hmm...ummmm...

These are the kind of things my 16 year old daughter does just because. So here is a good laugh because I need one.

First off I want to say that I miss my sister. So here is a shout out to her!! And we don't get to talk enough and I hopefully I will be able to call long distance on my home phone sometime this week.

This weekend was great. Beautiful weather. We didn't do much and for us sometimes that is just a fantastic thing. The kids were off in all sorts of directions between helping my mom get ready and have a yard sale to other things.

I scrapbooked for the first time in years this weekend. I did Amber's little prom story into a scrapbook. It was so much fun and I loved how it turned out. It has been a long time since I made something and then enjoyed doing it so much.

We still have problem with Amber's senior pictures. We have been waiting for them for 2 weeks now and and now her announcements will be going out late. But I don't think too many people are coming for it anyway. I wish I could do more for her, she is so deserving. I don't know.

I had to take our big dog Buddy into the vet. He is growing all kinds of cysts all over and one is on the inside of his eyelid. The vet seemed not too concerned at the moment and that is a good thing. She was more concerned about a few of his other cysts. His quality of life is good and we are going to keep an eye on them. He is around 11 or 12 years old now. He is 94 pounds!! The car and vet trip was so stressful that he laid on the floor and panted for over an hour. We know he is very elderly, poor guy. Our little dog is 10 now but she barky and bouncy as always. Little dogs don't age as rapidly as big ones do. The vet trip didn't cost that much and I had them trim his nails too.

Today, at work, was a blended Monday Tuesday and it was a bit of a crappy day. It was a little frustrating but it will be OK. Friday will be here one day sooner. Summer vacation is 6 1/2 school days away. A mom and grandma are kind of out to get me still. Today was easier to deal with because some good things are going to happen I am sure by the end of the week. I am going to positive think it into action.

You know what the tooth fairy brought me?

I think everyone is now facebook addicted and no one reads blogs anymore. But I like more filler. So I will try to be the ever faithful blogger.

The point to this blog has to do with Hannah. She has a horrible time loosing her teeth. But she finally lost the tooth next to her top front tooth. She did it on her own. First of all that was exciting. And then it was dramatically sad when she was washing it off on our kitchen sink, with a bunch of dirty dishes in it, and she dropped it. Big tears and drama. But it fell in a bowl. We found it. All was well. She was excited all over again. She tells her dad that she doesn't want the tooth fairy to take it because she wanted to show everyone at school. OK. In the morning she asks her sisters "You know what the tooth fairy brought me" The girls ask her "what?" "Absolutely NOTHING!" She was pretty disgusted. I tell her "Hannah, Your dad said that you didn't want the tooth fairy to take the tooth isn't that true?" "I knid of did but kind of didn't." She replies. "Well dad had to keep the tooth fairy from taking your tooth last night." "Oh that is what all that noise was about." (he went on about health insurance kind of heatedly that night) . She showed off her tooth and the tooth fairy came last night and all was well once again.

Someone wrote their first piece of hate mail to the principal about me :( But all was made somewhat well again today. Within the same half hour the most difficult child in the school told his teacher that I was the duty that was the most fair. That like nearly floored me with shock. I would have never expected him to say that about me. So I took that as very high praise from him and managed to cope with the hate mail--a little better today. Not so great yesterday.

I wanted to tell a story that I have been meaning to share I can't give too many details. But I did work for the school several years ago for about a month. During that time there was a little that was very difficult. But it was so sad because we found out when he was really late for school that he had gotten himself up and walked himself to school down 2 busy intersections to be there. He was really too little to be doing that in his own. Somedays he had the same clothes on as the day before and his hands were so dirty like they hadn't been washed for days. We would get his hands cleaned up and find him some breakfast. One day I walked by his lunch tray and saw something on his tray. They were actual bullets for a gun. I stopped and walked back and went whoa!! I picked them up quietly and told him those were not things to bring to school and brought them to the principal. Before the end of the year he was in foster care. He was able to come back before the last day of school and he was so clean and looked so much better. He is still there. His circumstances are better, grandma takes care of him now and mom is still around. His younger sister is there now too. What I am getting at and how I am so touched is they had "adminisrtrative assistants day" And his class made some cards for the secretary and I. I was very emotional when I read his and this is what he said "Dear Mrs. Lay, I love it how you help evry body around the school. I bet you nobody appricates it more than I do you are one of my favriot actully you are my favoriot I appriciate it when you say the announcements you do a really good job" (Nothing beats little kid spelling) Anyways, when you know this boy's story, even though you don't know it as well as I do, These kind of moments, I think, can be the most meaningful. When you touch a kids life in a positive way, it may be one of the few moments that that child may have in their life. You never know. I try to remember that with the job that I do, even when all the kids do is drive me nuts. I am the adult here, I can handle it , I think........

Happily ever after Prom

Once Upon a time..... About a week ago.....There was a young maiden who waited and watched out the window for her young man to arrive so he could take her to his house to watch the Office and then go to a play. She waited and waited and was almost ready to give up, so she took herself to her room to rest.

(forgive me young daughter, I could not resist this pic)

Like I said, the wait was long, she was resting and everyone in the house was busying themselves with various activities when out on the lawn a trumpet sounded. It sounded as if it was announcing the arrival of royalty. Everyone was quite puzzled. So everyone had to come see what all the noise was about.

At the frontdoor stood a footman of sorts and he began to read his proclamation....
"Hear ye, Hear ye...
By the order of the Prince of Richland, all fair maidens, are requested to come forward and try on the royal shoe! The maiden who matches the royal shoe will please accompany the Prince to Live--slashed out Live---dance Happily Ever After......


Everyone was puzzled and then quite excited to try on this royal shoe. The house was full of young maidens and their mother, and a visting little boy. One by one the maidens lined up on the bench. The shoe was presented to each young lady--with the exception of one young maiden that could rival the future wearer of that coveted shoe.



For the first young maiden it was way too big, the second was a closer fit and yet it was still too big. For the 3rd young maiden, it ALMOST fit but yet still too big.

Before the last young maiden could try on the shoe, the other daughters told the mother She should try it on. It was a tempting offer and she jumped on it before her last daughter tried it on. The opportunity to possibly escape all the fair young maidens for a night was almost a dream come true. Besides, her Prince Charming was not as young as he use to be :) Alas, it did not fit the mother either, it was too small.

Finally, the oldest daughter had her chance to try on the shoe and it was just right. The father was turned into a hard hat when he tried to protest.

The shoe fit so now it was time to prepare for the Prom......As the footman and Prince were about to leave the rival wearer of the shoe showed up but it was too late. The Friendly woodland creatures witnessed the event and approved with much quacking.

The Fair Maiden, wearer of the shoe, was prepared for the dance by her Goofy Real Sister. Unfortunate for the Fair maiden because yes, they are related. Instead of singing a silly song and creating magic with a wand she worked her magic with a montage of very silly faces.

Besides the hair the Goofy Real sister also did the fingernails and toenails. Those fancy toenails are fake. The Fair maiden lost both of her toenails from a pair of past ill fitting shoes.


Goofy Real Sister was not alone in her preparation of the Fair Maiden, instead of mice working on her dress, The Bestest Mommy in the Whole Wide World added fabric to the back and sleeves and hand sewed 6 sets of appliqued flowers to her dress. The best magic was the back of dress was not attached with thread. It is a separate piece connected to the dress with adhesive velcro.....oooooooooh

So the fair maiden was beautified beautifully. She also had a little help with Auntie Devvy Cookie Lee. Those crazy eyelashes are not fake. They are hers.

So fair maiden was ready for the Arrival of Prince Rich. (his last name is Rich, okay)

He arrived and was still preparing for the magical night with another Prince.

The royal exchanging of the flowers commenced.

Properly flowered up, many pictures were taken by all. The paparazzi-otherwise known as The Bestest Mommy in the Whole Wide World, King Rich, Queen Rich and 2 of the younger fair maidens-kept taking pictures...Exhausting them before they left to take more pictures in the park to begin their night.

And Hopefully they pictured, ate and danced Happily Ever After at the Happily Ever After Prom....

They arrived very promptly before the curfew they were given. They ate great food, had fun at the dance and Amber did not loose her shoe at the dance but she did loose a fake toenail. It was too gross for the Prince to attempt to find and recover. Hopefully that does not arrive by another Prince on a pillow in the future. EWWWWW

They had a happy night.

The End....

Look who's driving now!

I haven't taken any pictures but now I realize I should have. Ms. Sassy britches passed her driving test and written test with flying colors! She is a licensed 16 year old driver and boy was she ever driven to get it. She made her own appointment with the guy that she had to test with and just took care of business. Now I don't have to drive with her anymore but I sure do fret when she is out. Ugh. She has been very possessive over Senor Fuego Nada Peso. She has groomed the car inside and out. The car has a smell but in every other way it is 100 times better than the KIA or otherwise known as Asco. I don't get why Amber thought she had to keep that car. The KIA does have air conditioning and Senor Fuego Nada Peso does not. Only drawback so far.

Lee Joe informed me later last night that he was going to Seattle this morning. He is assembling something and could be gone all week. That meant he wasn't here to take the kids shopping but guess what? Teenagers with a license and jobs can take of things themselves now. I don't have to drive them there and sit in the car like I did one year. So we will see what tomorrow brings.

On Friday we heard a trumpet in our front lawn like you would hear to announce the arrival of royalty and then there was a knock at the door. At the door was a footman of sorts announcing the arrival of a prince (This is a true story-I am serious) And he had a shoe that he needed to try on every fair maiden in the house. The girls lined up on our bench outside-Kelsea was off on her own adventures so missed out- (Lucky Kelsea wasn't there, she wears the same size) the girls told me I had to try it on. Amber was the one that fit the shoe and she was asked to the Happily Ever After Prom. She accepted. Her boyfriend had her shoe on a pink pillow. I gave the shoe to them, then they gave Amber the pillow. He was dressed in a prince costume and his younger brother was the Footman announcing the trying on of the shoe and his dad(our doctor) played the trumpet. Pretty cute and funny. I have pictures!! I will post them later. I am not going to post them on Facebook. He asked us not to. I have been altering a dress for Amber to wear to prom. It is such a pretty dress!

I had something else to say but I don't remember and I have piles of clean laundry on my bed still.

The naming of a car

One of the funniest parts of the trip home was the naming of the new car. Amber named our KIA Asco or Osco-(Spanish I don't know how to spell it) Which is Spanish for disgusting. The new car's name was discussed with much humor on the way home. Many laughs were shared between the 2 oldest and Lee Joe and I had to put in our two cents-mine was more like a peso. So the car is now newly named "Senor Fuego Nada Peso AHHHHHHHHHH" The ahh part is Kelsea's bit, you have to hear her say it and she said it has to spelled with 10 H's. Pretty silly but the Senor Fuego Nada Peso is sure fun to say :)

Here is couple of Miscellaneous bits--

I went to my sinus doctor and the neurologist yesterday. The sinus doctor felt some things were looking better even though my temp was over 100 and I was still having sinus pain and residual head pain from the headaches I had this weekend. I am using some famtastic allergy sinus spray. It works so good. Everything is in bloom and I can breathe and I barely sneeze. That stuff is called Veramyst. I went to the neurologist. He says it sounds like I am having some migraines that are kind of overreactive as he put it "we need to put out the fires because you are having some serious inflammation going on" So he put me on an antidepressant that also works for chronic pain. Then he is putting me Prednisone again for a week and on a high dose-7 pills in one day to 1 pill the last. I will wait for Saturday to start that. And then he gave me several samples of some designer drugs for my headaches. My sister takes one of them and I think it works for her so I hope something will work. He wanted to do an MRI as well. I found out my insurance still may not cover it. I might have to wait until December. That just ticks me off. Maybe if I had gone to the ER they would cover it.

A Friend of mine at the school had a pretty bad accident on Monday. She was putting one of the cafeteria tables up into the wall and it didn't latch and the two tables fell on her. She had turned around and didn't know it was coming and totally knocked her to the ground unconcious for few seconds. I came into the school from the crosswalk and the principal and the secretary were running into the gym and I went in there and she was on the floor. An ambulance was called. Her daughter is Autumn's age and she was brought in to see mom. We told my friend not to move. I was the one that was going to take her to the hospital but instead at the last minute she went to the hospital in the ambulance and her daughter got to go with her. Everyone was worried about head trauma. She found out today she has a broken arm. She is so bruised. It was very scary. But she is OK.

I have found my Dad's family on Facebook. I am excited because now I am friends with 3 of my Aunts and 4 of my cousins. 2 of them I haven't seen since I was 4 but one of them remembers me. I found out through my Aunts that my dad moved to Wisconsin. So you think I heard about it from him? No. I have no idea how long they have been there. My step mom is a piece of work. But I looked them up on the internet and I am pretty sure I have found their address and phone number. HA HA HA HA HA!!! She can't get rid of me that easy! But I am pretty sad about it really. But I will get over it like I have gotten over the past 30 something years. It is getting better-or at least a little easier to understand. I just know it will always be like this and I have had some good moments and that is all they are- are moments with my dad I will have to come to peace with that and I think I can.

So on that sad note--say out loud "Senor Fuego Nada Peso" (you can say the AHHHHHHHHHH if you want to)

Safely Home

First of all, I made a promise to post a picture of my office in what I consider a clean state. Yes that is clean. Here is the reminder that it can be that way and I enjoy being here more when it is that way. Now that I have gotten that off my chest...onward to this past weekend


This week was a crazy nutty week. It was tough at work everyday and the evenings were not much better until I took Friday off and took it easy while I cleaned. Yes, I was able to do both. It was great. The big finale concert of the year took place Friday night. We almost had 4 kids in the concert but there were no Bass clarinet parts for Amber in any of the pieces that the High School orchestra played and sophomores were not required to play so Kelsea opted out. Kylee and Autumn were it. In the Elementary Honor Choir together.


We have been attending this concert every year since Amber was in 5th grade and in the Elementary Honor Choir as well. It was a big switch to have Amber and Kelsea sitting with me along with Hannah. They remided me of the days when they were 4 and 2. Seriously obnoxious!!!! Hannah was completely well behaved and I threaten those two over and over. The crazy part was Kelsea had played 10 tennis matches that day--Yes TEN . I like Yes today. Apparently either playing 10 tennis matches didn't phaze her or she was hysterically over tired.

This is the huge amount of kids that performed in the concert Friday. By the way--This is where Amber's graduation will be held.


We drove to Utah on Saturday morning. We left a little late but we have NEVER traveled anywhere here where it rained the entire trip. That is what it did. Rained and POURED and rained and rained. My car has more and more issues. The passenger side window has decided it doesn't work anymore. WHen it quit it was not quite up all the way. There was a sliver of window open. Just enough to make it quite noisy while traveling and every now and then get splashed with water. And the left blinker still doesn't like to work all the time. Blah. So because of the rain and I also had another really horrible headache. Talk about torture. We almost ran out of gas because Lee Joe thought Snowville was closer than it was so we made a couple more stops than we would have made. Then we took the wrong exit so went the long to the church. We missed the baptisms. But the girls and Lee Joe heard part of one confimation and all of the other and he was able to give the closing prayer even though nobody was in their Sunday clothes for it. It was take us as we are kind of thing. I was in the car trying to cope with my headache some more.

We made it to the temple on time. That was the first time I have been in the Salt Lake Temple. The beautiful part was when Molly and Allan came out of the temple it stopped raining. And it was beautiful and you would have never known that it had been raining only minutes before so I got some good pictures. Devanie took many more than I did and hopefully she will get a chance to post some.


Clearing skies finally for some great pictures!!! Molly and her family



All the girls in the Tabernacle. Amber and Kelsea super posing. The bench was super wet. I loved how all the trees were in bloom and there were tulips everywhere. I just love tulips.

Autumn and Hailey.....Sierra's back

I played with these two pictures on Picasa

I liked this picture except you can't quite get away from the construction of all the new high rises they are putting up.

So our ride home it was calm for awhile. Then we hit a pretty nasty storm. Then it would clear up and then every storm we would hit got worse and worse with pretty sunny spells inbetween. I put my sunglasses on and took them off over and over. The most intense storm seem to be the one hitting Boise as we got back to town. Or maybe I felt that way because I was the one driving. The wind was incredibly bad and the rain fell like it does in Texas. Like someone just unzipped a cloud. But we are home and the sky is pretty here once again. After waking with the headache again this morning I am now headache free and that is a beautiful thing!!!