Under Construction

CURRENTLY WORKING ON A NEW TEMPLATE. AND A SLIDESHOW FROM OUR MEMORIAL WEEKEND VACATION.

SHOULD BE A NEW SLIDESHOW BLOG POSTED HERE IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS...PICS FROM OUR MEMORIAL WEEKEND VACATION...BUT NO PROMISES.

SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

THE MANAGEMENT

THE FREAKS COME OUT AT NIGHT

And last night, we dropped our daughter right into the middle of all of them.

PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN III!!!

Pirates of the Carribbean I was an entertaining movie; however, I have yet to see the second and as of last night, the third. Having a pre-teen in the house, I've been experiencing the overwhelming, exciting panic of Pirates III looming on the horizon, for at least a month. All this week, we've heard Pirates this, and Pirates that and occasionally, "Oh yeah, I better go study for exams".

Anna's Seventh Grade class has been planning ever since the release date was announced, to go to the Midnight Premiere of Pirates/Carribbean III. A group of the kids from school had went to the last Premiere and the Premiere of SpiderMan, as well, and now it's something they all do. Last night, the long-awaited dream became reality.

I realized early on, that people would be dressed up like pirates but when we stood around waiting for the chaperones to show up, I began to get a little uneasy. Nobody was dressed particularly weird but they all were so old compared to my young, innocent seventh-grade child. The boys seemed especially virile and suspicious. "Don't you even THINK about looking at my daughter!" I wanted to yell at all of them, as we went over the rules again...no going to the bathroom by yourself, meet me *here* when you get out, stay with your group, use your phone to call if you feel uncomfortable, tell Mr. So-and-So if anyone hassles you. I contemplated several times going and buying a ticket and guarding my child from "the hormones" but there were a few problems with that impromptu thought:

1) Anna was looking forward, I'm sure, to not having "the parents" attend (I'll mention briefly here an interest in a certain boy)
2) If I saw Pirates III before I saw Pirates II, it would ruin the whole plot
3) Gerald was waiting for me to come home and help him grade--fun!
4) I'm fairly sure they were SOLD OUT

When the chaperoning parents came on the scene, whew--mostly Dads, I quickly and graciously took my place back in the car to drive home. One of the Dads is a towering, burly military man and I found out when I got home that he and Gerald had talked and he assured us (Gerald specifically) that he'd take care of "the boy" or anyone else should that become necessary.

I went home and graded Freshmen Bible verse exams--which is torture. I don't know why the teachers do that to themselves and what good does it do to MAKE kids memorize all those words? I had to do that all thru school and, to this day, I cannot recall a verse just because you throw out the reference. As a matter of fact, I think it burns kids out on reading the Bible and they don't actually learn the spirit of the verse, just the words to pass the test and then they forget. Gerald and I discuss this often and we disagree. BUT, that's another blog.

So, at 2:45 AM, I go pick up Anna. I stand around outside with all the smokers, obnoxiously exuberant Pirates, police and a few frisky teens, waiting for all the credits to be over. It was a LONG list of credits, which at the end, had a surprise. The Eighth Graders had earlier in the day, at the other theatre's 8PM premiere, gone to see Pirates III and leaked the info to the Seventh Graders. So I had no choice, I had to wait--NO WAY they were going to miss anything! I kid you not, the credits were fifteen minutes long!

Sure, they could have went to the 8:00 showing and saved their parents droopy eyes but where's the fun in that? It's something you do when you're young and unencumbered by life's burdens and early mornings. On top of that, they had just spent the day canoeing on the Flint River and cooking s'mores and hot dogs at a last-day-of-school party. I remember going full-speed like that.

Oh, to not be that young again but to have that energy!

Movie Review from teenagers: the movie was confusing; they'll have to see it again to understand it all. Yeah, one of those.

SPONTANEITY

Before I start, Blogger for some reason or another decided to change my format and it drove me NUTS--I fixed it three times! So, if you're big on keeping things uniform in your blogs, as I am, I apologize that Blogger cannot seem to keep it's grubby, little, digital hands off my impeccably-formatted text. :0)

You know about Hubby's Freddie-phobia.

You've met Children 2, 3, and 5.

You've seen our blog-ad for a Handsome Male, who got a new home this weekend--YAY!

You know my Brother's B-day and you've seen my lovely Sister.

You know about my First official J-O-B.

You admire my Fifteen-Seconds-Of-Fame Father--admit it.

You still don't have a picture of me. Just my choice in hairstyles.

What don't you know about us?

Our Spontaneity:

Today, after Church (around 2PM) and during our "Adult Swim Time," Gerald and I decided that we had a "hankerin' " for some Tennessee-style BBQ. So, we thought where better to go than this little BBQ joint we kept hearing about? Lots of our friends in HSV often take a day-trip and go to eat BBQ at...Sticky Fingers. Mmmm...

Have you heard of it? It's in CHATTANOOGA. That's not so crazy!

We hop out of the pool, tell the kids they have ten minutes to swim and then we take off for Chattanooga.

How far you may ask, is Chattanooga? It's only an hour and a half, people.

I know, gas prices but...

We needed to fill up anyway; so we got cheap-er gas at this one special exit that's about an hour this side of Chattanooga. It's only this ONE special exit and if you miss it, you miss the cheap-er gas (Exit #169 on I-24). That's because this particular, ONE exit happens to sit in Georgia. As a matter of fact, and interesting to boot, the state line changes three or four times between Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, within a two-mile radius on this particular route. Our two youngest had a hard time understanding this--please follow along:

Zac: "What?! I thought we were going to Tenn-we-see, why are we in
Goigia?!?"
Drew: (After I explained it to him) "Zac, there is this little
piece of TN and GA that fit together with Alabama and that's where we
are right now!"
Zac: "Shut up, Drwew, you'rwe NOT the boss! Mom, is Drwew in charwge?!?"

Georgia always has the cheapest gas of any of the states around it--not sure why. You can bet, we always take advantage of it. We found it for $2.98/gal in case you want to stock up :0)

Now, in case you're going to be in the area soon, My Restaurant Review:

How was Sticky Fingers? It was really good. As close to
Kansas City BBQ as
we can get down south. I tried the Memphis Dry Rub
which
I've wanted to try for
a long time. As expected, I thoroughly
enjoyed it.
Gerald had the Carolina Wet
ribs and he thoroughly
enjoyed
them, as well.
The meals come with their homemade
Slaw,
BBQ
Beans and,
of course, Corn
Biscuits. You can substitute the
sides for
others at no
additional
cost.

The kid's meals are
$3.99,
which includes a soft
drink and include:
Shirley
Temples
and Roy
Rogers. Twelve and under
are considered
children and our
kids
were filled up--which means
they are good-sized
meals and
included
ribs and wings for those
kids with more "adult"
tastes.

Adult's menu start with
Appetizers around $5-8;
Sandwiches
with one side,
around $6 and Entree'
Combos from
$10-20.
Beverages run
around $2.
We didn't have
Drinks
or Desserts.
Lunch menu daily
until 3PM. Open daily at
11Am. Didn't pay attention to
closing
times. Chattanooga is
Eastern Time Zone.Where is Sticky Fingers? Off 1-24 in downtown
Chattanooga. A neat little artsy area called "Jake's Alley." At
the
same exit, there is the TN Aquarium which our kids visit in fifth
grade
and it's
always a hit. Haven't been there myself
though.
There
is
also a kid's museum at the same
exit. It's close to
Ruby Falls,
the
Incline Railway and Lookout
Mountain. Now
you have a nice
tourist
destination. I
charge 20% referral fees.
:0)

Would we make another spontaneous drive all
the way to Chattanooga for Sticky
Fingers? Well, we both said probably
not--but that was AFTER our tummies were
full, our craving for BBQ was
satisfied, the after-a-fat-meal sleep was setting
in and the 1 1/2-long trip
loomed before us. If it came down to it again and we
just needed a little
breather from hometown stuff, I think we probably would
make the
drive.

We like to drive, especially when the kids put on their headphones and watch movies. We caught an 80's station out of Chattanooga all the way back to HSV, so Gerald and I car-danced and lip-sync'd all the way home, thanks to the HUGE coffees we bought at the gas station. Gerald also likes to "sing" his special rendition to duets sung by man/woman teams. He sings the woman's part but with his regular voice. This time he sang the part of Crystal Gayle in a duet with Eddie Rabbit; it's always sort of...well, I call it freaky...and it IS.

Later, we turned on an old, Southern Gospel station and sang our own operatic-rendition of whatever Hymn the singer & organist happened to be mutilating together. We have refined our talents over the years when trying to stay awake and alert driving from Florida to Missouri; Alabama to Virginia and often, between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Our kids think we're weird and they think 80's music is lame. We think they're weird and lame and that normality and punctuality are highly overrated.

That's us; you now know more about our crazy family.

The spontaneity makes life fun for our kids, as it can be stressful on Principal's kids...especially considering the politics that go on. It blew our budget for the next eleven days and we'll have to forego groceries for the week but there's only two regular days of school left. It'll be something we'll talk about in the years to come, it keeps Gerald and I young and it's worth the stocked-up leftovers we'll be reheating from the freezer all week.

We're going to Six Flags-Atlanta next week. We do plan some things--five days ago.

The best thing about spontaneity? We planned for three kids, we were given two surprises--some of the best things in life are unplanned!

MY SUCKY BLOG

I apologize.

Recently, my blog sucks.

And there is nothing that I really can do about it.

Here is why--in the last two and a half weeks, our schedule has involved ALL of the following: (Bore Warning--it's a LONG list)

• Dental Appointments for Molly & Drew
• Orthodontic Appointments for Anna & Jake
• Sports Awards Banquet
• Piano Recital for both girls
• Band/Choral Recital for Anna & Jake
• Baking treats for After-Recital Party
• Spring Music Recital for Molly & Drew
• Preparing for School-Wide Garage Sale at our home
• Chaperoning nine Freshmen who climbed our pool fence and "accidentally" fell in our pool floatie, only to then "accidentally" roll off into our pool, giggling head-over-heels, w/their uniforms on, while they were supposed to be unloading tables & plants for said Garage Sale...that was the GIRLS, of course then we had to let the boys get in also
• Staying up until 4 in the morning cleaning for scads of parent volunteers roaming for two days through our house...then getting up at 5:30AM to vacuum, putting the dog out the dog door until his grooming, getting the kids dressed and ready for school, putting still-sleeping, little punk Zac's breakfast on the table and finally, showering for arrival of volunteer Garage Sale Moms at 8:30AM. Going to bed at 11:30PM after twelve kids cooled off in pool. Then up at 6AM to shower, make two pots of coffee and ward off early birds from Garage Sale!
• Setting up and pricing 65 tables of "junk" and three tables of concessions with too many women all having their own opinion on how best to tackle the project--I was just too dang tired to like any of them at that point--I was ready to "fall out," as they say here in Alabama
• Hosting said Garage Sale
• Taking Anna, Jake and Molly to three different B-Day parties during Garage Sale
• Still haven't remembered to buy a present for two of the hosts of said B-Day parties--dangit!
• Filling Downtown Mission truck with leftover "junk" and taking two Dodge truckloads of leftover clothes to the church Clothes Pantry even after selling "junk" ALL DAY LONG!
• Watering, transporting to and from school and keeping watch over 65-75 "rare" Hostas at our home until the Mother's Day plant sale for our Student Leadership group
• Buying cards for: my Mom, his Mom, Mom & Dad's Anniversay, Mom Friends, the Grandmas, Bro's B-day, Drew's B-day, Wedding Shower and one Death
• Standing in long line because I just ran out of stamps and then Mailing said cards
• Hosting After-Garage Sale Party w/about 35 children, aching feet and back and a pretty good sunburn
• Cleaning nasty oil- and hair-covered pool after 35-child party
• Taking B-day party to Drew's class for his celebration--today
• Shopping for Drew's B-day gift
• Going to Chuck E. Cheese for Drew's B-day dinner, tonight--gotta' love Chuck E.!
• Attending Anna's National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony
• Shopping for dress & shoes for said NJHS induction ceremony
• Attending Mother's Day Tea in Drew's class, while leaving all the moms to sort garage sale items and then leaving Tea early to attend NJHS induction, all within one hour and while thunder was looming on the Garage Sale horizon--Thank You, Lord, it never did rain!
• Attending Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast
• Preparing Molly for trip to Tennessee Renaissance Festival
• Preparing Drew for class trip hiking in Green Mountain--tomorrow
• Helping Gerald put a new water pump on the Jeep
• Taking quick weekend trip to Six Flags over Atlanta w/Band
• Attending Soccer Team pizza party
• Buying Mother's Day gift
• Getting Tooth Fairy to reward yet another lost tooth
• Making appointment for dog grooming--and then forgetting appointment after Garage Sale, imagine that!
• Attending teacher meeting about Jake's goofing off in class and subsequent falling grades
• Starting new budget plan
• Volleyball tryouts
• Buying end-of-year teacher's gifts
• Teacher Appreciation Week--this week--which involved sending in four checks to four different Room Mothers, on top of two of the kids taking in a flower, homemade card, and a book for in-room library on different days this week
• Buying Wedding shower gift
• Attending Wedding shower
• Shopping for shoes for Molly who is in said Wedding in June
• Finding Jake's bowtie for his Band Recital
• Finding and buying a long-sleeve (in May?!), white shirt for Anna's Choral Recital
• Making sure Jake turned in his Weather project--yesterday
• Making sure Molly turned in her Family Coat of Arms project--yesterday
• Making sure all homework is completed and packed in backpacks
• Making sure all field trip permission slips are signed
• Making sure all field trip money is turned in
• Making sure all field trip shirts are laundered & dry
• Making sure all take-home papers are signed and packed in backpacks
• Making sure all Sports Uniforms are clean and turned in--Bball, Vball, Sball, Soccer, Track
• Keeping garden watered
• Keeping garden weeded--yeah, right!
• Keeping dog (and cat) fed & watered
• Trying to keep house straightened
• Trying to fix dinner every night--remember said NEW budget!
• Forget Laundry--it's a mountain--I've only been washing uniforms,undies and towels
• Keeping lunches packed--no school lunches--remember said NEW budget, again!
• Making (which, this week, meant buying) breakfast for our newest challenge--youth leaders at church's newly-acquired campus; forget visitation!
• Finding cat a new home--accomplished!!!
• Dropping off/Picking up Anna for Bible studies and Drama class practices
• Making costume for Molly's Medival Festival--due today
• Preparing Molly's eggs, bottles and matches for Science Fair--due tomorrow
• Making sure Molly's book report is done--due tomorrow
• Drew's class end-of-year party tomorrow night
• Drew's class parent-invited Arbonne party tomorrow night
• Teacher retirement party next week
• Awards ceremonies next week
• Three and a half days of school next week
• And one last field trip to, "Safety City" on Monday

Gerald's been trying to help but end-of-year meetings, hiring of new teachers, teaching a class, grading, keeping our yard and one other yard mowed, driving THE bus for endless field trips and trying to run the day-to-day operations of the school has him snowballed.

I thought after the last Track Meet, our life was gonna' slow way down-ha!

We're celebrating our 15th Anniversary in June...Mom and Dad will have the kids. We're gonna' go to Florida and just lay on the beach, literally. It CANNOT come soon enough.

I promise better blogs after school is out--IN ONE WEEK

I love my life but it's tiring and, as you can see, at times, it's CRAZYYY!!!

For now, I'm signing off and going to bed; needless to say, I've been sleeping GREAT.

IN THE MOTHERHOOD

THERE'S A NEW "SHOW" ON THE WEB

IT STARS LISA REMINI FROM "KING OF QUEENS"

SHE CRACKS ME UP

THE WEBISODES ARE PRETTY FUNNY

FOR MOMS, FROM MOMS, ABOUT MOMS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

YOU LIVE IN A ZOO

YOU SMELL LIKE A MON...KEY

AND....YOU LOOK LIKE ONE TOOOOOOOO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK, YOU'RE 32(?) THIS YEAR

BUT YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY ANNOYING BABY BROTHER.

I LOVE YOU, MARKY!

EMERGENCY 51

Remember the show, "Emergency 51," that used to be on television sometime in the 70's, if I remember right?

My brother loved the show; watched it all the time and wanted to be a firefighter...until "C.H.I.P.S." came on, then he wanted to be a police officer.

I liked the show because even at such a young age, I knew a hottie when I saw one and that show had TWO! *Sizzle*

"John" must have been the hotter of the two, because I can still remember his name. (Mark, who's the other guy?)

Well, this blog has NOTHING at all to do with that show.

Being that HSV is home to The Redstone Arsenal (more info), we are a major player in the defense of our nation and having found out just recently that we are now #2 on "the list", up from #3 just a year ago; furthermore, having had more than one person tell me since moving here that most families here DO have emergency plans in place; furthermore, having a child in third grade that completeted a project this year outlining their family's emergency plan, I decided that I would look up a website that is burned into my brain from the huge billboards here in town that advertise, "Are You Ready, Alabama?"

Having an emergency plan in place is a very wise idea in this day and age. If you live in a hurricane state, it is just one of the routines of your life, as we found out after moving to FL a few years ago and had much practice with that emergency plan as three hurricanes hit our area the first year we lived there. Since then, I keep an emergency box stocked "on the ready" but now instead of hurricanes I'm preparing for, it's mostly just tornadoes...

The "Be Ready" Plan suggests having duct tape and plastic sheeting ready for "chemicals" but I'm of the opinion that I'd rather go quickly than have some gas or vapor seep through the plastic slowly. I don't think plastic sheeting is going to stop chemicals any better than duct-taping your windows keeps them from blowing in during a hurricane.

Anywho, here's a link to hook you up with a Family Communications Plan; you might be surprised to find how much better you feel knowing that if a disaster strikes your area, your family members will know what to do, where to go, who to call. Now that I have a pre-teen and a teenager that are away from home often, this plan allows me one less thing about which to worry.

WORKIN' FOR BEANS

We've been doing ALOT of swimming around here, very little blogging (Mark), the least amount of cleaning with which we can get away and very little cooking, as well.

Tonight, for instance, we had homemade bean burritos, which don't sound like much...correct.

Being on a school salary, having five kids and paying for all the water we have to put back INTO the pool every night, bean burritos are a very economical meal; furthermore, they are very satisfying, easy to make and delish, as Rachel Ray would say. I hate her every time she says it...which also means, Jake says it every chance he gets when he and I are together. Ahhh, boys.

Bean burritos, oddly enough, bring to mind a few stories.

• My late grandfather Deter had this amusing habit of, well, flatuating and then blaming it on the person sitting the closest to him. Despite that fact, I LOVED sitting next to Grandpa, as all the grandkids did, but I was the oldest grandkid and always seemed to weasle my way in next to him. Because of this, I was blamed often and, being easily embarrassed, I'd flush red every single time even though I knew that everyone else knew--whoever smelt it, dealt it! Never thought about it until now how much I miss being accused of being "The Farter".

• A classic poem oft quoted at my childhood home; of course, it's carried over to our home:

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart

The more you eat, the more you fart

The more you fart, the better you feel

So eat your beans for every meal

(I'm sure you'll insert your own variation in the "comments" section)

• My first official, go out and fill out an application/have an interview/watch "Food Handling/Safety" video J-O-B: Taco Bell. Aahhh, I can still smell the stench. Every time we walk into a Taco Bell now (which is rare), I still gag at the smell of grease. I remember my brother, who avoided me like the plague, would scoot over right next to me in the car when Mom would pick me up from work. He'd inhale deeply all the way home like some perverted taco freak. He probably pulled my uniform out of the laundry and slept with it all night. Nasty.

I worked at a brand new Taco Bell. All the employees were brand new, as were the managers, supervisors, you get the gist. To "practice" for the big Grand Opening, all the employees' family and friends were invited into the store the day before the big Grand Opening and they could order ANYTHING they wanted, AS MUCH AS they wanted, all for FREE! Yes, FREE!

Well, my little sixth grade weasle of a brother (who is pretty cool now but not then) couldn't get enough. I don't know how much food he ordered that day, I doubt if he ate much of it--it was just a challenge to him to see how much food he could order. My Mom got so irritated at him that day.

Taco Bell, in those days, drained the mystery meat in huge colanders set over buckets which sat on the floor--very hygienic. One day, I was walking past the "drain bucket" when I happened to look down and see a used bandaid in the meat. (I know I just made Tammi run for the toilet.) Yes, I took it out so nobody would eat it or find it and ruin Taco Bell's good reputation!

After I had been dating my hubby for a few years (we dated for five), I found out he had worked at Taco Bell's arch rival at that time--Taco John's. Ewww. Actually, I'd take Taco John's over Taco Bell anyday, especially their Potato Ole's, Mmmm. To this day, when we have taco night at our house (at least once a week), Gerald and I go back and forth trying to convince the kids that each of our burrito-folding skills is better than the others. The kids' verdict is still out but I say I'm winner, hands down--that's the beauty of having your own blog (you're right, Kat, we do compete over everything).

My favorite job ever was working for a doughnut shop, Mmm. Details tomorrow.

SPLASH!!!!!

The Porter Pool is officially open for the season!

The water was still a little nippy on Monday, at 76, but the outside temp was high 80's, the water smelled inviting and we couldn't argue with the kids'...,"We're burnin' up; can we swim, pleeeease!"

The water should be just right by this weekend;

so come on over. We'll provide the towels and, of course, sweet suthun' tea.

If you happen to need a room, we might be able to oblige that, as well.

The more, the merrier!

Here's some pics of our "season opener":

Miss Molly Drama...need I say more?

She received a 10.0 for little splash.

Zac finally grew tall enough that he could touch (even w/the floating brick attached to him). He still stays against the side of the pool, though; hoping to coax him out into the middle by

summer's end.

Nobody and nothing was dry when it was all said and done.

Scooter chases the kids from one end of the pool to the other

and growls at all the pool toys.

Yeah, he's ferocious.

Our personal chef, grilling for the shrivel-toed, voracious gang.

They may be shrivel-toed, but they have

expensive palettes--notice all that's left is

shrimp tails AND....

Hot dogs. Little farts barely touched the dogs.

Gerald and I were salivating over the shrimp.

Guess what we ate?

1 - 2 - 3 - JUMP!

Anna: " Wait, guuuys!"

WUZZUUUUP!

"Watch my flip, Mom!"

TADA!

STRIKE

A

POSE!

"My lips are NOT blue, Mom!"

Looking brave, while trying to touch.

"The water's touching my chiiiin...help!"

"CANNONBAAAALL!"

"Mom, look, I grew a blue tail..ha, haaaah, haaaah. Take a picture of my spit bubble."

Oh yeah, Gerald wanted me to mention how clean and BLUE "his" pool is...

He prides himself on his pool chemistry skills--little acid here, little baking soda there-- it's almost like rocket science, right hon? :0)