Counting Down...

3 more sleeps (2 days)
until VACATION!!

Ticked Off!

GRRRRR!

Two months ago Mr.SoonToBeBlue ordered a box of checks from our bank. Not long after that, our mail lady left a note in our mailbox that checks for our son had been delivered to a neighbor a couple doors down. It took us 4 days to get ahold of the neighbor, who told us they had her address on them so she sent them back to the bank. I called the bank and screamed and hollered and they finally sent out new checks with the correct address on them.

A month ago I ordered deposit slips for our savings account. I ordered them through a different person at a different branch. Yesterday I realized they never came. I called the bank to see what was up and the head teller told me that they had been shipped on the 5th. WHAT? Yesterday was the 21st and they never came where the heck are they?? She said she' d look into it and call me back. Yeah right. This morning I called again. Someone else is looking into it and calling me back. I'm done with that freeking bank. This is four HUGE mistakes in less than 4 years. (the other two involved several hundred dollars cash which was deposited into my account yet didn't show up as a deposit, then took 4 days to track down. The second involved my paycheck, which is drawn on the same back, which was deposited into my account, and shown as cleared through my employers account, yet never showed up as a deposit in my account...)

It's time to switch banks.
And soon.

TGIF!

It's finally Friday! Unfortunately, that means Ms.Blue is leaving for home this evening. She's been a treasure most of the time she's been home. I'm really going to hate seeing her get on the plane tonight :( ...yesterday she and I snuck off to spend a little big of quality girl time together. Her poor feet were such a mess from wearing combat boots 40 hours a week, and she's wearing flip-flops most of the time (when she's not in her cowboy boots, SIGH)... so we went and got pedicures. She was so excited that her feet looked girly afterwards, she went with a girlfriend over to BigCity and bought foot scrub and lotions and new sandals and some sassy new bras... I'm glad to see her acting more and more like a girl, and that being in the military hasn't totally made her conform. She may be almost 20 but she' s still my first baby, always will be...

So DH has grudgingly agreed to make another trip to SamsClub when we take Ms.Blue to the airport... I know he's got his eye on one of the flat screen tvs over there and him deciding to put one in the cart this close to our vacation really would NOT be a good thing... LOL

As for me, except for being sad about Ms.Blue leaving tonight and being totally heartbroken that Mr.SoonToBeBlue leaves in just one more month... I'm doing great. In fact, I've been gearing up in vacation-mode all week (yeah, I know. I had all that time off after my surgery but hey, I need a VACATION!)... Boss has either been out or in court most of the week so I've been playing online... researching some of the things we want to do in Orlando... that sort of stuff. Just six more sleeps and I haven't started packing yet for the 1st part of our trip, though I do have most of the other stuff gathered for the 2nd part of our trip...

Someone said yesterday was the first day of summer. Huhh? It's been summer here for 3 1/2 months already. ...I keep looking at my tan to make sure but I'm pretty sure...

It's time for vacation.

Sniffle...Sniffle... at XYZ Law Firm

Yesterday this guy came in the office whom I'd never seen before with a huge stack of discovery marked with the district attorney's cover sheet. He told me that attorney Y had given it to him to read and he wasn't finished marking it up yet so he asked me to make him a copy. I copied the whole 5 inches and handed it to him, and took a message for attorney Y to call him when he got back from lunch. He told me his name, which was vaguely familiar... is that spelled with a Y or a G? I asked him. When he answered something in his voice jogged my memory and I remembered exactly who he was from talking to him on the phone dozens of times. Then he left.

I flipped through the book he left me with. Reports from the district attorney. Witness interviews. the works. And promptly forgot about the whole thing.

A couple hours later he's back in the office meeting with attorney Y. The guy must have court in the next couple of days. And I heard him being the big tough businessman discussing this and that and the errors in the statements and whatever.

Yeah. This is the guy who called seven times a day, over a period of about six months, from the jail, crying, begging attorney Y to go and see him.

Some days I love my job.
Even if I haven't had a raise since 2002.
Yesterday, especially because the sec was out sick for the 2nd day in a row,
I really, really loved my job.

About Friends...

Two friends of ours who got engaged under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning are getting married this weekend. Everybody is coordinating plans because we all go from that into our vacations through the 2nd weekend in July. E&S, who live about an hour from here, were up a few days ago. They're hurrying home from the wedding to pack because they leave for Orlando the day after the wedding. She is going a few days early because she says she has a date with both Mickey and Shamoo. A&J will be in town Thursday to stay until the wedding, then they're driving back to Tennessee, switching suitcases, and heading to Orlando. They should get there the night before we do. T&D are flying to Orlando like we are, but they're leaving a day ahead of us and coming back a day after... Everybody else is driving and will straggle in whenever they get there. It sounds like it is going to be a good conference. I'm excited about my invitation to the reception on Friday night for technical trainers... and I get to work in one of the booths at the main convention area one morning as well... After the conference is over, everybody is heading out to the lake for the last 5 days of vacation. What a perfect way to break up the middle of summer. Boss has finally stopped growling about me taking more time off, but that's mostly because the sec hasn't shown up for work the past couple of days... but anyway.
Oh! And when we get back DH said I can book a cruise for this winter. I'm so ready to go!!

Father's Day

Since I got to go down and pick out new living room furniture for mother's day, I surprised DH with a custom built laptop for father's day. To replace the one we use for the elvis music to run on during the gigs... you know ... the one the glass of tea spilled into back when Mr.SoonToBeBlue thought he was man enough to use the FWord and I went flying over the coffee table after him... yeah, that laptop. anyway. It was supposed to be here this coming Friday, a little late, but loaded down with all the hardware Dh could imagine. Suddenly last week, the tracking information said my order had been cancelled. I was on the phone with them, wait, let me rephrase. I had the office phone in one ear and the cell phone in the other. I was on the PHONES with them for an our and fifteen minutes last Thursday. Getting it straightened out. Finally, it was back in production and I'll be darned if they didn't extend the ship date to July something or other, when I'm going to be in Orlando... so this morning, he called and asked me if there wait, let me back up. DH called and asked me if there was any news on the laptop. I pulled it up and lo and behold it shipped out of Nashville on Saturday and will be here TOMORROW! Not as late as we expected and he'll have a few days to play around with it before we go to Florida... and he has 2 months to get it all loaded w/ the music, and the sound & lighting software before our big gig up in Hot Springs....

We spent part of father's day at the lake. The rest of it, HE spent in his new recliner while Ms.Blue and I ran off to a bridal shower for a little while. Then. HE cooked dinner.
Imagine that.
There might be hope for him after all...

Monday Already?? (Sigh)

Started with VodkaSlushies.
Switched to VodkaSmoothies
Tried a DockRocker
Changed to Vodka&MangoJuice
Finished with Vodka&Coke

... enjoying this last week with Ms.Blue and counting the days until our vacation !!

Jokes On Me!

Hahahahaha.

It appears NavyBoy's parents are not the real responsible type AT ALL.
They showed up at 11:00 last night w/ Ms.Blue & NavyBoy. ...stayed and talked for a couple hours...then drove home to TX??? Freeking crazy whacko people.

At least that's over.
I have my Ms.Blue at work with me today.

Yes, it IS possible to make Vodka Slushies. :) Haven't you ever... well, hmm... maybe you haven't. ANYWAY... trust me on this. And yes, you can make rum and coke slushies too, Mo. I'll make one for you tonight, maybe tomorrow night too...

Another hour or so and I'll be running home to grab a suit, pack the truck and load up the jetskis, and head out for the lake! (last weekend we get to go until July 3 because of our vacation... )

TGIF!

Grandma the Groupie...

My Mom totally loves Toby Keith. She called me a couple of weeks ago and said "Kim!" "Toby's going to be on Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmell and I've taken off work and am going!! " ...if that poor man is anywhere within 500 miles from my Mom, she's going to see Toby.

Well, it turns out she wasn't picked to do Leno but did make the Kimmell show yesterday. I didn't know who in the heck this person is, never heard of him before she said she was going. Ok. I found it and set the tivo. I'm not staying up that late to watch Toby, the Kimmell guy, whoever the hell he is, or my Mom.

This morning I got up and rushed to turn on the tv and FF the tivo up until Toby came on. Then, there she was. MOM. On Tv. I've only seen her twice in the past 9 years because of the distance and the cost to get us all out there and the fact that her one flight to visit us and then fly home scared her to death... and I lost it. I sat in front of the television set this morning bawling my eyes out, rewinding and watching and rewinding and watching and rewinding and watching... I did that for 30 minutes. DH got up and walked out in the living room to find me, sitting there with the remote in my hands... sniffling with tears on my cheeks... he said, "What in the HELL is wrong with you?" "I SAW MY MOM!!" I said. "And that's something to cry about?" he asked?? well. Yeah. Today it was. I. Saw. My. MOM.

...Other news this week, Ms.Blue learned a lesson! Woohoo!!
She called me Tuesday night, saying, "Mom. I need to tell you so you don't THINK THE INCONSIDERATE (I almost giggled here). They're not going to be able to bring me home until Friday because MotherOfNavyBoy has to work...

OH YEAH... SCORE ONE FOR THIS MOM!

So with the change of plans, rather than a quick hello and good-bye tonight meeting ParentsOfNavyBoy, it's turned into ParentsOfNavyBoy are bringing Ms.Blue, NavyBoy and the family camper out to spend part of the weekend with us out at the lake. (HUH? They're going to be intruding on my party time???)

And even better news...
I went to wal-mart at lunch (yeah, you'd think I'd learn my lesson after the quick trip and coming home with just one shoe...) but anyway. We had just checked for the little individual slushie machine w/ the cute cups/straw/spoon on Monday and they were still out. I almost forgot to check after picking up father's day cards but remembered just before I got in line. They had the machine w/ one cup and I bought the last 5 cups. Phew. My girlfriends have been using theirs for weeks and they are so totally much fun making all the different flavors of slushies (with vodka for the adults of course) out at the lake when it's 98 degrees and 98% humidity. ...silly thing to get excited about, I know. But I REALLY wanted one.

So anyway. Vodka. Slushie. ParentsOfNavyBoy.
Did I mention Vodka. Slushie?
yeah. The weekend might not be a total waste after all...
Vodka. Slushie
Vodka. Slushie.
Vodka. Slushie...

Wishing I Was There...

I keep reading the blogs and updates on the first week at the WSOP in Vegas. If you've ever been there, you can just FEEL the excitement, and the boredom, and the exhaustion from the words...

Big news there is Phil Hellmuth won his 11th WSOP bracelet yesterday, breaking Poker King Doyle Brunson's record of 10. With that win, Hellmuth also set the record for total number of cashes (cash wins) at the WSOP, 59, and there's still 6 weeks of poker left to play in this year's series!! Phil isn't one of my favorite-most players, but he's made 38 final WSOP tables, one more and he'll tie TJ Cloutier's record of 39 final tables.

NavyBoy & Ms.Blue & MoreBeer...

We headed out to the lake Friday night after work, man was it hot! Ended up putting one of the boats in and just cruising around on the water until 9pm when it finally started cooling off... while we were out, NavyBoy consumed most of a 12-pack. By the time we were cooking dinner, he'd had enough to start pouring his lil' heart out to DH and myself...

He MENTIONED that he knew from right off that Ms.Blue wasn't like any other girl he'd ever known... then he MENTIONED that he has his eye on a piece of land out by his parents that he plans to buy ... then he MENTIONED that he isn't going to ask Ms.Blue to marry him without talking to DH first...

OMG about that time I started choking on the air I was breathing. Ms.Blue said I got a really strange look on my face.

THAT was A LOT to soak up before dinner.

I couldn't eat.

I stayed up until 2am slamming mudslides with my friend S after everybody went to bed.

Saturday we all got up early and hit the water. Boats. Jet skis. Lots of swimming and soaking up the rays. ...out of the blue a few people and my dh kept asking me, "What's Wrong??" Nothing I said. At least I didn't THINK anything was wrong.

I was just having a Mom Moment I guess... This is my little girl. Ya know?

...So... Saturday night we took Lil'DD and Mr.SoonToBeBlue to a going away party his friends were having for him (Mr.STBB)...they had a band and everything and about 25 kids showed up... and after dropping them off, the rest of us went to karaoke for an hour before NavyBoy and Ms.Blue headed out west to TX to stay with his family for a few days.

For whatever reason, NavyBoy is bringing his parents to meet us on Thursday when he brings Ms.Blue back here to spend the rest of her leave with us. I'm not sure that I'm up to this... but I'll try.

That was my weekend. I can't wait to go and read all of your blogs and hope you had more fun than I did...

Meet the fam...

This is me. I'll try for a better picture next time...

This is one of my favorite places.

Meet Ms.Blue. She wears BDU's every day

at her job but this is my favorite picture of her in uniform so far...

This is Mr.SoonToBeBlue/a.k.aAcademyBoy

Except here he's in his armyrotc uniform...

This is my baby. Lil'DD. Isn't she cute?

Home At Last!

I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I've MISSED writing in my blog like I used to. Heck, I've been writing my stupid stories here for almost 3 years now... but it really took something out of me, being afraid to write what I wanted to write or afraid to post pictures... My DH isn't the most understanding of men... if he discovered I was blogging and putting personal info out there, or even corresponding with people I didn't know, there would be ugly stuff at home... SO... at least for now, I'm going to try writing again. And if I want to post a darn picture I'm going to post a picture LOL...

There's been so many things I've wanted to write about lately, stuff I couldn't write because if someone I knew happened to hit the next button and end up reading it, life might turn out pretty bad for me. I like not having to worry about that now.

SO... where to start?

Stupid Stupid Me...

OMG you'd think at my age I would have learned by now.

I trusted somebody online this past year (yes, I know, I'm REALLY stupid) but anyway. I was stupid. I think I've been looking for something I probably shouldn't be thinking about looking for, and hopefully I wised up before it's too late and I end up doing something stupid...

Hey-

I think I can relax and write more with the new security features on blogger now. Sara @ StickyMuffin tried to get me to log on to her secure blog for months and I couldn't figure out how to do it. Now that I've found her, I think the features are so great that I'm going in for the cloak and dagger stuff myself.

If I've forgotten to invite someone (who you know is a regular read on my blog) please give them my email : kimsmith@loveable.com and tell them to write and let me know who's asking and I'll send them an invite.

This cloak and dagger stuff might be just what I need!

Ms.Blue & NavyBoy Day 1

When Ms.Blue decided to JoinTheAirForce, I thought it would be a very good thing for her to experience more of the world than she would find had she stayed here and tried to make some sort of life for herself. We've traveled a whole lot over the years and she's seen a lot of places, and well, I just really hoped that she wouldn't settle for what is HERE. Lord knows we're counting the time until the kids are grown and we don't have to feel like we need to stay here anymore. Anyway...

So. Ms. Blue has spent the past year up in BigCityOnTheEast Coast where she's stationed. Trust her to find a piece of home wherever she goes...

Ms.Blue and NavyBoy arrived right after I got home from work last night. Ms.Blue and NavyBoy arrived in RedneckTruck with RedneckTrailer attached, as NavyBoy ended his navy career a few days ago and is on his way home to his parents house to work with his dad and start college in the fall.

I don't know who was more nerve-wracked the first hour or so, the kids or DH and myself. I didn't want to like the kid. I tried my hardest not to like him, especially when Ms.Blue came to the door dressed in a mini-skirt that is smaller than most bikinis and a top, well, I guess you could call it a top, that ummm... well... let's just say I have dish towells that have more material to them than what she was using for a top... (Guess I've forgot to mention over the years that Ms.Blue is the one female in our family who ended up with all the boobs of the other females in our family for 3 generations. All piled onto her proud little (little? HAH!) chest... but anyway...

So once the introductions were over and everybody started to relax (DH had a couple and I started drinking pretty heavily the minute they hit the door)... things were ok. I mean REALLY ok. He's a nice kid. And they do seem to get along really good. I know from things Ms.Blue has told me that he's really good about buying her flowers all the time and stuffed animals and jewlrey and taking her out to eat... things that are important. He's really respectful like most texas boys too... so that's a plus... I think they started relaxing before I did though, alcohol or no alcohol... as they both wolfed down 2 burgers at dinner when I barely picked at everything on my plate...

NavyBoy is bunking in with Mr.SoonToBeBlue and Ms.Blue is bunking in with Lil'DD. They knew that was going to be the arrangements before they even left BigCityOnTheEastCoast and seem to have no problem with it...

Mostly after that, we were just getting caught up with Ms.Blue and making chit-chat with NavyBoy... nothing super interesting happened but hopefully something will come up worth writing about.

As for my plan of stirring the pot and bringing ArmyBoy back into the picture, the joke was on me! Ms.Blue had called ArmYBoy during the day yesterday and he had a 5pm flight back to ArmYBase and they won't be able to meet up after all...

Oh. One more thing. DM (my dear mother) has phoned several times over the past few days, doing the 'inquiring minds wanna know' thing... She keeps insisting that Ms.Blue is pregnant and that's why they're coming to see us and going to see his parents. Ummmm... thanks Mom. I know where I get my evil ways from. No, she's not preggers (thank God!).

No Bed & Breakfast Here!

When Ms.Blue called 12 days ago and said she was taking 3 weeks of leave and bringing NavyBoy with her, we changed our plans for those weeks to make sure we would be home and could accomodate the things they wanted to do. She was coming Friday. Two days from now...

Ms. Blue surprised me on Monday and called saying, "Mom! Guess what time we'll be there!" She and NavyBoy decided to leave a couple of days early and were coming in Tuesday morning (yesterday) rather than Friday. No sweat. Of course, mom that I am, I hurried to make sure the house was tidied and that we had extra groceries for the earlier days they were coming along with clean sheets for the extra beds...

They planned on driving straight through, but not leaving until 8pm east coast time, we were worried that they'd be too tired and encouraged them to stop and get a little sleep at least sometime during the trip.

She txt'ed me during the night, state by state letting me know of their progress. Last one I received was about 6am yesterday, that they'd made it into Alabama and were going to try and sleep because they were tired.

8:00 last night still no kids in the driveway. No phone call telling us they were going to be late or not coming. Heck! It's only about a 5 1/2 hour drive from where they're at to home. I called her. They decided to (FuckLikeRabbits?) spend another night in AL before driving the rest of the way and were just to freeking inconsiderate to call and let us know. No big deal. I'm flexible. But we've already adapted and adjusted life twice the last couple of days for these 2 kids and now I'm not in the welcomingest of moods to greet them.

I don't like (or stand for) disrespect out of my children... Now that I've spent the past 2 days a little ticked off because Ms.Blue is being so inconsiderate, I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to give her and NavyBoy the warm reception they might have gotten otherwise. Heck, I haven't seen my daughter in 6 months. This is the first time she's bringing a boy home to meet us. How the hell am I supposed to feel? I imagine the next few days (if they even decide to show up!) will be quite interesting. DH is in rare form and hates NavyBoy already...

SO... EvilMother that I am, I have a plan in the works. PayBackIsABitch my dear darling daughter. There is a certain boy that Ms.Blue dated her senior year of high school. Those of you who were reading my blog back in those days might remember me posting about him. I adored this boy. They could have gotten married somewhere down the road and life would have been grand. But Ms.Blue flew away and joined the air force. And SuperBoy ran away and became ArmyBoy. ...I played poker last Friday night with ArmyBoy's Daddy (Evil Laugh)... and ArmyBoy's Daddy just happened to mention that ArmyBoy himself is home on leave until the middle of next week. (oh yeah!). ArmyBoy's Daddy is going to make sure that ArmyBoy catches up with us sometime over the weekend ...

Well. I think now that I've blown off steam I might be able to handle a possible meet&greet sometime this afternoon.

At least I should have some interesting things to write about the next few weeks! LOL

edited 10:40 a.m.
...thought I needed to mention that just because I haven't blogged about it, does not mean that I've forgotten the WSOP has started in Vegas. I am following each day's highlights as well as keeping up with the various poker blogs posted by both the players and those in town to cover the tournaments. My heart beats a little faster every day when I pull them up. ...man I can wait until next year when I get to go back... it's something you just don't ever get over.

TGIF!

Getting a little excited about Ms.Blue coming home. ...oh, and the new 2nd job is working out great btw. easy work, great pay, and I'm not quite so grumpy when I come in to work at the firm because at least I'm getting my worth elsewhere...

Less than a week after Ms.Blue flies back to her wild Blue yonder, the rest of us are packing up and leaving on a jet plane... oh wait, that was a song, wasn't it? Hmmm.... I guess we'll actually be tossing all our summer ResortCasual wear into the well-worn suitcases and driving the hour to the airport and flying to Florida. ...I've never been there, and neither have Mr.SoonToBeBlue or Lil'DD, so it ought to be a fun week. After we get home we're going camping for a week... then a few weeks later we're going to Arkansas, another place the 3 of us have never been. ...you know me and my road trips. I like to cram as much into a year as possible and get maximum exploring done out of our limited travel time. I think we're going back to TX somewhere in between those two trips... and then to TX again in September.

Work has been totally hilarious. The sec (commonly referred to as PITA) is just such a total flake I cannot understand her. I grabbed the checkbook for the firm account this morning to do our taxes for last month... and there are seventeen blank checks during the month that I'm going to have to wait for the bank statement to come, and try to figure out what they are... I imagine most of them are extra paychecks to her. Wanna bet? I'll let you know next week...

Anyway, that's it for now. Gotta run!


M Y B A D!!
I forgot to post Rabbit's Rabbits! this morning for luck in the upcoming month... maybe I won't play poker tomorrow night after all...