Book Club for October WINNER

Book Club For October WINNER

The winner is Laurie! Email me your address and I'll get the book mailed out for you!

October Yard Update

Can you believe October is over already!!

This month we added some tree stakes after the huge wind storm we had. 

The petunias either have or are in the process of going to seed. I pulled out a bunch of them yesterday.

Little alyssum seedlings are popping up all over.

I took a few out of the middle of the bricks and replanted them in "better" places.

I still need to pull out the grass on the right there, that's the driveway area that we are going to rock.

Sadly my landscape place I was getting all my rock from just closed!!

Hopefully I can find another one close by that has the same rock.

Still working on the area on the right here.

The plan is for bricks in that framed in area with the walkway going to it in the little rocks.

I'm feeling so domestic tonight!

No wonder I'm tired!!

Won't you be my neighbor...

I was outside working in my yard, which is kind of a mess because I didn't water enough in the last week and we had 2 days of non stop nasty wind. The neighbor boy was out and he had two other little boys out there with him, visiting I assume. My son went over there and next thing I heard was the neighbor boy yelling at my son to go home!!  Of course my boy was crushed, as any kid would. I wanted to go yell at him to stop being a nasty little boy with no manners. Instead I told Trevor that the next time he wants to come to OUR house he'll have to go home. Stupid little brat.

Anyhow, Trevor eventually went in the house and my attention was turned to the F BOMBS being yelled back and forth and sideways across the way. I swear our neighbor over there used to never make any noise and in the last couple years he's hanging out with some rowdy boys (like my age and the neighbor is my dad's age) and they party it up and rev up their motorcycles and whoop and holler. Which is fine. I guess. But when it's around 5:00 and kids are playing out in their yards should they have to hear people shouting the "N" word at eachother (not sure where that one came from) and F this and F that non stop? I really wanted to go over there and tell them to mellow it out a bit!!

Book Club for October

Sam's Letters To Jennifer

I give it a rating of

YES FIVE!!

This was a great book!! Everyone in book club thought it was great. It's a really quick read with short chapters and it's not too long. Although you will need a box of tissue next to you while you read it, so probably best for huddled up on the couch with a blanket and not in the waiting room of a Dr's office.

Here's a bit about it from Amazon.com's site (noted above)

After the success of Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas (2001), it should surprise no one that Patterson is trying his hand at another romantic tale, and this one is every bit as enjoyable as its predecessor. Jennifer, a Chicago Tribune columnist who's still mourning the death of her beloved husband, Danny, is jolted out of her lonely life when she receives news that her grandmother, Sam, has taken a fall and is now in a coma. Racing up to Lake Geneva to be by her grandmother's bedside, Jennifer discovers a packet of letters at Sam's house, which are addressed to her. They are from Sam; in them, Sam tells Jennifer that her husband was not the great love of her life. Instead, Sam was swept off her feet by a man she calls "Doc," whom she still loves to this day. As Jennifer learns some shocking secrets about her grandmother, she finds herself falling under the spell of a handsome neighbor, Brendan. Jennifer is surprised to find she is able to love again after Danny, but just when you think Jennifer's life can't be touched by any more tragedy, she learns a sad secret about Brendan. Patterson is infamous for surprising his readers, though, and the ending to this novel is unexpected, touching, and satisfying. Another winner from Patterson, sure to draw the same audience as Suzanne's Diary. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

I have a copy of this book JUST for you!! Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner on Friday.

Next up??

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

I JUST finished reading it but I'll save my review for next month after my book club meets, I'm sure we will have some interesting conversation about it!

Family Reunions are F-U-N!!

So my husband's family doesn't get together very often. I always thought it was odd that no one really came around for birthdays or holidays. Usually it's just us and maybe my brother in law, and of course his sister that lives with his parents. So that's 3 out of 6 kids. Hardly any grandkids or even GREAT grandkids. I can't imagine not seeing my family more than once a year or less!!

His nephew decided to host a family reunion, calling it the "1st annual" which I think is a great idea! We all seem to have a nice time when we do get together. Originally it was going to be in our city at a park but apparently my mother in law thought it would be too cold (she gets cold when it's 115 outside). SO they moved it to their home, which is about 45 minutes away, which is not a big deal unless you are 80 and only go to the grocery store that is 2 blocks away once a week and that's the only time you leave the house.

I had tried to get my husband or my sil to drive his parents, but my father in law wouldn't give up the keys. Which I KNOW has got to be a horrible feeling. Your kids telling you that you are too old to drive, can you imagine??  So somehow the plan came about that my sister in law would ride with them. Somehow we ended up at the in laws house waiting for my sister in law to get there (which I KNEW she would be late and she was, over an hour!!). So not off to such a great start. Finally get on the road, us in front, fil driving behind and my husband's nephew behind my fil.

We had printed out directions, which were almost immediately discarded because my husband didn't want to take the first turn. Soo we drove along and of course made wrong turn, at which time I pulled out my phone, which has GPS and got us eventually  (with my husband freaking out!) onto the highway and then before long we were there. And then somehow it was all MY fault that we took a wrong turn?? Weird.

So the party itself was fun. Didn't do too much visiting with my mother in law or her girls because they were all sitting in a tight circle in the back yard chain smoking. It was like sitting in the line of a camp fire with all the smoke. I pretty much abandoned them and hung out with all the "married in's" lol. Lots of great ladies!!

We took a few pictures, although no great ones from me since I still need to buy a camera! Waiting for the hot smoking Christmas deals to get myself a new one.

Here is one that someone else took. This is everyone that showed up minus 3 people that stepped out.

Oh and did I mention that my brother in law left right after we got there? Apparently he had another party to go to :( Stinks that we ended up being 2 1/2 hours late so didn't get a picture with him and my niece. One sister didn't come also. So that's 4 children that showed up. I tried to get a sibling picture but they wouldn't do it. WTH? 

Here is a "grandchildren's" picture

Not a great picture and of course there are some missing that didn't show up.

There were lots of little kids there!

Jessica hit it off with her cousin "Jessica" (mine is older!). Kind of funny they were both wearing the exact same color shirt. Melissa said she needs more girl cousins although she did play with the little blonde. These kids are all 2nd cousins to mine.

When we got in the car to go home I asked hubby if he knew the way and he said "kind of" and I told him that I wasn't guiding him so hope he could figure it out (payback's a bitch!). We did the caravan thing again and only had to do one turn around for a street we missed. We were almost home when we see flashing lights in the rear view mirror. I was like "which one of us is getting pulled over?" Turns out it was my fil because he ran a stop sign. He was so paranoid about losing us he was running all the stop signs so no one would get between his car and ours. He got lucky and got off with a warning.

So we made it home, almost without anything bad happening!! Although my SIL said that next time she is driving lol.

(PS where's the spell check on the updated blogger thing??)

Tree Mess

We had this HUGE tree in our backyard. It was always messy but it was pretty and provided a ton of shade before it DIED.

So not fair!! I tried to get PG&E to come out and top it since the power lines ran through it but they wouldn't since it wasn't touching the highest lines. BUMMER!

My retired (but not old lol) neighbor volunteered to cut it down and when I came home from work the other day he was almost done topping it off!

The branches were a huge gnarled mess.

He got everything cut off but the stumps (they are still probably 10 feet tall). I think he might be done since he didn't come back today. I'm going to get him a gift card to somewhere, I'm thinking the Bass Pro Shops for all his hard work!

Unfortunetly now I have this HUGE pile of tree crap to deal with. I called a rental company to find out how much it would be to rent a chipper and it's $175 for 24 hours. Might be cheaper than 20 loads to the dump...

Also called a few tree service places but so far no calls back. We'll see how much they will charge to get rid of it all. I think it is going to be way too much work to try and take it all to the dumps ourselves.

My poor old rusty shed is going  to have to either get a make over or get replaced now, it really stands out without that big tree covering it up!

Around the Yard

Yesterday I came home from work and went right in the yard. It was such a nice day, perfect working in the yard weather! I worked out there for a few hours and TA DA!!

Finally made it all around the front section!! I need to go a little deeper before I put the brick edging in but it felt great to get as far as I did. I'm thinking about putting some more of the shrubs I have on the front walk way area along the left side there. I have one I picked up cheap a few months ago and never planted. I will need to buy 4 more I think. If I put them there I'll have to move the one geranium that is being hidden by my big black bucket there. I'll just move it over a bit I guess! I'm feeling like a trip to Home Depot is in order! I was thinking last night, Home Depot is like Toys R Us for grown ups!!

Do you write in cursive?

Today I was addressing some envelopes at work. Which got me thinking. I hardly ever write anything anymore. The only thing I ever really write out is my signature, and I've shortened that on everything but my checks, which I also hardly ever write anymore!

Remeber how your Grandma used to write and it looked almost like everyone else's Grandma's writing? I think the fine art of cursive has gone by the wayside. It's kind of sad but it sure is faster to type things out isn't it!

Here's an interesting article. Cursive Writing: A Fading Skill

Famoso Raceway Weekend

This weekend we drove down to the Bakerfield area (about 3 hours) to go to the Famoso Raceway . A guy that Scott knows from work (that comes into his shop) races those big long drag race cars. Sorry can't remember the name but they are really long and REALLY loud.

We started off by leaving not too long after the kids went to school on Friday and stopped for breakfast not too long after we got on the road. Then we made the trek down there with nothing exciting happening. Lots of chatting and getting a long just fine, which was great!!

We got to the hotel, the Marriott Convention Center without too much excitement, even though Google Maps took us through the scenic route to get there. When I checked in I was asked how I wanted to pay for the room. I thought I had already paid for it through AAA since I put in my credit card and it was approved and such when I booked it. I reluctantly gave the info again and then when I got up to the room I called AAA and the hotel was correct that they just used my credit card to hold the room and didn't actually charge it.

Back to the room. As soon as we got inside we were hit with a musty smell. Odd since everything was so nice, big beautiful bed and nice and clean. I never did find the source of the smell. I'm wondering if it was in the air conditioning or something.

After taking our stuff to the hotel and getting situated we went out to the raceway where we bought 3 day passes for $55 each. OUCH. But it's his birthday weekend so it's ok!! Got our tickets and walked around until we found racer guy in line waiting for his turn to qualify. It was going to be awhile so we walked around and checked out all the cars in the Hot Rod area. Lots of cool looking cars!!

We stuck around and watched a few drag races but there seemed to be more time in between the races cleaning up accidents and spills than actual races!! At one point we went over and talked to the racer guy and his girl friend and Scott got to help reload the parachutes on his race car. Kind of cool. I felt slightly out of place just standing around by their race car just watching. Plus it was hot so I was pretty happy when they said I could sit in their chairs under their shade tent.

So that was about the excitement at the track on Friday. Well if you don't count splitting an $8 tri tip sandwich. Those places sure know how to hit you with the expensive food.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped and had dinner at Marie Callenders. I had a yummy Tostada Salad and a cup of chili and some cornbread. It was YUMMM-O!! Scott had the soup and salad.


Saturday we got up nice and early (since someone fell asleep so early they were up nice and early!), and hit McD's for some breakfast.  Off to the race track. IT'S  HOT. HOT HOT HOT. I made it a few hours then thought that I was going to die. I finally talk him into taking me back to the hotel and tell him he can come back after he drops me off (hotel is like 20 miles away). So he does. I take a nap. Watch TV. Play on my phone. Decide I'm starving.

Take a dollar and some change out to the lobby and go find the soda machine I saw. Ick Pepsi. Oh well it's good enough. Put my dollar in, it takes it, put my change in, fucker spits it out. Wouldn't give me my dollar back OR a freaking soda. FINE WHATEVER. Get in the elevator and go down to the lobby. Check out menu for restaurant. Every dish is $20. Walk down the street and the only place with any type of food is a bar. Um no not going there by myself all sunburned and looking beat up. Back up to the hotel room. Text Scott asking if he's planning on staying much longer?? Did he eat dinner?? Says not much longer, he'll pick me up and we'll go eat.

HOURS later he finally gets there. Of course I'm totally watching Slumdog Millionaire (that I've never seen before). Finally drag myself away from the movie and we head out to find something to eat. Kind of looking for a Denny's. Can't find one but found an El Torito's. Had a nice dinner (at 9:30!). Go back to the room.
Sunday get up, lay around watching TV. He wants to go to the race track to get his "money's worth" since we bought the 3 day pass. We go and stay for about an hour and it's even more hot than the day before so thankfully he decided to not hang around too long. He got his souveneir t-shirt and we are on our way home. WOOPPEEEE

So that was my nice "mini vacation".

Glad to be home!!

Training Bras, not for your average girl...

So today we were in Wal Mart and I decided to finally look for one of these things for my 10 year old.

She wanted something with a little padding so it would be more comfortable. (so she says). So we make our way over to the girl's training bra section. What we found was much more like this



WHERE are the nice white slightly padded full NON PUSH UP TRAINING bras???

Holy shit!! Who buys their little girls a big fat padded push up bra? After digging around I finally found some that weren't full preteen hooker types.

I swear it's scary how early they try to market sex and hooker styles to little girls.

Mudtastic

Soo yesterday the kids decided to go out and play in the mud.

My first instinct was NO don't mess up the driveway!!

I spent a lot of time smoothing it all out over the summer.

But it was already messed up in a few places anyways,

and I can fix it again, and just look at how much fun they had!!

What you don't see here is that it was Jessica's idea. I didn't get any pictures of her in the mud though.

And he was WAY worse when they were actually done lol.

I WILL NOT be working in the yard today!!

We are getting pounded by a storm!! Weird thing is that the wind is blowing from the opposite direction than it usually does. Guess it's time to get some heavy duty tree stakes. I'm hoping it doesn't pull it all the way over!! The whole driveway is a mud pit. I was hoping to have gravel down before the rains!! It's only supposed to rain today and tomorrow so that's definitly going to have to be a goal to get done in the next couple weeks!!! I'm kind of thinking I should have went to the store yesterday. It's way too miserable to go to town now. I think I'll just run to the little store to get some milk and necessities.

Pumpkin Patch Killed My Ass

Dell Osso Farms Pumpkin Patch

(this is the lame ride around the corn field-make sure you wear a sports bra with extra support!,

Now they have an awesome train but you had to pay extra for it, sucks!)

Oh man we went to the Pumpkin Patch today. Am I the only Mom who's cheering that their kid's school only does the the annual field trip to the Pumpkin Patch until they are in 2nd grade?? That means only ONE MORE YEAR. whoooohhoooooo

(This was new!! Had to pay extra for the "pillow jump" $2 for 5 minutes or $5 for all day, kids liked it for 5 minutes!)


Don't tell my Mom I said that, she LURVS to take the kids to all things holiday. She joined me today and brought my nephew with her since his school is on fall break. Which was cool because then I didn't have to find someone to hang out with and Trevor had someone to play with without us having to hang around other kids/parents.

(If you read the signs it says not to sit on the pumpkins, course they can't read so it's not my fault!)

What? I'm not anti-social..

(Once again afraid of getting attacked by the goats lol, he ended up giving me the food since they scare the crap out of him when he's holding it and they get aggressive)

Anyhow, lucky for us it wasn't blazing ass hot like it was last year.
I just looked at that post and all the pictures from last year look like all the pictures from this year only the kids are a little taller. That's what sucks about going to the same place every year.

Good size pumpkins for the kids this year, that's a PLUS!!


Don't get me wrong, it was fun for the first hour or so. For the last two hours we once again found ourselves in the free play area sitting on the hard ass benches waiting for time to move move move along so it would be time to go lol.

Trikes suck, they are all messed up, Trevor did one lap, screamed that he "hates these bikes!!" and was done lol


The kids had a blast though. Two hours in a jumpy house?? AWESOME.

Trevor's so tired I'm surprised he hasn't passed out yet.

Busy Weekend!

This weekend was fun!


Saturday morning I got up and worked in the yard a bit. Around 2 I took Melissa and Trevor to their school carnival. I was signed up to work in the class booths so I spent most of my time in there working. It's fun seeing all the kids and how much they have grown. Trevor won 4 gold fish and he was SO excited, so cute!



Sunday Scott and I went to Home Depot and got the wood to frame out he corner section of the front yard.

Remember way back when when I posted my plan for the front yard? and you all thought I was nuts?? Yeah I'm still nuts!




This is what we are doing to some degree, It's going to be a bit different but the basic design. We are going to put bricks as the base. and the rock walking out to the sitting area



It's started!!

Now I've ran out of time, I'm going to the pumpkin patch with Trevor, I bet you are jealous!!

Dr. Laura wants you to put out, it fixes everything.

I've been listening to Dr. Laura on the radio at work the last week or so. For the most part she is pretty interesting to listen to. It cracks me up how some people just need someone to tell them to stop being stupid, suck it up and put your big girl panties on.

Although..

I think it was yesterday, she had a caller who was a stay at home mom. Her husband has been going to school and is just about done. The SAHM also goes to school part time. Her husband has been pressuring her to go back to school FULL TIME.

Dr. Laura told her that she should tell him she isn't going to do it, since her place is at home with the kids (small children) and that if she goes to school at night she won't be seeing her husband and that's not a good thing.

Which was all understandable.

But THEN she tells her right before she hangs up that she needs to "give her husband more sex" so that he won't want her to go to school.

I was like WHAT THE HELL??

Seriously I don't get what giving your husband more sex has to do with going to school. It's NOT the answer to everything unfortunetly. She never did say that their sex life was lacking.

I think it's really sad that people think that the whole reason a husband is "not happy" about any kind of situation in a marriage is because the wife "isn't putting out"!

And I think hanging up on the caller right after she said that was total chicken shit!

Other than that I kind of like the show... :)

Food for thought

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me
that these obstacles were my life."

from Sams letters to Jennifer by James Patterson

Being 6 is hard work!!

The other day Trevor came home and he was SOOO mad and cranky. I tried to pretend I didn't hear him and headed for my garden. I was kneeling down pulling off the expired petunia blossoms when he comes outside.

YOU FORGOT TO GIVE ME A DRINK FOR LUNCH!!!!!

I did? I'm sorry I must have forgot to put it in there.

YEAH!! I AND I WAS THRISTY!!!

I'm sorry

AND I DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DRINK :SOB:

AND JENNY (the bus driver) SHE TOOK MY TOY!!

She took your toy?

YEAH AND RALPH TOOK MY TOY AND THEN JENNY, SHE TOOK IT!!! :SOB SOB:

Why did the bus driver take your toy?? Was it today?

:SOB: NO IT WAS WHEN SCHOOL STARTED!!!!!

Today?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :SOB SOB: ANDYOUDIDN'T PACK ME A DRINK!!!! AND I WAS THIRSTY!!!!

Ummm ok.... so let me get this straight. The bus driver took your toy when you first started back to school and I can't really do anything about it now. I'm really sorry I forgot to pack you a drink...

AND I'M HUNGRY!!! ANDTHERE'SNOTHINGTOEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I guess we will go to the store. Go get your shoes..

So we we went to town, just him and me. He decided he needed some Burger King so we headed there. He ate and stopped sobbing for the first time since he got home from school. Sheesh, it's rough being 6, especially if your mom forgets to pack your drink in your lunch!! What a slacker!!

After his "snack" we went to Costco and bought some food (and drinks!) and then on the way home he took some pictures with my phone. He loves playing with the camera on my phone.

Leaving the shopping center
Pumpkin Farm on the way home, we grow most of the world's pumpkins right here in the valley!
Oh look, bird crap on the sunroof
The SUN (he took about 10 pictures of the sun)

Cows up ahead

See the mountains??
Ummm silage.. Cows!!
Cheese
Grapes
The river
Our "corner store"
Toy from Burger King lol


Almost home!!

Amazing how much better he felt after eating and having some mom time!!