Be a Pro!

Erin's new band is in a Battle of the Bands competition tomorrow night. His band is one of the few punk bands in this area. So, why in the world did the lead singer choose to do "Stand By Me," as written & as poorly as possible? They had originally (the singer & drummer) planned to stage a fake fight in the middle of the song, too. (its already been done by them once, in the middle of an interview type thing on the radio & yes, it was stupid) I guess his justification is that because they aren't going to win anyway, they may as well be the worst band there. What an immature little twit. Erin is determined that the band sound good & act professional, so hopefully he'll win this little battle.

Its snowing again today, on & off. I hope we don't get the huge amounts that we got in the weeks following Christmas, we just can't take that much again. Rhi has the car today, I hope she does ok in the snow. She should, its not icy out there or anything.

Well, I need to get started on my menu plan for the next couple of weeks & start getting my grocery list together.

My World

Let's see, what's going on in my world today... I woke up at 2:24am, the stupid radio played the EBS warning then, apparenty for no reason whatsoever (other than to wake everyone up). I struggled with sleep for the rest of the night after that. I imagine that eventually, I'll just be so exhausted that I pass out & nothing will be able to wake me until I get enough rest. I'm pretty sure that I'm almost over my cold. Finally. I'm still a bit congested, but that's fairly normal for me this time of year & I have plenty of meds for that.

I *think* that what's up with Rhi is that she still really likes Raine, and I believe she was worried that I'd be mad or she was mad at herself or some nonsense. I'm also fairly certain that she's worrying about her grades, too. And friends, and driving and work & a myriad of other things, because that child is a worrier.

Show mt the Money

I forgot to mention that both our Federal & State taxes were approved for e-filing & will be in the bank in about 10 days or so, which will be nice. I'm hoping I can replace my sewing machine. Again. I swear, the one I have isn't even 2 years old yet & already its having problems. I think I'll take it apart today & see if I can fix it, if not, I guess I'll have to get a new one.

I have the worst luck with microwaves & sewing machines. I don't have to have a microwave to survive, but I use my sewing machine to make money & garb for faire.. I NEED one.

Sleep!!

I'm getting really tired of not getting a full night's rest. This is two days in a row that I've woken up in the night & not been able to get back to sleep until shortly before the alarm goes off. I don't feel great & I know part of that is because I'm not getting enough sleep.

Rhi's stressing out about something that she isn't talking about, because she's very short-tempered this week. I don't really expect that she's going to talk to me about it, since she's also avoiding me, but it would be nice to know what's going with her. I know she's upset with her phone, but there's nothing I can do about that right now. I also know that's not all that's going on.

Call Me.

I swear that girl will be the death of me yet. She knows, because I remind her every morning, that she needs to call me when she gets to school. She never remembers, but she does know. Today she called me after 1st period & as she was getting ready to drive to 2nd (its at a different campus). So, she did better, but it'd be nice not to stress out for an additional 80 minutes, wondering if she made it.

It didn't help that Troy was late getting in this morning and didn't have his phone with him. Grrrr.

Legal & Stuff

The car is registered for another year. It took us about 5 minutes, which is very unusual, especially this time in the month. We got Erin's rent deposited too, so all we have to do tomorrow is wash the car & get the oil changed.

We went out to lunch with Dawn & two of her kids (Morgan & Justin). We went to IHOP, because her cousin was at our first choice, and they don't get along that great, in spite of the fact that they are partners at work (she couldn't stand spending more time with him this week). That's ok, we had a good time anyway, and its always nice to get out together.

Getting Ready for Faire

We had our first faire meeting yesterday. It was nice to know we were getting a nice, early start this year, considering that, in years past, we haven't had our first official meeting until the week of Faire, especially when lives have been very hectic. We are working on deciding which vendors can come back, finding new and exciting entertainment (its our 25th year), and coming up with plausible fund-raising so that we can afford to do everything we want to.

We're going to have 4-color shirts made this year, with a new logo, which I think will be pretty exciting. These will be the shirts we sell at the information booth, and we're putting together a package for businesses who donate money, so they'll receive a certain number of shirts as a bonus to the donation. Our giveaway shirts are going to have a new back logo, with the 25th year thing & going on a colored shirt with different ink instead of the cream shirt with the brown ink.

I'm really excited to see what else we come up with this year!!

TGIF

Woohoo!! Its finally Friday! We need to go get my car registered today & deposit the first half of Erin's rent. This afternoon Troy's supposed to call our insurance agent, because his band may need him to run their sound board tonight, which will be fun for him, depending on where they're playing. We're supposed to game tonight, but that'll change if he's doing that, which is fine, really.

Tomorrow, we have to go get the oil changed on the car & hopefully get it washed, its filthy from all of the bad weather, melting snow & salt. Maybe I'll get a chance at some point to open up my sewing machine & see why its sewing backwards at some point during the weekend.

What are your plans? Doing anything exciting?

Breaking up is Easy to Do...

I seem to always be one step behind that daughter of mine these days. She apparently broke up with Rane yesterday, I guess he was just to immature, loud & annoying (all things I told her before she started going with him to begin with). Her actual excuse was that she "just didn't know him very well." I thought that was part of the point in dating people, was to get to know them better, or at least it was when I was in high school. Anyway. She may have also been doing it to see if she could get a rise out of Troy & I & when it didn't work, it wasn't exciting anymore. Whatever it was, it isn't a concern anymore :)

Business as Usual

I swear I'm an airhead today. I forget what I'm trying to say so easily these days :( I think its a direct reflection of the cold medicine I seem to live on during my waking hours.

Rhi paid for 6 months of car insurance for herself on our vehicles on her last payday, and that has freed me up so much that I can't believe it. Its nice to have her run & pick Erin up from work, or drive herself to school, her job and social stuff without having to schedule my whole life around what time she needs to be somewhere. I think eventually I'll stop worrying every time she leaves here, but its going to be awhile. She & Rane are still going out, he seems to be very sweet with her & walks her to the car after school, calls her to tell her to have a good day at work, calls her when she gets home & seems to want to spend time with her. She isn't really sure about the whole & waivers back & forth, so who knows?

Erin & Alisha are back to fighting almost constantly again. She also applied at the restaurant he works at, and has an interview. That's never good. When they spend too much time together they start nitpicking each other, and trying to make each other jealous. We all went to Walmart the other night & Erin kept trying to make her jealous & she kept running away like a toddler, it was embarrassing. I finally just told them we were leaving.

Garrett is working on a movie & has a trailer out somewhere. He & a friend keep saying they're coming out here in March, but I'll wait until I hear him knocking on the door to believe that one.

Hello Baby.

I made it to the ultrasound on Monday, just barely. I had to make a lot of arrangements for things that were happening all at the same time, just to be able to go. I'm thrilled that I did, it was such an awesome experience, since the only others I'd ever seen were my own & that was a long, long time ago. The baby is very healthy, and where it should be.. and its a little girl :) We're all pretty excited now & its awesome that we can start shopping for her now, too.

Things are things around here. Troy & I are still sick, the kids seem fine. I'm so tired of the fever & not being able to get warm enough. I just want to feel better again.

Klutz.

Still sick. The only thing that got me through the night were Halls & Puffs. Without them, I'd have never made it. I'm also apparently too clumsy to hold onto sliced strawberries without first dropping them on my chest & rolling them, carefully, back into my hand. I'm procrastinating at the moment, too. Someone left the coffee creamer in the fridge open yesterday. Someone else shoved their milk jug back & knocked it over. Which means that this someone gets to clean up 3/4 of a brand new bottle of creamer from the bottom of the fridge. It was the big bottle, too. I'm thrilled.

My thoughts are with Christine today. Her sweet kitty, Lucky, crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday. Stop by & let her know you're thinking about her, too.

Can we get Better Already?

I did have a pretty rough time at the party, my nose was stuffed up all night long & is still not doing great. My throat was killing me all night at the party, but it seems to be doing better today, too. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this won't stick around as long as the other one did.

Ryan, Dawn, Kipp & I are planning to go to Las Vegas next month to see Flogging Molly, I'm trying to find us a reasonable hotel room right now, since no one wants to drive back after the concert. Ryan is driving us down, and Troy's taking care of the hotel room. I just hope I can find something fairly cheap, since its a Saturday night. I'm really excited about it, though, its been a long, long time since I've been to a concert!

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from October 3, 2007 on.

I, Dyane McSpadden, am occasionally paid to insert contextual links into my normal, everyday posts. Sometimes you'll be able to figure out which ones I'm paid for and sometimes you won't. That's the idea. They aren't there to be blatant, or discourage you from reading my blog, I try very hard to be discrete in my insertions of those links and make them blend into my own writing style.

I also, on occasion, receive money to review products or services. I also receive these products and services for free, so that I may give an honest review of said items. I will always be honest in my reviews of these items, and sometimes, I'll review products that I've purchased just because I want to share them with you, or offer my opinion on something that didn't work out for us. I will not compromise my integrity by lying about any of these items regardless of whether there is payment involved. I will never post a review on an item or service I have not personally used.

I am very rarely paid to offer my opinion on a product or website for which I have not received an actual item or service. I will only offer an opinion on what I can see by viewing that website and state thus. That opinion will be honest and straighforward, regardless of any payment I receive.

You might ask why I do these things in return for payment & the answer is very simple. I'm a high school drop out with no marketable skills other than my writing. I wish to add to my family's income and help relieve the burden that my husband has carried for so long, alone. I would rather stay at home, and be here when he is (and he works odd days and hours) than go out and flip burgers for a living, so I do this.

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints, please direct them to dyanemcs@gmail.com

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-Ins

1. My family means the world to me.*
2. Books are my passport to the world.
3. When I cry, it's because I'm frustrated, heart-broken or in a lot of pain.
4. If I want a snack, I usually reach for a healthy choice frommy menu plan.
5. The most recent movie I saw, The Family Stone, made me laugh AND cry I really enjoyed it.

*my family includes all of my close friends, too.. they're the family I chose.

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a really good day. Troy's check was deposited early for a change (I'm thinking the woman who screwed up last payday was covering her ass & did it early), so Troy took me out to dinner & then we went & got groceries. Its a good thing we got it all done, because I really don't feel good today. I even have beautiful pink and white carnations on my desk now, too :)

Rhi's insured to drive our cars by herself now & is really happy about that. I'm pretty happy, too, because it saves me some running around. Take tonight for instance, she goes to work, Erin goes to work, they both get off at 8, then she has a dance she wants to go from 9 to midnight, plus we have gaming at our friends' house. Rhi is taking the car to work, so I'll take Erin to work. She'll pick him up after she gets off, take him home & get ready for her dance, which she'll drive herself to & from. So all I have to do is take Erin & take ourselves. Much less hassle.

So, since the groceries are done, all I need to do today is go to a different store & try to find couscous, strawberries & whole wheat tortillas, go to the hardware store & buy ice melt salt & pay the insurance. Yay.

Freezing.

Can I just say that I'm tired of being cold? Its 11am & its still below zero. It rarely EVER gets below zero here and its been this way for days. We have mountains of snow all over the sides of the roads & in parking lots, where the plows have moved it all to & sub-zero temperatures, we may as well be in the north somewhere.

Well, enough griping. It won't make it any warmer, I guess.

Rhi's out of school for the holiday, but she has to work this evening. I'm sure she'll be griping & complaining about it, because she really hates Mondays, but it doesn't change the fact that she's scheduled to work & needs to. Erin also works tonights - he got switched to nights just recently, so hopefully he'll be getting more hours soon.

So, healthwise, I signed up at The Biggest Loser Club on the 4th & I'm doing really well, they give you daily meal plans & recipes & such, and you can switch out anything you don't like for similar items (like a protein for another one & so on). When you read over the plan basics its pretty clear & easy to follow. There are so many people on the message boards that nit-pick everything about the plan to pieces, they don't understand, or they want to add their own food & can't. Some of them have never read a menu-type food plan in their lives, because they assume that any duplications in a meal have to be a mistake & don't eat them. Then there are the people who have no clue that they can eat a lot more food for the calories if they're eating healthier, they complain that there's "too much" food to eat in a day, or that they can't eat six "meals" a day (its 3 meals & 3 snacks), but they could eat 2 Big Macs & a Super-size fry. I just honestly believe that a lot of them aren't ready to commit to what it takes to be serious about weight loss, they think they'll sign up & miraculously lose all of their extra pounds, some of them sign up for more than one program! Then they screw up, eat a full order of ribs & all of the sides & find some outside source to blame it all on and turn around the next day & do the same thing. Its painful to watch, because you know these people aren't going to last on the plan.

Friday Fill-Ins

Friday Fill-In

1. I enjoy spending time with my friends & family more than anything else.
2. Blogging satisfies my need for remembering my life .
3. When I look at a full moon, I feel awed & very small .
4. I like to listen to music when I'm awake - I'm always listening to it.
5. My favorite day of 2006 was the day Ryan came home from Iraq .

Snow Falling on Cedar.

We have another 6-12 inches of snow forecast for the next 24 hours or so. I live in a place where we don't usually get 12 inches if snow in an entire winter. We've had 2 storms that have dumped in excess of 12, and one that dumped about 8 since early October. Now another storm, a week after the last one. I'm soooooooo freakin' tired of snow already. I almost cried when I saw the forecast earlier in the week. We just barely got my car 100% dug out from the last time.

Other than that, things are going.. umm... normally.

Typical drama with Rhi, she's pissed off at me because I won't let her quit her job without taking care of her responsibilities first & I won't put her on our car insurance until I'm convinced she's going to keep her job, because she will have to put her own gas in. Griping because we bought her a scooter & not a car. Complaining that we don't understand her & the horrible life she's had.. you know.. the usual stuff.

Erin hasn't been getting very many hours at work & he's starting to get really frustrated. Alisha insists that they'll be able to get a job at one of the local nursing homes, but neither of them really have any qualifications for the job. Erin knows this & tried to tell her, but she made him go with her to apply anyway. I guess if it makes her feel better its ok.

Still having drama with Rhi's ex that broke up with her the week of Homecoming, but we're trying to deal with it. His birthday was last Saturday & Rhi & her friends wanted to tell him "Hi & Happy Birthday" on Sunday evening & I guess his whole family over-reacted to hearing the f-word (Rhi was on her phone & used it to another friend), spazzed out & thought they were throwing things at them & chased the car down, started screaming at them & threatening them. It was pretty psycho. They're a very angry & paranoid family & I'm glad they're not together anymore, because Rhi doesn't need someone helping her feed her anger.

That's pretty much it around here. How are all of you? What are you doing this weekend? Care to de-lurk for De-lurking week?

Finally Payday

Troy's check was finally deposited on Monday & the bills are all paid & everything is taken care of. We ended up having to buy food & gas with one of our credit cards, and had a hell of a time doing it. First, we ended up with Benedryl girl as our checker - it took her at least 30 minutes to check us out, when that was finally over the card we were using was declined. Twice. After checking that morning to make sure it wasn't maxed. So, we went out of the store & to the car, Troy called the issuing bank & found out they had declined it because it was an unusual purchase for us & they needed to make sure the card wasn't stolen (I wouldn't have been angry, but they did the same thing in November when we ordered something from Amazon for Christmas). So Troy & Erin went back in, hoping our food hadn't been put back. It was at Customer Service & had to be rescanned, which only took 10 minutes with people who weren't drugged up.

I dropped Troy & Erin off at home & ran to get Rhi, pick up Alisha & go to the bank to cash Rhi's check (the groceries were still in the car at this point) & then there was only time for Rhi to pick up her work stuff & be dropped off there. So, we were finally putting groceries away at 3:30. We're usually done by noon. It was a stressful, long day & all I really wanted to do was put my pjs on & stay home, but of course, it was Friday night, and Rhi wanted to buy a sugar glider from a work friend & we needed to find the house (we never did & she changed her mind), then we went to Dawn's house. Later in the night, Rhi wanted me to come & get her & go to Walmart, so I drug Dawn & Morgan with us & we didn't get out of there until 11:30 or so. I was sooooo tired when we finally got home.

Saturday seemed like non-stop Mom-taxi from 9:40 on. I took Rhi to work, came home, woke up Erin, took him to work, came home, at breakfast, picked up Cherokee & took her home, picked up Erin & brought him home.. then I was able to relax until it was time to pick Rhi up, but man.. that was crazy for awhile.

Un-Decorating

We got the tree down & put back into our storage unit at exactly the right time. We got anout 8 inches last night & are again digging ourselves out.

Troy's check wasn't deposited in our bank this morning. None of the shops around the country have been paid yet. The phone lines are quite busy from what we hear & no one is happy this morning. We're out of gas, out of groceries, I have 2 kids to shuttle between work, school & so on. This is so aggravating, because its caused by one person, who's job it is to hit the "send" button on payroll & she didn't do it. So hundreds of people have no payday. Again.

2007

Happy New Year!

My NYE was pretty low-key, even though I went to, what was supposed to be, a party. The guys in our group pretty much sat around & played Guild Wars all night, Dawn talked on the phone with a friend of hers from Salt Lake and Vicki snuggled with me because her hubby was too grumpy & involved with GW to snuggle her & Troy was at work. It was ok, but I think I'd have had more fun staying at home.

Rhi & I had a huge fight the other night, but hopefully some things have been ironed out between us & she has a better understanding of who I am & how I feel now. I have no idea where she gets some of the ideas she has, truthfully. She gets so wrapped up into the injustice of her life that she makes things up & then in her mind, that's reality. She told Erin a different version of a tiny incident & it was so twisted that I wasn't even sure what he was talking about. At any rate, we talked, argued & cried (at least I did) until about 2am on the 31st, so I'm hoping its all good now.

Erin got hired at Taco Time on Friday, he starts work in about 45 minutes. It'll be good for him to be working again, I think he'll feel a lot better about himself if he has a job & a little money again. Rhi finished her training & is on her normal work schedule now. She seems to like it quite a bit. Also, Sean broke up with her again on the 30th. I really hope she's finished giving him chances at this point. School is back in session starting today, but its a lot easier to get up when she isn't working until midnight.

The Christmas tree and such are still up. We can't get into our storage unit yet, there's still too much snow in front of it. I'd really like to get it taken down & get my living room back to normal.

That's about all that's going on right now.

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