New Tattoo

Rob and I got tattoos yesterday. I am putting the pictures on here for those of you who don't have myspace and facebook. The concept was Rob's idea and I decided the night before we would get the same thing.




It's an ambigram of our names. Mine is on my ankle, right side up is his name, upside down it's mine. Rob got his on his arm, my name is right side up on his...and he got black, not purple. Right now it's all red and I have no idea if my other tattoo was like that since I couldn't see it very well.

I have nothing else to talk about really. I'll be raking leaves soon. Woohoo!

I guess I should update

Going back to school is such a busy time. The first few weeks everyone is not used to the routine plus you have back to school nights at three places. We had some late appointments thrown in there too so the first three weeks of September were pretty much a blur.

So far Brandon likes the middle school. We are not sure if he really likes it or if he just says he does because he insisted on going there because the Catholic school was so horrible. Even if he hated it he would have to say he liked it to save face. The day before school started Rob spent the day running around and yelling at people because they messed up and he had no schedule. The didn't want to give him one because he has an IEP. We said "Yeah, we told you that in June". They wanted to spend the first few days of school testing him and deciding what to do with him. We insisted that he would start like everyone else and know what was going on! Not miss the first day of every class where the teachers tell what is expected and all that stuff. Rob wound up speaking to the head of the child study team who said to get him a schedule. I have to find out if they are doing his OT but other than that things are going fine. He got an Alpha Smart so he can type everything, he loves that. First he said he didn't want it but then he decided it would be better.

Alyssa says she is trying to get better grades this year. I guess we'll see. She has had some issues with her friends. Sheila and Ali are now best friends and neither of them really talks to her. Sheila says hi and calls her when she wants something, like at 6 in the morning can Aly come straighten her hair. She also calls to brag about stuff and then gets mad when Aly doesn't care. So we have not had Sheila around for a long time, by the time her grounding was over, she and Aly weren't talking so it's been since July really. Which is fine with me! Aly seems a little bummed out sometimes but I know that my friendships weren't really established until a little further into 10th grade so I think she'll have it worked out soon.

My schedule at school is insane. The principal is crazy as usual and she has new ideas every year. Why she doesn't realize that nothing will work every because she doesn't give it enough time. You would think someone who makes 6 figures to run a school would know that. So now each grade level has a meeting one morning every six days and the specials teachers get to cover the classrooms while they are meeting. It's first thing in the morning so I get there and get settled, then have to go running off to some other classroom. As soon as I get back I have a class. I barely have time to breathe. The good thing about it is that the day flies by. I am worried that next week when my bus duty starts I am not going to have time to get my plans done. We'll see.

In other news, my dog has diabetes. She was acting weird, drinking a lot and peeing all the time. She peed on our bedroom floor a couple of nights in the middle of the night. So now Rob has to give her two shots a day. We have to feed her twice a day. We're supposed to check her sugar level but we can't get blood out of her. We got the tester, the vet said do it in her ear, she cries, so we know it's sticking her, but no blood. So we just watch and make sure she seems like she's acting ok. She is almost 14.

I guess that's about it. I am not checking this so don't mind any errors!

Some Pictures

Rob and I went to see NIN at the Wachovia on Friday night. And Beth, I think I was looking at the presale thing. LOL, it was not sold out. Yet somehow, the tickets I got the day they went on sale were HORRIBLE and were totally sideview. I can't be trusted to buy my own tickets. So we get there and I say "I am not staying here" and Rob says "they'll move that light thingie" and I say "no they won't and it's NIN so we need to see the lights and we can't from here". So the show starts and I can literally see Trent's FEET and nothing else. Not working for me. I look around and say "we are moving to that section back there." So by the end of the first song we were in a completely different section. Just walked right past the security people like we knew what we were doing. Well, we did, we were going to sit in seats that weren't ours.

As I knew from reading set lists and comments, we needed to see the lights. For reference, unless you are into being on the floor, GA, and getting smushed, straight back from the stage is where you want to be at a NIN show, far enough that you can see the whole stage. Awesome show, about 2 1/2 hours long, really good mix of old and new. Trent might know what he's doing. ;) So here are the pics I took.











So, as you can see, sideview would not really have worked. And I want to go again but the closest show is Charlottesville, VA. Crap. But he's playing in Ohio like three times. WTF? Ohio???

Were we ever this ridiculous???

I just emailed Beth and was telling her this story. I thought Becca might want to hear it too. So here it is.

Here's something... Aly wasn't really talking to Sheila for a while because of the whole grounding thing. So she was talking to this other girl named Ali. Ali knows Sheila from gymnastics and Aly knows Ali because she used to date this guy Jeremy, then Jeremy broke up with Ali for my Aly. So they were NOT friends. This is a fantastic teen drama story.

So Ali is dating Todd. She breaks up with Todd to go back out with Jeremy, this was about a month ago. Then Todd starts talking to Aly. Meantime, Ali is talking to some guy named Mike but still with Jeremy. Jeremy doesn't want her to talk to Mike. Wonder why? Maybe because she was with Todd and talking to Jeremy then dumped Todd for Jeremy. So Todd and Aly are friends. Ali tells her she doesn't want her talking to Todd. I am like "huh?" So Aly is mad because who does Ali think she is. She asks me can she meet Todd at the park, I said ok but then it was late so I said Todd could come here but no park. So Todd came here. Todd is actually cute btw. Every other guy Aly has told me is cute I say "seriously?" Oh yeah, and Mike sent Aly a myspace message and she's not allowed to talk to him either. Ali told Aly she doesn't want her talking to Todd because 'she still cares about him'.

So it's like this big secret that Aly is talking to Todd. Sheila is taking Ali's side, basically Aly should do what they say. So Aly is talking to no one but Kelsey. Aly was supposed to see Todd Monday but he had a show and it was over late. Then she finds out that Sheila and Ali are at this show. It was at Franklinville bowling alley or some such. Then Todd tells Aly he is in love with Ali so he is not going to talk to her anymore. Aly then finds out that Ali broke up with Jeremy. So I say "Oh, so he thinks he's getting her back?" Then Sheila tells Aly that at this show the other night, Todd had a hickey, so they speculate Aly did it. Aly did not put it there, Ali did not put it there. So I say, basically, what you are telling me is Todd is an asshole?

Aly wants to know why people think they can tell her what to do. I agree with her. But seriously, did we act like this about boys???

Some complaints that no one wants to hear!!!

Alyssa is babysitting my cousin Kendra's boys, Dominic, age 7 and Devante, age 4. She is there 2 days a week, it started out as 4 but after ONE week my aunt's neighbor became available and Alyssa was more than happy to give up two days to her! I think you all know about Kendra. I am not even going to get into it. She's my cousin, she's 26, divorced, her mom has custody of her two boys, she has her 2 year old daughter in Miami with her pimp/boyfriend/baby-daddy. She's a fine, up-standing citizen. My aunt receives no child support from her or their father. She won't go after her daughter because she's afraid she'll get arrested because of the outstanding warrants against her. She won't go after the father because she's afraid he'll try to get custody. Yeah, he can't afford $200 a month and he's going to take them full time? I think not. Besides which, I think the court can see, oh yeah, she's had them for three years, you have paid not one dime, she has not asked for one dime, now she's asking and you want them? I don't think so. They would see that it was only to avoid support.

The reason Aly was more than happy to give up half her income is that Dominic is a holy terror. He hits and kicks Devante, then when Aly puts him in time out he screams and yells and kicks the bedroom door and when that fails to get a response out of her (because it does get a response out of everyone else so that is what he is used to) he comes out of the room and hits and kicks Devante some more. Aly had scratches all over her legs the first week from him kicking at her. This past week they were at the park, he wanted to go home "the long way" Aly did not, Devante did not, but Aly said ok figuring she'd rather not have the tantrum and Devante is a sweet natured child. He did not spend much time with his mother. Dominic did. Most of Devante's time with his mother he was an infant. So they start on the long way and he changes his mind but as far as Aly is concerned there is no point turning back then so she says we're going this way and he throws himself on the ground and starts screaming. Aly calls home, Rob told her to walk away, just leave him, he'll follow. So she did and he did and by the time they got back to the house he had given up the screaming. I told Aly it will take a little time but hopefully, according to behavior modification, he will learn that she will not respond to negative behavior so he will not employ it to get her attention. Since no one got kicked that day, maybe it is starting to work.

Now, Aly is watching them at their house because my aunt really cannot afford to keep these kids and she absolutely cannot afford full time day care for two kids, one of whom is a 4 year old still in diapers. So Aly is only making $25 a day for putting up with this nonsense. However, she does nothing all day anyway, she can text her friends and go on myspace at my aunt's house too so at least this way she gets paid. But my point is that my aunt is not going to get away with paying $100 a week for day care any place else! What I am really saying, I guess, is beggar's can't be choosers.

So the other day my aunt calls me and asks if I have a minute to talk. She doesn't want to get Aly in trouble but how do we deal with her when she doesn't put stuff back where it belongs? She has been baking (which she was told she could do) but she doesn't put things back in the right place. She's cleaning up, but not "right". I said "Yeah, we don't. That's just Aly." And then I said, "I mean, she knows where stuff goes here so it's usually not an issue. If it is I would just call her and say 'put this where it goes'. But that's it." Apparently my aunt has never heard of choosing your battles. She's not leaving a mess, she's trying to put things away, what exactly is your complaint here? Tell her she can't bake then. I don't know what you want me to say.

Then she tells me that she told Aly that day to give the boys cereal or pancakes (from the freezer) for breakfast. But she thinks Aly made them eggs anyway and she is going through too many eggs and she can't be buying three dozen eggs a week. My gut response to this was "Are you fucking kidding me?" But what I said was "Did you specifically say not to make eggs today? Because if not, she may have made them for lunch. She made eggs almost every day when she got home from school." I said Aly was good for following the letter of the law but not necessarily the spirit and she may not have made eggs for breakfast which is what you told her not to do. OK, so we're letting that one go.

Then she tells me Aly was going through her stuff in the bathroom, which I can agree is completely unacceptable and there is no need for her to be doing and said I would talk to her about it. Aly says she was not going through her stuff in the bathroom, however, she has a history of that. She used Lisa's mascara one day when she was watching her girls. There are items missing from my room (which she tried to say Lisa did-yeah, Lisa took face powder when she doesn't even wear make-up and sparkly, flavored body powder for what reason?) So, I think she did go through the stuff in the bathroom so I said "Whatever, say out of her shit."

But seriously, I am SO annoyed about the eggs and the not putting things back exactly how they go. If you don't like it, put them in day care or summer camp and pay $250 a week for it, then you won't have a bored 15 year old in your house. And if you can't afford the $250 then suck it up, buy some more eggs and let your stuff not be perfect for two months. Your daughter is a prostitute, maybe you have bigger things to worry about!!!

Oh yeah, and she was upset because when Dominic was screaming in the park she called home instead of calling her and why didn't she just call her? I dunno, because she's 15 and her gut response is to call her own parents for help. Why does it matter? I don't think she should call her because that will probably make Dominic worse. My aunt will make idle threats through Aly and then he'll be even worse. I told Aly to just call us, it was fine.

Yeah, so I already bitched to my dad about some of this stuff because it's his sister. He totally agrees with me that she can't handle these boys and needs to end them to their dad. But he doesn't want to be involved so I try not to complain too much to him. I don't want to say anything to Rob because he gets really pissed off about it. He wants to tell Kendra off, which is not going to do any good. But he'll get all worked up and I don't want to deal with that. So, there ya go...my rant!

Sad News

We had to have Kitty put to sleep last night. When we took her to the vet in April she was down to 5.5 pounds. They did a bunch a blood work which all came back ok. Then she stopped eating, we're not quite sure exactly when, she was eating lots of treats which she had never done and we were giving them to her when she came for them because she needed to gain weight anyway. We got her a bunch of wet food thinking maybe she was just tired of her dry food. She ate that a little better but not much. Rob took her to the vet on Monday and he said she needed to have her teeth pulled and maybe if we gave her antibiotics it would clear up the infection so she would eat and then they could do it. We also got her baby food. Yesterday morning when I checked, she had not eaten anything. I got home around noon and I couldn't get her to eat or drink. I sat with her almost all afternoon. Then after Rob was home she tried to get up and she couldn't stand.

So we took her to the emergency vet because it was after 8 by then. He said that older cats, if nothing else kills them, will die from kidney failure, he said her kidneys were really small and her behavior and symptoms indicate kidney failure. Since she was also an approximately 10 year old cat who was fiv positive, she had lived longer than expected. He said the outside estimate for a cat with fiv is 8 years. He gave us all the options but didn't think that there was much chance. He said he has seen lots of cats in that condition and very few of them bounce back. Given the additional issues, we decided it did not make sense to put her through that.

We brought her home and Rob buried her in the back yard. It was very sad.

I Can't Believe I Forgot

At the She Wants revenge concert, there was this guy that came in with two women. He looked like the world's biggest asshole so what was going on with that I cannot even fathom. Obviously he was very impressed with himself. The women were SO drunk I am pretty sure one of them didn't even know she was there. The other one was dancing all over like she was the only person in the place. I wanted to knock her over just for fun. There were these two young guys standing next to us and they were totally making fun of the dancing. During the very last song the extra drunk woman pulled the dancing woman's shirt off. So then she was dancing around in her bra. Then she started dancing all over one of the guys that was next to me. I thought he was going to die and his friend was going to pee himself laughing. Rob and I were laughing at him too. I have to say, in all the concerts I have ever been to, and I couldn't even begin to tell you how many that is, I have never seen anyone act like that.

I Like Hot Weather

Yesterday we went to the Appel Farms Arts and Music Festival. Rob, Brandon and I and Brandon's friend Nick and his father. Alyssa was invited and said she didn't want to go. Of course, yesterday she and Sheila were wandering around here complaining about being bored. Sheila was mad when she found out Aly had said no she didn't want to go. Rob wanted to give in and let them come but the tickets prices started at $30, went up to $35 and were $40 day of so I said nope. We got there around 3 and man was it hot!!! I had to adjust, at first I thought I was gonna barf, but then I was ok. There was a band playing called Enter the Haggis who sounded pretty good. Then we saw the Smithereens. After that we moved over to the other stage. There was a lot more shade there but you couldn't feel the breeze so I am not sure which one was better. On that stage we saw...well, heard, They Might be Giants. We left around 6:30. Sheila said "why are you all wet?" when we got home.

Today I stayed inside and cleaned. There is just so much to get together around here some days I don't know where to start. I did a bunch of laundry, washed some curtains. Rob helped me hang a new curtain rod and I put the curtains up. I also tried to fix the end of the one that broke. I thought it was fixed but then the glass ball fell off. Miraculously it didn't break. But since I thought it was fixed, those curtains are back up too. Exciting stuff.

Friday night we went to Philly and saw an improv show. A guy I work with is in a couple of improv groups and he always gives me flyers. It's pretty funny. We saw him one other time, that was with his other group, I think the first one was a little funnier.

Last weekend we went to the TLA to see She Wants Revenge. When we got there some band called the Switches was playing. They were pretty good. I have heard one of their songs a couple of times on Alt Nation. Then it was Be You Own Pet, I think I would be able to stand them for one or two songs. But after a couple of songs it was all starting to sound the same to me. Just punk screaming. She Wants Revenge was really good but their set was kinda short because the singer was sick. Oh yeah...I make a really bad groupie...when we were out front getting tickets, the singer was standing about a foot away from me. I looked at him, thought "huh, he looks like he might be in the band." I said to Rob "I think that guys is in the band." Then when he came on stage I said "yep, he is." Haha. Suzy has a better handle on the whole groupie thing.

The next day I myspace commented their page that it was a good show. Some guy then requests me as a friend so I added him. He had pictures of himself with the singer, apparently he recognizes band members. Says he's been following the singer for like 15 years or something so, with his other endeavors and whatever, that might be why he recognizes him and I don't.

Next weekend is the autism walk. Then only one more day of school with kids. Yay! I am looking forward to being home and getting some stuff done around here. It's neverending!

Update

Brandon has his school play last week.  They performed Into the Woods, Brandon had the part of the Mysterious Man.  According to him he was hardly in the play at all, "had two lines" and died in the beginning.  When he got the part he was mad and the teacher in charge told me she knew he wasn't happy but it was a very important role in the play.  Well, he had way more than 2 lines, it was an important role, there were several roles that were much smaller (he could have been a chicken, for example) and he wasn't killed until just before the final scene.  He's nuts.  He did a great job though.  

Photo

My mom hates having her picture taken.  But my sister-in-law took this picture of her and my nephew Andrew.  Isn't it cute. 

Hi Becca

I am nowhere near as bad as Beth with updating my blog.  She never writes!  I am trying really hard to get myself back together.  I don't know if you were reading my blog last year around this time, I was kind of a mess.  I am much better than that now, but I had a rough summer and fall and I am working my way through it all.  I got disorganized, cluttered, late on bills, the whole nine yards, and I am finally getting back on track.  

This is for Beth and Birm too, I haven't forgotten anyone, I love you all and miss you.  There are many days when I think "wow, I haven't seen anyone for so long."  I have been focusing on me and my marriage.  With everything going on with me physically and emotionally I don't have much time left for anything after that!  

I may be getting into PMS time because this is getting all maudlin (to use one of Beth's words). 

At any rate, I am looking forward to summer.  Only 19 more days of school and I called out tomorrow!  We have rented a house for a week in Cape May.  Birm, I hope you will plan to come down!  We can get in some beach time.  I'll just have to get you good directions!  Of course, anyone who is reading this is welcome, just that Birm is my beach buddy!  

So, that's it.  Want pictures of my cat staring at herself in a mirror?  Beth says she looks possessed, which is not nice!  People get red eye, cats get green!  I usually take pictures of our leaves to post, but it was raining and they picked them up today.  Oh well.  We're not done yet!  

Now Look...

at what's in my yard.

We were eating pizza and Rob saw it on the pool cover.  It was trying to dig through the pool cover, stupid thing.  I scared it before I thought "hey, might wanna take a picture of that" so it was using stealthy tricks to get away.  Did you know they could climb trees?

So I realize the picture is small.  Yeah...that's a raccoon.  It was huge. 

And update on Little Bit.  He got into a recycling bucket and we didn't know and he couldn't get out, so he's dead.  But at least I didn't kill it so I don't have to feel bad about it! 

I Am in a Mood

Something has got me in a mood today. I am really wound up. I think it's the contents of my inbox. I just read certain things and it's just like, you cannot be serious! Are some people really that stupid? Or just delusional? I don't know. Anyway, if anyone gets on the wrong side of me today they are going to get the rant that I am holding back!

Yesterday, someone (whose name I am not revealing because of the crazy involved) sent me an email that Cara has pictures of the kids on her myspace page under the heading "my older kids". Yeah, you don't HAVE older kids. You gave birth to them, neglected them for a few years and then gave them away. Now, I don't think she reads this, but if she does, good, she can see this. I wasn't mad or anything, more annoyed than anything else. I told Alyssa and she said, and I quote, "Oh my god! Freak much? We're not her kids!" Those were Alyssa's words. She wanted to see what pictures she had up. We showed her, she said "I don't even remember some of those pictures. Ew!" Brandon's response was "WHAT!? That's creepy." So, even the kids are not thrilled with this.

So I sent her an email telling her that I did not appreciate it very much. The kids thought it was weird and I was no longer going to keep in contact with her or send her pictures since this is what she is doing. She responds basically by saying that I need to accept that they are her kids. No sweetie, you need to accept that they are my kids. She said something about them making a decision when they are adults. Um, do you seriously think they are going to come back to you as adults? Yes, I think they will want to see her and talk to her. But I know they are not going to decide I am not their mother and she is.

She is under the delusion that we are providing for them materially but she is their mother. Right. That's what it is. They just live in our house and we give them stuff but they are sitting there pining away for their "real" mother. Brandon has some issues as far as that, but Alyssa does not consider her a mother at all. Or if she does she is really, really good at lying about it. Aly thinks she's crazy.

She thinks she did me some favor and if it wasn't for her I wouldn't even have kids! I don't have my own kids because of her. Two emotionally traumatized children was all I could handle so I chose not to have any of my own!

I know Kate will tell me not to respond. I just don't know if I can do that. Sometimes you jsut have to tell people when they are just really insane!

I am bored out of my mind!!!

I am home all by myself.  Someone is supposed to be delivering my new refrigerator and here I sit.  They were supposed to come between 11:30 and 3.  They will call 1/2 hour before they come.  It is now 4:38 and I have not heard from them.  So I guess this means I will be sitting here until after 5.  I was supposed to go out to dinner with my mom, Aly, Ellen and Andrew.  Since we can't make plans, now everyone is coming here for pizza.  Which is fine, but means I won't get out of the house today.  My mom called and said they would just come here and I said come now, I am bored to death!  I guess I should clean up so we can eat at my table. 

I have not had a good week. I could rant forever.  So I'll clean up before my mom and sister-in-law, who have spotless houses, get here. 

I'm Bored

So we have to do Bingo for Brandon's school, which blows, and Rob is at Bingo and I am bored out of my mind.  It's funny because not that long ago I was happy to be alone when he went to Bingo, but now I don't like it.  It's a new experience for me to actually like being married and want to spend time with my husband. 

Anyway, what's going on around here...On Monday Rob wakes me up with "I need to talk to you about something".  Those who read this who know 'everything' will obviously understand that this is not a good thing to hear.  He then tells me that the refrigerator leaked, the kitchen floor is wet, part of the basement ceiling fell down, the carpet down there is wet.  Argh.  This is ok though considering what I thought it could be about! The insurance company came Thursday then sent some clean up people.  They tore the carpet out of the basement and ripped up part of my kitchen floor.  Some appliance people are coming Thursday because the insurance company doesn't want anything fixed until we know what happened.  So that's fun.  

I put in for a transfer to a middle school for next year.  However, they are talking about cutting two librarians at the high school so one of them may get that job.  We'll see.  I am still hoping.  I have been around longer than they have and if they didn't put in for it, it may be their tough luck when one of them gets stuck with my job.  I am hoping that the transfers get processed before cuts are finalized.  

That's really it I guess.  Nothing exciting.  Like I said...I'm bored. 

My Godson Joshua

Hey all...my sister-in-law sent me this link. My nephew/godson, Joshua, is in this video that his kindergarten class made. He is the blonde in the blue shirt and silver sequined vest. It's about 2 minutes long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIzoYC4X7T4

And He's the "Smart One"

So this morning I am about to get in the shower, I tell Brandon to go eat something.  It was almost 11 so I thought he should eat before he got all involved with his games.  He says he's going to have some oatmeal.  No problem, he has made oatmeal before, you boil water in the microwave, no big deal.  I get in the shower. 

When I get out of the shower I spray the shower spray and at first I just smell that, then I smell something that is sort of sickening sweet.  I don't think a lot about it because I have a cold and stuff has smelled weird to me the past few days.  I figured it was just the spray, soap, my lotions, whatever, all mixed up.  I finished getting dressed, drying my hair, etc.  When I go into the hall, there is Brandon sitting at the bottom of the stairs, head in hands.  So I ask "what's wrong?"

"I thought that we boiled water on the stove and I melted a plastic cup."  I have a ceramic stove top in case you don't know that.  So, because I don't want to freak out right then and there, my response to this is "go sort your laundry".  Which he does without argument, so I know it's gonna be bad. 

For some reason, Brandon took a large, four cup, plastic measuring cup (you only need 1/2 cup of water for oatmeal) put it on top of the stove and turned it on, no doubt on high.  I don't think I need to tell anyone how that turned out.  I just look at it and think 'oh my god'.  The fumes are absolutely toxic so I open a window and turn on the vent, yeah, it's all of 25 degrees outside.  I tell Rob what happened so he leaves work to come home and try to clean it up.  

When I am sure I am beyond the point where I will scream I ask Aly what happened.  Her story went like this:  I was sleeping, Sheila texted me that I left my charger there and I was just getting ready to go write you a note that I was going to get it and Brandon came running up the steps saying 'I need you to help me'.  I could smell something gross.  He said he put a plastic cup on the stove and I thought he meant like, just a little cup, but no, I didn't think he was so stupid as to try to cook something on the stove in a plastic cup.  And he left it sitting there while he came and got me.  I mean, at least take it off the stove.  And he's supposed to be the smart one.  

I thanked her for moving it off the stove completely instead of setting it somewhere else on the stove where the melted part would just fuse to another part of the stove.  She even set it on a paper towel first so that it didn't get anything on the counter.  She does have some common sense.  

Rob spent about an hour and a half and it mostly came off, however, there is still some that is like below the surface so now we are going to have to look into either replacing the top or the whole stove.  Fun.  Because I feel like buying a new stove.  In case you are curious as to what it looks like when you melt a plastic measuring cup onto a ceramic stove top, I took some pictures.

Little Bit

Last week I went into the garage to take out some recycling and sitting on the edge of one of the buckets was a mouse.  I slammed the door and came back inside.  We always have mice in the garage in the winter.  We have never seen them, in the Spring, we see the messes they leave behind.  A few months ago I had a mouse in my car but that's another story.  So Rob had been saying he wants a pet mouse, I say no and we have a cat.  So I see this mouse and go onto chat and tell him that I am going to put Kitty in the garage.  He says "Noooo".  I would not do that and he knows it, but that's beside the point.  

Last night I go out to put some recycling in the bucket, and in the bucket, jumping up, over and over is the mouse.  It is stuck in the bucket.  I scream and go back in the house.  Of course, Rob wants to know why I am screaming so I tell him, "your new pet is in the recycling bucket".  Rob proceeds to give the mouse a pair of socks and a cracker.  I reminded him later that the mouse will need water.  In the morning he gave the mouse a lid full of water.  I heard from Brandon that it was peeking out from under the socks.  I did not see it in the morning, although I looked in the bucket.  I guess it was hiding in the socks.  I told Rob last night we had to release the mouse, we cannot keep a wild creature, and it was agreed that we would release the mouse when everyone was home and could watch.

When we got home I looked in the bucket and did not see the mouse.  I poked around with the long reach thing that Rob's mom gave us for some odd reason.  The only other person I know with one of those things is my grandmother and she is 84.  But I digress.  I did not see the mouse.  Alyssa tells me it's in the sock, she saw it when she came home.  Then she asks if she can call Sheila over to see the mouse.  I said DO NOT TRY TO TOUCH THE MOUSE, several times.  

After the girls looked at the mouse and I got done sorting out why Sheila and Brandon were shouting at each other, Alyssa informs me that she tried to move the sock because they couldn't see the mouse and the mouse ran up her arm, jumped off and ran away.  So we were not pleased with her because everyone was supposed to be a part of releasing the mouse; and that was supposed to happen outside...but now the mouse is still in the garage.  She lost her phone and computer privileges for the evening because when we say "don't do _____"  she does it.  

I have no doubt that the mouse, who Rob named Little Bit, will manage to get itself stuck back in the bucket in no time at all, especially since the cracker is still in there. 

Oh yeah...here it is.  Cute isn't it?

Happy New Year!

Just a note to say Happy New Year to the three of you who read this.  Rob and I went to a bar/restaurant right in Williamstown for New Year's Eve.  They had dinner, dancing and two hours of open bar included in the price which was $55.  That was pretty good as far as we could tell.  Most of the things we saw were over $100.   We had a good time until at midnight we went to the dance floor for the countdown and stuff.  Shortly afterward we were heading back to the table and someone stepped on my foot.  Spiked heel right on two of my toes, slid down between them so I have broken skin and a lovely bruise.  Plus it hurts a lot.  We put ice on it at the table.  I was crying, in public, so you know it hurt a LOT.  Here are a couple of photos...