Hello

 How's your weekend going?

 

I worked this morning but stopped at an Applefest in the town where I work. Bought myself a cute little fall signpost for the garden and some homemade poptarts. Boy were they delicious!

 

Mike has been gone all day to a horse show so my 13 y/o babysat the two little ones. Cody (15) has been at his friends all weekend, no doubt catching up on some sleep, lol. Last weekend he went over and they slept for 22 hours all together!! This getting up so early for school zonks him out!

 

Colin is scrubbing us up some nice new potatoes and the four of us are just going to have scrambled eggs and homefries for supper.

 

I was up late last nite watching 'School of Rock' and if you haven't seen this one yet, I would highly recommend it. A great family, feel good movie!!

 

Have a great weekend!!

School Rules

 You know sometimes I wonder where they come up with some of their ideas at school, lol! Yep, this is gonna be kind of a rant...just so ya know!!

 

Colton who is 7, brought home a 'contract' yesterday that I had to sign and he had to sign. It's a Good Citizenship program. 'This program will encourage and reward grade appropriate Learning skills development as indicated in the Ontario Curriculum'....like what?????

 

Anyway the jist of it is if they are good little boys and girls they will get one 35 minute period on Fridays of 'Preferred Activity Time' ( a fancy way of saying playtime, lol) Children who don't achieve their goals will spend the period completing assignments or reviewing skills previously taught (ya right, when all the other children around them are playing!)

 

So I'm thinking that I would much rather they give my child time to complete their work in school rather than playing and not giving them homework all the time to do at home where they could be playing instead of doing homework every nite! Did you get all that, lol!?

 

But what really got me was the rating system for grading the blocks of minutes you lose for doing something wrong and thus losing precious playtime minutes. Please let me know the first thing you think of when you see this:

(I remember the colors but not the exact words)

 

Green....you get all of your playtime minutes

 

Yellow...warning...you've lost 10 minutes

 

Orange...look out you're in danger of losing all of your minutes

 

Red.....that's it for you bud, a letter goes home to your parents and you're in big trouble

 

The first thing that came to my mind was the terror alert system that they have in the states!! I'm pretty sure my kids wouldn't know that because we don't watch news with them but still I was a little disturbed. They wanted our opinions about it and I told them what I thought of first and also told them that I thought they already had enough play time in a day.

 

Did I miss something here? Am I being one sided and not seeing the big picture??

 

Would love to hear your thoughts on this!!

Go-Go Green!

 Alright , who can guess how long it takes two teenage boys, 15 & 13, and a middle aged mom (pushing 40, lol) to move a 72 inch tall wardrobe up to a second floor bedroom??

Oh, did I mention that the stairs we go up take a 90 degree turn? You go up 6 steps to a small landing (32 in x 40 in) then make a turn to go up 5 more steps.

And that our upstairs hallway is only 6 1/2 feet at the tallest point because it's a story and a half which means that the ceilings slant downwards towards the walls and meet them about half way up? So that means we had to try and stand the wardrobe up in between the space in the ceiling that was made when we put a dormer in, so the ceiling right in front of the window was a bit higher than the rest of the ceiling. Lucky for us it's right outside the bedroom door.

And did I mention that my son's room is only 75 inches tall, which means in turn that the doorway is at least a little shorter than that?

Did I mention that we never even bothered to measure any of this before we started our journey? But, we should have known better because not too long ago we had quite an experience trying to move a loveseat with a hide a bed in it up the same stairs!!

So has anyone made a guess yet??LOL

Well, let's just say we were a little shy of two hours into our move when hubby finally decided to come home from the fair at about 8:45 and remove the door frame from around the bedroom so we could fit the wardrobe, that we finally got standing straight up in the hallway outside the door, through into it's final resting place. And let me tell you that sucker is only coming out of there in pieces!!!LOL

When we had it half way up and thought we were at an impass, I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to PIMP!! LOL  The whole situation was just so funny and the boys were crawling around and under and over while we were trying to figure out how to get it to go up anymore, lol!!

Oh ya, and were you wondering at the title of my post 'Go-Go Green'? Wellllll...yep...that's what the paint color was called that my son picked out, lol!!

So I have some advice for anyone who may purchase an old story and a half farm house with 90 degree stairs in the corner....don't ever plan on moving a large piece of furniture upstairs without a heck of a struggle, lol!!

I do have to mention that poor Hannah was so tired and just couldn't wait any longer, so at one point around 9 pm when I was sanwiched between it and the wall and holding it on it's side while Mike was trying to get the door off, Hannah came up the stairs looking for me and said, 'Can somebody please move that thing so I can get to my mommy! I need to sit on her lap!" Toooo adorable!!

The Wardrobe

 I spent the morning watching an excellent movie, I would give it two thumbs up!!  High Crimes with Ashely Judd, it also had Morgan Freeman in it, I love him! I've been waiting to see that one and just kept missing it.

 

I purchased a wardrobe in the spring for Colin's bedroom as we don't have too many closets here in the old farmhouse. Well we finally got the wardrobe all painted after a trip to the store to get a roller, as the brush was just leaving too many streaks. It's a nice lime green, his favourite color. And yes, it sure is bright, lol! We went outside to check on it and see if it was dry and what do we find coming down the road???...well a bunch of our cows!!! Right down the middle of the road like they owned it, lol, and there were enough of them that they did!!heehee! Anyway we got them all rounded up and back into the pasture.

 

When we were in town we picked up some sugar cones and some Pralines and Cream ice cream and had a nice refreshing cone sitting in the gorgeous sunshine this afternoon. Right now Colin is making us some burgers and he says I'm in charge of the fries so I had best boogie, lol. Still no word from my oldest son and Mike isn't home yet either, so I guess it's just the four of us.

 

Hugs, Joni

ANyone Watch Oprah:

 I'm loving her season so far! She is making people's 'Wildest Dreams Come True' and I absolutely love to see her making ordinary people like me soooooo happy!!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to give you all a heads up about Monday's show, because I'm pretty sure at least some of you ladies have as big a crush on John Travolta as I do!!!lol

 

Here's what it said about her show on Monday:

MONDAY'S SHOW: John Travolta and Real Life Heroes

John Travolta's on special assignment...with Joaquin Phoenix! Plus, a reunion not to be missed and a special tribute to Oprah's special friend Mattie Stepanek.

 

John and Joaquin are in a new movie about the comoraderie(sp?) between firefighters, I saw the trailers the other day and it looks good.

 

I'm also looking forward to seeing the special tribute to Mattie Stepanek. He was such a brave and insightful little guy who had wisdom way beyond his years. I'm sure I'll need a box of kleenex for that one.

Good Morning...or is it? lol

 Well here it is the second morning of school

and we have missed the bus both mornings!!

 

They have started a new bus system here and they are

staggered now, which means the high school kids go early in

the morning and then the same buses go around again and take

the elementary school children an hour later.

 

This morning it was Cody who missed the early bus and

as I was on my way home I went by the younger kids bus that

was once again 10 minutes early, thank goodness I had told them

to be at road waiting very early this morning.

 

We've lived here for 10 years now and only missed the bus

about 3 or 4 times in all those years so I certainly hope they get

the times straightened out because Mike or I won't be here

tomorrow morning to drive them if they miss it.

 

Anyway I wanted to let you all know that if I dissappear it's because

my computer has been invaded with spyware!! I thought it was running

pretty darned slow and we kept getting booted. I was up last nite

investigating and found tons of programs that aren't supposed to

be there such as WebHancer.

 

Has anyone here tried the free AdAware downloads you can get on

the net to rid your computer of Spyware?

I'm going to try one that I've found recommended at alot of places

so if I'm gone for awhile you'll know why, lol!!

UPDATE....4:03 PM....

Well believe it or not, I've about had it right now with this computer!!

 

I downloaded the program to get rid of the spyware problem and then when it deleted my 300 and some bad files, it wouldn't let me get back on the internet again!! I have been all afternoon talking to AOL who tried to get me back on to no avail. and finally I went back to the AdAlert program and it saves the quarantined files so you can reinstall them if need be and here I am!!

 

Gotta go now though because I'm sick of sitting in this chair, lol, and Cody would like some time on the internet now that I have it back, lol.

 

I'll be back later ladies.

 

So how's YOUR day going?!

The First Day Back to School

 Well we had quite a morning here!lol But I made it through it all without any tears!!! We were all up pretty early. Mike couldn't resist waking Hannah up at 6:30 to say goodbye to her and wish her a good day at school before he left for work. Then Cody dragged his butt out of bed at 6:45 (he went to bed early last nite) and the other two weren't far behind. I got Cody's sandwich made and he was out the door by 7:30 to catch his bus and he even had time to take the garbage out for me. I made the rest of the lunches (4 now....ughhhh...I hate making school lunches, lol) and the two boys were dressed and ready to go at 8:05 (the bus was due to come at 8:22). I was packing Hannah's backpack, trying to stuff the lunchbag and running shoes and all the rest of her supplies in it when Colin starts yelling that the bus is at the house next door!!! Well I still had Hannah's hair to do (it's long and curly to the top of her pants and takes more than a few seconds, lol) and the clock was reading 8:09 when the bus stopped in front of the house. Colin went ahead and got on and Colton decided he would wait and go with Hannah and I because I would have to drive her to school as there was no way we could catch it. What a wonderful way to start the first day back eh? LOL So I dropped them at school which doesn't start till 9:15 and I'm thinking 'Wow, they must have a looooong bus ride this year!' I didn't even have enough time to get upset, lol, with all the rushing around I did!! I am just very greatful that I was here this morning, because what will happen if they miss the bus and Mike and I are not home!!!! I can't wait until the kids get home from school to tell me all about their first day!!!!

Update later that day....

They all made out wonderfully even though the little ones were not home from school till 5:00! Their bus was a half an hour late, that meant they were gone from 8:09 the first morning till 5 that same day, way too long as far as I'm concerned! Then they are expected to come home and do homework too. Cody, who is in high school, has had about two hours of homework both nites so far. And who would figure that in Grade 10 you would still be coloring in maps, LOL!!

 

Of course our local talk radio program here in the mornings has been filled with nothing but complaints about the new bussing system and about some kids that weren't even picked up!! I surely hope they get it straightened out very soon. I'm just hoping that things go well tomorrow morning when Mike and I are both gone to work already.

 

Hannah is just way too excited to go to bed tonite but Mike finally managed to lure her upstairs, lol! If she had her way she'd be there everyday I'm sure!

The First Day Back to School

 Well we had quite a morning here!lol But I made it through it all without any tears!!! We were all up pretty early. Mike couldn't resist waking Hannah up at 6:30 to say goodbye to her and wish her a good day at school before he left for work. Then Cody dragged his butt out of bed at 6:45 (he went to bed early last nite) and the other two weren't far behind. I got Cody's sandwich made and he was out the door by 7:30 to catch his bus and he even had time to take the garbage out for me. I made the rest of the lunches (4 now....ughhhh...I hate making school lunches, lol) and the two boys were dressed and ready to go at 8:05 (the bus was due to come at 8:22). I was packing Hannah's backpack, trying to stuff the lunchbag and running shoes and all the rest of her supplies in it when Colin starts yelling that the bus is at the house next door!!! Well I still had Hannah's hair to do (it's long and curly to the top of her pants and takes more than a few seconds, lol) and the clock was reading 8:09 when the bus stopped in front of the house. Colin went ahead and got on and Colton decided he would wait and go with Hannah and I because I would have to drive her to school as there was no way we could catch it. What a wonderful way to start the first day back eh? LOL So I dropped them at school which doesn't start till 9:15 and I'm thinking 'Wow, they must have a looooong bus ride this year!' I didn't even have enough time to get upset, lol, with all the rushing around I did!! I am just very greatful that I was here this morning, because what will happen if they miss the bus and Mike and I are not home!!!! I can't wait until the kids get home from school to tell me all about their first day!!!!

Update later that day....

They all made out wonderfully even though the little ones were not home from school till 5:00! Their bus was a half an hour late, that meant they were gone from 8:09 the first morning till 5 that same day, way too long as far as I'm concerned! Then they are expected to come home and do homework too. Cody, who is in high school, has had about two hours of homework both nites so far. And who would figure that in Grade 10 you would still be coloring in maps, LOL!!

 

Of course our local talk radio program here in the mornings has been filled with nothing but complaints about the new bussing system and about some kids that weren't even picked up!! I surely hope they get it straightened out very soon. I'm just hoping that things go well tomorrow morning when Mike and I are both gone to work already.

 

Hannah is just way too excited to go to bed tonite but Mike finally managed to lure her upstairs, lol! If she had her way she'd be there everyday I'm sure!

I Just Heard...

 ..this crazy song on the t.v.!!lol

 

I'm listening to Galaxie, which is a horde of music stations available on the satellite through your t.v. No pictures, just music. Well my favourite Galaxie station is the Country Oldies, lol.

 

Believe it or not this song called:

"It's hard to kiss the lips at nite,

that chew your a$$ out all night long!"

 

TOO FUNNY!!! Of course you know they were complaining about their wives who no nothing but nag them all day( ya right, lol) The last line was

"It's alright to say it,

cuz the radio won't play it"

 

I laughed out loud when I heard it and it comes from a C.D. that's called 'The Notorious Cherry Bombs'. Sounds very interesting indeed!!lol

Labour Day Weekend

 Who else is having a long weekend?

 

What have you got planned?

 

I'm working the whole weekend and today I had to work laundry and housekeeping because no one else showed up, lol.

 

Tonite the kids are having a bonfire and then Colin's friends are sleeping over in the tent. Colton's friend will be sleeping over with him in the house. I've bought lots of mallows to roast and wienies too, lol. Could be quite an experience!

 

Tomorrow I'm stopping in to see my girlfriend on the way home from work. Can't wait to see her newest little guy, she says he's growing like a weed!

Mike tells people not to let me hold their babies, because he thinks I start to get those ideas again, lol!

 

I hope you are all having a good weekend!

Long Weekend

 Who else is having a long weekend?

 

What have you got planned?

 

I'm working the whole weekend and today I had to work laundry and housekeeping because no one else showed up, lol.

 

Tonite the kids are having a bonfire and then Colin's friends are sleeping over in the tent. Colton's friend will be sleeping over with him in the house. I've bought lots of mallows to roast and wienies too, lol. Could be quite an experience!

 

Tomorrow I'm stopping in to see my girlfriend on the way home from work. Can't wait to see her newest little guy, she says he's growing like a weed!

Mike tells people not to let me hold their babies, because he thinks I start to get those ideas again, lol!

 

I hope you are all having a good weekend!

Natural Disasters

 Have you all heard about this?

 

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) - Residents and tourists in cars, trucks and campers clogged highways Thursday in the biggest evacuation ever ordered in Florida, fleeing inland as mighty Hurricane Frances threatened the state with its second battering in three weeks.

About 2.5 million residents were told to clear out ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in a decade. Other people in the 300-mile stretch covered by the hurricane warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters, and buy water, gas and canned food.

Already a Category 4 storm with 145-mph winds and the potential to push ashore waves up to 15 feet high, Frances could make itself felt in the state by midmorning Friday.

At 2 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 410 miles southeast of West Palm Beach and was moving at close to 13 mph.

This could be the first time since 1950 that two major storms have hit Florida so close together. On Aug. 13, Hurricane Charley splintered billions of dollars worth of homes, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and killed 27 people when it tore across the state.

Charley's example - and Frances' tremendous size - prodded people like Linda Silvestri, 58, to get out of the way. Silvestri, who lives in Palm Bay on the central Florida coast, headed inland to Gainesville to be near a hospital because she just received a kidney transplant.

``I hope I have a house when I get back,'' she said.

The hurricane warning covered most of the state's eastern coast, from Florida City, near the state's southern tip, to Flagler Beach, north of Daytona Beach. Forecasters could not say with certainty where Frances would come ashore, just that it would strike late Friday or early Saturday.

About 14.6 million of Florida's 17 million people live in the areas under hurricane watches and warnings.

Residents and tourists streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Traffic backed up for miles on sections of Interstate 95, the main north-south highway along the state's east coast, and was also heavy on parts of I-4, which crosses the peninsula to connect Daytona Beach, Orlando and Tampa.

Geoff Connors of Fort Pierce sat in a line of about 50 cars slowly merging onto I-95 in Fort Pierce. He had enough cash and clothes to get through about five days, though he wasn't sure where he would end up.

``I figured it was smarter to get out of here now. It was a snap decision,'' Connors said.

Most people who were told to leave were in South Florida - 300,000 in Palm Beach County, 250,000 in Broward County and 320,000 in Miami-Dade County. All of Miami Beach, with its Art Deco hotels and flashy nightclubs and restaurants, was under an evacuation order.

The storm and the evacuations it forces are certain to spoil Labor Day outings and make a mess of holiday travel across the Southeast.

Erika and Brian Marwood, who moved from Colorado to Orlando two months ago and huddled in their bathroom with glow sticks and candles while Charley rushed overhead, made their way this time to a Holiday Inn in Tifton, Ga.

``We thought we were doing a good thing getting away from the snow, but there are no hurricanes in Colorado,'' Erika Marwood said.

Gov. Jeb Bush asked his brother President Bush to declare Florida a federal disaster area and make storm victims eligible for recovery aid.

Federal officials promised they had enough people and supplies in the state to handle two disaster-relief operations at once.

``We were successful with Charley because we were massive, overwhelming and fast. For this event I want us to be massive, overwhelming and fast squared,'' said Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

People flocked to airports, hoping to get out before all flights were grounded. Some trudged through long lines at ticket counters only to find their flights had been canceled. Hotels and motels inland filled up, and gas stations ran dry.

Florida rescinded tolls on major roads and said lanes on some highways may be reversed to handle the evacuation traffic. State officials hoped to avoid a repeat of the mess during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, when 1.3 million people were told to evacuate the state's east coast and traffic backed up 30 miles or more.

The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral was ordered completely evacuated for the first time because of the dual threats of high wind and storm surge.

Many businesses along the Atlantic coast began closing Wednesday. Stores that were open were stripped of bottled water and canned goods, and long lines formed outside home supply stores as people hoped for a chance to buy scarce plywood or generators. The arrival of a delivery truck was met with raucous applause in Palm Beach County.

Jenny Stimpson, 32, joined hundreds of others at a Wal-Mart in Stuart hunting for last-minute supplies but could find only ice. She said she bought 25 bags because ``everywhere you go, you better grab something because it won't be there if you go back later.''

Frances is as strong as Charley, and twice its size, with hurricane-force wind extending up to 80 miles from its center, said Stephen Baig, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Frances is also about twice the size of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the Category 5 storm that destroyed much of southern Miami-Dade County.

The last time two major storms hit Florida so close together was 54 years ago, when Hurricane Easy hit the Tampa area and Hurricane King struck Miami about six weeks later. Neither storm was as powerful as Charley or Frances.

09/02/04 17:24 EDT