IWSG: Unexpected Resources

I just give up.  I've been trying to get a post up all night.  Three blue screens of death.  Blogger won't save anything.

What I want to say is that I had a great time world building with my son, and we each helped each other with our projects.  It was AWESOME bouncing ideas off of a young mind full of engineering and ideas and possibility.  I've gotten this far in this post before, but if I try to say anymore, my stupid machine blows up.

Tomorrow I might have more patience, but now it's all gone.  So let's just say, you might find inspiration closer than you think.

~Tina

Celebrate the Small Things: Still Driving that Road to Contentment!

It's Friday!  I missed this last week, and this week I really, truly need to re-focus on my contentment quest, so I'm with  VikLit of Scribblings of an Aspiring Author in this inspiring hop. These are so fun to read.  Happy posts.  Grateful people.  I highly recommend joining.  

I FINALLY GOT NEW GLASSES!

I've been needing new glasses for four years, as in the ones that I use for emergencies, since I wear contacts, and then reading glasses, were four prescriptions ago.  I just really couldn't see with them anymore.

 Yup.  They are tri-focals. Granny glasses.  Receptionist on Monsters, Inc glasses.  Her name was rose, and the frames are sort of rose, so they are my Rose glasses.  (Insert looking through rose colored glasses joke about me here).  No, you don't get to see them on me! The frames were $9.  I don't wear these in public.

These are the best though. (Nice mug, eh?)  These are bifocal reading glasses.  Picture this. You're a writer.  You're looking at your notes, or are texting on your cell phone, etc. Close up. Strong reading glasses.  Then you glance up at your computer. Blurry.  Switch to reading glasses that are three levels less strong to see computer.  Repeat all day.  Totally annoying, but necessary.  UNLESS, you have these magic glasses which are tuned for BOTH computer and reading.  No more switching!  Bliss.

OYT MADE DINNER
I called his bluff.  He didn't want what I said we were having, so I flippantly said, "Well then YOU make dinner!"  He said, "Ok, can I make chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and my favorite veggie mix?"  Totally surprised mom.  "Um, sure."  I ended up taking my work into the kitchen and giving advice, but he did it all!  He's no stranger to the kitchen since he's an excellent baker, but he's never made a whole meal.  Add to that the friend he had over was staying for dinner, so extra pressure.  It was great!  (OYT is Our Youngest Teen, 14, for all you new followers!  Hi!  I appreciate you!)

I GET TO MEET A BLOGGING FRIEND NEXT WEEK!
I get to meet AJ of Naturally Sweet!  She was my minion during last year's A-Z Challenge, and this year she's a co-host.  She's going to be in my town for work and we're going out for coffee!  It will be the first time I meet a friend I met online.  I'm so excited!

What are you celebrating this week?
~Tina

Celebrate the Small Things ~ On the Road to Contentment

Last week I met a new to me blogger, VikLit of Scribblings of an Aspiring Author through DL Hammon's Blog Blitz. I'd seen her weekly “Celebrate the Small Things” blog hop all over the place, and now found the founder!  I'm joining in, because it fits so well with my word of the year focus on CONTENTMENT.  

This week I'm celebrating the work I've done on straightening out our finances. We've done Financial Peace University TWICE, yet it seems that every few years we need to do a re-set and basically kick ourselves in the rear and start behaving responsibly with our money. Lots of unplanned expenses lately (which if you've been reading Life is Good even for a little while you're familiar with them...I let it all hang out ;-) 

I'm happy to say we've found some great software that's really helping. It's called YNAB which is You Need A Budget. Yes, yes we do. So far we're liking the 34 (what's up with 34?) day free trial very much and will most likely buy it.

I'm also celebrating some victories in my continual battle with my body image. Some of you know my history (anorexia – there, said it out loud again – and every time I do it gets easier).  I don't like being this size. I struggle constantly with food. 

Alcoholics “get” to just quit drinking. Not saying that's easy AT ALL. My point though is that we can't quit food cold turkey. Well, we can, been there done that and that's the problem...Food is constantly there as a source of stress. My success is that I'm feeling good about my weight for the first time in a long time.  

Maybe the weird combination of meds keeping me breathing is helping me in some way. All I know is that I'm wearing jeans that haven't fit me since 2010. I wasn't going to say anything to anyone, but hey, it's celebration day, so there you go. (To read more about me and this topic here.)

I'm also celebrating my wonderful kids and all they've done for me lately. They have really stepped up and done all their chores and most of mine, and mostly cheerfully. 

Yesterday The Transporter had a very difficult job to do to get his mother to her friend's new apartment. Elevators out of order...four flights of stairs for asthma girl not a possibility...but he (and Mr. Maintenance) found a way to get me up there! (I know you're going to be wondering...we got let into the residents parking garage and drove up to her floor, well as close as we could get anyway and that was enough.) He did all that while carrying a vase of flowers. 

OYT is going on his first overnight youth retreat this weekend which is a huge step for a shy guy and I'm so proud of him.

What are you celebrating this week? Since it's an ongoing, weekly hop, you can join too! Or just leave me your celebration in the comments so I can cheer with you!

~Tina

How to Make a Winter Emergency Kit

“How can anyone who is wrong 75% of the time still have a job?” That's the joke going around about Colorado weather forecasters. Coloradans, at least the well-seasoned ones, know that you need to be ready for rapid, unusual changes in weather.

I'm not talking about the mostly predictable summer afternoon thunderstorm, or the to be expected snow at very high altitudes. I'm talking about a normal day when you think you've got it covered because you're just running for take-out and you'll be fine.

My boys learned the hard way that maybe mom's “crazy” Colorado Winter Emergency Kit in the back of her station wagon isn't so crazy after all.

I do understand a bit about how it might not seem legit. It's not organized. I did leave it there all summer out of laziness. But it does contain:

sweat-pants

sweatshirts

extra winter coats

extra gloves, scarves, hats

unopened water bottles

boots (though with the way the boys feet grew, I need to replace those)

jumper cables

small tool kit

flashlight

extra batteries

car phone charger

down comforter

fleece blankets

towels

puke container (from a hospital, totally legit)

and:

a pee bucket.

Why the pee bucket? I mean, if you're stranded, go pee in the woods, or between the open doors to your car. You don't need a pee bucket. Yes, you do, and I speak from experience.

I got stuck in a snowstorm on I-25 (THE main highway in CO, it runs N-S through the whole state and beyond) in 1992. This was before I had a cell phone. The how and why isn't part of this story (but may be another blog post, cuz well, the Indians took care of me and all, that's pretty postable). I kept thinking, “Surely they know we're all stuck here and will send plows and tow-trucks and fix this awful mess.” Nope. The hours went by. I really, really had to pee. It was dark, and at that point, I didn't really care who saw me.

Had I left my car though, I would immediately have become soaked and I didn't have a coat (because I never wear one, I'm too hot). So then I'd get back into my car and have to somehow dry off. Or shiver all night. I did NOT have an emergency kit at that time. But you can see how most of the items in my list come from what happened that night and what I wished I'd had.

Which brings me back to the beginning. My boys set out to get take-out, and as they're going out the door, I say, “OYT, don't you want to change out of your shorts? And take a coat?”

“No, I'll be fine. I'm just riding in the car. It's not like I need your stupid emergency kit.” Famous last words.

The Engineer and I are starting to get worried because the boys are so late. And won't answer their phones. About an hour later, they stagger in the door. Human popsicles. No winter coats, OYT in his shorts. It's about 20 out.

Come to find out, The Transporter's throttle control sensor had finally called it quits, and they'd walked about ¾ of a mile home.

“Mom, I kinda wish we'd had your stuff with us.”

~Tina

The Transporter Got a Promotion

The Transporter has been promoted. He just got his driver's license yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don't know who is more excited, the boy who drove himself to school this morning, or the mom who now not only has a Transporter, but also an errand man at her beck and call.

How did I manage to convince a 16 year-old to be willing to drop what he's doing (say, holding an XBOX controller at a friend's house) and for example, go pick up his brother from robotics club? Simple. Money.

He has to pay for his insurance, but we'll buy his gas if he'll be our go-to guy. I'm so excited to hand him a grocery list and my debit card and continue writing. Or whatever, but I'm thinking I've just gained oodles more writing time. Maybe Worlds Colliding (my sci-fi/thriller WIP) will get some more words added!

Or I'll be able to be able to spend more time returning visits. I give myself a B- for my current rate, but of course I'd like an A+. Over-achiever and all that stuff. The possibilities are endless.

He'd had grand plans for his first evening of having a license. These plans included, “Bye Mom, I'll be home later.” Instead he opted for, “I'm going take OYT to Game Force. I think he'd like to be along the first time I get to use my license.” So as it ended up, it was still pretty much “see you later” only he took his brother to dinner and bought himself a new ice scraper, and one for me since all of mine seem to vanish. They had a great time, and as their mother, I couldn't have been more thrilled that he chose his brother for his first adventure. That's the kind of thing OYT will remember and cherish forever.

Personally, I will always remember sitting with The Engineer at the kitchen table which overlooks the street, watching him drive away, actually excited to go to school.  We're holding hands, and both of us are a bit misty. It's was a good thing. Life is Good.

~Tina

Black Friday Compromise

I want to clear up a few points regarding my Black Friday rant.  I think I got so rant-y that I wasn't clear.

∫ I am not against stores opening early and giving good deals. JUST DON'T OPEN ON THANKSGIVING. To me this means you open on Friday morning, and not butt-crack-of-dawn early either, because then you're just depriving people of sleep. 5 am to me seems reasonably (foolishly...) early enough. That way the bargain hunters can get a modest amount of sleep, get up around 4am, throw their clothes on and go battle the hordes, should they choose.  Besides, whatever time you say you're opening, they'll be there.  Why make it so early?  It's not going to deter anyone determined enough to take part in this craziness.  (That was foreshadowing.)

∫ I am not against the ads. Just give them to me in the Thanksgiving paper like you used to.  I just think having pre-Black Friday deals the entire week before Thanksgiving (my favorite day of the year as you may have heard) takes away from the specialness of THE day we are meant to be celebrating. It's like having all the Christmas decorations up in the store before Halloween. I hate that too.

∫ Any questions? And Mr. Briane Pagel, I'm eagerly awaiting your “respectfully disagree” rebuttal. Very eagerly. BRING IT ON!

∫∫∫∫∫

All that said, you can't keep The Engineer away from a tool which is 1/3 the regular price AND needed for the dreadful bathroom project, AND he has declared as his Christmas present from me. (That's how we do it – I got new Vibram Five Finger Shoes because I, of all hideous outcomes, LOST MINE somewhere. I hate losing things. Seems so...unintelligent.) 

Anyway, of course this is a doorbuster Black Friday special and I sit down to “calmly discuss” my objections to his adventure. He (actually) calmly points out that:

∫ Home Depot opens at 5. (Ok, that's OK, I can go with that IF:

∫ They weren't open on Thanksgiving. Which they weren't (thank you Home Depot, you are now my favorite Home Depot-ish store).

So they rise (early), go, and conquer. And also scored packs of 24 AA batteries for $4 per pack. Yeah for my conquerors!  Yes, this probably makes me a hypocrite.  It wouldn't be the first time...

∫∫∫∫∫

There's also a bonus to this story. When I get up, OYT is already up, and I ask him to make me breakfast.

We call this omelet with a piece of bread squished into it. Maybe I'll write another piece about cooking...another day. We have a second Thanksgiving dinner to go to with The Advocate's extended family. 25 people. My kind of party!

I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday. See you Monday!

~Tina

How to Combat Road Rage

I don't usually give in to road rage. I mean, I scream a lot in my car, explaining to oblivious drivers what idiots they are, but I've never gotten myself into a confrontation before. It was close yesterday. Good thing OYT and his sweet, quirky personality was along.

To begin with, I wasn't happy about the errand, and it was getting close to rush hour (yes, our small town has one, on this particular street we were traveling.) Traffic is   S L O W. I have no idea why it's all plugged up, but as I get cut off by someone who thinks it's really important to be one more car further along, OYT says,

“How about a fun factoid to distract you?”

“Um, OK Sheldon, go ahead.”

“Did you know that womens' tear ducts are shaped differently than mens', so that their tears will roll prettily down their cheeks while a man's tear will roll discreetly down the side of their nose?”

“Why no, I didn't know that. That's a good one. WHERE did you learn that?”

Unlike most fun facts he shares, I'm not thinking this one was from Mythbusters...

“It's (name of YouTube channel – I can't keep up, the subscribe to so many.)”

“Cool. Got anymore?”

“Yes, but I'll save for the next time some idiot pisses you off.”

That didn't take long. By now we can see that it's down to one lane (in each direction). I move over, but many cars just keep driving. You've seen them, they're exempt from the rules, will drive all the way to the barricade, then barge in front of you, who planned ahead and was already safely in the appropriate lane, and force their way in front of you.

“If you eat polar bear liver you'll die of vitamin A poisoning!”

That was just in time because I've just been waiting for seven yahoos to barge in, and some idiot is letting people turn left in front of him, and they're almost getting hit by the CONTINUOUS stream of special folks who've seen the yahoos and decided to join them. So we now have idiots on all sides.

I start to seethe, and scream, and glare. OYT starts singing “Soft Kitty.” It's from Big Bang Theory. Sheldon' s mom used to sing it to him when he was sick, and he makes his friends sing it to him even though he's an “adult”.

♫Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purrrrrr.♫

I melt. And relax. We continue on in traffic. I've had to take some alternate routes because the traffic signal was out at one of THE major intersections and they decided oh so brilliantly to get their cherry-picker trucks and block off two lanes of each major road, direct traffic around the trucks, and fix the lights DURING RUSH HOUR. I understand the directing traffic, absolutely necessary, but wait until you've gotten all those people out of there first, then bring in your equipment. Instead, you've snarled half of town.

We're almost to our destination when we're stopped by a train. A long train. A little hand sneaks over to my shoulder and a soft voice starts singing again. 

~Tina

P.S SMK (handy nick-name tab above) who reads all my posts, immediately had the answer to the Squirrelmageddon dilemma.

"Of course there are squirrels everywhere.  We had a flood.  They're looking for their families, a new home, they're running all over the place!  Mystery solved.

How to Sleep Like a Burrito

OYT sleeps like a 5-layer Taco Bell burrito. I don't know how he does it. Even The Engineer, who sleeps in flannel pj's and has two blankets on his side to my sheet only, thinks the kid ought to just melt. He doesn't. Maybe it's the fleece...

Here's the wrapper. Four fleece blankets and comforter.

When he was born, he received a lovely fleece blanket (that would be the turquoise one poking out of the roll, with skating penguins.) It got so worn you could see through it, so his grandparents bought him one with trains, which were his obsession at age 5. We thought he'd put the penguins away, but no, he just started dragging two blankets around the house.

Round Three. Now both of those blankets were worn out, so we try again. With a YELLOW blanket. Remember, this is the boy we used to call YellowBoy. Nope. Now he was dragging THREE blankets around, but always the penguins touching his skin, and the other two added on top.

Next time, he decided that camo was the way to go. By now, I knew no blankets will be put away, but at 12, he'd stopped dragging them around the house so what's one more fleece blanket in the bed?

So each night, he carefully layers each of the blankets, in order of receipt, then I put the big comforter on top. Next, he rolls around until he's a total burrito, his arms pinned inside. He sleeps like a rock, I mean, a burrito.

Mornings are fun. He's hard to bring to consciousness, but one sure way is to grab the edge of the “tortillas” and begin pulling. He rolls over and over until he unrolls and then the burrito is gone, and the sweet growing-way-too-fast boy heads for the shower.

Do your kids have weird sleeping rituals? Do you?

~Tina

Interviewed! and a Bonus! Embarrassing Story du Jour

Good morning! I'm a being interviewed today at Curiosity Quills with Nicole of The Madlab Post!  I'm very excited to be asked, and especially with Nicole.  You remember her from the Monday Movie Meme I used to do, you know, on Mondays.

Before you head over there though, which I would so much appreciate, here's another one of my embarrassing/funny/Tina-is-such-a-klutz story to entertain you before you go...

I have to get a tetanus shot today because The Transporter cleaned his room, which of course I'm not against. AT ALL. ((The cleaning, not the tetanus, in case you were wondering.)  I might have mentioned that for a while (like four years...) he's been doing the typical teenage boy thing where all the clothes are on the floor and only he knows which are clean and which are dirty...so we finally got him dressers he likes. He worked all day and his room is now neat. However, he was tired while doing the dishes, and broke a wine glass into smithereens. Best break ever. I usually break them into maybe three pieces, but we're talking big strapping teen boy who looks like a man and has man hands and that thing was SHATTERED.

“Mom, will you get me a dustpan?”

Of course. He's been sweeping and dusting and wiping and cleaning and organizing AND put the broom and dust pan back. Here's where the klutzy part comes, but you know how I like a good build-up...

In the garage, all our gardening tools have holes drilled into the top of the handle and hang on hooks. The dustpan is supposed to be clipped to the broom. It is not. I start looking around on the floor for it, but some of these tools hang very close to the ground. Like the pitch fork for example. Can you see it coming? Pitch fork comes off wall, lands on my forearm, producing a stab wound that The Engineer has to bring a ROLL of paper towels to get me to a sink. It bleeds a long time. I never, ever do medical stuff in an off-hand sissy way. When I hurt myself, I do it RIGHT. Like OYT (Our Youngest Teen) says, I'm a medical apocalypse. Pretty good quote.

So here I am today with neosporin, a huge 2x4 band-aid, a very, very sore arm where the offending instrument of torture bruised my bone, facing a tetanus shot.

I was hoping to NOT have to get one. Kindly asked lovely office manager, with whom I've become good friends with my twice a week since August visits ;-) when my last one was. “We don't have any on record for you.” Yikes. I've been with the same practice 21 years...

Feel free to laugh. If you'd like more embarrassing stories, I have a search box, and there are lots of them. Start with the word "embarrassing" or "doctor" or some such appropriate word...

Have you ever hurt yourself in such a stupid way? Do you have a pitchfork? Have you ever wanted to use said pitchfork for a purpose it was not intended, say to threaten a child? Strike that. I'd never do such a thing...after all, he did clean his room.

~Tina

Monday Morning Musings, erm...Late Afternoon Thoughts...

Many of my favorite bloggers do a “Monday Morning Musings” style of post. Thought I'd give it a try since I have a lot on my mind...

♪ I like special characters. Spent my life as a musician – so today you get music notes. I'm also playing with fonts since my favorite Papyrus is not available on my PC, like it was on my beloved Mac, even though I'm still using OpenOffice. Is there someone who can explain that?? So I guess you could say I'm looking for my new “signature” font. I've had mixed reactions to the Segoe Print I've been using, but people, this is MY blog. You might have to deal with it...but then again, I do want you to be able READ what I write. I've visited a lot of blogs that are black with white letters, but I REALLY have to love your blog to do keep reading it in that eye-sore state.

♪ People in my family say funny things. I'm going to relay two conversations, you get to guess who I'm having them with. I like games. Don't worry, the answers will be at the bottomw.

♪ “But MoooM, I've done that a jugabagillion times already!”

Me:  "Just exactly how many times is that?"  (We mathematicians like to be precise)

"Duh!  It's the number right before google-plex."  Sigh.  That's what you get when you cross an engineer and a math nerd.  Weird, but funny kids. But which one? If you've been reading me even for a while, this is an easy one.

♪"I'd like to lower that blind and close it."

I'm by the blind, he's across the room, I'm feeling like a smart-ass so I say:

"Would you like me to do it?"

"I would like to do it vicariously through you.  You are the vicar."

I will admit I was not expecting that punchline...

Not as easy as that first one, right?

♪ Tomorrow I'm the honored guest, along with Nicole Ayers of The Madlab Post (another one of the co-hosts of the A-Z Challenge), at CuriosityQuills. I'll put the exact link up tomorrow once the hostess sends it to me. Meanwhile, if you have free time, you can go visit that main page I've linked to, and see what the blog is all about.

♪ Wednesday I'll be announcing Tina Terrific Team of Assistants. We've joked among ourselves (the co-hosts and the assistants) about them being our “minions”. Just so you know, it's a compliment, and it's from the cartoon “Despicable Me” and we thought it was funny. No actual minions were meant to be harmed in this joke.

♪ The amazing digital artist Jeremy “Retro-Z”, co-host, is just awesome and designed their special badge which will debut on Wednesday in my sidebar, at the top, right under the A-Z badge. But be warned, this is only for my team, you may not cheat and take it even if you're like The Transporter and can make computer magic (which I can't – had to reboot three times this morning to enjoy the internet The Engineer had been enjoying for quite some time already...) I can't wait to tell you who they are.

♪ I meant to post this morning, but the kids were home and as often happens when that's true...my day morphed from my agenda to theirs...

♪ I'll leave you with this quote from a good buddy of mine with seven kids, ages of married down to elementary:

“Live a life that doesn't require justification.”

~Tina

Convo #1 about numbers:  OYT "Our Youngest Teen" formerly known as YellowBoy.  I'm not too fond of OYT as a nickname...but I promised I'd let him choose his own nickname the next time.

Convo #2 about the blinds:  The Engineer.