Thinks By Me

Dear Residents of My Husband's Emergency District: I'm the wife of Hero Guy, the nice man who comes to all your emergencies that you call in to the 911 system. I'm the one who holds down the fort while Hero Guy responds to all your calls for help. There are a few things I'd like to explain to you so that my life can be a little smoother while I lend my husband out to assist you in various ways. First of all, Hero Guy has a full-time, paid job, that requires approximately 50-60 hours a week. It is not running on the ambulance or fire truck that pays the bills. He does that as a hobby, for free. When you call, Hero Guy drops what he does, whether it is conducting a meeting, having dinner with his family or even jumping in the shower to see what you need. He loves doing it, and I wholeheartedly support him. But you can imagine my chagrin when I learn that he had to stand me up on our monthly date night because you've had the sniffles for a week, and you'd ...

In one way, the adventure is over, but in another, it has only begun. The Girl Scout trip to the amusement park was dandy, other than the constant rain making us ride roller coasters looking like we'd just stepped out of the shower without a towel. The trip itself was fairly uneventful with the most effort being dispensed trying to keep five 8-year-old personalities in harmony. From time to time, each of the Scouts played the part of the popular one, the spoiled one, the pouty one, the tired one, the hungry one, the grouchy one....you know how us girls can be. But all in all, everybody had a great time, the amusement park lived up to everything it was supposed to be and I didn't even have to use any of the camping equipment I bilked out of Hero Guy. The campers we stayed in had full electricity, running water and even showers/toilets--so I was more than comfortable. A phone call from Hero Guy revealed that he, Brainy Boy and friend had decided to abort their own camping t...

The tug 'O war began as soon as Hero Guy and I each started selecting supplies for our respective camping trips. I am going with 6 Girl Scouts and 4 moms (including Mwah) and he is going with Brainy Boy, BB's friend and himself. Let's guess who needs more equipment? Hmmmm, somehow the pile that is going with the boys is a whole lot higher than the one going with the girls. It was not for lack of trying. I sneaked into the garage, started smuggling gear into my bag when Hero Guy began suspecting that some necessities were missing. He started with looking for the cooler--the huge, extreme cooler that is like, 70 gallons or so. I figured that since we had 2, he could have one, I could have one. Not according to him. His argument is that since the camper the Girl Scouts will be using has a refrigerator, it is only fair that I let him take both. He sees no point to the argument that the 'refrigerator' is actually a shoebox-sized cooler that holds a 6-pack of sod...

I'm in the Carnival again, so check it out at Blogging Chicks here!

I am chaperoning Little Chic's Brownie troop on a camping trip to an amusement park on Monday. Hero Guy has to take off work to stay with Brainy Boy, so they have decided to go on their own camping adventure. The problem is, that being of the female gender, I can't seem to keep my hands out of their arrangements, and I'm finding myself frantically preparing for not just my own, but also their trip. Mine is pretty cut-and-dried with supplies evenly distributed between all the moms going. My list is short: Bring a variety of fruit and a load of paper products. At Walmart yesterday, my cart told the truth...the boys would never make it without my help. I was loaded with lanterns, pancake mix, cereals, lunch meats, hamburger and sausage, and $170 worth of stuff that was not for the Girl Scouts. Then began the real task--preparing their food. Chicken had to be cut and marinaded, hamburger had to be seasoned and formed into patties, sausages pre-cooked, the list of meals ...

Brainy Boy is every good cook's dream. He will eat anything as long as it smells like food and he can't identify it. Routinely when I set dinner before him, he comments something like 'Mom, I just really prefer gourmet restaurant-type food." And he's not kidding. No PJB for him, no Chef Boyardee, no Easy Mac. He's all about shrimp scampi, homemade gnocchi (not frozen) and is dying to know what caviar tastes like. The problem is that I'm a functional meat & potatoes kind of cook. I'd love to be a throw-ingredients-together-to-make-an-awesome-dish girl, but I'm just not. I don't really know how to cook without burying my head in a cookbook, and I don't enjoy the whole process of putting it together either--kind of the same way I am with gardening. I came up with the clever idea of letting Brainy Boy choose a meal a week that I would try, his choice. I pulled out my handy Kraft magazine that comes in the mail four times a year, a...

Well, I took the Beast for my first drive today, and I must say, I'm feeling quite macho. This is a vehicle whose door base hangs at about waist-level for me. Before today, in order to get in, I had to literally raise my knee up to my chest to place it on the floorboard, and hoist myself up into the truck. Picture that pretty scene on date night. Yeah, Baby! Hero Guy had an emergency urge to get the Class 4 tow hitch and the factory mud flaps immediately. He dispatched me as he wasn't able to escape from work himself, and for a rare afternoon, the Beast was already parked in our driveway (Hero Guy is running the medic vehicle this week). Sitting in the seat, overlooking the tops of every other vehicle on the road, I had a feeling of power, authority, brawn. I will admit that it was with an embarrassed flush that I entered Cole Muffler and the Ford dealership to load up the coveted accessories, as Hero Guy had been stalking the office staff of both establishments since...

I heard on the morning news today that Jenny Craig has been bought out by none other than a company known for its chocolate, Nestle'. Now I tend to be a bit obessessive about health and fitness and for all the planning, analyzing and watching I do, I should be skinny as a rail, but I'm not. I read health magazines, put exercise plans together, log my calories and even work out pretty regularly, but I also love chocolate and other junk which drags on my progress toward my fitness goals. I figure that I'd be in really bad shape if I didn't work out since I sometimes go overboard on the input end of the calculation (you know, calories in - calories burned = energy stored or energy depleted, whichever the case may be). So I keep at it. My calories IN tend to tip the scales a bit too often for my liking, but my ability to carry out my best-laid plans succumb to the products marketed by Nestle' and others, more often than not. I for one, would not give them the satis...

When people hear "New York", they think, City. That's not even close to the true picture of life in most of the state. I've outlined below some of the more accurate descriptions of living a place that isn't even considered a suburb. It's downright, truth-be-told, pretty much the boonies. If you've never experienced living in a small town, here's a bit of what it's like... 1a) We have festivals, parades and celebrations for every reason imaginable. This past weekend, it was the Strawberry Festival. 1b) There are 2 grocery stores in town and one of them is totally inaccessible from 8am to 5pm because the streets are blocked off for the current festival. 2a) You can eat top-notch surf & turf (lobster tail/filet mignon) along with the side dishes, for $19.99 on Saturday night. 2b) You need to bring your cash because they don't accept credit cards (although they do have an ATM in the lobby). 3a) If you leave your purse & wallet in yo...

Since I've posted before on the dad-ish qualities of Hero Guy here and here , I'll provide a little synopsis of some of the outstanding qualities I've inherited from my own Dad. BOOKS: My dad passed on to me an insatiable love of learning, especially through reading books. I actually like to just have books around and I've bought lots of books I haven't even read yet. I generally have 3-4 books going at once and like him, I read primarily non-fiction books from inspirational, biographies, self-development, instructional and on and on. If you want to know anything, I'll find it out for you generally by scouring the web looking for facts on anything from the first line of a song to the benefits and drawbacks to a subtalar implant (my latest research from last night). My own kids would beg to visit Barnes & Noble long before they ever knew about Toys R Us. SOFT SPOT FOR THE UNDERDOG: As long as I can remember, my dad has been on the lookout for ways to ...

JenLo has been BUSY! . I have lots to say without enough time to say it. Once I start catching up, I'm sure you'll want me to shut up. Until I do, read some of the entries at this week's Blogging Chicks Carnival if you get the whim.

Whoever coined the phrase "stay-at-home mom" obviously didn't have one. Although I do medical transcription at home part-time, I do consider myself a stay-at-home parent since I can do my transcription whenever I want within the 24-hour day. However, since my schedule is flexible, everybody figures that I have so much more available time than any of the moms with paid-employment, and therefore all my stay-at-home time gets eaten up by away-from-home activities. Sometimes I think I would actually get to be at home more often if I took an office job and could use the excuse that I was too busy with work to do everybody else's extras. I don't complain though--I've made financial choices in order to be able to quit full-time work and I am doing what I need to be and want to be doing right now. I can say though, instead of working the typical 8-hour shift and then coming home and being done with work, I get up at 7am and crash around 11pm, just after the last ...

It seems Brainy Boy has reached a new stop on his way to growing up--the one where kids begin worrying about what other people think of them. This is an unusual characteristic for Brainy Boy as thus far, his world has revolved around himself, and he doesn't take much notice of others unless they are invading his space. He doesn't give a bit of care to how his hair looks, what he is wearing, if his face is dirty, if he goes 5 days without a bath and all the other things that are typical of a pre-adolescent. In this awkward in-between stage, he still tends to be a kid who likes silliness, goofing off and making others laugh. Today, however, it became clear that there are categories of silliness: The acceptable and the unacceptable. The acceptable sort of silly behaviors would include running around our front yard with his light sword yelling at his invisible men to 'attack!'; arranging complicated army games at recess with his buddies; dressing up his favorite beany ...

Those who know me personally realize that I am a very analytical person. Whenever I take personality tests, I tend to test out as more of a male personality type than female. Meyers-Briggs says I am an ISTJ which means I tend to be more (I)introverted than extroverted, generally (S)sensing rather than intuitive, a (T)thinker rather than a feeler and more (J)judging than perceiving. For this reason, I tend to analyze myself and others to death, and have an insatiable interest in psychology, the human mind and why people act the way we do. It tends to be pretty convenient as I have a full-time case study with myself, but you'd think this would help me to have the world figured completely out by now--not so. I suppose it will be my lifetime hobby to sort out why we are all the way we are, and once I have the answer and am ready to share, I'll be so old I'll croak and mankind will remain in the dark. I revealed a bit of this analysis of myself yesterday when I talked about ...

I found myself doing something odd this weekend. I was a flurry of activity among the plantlife that I try to call a 'garden'. You know from my past admission , that I don't even pretend to be a gardener, so it was a bit unusual that I was so committed to putting flowers in, pulling more weeds out and generally prettying up the outside of my house. I do love to have the flower beds blooming, but I don't enjoy getting them that way; so my persistence was a bit unnerving. I got really creeped out when I went to the garage for the third time and attempted to start the weedeater while Hero Guy was saving people from barfing up a lung while getting their thrills at The fair. I began to assess this sudden addiction to this frustrating task that will need to be fiddled with every day in the coming weeks and won't ever be fully completed until summer ends when the cold weather kills everything. It suddenly dawned upon me.... I had admitted to myself and to the blogsphe...

For a lazy Sunday without a lot of inspiration for blog topics, I thought this was kinda funny. Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 18. What is your score? Get it here.

The first ever Blogging Chicks Carnival is today. Stop by to see what everybody else is thinking!

I live in what would be considered a small town, rural community. One of the highlights of living in a country-type setting is the town fairs and festivals that happen throughout the summer. The first one of the season for our community is a carnival that is hosted by the local volunteer fire department. Since Hero Guy is a member of one of the community volunter fire departments and ambulance services, we always do our best to support the 'brotherhood'. This afternoon while Hero Guy was getting ready for his shift as the on-call medic for the carnival, I took Little Chic over to ride the various roller coasters and bumper cars. Since Hero Guy was otherwise occupied and Brainy Boy was at a friends, and Yours Truly gets seriously motion sick, Little Chic had to brave the rides on her own. By the look on her face, you can see that wasn't a problem and the thrill seemed to be the same whether she did it solo or with a counterpart. As we were dropping dollars here and the...

Five things I GOT to do today: 1) Coordinate Little Chic's fourth grade orientation at school. 2) Get my ear pierced (top of my ear in the cartilage) 3) Have a mini pecanbon at Cinnibon 4) Have dinner out with the kickboxing posse at the Jail House restaurant in a real jail cell. 5) Buy my favorite air fresheners at the clearance sale at Bath & Body works for $5 instead of $12 Five things I HAD to do today: 1) Get up extra early to make it to the school on time 2) Grocery shopped 3) Vacuum the floor before the babysitter gets here 4) Pay a babysitter so I can go out with the girls 5) Clean out my car so I can carpool with one of the girls for dinner

I came across this Meme and since my biggest passion is probably books, I figured it would be fitting for me. Booking Through Thursday What are the last five books that you finished reading? 1-The DaVinci Code, 2-Gathering Blue, 3-The Giver, 4-The Exiles, 5-Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. How long did it take you to read them? #1-4 days, #2-3 days, #3-2 days, #4-a week, #5-about 2 months (it was a book study with a group) Did you enjoy reading these books? Why or why not? Yeah- they were all great. I follow the rule 'one page for every year of age'. If I don't like it by the time I reach that point, I stop reading. If I love a book, I'll read it incessantly until it's finished. If it's just okay, I'll read a bit every night before I fall asleep. PS--these books are in addition to any magazines or Reader's Digest type reading I also do every day.

A blog carnival is when somebody takes the time to find really good blogs, usually on a particular topic, and then puts the posts together in one place. On Sunday, June 11 the Blogging Chicks will host their first ever carnival, so make sure to check it out then. You just might see a post from somebody you know. Oh, and if you're a chick (no roosters allowed), and you blog, you can join Blogging Chicks!

I'm not sure how it happened in the assembly line of creation when stress relief techniques were assigned. But the angel in charge of giving me gardening, cleaning and exercise as a means to relieving stress was on break, and the substitute thought it would be funny to give me shopping, eating and web surfing as stress relievers. The plan works like a charm and I tend to spend too much, eat too much and waste way too much time on the 'net if I need to 'chill out'. This time of year, I hear so many people say how therapeutic gardening is for them, and as my flower beds get ever weedier (the ones I was shamed into creating a couple of summers ago) I pump myself up and tell myself just how relaxed I'm going to be as I zone out and create beauty for my family and me to enjoy. Today I'd had it with the empty flower pots lining my front porch, all shiny and new, ready to be filled with something...anything. I bought them in an attempt to motivate myself into putti...

I was flipping through my local Clipper coupon magazine and found an ad for ummm - how to put this delicately - assistance in keeping your yard free from pet waste. Now I do tend to be one for discovering signs with weird offers, but this beats all. For a service plan of your choice, starting at $39 per month, this business owner will come to your yard and take away all the doo-doo your dog has left around the yard. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but in neighborhoods where you 'walk' the dog, it is a customary requirement for you to bring a doggie bag (for deposits, not leftovers) and take your pet's doggy-doo with you. That takes care of all the people who live in neighborhoods. For those who live in a more rural setting with a bit of property (as do I) it isn't necessary to walk the dog and clean up immediately after. I'm assuming that's the market for this particular service. However, being one of those pet owners with adequate yardage and an electri...

It's me, only better!! With summer arriving, I was needing a new look, so I've changed the curtains and the carpet, but don't worry--I still live here. I scooped up the design from a blogger I like to read. She offers some great designs for free, but will even make you a custom one if you want. Her name is Zoot and she is really funny. Anywhooo, it was a scary proposition to hit that "save my changes" button, especially considering I know not a stitch of HTML and really had no idea what I was doing. Guess I should have considered more carefully when I first created that mean, green thing that was me just this morning! Anyway, this is the Extreme Makover, Blogger Edition.

Picture this: 10-year-old boy lying in bed at 9pm, doing some light reading in order to relax before sleeping. Mom comes in to tuck him in and say prayers only to find said boy reading his most treasured Mushroom Field Guide. Mom notices that boy seems to be drooling on the pillow. Upon questioning, boy exclaims "There are just dozens of delicious-sounding recipes in my mushroom book. Can we make some of them?" Mom slinks out to tell father of boy that it is not normal for a 10-year-old to be reading recipes for fungus that can be found growing in the woods. Brainy Boy went to a nature preserve about a month ago for a school field trip. I went along as a chaperone. In addition to the native American stories, games and artifacts we learned about, we also took a hike. When the field trip was over, I let him take a quick peek in the gift shop, assuming he would choose a $2 polished stone or perhaps a replica of an Indian arrowhead to take home as a souvenir. Instead, he...

No big philosophical post today, just an "I told you so". Nice, aren't I? Anyway, in the two weeks that my hummingbirds have been back 'home' for the summer, I've repeatedly been told that I must be mistaken, but that hummingbirds never stop flying, and do not land to sit on things. I'm not sure where the information comes from, but this seems to be a commonly believed 'fact'. Since last year was my first year having hummingbirds around, I thought I must be mistaken as well. This picture demonstrates how my little hummingbird regularly sits when he visits. He sits on the staff that the birdseed feeder hangs from, he sits atop my flower pots and regularly sits on the different brackets that I hang my plant, flags or his feeder from. I have 3 hummingbirds (2 males and 1 female), so I'm not sure if it's the same male sitting all the time or not. They usually hover when they feed, but this little guy was sitting when he fed at one point...

I got married today. Well, not exactly today. It was Friday, June 2. But the year was 1989 - 17 years ago. "Amazing", people say. "Good for you", they comment. "You must have picked the right one", the add. Amazing? Yes. Good for me? I'll admit it. But it has nothing to do with picking the right one, really. It's not because I found the perfect boy, and it's certainly not because he found the perfect girl. It might sound a little unromantic, but there never really is a 'right one' floating around out there waiting in the cosmos for the other 'right one' to crash and connect. There may be 'better ones'; there may be 'more easily compatible' or something or other. But the real story is you start becoming the right one the moment you vow that "you do". When I married, I had been 20 for a whole 33 days, we had just completed a 2-year long-distance realtionship and HE was five years older tha...

Since I fancy myself a soccer-mom type, I have a van. I wanted a van from the moment I had an infant seat carrying that new little bundle. It just seemed family-like and much more convenient. The day I brought it home, you'd have thought it was a corvette the way I acted. It had the features I wanted - opening doors on both sides, bucket seats in the second row (rather than bench). The bonus was that it was my #1 color choice - Patriot Blue. It was also only 10 months old with 19,000 miles on it as a demo car. Life was great. I bee-bopped down the road with my little tykes in tow, each getting out of their respective sides of the van, separated by an aisle so they couldn't argue about who was on whose side, and life was just great. That is, until last summer. I got in the car. It purred to life, but when I went to back out, I couldn't turn the steering wheel. Car gets towed, power steering belt broken. Things went well for a few weeks, until I headed with my ki...