Prologue

Well my life was turned upside down in the last two weeks. Zack had a lot of fun at Camp and Taryn and I had a good time Monday of that week going to the LA Zoo. Tuesday was uneventful at work just another day the leads and boss having closed door meetings made us think things might be changing but nothing prepared me for Wednesday morning when I was called into HR's office and told that I was being laid off. Shocked and upset I cleaned out my stuff and was sent home in a cab. The rest of the week went by in a blur.
It has now been over a week and Zack came home from Camp happy and tired. I am starting to get into the swing of this unemployed thing. I check the paper everyday and have sent out a few resumes. I signed up for unemployment and have been getting things done around the house. I still am not sleeping well but I like to look at this as the time before I start the next better chapter in my life.

Keeping my fingers crossed I will update as things move along.

Good Day

So have you ever had one of those days were you are just happy. You just can't stop smiling. I decided that I wanted to go to Columbus for my Birthday this year, My mom is going to help me with the cost of the flights, and I will get to see a bunch of friends I miss. So there is that to be excited about, And then to make it even better one of the girls here at work gave me a bracelet that she thought I would like, no reason, and I do like it. Just having a good day

Another month

Well this time I have at least a little excuse.
Let see last week I was sick not just cold or even flu but serious Aliens taking up residence in my stomach and trying to rip there way out. I went to the Doctor and though I didn't get a definitive answer E-coli was mentioned since it was a bacterial infection. Big Horse pills and a week off work later all is back to normal.
Taryn finished up her Freshman year of High School last week, she is now a Sophomore and enjoying her summer to laze about doing pretty much nothing. Today she meet me at work for lunch and is now exploring the Library here Downtown. 8 Floors should keep her busy for a few hours till I get off work.
Zack has one more week of school though they have not been doing to much this past month since they finished the CST tests. We went to his last awards night for this year and he got Principals Honor Roll which means he has a 3.5-4.0. Hey happy mom we just have to keep it going and work on the boy issues and he will be great.

Other than that not much is going on same old crap at my work, nothing exciting at home.

A Month

Wow it has almost been a month since I wrote last, to catch you up we went on our Scout camping trip and even though our best camping buddies didn't end up going we had a great time. We were sung to sleep by the coyotes, saw snakes, goats, lizards and a crazy woodpecker that kept attacking his reflection in car mirrors. We also got to watch some older boys at a Camporee can't wait until Zack can go to one of those looked like lots of fun. To top it all off we all got to shoot both archery and BB guns. I smoked all the kids on the BB Gun range. Don't mess with me.

Other than that we have been doing home stuff, Spring cleaning ( backhoe required for Zack's room), hanging out and lots of reading. Work has been slow but until today the weather has been ok.

Tomorrow Zack graduates from JR to SR Webelos in Cub scouts and a friend of our is coming to watch the festivities.

A Camping we will go

It's Monday but already I am planning for Friday. This isn't the usual ugh Monday wish it was Friday planning. This is leaving for a camping trip gotta make lists and find things and pack things planning. Twice a year we go camping as a family with Zack's Cub Scout Pack, not a long trip just Friday through Sunday but this IS our family vacation, this is all we get so we really get into it. I am actually getting a little bummed out since next year will be Zack's last year in Scouts and that means only a few more trips. This time we are going to Firestone Boy Scout reservation somewhere inland. I am not sure what there will be to do there but it doesn't really matter we always have a good time anyway. So this week we have lots to do before shove off Friday. Zack and I are building Camp chairs for a badge and for fun so we have to finish those tonight so they are ready to take with us this weekend. I also have stuff to do around the house since I won't be around next weekend, and on top of that we have the usual stuff like Cub Scout meeting Thursday night, gotta get food for the snakes since they are out ( boy I wish there was a pet store closer to our house) And work and school and everything else that life throws at you. But I really just wish boring work would be over so that I could get to everything else.

Friends and rants

So today one of the guys here at work was talking about going to Vegas, since it isn't to far people around here do weekend trips all the time I guess. Well I mentioned that I had never been there and they were like you have to go. The only problem with that is that that is a place I would want to go with friends and well I just don't have any of those at least here in the area. Heck Heather I think you are the only person who reads this blog so your it my only friend. This year I told Taryn that for Mother's day I wanted a match.com membership. So sad I have no life I need to go online to find people. I was thinking of trying an experiment and just stop talking at work just to see how long until someone actually noticed. Wow this is depressing rambling please don't read any more. I should just stop writing all together but I have an hour left of work and absolutely nothing to do and I am a bit depressed about my life and wishing I was back in Columbus now that the weathers not to bad. Fair weather Friend as far as C-bus goes but there you have it my rant for today.

Seige Weapons and other Cub Scout stuff

The next few weeks are my busy ones of the month. We have a den meeting tonight where the boys will be working with another parent on their science badge. I almost hope that they skim through it so we can cancel the second meeting this month, then again I know they will do a half ass job of it anyway and I saw some really cool Myth Buster experiments that we could do at home to cover this badge. Next week we will have our Pack meeting which is always rather loud and long. It is fun cause we get to see some friends but otherwise uneventful. And the week after that is our second monthly den meeting if we need it. And the day after that is our Spring camping trip which I am really looking forward to. There are only a half dozen family that usually come but we have all kind of bonded over it and have a great time where ever we go. This trip we go to Firestone which is a boyscout camp, we haven't been there before so it should be interesting.
Next big thing for us at least is the June meetings that I am in charge of. The First meeting will be the building and learning meeting, as part of our Craftsman Badge and Engineering Badge we will be building a Catapult. **insert evil laugh here*** the Second meeting will be all about fun. We will be launching our catapult and having our end of year party. Hopefully the boys will have a great time.

Friday..

Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday Friday :D

So can you tell that I am sooo ready to have it Friday and start my weekend. Ugh this week has been nuts, I had to pick up Zack early from school on Monday 1/2 day at work for me, and it just through the whole week off. You see I rarely take time off at the beginning of the week unless it is a long weekend so when I came back Tuesday too much had already happened for it to be only Tuesday. You would think that at least by Wednesday i would have gotten the timing right again but no I didn't sleep well this week and my Back has been hurting so everything was just weird. But today has finally come and though it is going soo slow that I should be getting younger while I wait for the work day to be over, I am happy that I can see the end.
Next week my little girl turns 15 yikes 6 months from now she can get her drivers permit. We are spreading out the celebration this year. Saturday we are going to a Movie and then Dinner at Chilli's, Monday night I have to make her a cookie cake to take to school Tuesday, Tuesday the actual DAY we are having a special dinner and I will make her a cake, and Friday I get paid so we will be going out next weekend to get her present. An IPhone, I know what? an I phone for a 15 year old? but she is really responsible and has taken good care of her current phone, we are timed for an up grade and she will be putting some of her other Birthday money towards the cost. Also we looked at the other smart phones and with the I phone you can get free WI-FI and not have to pay the extra monthly fee for access, the other phones don't seem to have this.

But back to me this weekend I am going to play with my Scroll Saw, paint the bathroom and relax. I just hope it doesn't go by in a blink.

Single Sucks

First I have to say that I like living in California but I really haven't started much of a life out here and it has been 5 years. I started to make a few friends at my work but the only one that took off ended up being a girl who refused to grow up, I know that I am not the most mature acting person around but I know when to act your age. So that kind of fizzled and it has been a couple years now since then. I really don't have anything in common with any of the people I work with and the way things are out here people live all over the place and commute hours to get to work. Other than that I really don't interact with anyone except people in the kids scouts and soccer. But again most of them are married and a lot more stuffy than me. I have long said that making friends once you are out of the school faze is difficult as they tend to be at jobs and once that job connection is gone so is the friend ship. Oh well... But that takes me to my other problem. Dating as in I don't, I haven't met anyone interesting in well a few years and then it wasn't serious or at least he wasn't. I really don't want to be alone anymore I actually told Taryn that what I would like for Mother's day is a Match.com membership. Hey it worked for my brother. But again I don't know, I suck at making friends, I really suck at dating and I just want what seems to be so easy for everyone else. Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed in Columbus but then I think that there wasn't anything there for me either.

Speckles my boy

So this week has been weird, or chaotic. Monday was well Monday nothing good nothing bad just Monday in all it's blah glory. I was on call for Jury Duty which means every night for a week you have to call this number and see if you have to go in. If you are called you are in for 1 day or one trial. So last week I tried to be smart and get things done at work so if I did have to go in I wouldn't be in trouble when I got back. So Monday I had nothing to do at work. By the time I could call that night I had decided that I wanted to go in for Jury Duty had to be better than trying to seem busy for an entire day or two. I lucked out and did get called but mine was a one day event so back to work on Wednesday still not much to do but return calls from Tuesday. Thursday started out another slow day but 2 hours into the work day I get a call from Zack's school. He had a rash all over his upper body and his face was flushed. Now anyone who knows what Parvo is knows that schools don't mess around with unidentified spots so I had to pick him up, which when you take the bus to work is not easy, take him to the doctor to find out it was an allergic reaction to something ( Still don't know what) and pump him full of Benedryl for a few days. Today I am back at work, I was really efficient last week cause I still don't have anything to do and so that explains why I am blogging at 11am on a Friday. The kids have today off for Cesar Chavez day, I really don't know what he did other than give my kids another day off but they don't mind and it gives Zack time to itch in peace. The spots are still going strong I hope they go away soon but I figure I will be picking up calamine lotion on the way home and maybe even oatmeal bath.

Food Kids and ruts

So as we all know especially when kids are younger we get into ruts with our meals, whether it is because we have a picky eater or just time crunches but you tend to have a dozen or so meals that you cycle through. My kids are getting bigger and they will try a lot more these days but I also have my mom to figure in to the meals and she is a little pickier, she just didn't grow up with much variation of tastes or spices. So recently I have been trying out new things, some classic Midwest dishes and some ethnic dishes too. My friend Heather has a new blog to let us know what she is baking. wow I love that blog. I don't have time to post that much so I will just start dropping some of my successes here to share with you all. The most recent raving success was pot pie. I know it is pretty old school but hey if it was bad it wouldn't be around so long. This one I made up from a few different recipes and ad libbed a little too. I will put it down here as much as I remember since I am at Jury duty right now and can't check my sources at home.

Cheryl's Cheesy Mini Pot Pies

A couple large chicken breasts cooked and diced
1 can broccoli cheese soup undiluted
1 can cream of chicken soup
broccoli steamed to par cooked
double crust pie crust from red checked cook book
shredded Colby jack cheese

On stove heat soups and meat until smooth
make Pie crust dough and line mini pie tins or large muffin tins with rolled out dough
Scoop equal amounts of chicken and sauce mixture in tins and top with broccoli and some cheese. top with remaining pie dough and crimp sides. Vent tops

bake for 30 in 425* oven when tops are golden let stand 5-10 minutes and enjoy

Yumm

This even re heated pretty good in the microwave for mom lunch the next day.

The Woozie Blues

Words of Wisdom from my uncles Blog...

Treat stressful situations like a dog,
if you can't chew on it or play with it,
pee on it and walk away.

I wish it was that easy, right now I am good if I can stumble in a semi straight line. I mentioned my migraine Monday night, well it is Wednesday Morning and still feeling crappy to the extreme. I have a project I am working on for and with Zack's Cub Scout Den and it is stressing me out. But this cruddy feeling is worse than I have ever had from a migraine. If I had the PTO I would have called in sick today. Yesterday was not to bad but the later in the day the worse I felt, I didn't really eat much of anything and from the way my stomach feels after this mornings breakfast it was probably better that way. Today I have beta testing here at work and I just hope I don't kill anyone in the process. This is my least favorite thing at work on the best of days but we are far from that today. But on top of the feeling cruddy physically this thing is really getting me down mentally too. Usually I am not the most peppy person but today couples and the idea of couples fry me. I guess I really need someone to care about me and take care of me right now but hey I don't even have friends much less someone special. I actually wish someone would say to me " Hey you look like S--t are you ok, what can I do to help?" but there is no one and that is giving me the Blues. Oh well tis my life off to work now hopefully I won't puke or start crying.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE LEFTOVERS

Since Taryn sells Girl Scout cookies every year we usually order a few extra boxes to sell to anyone who forgot to order or was still deluding themselves that they were going to stick to their New Years Diet. But this year we had no takers for the extra Cookies so we found a few ways to use them up. Here is what we found.

Chunky Tagalong Pie
Recipe by Robbin Hill, Jack Fry's, Louisville, KY

Crust
1 box Tagalong cookies
½ box Trefoil cookies
½ stick unsalted butter (cut into tablespoons)

Peanut butter filling
12 oz cream cheese, softened (1½ cups)
1½ cup chunky peanut butter
¾ cup sugar
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1½ cup well-chilled heavy cream
1 box Tagalong cookies (chopped)

Chocolate topping
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped (1 cup)
1 cup heavy cream

Crust:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Using a food processor, grind cookies and butter into fine crumbs. Press crumbs over the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Peanut butter filling:
In a large bowl, using a hand held mixer, beat the cream cheese with the peanut butter, Sugar, and vanilla extract until blended. In another large bowl, using the same beaters, whip the chilled cream until firm. Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture to loosen it; then fold the cookies and remaining whipped cream. Spoon the filling into the crust, smoothing the surface. Refrigerate until set (about three hours).

chocolate topping:
In a medium glass bowl, combine the chocolate with the heavy cream and microwave at high power in 20-second intervals until the chocolate is melted and the cream is hot. Stir the chocolate topping until blended; then let cool to barely warm, stirring occasionally.

Spreading the chocolate topping:
Spread the chocolate topping over the peanut butter filling and refrigerate until firm. Carefully run a knife around the pie crust to loosen it; then remove springform bottom. Keep pie refrigerated. Garnish with marshmallow sauce, fudge sauce, and caramel sauce. Serve with any or all of those sauces. Garnish with chopped peanuts.

http://www.kyanags.org/about/cookierecipes.aspx

AND

Thin Mint Chocolate Cheesecake
Recipe by Kathi Lincoln, Lite 106.9

Thin Mint cookie crust:
1 sleeve plus 4 Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies
4 TBS. butter or margarine-melted
Crumble mints in 9 in. pie plate. Add melted butter and blend well.
Press firmly onto bottom. Bake at 375 for 8 min. Cool completely.

Cheesecake:
2 PKG. of cream cheese-softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 TSP. vanilla
2 eggs
4 squares Bakers semi-sweet Baking chocolate, melted slightly cooled

Preheat oven to 325. Beat cream, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and mix just until blended. Stir in melted chocolate. Pour into crust. Bake 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate several hours.

Wow they were good, There are also recipes online for all the other Cookie varities too.

Have Fun find your Cookies Mission.

HANG OVER

I get Migraines occasionally, most of the time at work (can we say stress induced), but last night sitting on the couch reading Taryn's knidle and half assed watching TV one hit with a vengence. One minute I was sitting there fine the next I couldn't see through the sparkles, auras, and lightening lines that attacked my vision, and my head wanted to explode. I felt my way to the bathroom to soak my head in the tub, the water pressure usually helps a little equalizing the exploding factor a few degrees, but that didn't work so I gave up downed some drugs and went to bed at 8. Not much else to do when your head hurts and you can't see. This morning I awoke with a hangover, again not to too unusual after a really bad migraine but still annoying when you didn't even get the party the night before. And here I am 2 asprin and 4 hours later still a little out of it my head gentelly thumping trying to work. But what I really want to do is read my book, hey I was at a really good part and had to stop. Hopefully today will be better and I can read at lunch if not a little afterwork on the bus.

Lazy Day

Well not so much, today i really need to work on paper mache vases for a Boy Scout Project, Go to the grocery store and run errands. Oh and lets not forget this is supposed to be Zack's weekend so we will have to work in something cool for him. We spend the entire week looking forward to a relaxing weekend but when it comes around we always spend much more of it working than relaxing.

Posting again

Not much to say since this is the second post of the day but I got my new net book and I just had to post with it. The key board is tiny but i am getting used to it. the skin I ordered for it should be here in a day or so also and I really can't wait , I have been playing on this for the last 3.5 hours. So much fun. I haven't gotten myself anything big for so long it is really nice to be the kid with the new toy for once instead of the giver.

NEW TOY NEW TOY

Today I get my new toy so hopefully since I will not have to borrow Taryn's laptop anymore I will actually write a bit more often. I am at work right now and I know my new Netbook was delivered earlier to my house and I am dying to get out of here so I can go home and play with it. Please please please make this clock go faster. 30 more minutes then I can blow this popsicle stand. yea!!! I will probably post again later so bye bye for now.

LOVE FROM A DISTANCE

I love my kids but Friday Zack was really really sick, It took til Sunday afternoon for him to really feel much better, Monday I got my new Dishwasher, and Tuesday wasn't bad until about 7 when Taryn turned green. I want to be the mom that cuddles with her sick kids but honestly I just don't have the Paid time off. So I will love them from a safe contaminate free distance.

Sun's Out

A friend claims that she is solar powered, oh how I know this. Winter for me is always dismal, the gray sky's match my mood and I want to sleep all the time. This year was worse, in October they moved our office around and I lost my spot by the window. I can no longer spin my seat around and bask in the sun when ever I want. I have to get up and go stand by my leads desk just to find a sliver of sunlight. But today the sun is out and my lead is late so I got to sit in the window and bask. It was only for a few minutes but I swear I feel ten times better than an hour ago. I could almost feel my solar cells charging and I want more. I hope it stays sunny until lunch so I can go outside and sit in the plaza and charge for a good half hour.

HUMP DAY

Half way through this week, I am soo glad to see it rolling past me towards the weekend. It is actually raining here in Southern California, I know you have heard the song and it is never supposed to rain, but it does the only problem is that no one here knows how to drive in the weather. Any weather. Work is boring as usual but the dismal gray outside the windows is making it even harder to concentrate so I am doing busy work so that I don't have to think to hard. Yawn.... Yes the more tedious the work the bigger the yawn so you see the problem. I need some excitement in my day, something to wake me up and make me happy to be out of bed. Think I will try the food court at lunch if I am lucky there will be a fight or riot or something interesting. Probably not but I can always hope. Tonight Is Zack's Monthly Cub Scout Pack meeting so I will get to see some friends but other than that it should be a slow day from start to finish, Hope it doesn't keep raining tomorrow or coma it will be.

Valentines Day Blues

Every year about a week before Vanentines Day I start to get depressed and Evil. Yesterday the receptionist got a package with Cheryl on the label after she called me to tell me she realized it was from Cheryl's Cookies not too me. Didn't think there was anyone who would send me anything at work but hey Way to dash my hopes. Then after a long day at work I got on the bus and it was beyond crowded some guy and his arm full of crap damn near sat on me. At that point depressed morphed into EVIL and I was wishing for a blade so I could stab him. Good thing I didn't have anything. At this point I am really considering locking my self in my bed room until Tuesday. I am not fit for company. I am so tired of being alone, heck I can't even say I have Friends I could hang out with now since the only ones I have are all the way accross the country.

Kids ....Sigh...

So my Question is what possesses a smart 10 year old boy to cut his own bangs all the way to the skin?
There are something’s your kids do that you will never understand. Two nights ago Zack got out of bed and came into my room when I was in bed too and asked me to cut his bangs cause they were too long. Seeing as we had spent the entire evening doing nothing and I didn't feel good I told him I would do it tomorrow but I wasn't getting out of bed to trim his bangs.
I guess I should have gotten up. :(
So when he got home yesterday I noticed his bangs were not in his face but I just thought he had pulled them back (he'd done it before), later I realized that he had cut his bangs himself, not all of them and definitely not well but just a chunk in the front all the way down to the skin. Can you say Pissed?
I ended up having to chop off quite a bit of hair all over his head just to make it look OK. I will put the before and after pictures up later.

3 DAYS AND COUNTING

Day 3 of blogging. Wow it's a miracle.
I am feeling much better than yesterday and hopefully I will stay that way.
Yesterday in light of my over all ickiness, I called Taryn and asked her to make at least the meat portion of Dinner. We have a Family recipe that we call Swiss steak but honestly I don't know what it is. We usually just brown the round steak on the stove then add Cream of Mushroom soup and cover and let it cook for a while. Unfortunately it can come out tough sometimes. But through a Store program I just got a Dutch oven so I decided to try that. I had Taryn brown the meat and then put the soup and a can of water in the pan then baked it at 325 for 2 hours with the lid on then another 30 minutes with the lid off to reduce the sauce. It was soo tender and yummy I don't think we will make it any other way from now on. Maybe next time I will add potatoes and an extra can of soup and make it a one pot dinner. The best part about the whole thing was that other than making flaked mashed potatoes I didn't have to do anything.

Other than dinner yesterday was a total blur of ickiness and since it is not yet 9 am nothing much has happened yet today. Hopefully I will see you tomorrow.

Sick and Tired

Well I am fighting a cold right now but it has much better fire power. Think Bazooka vs foam bat. I coughed so hard yesterday that I sent my back into spasms. But I am at work today miserable and exhausted trying to keep my eyes focused and my head up.
Taryn has Finals this week so actually she has today off school. She was complaining about being home alone but didn't want to come to work for me. Ungreatful kid.
Wish me luck got to go back to working.

Is anyone reading this?

Probably not since I really suck at remembering to right very often. So I will just say things are ok, not great, life is progressing at it's usual pace and crud level. The kids are fine and doing good in school and I am still at my hated job. My mom had to get a newer car and my haven't even gotten Tax refund is allocated for boring stuff already.

Now that was fun

Bye Bye