Life with him is a whole lot different than without him...

If you know Tim or at the very least read his blog you may have wondered at one time or another how I do it. Well, it’s never boring around here, I a sure you. As his wife I often feel like I’m standing on the other end of the tether holding on for dear life. However, his newest venture doesn’t make me white knuckled so much as exhausted. Our life a month ago would have him working in a big city far from home, however now has him sitting at our kitchen table. I love having him home. I know it’s only a matter of days before his office space is available and then he'll walk out that door every morning. Until then I will take the endless banter and wit that is hurled at me 24/7 and settle for finding moments of solitude in my sleep. I would rather have him here sitting behind his Mac in our kitchen than sharing him with the rest of the country any day. Life with him is a whole lot better than without him.

Hallelujah !!!!!

It's the end of the harassing phone calls and the endless (and insulting) TV ads. Its election day. Wahoooo!
Our senate race has been ugly and embarrassing on a national level. In fact I'm having a hard time coming to terms that I have to actually vote for one of them. In my opinion I have to choose the lesser of two evils. I have a hard time believing that a recorded message on your phone or a nasty commercial about a candidate's character is going to sway anyone. I guess it is true what they say "if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything".


oh....and I need your opinion. I have a great chocolate cake recipe that I'm getting a little bored with. Do you think if I added an orange flavored extract and orange peel shavings that it would resemble orange chocolate?

good times...

We went to a local college where they sponsored a trunk or treat. It was cute. All the trunks had themes.

Upgrade shumutgrade!

I “upgraded” to beta blogger ( John, it is on the right side bar on your dashboard …look harder next time ;). I’m still trying to figure out why it’s called an “upgrade”. Anyway, if you click on comments you will be asked if you want to view “nonsecured” items. Well, those items are people’s profile pics, so no worries…just click yes. Sorry, I know it is very annoying.
I will post pics later tonight (maybe tomorrow) of the Halloween festivities.

**edit** And, if you have upgraded, my bloglines no longer notifies me when you update. Ughh! What's that about?

The rain has made us all crazy!!!!

Kind of a low key weekend... except for the husband leaving his j.o.b. But I believe it’s a great move. The kids have lost all sense of reality this rainy weekend. Libby’s favorite show is Hannah Montana. It’s on the Disney Channel. Billy Ray Cirus and his daughter Miley star in this very cute show. The characters on the show go by their real names. Well, Libby has insisted on us calling her “Miley” and her brother “Jackson” ( Miley’s brother on the show) and her dad “Billy Ray” and me “Aunt Dolly” ( Dolly Parton has guest stared as the aunt….Billy Ray’s sister). This is hilarious! Tim looks as much like Billy Ray as I do Dolly Parton. But it makes her happy so we have spent this weekend trying to remember the right names and listening to Libby…I mean “ Miley or Hannah Montana”( you will have had to seen the show to understand) sing very loud and very long. It’s a good thing that “ Miley” doesn’t understand that sisters and brothers don’t cuddle or kiss or we would have some problems….or maybe we will. Oh, brother….anyway, it looks like the TN. VOLS are trying to lose so I better go and start calling the plays…it has worked, I promise ;) And, Tim (I mean "Billy Ray") has me listening to 14 songs that he has narrowed down for his ring tone on his phone... I don't know why he won't just pick "Islands in the stream"....it's a classic ;)

Who needs a title anyway?

It seems to me that life is just one huge contrast day after day. Yesterday was a GREAT day. Nothing huge happened just several simple things that worked together to make the day work and work well. I had a great morning at my j.o.b. My training is officially over and I have been given my own responsibilities and managing quite well. I work in retail but it isn’t just any normal retail there is a lot to remember because there is a ton of security issues ( a couple months before I got there an “unloaded” gun went off in the store). We sell guns, amoung many other things. Anyway, I want to be known as a valued employee with a good work ethic, and yesterday I left feeling like I accomplished that. I came home made an Amish Chocolate cake that I have been waiting to make for the past 10 days as I watched the starter mature (multiply), that turned out better than expected. I went on to play volleyball last night and hung out with a group of people that I have grown to love (my team). In the 22 years I have been playing volleyball I have never played on a team that gets along better. We win a lot ( 29-1) but more than that we enjoy each other’s company. It’s a great feeling to feel valued as a team member. The kind of value that pulls your team out of a 9 point deficit with a strong serve. It seems everyone on my team has had their turn at that and last night was mine. Then just as I was expecting to spend the evening alone (cause Tim is out of town) one of my best friends walks through the door to spend the evening with me. It was just an all around very good day.

Then there is today. A day full of disappointments some expected….others not. Some by those you love…. and some by those you don’t. Anyway, I guess that's how it goes. And, so it goes…..

V.O.L.S... goooo VOLS!

The UT game was a blast. Well, mostly a blast. The first half was somewhat boring as it was mostly a defensive game and Ainge (UT quaterback) threw 3 interceptions. Yikes!!! I still can’t believe we won but it was exciting that it came down to the final few minutes. We had great seats! My seat was a lot better than Tim’s as he was next to the most obnoxious guy in the stadium. Ha! I saw more eye rolling from Tim in those few hours than I have in our ten years of marriage. UT is now 6-1. So we just need to beat LSU and pray that Florida drops a game then we will own the SEC. GO VOLS!!!!!!

My Cankle

So, evidently you can sprain your ankle by doing something even less stupid than longboarding backwards in flip flops (that's how it happened last time). Last night as I was going down the stairs my left foot just turned in with no warning. Fortunately, I was on the the bottom stair when it happened. I have fallen from the top before and that hurts! I suppose I need to be more careful, at least that is what I would tell my kids if they had done such a thing. I'm not real sure how to do that unless I avoid the stairs all together and that would bring on an entirely different problem like the absence of clean clothes and a deprived dog. So, I guess I will just have to suck it up and be brave. I have to work tonight (that's 4 hours on my feet). And, tomorrow (that's 4 more hours on my feet). Then Saturday I have The TN/AB game (that's 3 hours on my feet and endless walking). Nice.

BEFORE



















AFTER

good times....

Its pumpkin carvin time! The kids picked their pumpkins and designed the faces. Luke had a notebook of different faces he had drawn and after a lot of indecision just let his daddy pick one. The Libster just looked at Tim and made a crazy face and said "that's what I want". I cleaned them out (with the kids help of course), Tim cut them out. Libby went in to wash her hands after every time she touched the pumpkin goo. And, Luke....well, I had to strip him down before I would let him in the house, he was covered in it.
We ordered their costumes. Luke will be Anakin (from StarWars) and Libby will be a purple dinosaur ( no, not Barney). I love the fall and all the fun things that come with it.

My big news......

So.... this is where I will be spending some of my free time for the next uh.... well, who knows how long. I got a job at one of the coolest stores in town. I have always loved this place. Now I get discounts and even pro deals on a few items. It will take some serious self discipline not to spend every cent I make here. I will be working while the kids are in school and one night a week, hopefully not too much on the weekends. So, I think it is going to be a good thing. I'll let you know ; )

What shall we name her?

So, I have been sharing my kitchen with a black widow spider for about a week now. Tim comes home with this creature one day wanting to show Luke. Well, of course Luke was and still is all about it. I have been pretending that is doesn't exist, telling myself it's just a figment of my imagination. Well, after I started dreaming about spiders all over my house I figured I needed to deal with reality and get to know this little guy ( or gal I should say). So, today I looked up some facts about the black widow and was happy to find out that these "ladies" haven't killed a human in North America in the past 10 years. Wheeew!!! And, after trying to get a decent picture of her (failing miserably) I have come to realize that this spider is really kinda pretty...in a scary, creepy, kinda way. She is very shiny and clean looking with this perfect red hour glass shape on her belly. If only these spiders would stop eating thier mates they wouldn't stay widows for long ;)

The boys have been feeding her bugs and Luke makes sure she has water everyday. This is nuts, I know! Who has a pet Black Widow?..... leave it to us.

Our cub scout

I just can't stand it! He is so cute I could chew him up. What is that about anyway? Why do I want to consume my son? When he was a baby I actually had a dream that I put him on a cookie sheet and put him in the oven. I was really going to eat him up! He has such a sweet heart. Yesterday we were playing around and he jokingly called me a fat old lady. I said never call a girl fat! Old, maybe.....but never fat! Well he said it again (just kidding of course) so I pretended to cry. His heart broke and his tears were huge. I felt terrible. It took a minute to convince him I was okay. We kid a lot around here so I was a bit surprised he took me seriously. He has such a sweet spirit about him and I am so proud of my tiger cub!

living la norma loca....

Uno.
I am loving Monday night volleyball! I’m playing on a team that whips up on everyone! We are 8-1. We dropped a game early on to a team that we went on to beat twice. Really, I shouldn’t get too cocky as we are going to be losing our best hitter due to his back surgery. This kid can hit anything. As a setter there is nothing more fun than running quick sets and watching someone drill it. ( And, yes I do expect J.T and Beth to come to one of my games since you attempted to go to one of Tim’s) ; )


Dos.
It’s a good thing I enjoyed myself yesterday because today I have to glue 360 some paper toppers on to large envelopes. Oh…. the joys of PTA.

Our historian

Luke loves History so it wasn't a big surprise when he said he wanted to do his media fair project on the book On Board the Titanic. He worked very hard on it. We are so proud of him!! Although, during the making of the iceberg we had a mishap with the x-acto knife, or I should say Luke had a mishap. Don’t worry he still has 10 fingers and 10 toes but it isn’t because he wasn’t trying to amputate them. I was trying to teach him how to cut away from the body when using a knife. Well...he hadn’t quite got the hang of it before he turned the knife on himself and cut his leg. Not bad but definitely worthy of a Backyardigans band aid. Just after it happened Luke says to me “When I become a father, because I’m pretty sure I will, I think I’ll make my kids turn eight before I let them use an x-acto knife”. I’m pretty sure I got a failing grade as his parent that day. Here’s hoping we can drop our lowest grade in this class!

my new love....

So...my new thing this summer has been long boarding. I love it. It is my most favorite thing to do with my free time. My “brother from a different mother” introduced me to it. It seems to be a good fit too because I married a “traditional” skate boarder. After deciding I wanted a board of my own we started the hunt for the perfect board. One thing you need to know about Tim he is the ultimate deal finder! So with great success we found the best board for ME. I emphasis me because every long boarder that gets on my board bails on it fast…they all hate it. But, I love it. It is a bit squirrelly but it carves better than a warm knife through soft butter. I haven’t been on another board I like better. Well, it didn’t take long for Tim (maybe 2 hours) to want a long board after I had mine. I think he was even surprised with how much he enjoyed the long board after riding short boards all his life. Since then we have spent much of our summer carving it up. You know you have it bad when in your mind you are constantly scoping out roads to ride down. I might have to start keeping a note pad in my car because the list is getting long. It is kind of funny that this 35 year old, mother of two, has just bought her very first pair of vans ( pink polka dotted no less). But I guess if you know me it’s not too far of a stretch and I refuse to let my age or how I spend my day or even what I ride define me ; )

Happy Birthday Luke!!!!

We had Luke's 7th birthday party today. Good times!!!
The pinata only lasted three swings ( a new record). We gave out punching balloons in the goody bags and I believe every yahoo ( I mean boy) left with theirs already popped. I can't believe we are celebrating number 7. What an indescribable blessing it is to be his mother. If nothing else happens to me in this life I have already been given more than I deserve.

aa..aaahhh..aaahhhh...two!

1. The “9/11 mastermind” Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and I share the same alma mater. He was there (a small North Carolina college) in the mid 80’s, I came in 89’. (I transferred on to a different school to finish my degree).



2. Last night was the opening night for my fall volleyball league. I love my team! I ‘m playing with some power house guys that can just kill the ball. This should be fun!

Awwwh Snap!

Guess who is going to be a bridesmaid? Yep, me! Can you believe it? The bride is 20... so I will most definitely be the oldest one up there. That’s okay as long as she doesn’t make me wear some form fitting spaghetti strap lingerie looking thing. Oh…the things we do for the people we love!

simple pleasures

Tim and I spent a couple hours longboarding at the park yesterday. It was hot and muggy but it just seemed the thing to do between the rains. It was a good workout and just plain fun. We also made a friend. I had to force this butterfly off my hand. What can I say... Bugs love me. I can't say its mutual but I did appreciate my time with this little guy.

keeping it real....

Blogs are a bit strange. I always struggle with what should I post or how much of myself do I share? I feel like I need to add a disclosure saying “in no way is this blog a full representation of me”. I wonder if I should share when my heart is heavy but do I really want to post such things on a place where anyone can have access … not really. But, I don’t want to be a fraud either. I want to be an authentic person. It’s not like on a horrible very bad day you are going to stand on a street corner announcing your hurts and disappointments to everyone that walks by. And, in someway putting those very same things on here makes me feel like I’m standing on 56th and Broad. So, there won’t be any pictures of the kids, or a story of how wonderful my life is. All I got today is this strangely vague post and my best effort to keep it real.