Seasons

Fall is my favorite time of year and I am really not sure why. Having grown up at Lake Powell, we did not have seasons, just summer or winter (with the occasional spring and few days of fall). When I was 15, we moved to Northern Nevada where for the first time experienced the leaves changing, the air turning brisk and all the scents and sites of this beautiful time of year. Now that I live in the desert again, I once again don't have this season to enjoy. I don't really like Halloween but the idea of making caramel apples, the scent of apple cider and there is nothing better than biting into a nice crisp, juicy apple!!! I love taking a ride to Red Rock Canyon or Mount Charleston to see the leaves turning orange, yellow and brown which are both about half an hour or more drive but it is worth it. My mom is lucky enough to be taking a fall foliage cruise next week and I am hoping she brings me lots of pictures of the trees.

So Far So Good

Well, I tried the dryer when I got home the other day and much to my surprise it worked. This was a surprise because so much had happened that I was just expecting the worst once again. I have used it a couple of time since then and it continues to work but I got a new tip from a friend (Thanks Klucky) that I am going to try when I get home to help see if there is lint that may have been stuck. Either way, I am just thrilled to be able to do laundry when I need or want to (not that I really ever want to) and not just on Sunday afternoon. I never thought I would be thrilled over something like this but hey, this is a big deal.

I still haven't gotten pictures of the kids in their new uniforms (since they all 3 went to different teams this season) but I am going to try and get some tomorrow at Soccer Queen and Monkey Boys games. Soccer Queen has 2 games each week from this week on so I should be able to get something of her :)

Gremlins

With all the things that have fallen apart in my life lately, I was beginning to think I had a black cloud following me. I know that my faith is being tested so I am trying to concentrate on the good and the things that are right in my life but today I am feeling that I have Gremlins in my house. We got the garage door repaired, a new computer purchased and hooked up that is running great and my wonderful Hubby was even able to get the old one running and hooked to a network so we now have 2 computers to search the net with. Things are starting to look up!!! My dryer was still not repaired and that was something that we were working on this week and this is where it gets a little strange. What happened was that I was doing another load of the never ending laundry (which is a whole nother subject because I swear it multiples at night) and it was taking forever to dry. I finally realized that the dryer was not heating up. Luckily, Granny is just around the corner so I have been doing the laundry at home and drying it down there for the past couple of weeks. It hasn't been to bad or inconvenient because her house feels like home to me anyway and it forces me to put all the laundry away instead of leaving the socks to fold themselves. I washed clothes yesterday and I never dry my jeans so I put them over the shower to dry last night but they were still a little damp this morning. I put them in the dryer because it still turns, and blows air, it just doesn't get warm. After about 20 minutes in there, I decided that they would be good enough to rush out the door to work. Well, to my surprise when I opened the dryer door, my pants were warm. Now I haven't used my dryer in 2 weeks so maybe it needed a rest but I think the Gremlins have been playing with me, just to drive me nuttier that I already am.



I am going to test it again tonight just to make sure I am not crazy and hopefully it will continue to work until Hubby can work his magic on it to repair it for good. It was nice to start my Monday with some good news rather than the bad that has been happening lately.

We Will Never Forget

I am like most Americans that remember where I was and what I was doing 7 years ago today. I was getting ready for work when Sharkboy informed me that a plane had hit a building and we needed to call his Poppa to make sure that he was ok. About that time, the 2nd plane hit and from that second until the next day, we did try to call but of course the phone lines were down so we could not get through. My hubby was at work and was calling me to see if I had heard anything from Poppa or Granny but my answer was continually the same, no. He had limited access to information at work so my phone minutes were burned trying to keep him updated on what I could gather from the internet at my work. As the day wore on, so did our worry and I remember picking up Sharkboy from school and him asking if we had talked to Poppa. The hardest thing was telling him no. I don't think I have searched the internet as much as I did that day for any information that I could get from any media. I searched faces in pictures and as lists of missing were posted, I searched them too but found nothing. As the night wore on, we were back and forth between hoping that no news was good news to dispair that no news was bad news.

Fortunately for our family, he had ran into a friend and was able to get to New Jersey as all the bridges, tunnels and ferries were closed to get home and he sent an email saying he was ok. For many, they did not have such news and because of that, WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

Observations of Idiots

Maybe it is because I spent 12 hours out in the blistering hot sun of Las Vegas so my brain is melted but I have never seen so many adults acting like idiots over football. Yesterday was Jamboree for the boy's football teams. This is a gathering of all teams in each division to play against other teams before the season kicks off, sort of a "preseason". It is a chance for the teams to run their offensive and defensive plays in a game setting. There is no score kept and they don't play on a full field, no referees, just coaches and players. It is a great idea especially for the little ones because for some of them, it will be the first time they have ever been in uniform, on a field, running plays. They are excited and full of positive energy but the older the kids get, the less positive energy there is and it seems that there are more idiots. My day started out by me leaving the house with Monkey Boy and Soccer Queen at 8am. We were all packed with chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, water, ice, cooler and of course football gear. We arrived at the park and found the team which consists of 30 boys in the ages of 6-8 all ready to play. This session went off very smooth and with no injuries. Moms were proud and excited, Dads were talking superbowls and NFL for the kids, and the boys, well they just had a blast. We finished around 12:30 but Soccer Queen had to be at her game at 1:15 so Granny took the monkey home to change and feed him some lunch while I took her to the baking oven. Mind you that I had now been outside for 5 hours in 107 degree heat so I was a little melted by this time and when I got to a new park she had never played out and found out they had turf with rubber backing, I was a little frustrated because it felt like an oven. Her game got over at around 3:15. We then ran home, changed our clothes because I was soaked in sweat, picked up the boys and headed to the 2nd session of jamboree. We had to be there at 4:30 so they could get warmed up or whatever so I found a nice shade tree and laid in the grass until 6pm. This is where I started to notice the idiots everywhere. This session was for kids between 12-16. The first team we played was ok but on the field next to us, the idiots were fighting with everyone. Parents were on the field yelling at coaches, kids and other parents and the head coach of this particular team was running his mouth to anyone that would listen. Our attention was quickly diverted to the action on the next field and it is amazing how quickly we forgot our own kids were still playing. This group of idiots (when I say idiots, I am referring to the parents and supporters, not the kids) moved over to where we were sitting. The fighting continued on our field because they were standing in front of us so that we could not see our kids so our parents asked them to take a knee so we could see which the kids did but the parents and coaches were ready for a fight and started in on our parents. The head idiot (or coach if you want to call him that) was belittling our kids as they were playing and talking so much trash it was uncomfortable to all of us on the sidelines. When they finally got to the field with our kids, it got even uglier. Because they were teaching their kids to play a certain way which is dangerous, and players were getting hit late, hit dirty, our coaches opted to end this session and get our kids out of harms way but not without the league officials stepping in for the 2nd time in a matter of 20 minutes . Our coach who has a temper and hot head also turned into an idiot for a minute and gave in to their level of class and words were exchanged. Our boys were able to "score" (no score was kept but they did allow them to run into the endzone) several times before the ending was called. As this team moved to the next field, the fighting continued with the next team. I don't know of the head idiot will survive to see his first game because of all the parent complaints from all the teams and this is so sad for the kids that just want to play football. How easily it is to forget these kids are in middle school and not the NFL with million dollar contracts, the boys just want to play and have a great time but parents (or idiots) can ruin it so quickly. By the time I arrived home at 9pm, I was a melted mess of goo that had no clear thoughts but now that I have cooled down and rested, my opinion of idiots is still the same, idiots will be idiots no matter the situation.

Another One Bites The Dust

It seems that everything in my house is falling apart. It started with the air conditioner a month or so ago and has just continued with the fish tank, my mother in law's freezer, our computer, and now our dryer and garage. I left for work and it opened and closed fine but then I realized that I had forgotten my purse at home so I turned around and headed back home only to have the garage door not open but a couple of inches. So now I have to call and get someone out there to repair it... Our dryer died over the weekend, it still turns but will not heat up. Hopefully we can get it fixed over the next week.

It has been a very long week (even though I only had to work 4 days) and I am ready for the weekend but even then, I won't have a break, because the boys have football jamboree all day on Saturday so I will be out at the field. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post of them in their uniforms. I am ready to go back to bed and start this week over.

Back in Business

We were able to successfully purchase and install our new system. I am loving it, for the little time that I have spent on it since Saturday night. It is much faster than our old system (which we have had since 2001) and were in need of a new upgrade. My weekend was spend with Soccer Queen at a tournament here in Las Vegas. Her team did well and she was very tired after 3 days of soccer. The boys both have a football jamboree next Saturday so my weekend will once again be spend out in the sun. More about that later.