Friday Flashback

Nine years ago:

What's extra funny about this is that we just had a run-in with shivering in the cold here, albeit for different reasons than in 2008.  Our current house is heated by a boiler that is fueled by oil.  Since February was freakishly warm, I had it in my mind somehow that our December filling-of-the-oil-tank would last us through winter.  So just last Sunday (end of MARCH, even though we've always had to refill during Feb), I finally looked at the gauge on the tank.  We were told to fill it whenever it got to about a quarter of a tank, or 70ish gallons.

It was at 25 gallons.  Oops.

I called first thing Monday morning and they told me the truck would come the next day.  So yep, I layered up to sit in my 63-degree house Monday because I did NOT want to turn on the heat and risk running out.  (The oil also fuels our water heater!)

We had a gorgeous couple of days after that but have been told that it will rain all.day.long today-- and it's only 42 degrees outside.  But hey, I can crank up the heat now!!  HAPPY FRIDAY, indeed!

PS:  No foolin'!  Loyal reader JC has a BIG BIRTHDAY tomorrow!  Sending you lots of love and hugs, JuJu!

Outdoor Picnic Suprise

Miss C had plans for a friend to come home with her yesterday, and then a spontaneous plan came together during the day for another friend to come, too, due to some complications in that family's schedule.  Since it was another bright and sunny day (with which I think we might be done for awhile...booo), I decided to set up a little snacking spot for them to find upon getting home.

Then I lurked inside to take a pic of them when they spotted the strange set-up:

Wednesday Morning

I was going to get up early this morning and get all kinds of things done but that didn't exactly happen.  Well, I did get up super early-- but not in a good kind of way.  It seems of late that, regardless of when I go to bed, I wake up each night "in the 2s" (as in, between 2-3am) and have variable levels of success in going back to sleep.  Last night, it was on the earlier end and I decided to watch some streaming shows to make me sleepy...but then enjoyed the episodes so much that I kept watching.  Think I finally shut it down/went back to sleep around 4:30, shortly before the BG got up to start his day.  [New binge show: Billions on Showtime.]

Anyway, now it's 8:57am and my weekly small group at church starts at 9:30.  I'm still unshowered and in my pjs.  Guess I should get a move on.  It appears to be a beautiful day outside so that's a bonus.  The elementary school yearbook to which I've dedicated hundreds of hours is rapidly approaching its due date to the publisher so that's the most pressing project on the immediate horizon.  Plus, we're squarely in MULCH SPREADING season and I'm handling all the logistics for those appointments again. 

I guess it's no wonder I wake up in the middle of the night, mind racing...

Hope you all have a calm (and sunny!) day!

Just Like Her Mother

Oh wait, no.  I hate to run.

(This reminds me of a sign that I attribute to AKHG, although now I can't remember who bought it for whom, or if it were even purchased or just talked about, but in any case-- there was once a plaque that said something like, "I tried to run but my thighs kept rubbing together and my underwear caught on fire." So me not running is really for my own safety.  I am afraid of fire, after all.)

Miss Skinny Legs doesn't have to worry about that.  She took on the annual PTA Fun Run on Sunday with determination.  One lap around the school property (approx. 0.5 miles)?  Done.  As most of the others left the blacktop after that race (to be fair, it was a very chilly 45 degrees), she stayed to do the second race: two laps around the property.  Done.  Then she was the only girl who made her way to the starting line for the third race: FOUR laps around the property!  What?!

Her Kindergarten buddy ended up joining her and they had fun making the loops around the school grounds, sometimes just holding hands and strolling.  Their very cold mothers encouraged them to STOP after the third lap so we could all go home, but they were winners, for sure.  Here they are rounding the school on one of the laps:

In case you're wondering, older brother didn't even go to the Run because his "legs hurt."  Since he'd just gotten back from his weekly swim session, he got a pass.  But I think it's possible he might actually BE his mother's child.
(Well, except for the chunky thighs part...)   :-)

Having a Ball

The kids and I went to the HS on Saturday afternoon for a fundraiser (for the After-Prom Party which obviously doesn't affect us but it's a huge event and they were smart to have a fundraiser that would appeal to kids of all ages).  It was billed as "The World's Largest Ball Pit" and we really didn't know what we were getting into.

The main takeaway is that the emphasis should have been "the world's LARGEST BALL pit" because it was, in fact, a room full of giant balls, aka balloons.  I actually didn't take a single pic while I was in there due to chatting with some peeps, but I borrowed this shot from a friend so you can get a sense of the action:

Everybody had so much fun hitting and throwing.  While we were there (which was almost 3 hours after it started), there were balloons popping EVERYWHERE.  I think that maybe the company running it didn't have replacement balloons...???...so they were deciding to pack it in about the time we were leaving since the crowds had also greatly diminished.

So guess what that meant?  We were allowed to take giant balloons home!  The car ride was about as entertaining as you can imagine...and almost as entertaining as our basement now is:

Sorry for the quality of this shot.  I was perched on the couch watching basketball and clearly couldn't be bothered to change positions or turn on more lights.  ;-)

Speaking of the bball game, big congrats go to my Uncle Fred for the overtime victory by his Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs over the Lady Bears.  I will admit I stopped watching at halftime because, as much as I've gotten to a place where I enjoy watching college football, I really just can't get into college basketball.  But both Baylor teams had a good run--Men made Sweet Sixteen and Women, the Elite Eight.  Go Bears!

Flashback Friday

Sorry for the duplicate photo, Facebook peeps, but enough of you aren't on FB that I'm doing it. Plus, I got to doctor it up here-- can you tell I love drawing on photos?!  :-)

I haven't gone back to look to see when this photo was actually taken but I posted it on FB six years ago today:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Creativity Yields Reward!

I have been enjoying a box o' personalized notes, gifted by a dear college friend, for years.  They are the perfect size to use for taking notes on work, writing notes to teachers, making to-do lists, etc.  Unfortunately, my supply has dwindled at a more recent rate of late because SOMEONE has also discovered how fun they are for doodling.

It's *possible* that I told her to stop stealing my goods so....guess what she did?  Made her own stack of "cards," of course!

Yeah, that earns her own stash-- in a PINK holder, no less!

I went ahead and ordered myself some refills, too-- in a fun new font and color!  :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Popstors

That's right.  The Popstors will be giving a party.  The admission is $1 and I'm happy to say that I scored a free ticket!

Here are the actual Popstors:

(The Cabbage Patch Kid's given name is "Raquel Callie" if you were having trouble deciphering it on the poster!)

Lemme know if you wanna attend!  :-)

Rolling (and NOT Rolling)

As some of you might have seen on FB Saturday, our afternoon rolled along nicely until it....stopped.  With our kid-who-doesn't-like-to-eat playing at a friend's house, the other 3 of us headed to a local shopping area for some tasty Japanese cuisine.  After a delightful meal, we headed back to the parking garage elevator to get in our car and head to a dessert location.  Got in the elevator, pushed the button, and didn't notice anything was amiss for awhile until it had been way too long for the doors not to open and I realized the digital panel now said "Out of Service."

Hmmmm.  Well, this has never happened before.

Long story short: it took about 40 minutes to get out.

• Of the six or so times we pressed the "Call" button, only ONE of them actually got all the way through to a real person.  Turns out that calling for help from an elevator is much like calling any customer service number-- you get put on hold or given a recording and hung up on A LOT.
• Thankfully, it was the second call that went through so we felt pretty good after the woman took our info and assured us she'd be in touch with the local people.  
• We had NO cell service in the elevator so this call button was our only lifeline.
• We didn't expect it to take so long...hence the repeated pushing of the call button, never to any response from an actual person after the first connection.
• All of a sudden, the doors opened.  There was no one in sight.  We ran.
• When we got out, I realized I had a missed call.  It was from the repair guy (I guess?) who seemed really relieved that we'd gotten out-- especially since he was apparently not even on site.  I have no idea what caused the doors to open finally.
• While we were in there, the 2-hour free parking window closed.  So I had to pay $2 to get out of the garage.  LA SCANDALE! 

We still had time to make it to our sweet treat location: a Thai rolled ice cream spot!  Do you know about this phenomenon?  The BG described it as like cooking scrambled eggs, although it's actually freezing.  But it starts with a liquid and ends up turning solid and then gets rolled:



I chose the "Oreo's Secret" and didn't know until the end that one also gets to pick 3 topics and a sauce drizzle!

Never a dull moment around here, for sure!

Unexpected Familiarity

The local weather team posted an update on FB yesterday that mentions Vermont and Florida...and THIS is the photo they used?  Hey, I know that place!

Happy Friday/St. Patrick's' Day!  May all your food be GREEN!

Icy Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We didn't get a lot of snow but what we got turned into quite the slick ice.  The kiddies got home yesterday afternoon from their (abbreviated) school day and immediately took the B-man's Science Fair display board out of the cardboard recycling bin and put it to some fun use:

They actually went a little too fast for my risk-averse liking, so I made them put on helmets.  Big brother took the next run solo....and I stopped filming before what I feared was an inevitable crash (that didn't happen.  I'm such a worrywart):

Back to School Edition

Pretty much all the districts announced last night that there would be a delay this morning.  So it's now 8:17 and, instead of 13 minutes until bus stop time, it's 2 hours and 13 minutes!  The kids are just fine with some extra play time before heading back to school.

We all went to a different school Saturday night for the annual PTA Parent-Teacher Basketball Game.  The BG got recruited to play for the parents (much to his chagrin, although I think he ended up having fun) and B & C got to run onto the court with him when he was announced:

The event is always at the high school but we got bumped by a different event so we were moved to the middle school, which only has bleachers on one side of the gym.  It was a time to get cozy with neighbors but it was a successful night all around!

Students in grades 3-5 were invited to participate in four after-school practices over the last month to prepare a halftime show routine under the direction of some high school dance team members.  The B-man was DOWN with that.  Can you see him in the back of this shot?

The Report

We did get a snow day.  The district cancelled school late last evening, after most others had already done so.  (Such restraint)

The dreaded rain/snow line ended up being on the wrong side of us so much of our precip is falling in a not-so-snowy state.  It also is beating down the snow that had fallen so it doesn't look very white and fluffy outside.  The story is that it should turn back to snow later this morning-- we'll see.   In any case, the icy precip has caused lots of bad road conditions so all the more reason it's good they cancelled school.  We're pretty sure there will be at least a delay tomorrow because it's going to get above freezing today-- so everything will melt--and then temps plummet overnight and aren't supposed to get above freezing tomorrow.   Pretty scary to put all those buses and kids on icy roads.

We shall think about tomorrow later.  For now, we will enjoy our day of permissive laziness!  (Who am I kidding, I never can escape the burden of projects.  Such is the life of working from home.)

The chocolate chip cookies (made last night), cinnamon rolls (rising now), and hot fudge cake (planned for later) will surely make all of that work better, right?!  :-)

PS:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to loyal reader Lindsay, who is celebrating in a land with actual snow!!!!  We met the fall semester of our freshman year at Baylor, so we've already surpassed the "known each other half our lives" mark.  Here's to many more years of adventure...even if it's mostly of the telephone/texting type!  :-)

It's Coming!

Today's just kinda a wasted day with a forecast for a snowstorm (our FIRST/ONLY of the season...and it's March 13) to start this evening.  It's just as well since I'm not feeling great.  I think the congestion funk that worked its way through our family did finally get to me.  I might just lie low today-- and dream about a white day tomorrow, of course!

I got in bed super early last evening and was greeted by Miss C and her latest creation:

As you can see, the hands (and feet) are going separate directions...because the robot is dancing!

Pretty sure she'll craft her way through tomorrow's snow day!

Prolific, Painted, and Pondering

Miss C has gotten REALLY into making books.  Each day, she staples or tapes paper together and writes a story, completely unassisted.  I've received I Love Mom and she proudly took My Love Book  to school to share with her class since one page featured a drawing (with labels) of all her classmates.  Yesterday's creation was I Love Everything.  A sample page:

You might notice some colorful nails.  Last Friday, the kids had a half-day and the BG made it home a little earlier than usual, as well.  It was a BIG day for the guys since it was the release (and arrival, thanks to pre-order) of the new  Legend of Zelda game so I decided to take Miss C on a surprise trip to the local nail shop.  (If you're on FB, you might have seen my lament about how I underestimated the time necessary for my toenail polish to dry.  Oops.  I've actually left the super-smudginess as a reminder....or because I'm lazy.  One of those.)   The place I go probably doesn't get many kids but they were very accommodating-- the lady even got down on the floor to paint C's nails.  She enjoyed it:

Photos of the guys adventuring with Link would be kinda boring, but the B-man managed to enjoy the sunshine yesterday with both a sword and a flower:

Lest you think he's become too contemplative, know that he's still a smiley guy!

We're smiling at the thought that we just might get some snow this winter, after all.  Recognizing that it's still several days away--and we've been let down EVERY OTHER TIME this season--we are still putting some hope in the forecast for white stuff Monday night into Tuesday.  Even if that's a total bust, however, we won't be wearing T-shirts or showing our toes anytime soon.  Super cold temps expected this weekend! Brrrrrr.

Happy Friday!

Ran Out of Time

Busy morning, kicked off by the (OH MY GOODNESS, FINALLY) return of my email inbox.

Have to run to get to my morning commitment at the school.  Oh, and get the kids on the bus in 5 minutes...oops, haven't put their lunches in boxes yet...

See you tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday

Oh, These Burdensome Chains of Technology

I write this post today from a not-so-good place.  About 2:30 yesterday afternoon, my email inbox stopped displaying on the computer browser.  I could see my Sent folder; I could see my Draft folder; I just couldn't see anything in my Inbox folder, except for the lovely "alert" number that kept increasing and taunting me that I did, in fact, have new messages-- they just weren't being displayed.

Cue anxiety.

A few hours later, I refreshed the screen or the inbox or the browser (who knows; I've done all of those 87 times) and the messages all appeared.  Hurrah, I thought!  It is fixed.

And then they disappeared again.

It's a really alarming feeling to know that people are sending you information--perhaps even responses to questions you'd asked--and there's no way to receive that info.  I spent some time on the phone with tech support.  Our call got cut off.  I was too despondent to call back because nothing the guy had suggested was helping.

I got in bed at 7:50pm.  What was the point in staring at a computer screen that continued to taunt me?  (Side note: the mobile app on my phone also wasn't loading messages.)   I woke up at 1-something and finally decided to check my phone-- nope, still not loading.  Knowing I was going to be restless for a long time as I fretted about all the things I'd missed as well as all the ways this was going to make my life harder moving forward, I moved to the living room couch where I eventually went back to sleep at least an hour later.  At 6-something, I nervously returned to my latop, filled with desperate hope...to find that the Inbox still wasn't loading.  Seriously?

Another call to tech support which basically resulted in "This issue has been escalated to our national support team and they'll call you when they open."  Some time in the last hour, I had the idea to go into Settings (which are accessible) and set up an auto-forward to one of my other email addresses (hosted on other servers).  That seems to be working this morning but it doesn't help with the 45 messages that came in since late last afternoon that I can not see.  And now I'm super frustrated I didn't have that idea last night because it would have perhaps saved me some lost sleep.

PSA:  If you emailed me last evening, I haven't seen it.  Resend.

It's so aggravating to me that such a technological blip has pretty much taken productivity (including money that I could have been earning if I weren't dealing with this junk), time, sleep, and mental energy from me.  I mean, even thinking through who might have emailed me and contacting them a different way takes up time and energy that I shouldn't have to spend...and don't even get me started on the time and energy it takes to make a tech support call.

I'm probably going to lose "exercise" too, since I'm not sure I want to be away from my phone when the national engineering peeps call me, so I probably won't go to my class this morning...just in case.

I really need to send a very large bill to this company.   Therapy included.

:-(

UPDATE, 8:39am: I just came in from the bus stop to find messages loaded!  Whew.  This (hopefully permanent) update does not negate any of the above, however!  I'm not sure how we balance the reality of today's technological expectations with our sanity, but it is NOT an easy journey!

UPDATE: 8:45am: annnd....it's gone again. At least I could see the missing emails in the meantime.  Sigh.

The Latest Flavor

WHADDYA THINK???

It's Friday and I've Got NOTHING

I don't think I have taken any pics this week.  It's been a week of multiple projects, lots of meetings/activities, and general busy-ness.  We did wake up to a literal dusting of white stuff on the grass so, hey, we can pretend it's "winter" even though all the trees are blooming.  Such an odd season.

The B-man's basketball season was supposed to end two weeks ago but since the first two Saturdays were both "icy" (and pretty much the only winter weather so far), they had to add two make-up games to the end.  So it'll be over tomorrow morning.  Miss C is signed up to play soccer on Saturdays starting in late April.  A bunch of her class besties signed up, too, so hopefully they'll all get to play together.

My random thought from yesterday (brought on by a trip to Costco): while I would NEVER respond with this answer when asked about my favorite food, I'm not sure there is anything that tastes better than warm rotisserie chicken.  For you Corningites, you know I'm now immediately sad that Spencer's Restaurant is no more since it was my fave place to get the "Quarter-Chicken Dinner (white meat) with side of spaghetti and crumbly blue cheese on my salad."  Ah, the memories.

HAPPY FRIDAY!   May you make some tasty food memories of your own this weekend!

Throwback Thursday

I found this "certificate" when I was in Dallas last month and it brings back so many memories-- and questions:

We participated in many more of those activities than are circled; you only got them circled if you reached some sort of specific level during the term.  I totally get that I didn't do enough tricks to qualify in Trampoline or enough accuracy in either Archery or Riflery, but SERIOUSLY how did I not rate in "Fun" or "Games"?!   (I'm going to tell myself that those were activities reserved for the youngest campers to achieve and not that I wasn't good at either in 1992.)  :-)

On a somewhat related note, the kids and I were talking the other day about someone at their school in the 4th grade and were wondering whom she might have had as a 3rd grade teacher, when Miss C piped up and said, "I know from reading last year's yearbook that [this girl in question, whom we've never discussed previously] had Ms. So-and-So for 3rd grade."   So yep, looks like we're going to have another generation of "SUPER NAMER"!   (Circle earned because I won the contest of being able to identify correctly the highest number of camp counselors...three years running, thankyouverymuch)

***HA HA HA.  I just noticed that "Football" is circled.  How is that even POSSIBLE?  Also, let's just pretend that 1992 factoid foretold the future of my spouse!

Before and After!

As you might recall, Miss C chose a cheerleader figurine to paint for her birthday.

She wants you to see the finished product:

(The pom poms and shoes have "sparkles" if you look closely....!  I guess she's into more understated things!)