Write From Karen

(NOT my picture. Puh-lease. I wish).

What a beautiful day! ………. To stay in and get some chores done.

*sigh*

I didn’t want to. I had to. Since we’ve been gone these past three weekends, my house was looking like something out of a horror movie – only with more color and fewer ghosts. But I prevailed, ladies and gentlemen, I got everything on my to-do list done this weekend.

Laundry
Bathrooms
Dry mopped the hardwood floor
Mopped the kitchen floor
Straightened up the bedroom (which really means I put MY laundry away. Kevin always puts his away).
Blogged

Wait. As I’m sitting here writing this I’ve noticed one thing I didn’t get done today – my desk. Is gross. And I WILL get MY corner cleaned up before the end of the day.

As God is my witness, I SHALL clean this corner up today! (Just channeling a little ‘Gone with the Wind’ there).

Anyway. I feel like I actually accomplished something today, which is more than I can say for MOST of my weekends, thank you very much.

We have one more band weekend coming up. We’ll be making a one-day trip to Columbia Missouri next weekend -that’s Jazz’s last band competition. It’s at Mizzou and hopefully our kids can take 1st place. We’ve done really well this season, but it would be the icing on the cake if we brought home a 1st place trophy.

I’m sort of glad the season is winding down (I bet you are too). Though I have SO MUCH FUN traveling around and cheering them on, it’s exhausting. Especially when you start a new job in an industry you know nothing about and are trying to focus and learn as much as you can in a short amount of time that your brain is mush by the time you come home and it’s all you can do to keep your eyes open to finish dinner with your family.

So. Yeah. The job is going well.

No really. An email was sent out to the clinic on Thursday letting everyone know that I was “ready” to take charge of two doctors. This means I’m in charge of these doctors’ patients and anything schedule related comes to me. I’m getting all sorts of voicemails from patients wanting to either cancel appointments, reschedule appointments or, they want to make an appointment, which requires research on my part before I can make those appointments. For you see, I work for a group of neurosurgeons and they are not like primary care physicians – you can’t just make an appointment to see them for every little ache and pain, there are certain things that I have to look for in order to make that appointment. And if those things are not present, then I have to “flag” the nurse (which is like an instant message system) and ask them if it’s okay to schedule them.

Because I’m a peon and am only paid to do what I’m told. Which is FINE. I’m OKAY with that. I just have to be careful how much initiative I take on.

So I’m learning a lot about this medical field and picking up new terms and learning about new procedures and tests every day. I have to say, it’s damn interesting and no two patients are alike as far as what they need done. It’s challenging and completely absorbs my focus and attention and I really love it.

And I’m not just saying that – I really do LOVE my job.

I’m starting (and only JUST starting) to get a handle on my new routine. My energy level is starting to slowly catch up with my duties and I’ll be used to this new lifestyle in no time. The one thing that I have the hardest time with is the fact that I’m isolated from my family. It’s like I’ve been sequestered and I’m quite literally stepping into a whole new world, separate from them and definitely out of my comfort zone.

But it’s exactly what I needed. I felt like my brain was going soft and it feels SO GOOD to be using my brain again.

Or what little brain matter I have, that is.

Even though my shift starts at 8:30, I’m going in at 8:00 for the next three mornings to make up for the time I’ll have to take off Thursday morning to get my tooth fixed. (I broke it last weekend). I’m thinking I’m going to regret making my appointment for so early in the morning because this means I’ll have to go to work with a numb mouth and will likely be talking weird.

Oh well. I’m getting used to coping with obstacles, what’s one more, right?

Update on my guys:

Kevin has been on a mission to get Dude out in public more. Dude is still going to the office every day and they go out to lunch twice a week. They go shopping at various places whenever they go out – they even went out to the driving range and hit some golf balls. (I have a video of that coming soon). Dude is a very introverted individual and Kevin is hoping that by getting him out and around people more, he’ll loosen up a bit and not be so freaked out whenever he gets a job. He hasn’t had any more interviews but it hasn’t been for lack of trying – he’s been applying someplace nearly every day and Kevin keeps track of his spread sheet and makes him re-apply at places. It’s just a matter of time before the kid gets a job. But it might not be until this crappy economy turns around and I’m predicting that won’t happen until Obama is voted out of office.

*ahem*

In the meantime, Dude has been getting his documents ready to submit to a vocational college. He’s planning on taking two computer classes next semester, so that will be enough to keep him busy until he gets a job. It’ll be interesting to see how he juggles his schedule whenever he gets a job AND is going to college.

Kevin is pursuing some client leads and has been doing well. The word is getting out and he’s becoming more and more busy. It’s just a matter of time before his business really takes off the ground. If you know of anyone who needs a good accountant, give him a buzz! He specializes in elder care, so if you have an elderly person in your family that needs some accounting help (not just taxes, but paying bills, etc), he can help! (http://kkacct.com)

Jazz is finishing up the first quarter. He’ll be getting rid of the following classes: History of Baseball (which he actually enjoyed, believe it or not) and Math Functions, which is a pre-Calculus class. I’m not sure what classes are coming up, but the kids really seem to enjoy switching out classes every quarter and semester. Our school district is considering getting rid of the 4-block schedule set up and I think that would be a HUGE mistake! Having only four classes per quarter is a lot more manageable than having the same SEVEN classes all year long. We’re only one of two high schools in our district that is set up this way and everyone has really loved it. It would make a lot of parents and students upset if they eliminated it.

So. All of this to say, we’re doing well.

This has been a busy and emotional week.

I spent all day last Monday (that’s not an exaggeration – ALL DAY), painting the boards for our new pergola. Then Kevin and Dude put it all together.

We LOVE it!! It really turned out nice. We’ve been shopping for patio furniture but have been a bit discouraged with the price tags. We went to Outdoor Home and looked around and they have some GORGEOUS stuff, but, BUT, I’m having a really hard time justifying spending $400 + on one chair.

ONE CHAIR.

Um, no.

So we went to Lowe’s. And the prices there weren’t much better. So now we’re thinking we’ll just put some folding chairs and a card table out there and call it a patio.

Okay. Maybe not. But we’re definitely going to hold off on buying any sort of furniture until A. there’s a sale, and/or B. it’s off season and the prices just naturally come down because OMG, I can’t spend $2,000 on furniture we won’t even want, or get, to use but once in a while.

UPDATE: Kevin went out yesterday (before the severe storms blew through here – and while we’re on that subject, can I please request some prayers for the poor folks in Joplin, Missouri?? Joplin is a mere 75 miles west of Springfield and EEK, too close to home, ya’ll!!) and angled off the ends. As usual, he did an excellent job and it looks fabulous, darling. Now I need to paint the bases and do a few touch ups and we SHOULD be done with the pergola. Next? Landscaping.

Tuesday was graduation day. I’ve already written about that and won’t go through that again, but I swear, I have been an emotional zombie ever since. It’s just so WEIRD to have Dude home now. I don’t have to drag his butt out of bed every day (well, I still have to drag his butt out because if I didn’t he would sleep all day and um, NO, that ain’t happening while he’s still living at home), but at least it’s not as stressful as it was when he needed to get up, around and awake enough to drive him and his brother to school every day.

I’m finding myself floundering a bit because I feel like my role in my household has changed – again. I know I’m still Dude’s mother, I mean, duh, but I’m having to consciously remind myself that the boy is 18 1/2 years old, is now a high school graduate, and though we’ve given him free reign to relax and enjoy a few months off before looking for a job (let the nagging begin August 1st), I’m having a hard time ALLOWING him to enjoy this time. I think I’ve just been on autopilot for so many years, the end goal being graduation, that now that we’ve reached that goal, I feel … confused.

Exactly what is my role now?

It’s so weird because just when I force myself to emotionally step back from the mothering gig, Dude will go and ask me a question, seeking my advice about something (which HELLO, is weird in and of itself anyway), and I will suddenly be transported to the mom who had a tight rein on this boy’s life and was used to being in control.

But then in the very next instant, he’s taking his cousin back home to Willard (which is about 30 minutes away) and I’m emotionally forced to swallow my mothering instincts, smile and wave as he takes off like it’s no big deal.

My emotions have been all over the board here lately and I’m feeling a bit dizzy. I know I’ll find my equilibrium at some point, but for now, I feel like a child’s top that is slowing down and on the verge of toppling over.

It’s disorienting.

I shudder to think how I will feel when Jazz reaches this point in just two short years.

Dude’s reception was really fun.

I was expecting the weather to be rainy, but it actually ended up being a perfect day. The sun came out, the temps were pleasant and there was a slight breeze.

I found out, late Friday afternoon, that Jazz wanted to go to a leadership seminar on Saturday. Well. He had to go to this seminar if he wanted to try out for a leadership role in band, which he did, so I spent Saturday morning putting the finishing touches on the house, getting cleaned up, taking Jazz to his seminar, and then the rest of the morning running errands – Wal-Mart, picking up the cake, and picking up the taco bar we had Qdoba cater.

I got all of this stuff home but didn’t have time to set it up before picking Jazz up, so Kevin had to finish up for me while I went to get him. He actually didn’t leave until 12:15 and we didn’t get back to the house until 12:30 and by then, everyone had arrived and were nearly finished eating.

Talk about awkward! Hostess is late to her own party.

But it was all good and you know, when you have kids, and they want to get involved in extra-curricular activities, you sort of have to roll with the punches.

Kevin did a great job setting everything out. He had moved quite a few chairs out to our new patio, which thankfully, we were able to enjoy because of the unexpectedly nice weather, only, I had a “Class of 2011″ balloon loosely tied to one of the chairs because I had planned on tying that balloon to our mailbox, but when Kevin took the chair the balloon was tied to outside, *POOF*. It came untied and blew away.

*sigh*

It never fails – something always has to go wrong when you host a party. It’s like an unwritten law or something. He felt really bad about it and though I was annoyed, I didn’t fly off the handle (Hello! Emotional maturity!) and meh, it was just a balloon.

I think Dude had a really good time. His best friends were there and all of the family showed up, and we all had a really good time catching up, laughing and stuffing our faces. Hosting parties always overwhelms me a bit because I don’t want anyone to feel left out or awkward, so I spend a lot of my time making the rounds. I hope no one thought I was ignoring them or being weird, but it’s hard dividing your time between all of the guests.

My youngest nephews were there. My brother and his wife drove down and I hadn’t seen the little boys in, oh gosh, a year I think? There was one moment, when it was me, both of my sisters-in-law, my niece, my mom and my dad were sitting around talking, when my brother walks in with my youngest nephew and he stands in the middle of the room, as proud of as a peacock, and exclaims in a very loud voice, “I go poop!!” We all died laughing and began clapping because who can’t relate to that moment?? It was really cute and his facial expression was priceless.

Even though I had put on the invitations that the party was going to be from noon to 2:00, everyone stuck around until nearly 4:00. We were totally FINE with this as it made us feel like everyone was enjoying themselves and didn’t want to leave. I never want people to feel obligated to stick around one of our parties if they don’t want to, so I tend to make the invitations pretty informal to begin with. So the fact that everyone chose to stay was really nice for me and Kevin.

Kevin had put pictures of Dude growing up in a slideshow and it was fun to look back on his little boy days. We’ll have to chop the show in half and upload the two parts to YouTube so you can guys can watch it. It was really fun to point out various locations as we watched the slideshow. We’ve been to a lot of places! And it warms my heart to think that the boys will be able to look back on their childhoods and talk about all the cool family vacations we’ve taken together.

My mom made the cutest chocolate mortar hats:

I won’t even tell you how many I ate. (But if you guessed all but two, then you’d be, erhm, really close. NOT all in one day. Okay, maybe all in one day. I TOLD YOU I HAD A PROBLEM WITH JUNK FOOD!!)

Dude’s cake turned out really good. I went through the same cake lady I used to go to when I threw birthday parties for the boys when they were little. To my utmost surprise, she remembered me!! (Or at least, she acted like she remembered me. Maybe she was just being nice. Oh well).

It was a really fun reception. I think Dude had a good time and it was really nice that everyone was able to come.

And that’s it. Dude has graduated. He’s out of school. And we’re all trying to adjust to a new normal.

We had a parent band meeting this past Tuesday night. We’ve already been through this meeting twice before (8th grade, then 9th grade), so we knew what to expect. But what we were really waiting for was to hear what the show would be for next year and to see the new band uniforms.

I believe the school has used the same uniforms for the past ten years. They were looking rough and a little frayed around the edges. Still, they were pretty cool.

If not a little space-suit-ish.

But the new ones … WOW. Love them!! In fact, I like them better, but Kevin said he likes the old ones more. Anyway. I don’t have a picture to show you now, but when he gets his uniform assigned to him in September, then we’ll take the traditional “pose by the tree” shot.

The show also sounds good – though it will be interesting to see how it comes together. It has something to do with directions … and that’s all I can tell you.

We had to take Jazz to the walk-in clinic last night. He’s been having some trouble with his toes. He had been wearing leather-top sneakers and apparently, the suckers rubbed a sore stop just under each big toe toenail. This area swelled up and was quite tender for a while. He squeezed the pus out and they looked better for a while, but then his toenails started turning yellowish and they looked like they were infected with fungus. He used toenail fungus stuff for a while, but that didn’t seem to do any good and yesterday, he came to me after school to show me they were bleeding.

We threw in the white towel and took him to the clinic.

The doctor said they are definitely infected and prescribed some antibiotic. We’re also soaking his feet in Epsom Salt twice a day. In the meantime, we have to call a podiatrist because she said considering both toes were in the same shape, it would be better if a foot doctor took a look at them. They’re supposed to be calling us today with a referral so … I’m sure I’ll have more information when we find out what the next step is.

I’m thinking he will probably have to lose both nails. They are looking pretty nasty and Jazz says they feel loose, so, it might be for the best. I’ve lost a fingernail and a toenail before and it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s just hard skin under the nail and it eventually grows back.

EVENTUALLY. As in .. ABOUT A YEAR.

*sigh* Looks like Jazz won’t be wearing flip-flops or sandals this summer.

*UPDATE: The clinic just called – they made an appointment for Jazz at The Foot Doctors. I had no idea we even had a facility dedicated to just feet. It’s next Tuesday, at lunch, so I’ll have to take Jazz out of school, but it’s the last week and they won’t be doing anything, anyway. Will post more when I know more …

UPDATE 2: My bad. The appointment is next Thursday, after lunch, and Jazz will be taking finals. So I’ll have to reschedule.

Dude crying. I say this with love, but Dude was one of the ugliest criers I've ever seen.

We are currently on our FOURTH straight day of rain.

Luckily, it hasn’t been pouring the whole time – it pours, then drizzles, then stops just long enough for the excess to drain off before the next round hits. It could be so much worse, it could have been pouring this entire time. Our sump pump has kicked on a few times, and I’m betting it’s been on quite a few times today (I’m at the office right now) – I dread opening up our crawl space door to see how much water has collected under the house.

Watching radar, you can see it redeveloping and it follows the same path, which is right on top of us. The whole state of Missouri is one big sponge right now.

I hate when we’re in this weather pattern. We’re stuck on a Gulf Stream or something and bad weather just keeps developing and dumping it’s fury on us. It sucks. This is what happened that one year when we had the ice storm. We were stuck on some kind of weather cycle and it iced for days leaving 5 inches of ice behind before the winds shifted and it finally moved off.

I don’t hate rain, but this much rain depresses me. I’m ready to see some sunshine – which, according to our forecast, won’t happen for a few more days. *sigh*

I never realized just HOW much weather affects my mood.

Easter was quiet at our house. We went to my in-laws. My MIL cooked chicken, ham, and roast beef along with potato salad and mashed potatoes and green salad. I brought rolls. Because they don’t trust me with anything else.

HA!

One of my sisters-in-law wasn’t there because they found out that her husband’s mother was going to be alone on Easter and they didn’t want her to be alone on the holiday. I thought that was sweet.

Since most of the “kids” are now grown and off living their lives in other states (in some instances, different COUNTRIES), there weren’t that many people there. My in-laws invited someone from their church, who is from Russia, and who is extremely nice. It’s so interesting to talk to him because he tells us how different Russia is from America. They are very strict in his country. They aren’t allowed to play Rock-N-Roll music and they are very suspicious of tourists. He was telling us how he couldn’t get over how everyone was so nice in our country and helped each other out – FOR FREE. He said if tourists were to ask someone from his country directions, they would either get a haphazard answer just to get rid of them, or they would only give them the information they needed for money.

He also said that it was crucial for tourists to have their passports, and other paperwork on them at all times, because their police were notorious for arresting people for not having the proper documentation. However, the tourists could get out of being arrested if they bribed the officer and gave him cash.

Everything is super expensive and they have a huge problem with public drunkenness. In fact, he said it was pretty unusual to see people sober where he came from.

He also said that they view America as their number one enemy and they are thisclose to being taken over by China, if China ever decides to go that route.

It was very humbling to listen to him talk about his country. Again, Americans just have NO IDEA how good we have it over here. We honest to God don’t. I didn’t know how good we had it until talking with our Russian guest. I really wish, and I’m being completely honest here, that the people who preach socialism and want more government in our country could go live in a socialist society for a few months so they would know, first hand, what it’s actually like. Everything sounds great IN THEORY, but when people are actually forced to live like that, it’s suddenly not a very attractive alternative anymore.

Our Russian friend just shook his head when we talked about how there are some people in this country who push socialism. He was just flabbergasted that they would want to live the life he was so desperately trying to get away from.

I would be interested in knowing how many foreigners from socialist countries in America would actually PRAISE their government structures. I’m betting not very many.

Hence the very reason they are here, in America, and not at home. They are here because they want to escape their governments strangle holds.

At any rate, America is so spoiled. We have no idea how fortunate we are. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of that fact. But we should also not take it for granted.

Dude is supposed to get his cap and gown on Wednesday. YIPPEE! I can’t wait to take pictures of him wearing it. I’ve already warned him that he’ll need to just get used to everyone giving him a lot of attention and taking a lot of pictures of him when he graduates. This is a big deal and I’m going to spoil him (even more so than I do now) because HE DESERVES IT. Thirteen long years of school is finally over for him and we’re gonna PAR-TAY, my friends!

I’m addressing graduation announcements as we speak and I went out and bought some party invitations for his reception today that I’ll stick in with the announcements. I also bought him a really cool, personalized, wooden frame that I plan on displaying on the food table at his reception with a picture of him in his cap and gown in it. Kevin and I are still throwing ideas around as to what sort of gift we want to give him, but right now we’re sort of leaning toward putting some money into a checking account for him. He needs a checking account and he needs to start saving some money for the day when he moves out on his own.

Who knows when that day will come.

I LOVE planning parties. They’re so fun! I just pray the weather is nice that day so we can get together on our new patio.

I have the scanner set up in my office and I’ve been busy scanning old pictures. I’ll be posting some of my favorites in the coming days.

For example, this one is fun:

(I posted this one because I knew my parents would get a kick out of it. )

This is kind of random, but this is one of my favorite tweets this week:

LOVE! RT @ImTracyMorgan If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons make you fat.—
Karen M (@writefromkaren) April 23, 2011

Okay seriously – enough already.

Kevin is making some major progress on our patio.

He finished digging the space out this past weekend and in fact, got the gravel poured in yesterday. He is going to rent some sort of compact contraption so he can smash the rocks down, then he’ll buy some sand and we’ll spread that around. We already know what pavers we want and in fact went to Lowe’s yesterday to order them, but figured we’d save ourselves $65 bucks delivery fee and all four us can work as a human conveyor belt and pass them off to each other.

This is really coming along nicely! I wasn’t too thrilled at first (mainly because of the cost – gotta watch that money, don’t ‘cha know), but now that it’s materializing before my eyes, I’m getting excited! I saw a patio set at Lowe’s that would look really nice in that area …

Oak pollen has skyrocketed. It was over 700 particles per blah-blah-blah (I have no idea how they measure pollen) and over 300 today.

That’s enough to cover everything in sight. We’ve reached that point in the season where you go out to your car only to find it covered with a lovely green dust.

Jazz is holding up well. He’s been coughing, but it’s pretty minor and I plan on keeping it that way. I’ve been drugging him up these past few weeks – Singular during the day, Zyrtec at night. He’s also been using nose spray (though only sparingly, you have to be careful with nose spray) and I’ve been possibly OD’ing him on vitamin C.

My eyes have been watering, which is sort of unusual for me. I don’t usually have a problem with spring allergies (now Ragweed is a whole different monster).

Hopefully, we’re peaking on this spring allergy thing and levels will start dropping very soon.

Did I mention I HATE this time of year??

I’m a bit upset with the makers of the video game Portal 2. I personally haven’t played it, but I’ve watched the boys play it and it looks pretty cool.

And I HEAR about the game every, single. cotton-picking. day. from the boys.

Well. The second installment of the game released at midnight – last night.

ON. A SCHOOL. NIGHT.

*MAJOR GRR*

But that didn’t deter the boys. OH no. Not at all. Jazz got up at 4:30 this morning and Dude got up at 5:00 this morning to play it for a few hours before they had to go to school.

I can’t even begin to tell you how WEIRD it was for me to get up at 6:00 only to see their lights on. Normally, I have to virtually drag them from their beds every morning. (In fact, I have to physically stand at Dude’s door and wait for him to sit up before I can walk away – otherwise, he goes back to sleep. *MAJOR GRR*).

It was hard to tear them away from their computers and push them out the door for school today. And I’m quite sure that neither of them concentrated on school today, but what are you going to do.

But the fact that the makers of the game picked a SCHOOL NIGHT to release their game, well … I can well imagine I’m not the only irked parent out there.

I’m sure the boys will have more adrenaline to play their game when they get home today. And I’m quite sure they will be cranky and pretty much jerks at dinner tonight because they will be:

1. Tired.
2. Grumpy because they want to get back to their game.
3. Grouchy because as per usual, I will turn the internet off at 10:00 p.m. tonight to yank them from their internet trance.

Oh yeah, fun times.

Jazz text me today and asked about his English grade. Since I didn’t have an ID number to access his grades online, I wasn’t able to help him.

The kids are given travel privileges during “C” time (if I give you the name, you can tell which school they go to, which, whatever. But I would prefer not to willingly divulge that info at this time). Only today, Jazz wasn’t allowed to travel (Dude can travel all the time because he’s a senior – senior privileges rock) and because he wasn’t allowed to travel, he was worried it was because of something to do with his grades. So he contacted me to ask me about them.

Only, I couldn’t access them without the ID number. (Lost yet?)

To put his mind at rest, I went up to the school at lunch time to get assigned an ID number. (I was planning on going anyway, this just pushed the issue).

When I gave them my name, the gals behind the desk both smiled and said, “You do our website! OH, we just LOVE our website and brag about it all the time.”

It makes me feel SO GOOD to hear things like that!!! Though it also embarrasses me.

I’d like to pack those ladies up and use them as my portable testimonies. ha!

So the short hair thing is … going.

I nearly hyperventilated when I washed my hair this morning and realized just HOW short it is now. It needs to grow about an inch. Hurry up—
Karen M (@writefromkaren) April 17, 2011

I had a pretty fierce moment of regret the other night after I worked out. I sweat something awful whenever I work out, and I wear my ball cap mainly to keep the sweat out of my eyes.

Anyway, after I was done working out, I took that ball cap off … and nearly cried. I mean, granted, NO ONE looks good after working out (unless you’re just eye candy and don’t work out enough to break a sweat – but I don’t do that, when I work out, I mean BUSINESS), so I wasn’t expecting to look like something out of a SHAPE magazine or anything, but with my flushed face, my raccoon eyes, and my sweaty, matted, BOY hair … well, like I said, I nearly cried.

“What have I done??” I thought.

This short hair … I don't know, it's SO short. I feel like a boy. Can't wait for it to grow an inch … or two …—
Karen M (@writefromkaren) April 18, 2011

But, BUT, I’m getting used to it, I think. I’ve been playing around with it for the past few days, using more products than I think I have EVER used on it (root lifter, thermal protection for when I use my new one-inch flat iron [I use it like a curling iron], shaping spray and finally a stiff hairspray). It’s pretty easy to fluff since the gal used a razor to cut it, it’s all sorts of textured and I love it on windy days (like today) when it virtually doesn’t move (which could be a bad thing, too, I suppose) but still … I feel so … exposed.

Which is funny because the salon gal said something about me hiding behind all of that hair which … COULD be possible, I suppose. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but she might have some psychological insight right there.

I KNOW I’m going to love it when it grows out a bit more, but right now? I feel like a boy and if it’s not “fixed”, I think it just looks hideous.

Oh well, I’ll live.

Registered son #2 for two summer classes. I know, YUK. But this is the price he pays to have Jazz band (takes slots away from requireds).—
Karen M (@writefromkaren) April 18, 2011

The school opened up summer school registration yesterday. I registered Jazz for TWO summer courses – poor kid. But I sort of have to because of his insistence on taking Jazz band class. Which takes up slots that would otherwise be used for required courses.

Hopefully, if I played the cards right (and assuming he’ll actually get the classes I registered him for), he won’t have to take ANY classes next summer.

Right now, he’s registered to take Personal Finance in the morning from 8:00 to 11:00. (It’s a required course, but pretty easy – it’s a class that teaches you how to balance a check book, etc), and his last stupid P.E. class from 11:30 to 2:30.

He’ll have 30 minutes for lunch.

The kicker? The classes are not at his school – they’re at another high school. They switch off schools every year.

So … I talked to Kevin and Dude last night and depending on what is going on and work schedules, Dude may very well be his taxi this summer.

I also told Dude that even though he’ll be out of school, he still needs to get up with the rest of us in the morning because I’ll be damned if the boy sleeps all day and stays up all night while living with us.

Ain’t gonna happen, Jack.

At any rate, Jazz will also have band camp the first and last weeks in June. So this means the first and last weeks of June for Jazz will look like this:

8:00 – 11:00 – Personal Finance
11:00 – 11:30 – eat lunch
11:30 – 2:30 – P.E. class
2:30 – 5:00 – take shower, have an early dinner
5:00 – 9:00 – band camp

He’s going to be one busy boy. And we’ll be busy carting him around.

He’ll have the month of July off and then it’ll be a gruesome and intense seven days of band camp from 8:00 5:00 the second week in August.

Since the Portal 2 game came out and that’s all Jazz can think about right now, I thought it might be cruel to make him study for his driver’s permit test this week, but next week, he’s going to hit it pretty hard and we’ll get that permit so I can teach him to drive this summer.

Now I need to make sure Dude stays busy and out of trouble. I have a feeling THAT is going to be my biggest challenge.

Well I’m doing it. I’ve made an appointment to get my hair whacked off tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

Hopefully, it’ll look something like this:

That’s my goal, at least.

I’ll post a picture of the new cut as soon as I can. (And that’s code for: if I can make it look right. If not, you’ll just have to use your imagination. ha!)

I’m looking forward to having it short again. I had it this short years ago and loved it. The only problem is, I’ll have to go to the salon more often for trims and well … yuk. But I want a STYLE. Something that looks professional and will be easy to take care of.

At any rate, I’m cutting it off … again.

Jazz’s marching band is getting new uniforms next year! YAY!!!!! I’m SO EXCITED to see what they look like. I hope they aren’t dorky looking. Their past uniforms looked pretty snazzy, if not a little space-suit-ish, but we’ll see. I really like his band director – he’s a man of taste and always comes up with really cool ideas for the performances, so it’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with this time.

The band only gets new uniforms like every ten years or so (they’re SOOO expensive), so it’s awesome that Jazz will be one of the first classes to wear the new uniforms.

They’re supposed to have a fitting next week some time, so Jazz wanted me to weigh him and chart his height.

Jazz now weighs 118 pounds and is 5’8 without shoes on. WOW! He’s only a few inches shorter than I am now. That’s so WEIRD when your baby is nearly as tall as you are.

Of course, I had to see what Dude’s weight and height were … he weighs 131 pounds and is 5’10 1/2 without shoes on.

I’m hoping the boys grow taller. Kevin said that was one of the things he liked about me, was my height. He figured if he married a tall person, then he would have tall children. Which is cool for boys, not so much for girls.

Trust me. ha!

Kevin was issued a subpoena today. He’s scheduled to testify against the woman who ran him over on his motorcycle last year. (She left the scene of the accident – which is a felony, in case you didn’t know that).

I will go with him to support him, of course.

It will be really weird for Kevin because this will be the first time that he will face the woman who nearly killed him.

It’s probably a good thing it has taken so long to bring this to court because if it had happened a few months after the accident, they would have had to restrain me from attacking this woman, I was so angry. I’m still angry, but it’s more of a simmering anger now and I just want this woman off the streets. She’s a menace to herself and to other drivers. (She’s been picked up for a DUI SINCE the accident, believe it or not). She needs to be punished and she needs to learn there are consequences for her actions because up until now, this woman has been free to drive around and resume her life as if nothing catastrophic happened.

Though I’m not holding my breath that this hearing will actually take place (it’s been granted a continuance now every few weeks for a year), I’m really hoping it happens – mainly because we just want it to be over. We’ve already moved past this accident and to be forced to relive it again will be uncomfortable and painful for Kevin, I’m sure.

At any rate, that’s where we stand on the issue. We’ll see what happens.

Kevin has been busy digging our backyard up. He’s putting in a patio. He borrowed his sister’s Roto-Tiller and that really helped move things along. I’ll take some pictures of it this weekend.

We went to Lowe’s last weekend and picked out the pavers. We’ll likely order those sometime this weekend, (if Kevin feels up to it, he’s got a gig tonight and tomorrow night, so he’ll probably be worn out from that).

He still needs to dig the rocks out next to the house, then we’ll order some gravel, put that down, smooth it out, then top it with sand, smooth that out before putting the pavers in. We’re hoping to have the patio done before Dude’s graduation reception next month. It would be really nice to have his party outside, weather permitting.

My job situation … geez, I’m so frustrated with this whole thing. For one thing, I’m in limbo. I just don’t know which direction to take on this job thing.

First of all, I never heard back from the place I had my three interviews with. Which was very disappointing because I really thought they liked me. It was between me and one other person – I guess the other person was a better fit. I have an application in for three more positions with the same company but so far, I haven’t received a call, though all three positions are still in the “open” status on their website. However, they’ve been listed for a while, so I’m thinking they are probably interviewing and I just wasn’t picked. Maybe I’m not meant to work for this company, I don’t know. I’m not giving up, but I am a little discouraged.

Kevin suggested that I apply for a temporary employment agency. They would call me whenever someone needed someone to work in their office and I would do … whatever they needed me for. The pros of doing this would be that I would be working for several different companies and would have a chance to “try” them out, so to speak. Kevin’s company used people from this temporary employment agency quite a few times and often times, they would like the person so much they would offer him/her a full-time position.

The cons would be that I would be working for several different companies. I would be walking into a brand new situation and working with brand new people all the time. I’m sure that would be disorienting. Also, I would have to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Which is really not that big of a deal, now that I think about it, because I’m at the office every day anyway, I would just have to make sure I’m wearing more office-appropriate attire. (Slacks as opposed to the jeans I wear every day now).

So, I don’t know. It’s definitely something to think about. I’m pretty sure I’m going to try it, just to see what happens.

Another option is to try and get a job at Missouri State University. They require all of their clerical applicants to take a test in Word, Excel, basic filing abilities and bank reconciliations. I suppose your chances of getting called back for an interview depends on how well you tested. I’d like to try this, too. Although I’ll have to work a bit more within Excel and Word 2007 as I haven’t really used those programs all that much (I have those programs, but they’re older versions and there are quite a few new features in the ’07 versions). In addition, and don’t laugh, I haven’t reconciled a bank statement in, oh gosh, YEARS. I haven’t had to, Kevin has always taken care of that stuff (there are some perks to being married to an accountant), so I’ll definitely have to brush up on that skill before I take any sort of test.

And I could always fall back on the tried and true job option – retail and/or restaurant. I have a lot of experience in both and I know those industries are ALWAYS looking for people. But the question is: do I really want to work evenings, weekends and holidays? Answer: no. I’ve had my fill of doing that (21 years worth, thanks), and I’m ready for a 9:00 to 5:00 job. I have a lot of office experience and know my way around office-related programs, SURELY someone out there wants me. Surely.

So I have options, it’s just a matter of time before I get off my lazy butt and take those options. I’m nervous. That last interview process was a bit of a blow to my pride, quite frankly, and now I’m a bit more nervous about putting myself out there again. However, I’ll get over that. I’ll work myself up to it, believe me.

In the meantime, I come to the office every day and keep Kevin company. I write and work on websites and will likely continue to do those things even after I get a job. I do have one mark against me, though. We plan on going on our family vacation in July, which I have to disclose at the onslaught of an interview because I don’t want to spring anything on them at the last minute, and companies probably aren’t going to like that they will hire me, only to have to let me off for one week of unpaid vacation.

I wonder if that was one of the biggest reasons I didn’t get that last job.

*sigh*

Oh well. I just have to be patient and put myself out there. Nothing is going to happen just talking about it.

They Are Watching You…, originally uploaded by Uncle Phooey.

I finally got Kevin’ CaringBridge book made.

That’s only been on my to-do list since January.

I’m making progress!

It took me nearly all day yesterday to put the book together. It’s not that it’s a hard process but rather the CaringBridge website was slooooooooooow and it drove me craaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.

Of course. THE day I needed the site to run well, it didn’t.

Also? I couldn’t preview the book. My laptop needed a plug-in and every time I tried to download the plug-in … nothing. I chocked it up to my running Windows 7. (You sort of have to expect to run into bugs when you’re running an OS that hasn’t been on the market that long. It sort of comes with the territory of jumping on an early bandwagon. Which I don’t normally do, but this laptop was a Christmas gift and it came with Windows 7 so … yeah).

Finally, at about 4:00 yesterday afternoon, I’d had it up to my eyeballs with the CaringBridge page and Firefox. (Actually, my frustration with Firefox has been building for a few weeks now. It keeps crashing on me and there are certain things that won’t run, like the plug-in I needed).

I downloaded Google Chrome.

I really SHOULD download alternate web browsers anyway so I can test the websites I build to make sure they look okay in those browsers, I just hadn’t on my laptop. So I downloaded Google Chrome, navigated back to the CaringBridge book, previewed it, just for kicks, and it worked! And it was fast! And now I’m thinking I spent the entire day wrestling with the book-making process thinking it was the website when it fact, it was Firefox!

AARGGH!!

So now Google Chrome is my default browser and I’m really liking it so far. It claims it’s faster and I have to agree – I’ve noticed a marked improvement. The only thing I don’t like about it (so far) is that bookmarks are a bit hidden.

At any rate, the CaringBridge book is done. Kevin and I went through pictures from his accident, both when he was in the hospital and on the road to recovery and we added ten pages of photos to the book. CaringBridge automatically adds all of the entries in the Guest book, so we’ll be able to look back and read all of the nice things people said during that time period, too.

It was sort of expensive, but it’s a hard back book and it looks like it’ll be pretty nice. Besides, it’ll be nice to have a physical reminder of that time period, something we can flip through and say, “Can you even BELIEVE you went through that??“

Because seriously, the whole experience doesn’t even feel real at this point.

We went over to my in-laws last night for pizza and a jam session.

They have a friend, through their church, who is from Russia, and he plays the acoustic guitar. He’s a bit lonely because his family is back in Russia, so my in-laws invited him over to play a bit with Kevin.

Jazz took his saxophone over there, too. I was really surprised that he WANTED to, quite frankly. I mean, the boy likes to play his sax, but he doesn’t normally touch it outside of school. (And to be fair to Jazz, he plays his saxophone during Band class AND Jazz class at school, which ends up being two or three hours, so I can see why he wouldn’t want to play it at home as well).

But he took his fancy-smancy black sax over there and him, Kevin, the Russian guy and Kevin’s uncle (who played the drums) had a great time just putting some improv together.

I braced myself. I thought it would be a bunch of noise, but I was totally impressed – Kevin picked out a few chords in B flat (which is a good note for the sax, apparently), played it a few times, the other guys picked up on it and before you knew it, they were all playing together. It was a lot of fun to listen to them.

Kevin had everyone pause a few times to give Jazz the floor, which he took and ran with. He did an EXCELLENT job winging his way through the song – I must say, the kid is a natural saxophone player.

Something has “clicked” for Jazz and his playing. He’s played improv in past Jazz classes and though he was pretty good, he wasn’t great. I’ve always thought that was one area that Jazz really needed to work on. But he said that they’ve been having an Improv teacher coming to his classes, teaching them some basic improv moves and WOW. The kid has really caught on to the premise. He did really well. We were all impressed.

Afterward, Jazz said he really enjoyed himself and that he would like to do more of that sort of stuff. Playing Jazz is his favorite thing to do in music and now that he has appeared to have crossed a musical hurdle, I look for him to take this talent and really harness it in the next few years of high school.

And that reminds me … I need to start seriously looking into some music scholarships for him.

I took a bunch of videos of the guys playing – I’ll try and get those online in the next week.

UPDATED: Jazz just text me that he is having to learn the clarinet for Jazz band. He then text me that he is also learning the trumpet. He later text me that it was an April Fools’ joke … well, the trumpet part was a joke, the clarinet was not a joke. I never knew I was so gullible, but apparently, I am. Grr lol

Side note: We were listening to the Russian guy talk about his homeland last night – Americans truly have no idea how spoiled we are. He was talking about how the life expectancy for men was 58 and the life expectancy for women was 63. It was a rare occurrence for people to have living grandparents. Kevin asked him if they played rock and roll over there and he said no. If they were caught playing, or listening, to rock and roll, they would be thrown in jail. He said Elvis Presley, especially, was a big no-no over there. He also told us how expensive housing was. For a 740 square foot home (imagine that for a moment), it would cost anywhere from $200,000 – $300,000 dollars. It was quite common for families to live together because it was much cheaper than trying to buy something on their own.

It sort of makes whining about $4.00 for a gallon of gas sort of pathetic, doesn’t it.

I also think it was really good for the boys to hear him talk about the differences, too.

Kevin’s office is ant infested. I’ve been spraying nearly every day and every time I go back into the break area, I end up wiping about twenty dead ants off the sink area.

I know, gross right?

It could be worse, it could be cockroaches. *shiver* UGH.

We’re going to make a trip to Lowe’s this weekend and buy some industrial-sized ant spray and just spray the crap out of his office for a few weeks to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t, then we’re going to have to break down and call an exterminator out.

I don’t know if the previous tenants were just slobs, or if the whole center is riddled with them, but we have to do something, it’s getting out of control.

Speaking of the office, Kevin and I switched offices – FINALLY. I FINALLY talked him into taking the nicer office, I’m now in the windowless office and I’m perfectly okay with that. It’s his office, he deserves the better space. My office needs some work – the walls are pretty scuffed up. So I have “paint my office” on my to-do list and will hopefully get that done in the next few weekends.

Since I didn’t get the job I had applied for (which, btw, I still haven’t heard anything official – that’s sort of disappointing), I’ve decided to just concentrate on my websites and my writing right now. I’ve talked about wanting to get some of my writing published since … forever, it’s time to do something about it. I have the perfect opportunity, I just need to take advantage of it.

I still have applications out there, and I’m still keeping my options open, but for now, this is what I’m going to do.

I’ll take a video of the new office set up soon – I know you’re all DYING to see what we’ve done.

Speaking of writing, I’m doing the NaNoWriMo challenge this month. I didn’t do it last November and I’ve had this story in the back of my mind for a while now, I need to purge it or go crazy.

And we all know I don’t need to heap on anymore crazy, right?? (ha!)

I’ll post excerpts once in a while and you can also keep track of my word count progress in the sidebar.

And speaking of that project, I need to get started on those 1,667 words for today.

Have a great weekend, friends!