Zookeeper

I found a picture of Kat dressed up in her zookeeper outfit all ready for her Madagascar themed birthday party. 

I made a post of the goodie bags I made for the party but for some reason never posted a picture of her. 

I'm so glad I have this blog to refer back to when I'm doing these pages so many years later. I had forgotten that the party was Madagascar themed and not just zookeeper themed. Ooops.

I made Kat her cake for that day rather than picking one up at the store. We wanted it (well, maybe I wanted it) to be red velvet. Here's link to a picture of her blowing out her candles. 

Five more

 Being out of work for the summer has made me pretty bored. I'm still going at it although I've slowed down a bit. 

I find it difficult to scrap pictures when I don't have a date of the photo or if they're not good pics or if I feel like I'm just repeating myself.

For this page, I didn't edit the photo. I guess I forgot so you get to see the mess that lives behind me. 

I wanted to get messy and so I used modeling paste and a stencil for the background. I didn't want to add too much more (paper wise) so I just used some circle paper and something neutral for the photo to live on. I still don't know if I like it or not.

These are my grandchildren. I took the photos back in February but just now edited them. Paper is mostly Fancy Pants with a little BasicGrey scrap that I found.

This is Blake as a baby. In the picture above, he's the kid on the left (now 11 years old). I don't really like pre-made titles but I painted myself into a corner with this one so I just left it. Same paper line as above. And I got to use some yellow mist which is fun. 

I followed the design of one of my older pages for this one. I really loved (and still do) Lilly Bee so that's where the flags and polka dot comes from. 

This is one I'm just not happy with at all but I've accepted the fact that it just needed to be done. Look how cute he is next to his giant science project display. I felt there wasn't much I could do with this because the photo itself sucked (color, exposure, etc) so I got out the trusty BasicGrey and tried to highlight him as best I could instead of the GIANT WHITE BOARD that holds the spotlight. I also tore a page out of a chemistry book I use for occasions such as this and then distressed it by using some walnut dye ink.

Trent is kind of lost in the darkness. Crappy pic.

I just recently added the stamps when I remembered I had some Tim Holtz stamps that were science related. 

 

I don't have a date for this picture so it will sit in the pile of other pages I have with no dates. Too many to count. 

Three pages in 24 hours

I tell you, I can't stop. 

It may have to do with that I'm off work (mostly) for the summer and I'm bored out of my mind. The dishes are done and I'm caught up with laundry. I've played the hell out of Rimworld that I think I'm actually bored with it. If I had a better computer, I could add some more mods and play it differently and in a more "refreshing" way.

Here's what I've been doing this last day:

I always had to get the kids up and going on Wednesdays during the school year. If we didn't make it there to the school cafeteria, there would be no cinnamon rolls. Nothing like happy kids all sugared up.

 

I lost Cherry in March. She was a reactive dog with separation anxiety and having tried everything, nothing was working. 

My parents bought her a super heavy duty 60 pound crate - the one you can't escape from. I would still come home and she would have moved that crate (even with wheels locked) to the nearest piece of furniture, plant or book and destroy it. 

I noticed that after I let her out of the crate that Manny would go in there and lick the floor of her crate. It took me a few days to figure out what was going on. I saw the teeth marks on the bars and realized that Manny was licking up blood from the crate floor from Cherry's mouth from chewing on the bars. 

Trazadone worked but only for about 3 hours. I work 8 hours of the day so that wasn't going to work and Prozac just made her shake. Of course I had worked with Jay years previously for training.

She had also learned to unlock and open the sliding glass door and let herself out. Remember she was always a fence jumper, too. 

The day I made the decision to put her down was after a huge fight between her and Shannon. I just couldn't do it anymore but didn't realize it until I called my mom. My mom gently suggested I put her down because I have been trying to make it work for years. Cherry was 11 and I had her for about 8 years.  

Of course there is so much more to Cherry's story than just a few paragraphs but I just don't feel like writing about it.

The paper is BasicGrey Sultry and the stamps are Technique Tuesday.

 

Somewhere in this picture is baby Blake hiding behind the toys. The kids thought it would be funny to add all his toys to his carrier to keep him super occupied. 

This page is made from mostly scraps from stuff sitting around my desk. I'm not very happy with the title. I don't think I like the font. But, you win some you lose some and this is just going to stay the way it is.

Mule

 

It's been so many years but I've been bit by the scrapbooking bug again. I can't stop. I'm doing 4 or so layouts a week. This is just one I did yesterday. 

I've been doing so many that I got stuck and had to use a Page Map for the design process. 

Since I'm even able to log into this account, I'll be adding more pages soon.

All my papers and supplies are practically vintage at this point. I think this is all BasicGrey Sugar Rush. .

Old.

Vintage.

AND, I dug out my old Technique Tuesday stamps. Those babies are hanging on by a thin thread. Some of them are starting to rip but the ones that work are just making my day.

I miss the days I used to design for them. There is nothing like the smell of new stamps.

The picture is from 2010. I'm only 13 years behind. 

We were at Mount Vernon and Kat can never resist an animal. She tried and tried to pet this mule that wanted really nothing to do with her. 

Since I've started scrapbooking like a maniac again, I've run into a small problem. I'm out of scrapbooks. Money is so damn tight and I can't afford new books so I'll just be trying to stuff old ones until the seams burst. 

I counted the books I have and they're up to 45. Do you know what a pain in the ass those are to move? I can't really put them in a box because they're so large and awkward. They have to be moved by hand and I'm an old lady now. I'm not looking forward to moving anytime soon.

Enough bitching for now. 

Enjoy your day.

Heather

Dear Grandma

 Hi Grandma,

Not too much going on. I’m staying in pajamas all day. I figure it deserve it. I’ve worked 10 days with only 1 day off. 

The dogs were acting weird the last few days. When I came home Wednesday, I noticed that one of the sliding glass doors was open and the dogs were outside. I thought I just didn’t close it well and they “nosed” it open.

On Thursday morning before I left for work, I double and triple checked the door to make sure it was closed and locked. 

At my break a few hours later, I opened the camera and realized that they had opened the door again and were outside. I called Dad and he went over and put them inside and set a rod down so they couldn’t open it again. They had destroyed about 10 vertical blinds in the process as well. 

I picked up all the broken blinds and replaced them. 

Friday morning while on break, I checked the camera again and while they hadn’t opened the door, there were 6 blinds still hanging. Something was certainly bothering them. 

When I got home I did a quick check around the house to make sure no one was living undercover in my house. I seriously doubted this was a possibility but still checked. No one else was in the house. 

Very odd behavior. 

Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed your sweet. I had an apple for breakfast and it was really good.

Have a good day. I’ll pet the puppies but I’ll tel them you told them they have to start behaving or else!

Have a good day.

Love

Heather 

At home

Testing this to see if it still works.

Dear Grandma RE: Preschool Themes

I've decided that I'm going to start recording some of my responses to my grandmother. Ever since my other grandmother died 14 years ago, she writes me every day. She lets me know she's still there and still alive.

May 31, 2018

Hi Heather:

Checking in and all seems okay here. I didn't know you were planning to attend Pima. Tell me more when you have time.

Have a good one.

Love, GB

Yeah, I think I made that decision a couple weeks ago when I decided I didn't want to spend the next 1/5 of my life struggling to work full time and go to school for a bachelors degree to teach. All of my "advisors" (therapists, lawyer, etc) tell me I have a good 30 years left of my working life. Getting a bachelors degree while working full time will take AT LEAST 6 years. So, I said, "FUCK IT" and decided to do something else on my list of possible jobs that were good fits for me. I took 3 tests back in December or so to decide what career would be good for me. Teaching, medical and graphic design were on the list.

All of the medical degrees were competitive and I could end up on a waiting list and I didn't want the extra stress.

So, after thinking about it, I made the decision that I was staying in the school district to work so I can have the same time off as the kids. I'm worried about the kids being alone during extended school breaks. Christmas break was when one of Kat's friends killed himself. My kids are too emotional to be left alone for long periods of time. And besides, I really like working with the kids.

I need at least 30 hours in Amphi and that gets me medical and dental coverage. And they have a GREAT retirement program.

So, I can go to school part time and learn how to design web pages, business cards, etc. I can do that on the side when I feel like it. I can also incorporate my photography and I want to learn how to fix my own computer. I'll still be working with Jay as much as I can and the first thing I'm going to do is fix his stupid web page.

Once Kat graduates, I can either stay at what I'm doing, increase my hours at the school or just find a job doing graphic design and I'll already have experience.

My other idea was to make some new kid friendly books or videos. Having been in preschool this year, I've noticed some strange themes in Children's stories. There is always some old lady eating things she's not supposed to. You know, "I know an old lady that swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die. I know an old lady that swallowed a spider. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly...." etc. They're ALWAYS old ladies and there are several stories and her diet changes depending on the time of year.

There is also that damn story, "If you give a mouse a cookie". I'm sure you know that story. Well, that damn mouse has ADHD and can NEVER finish a damn project. They make short movies based on that story and they drive me nuts. I just want to scream, "FINISH YOUR DAMN PROJECT BEFORE YOU MOVE ON TO HELP MR. MOOSE. MR. MOOSE CAN WAIT". And then he never finishes Mr. Moose because some other idiot comes up and needs help and so he leaves Mr. Moose and goes to help someone else and it just keeps going and going until he makes a big ass mess. I can't stand it.

There is also the story about the kid that wants his grandmother to knit him some mittens. When she asks what color, he says, "white". Well of course the grandmother tells him he's going to lose the mittens in the snow but the little shit insists and she makes him white mittens. Well, guess what happens? He loses one of those damn mittens just like he was warned and THEN a bunch of animals find it and start living in it. The story is completely unrealistic because we have a mouse living in there with a bunch of other carnivores.

I say that the story is about the desperation of homelessness but everyone else always says that it's about working together and living in harmony. We had to just agree to disagree on that one.

There is also a few stories where working men fuck everything up and who has to come to their rescue? Their wives. Their wives are the ones that have to fix the big messes that their husbands make. I suppose that is one of the more realistic stories.

There is also an animated movie that the kids love where the characters are in a jungle playing with dangerous animals. It's called Animal Boogie Oogie Woogie or something like that. The characters all have oversized, very wrinkled clothing and they play with animals like cobras, vultures (in fact, the one that plays with a giant oversized vulture is a child in a wheel chair. The way that vulture eyes her is scary because he knows she can't run away) and some sort of tiger or something. Their depiction of the tiger is not even real. It looks more like a saber tooth tiger with it's giant fangs hanging 6 inches out of its mouth.

At the end of the movie, I always have to say, "Never play with wild animals" because I'm afraid the kids are going to come across a snake somewhere and try to ride it like they do in the movie.

So, that's my story. :)

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Heather


Thank you for the long letter telling me about all the decisions you've make lately. For what it's worth, I think you've made some good ones and, obviously, thought it all out well. Your photo ability should not go to waste. Working the same hours as the kids are in school makes sense. Just don't wear yourself out. Get lots of sleep!

Isle of Flightless Birds

I will fly with no hope, no fear

And the ground taunts my wings

Plummet as I sing, plummet as I sing

The Audience

Every day since the middle of November

The audience sits and watches every move I make

There is nothing I can do about the audience

There is nothing the audience can do about me

It just sits there and judges

Silently

Every Day

Every Night

Helpless

minutes

Geez what a DAY!

I got a call from Jay's callbox at 6:30 this morning. Usually when someone calls that early I know it's urgent.

So, I call to listen in to the messages and there are actually 2 messages. The first one is someone that needs some toad training. They called at 4:22 PM yesterday. The 2nd call was the same person and at first I was like, "Geez! Give me a break! I'll call you in a minute!", but they were frantic because now there were toads in their pool and their dog was going insane trying to get to them.

I can't reach Jay (if you know Jay, you know this is normal) and I know he's not going there anytime soon because he's in Pinal today doing Euth evaluations. I don't know if he has any toads yet.

I call these people back and they're telling me that they've called 6 or 7 places and no one will get the toads and they don't know what to do with it and the Sheriff said they couldn't shoot them but gave them Jay's phone number and they really need someone to get the toads now......

They sounded so desperate and I decided that I would go get the toads but warned them it would take me an hour to get there because they live so fucking far away. They were fine with that. They were appreciative and thankful.

So, not even knowing if Jay has toads and not knowing for sure if these are really Colorado River Toads I decide I'm waking the kids up and we're going. It totally screwed up my day but I said to myself, "It's our first summer adventure."

Both kids are asleep in bed. That took a few minutes to get them up and moving. I didn't even have to bribe them with anything. That's how half asleep they were.

Trent grabs the rubber gloves and we're off to Walmart to buy a bucket. Before we leave, I ask Trent to get a screwdriver so we can poke holes in the lid.

20 minutes later, we're standing in the parking lot of Walmart at the trunk of our mini van with a screwdriver stabbing holes in the lid of big, blue bucket.

40 minutes after that, we pull up to our location.

The lady comes out and lets us in the backyard. She tells me they're in the pool skimmer. She's looking a little nervous.

Trent and I don our gloves and I take the lid off the skimmer. I immediately slam it back down in place and look at her and say, "Those are really big!"

and they were!

They took up the entire interior of the skimmer!!!!

Even after I slammed the lid on the skimmer and hearing my reaction, Trent goes in next for the grab. The toad starts making noises and then Trent's hand recoils without a toad and he says, "Oh, they're still together!"

Yes, the toads were mating. And they weren't going to stop just because we were there.

Or because we wanted them out of the skimmer.

Now that we both know what we're dealing with, I tell Trent to get the bucket ready. We gotta look cool in front of this lady. I don't want her to know this is our first time retrieving a toad(s) from a pool skimmer. I think Kat is standing on the other side of the pool, trembling.

Trent puts the bucket next to the skimmer, I reach in and grab the male (obviously because he's smaller and has his arms wrapped around the larger, good looking toad). He immediately starts making his weird noises but he's not letting go.

and this time, I'm not either.

I pick him up, he keeps his firm grip on her and they both go in the bucket.

15 minutes later, I finally reach Jay on the phone. He says he doesn't have any toads and I say, "You do now!".

The last thing Jay says to me is, "Don't let them die. Feed 'em crickets."

17 minutes later, we pull up at Petsmart. Kat can't even go inside because the thought of crickets is making her squeal and her body is contorting in ways I've never seen.

She doesn't like it 5 minutes later when I throw a bag of 25 crickets at her.

No, I didn't really do that but I thought about it.

At home, I get a big rock to put in the bucket for the happy crickets to live on before they are eaten.

We arrange the bucket in the back of my scrapbook room. The lady at Petsmart said that the crickets couldn't live in the bag for long and that I could just put them all in the bucket at once.

So, that's what I did.

I opened the lid and the toads were still mating. Ok. Whatever.

I dump the crickets on their rock island. Some jump onto the toads. Some decide to end their life on their terms and jump off the rock into the water. Some are already dead. 

Good thing I didn't wait long before releasing them. 

Even though Kat is whining about having to go shopping for workout clothes, I have to take Manny to the vet. He needs shots. He's late and I can't wait another day. Kat will have to wait.

Manny won't enter the vet's office. I have to pick him up and carry him in.

Before I can even get to the counter, I feel something hot on my stomach. I look at another customer and ask, "Did he just pee on me?"

"Yes, and he still is",  was her reply.

I know if I leave now, Manny wins. So, I stay.

I go to the bathroom and wipe off as much as I can. However, it's on my shirt, my shorts, rolled down my leg and is in my socks and shoes.

I try and find a seat and I wait.

2 hours later, I'm home and I check on the toads. They're still mating and every single god damn cricket is dead, floating in the water. 

What the hell? I felt like I just threw away $3.50. I was pissed. Kat wants to go shopping NOW!

Will they eat dead crickets? What do I do? I try looking for answers on Google.

I try calling Jay. No answer. Doesn't return texts.

I take a shower and I take Kat to Walmart because she needs new workout clothes TODAY! NOW! THIS VERY SECOND! And if you were paying any attention to this story, you knew in the first five minutes that I am no good at saying, "NO!"

90 minutes later, we're back and I check on the toads. They're STILL MATING.

I'm feeling really sorry for the female toad. I want to pull him off of her and give her a break. I'm feeling suffocated. I'm finding it hard to breathe.

So I try calling Jay again. No answer. I text him. No return text. I try looking for answers on Google.

I ask Trent to get his gloves on because at the very least, we're going to clean the dead crickets out of the bucket and get them fresh water. It can't be good for any living thing to have dead things floating in the same water they're mating in, right?

Ewww, infection.

Outside in the sunshine, I pull the lid off and once again, I gasp in horror.

It's not because the crickets look a little bloated at this point.

It's not because the toads are STILL MATING. (give it up already, will you?)

It's because there are strings and strings of black eggs everywhere.

Now I'm the one that's frantic because I don't know what I'm supposed to do with these baby toads. I don't want to be the one to make this decision.

I can't pour them out into the gravel because I know damn well we'll have a rainstorm and these babies will turn into tadpoles, then toads and terrorize every neighbor dog we have.

I can't throw them away. They're living creatures.

5 minutes later, I've made my decision and I have separated the toads and given the female a 20 second break from her annoying mate. I can see in her eyes that she is relieved and thankful I did this for her. I felt a toad fist pump would have been possible if the whiny male would have just shut up for a second but he didn't.

I put them back in the bucket and gave them fresh water and a clean rock. The male wastes no time wrapping his slimy arms around her. I think I see her shudder in disgust.

I leave to take Kat to her workout.

90 minutes later, we're back and I check on the toads. They're still at it. And there are more eggs.

And now at this point, Jay's phone isn't even ringing. It goes straight to his voice mail. He knows.

..and who shoots toads anyway?

178 days

Well, here we go again. Each year I do this and it gets tougher and tougher.

I started last night by insisting that the kids find the shirts they wore on the first day of school. For such a simple task, there was a lot of eye rolling, grunts and stomping.

Blaming, too. Lots of blaming.

Eventually, oh, about 20 minutes later, both kids came into the kitchen, each extending an arm with a wrinkled black t-shirt clutched in their fists. These were the shirts they wore on first day of school 178 days ago.

"Are they clean?"

"Clean enough" was the response.

Very good. Be prepared to wear your shirts and get pictures taken. That means, Trent, do not sneak into the shower until I have your photo.

Whatever.

This morning.

Kat is already up.

Trent is still in bed. "TRENT! You have 2 minutes to get your shirt on and outside. You knew this was coming."

More grumbling.
More loud noises.
More "GEEZ!"
More "STUPID!"

Ok! Smile!

"I'm going in."

"No Trent. You're not. We can stay out here forever. Don't care.

More grumbling.
More loud noises.
More "GEEZ!"
More "STUPID!"

I take a few snaps. This is all they'll give me. So, you tell me. Is the first picture from today or 178 days ago?

I'm going in.
Fine, Trent.

More grumbling.
More loud noises.
More "GEEZ!"
More "STUPID!"

Trent in 10, Kat in 7th.

pants

I'm so tired. It's the day before the last day of school. My daughter is bringing over the grand kids.

Did I mention I was tired?

1 star = aweome

I must have missed the email from Norton Family that the subscription was up. It expired 3/25.

That means my kids have been alone on the internet for almost 2 months.

I did a quick "random phone check" and luckily I found nothing.

Not being so thrilled with Norton, I started looking around at other products. I didn't want to spend long doing it because I wanted something on the kids' phones immediately.

I wanted something that monitored time, monitored Chrome, Google photos and private messages in social media. I learned the hard way that some apps like Skype and Instagram have private messaging and is NOT monitored by Norton. Google photos seems to be a free for all (but at least at Norton I they tell me what they're searching for) and NOTHING on Chrome is monitored but it does tell me when they get on Chrome.

24 hours later I went back to Norton and renewed my subscription. I couldn't find anything that did all of that and since everyone already had Norton on their phone, I just did renewed.

I was looking at the number of stars on the Norton Family app and noticed that they had way more 1 star reviews than any other. Why? Were other people having the same issues? It only has a 2.8 review!??

 

I go to read some of the reviews and find this:

It seems that so many of these 1 star reviews are from kids that have it installed.

That means it must work better than I thought.

I signed up for another year.

Decades

So Kat is at silks and I hear Trent in the kitchen making himself dinner. It's probably a quesadilla.

I ask him what he's making but he ignores me.

Oh, I know what he's doing. I hear the crash of silverware on the counter. He's emptying the dishwasher.

Finally.

I asked him to do that an hour ago.

I have nothing to write about.

No cute stories come to mind.

I'm just here. Existing.

I haven't made a scrapbook page in decades.

Ok, maybe not decades.

The other day, Katrina wanted to play a song for me.

She was excited to share.

I hear:

"Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go..."

"KAT!" I say loudly.

"THAT IS THE RAMONES! You've heard this before."

"I have?"

Yes, she's heard it many times. Maybe it's been a decade, though, since she has heard it.

When Trent was a toddler, we'd play the Ramones constantly. He would sing along in his car seat, "HEY HO LET'S GO!..."

I think the first time I ever heard the Ramones was from the movie Times Square. I was just a teenager and looking up the movie now, I see it was rated R. Why my parents allowed me AND my younger sister to watch a rated R movie is unknown. To this day, I've never seen all of Animal House or Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Sometimes I would sneak into my parent's room and turn on HBO and just hope that some rated R movie was on because it was oh-so-restricted. I would watch short segments of the above mentioned movies and then quickly change it to Popeye when I saw the shadow of my mother coming down the hallway.

Once I was old enough to watch rated R movies, the novelty of the forbidden quickly wore off and so that is why I never got around to watching the movies I mentioned above.

Anyway, back to Times Square. I still wonder why I was allowed to watch that movie. I fell in love with that movie. And thinking about it now, I don't think it was because of the movie but because of the music.

I'd like to say that the movie made a shift in my life but that sounds so dramatic. But I was dramatic at 13. It was the music that made the shift and changed the course of my life to where it is today. And I don't mean "sitting in bed in my underwear, Hot Bench on the TV in the background and typing this" today.

Let me just give you a brief rundown of what was on that soundtrack that made its impact on my 13 year old little self:

The Pretenders "Talk of the Town"
Roxy Music "Same old Scene"
Gary Numan "Down in the Park"
Talking Heads "Life During Wartime"
Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated"
The Ruts "Babylon's Burning"
Lou Reed "Walk on the Wild Side"
The Cure "Grinding Halt"
Patti Smith Group "Pissing in the River"

This was a type of music that I had never heard before. It hit my ears, dripped into my brain and then scratched some itch in my chest that I didn't even knew existed. It ran down the veins in my arms and wrapped itself around me. It was mine and it was personal.

and the worst part was...

I couldn't have it

I scraped up enough money so I could buy the soundtrack on a cassette tape at Gemco. My parents seemed proud that I had found something that I loved so much.

I got it home and played it.

I wanted to play it again. It wouldn't play.

I was upset. Very upset. But my parents knew that this was important to me so they took me back to Gemco for an exchange.

That fucking cassette didn't work either.

I took it back, too. The store was out. There was no replacement. My father asked about ordering it. Nope. No vinyl. No cassette. No music. No scratch on my itch.

I wanted to keep the cassette that didn't work. I guess I thought if I held onto it long enough that I could still hear the music. Or maybe I could fix it. Or maybe my Uncle could fix it. Or maybe...

I had run out of "maybes". There weren't a lot of options back then.

I was devastated. It's not like they play those songs on the radio.

(Remember listening to the radio with two fingers on your cassette recorder? Just waiting for your favorite song to come on so you can record it. Damn. I would spend hours waiting for songs to come on so I could record them.)

I NEVER forgot that soundtrack.

It made such an impact on my very existence and reason for living that I could never forget.

So dramatic, huh?

Well, now decades later I have access to that music, to those songs that I still feel changed the course of my life.

(Is that possible? Can music change the course of your life?)

I have downloaded all those songs (and more) and made my own little Times Square Soundtrack playlist.

and now my itch is scratched and I don't have to worry about never hearing the music again.

and decades from now my kids will still be listening to the Ramones because it will remind them of me and maybe their childhood.

Their childhood that was filled with lots and lots and lots of music. 

And even Ashley will hear The Residents and it will remind her of me.

 yes, decades later


and wow. I found something to write about.

The Show Must Go ON

So, here I am.
I'm old.
I'm not feeling well.
My kids don't need me as much as they used to.

I find myself frequently thinking about when they were little and how much fun we had.

Now they want nothing to do with me.

I'm sad and stuck in the past. My therapist says it's because I have only identified myself as a mother.

Ashley has her own family.

Trent can't wait until he's done with school and can move out.

Kat told me she's not having kids. EVER.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do when my kids go away.

I had a horrible time during my teen years.  My mother was always trying to get me to think of the future and a goal to work towards. Most of my thoughts and answers included me being happily married with children. At the time she asked, it was the 1970's so I may have also said something along the lines of "changing the wallpaper every 3 months".

Yeah, so what happens when the children get big and go away? I don't know what I want. What happens now?

Trent ignoring me

It's not just another day

As some of you know, I have taken the position of "Campus Monitor" and "Crossing Guard" at one of my local elementary schools.

We are short a monitor and I was asked to come up with some realistic situations we could use to test the potential candidates during the interview.

Here is what I came up with. Tell me what you think YOU would do:



The following situations are taken from REAL case files of playground incidents at Blah Blah Blah Elementary. Please note that names have been changed to protect the privacy and safety of the innocent.



Case File #1029876543


"Julie" comes to you in tears. She says that her friends are being mean to her. Before you can ask a question, her friends rush up behind her saying the same thing. 


"Julie is being mean to us! She's not telling the truth."


You have three girls crying, talking louder and louder and the accusations are flying like a flock of birds in a tornado.


Before long, you have 38 other children crowding around, most of them curious about what's going on. Some children have other issues they feel are more important than Julie and her friends.


They say:


"Ms. Bertha, my ball is over the fence and my dad is going to kill me if I don't get it." or,
"Come look at this pile of sand I built", or
"I picked you a flower", (and really it's not even a flower. It's a stick with leaves on it), or
"I counted to 47 on the swings and "Junior" won't get off", or
"How much longer 'till we go inside?", or
"I pulled some weeds and now I can't breathe well"


Julie is getting pushed from behind from the crowd of children fighting to get your attention. Her tears grow larger and then someone reaches for your whistle....


What do you do?



Case File #1029376545


You have just helped a child up off the ground that slipped on the wet grass. You look at their pants and note that they are soaked. You call the nurse and report that "Justin" is going to need dry pants and a jacket. 


All of a sudden, there are 18 children around you offering to take "Justin" to the nurse's office. When you look up to say, "Thank you children. But "Justin" can make it himself", you happen to notice all the children on the field in the distance.


You are shocked at what you see. Your eyes grow larger and your mouth opens in horror. Children are jumping in puddles, splashing each other and picking up tadpoles and trying to shove them in their pockets. Some children have found pieces of garbage and are "transporting" hurt tadpoles to a Tadpole Recovery Area that another child has set up. 


Other children have taken off their shoes, filling them with water trying to make a Tadpole Fish Tank to take home to their moms.


When you look back at "Justin", there are 3 children taking him to the nurse. Those 3 children have ignored you. 15 have left to hunt for tadpoles because when you looked up at the field, they saw the panic in your eyes and wanted to check it out for themselves.


What do you do....




I think I've set up a pretty realistic scenario on what it's like on the playground.

6teen

It's the end of the year. Yesterday was Trent's birthday.

Here he is at 15 (12/29/2016)

Here he is at 16 (12/30/16):

He closed his eyes (like he usually does) through all the photos of just himself. Here he is at 16 with his girlfriend, Alexis.

Can you tell a difference between 15 & 16?

He looks happier with Alexis. :)

Merry Christmas

Here it is. This year's Christmas photo. I'm sorry I didn't mail any out.

I also didn't send out any of those fancy year end wrap up letters.

I asked the kids to write one up but they didn't. They started out with some ideas.

One of Kat's was:

Depression/Anxiety: Please send help

One of Trent's was:

Not another Walgreen's Christmas, please.

Have a great year. I can't wait to read all the notes next year of the exotic family vacations, trips around the world, dinners, expensive purchases, etc.

I can say that we are all so very blessed to have the eyes to read all of these letters.

Oh, and we are also very blessed that Erik still has a job and that we are slowly digging ourselves out of "that financial hole we got ourselves into".

Thank God!

Well, off to microwave some mini bagel pizzas for the kids' breakfast.

Chrstmas photos

This year was a lot easier. There was very little yelling or threats.

I feel like maybe after 13 years, the kids are finally getting it down. They know if they just be quiet and do what I ask, it's quicker for them and they can go back in their bedrooms and play on their phones. Or whatever it is that they do.

Here are some behind the scenes photos. 

 

I purchased the dog sweaters and the bed at Petco the day before. They were having a super cool sale and I have to say that Petco is my new favorite pet store. 

I'm in there every Saturday with Chloe. Everyone is always so nice and the trainer even works with Chloe a little bit when he gets a chance. She is getting so much better. In fact, she even has a home visit this weekend. 

I'm so happy to think that Chloe will wake up in someone's home on Christmas morning. Hopefully, she isn't too wild and crazy. She is sometimes like a bull in a china shop when she gets excited.

 

Here she is. Isn't she the cutest darn thing you've ever seen? We were at the Oro Valley Marketplace and they had a giant Christmas tree. I had her sit in front of it.

You can just tell from her face that she is excited, huh? She knows Santa is coming.

That's it for today.

What? You thought I'd put the official Christmas photo on?

NO!

It's not Christmas!

Here is a link from 2014 with links to other Christmas card photos:

Christmas past

I just realized that I don't have pictures from 2015 Christmas on there. That's because 2015 sucked horribly. Hang on....the pictures weren't too bad though.

Oh, wait. That's just two of the dogs. Hang on. I'm still looking...

Here we go. I did a collage of photos. I couldn't just pick one.

Yes, those were really on our Christmas card 2015. I had to yell to get them into position. Like I said, this year I think they understand how it works.

See ya later.

First day of school photos, better known as...

...Trent still wants to hurt me for taking his picture.

Well, it's that time of year again. It's hot, it's raining and humid and it's BACK TO SCHOOL!

It was another boring summer. At least it was better than last year when Erik was out of work.

Kat and I did a couple of dog training classes with Shannon and Cherry.
Trent spent a lot of time in his room on his phone.
Kat and I went to Phoenix to see Twenty-one Pilots
Trent spent a lot of time in his room on his phone.
Kat also spent a lot of time in her room on her phone.
They both binge watched Supernatural on Netflix.
The three of us talked Erik into getting a pool.
Trent did some work with Jay being "toad boy" and "snake wrangler" for his classes. He made a bit of money.
We saw three movies: Finding Dory, The Secret Life of Pets, and Suicide Squad 
Trent spent time with his girlfriend.



...and I think that's about it.

Do you see Trent's face? He wants to kill me. I think he's still pissed at me from yesterday. Apparently I'm oh-so-embarrasing every time his girlfriend comes over. She was over yesterday.

and Kat? She's so impatient with me. It's like she's saying, "TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE ALREADY!" BTW, I see that eyeliner. It's something we'll be talking about when she gets home. Why didn't I notice it at 6:20 this morning?

Let's look back at 2009 when Trent was going into 3rd grade and Kat was starting Kindergarten:

2009

Awwww! Trent doesn't look so mad and he is hugging his sister. When did this change?

2010

Nope, not here. They're still looking pretty happy here. Let's go to 2011:

2011

 

 

 

 

Ahhh, here we go! 2011 was the time of change. Trent is tired of my photo taking and Kat's hair has some color. She was going all black by 2nd grade.

Let's check out 2012 (by the way, this is taking me forever to go back and find these photos):

2012

 

We're not touching or pretending to know each other anymore.

2013

 

 

At least we're smiling.

2014

 

2015

Everyone looks tired and sad. :( I think Erik being out of work for so long took a bigger toll on everyone than we thought.

Here's the rest of photos from today:

This year all they wanted was band merchandise and black. I'm sure by the end of the year, it will be easy to tell which is the start of school pic and which is the end of school pic. Their shirts will be gray instead of black.

If you don't know this, I always take a picture of the first day and then on the last day of school, they wear what they wore on the first day.

Oh, and I just heard the bus roll by....gotta go. They're finally HOME!