May is filling up now with events on the weekends, but they aren't so heavy on the travel as in years past.   I wonder with gas prices the way they are if we will be travelling as much as we used to.  Even in our everyday lives I used to drive into Omaha twice a week, and slowly I have limited myself to the point where I am going only once every 10-14 days.  Maybe one of these days I won't go at all and I will give Tim the grocery list since he commutes each day for work.  That's a scary thought, not that he couldn't do it, but that it would come to that point.

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This is TOO realistic.

Tim worked from home today just so we could go to the attorney's office and get our will done (finally).   Unfortunately we didn't get to do that.   Our attorney didn't show up.  Which was very upsetting, and annoying.   I got a call 30 minutes later from him with the explanation.  When I had called to set up the appointment I had called the local office here in town, and being that the secretary was gone, the phones rang over to his office in Harlan- a neighboring town.  His own secretary was out and he answered his own phone and wrote in the appointment.   So when he set up the appointment he didn't think to ask which town I was appointmenting for, just assuming it was Harlan- when I acutally was calling from here.  So when Tim and I were waiting in one office, he was waiting at the other one.  Still annoying- but at least an understandable explanation.   I will have to reschedule... working on that now to see if I can get a morning appointment here... normally he only does afternoons. 

 

So we better not have anything catastophic happen between now and when we go in to get this thing hammered out.  This does give us a little more time to think about everything, although we already have a good idea on where everything is going.  It's all going to our cat.  That is a joke of course.  The cat only gets half.

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The older our cat Tess gets the louder she snores.

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Next week we should be getting three new additions to our family... 3 cats.   I decided to give outdoor cats a try again, and I called the local feline friendz to see if they had any ferral cats they needed to place.   I like going through them because they do all the spay/neutering and shots, they don't charge for adoptions (of the ferrals), and they loan me a large confinement cage for the transition period which takes about 2-3 weeks.   You keep the cats confined in one sheltered area for a period of time before releasing in the hopes that they will learn 'this is where I get fed, this is my home'.  The cats I am getting are not exactly typical ferrals, I am told they have had human contact.   So I will probably make "friends" with these three eventually.  I hope so anyway.  

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I have a cold.  So I skipped working out, which will make me feel more dumpy. 

And I overheard some radio guy just say Morel Mushrooms are going to be out next week in our area.   It's raining here now, and will be for the next couple days so I guess I am not surprised.  Tim is more the fan of them than I am, so I make them primarily for him.  Either baked with butter garlic and cheese, or breaded and fried.

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Fashions are getting weird:

 And... This was somewhat humorous:

Payton came to Choir with us last night, and he was quite taken with one song in particular that we sang "Fill-a-me-up".  So much so this morning he asked me again if I would please put it on my MP3 player for him to listen to.  (I have a copy of it on my computer).   He was singing it all the way to school.   I have to admit I like it better than some of the rest of the songs we sing.

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Payton keeps wanting to bake cakes, assuring me he likes cakes- then telling me he doesn't when they are done.   Either we are bad at making cakes or he just doesn't know what he likes.   He didn't even like the frosting.  The frosting was, in my opinion, the best part.   I made lemon and raspberry.   They were pretty good- for frosting.   I'm not really that big into frosting actually, but when they are flavored they taste a little better.

 

I also cannot frost a cake to save my life.   I don't know what my problem is.  I can frost a cake in a pan- but when you take it out of the pan and need me to frost the whole thing it just looks awful.  There must be some trick I don't know about.  It is bugging me.

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A recent funny "trend" on the internet is to represent songs or artists by graphs and charts.  Can you guess who this is?   Kind of a sick joke, I admit.

Finally I went shopping, after something like 2 or 2 1/2 weeks.  A $200 grocery bill.  Not terrible for not having gone for so long, and for having bought a heating pad and some other non-food items.  And it felt nice to get out to a city.   I bought a big carton of strawberries for "lunch" to eat on the way home.   They were the fist sized ones,  easy to eat while driving and very sweet.   I ate the whole thing.   Now that I am home, I want something else "not sweet" but I'm not really hungry enough to eat anything big, so a bit of a problem.   I guess I could have a handful of peanuts or something.

 

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the way home and he said he thinks Obama is going to win the democratic nomination because in his opinion "the democratic party won't have the heart to take it away from him".  I disagree and think Hillary is going to win the nomination, despite it probably being bad for the party...  I just have a feeling she is going to win whether she gets the superdelegates to go her way or however she pulls it off- I just think she'll be it because she is that tenacious.   So we will see.   I know I don't talk about politics much but that was just something I was thinking about.   And I put in my prediction.  So we'll see if I am right, or if Rush Limbaugh is right. 

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I loaded a new Payton video up top, singing in church this past Sunday  "Come and See what God has Done".  Tim had the kids make their own instruments.

 

Payton had a visit with the doctor today following up with his ears.  They did the hearing test, which looked good they said.   And he got fitted for better earplugs than the freebies we got at the hosptal which kind of sucked, They looked like wax balls and you had to mold them in your hand and smoosh them in the ear, and then if they fell out and got wet it was hard to get them back in.   These are much smaller and nicer, and you can hardly see them.  When we did finally get in to see the actual doctor she looked at his ears she still noted blood in the left ear which may or may not be an issue.   She prescibed me eardrops and will see him again in a month to see if there is still blood.  If there is then I don't know what that means.  We'll cross that bridge when it comes.  She also said he had "a lot of nodes" or something on his neck... but said that was probably because he was so skinny.  She didn't comment further on that so I guess that wasn't a big deal.

 

We were at the doctors' for a LONG time, and we were hungry when we left so I treated Payton to a meal at Taco John's.   Burritos are the only fast food that Payton will eat.  (Aside from Pizza-but that isn't fast) We each ordered a combonation burrito and I ordered a large potato ole and cheese sauce to share... I didn't realize it would be a huge canister of them.  We couldn't finish them.   I felt bad about wasting them, but would have felt worse about finishing them off.  We normally eat at Taco Bell, so I am not as familiar with the Taco John's menu.

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We just got yet another call that Payton's soccer game for this Saturday is cancelled.   I think every single soccer game so far has been cancelled due to weather.  This one was cancelled because the field is too wet with all the rain.   So practice will be as per usual on Monday.   I can't say I am really that disppointed though.  He really doesn't quite "get" all the rules of soccer, and with his team being 3-6 kids depending on who shows up...  Well- lets just say I think he gets more fun and enjoyment out of practice.   Last Monday they played duck duck goose, and while that had little to do with soccer, he thought that was pretty cool.

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This guy is not getting the second interview.   Probably not getting let in to the first interview.

My laptop melted down the other day.   Got a virus, but then Tim says I have hardware issues.   Maybe.  Probably.   Who knows.  Anyway...  Tim mostly worked on the virus issue and then suggested just wiping the harddrive and reloading Windows.   Then we had some issues with the computer not staying powered on for more than 5 mintues.   That is an issue when you are trying to load an operating system.   I was finally able to load Windows on it after my third attempt and slowly, the computer is coming back to it's old self.   I still note there are some bugs.   And I just had the computer power off on me while running Ad Aware again.   So nothing is perfect... but better than before- I assume.  :)   I can't justify several hundred on a new laptop for me so the one I have will have to work for awhile.  It's not like we don't have several other computers in the house.

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I reset my "trap" again and nothing yesterday.   I stomped the holes closed and they weren't reopened.  So does that mean Chippy was the only one or that the rest are smart?   There are other holes in the back yard I didn't stomp shut, so maybe I will relocate back there at some point.  It is a mystery.

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ok so I caught one pretty quickly.... and I had to catch it in a jar and let it go (far away from our house).   See photo album above I named "chipmunk".

I was noticing over the last month many many holes in our front yard and in the flower bed.   I wasn't sure what they were, and my Orkin guy was theroizing they were mole holes.   Today I decided to find out.  I stamped all of them closed and waited to see if I could see anything.   CHIPMONKS!!!!   Cute yes.  But distructive.  I can't have them so close to my house and ruining my flowerbed.  So I have decided to act.   I wasn't really keen on poison... I wanted to try some other stuff first.   This is my first attempt.   I call it Chipmunk swimming pool.

Not much to say.   So I'll just put up a scary photo from the internet.  I got this from a page of "world's worst tattoos"  This one was the most eye-catching.

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He is going to regret this tattoo someday:

 

http://www.freerice.com found this new site that is neat.   Check it out.   It's a game and a charity.  I like vocabulary though.

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It's rainy today- and tomorrow - snow.  This time last year we were already at the beach.   

Tomorrow Payton doesn't have school, but his teachers are coming over to our house for a home visit.   Payton loved the last one.

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phony sheep

 

Payton is back to normal, 100% I think now.   And I am back to whatever my normal routine was.   Mostly that means I can workout again.   Besides being able to leave the house that was the only part that was missing.

 

I did the quarterly taxes yesterday for the church and I discovered I had accidentally forgot to send in Pastor's HSA (health insurance) and Dental payments to the Ministerial conference for the past two months.   It isn't a big deal, since they just want them all paid at some point- there is no due date as long as they are paid within 2008- but having to pay two back months and this month is a big chunk of money, which is why I had wanted to pay them monthly.   I am so glad I caught this now instead of later and I am feeling like a moron for forgetting to pay them.   I had no problem remembering last year.   So I made up payment slips, and stuck them in my bills to be paid file, so I WON'T forget now.

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Payton will return back to school today.   Yesterday I think he was pretty much ok, but it is hard to tell in the mornings because that is when he is at his best- although he slept in according to mom.    We'll see how the day goes.   For me, I'll be returning to my 'normal' schedule again.

 

I made banana bread last night with 3 bananas I had that were too brown to eat.   Why is it I'll eat banana bread,  but I really don't like eating bananas?  

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I'd give you the rundown on how Payton is today, only he is still sleeping (at 9:30).   I'll presume more of the same, sort of lethargic and a little fevery.   Yesterday we battled him to get him in the tub.   Not just that he should have the bath because he was ok with that, but that he had to wear ear plugs.   That was the battle.   I worked on him for a good long time and then Tim worked on him and finally he relented.   It wasn't the happiest of baths and it lasted only just long enough for me to get his hair washed.   I don't know what to expect next time the earplugs need to go in. 

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Mario in real life if he were not a video game character: