First day of school

It's that time of year again. Kids dread it, many parents pray for it. Yes, that's right, it's the first day of school.

My two weren't thrilled to see the summer end, I'm not either. I like having them around all the time, so we can just jump in the truck and take off for a day or two. Now we have to wait til the weekend to do things. That's what I miss about homeschooling.

My daughter starts high school today. She's nervous, but looking forward to it. She got contacts yesterday for the first time and had her hair dyed red, so she's a whole new person. My son is in 7th grade. He's decked out in his Halo 3 gear, of course. What else would a good gamer wear to school?

They posed for their annual going back to school photos and I took the neighbor's photo for the paper. Can't use my own kids in the paper. Looks bad.

The dog and cat are moping around now that they've left. They'll be attached to me all day until the school bus brings them back. It's funny, they walk in the door right when the General Hospital theme is playing. The dog (Aphrodite) hears the theme start and she goes right over to the door to wait. :) Just like Pavlov's dogs, only without the bell and drool.

I go pick up my new contacts in an hour. Never wore them before, so it'll take a while to get use to them. I'm ready though. After 25 years of wearing these glasses, I have grown to truly hate them.

Now I need to find more things to keep occupied during the day. I'll catch up on scrapbookin and do a little genealogy research, but it won't be enough. I'll have to find more things to write about for the paper. Any suggestions? What would you like to read about in your local paper?

Wordless Wednesday

Altoona Trip

We spent the past four days in Altoona visiting with a friend from Ohio. I had to be there on Thursday for a medical procedure and she decided to make the drive and spend the time with us. We've been friends for ages, we started writing as pen pals when we were both in high school and that wasn't yesterday.

The treatment was horrid. It involved 11 injections all around my head and back of neck to try and stop the migraines that rip apart my head and destroy my life. Not working so far. :( It was supposed to take effect within 3-5 days and tomorrow is the final day. At this point, I don't hold out much hope it will work. He wants me back in four weeks for a check up and to schedule more injections. Don' think I will be doing that. Being stabbed in the head repeatedly isn't enough fun enough to want to do it again when it doesn't help.

While we were there, we went to a couple Curve baseball games, went shopping and visited the world famous Horseshoe Curve and the railroaders' museum. The day we did our sightseeing was the hottest day of the entire summer - over 100 degrees. It was still a good day.

The weekend went by way too fast, but then fun always does. Why can't the bad times go by quickly and the fun last forever?

Now we're home and it's time to try and catch up with everything. We made the mistake of staying at the Econo Lodge and their promised wireless broadband service never materialized, so I haven't been on line since Wednesday night. I had hundreds of emails to go through so far. I was going through serious withdrawal symptoms by the time we got back and I was able to log on. I know, I know it's an addiction.

That will be our last trip of the summer since the kids go back to school on Thursday. They aren't at all happy about it. I'm not ready either, I like having them around all the time.

Wordless Wednesday

Freaky Friday

It started out at about 12:30 this morning when I was getting ready for bed. I put away the last of my pen pal letters and turned off the light. I had the sleep timer on the TV for whatever cop show that was on Court TV when I saw a shadow fly over the bed and out the door. Of course, being a woman, I start screaming for my son because Randy is working third shift and wasn't here.

He is 12-years old and was playing his video games as always. He comes running up the steps, figuring it was a spider. Well, the shadow flies at his head and he realizes what I'm screaming about. He jumps in my bedroom and slams the door.

Have you guessed what it was yet?

It was a horrid, nasty, smelly BAT!

He grabs a baseball bat and we slowly step out the door, making sure to shut it behind us. All the other bedroom doors were shut already, so we knew it wasn't in any of them. We go downstairs and poke around every corner, behind every curtain and under all the tables. Nothing there. We were quite the sight - T with the baseball bat and me with a broom. Mighty huntress, I wasn't.

We start back upstairs and he hears it in the bathroom, so he slams the door shut and we spend the rest of the night with the light on in my room. He wouldn't let me turn off the bedroom light.

Around 2:30, he had to go to the bathroom, but there was no way he was going in that room, so I drove him to a near-by Sheetz (24-hour convenience store).

Randy gets home at 8 a.m. and has to take care of the thing immediately. He knocks it off the shower caddy with the broom, then captures it and sends it on its way.

I'm sure it will be funny eventually, but at the time I was really scared. Those things can carry rabies and I'm a product of way too many horror movies. All I could picture was the thing turning into a vampire. With my luck, it would look like the original Nosferatu and not a hot one like Angel or Spike. What a total nightmare!

So, that was my day so far. I have to cover a graduation ceremony in an hour with absolutely no sleep. Should be fun.

Wordless Wednesday

Demo Derby Time

Our County's annual fair is this week and tonight was the first of three demolition derby events. For those of you who have never heard of this, cars or trucks are stripped down to the bare essentials to run, then they are put in an arena and smash the tar out of each other until only one vehicle is left running. It's like bumper cars with attitude.

Randy and I had pit passes (thanks, Roy, you're the best!), but I stayed up in the stands with our son T. He had never been to one before and wanted to see it. Didn't want to risk him being so close to the action.

Each round took about 10-15 minutes, then they had to bring in tractors to tow out the losers.

Just as the final round was about to begin, the sky opened up and just poured. I went running for cover and forced T to go with. He was not pleased. Being a 12-year old boy, the thought of sitting in the rain, watching cars beat each other to a pulp is his idea of a great time. Randy was under the stage, so he was dry. Muddy, from the cars and trucks tires spinning in the mud, but dry.

When the rain eased up a pinch, the kids and I went running for the truck and waited for Randy to get there. After downloading over 400 photos, I sent the best to the paper and now want to pass a few on to you.

Wordless Wednesday

Big D and the Kids Table Concert

I got out of that meeting last night just in time to see the final two bands at the Elk Rack Entertainment concert. Skunk 11 from Pittsburgh and the main event. I did miss the first two bands, so hopefully I'll be able to catch them another time.

They weren't exactly my type of music, but they had a lot of energy and the kids there sure enjoyed it. (OK, anyone under 25 or so is a kid to me) There were a few songs I liked.

Randy and our daughter were there for the entire thing. This was her first concert, so I got her a tee shirt of Big D. She's wearing it to band practice this morning. Our son went to see Survivor in concert when he was about a year old. He doesn't remember a thing about it, of course. He went to a CD release party last year, but didn't enjoy it very much. He has had ear problems his entire life, including almost a dozen surgeries to rebuild eardrums and hearing bones. The loud music hurt him, even with earplugs in.

Between Randy and myself, we took a couple hundred photos during the concert. I'll add a couple of my favorites. I need to go through all of them and print out the best for my portfolio and scrapbook.

Today is a much calmer schedule, just catching up on writing a few articles and getting the photos up to the paper. Still have the headache. The high humidity always sets them off.

Just another Manic Monday

If you grew up in the 80's you'll know the song and artist that line came from. Today sure fits it.

Woke up late with another wonderful headache. Couldn't just stay in bed and make it go away because my daughter had to be at band practice at 9 a.m. and didn't have anything for lunch, so it was stop at the store and race to the school.

Then it was call the neurologist to get the prescription refilled. (Not that the stuff works). Then time to make sure our credentials were set for the Big D and the Kids' Table concert tonight. Then another interview, write a couple articles and fix lunch for my little man.

He's pretty upset because his XBox 360 died this morning. It couldn't happen at a worse moment. This week is packed with stuff for work.

I have an interview to do at 5, then concert starts at 7:30 tonight, but I have a meeting to cover at 7 that I can't miss. Hopefully I'll get out of there before the main group starts at 9 p.m. Randy is going to go and photograph the opening bands and do a few interviews with the other bands til I can get there.

Then I'll have to fly home (Luckily, I drive VERY fast) and get everything written and downloaded and sent up to the paper. I won't make deadline for the morning paper, but they'll have it for Wednesday morning's edition.

I do love my job, but sometimes, I think it would be nice to have a quiet week or at least spread things out a bit.

If you want to know about Big D and the Kids' Table, you can check out their homepage at: http://www.bigdandthekidstable.com/pages/