Thursday, April 27, 2006

Let the Torture Commence

This was my thought as I entered the dressing room at Wal-Mart this morning. I am going on a trip this weekend with a pack of ladies from church to our friends' house on Matagorda Bay. I was on the lookout for a



swimsuit. :-0

I tried on 4 suits and found #3 to be satisfactory.

I also bought some toiletries and a few games to occupy our time. The games I'm bringing will be Texas Hold 'Em poker, Bunko, Phase 10 and plain playing cards. We'll also be bringing our quilting stuff to work on while we are there. Hopefully, we'll get the majority of the quilt for our pastor's daughters wedding finished this weekend. I need to start the cross stitch block showing who worked on the quilt. I really should have it done by the time we get to Port Alto. Better get moving, still have to finish laundry, pack, go to choir , and, and, and...

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Told the Family About the Tattoo.

Well, I finally told the mil about the tattoo. I was a bit worried about this because she doesn't think that women should have tattoos and really does not understand the whole mark your body for life thing. That's totally ok. There are things in this world that I do get either.

Needless to say, she was none too happy about the tattoo although she did appreciate the beauty of it. I asked her if she still loved me and she said that she'd always love me, but she wasn't sure she'd give her blessing. Dave & I both told her that we weren't asking for her blessing, but that we felt that she should hear about the tatt from us and not someone else first. I think that she appreciated that show of respect.

She started teasing me that I was giving her palpitations, "You're just trying to get rid of me so you won't have to take care of me anymore." I told her "No. I just got it for me and it had nothing to do with anybody else, just me. " I told her that I look at it everyday at it reminds me to be the person that God made. It inspires me to be a better person and Christian. I tell ya, there was a part during the process, when he was having to really dig in, that an image flashed through my mind of Christ getting his flesh ripped from his body during the flogging and I thought, "Girl, you better not complain cause you signed up for this(literally) and it's not a millionth of what Jesus went through." That pushed me on to the finish.

When we left she was still teasing me about the approval or dispproval of the tattoo, but she had a twinkle in her eye, so I knew that I was still in her heart. As long as she doesn't have to look at it all the time, she's cool with it.

Monday, I went to the old hometown to see my oldest friend. She and I have been close friends since Kindergarten. We got to spend the majority of the day together and our kids had a nice visit. She has two tattoos, so when I showed her mine, she loved it. Her daughter really liked it too.

She gave me a cd, notebook and a pretty bookmark for my birthday. The cd was Jamie O'Neal. She sings this song called "Somebody's Hero". I had heard of it from our pastor's daughter. It's about mom's and what all they do for their kids and how when they get old, the children become the care givers. She told me to listen to it and when I did, I balled like a baby. I've since had the cd in my player in the car and have listened to it constantly. It's a great cd. I love track four, "Devil on the Left". It's well worth the listen.

After my visit with C, I popped in on the Mum and Da. They took the boy and me to dinner. Man, we had the best queso and visit. I showed them my tattoo and they liked it. Mom liked it so much that she looked at it several times. Whew! My folks took it much better than Dave's mom, but then my two older sisters have tattoos so, they paved that path for me. My sister K and her daughter S really loved it as well. We sat in K's backyard and talked and laughed until almost 10 pm. I took ma and pa home and made it to my door by 11:30pm. Poor Owen had to go to school the next day. I'm not sure that he's caught up on his sleep yet, but that visit was well worth the deprivation. I didn't get to see my other sisters, but I plan to go back again soon, as I have a few things for C, so I'll show the other K and S when I get down there.

So, thus is the response of my family about the tattoo. In general I have gotten a really lovely response from most people. Lucky me. Well, got to take the boy to soccer practise. Blog at ya l8r!

Friday, April 21, 2006

'Bout MHN

5 Things in my fridge
1. Milk
2. Creme horns <--- deadly, but I love them. Keep up that walkin' Girl!
3. Grapes, Strawberries, Apples
4. Cheese
5. Dave's skin study meds

In My Closet
1. 2 trunks full of clothes that are by now too big. Yea!
2. jeans
3. Black Trousers
4. Pink sheer blouse
5. black wrap around dress

in my handbag
1. phone
2. notebook, in case inspiration strikes or I find a good recipe.
3. 3 lip glosses (Bare Essentials)
4. Wallet
5. loads of receipts

in my car
1. Stroller for my 'little charge'
2. books for the boy
3. booster seat for the boy
4. dental floss, you never know when your going to need it.
5. Killers' CD, plus a few others

in my DVD Collection
1. All the HP Movies, big surprise!
2. LOTR Series, again, big surprise!
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Connie and Carla <---- that movie is a HOOT!
5. Van Helsing

Enjoy!! Thanks Serendipity!!

When It Rains, It Pours

This morning I was awakened by some gnarly weather. Lighting, thunder and heavy rain swept through our area for about and hour and a half. I really thought that at one point I might have to call the fire department because of the lightening being so close to the house. I was sure that my house would catch fire. The boy was scared half to death by all the racket. David had wanted to take my car at 5 am this morning to go to work. I'm glad that I agreed. He asked before the storm started. Smart guy, always checking the weather before he heads out. :-)

The power went out for a short time, but at least my flower beds were well watered, especially since I didn't get to it yesterday. :-)



Well, a week ago, I bumped up my two mile walk to a three mile walk at least 5 days a week. I'm really enjoying it and have found that if I miss a day, like yesterday, I get grumpy. A grumpy Dreamer is not someone that ANYBODY wants to be around. I'll be walking later this morning. I've been pretty pleased with how fast my body is responding to the exercise. I'm shaping up quite nicely. The hubby is enjoying the benefits of my labour as well. I guess the boy is too, since I haven't fallen over with a heart attack at any of the practices or games. That's a good thing, right? That WAS the whole point of walking, to get in shape to be able to keep up with the kiddos.

The mil and I have to make desserts today for a LWML Zone Rally that is been hosted by our church on Sautrday morning. It should be fun to get to spend some time cooking with her. I'm so fortunate that my mil is not only a great mom, but a wonderful friend as well.

Well, I better get a move on. The day is waiting and I don't want to miss it!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

The Rant Zone: Harry Potter and Ignorant People

I read this article this morning and I was totally irritated by the complete ignorance and arrogance of alot of people . If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, "How can anyone comment on things that they know nothing about?"

This woman and others like her have never read the Harry Potter books and continue to say things are in them that will corrupt our children and our society. How about being a responsible adult and actually reading the the books instead of relying on someone else's opinion for your own. Have you not a mind of your own? Can you not read the material and come to your own conclusions?

That's what I did. I knew that the Harry Potter books were popular and I also knew that someday my child would want to read the books. So, as a responsible parent, I read the books first. I was pregnant when I read them and found nothing in them that would compromise my faith. I also know, since reading the material, that I would not let my son read them until I felt that he was secure enough in reality and his own Christian faith to know full well that these are works of FICTION! Fiction people!, not the devil.

I do know that Satan works in wylie ways and is quite sophisticated in his seduction, but these books are more about Harry's relationships and getting through his life than wizardry. If I thought that by reading these books my son would start doing blood sacrifices and worshiping the devil, you better believe that the books would no longer be in my house.

The woman stated that because she has four children, that she didn't have time to read the books. Yet she has time to read all of the stuff written against these books? She actually equated them to pornographical material. “I’ve put a lot of work into what I’ve studied and read. I think it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books, honestly. I don’t agree with what’s in them. I don’t have to read an entire pornographic magazine to know it’s obscene,” Mallory said.

Well, until she does "real" research on the matter, her opinion to me is a load of bunk. It's just a shame that she would deny a generation of children the joy of reading just because she doesn't like books that she has not and has no intention of reading. I've said this a million times, but here we go again; self-censorship is a wonderful thing!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday to me. This is what I did on my birthday....Happy Birthday to me. This is what I eluded to on my previous birthday post.

As most of you know, if you are a regular reader, I have wanted a tattoo for 15-16 years. It has been a decision that I have struggled with for a long time. I made the decision after a long year of really thinking it over and over and over, etc. On April 8, 2006 I received my tattoo from the best artist ever~ Aaron Dale at Shaw's Tattoo in Houston, Texas!
Before Tattoo
BTW: this is me with my new glasses. I promised a pic a long time ago.

Anticipation: Me waiting for Aaron to get his station set-up and ready for the tattoo.
Anticipation. :-)
They had me sign my life away to make sure that I knew what I was doing and was of sound mind and body(not crazy and no sicknesses or pregnant.)

Just before I got the tattoo, the hubby asked me, are you sure you want this and I told him, "Other things get under my skin, why not some ink?" Aaron chuckled and agreed with a head bob.

The hubby and I went in for a consultation with Aaron in December. I wanted to meet him and talk to him about a design. I told him that I was thinking of either a phoenix or a butterfly. That I'd like to have both, but had not seen the two together in a design. He asked me what it meant to me and why I wanted the tattoo.

I told him about the phoenix AND the butterfly being symbols of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I told him that I didn't want the tattoo to be overtly Christian. I wanted people to look at it and ask questions. I also wanted the phoenix and butterfly to be facing each other in acknowledgement of each other. I love how she is looking at the butterfly and holding it in her wing.

This is what he came up with.
Close-up of outline

We decided to make the phoenix a female eventhough they are traditionally male, but since I'm a girl, I wanted the design to be feminine. The above picture is the stencil for placement on my right shoulder. No pain, so far~so good.

Then came the first line, not too bad. I think that I can handle this. The whole time during the process I was thinking his hands are nice and warm. Since I have generous hippage, his legs were resting on my hips, lightly. Again, he was very warm and it made me feel quite secure and comfortable. He was confident, sure and most importantly~fast! He had the whole thing outlined in no time flat!
The Actual outline Tattooed

Now in reality, the pain was killing me, or at least I thought I was going to die. I was trying really hard not to be a wimp about how much it really hurt. Keep in mind that I didn't take any pain meds before, nor was I inebriated. Totally sober and of sound mind and body. It was strange, the pain that was just about unbearable wasn't where the needles were, it was at the end of whatever nerve he was getting close to. I tried to make a little small talk, but I was quietly groaning for most of the tattoo. It took 2 hours for him start-to-finish. He took a couple of smoke breaks, but I wasn't going to ask for a break. It's better to get those things overwith as soon as possible. The hubby was trying to make conversation, but I told him that it was just like when the boy was born, "Don't touch me and don't expect me to talk back." Not trying to be mean, but I'm not a "touchy" person and when I am in pain, I don't want to be touched and unlike me at any other time, I am quiet. <----- Shocked, right??? Here's what it looked like when he was filling her in.
Colouring it in
Yep, that's my blood and a lot of ink.

I've been rubbing the tatt down with A&D ointment four times a day. Well really, the boy and the hubby have been doing this for me since I can't reach. The boy thinks that the tatt is really cool and beautiful. He had a lot of questions about the design, so I explained it all for him. It was just the reaction that I wanted from the tattoo. Here's is the mostly healed, final product:
Infinite Blogger
Click on the picture to get a better view. This was one of the better pics. I'll have the hubby take a better one after she is completely healed and not peeling anymore.

Seriously, if you want a tattoo and you are in the Houston area, go to Aaron Dale at Shaw's Tattoo on Westheimer in the Montrose area. It's a very clean shop with a great relaxed vibe and Aaron is the Man!!!! He's the only man I'll ever let touch my naked skin, besides the hubby, of course! ;-D

It's a Mystery...

Ok, so I was looking around on classmates.com the other day and had noticed how many people from my hometown, population 17,458 or so still live there. It's a small town with not much to offer. Heck, I got out of there as quickly as possible. I still have a few friends that live there and wonder why they came back. The last two years that I lived in my hometown, I was never IN my hometown.

So I'm just curious, why would anyone want to live in a small town where there is basically nothing to do, and more crime per capita than the fourth largest city in the nation??? It's a mystery to me...

Monday, April 10, 2006

From This Side... 37 Doesn't Look So Bad

Yesterday I turned 37 years old. 37 was a number that never occured to me before. I don't think that I saw past twenty-five. It's not that I didn't think that I would make it this far, but the thought of being a "real" grown-up never even entered my thoughts.

When I turned 31 I got pregnant with my son. It was a good birthday, I was surrounded by my friends singing kareoke at a place which is now a parking lot, sippin' on margaritas. I took one sip from that drink and traded with one of our friends drinks, he had water. The drink was unusually strong that night and I knew that it was a posibility that I might be pregnant. That was a great birthday.

My birthday celebrations started on Friday. My car is FINALLY repaired.

Here's the low-down on ALL of the freaking repairs:
1. New Heat Sensor
2. I had them change the oil & replace a bum turn signal while they were at it.
3. They replaced the Serpantine Belt.
4. New Water Pump.
5. New Radiator.
6. New Computer that runs the engine, a/c and transmission.

The car runs better than she has since she over heated last year trying to escape from Hurricane Rita. Thank God that most of the repairs were covered under the "Extra-Care" Warranty. We only had to fork over a little over $300. Not too bad for all the work that they did. They had the car for almost two whole weeks trying to figure out the problem. That didn't count the week they had it in the body shop from the wreck on March 16th. I'm so very glad to have my car back.

Saturday was the first game of our soccer season. So, what was the very FIRST thing that I did? I accidently backed into the corner bumper of one of my kids parents vehicles. Not a scratch on his blazer, but my corner bumper is now concave. No biggie, he was very nice about it and since they didn't have any damage, he said not to worry about it. Again, thank you God... The kids scored two goals and blocked two goals and had a blast. They ran their little legs right off, mine too.!

Saturday night, Dave took me out on a date. We spent two hours together of which I will discuss at a later date, stay tuned... and then we went to Katz' for dinner and came home and went to sleep(I had an early call at church on Sunday.)

Sunday afternoon we went to a friends house for a couples gathering . It was a blast and they surprised me with a card and a birthday cake. I almost cried and I know that I turned several shades of red. It was great. I recieved phone calls from my sisters, all of them, :-) and my parents, which was really nice. I hadn't talked to my family in a while, so it was nice to catch up with them.

I know that I am only two days into 37, but so far, it's pretty good. 'Night.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Holy Bajeezus!

Ok. So I got my car back on Monday, Tuesday morning it flaked out on me AGAIN! They've had the car forever and can't figure out what is causing the problem. At least my extended warrenty covered a rental car. I'm grateful to have the car, but all they had were gas guzzlers. I put $20 in that car and it only filled it half way up. I tell ya, I won't be buying a Ford Taurus anytime soon.

Yesterday was our first real practice. Disaster, I tell you, it was a disaster! When we got to the field, all of the practice fields were taken. We stood around for about 12 minutes trying to figure out a place to go. We ended up in western BFE, good thing I bought extra cones the night before. With kids, If you don't have their attention those first ten minutes, you might as well go home.

We did run a few drills and then had a scrimmage against each other. Now that I have a full team(8), we were able to play four on four just like a real game. They did pretty well and there are a few dads that actually PLAY soccer, so they were able to teach the finer points. We have one boy on the team who really seems to know what he is doing. He handles the ball really well and had good footwork. One of our girls is particularly talented too. Her mom is my assistant coach and she was pleasantly suprised as well.

Last night they received their uniforms. Our colors are Lime Green and Navy. The kids looked so cute with the shirts on! They were so excited. We lined them up smallest to largest and I had each child tell me what number was on the back of the shirt and that was their number and all the parents and kids cheered for each player. It was a great moment really. The kids were really happy and that's the whole point of this fun, fair, positive soccer, that the customers(the kids) are happy. I may not be great at soccer, but I know how to make kids happy. If the kids are happy, then the parents will be happy.

Our first game is Saturday morning at 10:30 am. We will be meeting at 9:30 at a nearby grocery store parking lot to decorate our vehicles and all travel to the park together, honking our horns all the way in a little "make-shift" parade. The kids will love it. :-) I can't wait to see all the happy, smiling faces when they all have their shirts on. It will be even better when we have our team name "Tigers" on the shirts.

I told them when they got their shirts that when we play our game they'll want to pass the ball to the kids that have the same shirt as they do. I'll need to get some lime green balloons to put on the goal, so the little ones will know which goal to kick the ball into. "Go kick the ball to the green balloon!" "Great shot!" I can't wait! :-D

Monday, April 03, 2006

The Life of the Soccer Mom!

Holy Mole! It's been busy around here! The boy started violin last week and soccer this past Sunday. I am his coach and the coach for 7 other really cute kids, 6 boys and 2 girls AND....15 PARENTS. It's not the kids that concern me, it's the parents.

The Fun, Fair, Positive Soccer League has very specific guidelines about behavior towards the children, nothing negative. Absolutely NOTHING negative. If you are caught being mean or debasing towards a child, you might as well start running and never come back. You can't even point at a child. They are deadly serious about this.

I worked in the childcare industry for almost a decade, so this is not a new thing for me, I just have to keep an ear open for the parents. So far, there hasn't been an issue, but yesterday was our first practice.

I found a team manager and she's already made my life SO much easier. She has the hard job; all I have to do is teach the kids how to dribble and kick. She's got to get the paperwork together, remind the parents about the practices, get the drink schedule done, get the shirts and pictures situated and the after season party together too. She gets a special gift at the end of the season. I don't know what it is, but it better be an all expenses paid trip to L.A. to get her hair done by Jonathan Antin, because she'll have EARNED that baby!

I am so freaking glad that I started walking when I did. Not only did I NOT fall on the ground having a heart attack while keeping up with my team, I actually surpassed them in the energy department. I was ready to go, but they were getting tired. Imagine, 5 year olds getting tired after playing for a solid 45 minutes of kicking and chasing a ball around, the nerve... ;-)

They really were awesome and I made sure that I heaped the praise on the kiddos AND the parents. They were out there running around too. 'You come to me and expect me to take care of your kids while you stand by and watch??? Uh-Uh, you gonna get your booty out there and WORK Baby!' Everybody had great attitudes, so it was a delight working with all those who showed up. Wednesday we have our next practise and Saturday, we play our first game. We have a parade before the game to get all the kids psyched! I think this is going to be alot of fun. :-) If for nothing else, it has gotten me walking again & I feel great! Already my smaller jeans are getting too big! Yay!

The boys' violin lessons are getting pretty involved. It's a good thing that I know a bit about music and theory, because if I didn't, we'd have a problem. He has to learn how to clap his rhythm, do his drills, have ear training, build his bow arm muscles and violin hand muscles and other things that I am SURE that I am forgetting.


I tell ya, between soccer, violin, walking two miles 6 days a week and keeping Kenny, NOTHING ELSE gets done around here. I need a maid! I'm so very glad that I only have one more month and I'll no longer be leading the Sunday School Kids Choir. Whew!



OH! AND AFTER 14 DAYS: I FINALLY GOT MY CAR BACK!!!

You are thinking, What the heck???
Ok. I had the wreck on March 16. It took a week to get my car back, actually 8 days. Then the next Wednesday while driving southbound on Hwy 59 towards Sugarland to pick the boy up from school at 60 or so mph the engine cuts and the starburst ! light flashes and the engine goes again. The hubby is driving, so I look the light up in the owners' manual. It says to take to shop immediately! Post Haste, people! So, we took the car back to the shop. They changed out what they thought was a bad heat sensor and gave it back to me on Thursday. Great!

Thursday night coming home from Choir, it does it again. Friday morning the mil watches the boys and I take it back to the shop. 12:30pm rolls around and they decide that they better get me a cab home because they can't figure it out. Saturday morning I call, "Mister car repair man, how is my car? My one and ONLY car?" "Well, Mrs. MHN for Short, our technician can't figure it out." They were going to send the radiator to a radiator shop to have it boiled, but called Ford and they told them to replace the radiator. Darn good thing we still have that extended extra care warranty in effect, it would have cost us over $1200 to get my car outta hock. I'm SO glad we bought that. It has saved our butts a couple of times. So, I finally got my car back. The case manager and I figured that it must have been residual damage from the car over heating while trying to escape a hurricane that never hit us. That was one expensive storm for those of us who tried to leave. Duck that, I'm waiting the next one out! Maybe...