Just life...

That's all that's been happening. Life, and I'm in the middle of it. I'm still tired from being out of town last week, and then having the weekend womens conference at church (which was great, by the way). Even flaked out on my women's group last night because I was so tired (sorry girls!).

I'm still in shock, because a great guy at work passed away while I was out of town, completely unexpected. Work got the news Friday afternoon, and I got a cell call on the way home. He was such a nice guy, and a strong Christian, and is missed. Just made the think about how short life is. The week before I went out of town, we had our last converstation, about coffee of all things. Crazy what you remember. But I was having a particularly rough week, and when I got to work I needed another cup of coffee. I don't normally drink coffee at work, but I passed him in the hall with my cup, and he had his. I said, ohhh coffee is ready already, and he said, yeah I always make the first pot over in the break area. I never get coffee there, we have a coffee pot in the map plotter room, but this time, I did b/c it was ready. Stupid conversation...really, but I remember being thankful that you could always count on him to be there first. I noticed yesterday and again today that no one made coffee in the pot he always made it in. Isn't that intresting? I think the entire floor, and most of two divisions, are going to the funeral on Thursday. You could hear a pin drop on our floor yesterday and today. I spent quite a bit of time in the area of the state he worked in with him, I am project manager over two surface water projects over there and he was coordinator of the basin.
Our section has had a rough couple of years, its just me and my boss. On her white board, her husband had written, "good horses get worked to death", under which this man wrote "amen" one day in her office. Just under that, I wrote "preach it sista". Its all still on her board. Today we were looking at it, and still in shock!

The womens conference was really good, and the topic helped me a lot. There was much discussion about true worship, the whys and the hows, but the thing that sticks with me the most, is really her discussion of "flesh hooks" Wow is all I can say. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. If not, maybe I'll blog about it soon, its just too much for me right now.

Made it home!

It was an intresting experience, but we made it home. Made it just in time to go to the womens conference at church. So now I'm sooo tired. BUT enjoying UA whop up on UGA!!! ROLL TIDE! Tomorrow, its church time and hopefully a nap!

Still very little gas in Ashville!

My coworker took the state truck out last night to try to get enough gas to at least get us back in TN. He waited at two stations and turned away, not because they were out of gas, but because we had out of state plates!! You have go to be kidding me! Even though we are in a MS Gov't truck. Yeah no gas for us, b/c we aren't local. He finally found a station that would let him buy 10 gallons. That should be enough to get us out of the "no gas zone" that seems to be growing up here. Took him 3 hours total to get that 10 gallons. And the prices up here are nearlly 4.50. With reports of busting 5/gallon.

This is crazy!!

Stuck in Ashville, NC...with NO GAS!

There is very little gas up here. Yesterday, there were two stations that had gas, and the lines for both were over a mile long. And we've got all these people who drove up here for the conference, who need to drive back on Thursday! We filled up on the way in in Knoxville, but aren't sure we could get back to Knox with what we have left. Its crazy! They are saying it will be next week some time before supplies are back to normal, and even talking about cutting school buses etc.

I dont want to have to stay up here longer that I have to!!

Ashville, NC here I come...

Going out of town for a work conference tomorrow. I usually like going to these things, because I usually know I'm going to learn something useful for my job, get to network with folks around the country who do what I do etc. BUT I'm not looking forward to this one. I think it has to do with the things I've heard about this particular conference. Even though there will be some things I should learn, I'm just not all gung-ho about it. Maybe its that I have to ride in a truck for 12 hours. Blech. Normally we get to fly to conferences, but since there are 5 of us going, they wanted us to drive.

Roll Tide!

Man what a game! It was great. I enjoyed every minute of it. :-) Sure they have things to work on, the passing game seemed a bit off, but the running game, to the left anyway, looked good. And no penalties until the 3rd Quarter? That was great.
And if winning that big wasn't good enough, Auburn lost too! (sure it was to LSU, which really, I wish there was a way for both of them to lose...hehe). If Florida had just lost, it would have been a great day. Alas, hubby was very very upset at his beloved Vols. They looked horrible! I felt bad for him. Ahhh, SEC football...can't get much better than that!!


ROLL TIDE ROLL!

$4.89??

I heard gas prices were going grazy when we left work to pick up Goldie. But when got off the interstate in Brandon, they all looked normal, with not really any lines. We had about 1/2 tank, so I wasn't worried, but darlin thought we should top off. After we finished at the vet, we came back to Pearl, and the MACs on 80 was 4.89!!!! I couldn't believe it! We payed 3.67 in Brandon, a 1.22 difference. I remember when gas COST <1.22. *sigh*

Goldie is home!

We were able to pick her up yesterday. So far so good. She has to stay on "crate rest" for about 6 weeks, going back to the vet in October. We can have her out of the crate for petting as long as she doesn't get excited. She doesn't seem to want to eat her normal amount, but the doc said that was normal.

Librarian remarked about my book selection

I went to return and check out some more books at the library tonight. When I was checking out, the librarian looked at the titles, and said, Wow, what a smorgasborg! I said, yeah, I read everything. He goes, thats a really intresting mix of books. At first I didn't know what he was talking about. See, I usually go in after a couple of things, then hit the "new" section, and sometimes on the way to what I'm after, I'll spot something and just grab it.

So, when I got in the car I looked at my selections.

My mom and I are reading the left behind series, so I got books 5 & 6 of that.
Then I picked up a new book, that was about a vampire hunter. Then there was a book about 885 BC London, and one about Ireland during the time of King Arthur. And a christian romance. So yea, I guess that is an "interesting mix"! No wonder he remarked on it!!

"So many books, so little time!"

Goldie Update

She seems to be doing ok, according to the vet. We should be able to bring her home Friday afternoon.

I talked to the vet again a little while ago, and she said Goldie has had no complications so far, and seems to be doing fine.

Go Fish - The Ten Commandment Boogie

I haven't blogged about these guys, but my family LOVES them. I love them too. They rock. And I try to tell everyone about them, and you should go buy their albums. We own them all, and I can't wait for their next one! (And yes, I already preordered it!!) They are really nice guys too. Their motto: Great music for kids that won't drive their parents bonkers. We have their newest CD SNAZZY playing in our car any time there is a kid in it with us. I got to see them 2x at MOPS convention, and then a whole bunch of us from V'burg went to see them last October in Madison. I met them after one of their MOPS concerts, they were so nice, and really love making music for the kiddos.

Check them out: www.gofishguys.com

I personally love the Ten Commandment Boogie:



My kids love all of their songs, but Punkin loves this one: Bi Bi Bi, Bible Books



And any mother should LOVE The Mom Song!

Goldie Update

I talked to the vet today, and she said that Goldie made it through the treatment and the first night/day. So now its just day by day, to see if she survives the cure for her heartworms. :-(

I thought we had a cat...

Not a bobcat, or a tasmanian devil.

Friday night, Rascal, my almost 7 year old indoor only cat got out of the house. We didn't realize it for awhile, he must have snuck out when my MIL came over. Anyway, when I got ready to go to bed, I realized I hadn't seen him in a long time. Which isn't abnormal, because he likes to hide from the dogs. He wasn't in any of his "usual" hiding places. So, I went and looked outside, and spotted him in the front of the house.

Now, this cat has NEVER had his neat little paws outside for more than 2-3 minutes, since he came from the shelter. AND he's a big ole chicken. Well, he saw me and ran. I went and got my hubby, and we a bath towel. (have you ever picked up a cat who didn't want to be picked up? CAN YOU SAY OW!)

He was under our front shurbs (not the hollys. thank the Lord, those suckers hurt). So we tried to pick him up and he went WILD! I would have sworn his claws were razors. So we let him be for a minute. I went and put the dogs up in the office so they wouldn't be out and about, and propped open the front door, thinking we could kind of shoo him in the door without loss of limb.

Wrong-o. HE wanted NO part of moving from under the shrubs. Anytime one of us moved, he would get all tasmanian devil again. So, I thought, well, he really likes my mom, maybe she can calm him down. I went in and got her, and she came out and sat down next to the shrubs. Everytime she tried to talk to him, tasmainian devil again.

Meanwhile, its now 1030ish. Hubby says, alright, this is enough. I'm going to throw the towel on him, grab him and run. Stay out of the way. Alrighty darlin' if you are willing to lose limbs over the stubborn cat, go for it! He grabs the cat, and it sounded like Rascal had to be fighting to the death. It sounded HORRIBLE! My mom started yelling don't hurt him! I was yelling, he's not, the cat is just MAD! All I could see was blue towel, claws and teeth! Hubby goes, everyone SHUT UP!! And ran in the house, tossed the cat towel and all in my moms room and closed the door.

I realized at this point, that Rascal didn't want to come out from under the shrubs because he was sitting on a GREAT big ole toad. Poor toad. He looked scared to death. At this point, I started laughing so much I was nearly in tears. Hubby came back out and apologized for yelling, but said the we were breaking his concentration, and his arms were hurting from the 20 claws and the mouth full of teeth!

Needless to say, it was about 11 before Rascal calmed down enough to not sound like the Tasmanian Devil when someone opened the bedroom door. At least no cops showed up!

Its Sunday night already?

I hate that the weekend goes so fast. This was a good one too. Friday, we had the HVAC guy come and deal with the AC. He taught us how to fix this problem next time. *yeah* and it wasn't too $$.



Saturday, Princess went to church for the kids kick off, so darlin' and I got some rare one on one time with punkin'. When we asked her what she wanted to to, she wanted to go see the puppies and kitties at petsmart. Really? Like we dont have enough to look at at home! But we went, she had a ball.



Today, Sunday was good. In the preschool this morning we had a "flitter" incident. Flitter everywhere, let me tell you. I may still be sparkling tomorrow. But the kids had fun. I was about 20 minutes late to church though, it took that much time to clean up! Then tonight, the Getty's had a concert at our church, which was FABULOUS!! I love their song "In Christ Alone". Here is a clip from youtube, but I would say that with our church's amazing choir as backup, it was way better. :-) But I'm biased.





Unfortunatly, Goldie goes to the vet tomorrow to start her heartworm treatment. If you remember, we've only had her since June, and we found out shortly after we took her that she was heartworm postive. She will be 5 in october, and the vet says she as a 75% chance of survival from the treatment. :-( She will have to stay at the vet all week, and then sedated and calm for like 3 more. Poor baby!

R.I.P Crocodile & Tadpole Raising - Zoo update

Crocodile succumbed to the elements this week. It looked like he was trying to molt, but got stuck. He was hiding, so I didn't notice until too late. Not that there was anything I could really do about it, but still, its sad. He was too cool. And we have less fish now, but thats a good thing I think.

The tadpoles seem ok, they are growing slower now, and we still don't have legs. Hopefully soon!

The other zoo animals are alright. Goldie went to try to steal some cat food and Small Kitty bowed up on her and scratched her pretty good. Goldie goes in for heartworm treatment next week. I'm nervous for her...I dont want her to have a bad reaction, but I dont want her to be sick from the heartworms either.

Toby is his normal, big ole year old self. Goofy dog, but I love him!

Just one more thing...

Working for the state has its advantages. I like the monthly pay, because at the first of the month, its always like a clean slate. Its been tough this summer, taking care of mom's stuff, dealing with the dentist, dogs heartworms, and then the school and preschool start up costs. But first of Sept rolls around, and its like a deep breath of fresh air, we should be coming out of the clouds.

And then, there is a puddle in the hallway. ARGH! Coming from the air handler. Like a lot of water. It started yesterday, and got worse today. So lots of shop vacing and bucket placing. And a local call to our AC guy! These are times when I wish darlin and I were more experienced with this homeowner thing, or knew some friends who are handy type folks. Sure, its probably something simple, and easy to fix, b/c the unit cools fine. Just a big ole mess. And of course, $$ we weren't planning to spend on this way this month. *sigh*

I know it will workout, but it sure is disheartening sometimes, ya know? Two steps forward, and three steps back.

Update on preschool, and operation space maintainer.

Punkin' had to take her "lello" notebook to school on Tuesday. When we got there she wanted to get it out and show her teacher her homework. I talked her into leaving it in the backpack. When she got home, she wouldn't eat lunch until she did her "homework" which consisted of getting her "lello" notebook out and scribbling on the first two pages. Then she would eat. She was very proud of herself! She knows when princess gets off the bus, she is supposed to do her homework. I thought it was too cute!

Wed she had to get her space maintainers put in where she had those teeth pulled. Darlin' took her because I had meetings at work ALL day. Literally from 830-4. Apparently that didn't go well from the report I got. She cried and screamed, and pitched a huge fit. When I got home though, I asked her how it was at the dentist, and she said she had fun, and watched Ratatoulle. Her daddy had this complete look of shock on his face! We think she was super tired, and that is why she didn't want to cooperate with the Dentist. Dr Tiffany told us that it was really good we went ahead and got the spacers, because her teeth had already started shifting slightly.

Today at preschool, she was super happy to be going, and blew me a kiss on the way in. Too cute!

First Day of Preschool

Punkin' started preschool today!
She was most upset when we has to wait 1.5 hours after Princess got on the school bus before we could leave. All ready to go:

Found her chair! Right after this picture was taken, the teacher told her she could play with whatever she wanted. So no more pictures for mom!