Back at the Farm

It is a fun-filled Saturday on our Fall Break. Mike, Gib, Jeff, Indie and Mariah went shooting this morning with Blake, a friend from Scouts. They shot with two .22's, a revolver, and Mike's hunting rifle. Mike saved Jeff from a black eye, but missed out on helping Blake avoid stitches in his head from the scope. Indie wisely decided not to even mess with the hunting rifle after Jeff took his first shot. Mariah had fun and I bet she didn't even sketch in her art book she took along just in case. Gib reports he's a bit sore from the rifle recoil which he described as "disorienting at first" and caused him to pretty much just shoot at everything. I do believe he hit a target he wasn't aiming at. While they were at the rifle range, I was hitting yet another Garden Center with Grammy to get more things to plant this fall.

Awhile later, we all boarded the ever so popular Swag Van so we could enjoy some together time on our way to Hicklen Farm to get pumpkins. Everyone had more WAY more fun than expected due to a few people's twisted sense of humor and most of the people's appreciation for it. These are the unofficial photos from my iPhone. There are much better ones on facebook. Mike was the official photographer of the activity.

We went on a hayride. Thrill of a lifetime for Mariah as you can see.
Gib shared the sentiment
Indie told him to stop acting like a 16 yr old

Jeff and Indie watching our fellow hayriders board

After being cautioned to hang on tight, we began!

A person could pretty much walk as fast.

Another curveball: The tractor driver told us to watch out for scary animals.

Keep your eyes peeled. You don't want to miss a single one of the 56.
Yes 56!!!
I thought there should have been some buried in the field. Guess my sense of humor isn't Farm Humor. You would think it was, really.
Farmer took our group photo

Back at the Homestead with our pumpkins posing for a group photo
Grammy and I got ours and Mike's at a garden center last weekend. I couldn't resist them!
Back row L-R: Grammy's (winner of cheapest pumpkin: it was free!) and Jeff's (who chose a pumpkin representative of himself. Perfect and without blemish.... he gets the prize for most original approach to pumpkin selection)

Middle row: Chrissie (winner of wartiest pumpkin), Gib (winner of best stem. Sorry Jeff), Taryn's is a Cinderella pumpkin (winner of best color and tasty seeds), and Indy (the ol' pumpkin buns selection method gets awarded, ummmm, honorable mention?!)

Front row: Mike (wins Most Embarassing - you would think this kind of treatment would lead him to choose his own on our annual pumpkin outing!) and Mariah's pumpkin (awarded Most Likely to be the Cutest).

Mellow

Indie and Jeff arrived yesterday. I stole this pic from Indie's fb wall. Where was Aussie? I know y'all are wondering. Well, Aussie had a bit of a rough ride (Indie and Jeff have a more thorough understanding of "misery loves company") and he had to go to a local vet's to be bathed. He was going to get his claws trimmed anyway so he got the whole spa treatment instead, including a shot he probably needed, and the rabies vaccine which he didn't need, but Indie didn't have his tags. They picked him up a couple hours later. He is now a fresh smelling, shiny boy. Note to all parties who have regained their sense of smell: Feliway. It makes a kitty mellow. I'm still cleaning the car carrier.

Jeff surprised the women in the house with flowers. Is he great or what?! They are so pretty and it was such a nice thing to do. Grammy received yellow roses, Mariah got pink gerbera daisies, and I love the red alstroemeria and roses - it's my favorite color. Everyone say it at the same time: "Jeff's a keeper". He's pretty adorable too. I am soooo tempted to put that on his fb wall so his mom sees it.

Mariah really didn't know what to think. She's only received flowers from her dad before. She was kind of like all oookay, creeper - but I gave her the look and she managed a nice thank you with the creeper look thrown in. It was pretty funny.

I'm thinking we should probably give Indie and Jeff some nice fragrant flowers for the ride home. I'm not sure Aussie's carrier will ever be smelling like a rose. I'm working on it, but it's always good to have a back up plan.

When Mike got home we all visited in the living room. We went to Mellow Mushroom to celebrate Indie's birthday with the family. Even Taryn was part of it because she was texting us all evening. Poor T - she is too far away! She also does not have a fall break. Her university saves those days off for St. Patricks celebrations.

Afterwards, we enjoyed the worthwhile pursuit of catching up on Big Bang Theory episodes Indie and Jeff missed. It was a pretty mellow night, filled with lots of laughter. I do wish Taryn was here too though. It's just not the same without her. On the plus side, we had lots of texts with her. I almost feel like it was a conversation! T needs quarters and has a Christmas list in the making. I am almost certain we will actually talk soon. With Indie and Jeff here, I predict the belltone of scype within 12 hours from now!

A Week in the Life

We had a busy week, and Indy's 21st birthday highlighted the weekend. Her final installment of gifts was receiving the curtains for her apartment. Turns out they are perfect, except for the need to be ironed, and she doesn't have an iron! We are not an ironing-crowd here. In fact, poor Taryn burned her thumb on one turned back in at the front desk. If clothes need pressing they get steamed or we beg Grammy to do it. Indy also reports that Aussie is NOT friends with the giraffe Mariah gave her sister; in fact, he beats it up daily and it is showing signs of many lost battles with his little wooden ears chewed up and claw marks all over. Aussie is such a Brutus. Who knew the pound could actually come up with a name that described a cute, tiny orange kitty. Indy also received a phone call from Mike's parents to wish her a happy birthday, cards and many fb bday messages. I know she liked the gift cards to restaurants from Grammy and I was hoping one could never have too many gift cards, because I had already gotten her a Subway one since this month it's $5 for all footlongs. She'll hardly have to cook at all in October!

Indy has a fall break and is going to bring Aussie! ... and maybe Jeff. We're really looking forward to seeing Aussie. Joking!! Well, we are, but I saw a smile on Mike's face when I mentioned Jeff might accompany Indy. The good kind of smile, not the yay-I'm-going-to-clean-my-gun smile. Mariah and I already met him, so he only has to charm a few more members of the family. Another joke going around currently is Taryn gets the final say. This came about awhile ago after she spotted a photo of a guy who wished to date Indy, and Taryn let it be known in no uncertain terms that she did not approve. Well, that took care of that! Luckily, I don't think Jeff has anything to worry about. Indy meets his family in a couple of weeks. Then they can compare notes about who had it rougher, who was embarrassed more (please, let it be Indy!), and who was needlessly worried the most. I don't think Indy will fall in the latter category, as everytime a picture of the two of them appears on facebook. one of his mother's friends will comment, "she's adorable Jeffrey". Haha, it makes me laugh every single time as I say to myself, "oh, she's adorable all right".

Taryn is busy. We miss her and are looking forward to Thanksgiving. She and I had a Words With Friends bet and she actually won, and earned herself a Panera gift card. Even so, she is too busy to call her mom. I choked an "I love you" out of her last night as she informed me that she couldn't talk because she was working until midnight. She says she is fine. I keep praying she will report a newfound liking for physics. I wonder if it's working yet. To be fair, I don't know actually know how she is doing. She could be doing all right but hating it, or she might be walking that nerve wracking edge of Pass/Fail. I might know more if she called, but apparently she likes keeping us in the dark. Who knows? Perhaps she is studying 24/7. Although, there was an Olympics activity that I saw pictures of her in, and then there was a humorous vid of the 11 person pyramid. I am not complaining, these photos are the biggest glimpse I have into her life! I especially liked the Angry Birds slingshot photo. From trolling her fb wall, I see she also has found a crowd that plays Killer Bunnies. She'll probably come home with some winning geekish strategy to Killer Bunnies now and cream us all. I don't know how you could possibly strategize that game, but if it can be done, she's got it down pat by now. Maybe applying a few laws of physics to Killer Bunnies....

Gib is now breathing a little easier. He had a moving vehicle traffic violation last month. We got to see how the other half lives in Juvvie Court. He got the added thrill of both parents attending with him to appear before the judge. Gib and I took it very seriously and counted the ratio of guys to girls as people came in the court. The guys held it at a steady 2:1. Gib knew where this was leading, so he scrambled and said it was a distinguished ratio of guys to girls who didn't cry their way out of a ticket. I also enjoyed trying to guess who would get in the most trouble as compared to Gib, who was ticketed for 20 mph over the speed limit. Since he only had 2 tenths of a mile on that street, I doubt he got going that fast, but I'd say it was probably 50'ish in a 40. Regardless, he was in a world of hurt, worrying about judgement day. When a guy sporting a nice bleached blondie yellow 50's retro Pompadour meets Mohawk look sat down in front of us, I whispered to Gib, "You're in less trouble than him" and we snickered.

So after listening to a girl (coincidentally a sister of one of the preschoolers from a couple years ago) read an essay that was part of her sentence a month ago, she was given back her license they had taken away for doing 99 on the freeway. Ouch. Then parents of a deceased college graduate who was killed by a distracted driver gave a presentation. That was sad. I hope it makes a difference to the people there to think about how important the cell phone conversation has to be to cost somebody their life. And obviously, the presentation included the dangers of texting while driving. Most people do not believe they are distracted while on the cell phone. Statistics prove otherwise, and these parents know firsthand the tragic results of another driver talking on the phone and causing the accident which took their son from this earth. The judge spoke, and then everyone went up in alphabetic order. Thankfully we didn't have many in front of us. One of the girls was doing 34 over the speed limit. She got the nicer, Southern Judge Judy questioning, and she was ordered to pay the fine, don't let me see you here again, and 4 hrs of defensive driving. Gib breathed a huge sigh of relief and when it was his turn, he got the same assignment, and I saw a smile on the judges face that to me said, "aren't you adorable". Cute and off the hook! What a combo. Yup, I have adorable children all right. I noted that while we didn't hear anybody after us, the two girls ahead of Gib were going considerably faster than he when ticketed, so the ratio argument I was brewing was abandoned.

Tomorrow he goes to the 4 hr driving safety class on what would've been a day off from school for him. Oh well, he wants to get it over with. We were happy the insurance won't be affected, and we were out of there in under an hour, making it possible to attend to the rest of the evening's activities.

Mariah had a difficult week. Her stomach has been giving her alot of problems. We tried a new ADD medication, a non-stimulant, but it didn't work out. It caused her to feel really, really bad by the afternoon, and she'd come home about ready to pass out (literally) and go to bed for a few hours. So we are going back to the other one. She took a few days off from all ADD meds, but the stomach problems persist. I'm pretty sure she has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I may have to go to an ADD specialist to find a medication that doesn't irritate the irritated gastrointestinal track. I tried to talk her out of taking it for awhile, but Mariah says she has to or can't pay attention in class.

One day last week while she was at the nurses office, and I was subsequently walking out of an appointment I had to go pick her up from school, a couple of obnoxious students grabbed her art book off her desk and helped themselves to a few pages to draw smileys. But the worst was a what appeared to be whale (although I still maintain it looks more like a giant Goldfish cracker) drawn in ink on her landscape she had been working on for several days. It was a beautiful sketch, one of her best ever, and she was devastated. I called the nurse when I picked up my distraught child, and told her what happened while Mariah was in her care because I wanted her to notify the teacher. She suggested I also email the VP, which I did when I got home. He took care of the situation appropriately, and Mariah met with the art teacher to see about salvaging it. I think it may end up being a mixed media effort, or they will come up with some way to cut it out and put a new piece of paper at the bottom of the sketch. Another idea Mariah mentioned was making it a 2D piece and covering her lake with stuff to make it textured. So, someday, we may have a Where's Waldo the Whale landscape done in pencil, mixed media and modge podge.

Mike is bailing as fast as he can at work. Well, actually, it's not as dire as that, but they are down 2 employees that previously helped shoulder the load. He's pretty busy these days, but hopefully they will hire somebody soon who can actually do the work without alot of hand holding and training. That takes almost more time than to just do it yourself. I guess the silver lining in all this is a reaffirmation of how much Mike is needed there!

It's the same old-same old for me. Busy, busy, and more busy, alleviated by sporadic breaks of nothing on the calendar, no alarms telling me to go somewhere. That's when I do as little as possible to make up for it. Sometimes I was supposed to do something more, but it doesn't always happen. It's probably time to start taking vitamins or something.

Preschool is wiping me out. Sometimes, if I sit down on the couch after work, it's all over but the snoring. I seriously do not even want to get up and when I do, I'm so stiff and my muscles feel like they're encased in cement. I've lost about 25 lbs in the past few months, so one would think a lighter load would result in more energy at the end of the day. I take small comfort in the fact that I'm not the only one feeling the effects. The other teachers are reporting the same thing.

Last week was the annual field trip to the pumpkin patch. The weather was gorgeous - and maybe just a little hot at 83 degrees. I offered for our director to go instead of me. I've been there a gazillion times and she never gets to go. So she took me up on it. I had a very quiet day with the under 3 crowd, and best of all, didn't get peed on from the boys in toilet training! I worked on separating the scholastic book order catalogs, delivering milk for lunch, and had a nice quiet crowd to build sand castles with at recess. When the troops arrived back at the school, the director and assistant director could barely exit the vehicle without groaning. Welcome to my world! They looked so exhausted I had a hard time not giggling. To make up for it, when all the Pre-K went to the playground until their parents arrived an hour later, I chased and ran all around with them giving the teachers a break on the playground. Wore myself out too! All the trips to jail and ensuing jail breaks, plus the screaming children shouting JAIL! JAIL! and then telling me the disgusting things I'd eat while imprisoned brought back the headache I'd been trying to eliminate all day. I pretended to think of something super great to eat and sent them scattering: CHILDREN!!!! All in a day's work.

Oh, and did I mention that Gib is going to Hawaii this summer? At least he hopes so.

Survived the Weekend (long)

Friday was U-G-L-Y, just plain ugly. I pretty much hated every minute of it, starting before dawn. If I hadn't been so crazy busy and irritated the entire day, and if I had known how Murphy was gonna be laying down the law on us for the next 24 hrs, I would have been updating my facebook every hour. Because you know at some point it starts to get kinda humorous if you're not the one living it.

I won't bore you with all the details (just enough to make up for the lack of fb status updates, haha), but I will share how it started. The black screen of death greeted me on my computer. I got up at 4 A.M. to help Gib with typing his english paper. I rebooted it but didn't have time to wait for my email to work, which I knew would take another 10 minutes. So I switched to Mike's noting along the way that Mariah had done the same thing, judging by the trail of homework. No go there - email not working. So I couldn't access the stuff Gib had sent with the work he had started. Argh! Way too much stress that early! I lost precious time going from one computer to another and ended up on Gib's laptop since that seemed to be the only working piece of technology in the house. Both kids had been up past midnight working on their stuff, and it's not that they procrastinated, it's as Mariah said, "all the teachers got together and conspired to make our lives miserable at the same time!" I was a little worried about Mariah's work on my Black Screen of Death Computer, and turns out for a good reason. It was all lost. She had to take a note to school that she had completed the assignments but they were unable to be retrieved before it crashed (again).

I got Gib's paper done with no time to spare. Mike drove Mariah to school. I had an hour to calm down before my appt with my neuro. I erroneously thought the chaos was over. Not so fast suckaaaa.

Mike called 20 minutes later just as I was about to step into the shower casually asking what my plans were for the day. I liked the casual phrasing considering what came next. He astutely deduced that he would have to run to the grocery store while I chopped the veggies we had on hand for the CROCKPOT JAMBALAYA he was supposed to bring in to the work potluck for lunch!!!! Luckily, between the 2 of us we got it in the crockpot (again no time to spare!) for it to be done by 11:30 and me to go the dr. Oh, the stress of working frantically once more and it wasn't even 8 a.m.

The neuro appointment went well - it was the highlight of my day. And that's saying something, huh? And despite the craziness of the past 4 hours, my blood pressure was only 108/60. As usual we went over the "is it always this low?" issue, and I said it was up a tad, actually but no surprise as I was pretty stressed that morning. I got a sample for this new air-injection for when I have a migraine that I wake up with, - this is the kind that is too severe for usual meds and this injection is supposed to work in 10 minutes. Pretty cool huh? I had to watch a video first, on what it was/how to use it, and was instructed to call the dr if it gets used.

Now, let's just pause for a moment to note that a couple of things were neglected to be put on the calendar. 1) What time Gib had to leave for his canoe trip. 2) Mariah's weekly pick up at Art Club. I almost forgot her, but the cereal aisle in the store made me think of her, which made me go "wait a second.. what time IS IT?!?!!?! Argh!!!!" If my phone had beeped at me, there would have been significantly less bleeping that evening. I got Mariah only 5 minutes late, but Poor Gib, he didn't leave on time. Not even close.

Major Oops, but totally understandable on this freakin' Friday, he missed the group leaving from the barn for the canoe base. Mike jumped in the truck with the dude and peeled rubber out of the driveway. I guess there was dim hope they might catch up to the caravan and toss a kid to them. But they came right back. He forgot the spare tent they said to bring. They came back again for his Class A Scout shirt. Yeah, that was so not good. Gib called ahead so Riah and I could kick it in high gear and hopefully just throw it as they raced by. Never did find it. I thought I did, but it was Mike's. So I sent Gib off with his dads. Hah, wonder if anyone's ready to laugh about that yet? And poor Mike too! He ended up with an unplanned 5 hour road trip right after work (and Gib ended up with a very unhappy father driving him).

Life is ironic sometimes, and who's surprised to find out that even though I've only had a couple migraines lately, I got one that night? A stupid cold front moved in. Who's even more surprised to find out that I couldn't find ANY medication in the house, or the purse, or the volvo in the crucial minutes you have to get it in your system? The volvo was a longshot because I had taken out everything since Gib drives it now, but I was desperate enough to check in case I missed some. I knew some were in the truck, and at this point it was almost laughable. I climbed the stairs resigned to several hours of agony. I couldn't believe I didn't get a new rx for the regular meds, but I guess the dr didn't write it because there's like 6 refills available at the CLOSED TARGET PHARMACY! If she had, I would have filled it that day with my new ones she gave me. Figures.

So now all I have is that handy dandy, brand spankin' new air-injection shot. I REALLY didn't want to give myself the shot in the first 15 minutes of a migraine because that's technically not what it's for - this is the BIG GUNS - and I was afraid, after this day who can blame me, that I'd have some reaction and need 911 or something if I used it right off the bat. Nobody was around, it wasn't like someone would notice me foaming at the mouth or having a seizure. Plus, I have strict orders to call after it gets used. I will look like a hypochondriac using it the very day I'm given the BIG GUNS. So, hoping against hope, knowing I was doomed and had already moved too much, I took what was closest (Extra Strength Tylenol), collapsed onto the bed (that still had to be made from laundry day) and hoped to get into my zone and not move a muscle until Mike got home. It was a little uncomfortable but I'm pretty good at getting into my zone and I did. As a matter of fact, I was so wrapped up in sheets that hadn't been attached to the waterbed mattress that I couldn't un-cocoon myself when I woke up without causing alot of movement which equalled alot of pain.

Mike arrived about 3 hours later I guess. I was pretty out of it by then. In hindsight, I should have texted Mike and told him to inject me when he got home instead of telling him to bring in the meds. He gave me a pill and all that detangling from the bed almost did me in. That's when I realized how bad off I was, but it was too late, I can't inject in a 24 hr period after taking other meds. Luckily, I only had another couple hours of pain at a a 20 on a scale of 1-10, and then it starting dropping off. At some point, I was able to get up and Mike made the bed, and I passed out again. I actually functioned the next day which WAS a miracle - very grateful for that - as I was super-de-dooper busy. Even busier than Friday.

So there ya have it, the beginning and end of how I survived the Friday that led to a crazy, CRAZY weekend. Gib is now home safe and sound. Mariah will make up one assignment and let the fixes go on the other that she lost deciding it isn't worth it and she hates her geography teacher too much to care. I need to find someone to teach Mariah proofs. Ugh.

We had a frost advisory last night and poor Chiquita the zipper spider is hanging by a leg.... literally. It's kinda gross. One leg attached to the web, swaying in the breeze. On Saturday, I thought I'd give her a decent final resting spot rather than let her hang there after all the can't-look-away-awe-inspiring photography she provided. I started to detach her web with a stick at this one canna leaf that is obviously a key line to the whole thing, thinking I'd wind the web around the stick like cotton candy until I got to her arachnid carcass, but let me tell you, that web wasn't going anywhere - amazingly strong! So I start to give it some muscle, and she woke up and got up on her web. Yikes! So not dead after all. Thankfully, I didn't just go straight for the spider like I considered! Can you imagine the horror?!?!!?!?!! Today, she is dangling again by one toe, but I'm not falling for it again, even though it was probably too cold for her last night to live. I've had about all I can take this weekend.

Anyone want to guess whether or not the big bag of potting soil I put on top of the trash can will keep Mama and Baby Raccoon out of it?! They had a great time eating the garbage. It's better than the insects I saw them digging up with the flowers by the patio when I was up at 4 a.m. When they jumped out of the bin they were covered in flour and funnel cake mix I had tossed when I cleaned out the pantry. There is a large white POUF!! where they jumped out of the can, and a big ol' white trail leading into the woods as it dripped off them. Bet they had a great time licking their fur all weekend.

Some of us survived better than others I guess.