It rained here last night.  That is always welcome, as far as I'm concerned! I like it when we get rain.  I do have concerns about roof leaks, but so far everything has been ok.  My boss from job #2 ended up sending me an email today that her roof leaked at home and she was going to have to have someone out to check it this morning.  I need to send her an email back to see how things turned out. 

Tomorrow after work my mom will arrive and we will be heading to Laughlin for her birthday.  She wants to go there and play the slot machines (I don't like to play so I just kind of wander around and people watch) and shop a little bit.  It is her birthday so I'll go since that makes her happy. My dad doesn't want to go and my sister can't go this year because of work.

Well, off to bed.

There is a woman who delivers papers to people in our apartment complex. I have run into her several times, because I leave for work really early, and she delivers papers really early.  Lots of times when I ran into her, it was still dark outside, and she walks along with her head down, paper turned under her arm.  She walks very quickly, and hurries because she leaves her van idling in the parking lots while she runs around to put the paper on the doorsteps.  Several times she didn't see me coming and looked up, quite startled, when I passed by.  She is a very attractive woman, and she speaks a word or two, although from the sound of it, I don't think she speaks in my language.  Anyhow, I've noticed over the past few weeks, that she takes one of those long "pick up stick" things...the long wand like thing with pinchers at the end (I've seen people use them in nursing homes to pick things up when they are unable to bend over) and stops her van at each of the big garbage barrels at the back of the complex, and roots around and pulls out any pop/beer cans that she sees.  She puts them in her own cloth bag, and takes them with her.  I assume she gathers up a bunch and takes them and turns them in for cash at one of the recycling places.  A very good idea to make some extra money.

That whole thing got me to thinking.  I would assume that she does that as a very important way to make cash to pay her bills...she probably doesn't make much money.  That made me stop and think about how fortunate I am to have my job(s) and that I have enough money right now to pay my bills and things, and some people really do resort to digging through the trash to get the money to pay their bills.  At the same time, I admire her for doing that...she isn't standing in line, or standing at the curb looking for a handout.  She is doing something to earn some money.  I was also thinking that you just never know someone's story.  For all I know, she could be a secret millionaire, and she is just doing things that she enjoys doing right now.  Likely not true, in this case, but all the same, you just never know.  These are the things that happen all around us, and so many people just take things that they have for granted, and don't really appreciate what they have.  I haven't actually introduced myself to the woman, and I probably won't, but I am glad that I "met" her, and that I get to see a bit of her life.

Well, I PASSED MY CLASS!!!!!!!   I didn't do so hot on my final exam, but the overall grade in the class was a C, so I'll take it!!!!  I actually took the final exam 5 days early, but with my schedule this week, I really didn't see another option, and whatever studying I may have done would possibly only have confused me, so I just went over after work and did it.  It was actually the lowest score I've ever gotten on a test in my entire life, but still...focusing on the overall grade, and I'm happy and so relieved to have it behind me!

Today when I checked out to go to lunch, I opened my email and found the reply from the church secretary acknowledging my resignation from the nursery coordinating.  She was very respectful and seemed to understand and accept what I had said.  I was pleasantly surprised by her reaction, and I feel good about the decision that I made.  I will continue to be on the volunteer rotation, of course, just not the coordinating position.

Do any of you ever watch the Animal Planet?  There is a new show on called The Call of the Wildman.  I love it! It is a guy who goes around trapping wild animals that are bothering people.  It sounds like he releases them into a better location..I've never seen him kill an animal that he captures.  Anyway, he is a funny guy.  Kind of a backwoods sort of fellow.  I have watched him capture raccoons, coyotes, and snapping turtles so far tonight.  The other night I watched him capture a fox that was stealing chickens from a chicken house.  That was a MEAN little fox! 

Well, off I go=I think I'll go and enjoy my book tonight since I don't have to do any homework!!!!

This week just went speeding right along, didn't it!?  Sometimes I just don't know where the time goes.

Thursday and Friday were very nice days at work.  I got lots of things done and felt good about it.  This coming week I'll close the month and prepare the reports.  I've been assigned to create another report in Excel, so that should be interesting.  Excel is always a challenge for me.  Maybe I'll take a class in that so that I can get a bit more comfortable with it.

I took my last chapter test for my class last night. I got 75%.  Now this week I have to take the final exam, and then, as long as I pass that, I'll be done.  I am praying and praying that I pass it-I will be sooooo happy!!!! 

On Friday after work I drove down to my sister's house, with my son, of course.  We spent the night and then got up early the next morning and went to some yard sales, and to a few thrift shops.  We really had a good time.  She and her husband managed to NOT fight the whole time, which was good.  They are one of those couples who kind of love to hate each other, and that can be really draining at times.  This trip, though, they did good.  Actually he took off Saturday morning on a motorcyle ride with his dad, so he wasn't home most the day, and when he did get home, they were good to each other.  It was nice.

Saturday evening when we got home I did the math test, then went outside with my son to the pool.  I didn't want to get in, but he swam for awhile.  Then we came inside and went to bed around 11:00 or so. 

This morning we went to church.  After much consideration and inner debate, and some consulting with different church members, I turned in my resignation as the coordinator of the nursery department. I don't feel like I am effective in that role, and I don't think there is any point in dragging it out, when I'm sure there is someone far better suited than I am to take it over.  I really hated to have to send that letter in, because I know the church as a whole is struggling a bit right now...but I need to be honest with myself, and with them, and it just wasn't working out.  The church is really going through a trying time right now, in transition from our old pastor to finding a new one.  There are lots of shady dealings going on as far as who is in charge of what in the interim. I think it is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.  I hope that my letter is well received and that they honor the intention behind it, rather than reacting strictly off emotions when they respond/react to it.  We'll see.... I can only do what I do.

And tomorrow...back to work!!!!!  I hope everyone has had a really good weekend!!!

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!

Well-I am completely embarrassed about something that happened this morning.  Today I am going to have a friend over for lunch and she is bringing her 2 year old.  We will eat lunch here and then go swimming.  I thought it would be nice if my son had a friend over that is closer to his age so that he could have some fun too.  He does have fun when we are with my friend and her son, but not as much as with his own age group.  So we invited a little boy that lives near here, and his mom said he could come.  Then this morning I got a text message saying that she wanted to know if her entire family could come over and swim too.  I thought that was very odd-they are kind of an odd bunch, but to invite your family over??? Weird!  So I said that I'm sorry but that I already had other guests planned for and really couldn't accommodate 5 more, but that possibly we could do that on Saturday.  She wrote back and said ok.  Then a few minutes later she wrote again and said that he son isn't really wanting to come here alone because when my son took him to VBS that he had been talking on the way home about women's breasts and bodies, and things like that.  Apparently that made her son really uncomfortable and now he is nervous to come here and hang out.  I asked my son about it and he looked absolutely terrified and admitted that the whole thing is true.  He said he had heard some kids talking about stuff like that at school, and his friend was involved, so he thought that kid would think it was funny.  Of course, we had a LONG< LONG talk about that, and he is now set to go and apologize to that kid and his mother/father..      I continued talking with his mom about it via text, and in the end, the kid does still want to come over.  I think he just wanted to be reassured that it wouldn't happen again, and of course so did his mother.  I am completely embarrassed....my son knows better than that!!!  Well, at least I thought he did!  I know there is a saying that "boys will be boys", but man....I wish mine was still 2 sometimes!!!   .   To think that he even brought up that topic on the way home from VBS!  Wow.  I don't even know what to say.  I guess some days I feel like a more successful parent than other days?   To make matters slightly worse, the older brother to the one my son's age had developed a pornography problem at some point when he was in his teens because a friend dared him to watch porn, and he kind of got a little bit of an obsession before the parents found out and got involved.  Yikes.

It is only 11:15...I wonder what other kinds of things will happen before the end of the day. 

Currently Lost & Found By Jacqueline Sheehan see related

This week is going to be a bit choppy since I have off on Wednesday for Independence Day.  So 2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off....sounds good to me!!!  Tomorrow I am answering phones for the morning so the afternoon should be busy catching up from not being at my desk all morning-should make the day go by pretty quickly!

Tonight my son and I went and had a quick bite of dinner with his babysitter, once all her kids got picked up.  She was in a car accident a couple months ago.  Her car got totaled, and while she is waiting on insurance things to work out, she has no transportation.  It was nice for her to be able to get out with us and we always enjoy her.  She is actually a good friend of mine.  She has had such a huge influence on my son's life, as she has watched him since he was 2 months old.  Now he is really too old to go to her house for babysitting, but he isn't quite big enough to stay alone, and absolutely detests the summer program through the city, so he always loves going to her house for his summer breaks or times off from school.  He helps her with the smaller kids, particularly so now that her back/neck has been injured.  It works well all the way around.

Temperatures are pretty dreadful here.  When I went to bed last night it was still 104 and it was 9:30pm.  Crazy!!!

The neighborhood boys just invaded my home.  3 in addition to mine.  I normally prefer them to come here than have my son go to anyone else's home, but lately these boys just bug the heck out of me.  They have ok manners, but they kind of don't know when enough is enough, so I have to tell them when it is time to go home, and they go, but then generally appear 2 or 3 more times until I tell them that they can't come back again the same day.  Sometimes it gets tiresome....but I still maintain that I'd rather deal with that than have my own son going off to someone elses home. 

Last week the recipe of the week was a new enchilada recipe.  The filling and the enchiladas were good-it was a cream of mushroom soup/chicken/cheese/spice mixture.  The sauce was absolutely horrible.  There was a lot of tomato sauce in the sauce, and it seems like it tasted just like eating ketchup on them to me.  Oh well...I fed them to T and he said he thought they were delicious.

Ok, off I go, have lots of laundry to get done tonight and some bills to pay.

Today my new tenant moved in!!!!  Since everything went through a realtor this time, I haven't met the lady yet.  I did go to the old house yesterday twice, one time by myself to clean the refrigerator and bathroom counter, and then again with T to put up a lighting fixture and fix the water hydrant.  I ran in to some of her friends who were helping her paint, and they were both very, very nice people, so I am hopeful.  The realtor said that she is a very nice lady and that she has asked if I might consider selling the house at some point in the future.  Hopefully that means she will take care of it.  I know you just never can tell, but so far, so good.  She asked for permission to paint some rooms before she moved in, and so she painted one of the bedrooms a really pretty soft purple color (she has a granddaugher, and that will be for her to stay in) and then the other two rooms are a light light brown/dark tan color.  It all looks very good. 

I met with a friend at one of my favorite places to eat lunch today, a pita place near here.  We hadn't seen each other in months so it was really nice to hang out.  I took a nap after that and am now trying to work up the oomph to go to the store and get bread, which is something I forgot yesterday when I was there. 

This morning I was reading an article out of a magazine and people were talking about different ways to conserve and be better for the environment.  It was interesting..here are some of the things they suggested, and some of my thoughts:

1) Walk to work.  I can't do that one.  It would take me about two hours to get there I think, and I might die of a heart attack in the summer when it is 110 degrees by 9:00am.  As far as I can remember, I have never lived in a place where walking to work would have been realistic for me.  I have always lived further away from my job, although possibly in the past I may have been within bike riding distance.

2) Use reusable shopping bags: I do have some of the reusable bags, but I use them for things other than groceries.  I get the plastic sacks when I buy groceries, and then I save them and use them for bathroom trashcan liners, and for scooping the cat litter into.

3) Turning off the water when brushing teeth:  I have always done that, and can't imagine not.  I think that was ingrained in us when we were really little because for awhile when I was small, we didn't have any kind of water at our house. We had to haul water home in huge water tanks that were in the back of the truck.  After awhile my parents saved up money and had a well put in, but we were always taught to conserve water.  I remember that my ex husband did NOT turn the water off when he brushed his teeth and I was just horrified by how wasteful that was.  I'm pretty sure that over time he did start turning the water off, but now I can't remember. 

4)  Buying large containers instead of individual serve sizes, and then filling up your reusable Tupperware at home:   This one saves on waste from packaging materials, and trash going into landfills.  Also some of the items would end up coming in reusable large containers.  I do this in spells.  I'll be really good about it for awhile and then I kind of bomb out.

That is all I remember.

I have the next two days off work.  Couldn't come at a better time.  I'm totally burned out, and this is a slow time of year at the office, so the days work out well.  I need a break from that place, and just from people in general lately.  Sometimes I am surrounded by people who just want, want, want all the time.  I know we are called to help each other, but I sort of feel like I've been sucked dry lately.  This will be a good couple of days to spend with my son and just recharge.  Looking forward to it.  Tomorrow I am taking him to a water park, just the two of us.  I know we'll have a great time-I'm stoked.

Lots of weird, weird things happened today-but I guess I'm actually too sleepy to sit here and type them out.  I didn't realize that until right this minute and now I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open!  So-I guess I'll go to bed and continue this later.

1) Last night I watched the movie The Guardian. I think it is a fairly old movie. It has Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher in it.  I really liked it! I thought it was very good.  Some of the scenes were computer generated and were a bit unrealistic, but aside from that it was good.  I liked it.  I didn't necessarily love the ending, as it was a bit sad for my tastes, but it was good overall.

2) On pedicures: not my thing.  I've had two done in my life.  I'm not a fan of having other people touch my feet.  I prefer just to maintain my own at home.  I did like the part where the massaged my calves with the sugar scrub-that was fantastic-but the toes themselves...no thanks!  I do see how my grandmother would benefit because of the fact that she can't get down to her feet anymore due to her weight and other health issues-and with diabetes it is so important to take good care of your feet.

3) I made egg salad yesterday-it was a new recipe...the recipe of the week.  It turned out very good!  I liked it alot and had it for my lunch today.  Yum!!

4) Got a 70% on my last math test! Wohoo! I know it isn't the best-but I am excited-only 2 more chapters to go and I'll be done with this class, providing that I pass the final exam.  I think I can do it!  Then I'll be done with all the math I need for my degree. yippeee!