Man of the House

The man of the house is less than impressed with the info we got in the mail today from my insurance company. After school, I ran home to grab my cell phone and also picked up the mail. We went to drive thru for something to drink, and as we were waiting, I opened the info on the claim for my house damage from the Aug. 18 tornado wind and hail storm.  As I looked down the list and saw the totals, I instinctively said...the damage on our house is going to cost 17,000 dollars!?! Tye said WHAT!?! Let me see that.  I responded and said oh, it's just the info on the storm. He insisted, so as they handed me our drinks, Tye was diligently looking over the adjuster's report.  As we drove off, I said...soooo, what do you think (tee hee)? His response...I think this is harsh.

He totally cracks me up.

Why harsh? I ask...

Like we have 17,000 to spend on repairs!

I then gave a mini lesson on insurance and how THEY would pay the 17K, and he was very pleased to find out people will just do that...he responded...well, that is so nice of them.

The I gave a mini lesson on how WE pay for our insurance so they will pay for damages.

I skipped the mini lesson to explain the $1,000 deductible!

So the man of the house is seemingly satisfied with our insurance coverage. I wonder if he can handle the next step of verifying what all is on the claim, finding the right person to do the work, and then getting it all done. Wonder what he will say when I get the info for the hail damage on my van... 

Tye-isms

Tonight:
Mom, tomorrow is show and tell.

Oh fun! What are you going to bring?

I'm not sure, but it HAS to be something INappropriate.

Hmmm.

What I Have Learned This Summer...and Other Rants

Wow! Summer 2011 went wayyyy too fast!  I have lots of fun things to tell and mostly just ramble about.

Things I learned this summer:

• Traveling by Amtrak is a lot of fun, especially when I am the sole driver of the family and so unbelievably tired of doing all the driving just wanted a nice break to enjoy the ride.  We left out of Union Station in KC early on a Monday morning. Having flown before, I am totally freaked out surprised at the lack of security.  We were toward the front of the line, and seriously, we were on the train maybe 3 minutes when we started to move.  On the way to St. Louis, we were in a car with only maybe another 10 people.
• Planning a trip to St. Louis by Amtrak, with the intent to get around the city via the metro and other public transportation, as well as our own 2 feet, sounds good in theory. But in upper 90's weather, I didn't want to listen to the 14 year old gripe ruin the vacation, so I rented a car.  Very good decision since it had a GPS, and getting around was super easy.
• Is it a pedal boat or a paddle boat? The jury is still out, although secretly, I believe I have won this argument with my daughters, considering we used pedals to move the boat around the lake at Forest Park. Pedal, paddle, tomato, tamato.
• Rootbeer floats are super delicious when made with chocolate ice cream! Whoda thunk? I mean here I am a chocoholic, and I've never thought to try it.  We went to Fitz's Rootbeer Bottling Company (brisket was amazing!). Got $20 worth of free rootbeer floats with a coupon I printed off before we left. Delicious!
• We went to play in the fountains at City Garden. So beautiful, with all the colored lights. Tye was going back and forth, having such a good time, drenched from head to toe. I had just told him 2 more minutes, and next thing I knew, he was coming at me with blood gushing from his nose. I had nothing with me to take care of this, but since he had his shoes and socks off to play in the water, I instinctively grabbed his white socks and started sopping up the bloodbath. He got up on a bench and laid on his back with his head on my lap, and after several minutes, I finally got it to slow down. By then, his socks were soaked with blood. He couldn't stop crying, and I was asking him, are you crying because it still hurts? or it scared you? What? Through the tears he said...my socks are ruined and I can't smell anything. Oh jeez.  The socks became an issue for the whole vacation, as he freaked out when he found out I was just going to throw them away. It seems those are his favorite socks in the whole wide world. What was I thinking?
• While we were gone, a very old building on the corner of 3rd and Main was destroyed by fire. For those of you who have been to the Ville, it is the old Time and Gift store, as well as Dave Weigel Insurance, plus apartments above and Burch Guttering below.  Reports say careless smoking, although I would say careless was an understatement, considering it is also reported that said smoker woke up, found the fire and put a fan on it to get it out while he went to knock on the doors of the other tenants. Can you say idiot intoxicated?
• Stopped at Target in St. Louis. Remind me to never turn my girls loose with a grocery cart.
• At Target as we were checking out, there were escalators maybe 25 feet from me. Tye was loving all the escalators we saw in St. Louis, and was begging me to go down and back up. As Rachel said...we don't get out much. I looked at the cashier and said, where do those go to? She said a parking garage, and I thought...wow, Target has hit the big time!  So I told him go down and come right back up. Mother Hen Amberlea went over to watch him, and down he went. As I grabbed my bags and Rachel and I walked closer, we could see Amberlea standing at the top of the DOWN escalator, and Tye was climbing UP the DOWN escalator. He would take 3-4 steps, then pause, and down he would go. I quickly realize he was crying, and the vision of him basically walking up the steps and going no where made me bust out laughing in complete hysterics giggle.  When it was all said and done, apparently he got to the bottom and there was no way back up. To get to back up, you had to walk out into the garage and back in through a certain door.  So Amberlea had gone down too, then hightailed it back up the DOWN escalator when she couldn't find a way out, but Tye fell trying to get up. Sheesh. You would think maybe the checker would have mentioned that when I said to go down and come right back. Whatever.  The girls and I decided it was the highlight of our trip!
• So this week, while the above mentioned building was being torn down by cranes, we were driving one street over. We had a good view of the demolition. I said to Tye, wow, check that out. He responded...awwww, that was my favorite building. (Huh?) Me...what, why? His response...oh, it is my favorite color. What? Brown? That child is so strange hilarious!
• Regardless if there is an open parking spot in front of the arch, while 20 others are parked, it is still a no parking zone. We were trying to find a frozen custard place, and decided to stop for only a few blasted minutes briefly to ask for directions. I parked and we went into the riverboat shop, returned about 5 minutes and a $25 parking ticket later.  Yes, there were definitely sign up, but I seriously don't know if I have ever parked somewhere that so many people were already parked illegally. They were bad influences on me!
• It truly is a small world. We ran into Marsha Meyers and kiddos at the City Museum!
• A GPS system gives me a power trip. More than once during our vacation, I imagined myself easily driving around New York City, considering how easily we found where we were going, or got ourselves out of being lost.

More later, I want to get this posted.

Busy Weekend

What beautiful weather!

Friday was my dad's 60th birthday!  YES, he is the big 6-0! I probably look too old to have a dad that is only 60, but let's just say that I am the oldest and he became a father at 22.  I hope I am as active as he is at that age.  Saturday we had a big surprise party for him, and we all had a great time!

Today my kiddos surprised me with blueberry muffins and flowers, and a really cute card.  Then we went to St. Joe to eat at Carlos O'Kelly's, which is a favorite of mine, and was a favorite of my mom's.  I miss her so much today, but also remember the inspiration she was and still is to me as a mother and as a woman. Below is a picture of my mom and me in the spring of 1974. Isn't my mom so beautiful?! I see so much of Karis and Erin in her, and also my cousins Lisa and Stacy. People tell me all the time that I look like her too, but I don't see it as much.

Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law Denise Halley, who has become like a mother to me and has been there to always support me, especially since I lost my own mom. I know Brian would thank her for all the love she has given us. Thank you Denise for bringing Brian into this world. We love you!

Tye-isms

(on a walk with Mojo)
TYE: Mom, we need to head home because my feet are crapping out on me.

Sitting w/a group of girls at the concessions during a break in the bball games this winter. One girl was standing, and Tye actually got up and went and got her a chair! I said wow, that was so sweet. He said...(get this)...I am only sweet on Saturdays. Hahahaha. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Tye: Have you ever noticed that Justin "Beaver" looks kinda like Zach? Wonder if he has a brother named Cody.

Tye was looking for a picture of himself on his bday or the day he was born. He was clicking thru pix on the computer and came to one right before Brian died, he is on Brian's lap with his tractor cake. He said...awww, I really miss that cake. I love the way their minds work!

Welcome Mojo!

We got a dog! Tye was seriously starting to show the same symptoms of poor Billy in Where the Red Fern Grows, as he has the dog fever so bad he can't stand it. We had decided on a smaller dog because we are going to keep it in the house. I was reluctant to spend the kind of money that a yorkie or shitzu costs, and didn't know how this was going to happen. I just told someone the other day that maybe something would just work out.  Sure enough, the girls' stepmom saw on facebook that a girl from Maryville was wanting to give away her silky terrier because her infant is allergic to dogs.  We met Mojo on Saturday and fell in love with him.  Tye is so excited, and the girls and I are really enjoying him. I have never had an indoor dog, so this is all very new to me. I woke up the next morning and he was in bed with me.  Wow, never ever thought that would happen! He is such a good dog, already trained and so snuggly.  I will post pictures soon.

Bad Luck?

Had a little pity party for myself yesterday. Somedays it just catches up with me. Well, thought my pity party from yesterday was over, going to say today was ok...until Tye figured out I am going to miss his soccer game on Thurs. night for a trip w/Rachel. He burst in to tears and said he wishes his dad could be here to take him. Ugh, came out of left field. Have I made it clear how much I hate melanoma?

He also said everyone else is luckier than we are.

What do you say to that?

Only Parent vs. Single Parent

I HATE being only parent! I was bluntly reminded today when A)Tye got in trouble at school yet again; B)tax appt. ran late and caused a childcare snafoo; C)got a list of Boy Scout camps; D)1 camp is the same weekend as my class reunion; E)don't have plans lined out for my sub in the morning, and it's past Tye's bedtime; F)found out there is baseball tomorrow and I was going to an out of town track meet. My mood is seriously altered today. Blah.  It is no wonder I can't keep up. The expectations of my life are so unrealistic. I was thinking tonight how Brian would feel about what is going on right now. I seriously think he would be sad that I am alone and am running around like crazy! He was such a good help and so supportive of me, and our home was just that...OURS. We worked together to make it all happen. I don't know how exactly I could realistically make up for what is missing in all areas. Sheesh.

Just a quick update...
Went to the Blue Springs School of Econ today! Wow! We had sooo much fun. I love this part of teaching where I get to go on a field trip with Amberlea. What a busy day though, as I stopped off in Savannah to watch Rachel at a track meet, then headed back to Maryville for 6th grade DARE graduation for my students. It has been a long day.

What Happens on the Farm, Stays on the Farm

Tye is home from the farm. He told me he use a pitchfork to clean up sh%t out of the barn. Wow! Got a good laugh and then had to remind him about our deal about only talking like that on the farm! He was so excited when we came into town to see Rachel and Amberlea, and then disappointed they weren't home. Rachel came in to grab something and I'm not sure he even saw her.


And for the record, I don't let him talk like that and neither do Brian's parents...but you know a boy just does and hears things when he is out farming. You should hear him tell the story about "cutting out the hot stuff" when they work cattle...and I will just leave out some of what he told me about a mama cow after her calf was born. He is definitely my farmboy! What happens on the farm, stays on the farm!

And We Found THE Dress!

We are home from a long day of shopping for a graduation dress. We were at Independence Center in Macy's walking towards the door to leave (without a dress) and walked past a section of dresses we hadn't seen.  And there it was, THE dress! She screamed and the sales lady and I got a big laugh out of her. Who needs all day to shop? Rachel found it, tried it on and paid for it in less than 5 minutes! She looks amazing!  I was going to post pictures, but I will wait until graduation in May.

We have finally made it through all the partying for this year's February birthdays.  This weekend, Amberlea had the 5th and 6th grade girls over and there was a whole lot of giggling. Most of these girls are students in my class, so that was different, but fun.  Amberlea has grown up so much this year and really matured, and I hope it continues!

Rachel informed me that this year she will be 14, then next year she will get her permit, then the next she will get her license, then she'll be 17 the next year which will just be amazing, and then she'll be 18. I think I aged instantly! I feel sad that the time has gone so quickly, yet I am enjoying this new phase of our lives. She had her whole class over and it was so laid back, yet they had a lot of fun!

I skipped a friend party for Tye this year, and figure we will do one next year.  He is working really hard on listening, and not that it was a punishment, but I just decided this was a good year not to do a friend party. 

Today we had a big bash with all our family.  It means so much to me that they all came and celebrated with us.  I had a friend cook the meat, and it was so delicious.  I was really happy with how the party turned out. 

It is hard to believe that my kids are now 14, 11 and 7. I miss them being little, and then I don't. Each stage of their lives has been challenging and rewarding at the same time.  I wouldn't trade any of it. Remind me I said that in a few years after I have experience high school!

Snow Days...Ahhh

I LOVE SNOW DAYS!

I do not like making them up. But hey, live for today! I totally love snow days because you can't plan for them and they are unexpected.  So there is nothing else on the schedule except for enjoying my kids, playing games and taking it easy! I like to get ahead a little on laundry or whatever else, but beyond that, I just try to really enjoy the break. My oldest keeps praying for snow because she won't have to make up the days since she is in 8th grade and gets out on May 13th no matter what. I am going to keep a handle on just how much praying she is doing because as much as I love snow days, I don't want them getting out of hand! Lol!