Today we started a program that says if you follow the program as it is set out you will be able to do 100 consecutive proper form push-ups in six weeks.

We did our initial test to see what our starting points are.

Chris was the big winner at 15 proper form push-ups  followed by Jordan at 2 proper form push-ups (10 that were not proper form as he did not go all the way to the ground) and I brought up the rear by not being able to complete even a single proper form push-up.  So, I switched to one of the alternate forms (on my knees) and was able to do 11 before I could not do another one.

Annie has said that she is joining us.  I didn't get her initial numbers, but I bet she can beat the three of us without even trying hard.

Would anyone like to join us on our journey?  Here is the website http://hundredpushups.com   You can join us or you can do it on your own or with another support group.

Chris is in India with the camera.  He is talking about playing golf this weekend at the Hyderabad Country Club.  His trip to India was relatively uneventful considering his first flight was canceled.  Then because he didn't make his canceled flight Continental canceled the rest of his reservations.  Luckily it was straightened out before it even became an issue.  No lost luggage or overly late planes so far this trip.

 

The house is officially on the market, sign in the front yard and everything.  Our first showing is in the morning.  Unfortunately I will be at the office as my laptop is having software issues and I have to go to the office to get a new anti-virus program installed.  I can't surf the 'net and Google different companies clicking on links to unknown websites w/o the virus protections.  So, I made arrangements with the IT guy to have him call me at the office in the morning.  After I made those arrangements the real estate lady called and said she was going to show the house.  Jordan will be home alone (note to self....make sure Sue knows not to lock the doors behind herself.) and will have to take the dogs for a walk when Sue and the people show up.

 

Tomorrow evening Jordan will be testing for his Yellow Belt in Karate.  (SInce Chris has the camera I won't be able to take pictures---I'm kind of sad about that.)  Saturday morning he will go back to the karate classroom to do some extra training with the competition team.  Maybe he'll want to join the competition team.  That would be really cool.  Sunday will be a nice boring day (yay!).  Monday is Open House at the school and karate.  Tuesday I have to go to T-Town as I need to see the doctor.  (I am having a personal kind of issue and need the doctor to take a look.)  Wednesday school starts and Thursday Chris comes home. 

 

Hopefully there will be people that want to come see the house over the weekend, too.  Maybe it will sell quickly and we can get moved to T-town sooner than later.  Of course this does pose a problem with Jordan and karate....I hope it will be easy to find a karate school in T-town that is as good as this one.  I've already asked Mr. Eaves to recommend a school, and he said professional courtesy prevented him from doing so, but he gave me pointers on how to pick out a good school.  I kind of got the idea that there are a couple of schools down there that he would like us to not use...but he can't tell them by name.

 

Sorry, no new pictures.  Maybe next time.

This morning we are outside wandering around showing off our cool property to Sue, our real estate lady. It is the hottest day of the year and the yard is crunchy it is so dry. I happen to look toward the muscadine vines and I see this HUGE snake skin laying in my yard. I gasp loudly and hide behind Jordan ('cause I'm brave like that.)

Chris is all: Ooohhhh and ahhhh.

Sue is "I'm so glad you saw it, because if I had I would have had a heart attack."

Jordan is laughing at me

I'm standing there like an idiot saying: "But, I declared this a snake free zone!!"

 

Chris picks the skin up and it is really big....then we notice that part of the skin broke off down in the hole the snake went into. Yay. There is a huge @ss damn snake living in the ground between the house and the muscadines and blueberries. I'm freaking out and can not stop myself from scanning the brown crunchy grass for a huge snake.
Chris is all: "It's under ground keeping cool"
I'm all: "It could be hiding in the muscadines keeping cool and looking for something to eat."
Chris is all: "You don't know anything about snakes."
I shut up (Not because he's right, but because I'm not going to argue with him about snakes in front of Sue.)
Jordan is trying to get Baron to sniff the skin, play with the skin, or something....Baron took one whiff and proceeded to tuck tail and try to run. (Smart dog)

After Sue leaves I grab the camera and go to take some pictures....because I really and truly am trying to get over this phobia.
This snake is at least four feet long...I know this because Jordan is almost five feet and there was several inches of skin left down in the hole.

It is looking like the neighbor's are going to buy the house if the financing comes through. 

Chris and I have been pre-qualified for much more than we were anticipating getting.  We will be in T-Town this weekend looking at houses and making plans.

 

School starts in just over two weeks.  I have to decide what to buy and what not to buy for Jordan as the dress code between the two school districts are vastly different.  Here there is no shorts and hair can not touch the collar.  There he will be able to wear shorts and have his hair long.  Also, here there are three different teachers/classes that need crayons or colored pencils--some to stay in the class and some to stay in the binders.  I have no idea what will be needed in the new school and I certainly don't want to waste money by buying stuff for here that he won't need there.

 

 

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Houston for a friends wedding. My plan was to leave the hotel on Sunday morning, go to the cemetery, and then back to my BFF's house for the rest of my visit.  I was flexible and nothing was written in stone, so when the opportunity arose for me to take two of my newly met in person friends to the airport for their flight home I was more than happy to volunteer for the task.  The airport is on the way, just a couple of miles off the freeway and back, no big deal. 

Kelly, Tiffany and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.  I had a very yummy Waldorf Chicken Salad that I'm going to have to try and duplicate here at the house.  Then it was off to find Kelly a souvenir or two for her children and finally to the airport.  At first I was not at all concerned about getting around the airport.  Sure, it's been seven years since I was there but it all looked the same and getting them to the drop-off point was no big deal.  Hugs and farewells were exchanged and off I took.  I wanted I45, not I59, so I started following signs---I must have missed one because suddenly I had no idea where I was (although I knew if I turned around I could find the airport again.)  Then my BFF called to see where I was and how long it would be before I showed up at her house.  I explained where I was and she told me how to find my way to the freeway.  I missed another sign, or turn, or something because I found myself going the exact opposite way from where I wanted to be going.  I was getting more and more frustrated (do you know how much gas is?  Here I was wasting it on just driving around---I had things to do and people to see!).  Eventually I found myself on I59, so I knew where I was and how to get to the cemetery.  I was lost and driving extra places for over an hour.

I finally got on the road that the cemetery was on.  It has grown up so much!  Not at all the 'quiet' road that it was seven years ago.  New subdivision, gas stations, a Wal~Mart SuperCenter and dozens of fast food chains have sprouted up in the area.  I remembered the cemetery being hard to spot if you were going the speed limit and I remembered the landmark that was the sign to start slowing down.  Luckily that hasn't changed and I did not miss the entrance to the cemetery nor did I have to slam on my brakes in order to make the turn.  I drove around to the back where the Garden of the Innocence is, parked the car, got out, and immediately started bawling my eyes out.  I was not prepared for that.  I didn't expect to cry.  I'd been so matter of fact about the whole 'seeing Samuel's Spot' that the emotions that go along with it surprised me.  It had been seven years since I'd been there and I had forgotten that it wasn't easy.  So many new gravestones have been added, so many new broken hearts and life changing events.  I took a  couple of pictures before I walked up to try to find Samuel's Spot.

When Samuel was first buried here the grave markers did not extend to or beyond the statue of the little girl.

I  sobbed and cried for a few minutes.  Sat down beside his marker (making sure not to sit on anyone else's Angle).  I replaced his worn faded flowers that the cemetery workers put into vases when the old stuff starts looking too bad, with fresh fake flowers.  I took a picture.

Then I wandered the cemetery looking at the new markers and at some of the old ones that I remembered, like the triplet babies and the sisters buried side by side.  I mourned for all the old and new angels alike.  I ached for all of the parents, grandparents, and other loved ones left behind.  I spotted two markers side by side that are sunken into the ground.  I can only hope that the cemetery workers see it and get them leveled out before the parents come by for a visit and have their hearts torn up because their angel isn't getting good care.  The breeze was blowing making the wind chimes sing and dance, but there aren't as many as there used to be.  Samuel's wind chime is gone and the cemetery has a new rule saying that safety regulations keep them from putting up new chimes.  Soon, the Angel children that I have always envisioned running and playing making the wind chimes play will be silent forever.

Just like Samuel.

Jordan has officially finished the 6th grade.  Once again he was on the A-Honor roll and received four awards at the schools Awards Day.  We couldn't be more proud of him.  He has discovered the true joy of reading and has devoured a couple of books in the past week.  Maybe now he will go back and read some of the books he has been given through the years.  Hopefully they aren't too young for him now.

 

He went with Grandma and Grandpa Clifford to St. Louis to visit Great Grandma Clifford over Memorial Day weekend.  He had a good time visiting with Grandma and her new cat, and had a blast at Sandy and Joe's playing with Scott's dog, Winston.  When he finally got home Thurday he dropped a jar of mayonnaise on his toe and nearly broke it.  It is very swollen and purple...he may end up losing his toe nail.  It didn't stop him from doing his best in Karate later in the day, though.  He's been in karate for about six weeks now and received his first 'stripe' yesterday.  If he keeps his attitude and his determination up I don't see why he wouldn't get his yellow belt within a couple of months.

 

Check out the May pictures!

We got up Saturday morning and after getting packed and organized headed over to Tupelo for a short visit.  We kept food and water from Darcy for most of the morning and managed to give her the motion sickness pills the vet advised us to use.  She didn't throw up this time!  Unfortunately she did have a bit of diarrehea.  At least it happened on the sheet we put down just in case this type of thing happened.  We pulled over at the rest area and I managed to rinse off most of the stink before wadding the sheet back up and putting it back in the car.

 

After we got to Tupelo Chris and Dad headed off to Elvis Presley State Park for a bit of mountain biking.  Dad really enjoys it.  Chris, not so much.  Chris keeps trying to explain to me that it isn't the physical-ness part of the riding that he doesn't enjoy---it is the ratio of risk of broken neck/bones to enjoyment that is not in Chris's favor.

 

While Chris and Dad were out risking life and limb I headed off to PetSmart to get the Dragon a new UVA/UVB light.  Unfortunately for me my fear of snakes has not lessened any and once I spied the little suckers moving around in their cages I couldn't force myself down the aisle I needed to go down.  I managed to see what I needed, but I couldn't force myself to put my back to the moving snakes to get it off the peg.  Luckily a nice lady happened to walk by; she saw me standing there shaking and she offered me her assistance.  With her help I was able to pick up the much needed light for the Dragon.  (He's been 'sunless' for about at least three weeks.)

 

We all finally got back to Mom and Dad's where she had a most yummy meal prepared in celebration of my birthday. (a week late, but I'm not complaining as they were out of town.)  We had brownies with ice cream and hot fudge for desert.  No wonder I gained two pounds.  ~sigh~  There were a couple of presents, too.  Paul gave me a purple crystal dragon that lights up; very cool and I have it on my desk here in the office.  Annie, John and the girls gave me a most gorgeous purple stone necklace.  The stone is a Charoite and the necklace is just beautiful.  I can't wait until I am wearing it with an appropriate outfit to show it off and get pictures taken. 

 

Sunday was a lazy day.  Chris and Dad played golf and the rest of us did nothing.  Late afternoon we (Chris, Paul, Jordan and I) went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie.  It was a good movie and was enjoyed by all four of us.  Chris, Jordan and I got home in plenty of time for Jordan to get to bed on time.

 

Today was Awards Day at Jordan's school.  He received four awards this year: an award for participating in the Living Wax Museum, one for AR reading, he had the highest grade point average in his Science class, and he got an award for being on the all A-Honor Roll.  After the awards was field day at the school and since Jordan has an 'issue' right now, we just brought him home so the 'issue' wouldn't be aggravated by being hot and sweaty.

I had a great weekend and was treated like a queen.  Saturday morning I slept in until 9:00, I proceeded to make a grocery list, and sor laundry.  Chris and Jordan went to the grocery store they made supper and baked a cake.  I got to clean out, straighten, organize my closet at my leisure while watching TV and doing laundry.  Chris created a really yummy baked chicken recipe that was just too awesome.

I went to bed Saturday night and had my sleep interupted at least four times by the weather radio going off announcing severe thunderstorms and/or tornados in the county.  None of them were within 20 miles of us, so I would promtly go back to sleep.  Until the one that went off at 1:30---I proceeded to get out of bed to see if Chris was aware of the weather and walked in on him preparing my birthday/Mother's Day surprise.  Oops.  At least I didn't have my glasses on so I didn't see details.  All I saw was a fish tank.

We got up early on Mother's Day because the plan was to go to Tupelo to pick up Chris's golf clubs from his folks house (they are in Boston visiting Annie, John, and the girls), eat brunch at IHOP, hit Kroger for some good quality steaks and then off to PetSmart for some Dragon supplies...now I got to pick some fish, too.

My fish tank is great!  It is the perfect desk top size and I've got nine little fish in it, six guppies, two platies and an algea eater.  I love it.  See the picture below.

We got home, I took a nap while Chris watched some golf.  He started fixing supper while I watched the Survivor season finale.  I got several phone calls from several people singing "Happy Birthday".  Loretta's sweet little voice was one of the best, though.  Tressa and Christopher called and even Steve called to wish me a Happy Birthday. 

I had a great weekend.

I'm having serious doubts about letting Jordan continue to ride the bus to and from school.  He's complained about Ms. LuNell since day one and I've brushed his complaints off as being-well-childish.

These are some of his complaints:

• Not being allowed to have the windows down on hot days.  My response was: The bus has an air conditioner, she doesn't think the windows need to be down.  He's come home with a soaking wet head from sweat.  Maybe they should be allowed to put the windows down.
• She hit a UPS truck.
• She took the mirror off of another vehicle.
• She won't let the kids talk in normal tones of voice.
• She drives too fast
• She drives too slow
• She has zero patience.  If you are not waiting on the bus she will leave you behind.  She drove off w/o a child once because he wasn't outside when she stopped.  She picked up his siblings, but wouldn't wait on him as he was running after the bus.
• There have been numerous times that she's taken the kids back to the school and just sat there waiting on them to quiet down.

You know we live on a dead end road that only has four homes on it.  The only reason the bus comes down our road is to pick up Jordan.  Two of the other homes have school aged kids, but their parents either drive them to school or they are old enough to drive themselves.  The bus uses our driveway to turn around.  She acts like she owns this particular section of our circular driveway.  If there is ever anything blocking the driveway she makes Jordan tell us to move it.  She's even had Jordan tell us that we needed to trim the bushes because they were scraping the bus.  Thursday morning we had some work done on the house so Chris parked our car on the bus side of the driveway and forgot to move it.  LuNell drives up, drops Jordan off and proceeds to try to get around the car.  (Remember we forgot he'd moved the car.)  She pulled up a little, back a little, then up a little and back a little....then she drove through our yard!  She didn't honk to try to get us to move the car, she didn't do squat!  Except run over and kill a bush, then she proceeded to almost hit the house and our second car....then she drove through the ditch to get back on the road!

She killed one of our bushes and left tire tracks in the yard and through the ditch.  Chris, being his sarcastic wonderfully funny self went out and bought some poster board and created a 'tombstone' for the bush.  He put it out Friday morning after Jordan had left for school.  When the bus dropped Jordan off Friday afternoon you could hear the kids hooting, hollering, and laughing all the way into the house.  We are still undecided on whether or not to call the school and complain.

Oh, later we learned that she debated on whether or not to come down the road to get Jordan Friday morning.  I wonder when the old bat is going to retire?

Friday evening Jordan was invited to 'Buddy Night' at the local karate school.  It was a three hour event and he had a lot of fun.  At the end of the night, the leader invited all the buddies back the next morning to show their parents what was learned and to break a board.  Jordan expressed an interest in it, so we took him back Saturday morning.  Chris and I were impressed by how the leader (Mr. Eades) got the kids to do what he wanted and expected from them.  At the end of some basic skills the kids got up one by one and kicked a board breaking it in two.  Jordan did it in four tries.

 

Even after the class Jordan was still interested in joining.  The normal sign up fee with uniform is right around $200.  The special, if we signed him up then, was $50.  The monthly fee is $89 and we had to sign a one year contract.  We signed him up.  Mr. Eades was saying that even if the kids decided they didn't want to go to class that evening we parents are to pick them up kicking and screaming to bring them in anyway.  At the end of class they will be glad they came.

 

Boy Wonder better enjoy this and do his best.
Crap!  We just spent over $1,000 on an unknown with the kid.  I hope we didn't make a monetary mistake.

Last Sunday night as I was laying in bed sound asleep as a body should be at around 2:15 in the morning.  I was suddenly awakened by a woman screaming outside the house.  I jumped out of bed, snatched my glasses and was running towards the front door as the sounds I was hearing finally registered as the cat screeching and growling at something that was obviously attacking her.  When I snatched the front door open and ran out onto the porch two decent sized dogs ran off.  I hollered at them to leave my cat alone and was just about to walk barefoot into the yard to find OC, when a third yet smaller dog ran off.  Just when I thought my heart was going to burst from fear for OC, she took off like a white streak towards the back of the house. 

I tried to find her but I was barefoot, it was dark, and she was scared.  So, we all went back to bed.

When I put Baron out this morning he was practically immediately attacked by the same two bigger 'dogs'.  But being a Dachsund means that he thinks he is bigger than he is; so he held his ground, raised his hackles and proceeded to run them off as far as the chain would let him.  So, I chased them off.  I'm sure the kids on Jordan's bus are now scared of me....stomping through the grass in my slippers, my hair still up in a towel, yelling and screaming at those 'dogs'.  The dogs didn't run far so, I brought Baron in and put Darcy out.  Since Darcy is bigger and half German Shephard I figured just her size would keep the dogs away.  But, nope, they came running up to her to 'attack' her.  This is when I realized that these 'dogs' are half-grown puppies.  Okay.  Fine.  They probably can't hurt Darcy as she is twice thier size---but they could put a serious hurt on Baron or OC. 

Chris and I figure these dog/pups are new to the area as a new house was built just across the highway and I believe the people moved in over the weekend.  These two dog/pups are going to grow and be mean---they look like they have some Chow or some PitBull or something else mean and viscous in their blood.  Maybe they are just Curs (is that a specific breed or is that another way of saying 'mutt'?).  Anyway.  They need to leave my cat and my dogs alone.

It took about three hours after we got up before she showed up.  She looked pretty terrible, no outward scratches, bite marks or blood and we gave her a pretty good all over, pat down/squeeze.  Since she didn't do anything but keep purring and being limp we  assumed that she was just good and scared---maybe a little mauled but w/o injuries.  She definitely was not acting her normal 'pet me pet me pet ME!' self.  She was just laying on the ground all limp and sick looking.  I took one of her winter blankets that I had already put up for the year and put it on the corner of the porch and wrapped her up in it.  She didn't even wriggle a little to get more comfortable....she just kept her eyes closed and her putt motor running.  She was filthy, with grass, sticks, a touch of blood (but not from her) and it looked like she'd been rolled in some ashes.  I was hoping she would feel safe enough to take a good long warm snooze and then clean herself up. 

She did not do so well on Monday and at about 3:45 we brought her into the house and laid her in Darcy's crate so she would be warm and feel safe.  She refused a can of tuna and only half-heartedly lapped at some milk.  She yawned once and I noticed she is missing one of her bottom fangs.  She spent the night in the crate, over 15 hours actually.  No food, no liquid, and she never asked to get out or to go potty.  When it came time to go to work Tuesday morning (we had to go to the office) we had to put her in Baron's crate on the front porch.   When we got home she was gone.  I called and called and I looked and looked I even hoped she was under the house.  I bought some nice soft gooshie canned cat food for her so she can eat while her gums heal.  But she didn't showed up.

All day Wednesday I couldn't concentrate on work.  So right after Jordan got home I put on some grungy clothes and went to crawl under the house.  I got down on my hands and knees; flashlight in hand and opened the crawl space.  I could NOT make myself crawl in there.  So, I thought I'd walk around the property a bit to see if maybe she was holed up somewhere else---while I screwed up enough courage to crawl under the house.  Chris and I were looking at the scrub brush when Chris decided it was too dangerous to enter (snakes, ticks, sticker bushes, etc..)  He started to walk away towards some other tall grass when I happened to catch a spot of white.  I had found OC, she was hiding under a green bush in the middle of some sticker bushes.  She meowed at me when she saw that I had spotted her.  So, I crawled through the stickers and pulled her out.

I carried her to the front porch and she purred the entire way.  Acted thrilled to be found and like she felt safe and secure in my arms.  I ran into the house to get her a can of gushy food; when I came back out she was at her food dish trying to eat, but she couldn't pick any of the hard food up in order to chew it.  When I offered her the canned food she immediately set about lapping up all the juices, but she never did actually 'eat' the chunkier pieces.  I tried to look in her mouth to see what kind of wound there is, but she wouldn't let me open it up.  She had a limp, too.  She's favoring her right back leg.  But, she never protested or meowed or gots ticked when we ran our hands up and down her leg, and made it bend and stuff.  When she got through lapping at her food, she proceeded to lay in the sun.  We showed her the crate again and left her alone.  She laid in the sun until it got cool.  Then she is curled up in the crate all comfy and cozy.

When we got up Thursday morning she was not on the porch, but that was not really a surprise.  More of her food had been eaten, which made me smile.  We had to go to T-town again so I wasn't able to keep an eye on her and baby her like I wanted.  When we got home from work and she wasn't in any of her usual afternoon 'haunts', I went to look for her.  I headed to the place we found her on Wednesday and found her as she was limping out to meet me all tail flipping and meowing.  I tried to get her to follow me all the way to the house: about a 100 yards, and she made it about half-way, then laid down and mewed and flipped her tail at me.  I took Baron with me just so the little guy could get some exercise off the chain.  OC's never given Baron a second glance as she is bigger than he is.  Now she is so shook up about dogs that she could not stand for Baron to be behind her.  This makes me sad.  I carried her the rest of the way to the porch and brought out fresh gooshy food for her.  She ate about 2/3's of the can in bits and spurts.  (one of those small sized cans similar to Fancy Feast, but not FF.)  After cleaning up I went back out to check on her and found her hiding in the Monkey Grass.  She came up onto the porch; but her leg is bothering her so much she almost didn't make it up the steps.

Friday morning when I got up she was on the front porch demanding her breakfast!  She ate the whole (small) can of gooshie food and nosed at the crunchy.  She's finally given herself a really good bath.  Now her eyes are clear and muck-free.  She's still limping quite a bit, but she is able to get up and down from the porch w/o too much trouble.  She ignored Baron while he was on the porch with her.
She ate a little crunchy food Friday afternoon.  When I went out to sit on the porch and enjoy the weather she came over to try to love on me.  She did the head butt thing a couple of times, and she did the 'extend the paw until it contacts the thin pants, and flex the claws until they puncture holes in the material, and gently prick the skin' thing....many times. 

The strange dogs haven't been back.  I hope they stay away, too.  It's going to be hard enough for OC to remain an  Outside Cat whit a missing fang without having to defend herself from stray dogs.  As it is right now, she won't get anywhere close to Darcy, and they used to be best friends.

Jordan was telling me the other day about an April Fool's Joke that one of his friends-that-is-a-girl was planning:

Jordan: Vicky* usually dresses: "all emo, you know, in dark colors, but not all black, and she's not all depressed acting all the time, she does smile some, and she doesn't do that cutting stuff that some emo's do."

Me: "Cutting? she doesn't cut herself does she?"

Jordan: "No, I was just trying to give you an idea of how she usually dresses."

Me: "Oh, well, that's good. You don't know anyone that cuts themselves do you?"

Jordan: "No."

Me: "Good. You know cutting isn't a good thing, right?"

Jordan: "Right."

Me: "Good. People that cut themselves need help. If you ever feel the urge to do that to yourself you tell me and we'll get you the help you need, okay?"

Jordan: "Okay."

End of discussion. (Except I got to hear what the April Fools' Joke was.) A few days later he tells us how another friend-that-is-a-girl came to school on the 1st and was showing a select group of friends that she had cut herself the night before. She cut herself along the main vein/artery about three or four inches long, then she made two more cuts that crossed the first one. I told Jordan that if she showed him more or new cuts that he needed to tell a teacher. He reacted like I threw acid in his face. So, then I told him to tell me and I'd take it from there. The decision would then be out of his hands, but he did what was best for his friend-that-is-a-girl. Chris came into the conversation after Jordan and I had been talking for a good five to ten minutes. Chris was saying that if the girl is showing the cuts to her friends then she is an attention seeker and not one of the people that needs help. The problem comes from when the 'cutter' is trying to hide the fact that they cut and someone sees the marks/scars. Chris asked Jordan what his reaction was when the Laura* showed the group her cuts/marks. Jordan said he responded with: "ugh! why would you do that to yourself?" and then he didn't comment on it again. Chris thinks this is the best way Jordan could have handled it.

So then Jordan came home from school last Friday afternoon and the first words out of his mouth were: "So, Laura got outted."   Laura got herself in trouble.  She was cutting at school!  Jordan didn't notice the cuts and the blood, but his friend, Daniel did.  Daniel reported both Laura and Vicky to the coach.  Jordan said he saw Laura at lunch and she was hunched over and sobbing.  The kids heard that she had a razor blade in her purse.  Jordan said that after Daniel pointed it out he saw Laura's arm and it looked terrible: a really deep cut and several smaller cuts.  Apparently the other day was not the first time. 

I wish Laura the best....and I hope she's not expelled because she had a razor blade in her purse.  She didn't intend to hurt anyone but herself.  Poor girl.

Jordan said that he and Daniel made a pact that if either one of them noticed the other was doing something stupid like cutting they wouldn't be quiet about it.  They'd tell teachers, principals and parents until someone listened.  Then after I asked him, again, if he ever felt like cutting or harming himself he said: "No way!  I've got it made!  I got two tv's, a PS3, a PS2 in my own room, I've got a huge yard, two parents that love me, two dogs, a basketball goal...."  I then reminded him that 'stuff' doesn't always equal love and open communication.  I said that I hoped he felt comfortable talking to us about anything; even sex.  He said he knew that and he felt much better about talking to us than going to "some stupid program at school".

*Names have been changed to protect privacy

 

It was brought to my attention just a little while ago that I have not updated here in quite a while.  Ooops.  Sorry.

 

Lets see....Darcy has grown up and is now a big playful full grown dog.  Jordan is on the straight A honor roll in the 6th grade.  Chris and I went to India for 10 days for work, followed by a vacation in Paris and Rome.

 

Spring is about to Spring forth.  The weather outside is nice today.  I went out and took some pictures...just for something to do. 

 

We had company Friday night and Saturday morning.  One of the girls from India has come to the States for some extra training.  She came over Friday night and we baked cookies.  This is not something that can be done in most 'normal' homes in India as they don't have ovens!  When she got up Saturday morning I asked: "How'd you sleep last night?"  She replied: "Properly." 

 

Okay, maybe now that I've remembered I have this blog I will keep it updated more regularly.

This one rainy October Monday we were on our way home from work.  We had Jordan with us as he had a dentist appointment earlier in the day.  We were so glad to see the rain, it has been a long hot dry summer, the rain was welcome and no one complained about it all day.  So, there we were on the way home.  No hurry, just going along minding our own business when suddenly the car did a 180 and we were sliding off the road into the ditch rear-end first.  I kept waiting for the car to start flipping or something to happen, but nope, we just kept sliding backwards until suddenly....wham!  We stopped when we hit a tree.  I asked Jordan if he was okay, he said that he was.  I jumped out of the car to get him out.  I had to get some broken glass off of him before I helped him out of the car.  Then I had to try and wrench the laptops out of the back of the car before the rain ruined them (supposing that the impact didn't harm them).

 

Jordan was invited to stay at a home with a grandma and her grandkids until we were waiting on Paul to come get us.

 

The car has been declared a total loss.

 

So, we get to buy a new car.  So much for the new washer/dryer and the new living room furniture.

 

Oh well....things could be oh so much worse.