Where Do We Go From Here?

It has always been one of those things that we didn’t need to worry about right now.

It was several years away. Then it was just years away. Now it is only months away.

It = High School.  God Help Me.

The way it works here, as I am assuming it is in most places, your public high school is determined by where you live.

When we bought our house 2.5 years ago we didn’t give it much thought.  We were SURE Noodle would go to Catholic High School. Then it was a matter of which one.

Her original choice of the all girls one isn’t so appealing TO HER anymore, since you know, there would be no boys there.  Hubs still thinks its a swell idea other than the fact that it is beaucoup expensive.

There are 2 other cath0lic high schools that are somewhat an option.  One would take us at least an hour each way to get to and from. 

The other is much closer but doesn’t have as much to offer.

The public school by us is brand new state of the art this year.

This made public school more and more appealing to me and honestly the thought of not paying tuition anymore does make me all warm and fuzzy inside. 

I am pretty sure the far away school is off of our radar.

So that leaves us with not much to offer cath0lic vs. public.

I toss and turn every night worrying about it. Hubs who was so anti-cath0lic to start with is now “Its the only way to go”. And I, who begged and pleaded until I was blue in the face to “Please just give it (cath0lic) a try”,  am leaning more towards public.

For every pro there is a con.

For every con there is a pro.

(My biggest fear is starting her in cath0lic and then not being able to afford the subsequent years).

I guess it is fair to say at this point we are still up in the air over it. She will take the entrance exams for the cath0lic ones in January. I guess we will make our decision then.

 

Mirror Image

This was the first picture I took Saturday at the zoo.

Pretty cool if I do say so myself. It was a total fluke.

Its A ???

Meet the newest member of the Casa de Mar clan.

 

This is Myrtle. As in Myrtle the Turtle. But Myrtle is actually a African Sulcata Tortoise.

As you can see, Myrtle is just a wee bitty right now. That 59.5? Is grams. Which is about 1/3 of a pound.

Full grown? She can get up to about 100 pounds. One of us didn’t think this whole owning a tortoise thing out very well. We will be able to determine if Myrtle is indeed a Myrtle and not a Mort, in another 3 or 4 years.

Noodle has promised, promised, promised to take Myrtle to college with her. I am so holding her to it.

Please excuse her dirty feet, walking through your food is all the rage around here these days.

 

I caught her in mid-bite, don’t let her fool you she is the sweetest little thing you have ever seen.

Eventually, the plan is that I will get my laundry room counter back and Myrtle will live in the backyard and eat all of the plants and soak up the rays.

 

I Couldn’t Ask For Anything More.

Thursday and Friday were half days at school for parent teacher conferences.

 

My girl is adjusting well. Her grades are good and she is happy. What more can we ask for?

 

Noodle’s teacher asked me towards the end of the conference if she was an “only”. I said  “She sure is”.  Then her teacher said “She sure doesn’t act like one”.

My heart swelled.  It was the nicest compliment I have gotten in a very long time. 

 

 

Who am I kidding? My heart swells every time I look at her.

Bank of Mar

Somedays I wish I was as tough as I think that I am.

I had at guy who was doing some work (painting our sign) at the shop.

Last week when he started the project I gave him a personal check for a down payment / to buy the supplies he needed.

Today he brough the sign back and hung it up and all was good.

I gave him a business check. He asked me where the bank it was written on was. (Right around the corner).

He apparently walked to the bank to cash the check and came back with a receipt in his hand and told me I owed him $5.00.

I asked him why. That is what it costs to cash a check where you don’t have an account I guess.

He told me he “ate” the $6.00 that it cost him to cash the personnal check. (But if could find the receipt for that he would have brought it in to show me).

I was trying to help a customer and just didn’t want the fight. I gave him the $5.00.

But why is it my problem that he doesn’t have an account where he can deposit a check? Shouldn’t he be able to deposit it and then withdrawl the cash?

If I paid him in full the contract price was it really my responsiblity to add “bank fees” to it?  Not one time did he request cash for payment.

He left me some cards to pass out to my friends. Cause I know so many people who need a commericial sign painter.

He told me “Word of mouth is the best advertising”.

So when I get thirsty from speaking of his business should I send him a bill for my beverage to keep me from getting parched?

I threw them in the trash. He does not want me to advertise for him. I can guarantee you that.

 

Bah Humbug.

I should have known when Hubs woke me up yesterday at 6:30 and asked me when Urgent Care* opened that things weren’t going to go as planned.

Friends were supposed to come over for our annual pumpkin carving par-tay. Didn’t happen.

More friends were supposed to come over later (who couldn’t make it for pumpkin carving). Didn’t happen.

We were invited to go and hang out at the Mama B house. Didn’t happen.

To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement.

I was looking forward to seeing friends we hadn’t seen for awhile.

Instead my girl went trick-or-treating with the neighbors.

After they had their fill of begging for collecting candy they settled in and watched a movie.

While she was out and about Hubs was deep in a drug induced sleep. I sat outside and passed out candy until it was gone.

Because sitting on the couch watching t.v. all alone on a Saturday night wasn’t fun enough, I did laundry.

Damn, let the good times roll.

Today, we were supposed to go and see the baby girls in their Halloween costumes. Hubs bowed out but Noodle and I were going to go. After texts from both baby mama’s asking if we were feeling ok, I backed out of the invite. Noodle and I are (knock on wood) feeling fine but I would feel horrible if either of the girls or anyone else for that matter got sick from germs we brought with us.  So with nothing else do to the laundry continues.

Tomorrow should have been my day off but alas that isn’t going to happen either.  Bossman’s wife is sick so for him to pick up the slack with that, it means I will pick up the slack at the shop. Its ok, I am sure I will have all my laundry done by then.

But my frown turned upside down when I was downloading pictures from last night and found this one:

 

The cuteness. I can’t stand it.

Fab-O, Hubs and Pom-Pom.

 

*Hubs has a pretty bad case of the flu, along with an upper respiratory infection as added dose of crap. I know, I know laundry doesn’t sound quite so bad compared to that!

Day 2

* All photo credits go to Susan. Who knew our visit included a CD packed with photos. (I did take some of mine own but shhh! I still haven’t unpacked suitcases and the card is somewhere in one of them).

 

 

If I remember correctly Day 2 started off rather slowly with a continental  breakfast of yummy bagels and cinnamon rolls.

 

The boys took off to drop Fab-O off at the baby sitters and then continued on for the race.

 

Susan and I headed off for a gourmet lunch of Chic-Fil-A, where I made fun of a lady in a Halloween sweater  vest a little too loudly. But in all fairness, Susan picked a horrible time to show me how the windows in the van rolled down rather than popped out.

 

After lunch we worked our way into Charlotte and check into our hotel room. (Yeah for responsible drinking!).  Once we put the pizza rolls in the freezer (you never know when you are going to need a late night snack) and made a few drinks and waited for some of Susan’s peeps to show up.  Jenny followed us from lunch and Shannon came to the hotel to hook up with us.  We had the shuttle driver take us to dinner.  Another Shannon met us there.

 

After a yummy dinner and a delish margarita we were off to party like rock stars. Our destination? Howl at the Moon.

We got there early and ended up with great seats.  Once we had a table it was time for drinks.

 

Buckets were way cheaper than beer or mixed drinks so we did our best to polish a few of them off.

In case you are wondering…. its an Adios Mo-Fo. Its Vodka, Gin, Rum, Blue Curacao and Sweat and Sour.

We also threw a shot in for good measure. Had the waitress come around more often there would have been several more consumed. Shots are my very, very, very, very favorite thing. What can I say? My German / Irish Catholic heritage brings it out in me.

Once things got hopping we counted even numbers for free drinks.

  We sang along to some great songs.

 

We had a pinky promise about something that I am sure was very important. (My head was a little bit fuzzy by then).

 

Even when we are having fun we must remember that their are people fighting for our freedom and that not a minute goes by that we aren’t thankful for all that they do   We <3 our soldier boys! XOXO. (Jenny’s, who sadly ended up going home early not feeling well, husband is currently serving our country and Susan’s husband Will is in the reserves and was deployed a few years ago). 

Someone tried to out do us…

 

But it just wasn’t going to happen. HOORAH!

 

The Shannon’s had to get home (they stayed a long time) and Susan and I hung out a little longer making new friends along the way.

 

Do you know who this is? (You cant really see his braids in the pictures but they were there!).

   Us either but he sure looked like Coolio to us.

Susan: Has anyone ever told you that you look like Coolio?

Him : All the time.

Susan: Let me ask you again, has anyone ever told you that you look like Coolio?

Him: NEVER!

It wasn’t long after that the buckets started to kick my ass we decided we had better call it a night. 

We wandered around looking for the elevator to get us down where the taxi’s were. 

$6.00 later (and talking to several random strangers) we were back at our room.

It was the most fun I have had in a really long time.

 

Thanks girls, I wish we could do it again sometime.

Day 1 North Carolina.

When we last left ye old blog we were on our way to see them. 

It is almost hard to blog about our trip because we had so much fun and it makes me sad that they live so far away and we don’t get to see them nearly as much as we would like to.

In all honesty, they were incredible host. They feed us, they housed us, they played chauffeur, and they shared their kick ass kiddo with us.

A kiddo who loved, loved, loved “Miss” Hubs. It melted my heart a thousand times over watching them together.

Don’t believe me you say?

 

 

 

 

They were members of the mutual admiration society and  were nice enough to allow me to be in a few pictures with them

The ones of just Hubs and I alone are only because she was buckled into her car seat.

 

 

 

As you have most likely figured out these were all taken at various race shops. There were also race cars. Lots and lots of race cars.

I think you get the idea…

 

There were also a few pictures in front of race cars

Have I mentioned that I love her so?

 

Day one wrapped up with a quick bite to eat on the way home and an early bed time. (3 hour time difference = 7:30 6:30 bedtime, and we crashed immediately)

Day 2 to follow

Cluster Fawk

Yesterday morning I tried calling the doctor to get Noodle in. (She has been sick for two weeks and to the doctor already once and Urgent Care already once) I called at exactly 8:00 a.m. when they opened. They told me they could see her Thursday afternoon. WTF?

I flat out told the receptionist on the phone “Screw it, I will take her to Urgent Care”, and hung up on her. 

Yesterday was the one day that I could.not.leave.work. to take her. (The other person working doesn’t even know how to turn the lights on and off let alone set the alarm etc.). I called my mom and she agreed to pick her up after school and take her for me.  It was going to be a 4 hour wait at the one they were at. BUT! If they wanted to go to one up the road there was no one at that one.

Off they went. When they arrived the person working asked Noodle for her i.d. again WTF? Since when to 13 year olds hav picture i.d.’s? So my mom gave them hers and of course (duh!) they have different last names and they told her sorry but without mine or Hubs permission, my mom couldn’t “seek treatment” for her.  So she called me and said I needed to fax them something. Well, I don’t have a fax machine and with it being a Federal holiday yesterday the bank next door (who’s fax we use) was closed.  I tried every number I had for Hubs to see if he could fax the note.  It took me 20 mins. to get ahold of him.

During this time, 3 or 4 more people have shown up at this UC and pushed them farther back down the line again.

After 30 more mins of waiting they get her in a room.

During this time frame my phone dies and Hubs heads over to relieve my mom.

The last text I got was “Doing chest x-ray, then we wait”.

(I am lost without my phone. I don’t have to be using it, but the idea of not being able to, especially while waiting to her about my girl, was just about more than I could take).

Once I got home I sent several frantic text to Hubs to let me know what the heck was going on.

I called the neighbor almost in tears because OMG a chest x-ray and I wasn’t there and… and … and …. (the list was long a rambling and nothing important, like there were dishes in my and sink and one of the neighbors Boo’d us and now I had to do it back and when was I going to have time for that?).

Thankfully, a few minutes later in the door they came.  The doctor is claiming it is still bronchitis (which is a condition NOT an illness like strep or something) now with a bacterial infection.  There are also a few other (minor) things that they found that we will follow up with our regular doctor (I will not freak out, I will not freak out, I will not freak out).

All of this scored her some more (different and expensive of course) drugs. One is a steroid that I don’t care for the idea of her having to be weaned off of after so many days. I guess if it makes her feel better though we will try it.

So speaking of drugs someone (ME!) had to go back to the pharmacy and pick them up.

One would think it would not be a big deal. HA! I get to the drug store, and wait my turn in the drive thru patiently (It is now about 8:30).  The person working the window asks Noodle’s name no less than 16 times and finds one (of two) prescriptions. She tells me I need a pharmacist consult on it. I wait and wait and wait some more. (8:42).  I get the run down. I pay. I get my bag. I notice there is only one prescription in the bag. I ring the call button again.  I explain Hubs dropped off TWO.  She looks at her computer. Oh yeah, they don’t have it. It will be ready tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.  Not gonna work for me.  I ask if any other drug store has it. Yes, the one up the street. Ok… can you send it there and I will go pick it up? Fine. She calls and calls and calls. No answer.  I ask her to call one more time. They answer and indeed have the liquid gold that my girl needs. (8:56). What time do they close?

9:00!

NINE O’CLOCK.

I begged her to beg them to stay for just a few more minutes. I was on my way. She was not at all happy.

I drove like speed racer to the second drug store (when I asked the rocket scientist where it was at she told me “on the corner”. Thanks, it’s an intersection there will be 4 of them), I got there at 8:59:48. It was super close.

The person working at that drug store was overly friendly. Rocket scientist had him fill both scrips and I had to explain to him that I already had the one only needed the other. (If it had been something good and less than a kidney I may have not said anything)  I came home with a bag full of plastic spoons and coupons for all kinds of stuff we will never buy, but I think he was trying to be nice. 

The icing on the cake? When I got home and Noodle opened the bag the first prescription had a crack in the plastic bottle and leaked all over.

 That is when I ate half the bag of the chocolate that the neighbor who “Boo’d” us left and wished then and there I knew who they were so I could kiss them on the lips.

Ramblings.

Yesterday a friend was out running errands and came home and found her husband had passed away.

She has a heart of gold and I am heartbroken for her and her family.

This caused me to toss and turn all night long last night.

I just can’t imagine what they are going through.

It saddens me to know that the funeral will be at Noodle’s old school church.  I can not go back there.  At least not in this situation.

Mama  B and I talked about it for a long time last night and decided we would go to the viewing / rosary but not the funeral.

I know if we did show up at the church it would cause such a buzz that it would completely take away from the purpose of the day. 

This is one of those things that makes you want to scream at all the people who have caused havoc in our lives for so many months now “Don’t you see how short life can be? Enjoy what you have rather than trying to make everyone else miserable”.

Please keep this family in your thoughts. They are some good peeps.

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Noodle has been “sick” for two weeks now. She missed almost a week of school and still has a cough that will make your chest hurt listening to her. Her initial diagnoses was bronchitis. I am afraid it has turned into something worse.  Hubs and I are leaving at the ass crack of dawn Thursday morning for a much anticipated weekend of fun with friends  I don’t feel bad leaving her behind I feel terrible leaving her if she doesn’t feel better. I called the doctor at exactly 8:00 this morning when the office opened and they can’t get her in until Thursday afternoon, so Grandma will pick her up after school and take her to urgent care they have way better doctors that our what our primary care is anyway. 

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In May they came to see us.  Thursday morning we are leaving  to catch our flight to blaze a trail around their stompin’ grounds.  If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would meet one of my besties on this crazy thing they call the internet I never would have believed you. Today, I can’t tell you how happy I am our paths crossed and that we are lucky enough to hang out with them again!  Is it Thursday yet???  We have never been to the east coast for longer than a lay over and even Hubs is starting to get giddy about it.

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I doubt that I will post again before we go.  But I promise pictures, lots and lots of pictures when we get back.