I have been a good American and have ignored the news pretty much lately, choosing to live in my own little bubble impervious to the Palins of the world State of Alaska (I forgot, she’s never been out of Alaska). This means that I missed the fact that Hurricane Ike was beating a path right towards Southern Illinois. My work’s headquarters are in Houston and they evacuated on Thursday, so I was feeling sympathy for the folks about to be hammered.

Saturday night we started to get a bit windy, but I love a good storm and my bedroom has five foot tall windows for the best night time watching, so I was ready. Three am, the screen door started banging back and forth like we were in Kansas, Toto. It was simply amazing by eight am, so I got out of bed and turned on the weather radio for the first time. They kindly reassured me that we were currently experiencing winds up to 40mph and, not to worry; it would be gone by lunch. LIARS. It was more like 60-70mph and while it was gone by lunch, we will be dealing with it for quite some time.

Immediately after checking the weather radio, the power went out. No problem. Oh, wait, I have about $500 worth of meat and stuff between two freezers. And no generator. Chad convinced me to go to Lowes and buy a 3,500 watt generator. On our way there, we stopped at McDonalds where we learned that half of the area towns were also out of power. We got to Lowes and bought the last small generator they had.

Now, prior to leaving, small branches and a few limbs were down. When we came BACK though – holy crap. My neighbor at the beginning of the street had an entire tree down across his little truck. I came back to see that the post oak in my back yard had lost its entire top – about 20 feet worth. (click here for the before storm picture)

Chad, being the workaholic he is, decided we needed to clean it up right then. Unfortunately, the tree fell against a granite wall with about six huge limbs propping it up in between. It also slid backwards a bit into the V of the tree meaning it wouldn’t just fall down if cut. Did I mention the three other trees it took down along the way?

So, Chad with pole saw and chain saw, cut and cut and cut. Four hours later, it barely looked touched. We kept expecting the limb to roll and fall with each supporting branch cut. No such luck. At the very end, we got a little satisfaction when it fell and replanted itself half way down.

We discovered that the whole tree was hollow which is probably why it broke. What we did not anticipate was that it was a snake nesting site. Chad found a few snake skins hanging from the branches which is not unusual at my house. A little ooky but okay considering they are generally king snakes which keep the rodent population under control. Imagine Chad’s surprise when he cut a limb and two LIVE king snakes fell out from inside! One was about four foot long and the other was about two foot long. They acted stunned for a minute and then slithered away. The biggest one simply crawled into a hole in the bottom of the tree! We were amazed that Chad had not accidently cut them up with the chainsaw. Chunk of the branch can be seen below:

So anyway. We ended up getting power back on at about 8pm. The generator worked like a charm and I am glad to have it in my emergency supplies. We will be doing clean up for the next few weeks. I understand that my Dad’s property looks like a bomb went off as well but I haven’t been over to see it yet. Here is an article from our local paper

Compared to the folks in Texas who were truly devastated by Hurricane Ike, we came out pretty well.

How did everyone else do?

Yep, you read that right and in fact, that is a new sentence that goes on my list of things that shouldn't have to be said. The seven of us just spent an all boy weekend that included a fair, camping, atv'ing (can you use that as a verb?), shooting multiple weapons and airsoft wars. On the hottest weekend imaginable.

We started off at the DuQuoin Fair, which was long promised as we have missed two, more local, fairs due to being out of town both times. It was well worth sucking sounds coming from our wallets! Most of us love roller coasters (Chad's oldest son, not so much), including the six year olds. As a matter of fact, the two six year olds rode the very scariest one at the fair (by MY definition) which was a free fall thing-a-ma-bob. I asked them several times if they were sure and they both said YES! The good thing about this particular nightmare inducing ride is that it only lasts five minutes with the free fall part lasting MAYBE 10 seconds. So I figured at least it would be over quickly (does this sound like a bad mother making excuses for traumatizing small children?). The ride is a giant square pole, probably 50 feet tall (seemed like anyway) with three seats on each side. The ride up takes forever and serves to increase the pending terror, inch by inch. We tried to ride it two times prior to getting on but the carnie kept shutting it down due to a "loose bolt". Smarter people probably turned away and chalked that up as a sign that it was maybe STUPID. But they were not us. We got on and chink-a-chink-a-chink-a'd up the pole. When we were near the top, without warning, WE FELL. It literally rips bad words from your gut. One six year old (Evan) and I decided that we were never, ever, ever doing that again. The rest of the folks decided that it was the best ride ever invented.

Then, Eli and Jake learned about gambling. There was a game that involved dropping five discs onto a paper with a large red circle on it. The object is to cover the circle so that no red shows. The prize in question? A Play Station III. The carnie was funny, nice and very slick. He showed them exactly how it was done. Then Eli promptly lost $15 (five bucks a pop) and Jake lost $10. Each time, the carnie patiently showed them exactly what they did wrong and how to avoid it. They somehow conned me into doing it and I lost $10. We r speshul. I am just very glad that, at that point, we were honestly out of money. Eli was talking about panhandling for a minute there before I got us unmesmerized.

The next day, we loaded up our camping world (a truly ridiculous amount of equipment) and seven ATV's and went to "the farm" which is a local chunk of wooded property a friend of Chad's owns. Very nice especially considering it is free! Chad maintains it by keeping the fallen trees cleared and making sure the owner gets firewood from it each year. He put us to work clearing limbs but we quickly realized it was too frapping hot. So we shot each other instead. For those who aren't familiar with airsoft guns, they are essentially BB guns that shoot soft plastic BB's. That hurt. wahhhh. It is slightly less painful and a whole lot less messy than paintball though. We ran through trees laughing and shooting hysterically. For some reason, my gun cannot be aimed whatsoever. You can watch the BB's curve upward as they leave the weapon. Which means that I couldn't hit a daggum thing. I ran up on Eli and he rapid fired off three shots before I could get out the words "I surrender". One of them hit me in the arm and actually drew blood. Hmmm, new rule, no shooting closer than 20 feet. Eli and Chad are crack shots, so the rest of us quickly decided NOT TO PLAY anymore. Just kidding. There was random drive by shootings for the rest of the weekend.

Chad brought out four different guns (I think). I am not a gun person, so I will not name them and be ridiculed for getting them wrong. He used to shoot competition with a .22 and brought that gun. Even I could hit the target nicely with it the gun is so accurate. Chad shot a penny dead center (AT 50 YARDS!) so that the penny collapsed around the bullet and embedded into the wood frame we were using. Now that is some straight shooting, very cool. Eli and Jake, being the junior terrorists they are, loved every minute of it. Eli is actually a very good shot himself. He did not get that from me!

When we got back on Monday, we started work on our newest project. I am buying the property next to mine from my dad because it has a decent basement that Chad wants to use while restoring the VW this fall/winter. Yay! The property has an old trailer on top of a rock face that has a basement blasted into it. At some point (probably next summer), we will figure out how the heck to get the trailer lifted off without damaging the cinderblock walls of the basement. I want to build a workshop on top of the basement that seals the basement off. Right now, the roof of the basement is the floor of the trailer.

In case you are thinking we have plenty of time, our other projects include (I am only listing the projects that want to be done within the next six months!):

Friend's wedding this weekend
Room remodel (50% complete at this point - will have its own post soon)
Finish rebuilding racing truck (Chad's project, obviously)
One last tractor pull in Corydon, IN
Seal trailer basement cracks and see if it can be made dry (looks promising)
Go back to Corydon, IN except this time for a fiber festival - YAY girl time at last!
Rebuild VW

* My boss and I presented at a decent sized conference in Chicago back in April. I have done tons of teaching, including to groups of more than 100 before but this was the first time I have presented at a professional conference. The conference was the 8th Annual Mental Health and Aging Conference Our talk was titled "Eating Disorders, Nutrition and Frailty in the Elderly" and was based on our experiences with a variety of eating difficulties we have encountered in our program and of course tons of digging around in journals, books and the internet. We had a blast and were well enough received that we were invited to give the talk again at a conference in Springfield, IL! Yay! Geeky fun!

* At the end of April we took our boys back out to our favorite place - Swamp Branch, Kentucky (I dare you to find that on a printed map!). Lots of four wheeling, lots of camping and there was a 13 year old, cough, coughELIcough that got to drive a jeep all by himself.

* Remember how I thought baseball would calm down for me when I went back down to two boys playing instead of all three? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA very funny. This year I have FOUR baseball players and the fifth (Eli) works the concession stand. Yes, we live at one ballfield or another. Last week, we had games four nights in a row. The boys are all doing VERY well though and I can easily see their skills improving. Jake's team (my 11 year old) has only lost two games out of fourteen so far. Chad's oldest son, Connor who is 9 has been able to pitch for three games. His first try at pitching resulted in three strike outs in a row. The two six year olds (Evan and Seth) are playing t-ball and loving it. We are almost up to the ending tournament so relief is in sight!

* My gramma made a brief visit to Southern Illinois in May! I wish that we lived closer together. Of all the people that shaped my life, hers was the greatest influence on me. Her driving personality and ambition set her apart from her peers in the business world in a time where women faced the famed "glass ceiling". I like to think that I got some of that from her. Either that or I am just a plain old pain in the ass. Oh and I missed her birthday in June as usual, Happy Birthday Gramma!

* My ex husband's sister, Susan, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer at the very young age of 49. She was never a smoker nor did she work around any risky substances so it really caught everyone by surprise. She was just beginning to make plans for her end of life wishes when she suddenly got ill and passed away about six weeks after being diagnosed. She was a very sweet person that ALWAYS sent cards and gifts no matter that she hadn't heard from me or that I was divorced from her brother. Her children (triplets) turned 21 less than a week before she passed away. Very sad, she will be missed very much.

* Our poor, poor pontoon boat. Chad wanted to put new carpet down before getting back on the water this year. We took off the VERY heavy seats and canopy and ripped off the old carpeting to find that the marine plywood under it all was looking very scary. So it sits naked in the backyard of Chad's house waiting for the money fairy to visit us. Soon. Please.

* The first weeks of June brought the end of the school year. Happy to report that Seth did not get expelled from kindergarten despite the rocky start, LOL. Jake had pleaded and begged to trade from the trumpet to the clarinet this year and was allowed to do so under dire threats that he had to catch up to his class who were going to be on band year 2 while he was set back to the beginning. To my great surprise, my son who doesn't take much in life seriously not only caught up but PASSED his classmates and was one of three kids invited to play with the jr high band. YAY Jakey Wakey! Eli also did very well with his saxophone. I am looking forward to marching band getting going again - fun to watch them perform in parades. Eli also stayed on high honors with his grades and the Eagle club was rewarded with a trip to Memphis at the end of the year. I am very, very proud of how they are growing up. So much fun to watch them unfold.

* Chad took the boys and I on a hiking safari to a local State park called "The Little Grand Canyon". It actually looks nothing like the Grand Canyon thanks to all the trees but it is full of tall rocks, burbling streams and little critters that must be touched.

* The first weekend in June saw Chad and I back in Kentucky for the Annual Omer pig roast. This was my second year going and it was just as much fun as the first time.

* I had my 22nd anniversary of my 21st birthday and as a reward for not crying about it, Chad took me on a weekend get away to Cumberland Falls in Kentucky. This is just gorgeous. The falls are actually famous for being one of a handful of places in the WORLD where you can see a "moonbow". He planned it for the weekend of a full moon hoping we would get to see it but unfortunately for us, the full moon had passed enough that the moon rise was pretty late (2am) and it was very cloudy. Just means that we will have to go back, that's all. We are actually looking at going back in October or so to learn to kayak. The river was very low and we ended up paddling most of an 11 mile canoe ride which gave me ahhhhnold arms and meant that the "rapids" were few and far between. Got some awesome pictures - unfortunately I have to figure out how to get the pictures out of the camera because I pushed video each time instead of photo. Damn new fangled technology!

* Chad and I started the slow process of renovating the upstairs to be more family friendly. The previous owner had hung wallboard over top of four layers of wallpaper (including the original layer from the 1890's) in one of the larger bedrooms. This was just hanging off the walls and looked horrible. My goal with this house is to bring each room up to speed so that when I sell it when the boys graduate highschool, someone will actually want to buy a 140 year old house! Unfortunately, the house has been fairly neglected over the last fifty years and needs some serious elbow grease.

* Last but not least, this past weekend we carpooled in the Suburban with five of the Omer clan out to Chad's cousin's wedding in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have never been to Tulsa before (not sure about the entire state of Oklahoma - I may have driven through it at some point). We arrived to find the entire city under construction which included the hotel we were staying at. The wedding itself was beautiful - the church was just gorgeous. The reception was at a Country Club. I think it is safe to say that we all had a great time and ate lots of fabulous food (who knew you could put lobster, avacado and curry together on a pita triangle?!! OHHHHHHHH so good!). My butt is happy to be out of the car though - seven hours one way, squished in with cousins who fart (SARAH) - just kidding.

The month of July is going to be baseball tournaments and NO TRAVELING. Lots of wallpaper scraping, plaster repairing, porch swing sitting and spinning of fabulous yarn. Or else I will cry.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures to go with at least some of the above activities.

Last Friday, I was about a quarter mile from my house on a back road (round here, they are ALL back roads!) rocking the new Amy Winehouse CD (SOOOOOOOOO good) when a deer appeared on the road. No, seriously. One second it was not there and the next second it was. I didn't even have time to register this fact before the Suburban (also known as a freakin TANK) hit the deer HARD! It threw the deer forward and then hit the deer again. Yes, that is right folks. When I hit a deer, I do it right. The deer had about half a second to turn its head and make eye contact with me prior to being hit the second time. It fell and the Suburban drug it about ten feet while it tried to figure out what it was going to do. It finally decided to just run the damn thing over with a lurch and a whump. I wasn't sure what the protocol was for hitting a deer - do you stop and admire your handiwork or do you get the hell out of dodge? The Suburban didn't even shudder so I decided to get the hell out of dodge. I was shaking HARD. I am ecstatic to report that the airbag that I am now deathly afraid of did NOT go off. Yay me. Just as I came around the next corner, three cars passed me. I tried to pretend like nothing happened but once they rounded the corner they no doubt knew me for the murderer I was. I started to smell an odd smell but went the eighth of a mile left to my driveway. I got out of the car and willed the Suburban to be okay. It was not. Red fluid was pouring out of some tank or other (turned out to be a huge hole in the radiator) and the whole left side of the grill cracked, nay, smashed with a buckle in the left quarter panel. There were no lights no how left. Just wires dangling from the eye socket.

Here is the part where I have to admit that the vehicle I wrecked (second one in three weeks) does not actually belong to me. I am driving Chad's Suburban because I totaled my car (see last entry if you missed that). Chad, being the nice guy he is, says it is just a machine, the most important thing is that I am okay. I love him. So I moved onto driving his mother's car for a day. I am happy to report that I did not wreck it.

Yesterday I got my happy butt into my nother new car. Exact same, except I requested this time I want the car that comes with the option of not leaving the road unexpectedly. The salesman thought that was a funny joke. I didn't.

After limping my half dead van along for exactly a year, I researched and settled on a Nissan Altima 2.5 SL. It was gorgeous. Drove exactly like my ex-husband's Nissan 280 ZX. I have never had a non practical car before so the luxury was overwhelmingly GOOD.

Fast forward 2 1/2 weeks later to Saturday March 15th. I was following Chad back to my house from a basketball awards ceremony near his house. It was slightly raining and windy when we got onto the long back country road I use to get home. I was trying to catch up to Chad which put me going way too fast for the road conditions when I went over a bump that also included a slight turn. It felt like my car lifted off the ground (it didn't). I knew the bump was coming - the kids and I call it the yee haw bump because it makes a sick feeling in your stomach when you go over it. I remembered at the last minute and was trying to slow down when I crested the top. My car went into the left lane a little bit and I tried to correct it. It must have slid a little bit and fish tailed a lot. When it hit the gravel on the right hand side of the road, it jerked the car around back the direction I had come. I hit a stump which tore off either the front of the car or the back spinning the car around and then tore off the other end. The car then slid about a 100 feet on its side coming to a rest in a cow pasture. I still have barbed wire wrapped around the tires. When I bought the car I thought that it felt very unsafe because I was so used to being high up off the ground. You would not believe the airbags in that car! It seemed like they came from everywhere. I did not hit my head at all. I am alive because of that car.

My car had come to a rest pointing at the road but down a four foot or so embankment and seconds after I stopped, I saw Chad's truck lights straight up above me. Poor guy! He saw the accident in his rear view mirror. I can only begin to imagine the terror of leaping that fence to find out if the woman you love is dead, mangled or okay. I immediately took stock of everything and decided I fell into the okay category. My mom instincts kicked in and I started calling to Chad that I am okay, calm down, it is okay.

He has OnStar in his truck so police and ambulance were called within seconds of the accident. One of the cars that pulled over happened to be a life flight helicopter pilot/EMT guy and he helped keep everyone calm. They had to wade through a foot of mud to get me out thanks to the rain. The tow truck guy said that is what kept my car from rolling.

My car does not count as a car anymore and I am not sure what all will happen. They actually had to tie the motor back into it. I spent a day in the hospital under observation due to severe chest pain. I felt like my ribs were broken but I have pretty well decided that I have a couple of separated ribs up near my heart. I cannot even describe how much pain that causes. There is not another scratch on me though. I jammed my thumb and separated a few ribs. I am damn lucky.

Chad immediately stepped in as my caregiver in the truest sense of the word. He bathed me, washed my hair and fed me raviolis like I was a little baby. He cried when I cried with the pain of moving. He has alarms set on his cell phone to tell me when to take medicine because I have too little energy to think straight. I love this man with all my heart. I did not need an accident to help me with that though. I am lucky in love.

You can see my beautiful new car in my photo gallery (click on these words).

Middle of May had Chad, Eli, Jake and me in Indianapolis for a car show. We have acquired an old Volkswagen ragtop that Chad wants to help Eli restore to be his first car. (it will actually go to the boy who puts the most work/interest into it). I will do a photo journal of the restoration because it will be very cool. (hey! Stop yawning!). Anyway, the car show was to look at cool restored cars and to maybe pick up some parts. Turned out to be not nearly as good as in years past. Oh well, there will be others.

After seeing what fun we were having with our EIGHT four wheelers (ATV’s), dad bought one of his own. To haul stuff to the barn you know, Doris. We promptly convinced him to bring it to one of our riding spots – Trail Of Tears (TOT). This place is beautiful and has lots of good trails from beginner all the way to nutcase level. The little guys zoom around on little bitty ones that sound like they are hamster powered. We cannot even begin to pry Seth off his. I am fairly certain he would sleep on it, if he was allowed.

Miscellaneous May pictures.

June:
Back to Kentucky Chad and I went for the long awaited (annual) pig roast. This was an adult affair which is always welcome for Chad and I as couple time. His Aunt Linda’s property holds special memories for us as a new couple. Anyway, romance aside, the pig roast was just damn fun. We arrived late at night and slept in a bit but woke in time to go get the pig from the butcher. When we got there, the butcher informed us that he had just eaten lunch and was going to sit a spell. Okaaaaay. So we sat a spell and learned all the local gossip. I was a little surprised not to hear Dueling Banjos. Finally, his food was digested enough to invite us into the butcher shop – whew! Hold yer nose and don’t think about it too much (hey, ya want the head and hooves?). We hauled the poor pig home where it was roasted to perfection. I think we all ate so much no one could move. And then we did it all over again. And then we had ten more beers. Each. All of the cousins were in that weekend and so the jeeps got broken out for trail riding. Ever hear that redneck joke: What’s the last thing a redneck says before someone has to call 911? “Hold my beer”. Everyone at the party can now easily check that phrase off the list of things to be said, LOL. I would love to show you pictures but SOMEONE forgot to take any. Ah well, probably best left undocumented. Next year there will be evidence – hell someone has to do a photo documentary of the shenanigans called erecting a rain tent. (How many more support lines can fit on that there tarp?)

Later in the month, I went for the second year to The Bash on the Bluff with my good friend Michael. We hung out, floated down the Big Piney River and generally made mischief. There are a few pictures of it in my gallery from last year, nothing really new this year. Once again, I love my friend but I am truly glad we don’t live in the same state. We party way too hard – I am less and less willing to face that hangover that lasts a couple of days later.

P.S. Just so y’all know, I really don’t drink that much normally although reading the above, it sounds like I need some sort of program, hahahahaha.

At the end of June, I had the pleasure of meeting another one of Chad’s Aunts, his Aunt Tali. We went up to a little town North of us to take the boys horseback riding. I have plenty of experience with horses but it was all as a teenager and NONE in about 20 years. She has three beautiful horses. We rode “Gold” who is fairly young and was most displeased with having seven people taking turns riding him. Everyone had fun riding but the highlight of the day for the guys was probably swimming in their hot tub.

Next update will be either Sunday or Tuesday or both! Oh, the excitement!!!

On the day of Kim’s birthday, Chad and his kids were at my house. His oldest son, Connor (8yo), was using one of our sleds to slide on a hill covered with pine needles. Chad had just finished mowing my field (Gads I love that man). I was in the house finishing Kim’s cake when the door bursts open and Connor hops through. I hear with my peripheral mom ear something about blood dripping on the porch. I go out to see Connor, crying, with a rip in his pants over his knee. And a *little* blood. I told him to take off his pants and let me see it. He pulled off his sock and blood starting splattering onto the porch. No problem. I forget now what Chad said but it freaked out Connor! So I put a napkin over it before anyone could see how bad it was to try to calm the situation down. I carefully pulled back the napkin and we all got a load of this four inch long gash so deep we can see muscle definition. Okay, now you have impressed the nurse (my kids will tell you that it takes a lot of blood to get my attention – I have NO sympathy). So we spent the next two hours in the emergency room of the tiny hospital next town over. Connor got 9 stitches on the outside and about five on the inside. I can’t seem to convince him to tell people it was a shark bite though. Turns out that he slid over the cut off end of a bramble in the field – who knew that sledding in April was bad? I would love to say that nobody sleds on non snowy hills but they have all summer, LOL. Oh and the ER bill was accidently doubled – Chad fought it hard and won. The end amount was exactly what my homeowner insurance maximum was for personal injury. YEAH!

All three of my boys were in baseball this year. Seth played T-ball and just loved it. I didn’t get to do T-ball with my older two. What a blast! There were baseball games four or five days of the week for two months straight. They had fun though and that is what counts. Next year will be a little easier because Eli, who is now 13, doesn’t want to play baseball anymore. Not a surprise.

At the end of April, we took the boys to Chad’s Aunt Linda and Uncle Reed’s place out in the far far deep deep woods of Kentucky. Paintsville to be exact. It is about two hours east of Lexington and takes us about 3 DVD movies to get there. This has to be one of my most favorite places in the United States. I fell in love with the Omer family the minute I met them six months earlier. Their property may as well be a nature preserve complete with the most awesome ATV trails. We hauled six of our eight ATV’s out there and had a blast. The boys were nonstop as you can see from the pictures.

Here are a few more pictures that defied category. Enough for today. Look for another installment on Thursday. I have realized that this may take a bit longer to get up to speed than I thought!

The program that I use to display my web pictures (as well as my dad’s and my sister Kim’s) went kerflooey. Six months ago. Hee hee, see, I really don’t spend much time on the computer anymore. My dad threatened me with my life if I didn’t fix his website (no not really) so his gallery and my gallery are fixed. Kim, on the other hand, will be unveiling a HUGE surprise in a month or so.

So, I think I will attack this in month order. Each month will have picture links (highlighted in the post) to the gallery album involved. Hit your back button to get back to the blog. I will do a couple of months at a time so it isn’t so enormous. I know just what you are thinking. That Deb is an evil procrastinating wench. Fear not. I have plenty of alone time coming up in the next weeks – you will have to wait for the last installment to find out WHY!

Just so I can get this off the ground today, I will start with what I am doing work-wise because that doesn’t include pictures. As most of my three readers of this blog know, I had a job as a clinic nurse doing triage in a rural health clinic. I loved it. Did you notice the past tense? Some big changes happened that caused me to move on starting with the loss of my beloved nurse manager over an ethics situation (she was not at fault – she resigned in protest). I loved the convenience of working close to home, I loved the people I worked with, I loved the patients. I did not love the lack of money in my paycheck nor did I love answering 100 phone calls a day (yes, REALLY). I decided I needed a more meaty position. So I started looking for a new job back in May. I tried to get a job with the VA here in Marion and now am thankful not to be part of their horrible woes. I ran across a tiny little ad in the local newspaper put out by a company from Texas for a program that had not even opened yet. When I interviewed with them, they could not even show me the space where I would be working because it was being remodeled.

The Center for Senior Renewal is the name of the program and it got off the ground about two months ago. I was hired on as the only nurse and I have to tell you, I cannot believe they pay me what they do to do something so fun and so rewarding. It is a geriatric psychiatric outpatient counseling program for seniors who are facing depression and anxiety over aging, living situation, grief, loss, etc. We have two full groups going which is testimony to how well received the program was in the community. We have clients from nursing homes, assisted living and independent living – quite a mix. They are so much fun! Hugs are required, kisses with lipstick are optional. As for coworkers, there are two licensed counselors and a mental health tech/driver. Oh, almost forgot, the clinic is based out of St. Joseph’s Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro, Illinois. I will have to tell you about that hospital in another post sometime. It is fantastic.

Stay tuned for ANOTHER post on Tuesday – with pictures. I think there will probably be about four more posts rapid fire and then I will settle back into some sort of routine at-least-once-a-month posting.

a. She is blowing ladybugs out her ears

Well, wonder no more, the rumors are true. Kim, Randy and Matthew came up this past weekend (more about that later) and while they were here, we jogged over to Cape Girardeau and got a tattoo. It started as a "wouldn't it be cool if we had a family tattoo" conversation over dinner on Saturday. Uh, yah. Sure would. Eli even contributed the idea - how about the last name Codding cut into puzzle pieces and each had a puzzle piece tattooed? Shear genius. Minor discussion on Sunday again except this time I put my foot down. NO PUZZLE PIECE. Monday came around to find me still in my pajamas talking to my dad about what time we were leaving for Cape. Cape? You remember, to get the tattoos. Ohhhhhh you mean you are not kidding? Gulp. I seem to remember that 22 years ago, tattoos hurt. A lot.

I did some quick checking and got recommendations for a shop in Cape called "A Different Drummer" and we loaded up the car. Seth went with us to make sure nobody cried. We had pow wowed about the design when I picked them all up and had settled on a Chinese symbol for "peace". Each of us decided to do something different with it. I must say that I am only half joking when I say my dad made us do it. Each one of us had already intended to get a tattoo at some point. I was supposed to have done it on my 40th birthday but that turned out to be the busiest year of my life. Then it just became a procrastination game. I have always wanted a tattoo across my lower back (all y'all non tattooed folks can't understand this, I know. You've told me).

Anyway, the shop was neat as a pin and the guys there very nice. We quickly picked out our individual things and just like on Miami Ink, the guys tailored them to what we wanted. I am not sure why, but I was elected to go first, Kim, dad and Seth watching. Actually, Seth was so into it, he announced that when he got big, he was going to own that shop. He was glued to the tattoo artist's side (Chris Rose, shop owner) almost the entire time. Every once in awhile he would come around and look under my arms to ask if I was okay and inquire whether it was hurting. I didn't cry, I didn't wiggle and I didn't make girly noises. I did however, do every scrap of childbirth breathing I knew how to do (and trust me, with three kids and thirteen years of labor and delivery nursing, that is A LOT). The outlining was so intensely painful that I was actually grateful when he got to the shading. Did I mention that my tattoo is 98% outlining? It was over and permanent thirty minutes later. I totally love it.

Dad actually decided once mine got going that he would do his at the same time. A nice young man, Michael, did dad's second armband (he got the first one in Florida last year). His tattoo took at least twice as long as mine did even though they are almost the same size. I was glad my guy was very fast. We joked about watching Miami Ink (love that Kat!), Chris, who did my tattoo said he cringes over that show. I understand this fully - I cringe over childbirth shows and actively yell at the tv. My children do not allow me to watch them because of this. Michael, however, said he liked the show and wanted to go get Kat to tattoo his nipples hot pink. Yeowch, but hey, that would be way cool. While we were talking, two very cute coeds (Southeast Missouri is right there) came in. When asked if they were getting tattooed or pierced they got all antsy and evasive. Hmmmm, interesting. The shop owner came over and, talking at once, they indicated that one of the girl's nipple rings had become infected and embedded and "could you please help her get both of them out". Dad's tattooist rolled his eyes and said - "he gets to do all the fun stuff". The hotties disappeared and later reappeared much happier campers. Oh and dad didn't cry about his tattoo at all.

Kim was last. She had just gotten her first tattoo two weeks ago to celebrate her 22nd wedding anniversary. She wiggled and whimpered a lot according to her husband and daughter who each got tattoos at the same time. Two weeks is NOT enough time to put the pain behind you. She was an eensy bit nervous. She chose to put her symbol into a heart (her last name is Hart) which will later become part of a cascading heart tattoo that she and her daughter will be getting. To her relief, the tattoo was easier to deal with this time (hers is mostly shading which doesn't go as deep) and went the fastest of us all.

We left the tattoo shop giddy with what we had done (permanent! no going back! family unity!). My tattoo has pretty much healed - it feels like a sunburn. I am still very happy with it and have no regrets. I will not be getting another one. Click on my picture above to see the tattoo adventure.

This post has gotten long but I have tons more to tell. Look for another post in a few days. I will let this one marinate for awhile.

The weather. It is so unpredictable that it is even boring to joke about now. Yawn. Give me spring and stop jerking it away from me like a ten year old boy to his sister. STOP IT. We have literally gone from sixty degrees one week to howling cold five degree wind and snow the next week to 70 degrees the next week to SNOW again and this week will be back to fifties. The daffodils are royally confused. Pictures of February snow in gallery.

We have had plenty of time to play outside though. I have managed to acquire THREE atv's now so all three boys have one. Seth's (a little 60cc) is in the shop being rebuilt. This has somehow become a hobby of ours when it didn't even exist for us several months ago. Chad has access to a large wooded "farm" and we have spent some time there - very good place to ride. Pictures in the gallery.

Last weekend, Chad and I spent two days riding ATV's at a private lodge right in our backyard. We live smack in the middle of Shawnee National Forest where it is a no no to ride ATV's. So we were very happy to find a place to ride and even happier to discover a way to get away without actually going anywhere. It is called Trail of Tears Lodge and is owned by two of the nicest people, Deb and Ron Charles. Chad and I were the only guests because their season hasn't really started yet. The weather could not have been more gorgeous the week prior, so we were really looking forward to it. We were driving in and noticed stuff falling - hey, is that pollen? What, NO, it can't be... it... aggghhhh. SNOW! It was hovering around 35 degrees and was actually quite nice. We spent about 4 hours out riding in it and didn't mind it a bit. It was fascinating because it was falling in perfect "snowflake" patterns like the kind you cut out with scissors. I am pretty sure I have never seen that before! We came in tired and hungry and Ron fed us some fantastic fried catfish. The next day, Deb stuffed us with the best omelet I have had in quite some time and then we went out and found sunshine and fifty degree gorgeousness. Ya gotta love it here. We rode for several more hours and decided that, yep, the boys will love it there. YAY! Pictures in Gallery.

Busy summer up ahead (I am writing this list so that I will be obligated to report on these at minimum!):

Kentucky camping/four wheeling trip with boys
Car show in Indianna with Jake and Eli
Back to Kentucky for adults only Pig Roast
Camping/floating in Missouri with two longtime friends of mine
Fishing/camping trip to Arkansas with boys
Horseback trail ride or two
Lots of day trips for fishing and fourwheeling
A treehouse raising at my house

Oh geez, I just let the dog in the house and quickly hopped over a dead mouse on the porch. Sigh. At least this one still has it's head.

I have now run a total of six 5K races over the last six months. Check this out (look down at the 40 year old section). I really enjoy running now - my time gets better each time. As an added bonus, I have reached my weight goal for the first time in YEARS and have discovered yoga. For something as calm and serene as yoga is, it puts some serious muscles on. I am never doing another sit up as long as I live.

Eli turned 12 and I treated him to a night in St Louis to see the play "Spamalot". We are huge Monty Python fans. We had a great time and discovered that there are a whole lotta other geek/dorks out there just like us. The theater was PACKED. HAH - I fahrt in your general die-rect-tion!

I took a very large step towards making this house my own by spending an obscene amount of time scraping off faux grecian wallpaper border (and my knuckles as well) in my bedroom. I hereby declare wallpaper border to be ILLEGAL - serious felony. Don't do it! I mean it. And wallpaper remover chemical nasty junk? Completely and utterly worthless. After I gouged the crap out of my wall (who the hell puts wallpaper border two feet lower than the ceiling? WHY?), I learned to SPACKLE. Love SPACKLING. Like the word even - go ahead, say it: S P A C K L E. The stuff I got goes on pink and dries white. Pretty cool. I sanded it off and discovered that plaster powder goes FAR throughout a house. Not even remotely possible to get it all off. So ask me what color I painted my bedroom? Did you guess that I haven't painted yet? Cookie for you if you did. I can't seem to pick what color I want. I have even bought two cans of paint but just can't commit. Ah well. That is one of my New Year resolutions - paint my room.

Seth turned five. I cannot believe that my baby is five. Fortunately for me, he still hasn't caught on to the fact that I never have a party for him. I am fairly sure this is the last year I will get away with that. He is a very cool kid. He is turbo charged and laid back all wrapped together. He is not afraid of a challenge! He learned how to rollerskate in the space of two hours.

Christmas was very quiet. We had dinner over at my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bill's house and then we went to the movies to watch Charlotte's Web. Who ever thought of seeing a movie on Christmas? I never even knew theaters were open!

I went semi public with the fact that *IamdatingaguynamedChad*. Eeeeek, don't make me say that again. This is the first time since my divorce SEVEN years ago that I have dated (with the odd exception of a date here and there). I am still trying to figure out how not to be lonely without hurting my children. A very fine line. I still hold to the FACT that I will not remarry while my kids are still home (if ever at all). So far, so good. I have been seeing Chad for just over six months but only introduced him to the boys a month ago on New Years.

New Year's was a lot rowdier - I took the guys over to my friend Chad's house. He has two boys ages seven and five. They took us four wheelin (ATV) which we had never done before. My three boys took to it like ducks to water. Chad rented a pinball machine for the party at his house and it never got a moment's rest - what a great idea!

Jake turned ten but he is still my sensitive guy. He didn't get a party either (nobody did this year!).

Speaking of four wheeling - I bought an 80cc Yamaha Badger for the boys! I eventually want to have one for each of us (those suckers are expensive!). We love being outdoors and this is just another way for us to play outside. I have also bought a little 60cc Yamaha that is currently junk but is being revived as we speak by a mechanic. Seth has been riding one just like it and LOVES it.

I convinced Chad to learn to ski. We made a whole weekend of it and had a fantastic time. We kicked off our weekend by going to Chicago, having an amazing meal at Jack's On Halstead and then seeing the Blue Man Group. If you haven't seen commercials or late night shows with these guys on it, they are hilarious. Performance / musical artists with audience participation. Come on, any show where the audience gets TP'd is guaranteed to be FUN. Then we went over to Galena, Illinois to Chestnut Mountain Resort. Gorgeous! They had lots of snow and we lost no time skiing. Chad was a very quick student and was off the bunny hill within two hours (maybe even less!). I have never seen anyone snow plow down a mountain as fast as he can. He is the snowplow king. We skiied a bit on Sunday as well and then took off in pouring down snow. 45mph for the first two hours. Loads of fun. The drive should have taken us about seven hours but really took about nine. Three hours from home my check engine light came on. Guess how stressful that is?

Okay, so the van has been burning oil pretty amazingly for nearly a year now. I am trying to get it paid off and get a new vehicle. That the check engine light came on throws a monkey wrench into the plan. I took it to my usual repair shop and they informed me that I need to replace the engine (the blue book value on it is only 4K at best!) or get a new vehicle. Then they promptly offered to buy the van from me for a thousand. Hmmmm suspicious. Chad's mechanic buddy checked it out and found a whole lot of incompetence had been committed on it so we are hoping to get it back together and make it last another year. YAY! Meanwhile, I am driving his beast of a vehicle - a suburban. So cross your fingers that the van will live a little longer.

Wow! You are almost caught up!

Last week, winter visited us with some seriously fricking cold weather. And snow. But just a little bit. I took off work an hour early last Thursday and took the guys up to Chad's house (he lives about half hour away). He pulled us around on a sled behind his four wheeler. What? Does that make us rednecks now? Seriously. Oh, and guess what I learned? No, no, no, not how far away the nearest ER was. I learned that you should zip up your jacket pocket that contains your keys and camera BEFORE doing this. Found the camera right away but the keys were gone. The next day Chad was able to find the keys in ten minutes with a great big magnet that is usually used to pick up roofing nails on construction sites.

Sunday, he brought his boys over to our property to help us build trails for our four wheelers. We had an absolute blast!

Let's see, what have I left out? Steve! He is doing so well. We are truly grateful for his health. He has managed to develop a very close relationship with the boys and that makes all of us very happy. He is a great dad and we are very glad to have him back in our lives.

So how was that for an update? I am going to try not to go two months between posts but you know how it is. My New Year's resolution is to have fun - so far, so good. Pictures in the Gallery! Don't forget to click on the picture to make it larger and to read the caption better!

Speaking of full, I am sitting here in my jammies at 1:23 pm playing on the computer when I am supposed to be cleaning and cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. The pies were made last night and the turkey is in the oven, but I SUPPOSE people might want something else to go with that and maybe a clean seat to sit on. I have added a ton of pictures to the Gallery. Go look (and eat some more pie while you are at it).

Random house pictures

Recent trip to Kentucky

Evil Weedeater

Hiking and some other stuff

Once I realized that we would be home at a reasonable time, I conned my stepmother into going to Paducah with me. It still cracks me up that I can visit three states in one day (five if I wanted to work a little harder). So, with the boys fishing with their dad, Doris and I set out to do some damage at the closest yarn shop around. It is only 45 minutes but far enough away that I won’t be going to the poor house for it. We spent nearly two hours with the owner in fiberly bliss that only another addict would understand. I got some fabulous wool top for spinning that is handpainted in my favorite colorway (you don’t have to fully understand that shop talk – just know that it was the equivalent of buying some really good crack cocaine). On our way home, Doris and I stopped at an antique type mall which is also like crack to me but the best part was that I left with every bit of my money in my pocket (opposite of my goal for the yarn shop!).

I got home and rocked on my front porch swing and spun on my drop spindle for two hours listening to my favorite bluesy playlist. See the pretty by clicking here. As soon as it cooled off I went for a 3 mile run. When I got home, I realized that I had broken through my first weight goal and have now lost 20 of the 30 pounds I have been wanting to take off for about three years. That just capped off one of the best days I have had in a while (and they have not been bad either).

Today will be back to the grind – throw some dancing music on and clean house. Later, my ex is coming over and I am helping him bathe/dip his cats. Much hilarity will ensue. We may need pictures. Hmmmm. Not a bad idea.

Jake and I did the 5K walk Saturday morning. We came up on the course and burst out laughing. It was exactly the course (except we also did the big hill at the very endthat was not part of the 5K) that we had just done and declared too boring and easy. If you chose the walk portion of the 5K you were not allowed to run which meant that I did it in 43 minutes - that is a 13 1/2 minute mile. Not bad, but I decided that I will run the next one (the Apple Festival 5K in Sept). Jake came in at 45 min. He was so mad at me that he literally stomped down the last leg with this furious face. The officials were laughing - I told them "I broke him this time, he won't talk to me for the rest of the day". He was mad right up until he took a first place medal for the age group 19 and under (he is 9). Guess who has decided to do the next 5K with me? Ahhh victory is sweet.

I got a new mower! My sad riding lawnmower that my Dad bought dies each time I use it and uses a can of fix a flat each time. Walmart was having a sale on riding lawnmowers - he called to tell me to go see. I thought, hmmm, I will humor him but I have not had the best of luck in the lawnmower department (I burned up my pushmower and an electric weedeater as well). I took one look and knew it was mine. I was RIGHT. This thing ROCKS. The only problem is that it isn't purple. But it is a sexy red and that will work. It mows up some hellacious inclines without even a blink. I asked it to marry me. Just kidding, Y'all know I am not the marrying kind.

The boys go back to school on Friday (can I get a YEE-HAW?) but it is only for half a day. We have the famous Peach Festival this weekend in Cobden. It is all about the peaches. Gonna eat me some cobbler. Jake and I have been walking three miles or so at night and we have registered for the 5K walk on Saturday morning. Grandpa is riding his side car in the parade a little later. Should be lots of fun.

Anyway. I leave you with this odd conversation - falls under the category of things that just shouldn't be said.

Seth (age four): I can touch my eyeballs with my fingers.
Mom: Don't do that, you will get them dirty.
Seth: Well how do you clean them?
Mom: You have to lick them.
Seth: My tongue won't reach.
Mom: Oh well, I guess you shouldn't touch them then.
Seth: OK.