Stuff

Biting Nails Thoughts

I thought about biting on a few nails around 2 a.m. this morning but I figured the metal might make the horrid indigestion I was having even worse. I'm pretty cranky today after just 4 hours of restless sleep and a short nap.



I'll be in a rush later today after Zach gets home with trying to get him motivated into doing as much as his homework as possible before leaving a little before 5 to take him to his first Tae Kwon Do class. I'm hoping the class will give him a new interest as well as help him cope with self-control issues that he has problems with due to the ADHD.



I just hope he doesn't try to practice using his little sisters as practice material!



Jillian (Miz Beans) is driving her Momma crazy. They're waiting to see when they can get an appointment over the river in Mississippi to cast her arm since there's noone in this part of our great state who's capable. I sure hope they don't wait too long, doesn't a broken bone begin to heal pretty quickly in children? It would suck big time if they messed around and let her bump the bones out of alignment (she's a VERY active 2 yr old). I shudder to think about it.



I can't think of much else to write about so I'll post a few photos to take up some space on here. I hope ya'll don't get sick of them.

Alexis, aka, the Chick, doing her "Lola" routine.

Farmer Zach

MeriKate, being sweet.

Trying to Outdo Daddy

Our Jilly Beans won't be strumming her guitar for a few weeks because she had a little misadventure with the trampoline. She's already broken her daddy's record once, by having a snake bite soon after her first birthday. Her daddy was at least 8 or 9 before we went to the emergency room for that. She's "broken" it again,,both bones in her left forearm (clean breaks they say). Her daddy didn't break his first bone until he was 6 or 7.

Now, if we can keep her from playing football, shooting air rifles, going frog gigging, and, riding horses, we may be able to prevent any more broken or punctured things. If we can't, then all Jerri has to look forward to is a load of gray hair and early insanity.

I'd like to commend the, far from, "wonderful" service our Beans received at the Helena Regional Medical Center. Jerri was only there for over 5 HOURS,,,not one person was called from the waiting room during the first 3 hours she waited. The a/c wasn't working too well in the waiting room where they spent majority of those hours, and it was hot and smelled like unwashed hobo a'la mode, and there was a large family in there, who's 1 ill member was there for a toothache, who proceeded to have a family picnic with various goodies from the snack machine. Beans was in pain and after hour upon hour of waiting, finally began shaking all over and laid down in the dirty floor and sobbed her little heart out.

They splinted her arm after x-rays, gave her a little pain medicine by mouth, a prescription for pain (that can't be filled until tomorrow due to there being no pharmacies open around here after 1 pm on Saturdays), and sent her home. Jerri is taking her to their family doctor on Monday.

All Beans had to say about her injury at first was, "Momma, I gots a Boo-Boo."

It's Never Boring Around Here!

Congrats to my niece, Detra, on the birth of her new baby, Addison. Addison's big sister Bailey is very proud. This makes me a Great Aunt X 2 !

Merikate caught a baby squirrel the other day and the next day added another one to their home zoo. I've forgotten, again, what they named them.

Alexis was dancing and singing while Jillian played her guitar.

Wandering mind

1. I wonder what the temperatures are in Brattleboro, VT?

2. Hope for those of us who are "over-the-hill".

3. Scratch #2, I think some hope could be over-rated.

What? Am I supposed to know everything?

Yesterday I was helping Abby with her 1st grade homework. She had to write to 100 and do a worksheet with words on one side of the sheet and pictures on the other,,,we like drawing lines at this age, so we did. Knowing from experience with the Terrorist that they also had Spelling words to learn every week in 1st grade, I thought perhaps these were her Spelling words. (Hey, it makes sense to me, the more you see em, the easier to spell em, right?)

Anyway, there were 6 or 8 words,,, not many,,, and I figured she could learn a couple every day and she'd be "ready Freddy" by test time on Friday.

After finishing our lines between the words and pictures, we practiced spelling the first two words. We sounded them out, we repeated them over and over, we sang them, we discussed them, and in 20 minutes or so, she could spell FORK and FOX without a second's hesitation. This was a good thing and this Nanaw was as proud as Abby was that she already knew her first 2 spelling words for the week.

However,,,it seems there's always a however in this household,,,I found out this morning that those were her READING words and not her SPELLING words.

Hell's Bells. Now the poor kid only has 3 days to learn her spelling words.

I told Jami to tell her teacher to give her extra points for being able to spell 2 of her Reading words.

As for Zach, he didn't have homework, didn't bring home even 1 book, didn't have anything to say about his day at school, so who knows what went on.

I think I need a nap.

HughesNet's Customer Service SUCKS!

Friday morning I came in here to my little office to log on and read my online news and a few blogs and my satellite Internet service was down. I tried rebooting the computer, rebooting the modem, still nothing. An hour later I gave customer service a call. Adam, with his heavy accent, who probably lives in IRAQ or some other hostile country, ran his tests and said my modem was working fine and after humming and hawwing a bit shared with me the fact that the system was doing an upgrade.

Adam didn't know how long this would take or exactly what was happening.

Adam didn't know on Saturday morning either.

I didn't call Adam today because, lo and behold, it started working. Adam is a lucky man.

I'm pretty upset that HughesNet doesn't seem to think their customers should be notified prior to doing an apparently scheduled, upgrade, nor do they seem to think it appropriate consideration to give the customer information when the customer calls in. They sure think it's appropriate to charge those monthly fees IN ADVANCE for services that might be down for 2 days! (and WAS).

I'm still looking for an address for the HUGESNET corporate offices so I can whine and complain. Although, the whining and complaining about paying for 2 days of NO service is most likely the reason I can't find a danged address. They're clever, these folks that sell you something but treat you like crap after you've spent all your hard-earned dough on the service.

(Graphic kindly provided by Willowtree)

Guess what's coming tomorrow (excuse me while I turn a couple of geriatric cartwheels here)? It's big and yellow and emits all these happy, shouting, voices when it turns into the drive.

School starts toooooooooomorrrrowwwwww! Which is a good thing except for having to roll my old butt outta the bed at 6 a.m. again for 5 mornings a week, and the little matter of wrestling the Terrorist over homework again.

Anyone got any pointers on what to expect in 5th grade these days? If it's much harder than 4th grade I may have to consider re-enrolling into the 5th grade myself. Reckon they'd allow a grandmother to have do-overs? Not all of it would be do-overs because I'd never seen some of the stuff they did in 4th grade!

Zach will be having 4 different teachers this year too, so this is a first, for him, and me. I can't remember changing classes until we were in about the 7th grade (this was back when we were still living in caves though, so I guess it's changed a tad.)

Quick One

I'm back but I've got to get the little Terrorist motivated to get bathed and ready for Children's Church so it'll be later before I'll have time to post something.

Hope ya'll have been having a great weekend!

She's Gonna Blow Soon

I've casually mentioned (so it won't be considered bitching) that someone, who won't be ME, needs to climb under the house and clean out that dryer vent again because it's taking FOREVER to dry a load of clothes. I've casually mentioned this little item about 3 times over the last two weeks.

So,,,yesterday, when Himself came home from a meeting/fish fry at the John Deere shop, dripping due to there being no A/C in the shop, and threw his clothes in the utility room, I told him, "I won't be doing laundry anymore until the dryer vent gets unstopped or you put up a clothes line." You'd have thought I'd asked him to fly to the moon and bring back a lunar rock or something.

I know he's been working hard and in this heat it's extra miserable, but I also know that we've already had to have a repairman out to replace a heating element in the dryer that's barely a year old because of this freaky ventilation pipe. The pipe is very near to the A/C drain and it seems it makes condensation build up and causes the lint to stick in the pipe.

I'm no engineer, but maybe replacing the pipe with something other than metal might help? Go an extra mile to save 100 is my take on it, but I'd the dumb-ass here, so what do I know?

That's all I've got to say about that, for now.

Mary Winkler spent her first full day as a free woman in awhile in McMinnville, TN on Wednesday. She was sentenced to serve 210 days of a 3 yr conviction for voluntary manslaughter for killing her husband on March 22, 2006. 60 of this sentence had to be served in a mental health facility. After time served, she spent 67 days incarcerated after the trial. She now faces a legal battle with her inlaws to regain custody of her 3 daughters.

In my opinion, the woman was not on trial for being a bad mother and deserves to be able to raise her daughters. I watched her trial and after watching the mother-in-law's testamony, there's no way I'd want that hateful, old, broad to raise my kids. I'm certain that she was completely devastated over her son's death, but even when proof of the constant abuse her son had heaped upon his wife was presented, she continued to insist that he was a kind and gentle man who'd never do any of those things.

When testamony was given that her husband would put his hand over their baby's mouth to stop her from breathing so she'd stop crying, I decided right then, I'd have shot that SOB more than once and with absolute intent!



Now, about OJ Simpson.

I think he murdered his wife and her boyfriend in cold blood and got away with it because a jury was selected that was just too stupid to see through all the bull that went on in that trial.

I'm still on the fence about whether I'll read his book.

Scorched!

The Beans doing her nudist thing as she enjoys a cool dip in the pool. Jerri has given up trying to keep clothes on her when they're at home.
Sun fried corn all ready for a combine. The dust will be flying around here soon I reckon.
Even the little butterflies are having a hard time finding a bud that's not crispy fried.

I swear, it's hot enough to scorch a lizard's butt outdoors this week!!

Yesterday we spent a good bit of time sitting on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck to do his thing. Jerri's Niece was meeting us half way with the Chick, who'd been in Little Rock all week, and when we were just a few miles away from meeting her, her car left the road, traveled quite a few yards before landing in a ditch. Everyone was buckled up so noone was hurt except for Dallas, her Niece, who's got some mighty sore muscles.

While we were away on the quest to fetch the Chick, Jami called and had been to the doctor after falling off the ladder in their pool. She's broken her foot in 2 places and will spend the next 6 to 8 weeks in a heavy boot and on crutches. I went over today and mopped her kitchen and left Zach to help out until tomorrow. (I hope he feels some sympathy and will at least vacuum for her).

As for me, I'm just hot and cranky. My head's all stuffed up so I've taken 2 benedryls and I"m going to get nekid soon and go to bed!

HOT and Rising

Can you believe the corn harvest has begun and James is out every day working in this heat? He is absolutely drained by the time he comes home every evening. My son is having to work in it too, but they work summer scheduled hours so he and his hoe squad aren't out in it for most of the hottest parts of the day.


Now I want to talk about JERRI'S CREATIONS. I've also put a link over there in the sidebar. (I'm going to attempt to make an icon for her soon).

Jerri is using her amazing talent to handpaint the cutest, one of a kind, kids clothes that I've ever seen. She's always coming up with new ideas and also uses her customer's ideas for clothes they want for their children and grandchildren. A few weeks ago she did outfits for one lady's grandchildren for their trip to Disney World per her requests. Because she's a busy Mommy, she does most of the work at night while her girls are asleep.

Anyway, ya'll go take a look at some of her work and if you see anything you like or have anything that you'd like her to create for you, give me a hollar here or scroll to the bottom of her page for a link to her email address.

Finicky Friday

I had to go to town today because I was too lazy to do it yesterday and I've had this powerful hankering for some homemade chili. I was short of a few of the needed ingredients and had a couple more things that needed doing, so I went.

I should have gone yesterday or waited until Monday, cause I know better than to shop around here on Friday (the first of the month is freaky too).

First stop was 6 miles in a westerly direction so I could visit the little, old, black man in order to pay the bills and gather up this month's bank statements for the improvement district. Then I back-tracked to do the banking for that same district, and finally was able to drive on into town.

Next, I drove to mid-town to register Zach for a Tae Kwon Do class at the college. That was a waste of time and fuel because apparently the college offices are closed on Fridays? Who knew? So, on to Wal Mart I go.

Those who've been reading my meanderings for awhile know that there is not much in this life that I absolutely dislike,,,well maybe there is,,, but not as much as I dislike Wal Mart! There was no reason to change my opinion of the dreaded place today either. I waited in line behind a woman who decided, AFTER she'd check out, that she'd spent too much money and they needed to take off some 10 or so items, that she had to search through 2 dozen bags for.

My frozen french fries were as limp as cooked noodles by the time they finished with her and there was still someone ahead of me in line.

After I loaded the groceries into the back seat of the truck, while sweating in the 101 degree outdoor sauna we're experiencing down here this week, and last, we stopped, and Zach bought my lunch at the drive-thru at McDonald's (not my first choice but he was buyin!) They must have been having a finicky Friday there too cause when I got home and opened my Big Mac box, the all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame bun, looked like a Mac truck had run over it. Twice.

Ever had to eat a Big Mac with a knife and fork? I did, but only after I unloaded, and put away, all those groceries, and I couldn't even do that half-ass right.

While unloading the dozen, half- filled, bags, I leaned down to pick up something I'd dropped and banged the corner of a cabinet door into the top of my head. At least I saw all those pretty stars and flashes of light before the pain hit and I lost all control and cried like a baby.

The crater has turned into a lump that's sort of egg-shaped now, I've had 4 ibupros, and a cup of coffee so I'm going to make it until the next time I have to leave the house which I hope is when the temps have dropped at least 10 or 15 degrees.

No Vista For Me!

At least not in the near future cause I'm afraid I can't afford the loaded machine it's gonna take to run this OS properly.

I could tell from the get-go that it takes a LOT of memory and a LOT of processor to run Vista and a computer that's over a year old (unless it's one of those loaded gaming puters) isn't going to handle it. Truth be known, the new computer, an Acer, that my Cousin just bought, isn't loaded enough to run all the Vista trimmings because it froze up twice just in the little bit of time I was there. Kinda makes you wonder why they'd sell you a machine loaded with an OS that it wasn't built for. (like they give a darn once it's unpacked and sitting on your desk).

Forget using most the the current versions of the virus protection software you have now.

If you're doing a "from the box" install of Vista, you'll have to uninstall your current virus software and after the Vista install, hope that you can find a version of that virus software that will be compatible with Vista. And don't even imagine that all of your other software, that you previously used on XP, is going to be compatible either, for the same reason. Forget the old hardware equipment too, the drivers for that stuff ain't likely to be there.

The Password-entry and "Continue" boxes required by the User Account Controls will drive you batshit crazy!

Within the first 1 hour, I had at least 10 of these popup boxes asking me things like, can the firewall run and block something and unblock something. I paid attention for a while but then was tempted to turn off the feature or just click ok because I couldn't even understand some of the questions it was asking me to give permission to do!

And the absolute worst part!

My Documents and My Pictures and My Videos are GONE. Some genius made the decision to to store user profile information that WAS stored under ‘C:\Documents and Settings\’, now be moved to C:\Users. Why the hell would you do that? What about applications that are using the ‘C:\Documents and Settings\’ structure? That whole directory is now gone and now applications that rely on that or use hard coded paths will certainly break when you try to transfer them, won't they?

That's as far as I got but it's not looking good to me until, and unless, I can afford a puter a hell of a lot bigger and faster than what I've got.

Wednesday Ramblings

It's HOT!

I"m going now to take my bath before waking the Terrorist to herd him towards getting some breakfast and getting dressed,, Then we're going to visit my cousin over on the other side of Moro. She has a new computer and it came with Vista installed. She doesn't use a computer much so she can't figure out many of the basic things and wants me to come see if I can show her. I've never used Vista either, so this should be an interesting day.

I'm taking my camera along cause who knows what I might come across on the way over and back.

Be back later!

Another Lazy Sunday

Zach allowing Abby to give him one of those rare hugs that little boys allow.

We went over to Jami and Keith's for grilled burgers and veggies today for lunch and had a late supper at home too so I'm stuffed!

Above are some of the critter photos I've managed to capture over the past month. I think I'm getting a bit better at focusing but the "finding" of the critters and being fast enough to snap or chase them down is my biggest problem. Click to make em bigger if you'd like.

Smiles and Moans

One of the best smiles was having Jillian spend the night last night. We went to Hornlake (a Memphis suburb in north Mississippi) yesterday to buy up all those things I hate to have to buy very often (toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, etc,,) and we stopped by and picked up the Beans on the way home. She's been miserable with an ear infection and Jerri needed a good night's rest.

We played, and played, she wrestled with Zach, read loads of magazines and books, got an early bath, and then, around 7ish the little sweetie climbed up in my lap, stuck her hand down the front of my shirt, threw her head back over my arm, and was asleep in about 2 seconds. She slept until around 8 this morning.

Nanaw did too!

After breakfast we played and read more books then PopPop came home and I was able to slip away to the bathroom to get a quick bath while he was SUPPOSED to be watching her. When I came out of the bathroom she was standing outside the door waiting for me. James was on the porch talking to the neighbor, and Zach was engrossed in a gameboy game. So much for thinking they could surely handle babysitting for 10 whole minutes!

Alexis called me last night to tell me she had made me a birthday card and she and her Momma were making me a special birthday cake. They did, the card was beautiful and even had the cutest little paperdolls included in the envelope. The is cake delicious! They also bought me a lovely pair of earrings and a wonderful fragrant candle. Jerri and Bubbie also cooked lunch for us which is always a lovely change!

Isn't it great to have a birthday that's celebrated for days? I feel so special!

The moan came this afternoon cause James and I juiced tomatoes with our new handy-dandy electric juicer, used the food processor to almost liquify some hot peppers, onions, and garlic, for our first attempt to make and can some BBQ sauce. (I'll let you know if it turned out ok.) Normally I don't mind canning because I love to see the end result, but today it was just too danged hot to be doing all that stuff.

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend!

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar + 17

The Duggar family has grown by one more! Baby, Jennifer Danielle, was born this morning to be welcomed home by her 16 brothers and sisters.

I didn't realize until today that this Christian family, who I first saw on a Discover Channel Special, was from Arkansas. What I first thought, as I watched the special last year, was, "I'd lock that man in a shed in shackles if he came near me, if I were her." Then I watched as this amazing couple, with their love of God and family, handled a routine day that I'm quite certain (with my homemaking skills) would make me run screaming for the men in white to take me away. Their organizational skills astonished the heck outta me!

It wasn't so long ago that large families were the norm, but these days, with all of the various birth control methods available, it's rare that you see, or even hear about, so much voluntary procreation by one couple.

My mother had 7 brothers and sisters, my father was 1 of 12. My father's mother raised the majority of her children alone too, as my grandfather was killed in a bus accident on my father's 10 th birthday. Her older children helped with the farm and with the younger children after my grandfather's death but just imagine cooking meals, doing laundry, and everything else without indoor plumbing or all the fancy appliances that we have available today.

My husband and I also came from large families. He has 4 brothers and a sister living. One brother, older than him, died at age 9, and the youngest sibling, another brother, died in infancy. I am the oldest of 8, although my 5 brothers are half brothers. One of the 5, my brother, Roger, died several years ago in a car accident. I haven't seen the others in years so it's been different for me, not living together as one, big, family.

James was raised much the same way as it was decades ago with large families. As soon as they were old enough, they went to the fields to help make the living. They sharecropped and they all did their part to keep food on the table. The only one of them that never "shook a stick at a snake", by the time they were 7 or 8, was their sister. She is the youngest and the only girl.

Often as I raised my 2 daughters and my son, I felt as though I was walking a thin line and constantly tipping towards the insanity side of it, so I can't imagine the stress factor of raising 17.

Like It?

Later today or this evening I'll be adding my blog buds link back,,,I couldn't figure out where the widget code started and stopped for it to be easier.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!