Meanwhile back at the ranch...

In my best "TV news person" voice -- (because I'm a dork)

This is Ima Dork, reporting live from the Laundry Pile, where everyone is currently sleeping all tucked in their beds. We are following leads to see if Sugar plums are involved, but as of right now, the reports are sketchy.

We do know that Picture day is tomorrow. Comfy Denim has been picking and choosing through the Laundry Pile wardrobes to find the perfect set of clothes that will depict the personality of the family - and not look ridiculous at the same time.
We will be following up on this lead tomorrow. Stay tuned.

There was a minor change to the family's schedule this week when they had to do without the Professor for 2 days.
Apparently, a store was sinking.
A slow sink, mind you, but sinking is sinking and the professor was called to inspect. He managed to reassure the people on site that the problem is, indeed, fixable. We are awaiting further reports to see if chaos and a general freaking out was avoided. An unnamed source tells us that the chaos and freaking had already happened.

Thursday a bit of an oddity to the Laundry Pile. Shaggy, the dog, has developed a limp. He's been tripping over his own feet for about a week, it seems, but this is the first time a limp was seen. It caused a bit of a stir in the family. Prayers were sent up, hands were laid on the pup and an appointment was made with the vet.

The professor, who was sorely missed, was greeted upon his return, with the option of getting children ready for pictures or taking Shaggy to the vet. Both appointments had been made for Saturday. He opted for the vet trip.

We did some checking on the well being of the dog for our update. We discovered that, today, Shaggy has opted to sit. Or lie. Or sit and lie.
He followed the mom of the house around constantly. Either to be right next to her. Or right at her feet. Or best yet, in her lap.
We are unsure, at this time, if he was seeking protection or comfort.
As he slept most of the day and he was unable to comment.

Monday was a bit confusing in the Laundry Pile. The family trekked out to visit the pediatrician for a well check visit for the newly minted 3-year-old. It was not easy getting the family into the van. The dog escaped from the house and made a dash for ... well, we're not sure where he was going. He was forthcoming with the information refusing to talk to the press. After that delay, the family drove the 25 minutes to the pediatricians office. It was not a quiet ride. 4 year old tantrums could be heard even in the press van as the 4 year old accused everyone of not liking him. Which, the family assured him, was a total fabrication on his part and he might as well get used to not having his way.

The family arrived at the office to find out that the appointment had been scheduled for Tuesday. Not Monday. Oxygen levels in the area were drastically depleted as the Mom heaved a giant sigh and canceled the Tuesday appointment. Tuesday was the day the chimney repairs were to start. The family did manage to make it home in most solitude after stopping to get Comfy a Diet Coke solace.

Monday continued without much happening. At all. Comfy Denim just sniffed at us with much disdain when we questioned as to why.

Tuesday morning, right after breakfast, G-man was heard to SHOUT, "SOMEONE'S in OUR back yard." The family could be seen swiveling quickly to look, the dog wasted no time in scurrying outside to great the strangers. It is apparent to this reporter, the dog likes strangers. Pretty soon, from our vantage point, we could see all the Denim children watching from the window as the workers began the repairs on the chimney. We could hear them exclaim as we all watched the outside wooden siding be torn away from the chimney. Comfy Denim was reported to be mumbling to herself, "THAT doesn't look good at all."

Our source tells us that the wood rot that had generated from water run off from the roof, had seeped through the wooden siding and into the wood underneath. The contractors stood and looked with very serious countenances. Comfy could be heard praying.

"Why are you praying??" G-man asked.
"Because those faces look very serious." Said Mom.

The contractor made a phone call. He tapped the wood. Walked around a bit. Then tapped on the back door. He offered the verdicts: Rotten & Extra money.

There was nothing the mom could do but laugh and give the go ahead.
the contractors made another phone call. And left.

They returned 2 hours later with more wood - and the boss. The arrival of "the Boss" of the company created quite a stir in the Denim household. Would this mean more money? Was the problem really worse than first thought? We sent a team to investigate.

Luckily, only half the wall board was rotten. The rest was fine. The work continued and would not cost as much extra as first allowed. However, school work was put on hold. The kids were heard to exclaim MUCH, "Wow!" "What are they doing now?" "Did you see that?" "They're on the roof!" "Man that's loud" "Look at that wood!".

The repairs continued the next day with finishing the upper part of the chimney siding and painting. While two contractors cleaned up supplies and debris outside, two came inside for the replacement of a light in the dining "area". G-man watched with much interest, informing the workers, "I want to be a builder when I grow up."

Among other news, it was not a quiet week where relational issues were concerned. 4 year old tantrums and 3 year old tyranny often clashed with each other and onto the siblings. Luckily, peace was maintained. Often, peace comes in the form of a very loud mommy. This reporter knows now, not to get on the bad side of the Denim mom. Though, this reporter's heart was touched when forgiveness was asked for and received.

Saturday looks to be another interesting day here in our reporting. As I said, we will be following several stories. It promises to be very cold with rain and snow possible.

We will be hear to report further developments to these stories and more...
right here on the TMI network.

This is Ima Dork, signing off

Two Songs...

At The Cross -


Mighty To Save --


The Bridge to "Mighty to Save" says -
Shine your light and let the whole world see
we're singing for the Glory of the Risen King

That's our testimony!! -
We all have a testimony to share!
Every time we share what God has done, We Give Him Glory!

The first line in the song says - "Everyone Needs Compassion" - maybe our testimony can show the compassion we've received. For the Glory of the Risen King.

Allow me to make an introduction....

This is my brother.
He's the baby of the family.
He's 5.5 years younger than I.
He's ornery. Plus.
If he could, he'd make sarcasm his job.
He takes really good care of mom & dad.
He takes really good care of me.
He's a good listener.
He can give advice like Yoda.

I'm going to call him Uncle Kicks-butt.
Because he does.
If he wanted to, he could bench press me.
I'm really glad he never wanted to. There was that time, he took my hands and made me do the actions to "I'm a little tea pot" - just to prove he could.

Some days it's just not worth the words or energy to argue with him.

His slogans are: "Diplomacy is the act of getting people to do what you want." and "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
He loves Kung fu movies.
He loves to read weird and esoteric books.
He can run two or three Characters at once on EverQuest.

He's easy to talk to. which is where our story begins.

I decided some at the end of January, that it was time to count calories.
I know how to count calories. I found a fairly good calorie counter online. It told me how many calories I should not go over to safely lose weight over the next year. Okay. So -- I started counting calories with the support of the family. The first day was easy. The second day, not so much.

My brother is just a text away. So I would every so often (see: LOTS) text him about my struggles. Somewhere in that second or third day, He started texting me back...He was going to win.

Ha! My calorie counting had just been turned into a game.
Week one, I won the counting days because he had to keep his protein up for muscle building. I have never eaten so little!! It was actually easy to eat so few calories. There was a lot going on in the week.

Then I read that I was eating too few calories. CalorieCount said I should not go below 1250 calories. They also said that men should, generally not go below 1500 calories. So week 2 began level 2.

We can't go below our respective minimums or we automatically lose. The closest person to goal wins. We tied most of last week. We strive to hit goal.

One thing we didn't count on?? -- MATH LESSONS!!
We both feel like we're having math tests when we're trying to find that item that will help us hit goal without going over. Did you know that one almond is about 6.4 calories?? One. Almond.

He didn't make goal yesterday because he didn't feel well. It was a hollow victory. :-)

He's lost 14 pounds. That's right. 14. In 2 weeks.
He loves telling me that he's going to win the game - because he's a guy. Testosterone burns calories faster. AND he likes the gym.
I don't have either one of those - I've lost 4 pounds.
He's trying to blame me for the fact that he has to wear a belt now.
Figures.
I guess I should take the credit and not the blame. :-)
Even with the smack talk, I'm going to keep him around.

He managed to make calorie counting fun.
My brother rocks.

Be careful what you say....

I've seen a slogan that I love. I'd love to get it on a t-shirt.

"Be careful what you say, it may remind me of a song that needs to be sung" (or something like that).

The problem is - I'm sure some one would use the slogan for evil. Today was a funny day. I'm not sure what was said that made me think of this song -- but something did...and I laughed.

This is the best sound quality I found ... the video is a bonus. Brisco County, Jr. I laughed. I actually liked that show.



So I'm amused.
I'm singing.

Hopefully, it won't get stuck in your head, too. But if it does, you're in good company. Comfy Company. :-)

Location, Location, Location

J-man was standing in a chair today watching me move about the kitchen, doing something. Cleaning?? Maybe. Maybe not. I could have just been shuffling a mess.
Anyway -- he's 4. Going to be 5 in April -- our conversation went like this.

"Mom, do you here every day?"

"Yes, I do." And I got to thinking that sometimes I could feel every minute...and told him

"Every. Day."


"Oh," he said, thoughtfully. I wish I'd looked up to see his face.

"I live in Canada."

Random post-it notes of our lives...

Have you ever noticed that life is rather boring to right about when life is back to the normal you know? At least, when you want to write about it to let people know that you're healthy and living, it all looks rather mundane in print.

Sunday of the Ick week was the worst. The Professor was still not feeling his best - and everyone else was suffering from cabin fever. The Professor tried being among the rambunctious, but just hadn't recovered enough. It was too cold and wet in the yard after the great thaw to send them outside. So the professor ended up back in the bed room.

Monday, turned out to be pretty normal. It was speech therapy day. So J-man and I headed off leaving my Mom with the other kids. We came back with "Clown food" (mcD's) for lunch. Then Mom went off to visit Grandad in the hospital. She suddenly came back a couple hours later because her cell phone was malfunctioning. She had planned on using my phone to call my brother who is the cell phone guru. She and I ended up eating dinner at Subway and then heading to the pet store for hamster supplies. I needed hamster supplies, not mom.

So in the midst of that we call my brother and we plan to meet him to go see the movie "Taken".

After the movie, The Professor and I stay up and make a list of home improvements that need to happen.

Isn't that what everyone does when the house has been sick all week?

Our list. wanna hear about it? Of course you don't. So I'll try to make it short.
When we moved in the house 9 years ago on April 15th, we noted a broken window. It looks like a bb gun or rock had connected with the window. We didn't see it until we moved in. I rarely look at it now - because it's hidden behind a curtain, which is hidden behind the tv. The Professor has decided that this needs to be fixed.

Mmmm...kay. I'm amused.

Our siding on the chimney is rotting. It has been - because the water just runs right down the sides - but it's getting worse, as wood rot does. It didn't help that the chimney got struck by lightning a year or so back.

So we're getting estimates on replacing the siding and painting it to match.
I have wondered why haven't done this sooner.

We HATE the light over the table. We are going to get it replaced. FINALLY!!! Whoever fixes the siding will replace that light for us. YAY!!

I want to paint the bathrooms.

The Garage door is broken. Has been for a few months it just stopped going up and down. In mid lift. So the Professor had to take it off the track and it's not manual only.
Along with being broken, it's also "not to code".
There's no sensor in this model that will make the door retract should something small (like a child) get under the door as it's going down.

So We're getting that fixed and sensored tomorrow.
*snicker*
sensored.

After an incident that happened last week, one home improvement that was done this week was to get the dog groomed. I think he lost 5 pounds - just in hair.

It's not a home improvement, but Mini-Me is working extra hard on extra school work. My mom arranged things that if the kids would get ahead in school work that she would come get them for a slumber party. We decided that a week ahead would be good. So we've been getting a week ahead in 3 subjects. Mini-Me is succeeding quite nicely, too. And she finds grammar quite easy.

So that's been our week back to our form of normal after being sick. Monday wasn't very productive because of Speech Therapy. Tuesday we needed to get the tag replaced on the van and run an errand. and I made phone calls.

It just sounds rather bland. I don't think I made my home improvements sound as good as some people.

It's funny what you do after being thrown off your groove for an entire week. It took us two days to find our groove back in school work - the laundry is another matter, entirely.

I guess if it wasn't, I'd have to change the name of my blog.

Ick in Sick..

I guess I could just leave you with that lovely blog title, couldn't I?

My last post showed you Princess Mini-Me all snuggled in doing her history work. A Lovely moment, I'm sure. It went down hill from there.

I started to feel seriously ill. I thought it was food poisoning. I had a back pain from sleeping wrong saturday night. And the house kept getting colder and colder. I finally called The Professor to come home. It was sleeting and raining at that point.

He came to my rescue.

He discovered that the pilot light was out on the heater and rectified the situation. Meanwhile, I stayed snuggled in my blankets on the couch. I couldn't even tolerate the thought of food. The Professor cooked.

I fell asleep on the couch.

The next day, the roads were nasty. Sleet covered in icy rain was all over the news. We didn't have it as bad as some - but enough that the Professor stayed home to take care of me. I stayed in bed all day. The Professor taught Mini-Me and G-man their lessons for the day. I felt crummy.

The professor had to go to work on Wednesday. In the middle of the night, J-man tossed his cookies all over his blankets. The Professor tackled the bedding and I tackled the kid. He was actually rather jolly for needing a sponge bath at 3:30 am.

I won't even mention the dog p**p incident with the dog. Mini-me earned all sorts of kudos that day. 100 times over.

Thursday, the professor was called out suddenly for a site visit. Thursday night, G-man tossed his brownies over the side of the top bunk. I don't think that stain will ever come out. I totally had to repent the next morning.

Friday night, the professor came home from his trip. He was so tired from driving that I sent him to bed. Before Long I heard him in the bathroom being sick.

ick. I'm really glad he didn't get sick on the way home. really. REALLY glad.

That night, about 10:30, Mini-Me joined him in the "being sick" part of life. We ended up camping out in the living room. She kept crying and apologizing for being sick. I'd feel sorry for her - and then she'd use the word "revolting" and I'd have to work really hard not to laugh. It was an interesting night.

In the midst of this, Mini-e was sick, too, but hers was a one-time up-chuck and then an avoidance of food. Even as weird as it sounds, I'm glad that was the extent of her "sick".

There were some odd bright spots in the week. Such as, the time when:

G-man told me I smelled good after I took a shower. The only soap I had in the house for me was - "Old Spice". *snort* left over from when we were expecting a guest.

or when --

Mini-me worked her tail off making a 2 foot snow/sleet/ice man. She used gummies as the face and such...She was quite proud of it. It was brutally killed by siblings who were shocked to wake up from their naps to find him in the back yard. I guess they thought he was going to invade.

and then ...

G-man decided to put on a hat, while he was sick, because it matched his shirt.
It's rather endearing that he'd be so sick but willing to accessorize. It's never a bad time for style.

That's pretty much our week in ick.
I must say, I'm glad it's over.
I think I need a nap.