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First day of vacation...

and I woke up at my usual 6:30 am!!! Not naturally, no, I had the alarm set and yes that was on purpose too! We had an 8:30 riding lesson and a 9:00 one too. This was the make up lesson for missing last Saturday's lesson. Both girls did well and Allie is already jumping. Caroline is still along for the ride but enjoys spending Allie's lesson time in the barn talking to the horses. I think that is her true calling. I can't keep her out of the barn. Today I went in there and she is talking to a horse and I asked if she wanted to see Allie jump. She came out for a minute and because Allie wasn't up first to jump Caroline went back in the barn. Allie called to her, "Aren't you going to watch me jump?" Caroline said, "No!" and skirted back in the barn. I had to come get her when we were ready to go.

Yesterday at the end of Horse Riding Camp the girls got to pick a "prize" from a basket when the went up to get their certificates. Caroline chose the riding crop and Allie got really mad at her because Allie wanted it. Well Caroline chose it and Allie couldn't get over her jealousy. By the time I got to mom's house to pick the girls up for speech, two hours later. Allie had convinced Caroline to trade prizes with her. But there was incentive. Allie promised Caroline that she would buy her 50 Webkinz for her birthday next year. Yes that is what the price of this $8 crop became. An average Webkinz cost between $12 and $17 each!! Yeah, do the math. That is how jealous Allie was. I put a stop to that and gave the crop back to Caroline. We go to riding this morning and Caroline uses it first for her lesson and lets Allie borrow it for her lesson. After the lesson, Allie asks if we can buy a crop for her for her lesson tomorrow. I caved and took her to the horse shop around the corner to end this argument. $15 later we now own a beautiful purple crop that will keep Allie's hands of Carolines pretty red one! That was the best $15 I have spent in a while.

This afternoon we are off to see Wall-e in the movie theatre. It is a Disney film so it should be good. Movie review to come later!

I'm DONE!

I am done school!!! This day was a long time coming and I am so so so glad it is here. I have been in a crappy mood all day when I should be in a happy, gleeful mood. I can only attribute my crappy mood to the fact that so much has happened at work that is just wrong and it has really gotten to me. One would also think that because this job has been so frustrating that I would definitely be in a great mood today since it is finally over. But noooo, not me.... crappy mood.

Okay so more dirt on the crap at work. Since the blog is now private I am free to use real names and not descriptions of these horrible people. First character is Joel Hughes. He comes from a upper middle class family and he is our PE teacher. He went to Liberty University (praise Jesus) and met his wife there. They have been married for over 10 years and they had trouble getting pregnant and went the invitro route. I say all this because here is one of the many things that pisses me off about him. He and his wife tried without success for years and years to get pregnant. They finally got pregnant with the second attempt at in-vitro and they had a girl. Then a year later they did in-vitro again and had a baby boy. Now one would think that because they tried and prayed and tried and prayed to have kids and then finally had two kids that he would be thrilled beyond belief. OH NO!!! Not him. He has on so many occasions complained about his children and moaned about how one is cranky with a cold or this one kept him up last night, or this one runs all over the place or refuses to take a nap or WHATEVER! This man not only constantly complains about them but he does it in front and to ME! Oh let me get out the pity party banner here... JOEL, I have not two kids but THREE kids! You don't get to tell me how hard something is or that you haven't slept through the night in a week. I didn't sleep through the night for SIX YEARS!!! AND it is rare that I get to sleep in the bed with ONLY my husband. Most nights it is a freaking party in my bed. You little SHIT! Appreciate your kids, love them and enjoy them. You paid enough and tried hard enough to get them. You don't have a right to complain!

Three months ago, Joel came to me when he learned I was filling in for Brad (our principal). He and I had a talk and he wanted to make it crystal clear that while he understood that I was filling in for Brad, I would not and could not ever be his boss. I told him that I appreciated him coming to me and that as long as he continued to do his job that I wouldn't bother him about anything. Really now, what would I bother him about anyway, as long as he was doing his job I had nothing to bother him with. So about a week after Brad left, I am doing my job and saying good morning to the teachers as they come in to work and giving them any news I had that would make their day go smoother, changes in schedule, kids to pay attention to, etc. He comes to me and tells me that I am not genuine in my saying "hello" to him. WHAT???? He says that unless I had something to tell him that was important then I shouldn't come in to his room and say hello. Damn, I thought I was being friendly. So for the next week I made damn sure I had something to tell him each and every morning. The asshole. I will say hello if I want to.

Character number two, Joel's sidekick, Jennifer Warren. She is married to a man who has a heart condition and is on medical leave because he has chronic fatigue syndrome. They have been married 10+ years and they are BESTEST friends with Joel and his wife. They go to the same fundamentalist evangelical church that has about 30 members and they meet in a daycare center. Joel's brother is the pastor. If you don't believe in what they believe in then you are a heathen and Joel makes sure you know it. He tells everyone that the dinosaur bones were put in the ground by God for us to dig up and to test us on our faith that he created the world and that there is no evolution. (Hmmmm.....tell that to the frogs...)

Okay, back to Jennifer Warren. She is the music therapist. This past year she helped Brad with our schedule for the school and she made sure that Joel got the last period of the day as his planning period so he could leave an hour early every day. She also made it so that she really didn't teach but three days a week on any regular schedule. She and I have gotten along fine for the past three years I have been there. She is usually nice and I considered her my friend. Boy was I wrong. A few weeks ago I asked her to help organize a luncheon for the faculty. She did absolutely nothing to help with it and when I thought she had organized it, I find out THE DAY OF the luncheon that she hadn't made reservations for us or anything. So since then she has not spoken to me. Not real sure why but not one word.

Word on the street is that because Joel doesn't like me that he has told everyone else to not talk to me and to do everything they can to be as passive aggressive as possible. Not only does Joel have Jennifer in his clutches but he also has John Levy as well. John is a 60 year old man who I have talked about before. The three have attempted to get Kim Bomba as well and she played for a while but then recently has "seen the light" and not converted to their wiley ways.

What I don't understand and never will is what was so horrible that I did to them that I deserve to be treated like this. They are weird, silly, immature people.

I am so enjoying the...

sucking up that is going on at work right now. This one teacher has realized last week that I am not such a bad person. I think she is also realizing that there are other teachers who are deliberately being rude and mean to me. She is seeing this and realizing that she used to be "one of them". So the sucking up has begun. Last week she needed a ride home and she was complaining about not having a ride and I offered her one and she accepted. While we were riding home she broached the subject of the mean and caddyness (is that a word??) that has been going on. I told her that I was well aware of what they were doing and while it was frustrating on my end because they are attempting to sabatage all the nice things that I am trying to do for all the teachers (time to work in classrooms, a luncheon that never ended up happening because everyone protested, etc.) that I am not going to play their game and succumb to their tactics. I don't play. I work and use the rules that are set in place previous to me coming into this position. I try to follow the rules and expect everyone else to work hard and follow the rules too. If they want to sabbatage the nice things then so be it, I just won't do nice things anymore. She agreed with me and has been more chatty recently and has come to vent some frustrations of her own. I don't talk bad about any particular person and will from time to time make comments like, "I don't understand how we can't be mature individuals and work nicely together", or "sometimes people need to belittle others to make themselves feel better", or "the faculty is a unique group who while we all do our jobs very well have difficulty coming together as a group and enjoying the differences of each other rather that being critical to them". You know stuff like that. Lel, see your workplace isn't the only place that is disfunctional!!

Everyone else have done a great job of ignoring me blatently to my face and by avoiding exposure to me. I must have leprocy or something contagious. All I can say is that I have two and a half days left and am counting down the hours, well class periods left. For the count, that makes 18!!

On a good note, we had a great weekend and I can't wait to get back down to the river. For those friends who don't know, we rented a seasonal space at the campground just down from my parents house. Their house is a bit small for us to be invading their space every weekend and this way we will have our own space to hang out. Plus it has a super cool pool!!

Here is our little slice of heaven...

And this is another shot so you can see our whole spot.

And another angle:

And now meet the neighbors!!

They are the Bennetts and they are from the Richmond area too (Highland Springs) and they LOVE to sit on their back deck and stare at us. Our family will most likely become their summer entertainment this year. Can't wait!! It seemed like everytime we came back to our trailer they would come out and sit on their deck and watch us. Do you know how hard it is to read a book while being stared at. Kenneth said that we need to plant some Leeland Cyprus trees right there in front of their deck on our side of the line so they can't see us directly. He said he felt like he was in a fishbowl. I say that they won't be coming down as much once we are there an entire weekend without three loud kids. We will ruin their peace and quiet and they will find it not as enjoyable. OR they will move to the front deck on the other side. Whichever is fine with me.

The neighbors adjacent to us in the second picture up where you see the back of another unit, apparently never come down. They (according to the Bennetts) bought the place last year and have spent one night here. They don't expect to see them at all this summer as they weren't there at all last summer.

Everyone else we have seen have waved or said hello but not introduced themselves to us or come up to talk. We weren't around much last weekend but I intend to do some "friendmaking" this weekend while down. I will also take some pictures of other people's places. Most are "park model" trailers and look much more perminent than ours but in the next coming weeks we will be making some improvements to our space so it will feel a bit more homey.

A Quote for Today

"There are three things which are real: God, Human Folly, and Laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third." ~ John F. Kennedy

Roberts Family Reunion

I am a bit remiss in posting the pictures of all of the family reunion. Jenn, I know you have been dying to see these. So here they are in their full glory!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Okay, I have gone PRIVATE!

It will be more fun this way. I can write what I want and not have to worry about who is watching, lurking, and reading. Only those special people have been invited to read and if you are reading this now, then you are included in my list of special people. I will use my crafty and cooking blogs for the more public side of me. There won't be any links from there to here. But you can always link from here to there.

Whoooo ha ha ha..... now I can talk about anyone I want. So who will be first.

Oh, remember the post I did of some trouble I had at school a couple months ago with the teacher who didn't want to fill out the form to take some time off. She wanted me to just give her the time free??? Well, I think someone read it and it may be part of the trouble I have been feeling around work, yet another reason to go private. I won't be showing anyone at work this blog anymore. They can be bored with the crafty side of me. By the way, I don't think it is so boring but I am sure others do.

Ahhhh....the weight is just lifted from my shoulders now!

Nicholas and Caroline's Family Party

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Enjoy!!

Caroline's Party

It was a hot day so we were glad that we decided to have a pool party. Fun filled with the Limbo, a piniata, pizza, cake and ice cream, presents and of course the pool!!

The Limbo!

Cake and Ice Cream!!

Presents! (Check out the High School Musical Hat! She didn't take it off unless she was swimming!)

Pool Fun!!

Raingutter Regatta

For those of you who don't know us personally we end up being very very busy this time of year. So busy that half the time we don't know where we are going or what is next. So keep up with us here on the blog and check often so you don't miss a thing!



Raingutter Regatta!!! This is a final cub scout event for my son's cub scout pack. It is also the time that they move up a level in scouting.

Here he is with his sailboat he will be racing:


The Raingutter Regatta race!!

This is a picture of him getting his new neckerchief. He is a Webelos now.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "this is our life and we are loving it"!! Next episode is the pool party!!

Things I have learned from ants

1. Ants go crazy when you blow in the ant farm.
2. Ants have no lungs. They breathe through their "skin". Don't ask, I don't know how.
3. Ants move their dead to a pile and then bury them.
4. If an ant dies in a tunnel they close the tunnel to entrap the dead ant.
5. Ants sleep standing up.
6. Female ants who are fertile grow wings and fertile male ants grow wings too. They mate in the air and then they pull their wings off and lay their eggs in the ground.
7. Female ants don't come in the pack when you buy an ant farm.
8. Ants die quickly when they live with other ants who have died.
9. Ants that die after two weeks they get this white foam on them.
10. Growing butterflies is much more fun than ants!!!

No they are not all dead yet. But they have stopped tunneling because all the tunnels have dead ants in them.

It's BESTEST when Family is there...

Caroline lucked out this year for her birthday. She got to have her family party at the same time as our family reunion. She couldn't have planned it better. Aunt Traci is the bestest when it comes to planning a party. Not only did she do an awesome job having 27+/- people at her house for not one day but two but in the midst of all that she planned a party for Caroline.

Caroline was so excited when the cake came out, but first we have to talk about all the activities going on. Aunt Traci has a big blow-up waterslide that the kids spent the better part of the day on.

Then the birthday cake came out: Strawberry creme filling cake!! Mmm Mmm good!!

Then we had a PINIATTA!! Just what Caroline wanted for her birthday.

Then she had tons of presents and she got exactly what she wanted - MORE WEBKINZ!!

She also got High School Musical flip flops from Aunt Joy and Uncle Steve.

Swedish Fish from Uncle John Craig and family.

A horse Webkinz!

A pig Webkinz!

Then we went next door and the neighbor gave the kids COTTON CANDY!!

That evening once it got dark we had fireworks!!!

I guess I don't have to tell you that the next morning she slept in.

Horseback Riding and more!!!

Here's the much promised but never before provided pictures of horseback riding with my middle child.

This photo is of her first getting on a "horse". Bobby is really a pony but no one was telling her!!

This next one is of her on Ishtar who is a REAL horse. She is posting here.This on is a better one of her working on her posting.

And now for something completely different!!

This is my son mowing our backyard. Before you all FREAK out, yes he is very safe and not only was I back there watching but my husband was too, following him very closely.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Profiletweaks.com - Free Glitter Graphics

To all the mothers out there. Our job is never done. I don't know about you but today I am cleaning the house, working on laundry, and fitting in two visits with the mothers (mine and my mother in law). Let me just say again, a mother's work is never done.

Here is what I would like to have done. Instead of an annual day, I want a surprise mother's day. I want to wake up one weekend (surprise me) and say "Happy Mother's Day! Today we honor you and your hard work in raising a family and keeping us clean and ruley. Today is your day. Do with it what you like, we will cook, clean and do the laundry. You do what you want. Oh by the way we made you an appointment for a mani/pedi at the spa up the street at 1:oo." Now THAT would be a Mother's Day!! I would go to my mani/pedi, choose the perfect shade of pinky/red and when I get home the house is clean and the beds are made and dinner is in the oven!! PERFECT!!!

(come on, I can dream can't I????)

Hope your dream day comes true for you. Me??? I will be shlepping laundry up and down the stairs for the next couple hours.

Some scrappy fun...

check out my other blog tonight for some new scrappy pics.

Webkinz Crazy

Can we talk? Since when do I have to fight my kids for use of the computer? Since when is their excuse to get on the computer "mom, I have to feed my Webkinz!"? Since we caved and bought them one, EACH! I don't know why we were in the mall a couple weeks ago. I haven't been in the mall, you know walking around checking out the stores, in over a year. But we were there as a family and we wandered into Limited Too. There they were WEBKINZ! These little animals were on sale buy one get one free and we figured we would buy one and get one free and well we bought them each one. They get home and want to put their codes in the computer. Little did my husband and I know what we were doing but he helped them set up their account and then it started. At first I thought "oh this is cute" but now (sigh) I am just over it.

The day starts with the Wheel of Yum or the Mega Wheel of Wow (yeah, you know what I am talking about) and then breakfast and school. They return home from school and immediately one asks to get on. We have to set the kitchen oven timer for 15 minutes and they rotate all evening. Every 15 minutes the alarm goes off and they switch. We have rooms (yes, mulitple), clothes, games, furniture, and Caroline has just recently sold everything to get an "outdoor room". This poor dog has no food and his food line is down in the 50's but she's got that outdoor room now!

The other day I couldn't get one of the kids to take a bath and finally I had to enforce punishment. "No Webkinz for two days!" Yup, I did it. You would have thought I had taken out a live pet and shot it in the backyard! Let me tell you, that was a torturous two days for me having to hear all about how this virtual dog was starving to death, lonely, needing to get put in a bed, etc, etc!

Oh, you ask how can I be on the computer posting this? I am on my husband's work computer. Shhh, don't tell!

Sorry People

for not updating the blog sooner. We have been plugging along here very nicely. Nothing major to talk about and I think that is just why I haven't updated in a while.

My older daughter is taking horseback riding lessons now. She is actually learning on a pony. So do we still call it horseback riding lessons or ponyback riding lessons? Anyway, she looks very cute in her black helmet and her paddock boots. It is giving her more confidence and something to do that her siblings aren't doing too, yet. Yes there is that yet there. You saw it too. The younger daughter will be taking lessons too as soon as she turns 6 and that is in 6 weeks!! She is very excited but that birthday just can't come quick enough.

On a crafty note, I have been working on scrapbooking our Disney trip. I think we took way too many pictures but you tell me what you think. On average we took between 135-200 pictures a day and we were there for 7 days. I developed over 800 pictures and so far have only weeded out about 40 and I am on the start of day 4. I just can't seem to leave out any cute smile. And since they are my kids' cute smiles and it is my album I am putting them all in there. God help the person who says, "can I look at your pictures from Disney?" LOL I will be bringing out three huge albums and plopping them on their lap.

Okay for all of you faithful readers, you are probably wondering about my garden. Well we have two rows of potatoes in the big garden and they are doing quite well. They have been there for about a month now and have nice little green leaves coming out. Thankfully the deer leave them alone. We are so distraught at the fact that all our hard work will go to the deer that we have been thinking up ways short of shooting the whole clan to keep them out of the garden, hence the garden hasn't really started yet. I did plant some peas a while back and they are about a foot tall but they are in our little garden here at the house and the deer don't know of this lovely place. I also planted a fe cabbage plants but they turned out to be broccoli and they all bolted (grew really tall really fast and have little yellow flowers on them). I sware the label on them said cabbage. Oh well.

Check back again soon as I will post some great pictures of ponyback riding and the garden.

Toodles!

Summer Camps

It is way past time to begin thinking of summer camps, however, I have just begun to think about it for the kids. I am not sure why I wasn't on top of things a few months ago but I have found that this summer the registration for camps have been slow around here which is in my favor.

So far here is the run down:

Son, sailing camp and then a craft camp maybe and a sailing camp revisit at the end of summer, reading tutoring all summer.
Daughter #1, horseback riding camp and craft camp
Daughter #2, bug camp, craft camp, and maybe horseback riding.

They will all be swimming on the swim team for our pool as well. We have opted out of the summer enrichment program at the school this year. It just seemed like too much and I didn't see any real benefit from it in the past couple years.

Did you notice the horseback riding? Yes, daughter #1 has been saying she wants to take lessons so my mother, bless her, took her up to check out the stables. Now this is the daughter who doesn't like dogs or other animals much. Before I signed her up for this expensive camp I wanted her to look at a live horse face to face, eye to eye and see a real horse. So my mother took her to the stables yesterday and daughter #1 was a bit timid (if that is the right word) with the oldest horse out there and while she touched the horse she used her sister's hand to pet it. Yes it was like hand over hand petting. Daughter #2 isn't scared. In fact she is mad because you have to be six to start lessons. Because of this timidness with the horse it was suggested that she start lessons right away and not wait until summer. So they signed her up for private lessons starting Saturday! No time like the present, right?

A little Disney for you

I have been very good and not really posted anything about our Disney trip back in December. But today I need a little Disney magic! It has rained non-stop for the past two weeks straight every day except two, today and last Wednesday. I am becoming a sun junkie. Today it was cloudy all day. I need some sun. No, I NEEEEED some sun! I need to feel it on my face, in my bones, I need to be warm. I have been cold to the bone for the past several days. One of those colds that just doesn't go away. I almost ache from being cold for so long.

So, If I can't have some sun then let me think about something nice and fun. I relayed this story to my sister today. It is a bit ironic because as much as I neeeeed the sun and warmth right now, this was the coldest day we had at Disney World and while the sun was out it didn't warm you much.

We were at Animal Kingdom for the day and then going to have dinner at Narcoosie's at the Grand Floridian Hotel and then see the huge gingerbread house they make every year in the lobby. We left Animal Kingdom two hours early in hopes to get to our campsite and clean up a bit before our fancy dinner. It took us an hour to get back to the campground and another half hour to get the bus to take us to our campsite. We decided we didn't have enough time to get to our campsite and then change clothes so we would just go as we are. We were clothed enough for them to let us in. Men had to have a collared shirt and women no flip flops or shorts/t-shirt items. So Kenneth had a collared shirt on and the kids looked mostly presentable except their hair needed to be done. So we stayed on the bus that took us to the boat to take us to the Magic Kingdom to catch the monorail to get to the hotel for dinner.

We have to wait for the boat and it was a 15 minute trip across the lake to the Magic Kingdom. So by the time the boat docked it was 5 minutes until our reservation. they say that if you are 10 minutes late for the reservation then they give your table up to others waiting. We were worried that we wouldn't make it and I didn't know how crowded it would be. We get on the monorail and end up that the monorail only goes one way and the hotel we need is the last stop. So we stop at three other stops before ours.

We get to the hotel and I find the reservation desk for the hotel and ask where the restaurant is. The lady says it is on the other side of the pool in the round house on the other side of the grounds. Oh no!! We aren't there yet?

Caroline (our youngest with right sided muscle weakness caused by a stroke in-utero - long story...) can't walk anymore she is tired, hungry, and her little legs just can't make it. I pick her up and ask the lady if she could call to the restaurant and tell them we are on our way and not to give up our table. We are now 10 minutes late and have at least a 5 minute walk before we get there. She says no she can't but I could ask the concierge at the end of the desk. We go down to the concierge and looking quite haggard we tell them the story of calling down to let them know we are coming. The head concierge says we will do better than that, we will drive you down there. So they pick us up in an 8 person "station wagon" golf cart and drive us to the front door of the restaurant. The manager of the restaurant opens the front door and speaks to us by name. Mr. and Mrs. *******? Your table is ready for you.... now that is service.

This is a picture of my husband's dessert. It was a cheesecake with whipped cream and the back is a piece of candy that has Cinderella and Prince Charming and the castle on it and says "2007 Year of a Million Dreams"

Why I don't go to the Mall anymore...

Not that there is anything wrong with this....

We went to the mall this evening to eat at our favorite restaurant Qdobas. The entrance to the restaurant is outside of the mall. So by going to this restaurant you are not technically 'going into the mall'. It is sort of like lurking on the outside. Anyway, while we are eating I tell my husband that I want to go in the mall and go to a store that is closing/moving and they are having a big sale. He agrees and after we finish eating we walk to the entrance of the mall and walk in. We aren't in there more than 50 steps and I see two young men(not teen agers more like early 20's) walking towards us both wearing khaki pants and pink polo shirts. They are holding hands and talking to each other as they walk by. I at first notice that they BOTH wearing pink shirts and then I notice that they are holding hands. Then the next thing that pops into my little pea brain is that it must be a blatent joke and that someone put them up to it. But then quickly realize that, no, they are a couple and just enjoying each others' company as they are shopping. They walk past us and my husband quickly gives me a knowing glance and I give him 'eyes' back letting him know that yes, I saw them too. Then my middle daughter says, "mommy, did you see those men?" (uh oh) "yes" I say and she says, "they must work at the same place because they were wearing the same uniform." (whew) "yeah, I guess they do", I reply.

I am NOT ready to have THAT conversation with her yet...