My Morning

Wake up. Wash face, etc. Go in and wake up DD2, which takes a while. Try to get her to figure out what she wants to dress as for Career Day, as she does not like any of my suggestions. Finally we decide on Large Animal Veterinarian: jeans, boots, white shirt, Daisy vest worn inside out. While I am helping her dress, the doorbell rings. It is the substitute house cleaner, showing up unannounced to clean the house. The house is not tidy. I tell her so, and let her in so she can start working.
Fine. I get the lunches made and packed, and DD2 and the dog and i start off for school. We get to school. She gets out, and I notice that her band new pair of jeans still has a size sticker on them. So I get out to take the sticker off, and the dog gets out and runs in the school.
Fine. I get the sticker off, and pick up the dog, and realize we forgot DD2's backpack.
Fine. I drive back home, and pick up the backpack. Which is dripping, because the water bottle leaked.
Fine. I dry everything off, get a substitute bag and lunch kit, and get everything put back together, and take it to the school.
Then come home and start tidying so the house cleaner can clean. Just got done.
Whew!

Career Day

This is homecoming week at DD2's school, and to celebrate, the kids get to dress up each day. Tomorrow is "Career Day". Last time I talked to DD2 about her future, she said she wanted to be a mom. Guess I'll send her to school in her pajamas, with curlers in her hair....

Sunday

The youth were acting out the parable of the talents today in all four services, so i had to be at church at 7:45. got done with that, then it was time to go listen to the band rehearse and make sure they were singing the same lyrics we had on the screens. the youth performed at the 9:30 sanctuary service and then rushed over to the worship center to do the same. the pastor had just introduced them, and they were still getting their microphones on.
after the 9:30 service, i went looking for the pastor who was supposed to assist in the 11:00 service, so we could go over the annoucements. Can't find him. Finally someone says, "Oh, he went to the other campus to preach, because Pastor Stephanie took sick."
Oh. I really need to give these people my cell # so they can LET ME KNOW WHEN THINGS LIKE THAT CHANGE.
Anyway. Went to eat a salad after church, then came home for about thirty minutes before I had to take DD1 to Girl Scouts, and DD2 to a bday party. after those, we were home for about 90 minutes before I had to take DD1 to an acolyte training meeting at church.
Who said Sunday was a day of rest?

Udpate

The repair guy shoed up at 4:30, and had it fixed with 15 minutes. yay! so we had time to scoot to the grocery store and get the food, before Branon & Heather showed up. B&H really liked the dog, as they have two massive dogs of their own. I was tempted to let them have her....
I fell into bed around 10:30 and woke up at 7:30. whoops! the girls were, of course, watching TV in the living room.


me: what's your first responsibility when u wake up on a school day?
dd1: we thought it was Saturday!

The Way Things Are

My friend the internationally known musician Branon Dempsey and his wife the lovely Heather are to come over tonight to watch the season premiere of "The Office".

And I have picture on my big TV, but no sound.

So I was on the phone for over an HOUR between being on hold and talking to the lady on tier 1 of help, and the guy in tier two. Soft booted it 3x. Unplugged and replugged it 2x. Nothing. I can watch and hear a DVD; I can hear a CD through the system. Just no TV.
So, praise God, a technician is coming between 2 and 4 to fix it, which means that by the time I got off the phone, I only had time to scoot to the gym, do the elliptical for 30 minutes and scoot back home 'cause I just knew the guy would show up right at two.

Nope.

When Is An Appropriate Time to Tell Your Mom Need An Orange To School?

NOT thirty minutes before school starts.


7:45 this morning
DD1: Mom! Come look at the oranges!
(I walk in, and one of the them has some green mold on it. So I throw it away, and peel the remaining one and hand it to her.)
DD1: No, I need an orange with peel on it for school today!
Me: And you couldn't have told me that when we were at the grocery store YESTERDAY?
DD1: I forgot.
So, off we go to the grocery store.


Now, before you think I'm overindulgent, let me just say that she'd hurt her fingers Monday, and they still hurt yesterday morning, so I took her to the ER to get them Xrayed. She was thus late to school, and wasn't there when the teacher gave the assignment. Plus, we needed eggs and butter and stuff like that, so since i had to go anyway....)

What's One Sure Way to Find Your Cell Phone?

Spend $60 to get a replacement phone.
I lost my cell phone around the 4th of this month, and after looking and looking, and waiting and waiting for someone to call me to tell me they found my phone, and going down to the YMCA TWICE to see if they had my phone, because I was almost certain that's where I left it, I finally gave up and went to the AT&T store yesterday and got a cheapie (ha!) replacement phone.
Twenty minutes after I got home from the phone store, the landline rings, and a lady who works at the Y called to say she saw the note they wrote the second time I went in looking for my phone, she had my phone, she'd had it since that day. She'd been keeping it safe for me since that day because she just knew she'd see me at the Y.
Which was kind, because she was afraid someone would have stolen it if she'd turned it in.
But still. Over two weeks? She kept it for over two weeks without trying to call me? Or leaving a note at the Y saying, "If someone comes in looking for their phone, I have it"?
So now I get to go see if I can get a refund on my $60 phone.

Today

the morning was kind of low key. I tidied the kitchen from last night, and then did a couple loads of laundry.
In the afternoon, we went to the laundromat to wash DD1's and my comforters, ate lunch, picked up Sophie, went to a local jumping place and played, went to the Y to see if they had my MIA cell phone (no), dropped Sophie off, went to volleyball, came home and printed out a script, went to youth drama at church where I rehearsed the dramatic reading of the parable of the talents for Sunday, and handed out the script for the next week, went out for ice cream to commemorate the end of the hurrication, and then came home.

ZZZZZZZ

Slept ok last night, but my body has decided rain or shine, fatigue or not, 6:30 is the time to wake up. it doesn't matter if i fall asleep at 11 pm. or 2 a.m., I'm awake by 7.

Whooo Dogies, Am I Tired

I did not sleep well last night, then, got up this morning and went to church/work at 8:30. After our last service ended at 12:02, the musicians and tech people from Cypress Bible Church, a church down the street that still has no power, came in and started setting up. They had services in our Worship Center at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. So I was at church from 8:37 a.m. to 5:47 p.m.
Their two services were mirror ones of each other, but it was cool to see how other churches schedule their services. Their music was awesome. Still, about 3 p.m., I just started yawning.

DD1 has school on Tuesday. DD2's school still has no power, so TBD.

Awesome Quote From My Friend Cris

My friend Cris has parts of her roof missing. Here is a quote from her blog:

here is the running dialogue in my neighborhood . . . . .

"so which house is yours? - or - can you give me directions to your house?"

"sure - turn left at the clear tarp, then turn right at the roof with the plywood showing on the left side, go straight until you pass the house with the tree in the living room and we are the third blue tarp on the left."

Post-Hurricane, Day 6

It's almost a week since the hurricane hit. Life for us is pretty much back to normal, except the kids being out of school, and electricity being a hit or miss proposition. I went to get lunch for everyone today. Jason's was closed. Boston Market was closed. DH wanted a hot coffee to clear up the congestion in his chest, so I went to a nearby strip mall where there was a Starbucks and a Philly Cheesesteak place. Got the sandwiches first (only beef and small size buns available), and then walked 4 doors down to the Starbucks. Closed.
The girls and I wanted to see Fly Me to The Moon this afternoon. Willowbrook 24 and Stantikos were closed. Drove on Highway 6 (2 traffic lights out) to the Rave theater, which had just lost power an hour previously. Drove to Studio Movie Grill, which hadn't received their copy of Igor yet due to the storm. As a last resort, we went to Cypress Cinemark, and saw the 5:00 showing of Igor. (Which was cute, but not charming.) The guy who got us our popcorn said his power just came on today.

If...

..I owned a grocery store, and I was closing early because of the power being out across half the city, I would put a sign stating so on the ENTRANCE, not in little letters on the EXIT.
And if I had one of the those little signs you can program to say different things, I would have it say what time i was closing, instead of letting the customers drive in, park, get to the doors, and then find the doors locked.
I'm just sayin'.

Progress

The bedroom is organized. We have gone thru their clothes, the hall closet, and the seasonal decorations. DD1 had a great time putting up the fall decorations.
We ventured out today and headed to Half Price Books to sell the two boxes of books they had outgrown as well as my old LPs. $13.
Then we went over to a secondhand kids' clothing store to sell the clothes they had outgrown. $10.
We ate at Panda Express, and then went to Best Buy to get a DVD player for the toy room.
The frustrating thing about traveling is half of the traffic lights are out, so there's quite a backup of traffic. Going out at night, as I did last night, is a bit scary, as whole sections of streets are dark. A lot of businesses are closing early.

A Week Off

DH and the girls are all off this week, because power is still off in much of the city. We feel so blessed to have had power since Sunday, since many of my friends in Spring and The Woodlands are still without power.
Gas is in short supply, so we are not going anywhere. Milk and meat and other perishables are also nowhere to be found nearby, so last night we had potato pancakes, spaetzle, sauerkraut, and applesauce.
Anyway, we are redeeming this time of enforced downtime in organizing. The girls and I have completely gone through the toy room, throwing out trash, and bagging up toys they have outgrown to give to GoodWill. We almost have their bedroom done.
Today I plan to go through the bags of clutter in the garage. The weather is beautiful here, in the 70s, with a cool breeze.
Continue to pray for those without homes, without power, without hope.

Ike, Ike Baby

We are fine. There was no school or work on Friday, and I spent the morning buying some last minute necessities, and the rest of the day catching up on laundry and dishes. In the evening, I filled ziploc bags with water and put them in the freezer, to keep the stuff cold once the power went out. Which it did about 1 a.m. We had cleared DH's closet floor, and my closet floor, and put sofa cushions down. So we slept in there that night. We got high winds and rain.
We walked around the neighborhood Saturday afternoon, and there are some downed fences and uprooted trees and missing shingles, but nothing major.
The biggest inconvenience was the lack of A/C. I got so hot last night, I went into the van for a while to cool off.
I went to church this morning. We had a 9:30 service in the Worship Center with acoustic guitar and candlelight. The 11:00 service we had in the foyer, which had lots of natural lights. The church's generator provided A/C for us.
Drove around a bit afterward -- some listing street signs, hanging street lights, and so on.
Came home and cooked up some rapidly defrosting hamburger meat. The power came back on at 1 p.m.
We are praising God for His protection.

Oh.

I hardly ever pay attention to the forecast, so when my mom called me Wednesday and asked me if i was all packed, i hesitated.
For the hurricane, she said.
There's a hurricane coming? I asked
Yes. Ike. Straight your way.
Oh.

So, DH and I have decided to tough this one out, our 20 hour exodus from Rita a few years ago still fresh in our minds. We have plenty of water, and food, and we are hunkering down and staying. Since we're from the midwest, this will be our first hurricane we've stayed for. I don't count Allison, because I had just had a baby, who was eating every 90 minutes round the clock, and I don't remember much of that period of my life...

A Bit of History, Courtesy of DD2

Me; Who was the president responsible for helping to free the African American slaves?
DD2: George Lincolnton!

A Review of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"

The theater the girls and I sat in was 16 acoustical ceiling tiles wide, and 11 acoustical ceiling tiles deep.

Little Blue-Haired Lady

I have not many years left in my 40s, and so I have determined that if I'm going to do something freaky to my appearance, I'd better do it now. That said, I went to Sally's Beauty Supply the other day, and got some temporary blue highlighting stuff. I was going to do permanent, but apparently you have to bleach your hair first for that. So, it looks like blue mascara, and in the morning, I just put a few subtle blue streaks in my hair. It is awesome. Gives a whole new meaning to the expression "little blue-haired lady."

A Blazing New Sales Technique

(phone rings)
Me: Hello?
Guy on Phone: Hi, this is Chad, and I'd like to offer you an extended warranty on your Honda.
Me: OK.
GOP: It covers blablablablabla, and all you'd have to pay would be $250 upfront, and then $180 a month for 18 months, and then nothing more ever. How does that sound?
Me: Well, I'd have to talk to my husband...
(Guy hangs up.)

What a way to make a sale! I wonder how many people he talks to on the phone who make the decision WITHOUT discussing it with their spouse? Seriously.

Facebook

DH decided to get a FB page since he'd heard me talk about it. However, I am the one that added his photo, and added some friends to his page.
"He and I" are currently playing Scrabble and Scramble on FB. I put the quotes on because he despises word games. So, I log on as him, play a turn, log out, then log on as me and play a turn. And guess what! I'm winning!

Today

Did the dishes and unloaded/loaded the dishwasher while i talked to my sis and then Deanna.
Then I loaded up the car with dirty clothes and went to the laundromat down the street. I had to go there anyway because one of the mammals we live with decided to use DD1's bedspread as a urinal. So, I decided to go ahead and get a few loads done at the same time. It was nice. I got to read during the washing and drying, and then I got to chat with the gal that worked there while I folded.