June 29

I have been sooo sooooo crabby today. I'm not even sure why. I was bored to death all day, even told the boys I was going to start working seven days a week because at least it was something to do. Thing is, I had plenty that I could have done today?! Tried to do one thing, got bored, paced around. Tried to do something else, got bored, thought about other things I could do, paced around. Went back to other things, gave up, paced around. On and on, over and over, all day long. And then of course I got mad at myself for how much of my time is being completely wasted, my life just ticking by. But whatever, it's a funk I just can't get out of once it starts. Tomorrow is a work day so things should be fine...until I think about all the things at home I could be, or should have been doing.

BLEAH!!!

Tried to read my new book last night, but only got a couple pages into it. I'm not sure what I thought it would be like but so far it's surprisingly not what I apparently expected. I'll try to read more tonight, might even go to bed early since I'm so bored and crabby anyway.

One thing I did today was move my hummingbird feeder closer to the window. I wasn't sure if they'd still come to it, being so close to the house now, but after a couple hours all my feathered friends had returned. And it's close enough now that I can take pictures. They're still not high quality, crystal clear because I'm still looking through a screen, but I thought they were pretty good for Day One.






Hubby is still alive, so I guess he's ok after his accident. He still hasn't needed any pain meds, but he did say he couldn't sleep last night and wasn't sure why. He wore one of his old skullcaps to work today. When he got home this evening and took the cap off I got a glimpse of the wound and had one of those whole body shudder type feelings. It just looks so Frankensteinish...all those big ol' staples. Icky.

Well, I'm still crabby and still don't know why, so I'm going to go play UO before giving up and trying to read.

June 28 - book review

(I used to have a pic of the book's cover included but it was huge, and for some reason this particular post keeps getting spam comments.  The only thing I can think of is that it might be related to the photo site.)
 
A Wedding in December (2005) by Anita Shreve
The author of the New York Times bestseller Light on Snow returns with a powerful new novel about old friends, a wedding, and a gathering that will change their lives. At an inn in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, seven former schoolmates gather for a wedding. Nora, the owner of the inn, has recently had to reinvent her life following the death of her husband. Avery, who still hears echoes from a horrific event at Kidd Academy twenty-six years ago, has made a life for himself in Toronto with his wife and two sons. Agnes, now a history teacher at Kidd is a still-single woman who longs to tell a secret she cannot reveal to the others, a secret that would stun them all. Bridget, the mother of a 15-year-old boy, has agreed to marry Bill, an old high school lover whom she has recently re-met, despite uncertainties about her health and future. Indeed, it is Bill who passionately wants this wedding and who has brought everyone together for an astonishing weekend of revelation and recrimination, forgiveness and redemption. This is Anita Shreve's most ambitious and moving novel to date, probing into human motivation with the grace and skill that have made her "one of the finest novelists of her time" (Boston Herald).

Finished reading this book last night, and quite liked it. Enough that I plan to have a look at her other books. The story was tame, rather mellow...no violence, no monsters, no huge tragedies, no graphic sex...but still emotional. While there were times it seemed maybe too monotone, like you just wanted someone to have a raging tantrum or *something* and sometimes the characters come across almost distant and cold, but somewhere along the way I found I was totally sucked into their stories. I was reading on my breaks at work, as usual, but was finding I didn't want to put the book down. I couldn't wait for my next break. I even started reading at home cuz I had to know how these people ended up. It's been rare lately that I bother to read at home. It was a fairly quick read too. I recommend it if you want a good leisurely read.

My sister brought me several books when she was here for Ty's party. Tonight I will be starting Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt. I haven't seen the movie either, and really know very little about it. I'm excited to finally be reading it.

And off I go to start.

June 28

I'd been meaning to write about hubby's greenhouse project today anyway, but it's going to be a far different story than what I'd intended.

A bit of background first. When we bought this place there was a small, roofless building in the back yard. It still had the cement block walls, and a cement slab floor. We figured it had been a shed or something back in the day. A few years later we knocked the walls down because our boys were small, and the walls were not stable. We didn't have any plans for that partial building and we didn't want the boys getting hurt if they were playing around it. The floor slab has remained all these years.

More recently I'd been imagining a really cool patio type thing out on that slab, nice outdoor furniture, one of those fire pit things. It was beautiful in my mind. Hubby had visions of a greenhouse there. We've tried several times to have a garden and are never diligent enough to be successful. We get a few radishes, a few carrots, but the weeds and rabbits win in the end. We've tried turning our attention to growing flowers, with even less luck. So for whatever reason, hubby decided a greenhouse is what we need. He has ideas of container gardening. I was like, ok whatever...and this year gave in to his crazy plans.



He's been building here and there the last few weeks, whenever the weather is decent and he has time. Today we had no plans, it was sunny and fairly warm, so he got an early start. But it was windy today...

He had said earlier that he'd need help when it was time to get the rafters in place. He wasn't to that point yet so I was mowing the lawn and puttering around the yard. The boys were in the house playing Warcraft or something. I finished mowing, went to check hubby's progress, sat in a lawn chair and watched him work for a bit, then went into the house to get a drink and a bite to eat. Actually, now that I think about it, Ty had been gone...he'd just come back from a quickie trip into town for something and was still out by his car. So, I'd gotten my drink/snack and was heading back outside, had just stepped through the kitchen door when I heard hubby yell what I thought was "Ty!" I figured he was calling him for help with the rafters. I glanced out the window in our back entryway room and noticed hubby was down on the ground and my first thought was that he'd dropped something. Then I heard him yell again only it wasn't "Ty!" It was...."Help!"

Holy shit. I took off, flew across the yard and over to where he was. I get there and see he's kinda on his hands and knees but has his hand pressed on the side of his face and blood is everywhere. Oh.My.God. I mean, everywhere...running down his hand, his arm, his face, dripping in pools on the grass.

"What happened?!" I demanded, looking around frantically to see if there is some lingering danger. He tells me in a frantic way that the wind knocked the rafter down and it whacked him right in the head, and that he needed a hospital because it needs stitches. Ty had come running too, whether he heard the yell or just saw me running I don't know. He ran back to the house and grabbed a towel.

"Do we drive or call 911?" I asked, doing a frantic little 'what do I do' dance step. I had not actually seen the injury yet but for the amount of blood flowing and the fact that hubby was on the ground and mildy panicked himself, I wasn't sure what we were dealing with. Ty ran back with the towel and hubby pressed it to his head and said we'd better just drive. We helped him up and he was able to walk to the car himself. Ty stayed home to let Casey know what was going on. I was doing 70mph down our deer infested little country backroads in a mad dash to the hospital, about 12 miles away. Getting stopped for speeding didn't matter because one look at hubby and we probably would have gotten an escort the rest of the way. lol

Anyway, we get to the hospital and they take him right back. They got him cleaned up a bit, asked him the routine questions, finally got a look at the actual cut and said it was big, and deep. The doctor himself finally came in and looked and asked more questions, then decided it would need staples instead of stitches. They told hubby shots to numb it would hurt more than the staple process so he was not numbed. I didn't watch. Gah. In the end he got six staples to close the 6cm gash on the left side of his head. He also got a tetanus shot.

They did not do any xray or scans, and that secretly freaked me out. Hello, does Natasha Richardson ring a bell???? The doctor had said that hubby was not showing any signs or symptoms of anything more severe, and they told us (and gave a paper about) what to watch for. He wrote two prescriptions for pain, in case hubby needed something. They gave him a big dose of ibuprofen while he was there. We decided not to fill the prescriptions and see how it goes. It's been about seven hours now and hubby hasn't taken any other meds, so we should be ok.



The doctor told him to take it easy the rest of the day. He's been watching TV, and now is playing cards with the boys. He seems to be fine, in a good mood, no complaints or suspicious symptoms. I'll probably still toss and turn all night, making sure he's still breathing. hehe

So, ok, we survived that and the shock has been wearing off, and what do I see in the news? TV infomercial dude Billy Mays has died. They're just dropping like flies lately, aren't they?! But as I'm reading the article my anxiety about hubby's head bonk comes back. Apparently Billy Mays had been on a flight yesterday that had tires blow out during landing, which caused some major bumping around for the passengers. Things in overheads fell out, etc. Some people reported bumps and bruises but there were no major injuries. Billy was interviewed by some local news channel or something and he joked that things had fallen on his head but he was fine. And then he died in his sleep that night...?! Right now they are not attributing any of that to his death but...gah?!

Hubby seems fine. I know Natasha Richardson complained that she felt ill. We don't know yet if Billy had such complaints. It's just a bit freaky, a bit nerve wracking to think about. Bleah.

June 27

Here I am, slacking again. Can you believe we're over half way to Christmas already?! I can NOT believe how fast this year is flying by! I think alot of it has to do with my goofy work schedule, but geez...

Well, let's see what's been happening since last time.

Casey started Drivers Ed. last week. They're just doing the classroom part of it right now. They took their 'Temps' test in class this week and he passed. Woot! He was all proud of himself for being one of the top three in the class. They have to finish the classroom portion (two more weeks, but only four days of class) and then they'll get the paper they need from the teacher, the signed blahblahwhatever form. Then we go to the DMV to do the vision test and get the actual 'Temps.' But since he's not technically 15yrs+6months until late September, he'll probably not start his behind-the-wheel training with the teacher until sometime during the school year. I can't believe we're going thru this again so soon. Seems we just did it with Ty.

June 17th was Ty's 18th birthday. Yes... *sniffle* ...my firstborn is an adult now. Un-freakin-real. We didn't do much. I do feel bad about it because 18th is a big occasion, but we'd just had his graduation so recently, with all the money and effort and attention. He said he was ok with it, but it does bother me that we still didn't do more for his birthday.


Ty's Xbox quit working last week. We were researching online, trying to find what might be wrong, how to maybe fix it. The error code it was showing was one that people online were saying was not covered by the warranty. I didn't think it was covered by the warranty anymore cuz I knew he'd had it for a while, so that part didn't bother me too much. After a couple days, and no help from tech support, I went digging thru old papers and receipts and found that for some reason I'd bought the extended warranty thingie from Best Buy when we bought the Xbox. I never do that?! Looking closer, I found this warranty had not expired yet! Yesss! We took it back to Best Buy, and I was still expecting some kind of hassle, but nope...they just took it, hooked it up, saw the error, checked on things, said it needed to be replaced, and took care of everything. I bought the extended warranty again. I didn't have to pay one cent?! Not even for the new warranty?! I even got a card that has $10.51 store credit left on it?! How cool is that?

Ty's started applying for jobs. It's early yet, and he only has a few out there so far. No news yet.

We had our first rose bloom on our bushes we planted this spring!


It didn't last very long though. A big ol' thunderstorm moved through with torrential downpours and our one beautiful flower was gone. *sigh* But I noticed today one of the other rose bushes has a flower bud starting. Wheee! I also planted two hosta plants by the front porch last week. Actually I had planted three earlier in the spring but they were just the root ball clump thing, bought a bag of them...and I didn't think, after all this time, that they were doing anything. So when I dug the first hole to put one of the new hostas in, I found the root clump of the one I'd planted earlier was indeed growing. Doh! So I dug up all three of those, replanted them in a big pot to get them started, and put my two new one in the vacated holes. They're not very big. Hope they survive, and thrive.

Hummingbirds are my new thrill at the moment. I had never ever seen one, live, with my very own eyes, out there in the normal everyday world. Years ago I'd bought a hummingbird feeder but never saw any come to it so I gave up and threw it away. Everyone was telling me 'oh, I see them all the time' or 'I get them at my house' or whatever. I didn't believe them. I thought only the best, fanciest, richest gardens might have the ocassional one, but not normal average joe yards.

So imagine my surprise when I came home from work one night evening last week, looked out the window and saw....a hummingbird!!! It was flitting around the finch feeder then came right to the window I was looking out from and hovered right in from of my face for many long seconds, then zoomed off. I was excited, screeching like the girl I am, and all my menfolk were like 'Oh. Yeah. Cool.'

Well bleah to them! *I* was thrilled! Next time I got to town I bought a feeder, hurried home and got it set up, then waited all day to see if any would show up. That very first evening, yep, there they were! I know there were at least two cuz they looked very different. Only one at a time ever comes though. And an oriole visited the feeder that evening too. I was like a kid on Christmas. LOL! I wish I could get pics though!

Today we went to a party at a co-worker's house. Her husband had recently graduated tech school, got his journeyman electrician card or whatever. So it was sort of a party for that. We didn't stay very long because we didn't know hardly anyone, but it was nice to get out and do something. Oh! And my co-worker's sister arrived as we were about to leave. I had gone to school with this girl. We were never friends or anything but I vaguely remember her. She would have been a year or two behind me. And ya know what? She looks OLD. I thought it immediately, and hubby commented about it a bit later when were on our way home. I couldn't help but laugh, and felt redeemed somewhat...ya know, that 'Are you Terry's mom?' horror from the other party a couple weeks ago.

After the party we went to Menards to get some ideas about the price of landscaping stones/mulch. We *always* spend too much money when we go to that store. We were both impressed today that we only bought a bird feeder and a dorky little garden gnome. We aren't sure what type of stone or mulch we want to use yet, just wanted to have a look at options. It was raining lightly when we got home from that, so we didn't get started on any yardwork. After the rain and threat of storms we were once again treated to an awesome display from Mother Nature....

June 15

Gotta start with a pic of Edward and Bella. Gotta get the fix out of the way. Aaaaahhhh. (The dots on Rob's skin are presumably marks for the special effects department to add his vampire sparkles later.)

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I've had a week of vacation that has, for once, been fabulous. I usually put too much pressure on myself to get things done. This time I went into it totally slackerminded. I got quite a lot done anyway! And I didn't have that nagging 'time is running out' feeling until about halfway thru today, which is darn good for me.

I spent a couple days going thru two totes of pictures I'd borrowed from my mom. I wanted to scan anything that she had that I'd like to have my own copies of, then quickly uploaded and ordered a set of the prints from Snapfish, and have already gotten them back. I also got all of my graduation pics uploaded and ordered from Snapfish and those arrived today. I'll need to get those organized, labeled, and into an album. I also used one of the grad pics (menfolk and myself) as my choice to get the free 8x10 and set of 4 wallets, a gift from Snapfish. And today I got another thank you gift, this time a free 11x14. Cool! Haven't decided on a pic to use for that one yet though.

Saturday we worked outside most of the day. Hubby got our pushmower fixed (again) and we finally got the entire lawn mowed and detailed all on the same day. This year it seems we've had so many problems that only one part of the lawn was ever done at any one time. We even put the boys to work, helping us weed around our severely neglected row of baby lilac bushes.



Saturday, Ty's best friend these days, Matt, came over and hung out most of the afternoon. They watched TV and played video games and then left to go to a couple grad parties. Ty sent a text much later saying they'd be out later than planned, that they were party hopping. He got home about 1am. lol And then the next night, he got a text from another friend about another party, and off he went again. This time he got home about 12:30am. Why is this even worth mentioning? Because the kid who soooo took after his anti-social homebody mother all these years has suddenly become the little social butterfly. It's refreshing and nerve wracking all at the same time.

Sunday, hubby and I went to a grad party for the daughter of one of hubby's co-workers. It was a nice enough party but I really didn't know anyone there so it was awkward for me. I'd met a couple of the people before but I really couldn't say that I *know* any of them. The co-worker happens to be the daughter of the big boss where they work. And the co-worker's boyfriend happens to be one of hubby's best friends. This friend is a few years younger than us, I think. Mid to late 30s maybe? Anyway, at one point, BigBoss's wife (mother of grad girl's mom) came over and asked if I was [Friend's] mother. DOH?! We all laughed and she was mildly horrified at the mistake, and then it became extremely awkward and drawn out way too long. My first, deep inside reaction was 'Do I look THAT bad?!' but my outer reaction was to just laugh it off. Once it passed, I thought it didn't bother me and was coming up with all these circumstances that explained her mistake, but as time went on...I think it really did bother me! And still does! I mean, how could it not?? I'm left with the horrible, haunting feeling of 'Oh my god, I really do look that old!?' The friend guy later asked me if it really did bother me or not and I again blew it off, but he seemed concerned so maybe it showed. I don't know.

Bleah. Moving on. It was kinda funny at the party because at one point a deer ran right thru the park. It was also funny because twice, in two totally different areas, balloons that were right next to me popped for no apparent reason. Anyway, we had some lunch, did some chitchatting, then excused ourselves fairly early and headed home. Even though hubby knew more people there than I did, even he was feeling a bit out of place when the crowd was mostly friends and family of the grad girl. And I felt really bad afterward that we had not invited this GuyFriend to Ty's party. I'd considered it at the time but when I showed hubby the guestlist and asked if there was anyone else, he had not mentioned this guy. I thought that was odd but left it at that. Yeah, he seems to be a cool enough guy, and I feel bad now. And hey, I am his mom.

*bursts into tears and flees to a dark corner*

On our way home from the party we stopped at Walmart because I realized I'd never gotten cards for my mom's or Ty's birthdays, which are coming up on Wednesday. We wandered the store for a bit, trying to think of a gift for Ty but didn't know what to get him since his big grad party was not so long ago. While looking for ideas for him we of course ended up browsing the Wii games. I'd been saying all along that I thought a fishing game would be fun, and we found two of them there. We ended up getting the cheaper of the two, called Rapala Tournament Fishing. No one else wanted to play it so I tried it right away. And got royally pissed off because I couldn't catch any fish! I could cast and hook them and reel reel reel...but could not complete the process and actually get the fish out of the water and into the boat. *grrrr* I was getting extremely crabby and frustrated so hubby offered to try, see if he could figure it out. He played the entire rest of the evening and late into the night! LOL! He was....hooked. I played again this morning and, after watching him last night, was able to do it right this time. So I've been playing here and there today and having fun with it.


Today was Ty's last chiro appointment for a while. He'll be 18 on Wednesday, and off of our insurance. Because of this we had updated xrays done in May, and today the doctor went over the results with us. (Ty has scoliosis, for those who don't know his story.) Since he started going to the chiropractor in the summer of 2006, he has improved in all areas of his curviness except one spot way by his neck, between his shoulders. That one has actually gotten worse but the doctor wasn't worried. He explained that since Ty is older, his growing is slowing down now, so the curve is probably where it's going to be. Maybe continued chiro would help it, maybe not. Since the normal fears of the heart and lungs being compromised by a curve in this area didn't seem to be an issue in Ty, the doctor wasn't worried. His heart/lungs look normal in the xrays and he's never had any history of pain or shortness of breath or laggin behind in gym class or anything.

Sooo, at this point the doctor recommends basic, normal health things like keeping active, getting cardio exercise, watch his weight, get his core muscles stronger. He recommends Ty come back every month or two for a normal 'tune up' but he says it's good for anyone to do that, not just because Ty has scoliosis. So at this point, when he gets a job that has insurance, it's really up Ty whether he wants to continue chiro or not. Personally, I can see the 'deformity' in his shoulders quite obviously, but I wonder if you didn't know, if you'd notice it? I mean, we never noticed before we were notified to have him checked three years ago and then it was like 'OMG how did we miss that?!' Anyway, the chiro adventure has come to an end for now.

Casey got his hair cut today. His beautiful, long, lovely, dark locks. *sigh* We went thru this last summer too. He refuses to try pulling it back into a ponytail, which I think would look cool, so when it gets this long where it's hanging in his face all day he decides it's time to get it cut off. This time he didn't get it cut overly short, like it ended up last time. It's still quite shaggy, but not hanging in his face.


(Second pic is kinda crappy, I know. I had to do a sneak up shot because he hates having his picture taken.)

And with that I am off to bed, not looking forward to tomorrow's return to work.

*sulks off to bed*

June 10 - Ooops, a bit more...

Heee! Just a cool pic of Rob/Edward and Kristen/Bella at the Twilight premiere last year.

Anyway, forgot to include my book review in my previous post. It was getting long anyway, so a second post if good.

City of Bones City of Bones begins with a sixteen-year old girl named Clary Fray, who lives in New York with her mother, an artist. She comes home one night to find her apartment ransacked, her mother gone -- and a slavering demon ready to tear off her head. Once the demon's dealt with, Clary follows the clues to her mother's disappearance into an alternate New York filled with hideous demons, hard-partying warlocks, not-what-they-seem vampires, an army of werewolves and the scariest thing of all: the secrets of her mother's past. She also finds herself torn between two boys -- her best friend Simon, for whom she's developing new feelings, and the mysterious demon hunter Jace, who has a past more tangled than her own. She becomes a part of the secret word of the demon hunters, or Nephilim, and as she does discovers she might be more connected to them than she originally thought. City of Ashes continues Clary's adventures with Simon, the demon hunters Jace, Isabelle and Alec, the warlock Magnus, and the mysterious Raphael. City of Glass takes the characters to the demon hunters' exotic home country, Idris.

I had high hopes for this book when I bought it. The third one in the series had just recently come out so there was a display of all three books, and that's what caught my attention. I read the backs of all three, read the first page and several other random pages of the first book, and decided it was worth reading. I bought the first two in the series, deciding to wait on the third cuz it was hardcover, and to be sure I liked them enough to continue.

I was hugely disappointed, almost to the point that I quit reading. That stubborn part of me kicked in though and made me finish, 'You paid the money, you're gonna finish it.' I'm debating even bothering with the second one, and glad I did not buy the third. My co-worker is suggesting that maybe they get better since this one was the author's debut novel. I can only hope. *sigh*

While the story could be great, the way it's presented is almost horrible. Maybe if I was only 15 (target audience) I would still be open enough to it but...bleah. First it's very inconsistent. The relationship between Isabelle and Clary for example makes no sense at all. One minute Isabelle is a total stuckup bitch to Clary, the next she's all best friendlike and helping dress her up for a party, then suddenly it's back to snobbishly hating her. There are too many inconsistencies in other characters too.

Most of the time you can't tell if it's day or night or how much time has passed.

The extreme use of metaphors was highly annoying! (Not sure if metaphor is even the word I'm looking for.) Not only was it overused but most of the time they didn't make any sense. Things like 'blah blah was sure he didn't smell pleasant, like he'd rolled around in the parking lot of a supermarket.' Or there was another one describing the water being murky 'like it was churned to the consistency of whipping cream' or something like that. What?? Just waaaay too much of that.

I never felt connected to anyone or anything going on. There was no character developement, which goes back to the inconsistency thing.

There were too many of those supremely annoying interuptions at important moments, such as when someone is in the middle of telling some valuable information and the door swings open and someone else starts talking. Happened All. The. Time. And too many big 'Oooh! *gasp*' attempts at plot twists that didn't need to be or should have at least had some underlying clues leading up to it.

I could not get a sense of their history or purpose, or even if these people are human. Are they plain human? Human with powers? Human with special training? Where exactly is this supposedly perfect homeland??

And, as I'm getting more and more frustrated with in other books too, why is it that these young kids are the only ones who can accomplish these against all odds tasks when whole worlds of elite specialists can't?

So, overall I was HUGELY disappointed in this book. But having said that, when I was at the website looking for the pic and description, all the things there were making it look so good and interesting. Maybe the second one *will* be better, will be more settled and polished. Maybe if I read the first one again it won't be as bad? Possibly, in an attempt to be fair, I *did* read it during my days of high stress leading up to the graduation. hehe

For now though, I've put off reading the second one and have started reading something totally different.

I also wanted to go back to the graduation stuff again for a moment. While the day and the party was a huge success and tons of fun, I do have a bit of a beef with the rudeness of a few people. Both those who assured us they'd be here (some more than once) and then didn't even acknowledge the event, and those who totally snubbed it in every way. These are people that we thought meant something to our family, and they meant enough to us to include them in Ty's special day. Apparently we think too much of some people. And ya know, we understand that situations change, things come up, but to not even have the courtesy to acknowledge it....? It seems I'm continually amazed by the rudeness of others.

*sigh*

June 10

Got me some new Edward Cullen the other day. WOOT! I was doing my shopping at Walmart and noticed a Twilight poster display. I have several posters already but this one just jumped out at me. There are a couple others I'd still like to get but the reality is I just don't know where I'd ever put all of them?! I have tons of old U2 posters, The Crow, all of my Titanic posters, and now all these Twilight ones...and NONE of them are hung up. We'll need to add a room onto the house (which hubby wants to do anyway, lol) just for my unhealthy indulgences.

So anyway...
I don't know why I suck at posting lately?! I'm back into my old rut of having so much to write about during the day but once I get to the computer it all seems like trivial nonsense. I will *try* to get better because I really do enjoy doing it, and it's fun when readership is up and comments keep coming in. I'll try, people. I'll try!

Let's see, last post was May 27 and the big news items were Ty's upcoming graduation, the dreaded party, and our new Wii. Ty's graduation was a huge success. Even so, I'm greatly relieved it's all done.

Friday, the 29th, he had finals in the morning, then they did a graduation practice, and then got out of school early. Saturday, the 30th, I went shopping for all the food and last minute items for the party. We'd changed our minds on the menu a few times and in the end went with the burgers/brats on the grill like we'd planned way back in the beginning. We were busy all day with getting the lawn mowed and cleaned up, and setting up the gazebo finally. I didn't want to do actual decorating because it was windy with a threat of rain, and I didn't want it all blown away and ruined by party time. We went to my brother's to borrow his picnic table, two other tables, and some lawn chairs, then got a call and offer of another table so had to sidetrack over to a friend's to get that.

Sunday morning, the 31st/graduation day, we were up early and working on last minutes preparations....dragging lawn chairs and coolers out of the garage and getting them cleaned up. I had done some house cleaning on Saturday but rapidly gave up on alot of things I'd intended to get done as Sunday morning ticked by. Hubby started grilling the meat early with the intention of throwing everything into the nesco cooker thing he'd borrowed from his parents. Wouldn't you know, that ancient thing didn't work! And he'd already started the food! I had to run to town at 10am to pick up the cake so I swung over to Kmart to buy a new nesco. Of course, they didn't have any! So here I am, panicking in the middle of Kmart, trying to get a hold of anyone I thought might have a nesco. My sister-in-law Peg said she had a huge crockpot that would hold quite a bit, so I told her I'd be over to pick it up on my way home. I still didn't have the cake at this point so I sent hubby a text, telling him to run over and get Peg's crockpot.

I raced over to Pick-n-Save to pick up the cake, and was a bit disappointed with how it turned out but at this point I was reaching a meltdown point and just wanted to get home. And really, what could they have done? It wasn't a hideous cake, as you can see, but it just seemed a bit sloppy and I was wishing I'd gone with one of those airbrushed designs instead. Oh well, everyone seemed to like it, and it tasted wonderful...confetti cake with butter cream (?) frosting.

(Pic is a little dark, I know.)

Anyway, got the cake, grabbed several bags of ice and some beer to get the beer drinkers started, and raced back home. Hubby was gone at that time, I figured to go get Peg's crockpot. So I continued on with the prep work, getting things decorated, etc. I still had a million and one things to do, and the reality that my firstborn was graduating high school in a few hours was sinking in, and I was getting all frustrated and emotional. I finally had a total meltdown, sitting out on my wicker chair in my beautiful gazebo, crying hysterically. I don't know where it came from but I let it happen and then things seemed much much better. lol

I kicked myself back into gear and we got everything done that we could do before the party. Ty had to run into Buttmunch quick for more ice, and hubby had to run over to a friend's to pick up a nesco that was offered, and I finished up the decorations...and we were finally able to sit down and relax for a short time. (Found out later that hubby had never stopped at Peg's to get the crockpot or even let her know we didn't need it now. I hadn't let her know either cuz it slipped my mind that we'd just never gotten it. DOH!)



My mom and stepdad arrived extra early. My stepdad is 81 years young and was not going to be attending the school ceremony. He was going to wait at our house while the rest of us went to the school. Ty had to be there early so he left in his own car. I wanted to be there early enough to get my desired spot, so we left quite early too. My sister had been texting, saying they would go right to the school (coming from Iowa for the event) and would be there closer to start time. Other than that I wasn't sure who would actually be at the school, or if everyone was just coming to the party.

I found my spot at the rail in the upper area that looks down over the gym. I knew with the zoom lens I'd be able to get right in there for the happenings at the stage, and from in the upper area I could get pics of the whole class, the whole gathering. The only real disadvantages to this were that I couldn't get any pics of the grads coming into the gym from the far end, wouldn't get any good shots of Ty as they made their way up the aisle, and I couldn't actually see the senior video from where I stood. I wasn't too worried about that one though because I knew they were getting a copy on cd or dvd. Luckily, my sister was sitting near the back and got this pic of Ty entering...


The Class of 2009...


My biggest fear was that I would absolutely be bawling thru this whole ceremony and embarrass myself. I'm an overly emotional person to begin with, and I did not graduate, so to have my own son graduate from the same school I went to was an incredibly huge sentimental dorky point for me. I think my meltdown at home earlier in the morning helped because I got thru the ceremony quite easily. Sure, there were some happy tears now and then but it was much easier than I'd expected! LOL

I ended up using my video camera way more than my digital camera because the lens zoomed way more, and because it was just easier. I know there is a way to get still photo 'grabs' from the video but I haven't played around with it enough to figure that out yet. My sister got some pictures and some video. Between the two of us, I think we got most of the important bits covered.

The senior video was, as feared, crappy by my 'back in my day' standards. Well, the photo part of it was ok, although Ty said it was a bit stupid that the same clique of people seemed to keep showing up again and again. The music is the part I'm always harsh on. Back in the ancient days when they started doing these presentations (with two slide projectors alternating pics, and a hand-mixed tape of music) they tried to use music that was more related to the situation...things like The Best of Times, by Styx, and Time, by Alan Parsons Project, etc. They used decent sized samples of the songs and the blend of photos seemed to work with it. The last three graduations I've been at (nephew Dan, niece Amanda, and now Ty's) they seem to use this total hodgepodge mess of music that means nothing and relates to nothing. And the samples are very brief, like you barely have time to get into the song and the next one is playing. Also, the tendancy to crank the volume to 11 is highly annoying and probably not appreciated by the older folks in the audience.

This year was not much different. I don't think the volume was quite as extreme as the last ones, but it was that same makes-no-sense technique. I did realize however, that I think they were just using samples of popular music from over the years since these 17-18 year olds were born. I heard Mmmbop, by Hanson, and Name, by GooGoo Dolls, and Runaway Train, by (gah, can't remember!)...all of which I know are from Ty's baby/toddler days. And then my sister mentioned in a blog comment that maybe they just use a program to mix the whole thing and yeah, it seems to make sense now. I wonder if there IS some program or whatever, enter the years, it puts together a selection of songs from then, and gives you a mix. Still sucks compared to the old days but at least I would understand how/why they're coming up with the apparent nonsense it comes out as.

I was greatly relieved to hear that there were cheers when Ty's pics came up. How embarrassing for those kids who get near silence when theirs come up? Gah.

So, ceremony finished and we're stuck in the chaos of people outside the school. Usually the kids are running around trying to get pics taken with everyone. We had told Ty not to worry about rushing home after but that we (hubby and I) had to get back to get the food set out, etc. My sister, mom, and I managed to find him for a moment outside while he was taking pics with his friends, then it was off to the car to wait in the traffic jam leaving the parking lot.

We got home to find hubby's parents already there, keeping my stepdad company in the house. My father-in-law doesn't get around very easily these days so I think they skipped the crowded school too. Some brief 'hello's when we got home then hubby and I were busy setting out the food and everything that could not have been put out ahead of time. People were almost immediately starting to show up, and the party was on.




It was a wonderful turnout (51 people) and I actually had a great time. I didn't get to talk to my sister, or my family much but it didn't look like anyone was sitting around wallflowering so I'm hoping everything was good for all. I thought it was very cool how many of Ty's classmates stopped by! He's not a very social kid, and we were not allowing underage drinking, so I was impressed by not only how many came but by how long they actually stayed. I was quite surprised by the lack of alcohol consumption in general! I had bought two packs and we still had well over half of that the next morning! And the weather was quite nice too. It became a little chilly as the afternoon turned into evening but compared to the crap weather we had before (and since) it was like a very pleasant gift from Mother Nature for the day. The last of the partygoers helped us clean up, pick up, pack up, and were gone by about 9pm. A long day that started out with extreme levels of stress...ended up being a greatly satisfying event.



I have tons of pics from the whole day posted in an album over at Facebook if you'd care to see more. There are many more great ones over there than what I've included here. Please take a peek, and leave a comment or two while you're there. :)

After the party, we relaxed in the house for a bit before bed. Ty opened his cards and gifts. As expected, the huge majority was cards with money included. That boy is richer than he's ever been. He was most thrilled though with the cellphone we got him. He'd been sharing mine up to now because, like I said, he's not very social. We figured that now he'll be out there doing the job hunting thing, stepping into the adult world, and it was time he has his own. I was even sneaky and put all his friends' numbers in beforehand, and some of us had sent congratulation texts so they were all there waiting for him when he turned the phone on. lol

And since then he's been living the life of leisure. He doesn't turn 18 till June 17 so we're not yet pushing him too hard to find a job. He has no plans for college, but I think I've maybe got him thinking about a class or two at tech school for computer graphics or something. Yesterday he was at EB Games/Gamestop in the mall waiting for the hottest, coolest new blood-n-guts video game to arrive (*rolls eyes*) and it occurred to him that it would be cool to work there. We printed out the application and next week he'll go drop it off.

(Yes, we are aware that he can be working while he's 17 but from things I've overheard at my own workplace, we might as well not deal with the whole 'part-time only cuz he's not 18' thing right now when he's only days away from being 18.)

The other big thing in my otherwise boring life is our new baby, the Wii. That thing is a blast! Even if you don't think you want to play, once you start you can't help but get into it 110%. We were doing the bowling again last night and got so into it that Casey set a new record of six strikes in a row, with a high score of 205. We're already planning rematches for tonight when hubby gets home. LOL!

I've been goofing around with the Wii Fit the last few days. I had not done anything with it since that day we first got it. I've only done the balance games so far, and while they're hysterically funny to do and to watch, they really do get your muscles working. And it amazes me how far out of whack my body is. I mean, I knew it was cuz I'm old and fat now, but...wow. If nothing else, it does get you thinking about how you move and carry yourself. I'd like to get more involved in the other exercises but right now it's hard with my schedule and with the boys being home and playing their own games or watching crap on TV.

I still haven't been watching movies. The only one I've seen since my last post was another Gamers movie. It's not even worth linking to the pic or description, it was that bad. While the other Gamers movie was bad but in a campy fun way, this one was just plain old bad.

I'd been bumping all the Doctor Who stuff up on the Netflix list for hubby and the boys to watch during the pre-graduation days when my mind was definately not into movies anyway. And now that it's over I find my mind and mood are still not into movie watching. There are things I'd like to be doing outside but the weather is just sooooo not summery that it does little to motivate me. So I've been spending all my time working on my photo projects. I've borrowed all of my mom's photos, and have been scanning ones I don't have, and ordering prints from Snapfish. I'm redoing all my photo albums....again....to accomodate old pics I'd missed. I still need to get some sort of order/storage for my tons of digital photos. This is what I've been doing, and should be doing now.

So I'll wrap this entry up for now.