Here's what's up

The first day of cat sitting DID NOT go well. It started off OK with Addy sniffing and thinking and then in less than 2 hours, she was all like, "Oh no uh uh....get out get out get out." While I was at work, John told me there was an altercation that included Addy going nuts barking at kitty and kitty recoiling for a sec and then KABLAM! He popped Addy on the nose. That's EXACTLY how her and Willie's (our outside cat) relationship began and ended. She will not forgive and forget. So, the kitty has set up residence behind John's head on a chair above the fray. He's rarely moved since he found his honey hole. I fear the next few days will be tense and long.

Thursday will be my last day at work since we don't have enough kids for two people, and I'm ready to be finished. I survived. That's all I have to say about that.

Summer's almost over and I haven't been out of town since May. I need to vacay somewhere desperately, but it's not bloody likely that's gonna happen.

Attitude meter: poor to really terrible.

My house guest has arrived

Addy is all like, "Why do we have to have a cat as a house guest!? WHY!?"

My computer story

I completely forgot to tell the story of my computer woes. Yesterday morning when I turned it on, I found only a black screen, and everyone knows that's a really bad sign for a computer. It took 2 seconds to figure out it was totally crashed. UGH. I had some recent pictures on it that I hadn't backed up and it was looking as if I wouldn't be able to retrieve them. Made me sick. Well, when I told my brilliant husband what it was that had happened, he did some of this and some of that and figured out what he could do to fix it. And he did! Except he was unable to get my pictures. UGH again. So today as I was leaving for work, I asked one more time if he could try to get my photos and he said he would. As I was leaving I said, "Failure is not an option!" I knew he needed the extra incentive.....or the fear that I'd be really pist if I lost the pics. Well, low and behold when I got home this afternoon he had gotten all my pictures off the old hard drive! Yay to him! I was so happy and grateful and once again up and running.

Now I'm anticipating the arrival of my house guest in the morning, a cat/kitten, I don't know. I have no happy cat stories in my life so at the moment I'm just hoping that at the end of his/her visit, he/she will still be alive.

We shall see.

A riveting update on my life

I survived the two 8 to 5 days with the kiddies. It's not something I'd want to do daily, BUT it's much easier when it's 2 adults against 9 munchkins rather than 2 against 18. They don't seem to be as organized in fewer numbers.

I got a job working 3 to 5:30 five days a week. It's like my dream. Now if I could just figure out how to get paid $100,000 for 2 1/2 hours of work, I'd be like my own little heaven

If I don't count today....and I'm not gonna......I have 3 days left of my summer job. I went from 39 days down to 3. How did this happen?

The weekend was MUCH fun watching big and little girls play with Barbies. Big girls used little girls as excuses to legitimately play with dolls. It was suggested to Carlie, who had just finished dressing her Barbie in what she deemed, "totally fashion forward for today" to take Barbie to work with her since her outfit was "bank worthy." Wouldn't be awkward at all to see a 24 year old show up to work with "Bank Barbie" ready for work.

I now sing the song "Don't You Want Me Baby" randomly in my head. Maddie single handedly erased the lullaby tunes....including Kumbaya.....out of my head for a few days. I am VERY grateful. Last week as I was humming a tune at home Owen said to me, "What are those weird songs you are always humming or whistling?" It's the goofy lullabys man!!!! They are making me crazy!!!

Follow That Bird is one of the greatest movies ever made.

Wednesday or Thursday I'll start "babysitting" a cat for a friend over the weekend. OMG.

And now it's time for me to go to work. The finish line is in sight, and I think I might just make it.

I'm great at wasting time

It's occurred to me that I never posted any pictures from Easter and even so, I still really don't wanna. BUT I will.....maybe. It's just so time consuming....ugh. I have to crop and fix and under expose and over expose and ugh. So.....I'm putting it off again.

What I AM doing that's very productive is watching all the episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City which is currently marathoning. Soooo necessary to life. Here are my thoughts. Real Housewives? These people have no idea what it's like to be real anythings. They are shallow, pretentious, snotty, snobby, self indulged, ridiculous and classless... but mostly they are NUTS! It all makes me want to watch every episode. Also everybody has a skin care line, books that they write...pu shu. The "Countess" writes down the word engaging and BAM there's a chapter. These people, these people. And yet I can't stop watching. There's something wrong with me.

On this Thursday and Friday I agreed to work from 8 to 5 with all the little kiddies. What the heck was I thinking?

I'll end this post with a non edited Easter pic as a little teaser.

There's NO telling when any more will show up.

But this one is A MAZING.

See?

Gots to go to beddy by.

Monday/Tuesday in July

I finished reading the book, The Help. It was fantastic. May read it again.

I had multiple fights with 3 year olds this past week. It wasn't pretty.

Newsflash: The sun is OUT OF CONTROL.

My life's so boring at the moment that I'm thinking I may need to take a break from blogging until something exciting happens. Which means I'll probably never blog again.

We are still watching Charlie's Angels. It's so bad it makes me giggle.

Caitlin and Olivia are now watching TV shows about military special forces people. It's craziness and I'm so glad there are people that want to do that job but seriously? There are no spas in the armed forces.

John and I walked tonight. It was awful.

I have 9 more summer job days left....so close to the finish line and yet so far.

Who's got the ball?

These photos of Maya and Maisy were taken on Easter Sunday. The two dogs aren't doing mouth to mouth resuscitation, they are at a stalemate over a tennis ball. If someone hadn't taken the ball from them, they might still be in this position 2 months later. But, Maya (the little one) usually incredibly gets the upper hand and wins the day. She's what you call an enigma and will never be pigeon holed. Just when you think you know her, she does something unbelievable like builds a sky scraper out of saltines and then you realize, you'll never fully understand all of her capabilities. She's a little scary.

BORED OUT OF MY SKULL

It's Saturday and I'm on the couch. The couch's like an island surrounded by shark infested waters. This could become a problem when it's time to go to the bathroom, therefore I'm carefully monitoring my fluid intake. I've browsed the computer for so long and watched so much TV I'm having trouble focusing. I hate the movie, My Best Friend's Wedding. Blazing Saddles from 50 years ago is on, but it was made so long ago I can't believe the racial slurs in it that they try to bleep. Can't watch that. The only other thing to watch would be exercise shows. Who needs that? I could become entranced by the movie D3: The Mighty Ducks but it's on a "have to pay for it channel." How elitist. I shant do it.

Addy must have a bath so that will be the highlight of my day. Not so much participating, but making sure it gets done. This is what she will look like when she is getting her bath. Angry, resentful and full of unbelief this terrible thing is happening to her again.


I could dust my bedroom. The last time it saw a rag + Endust = approximately 3 months ago. Why bother? The dust keeps coming back, and since at the moment, it's settled, why get it all stirred up? Occasionally, as I'm about to get in bed at night, I blow on the top of the TV as well as the screen so I can watch something as I drift off to sleep. So far that's good enough.

I really think what's missing in my life is a yacht with cooling misting waters to spray me as I cruise down the river. And because of this scathingly brilliant idea, I'll now go yacht shopping on the Internet. I expect to have it picked and delivered by tomorrow so I can be cruising by 4:00.

Goodbye peasants.

Fried trees and hot houses

So, here's the deal. We need rain. I know this. Lightening? Not so much. BUT, yesterday we got the rain and the lightening. And then we had a hot and sleepless night......again. At about 5:20pm yesterday, this pine tree in our neighbors yard.....



got struck by lightening. All six of us were home and heard what sounded like a bomb going off outside as Owen saw the flash and smoke after the tree was hit. It also took out the transformer near by the tree that just so happened to affect our electricity. Like waoh. So, as I was just settling in from my 27th day of my summer job, (11 days left!!!) the power went out and I immediately began to sweat. This was the 2nd time in 3 months we had no electricity. These kinds of stories are getting really old.

John called the power company and the efficient recorded message first said we'd have electricity back by 8:00 and then by 12:00 and then by 6:00am. Liars. How about 2:30 this afternoon? Last night it was 84 degrees in our house. It was pure misery as six testy people tried to sleep in the stinky, sticky ridiculously hot house. It was AW FULL. I'm not even kidding when I say approximately 12 people in all of our city were without electricity last night and six of em were in this house. What are the freaking odds? Once again, it may be time to go by a lottery ticket. Now I'm sitting here under the fan with the air on the setting "arctic" bundled up in a blanket.

Why you might ask?

Because I can.

Air condition was a brilliant invention.

This happened today

Today Caitlin got her first big girl job. We're very excited for her and now the next phase of her life officially begins. What's next? She becomes a working girl. It's gonna be good.

Today I got a one up on a 4 year old and it felt sooooo good! A mom came to pick her two boys up and as she was trying to gather lots of stuff to take to the car, I asked the 4 year old to carry two things and he walked away from me shaking his head no. Made my blood boil.

BUT, sticky situation, his mother was nearby so what to do? Let him get away with telling me no? Uh uh no way never. So, I walked over to him and out of his mother's ear shot. He'd been nursing a kid's meal toy all afternoon that was now precious to him and I said quietly, "You take these two things to the car for your mother OR I'm taking your toy."

Boom!

Me - 1
4 year old - 0

I felt so happy.

15 more days.

This is today

I'm not in the blogging mood AT ALL.

I'm not working on my attitude for even a millisecond. That's not good.

The only bright spot for my mood is Modern Family which is the funniest TV show I've seen in years.

The scariest movie that could ever be made would involve 3 years olds using paint and glitter. I've now lived it in real life multi times and it's terrifying!

Three year olds can and do get paint in the following places: hair, clothes (which makes me have to hide from parents), chins, necks, backs of feet (don't even), near eyes....on the way to their hair, on YOUR arms. It makes no sense to "make a dangerous memory" that's gonna end up in the trash and maybe my clothes as well.

If anyone ever tells you to do an art project that involves paint and 3 year olds, your quick response should be, "NO FREAKIN WAY!!!" Kick em in the shin, then RUN for your life.

16 more choruses of Kumbaya then never never never never never ever never ever never.........

In order to get an attitude adjustment you have to want one.

I don't

Addy surfing the web

Lord help me make it 19 more days

Up until today, I've had more days left of my 39 day summer job than I didn't. But now, I'm able to say I have 19 days left or.....19 more choruses of Kumbaya. I consider it the home stretch. But even with the finish line in the distance, I'm not certain I'll make it. Any and all things may cause me to stumble and fall and end in a crumpled heap with 13 to 18 children standing over me laughing and yelling,"We knew we'd break you!!" And yet I'm determined not to let that happen. It's possible children could bring down dictators and communist countries if given enough time, access and funding, cause man those people can wear you down.

In the first week I taught them my favorite game. When asked the question, "What's Mrs. Lisa's favorite game?" They all YELL, "The quiet game!" Yes, that's true. I love silence. A silent child is a holy child. A sleeping child is heaven on earth. And why in the world wouldn't you let them sleep til their parents pick them up at 5:00? Makes no sense to me.

I had a nuh uh, uh huh fight with a 3 year old today and when he changed his nu uh to uh huh in order to trip me up, I didn't fall for it and therefore, considered myself the victor. I was ever the adult while in the argument. It's almost impossible to keep my adultness at the ready when dealing with children. They are like nuclear winter for the mind. They lie about having to go to the bathroom. They lie about washing their hands. They lie about gluing, cutting, crafting, running, walking standing, sitting, talking......takes the breath away.

When I get home a little after 5, we play the quiet game at my house. It's a must in order for me to keep my sanity. I have 3 days off and then it's back at it. While everyone else is counting their precious summer vacation days off, I'm doing just the opposite. I'm begging Fall to arrive as quickly as possible and when it does.....and while the rest of the world is crying in their collective pillows, I'll be hearing the sound that I love the most.....me saying, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh," very quietly. I just have to figure out how to get through 19 more days without medication or tequila shots. Both seem inappropriate for a child care giver.

I think I can.

I think I can.

I think I can.