home at last

janelle is home for christmas break!!! i wish i had the rest of the month off so we could hang out. i will be so ready to go on vacation by 5pm next friday.

tomorrow is mom's birthday. she and dad have the whole day planned out.....movie...late lunch at pf chang's. we're going to finish with cake and ice cream when i get home from work. dad has a surprise for her but i'm not telling what it is yet. i doubt she knows about this blog, but you never know and i don't want to spoil her day! she's going to like it, that i do know.

well, i'm going to go now. hope all is well with y'all!

hey to all my people! i'm still here

boy, has it been a while since i've blogged. here's what is what:

i'm now working part time at kroger as a cashier. the budget took a little bit of a hit when i bought janelle's car. the p/t job helps ease the panicking that bills aren't going to be paid...lol. plus there is the added bonus that i'm really enjoying working there. i've had to adjust to being on my feet, but overall it's been good for me. i'm usually ready to go home at the end of my shift. my feet scream at me for relief. absorbine jr has become my best friend. i swab my feet down with it prior to going to work. the warming sensation makes my feet feel good as well as the arch supports in my shoes.

i have rung up groceries for some of my friends i haven't seen in years. tuesday i even got to ring up the groceries for my 12th grade english teacher, mrs. anderson. it was good seeing her and catching up. and age is treating one of my old crushes well. len f. came through a couple of weeks ago and i swear he is even hotter now than he was back then. that grin still makes me weak in the knees....lol.

janelle is finishing her first semester up on monday with her final exam. she will be home monday night!! i'm really looking forward to having her home. the good news is i'm off the last 2 weeks of this month and we're planning on hanging out. there is a tentative plan to go to suzy's the weekend before christmas to hang out and swap gifts.

we had a great thanksgiving with the whole family. brent and his family came down from ohio and spent a few days with us. the kids are really growing up fast. my nephew miles came up with a new name for janelle...shoo shaa. we have no idea what it means, but he looks at her, grins and says "shoo shaa". suzy entertained the kids in the back yard by helping build a fort under the deck. sounds like old times! they roasted marshmallows for s'mores and found out the kids don't like them burnt. brent has to work on that...our family has always liked burnt marshmallows. i know, we're weird like that.

i'm going to go now. i'm supposed to be going to bed early...lol. i'm looking forward to tomorrow b/c i'm get off work early, then have lunch with mom & dad, get my haircut and hopefully have time to take a nap before going to work at kroger.

oh and check out this website bakerella....a recent discovery with lots of cool ideas for cakes and cupcakes, etc. :)

court date

janelle's court date went fine last thursday. fortunately she was the first one called. the judge read the charges and asked for recommendation from the patrolman who wrote the ticket. his suggestion was to reduce the points to 2 and cut the fine in half. the judge then asked janelle if she had the money to pay the fine. my sweet daughter's answer "i have my mom". the judge and the patrolmen had a nice chuckle from her answer....lol. i mean, it took me almost as long to type this up as it did for her to plead guilty to speeding. we were out of there and she was able to get back to school in plenty of time for cheerleading practice

janelle cheered at her first game at an away game against liberty university in virginia. i saw some of her pics and she is the cutest!! i can hardly wait to see her cheer this weekend at the first home game. ngu lost to liberty. :(

it was good seeing janelle even if it was only for a little while. we ate at tako sushi in aiken so we've officially eaten at all 3 tako sushi restaurants. and the guy who was the host was especially helpful. because we were running close on time, i called ahead and placed our order. he helped talk us through the directions to the restaurant and had everything waiting on us when we got there. one of janelle's friends from high school was our waitress. i'll definitely go back there again. but then like you have to twist my arm to eat sushi, right?! lol....

good night...sleep tight...don't let the bed bugs bite....

water aerobics in 60 degree water...brrrrr

i went to water aerobics this evening after work. as i neared the pool, the instructor said the water is really cold tonight. i was like, ok, most of the time folks say it's cold, but it winds up being a little chilly at first but then warms up when we're doing our exercises. boy, they weren't kidding tonight. it was like ice cold!

the heater broke down some time last week...sometime after monday b/c i did go to that class and it was comfortable. as much as gina tried to keep us moving, we only lasted about 35 minutes. we finished out the hour in the hot tub warming up...lol. hopefully they will get the part in this week and have it fixed. the upside is gina said we were probably burning a little bit more calories trying to get our body temp up during class....lol.

and a little more bit of good news....i lost 2 pounds! i was pleasantly surprised b/c i figured i had gained back at least 5 pounds of the weight i lost with weight watchers. i haven't been very diligent about working out over the last few weeks and my eating hasn't been the greatest. i guess i haven't done quite as bad as i thought. as i was explaining to one of the ladies in the stitch group, i do think about my food choices more now instead of justifying a bacon double cheeseburger b/c of a bad day. i'm not saying i pick the grilled chicken sandwich, but i'm not eating the double what-ever-it-might-be.

janelle will be in town briefly on thursday. my sweet daughter got herself a ticket for a moving violation this summer. she was speeding on the interstate and got pulled over by the highway patrol. it was very traumatic for her (and for me thinking of the increase in insurance!). her court date is thursday so hopefully the ticket and the points deduction will be reduced. she didn't understand why she wasn't issued a warning for her 1st offense. well, i think it was because she was going a bit faster than he could let slide. i knew she would get one sooner or later...at least she didn't get one after she first got her license. it's still going to hurt when the insurance company picks it up....

there was excitement across the street when i came home tonight. an suv was flipped in the neighbor's yard. we live in the middle of a fairly sharp turn. there are signs warning drivers to slow to 20 mph, but there are those who think 45-50 is slow enough (even though the speed limit is 30). without knowing the specifics, our guess is the driver was coming a little too fast with the top-heavy vehicle and over it went. the police appeared to be administering a dui test. i never saw the female driver get placed into one of the patrol cars, but you never know. we'll get to read about it in our little local city paper. he was there taking pictures and notes on all the particulars.

i'm off to sleep now. i feel better b/c i talked to janelle. :) and we are having lunch before she has to go to court. what fun!!!

i suffer from ens*...and it sucks

*empty nest syndrome - the blah feeling that a parent has when their only child goes off to college and doesn't need them on a daily basis.

it's been a week and 2 days since janelle has gone off to college. frankly, i'm having a little bit of a hard time with it. i didn't think i would be like this. in a way i was looking forward to her going off to college. i knew that it would be an exciting time for her...new friends, new experiences, etc. i was looking forward to having time to myself to do what i wanted to do with my knitting and crocheting and other "mom" things i like doing.

i've had several nights where i just can't settle down and go to sleep, like tonight for instance. wednesday morning i called in b/c i just couldn't make it in to work by 8. i didn't go to sleep until about 2am. also i had a bit of a sinus thing going on and woke up with a throbbing headache and stuffed right nasal passage. luckily my boss is an understanding person when i called to say i was taking more sinus med and sleeping it off.

i'm annoyed by my co-workers...one in particular. just the sound of her voice sometimes makes me mad. she's one of these whiney types who blah, blah, blah's about "what it all means" with this guy she is "seeing". wake up, dumb a$$...you're reading something into it when there is nothing there. you keep giving up the booty, he's going to keep coming around. he's a guy...come on!! (no offense to the guys out there...this guy is divorced, cute, and just sowing his oats)

i've got to snap out of this funk. i have managed to make it to 2 different stitch nights this week. there are some of us who are planning on meeting at books-a-million on sunday afternoon. donna, if you and donald and the daughter are free, come on over and join us. i'd like to catch up with how you've been.

well, i'm going to go now. i'm actually feeling a little sleepy. maybe getting some of that off my chest helped. thanks for listening to my whining!

3 days and counting...

until janelle goes off to college!! this summer has flown by somehow. it just seems like yesterday that she was my sweet little girl going into 1st grade.

we bought her a new alarm clock for her dorm. she's going to test it out and see how it does. lately janelle has been having an issue with being really tired. dr v had bloodwork done and didn't find anything abnormal, which is good. however, janelle was still feeling tired. she went this past tuesday for another visit and he drew more blood. based on what she told him, he thinks she may have contracted mono. she said there were several kids who had it in school. one girl could barely get out of bed when she had it. we'll find out the results on tuesday. he told her to rest as much as she could. she's been hanging close to the house this past week.

tomorrow should prove to be interesting. we're going to go over how to do laundry again. i want to make sure she understands about separating whites, colors, etc. i know she knows it, but i don't want to get a call that all her underwear is pink from that one red sock...lol. i've been there done that before. i want to wash all her bedclothes and towels she's taking with her too. they are a little stiff with the sizing, etc.

oh, my dad is doing pretty good after his knee replacement surgery. he is having a lot of stiffness which is part of it. he was kind of down the first few days after getting home b/c he was running a low grade temp. i think he's just about over that now. he can only sleep on one side or on his back and i think it's causing his sinuses to be congested. he's like me in that he tosses from one side to the other when he sleeps. it's throwing him off that he is limited with how he sleeps. his physical therapist said he is progressing better than most people do. it's been just a little over a week since the surgery and he's getting around pretty decently.

well i'm going to go now. i'm not sure if i will be blogging on a more consistent basis once janelle gets to school. i've still got a couple of projects i want to finish up here soon before i start on my christmas knitting.

oh my...i forgot to tell one of the more exciting things that has happened. janelle has a new car....a 2008 honda civic sedan in nighthawk black pearl with gray interior. it is a sweet little ride. the guy who cuts mom's hair has wanted to buy janelle's cougar since suzy gave it to her. we were able to work it out and got her car last weekend and his granddaughter bought the cougar this week. now i feel a little better because she has a more dependable car to drive back and forth to school. there was nothing really wrong with the cougar. it just had a lot of highway miles on it and some repairs were looming in the future. plus janelle has really worked hard to have all of her school expenses covered so that leaves me some financial breathing room to be able to give her the car. i'm in good graces for a while....lol.

weekend update

oh my...it's been a while since i've blogged! the main reason i haven't been blogging is i don't get on the computer much these days. i have ideas during the day to blog about, but never actually sit down and write them. they monitor our online usage at work so i try to keep it to a minimum with the surfing. hope everyone is doing well! i've got a lot of blog catching up to do!!

so here's the events of today:

today is my sister suzy's birthday. happy birthday, suzy-q!!! she's 42 today. i think all of us have called and sang her happy birthday. i wish i could be there with her celebrating. she and some friends are going out tonight if she is up to it. she told mom she wasn't feeling that well earlier. she's still working through the detoxing thing with the fibromyaligia (sp). she's supposed to be going to the specialist this month so that will probably help.

dad is having knee replacement at the end of this month. actually he's having it the day before his birthday. he has had problems with it locking down on him. the surgery is overdue for him. he probably should have gotten this done 5 or so years ago.
he has this old ford f-150 truck that he has hung onto for years. it's all rusted up and needs some minor work. he has kept it when he has stuff to haul off or he doesn't want to mess up his car. various people have stopped at the house from time to time offering to buy it. well, back to earlier, he was out trying to get it cranked up to move it back beside the house. it was sputtering and carrying on and finally cranked.

all of a sudden my mom said he was moving fast across the yard. he flung open the door and asked "where's the fire exstinguisher? my truck's on fire!" we jumped up and mom got the fire extinguisher and handed it to him. he headed back out with me following. i saw him toss the fire extinguisher and he yelled "get the hose!". before i could get there, he was dragging the hose across the yard. he hollered at me to call 911. as i was talking to the 911 operator, a policeman happened by. he asked dad if he wanted the fire department. thankfully at that point, he had gotten the fire out. he told me to cancel the 911 call. whew! the excitement!! what happened was the truck backfired and spewed gas back up in and caught fire. thankfully it didn't really do much damage. he said he thinks he ready to sell it now...lol. he said at least there are some salavageable parts and he can get a little bit of money from it. whew!! the excitement!!

janelle has 1 month and 1 day until she reports to college. she has to be there on august 13th to start cheerleading practice. we'll be moving most of her stuff in at that point. i'm excited and sad all at the same time. she's going to have such a good time at college and grow and learn and meet all kinds of neat folks. but i'm sad that she's going to be away. i know i'll cry when i leave there on friday evening. they have this thing called "the big hug". it's when the parents say good bye to their kids. fortunately i'll be going up for the football games from time to time to watch her cheer. she won't be able to come home very often, but i know she'll do well. she will be so busy that she won't have time to miss being home.

well, i'm going to go now. i'm not even going to say i'll try to write more soon...lol. who knows when i'll be here again.