What we saw at the OTMF at Pioneer Village

Olde Tyme Music Festival

As we walked through the villiage, we met many people. Including this friendly lodge saleslady.

There was a medicine lady and a medicine man.

What!? ..another lodge saleslady!



Sorry! I don't need a lodge! (So pushy these salespeople)

Village Elder

Blacksmith

Snake Oil Salesman

An Outlaw!

An Hawaiian Blugrass Band

A Rapper yo!

Two Cloggers in a Dance Battle

Shawnee Princesses

Old Tyme Music Festival You Decide!!

Which hat looks better?

Pioneer Village @ Caesar's Creek

Caesar's Creek

Old Tyme Music Festival

In one of the shops at the festival, there were two signs for laundry rooms. One said: Laundry Room - Where Mom's hang out; the other one said: Drop your pants here.

Conor: Mom, you should be in the laundry room hanging out!

Me: I don't think so.

Conor: Why would they want people to drop their pants? What if they aren't wearing any underwear? Not everyone wears underwear. I'm not wearing any underwear right now, so I can't drop my pants!

Ceara: You're not wearing underwear?!?! Why not?

Conor: I didn't feel like it. Dad doesn't wear any.

Ceara: Dad is that true? You don't wear underwear?

Jeff: WHAT? I do too!

Me: He wears boxers, and Conor doesn't consider that underwear. More like shorts.

Deductive Reasoning

Conor was helping me make some beer bread for our family's Sunday dinner. Alli walked in and said, "Save me some!"

Me: I can't promise anything, if there is some left, I'll bring it home.

Conor: I'll share my Nerds with you Alli! They'll make you smarter!

Alli: No thanks.

Me: They'll make you smarter? Where did you get that?

Conor: Well, they call people who are smart nerds, and this candy is called nerds, so it must make people smarter!

Ah-HA!

They switched our network over yesterday to something new, we are upgrading or something... and in the process they blocked more sites. Like Facebook, which was previously allowed. Apparently they reached their quota of blocked sites and when they added to it, some were knocked off. Or they forgot to include some in their list of blocked sites, because now I'm able to access my blog! I wonder how long this will last? Probably not long, but I thought while I have access, I might as well post something, right?

This week has been crazy busy at work! Why yes, I should be working rather than posting, but this will only take 5 minutes and I need a break to switch gears. :) I've had 3 meetings today, which severely impaired my ability to work as well. They also added to my list of things to do at each meeting. Sheesh.

End of month is just a week away now, and the pressure is on!

In other news, I told a friend about the frog incident (post below in case you are behind!) and he said, "And after you let it go, a bird probably ate it." What a JERK! I don't want to know that stuff, I was blissfully unaware and would have been happy to remain so. Such is the circle of life if it did.

I just finished reading John Grisham's newest book - Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. It is written towards teenagers, but hey, I've read all of his books so far and I wasn't going to let that stop me! I enjoyed it - it was light, easy to read. It didn't take me long to finish it, and now it is in Alli's hands for her reading pleasure. He has another book coming out in October and I can't wait!

I'm currently reading a book with Jeff. Well, not at the same time, but we are sharing it to read in the same time frame. I'm sure he will finish it before I do! It is definitely NOT light reading. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. I suppose it is light reading compared to his other books - War and Peace and Anna karenin - both of which Jeff has read, but neither of which I have. Who knows, maybe I will fall in love with Tolstoy after this book and decide to read one of them.

There are two other books I want to get but will wait until I'm done with the one I'm reading now. Anyone reading anything good they would like to recommend?

Lost and Found

I've been distracted lately, losing sleep over all the thoughts in my head. Worrying. About the future, about strangers and about a frog. Yesterday when I was driving back to work from my lunch break, I was behind a truck on a back road. When he turned at a stop sign, 3 pieces of equipment fell from the bed of his truck onto the road. I beeped my horn and waved, trying to get his attention to stop. He did not. So, I picked it up and put it in my trunk. Thinking I could somehow catch up to him, or somehow figure out how to get it back to him.

I didn't find him on my way back to work, so not knowing what else to do, I called the police station. I got a "why are you calling us" feel from everyone I talked to, but they finally said I could bring it to the station and they would run an ad in the paper to see if anyone claims it. So, I've been worrying about the person who lost it. Is he going to miss out on work because of it? Lose a job because of it? Was it insured, can he replace it?

I've told 4 people about the incident, and all 4 said I should have just kept it or left it there. They all had their reasoning, but it never occurred to me. It was not mine, I did not earn it, I don't want to take something that doesn't belong to me. I did what I would want someone else to do if they found something valuable of mine. I did what was right in my mind, and that's what is important to me.

As I was sitting at my computer last night, I looked over and saw a tiny frog on my desk. A little brown frog, I want to say it's a tree frog, but I don't really know. It startled me. It was only about an inch long and it just sat there. Then it jumped behind my desk and I worried that it might jump on me - even though I thought it was cute, I don't like things crawling on me. Or jumping for that matter. I tried to forget about it. Then it jumped on my foot.

I was startled so of course I gave a little scream and moved my foot. So he jumped off and started hopping towards my bed. Well, I couldn't very well go to sleep knowing a frog was in my room! So I got a Tupperware container and managed to catch him in it. I took him out to Jeff and asked him to please take him outside and set him free.

Then I went to bed. I laid there and thought of the frog. Worried that Jeff would forget and he wouldn't have enough air, and that I would go to the kitchen in the morning and find a little dead frog in the container. So I got back up and went to set him free myself. I slowly pried the lid off so I didn't startle him, but he seemed to know what I was doing because he climbed up the side of the container like he was waiting to jump free. I managed to loosen the lid enough to set it down outside, then remove it, and he jumped out and hopped off through the grass. That made it a little easier for me to fall asleep.

Now if I could just find the man in the white truck...

Lately

Lately a lot of things have been happening. Jeff has been traveling a lot! First he went to Las Vegas, then Alaska, then Hawaii, and he just got home from a two week trip to California. So I've been all alone in this parenting gig for a bit.

While he was gone, I started a new exercise program. I'm realizing that I'm getting OLD and I need to start taking better care of myself. So, I got a lot of healthy food at the grocery and got a DVD. So, I was all excited to start and so I put the DVD in and started following along. Conor sat down on the couch to watch and decided to heckle me. "Mom. You're not doing it right." "Mom. What you are doing doesn't look like what they are doing."

Hey kid, I'm trying! If you think you can do better get off your butt and do it too!!

Sheesh.

Anyway, I made it through the video despite all the negative comments coming from Conor.

I also went to the doctor and he said I have to get my tonsils removed. They wanted to schedule it for yesterday (Thursday) but since Jeff wouldn't be home from CA, and I wasn't ready, so I scheduled it for July 9th. That gives me time to get through my birthday, Alli's birthday, and to find a little bell I can ring when I need something. I'll also have to stock up on some writing pads so I can communicate since someone told me it's gonna hurt to talk. Oh, and my Dr? He said, "It's more difficult and painful for adults to have their tonsils removed, the recovery takes longer. It will be very painful, and I will give you pain meds, but honestly they won't really help." Joy. Something to look forward to!

So, ummm say a little prayer for me that everything goes well, would ya?

Love you!

She Passed!

Alli is now an officially licensed driver. She passed her test this morning with no problems!

Congratulations, Alli!

Kids, Animals, Friday Night and Pizza

A friend of mine had to go out of town for the weekend and I volunteered to keep her kids for her. Cole and Shelby. When texting me on Thursday about it, here's how the conversation went:

Her: How much do you want?
Me: ?
Her: $
Me: I'm not doing it for money!
Her: Well for food and stuff.
Me: OMG! I have to feed them, too?!?!


So I picked them up after work on Friday, then went to my mom's to pick my kids up. Mom had picked Alli up from school to transport all the animals we will be watching for the summer. Four bunnies and a chinchilla. One of the bunnies is staying at my mom's to keep Lucy (her dog) company for the summer. Lucy is amazing with the bunnies - she acts like their mother, watching after them and laying beside them.

Allie asked if Austin and Gage could come over, too. Sure, may as well fill the house up, right? :) We decided to just order pizza because it was pouring down rain and I had skipped the grocery store because I didn't want to deal with it in the rain. Figured I'd go later, or the next day. I had agreed to feed the after all. So, at 6:40pm we ordered pizza - 45 min to an hour was the delivery time promised. I tried to hook up the Wii so they could play some video games, but it wouldn't work. So I dusted off the old Game Cube and plugged it in. It wouldn't work either! I got some canned air and blew out all the plugs and it finally started working. Just goes to show that blowing on them can still work. I just used canned air instead of my own air...

Around 8:00, the pizza still hadn't arrived, so Alli called to see when it would get here because they were all starving (yes I gave them snacks - granola bars weren't doing the job!). They said because of the rain it was taking a little longer but they would be at our house "momentarily."

We decided to go outside and wait, and the four youngest kids got a ball to play with. Austin decided to get a scooter out and ride down the street. The other kids wanted to do that as well. Since I only have 3 scooters (to go with my 3 kids), they had to share a bit. Cole got the big wheel out (yes, I still have one even though Conor is too big for it) and used it as a scooter. Shelby wanted to ride a bike, but the tires were all flat.




So she waited patiently for a turn on something else. Austin gave up his scooter to Cole and he went inside with Alli.

At 8:30 I called back to the pizza place. Here's how that conversation went:

"Would you like pick up or delivery?"

"I'd like to know when my pizza I ordered 2 hours ago is going to be here..."

(Gets phone number information, blah blah blah)

"We have that marked as a carry out."

"Really? That's funny, I said delivery and had to give my address and everything. And when we called to check on it 30 minutes ago, they said it would be here momentarily. Why would they say that if it was marked carry out?"

"Let me check..."

(hold for a couple of seconds)

"We are going to remake the order fresh and I will send it out with the first driver that comes back - should be about 25 minutes, and it will be no charge. I'm really sorry... blah, blah, blah"

So, at 9:15 when the pizza still hadn't arrived, I was getting desperate and started ordering from another pizza place online. I had created the entire order and was putting my name / address information in when the doorbell rang at 9:25ish.

The kids ran to the door, anxious to eat after an almost 3 hour wait. So, we ate a very late dinner! Interesting start to the weekend, don't you think? :)

Strange dog...

Teddy is a very strange, different dog. One of his many strange habits is he licks chairs - the legs of the chairs that people are sitting in. He was licking the chair Ceara was sitting in last night, and I said, "Teddy, you're weird!"

So, Ceara laughs and says, "He's afraid of tongues and saliva too."

Jeff - "What do you mean by that?"

Ceara - "Watch." She sticks her tongue out and moves her face towards Teddy. He looks away like he can't bear to see it, and ducks his head under her chair. She laughs, we all do, and then he resumes licking her chair.

She does it again and he looks away and ducks his head under the chair again.

Me - "I need to get that on video to share on my blog."

Ceara - "No way am I doing that on video!"

So, I only get to tell the tale of strangeness. Maybe I'll talk her into it one day... or Alli.

The Weary Traveler

Not only is Jeff leaving for Hawaii in just a few hours... but he also gets to fly first class because they didn't reserve his plane tickets until the last minute (Saturday for a Sunday flight), and that was all that was left I guess.

I have encouraged him to post some of his pictures on the blog, but being the MEGA traveler that he is, he has not had time. So, I started swiping them and will post a few here, and all on my flickr page when I get a chance.

Since I haven't really posted about it - but most of you know anyway - so far he has been to Las Vegas and Alaska for work. Hawaii is the last of the flying gigs for this project that he is scheduled for at this time. He is flying out today - Sunday, May 16th - and will not return until Tuesday, May 25th. Island hopping in Hawaii. Poor guy.

I'm so jealous, and he'd rather go back to Alaska!

He would have been 25 today...

This is a picture slide show of Charlie and his friends that one of his friend's Mom put together. I've had it for a while, but just haven't posted it before.

I'm going to have to start taking something with me to clean off his gravestone when I go visit, it was quite dirty today. The picture above was taken the last time I went.

Gone, but never forgotten. We love and miss you, Charlie!

Conor

Remember last year how Conor had strep throat 3 times in just a short period of time? And he had an allergic reaction to Amoxicillin? The other medicine to cure his strep throat costs $108. So the doctors felt he really needed to have his tonsils removed because of all his problems. So, we did that.

In September of 09, he had the surgery. Fast forward to March of this year - March 17th to be exact. St. Patrick's day. Conor wasn't feeling well, was running a fever and was miserable. So, we went to the doctor. I thought he may have gotten the H1N1 flu again, I never even thought it would be strep. The doctor did a few tests - blood tests, throat culture - only to find that he did have strep throat. What? Really? How is that possible? I am still making payments on the bills from his surgery to prevent him from getting strep throat again! Oh, it happens, she said. It's rare, but not impossible.

So, I fill the prescription and he takes it for his 10 days and is doing fine.

Sunday when he comes home from my mom's house, he said he doesn't feel well. Sore throat, watery eyes, runny nose. He still wants to play outside, and is relatively active. I take his temperature and it's normal.

Monday morning he says he doesn't feel good and doesn't want to go to school. He looks tired, and his eyes are red, so I call my mom to see if she can watch him. He begs to go to work with me, but I refuse because he would be super bored at my office for 8 hours. When I call to check on him he asks me to get him during my lunch hour and bring him back to work with me, and I agree to that. I take a late lunch and he would only be there about an hour and 45 min and I figured I could keep him occupied during that time.

I get coloring books, activity books, crayons, and a few other things and take him to my work. He colors for about 20 minutes and then asks if I can take him home. He suffers through the rest of the day - bored - and we finally get to leave. We stop at a pharmacy on the way home to get some allergy medicine to see if that helps him. He seems fine the rest of the night.

Tuesday morning, he says he doesn't want to go to school. I tell him I think he's faking it and that he has to go. He cries and begs to stay home with his dad. Conor loves school, and he's never lied about being sick, so I figured maybe he really didn't feel good. He didn't have a temperature though. I told Jeff if he acted like he felt better later he could take him to school. Tuesday night, he begged to have a friend over. We explained once again that he had not gone to school that day, so he could not have anyone over, and that he was absolutely going to school the next day.

Wednesday he went to school. He said he had to go to the nurse because he didn't feel good, but school rules say if you don't have a fever and you aren't throwing up, you can't call home to sign out. Wednesday night, he acted fine again.

Thursday morning he cried again, saying he didn't feel good. So I broke down and took him to the doctor. Do you know where I'm going with this? Yep, he has strep throat AGAIN.

So, I'm feeling pretty guilty for not doing something about it earlier in the week. His symptoms did not make me even consider it was strep. And boy did he ever rub it in that he was right and I was wrong.

I'd like to know how to make it go away for good now! The doctor said there isn't anything I can do to prevent it. And that, yes, it is EXTREMELY RARE for him to get it after having his tonsils removed, let alone get it twice...

Birthday Cake

I posted about Jeff's Birthday, but since he was traveling, I didn't have any pictures. We celebrated when he got home on the 27th - just a small celebration. During the day, we went to get Jeff a new cell phone, which took much longer than we thought it would, so we had a late dinner - home made since Jeff eats out all the time when he's on the road.

I made a chocolate sheet cake, which is his favorite, and we had ice cream as well.

Since, ahem, we didn't have enough candles - I just spelled out his age with the ones we did have.

He is very happy with his new phone - he chose a Blackberry over an iPhone, which is what I would have gotten him had he not gone to pick it out himself.

What should I catch up first?

I have so many things I didn't post, I don't know what to post first! I don't want to do it all in one post because it would be way too long and you would get bored half way through and not read it all! ;)

We took the kids to Dave and Busters one day during their Spring Break and they had a blast. Alli didn't get to go because she was at a friends house experimenting with her hair and something went wrong so they had to fix it.

We ate lunch first, then headed to the games. All of these pictures were taken with a cell phone, so they are not the greatest quality, but... they are pictures.

They were moving so fast through the games, they were all a blur. Which is why the next picture, although blurry, is appropriate!

Conor won 1000 tickets on one game within the first 10 minutes and he was hooked!

We did races between us all, and the kids did Harley races.

We had Ceara, Conor, Caitlyn, and Gage with us.

They all got their own credit card type game cards to play with and they pretty much stuck together.

It was a few hours of fun for everyone.

And the winner is...

Obvious. ;) It is the one I liked the best, although I do love the other ones as well, so I have them and will probably rotate them! :)

Thanks for all your votes. New posts coming soon!

My Prize

OK, it has been a while, so I will refresh your memory a bit. Remember when I promised to post every day in February? Then the naysayer Mayo challenged my promise in the comments and we thus had a little side bet going. He should know me better, because I really hate losing, and I love a challenge.

If I lost, I was to make him an apple pie, and if I won, I had no idea what I wanted from him. I couldn't demand baked goods, because his wife would be the one paying off that debt and that just wasn't fair to her. Even though I would love to try one of her cakes one day - yes cakes! I know I make cakes as a hobby, but hers put mine to shame!

So, I thought of something I wanted, and I knew he could do it! Although he was a bit doubtful, I had already seen his creativity for myself.

I am looking to change the look of my blog. I am tired of the green and want something new - and a banner! I know I could probably figure out how to do it, but it would just frustrate me and I didn't feel like it, so that was what I wanted as a prize.

I sent him my favorite pictures, he asked all kinds of personal questions (like what my favorite colors are...), and he came up with several options. Lots and lots.

You don't get to see all the options because he removed them as we narrowed them down, but it was really hard to choose!

I really already know what I want. Kinda. But I'd still like your opinion! Maybe you can convince me to change my mind, but... maybe not.

So, you can either enter your opinions in the comments section, OR you can vote right on the site he created to show me the options! I could do a hyperlink and hide the actual NAME of the site, but I'm not gonna. Just go to http://bitemebuttmunch.blogspot.com/ and cast your vote! There are only 6 days left to vote, so do it now!!! ;) After you vote, you can leave a comment and try to convince me of your choice if you want. Or just leave me a comment letting me know you voted. Or just leave me a comment telling me how awesome all the choices are. Or whatever you want!

Oh, and as to the name of the site... he's just bitter because I WON! (Probably not, but hey... I think it's funny.)

Thank you, Mayo!! :)

Side note - or bottom note, whatever - I did a spell check and there were no misspellings found. When did gonna become a word? I was sure that one was going to be highlighted!

Update on the Bunnies

In a little under one week, the babies have grown so much! Remember this little one?

He or she looks like this now:

The kids named him/her Oreo, even though I objected to it being an unoriginal name! I didn't get a picture of the black one before, but he was smaller than the Oreo.

They named him Eightball. He's the runt of the litter.

He's doing pretty well too! The mama is feeding them twice a day, and we are keeping them outside her cage when they are not eating.

The kids love them, and want to keep them... but they will be going back next week. We have enjoyed them while they are here, though! :)

The Post Where I Become an Ex-Kirby Customer

I have a Kirby sweeper / shampooer, and have had one for at least 13 years. When I had my first house, my aunt gave me her sweeper - she had gotten something lighter because of her stairs, so she didn't need it anymore. I loved it, and had it for 8 years with no major problems. Then one day the transmission went out, or something. It quit working. Around that same time a Kirby salesman came around selling their newest model - the DIAMOND edition. Wooo hooo. It had many more bells and whistles than mine, and it was so pretty and shiny.

They did all these demonstrations to show me how the new one worked and how much better it was with the improvements. You know, when they show you how dirty your house is? With those little white discs? It had many more attachments and abilities than our old one did and since the old one didn't work and they were willing to give me a trade in price, I got it. Lifetime warranty, never have to replace it again... blah, blah, blah. It is a very, very expensive vacuum cleaner, but I felt it was worth it because it would last a lifetime, right?

Yes, I do fall for sales gimmicks. Is there a self help group for me out there somewhere?

So, a few weeks ago, a sales woman came to my door to try to sell me another Kirby. I explained that I already had one and I wasn't interested. She gave me a door prize drawing ticket anyway and said that she would be willing to clean my carpet for me anyway. That she got "credit" for doing it, and it would really help her out. I declined, that was when I was sick and I wasn't up for it.

So, I got a call the other day from Kirby again - I don't recall giving them my number, but maybe I did for the drawing or something. They wanted to come and clean my carpet for me, wouldn't that be great? I don't know why I said yes - I know they are just doing their jobs, and in this economy I guess I just wanted to help someone out. Whatever. So, I agreed. I thought I agreed to Saturday at 2, but apparently I was wrong and they showed up yesterday (Friday) at 4 something because she was running behind.

I wasn't ready, at all. I had kids here, Jeff had just gotten home, and I was cleaning and doing laundry - in my pajamas still even.

They insisted it was OK that I was in my pj's and talked themselves right in the door. I told them before they started that I would not be buying one. I had one and I wasn't interested. That's OK she said. She gets "credit" for just doing it.

I figured, hey - I'll get a clean carpet out of it anyway. So, I let her. She needed to call in and let them know she was here, so could she please use my phone? Remember this for later in the story.

And she proceeded to do the exact same sales pitch as the guy did 5 years ago. Big mistake. She showed me how bad of a sweeper my current Kirby is - how that lifetime guarantee is a lie. How if I buy this new shiny Kirby for two thousand dollars, it wouldn't be working very well in just under 5 years.

She showed me the attachments - which I already have and already know how they work. She poured salt on my carpet and vacuumed it with my Kirby and then showed me how it didn't pick it all up. She had me vacuum my carpet with my Kirby and then she went over it with the new one to show me how my old Kirby just wasn't doing the job it was supposed to.

Is this really the best way for them to sell their machines? Even I, the one most likely to fall for a gimmick, the one who sits and watches infomercials amazed at what some product offers, or does for you, could see right through her.

Oh she was willing to give me all kinds of specials. Special discounts to "make that new shiny Kirby mine today." Three offers. Three rejections. I would get a trade in value of $300 for my old Kirby. I would get a special weekend discount because it was Friday and they were kicking off their weekend. I would get a special end of month discount because they were trying to meet their quota and help more people get Kirbys. I would get a "Kirby family" discount because I was a previous owner. I could make monthly payments for the next two years.

Don't I want a cleaner house?

Oh, and I would get a special discount for taking the demo model she used to clean my carpet! Because if I didn't buy it, then she would have to tell the people she demo'd it for the next time that it is used and give them a demo discount, so she could just go ahead and give it to me. Really? She didn't tell me that she had used that same vacuum to demonstrate to the person before me, so she was effectively telling me it was brand new. However, the box it was in had a LOT of wear and tear on it.

Still not interested? Well, there is a contest she is trying to win for a trip, so she will give me another discount on top of all the other great discounts!

Still not interested? OK she needed to call her boss to let him know she was done. So she pulled her cell phone and called her boss. (Where was the cell phone when she was calling when she got here?) Oh, and guess what?!?! Her boss authorized an additional discount to get me that new sweeper today.

Sorry, answer is still no.

After she was done, she and her "trainee" cleaned it until it was sparkling like new. They asked to use my Windex and sink to do it.

Then she wanted me to give out names and phone numbers of my friends and family so they could offer them a free carpet shampoo. I declined. She asked several times. I told her I didn't want to make anyone mad at me. She was incredulous. Her eyes got big, "they would get mad at you for giving them a free carpet shampoo?" No, they would get mad at me for the greater than 2 hour sales pitch.

So, I have a little advice for Kirby sales people. If you really want to sell your vacuum and get recommendations from a current customer - here are some dos and don'ts:

1. If someone had a Kirby, don't try to show them how bad their old sweeper is - do what you say you are going to do, come in and shampoo their carpet as a "customer service" and then ask for names and numbers of people the customer thinks could use a great sweeper like the Kirby.

2. Don't do the same demonstrations when the person already knows everything their current one can do - someone who has already sat through the exact sales pitch you are doing. I don't want to see the attachments and what they can do, I ALREADY HAVE THE ATTACHMENTS YOU ARE SHOWING ME.

3. Don't try to pass off an obviously used cleaner as a brand new one. I still have the box my Kirby came in and it is in better shape than the one you have that "new" one in. Once a person tells me a lie, why would I think anything else they said was true?

4. Don't tell them how the new Kirby will last a lifetime so it is worth the price when you are telling them their old lifetime Kirby is no longer any good. After 5 years!

Why would I buy a new Kirby for that outrageous price when I will only have to replace it in 5 years?

So, I don't have a new Kirby. And I no longer think they are the greatest sweeper ever.

I do, however, have clean carpet in my living room, and she also cleaned my ceiling fan to show off the attachments.

Had she walked in, cleaned my carpet without the sales pitch, and then asked me for names and numbers of people I think would love a Kirby? You would all be getting phone calls in the next couple of weeks. Well, those of you that I know and have your phone numbers...