Did I just hear....

That Exxon Mobile just had their largest amount of profits ever????

Please tell me I didn't hear that as I'm struggling to keep gas in my van and riding my scooter (even though the batteries are giving me fits) anywhere I can ride it to.

Tell me I heard that wrong on the Today Show this morning.....

What does rain and scooter have in common??

I had both today - at the same time!!! I heard it was supossed to be a scatter shower this afternoon but you know - they're not always that right on so I took my scooter to work today anyway. I HAD to get some things done so I finished and grabbed my stuff to get out of there and just as I was loading up - it started raining. By the time I got my bag covered with a garbage bag and strapped on, my jacket and got out of the building it was just sprinkling but - it was still wet. The front time doesn't have a fender on it so it just kicks up water as you drive along. At least it was warm. The rain off the pavement was warmer than the air even!!! SO - It wasn't to bad by the time I got home but I felt like a....

Yesterday...

Here is the whole crew of nieces and my new nephew!! It was Maya's second birthday (the one pointing at me on the bottom) and we were all together. It was the first time I was able to hold Evan so I soaked him up for a few hours throughout the day but wanted to try to get all the kids together. This was the best shot I could muster up....

Copy and paste on your blog...

My niece sent this to me so thought I would just put it on here.




Who are YOU ?

Hit forward, and place an X by all the things you've done,and remove the X from the ones you have not.

Answer the 30 questions at the end and send it to your friends (including me ).


This is for your entire life!



(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school (with my mom's permission....
( X) Watched someone die
( X) Gone to Canada
( ) Gone to Mexico
(x) Gone to Florida
(x) Gone on a plane
( ) Jumped out of a plane
( ) Been on a Helicopter
(X) Gotten lost
(x) Gone on the opposite side of the country
(X) Gone to Washington , DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(x) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang Karaoke
( ) Paid for a meal with coins only?
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
(X) Made prank phone calls
( ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Gotten kissed under the mistletoe
( ) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about
(x) Blown bubbles
(x) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone Skiing
( ) Gone skinny dipping outdoors
(x)Gone to the movies
( )Gone to a drive-in movie


I want to know more about you.

1. Any nickname? Aunt Wellie

2. Mother's name? Janie

3. Favorite drink? Kiwi Strawberry Leomonade
4. Tattoo? No
5. Body Piercings? Ears
6. How much do you love your job? Love love love it - most days (see yesterday's post)
7. Birthplace? Alma
8. Favorite vacation spot? The lake

9. Ever been to Africa ? no - but want to go
10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? I've been a college student - of course
11. Ever been on TV? yes

12. Ever steal any traffic signs? NO
13. Ever been in a car accident? yes

14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4DOOR
15. Favorite salad dressing? depends on the day

16. Favorite pie? Coconut cream pie

17. Favorite number? none

18. Favorite movie? Sarah, Plain and Tall series

19. Favorite holiday? Christmas
20. Favorite dessert? Caramel whatever
21. Favorite food? desserts

2 2. Favorite day of the week? In the summer - the weekend. In the school year - Friday

23. What do you do to relax? Listen to music - go to the lake
24. Favorite toothpaste? Crest - flavored but flavor doesn't matter.

25. Favorite smell? fresh air

28. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Same place doing the same thing with different kids and teaching some of the kids from now the job as they intern with us.

29. The farthest place you will send this message? South Africa holds a faithful reader or two..

30. Who will respond to this the fastest? Not sure who will want to post this.

LONG day....

Once again - I was in ER with one of my boys.. Robert... yes - the same one I was in with at the beginning of the summer. This time, he was out at his summer school program and they thought he broke his thumb. One and a half weeks ago - this was - (7/9). He broke it in the growth plate so he needed to have it seen in 5 days at his doc's. Finally today - 10 days afterwards - he got seen and they sent us right to the hand surgeon from the doc office. A one hour trip (starting at 10am) ended up taking me until 2:20 and we were 15 minutes south of town and hadn't eaten anything yet during the day. We swung through McDonalds on the way back to the office and I had to hurry. I normally leave to pick up kids at camp at 1:30- we were pushing 3pm now. Finally - at 3:15 - we were on the road to camp.

Anyway - Robert's thumb had to be reduced while at the hand surgeon so you can imagine what THAT was like!!! They did numb it -which he didn't think he wanted once he saw the size of the needle - but the he did provide the nurse and the doc some time to laugh this afternoon. I wish I had my camera when the nurse brought in the cast saw. She walked in with it before we knew he was going to have it recasted in a hard cast and his eyes got SO big and then the stuttered and said "ummmm - what's that for??" I laughed so hard I was crying!

So - they basically had to rebreak his thumb to set it right since it was so long since his injury and it's still not perfect but he didn't want to move it more and cause damage to the growth plate so he casted it in a hard cast (great idea for that boy) and we finally were done for 4 weeks. Then it was off to get 20 kids at camp - but it was my last trip up there for the summer. THAT is refreshing. NOW I can take some vacation time and enjoy the summer!!!!

**the xray above are not of Robert's thumb. It wasn't broken THAT bad!!! It was just a good one I found on the internet.

The creation revealed...

Here is the sprinkling system... Again - please don't harrass me about the weeds. I started working on that last night until the mosquitos started to drain my blood so fast I was getting dizzy.. This is one end of the system. I just have it tied to some stakes and had to adjust a little bit with it being saggy. It didn't want to get water to the ends unless they were a little lower than the middle.
Here's the T in the middle and all the pieces and parts that I used to put that together and make a hose (the clear one) for the water to get to the pipe in. (Notice the light green stuff at the bottom left? That's my Romaine Lettuce for the rabbits so we don't have to buy it!!

I was pretty happy with the way it worked. Took a little bit of adjustment but it's up and running now. I just have to get the weeds out of there and remember to turn the faucet on and off and we're golden!

A new creation...

Ok - with my garden, it's hard to get it sprinkled. It's very long (the length of the house- about 32 - 36 feet) and very narrow (maybe 4-5 ft. wide. I can extend my arms straight out and touch the fence and the house at the same time. No store bought sprinkler works for that wierd of a place. If I'm not watering the house - I'm watering the driveway next door.

Well - I got an idea. My first one was to bury a pvc pipe and sprinkle from the bottom up. After thinking about exactly what that would look like - I decided to bury a pipe would be a pain becuase it would have to be wrapped in mesh so the dirt didn't sink into the pipe.. so I decided to do one on top and sprinkle down. I got the idea in my head and headed to Lowe's. Because of my schedule - it's taken me a month to put it together but I finally got it together and working tonight.

And - I must say - it's turned out pretty darn good. I have clear plastic hose with the fittings on both ends that I put together running from the faucet outside the house to the pvc pipe. Then it goes into a T and then out both sides. I drilled, with a handy dandy drill and my own handy dandy drill bits, holes at 3/32nds of an inch about 2 inches apart all the way down. I capped the ends off and turned the water on - BINGO!!! I took pictures tonight and I have to say - I'm embarrassed by the number of weeds I have - but - that is about to change too. I'll post pictures tomorrow of the creation.

crunchy....

I haven't updated for a few days because I really don't have a lot to talk about. Or maybe more realistic - it's because I don't want to talk about anything.

I'm just crunchy as my friend says. I'm very low on patience, I'm frustrated, I'm tired, I'm ready to be done with camp stuff. I have the high moments - last night at Wild Wednesday was one, today having lunch with teachers was another but then WHAM - I'm pissy immediately. Have been trying to figure it out for a few weeks. What is the cause - why does it change so fast. I thought maybe it was pms. After the hysterectomy - I have no idea when I have pms until I'm in the middle of it full fledged but I still get to enjoy those hormonal fluctuations. It's lasted to long for pms. I thought it was because I was tired - could be but even after a good nights sleep I'm still pretty crunchy... Just can't figure it out but I'm getting tired of it. It's hard to be on demand with the kids all the time and needing to get camp forms filled out for kids to go to camp when I'm not in a good mood... I was telling Barb today about me being so crunchy and she said it... Why I didn't think of it I don't know but I didn't. She was nice about bringing it up - whether it was because she didn't want to hurt my feelings or she didn't want me to reach through the computer systems and tear her nose off her face I'm not sure which but she was nice about it anyway... "Have you been taking your pills??"

"uggggghhhhhhh.... no." was all I could say. I took them once this week and then it probably had been 2-3 weeks if not longer since I had taken them before (don't worry - already took them tonight when I got home).

The pills she's talking about are my daily prescribed pills that I'm supposed to take every day. I have one for my thyroid which is low (and very possibly could be creating all the tired and achy issues and even some of the moody issues. The other is a happy pill as I call it. I'm also on an anti-depressant (and if you think about my job - who wouldn't be on an anti-depressant when you have to watch these kids start out as good kids and then because of their parents and environment turn out to be either in jail or dead or life is such a spot that you just realize all the work you've put in to them has gone to the wayside.). Not a large dose of anti-depressant but still a some. I thought I was having a really good summer without taking it for a while but - after the last few weeks - I'm going back on everything. You just get tired of being so nasty on the inside and you want to change it so if you have the means to change it - why not change it. I become very negative and I can't stand to be around negative people. There are even people in my family I've had to back away from because life is just negative when you're talking to them and I don't want to be in that spot so I step away. SO - you can imagine how much I hate it when the negativity is me and in my head and I can't get away from it...

SO - until my happy pills start kicking it - don't expect much here...

I promise I didn't laugh.... but sure wanted to!!!!

On the way into work this morning - Sarah - my pre-teen for the summer - asked me about the sale that Lucy, Destiny and Jose are holding on the front porch over the weekend. I said "You know - the cool thing is - they money they make from it isn't going in their own pocket - it's going to go in the offering at Wild Wednesday because we're raising money for Juvenile Diabetes."

She looked all concerned... "Diabetes is in jail??"

I SWEAR I did NOT laugh. I was busting a gut inside. I'm not sure I even cracked a smile, but boy did I think "BLOGGABLE!!!"

I guess there was 2 things working here. One - the names of the kids down here aren't that normal so she must have thought that diabetes was a kids name. Two - when our kids hear juvenile - they instantly think prison.

So - I explained what juvenile diabetes is and she's all straight..

Going home....

It's been a while since I've updated you all on the progress my "Aunt" is making but I finally have something substantial to write on. She's the one who back 11 1/2 weeks ago died twice in a few hours time and her body was full of poison from her colon dying unexpectedly and she had no symptoms until the morning when she woke up. The doctors have been baffled as to why her colon died, as to why her liver and kidneys are not functioning properly or at all, she's been to U of M for her liver to see if she needs a transplant or what. She has lost most vision in one eye and her tongue - when sticking it out - goes to the side (they're thinking maybe she had a stroke at some point during the first 2-3 weeks she was basically in an induced coma. The doctors were hoping to get her home by Labor Day but couldn't promise anything. By all means - she should not be with us right now.

Well - her update just came through and she is going home on Thursday!!! She's been working hard at her rehab and the doctors are very pleased. They figure she's 2-3 months AHEAD of schedule!!!!

For those of you who have been praying for her.. please continue. Her kidneys are still not functioning, making dialysis 3 times a week a must. Her liver functions are still not completely working either but the doctors feel that both will come back in time. She has had some nauceousness lately and they figure it's because of the liver functions not working.