Yuck

I'm having to blog from my mom's house...internet trouble. I'm hoping that I can get the issue resolved this evening. That is if I am well enough to remain upright. I've got the flu. Missed two days of work and I still feel like crap. Therefore, this will be about it for my blogging today. I'm sure you don't want to hear about my symptoms and that is all I have to talk about right now. So check back Monday...I may have a real post by then.

Your Opinion Has Been Noted

Guess what! It is almost fall! My favorite time of the year...well...it used to be. It has bad memories now but I'm hoping this year will be the beginning of me being able to enjoy fall again. I began my quest to bring the fun back to fall by shopping for The Boy's Halloween costume. Yes, it is early. Yes, I like to be prepared. I do this every year. Actually I'm a little late this year. Kinda like making my Christmas list. I usually have that done 6 months ahead of time. I'm late with that this year too.

So last night I sat down at the computer and started browsing the selection of costumes. Somehow The Boy seems to think he gets a choice in what he will wear this year. What? Why would he think such a thing? Doesn't he know that he is MINE until he is 18 and I will make all decisions such as what he will wear on Halloween, what sports he will play, and who he will date. How dare he think he gets an opinion!

Being the wonderful mother that I am I went ahead and took his preference of frightful costume into consideration. I then went on to look at the costume I thought he should wear. I came up with all kinds of great reasons why he should dress up the way I want him too. He actually was persuaded and reluctantly gave into my choice. "Okay Mommy...I'll be a(fill in blank)." sad look AHA! I had won! Another battle I won! Then I took another look at the selection for the character he WANTS to be. I found one that was pretty cute and since, like I said, I'm a wonderful mother...I changed my mind. I copied and pasted the picture of what he wants to be into an email and sent it along to my mother so she can start making it. I'm not, afterall, going to spend the $80 they want for this costume when Oma can make it like she did last year's. Remember the super cute chaps and vest she made for my little cowpoke?

In the end it wasn't about winning the argument or getting my way, it was being able to recognize that The Boy is able to make decisions on his own now and I'm just going to have to let him on some things. This is probably my last year to be able to convince him to go with the "cute" Halloween costume instead of something disgusting and ridiculous like most boys once over the age of four like to wear. It is just another thing...no matter how little...that reminds me he is growing up.

The compromise that we made on the costume was that I agreed to the character he wants to be and he agreed to let me choose which version he will be. I picked the cutest version, not the scary version. Even though this wasn't my choice I think it will turn out darn cute and NO...I'm not going to even give you a clue!

You Smell Like Broccoli

It's a good sign that your weekend isn't going to be half bad when you get your favorite guy at the nail salon to start if off with. I like several of the techs in there but the guy who did them the very first time I ever had them done is by far my favorite. It's hit and miss when you go in there. You get whoever is available unless you want to sit and wait. I got lucky this time. Decided to follow up my trip to the nail salon with a trip to margarita ville to meet Annette for dinner. I don't know why I continue to drink Tequila. It makes me feel all weird and hot every time I do. I should put it on the banned list. Actually I should just stick to my occasional beer and be done with it all.

The Boy and I headed to my dad's early (for us) Sunday morning. We thought we were in for a day of Rock Band and Guitar Hero Aerosmith on the Wii. Turns out the sisters had another idea and had headed to Toys R Us earlier to hit the big Wii sale. Turning them loose in a store where they have anything Wii related is dangerous. Turning them loose with Wii items that are on sale is deadly! I know my one sister bought like $700 worth of stuff. She even bought another console! WTH are you going to do with that? Just because they happened to have 1 left of something doesn't mean you need to buy it! Geesh! And people wonder where I get it. I get it from the whole damn family!

Apparently Wii accessories and games were not the only thing on sale at Toys R Us today. See below...







Not one but TWO bumper boats that spray water! Can you say spoiled much? My step mom bought him these. One for him and one for her to cruise around in the pool in. I know they are only for him and her because they have a 100lb weight limit on them so leaves everyone else out. As you can see, the orange one has issues. Like a big hole in the side of it. We are calling the company to get that one replaced but the blue one works just fine!

It is funny to me that they bring these home and then try to tell him not to spray them with it. Well, not to spray them in the face. When you are walking in the pool on your knees or swimming in the deep end your face is the only part of you that is available as a target! Oh yeah and don't spay the water out of the pool either. LOL! They are funny.

I actually got in the pool today with them all and now I am exhausted! Swimming must really be great exercise because it wears me out faster than anything else. I don't think Jayke likes swimming with me. I splash and throw him around causing his face to go under. He is better but not quite over his fears of the water entirely. Mommy isn't so careful with him. I just want him to get used to having it on his face so it won't be such an issue anymore.

My dad got creative with his sunflowers. He did it for Jaykeb who wanted to know why the sunflowers were smiling. He wants to send some pictures of Jaykeb and the smiley flower in to try and get it in a magazine. I think they look a little Tim Burtonish.






Weekends over. It's back to work to start training someone how to do my old job. That and more medicaid reports that will turn my brain to mush again!

Medicaid Rots the Mind

Jayke accidentally caught a catfish yesterday. He dropped his line in when my mom was feeding them and one took off with it. I wish I could have seen this because the kid was holding on for dear life and was just about to go in when the line broke. He was yelling, "OMA HELP!" Teach him to fish like that. It's not quite fair to feed them then drop a line in!

My boss told me she was going to stab me in the neck with a pen today. She loves me. Nothing else exciting happened there today. Give it a day or two and I'm sure I will have some craziness to report. Weirdo bug-eyed ex-records girl(who I'd like to kill but will have to stand in line) moved her last day up to today. Shocking. I was more surprised that she showed back up at all let alone two more days!

My brain is fried. I can't look at another Medicaid eob. They are confusing and hard to read and it seems like everyone is different. I know I will get used to it but until I do it several times it is confusing and literally makes me not be able to think. I had to switch back to my "old job" today for a few things and I couldn't think. I had no idea how to even start what I had to do...something I have been doing for the past 8 months. That is how scrambled my brain is this week. THANK GAWD IT IS FRIDAY! Never felt like that as much as I do right now.



Just a few of our inactive files.



I went to my dad's to pick Jayke up this evening and I can't believe how good he is in the pool now! He even takes his floaties off and hops around the shallow end like he has been doing it for years. He has the doggy paddle down (with floaties still)and will even put his head under water! Next goal is to get him to jump in from the side. Something he has done but only if someone is there to catch him. He went to lunch with mom and her girlfriends today. They were sitting at the table talking and Jaykeb says, "There sure are a lot of Grandmas at this table!" They all thought that was funny. He's a funny guy.

The sisters and the parents were all off to the Racino (Race track/casino)tonight. Something that has become a regular Friday night event. I of course get left at home with the kiddo since he can't go. Not that I have any money to gamble with but I'd like to go see it sometime. Weird that we have a casino right down the road and it isn't even a boat. No more long hauls down to southern Indiana with strange calls from Angi asking if they can hold the boat for us because "We are coming from WAY above Indianapolis!" Mike's reply to that was that we could be coming from Anderson or we could be coming from Cananda...you just don't know but we want them to hold the boat! We didn't know that the boat doesn't go out...amateurs. This was early on in our casino boating experience. We are pros now. Some of us more than others. Get Angi on the boat and it is hard to get her off. Another reason it is good to have a casino close by. We can just leave her there next time she has to "Get well!"

I suppose having a casino located in the very town my dad lives in means we won't get to go to Vegas anymore. I haven't been in several years and am ready to go back. I've been 7 times but the way that town changes it is like going somewhere different every time. I'm sure there are Cirque shows I have yet to see. I'm sure there are new hotels I need to explore and the last time I was there they had just gotten that monorail fixed and running. I buy a four day pass and am off. Up and down the strip all by myself because no one wants to take time away from their gambling to go outside while they are there. They gamble, I shop. We all need a twelve step program of sorts.

I'm pretty much rambling now. This is what happens when Medicaid eobs turn your brain to mush. I need to go watch my scary movie and rest my brain. I even dreamed that, Jessica, quit last night. In the dream I walked into her office and it was totally empty. She was sitting at her desk smoking. (She doesn't even smoke) I told her about my dream this morning and she said by the end of the day she may want to try that. End of the month sucks.

I Think We Would Smell It in This Heat

It's just a weird thing when you sitting at your desk and you hear an announcement over the pa system like this, "They're sending an officer over to check on the car out back with the dead body in the trunk." Then the phone rings...

Jess: "Wendy can you do me a favor?"

Me: "NO! I am not going outback to check on the dead body!"

Turns out no dead body but the car was stolen and found to be the one used in the robbery of the Walgeens last Thursday. Now, I find it a little scary that an armed robber was in our parking lot last Thursday while we were all inside and any one of us could have walked out and seen him dropping off that car. Then what? Yes, we do have a keypad on the backdoor and you have to enter your own personal code to get in. Good thing there is a big ole' sign newly posted on the door reminding us slow folk that there are only 4 digits in that code and it is the last four of our social security number. Only four random digits could easily be figured out by some gun toting lunatic who needs a place to hide or a HOSTAGE!

Seriously, it really just made me be more aware of my surroundings when I leave the building but I'm not really worried about becoming someone's hostage. Kept me entertained today though.

Another One Bites the Dust...I'm Not Learning Names Anymore..

I started training one of the girls who is going to take part of my "old" job yesterday. Spent a good part of the afternoon going over things with her...getting her desk organized to accommodate the new files and everything she will need. I was so happy to be handing this part of my job off because it time consuming and monotonous. I left work all excited that we had gotten through half of what I will need to show her. I know I will have to shadow her for a while after I hand it over to her but that is way better than having to do it all myself considering I will still have to train another girl the payments part of the job AND learn my new job all at the same time.

Being the anal person that I am...yes, mom, I am anal at this job AND my office is very tidy...I had a nice neat stack to begin on this morning with Records Girl sitting on the corner of my desk. I even wrote out an outline of sorts to follow with her so I wouldn't leave anything out or get off track. Everything was sitting eagerly waiting on Weirdo Records Girl to arrive so I could dazzle her with my fabulosity.

Non Smiling Weirdo Records Girl arrived in my office like a flash all bug eyed and informed me that I would just have to train someone else how to do the Medical Records because her last day would be Tuesday. BLINK BLINK I just stupidly looked at her and said okay. She even suggested I train Lauren how to do them. Um Lauren's last day was Friday...how do you not know this Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl? YOU SHARE A DESK WITH LAUREN WHO LEFT FRIDAY!

It gets better. Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl HAD to have known the day before that she was NOT going to be doing this job and still let me waste half my day training her. She didn't just decide to quit that afternoon. I know this because Psycho Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl had moved to OHIO over the weekend! WTH???

It gets even better. Psycho Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl(who I now want to kill) did not bother to tell anyone else of her plans to leave our fine establishment! I ended up telling my supervisor, Jessica, who in turn told Psycho Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl(who I now want to kill but will have to get in line)'s supervisor that she was quitting. That is when we heard a strange howl coming from supervisor 2's office! This could have been for many reasons. It could have been because she just ran a $500 ad on Monday to try and hire chargers and could have saved money by adding in the new position we will now need to fill. It could have been because she was the last to know. It could have been because we will now not have a file room girl at all. It could have been because she likes to howl. I don't know but people were not happy campers in there today.

I am not happy because now my little outline will have to tucked safely away in a file until they figure out who to put in the position. I will not get to share my fabulosity with Psycho Non Smiling Bug Eyed Weirdo EX-Records Girl(who I now want to kill but will have to stand in line). I doubt she would have been able to appreciate it anyway. She obviously was not the brightest crayon in the box. Maybe it is a good thing that she won't be doing the records. I make our owner a LOT of money invoicing attorneys for those things and she doesn't really want to have me stop doing them...once again...the fabulosity ya know. Looks like it will be a while before that happens and she is probably sitting in her pile of papers in her office chuckling about how Wendy is stuck making her money indefinitely. How do I keep getting stuck doing more than one job at this place? Oh yeah...the fabulosity...it all comes down to that!

My TWO kids

The Boy is home! I was feeling all this guilt thinking I wasn't missing him enough while he was gone but when he got back I realized that I was missing him more than I thought. Things seem normal again...well, as normal as they ever are for us now.

When they pulled in I could see him bouncing around in the backseat. He was so excited to be home. I was so happy that he missed me so much. He jumped out of that care and came running around arms out-stretched and yelled, "OMA!" as he jumped into her arms. Yep, that's right. The woman came over to ruin my homecoming. He finally did come give me hugs but the moment was ruined. Thanks mom. I think she did it on purpose too.

Later after everyone left he crawled into my lap like a little baby and gave me lots of hugs and kisses. He missed me after all. He gave me extra hugs and kisses this morning when I dropped him off before work too.



The weekend was weird. Probably because of who all I spent it with. Nate and I went to Indy to a Wii party on Friday. AJ was having a party and in keeping with our previous outing with her we decided to be fashionably late. Got there at 12:30 a.m. Who goes to a party at 12:30 in the morning? Apparently Nate and I do and we are making a habit of it. We hung out Saturday with my sisters by the pool and on Sunday we did more of the same. Hung out by the pool and planned our trip to the lakes over Labor Day weekend.

I have now taken it upon myself to find Nate a job. I am filling out his online applications and sending in his resumes for him. I was in the house working away while he was floating in the pool. I would get up and glance out at him now and then. He will owe me a week's worth of dinners once I get him his job. Don't think I won't make him pay up either.

Just Trainin' and Complainin'

Nothing going on here. Work is confusing but kinda fun since my CRAZY supervisor is now sitting in my office training me all day. She smacks me every now and then to make sure I'm paying attention. I got kicked in the leg by the girl I was worried would hate me for taking her friend's job. That means she likes me apparently.

Sara's mom got us free lunch at Texas Road house through the bank she works at AND free Starbucks smoothies also through the bank. That was probably the high light of the day because it pretty much went down hill fast from there. Some people just don't have a sense of humor and are no fun at all!

I'm missing the man in my life but he comes home Sunday. Good thing because he needs to clean his room. I know this post is about as exciting as watching paint dry so I will just end it here. Blogging when you are in a bad mood does not turn out well.

Freebies!

I have talked about my friend The Redbox on here before. I'm not senile I remember that, although it was a while ago. LOVE the Redbox I go everyday. A couple of days ago I was in line waiting to return the night befor's movie and rent another. The couple in front of me were taking their sweet time choosing their flick for the evening and I was getting irritated. Imagine that...I know it is hard for you. Anyway, when they finally got their disc and were ready to leave they turned to me and said "Go to promotional code and enter DVDONME and you will get a free movie."

THANKS! (thinking to myself I bet it wont work) It worked! I got my free movie. Then I felt bad for a teeny tiny minute for thinking evil thoughts about them for taking so long to choose their evening entertainment. Only for a minute though. I was already busy figuring out how I could take advantage of this offer. Will it work more than once? Will it work at different locations? Can you use more than one card to get more than one free movie? Let me tell you my friends...YES YOU CAN! Turns out you can use this code as many times as you want as long as you use a different credit or debit card each time you do. I have had several free movies this weekend and more to come.

I started thinking about it and decided to do a little research. Turns out there is a whole website out there with a list of all the codes that are active. All you have to do is locate the code and you are on your way to all the free movies your little eyeballs can stand to watch! They keep this up and I will never pay to rent a movie again!

The only bad thing is if you don't get your movie back within the 24 hour time period you are allowed to have it the Redbox WILL charge your credit card for the additional night. That and you never know how long the code will be active. I have a list of about 20 codes...I have about 5 credit cards...that is 100 FREE MOVIES PEOPLE! I don't think there are that many movies in that thing that I want to see. But you can bet your butt I will be seeing the ones I do want for free!

Yep I Saw It

I finally got to go see the new Batman movie last night. I know it sounds weird that I say finally since it has only been out since Thursday at midnight but we had plans to see it that night...didn't make it. Had plans to see it Friday night...didn't make it. So, finally I got to see it Saturday. It was worth the wait.

I know I have mentioned before how I am not a "Chic Flick" kinda girl. I like my movies loud, full of action, or as dramatic as they can make 'em. Romantic comedy? Pass. Don't get me wrong, I will watch a romantic comedy or plain ol comedy if I am forced to or there is nothing else on television but if you ask me to choose between mushy gushy girl movie or shoot em up action packed thriller I'm going with the thriller EVERY time!

My movie preference has been a problem for me over the years because most of my friends like the dreaded romantic comedies. Even the husband liked them. I had a hard time getting to see a movie I wanted to see for many years. Now I have Sara. Sara likes the same kind of movies I do. Now I know if there is a movie I want to see I have someone to go see it with. We also drag Nate along. He is agreeable and just goes along with whatever we say...so far. He just complains about it later.

Okay, back to The Batman. It was good. I wouldn't say great. That could be because of the anticipation factor. Once I build something up in my mind it usually never compares when it actually happens. It dragged a little now and then and was about 30 minutes too long but Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was phenomenal! I totally see why they are talking Oscar for his role. The bad thing about it is they will never be able to replace him in the sequel. They might as well kill the Joker off and forget about him. No one will do it better. This may be the first year I am actually looking forward to watching the Oscars to see if he wins. I might have to attend Annette's annual Oscar party this year.

I think I have seen more movies in the past 2 months than I have in the past 3 years! I missed going to the movies. Jaykeb still can't really sit through an entire one. He usually falls asleep. Speaking of The Boy, he is in SC and doing fine. He now has his own cell phone. Yes, he is only 4 years old and NO I did not agree to him having one but apparently that didn't matter. Mike thinks he will call him more if he has his own phone. He may be correct because he has called me 3 times today. The last time was to tell me they had set the tent up in the yard and were camping out. He sounds like he is having fun and I'm glad. Yes...I really am. I was afraid he would have weird feeling about being back there and seeing the house empty but so far so good. Probably harder for me than him.

I feel a little lost without him here. I feel like I'm forgetting to do something constantly. It will be good that I'm training at work all week. Keep me busy. Nate and Sara seem determined to keep me busy too...coming over to hang out all weekend when they knew that Jayke would be leaving. I also have my friggin Ipod to keep me busy. It has almost gotten tossed in the pond a few times today! I switched to my laptop when trying to load music on it and for some reason it won't sync with the laptop. I think I'm going to have to haul the laptop over to a friend who is a computer guy and have him figure it out. He already has this laptop working way faster by telling me how to secure my router. Now I need him to save my poor little Ipod from a watery grave!

Leaving But Not on A Jet Plane

I hate feeling slow. I feel slow at work again. Training sucks. The entire time I'm training on my new job I am running through my mind what all I have to do for the day on my old job. How do I keep getting stuck doing TWO different jobs in that joint? Yes, I'm getting paid more but I'm not getting paid for TWO jobs. I don't get anymore hours in the day. I don't have two extra hands. Yes, I am complaining already...get over it. I will probably complain a lot more before the middle of August when I will finally be able to turn the credit cards, checks, and medical records over to someone else. I'm interested to see how it goes when I'm training on my own new job and trying to train someone else to do my old job. That will be fun. You may not hear from me that week or two.

Jaykeb goes to South Carolina to visit his dad for a week tomorrow. This will be his first trip away. There are so many things I'm worried about with this but I'm not going to get into it on here. It is a good thing I will be occupied with training next week to keep me busy. Going to miss that little turkey. 10 days is a long time when I haven't been away from him in a couple of years now for more than two days. It will be a long time for him to be away from me too. He may end up coming home early. We've talked about that and Mike says he will bring him back early if he is having a hard time. I think he will be fine though.

Rollin'!

I don't know why but I love the picture of the wheel. Sara and I were just sitting in the driveway with Jayke riding around and I grabbed the camera and started shooting. I got several really good ones of Sara and Jayke but I won't post them all here.



Jaykeb just found his tricycle in the barn the other day...sitting there with the rest of our stuff in storage. He brought it up and I couldn't believe how much he has grown since he rode it last in South Carolina. He has gone through 2 sizes of shoes this summer! We will need to raise the seat on the tricycle and the last time he rode it he could barely pedal.

Here is The Boy sitting on the dock feeding our pets which you can see in the next picture. When ever anyone comes here they have to come out back and see the fish. I don't know how many years these fish have been in the pond but they are huge! The goldfish don't reproduce for some reason but the catfish do. We even have two albino cats. One is pretty young.

These ponds are alive at all times. I think we now have 3 Blue Herons nesting or something in the willow tree right out back. They are some noisy nasty birds. They fly into that tree at night and it sounds like the whole thing is coming down. I'm just waiting for the night I go walk out on the balcony and one is sitting on my love seat out there. We might have to tussle. Stupid birds.

Can I Get an Upgrade?

Guess where we went last night! Yep the fair. I wasn't going to go but it was $1 night so Jayke and I hauled ourselves down there to meet up with Laura and her family, Autumn and her two kids, and Sara.

I ended up being glad they went and really happy we ran into Autumn since she has a little boy, Logan, who is 7 months younger than Jaykeb. They knew each other from VBS. They rode all the rides together...so cute! Here is a picture of the four kids, Riley, Hannah, Jaykeb, and Logan riding the dinosaurs. Getting one they were all semi-smiling in was a miracle!



Yes, we did come home with a fish. No, Jayke did not win it...his mom did. We added a fish to the table where the turtle sits. I don't remember if I wrote about the turtle. Mike brought Jayke a turtle last time he was here. Yes, it is the teeny tiny kind that carry salmonella so NO Jaykeb is NOT allowed to touch it. Yes, I have found out that he has messed with the turtle and not washed his hands immediately. I got him in there immediately after discovering this though and we were fine. I had a talk with him and he understands now that he can't mess with the turtle unless I am with him and because my kid is so good about not doing something he has been told not to I'm not worried. That wasn't a sarcastic statement either If I tell Jaykek not to do something he just doesn't ever again. It is actually pretty amazing.



This was Sara's favorite chicken. A silky. I think they are pretty cute too and man did the smell of that chicken barn bring back some childhood memories! My grandpa used to raise chickens and it would turn into a family affair but that is another blog for another day. Don't distract me...it is so easily done!



I always have a pic of the kid on the merry go round.



Last but not least, is the very first ride they went on...the roller coaster. Jaykeb love it! I think he is going to be a coaster junkie like his dad is and like his mom was. I probably still like them just haven't been on one in long time. This wasn't the kiddos first time of course...he's an old pro at riding. We hit fairs and carnivals in SC all the time. I wondered if he would be scared this time but he wasn't at all. Unfortunately he is still vertically challenged and couldn't get on on all the rides he wanted to go on. Next summer for sure!



That was about it for the fair. Sara and I did take the kiddo through the barns to see all the animals, which he loved. He had cotton candy but we passed on the rest of the fair food because Sara had gotten food poisoning there the night before and I didn't want to be up all night puking like she had been the night before. We left there and hit the Target. I needed a few things for my NEW OFFICE! Sara...stop reading here!

Yesterday I was promoted at work...and given a raise. Bout time they recognize! They actually moved quite a few people around and one of them was me! I sort of knew about this Friday but wasn't supposed to talk about it until it was official. I start training for my new job this morning. I will still be doing my old job in the afternoons and will begin training the girl taking my position on August 1st. I'm going to miss those little credit card slips...NOT!

The only bad thing about this move is that I no longer share an office with Sara. In fact, I'm clear on the opposite side of the building from her now. She has a plan to put her desk in the hall and day by day inch it back towards me...we will see how that goes.

I packed all my crap up and hauled it all back to my new office yesterday. You know me people, I already was doing a mental inventory of my stuff in storage to see what pictures I want to hang and planning what florals I need to make. I told my boss, Jessica, I would be accepting house warming gifts after 3p.m. this afternoon in my new office. She looked at me and said all she wanted to know is where I will be keeping the candy dish and when it will be refilled. Sigh Some things change but mostly they stay the same.

Yea for me! Can you see me patting myself on the back? Well, I am trust me.

I Gots Nothing

I don't have anything to talk about. Thought I might but turns out not yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I will even post the cute pictures I took of Sara and Jayke riding his tricycle together yesterday.

Gossip Girls

I swear I love most of the people I work with but damn if they aren't all crazy! Seriously nuts people. We have one girl who claims it is her birthday every other day so we will order out from somewhere. There is Holly who cracks me up on a regular basis with her matter-of-fact way about everything. She calls us all heifers and trolls...lovingly of course. Our file room girls are young and always smiling at you when you walk in like they no some secret about you. Two of my favorite people there those file room girls. They make my job easier because I can have them pull everything I need and copy it for me. Saves me TONS of time. When you come and go you have to pass the smokers who are always out back cussing the place out. They are angry people...Hopefully just at the job.

We just got a new AR Manager who I think is going to fit in with the crazies just fine. Her office is right next to mine so I will get to watch her slowly lose her mind just like the rest of us have. It didn't take her long at all to find the candy bowl I keep. She made her own paper name plate for outside her office which I wish I had thought of first! Mine would say Princess Wendy and I may make it still. I thought we were getting name plates but the high rate of turnover may have changed the boss's mind about ordering them. We lost yet another girl yesterday.

Next is my direct supervisor. Jessica. Jessica is always coming to our office to give us crap about something. Overheard her the other day talking to someone across the hall about how she would be doing better without "that girl across the hall"...that would be me. I didn't miss a beat or even look up...just told her to shut it. That sent her into a giggling fit. She gives me crap for anything and everything and that is how you know she likes you. She also makes a small meal out of the candy I always make available in my office to the crazies. I think they work better hopped up on sugar and let me tell you they get plenty of it! It is shocking how fast those women will empty a candy dish!

The owner of the company is as crazy as everyone else. She periodically announces things over the intercom like she is missing her cats on the days we are ordering Chinese. Sometimes if she has picked up lunch she will just yell into the intercom, "LETS EAT!" Will just about knock you out of your chair if you have your radio turned up at all. She told me I had to sell a kidney to pay for Jessica's adding machine and it goes on and on.

Last but certainly not least is my office mate, Sara. Sara and I sit and complain and make fun of people all day. I posted a while back a picture of her under her desk drying her pants with a space heater. She has slammed into the wall rolling in her chair before. Today she wanted to have chair races up and down the hallway. I would have done it if I didn't have flip flops on. A serious disadvantage. It is truly a wonder that Sara and I manage to get any work done at all. Somehow we have fooled them into thinking we are wonderful though. Our office has turned into gossip central and is usually quite loud. Everyone Stops by to get candy and tell what they know or find out if we know anything which we ALWAYS do. There are many more who work there but either their crazy hasn't been witnessed by me yet or they just aren't crazy enough to mention.

Most recently the topic of discussion has been about who we all think is the office thief! Someone has been stealing money out of people's offices. Sara and I have even left money on our desks to see if they would take it. Sara thought we should tie a string to a five dollar bill and drop it in the hall but Holly said, "Hell if I see a five in the hall I'M picking it up!" We all agreed that we would too therefore blowing Sara's fantabulous idea out of the water. A crazy idea such as this is usually thought up and thought better of over the course of the day EVERY day. Crazy...that's just how we roll!

Gotta Hit the Munchie Shack!

There's Nate...sleepin away. He did manage to wake up enough to go to the movies with Sara and me day before yesterday. We saw Hancock. I liked it. It wasn't as good as I was expecting but still funny and had enough action in it to take it out of the comedy genre. I'm not big on comedies ya know. Has to be a drama, action, suspense, horror, or even sci-fi movie for me. Luckily I finally found a friend who is a girl and also likes the same kind of movies. I can now go to the movies and enjoy again!

Nate had us cracking up the entire time. It started when we had to hit the "Munchie Shack" on the way in. He couldn't remember what the "Concession" stand was called so made up his own name. Popcorn? Candy? No, nachos with LOTS of jalepenos. He sat there eating those things sweating and crying. I could hardly focus on the movie for all the nacho eating and the smell of jalepenos seeping from his body. Good thing I grabbed a bunch of napkins for him on the way in...he needed them to mop his brow.

Nate has been on an eating binge since he hit the state line. We have been teasing him about it ever since as well. He's lucky though, he can do that. He has always been so skinny and now he is busting out of his Bob Marleys...and proud.

We were over at Dad's again this past weekend. Sherri, AJ, and I played Rock Band and let me just say that oh yes we do rock on that thing. My dad had other thoughts about it but it works out well for him since he is hard of hearing.

AJ brought her cousins over and Jayke was in heaven! A little girl for him to swim with, play with, walk around and stare at. I got the slip and slide out for them with much discussion of ruining grass, running the well dry, and burning up the pump on the well. As you can see below, the slippery wet fun prevailed.



It was very hard to get a picture of this for the blog that there wasn't someone in the background in a bathing suit. You know I would have been KILLED for posting any pics with people in them lounging in their swimwear!

A Stolen Post

For those family members who read and also check Serenity's blog...sorry for the duplicate pictures but I didn't get very many so OH YES I DID STEAL HER PICS! She has more on her page if you want to go look click here! I'm all impressed with myself because I haven't embedded a link in forever and I remembered how to do it! Not that it is hard or anything just that I have a TERRIBLE memory!

So up first is Jayke holding/choking baby Corrinne. I hope I'm spelling this right...if not don't hold it against me and I won't hold it against the millions who will spell my kiddos name wrong in his life time. The Boy has the head lock down! I'm signing him up for some wrestling lessons...WWE here we come!





Next up is Grammy. I don't really have anything funny to say about this picture other than Corrinne is finding something quite humorous!



Finally, the last picture I stole, is of my mom, Jayke, and Corrinne. I wasn't around mom and Jayke to see how he acted when she held the baby. I think he was just loving having a baby to hold and milk that he forgot to be jealous. I could be wrong. Someone would have to correct me. Doesn't my mom's kitchen table look nice in the background? Random thought.




This last one I took at dad's this weekend. Thought I better throw a picture I actually took in for good measure. Jayke hid in this box from the ice maker we got dad. He was waiting for Sherri, AJ, and Kim to come in so he could pop up and scare them. I just thought it was kinda funny...a Jayke in a box! Ha!

The Grasshopper Turned into a Cricket

Hope all had a happy 4th! We did. Busy but good. We spent most of the weekend at my dad's which meant swimming, homemade ice cream, and dirt pudding. My sisters were there along with AJ and Nate. My dad put some crazy rule into effect that we couldn't light any fireworks which left the ground. WHAT? What is the point if we aren't trying to blow something up or catch one of the neighbor's houses on fire? Hmpf!

Just because one year we had a misfire and almost took out the neighbors to the west of my dad doesn't mean we are irresponsible with the explosives! Mike did that and he wasn't going to be there so we shouldn't be punished for his mistake! That misfire was the best part of the night! Seeing Dad pop his head up over the fence and yell, "Everybody all right over there?" was great! We screamed and laughed and almost fell out of our chairs. A few minutes later we had him running to the neighbors to the east to make sure we hadn't caught their house on fire. Turns out they were sitting outside watching our show. Can't light any fireworks that leave the ground! Whoever heard of such a crazy rule?

Think we obeyed? Well, sort of. Sherri lit one that she "thought" was a fountain...turns out if was a mortar with a parachute in it. Jayke loved it! It landed in the pool. Dirty looks were given. Snickers and giggling ensued. I think we had just as much fun complaining about not being allowed to light "the big ones" as we would have lighting them. I shocked we didn't get kicked out. We did actually get ditched for the "Racino". Dad thought he was going to win a BMW so my sisters, mom, and dad headed to the new casino/horse track. Just up and left AJ, Jayke, and me sitting there alone. We weren't feeling the love at all!

Angi called and saved me though. Jayke and I made a mad dash back to Muncie to hook up with Angi, her family and about 18 other people. We went and watched the fireworks at the fairgrounds then went and lit our own after the big ones were over AND we were allowed to light ones THAT LEFT THE GROUND!

Here are some pictures from the night. There were so many people and so much going on it was hard to get good pictures. When there are 8 kids running around with sparklers it is hard to focus on taking pictures!






We did break Dad's rule to launch one of these...




Chinese sky lanterns. They are my new favorite 4th of July thing. It's a big paper lantern with a candle in it that you light and the hot air makes it float off into the sky. We watched it go forever. We could barely see it when it finally flickered out far far away. Even dad got up and left the race he was watching to see the lantern off. We have another one to light still but Jayke didn't want it to fly away. I may go see if I can find another one to do here at our house for Grammy to see.

All in all...stupid rules aside...it was a good 4th. There was shopping, eating, drinking, laughing, and the lighting of explosives...what more could you ask for?

Got Milk?

Back in soccer again. Funny, I show a picture of swimming and start talking about soccer. He looks better than ever out there. He is actually going after the ball and taking it when he can. Some new found aggression. You don't see it much though. Isabelle is on his team again. They were pretty cute when they discovered each other and stood there and had a brief chat in the middle of game play. Guess they were catching up a little.

My cousins from Colorado are here with their new baby. Jayke is baby CRAZY! He loves holding the baby and feeding the baby. He even says he wants to change the baby's diaper! His idea of holding the baby is to have her lay with him because, "She gets too heavy" and he "Needs his arm back!"

Last night the kiddo was on a roll with his funny stuff. Sara and I had taken him to get ice cream and then went to Walmart to buy a DVD player. He was cracking us up! Sara told him to say I'm a P*I*M*P and he said I'm a pp! He had the tone right and everything...just missed couple of letters changing the whole meaning and cracking us right up. This was all while he was waving a Slim Jim around and yelling, "I'm gonna smack you with a piece of meat!"

Here is a picture of Jaykeb with baby Corrinne. According to him he is "Milking the baby.' Too funny!

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha!

I'm still alive! I've just had a CRAZY weekend. Good but crazy! It has sorta carried over into the week too. I've been hanging out with my nephew all weekend. We went to Broadripple in Indy Saturday night to hang out with AJ and that was an experience in itself. I'm not too fond of arriving at the bars at 1a.m. I like to get there a little earlier than that.

I'm not going to get into the weekend too much this morning cause I need to get to work. I'm debating on leaving after a couple of hours to hit the pool with Ang. So until I have time to update properly I will just give ya this picture of some teeth brushing lessons with AJ.