Mrs. Hughes Skewed Views

From Crackle: Mrs hughes skewed views

Cheery Bunny from Scrap Share shared this video of her MOM performing her comedy. Her mom! How awesome is that? I loved her so had to share this clip.

A Cello Rondo

Tuesdays With Noirrie

Hubby Done Good

Steve has been selected to be the Chamber of Commerce President for Blackwell for the coming year. He's very proud. I'm very proud of him. This, of course, will mean more work for him. Like he needed that. Still, it's an honor, and a good move for him being a bit of an 'outsider' in the community. He worried a bit that I would be upset when his exta responsibilities take him away from home more evenings this year. How can I tell him that I consider those bonus nights? Nights when I can get away with just making chicken nuggets and mac 'n' cheese for dinner. This is certainly no hardship on me.

Here's an excerpt from the article the paper carried:

Developing a sense of family within Blackwell is the goal for incoming Chamber president Steven Russell.“I believe in Blackwell,” he said the week prior to assuming his new office.“This is truly a community of family. We are blessed with multiple families here. We have our home family, our work family and the community family.”

I wanted to add the entire article but discovered that the Blackwell Journal-Tribune requires a paid subscription to do so. Note to self: Send an email to the BJ-T editor letting them know that NO one from out of the area is going to pay to subscribe to this paper online. And those in the area can just pick it up at the gas station. Sheesh.

Teenagers

I need to get a t-shirt that says this. On reading the Scrap Share board, Kellisue posted about a very unmotivated teenager. I could SO relate (x2). But the best thing to come out of the thread, for me, were these words by the ever-wise Diana in MD:

Teenagers ...

Taller toddlers

with bigger words.

Tuesdays With Noirrie

The Cave

I'm not sure if I should call it the bear cave, the bat cave or just the man cave. Any one of those would apply. But a cave it as certainly turned out to be. See, we used to have this nice family room. We gained it when we added on to our house nearly five years ago. It was a lovely room for a time. We installed surround-sound and I decorated it with a fun movie theme. It belonged to all of us. For a while.

Then, slowly, the men took over. Steve started going there when he wanted some alone time. He closes the doors (a clear signal) and hibernates in front of the TV. But the real overthrow came when Lane discovered that he could hook their game system into the surround sound. Hey, who wouldn't want the sounds of things exploding coming at you from all directions?

In the last three days I have had a succession of eight different teen-aged boys through there. When the boys have friends over, that is their domain. And, admittedly, it's nice for me to have a place to send them, out of my way. But can you imagine the look and, more importantly, the smell of that room after having that many guys in there for the weekend? Teen boy funk. Ah, there's nothing like it. That's why I'm thinking I should call it the bat cave. Not because of that cool masked hero. No. Because of the odor of guano that permeates it. Seriously, there is not enough Febreeze in seven Wal Marts to freshen it.

I wonder if I could talk Steve into adding on again? This time, we could build a girl room. Hmmm.....

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Does anyone else get seriously tired of having to tiptoe around certain people? Do you have those people in your life that you have to pussy-foot around? You know the ones that are always on the edge of their seat ready to leap at you for the slightest (inevitably imagined) insult or slight? If not, thank your lucky freaking stars! I have a few too many of them in my life. If you know me, you know who they are. I know I should stop indulging them, be blunt and just not play their game. But then I have to suffer the repercussions. It's a catch-22.

*sigh*

Maybe I should just buy some of those toe shoes ballerinas wear to make this balancing act easier?

Tuesdays With Noirrie

My kingdom for a king!

I'll make a confession. Steve and I really do not make good bedfellows. We really should not sleep together. And, by "sleep", I mean sleep. Our sleep styles are just waaaaay too different. For starters, he goes to bed around 9 p.m. and I go to bed around 1 a.m. Normally, this is no problem. 1) If he needs sleep, he normally doesn't wake up when I come to bed. 2) If he needs something else, he normally does. (Side note: How does he do that? It's a secret man-gift, I tell you!) Then there's the fact that he's a flopper. I am not. It takes me a good while to get to sleep some nights with him tossing about on his side of the bed. Not to mention that these sleep gyrations mess the covers up. Bedtime is one of those times when my OCD comes into play. I must have the covers centered on me and the sheets firmly tucked in at the foot of the bed or it bugs the everloving crap out of me. By the time I get to bed, he often has the covers all messy. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to re-make a bed with someone sleeping in it without waking them? Quite. And then there's the snoring. He doesn't always snore. But when he does it's a touchy proposition getting him to stop. If I wake him, he gets very grumpy. It's an extremely delicate operation poking someone juuuust enough to make them roll over, but not so much as to wake them.

I have suggested twin beds. Hey, Lucy and Desi had them! The very idea of this offends him greatly. Another solution would be a king-sized bed which would at least make for a larger playing field and maybe I could keep 'my' side of the bed tidier. The perfect solution? Separate bedrooms. Hey, no one says we can't visit each other once in a while. But this would alleviate all of our nocturnal troubles. Now .... which kid can I make sleep on the couch?

Tuesdays With Noirrie

Well, that was exhausting!

This past weekend was String Fling at Kansas State U. This is the middle school orchestra workshop weekend. It's loads of fun and such a good experience for the kids. But it is also thoroughly exhausting.

Our day began on Saturday with waking at 3:45 a.m. Now, if you know me, you know I'm not a morning girl. And I'm certainly not a butt-crack-of-dawn-early morning girl. The caravan left the school at 4:50 (late, because, as always, we had to wait for the late-comers). The day was pretty much: drive, potty break, drive, breakfast, drop kids for rehearsals, pick kids up for lunch, drop kids for more rehearsals, pick kids up and check into hotel, take kids to mall for dinner and shopping, take kids back to hotel for play time, lock them in their rooms at 10 p.m. Honestly, the day wasn't hard for the sponsors, just ... long. Then again, any day spent with 11 middle schoolers is ... long.

Sunday began at a not-quite-as-butt-crack-but-still-too-early 6 a.m. More rehearsals, concerts by the kids showing off their newly learned songs, lunch, drive, potty break, drive, home at 4 p.m. I got home, unloaded my stuff, and headed straight for a nap. I am WAY too old for this kind of thing.

But, as much as I seem to be whining, the end of this trip was a bit bittersweet for me. This is quite likely my last-ever school trip. There just aren't these kinds of things in high school where both boys will be next year. I have been going on field and various other trips with the boys for 13 years now beginning those little excursions to the pumpkin patch and the nature center when Lane was in preschool. And now it is most likely over.

I'll admit, I'm a little sad about that.

Tuesdays with Noirrie

I believe ...

... that Andrew Lloyd Webber is a musical genius.

... so is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

... Gerard Butler is the sexiest man alive.

... that God gave me kids to carry things for me.

... that He made Lane extra tall to get things off high shelves and decorate the top of the Christmas tree for me.

... cats are weird.

... that I'm going to knock my dog in the head soon as she's been barking a very low, quiet bark for about 30 minutes solid now.

... that, despite my efforts to resist, Family Guy and Futurama are actually pretty funny.

... that almond M&Ms are the absolute best candy on the planet.

... there's something completely adorable about elderly couples holding hands.

... that my dog should not lay under my computer desk and fart.

... that Cafepress.com needs to update their WoW t-shirts.

... that, if a website has a "remember me" option, it should damned well remember me!

... that people who don't give you the little wave when you let them into heavy traffic should have to go to the back of the line.

... that people who let their dogs poop in your yard should have their noses rubbed in it. The owners, not the dogs.

... that blogger shouldn't screw up the formatting of your post every stinking time you add a picture. And often not let you fix it.

... that I think way too much about stupid stuff.

I've created a monster!

Remember my plans to become an old hippie one day? And remember that Lane actually thinks that's a good idea? He emailed the following photo to me from school yesterday saying, "Wouldn't it be awesome if this was our family?" Should I worry?

On the other hand, yeah, it would be kind of cool if this was our family.