How reassuring...

After looking through the fair pics, I ran across these. The sign just cracked me up, so I thought I'd share and for good measure I took a pic of the ride they were referring to. It's basically a big ferris wheel that only holds 4 people (2 on each side.) If you're interested it's good to know your meal "shouldn't" be left on their seat. Who knows how many meals flew through the air?!?! ewwww!!!!

***no, I did not ride this ride. I actually didn't ride anything this year. Hubby was feeling sick :( So I just hung out with the sick guy.

Man, do these scare me...

These things show up in Jerky, Vitamins, Electronic Stuff, etc. Well, tonight they showed up in the kids' fluoride. Talk about scare me. Cub4 opened the "childproof" lid of the flouride bottle that fell off the shelf of my desk. Yikes! It's gotta be bad if it states DO NOT EAT all over it. I was quick enough to pick it all up, but I started thinking about how often I see these and they freak me out everytime. Anyhow, onto better things.

We went to the fair today. So much fun! Cub1&2 stayed out of school~tsktsk *LOL* It was worth it though. Tons of rides, funnel cake, elephant ears and scones. I suppose it wasn't tons of the food, just lots of sampling. I feel pretty good about how I did :o) It's been a really long day, so exercising will resume tomorrow.

One good surprise though, we made it back in time for the season premiere of LOST!!!! No biggie, because we have tivo, but I've watched it twice tonight, once live and then once again. I'm so glad it's back on. I also watched Invasion, it was on right after. I'm not totally sold on that one. It was super slow to me and I'm not "into" the characters either. I'd love to have another show to be hooked on, but I don't know if that's the one.

So I'll leave you with my shows I have on season pass for my tivo.

• Desperate Housewives
• Lost
• House
• Grey's Anatomy
• The Biggest Loser
• The Outer Limits
• The 4400
• Spongebob & Dora (of course, these aren't my choices *grin*)

Busy, Busy, Busy...

It's been super busy around here lately. Cub1 started basketball and Cub2 now has cheerleading 2 times a week. I have officially become a bus driver. I really like the idea of them being so active though, keeps them busy and out of the bad stuff, so it's totally worth it.

Hubby starts school on next week!!!! Then it will be Cub3&4 and me alone in the house 3 days a week. Oh the damage we could do... *evil grin*

Hubby has been super busy with art auction items and that won't let up until the middle of October when the last item is due. On Saturday, he had an art auction and it was pretty successful. He made a few good contacts, sold a few sets of plates, and has a potentially big sale coming out of it within the next year *cross fingers*

We will be going to the fair on Wednesday. I can't wait. By this time, we usually have gone at least 3 times, but this will only be the first and probably only time of the year. We just have been extremely busy and have had far too many car repair expenses, but hey at least it's over with and we can go on with our lives~ right???

Little things...

I remember from childhood:

• I remember missing the bus and my Grandpa would jump to my rescue to get me to school on time.
• I remember reading One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish to my baby brother, who turned 20 this year.
• I remember being allergic to ketchup.
• I remember having chicken pox in 2nd grade.
• I remember in 4th grade the first day of school my mom made me wear a dress and I couldn't play on the playground with the rest of the kids, it was also the last year I was forced in a dress.
• I remember going to movies on holidays like Christmas and Easter and being surprised they were open when nearly everything else was closed.
• I remember my mom buying my sister and I, a Ronald McDonald doll (so hideous) when my now 24 year old brother was born.
• I remember staying at my Grandma's house and pretending to be asleep in the morning while they watched the morning news.

Now the reason I'm remembering all of these things... There was a poem on my Grandma's wall. I read this poem over and over and over. It made so much sense to me as a little kid and I enjoyed the dual meanings. It has crossed my mind in the past and for some odd reason it has again. So here it goes!!!!

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Open up and say ouch...

I just went for a checkup. It was only a checkup, I was being a good girl, really!!!! I didn't even get in to see the dentist because of their wacky scheduling. Who sets an dental appointment for noon??? Obviously, I wasn't thinking either, because I agreed to a noon appt. LOL All they were able to do was take x-rays and clean my teeth. There's the ouch.

It was really cool though. It just amazes me the technology they come up with in such shorts amount of time. I didn't get the ole scraping of my teeth and gums with a metal pokey thing, instead I had pulsating water sprayed between my teeth and along my gum line. Very cool in theory. This water comes spraying out of a pokey thing too, and when put in the wrong hands hurts while scraping along gums. No, I'm not talking the gum line, I'm talking actual gums here?!?!? OUCH! Good news, my teeth feel great and I imagine my gums will be clean after the swelling goes down. :oP

I felt sooooooooo bad though, being schooled on how to brush and floss my teeth. There has got to be a better way to do that sorta thing. I felt like a dog who had an accident on the carpet. :( I had to remind myself, I do brush and floss religiously, just let her go through her speech. It made me feel a little better thinking I was just one of many who will get that speech just today. The dentist was out to lunch, obviously it's his lunch hour, so they rescheduled me for the 27th at 10:30.

What else is new on the homefront???
Cub1&2 started school yesterday. Cub1 is in middle school!!! Holy cow! I took pics and will upload them to flickr.com on the side there.
Cub3 will stay home with me while I put my early education degree to work on him :o) (after hubby starts school the 28th)
Cub4 is 29 weeks old and I'll also be adding his weekly pic to flickr. com on the sidebar as well. He is still toothless!!!! He's taking his own sweet time with crawling as well. He can army crawl, but that's as far as that goes. All the other cubs crawled by 5 1/2 months, he'll officially be 7 months in 6 days. It's quite alright though since he's the final cub, he can stay a baby as long as he chooses.
That's us in a nutshell, I'm off to workout again after I upload those pics!

That's it!

It is officially game over for the blazer. I must apologize about doubting my neighbor's stepdad below. He was right. The transmission is going. Aamco officially sucks a$$. Rebuilt tranny 6 months later needs a rebuild??? What's wrong with that picture? Here's the kicker... we parked it a month and a half ago, due to the noise. It has been driven oh I'd say 20 times since getting our new van in February. Oh well, that is life.

Anyhow, I'm off for probably the whole weekend, we've got a busy weekend lined up and who knows maybe I'll share what I'm doing or maybe I won't. All depends on if I get the time or the urge.

Oh, oh... I think I liked the thought of the day with my daily newsletter, not quite sure though, I'll have to check. Yep, I did. Here it is below. I'm outta here!
Life is circular;
what may seem like the end may actually be the beginning.
- Ivy Baker Priest

Just before dark today...

It's not often I can catch a good sunset from my house. It's not that they don't happen, I just live too close to people. The houses tend to ruin the beauty. :P Luckily, this one was really dark, but light in just the right spots!!!

Well, they shipped out my new cf card and it should be here in up to 10 days. I must have packed it satisfactory.

***vent below***
We took hubby's Blazer in to get looked at today. I'm not exactly happy about that one. I can just say, screw aamco *insert two honks here* We had the transmission rebuilt in February at aamco. I was always pleased with them before, but this time was different. They ripped the exhaust off and it was ruined.

Initially they said it wasn't their fault and it was like that when we brought it in. Luckily, the mechanic came out and apologized to hubby over the holes he had caused while ripping the exhaust off to get to the transmission. So since he admitted fault they paid Midas to fix the exhaust. Midas sucks too. It wasn't completely fixed. Of course, neither was the tranny at this point. We had to bring it back twice, once for the exhaust and once for the tranny making rattling noises. It was honestly worse than when we brought it in! They refused to warranty the job they did for more than 30 days, or maybe 90? Anyways, all other times we were guaranteed 1 year or a lifetime.

Okay, skip ahead, hubby just deals with the loud exhaust but then the transmission is making noise again. Instead of taking it back to aamco, we take it to our neighbors stepdad to fix it. Hubby's cousin had informed him it's the throw out bearing??? and aamco should have replaced it with all the other work they had done. Figures.

So we take it in Monday to get fixed. We get a call from the neighbors mom, who says, bad news... your transmission is gone. uhm no!?!?! Hubby asks how she figures. Her "mechanic" husband drove it and he said it's bad. Hmmmmm... I don't believe it. The guy owns a wrecking yard and fixes up cars to sell. We've sold him a couple of cars we refused to fix because the cost to repair was more than the car was worth. (makes me wonder if those weren't as bad off as he said) I can only think this is probably the case too. He used to have a really great mechanic working for him, unfortunately he's no longer there. So, instantly hubby is ticked and says, well we're junkin it. Nope, not a good idea. I want a second opinion.

There is a place we take our cars to now, which is a little more expensive, but they are quick and accurate, so hubby calls them. They tell him to bring it on in, it does sound like the throw out bearing and possibly some other bearing? I think he said pilot, but I'm not sure. He also says they repair aamco's "fixes" more than he likes to say. Oh nice.

The good news is, it will be 6 hours of labor and 60 bucks for parts. So hopefully that is all it is. I can't believe I'm hoping my neighbor's stepdad is as lazy and predictable as I think he is. We find out tomorrow whether it's worth fixing.
***end vent***

I'm actually really tired with no real reason to still be awake. So, I'll leave you with a joke I thought was kinda cute. I get an email newsletter daily throughout the week and there is a joke of the day, this was today's...

At a southern university,
students in the psychology program
were attending their first class on emotional extremes.
"Just to establish some parameters,"
said the professor to the student from Arkansas,
"what is the opposite of joy?"
"Sadness," said the student.
"And the opposite of depression?"
he asked of the young lady from Oklahoma.
"Elation," she said.
"And you sir," he said to the young man from Texas,
"what about the opposite of woe?"
The Texan replied, "Sir, I believe that would be 'giddy up' ".

There's also a thought for the day enclosed in that newsletter. I liked todays.

The ultimate measure of a man
is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ouch... now that left a dent!

***disclaimer*** this is not a complaint on gas prices merely an observation, a big wow, times have changed, shocked sorta dealy, etc. ***


Okay, now I've been reading all over the gas prices are up and must be completely honest! I have not paid much attention. I went to gas up tonight before working out and YIKES!!!! This is for a minivan too!!!! Talk about sticker shock
So anyway, I happened to have my camera on hand, so I snapped this. It sure made me think though. Gas used to be under a buck when I started driving. How insane is that? Now I'm either getting to be one of those old people who reminisce about how things were back in the day or these prices are high before their time. Nah... they are definately high before their time.

Earlier in the day I took cub1 to orientation for middle school! When on earth did that happen??? I have a middle schooler. She was talking to me about how many more years until high school. That's a whoppin' four years. That I'm sure will fly by like no one's business too. 2 years at middle school, 2 years at Jr. High and 3 at High School. Way back when I went, you know when I had to walk uphill to school and back??? We didn't even have Jr. High. That is something they started in our school district just last year. We had straight middle school for 7&8th, 9-12th high school.

Cub1 is starting band this year... there was this one time at band camp... She is going to play the flute. I actually played the flute for 4 years, way back when too. I hope this year goes well for her. I'm really excited to see how she adapts. She's really good in school and all, but I'm not sure how the change will be on her. I really like what her principal did though. He had a half of a day "meeting type" orientation for the students today. This time was spent just getting to know other students and showing them the school and basically getting them excited to go there. It worked. She was all amped by the time we picked her up. She was a little nervous about being left there in the first place, but she said it was a lot of fun. We were able to find her classes and meet her teachers too.

After the orientation, I had to rush home and get cub2 to cheerleading practice. We paid for uniforms today, so I guess it's official, she will be a cheerleader. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I really try to support my cubs in their decisions in the activities they choose, but this is sooooooo unlike hubby and I. On Sunday, she actually had me out there washing cars for fundraising!!! I don't even like to get out there and scrub my own car!!!! A few weeks ago, we were out selling chocolate bars, another thing that is totally unlike me. Now we have pizza cards to sell. Luckily, it's only 5 of them at $5 a pc. I'm just not a rah-rah type of person. <----not me. So needless to say, this is a whole new experience for me. I ran into an old friend at her practice though. She was absolutely shocked I had four cubs. It's amazing, but it sure doesn't feel like that many kiddos, until you get the look. That's a lot??? It was really weird to see someone I've known since the 2nd grade and then not see her for 10+ years to see her as a "grown-up" LOL

With all that past coming back, while I worked out, I brought out my old cd I bought at Target. It had a little BoyzIIMen, Bel Biv Devoe, PM Dawn, Wreckx-N-Effect, even a little MC Hammer I can honestly say the trip down memory lane left me happy to be in the present. I can only look back with fondness for a short amount of time until I realize even at less than a dollar a gallon for gas in the "old days" there were still times I could only afford a quarter tank of gas. So I guess I better just be happy with my $62.01 *only a penny over because I stopped too late. tank of gas and be grateful it cleared my bank account without any problem.
Until next time Gnite!