Prom Weekend

So this weekend is prom for El Dorado High School. My daughter and her friends are going. So that means that they will be coming over to my house to get ready. My fear is that they will all be a little neurotic. I get to do their hair, which I am looking forward to. The nail polish and all the make-up, I could do with out. I just hope it doesn't turn into a mini wedding kind of thing. I am not into that. Although, I did order a flower and the limo. Oh well, all that matters is that they all have a blast!

I know I am going to sound like a preacher, and I don't even go to church. There is a lot of negative going on in the world right now. Maybe it always has been that way. It just feels like we are surrounded by negative talk and negative actions. When you are handed a bad blow of something, there is a reason for it. Really. Sometimes who knows why, but as long as you think positive, positive comes out of it. Always. Just look for the silver lining or is it through the silver lining. Either way, life is good. I have read a few blogs where the people seem to have back to back crappy stuff happening. Are they bringing it on themselves? I don't mean to sound mean, but seriously, when you think with bad thoughts, bad stuff hangs around. Life is too hard sometimes, why not try to make things happy in your life. Just by smiling, you can have a great day. When you think those happy thoughts, happiness is all around you.
A couple years ago my husband lost his great paying job. I worked part time at a job and volunteered at our kids school quite a bit. The first day of dealing with what had just happened, was scary. I knew everything would be OK. Things happen for a reason, always. Sure enough, it all worked out just fine. My husband started back at school full-time. I went back to work full-time. I ended up hating my job after a couple of years. But what I gained from being there made it all worthwhile. I got some amazing friends out of it. Some people can look at it and think how much they hate their job and dwell only on that instead of looking at what really matters. People and what they give you. Not financially, but emotionally. I did end up walking out of my job one day in November, but fortunately for me, those people that I became friends with found there way to me in one way or another. I would never take any of the bad stuff out of my life because there is so much good that comes back at me just by thinking positively.

Daughter's driving

So my daughter is now driving legally on the road with an adult at her side. My wonderful husband keeps volunteering me to take her out and practice. I'll admit, I am not the perfect candidate for it. My facial expressions come into play. I am not a good liar in any form. Again, my face says it all. So not only am I trying to get her comfortable with driving, but I am trying to get her used to a manual transmission. I have always found that I have more control driving around the hills with a stick shift versus an automatic. So we were out the other night driving and giving all the neighbors a good chuckle. I had her stop and start constantly so she could get the feel of letting off the clutch and giving it gas. Everyone knew we were coming by the squealing tires. I honestly thought she was doing pretty good, but what I got on my end was "Mom, you are a horrible teacher." I made a point, seriously, of not saying one negative word. I am proud of how I handled myself. I know me and I loose my patience with my own kids. We just have another five months left of this!

Creatures that lurk int the night

There are worse things that happen in the middle of the night, but what happened last night seemed pretty bad. Our youngest dog, Abbott, got up to go outside, so I thought. Then I heard some strange thrashing noises coming from the kitchen or just outside of our slider. I flew out of bed and saw something about raccoon size flying through the kitchen and then it kept bouncing in our slider up and down. I started screaming at Abbott not to go near it, because I still wasn't sure what was in the house and what might be outside. My initial thought was that two raccoons were fighting outside the door and one ran in through the doggie door. Finally, everyone else came to the rescue to help me hold back the other two dogs that came to check out the noise. For some reason, my son opened his bedroom door and the thing ran in there. At that moment we were able to put our dogs in our bedroom and take a breath. We had to process the whole event in order to move onto getting "it" out of his bedroom. Once we looked in to see what "it" was, we realized he was just as scared as we were. It was a cat. He made himself at home in my sons bed, still breathing pretty heavy though, just as we were too. Now to get him out. He didn't want to budge. We were all afraid of him or her because we weren't sure whether it was a feral cat or not. So my husband and son used brooms to try and persuade him to leave. He was not having any part of it. He kept, somehow, holding onto the window and curtain. Finally my brilliance kicked in and I realized that if I take the screen off the window, all we have to do is open the window and he will go out. Not the case. Apparently, we needed to make sure the window was completely opened and then once we did that he ran outside.
It took us a good two hours to finally calm down enough to go back to sleep. I had to keep my focus on mentally writing my next essay in order to stay relaxed. Otherwise the what ifs kept creeping back into my head.
I am a little pooped and sore today, but everyone is safe and happy and that is all that matters!

When it comes to my birthday, I prefer to just let it go by without anyone acknowledging it. From all my friends views, I know I come off weird. My husband surprised me with a few of my friends at a restaurant once. I was absolutely mortified so much that I had a margarita with tequila in it. I don't react well to alcohol or should I say tequila? I wish I could say that I turn fun and that I was dancing on the table. No, I get sick, turn red and want to throw up. It's nowheres near fun . Well, my husband is one of those that want everyone to know when it's his birthday. We (our kids and I) know we are in for misery the entire week of his birthday or depending on how it falls in the week, it could go on for two weeks of birthday week. Ugh! It really is funny. He knows how annoying he is being, but persists anyways. So if he wants something, his excuse is because it's my birthday and I should get it. He also sings. Not just a little singing. It's a lot of annoying singing and really loud obnoxious singing. It's not good. Really really not good. His birthday was on March 25th. So because it fell on a Wednesday, we have two weeks of it. I have never heard of this until him. Does anyone else have birthday week or two? I don't want anyone to get the wrong opinion of me or of him, he is a great guy and I am lucky to have him. He just needs to go somewhere for the week of birthday week, so he doesn't bother us.

OK maybe it's just me, but I am still struggling with this site. I can't seem to be able to read some of the peoples blogs. When I go to click on the profiles they disappear. Is it just me? Maybe it's the weather that is making things freak out. Then again there is that thing called Mercury in retrograde. Maybe we are in that? All I know is that some of the people in the class I am able to see and others I struggle with getting to read their writings. I guess that is enough ranting. I am just frustrated. I have sat here for a half hour trying and clicking buttons. Seriouly, I am not an idiot. I just can't get to where I need to be going. Actually, it took me some time to find my way back to this spot. I had so many windows open.

Great Sunday

I am still coming off of a great weekend. It had been three years since the last time my husband and I had been skiing. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, other than it being the time change and all. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law took our son up in their motorhome with our neice and nephew. What a cushy ride for them. We had the truck with the giggly teenage girls. The girls slept over Saturday night. What is amazing to me is how three girls can destroy a clean house so quickly. Oh well, they had fun doing it. Once we got out there skiing, it was like we had just done it the other day. The one thing I love about skiing is the beauty around us. The thing I don't love is the lines and getting stuck on the chair lift when someone falls getting on or off. It had been years since I got on the King chairlift at Sierra at Tahoe. It will be another 30 years before I do it again. It is a quick chair getting on and off, but incredibly slow moving. The chair stopped a few times while on it. There is a spot on the hill, whenever the chair stops, that scares the daylights out of me and everyone else. It is so far down. Your mind races as you sit there. How will they ever get me off of this thing? Apparently, it didn't bother my son because he just kept on talking. It's just scary. As we were over on the West Bowl area riding the chairlift, we could see a critter walking along the snow. My first thought was that it looked like a beaver. There is no way a beaver could be walking through the snow. I must have said it out loud because the group in front of us told us it was a porcupine. They are nocturnal though. We never did see him again. He must have been sleep walking. Back to skiing, the snow was incredible. Some areas were just a little icy in the shade. Once we were all done skiing, my sister-in-law, who does not ski, cooked us dinner. What a way to finish up skiing, spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad. She was our maid for the day, because she also cooked pizza for lunch. We didn't go hungry that's for sure. Then we packed up and headed home. What a great day!

My daughter has just finished up her drivers ed in high school. Having my daughter drive has always been a fear of mine. She has a tendency to be absent minded, a lot. When my son started driving, I had no fear with him. I know he is the methodical one. He will not put himself in any kind of dangerous situation if he can help it.
During the four day holiday, we were down in Pismo Beach. The whole family decided to venture out to the dunes. We brought our dunebuggy with us, while the rest of the family rented quads. My daughter really surprised me. Not only did she do a great job driving, but she also concurred a stick shift. I am hoping my fears of her driving out on the public roads are gone. I know they will never completely disappear, but the terror, I believe is gone.

Carpeting again!

Tomorrow is the big day again. Over the summer my husband and I added on to our house. Instead of having the two living room thing, which I have decided I can't stand, we turned them into other usable rooms. Now we have one huge room. I wanted to do bamboo on the flooring. You know go green and all. I was out numbered by the rest of the family who wanted carpet. So we got carpeting. We researched what would be best with the traffic we have in our house. There is always teenagers all over and then the other four legged kids too. July, the new carpeting got put in. Then I noticed a new pattern in the carpet that wasn't on the display. Oh well, I went with it anyways. As time went on, that different pattern turned into flaws. The more I vacuumed the more they showed up. I finally decided to call and let the company know what was going on with the carpet. Luckily, I still had a large piece of remnant that I was able to bring in to show them. Turns out the company wasn't able to see any flaws in the remnant. A carpet investigator came out to look at the carpet as well as an employee from the carpet mill. Both acknowledge there was a big problem. Odd. Once the investigator showed the company his proof there was no going back. Apparently, carpet is supposed to be in the shape of a V when it is pulled up and also double threaded. Ours in spots was in a long V on one side which was causing a frayed look throughout the carpet. Also, some of it was single threaded. So pretty much the whole carpet is garbage. So this week between everything else in life is moving week. We have to remove everything in the room. It wouldn't be so bad, but we have lots of gym equipment in half the room that has to be broken down. Then we have our three pieces of exercise equipment, like a treadmill, eliptical and bike to shove somewhere. Thankfully, Friday is not supposed to rain. So the outdoors is where the couches and chairs will be going. So tomorrow is the big day again. Hopefully it will be the last time for another ten to fifteen years. What a pain!

My Dogs

My family unit involves a husband, two teenagers, three dogs, two guinea pigs, a rabbit, and a fish. My kids know all to well that the dogs come before them. When something gets broken, the kids know they are the ones who are going to get blamed. That's just how it works in my house. Actually, I think I have the sydrome where my kids are getting to that age where they just need to move on. They are no longer at the cut stage. They are at the, everything they touch gets dirty stage.
Everything my dogs do is cute. Really everything. Even when it's not cute, I still find it cute in a sick kind of way. One of our dogs is smaller and more compact. She is also a hefty forty five pounds of solid muscle. Because she is small we baby her more. She gets away with things the other two don't get to do. She works us and we know it. All she has to do is bat her green eyes at us and we give her anything. If she wants to sit up against our backs in the chair while we are eating dinner, that's OK, because she's cute. She get's the other two going just by getting into the play stance. The only problem is when she does it in the house, all three of them start running full speed through the house. They run up and over the couches, chairs, between legs, and banging into walls. As I scream at them to get outside, they keep on playing. I can see the look in their eyes and I know they are laughing their heads off.
Our older dog is our singer. She goes through the house with her hound dog songs. Once my husband or I get up for the day, then she is up and giving us her best. We can get her to sing on command usually, but it is always followed with a sneeze. She is our most expensive dog by far. Two summers ago, she had her knee replaced. That knee works like a gem. It's the other that needs some attention now. The surgery is pretty traumatic for the dogs and their people. They have to stay in a pen for three long months. Not fun for anyone involved.
Our middle child dog is a goof ball. He is in his own world most of the time. We have taught him to put a ball in his mouth when he is out front. Our property is all fenced in and the front yard has all the excitement. That is usually where he gets in the most trouble with barking. He is a definite boy when it comes to having the balls laying around to play with. He is our soccer player. He is better than some kids I have seen on teams. He has learned to hit too.
My kids do have their strong points too, but my furry kids don't talk back usually. They give me serenity.

Since starting back to school, I am able to make one of my dreams, hopefully, come true. That is learning to sign. What I mean by that for those who don't know what I am talking about is sign language. It is the ability to talk to the deaf.
I have learned so much in these past three weeks about the language, as well as the cruelty that the deaf have faced. One of the things that they have had to deal with is being labeled dumb. I remember as a child the phrase "deaf and dumb". I thought that saying had gone away. I recently saw a video of a judge cupping is hands over his mouth and screaming at a deaf man in court. As I was watching it, the flow of emotions for the deaf man just broke my heart. What an arrogant man, I have other words for him but I won't use them, to think that by screaming at a deaf man that he would be able to hear. I am sure he could of understood some words if the judge didn't cup his hands and hide his mouth. I have learned that the deaf see more things that the hearing are unaware of. The only way I can describe it would be to say the hearing have tunnel vision and the deaf see the whole world. We play a lot of games in the class to make us aware of our surroundings and the movements that go on around us. As a hearing person, I am not always aware of people moving around me.
To say that a deaf person is dumb is by far incredibly ignorant. I truly believe they are brighter than the hearing. They don't have all the hearing commotion going on around them. They are able to stay much more focused on things. Which leads me to wonder if they have ADD in their community of people. They are constantly having to move limbs in order to communicate. I wonder if it keeps kids calmed down to focus better on their school work. It was just a thought.
One of the other little tid bits I have learned is that the deaf put their whole body into saying something. The face has the most expression. The face and the hands tell a story. For the hearing people, if you just stop and watch a deaf person sign you may actually pick up what they are saying. It all makes sense. Oh yah, I forgot to mention my teacher is deaf.

I have to start off by saying I am a die hard animal lover. To me any animal is angelic. I just can't fathom why anyone could and would go out hunting and kill any animal.

I grew up with a dad that was a big time hunter of what seemed that he would kill just about anything. As a kid I was oblivious to what really was going on. I remember when he would come back from frogging. That was always the fun event. Oh yah, and yes they taste just like chicken. During that time we had a backyard that was pretty much all cement so he would let the frogs out of the bag. As a kid to be around so many hopping creatures was the best. Then the knife came out. Still I was intrigued. Grossed out at this time in my life. I used to call it pantsing the frog. He would take his pocket knife out. The same one he would cut an apple with and offer you some. Then he would cut around the middle of the frog. Never thinking this was probably hurting these guys. And then he would take his pliers and pull the pants off. I apologize to anyone that I have grossed out, but there is more. Then he would cut the legs off and my mom would put them in the pan with all the seasonings. This is where, again as a kid, this was pretty cool. I don't quite understand why, but the nerves made the legs kick around and move in the pan while they were cooking. Frog legs and crawdads were the only creatures growing up that I was willing to eat.

The crawdads were the work of my sisters and I. We would go down to the creek with our buckets. I really didn't think at that time in my life I realized that I was actually killing something. It sounds so strange for me to say that. We always had a blast wading through the creek and finding things in the stream. Still the best was getting the crawdads that were hiding. If you weren't paying attention and picked one up the wrong way, well it would let you know. They hold on for dear life and hurt at the same time.

Now for cooking these guys. I remember throwing them into a pot of boiling water and watching their colors change. I don't really remember what the color change was, but I remember standing there watching and know that when the color was done, so were they.

I think for now I am done grossing me out as well as anybody else.