Don't Be Mad Judy . . .

But I am posting a picture of you without asking first. I figure since it was taken 40 years ago (dang, that sounds weird!) you won't mind. I love this picture and have wanted to do something with it for a while. You need a "cheer up" so hopefully this will help.



I also found a Very Brady quiz.
I am . . . . BOBBY!

You Are Bobby Brainy

Ultra competitive, you will do almost anything to win. From pull ups to pool sharking, you're very talented. And while everyone is aware of your victories, they still (affectionately) consider you to be a little brat!

What Brady Are You?

I am pretty competitive, but I don't think I'd do ANYTHING to win.
I've been called a brat many times by my loving sister, but it has been a while so I will forgive that.
OK, you know the drill, tell me who YOU are. I already have my predictions.

I'm still here . . .

Barely. I feel a little better, but last week was such a crappy week and it's just lingering. I figure I should add something new here so my blog doesn't get cancelled. OK, I know it won't, but you know what I mean. I was getting pretty good about posting almost every day for a while there. Maybe later this week I'll get back into the swing of things. Now that my CT scans and various tests came back pretty much all normal (they found I have a brain after all!), I can relax a little. I still feel crappy, but that may be my frazzled nerves. Natalie's funeral is tomorrow. The memorial is today, but Glen is going by himself. I mean no disrespect to Natalie, but one long day tomorrow for Ethan will be more than enough. I remember going to my dad's funeral when I was his age, and it was one day, and that was plenty. I didn't have a grasp on things as much as Ethan does, though, which I'm not sure if will make things better or worse. I remember just sitting there and not really saying anything to anyone. Ethan, on the other hand, wants to know everything about everything, so I am trying to prepare for all the questions I know he will be asking.

To lighten things up a bit, here is my latest quiz for my fellow Grey's Anatomy fans. I'm not sure I agree with my results, as I don't often think of myself as a tall, extremely confident, black man, but that's my result. If you take the quiz, tell me who you are!


You're Dr. Preston Burke! You are extremely confident, which can be a bad thing. You find it hard to open up to people, but once you do you have no problem being yourself. You may come of as serious, but everyone knows how funny you can really be.

Take this quiz!

Code downgraded to orange.

I have downgraded my frustration level to orange since I was able to upload to my photo server, with limited problems. Blogger is still not cooperating. The winds are picking up here so I'll be powering down now. I was able to tape "24" (I have to every week since it's on at 8 and Ethan goes to be around 8-8:30), so I can lose power anytime now and I'll be fine. Thanks for thinking of me, Jude.

For Noah . . .

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Noah!
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!!

We hope your day is great. It's a bummer that we couldn't share it with you. We miss you very much and look forward to seeing you this summer.

Code Red - No Photos!

I have changed the Alert Code from Yellow to Red since I'm having problems with this program. I can't seem to upload anything to Blogger or to my photo host. Not sure if it's my problem or theirs. I know Blogger has been persnickety lately, but this is the first time that I have had issues.
Check back later, as I will be working on the matter so I can post before our power goes off. We have been issued a blizzard warning from 9 pm through tomorrow morning and are due to be buried in snow. Where was it this winter?? I think it snowed 3, maybe 4 times, and it rarely stuck. Now that is technically Spring (Happy first day of Spring everyone!), it decides to make up for lost time? Mother Nature sure is moody! Some people don't even have their power back from last Sunday's tornado, and here we go again. In case you're interested, the latest estimate was $100 million in damages. Yowzers!
OK - off to try to figure out why my photos aren't uploading . . .

Clothes Shopping

My child will be ten feet tall by the time he graduates high school. Well, that's what it seems these days. All of a sudden almost all of his pants are too short. So what does that mean? Time to go clothes shopping! Now, nobody loves a sale more than I do. Well, maybe it's a tie between Tracie and me. Anyway, how happy was I to find the mother of all sales? Very. I suppose it's season end clearance, but it's still chilly enough to need long pants, so we got 5 pair - average price $3 each. He got a long sleeve corduroy shirt/jacket for $2.50. We saved so much I bought him some fun tee shirts, the video games one and a Hot Wheels one. I was surprised he wanted the Hot Wheels since he doesn't play with his cars anymore - but then - they are boxed up in the basement. I guess you can't play with what you can't get to. Back to shopping, I got Glen a lightweight sweater for $2, perfect for cool Spring evenings, and a few other shirts. I didn't get anything for me. Didn't even look. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow.
OK - enough about clothes. I know you aren't interested. I just thought the tee shirt was cool and wanted to "blog it" for Aunt Jude. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'll try to be more interesting next time.

Me in 6 months!!

Once we get our pool table in a few months, I give myself 6 months to play like this. You don't have to watch the whole thing - it is kinda long, but the first few shots will give you the idea.

Crazy Pool Shots Watch it now on StupidVideos!

Basement Progress

It's getting there, slowly but surely. We were supposed to be having my workshop sprayed and textured so I could start painting, but Mark was injured the morning he was supposed to come, and has stitches in his hand, so I really don't know when he'll be back. Bummer. At least we're getting my room done first, then I can move all of my stuff out of Jude's guest room/Ethan's playroom and Glen's workshop. I miss my stuff. I think that's one reason I started doing this blog. Kind of a creative outlet since all of my paper and tools and stuff is all boxed up. Does that mean I'll stop writing this blog when I get my room? I doubt it. I think I may have 3 or 4 readers! I won't let you down!!
We went to visit Natalie again yesterday. They turned her meds down so she was a lot more aware of things. We'll probably go again tomorrow. We got to see Jerry and Greg, which was nice, I just wish it wasn't under these circumstances.
Speaking of hospitals, I had to go to the doctor today. Not sure what my problem is. I'm getting a CT scan and ultrasound next Wednesday, so I guess the doctor isn't too concerned. I'll spare the details.
So, that has been my past few days. Not very fun, but sometimes life throws curve balls. Speaking of which, Ethan will start tee-ball next month. He's really looking forward to it, except the tee part. He likes to have the ball pitched to him. I told him next year that would be how he plays. And we are looking into Tiger Cubs for him, now that he is 6. I promise not to overschedule him and have him do 3 sports, Scouts, a musical instrument and drama.
OK, that's all for now.

Sponge Bob Ethan

This one's for you, Aunt Jude. Ethan was wearing his Sponge Bob tee shirt with his Sponge Bob jammie bottoms, while brushing his teeth with his Sponge Bob toothbrush. We had just finished playing a Sponge Bob game, and I told him that he was Sponge Ethan. He wanted me to take a photo so I could blog it for you.
On the tee shirt - the eyes and teeth glow in the dark, which is REALLY creepy. They are kind of big.

Some of the damage

I did not take these photos.

This is the bugger that went through.

This is the lumberjack guy who lost his head. Not sure if it was recovered.

This is the inside stairwell of the hotel where we stayed when we moved here and didn't have possession of the house yet. Ethan is back in school today - there wasn't any damage there. A nearby school district had 140 of it's 220 bus fleet damaged, along with some of the schools themselves, so many schools are still out. They say this is the worst Springfield has been hit in over 30 years, so I guess it's a relief to know that this isn't the norm! I'm not sure which is worse, seeing it coming or the "hit and run" of an earthquake.
OK - enough tornado talk.
Now, I know I said yesterday that my next post (this one) would be a little more upbeat, but sorry. I lied. This is actually turning out to be quite a crappy post.
Glen's mom is back in the hospital. She went in yesterday for another surgery. She was just released last week after being in the hospital for over a month, so we figured things were improving, or at least stable. His dad called this morning, and things really don't look good. Glen is there now with his sister and her kids. I don't really know anything else right now.
Ethan will be home from school in about 5 minutes, so I gotta go meet him at the bus. His days of wanting to be independent and walk home by himself are over. He told me it makes him really sad when I'm not there, so I figure I'll enjoy it while I can. It probably won't be long before he doesn't want me there again.

Glad that's over . . .

Well, we survived our first tornado. Actually, I think there were 2 or 3.
It was heading for us, then took a turn North and missed us by "thismuch" - but it did hit Springfield about 5 miles up the road pretty bad. I was at the store about an hour before it hit - and that store lost part of it's roof and it's huge sign. Tons of power lines and street lights toppled over. A giant lumberjack statue lost his head.
The weather was fine when I was out. I was at the book store and when I came outside, the air was very heavy. I felt like someone punched me in the stomach, and just breathing was awkward. I didn't think much of it, being new to the mid-west, and I made it home before the warnings went off, but not by much.
We all went to the basement, Ethan and I played poker while Glen watched the news. We were lucky to have power most of the time, as we don't have the battery back-up for the sump pump yet (guess what Glen's getting today!). When we did lose power, I scooped water, and Glen dumped it, just to be sure it didn't get too high. Keep in mind this is now 3:30 am. Good thing I'm a night person!!
Ethan slept through most of it, and has today off from school (as does most of the area). I'm running on empty - went to bed at 5:30, up at 7 to check school status, then couldn't fall back to sleep very easily. It's really windy right now, and the siding on the house is rattling. I'll never buy another house with siding in a windy area. It's just too noisy!
I'll try to make the next post a little more cheery!

If I was a Muppet . . .

I had to find out who I would be.

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgable, you are the perfect sidekick. You're always willing to lend a helping hand. In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going. "15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Who would you be?? The quiz isn't long - take it! But you have to let me know which Muppet you are.

One more post tonight...

I had some time while Ethan was playing Playstation so I made this. I know it's kind of busy, I'll probably re-do it tomorrow. You probably can't read it, but the box has a poem about bears. I could have watched "24" on my computer, but I decided to wait for the big screen of the TV instead. Now Ethan is asleep, finally, so I will go fire up season 3, disc 1. It took a while for him to get to bed tonight. He kept freaking out about a tornado hitting the house. Today was a really nice day, a "no jacket" day, so I'm not sure why he's thinking about this, but it has him pretty upset, as in "in tears" upset, which he really doesn't do very often. The funny thing (I really shouldn't call it funny) is that he's not afraid of getting hurt or anything like that. He's afraid his Playstation will get broken. We already thought about moving it to the basement when it is finished, so I guess that decision has been made. I tried to explain insurance to him. I think he kind of understands it. After that part of the discussion, he calmed down and went to sleep pretty quickly. I swear he's 6 going on 26.

Doin' the Happy Dance!

Well, I'm making today's post short and sweet. The video store got in season 3 of "24", so I have 2 disks to watch. Some bozo has disk 3 or I would have rented it, too. I need to fill in the gaps between seasons 1 & 2, which I have seen, and season 5, which I am watching now.
Maybe I'll find a photo to post later tonight. I am a night owl, and Ethan doesn't have school tomorrow, so I can stay up even later than normal.

Lollipop Lady

Is there anything I won't take a picture of? Sometimes I wonder. Ethan was opening a lollipop a week or so ago. He started laughing, ran in, shoved it in my face, and said "Hey, look! It's an old woman!!" And, yes, it does look just like one. I'm not sure why she's old, but she's wearing a scarf. Why I thought we had to take a picture of it? Well, I guess it was because it had Ethan in such a giggle fit, I figured we should preserve it.

Let's Party!!

Well, the party is over. At least for another year. It went well. The kids all enjoyed battling Darth Vader, and the TV Light Saber game was a big hit. For most of the time, they played light sabers and Attacktix. Ethan got really upset when we changed the Attacktix rules to accommodate 6 players, insisting that it wasn't the right way to play. After explaining that we had to change things so nobody would be left out, he reluctantly went back into the game. (I swear, if you tell this kid something one time, and then change it for whatever reason, he INSISTS that the only right way is the original way. It can be about anything.) Thanks to Tracie, we had Darth Vader masks for the kids, but those pictures didn't turn out very well.
We were sad that "the usual crowd" couldn't be here. We miss you all and think of you often.

P.S. In case you're wondering, I blurred the faces of his friends because I don't want to post them on the internet without their parent's permission.

Happy Birthday to my boys!

Ethan is 6 today. We was born in about 20 minutes. At school today he got to wear a crown. He had to bring snacks for the whole class, so he brought Ding Dongs (MUCH less messy than a cake, plus easier to take on the bus!). Unfortunately, he had a substitute teacher. He was kinda sad because he really likes his teacher. When he got off the bus, he said he had a really good day. He gets to pick dinner tonight. It's just him and me. Glen's working 'til probably 8 or 9. I'm guessing we'll be having hamburgers.
Well, that's all for now. I told him I'd play Attacktix with him for a while. If we don't pick our teams together, he takes all of the really good ones and then beats me in no time. The Luke Skywalker with the "force" (from last night's Aunt Jude gift) is REALLY strong. It even knocks over the Mega machine that normally takes several hits to take down. OK, I REALLY need to go now because I know you really probably don't need to know all of this.

Here is Luke battling his father, Darth.
Do I need a life? Yes, in fact I think I do.

We're being invaded!

Here is our fearless leader of the next battle with a smug look of invincibleness. (yes, that is a word)

Yes, we are being invaded by Star Wars - both the good side and the dark side. Here is his army as of tonight. We'll see if it grows over the weekend. I feel a tremor in the force that says it might. Last week good 'ole Aunt Jude told Ethan that there was a box on the way for him. Well, since he was sick at the time, he asked if it was because he was sick. Since there are 2 packages in the box, she said sure, one because you're sick, and one because you're six.
The box came today. I really wish the drivers would at least knock on the door to let us know. We found it as we were leaving to go to their birthday dinner. Glen has to work late tomorrow (their actual birthday) - gee, big shocker there (NOT!). Anyway, when we got home he opened one of them, and what could it be? Hmmmm, let's think about this for a minute. Oh, I know! Attacktix? You betcha! The stores here have bare shelves. Literally. The pegs are all labeled for them, and they are all empty. Every single peg in every single store. Trust me, I've checked them all.
Now this box of Attacktix wasn't just a regular old box. This box had DARTH VADER! Way cool. I know it's a bad photo but you get the general idea.

Let's see, 6 years ago right now I was being given morphine so I could sleep. It don't really remember it helping very much.
Well, that's all for now. Just wanted to say hi to both of you. This is fun to do even if I only have 2 readers!

Return to the Apple Orchard

I know I have posted this photo already. But now that I have it on a layout I am re-posting it simply so I can change the last post date on here. I haven't been feeling overly creative in the last few days, and with Ethan's party on Sunday, that may not be a good thing. I have the Darth Vader cape fabric, I have to find the serger so I can whip one up. I guess Glen thought I was kidding when I asked if he would dress up like Darth, but he's committed now! The kids are looking forward to battling him. I'll be sure to post some pictures by Monday.