"WOO HOO, What a Ride!"

My husband's great-aunt passed away on the Friday of Holy Week (the Friday before Easter). She was a very sweet lady and we would visit her whenever we would go up to Massillon. Today, was her funeral. On the card given at the funeral home, there is a motto for living on it from Aunt Grace. One that I would like to share.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid sideways, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, maple cream in one hand, golf ball in the other, and screaming, "WOO HOO, What a ride!"

Rest in Peace, Aunt Grace. You certainly went skidding sideways into heaven...it was a great ride!

And Tuesday Began with A Bang

During the night thunderstorms moved through our area. Now as a general rule, I am not afraid of storms. I can sleep through them. I know to stay inside and away from windows.

Today, my alarm had just started to go off, when there was a loud bang and a bright flash of light. Then everything went black. I searched in my yarn bag (yes it was right by my bed) for a flashlight. Then I went down the hall and discovered light, coming from my daughter's bathroom (the benefit of having a night light in there), but my room was still dark (nothing lit), my one DD's room was dark (no lights or fans), the other DD's room lit up (another night light).

I wandered down the stairs and turned on the light in the kitchen....it worked. I wandered down to the basement and checked the breaker box. There was a switch flipped. Okay, I am woman, I know how to flip the switch. Nope didn't work. That's not right....I now wander outside to make sure my house is not on fire. Nope, nothing on fire, nothing smoldering....still no light in my room or my one DD's room. Now I am getting scared and I need to talk with my husband to let him know what is going on. He finally comes home and we decide to get an electrician out to the house....King Electric. The man that comes is very good, he determines that the breaker is destroyed and he puts in a new one...all in an hour from arriving at my house. He was polite, he was nice and he worked quickly.

So if you are in the Lebanon, OH area and need a reliable electrician call King Electric.

The Prayer Shawl and other things

The Prayer Shawl
I made this for a friend of mine to keep in her office. She is a nurse midwife and she was telling me about having to help a woman deliver her baby (dead). I asked her if she would object to keeping a prayer shawl(s) in her office should she ever have to do that again. She said she would like that. So I finally finished it. This is the prayer shawl that fell out of my bag and didn't get run over (because the driver of the truck must have been the recipient of yarny goodness). It is very pretty and very warm.

I also have been making a lot of dishcloths (still, yet, again). But I have also made some scrubbies they are kind of fun to make and are so simple.

The prayer shawl can be found in Debbie Macomber's book and also on her website. The dishcloth is a diagonal (I am loving this because it is so simple and so fun to change colors on it). The scrubbies are from the same pattern page. These are from Gwen Bortner http://tankhouse.knitability.com/freepatterns/DishClothDuo.pdf.
Have a good night.

A Rainy Monday

We had a busy Sunday. I took my daughters to church for service (and coffee making) and then Sunday (LIGHT) School, signed them up for VBS (Vacation Bible School), took them to brunch (at Big Boy's) because I had a bad feeling. I felt that there would be no food for anyone at the church on Sunday and I didn't like that. But what was I to do about it. There were three (yes 3) girls left at the church while their parents left to go get lunch with their other children. I offered to go to my house and get a wheel of cheese and some crackers to feed all those children. But no one wanted that. After I stayed at the church with the 3 girls who were abandoned after calling all their parents to let them know that they girls had not been fed (hey what can I say) and that they were waiting for them. Only one girl knew her phone number (or her parent's cell number) and the other two did not. When I called for them, they were not there or not answering. One girl had someone at her house who answered but did not know where the parents were (really...you leave your child somewhere and don't leave a number)! But he would try to locate them. After the final child was picked up, I took my girls to the zoo. The Cincinnati Zoo's female giraffe had a baby! She is a pretty little girl. I don't know who took this photo, but I love how the parents are wrapping their necks around their little girl. She is sooooo cute. I had a feeling that with the good weather and the new baby that the zoo would be crowded, but I figured that at 3 p.m. (2 hours to closing) it would be easy to get a place to park. Boy, was I WRONG! There wasn't any parking, anywhere! So I took my daughters to Krohn Conservatory. This is a like a very large greenhouse with different areas of flowers and plants. It is just a really nice place to visit. They are getting ready for their butterfly show! My children are so excited about this! I also cannot wait for this show. It is the butterflies of Brazil!!! After that we went up to a park that is called Overlook park, but there wasn't any parking there either. After that failed, I took the girls to McDonald's the outdoor play area McDonald's was not open, so we went to the one in Taylor Mill, KY. Let me tell you about that real quick....dirty, dirty, dirty. They only clean it once a week and on Sunday, it was filthy!!! Also, paying customers beware. Training for new employees at this site....non-existent. Poor kid, first day and they threw him to the wolves. After that visite my mother-in-law (she is still recuperating) and they girls like it better when she is upright.

Today, had the van checked out and there aren't any more critical oil leaks. So we will move onward. Then I worked with my youngest daughter's class and then brought her home to feed her and then we went to McDonald's to visit with a friend for a moment and then to the post office to send a box of goodies to my nephew (in college). I have fun filling up boxes for him. He doesn't know what he will get and I have fun picking things out for him. But the rain makes things gloomy. But I will take my middle daughter to the store to search for a dress for her for her 1st Communion and maybe get a few other clothes.

So stay dry (if it is raining by you) and have a good Monday!

Best Night of Girl Scouts Ever

My friend and I are Girl Scout Leaders. We have a little troop (and I do mean little - all of 9 girls). Of those girls 4 belong to other moms and the other 5 belong to us. We have been with this troop for 2 years and have discovered an interesting little fact....we are a babysitter for these other girls. The parents drop their children and leave. They don't stay and they don't participate and they don't even come into the building to make sure we are there or who might be there. They just leave them in the parking lot and leave.

So tonight once we knew that the storm that the previous night was going to be coming missed us (gotta watch the news right before meetings), I called my co-leader and said, how about a night of playing in the great outdoors. She loved it. So we found a bunch of games that they could play and we let them play. We threw out the games and they played and they played and they played. They had a lot of fun and so did we!!! The best game....Kick the Can!!!! The most simple game was the most fun. They ran and they ran and they had fun. But tonight we only had our daughters and then one other. When she arrived she was dealing with issues brought about by living in two homes. Sad, but true. Our other girls all have issues. These issues are what make every meeting night a new adventure for us. But we love our girls and we love the fun that they have and those rare, wonderful, fun nights are what make things the best.

So tonight was the best night of Girl Scouts, to date!

Changing Tides

What can I say, but today, I am irritated. Yesterday, as I was driving to the Library with my daughter, the oil light came on. I know that this means there is a problem. I know this with every fiber of my being and yet, because I am a woman, they treated me like I didn't know what the light means. Seriously, it was not need an oil change light, but the oil can symbol light, which means there is low oil in the vehicle! Today, when I took the vehicle back to have a gasket changed, I asked about something else (just to get a price so I could know how much it would cost to fix it) and the mechanic (a man) gets into the car and changes from hot to cold and back again and says that it is not broken. When I explained again that this is something that is in the dash and requires getting up in the car underneath the wheel to fix and I asked did he do that? "No" says the woman in charge. The reason there is a woman in charge because women don't like to take their cars somewhere to get work done on them because men do tend to talk down to them. They are trying to get more of the female population to bring their cars to them for service (very expensive service). Now here is the fun part, the leak that was just fixed is actually an old one that was not noted on earlier visits. This was put off as not cared for by the master mechanic. Seriously, the guys you are hiring don't know there is a leak! Then this, he moves the controls and there isn't anything wrong with the vehicle. I would like to put that man in the back of the van on a very hot day, with the windows closed and the airconditioner (that is not broken according to him) on....after he has been back there for a good long time, we can discuss this "dumb" female's knowing or not knowing her vehicle.

Then to add to the frustration. My daughters are participating in a program at school called "I've Got the Facts." When the paper work came home, it read that a box is used for every 10 minutes. So I had been marking off the 10 minutes on their sheets. Today, the Assistant Principal sent home a note saying that it is to go by the day! Now when did that change take place? Why wasn't this information sent home earlier? I don't know about you, but the principal of this school doesn't make me very happy with his job performance. He ignores parents and teachers that he doesn't like. He pretends that they don't exist and he refuses to respond to them when they greet him. I have seen this and in fact, when I have greeted him, he looks over my head (an interesting thing since I am almost as tall as he is) and pretends that I said nothing to him. I will be very glad when I no longer have to work with him. But I have two more years, unless he is replaced first. Because of these things, I am seriously reconsidering my position on voting for the increase in taxes to pay for the school. I mean why would I pay for this behavior. You put this with the aid who treated my child so horribly in front of me in the cafeteria! Seriously, is this what I am paying for: A principal who pretends that I and many others do not exist! An Assistant Principal who changes the rules on a program because someone is completing it too quickly! An Aid who yells at children in the cafeteria, for of all things, taking too many ketchups, when she actually didn't her mother brought them for her!

I guess I better tell that story. My middle DD requested that I come to lunch with her and I brought her a sandwich from a restaurant. I requested additional ketchups for her because she likes the stuff. She had the sandwich, the ketchups, the bag (with the name of the restaurant) and the wrapping to the sandwich (also with the name of the restaurant) in front of her. This woman demands to know why she has so much ketchup and does she really need it. When I got to my daughter, I had to work to get her attention. Then I had to let her know that I brought the ketchup. Does this woman apologize? No not in the least, but then when this is the behavior of the principal, why should she? She huffed and left the area, but the damage was done, my daughter was in tears and shamed in front of her friends. Is this how a public school employee who is dependent on the funds of another should be treating the children? No!!! But she still has not apologized for her behavior and I am still irritated that it occured.

So if you are uncertain as to whether you are voting for an increase in taxes, consider the above. Many of the teachers that were low on totem pole are already searching for new jobs, so they may be gone and then the tax increase will not be needed but they won't reduce it and they won't cut their spending on people in administration.

By the Way, can you tell that today was not a good day!

Monday Mutterings

While reading another blog, there was an encouragement to blog about something that bothers you or that you want to talk about, with a link back to her link. So clicking on my title will lead back to her blog so that you do the same.

My Monday Muttering:

I am so tired of people who just drop their children off somewhere and don't even bother to make sure that they are with a responsible adult or when they are supposed to stay and participate they can't get out of there fast enough, so they just drop the child off at the door and drive away before they are even in the door. They talk about how important that child is, but they don't really prove it because they just dump their children. Cases in point...I am a girl scout leader and the parents just dump their children outside the door, they don't come in to get their child or make sure that the leader is there. Dump and run. Another case in point, a child is getting ready for their First Holy Communion, the parents drop her off and then leave, they don't even stay to make sure there is a class or that the instructor is present. Dump and Run. Seriously folks, what kind of example are you setting by doing this?

The Height of Laziness

This week I spent a lot of time with my children and traveling across OH and KY. We have also spent a lot of time in many bathrooms (what can I say three girls and they all can't go at the same time). We would go into the bathrooms and many are equipped with automatic toilets (and if they aren't many people have forgotten how to flush), automatic sinks (and if they aren't they assume they are broken and walk out without washing their hands) automatic soap dispensers (see previous comment) and automatic hand dryers or towel dispensers (then they get mad because they were unable to dry their hands after washing them).

I watched this in many bathrooms across these two great states. If it didn't happen automatically people forgot how to do this for themselves and walked out of the bathroom upset that these items were broken.

I watched as my children (even) put their hands under the faucet and got confused because it didn't turn on automatically. These things are supposed to be water, energy, paper savers and yet they make it possible for more people to waste these things because they work too sensitively and then you have children who like to play in them because they do work automatically.

Let's go back to the flush yourself, turn it on yourself and work to get it yourself.