Fantastic Give-away!

Kimberly at Camp and Cottage Living is having a heck of a give-away.  She is giving away an incredible bracelet made out of vintage silverware!  If you haven't seen it, go by and take a look.  Simply beautiful.
Oh, and you can enter the giveaway while you're there!

In addition to the bracelet, she has some other goodies that the lucky winner will also receive.

Saturday Sampling and a Give-a-way!

Do you have a post written this week (either by you or someone else) that you think no one should miss?  

Do you get stressed because you can't read everybody's posts every day?

Mrs. 4444 has a solution!  Click on the link above and see the posts of the week that you shouldn't miss!

I chose the post titled "Dreaming" for mine this week.  Short, sweet, and to the point.  And, now everybody knows just how weird I really am!

Karen at Karen's Corner is getting ready to celebrate her 3rd Blogiversary!  Yay, Karen!  To commemorate this milestone, she's hosting a give-a-way!  Head over to this post to get the details and to enter!

Thank You Very Much & Give-a-Ways

It's Thursday  (well, really it's  Wed. night, but, if you're reading this Wed. night, you'll just have to pretend), which means free therapy time courtesy of Kmama!  It's the day that you can very sarcastically thank the irritations of the past week, and feel better when you're done.  And, y'all better hold on to your britches, 'cause I'm  back at work and I've got plenty to say!

1.  Thank you, YS' school for messing up schedules.  He was at the school for 3 1/2 hours trying to get it straight and waiting in line.  Wait...there wasn't a line.  Apparently the kids there haven't been taught how to wait in a line, and they didn't think to have a couple of faculty members helping to keep order.  What I saw was a crowd of 15 year old kids standing near tables, inching their way up, in no semblance of a line whatsoever.  By the time we got up to the counselor, she was ready to go home, quickly checked the schedule, and told YS to stop by her office first thing Monday morning to pick up his schedule.  It wasn't until we left that I realized Driver's Ed. had been left off...and he gets his license in September. 

2.  Thank you, school system where I work, for making your employees waste 1 1/2 hours of the day at the employee fair.  All I got out of it was some pens, and a backscratcher.  I think our time could've been put to better use by being at our schools.



3.  Thank you, coworker, for putting me down as a reference on an application without asking first.  Heeeeell-oooo!  It's common professional courtesy to ask before using someone as a reference.  When the company called, I couldn't tell her anything because I'm not your supervisor and I've never seen you in therapy, or at your school.  I probably wasn't a good choice to use as a reference, even though I've known you for 30+ years.

4.  Thank you, presenter of one of the most boring inservices ever, for throwing down the handout in front of everybody, then, at the end of the day when you were assisting another presenter, snatching some handouts out of my hand that I was about to pass to the people in the back row.  Very professional.


5.  Thank you again, presenter, for thinking that we are complete morons who have no idea how to write present levels of performance.  Oh, and a word of advice:  If you're going to give us an example of how to write an IEP, make sure your example is perfect.  There were statements in places they didn't belong as well as a misspelled word.  Yep, that was a great example.

6.  Thank you, certain someones in my household, who still can't grasp the concept of putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher.  We've only been in this house 6 years, so I could see how you wouldn't be able to understand that when the light to the dishwasher is off, the dishes are dirty.  You can put dirty dishes in there if the light isn't on. 

Susan at This Day! is having a giveaway!  Take a peek and see what she's giving away and how to enter! 

For you dog lovers:  Kmama is having a giveaway for your dog.  Go visit and see how to enter.

Miscellaneous Monday

First things first:  H-Momma at Family Team is sponsoring a giveaway.  She's giving away a chance to win your choice of bunch of different stuff, so check out her blog and enter!  I'm really hoping for the Olympia Polk Dot Shopper Tote! I saw a shopper tote when we were in Copenhagen last summer.  I considered getting one, but wasn't sure how I'd get it home.  Please, please let my name be drawn!

MS' high school soccer team had a tournament over the weekend.  They came back with a record of 1-2-1.  All of the teams are from much larger schools, and 2 of them are private schools.  The last team they played is a very large private school whose kids play year round together in club soccer.  I'm not a soccer mom; in fact, the other moms would  laugh at me when I would say something.  They are very patient with me and explain the rules.  Speaking of the rules (specifically the penalties), I have no clue about what constitutes a penalty.  I'm  very convinced that they are very objective, and it just depends on if the referee wants  to call it or not. Very confusing!  The team spent the night at the location of the tournament on Friday night.  We went down Saturday morning for the final 2 games.  When we saw MS that morning, my husband asked if MS had shaved his head again.  I told him that when he left the house Friday  morning, he hadn't.  Guess they got bored Friday night and shaved his head!  Good thing he looks good with it! During the last game, he appeared to have a collision with a teammate.  From where we were sitting, it looked like they hit heads.  Thank goodness MS just got kicked in the head!   We could hear the collision in the stands, on the other side of the field, but I think it was just their shin guards hitting.  It brought back a memory of him getting a concussion 3 years ago by hitting his head getting in the van.  We were running late for school, and I was yelling pleading with him to hurry.  As he got in the van, he hit his head.  I get a call around 1:00 from him saying that his head is hurting really bad and he has double vision.  I asked if he could get some tylenol and make it to the end of the day (Mom of the Year, here!), and he said he would try.  About 30 minutes later, I get a call from the Student Affairs' Secretary, and she said he was throwing up!  Here's another reason I'm glad we moved home:  I called my mom and she picked him up so I could meet her at the dr.'s office!  He did have a "little" concussion.  Here he is at the tournament:

We saw the prettiest Bradford Pears down there.  It's weird how you drive down the road  for an hour and the trees are blooming!

My husband planted a couple of small Bradfords in our yard shortly after we moved here, but they're not blooming yet.  They're getting there, though!  Here's what they look like right now:

They still look really scrawny, but believe me, they have grown a bunch since they were planted.  The dogwoods aren't blooming yet, but there will be pictures of that one street I talked about as soon as they are!

So, I went to Mass yesterday in a monsoon!  It wasn't raining when I left the house, but by the time I got to church it was pouring and the wind was terrible.  Some of the things I love about this parish is that it's geared toward younger people, so there are guitars and great music.  I love the formality of the Catholic Mass, but also that at this parish, everything is laid back.  During the prayer intentions, the lector reads the intentions, then opens it up to any that parishioners have.  There seemed to be an awful lot yesterday morning, complete with someone appreciating Catholic congressmen who stood up in support of the health care  reform.  (I couldn't bring myself to say, "Lord, hear our prayer" after that one!)  Then, a couple of minutes later, someone said something about the other side. Seriously?  We're going to do this here, during Mass?  I heard a lot of murmurs after that.  I really think Father needs to do away with opening up the intentions.  Most of the people  who say something are the same ones who say the same things (which could be added to the list that the lector reads), and some of them are really for personal intentions which should be said to themselves. 

The Vols lost a close one yesterday.  It wasn't a good weekend for the basketball teams, but  the guys got farther than they ever had, and almost made it to the Final Four.

This being my birthday & all (29 yet again!), I'm going to leave you with a picture of me with a birthday cake my mom  made me a few years ago:

Yep, apparently I got a blow up duck and a box of crayons for my 3rd birthday!  Birthdays weren't really a big deal at our house.  I guess with 10 kids, there wasn't a whole lot you could do for one without doing it for everybody else.  We were allowed one birthday party: I had mine when I turned 7 and got mad at my mom because she made me invite everybody in my class (there was one girl I didn't want to invite!).  I did get an extra party in, though.  I don't remember how old I was, but a friend who lived up the street had a surprise slumber party for me.  Oh, the things we remember!