We were out of plastic grocery bags.  I've been doing so good remembering to take my reusable bags with me in the store and actually using them, that we haven't had nearly as many grocery bags lying around the house.  Problem is, we use plastic grocery bags.  They're poop bags for Jake's walks and we use them when we clean out the litter box.  We go through at least one or two a day, and that's not counting the other uses for bags, like trash can liners, tote bags for hauling stuff around, etc.  So today I went grocery shopping for the sole purpose of getting more bags.  We could use groceries, you always need groceries, but it was really the bags I was wanting.  How else can I deal with the poop generated in this household?  How pathetic is that?  I go grocery shopping so I have a place to put poop.

Now I know why I usually make my entries at night right before bed, because if I make them in the middle of the day, like I did today, something interesting will happen and I'll have to make an "Exciting Bonus Entry".

#2 is a lot like me, hence, she is NOT known for her athletic abilities.  She considers breathing exercise.  Anyway, much to her dismay, she has to take Phy Ed this semester in school.  She's not happy about this.  They've been playing flag football in class and, since she's the only girl in the class who has the vaguest idea of the general rules of football, she's the best girl player in the class.  This doesn't mean she catches the ball well or anything, just that she actually knows what to do with it once it's in her hands.  Today someone handed the ball off to her and she ran about 90 yards to get flagged just a few yards short of the goal.  She said she almost had to stop and rest about half way through the run, but decided against it.  She said she even had her friend Michael cheering for her, and he was playing for the other team.  But, as well as being a starter on their high school's football team, Michael is also a fellow band geek.  He pumped a fist and yelled THAT'S HOW WE DO IT IN BAND.      I would have expected something like this from #4, who's very athletic, but never from #2.  When I was telling hubby about her status as best girl player in P.E., he thought I was talking about #4 until I set him straight.  My daughter the jock, who woulda thunk?

I got an e-mail this weekend telling me that as of Sept 1, the Humane Society was doubling their price for microchipping pets.  Since the two kittens we got haven't been chipped yet, I thought it would be in my best interest to get them done this week.  So, this morning I loaded them up in the car along with a gallon of ice cream that had to go back to the grocery store.  We'd bought it last night, got it home and opened it up to see that it was a melted mess.  They charge too much for ice cream down here for me to get a mushy bucket, so I wanted to take it back asap and get my money back.  I was just about to the grocery store when hubby called, wondering where I was.  He needed me to pick something up for him at our shop, which is just a short distance from the store, so it was no problem for me to stop by after the store.  I picked up his stuff and did some more cat wrestling, they did NOT enjoy riding in the car and Bonsai was yowling the whole time.  I threw hubby's stuff in the trunk and went to the humane society and got the critters chipped and made arrangements for Chloe to get spayed in the near future - Bonsai's already done.  I continued on down the road toward the airport, where I needed to pick up some stuff waiting for me and my phone rings, once again hubby's wondering where I am.  He needed me to run another errand - and coincidently, I was just coming up to the intersection I needed to turn on to run his errand.  If he'd called 30 seconds later, it would have been too late and I'd have had to find a place to turn around on the highway.  I got his stuff there, then picked up the box at the airport and went to the house where hubby's working to deliver his stuff.  Wow, what a house!  He told me it's going on the market for $10 million.  Can you imagine a $10 million house?  They were staging it today, setting up all the imported furniture and that kind of stuff to make it ready to put on the market.  I tell ya, I was getting lost in the place, it was so big and sprawled out.  Absolutely gorgeous.  If any of you have $10 million laying around, I highly recommend you buy this place, it's amazing.

Finally, at 12:30, I managed to make it home with my 2 cranky cats.  There goes the morning

#2 rolls her eyes at all thing 1980's...she doesn't even think that the guy who played Jake Ryan in Sixteen Candles is the hottest guy in the universe.  The radio station I usually listen to plays an ecclectic mix of 70's, 80's and today's music, so when the kids are in the car with me, they frequently have to tolerate me singing along with The Doobies and Def Leppard.  Yesterday, Styx's song Mr. Roboto came on.  As much as I love 80's stuff, I have to admit that Mr. Roboto is pretty much a musical embarassment for both Styx and the 80's music scene in general.  But not according to #2.  She loved it!  Can you believe it?  I finally find something from 'my' decade she enjoys and it's Mr. Roboto.  Life is too cruel.

I have my (now working) volume on on my computer as I"m typing this, and for some reason, the theme song from The Muppet Show is playing in the background.  I haven't a clue why.  There are no other windows open, just this one for my Blog, yet there it is, playing for some unknown reason.  Now I know why I usually keep my mute key on.

Jeannie C's entry about her vacation reminded me of when we went to South Dakota, among other places on a family vacation when I was 17.  My dad loaded us 4 kids up in the car along with all our luggage and we drove through the Badlands, went to Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Royal Gorge Bridge, Denver Mint and visiting relatives.  My dad vacations like me, get there, do what you want to do and see what you want to see, then get your butts back home.  Dad and I aren't good loiterers.  Anyway, our trip was scheduled to last 2 weeks and we were supposed to be home on a Sunday afternoon/night.  Well, when you fly through The Badlands at about 80mph, it speeds things up a bit.  We managed to microwave our vacation and drove back into our driveway the Wednesday before we were were supposed to get home.  I don't think the abbreviation had anything to do with Dad getting sick of us (though that may have happened), it was just the way we do things.  To this day, I get antsy if I'm away from home for longer than 4-5 days.  That summer was a rough time emotionally for our family, my mom had died the winter before, and the vacation gave us some together time that didn't involve dispensing medication, pushing wheelchairs or emptying bedpans.  We all really enjoyed ourselves, we kids had never had a long traveling vacation before, so it had been a real adventure.  We saw a LOT of stuff in our 1 1/2 weeks we were gone.  To this day we laugh about the quickness of the trip and refer to it as THE VACATION (always said in all capital letters).  Even all our spouses have heard stories of THE VACATION though it happened waaaay back in 1985.

I didn't get a chance to make an entry last night because I was trying to fix my computer.  Yesterday, it decided it didn't want to make any sound.  I usually keep my mute button on all the time so the creepy talking Bravenet lady doesn't scare the crap out of me when I'm posting here, or some other stupid ad comes blasting on when I'm not expecting it.  But I was watching something on YouTube and it had no sound.  It was an old clip from about 40 years ago, so at first I thought it just didn't have sound, but then I realized that nothing was making noise.  I don't mind when my computer is quiet when I have the mute on, but when it's not on, and it still isn't making noise, it's downright annoying.  Anyway, after exhausting all the normal routes of sound fixing, I resorted to restoring my computer to an earlier time.  I guess I didn't restore it back far enough, and it didn't work.  So, I re-restored it to Wednesday morning and all is now right with my world once again.  It looks like Microsoft put out one of their oh-so-helpful updates and my computer wasn't able to handle it. 

#2 starts her new job on Saturday.  I've already informed her that I'm going to make her save a portion of each paycheck.  It wasn't necessary to do that with #1, since he's a natural tightwad, but #2 is a bit free and easy with her money, so I figured I'd help her out a bit.

I recently read The Devil Wears Prada and got to thinking about evil bosses.  Though mine were nowhere as bad as the boss in the book, I've had 2 bosses who's management style inspired me to not work harder, but to quit.  Both times I felt like a failure for quitting jobs, but I saw no sense in staying someplace where I was miserable and had no job security.  But, I later felt justified in quitting, since, within a year of my quitting, both of those managers were fired for their incompetence.  Karma, baby     My favorite job was as a receptionist at a book and magazine distributorship.  The boss was a total doll, I liked my co-workers and I got free books and magazines.  What a great place to work!

#2 called me on the carpet today for not updating my blog daily.  She informed me that I can manage to make her life sound much more interesting than it actually is.

#4 had open house at her school today.  So I went to meet her teacher and talked to Louie, the elementary school band director for a bit.  After that, we picked hubby up at the airport.  He'd been on the island of Lana'i doing work since Saturday.  It's nice to have our family all together again.  A bunch of friends who've been on extended vacations are back again also.  We saw them at Bible Study tonight.  One couple's children have spent the summer with their grandparents in Canada.  I couldn't believe how much they'd grown while they were there.  Must be all that healthy Canadian air.

I'm pleased to announce that my second book, Eye of the Beholder, is now available in print form from Amazon.  You can get it here:  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=delia+deleest

I had random kids in and out all day today.  #4 didn't have school today and had a friend over for most of the day.  I don't really mind having him over, but he's a vegetarian, and our eating style isn't real conducive to feeding a vegetarian.  Every time he eats here, the poor kid gets either mac and cheese or a PB&J. 

We adjusted fairly well to the change in the morning bus schedule today.  At least no one missed the bus, so I would consider it successful.  Picking them up this afternoon was a little bit of an adventure.  When I was trying to drive past the beach, there was a guy lying in the road in the middle of the other lane.  Using my deductive reasoning, I don't think he got hit by a car.  I'm pretty sure he was in a fight and someone slugged him, resulting in him landing in the road. but luckily not  getting smushed by a car in the process.  The kid picked himself up and jumped on the back of someone's moped and they took off.  All in a day's adventures.

#2 and I discussed her job situation.  The other day, she'd decided that she didn't really want to take the band trip to DisneyLand in the spring.  When our kids want something that we feel isn't something we isn't really necessary to their well-being, we expect them to kick in a portion of the expenses.  Well, #2 decided she'd rather keep her $150/month and use it for something else.  Since she already had a month's worth saved up, we talked about putting that money toward gas money.  Remember, turning down the job she was offered at the library was because of all the driving back and forth we'd have to do.  We did the math and figured it cost us about $4 to take her to and from the library.  So she's going to pay us $4 each day she works.  I'm not looking forward to driving her back and forth all the time, but I'm happy she gets to take the job.  I told her that when she gets a little more skilled on the moped, she can take that back and forth to work.  She informed me that she's already a 'mo' bettah mopeddah'   but I think she needs a bit more experience before she goes downtown with it. 

ps  Hey Sarah, thanks for stoppin by! 

Our town has a traffic problem.  They're slowly working on it, but as things are now, it's always slow trying to drive into town coming from the north.  Today, we were coming home from a gospel meeting around 4:30 and were stuck in traffic.  There was an accident at one intersecting and while we were getting around it, I noticed a couple joggers.  Slowly, we got about a mile or so down the road and I saw the joggers again, they were slightly ahead of us and were going into a conveinence store.  A little while later, I saw them pass us again.  In the space of about 3-4 miles, we got passed by the same joggers 3 different times, and they'd even stopped to get drinks!  Sometimes, you just get places faster on foot, I guess.

The new cats seem to be adjusting well.  They've been chasing each other around the house like kittens will.  Mouschi still isn't too sure about them, she just sticks her nose in the air like she's above it all.  She also pulls an attitude and won't come in the house at bedtime if she sees the other cats in the room.  She's a kitty with a 'tude.

Today was the day I girded myself for battle against the bus company.  As of Monday, all kids need a bus pass in order to ride.  The catch-22 in the situation is:  since my kids live outside of the district where they go to high school, they can only ride the bus if there's room, and they told me they wouldn't know if there'd be room until the end of the month.  I went to the bus office today and parked myself in the seat by the desk until I was sure my kids had riding priviliges, which, after an hour, they got.  But..(and there's always a but, isn't there?) they could not ride the bus from the stops they've been using this school year.  So, they'll be picked up and dropped off at a spot about 3 miles from our house.  This is closer than the bus stop they've been going to now in the mornings, but the bus comes 45 minutes earlier.  So, instead of leaving here around 7:20 to take #4 to school then the older 2 to the stop, we've got to leave here at 7, take the older kids to their stop, then get #4 to school really early.  The afternoon isn't going to be as easy anymore either.  Though they've been getting off at a spot about 5 miles from home, through a series of manipulations, I only have to pick the up about a mile from the house.   Now I've got to get them from a stop 3 miles away.  The crudiest part of the whole thing is that, because of the different bus schedule, #2 can't take the job she was offered at the public library.  She's pretty bummed about it all.  I brought her to a nearby shopping center today and she put in applications at a couple different places, so hopefully she'll get something there.  In the words of Roseann Rosandana "it's always somethin'"

No school for the kids tomorrow, it's Statehood Day...whatever that is.  WE went to spend a couple nights at a friend's, so it'll be pretty quiet around here, since it's the two boys together that make most of the noise in the house.  #4 also has monday off for some reason.  I'm sure when the other kids are hauling their butts out of bed in the morning, she'll be enjoying herself getting her gloat on.

WE's changed his kitten's name already.  He kept Justice for a middle name.  So its name is now Bonsai Justice.   Bonsai seems like a perfect name for a cat owned by WE, imo.  #4 still hasn't come up with a name for hers, but is leaning heavily toward Chole or Pixie.  Both cats spent most of the day hidden under WE's bed hiding out from Jake, the wonder dog, who was busy sleeping, but apparently, a lazy sleeping dog is pretty intimidating to a cat.  Chole/Pixie is getting a bit braver and is doing a bit more traveling around the house now, but Bonsai is pretty shy.

#2 got a job working at the library.  She'll be there shelving books after school and on Saturdays.  She needs the money if she wants to take the band trip to Disneyland in March, we told her she had to pay for half the trip.  She's pretty excited about the job, I hope she enjoys it.  How can you not enjoy playing with books all day?

#4's cat disappeared about a month ago and never returned.  Sunday she asked if we thought Kie was ever going to come back and I had to tell her the truth and say no.  I told her that someone who really wanted a kitty probably found her and she's now living a life of luxury with some little grandma lady who needed a cat to love.  Well, there were tears and hubby caved.  Next thing I knew, he was at AdvoCATS.org looking to find cats needing homes.  He sent the to the site and she was hooked.  After calling the cat rescue lady, she made arrangements to go see what she had.  WE has been wanting a cat for quite a while also and there are frequently catfights over who gets the cat at night.  Hubby called me this afternoon to see if maybe WE would like a cat too.  Dummy me, I mention it to WE and the kid was dancing around the room he was so excited.  So, we now have two new cats, WE named his Justice and #4 hasn't come up with a name for hers yet.  It looks exactly like the cat that got lost, except reallly really tiny.  It's only about 2 months old.  WE's is about 5 months old and is totally freaking out right now.  Not that I blame it.  I would to if I was suddenly dropped in a house full of over-excited kids and a scaredy-cat dog.  Mouschi, #2's cat, is still wandering around outside and hasn't realized that her spot as numero uno cat of the house has just been lost. 

We go to church in a kind of remote, redneck area.  Instead of a road, we take a single lane path that has two strips of pavement for a vehicles tires with grass growing in between.  There's some interesting people living there.  Today, as we were leaving, I see this guy walking around, he had a gun in his hands.  First it was propped on his shoulder, then he dropped it down and he was kind of passing it back and forth between his hands while he was talking to somebody next to him.  His tee-shirt read:  Safety First    I just hadda laugh.

Yesterday, hubby and I went out to lunch.  Just the two of us.  He'd been craving fish and when he mentioned it, I had only one thought     Fish Tacos at LuLu's!     Can you tell I love LuLu's fish tacos?   LuLu's has some interesting things on their menu, including the Double Flusher Cheeseburger and Big Sweaty's BarBQ Pits, but the fish tacos are what you have to order when you're there.  It's not like a traditional taco.  It's grilled fish, shredded cabbage and chilpoltle sauce all wrapped up in a spinach tortilla.  It's absolutely delicious!  Afterwards, we had a romantic shopping trip at Costco stocking up on groceries.

Just to explain my title, Hawaii's statewide area code is 808, so we were just a real eightsy kind of place here today.

I finished writing my second Moxie book about 10 minutes ago.  I'd started it back in November, but had left it sit for quite a while.  I'm glad to say I finally got it to the word count I as aiming for.  My next step is to break it up into chapters now, then write a synopsis and sent it off to my editor.  Then it's out of my hands, people.

I didn't fall off the wagon today and nary of drop of Mountain Dew crossed my lips.  I have unbelievable willpower when I want to.  Nerves of steel and all that stuff, ya know?

I fell off the Mountain Dew wagon today.  I'd been doing so good.  I hadn't had a can since the beginning of June.  Today I couldn't take it any more.  I was going to have a taco for lunch and thought about how good a cold Dew would taste washing down its hot spiciness and the next thing I knew, I was in the car on the way to the grocery store.  I have no idea how I got there, it was like my body moved under it's own power and my brain had nothing to do with it.  On the ride over, I thought of other things I needed to pick up at the store so I could justify the trip and in a last grasp at willpower, decided that I wouldn't pay full price for the Dew.  If it wasn't on sale, I had to pass it by.  Wouldn't you know it, 24 pks were on special, all I needed was a coupon, which I found while rummaging through the store flyer someone had left lying by the entrance.  So, I threw it in my cart, grabbed some bread and milk to make it look good, then headed for the checkout.  But, I'm not going to have a can every day.  It's just going to be a special treat.  Because I can stop any time I want to.  Really.

I don't usually eat a lot of ice cream, I'd rather have chips or something like that.  I'm a salty, greasy kinda person, not a sticky sweet one.  And if I do want something sweet, I'll take chocolate 9 times out of 10.  Which brings me to my recent ice cream cravings.  I bought a jar of hot fudge sauce the other day, and if you're going to eat ice cream, you need to have it covered in hot fudge sauce or what's the point?  Top that with a handful of Planters peanuts and we're talking nirvana, people.  So, the last couple nights I've been eating a bowl of ice cream, hot fudge, peanutty heaven right before I go to bed.  This is so not good for me, but I can't help it.  It's good stuff.  As soon as the fudge is gone, I'll go back to my Cheetos or Ruffles, but for now, it's ice cream.

I picked hubby up at the airport this afternoon.  Now he's home, all safe and sound.  He went to my family reunion when he was up in Wisconsin.  He loves my reunions almost as much as I do, he thinks they're a real hoot.  He took a bunch of pictures of my family - I've got a big family.  Since I haven't seen most of them in 3 years, I didn't even recognize some of my younger cousins and cousin's kids, and since he doesn't know who half of them are, he couldn't tell me either.  He just took random pictures to show me how the day went.

My friend Krista came over yesterday to help me brainstorm the book I'm working on.  We're giving ourselves goals this week and counting on the other person to keep us on task.  At the end of the week, if we've been good, we're going to reward ourselves.  Anyway, through a roundabout brain trail Krista started, I came up with bringing 3 piglets into my story.  So, in honor of Krista's help, I'm going to name one of the piglets after her.  She's so pleased.

Actually, it's hubby and he's stranded in Chicago.  But Stranded in Chicago isn't on the Grease soundtrack, so I had to make an adjustment.  Anyway, bad weather made the plane in the first plane of hubby's flight home from the mainland 3 hours late, which made him miss his flight home in Chicago.  So, he's in Chicago when he's supposed to be here.  The joys of travel.  That's why I prefer to just stay home, it's much easier that way.

Talk about Grease.  #4 got her hands on a collector's Barbie doll catalog.  These are the expensive, $200 Barbies.  They've got Grease Barbies, Sandy, Frenchie, Rizzo and Cha Cha, and they actually look like the people.  Most Barbies that they have that are supposed to be a real live person just look creepy - have you seen the Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls?  The stuff nightmares are made of. 

When we were little, my sister and I had a lot of dolls posing as real people.  We had Donnie and Marie, the original Charlies Angels, Starskey & Hutch and Vinnie Barbarino.  I don't know why we didn't have the rest of the Sweathogs, it doesn't seem fair to just have Vinnie.  Actually, I think my dad may still have that whole crew in a box in his basement for the grandkids to play with.  He probably does, next to my Leif Garrett and Andy Gibb record albums.  They save everything over there.  About 5 years ago, he brought over a bag of clothes he found in the garge to see if my girls were interested in them.  They were my clothes from when I was about 10 years old.  Why they were in a bag up in the roof of his garage is anybodies guess, and why only my clothes?  None of my siblings clothes were in the bag.  They were different sizes too, some from 3rd grade while I also recognized the skirt I wore to my cousins wedding when I was in 8th grade.  Very mysterious.  I wonder what other secrets my father's garage holds???? 

Today is the first Sunday of the month.  We meet with a small group of people for church on Sunday.  About 20-30 of us meet at a home.  There are 2 homes that have church meetings on this side of the island and 1 on the other side.  On the first Sunday in the month from about May to October, we have a Union Meeting, which means that everyone on the island meets together for church.  I enjoy doing this, it's nice to be with the Eastside people, we don't see them often.  The problem with this is that we take turns meeting on opposite sides of the island every other month and this month we met on the east side.  That means a 130 mile drive, which comes out to leaving around 7:30 am to make 10:30 meeting.  I had a real hard time rolling out of bed this morning knowing I had a 2.5 hour one way drive ahead of me.  I was planning on sharing driving with #1 so I wouldn't have the whole 5 hours to drive myself (hubby's on the mainland right now and will be flying home tomorrow). 

Well, I got myself and the kids out of bed and did pretty well I thought, since we were all in the car at 7:35, only 5 minutes past when I'd planned on leaving.  I was going to take first shift driving, so I turn the key in the ignition.  *click*    Dead battery.   #4 hadn't closed the van door tightly last time we used it.  We hop out of the van, get the car running and pull out the jumper cables.  We got the van jump started, I hopped back in the drivers seat and we were on  our way.  It wasn't until we were about 5 miles down the road that I realized that my spedometer wasn't working.  No matter how fast I went, it stayed at zero.  Too late to do anything about it, so I just played it by ear and hoped the car in front of me wasn't speeding - or if he was, that the cops would go after him instead of me.  A lot of the time I was all alone on the road, so who knows how fast I was actually going?  We were about 20 miles from home when WE decided he was feeling car sick.  He spent the next 30 minutes holding a grocery bag by his face in case he barfed (he didn't) while I was zipping along the road at an indeterminate speed.  I'm happy to report that we made it to church with 15 minutes to spare and with no traffic violations.  Yay me! 

Heather, I know what you mean about kids growing up fast.  We were sorting pictures the other day and found a bunch of when all you girls spent the night at our house when you were little and were jumping in the haymow in your underwear.  I can't believe how little you all were and now you're all married with  most of  you mothers!  I'm old 

Bravenet is evil and I'm tempted to switch over to Blogger, but it requires an effort I'm not willing to extend at the moment, but don't be surprised if some day you find I've moved on.

#1 is 16 today.  It's hard to believe that a child of mine is that old.  I was obviously a VERY young mother.  I'm also a very bad mother, since it wasn't until this afternoon when I was writing the date on a deposit slip at the bank that I realized that I forgot to make him a carrot cake for his birthday.  I dashed across the street to the grocery store and picked up a chocolate cheesecake instead, but he was disappointed that I didn't make him the carrot cake.  I make a killer carrot cake.

The kids enjoyed their first day of school...as much as you can enjoy school, that is.  I discovered why WE took chorus for the 2nd year in a row.  I always kind of wondered, since he doesn't really seem to be a chorus kind of kid.  But today he told me the boy to girl ratio is 1:6, so now it's all starting to make sense.  He likes the odds in his favor.

And, for your viewing enjoyment, I give you the link to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog:  http://www.hulu.com/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

You need the right kind of sense of humor to enjoy this (a bizarre one works best).  #2 and I both busted a gut laughing and have now started quoting lines from it.  Those of you with a normal, mainstream sense of humor might just want to skip the whole link and watch something like Arrested Development or old episodes of Cheers or something.

I usually have no problem falling asleep at night.  Twenty minutes after my head hits the pillow, I'm history.  But last night was awful.  I went to bed at 10, but couldn't seem to fall asleep.  As I tossed and turned, I started developing a headache.  Usually when I get a headache, I go to sleep and that'll take care of it, but since I couldn't fall asleep, my headache got worse til it felt like there were shards of glass bouncing around in my head and poking my eyeballs.   Finally, a little after one, I got up and took some asprin.  We were out of melatonin, which I've had to use once before and discovered works, so I was out of luck there.  We did have some sleeping pills that hubby'll use on occasion, but since I've never taken a sleeping pill in my life I didn't know how my body was going to react.  I needed to be up in 5 hours to get #4 off to school and I didn't want it to put me out so deeply I didn't hear the alarm ring or something.  So, I skipped on the sleeping pills and finally, around 2:30, I finally fell asleep.  I didn't take a nap or anything today, so I'm pretty tired and I still have a little bit of last nights headache hanging on.  So I'll probably take an asprin and a melatonin (I bought some today) before I even crawl in to bed tonight.  I don't want to wake up late tomorrow and not get the kids to school, I've been looking forward to getting rid of them all week.