Today...

I got up at the butt crack of dawn at 4am to wake JJ up so he'd get up and ready for work. I can't go back to bed because I have to make sure he doesn't fall back asleep. By the time he's up and off to work I am wide awake.. After he went to work, I spent most of the day typing out assignments. Most of the books and workbooks we are using are my sister's so we can't write in them since she will need to use them for her younger kids in the next year or two. So I need to type out all of the homework sheets and workbook assignments (I could scan them but frankly when you scan book pages you get shadows and all kinds of stuff that I don't want to have to edit.) That took most of the morning to type out today's assignments, by the time I was done, JJ was home from work. While he did his work at the table I puttered around dishes in the dishwasher, got the kitchen picked up. Once schoolwork was done for the day, JJ took off, so I spent a couple hours looking online at Halloween decor (trying to figure out how we are going to decorate outside for halloween.) Had dinner, did a couple lightspeed surveys, cashed in my lightspeed points for some amazon certs. Then I went online and did some looking at GPS's . I wanted to get Kris one for Christmas. We used BIL's gps this summer and Kris mentioned how he'd like to have one. So I did some looking and found a good one and figured I'd order it now since I had most of the $$ for it in amazon credit. So I ordered that.. Now I'm just sitting here thinking that I absolutely must get in JJ's room tomorrow and start somewhere. He didn't straighten his room like he was supposed to before he left for the weekend, so most of tomorrow will be spent putting his dirty laundry in the laundry room, moving his bed away from the wall, taking the fatheads off, wiping the wall down..etc. I may get to do some taping by tomorrow night..I'm going to do just one wall at a time....

My goodness what a busy and productive day Kelly.

For us, not so busy. We did drive to Evansville IN today (90 minutes away) which is were we go to buy wine (no KY Sin tax, almost half price of what it here)... a stop at Sam's Club and lunch at Grand Traverse Pie Company (Lori, you probably know about this place).... We love it... sadly, only 3 or 4 restaurants in MI and IN... to us, better than panera which uptil we tried GTPC, thought couldn't be beat. We were proven wrong.

Oh and it rained the entire day which makes for stressful highway travel and shopping... but there and back home safely!

The weekend didn't end up being so productive I'm afraid. It ended up being a PMSing weekend and I sat in the recliner with a blanket watching House Netflix DVDs all day Sat and LOTR (all three) all day Sunday with a bowl of ice cream with hot fudge. But that's okay..I have a renewed sense of determination for this week.

Does anyone here have a halloween music/scary noises/thunderstorm CD or soundtrack they could burn and send me a copy? We ordered our hanging cocoon man which will hang in our tree in the front yard, black light spotlights for the garage lights and a strobe light. In the next couple weeks I'll see what else I can pick up (I'm gonna make my own gravestones with blue board, I found a video online on how to make them look really cool)

Kelly, do yourself and JJ both a favor and make him wake himself for work. When he misses one day, whether he's fired or not I can guarantee that he will never let it happen again. It's a great learning experience. I know boys sleep like a rock, but they need to find something that works for them. It's a life skill that they need to learn. Just give fair warning. "I'm not waking you up tomorrow. You're on your own."

I'm sort of happy that we don't have to deal with Trick-or-Treaters here. I am always prepared for about 10 or so (just in case), but always turn my porch light off on the early side. When we lived in the 'burbs, I'd call my sister on Halloween and we'd give each other a head count. She always won. It was fun seeing the little bitty kids in their costumes, but you can start feeling used when the person behind the costume is taller than you are and has big, hairy knuckles.

I agree, make him wake himself. If a regular alarm clock doesn't work, oneof those with bells in an metal trash can does it. I can hear the neighbors kids alarm clock all the way over here.

I am also glad we don't have TorT er's. We have had a few over the years, but are not home then, we also live at the end of a long dead end road....and it's kinda creepy at night.

Yeah...hubby said the same thing the other day. He's going to buy JJ an annoyingly loud alarm clock. That should do the trick if he leaves it on the other side of the room.

I've had so many years without trick or treaters that we are kind of excited about having them..I love seeing how creative people can be with their kids costumes.. We started buying candy last week, we'll buy a couple bags a week, and I'll pre-make small bags the night before.

Living in the woods for 20 years in MI, we had 4 T/T ... neighbor kids before their parents drove them 30 miles to the city~

Since moving to KY, in 'the burbs' we have tons... I usually prepare 85 bags... Come 8pm, I turn off the come inside, turn off the porch light and give any leftover candy to next door neighbor kids the day after.

I love Oct 31... so much fun to interact with the little itty bitty ones to the 12-13... older than that? well don't like it, but they get candy too.

Buy a screaming meanine alarm clock- Its the only thing that works for BR and I- after years of getting about 5 or so hours of sleep anight- We no longer wake up to normal alarm clocks. Both of us have the loudest alarm clock that walmart sells- and we have been known to sleep strait through them. LITERLY-

My MIL used to come by to pick up the kids, and would just have to say "sunshine" and I'd be awake, and my alarm had been going off for over an hour. and so had BR's.

Yesterday, BR reset the screaming meanie for me after he left at 3. My alarm was set for 5:30- he set the meanie for 6:30. and I never woke up until it went off. and the TV was off. it was QUIET in the house. LOL

Repairman came today. Our new home weight system had a split in the plastic sheath that covers the cable. It was split on about 1/3rd of one of the 3 cables. However, it was still under warranty. So they ordered 3 brand new cables and had someone come install them. Glad it was still under warranty. JJ had work this morning and then homeschool. Mom and dad came to visit today for about an hour which was nice. The GPS I ordered Kris' for Christmas came in the mail today..I have another eye appt tomorrow (just a check up after using some trial contacts). Other than that..not much going on..

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday! Maybe it's because I love horror movies so much lol. I have to admit that I sleep through my alarm clock too often,so I'm going to look up the screaming meanie also. I do wake up(usually) but I'm so tired/sleepy that I think,let me just close my eyes for 5 more minutes,and that's what does me in. As for trick or treaters,I would love to get some!There are just 2 kids in my neighborhood,and one of them is an infant.When my siblings and I were young,the block was fullllllllll of kids.I guess my generation generally got married and moved away. I think last year we had a grand total of 2 trick or treaters.Sometimes I go to my sister's house ,they usually have my nieces and nephew's friends over.Well,we'll see.I really don't need to hear her running mouth,I could only hope that she ignores me lol

Today i have a bunch of cleaning to do and mowing. I also have a Dr appt to find out the results of the MRI and Xrays they did on Monday....I am probably looking at a knee replacement, not sure yet if partial or total. The Dr told me " you have abused them for years, now you gotta fix them", well, I think not, I will wait to have anything done, since it would only have to be redone in 10 years or so....I am not gonna stop "abusing" my knees anytime soon. Apparently hiking, boating, skiing, tubing, kneeboarding etc is abuse.

We will probably have a busy weekend, my Dad and nephew will be here, and Xander will be here for most of the weekend.

I got my MRI results, and I have a slightly torn ACL, and I suspect it is because I did hyper extend it a while back. There is no cure, but rest and ice.....but who has time for that? I had a full ACL tear about 10 years ago, waterskiiing, so it is weak, and he told me to avoid high impact anything for 6 weeks.
I WILL need a full knee replacement at some point in the future, but I will wait until it is absoltely necessary, and my Ortho is OK with that. I don't have health coverage, and the surgery is about 50K

Phew, Erin... the cost is huge. I have had friends who have had the knew replacement surgery, mostly positive results... but it you can put it off for now, and give up waterskiing, you'll be good to go -- easy on yourself!

if you have no insurance you should buy some for yourself for a month or two and then cancel it. It shouldn't cost that much

I will not give up doing the things I like. I am actually going Kneeboarding tomorrow with a few girlfriends.....since we are all sahms...LOL

I thought about doing that Athena, but I would still end up paying, they would not pay if i cancelled.

A friend of mine did it for her daughters surgery,they paid,they have to

edbson wrote:I will not give up doing the things I like. I am actually going Kneeboarding tomorrow with a few girlfriends.....since we are all sahms...LOL

I thought about doing that Athena, but I would still end up paying, they would not pay if i cancelled.

and most would look for pre-existing conditions.


I have to sort of agree with you Erin... if I were a smoker and got lung cancer and was probably not going to live, I probably wouldn't stop; if I had knee problems, I probably wouldn't give up my daily 4 miles a day plus yoga; and a whole lot of other things... but then, I'm 63 years old and probably wouldn't have more than another 20 years to live, and have no children counting on me... just saying.

I talked to the Dr, as long as I don't tear anything it will heal, eventually. I explained to him that i am just not willing to stop doing the things I like over a little bit of pain. I am also not willing to take anything for pain. If it gets bad i take it easy for a while...but I have too much to do to stop.

I aplaud you're willing to go with it, live your life... and perhaps use alternative meds/health methods ( mine and Chuck's choice) have your ever tried arnica gel... lately my back has bothered me (why I have no idea), but Chuck will rub arnica gel and within 15 minutes, pain has disappated.

isn't arnica supposed to get rid of a bruise?

agaphmou wrote:isn't arnica supposed to get rid of a bruise?

yes and no. We do take homeophathic remedies for many purposes, but we also have the arnical gel... and trust me, it beats any of those heat rubs that smell to high hell ... quickly!

I dunno, a plain old bar of soap works if you rub it almost immediately after banging whatever.

I use Biofreeze, it works well.

biofreeze is good... Chuck's chriopractor give him some samples, and it works, again, without that horrible smell.

The GPS I ordered Kris for Christmas came in last week. However, I thought today that I better check to make sure it works because Dec/Jan would be too late to return it if for some reason it doesn't work when he opens it. The box doesnt' include a wall charger....so I ordered one tonight. I'll have to check it when the charger comes in.

Typed out JJ's homework that he has to do for tomorrow. Still behind typing out a ton of other stuff having to do with homework though, and havent' started grading yet. I'll end up having to do it on Christmas vacation or something it's the only time when I can see that I will have to catch up. My role in JJ's courses and helping assist him in his work and the amount of stuff I have to do for my part, is a lot more involved this year than last. I am pretty much sitting right at the table with him the whole time he's there. Then I am preparing my part, preparing/organizing assignments, typing out stuff, other stuff in the evenings... I've found that I'm struggling just to get housework, dinner, etc done...nevermind any extra stuff like painting, clearing out the flower beds, etc which I really need to get to. Kris has been trying to help out a little by loading and starting the dishwasher, taking the dog out to pee, finishing dinner once in a while if he gets home in time to help finish it, he always does his own laundry, so I dont' have to do that. I don't sleep much as it is, but I think I need to get up earlier, I already go to bed super late. It will be easier after Jan. In January two of his courses will be done since they are half year courses. That will free up a little more time/work. I still don't regret homeschooling him for a moment though... It's just a lot more juggling this year compared to last..maybe eventually I will get in a groove..though it's been a few weeks since we started and I haven't yet...

Charger came in, Kris' GPS works, now to put it away until Christmas. JJ is sick in bed today. My nephew is over today, and right now just got warned that if he takes his Lego truck and scratches it across my livingroom floor again that I will throw it in the garbage and he will go in time out. This after he colored my floor with Crayons (which I took away) and put scuff marks all over by skidding with his sneakers on my floor, (which I made him take off). In another half hour, he probably will have had everything taken away that he brought with him...and will end up spending most of his time in time out. Atleast he doesn't fight me..