to be the time of year that I probably love the most. Love those Spring afternoons when you get the first smells of cut grass and outside seems to be waking up. I balanced that today by updating my calendar with all of the ballgames my son will have this season. Between games and practices.....that's where I will be.

We had a little news this week. Looks like we will not have to move so soon. Evidently, someone with more seniority wants that district, so we are here for awhile. It is certainly a better plan for our family, but I always feel the need to know where I'm going to be next year. Also, in these uncertain economic times, I just want them to be totally invested in him.

We went to see our son last weekend and plan to go again next weekend. He looked alright. I still search his face for the little boy I raised, but instead there is a man, a young man, staring back. He seems so far away. Sometimes it hard to remember that one day this will end.

We got to have dinner last night with my brother-in-law and his partner. They were flying to Mexico and had an overnight layover here. It was a short visit but always fun to be with them. It also inspired the full-fledged cleaning of the working-woman's home. Guess a little extra incentive is always a good thing.

I'm really ready for summer vacation. I know that the next two months will be insanely busy at school. We have major testing weeks ahead and that just stresses out students and staff. I do enjoy being at school with the kids and "most" of the staff, but right now I miss being at home more. I feel like I don't do anything well around here and there is so much I want to do. Also, a couple of sour pusses at work can sure mess up a good day. I know that is anywhere you go, but I can hope for the perfect world, can't I?

I love the way our bathroom turned out that I redecorated. Now I am ready to start another room. This kind of thing drives Hub nuts! He likes the outcome, but he hates the getting there. Now I want to repaint the formal dining room. He says that he has painted it once and that's enough. But he also made the mistake of saying that if we hadn't moved by summer that he would do it. (Silly boy! He thought he had that one.) Anyway, this is one that I can't move the furniture by myself so he has to be involved. Then it will be on to the kitchen. I really want granite and new appliances. That is going to have to involve the money fairy though. Probably will have to happy with a little more paint.

Back to Facebook....why should anyone be interested in what your friends are doing every minute? I have friends that have busy, important jobs and there it is posted with all their daily "stuff". Where do you find the time and how much time am I expected to waste reading all of that? Sorry. I may love you, but I don't need to know that you are picking up the cleaning, etc. And what's the deal with sending charms, etc. I just don't get it. It's not like it's a blog or anything........

Later.