What Makes Kids Tick

we babysat k-bug a few weeks back for baby brother-in-law. he & his wife were in a play. they try not to do that too often but in this case the play needed one more person & asked marco to fill in. he felt obligated cos wifey was in it & he's a supportive kinda fella. the play was called 'joseph & the amazing technicolor dream coat'. hubby & i have gotten to the point that we don't attend many plays anymore. i mean these people are really into their plays & its one after another. while marco was appearing in one he was in rehearsals for 'sweeney todd'. like i said, one after another. they're great but i have to skip seeing the grandkids when i attend so i opt mostly for the grandkids. we did attend the first time marco appeared in a smaller part in 'sweeney todd'. this time he has a main character part & i would really like to see it but i'm not sure yet. yeah, i'm talking through my hat: we'll go & see him. this is too big a part. he plays the judge this time & i'm actually excited.
anyway, to entertain k-bug we took her swimming with the kids. the kids are great with her & she adores them. she was fine playing in puddles but the result of putting her in the pool kinda went like this.
we were told she'd been in pools before & loved them. i didn't get that from her reaction. i'm thinking maybe it was cos previously mommy was in with her & not planning on turning her over to uncle steiner. after mommy snuck off we headed on home. the rest of the night went ok. at some point i think the stress of being away from mommy & daddy for the week started getting to her. she'd be playing & out of the blue just walk off & start whining. when asked what was wrong she'd perk up & come back to play but i felt sorry for the baby. she's usually pretty happy & i couldn't help but pick her up & love on her every now & then.
she loves to rock.
in other news lil miss ix has decided she's too big to mind us anymore. twice today alone she's refused to answer us when called for dinner. when we asked if she heard us she said, 'i wasn't sure i heard you'. needless to say, she's being punished. oh yeah, big time! no tv for the rest of the weekend. she's dying! this kid lives for her tv & would rather sit inside watching tv then anything else you could suggest she does. course, this is the kid that says reading is a punishment. can you say mixed up? i'm at my ropes end trying to figure her out. but she will mind me. i won't give on that. we actually just got a notice in the mail that a child molester has moved into the neighborhood. this guy has been in jail before for the same thing & was released only to abuse another child. now he lives right around the corner from us. he won't have to worry about going back to jail if he does something to one of mine. i'll take care of his feed & board for the rest of his life. in a hole in my backyard. won't be any other kids that'll have to worry about him. i'm sure he won't live here long. my neighbors are pretty redneck. they won't put up with a child molester but in the mean time i'm watching mine really close.

later.

Dog Days Of Summer

are we missing some people? did my home planet send a ship i didn't know about & collect all the blogging people?

no, that can't be it. someone would've emailed me. or e-ted me or something. must be summer. yeah, thats it. i know its summer cos stupid me & hubby took the kids to a fair. a whole lot of rides, freaky people with colorful hats & peircing everywhere, cotton candy, hot dogs, funnel cakes, drunks, games, people yelling at us as we passed that we couldn't knock over the milk jugs, balloons, live music, screaming kids & walking. great time. 5 hours & a whole lot of money later we got to watch some huge fireworks that everybody ewwwed & awwwwed at we got to go home & fall into the bed. honestly if i had to walk that venue one more time i was gonna die. my feet felt like i was standing on 2 inches of dead meat. it was alot of fun & i wish i had proof but i also forgot to take the camera.
i did get pics of the stitches in jammers head, well they were actually staples. they stapled hair & all. i've never seen them not clean a wound before they did the closing. i thought they'd even shave the immediate area but nope, just stapled the shit closed & sent him home. daddy took the staples out a week later. it looks fine & jammer didn't even budge when it was done. sonny said he didn't even think he noticed when he pulled them out. like teeth, sonny & honey are saving the staples. why do people do that? i actually thought saving the teeth was a stupid idea. how could you convince a kid that the tooth fairy came & left them money if you had the tooth in a flipping jar? not the same fairy i knew when i was growing up. that bitch threw my precious little teeth away as soon as they came out of my head. which was fine with me. think of all the germs on those things. then what? you gonna take them out for years to come & talk about them? remind me of the pain i went through when that sucker came out? oh look, honey, remember this was when you & sissy was wrestling & she kicked that big tooth right out of your head. oh snap! i almost forgot to mention that jammers front tooth is coming in. remember the one sissy yanked out when she dropped him into the coffee table at 2 years old? it looks like he's gonna have a big ole gap between his 2 front teeth. unless the rest push them together alot over the next few years. i'll have to get pics of that for you next weekend.
time for bed. i still need to hit the shower & figure out what to wear tomorrow. i hate that job. not like i don't have a shitload of clothes to choose from but you never know how accurate the weather people will be. do i dress for rain or the first 100 degree day of the year?

later.

Welcoming An Angel Home

its been an extremely sad week in our world. a very dear man who will be sorely missed passed away on tuesday. my father-in-law lost his battle with cancer.
hubby has been reminiscing about the old days. he says he knows it was mum that sent him but it was always dad that busted him. he never got away with anything that dad didn't know about. i'm glad he finally has opened up because he's been quiet all week holding it all in.
lots of memories have been shared. lots of tears. lots of laughs. he was a loving father & a great husband. mum will be lost without him. we're all worried about her. dad always took care of the bills & the repairs. mum is strong, healthy & i'm sure she'll pull through this but we'll all be there for her.
last year dad had insisted on putting out a huge vegetable garden & this year its gone to crap. his flower garden is still going strong. its well established & it'll flourish without him for years to come but we all know where all the hard work came from to make it as beautiful as it is. hubby will go over & move things around. i know cos its what dad would have asked him to do. had him to help with if he was still able to.
i'm glad he had a chance to be a grandfather. i actually have video of him getting down on the floor to play with his granddaughter. even though it was hard for him to do he couldn't resist. she was the apple of his eye. even with ix & jammer, who wasn't his blood, he was loving. always teaching them things. holding them on his lap & talking with them.
so many memories. we're so thankful for the time we had him on this earth. thank you lord, for sharing your angel.
goodby dad, until we meet again.

Stretching The Limits

i finished moms mat & made a small plaque kinda thing to match. i thought maybe she could hang it over her door. i kicked around different things to print on the plaque like 'love grows here' or 'moms place' but i decided on these letters because at the end of all our emails we all use the letters of 'love you more than you know' or 'love you more & more everyday' or something to that effect. you can't really see the words & i wasn't gonna use the words themselves until nipper pointed out that nobody would know what it meant & it made more sense to just finish the words in smaller letters. she actually did an email up in word & sent it to me for the full effect. i think it matches pretty well & it all came out pretty good. what do you think? what you can't see is i also put a buttefly in the upper right corner of the plaque. if you click on the pic you can blow it up.
yesterday was my dads birthday & i'm working on a mat for him. he lives on what we've always called 'sunset ridge' where you walk out his backdoor & you look out over hills & hills rolling all the way to the river. its a beautiful scene & i'm trying to capture that for him. he's also big time into horses. he owns 5 right now. one is a big beautiful black stallion named 'levi' that i plan on putting right in the center of the yard. i took panoramic pictures of his place the last time i was out there. this is gonna be tougher than the mat i painted for mom. this is the center of the panoramic pictures i took. after i printed all the pictures & layed it out on my mat they fit almost perfectly to the size of the mat. all i really have to do is basically paint it pic by pic. i'm hoping to get this done by this weekend to give to dad before he leaves for the blackhills of montana on sunday. he's doing a 3 week vacation from the blackhills to bighorn on horseback. thats the hills that butch cassidy & sundance rode. terrorized, i mean. i'll post the finished work to let you compare. that is if i'm not too ashamed of it. no, i'll post it even if its not right. dads the one i want to impress. i just like showing you guys the ass i can make of myself. he's the one that'll be looking from my mat to his horizon saying what the hell was she thinking?
later

Back To School

so, i'm taking a vacation week. i start on monday. oops, thats today seeing its after midnight. as usual, my vacation starts out like shit. i took my car to my mechanic to have him check out the transmission he put in on my vacation last year. its been acting funny. so what did he do? he beat the shit out of my car in about 10 minutes & blew the head gasket. of course, he's not taking responsiblity for it so now i'm out of a car for vacation. believe me when i say my mechanic is out one client. asshole. not only did i miss the 'cash for clunkers' deal but i've spent all my income tax money. shitty timing for me.
on a good note, i went to the doctor last week & my cholesterol is down, my blood pressure is good & my sugar is great! i'm gonna start my diet again. just for good measure. i wanna lose another 30 pounds & then i'll be done.
today was hubbys birthday. we took him shopping but he bought for his brother instead of himself. i tried to get him to buy some new clothes or something but he said he didn't need anything. so, i just baked him a cake & we all sang happy birthday. at least he ate the cake.
sometime this week i'm gonna attempt to change my template here. if i screw it up it may be a while before i'm back. wish me luck on that. i've read the backup info here in blogspot & i'm hoping if i screw it up i can at least return to the original. guess you'll be the first to know.
jammer starts back to school on thursday. he had to be rushed to the hospital last friday. his mother, for lack of a better term, managed to drop a bed rail on his head while he was playing his playstation. he wound up getting a few stitches. honestly, between his mom & his sister the poor kid doesn't have a chance. i'm thinking i need to invest in a bubble. i have to find some way to keep him safe. may be i should ship in off to a boarding school. i could go as a teacher so i could be with him. man, guess i better go brush up on my aerodynamics cos he's gonna need some help with that bubble thing.
later