Welcome to Good Burger

I believe something is terribly wrong with the world when Wendy's is out of chocolate frosty's and Arby's is out of roast beef. What else do you get?

I was paid $200 more than I should have been this week, and I considered for four hours taking it as my personal stimulus check/gift of gratitude for the frayed pants comment, until my boss figured it out.

My new check was still more than it should have been and it's known to my boss, but I apparently get to keep it anyway.

I've officially decided that my boss is really either ridiculously scatterbrained or she just thinks we're all dumbasses. I think at this point I know how to work the paperclips.

After three weeks of "the financial aid package will be sent out by the end of the week" I finally got one from Angel University, and it is decent. Certainly on the docket (...is that how you spell that word? let's just say so).

I was told by a prof. at Devil University that an advising appointment was not an excused absence from her class. I'm pretty sure my reply scared her, and basically ended in "frankly I care less about that than I do about the common house fly" but in words that were much less friendly.

I received two copies of the lit mag I had a poem and short story published in last week in the mail this week. The women who sent it to me asked me for my address yesterday, expressed mailed it, and $4.98 later I got it today. Seriously impressed.

Publication count: 4
Publication dollars: $300 and a copy of the Young Writers Literary Journal
...you see the problem.

New job available--meeting with the boss tomorrow morning, no idea what I'm going to do.

8-10 page paper #1 done. #2 not started. Due Monday.

B just picked up a giant spider by the string and put it outside while I went for a shoe. Hero. But if it comes back inside, I will not be happy.

Porch Bird is apparently not afraid of people in the dark, just in the daytime. No babies yet.

I worked hard to have great nails for Dining Out this weekend. So I broke one at work today, and have to get fakies on Saturday morning. And getting the eyebrows done tomorrow (for all you non-italians, have pity). Is it wrong that I don't care at all about my hair?

=]

Things About Jobs and Things

My job:

I love the kids (who could resist a bunch of Baby B's??).
I don't even really mind the 939239248 daily diaper changes.
It's fun to play with them.
I enjoy that.
However, the politics of it are enough to make me want to eat my own face.
Realistically, I don't know how long I will stay in this job.
Just for fun, I would also like to tell you that I killed a centipede in my classroom today.

Things I wish I knew:

Where/if I am going to school next year.
What my school schedule will be.
Who will work with my schedule.

Reasons I wish this:

I was called today and told that I may be offered a full-time position tomorrow.
It pays at least $3.00 more per hour than the daycare.
It's a half hour from here.
It's a doctors office.
But will they work around my schedule when school starts back up in August??
Or will I not be in school so I can continue working full-time and have benefits??

The real question is this:

Where the crap were all these talented people hiding in Britain until this season of Britain's Got Talent? I mean, seriously. It's just ridiculous.

Susan Boyle, 47

Shaheen Jafargholi, 12 (Skip to 1:50...my personal favorite!)


Hollie Steel, 10 (skip to 1:40)

Weekend Wonders

The Quickie. (p.s. how do you do the strike through on here?)

Friday:

Off work for Shakespeare play, Comedy of Errors, downtown.
Hated it.
But love downtown.


Saturday:

Temperatures in upper 80's.
Baby B showed up around 11am, at least 4 hours earlier than expected.
Baby A visited.
Baby Cabbage stopped by for a few.
And E graced us with his presence as well.
Rode on E's "mini motor car".
Brother pushed me off.
We both fell.
My wrist claimed battle scars.
Of course we took pictures.






Sunday:

Temps in the lower 90's.
Loved it.
Went to park.
Was stalked by Baby A and her mommy.
Not actually intended to be funny.
Baby B had her first ice cream cone.
Went to first softball game.
Lost 11 to 0.
But got to witness a neck fight (where two people fight but only stare at each others necks, almost as good as a nothing fight).
Went with a food baby.
Decided I need to diet and exercise again.







Don't know what happene to my keybard but this is how it thinks i shoud be typin without fixing the errors i decides t make on it's ow.nodtglod Im not a fan.a

Tomorrow it's back to work and school. Boo.

Air Force Jobs and Base Rankings

The good:

B got the job he wanted! Security Forces. We got a list of bases this week that will need a 2nd LT next year, and had to rank the top 6.

The bad:

None of them are less than 9 hours from here. Which kind of stinks, at least for our first station, because allll of our family (both of us) is here. And that's farr.

The Rank:

1. Robins (Georgia, 9.5hrs)
2. Andrews (Maryland, 9hrs)
3. Dover (Delaware, 10.5hrs...the main attraction is B "knows people" and they "like him already" here)
4. McGuire (New Jersey, 10hrs...which I combated with "I could know Mrs. Staff Sergeant here" choice)
5. Vandenberg (California, 35.5hrs...also known as "this base has 40 miles of coastline in it" add)
6. Barksdale (Louisiana, 13.5hrs)

So we'll see. We're really, realllly hoping for Robins. I have some family in Georgia, and a lot of my family visits often, and it's almost the same as Andrews and Dover, except warm. But, at least Andrews is right outside DC so, that would be interesting.

Do any of you AF Wifey's out there know anything about these bases? Or how likely we are to get our top choice?

B will do his training (which, according to google, looks like the picture below) mostly in Texas, anyway, and a couple weeks at Dover randomly...but that only lasts a few months and he'll be at his permanent station after that.



The Random:

-80% chance my mom will not have the reconstruction surgery on the 5th. Her platelets are half of the minimum of the "normal" range, meaning her blood won't clot. No good for surgery.

-I'm off work tomorrow, because I'm going to a Shakespeare play. And I have to shave, because it's going to be 80 degrees. I say it's a fair trade.

-I have woken up at 2 and 5 and not gone back to sleep for the past two nights because I can't breathe because my immune system is on holiday. I will resort to NyQuil for the first time for these past 14 days tonight, and I will love it. =]

The Promised Picture Post

Ha! English major does know how to use alliteration!

Anyway, moving on, I should probably tell you why we went to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg, TN/Pigeon Forge/Great Smoky Mountains. You know it, right? I'm never really quite sure if people who are not from the mid-west have any idea what I'm talking about. So, do you? Still...moving on...(I swear I have a longer attention span than this. ....sometimes), my parents, 8-10 other couples depending on the moment, and all of their children and grandchildren make up the Redneck Yacht Club. Please let me clear up a few things on this:

We do not actually own "yachts".
We are not actually "rednecks". (well, not really, anyway)
We are not rich nor poor.
But the first generation members do own boats (ours is a nice little 18' Celebrity named "Lil' Shorty")
We were not the Redneck Yacht Club until Craig Morgan came out with the song and one of the guys thought it would be fun to make window stickers.
We camp every 2-3 weekends in the summer at a lake 5 hours from here.
By "camp" we mean we stay in RVs with air conditioning, like ours shown in this post.
And 3-4 of the other 8-10 couples are related to me, depending on who has decided to stay married to who at the time.
....yes, I know our family is nuts. We all live right next to each other, yet still willingly travel together in the summer. This should probably be addressed with years of therapy.

But the RYC goes on a 1st generation only trip to Gatlinburg every year. Kids aren't invited. Though, they do admit that it's only because there are a couple kids who they really don't want to invite and they couldn't just invite some of us.

So we invited ourselves. 6 hour drive each way. With everyone at home in our cant-keep-a-secret family knowing. And we still surprised the crap out of them. Here's some tidbits..

The shirts we made at 11pm the night before.


How we entertained ourselves on the way down. Not that we were on the highway...or anything..


The cabin we crashed at with the 1stGenRYC.


View from the cabin.


What we did at the cabin, and where I left my watch.


Some sights from our afternoon of shopping in Gatlinburg:

Damn, I can't believe I left my dolphin at home!


The ski lift.


Water ball.


The souvenir penny machine.


How appropriate to find the Lollipop Guild on the Lower Level.


How we do.


But, now I must go wrangle some kids off the bus and get ready for Eric's visitation. Hope you have enjoy your way-too-much-information post :)

The Goods

One, we have eggs...


Two, my Huichol Indian Yarn Art project is done...


Three...I'm almost done writing a speech outline that will become an 8-10 page research paper for another class as well (2 birds...erm, fish?...one...hook) and a picture post from Gatlinburg is coming tomorrow, possibly when I opt out of Shakespeare and before I leave for Eric's visitation.

For now, I must to-do list it:

-Take Human Ecology Test (before 5/1)
-8-10 pg research paper on adoption (due 5/1)
-8-10 pg research paper on shakespear (due 5/4)
-5-7 minute speech on adoption (4/22)
-3-5 minute speech on Huichol and Yarn Art project (4/24)
-Advising appointment (5/1, instead of attending Speech)
-Take Human Eco Exam (5/4-10, no idea when)
-Take Speech Exam (5/6)
-Sit at hospital for mom's surgery (5/5-6)
-Dining Out (5/2)
-Buy shoes for dining out
-Eric's visitation (4/22)
-Shakespeare Play (4/24)
-Baby B (4/25)

...I'm sure I'm forgetting something. But now I'll kind of, sort of, maybe remember to do all this. Crunch time! Oh, and egg watching time!

If Things Would Have Gone As Planned...

...I would be showing you all a small selection of the upwards of 50 photos we took on the way to and in Gatlinburg yesterday. I would be dishing about how we surprised the yacht club with our crash, and how awesome their faces were, and how beautiful the view from the 8-bedroom cabin on top of a mountain was. You would love it.

However, things did not go as planned and I do not feel right posting pictures here on this entry today.

We did go to Gatlinburg. We did crash the party. We did have a ton of fun. But we also got a call at 10pm Saturday night informing us that one of the yacht club kids (my generation) had died unexpectedly. Early thirties, three kids, had just gotten re-engaged a few hours before a friend found him on his bedroom floor not breathing and they were unable to revive him.

It's an eerie feeling, as the last time we were all together for a big party/get together we lost TJ & Stephanie in the hurricane. Now Eric. It would be putting it nicely to say it pisses me off.

So I will not be putting pictures in this post. I will only be asking you to keep Eric's parents, son, daughters, fiance, and friends in your thoughts.

I will do a picture post another day. I am sick (again, and more than a cold this time as my eyes refuse to focus on this screen without shaking) but hopefully will get to it at some point in the next couple days around school, work, and the funeral.

And because I know you all are amazing, thank you ahead of time.

On Devil Birds, Frayed Jeans, Cute Dogs and Trips

A few things that continue to lack updates (though I am feeling much better, thanks for the well wishes!)...

A bird has decided to take up house on my front porch on top of our one and only wreath. No eggs yet, but you may remember the bird mentioned in this post that I killed on accident while playing fetch with Chase...well, this bird may become my first intended murder victim. This is not the same bird that continuously, suicidally, flings himself at my kitchen window in the wee hours of the morning, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the birds that used to torment my outdoor cat. But, the real issue is, that it scares the crap out of me every time I go in or out the front door. Observe nest:


Also, my boss decided to stick me as a fill-in for the 5-11 year olds for the past two days. I was told at least 10 times how pretty I looked (somehow it doesn't have the same appeal when the people telling you can barely tie their own shoes), had my hairs did by a 5 year old, was told by another 5 year old that she wished I was her mommy, and tried my hardest to settle an argument over a "band" created with two girls who were suddenly feuding 5 seconds later (you know what they say about pressure in rock bands!) without laughing...and failed. However, what really annoyed me was my boss came up and said something about the bottom of my jeans needing to be rolled up because they were frayed. Only one pant leg is, by the way, and it looks like this:

In my opinion, this does not constitute a problem. I see how it could be if they were dragging all over the place or falling apart or whatever...but not this. It's barely noticeable. I also know that there is nothing in focus in this picture except the corner of the steps. I just want to be back with my damn babies where no one has time to notice my damn jeans.

Also, let's just look at Chase, because he's so darn cute, even though I spent 30 minutes brushing him before this picture and he still is shedding hair off both sides of his butt:


We've decided to make an impulsive, spontaneous Gatlinburg trip overnight tomorrow to crash a Yacht Club party. Believe it or not, the biggest issue here was finding people to come take Chase out for me. More on this excitement Sunday or Monday upon my return :)

The Bubble Girl

I've decided that the bubble boy may have had something going for him. Health :D

No, but really. I'm still sickly, but it's really more annoying than threatening. It's just an annoying cold/throat annoyance (I wish I could currently think of another word for 'annoy'), but since it's going on 6 days with it it's about enough to drive me nuts. I don't think I have a very high fever, now or throughout this entire week, but I couldn't be completely sure because I dislike knowing what my fever is--if I think it's low, than I feel better than if I know it's high haha.

Even though the color of my face is that of a slightly off-white wall (thank god for makeup), I haven't called off work or canceled plans or anything at all this week. I'm one of those people everyone hates because I go to work if I can stand it, even if I'm really sick, and then everyone else gets sick from it.

I should probably....apologize...for that...

But if I thought I had a high fever, because I now work with kids, I'd call off. But since I don't, and I got it from them, I say it's fair game. Literally, the last and only time I remember calling off work for being sick was last...August? And it was supposed to be my first day at the bookstore, but I was so sick that I couldn't really stand straight. I was supposed to go in and do paperwork on a Friday, and I moved it to a Saturday (which didn't really help, at all, because then my boss was like "let's take a tour of the store!" and I'm thinking please don't puke, please don't puke. I listened, but it was not in vain). I actually started two jobs that week, and I had an open-close shift as my first shift (9 hours) on the next day (Sunday) which I suffered through and managed, somehow. My mom then caught it, was the same amount of days into it that I was when I worked 9 hours, looked at me and said, "I have no idea how you worked 9 hours on Sunday feeling like this." That's a lot from Ms. Tough Mom.

But, anyway, that's why my posts this week have been void of actual content/updates. Hopefully this weekend!

A Cancer Milestone

A milestone, in my opinion, was hit this week with my mom. Her hair has been growing back for some time now, but it's certainly taking it's time in doing so. It's so soft, and for over a month I've been telling her she didn't need the wig anymore...just go with the hair! Well, I finally convinced her to do that a few weeks ago and she went to the grocery without her wig or a hat, and stood at the deli, and someone behind her saw her 5"9', short haired self and said, "Can I help you....sir." And that was pretty much the end of that, and I was sure she'd never go wig-less anywhere again.

This past week, however, my mom decided to go get a hair cut. Before all she could do with it was faux-hock it, because it had no style attempts. But now with the cut, it's cut to spike up on top and lay down on the sides, even though it's still very short. And to my amazement, she hasn't worn the wig once since getting the haircut. I love that she's comfortable enough to do it! It makes me so happy, and means the time in which this is all "in the past" is coming soon! She'll have her breast reconstruction surgery in the beginning of May, and then a decent period of recuperation, and a few injections to finish them off along the way. Other than that, the treatment/after-care will be completely done other than her every 6 week oncology check-ups (but no more procedures!). A little bit of excitement over here!


(Her and I, I'm somewhere around 11-12 months old. And because I know you're wondering, there will be payback for that outfit at some point. ;])



(P.S. 5 minutes ago I was informed that the general education class list that I have is from 2004, and is no longer valid. It just keeps getting better.)