Random Thoughts....

What a Weekend!!!

Whew! That was epic!! We started off slowly on Thursday doing really not a lot around the house. We had to get up early because Brent had practice at 8 a.m. Oh you haven't heard? Football doesn't take a holiday. LOL A little bit of football was watch and it seems like at some point that morning Wayne and I went somewhere but maybe not since I can't think of what was open at that point. That afternoon we left a little early so we could take some pictures for our Christmas card this year. Those will be going out Monday by the way. Told ya I've been busy! Then we had our "Thanksgiving Dinner" at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I know, not known for turkey and stuffing, but you know. They actually were serving Thanksgiving Dinner though. So we did that and then went to the movies. Wayne, Jack and I saw "Twilight" (which I could do a whole post on just to review, but I won't. But I liked it.) the other kids saw "Bolt" which was apparently dreadfully boring. Wayne and I had plans to get up at 3 a.m. the next morning so it was home to bed then.

Up at 3 a.m. or between 3 and 3:30 and off to shop. It didn't take all that long to realize that this was going to be a major pain in the behind. I don't like crowds all that much and I really don't like stupid crowds. Plus there really weren't all that many AMAZING deals that I saw anyway, so I didn't feel the need to spend an eternity in line for much. We did get some stuff at Best Buy and that's where we spent the longest amount of time. A couple of places we went in and came right back out pretty much because it was too much insanity. We stopped and had a midmorning IHOP breakfast and headed home. TO SLEEP!! Or at least I did. Wayne busied himself with the outside decorations since he didn't think he'd have time to get enough of a nap to help him. Brent's playoff game was in the Aloha Stadium again and it was early, so we went to that. These two teams were SO evenly matched. They were pretty much neck and neck until Kahuku (the opposing team) scored a touchdown. I'll just skip to the good part and say that the last 5 minutes of the game, which includes the overtime part because there was that, were SO intense! And yeah, we WON!!!! Last game, for the state championship is next week. Brent would appreciate prayers, well wishes and payoffs to the other team to throw the game. LOL ;)

Saturday, oh MORE practice for Brent. No weekends in football either. Oh, and the BIG news, at least for Brent is that after a lot of saving up he finally had enough to buy the Oakley sunglasses he's been wanting. So we took him downtown to buy them. He's been close, really close to having enough for about a week now and Wayne and I both wanted to just spot him the rest to get them. BUT, I kept thinking he was so close and it would mean so much more to him to have the experience of buying them himself. Actually handing over the money himself, etc... So he did and I stayed and watched because I had been thinking about that moment and wanted to see it when it actually happened. We had some lunch and did some Christmas shopping the rest of the day. Feet hurt!

Today (Sunday) Wayne and I went back without the kids and did some more shopping. We're really close to being done. Now the wrapping must start and I need to get some things together so we can ship our gifts to our families. I HAVE to get that done this week. We finally got the tree put up too. Normally that's a Saturday after Thanksgiving activity, but we've been so busy this weekend we didn't get it done until tonight. Whew! Do your feet hurt too? Mine do!

Praising Seth

I don't often have a lot of updates on Seth, as I've said before, a lot of times with him no news is good news. But he and I have had a good couple of days here. If you don't know the background, he and I have had a sort of turbulent relationship over the past couple of years. Maybe some of it's his age, but a lot of it has to do with our familiarity with each other. This has been examined and considered ad nauseum, believe me. And it seems that he feels so comfortable with me that he feels able to let out his ugliest moments around me. Compliment?? LOL But anyway...

Tuesday afternoon when I picked him up he reminded me that he needed paper plates and plastic forks for his party at school the next day. I had already been contemplating asking him to do this since I'd just come from the grocery store and didn't really want to go back, but he suggested that I could just give him the money and he'd walk over there and buy them. It's only a couple of blocks away, so he would have no trouble getting there. I also needed to run by Jack's school to drop off money for his lunch account, so I asked Seth if he would mind doing that for me. He seemed actually a little excited to have these errands to do on his own. Brent has done these sorts of things since he was probably 10 or 11 and I've wondered from time to time if Seth would be able to do these sorts of things. Rather if I'd feel comfortable having him do them. But I gave him the money and off he went. When he got back I asked him if he'd been able to turn in the money for Jack's lunch account and he said he had. I was teasing him when I asked him if he'd just dropped it off on the sidewalk right outside the office. He looked at me like I was crazy!! LOL I know that was a ridiculous suggestion, but believe me when he gave me that look I was relieved!! With Seth sometimes you have to break things down into details that might seem obvious to everybody else. He said, "No, I took it in the office and put it in an envelope." I asked if he'd just laid the envelope on the counter or if he'd given it to a person and did he put Jack's name on it. He said he'd given it to the lady there and he'd written "John Bratcher" on it. Even better! Because the kids are all registered under their "proper" names so they'd find John Bratcher in their computer whereas they might not find it if he'd put Jack. So he exceeded my expectations. I was so proud of him!

Not only did he do that, but he also, without being asked, took the trash cans to the back yard after the trash had been picked up on Monday afternoon. He took his laundry without being asked. And he's just generally been helpful to me the past few days. This is a change because usually if I asked him to do something, much less NOT ask him, he gives me a good bit of attitude. He seems to WANT to get along with me. We played a few games of "Guess Who" together yesterday afternoon and had a good time doing that. I asked him if he would be interested in taking some art classes (still trying to find his niche) and he said no. But later that afternoon the kids were out in the driveway drawing with sidewalk chalk and Seth had drawn this huge flag. I complimented him on it and he asked me about the art classes!! :) So I told him I'd call about them the next day. Turns out they don't have any right now but they're working on a contract for some so they asked me to call back the first week of January. Hopefully it'll be something that really clicks with him.

Well, that's about all I have for now, but I just wanted to post these updates on Seth because to me they're pretty huge!

Dude! Uh, ma'am

I call Jack into the kitchen this afternoon and start to get on to him for something which I've now forgotten. And he must have felt I was wrong or something because he goes "Dude! Uh, ma'am?" I wanted to crack up laughing at him calling me dude, because it really was funny. But I didn't want to start a bad precedent so I excused him and told him I am not "dude". Really, I am dude. Moreso than ma'am anyway. I'm NOT saying I AM a dude! Let's make that clear. I'm just saying. Later, while we were eating dinner he did the same thing to Wayne. I couldn't believe he'd done it TWICE! It was cute though, so if I wasn't so insistent that they have good manners, I'd have let it go.

I'm so tired tonight as I'm sitting here. I feel like I've been going and going all day. Giacomo and I started with a long walk. A couple blocks longer than usual. That must be when it really kicked off because ever since then it's been one thing after another. Laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the kitchen. Yes, I know I said that three times. I probably cleaned it more than that even. Constantly cleaning the counters. Fold clothes, go to the grocery store for a few things. Pick up the boys. Pick up Wayne. Draw hopscotch board for Rhett on the driveway. Try to figure out Brent's class ring order. Can you believe this? They passed out the ring catalogs either Monday or Tuesday of last week and the ordering days were Thursday and Friday. Friday Brent wasn't even there because they left that morning for Maui. I called the company today to find out about the order dates and yep, those were all they're having. So I'm going to have to order from the company directly. They said the school had had the catalogs for at least a couple of weeks but Brent said the day he showed it to me was the day they passed them out. Ticks me right off. The school must have sat on them for days and then given them a day and a half or two to get their order figured out. ((sigh)) But he'll get his ring, so I'm not going to waste my energy getting any more irritated about it. It's just stupid and we all know I don't like stupid.

Well, I think I'm going about getting to bed a little bit early. I'm beat! Have a good tomorrow.

Addendum: For the Record

I was right. Not only was I right, I was VERY right. This is what I have to say: Even things that I know little about, I know more than most people!! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But I'm still right!

The other night Wayne and my Dad were telling me that Maui was north of Oahu. I told them that Maui was a couple of islands south of us AND I told them that Kauai was north of us. No, no, no they said. Well guess what!! And NO, I did NOT rearrange the islands in Photoshop!! People should really not doubt my rightness, come on now! ;)

What Day Is It?

Cue the Twilight Zone music. For a day or so there I couldn't keep my days straight. I *think* I woke up a few times last night confused about if the day coming up was Sunday or Monday. I think maybe I was thrown because our Saturday wasn't quite the norm. Jack's game was cancelled because of rain. I spent a good bit of that day in and out of a nap, so I think it was all just a blur.

Brent got home late Saturday morning from his team trip to Maui. They won their game!!! So now they're just 2 games away from possibly winning the state championship. Next up is the game with Kahuku this coming up Friday. That's exciting, but I have to say that it's a little nervewracking being this close!! In other Brent news, he's figured out his class ring. We sat down and were going over all the choices a few days ago and it was so overwhelming. I'd forgotten. All the choices of cuts, styles and options for the sides. So tonight I had him pull out the book again and we've got it nailed down I think.

Jack had a diorama project that he had to complete for tomorrow so we worked on that some too. We've worked on it a little at a time over the past week. But finished it up Sunday. He had to create a scene for his animal which is the meerkat. Cute and all, but not an altogether vibrant habitat, kind of desert-y. I bought one of the Martha Stewart pipe cleaner kits for jungle animals and another pack of "natural" color pipecleaners and we improvised.

It's been brought to my attention that I don't update on Seth that much. No particular reason for that except to say that no news is good news. He's doing pretty well lately. He enjoys his shop class where they made a rocket project a few weeks ago. So he'd update me about the various stages of painting he was in until they launched them. Most recently he's been working on a clock. I think he's in the painting stage for that too. I'm not sure I get the reason for this, but his clock is in the shape of an icecream cone. I think that was his choice, so I'll see how that comes out when he comes home.

Nothing new with Rhett, oh excuse me, Griffin. We made a turkey last week for him to turn in to school. I think I've helped make  4 or 5 of this same type of turkeys in the past few years for Jack and Rhett. He has a field trip coming up in a couple of weeks to Honolulu to learn about different Christmas traditions and decorations.

No new products for me today. It's a rare Monday for me that I don't have a new product up in the shop, I just got busy with other things and didn't have time to get stuff all together. But I will have something for Thursday. So stay tuned!!

Oh! I almost forgot! I have a layout! This one is using mostly everything from Gina Miller and Jaime Young's new collab "Bella's Dream" available at Gina Miller Designs.

 

Ring Shopping

Last year it was a letter jacket. And btw, thank goodness he got that last year, because here, it's letter WINDBREAKERS!!! LOL Not quite as impressive, huh? But anyway, Brent brought home the catalog to design his class ring! Can you believe that? I knew it would be this year and actually I'm quite excited about it. But it just seems bizarre to me. I already asked him if I could pick it out for him. I know, not a chance. But I had to ask! We pretty much are on the same page with it. I just wish I could remember how much class rings cost when I got mine. Wayne thinks his was around a hundred or maybe a little less. Would you like to guess how much a boy's class ring is going for these days? In the neighborhood of $500! Whoa!! That's crazy isn't it!

This morning I decided to take Giacomo for a walk, right. So I took him out to let him go potty before we started. He does and we're ready to go. We start off down the grass behind the houses rather than go around front to the sidewalk (they run parallel and we end up in the same place). We get almost to the sidewalk, to the last house in the row and Giacomo decides he has to go again. Now this really should not be a problem. I have a couple of bags with me for just such an occasion. So what is the problem you ask? Oh! Good question! You ask that at just the right time! The problem is that the people that live there just finished have Yard of the Quarter. They are very sort of anal about their yard. They like to put up a sign periodically saying "No Dogs-Poop" in their yard. And I couldn't get Giacomo to wait 10 feet, he had to go RIGHT THERE. In THAT yard. Of course I cleaned it up, but I would have preferred to avoid that house all together. ((sigh))

In other dream news, Jack had a dream the other night that he was "tasting strawberries and cherries. But especially strawberries" (his words, not mine) So he's been asking me to get him strawberries for the past couple of days. I obliged him and bought some strawberries to make strawberry shortcakes for the boys for dessert last night. He was a little disturbed that I'd sliced them up, but said it would be o.k. (Thank you Jack) And while I was in the produce section I picked up the ingredients for another batch of my grandmother's AWESOME cranberry relish. It is SO good! I suppose it might be an acquired taste, but I love it. Made a huge batch that will last me probably 2 days, because when I have some in the refrigerator I tend to eat it for a couple of meals a day. Just for the fun of it I looked at the clock when I started cutting up the oranges for it (since that's the first step) so I could see how long it takes to make this stuff. I mentioned before that it's time consuming. It took me over half an hour. So basically Rachael Ray could make this and only this on one episode of '30 Minute Meals'. I know that's pretty sophisticated math and you're probably impressed that I figured that out all by myself. ;) But seriously it's not something that you can work on then do something else while it's tending to itself. It's all in the prep time and it's just a pain. But I guess since I like it so much it's worth it. :) I think if I'd buy myself a proper zester it'd go infinitely faster.

O.K., it's Dollar Day Thursday again and I have some SWEET deals!

Cinnamon Spice is almost overflowing with stuff and it's only $1 today!

and I also have an element pack today, Bejeweled Ribbons (this comes in both personal and CU packs)

 

I think that's about all I have for news today. Back to the design board and I'm actually scrapping a page! ((gasp))

Introducing Jim

I don't know if you'll be able to understand the words. Heck, I'm not even sure Jim himself understands the words, some are Hawaiian, some are questionable even besides that. But it sure is cute. He seems to like having this song in his rotation and will sing it pretty much daily. It's his school song, by the way.

Oh, and Jim is also know as Rhett or frequently lately as Griffin. For some reason Wayne accidentally called him Jim to the server last night at dinner. LOL

In other news, the other night I had a very strange dream. Starring Katie! (my youngest sister) She was being inaugurated. As in presidential! And Barack Obama was doing the inaugurating. So I'm presuming it was after his presidency. My and my parents and other sisters were in the audience. I had a very old camera to snap pictures with. It was one of those that you'd buy a flash cube to stick on top. Yeah. And in true "Laura" fashion, my biggest concern from my seat in the audience was that we would be perceived as white trash!! Did I just say that? ((jaw dropping)) Yes I did. LOL Seems I might have had good reason to worry because Katie was dressed in something forgettable, but what was unfortgettable was that she had a blue and purple mohair hat on. And just so she would coordinate she had her notes on blue and lavender with pink ink note cards (because I guess she was going to give a speech). I can't actually remember if the newly inaugurated president gives a speech right after, but she was going to. What a crazy dream!

Serotonin Peaks at Night?

LOL, it's just a thought. I find that a lot of times night time is when I feel the best. But it could be because things are winding down and maybe less hectic. Well that could be a lie, because I'd say it's least hectic during the day before lunch when I'm home by myself. But I did just sit here and think, 'hmm, things are pretty good right now'. Maybe it was just situational. :)

I made pancakes tonight for supper. I was in the mood for something fast and it just seemed easy and good. Sort of comfort food. At the same time I was helping Rhett with his homework. He had a worksheet with some pictures of objects that all end with -op. So he had to figure out the first letter. I don't know what I said, but after one of the pictures, he went back to the living room to write down his letter and came back sort of chuckling and said, "Mooooom, you crack me up!" Sometimes it's not so much what he says as the way he says it. And that fact that it's sort of random and out of place.

Rainy season has apparently started because, well, obviously because it's raining. Instead of waking up to sunshine, it's more of the overcast skies and drizzly rain. And it's all throughout the day. Seems to be maybe more of it up here on the more northern part of the island rather than down near Honolulu. I think the rain and clouds played a part in my dinner selection too probably, because from inside it looked like one of those cold, overcast nights. I am thankful that at least I know if I step outside or have to take Giacomo out it won't be cold outside. I miss the chill in the air from back home for about 5 minutes. Or maybe it's just the idea of it, because I am so glad when I get up in the morning and I have to go outside with Giacomo, that even though I think for a second, 'I hope it's not chilly out', it is only for a second because I know it won't be.  How's THAT for a run on sentence. Did that even make sense?

I mentioned Jack's football picture the other day. He's so cute!

 

Well back to work and then some laundry before I hit the hay tonight.

Where was the weekend?

It seems like there should be another day tacked on to the end of this weekend. It went by FAST!! Saturday we had to get up seriously early for a weekend because Jack had a ball game down towards Honolulu at a place we hadn't been to before. And on the way to taking Jack we had to drop Brent off at McDonald's so he could eat breakfast and hitch a ride the rest of the way up to his school for his practice. No, we didn't really have him hitch a ride, but since we had to drop him off so much earlier than he really needed to be there we let him get breakfast at McDonald's and his friend picked him up there. Jack's team didn't win, but he had a good run with the ball at one point. And with the exception of some penalties caused by our quarterback who really needs to graduate to tackle football, they all played rather well. We got Jack's pictures back last week, so I'll try to post one or two in a few days.

That night Wayne had a tournament that he'd won a ticket to over at the Marine base in Kaneohe. Turned out to be a bit of a bust, but he (and our neighbor that went too) had a good time. I went along just for the fun of it.

Sunday the rest of my flooring came in at Home Depot so we went and picked it up and then had some lunch. Got home just in time to upload my products to the store and start feeling sick again. It seems like I start feeling sickish at night several nights a week and then in the morning I feel well again. So I'm going to finish mixing up a batch of spiced tea to help with that.

Aaaand, speaking of products, I have two new ones up today:

Rubbed Off-Sweet Words {Photo Masks}

 

Rubbed Off-Stylized {Photo Masks}

 

Just Stuff

I've been so bad with my blog this week. Sometimes I just feel like, 'hey, I'll write that', and sometimes nothing comes to me. And sometimes I should post my products so they'll be more visible and sometimes I just don't get around to it.

All in all Thursday was a good day. I woke up without too much force on myself. LOL Got the kids ready for school and then about 15 minutes before it was time to leave Wayne came out and was dressed for work, so he took them. I had thought he was sleeping in a little bit. Not too long after that I was ready to go back to sleep myself. And since it was so early and I figured I could get a couple of hours of a nap in before I had to get myself up and dressed, I just grabbed my furry blue blanket and curled up in the recliner and did just that.

Just after I finished getting ready Wayne got home so we decided to go to lunch. I say this like it's much of a decision. At this point I'm like Pavlov's dog, I'm conditioned to go to lunch. And I'm not complaining, I'd be complaining if we didn't go to lunch. :) We were just about to make a turn when Brent texted me and said he'd forgotten his lunch card at home and couldn't eat. He had a little cash on him, but they won't let them purchase food with cash, it has to be with their card. So we spared the poor thing from starvation and went to pick him up. This was no little thing though. At the moment there is some roadwork going on on that part of Kamehameha (one of the main roads here) and the traffic is just STUPID. Aside from not wanting to pay these people overtime or whatever, I can't for the life of me see why this isn't something they're doing at night. It's just a ridiculous amount of traffic in an area that's probably not even a quarter mile worth of construction. So going that little distance took us almost 30 minutes. Then we had to get back. By the time we got to lunch we had been "on our way to get lunch" for an hour. I told Brent he couldn't have had more perfect timing to text me. If he'd done it one minute later, it would have been too bad, so sad. ;)

Wayne didn't have to go back to work, so after making all the rounds and picking up all the kids we went home for him to change. Oh, it's noteworthy (I think) that Wayne stopped on the way to pick up Rhett and Jack at a little lemonade stand on the side of the road. I'm assuming this was a kid that was homeschooled since school would have still been in at this time. Maybe this was an economics or marketing lesson for him. I HOPE he wasn't out of school sick and selling lemonade and cookies from his yard!! Anyway, Wayne felt moved to pull over and give him a couple of bucks. For this couple of bucks we got 2 small, although homemade, cookies. One for Jack and one for Rhett. :)

A trip to the grocery store was in order, so Wayne and I did that. Now I don't HATE grocery shopping but sometimes I just get unnerved with so much noise and chaos around. This particular time we were about half way through the store. Some screaming kids and one scary mother had a lot to do with it. One thing I will never understand is why if your kid is screaming and generally having a loud fit some parents just don't do anything. I don't care if you're in your own car or home and you want to do that. But in public, don't make the rest of us have to listen to it!! This one woman I'm thinking of just calmly responded, "I hear you", "nope, you're not getting it". Great!!! Of course on the other end of the spectrum you have the mother with the screaming kids and she's literally scary how angry she gets. At one point we just maintained our aisle for a few minutes to let the scary one get a few aisles past us. (Only to end up parallel to them in checkout). LOL Oh! Anyone want to guess what our grocery tally was?? Yes, you, the one who guessed $401 is correct!! Whew!

After getting home and settling down for a bit, I made myself a batch of cranberry relish that I haven't made in a long time. A couple of Falls ago I made batch after batch of it and ate it like crazy. But it is a lot of work to make, so it's not always fun to do. I was actually not real sure we'd get cranberries here, but I was happy to see them this time. Muffins, cookies, bread, apple/cranberry casserole, relish...cranberries are so good!

Oh, and I had to do a little bit of Ireland research because Jack had a project that was late and he had to turn in. This all started a few weeks back and he brought home a wooden clothespin that he was to dress like it was one of his ancestors not from America. Well, originally he was going to pick Seth being that Seth wasn't born here. But, LOL, I don't think Seth would quite qualify as an ancestor. So he ended up picking Joseph Garrity from Ireland. I called and got some info and we did this project. Yet, it did seem a little odd that dressing a clothespin as an Irish immigrant would be the extent of the project. Don't you think? I guess if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck it must be, oh YES, a social studies project that comes home LATE!! So we had lots of questions to answer and some research to do. Pictures might have been helpful, but with the urgency of this and the time difference there was no time to request them. So we printed off the immigration document and a picture of Jack's great grandparents and called it complete. I hope he knows what he's talking about tomorrow when he does this. I tried to make sure he knew what everything he wrote meant. But who knows really.

Well that's enough stuff for today. I think I'll have a little bit of this relish before I get to bed.