Home again!

I'm home, I'm safe, I have pictures, and I got to fly the plane.

Life is good.

Seriously, I flew the plane.  During TAKEOFF!  More later.

Life is good.

My trip to Illinois, day 1

Here are the pictures from Day 1.  It was awesome to fly around, above, and below the storms.  I had a ball.  The customer visit went well, and with the follow-up that I have planned, there is more business to be had there.

Tonight, I got to the hotel and checked in around 5.  After that, I went for dinner, then back. Yeah, I had a soak.  It's not MY fault that the only room was an executive suite!  I have to take advantage, or my employer is paying for this in vain...right?  LOL

See ya later, after the carpet/braille pictures are done.

Dancing in the rain

We had a great day.  We took a Bday gift to a coworker, visited the mall (I did NOT die from going to Hot Topic) and ate a picnic lunch with Kevin and Brett.  It was a great day.  Tonight, it started  raining, and we lost the damn dish signal at the end of my favorite show.  I started to get ticked, then I heard the girls asking to go outside and see if it's raining.

The logical mother in me started to say that there was NO way I would let them outside in this nonsense.  Then, I thought again.  They need to know that rain is a blessing, and that without it, life would end.  I said "yes" and went out with them.

We danced in the rain.  We laughed in the rain.  We sang and played and made fools of ourselves in the rain.  We were so soaked that we needed towels when we came back inside.  Yeah, we had fun.

Now, I need to go to bed.  I am mostly packed, and I have to leave no later than 6 in the morning.  Our flight is to leave at 7.  However, I am not going to bed right now.  I'm going to put on another pair of pants and go dance in the rain ONE more time.  This may have been the best day ever!

Another entry? WHAT?

I know, I know.  If I post more than one entry in 24 hours, folks lose interest and think I'm nuts.  Well, I am.

I'm just sitting here thinking, and I use this medium to unload. Feel free to ignore this post.  Seriously.

I'm sick of Kevin hurting.  He hurts all of the time.  He hurts when he wakes up, works his butt off all day, while hurting, and then comes home to help around here, hurting until he falls asleep...usually pretty early.

He used to wrestle around with the boys, when they were younger.  He used to hoist the girls up to hug them.  He used to love playing golf.  He used to crave nothing more than a couple of games at the bowling alley.  These are just a few of the things that he'll never do again.

I have to nag him to get him to do most things.  That sounds like a complaint about my husband, but it's not.  He just hurts.  I whine and complain about something like getting his car from Dad's house, so Dad can quit mowing around it, and he says we will.  Then I have to remind him.  Then, I have to secure help from Dad and tell him that we're doing it now.  Then he does it, and comes home to collapse.

It's depressing as hell, to tell the truth.  This is a workplace injury, so he had to give a deposition last week.  She kept asking what he couldn't do any more.  He'd give an answer, and she'd say, "Is that all?"  How the HELL is someone supposed to name EVERYTHING that can never be done again?  It's impossible.

Anyway, here I am.  The girls are in bed.  Kevin is in bed.  I'm just sitting and thinking, when *I* should be in bed.  I'm not.  I'm worried.  What happens when he can't do it anymore?  When he cannot work?  What happens to my house?  I know, I won't lose my house.  He'll work as long as he can drag himself there.  I just wish it didn't hurt him so badly to do so.

And, so what if I lose my house?  There is no debtors prison these days.  We'll move on, right?  Hell, I don't want to think that way.  I won't lose my house.  We'll be fine.  I love him, and I want the stupid pain management place to find a solution.  We're paying that office out of pocket, because the injury doctors have all released him.  "Go free and hurt!"  That's their motto.

OK, that was depressing.  I just had to get if off my chest.

Vacation Day Tomorrow!

I have to travel to Illinois on Wednesday and Thursday, so I took a vacation day for Tuesday, to hang with the girls.  They REALLY want to go to the mall (yuck, but OK) so if they wake up early enough, we'll do it.  We'll also surprise Kevin with a picnic lunch at his work.

Kevin wants to prove to his coworkers that he had extremely long hair once-upon-a-time, so the girls are going through the infamous "picture box."  I really need to buy some albums.  *sigh*  However, they're having a BALL going through it.  I know that I enjoy it, but I never realized what a good time they'd have.

OK, I'm gone for now.  Seriously, though, if you have a myspace, look for fierro6 and add me.  I'm looking to boost my friend count.  Also, I need more mobsters!  If you want to add me to myspace, but do NOT want to be in my mob, just say so.  I promise not to invite you if it is unsolicited.  Silence gives consent.  I'm just sayin'...

Left over pictures

We accomplished a lot today!  We hauled off some junk, including the broken soda fridge from the back porch.  We actually hauled off about 2 truck-beds full of crap.  The girls cleaned their rooms, we got Kevin's old Impala home from Dad's, and I even had time to watch most of the race (in which my boy Carl took second!)

Tonight, Kevin's watching TV in the bedroom, and I'm watching Big Brother in the living room, while the girls play with their newest fascination.  Yes, I let them get a facebook account.  We'll see how it goes.  One wrong move, and they're off the computers completely.  So far, they're having a ball interacting with distant aunts and cousins.

The above pictures are just random shots from the previous week.  Enjoy!

Saturday night

What a day!  The drama is settling down a bit, so we're breathing a bit easier. 

I woke up early (barely, thanks for helping, Kevin.) and headed to work.  I was there for less than an hour (ticked me off, since I logged 2 hours on the road!  What a waste.

When I got home, we joined Mom and Dad and headed to North KC to visit my Aunt Maxine.  We visited with my cousin and his wife, and their granddaughter.  It was fun, and we had some awesome food.

After coming home, Monica was begging me to take her to Deals.  Have you been there?  It's a $1 store (although a few things are more, nothing is over $5 and 99% is $1) and it's my favorite of all the $1 stores around.  Kevin gave the girls some spending money, so I took them to blow it.

After that, we went to the evil Blue Springs WalMart for groceries.  Wow, we were out of EVERYTHING!  Unfortunately, this poorly managed place was out of some of the things that we needed.  We all three had some laughs and enjoyed our time for a while, but we were more than ready to leave and write off the human race before we escaped.

Tonight, it's relax and veg out night.  I like relax and veg out nights.  There are four of us in this house.  Two of us are watching TV and three of us are on the computer.  Yeah, I may or may not be guilty of doing both at once.  LOL

Tomorrow, I will have some pictures to share.  I've been working long hours and dealing with some drama, but life 'n stuff is still going on, 'n stuff.  I have a great picture of a tug boat from the river bottoms, a picture of my poor Hawkeye, now that Kevin shaved him  *sigh* and some other random crap.

Have a wonderful night!  If you don't know how to relax and veg out properly, come on over.  You can sit on the bed with me, watching TV (because Kevin is watching mixed martial arts fighting...YUCK) and have some of my peach iced tea.  We'll watch a sappy 80's moving and play mobsters online!

Drama

So much drama, so little time.

I don't know what to do with the drama going on around here, so I'll just go fight someone on Mobsters, and get over it.

I've been on the phone most of the night (I'm on the phone for a living, so this is NOT my favorite evening activity) and I'm tired.  I'm feeling VERY old and VERY tired.  Too much drama.

Please, someone save me.  If I liked baths, I'd ask for Calgon.  I'd rather have about 12 beers and go to sleep, only to wake up tomorrow with all of this gone (other than the hangover.)  It's not going to happen, and I'm not drinking beer, and it's not going away.  OK, that was a redundant sentence.  Anyway, time for life, right?

This entry is going nowhere.  See ya tomorrow.

I'm a mobster

I am on facebook and myspace (drop me an email or search for fierro6 on either if you want to be friends) and I hate the apps.  I mean, there are a couple that I find fun, but mostly, they get a bunch of nonsense sent to you.  I typically avoid them.

However...

I am completely hooked on Mobsters on myspace.  It is crazy fun.  I'm knocking over convenience stores, fighting people, and paying doctors laundered money to heal me.  What has happened to me?

I guess I should be glad that I only have time for this crap on Sundays.

Got a myspace?  Wanna join my mob?

I'm just sayin...

So....

So.  Here I am.  The girls are in bed.  Kevin has been asleep for quite some time. 

I get aggravated.  Things bother me that probably shouldn't.  TV ticks me off.  The dog ticks me off.  The cats REALLY tick me off.

Why am I awake?  I think it would be best if I went to bed and started over tomorrow.  I'm a bit too ticked to stay awake.  Yeah, I should go.

Good Night.

Grrrrr.

Weird commuters

Rusrhi asked whether the whiners I talked about yesterday were customers or coworkers.  I was complaining about coworkers.  After all, I get PAID to listen to customers whine!  LOL

I followed some weird commuters today.  First was the igloo man.  I don't know what he was hauling, but as I passed, I noticed that they appeared to be plastic, and hollow.  I have NO earthly idea what they were, but they looked like the makings of a giant igloo:


Later, I was stuck behind a tractor hauling 2 big hay bales.  I wanted a good shot from behind, since the driver was hanging off the side of the tractor to see around the front bale, but my batteries were complaining, and I had to change them.  What I got was them turning into their drive:



City folks don't get to see things like that, do they?

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Holy Crap.

For six years, I worked in a day care center.  Two of those were as an assistant director.  I've taught 2-year-olds through school-age kids.  I've done everything from developing my own curriculum to teaching and everything in between.  I've bandaged owies, given breathing treatments, and helped toddlers get to sleep at nap time.

After today at work, I can honestly say that I've never dealt with such immaturity or so much whining in my life.

*sheesh*

The yard...

I'm afraid I've married Hank Hill.  I didn't know it when we got married.  Honestly, we rented for the first 10 years of our marriage, and when a yard was involved with said rental, it was the size of a postage stamp.

3 years ago, we bought our first home.  His first, and my first.  We have a big yard.  Kevin likes to mow.  He mows regularly, and then stands on the deck to look over it.  Then, he turns to me and asks, "So, what do you think?"  It looks good.  It always looks good when he's done with it.

Saturday, the yard needed mowed, but Kevin worked in the morning, and it rained a bunch.  Sunday, we unexpectedly went to pick up the girls (yeah!) and got home too late in the day to mow.  Tonight, I came home and saw this:



Natalie asked me earlier tonight what was meant by, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  I answered to the best of my ability.  Now, I can give her another example.

We can't afford a nice, new mower, but Kevin found one at a garage sale.  It's perfect, and worth more than we paid.  We can't afford a bagger, but we have this "yard sweeper" that used to belong to my uncle.  I have no idea how old it is, but it's probably as old as me.

I came home to see him, after a day at work, mowing and "sweeping" his yard.  He then started in on the bank with the weedeater, and is now (it's almost dark) taking care of the ditch.

Bless his heart, he loves to have a nice yard.

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Concerts and plagues

Well, the concert was awesome!  The meet-and-greet with Keith Anderson was fun, but I was talking when my co-worker snapped the shot of me with him, and it's a hideous shot of me, so it won't be appearing here.  That is disappointing.  Here is Keith later, though, on stage:


Today, Kevin and I ran some errands and on the way home, I noticed something VERY strange.  Going through the river bottoms, a little frog on the road caught my eye.  I started to pay more attention and they were EVERYWHERE!  I'm not exaggerating; there were hundreds of little frogs everywhere you looked.

The more I saw, the weirder I felt.  I asked Kevin what on earth would cause so many hundreds of frogs to be on the move at the same time.  He raised his voice and practically yelled, "IT'S A PLAGUE! DON'T YOU READ YOUR BIBLE?"  Ha ha, honey.

When we got home, I saw that they were all over our yard, too.  Here is one of them that I picked up to prove it:


They are all this size, and they are literally taking over the world, or something.  Oh yeah, on a side note, Kevin said that if I told anyone, he'd deny seeing any frogs at all.  He's such a supportive husband.

**edited to add the following**
I think I have a pretty good theory about the frog plague. (frogedemic?)
A frog is 12-16 weeks from egg to frog.  We had the flood that filled the river bottoms with water.  That water is gone now.  The poor things are now fully frog-like, and their home is gone!  Poor critters.  I think I'll go down and shoo them toward the river.  It's the right thing to do.

I'll be back in 3-4 months.  That's how long it will take to round up all of them!

Thursday, 'N Stuff

So, I'm working OT, Kevin is working OT (the difference is that he gets paid for his.)  Mom has had the dog 2 out of the last 4 days, and she'll have him again tomorrow.  Sorry Mom.

Tonight, we had a "beer in the garden" at work.  I didn't drink a beer.  More on that at another time.  We had a great time for an hour or so, and then I headed home.  There is some great local gossip, but I suppose I had better keep my mouth shut.  I have to live here, right?

Tomorrow is Ya'llapalooza!  I got in on 2 ticket-hits, netting 4 tickets.  Then Kevin won 2 tickets and a back-stage meet-and-greet with Keith Anderson!  WoooHooo!  That left me some tickets to gift upon someone.  What an awesome feeling.

This time tomorrow, I'll be enjoying some awesome music, and my meet-and-greet with Keith will be history.  I can't wait to tell you about it.  I just wish that my girls could go. *sigh* It's kind of a tradition for us to go together.

OK, I have to go to bed now.  It's been a LONG week!

Returning to some semblance of normalcy

Where have I been?  Here is the multiple choice quiz of the day:

a. Having the time of my life over the holiday weekend.

b. Suffering two days of depression over disappearing relatives.

c. Working 10-11 hour days.

d. All of the above.

I have a lot of pictures from the 4th for a later entry, but you've seen a ton over on Mom's journal.  Happy B-day to her, too!

Also, I won't mention what was used to make noise at Mom's place, but J.J. Walker used to say it all the time on Good Times.

I'm HOME!

My flight home was even better than the flight out.  Boss-man talked pilot-man into a 360 on my behalf.  It was awesome!  I'm glad to be home.  Peace out!

 

St. Louis stuff

OK, I got up in time to post yesterday's pictures.  A lot of them are the old Cardinals pictures from back in the day.  I'm not a huge baseball fan, but Kevin's Mom love love LOVES the Cards.  A lot of these pictures are for her.

The tiny plane made me nervous before we were in and gone, but it was the coolest plane ride EVER!  I could see EVERYTHING.  Also, I had headphones so I could hear the "chatter" between the towers and the pilot.  I didn't understand any of it at all, but it was still interesting to hear.  It also enabled the three of us to communicate with each other without yelling.

We are directly across from Busch stadium, and there was a game last night.  Some of the pictures suck, but I didn't have a ton of time to get them done AND sleep.  I often choose sleep over other activities.

OK, time to pack up and head downstairs.  I'll be on the road, visiting two customers in Illinois today.  Back to the St. Louis airport by 5:30 to head home.  I'll be home well before dark, which is how I like it.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!