Bored

All that studying, every thing for three months. All the practice tests and working problems and dreaming about the questions. All those relaxing baths where logic formulas run through my head every time I close my eyes.

All in preparation for the big test.

Now the test is over. I won't know my results for another week or two. I've already read an entire book and started a second.

I am bored out of my mind with a feeling that there is something I'm supposed to be doing. It's making me nutz!

Debt

Have you ever had to pay a stack of bills and it just made you feel like you are working for nothing? Like you'll never get ahead? Like there is no end in sight? Because that is exactly how I feel when I have to pay our stack of credit card bills. I would like to feign ignorance and say I don't know how it came to this, but sadly, I know exactly how it came to this. When you use your credit cards to buy groceries because your husband is out of work, they add up fast. Really fast. I'll probably have them paid off in August, but I've been paying on them since March. And that blows.

scores and study and bears, oh my!

I took a practice LSAT last Saturday. I got my score today. While my score has gone up, it hasn't gone WAY up. And while I should be happy that it went up four points, I cannot help but be disappointed that it didn't go up fourteen points. Especially after all the studying I have done.

I am now at the rock bottom acceptance score and could, theoretically, be accepted to law school (if they were digging the very bottom of the barrel).

That'll inspire confidence in a person. Kinda like barely outrunning a three legged bear.

Craptastic!

What a craptastic day. I didn't get to study. I didn't get any good news at the law school orientation. Mr. Right is cranky. The kids are cranky and the summertime meltdowns have begun. I just paid a stack of bills and we're broke again for two weeks.

Why couldn't I have been born rich and skinny?

DiscountCompressor.com

My boss is out of town. I am going to sit at her house all day tomorrow waiting for a repair man because her air conditioner went out. Again. The last time this happened, it was her air conditioning compressor and it took a couple days to get it fixed. This did not bode well in Phoenix summertime heat. Especially for me because her house was hot and outside was hotter. There was no middle ground.

Eating Right

I am starving. It is only one o'clock and my body thinks it is dinner time. I didn't eat breakfast this morning and that is part of the problem. I am not a breakfast kind of gal, but lately, since the doc said that to speed up my metabolism, I should eat several times a day including a decent breakfast, I have been doing just that. I notice that I'm not so hungry during the day and not so sluggish either. I am also not starving by dinner time.

At first, the thought of eating MORE seemed weird to me. However, I’ve been doing it for a couple months now and it seems to be okay. I haven’t gained weight, so that is a plus.

Holy Coldness!

My office is freezing.  I need gloves just to keep my fingers from snapping off they are so cold. I can almost see my breath.  Welcome to Arizona summers.  

Hot enough outside to fry and egg on your dashboard, cold enough inside to keep ice cream frozen at your desk.  

commercials

I love them. Sometimes they are better than the program I'm trying to watch. I really love the commercials that Sonic is having in my area. They take a seemingly man and wife and put them in a mini van at Sonic where they are ordering something or other. There is another one with two guys in a mini van ordering something. The two people seem to banter back and forth and the commercials always make me laugh.

I just saw one I hadn't seen before with two women in the vehicle. They are ordering milk shakes and the driver says to the passenger, "want so fries with that shake" and the passenger totally misses the joke and says something like, "Oh, I'd have fries. Sure." The driver makes her voice a little deeper and says it again, "want some fries with that shake" and the passenger again misses the joke. She says "are you alright?" to the driver, who looks disgusted and rolls her eyes.

I guess you had to be there.

what?

I miss TV. I mean real TV. The shows that I used to watch. 24. The Closer. Saving Grace. Life.

When do they come back on? Where do I go to find out? I am not so much of a TV geek that I actually know what channel these shows appear on. I could do internet searching but that takes work.

I simply want my TiVo filled with shows I want to watch. I want it alllllllllll, and I want it nowwwwwwww.

I need a mini vacation

The long holiday left me wishing for a few more days off. In a row.

I didn't do much over the Memorial Day holiday. It was my anniversary so Mr. Right and I spent the day together and ran some errands. Later we went to dinner and saw the movie Leaving Sarah Marshall. I have not laughed that hard in a very long time. Not a great movie, but a good one and it was good to get out for a little while.

RV Vacations - Count me in!

In my secret other life, I was born drop dead gorgeous, brilliant and I had the business savvy necessary to take my wages earned as a waitress at a small diner, and turn them into millions. In that life, I was able to buy anything I wanted. I could travel and shop and travel some more. Then I would go back and work for a few months before I would take off again to see the country. In my secret other life, I was checking out New RVs and when I finally found the one that was a perfect fit for me, I bought it. I was then able to fulfill my life long dream of taking a year off work, and traveling across the United States and Canada seeing all the sites and taking in the local cultures and home schooling my kids while we traveled.

In my secret other life, I am set. In my present life, I am working hard to achieve my dreams and I will own a Motorhome someday. I will travel and see the United States and I only hope I can do with it my children in tow so they can experience the wonders our land holds for us.

Pooped

Every Friday, I am so tired around 8:30 p.m. However, if I do not seize that opportunity, if I do not get to bed within that little window of time, I will be up for many, many more hours. Right now, I'm watching Barry Manilow on PBS. Mr. Right has passed out on the couch. The dogs are all sleeping. The kids are in Mexico enjoying the beach and ocean breeze and having the first of their three vacations this summer before school starts.

Here I sit. Not sleeping. Instead, I'm blogging and jammin out with Barry.

LA Police Gear

My husband was recently hired at the department of corrections. We have to purchase a plethora of equipment and uniforms for him. I’m not sure if he will need a tactical holster or not, but they look nice. I know that eventually he wants to move from the area he is at now, to the SWAT or K9 team. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Luckily for me/us, we know where to buy the gear he needs, at prices that won’t kill us.

The Gravesite Masters

When Memorial Day comes around, I start thinking of all the work that needs to be done and I am thankful that I am a grown up now; thankful because that means I don’t have to do it. Growing up, we had a lot of graves to visit and maintain. Many years ago, I started having fresh flowers taken to my grandma’s grave. I did this for her. I have them delivered because I don’t like cemeteries. Sounds weird, but hear me out.

From the time I was 11, I can remember all of grandma’s kids (16 including spouses) gathering at her house one weekend. All of us grandkids would go too, all 32 of us. We would pile into our cars and head to the cemetery. At that point, the kids would run around and look at the headstones and read the various names with a mixture of curiosity and awe. We would make up stories of how the people died and what atrocious crime had led to the death. We would look at the funeral flowers and floral arrangements and read the sympathy wreaths.

The adults would begin cutting weeds, cleaning up and edging the headstones, making sure the old mason jars were not broken and would still hold water and flowers.

(this is the part that grosses me out) When the work was done, someone would call for the kids and we would start delivering home made sandwiches and drinks to the adults and smaller kids. I remember being very disturbed about the whole process and did not like going to the cemetery and I was of the opinion, at the ripe old age of 11, that we had no business EATING there. Ick. Gross. Disgusting. Disturbing.

Fast forward many years. I don’t visit and I don’t clean graves and I don’t do a lot of things I should. However, what I DO do is have fresh flowers sent to my grandma’s grave every year on her birthday and Memorial Day. I do it in memory of grandma. She was the reason we all went up every year in the first place. I do it out of respect. Probably out of a touch of guilt as well.

In the past, I have had to pay a runner to take the flowers up and drop them off at the gravesite. Usually it was a cousin who knew where to go. However, I recently found out there was an actual business whose has taken on the job of delivering arrangements of fresh flowers gravesites across the country! How amazing is that? They will also clean up the headstone and make it all pretty again. The Gravesite Masters offers a whole slew of services that many of us do not want to think about, let alone take care of. They deliver fresh flowers and/or artificial flowers to churches, cemeteries, funeral homes and residences or businesses. Thank goodness, I will never have to worry again that the flowers are delivered and placed where they should be, because I know I can rely upon The Gravesite Masters.

Look of the Year

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Grocery bills

Growing up, my mom was on welfare and we received food stamps. I remeber going grocery shopping once a month. We bought a lot of food on that day. Enough for mom and all seven kids. Usually about $300 worth. Now, back then, $300 was A WHOLE LOT of food. That included meat. We could eat on that food all month long.

Now days, I shop weekly. I spend about $100 to $115 a week and that does NOT include buying meat. If I buy meat, I spend closer to $150. What I try to do is buy meat in the family packs and then I break it down and put it in freezer bags when I get home.

With the price of gas continuing to rise, I noticed that I was squeezing money from my grocery fund in order to get by. It really hit home today when Ms. Sarcastic told me this morning, "Mom, is there are reason that we only have cherrios?"

I said yes, cereal is expensive and we were short on money this month. She asked if we could get oatmeal next time we shopped and I said yes. She loves the Maple & Brown Sugar instant oatmeal. Ms. Brainiac loves the heart healthy blueberry oatmeal. Have you priced that one? It is like five bucks for 10 packs. That is highway robbery to me. I am not buying pork chops this week so they can have their oatmeal.

Family shouldn't have to suffer like this becuase gas is pushing $4 per gallon. It hardly seems fair.

Feels like Monday, tastes like chicken!

Today has felt like a Mondy to me all day long.  There was a huge wreck on the freeway on the OPPOSITE SIDE that had all of the lanes in my direction slowing down to gawk and look at the wreckage.  

I was 10 minutes late for work.  Not the end of the world but my phone was already ringing with requests and needs and wants.  

Tonight Mr. Right and his mom are taking the kids out for ice cream after dinner.  I will of course still be at work.  Why do old people at dinner at 4 p.m?  

Makin' me cranky

Even though today is Mother's Day and I had a great day, now it is late and I want the kids to go to bed and they aren't wound down just yet. Ms. Sarcastic just keeps yapping and yapping and has come out of her room three times already with a story of some sort or another. Then she needs a drink. Then she forgot to tell me this or that.

I have about two hours worth of work to do tonight and I cannot start until the kids are in bed. The way I look at it, I drop them off at school, then I drive to work, then I come home and it is almost seven p.m. I don't spend enough time with them and I feel guilty for it. Because of that, I don't do homework (back when I was in school) or any kind of work while they are up. That is their time.

However.

When it is my time, and I don't have a lot of it, what I really want is for them to go to bed when I say so I can do what I need to do. I don't think that is too much to ask. really.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Some of you have small babies or babies on the way; others have children in various ages running through the house making life crazier than it already is. Some of you have kids who've grown up and moved away and some of you have even lost a child due to death or other circumstances beyond your control.

To each and every one of you, I wish you a heartfelt Happy Mother's Day. You deserve it!

NASCAR

It is no secret that my family went to NASCAR when it was in town last month. There is nothing like the roaring sound of the pack of cars passing by you. You feel it in your chest and you smell the rubber and fuel and heat as the cars zoom past at such high speeds. I really enjoy it.

That being said, watching NASCAR is NOT the same as seeing it in person. It is all I can do to sit here and not fall asleep while Mr. Right watches tonights race. I think I will go clean the kitchen read blogs.