Society for the Preservation of My Sanity

i consumed chocolate pooding....

[yes, this is actually chocolate cake mix. do you KNOW how hard it is to find a plain pic of regular ol' chocolate pooding/!?! gah! just deal with it, okay?]
credits: photogragher and host

....with a straw.....

credit: photo link

hey.... it wasn't as easy as it sounds. why? oh, because my sugar was low. casey was kinda frustrated that i'd chosen pooding as my "recovery food" because it takes so long to eat, so he remedied that by replacing my spoon with a straw.

hm. i guess it beat the alternative....

credit: random googliy image of pooding covered baby

just thought you might wanna know, or maybe try it for yourself. it's quite challenging even when your blood sugar's not 48! :)

Posted by subject G~ at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

got this in my email today:

now, i admit to being a homebody. i don't go out much. i'm not on anybody's a-list, let alone the "extras" list for party invitations. heck, i barely get out to buy groceries sometimes. so yeah. i'm not cyndi lauper we bopp-a you bopp-a she-bop. um.... no.

but shootfar, bubba! if i cain't come up with sumthin' better'n fiddlin' with muh cell phone er makin' a party fer muhse'f an' invitin' people er runnin' around town all by muhse'f... well, i jus' ain't-a foolin' wi' no birthday at'all.

gah!

last year, i had to buy my own birthday present. tommy kept telling me we'd go together, maybe to lexington to a big bookstore to shop together, etc., etc., yeah whatever... i needed a new bible and i wanted a specific one with a strong's concise concordance and reference.

thing after thing kept coming up... none of them were things he couldn't have put aside to do this with me, but he didn't and finally the day before or maybe day of, i forget -bah, he tells me "honey, looks like i'm not going to be able (BE ABLE?!?) to get that bible for you. why don't you just go pick out whatever you want?"

gah. it upset me, but it didn't really surprise me, so whatever, i just let it go. this year though? i honestly don't think he has the slightest inkling that my birthday is even coming up. with all that's going on with mamaw, i doubt that anyone else remembers either. which is fine with me, really. mom feels so obligated to always DO something... and how horrible it'd make me feel if she put herself out while she's so worn out and run ragged. *wretched face*

anyhow... instead of all those lame ideas from ol' dottie, i went and bought me something else that i've been needing really bad this year....

i have a hard time finding jackets that fit. they're too tight in the shoulders if it's cut like a "suit jacket" and too long in the sleeves almost always so that i have to look for a sleeve that can be rolled under or out. i hate bulky jackets or fuzzy, fat collars, lots of zippers or buttons or other frou-frous that will static to me or fall off. i can't handle tight elastic cuffs. see? i'm pretty picky.

but i was desperate. after i got my hair cut this morning, i went next door to a clothes store i'd never been in before. just to check. they have lots of frou-frou stuff, and then all the like grungy jeans and sweatshirt stuff. i asked the lady about jackets and she pointed me in the direction.

you can't tell how purple the thing in from the pic, but take my word. it is p u r p l e. i like it. it's a bit roomy in the shoulders, but not noticably so unless you're looking and the sleeves were a fuzz long, but the cuffs have two buttons on them. i can unbutton one and flip the cuff up and the length is almost perfect!

so there. take your dumb ol' birthday celebration ideas and stuff 'em, dottie!

Posted by subject G~ at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

they got her into a nursing home in the next town yesterday evening. she was admitted for therapy and this place is supposed to have one of the best physical therapy programs in the immediate area, so... ??

she did really well with the news. some non-reality-based relatives kept talking about "waiting to hear back from" some contacts about getting someone to stay at home with mamaw... what? oh, how much? um, just $850+ per week, that's all.

*mouth gaping open* oh, really. hmm. and of course they just expect that my dad can afford such an expense. idiots.

that's after realizing that my mom wasn't going to stay down there with her. (my grandmother lives in a trailer about 45 yeads from my parents' house) never mind that she's just not physically able, or that she does have a couple of other businesses to run. noooo. nobody thinks about that stuff.

why would they? my mom and dad have been the constants in mamaw's care for years. dad's brother has lived about 180 miles away and you never knew if he could afford to make the trip down, let alone whether he had a vehicle to drive anyway. he lives here now, so at least he can come visit her, but to help with her care in a real sense? no. his nurse-daughter, who always acts as if my parents have done her some favor when they take mamaw to the e.r. or the countless doctor appointments and lab tests, etc... as if she was "planning" to do anything herself in the first place. *retching sounds* she's made these promises to mamaw for years in times of medical stress -- "Mamaw, I won't ever let you go in a nursing home. I promise you that." i don't know what her reasoning was for doing that. it usually came out at least sounding like some kind of accusatory thing, but who knows... anyhow... it's all just bizarre.

the boys and i went down to see her this afternoon, but traffic was awful because of some interstate accident, then we almost had a wreck, then my sugar went low, so we stopped to eat... by then it was time to head home so we could make it to revival. *sigh* but we were able to make sure where the home was exactly. i'm gonna try to go back tomorrow after a hair appointment, Lord willing and i'm not hurting too bad. *gah*

mamaw's still on the oxygen 24/7, but they're trying to get her up to walk some. problem with that is she just doesn't seem to have the energy to move once they get her up. it's like it wears her out to get up. *sigh*

and mamaw does tend to be a pretty sedentary person. if there's someone around who will do things for her, she is very amicable to lettling them go right ahead and do it. that may be something that would overcome her discomfort of being away from home. she loves to talk to whoever's around, especially if they're "tending to" her.

*sigh* i just dunno. i mean, she's 93 years old for goo'niss sakes! she's always just bounced back like *snap* so this is kinda... well, shocking, i guess. but she's sure in worse shape than she was two weeks ago.

oh, and the initial hemorrhaging thing? it was a small bleeding ulcer that was corrected within the first three days by changing some meds. it was after the flatlining (that's the story we got from nurses, anyhow) and the stay in icu that she really went downhill. everything about that is really fishy.

frankly, since nurse-cousin knows all the people at that hospital? i'm glad she's now somewhere else. i always feel like we're not getting the whole story, like there have been instruction given to only tell us so much, or some watered-down version. very worrisome.

*sigh*

anyhow. there's that.

it's late. i gotta go.

Posted by subject G~ at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've always thought those "what i'm doing right now" jiggies on other peoples' blogs were neat. i never took the time to try and put one on my blog, not even when i could read and write the blasted code myself (i'm so sick of this blah blue!!!) but still, it's neat. so here... just this once and in post form

• listening to: the dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer ... and occasinoally a random unitelligible utterance from male offspring in the back somewhere
• smelling: a soft petals Gl@de melty candle oily thingie --mmmmm
• reading: just my Bible, but not nearly enough and a hilarious email i might share later
• feeling: better than usual, thank God! i ran around town all day saturday by myself (imagine! i actually had a vehicle! happy day!) i was sickish with that stupid intestinal ick a bit sunday, and achy again, but not feeling horrible like i have for the past almost-2-weeks. today? well, obviously, i've been working some thus my audio listings above *heh* i've even scrubbed in the bathrooms, if you can believe that i am pretty stiff today... it is only 40 degrees and that feels warm after earlier this morning! *brrr* so anyhow, the cold always makes me feel really stiff and achy, but on top of the stiff muscles, it can be murder sometimes! overall, though? i'm doin' great for the shape i'm in. *huge grinning wink*
• wondering: gah! lots of stuff! my mamaw's been in the hospital since thursday before last. she went in hemorrhaging from the bowels and ended up in icu for a couple days... now she requires oxygen 24/7 and is unable to even get to the bathroom by herself. there's a long story here that i'll save for another post, but what to do about mamaw's care and the ugliness that could ensue has my mom in a bad way and me very concerned.

  i also wonder when we'll ever get this blasted exploder fixed. the tranny's kinda stuck up under the thing, which is as far as tommy and the boys could get it after working all day (corey and tommy) and then having to "waller" around in the cold wet gravels under a 250lb or so tranny? *shudder* now it's even colder out, so i just dunno when it'll get done. it's kinda not so pressing now that we do have something else to drive, but it's the principle of the thing, i guess.
  and all the tools laying all over.
  and the two passenger side windows that are down because they needed them down so as to yell directions for driving up on the ramps... then the fuse blew... then another fuse.
  it was nice out, they needed to get the tranny out and over to the tranny guy in a hurry, so the windows were kinda put on the back burner, so to speak. apparently when the tranny comes out, the starter goes too, so the windows are down for the duration and the black garbage bags in gusty wind-whipping rain just don't cut it.
  urgh. i took a roll of duct tape to the things yesterday when it was nice and dry and nobody else was home. i'm sick of worrying about those bags flappin' around out there!

  i wonder a bunch of other things too, but for now, i gotta shup.

i'm off to town now. gotta get some keys made, buy some sustinence and such. i'm headed to the winter clothes totes to dig out some long underwear!

baby, it's cold outside! (yeah, i'm a weenie. so whacha gon' do about it?)

*heh*

have a warm, peaceful day, friends!


Posted by subject G~ at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

*siiigh* look at this forecast, people::::

clouds, clouds and more clouds.

oh, and rain.

bah.

at least i have that beeeOOOteeeful awesome tree pic to look at on my desktop, though. i love it! just gotta ditch that weather thingie. *hmph!*

really.... i should be ashamed for complaining what with folks in texas being flooded and in new york without power in the snow and all... i'm just feeling grumpy. and headachy. and stiff. and sore.

and grumpy. (sorry)

so um, how's the weather at your place? ;)

Posted by subject G~ at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

my poor little poodle.

tucker is a funny little dawgie. he demands that you get up in the morning and open the kitchen door so he can sit in the direct sunlight coming in on the eastern-facing side of the house.

and woe unto us when the sun don't shine. ack! and lately? the sun, it ain't been a-shinin'. today's been all gray and rainy and coolish. but i have to say, at least, thank You, Lord, it's not been as bitingly cold as it felt a few days ago. the wind's not blowing and stuff. but still.

gah.

while i'm all for autumn and the change of seasons... *sigh* i could do without all the gray clouds and dreary skies too, buddy.

Posted by subject G~ at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

nothing much to tell.... well, yeah, there are a few things, but really... no time!

let's do a rush-blab update, shall we? *gah!*

• the title for the 'trep got kicked. long, disgusting sorry-g'ment-people kinda story, but it got re-sent with hopefully no further costs to us... we'll have to wait and see, but hopefully, it'll be here tomorrow barring any further infuriation from our lovely state capitol workers. GRRR!

  and to top it all off? the thing runs so unbelievably well!! it's so tight... no rattles and squeaks, etc.. it starts like *snap* that and just runs like a dream to be a '97-'96-'94 'trep w/leather interior and all that jazz. lol i'm driving the plateless, registrationless, insuranceless thing to get prescriptions today. *hmph!* (it's just down the road here, thankfully, but PLEASE, LORD let that title be here tomorrow!)

• me health stuff: the on-again-off-again intestinal stuff is still going on. i dunno what to make of it. i thought maybe it was a bug of some sort, but now since i have major m a j o r sore muscles all down my left side like i've been walking around carrying weights or something? i'm thinking maybe stress? but i didn't think anything was bothering me that much really. *sigh* i just know i'm tired of this sick stomach thing. very not fun!

  in other news.... i went off my anti-depression med about a month ago, too. i hadn't told anyone til last week. when i told tommy he goes, you're kidding. well, with all that's been going on lately? [tax bill, vehicles dying, etc] you're doing fantastic! hm. my husband doesn't often say things like that. lol. but he's right. for the first time in about 12 years, i am without any sort of anti-depression medication. wooo-hoo!

  oh wait. well, i am on this one med that's technically an anti-dep, but i take it to help me sleep. so maybe i fibbed a little. but let's just be happy 'bout this, uhkay? ;)

  most of the meds i take have as a side effect fatigue and worse. and i just got so sick of being so tired! all. the. time!!! some of them daggone things i can only go without a day or two til i feel it... b i g t i m e as in stiff joints and such. y'know... some meds you just gotta have. unfortunately. but i was determined to see if i couldn't do without something... so i stopped the anti-dep med.

  anyhow... there's that tidbit for you. it may be that sometime down the road, i'll need to go back on them again, and that's okay. i've been on so many different ones trying to find one that would work for me, you'd die if i started to list them... some of them i can't even remember! so i have felt blessed that God 'sent' this one that worked so well for me and helped me get back to where i could function.

  um... more tidbit.

• tax thingie: finally got that all straightened out. turns out we will owe, but it's lots less than i'd feared. thank God! i called and talked to the lady who'd sent the letter and she was so nice. that's what i get for making a mountain out of a mole hill. [*ahem* to some certain peoples out there who are also being worry warts these days?] granted, it's no small amount... we will have to set it up in payments, but again, it's nothing like the thousands i was imagining. praise the Lord!

---

new stuff
• church: we went to a new church sunday. my parents have been going to evening services there for a couple of months i think. we all enjoyed it very much and after so much emptyness and disappointment in church services today? it was a really nice surprise and a great blessing. you don't realize how much you miss going to church, i mean really going to church til you finally get to go again after a long period of time. is this the place for us? i don't know, but for now, we'll enjoy the blessings the Lord gives us there til He gives us other instructions. for now, i'm just hoping and praying that we can all draw close to Him.
• more vehicle? more headpain: tommy just purchased a "new" (to him) truck. you know the poor man has been without a 'work truck' since getting rid of that sad ol' jeep j-10 back when corey got his 'stang.

  and yeah, it was pretty bad when he had to do a job out of the exploder... what a mess! so he traded the old gokart trailer and $125 for this '91 ford f150 pickup.

  seems to be an okay truck. the insides aren't trashed and the motor's good. it did need some work though since it'd been sitting for a long time. this is the nicest truck he's had, poor guy, but for what he uses them for, it's all he needs, too. the thing that's bugging me is why do we need yet another vehicle right now that we can't (as of yet) drive? gah!!!

  we take the exploder tomorrow to have the tranny looked at... or taken out or something. anyhow, it's gonna be torn down, so that we'll then have NO legal vehicles (until that title gets here for the 'trep and that truck? it's a standard!)

  maybe i have more stress than i realized...

• speak up, i can't see you: my monitor is about to die! it's been trying to crap out on me for months, but it's getting really bad now. i can't even explain what it does other than looking like it has some sort of electronic interference (when it doesn't) and the windows curling around so that you can't see the top or bottom and getting all distorted. (means you can't click the tabs or icons!) for the longest time, even though the edges were distorted, you could still click them, but now they're SO distorted that you can't even see them. it's like they're curled all the way around like when you roll paper around a pencil. anyhow... dunno what we'll do about that. i've priced some flat panels online, but that's still gonna be outta reach. i may be stuck with some old piece of crud from the dumpster again. (i did tell ya'll that other dumpster monitor blew up, right? mm-hm)

again, instead of a neat little topic specific post, you've gotten a big long blab, but folks, that seems to be the only way i can operate. oh, for a nice compact little thought with no rabbit trails! *pththt*

looks like another weekend of chaos and the usual stuff. *sigh* i'd love to spend the whole thing in a hot tub soaking my stiff, achy muscles!

hope you have very peaceful, blessed weekend (and think of me while you do it! lol!)

blessings---

Posted by subject G~ at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

image credits

Posted by subject G~ at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been working on this blasted update for over a week. Yep. Over A Week.

And whyyyyy is it taking me so long to do this thing? Hm. Well, any number of reasons basically. Pick one. Make one up. Either way, one is as likely to work as another. *sheesh*

But... I digress. Let me see if I can pick up where I left off the last time I worked on this thing and start winning back my honor as a respectable blogger in the cyber universe! *dun-da-da-dah!*

You may want to refer back to that last post since this does sorta begin there...from 09-23-06

• on d-day: what a joke! literally! looong story short? we spent three hours waiting for her case to be called .... in the wrong courtroom!! GAH! after that long, she says she has to clock back in at work, so we leave. wha? oh...she didn't have to be there for it... she just wanted to be (which i understand)... but STILL!

  she called me about 20 minutes after i got home asking me to look up her lawyer's number (why didn't she have it stored on her cell?) then she calls back in another 10 and tells me about the wrong courtroom thing. sheesh! anyhow... i think all that's left now is signatures. urgh. it wouldn't have been so bad except that she griped so much the whole time about why her lawyer wasn't there and how she was taking off work, losing money, yadda, yadda... and they still hadn't called her case. AAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!!
  

  
  
  
• the invite from long-lost sunday school classmates: unbelievablely, i got another call from the same lady the next saturday morning informing me that the cookout had been postponed to this monday. sheesh! i was all like "oh, okay. sure." and she was like "if anything changes, i'll let you know. but we'd sure love to have you." so one moment it's like we've been there the whole time, the next it's like we're new recruits. *shaking my head* i just don't get them. *sigh* anyhow...we still have no plans to go, for more reasons than one. more about that later, though...
• that knot on my head: i ended up making an appointment with the doc that friday. thursday evening, it hurt so bad, i thought i was just going to die. and in the same way a migraine will cause the muscle tension, etc... the same thing was happening with this knot. my whole left side was all tensed up and sore.

  anyhow, turns out it was an inflammed lymph node. sheesh! i didn't even know i had any of those on the back of my head! doc said possibly from sinus infection or somesuch. well, for the woman who wakes daily with sinus issues, this is entirely feasible! so, i got a zithr0 pack and a round of pr3dnis0ne. by the time i was done with the nasty-tasting preds, the knot was pretty much gone. thank God! :)

• the state t@X thing: sadly, i am still putting off dealing with that. maybe i'll call the number in a while and discuss just what the heck i need to do exactly. the letter mentions sending copies of checks, reciepts and all kinda 'supporting documents' and it also mentions a letter on company letterhead (from t's company) stating the nature of the 'pr3t@X' deduction, etc... so i dunno if that means either/or or if it means both or what?!?! gah!

  i just know we're going to end up owing a ton of money. we really need heavy-duty prayer about this. it wouldn't be the first time i've screwed up with our t@X3s, but not to this extent... and over this many years? :* (

  *sigh* okay. i know God is in control of it all. i KNOW that. and just like all the other scary, dark times in my/our lives before, i know He will take care of us now. but i am a world-class procrastinator, especially in a situation like this. i have til the 12th to do something and tommy's becoming rather po'ed at me.

  His Eye Is On The Sparrow
  this is a video, but if you're so inclined, download it. watch and listen. it's not necessarily my favorite rendition of this song, but this IS my song these days.
• b-ball: i didn't finish telling you what the guy at the Y told me they'd do after the extra sign-up time... he said they'd have to issue refunds. which is what happened. i got the check in the mail a few days ago. which normally? is really a nice thing, but i'm so bummed that he's not going to get to play on a league that is "real", ya know? this means, i s'pose, that at the end of this month, he'll want to sign up for upward b-ball. which is okaaay, i guess. but the way they make the kids play is pretty ridiculous sometimes. especially for the older kids.

  *bah* i don't feel like hashing out the things i see wrong with this ball program, because honestly, upward is a lot of good things! it has a lot of pluses where the Y leagues have minuses, but one thing the Y has/had going for it was that the games were "real". the teams "jumped" (or is it "jumped off"??) for possession of the ball; the basic rules of the game, none of which I can point out to you right now of course, are more like 'regular' basketball instead of all 'dumbed down' the way they are in upward. lots of times the kids will get frustrated because of the way their rules make the game turn instead of letting it play out according to the teams' and players' abilites. of course, then there was the way the Y didn't "even out" its teams... the "school and church" teams were kept together while the poor kids-off-the-street who hadn't played or played much all got stuck on one or two teams by themselves to face these "well-oiled ball-playing machines", ya know? *gah* anyhow... too bad the Y did things that way. i think that's why nobody wanted to sign up this year. what a shame. :(

• chicken fest: it was wet. the boys didn't have to do much patrolling. well, one night they showed up only to find that no one, and i mean no one was there. no other cadets nor any advisors! gah! yeah, it was raining, but my boys showed up for duty, like they said they would. grrr!

  turns out that, as usually happens either after chickie fest or the fair when the slackness of the program (or rather of the leadership!) starts to really show, someone else has taken over leadership. it's a gal who's helped run the thing before. she did a pretty good job as i recall, but i wasn't thrilled with her um... lifestyle choices, i guess you could say. she ended up pregnant by the "almost-divorced" man she was living with and his 8yo daughter.

  *sob* #1 - those kinda situations just make me so sad. for everyone. and #2 - what a great (sarcasm there, people!) example for the young cadets! yay! *gag* it just makes me sick. ya don't know whether to smack people like that or cry and hug them, ya know? *long, weary sigh*

  annnyhow, she's now a married mother-stepmom so hopefully she's learning some responsibility... learning that it's important to set a good example when you're working with young people, etc. *shrug* who knows. i guess i shouldn't say too much about this girl's life choices since the former leader-dude is divorced and made no secret about the problems his ex-wife was causing him. thing is? the whole company, most the employees anyway, many of whom in one way or another will be in contact with these kids, are not married to the people they live with and most of them have kids together, plus at least one or more they've brought along from past relationships. (note: not all of the folks at the station live like this. some are long-term marrieds with all their kids in common... just so you don't think i'm trying "bash" evvveryone)

  *shaking my head* call me old-fashioned, but i just can't wrap my head around those kinds of things. it just makes me sad.

  nevertheless, i do hope that this change of leadership will make things better for the cadet program.

• myspace: okay... i was able to find kymmi, but it was NOT easy!!! and even then i couldn't get myself added as her friend because apparently i don't know her last name or her email addy! lol! and claire? i hunted and hunted for you, too, but to no avail. i didn't even try to look for you, jenean. i don't use nor do i intend to use it for blogging and there are ways to fancy up the pages a bit, but like someone else said, i signed up so i could post on another person's page. what a cheap way to get your member numbers up, huh? *bah!* i also got on there because my boys have spaces too. actually, that was my number 1 reason for doing it. anyhow... if you have a space and wanna friend, just add me. :D

new stuff....

• i been sick. what of? i dunno. just run down. sooo sleepy. kinda the usual, but more constant for more consecutive days. i know the stupid inflammed lymph node (which tommy kept calling "limp noid" which i didn't bother correcting... it would just confuse him) really made me feel wiped out, then add the nastypoo meds... but i think i picked up some sort of bug after that. the intestinal issue sort that keeps the stomach making all manner of rolling, squishy noises... and... uh... other things. *urgh* taking pred always makes my sugars go up, so i had to up the basal rates on my pump. now however, after the pred is beginning to get out of my system, i'm having to slowly readjust the basal rates again, which is the pits because instead of watching out for "upper level" sugars, now i'm getting lows. *gah* ah well. here's my life, and welcome to it. *pththt*
• vehicular manslaughter: i think this means when the one vehicle you have to drive continually and consistantly fails to operate reliably by constantly flubbing up the same ding-dang thing that flubbed up before that your hubby already unflubbed repeatedly a million times before now. which makes you wanna go slaughter the man what made the vehicle.... er, ah.. or something like that.

  whatever the case, i'm about to pull my hair out!!

  yep. the exploder is having tranny troubles again. only this time, instead of going kerTHUNK when shifting from 2nd to 1st, it's now refusing to shift automatically from 2nd to 3rd! big metallic piece of poop!

  i think tommy has it right when he says it's gotta be the 2nd gear whatchamajigger, therefore, says i, "change it!" but he wants to be sure, so we have a thursday appointment to get the large green hiney pain scanned. *argh*

  so, we're sorta vehicle-less. the thing can be driven if you know how to rev it up to just the right amount of rpm's then let off the gas, then slowly ease back up to speed thereby essentially "popping" the thing into 3rd gear. but that's a kinda iffy proposition, ya know? and i'm not about to try it myself, okay? it's stressful enough to drive to town without worrying about making the doohickey pop into the thingamabob without blowing up the whatchajiggy. nooo thank you. i'll just stay home and eat crackers with water, thank you.

  oh.. all this happened friday after the boys and i had just made a day of running errands and stuff in town. thank You, Lord!

• in the meantime: remember the 'trep graveyard? the 'trep parts place? and all the other intrepid jokes that were made during the great make-one-intrepid-out-of-several experiment wherein we actually ended up with one decent driveable one that corey was able to sell for 2k? (yeah, he's still awaiting the last $500 of that, but still!) well, all this time, we've still had the remnants of one sitting here in the driveway. one with enough parts and pieces to make one more running vehicle. not a very nice-looking vehicle, but none the less, a vehicle the could possibly be capable of running.

  and by golly, wouldn't you know it? after a few hit-and-miss evenings of working on it, just mainly so tommy could have it out of his face... after the majority of the day spent running errands with a problem-free explorer, we came home around 2pm to find tommy home. he was in the drive working on the 'trep. he'd just decided to take off the rest of the day. no particular reason.

  when he got home, he saw that we were still in town and saw the car sitting there and decided to work on it some. corey took the explorer back to town to pick up mel, then they headed back to town a bit later to get movie tickets.

  just barely a mile from the house, the troubles started so they turned around and came back home. by that time, for the first time, tommy had the 'trep's ignition turning over. (but it would die)

  several things fell into place later... a gasket was found that fit exactly; something else worked on the 'trep; the battery held charge on its own; spark plugs were what was needed to get the engine to run; two of the four error codes stopped running.... there's probably more, but that's all i can remember. and why did tommy feel compelled to come home in the first place? to work on the car? God worked so many things out that day. of course, we still needed/need many things before it'd/it's ready for the road, but wow! what a long way we've come!

  the things we need now are a clear title. tommy and case have been all over the place today looking for headlights. it seems the brackets to intrepid headlights are more fragile than eggshells. everytime they'd find one, at least one part of it was broken. new? they're like $70 each. *ahem* i think they finally apoxy'ed and pieced and patched one together. it should last at least long enough to get through the inspection to get the paperwork sent for a salvage title. then and only then can we get it licensed and insured. and tommy still thinks we can get the exploder fixed too.

  when it's fixed this time, it's getting a new home i think. we've started to try selling it the last couple of times when he's fixed the tranny problem, but then we'd think, "but it's fixed now!" ha! i dunno, tho. we'll just have to see how God leads us. *sigh*

  another thing for the prayer list? we discovered a crack in the windshield when tommy and case got back today. if the inspector notices it, and there's a good chance he won't, but if he does, the car won't pass inspection. (like there aren't a bunch of cars with worse windshields on the road right now!) anyhow... i dunno what tommy will do now. he took off today hoping to get all this stuff done, but obviously, it ain't happened! at the time of this here bullet, it's after 7:30pm. *sigh* if you think of it, please pray.

  updateage::: um, i was just going on what i was told about the crack in the windsheild folks, or maybe it grew after they first found it, but the inspector will have to be blind to not see that sucker! sheesh! it looks like it's started where one of the mounting brackets or whatever the thing is called where the screw goes in... and it proceeds to creep across the window like a nasty scar. gee-o! we'll have to get it replaced soon. but maybe, Lord willing, the inspector will pass it so we can go ahead and have something to drive in the meantime. you never know what God has planned....

• my back is sorta out: i haven't been to the chiro in several months. no more insurance til oh-seven, remember? anyhow, it hurts. i've been trying to do what i can to keep it in whatever position hurts the least. mom had been coming up at least once a day last week and using the "hand unit" (a theraputic handheld massage unit my dad used to sell years ago) on my back. the boys are supposed to be doing it when mom doesn't, per mom's instructions, but sometimes it gets so busy that we don't get time... and yeah, i feel like a louse to ask them, too. but it is a little better. like i said earlier, the knot on my head had been making things worse re: tension-type pain. but this is in my lower back and it's like a nerve-pinchy type thing. urgh. anyhow, i'm pretty sure it's basically just my back being out of line again. i'm just praying that it won't be out so bad that once i'm able to go back to see the chiro, that he'll end up having to start all over again.

  how frustrating will that be?!

• we just got through the second season of lost dvd's. and exciting news! i searched earlier and found out that in a couple days is when the third season starts!! woo! the only thing that worries me about trying to actually watch the series as it airs is, of course, missing one and then going nuts til finally, it's released on dvd juuuust so i can see that episode. but really, we like it so much, we would enjoy seeing it all again. or at least i would. *blush*
• stranger danger: in the past week, there have been at least three episodes of unknown people either passing by or hanging around here. one day, a shiny, black Merwether they knew i was watching them and more that they knew i was watching them. just past my parents' drive, the doors shut and the windows were down, both ballcapped people were looking out, still idling down the road and then suddenly, like a flash, they took off up the hill like a shot.

  talk about unnerving. that was. most of the places down the road past us are trailers or old farms. none of them even have blacktopped drives, let alone garage, never mind a shiny new Mer

  and then? corey comes in from his usual walk through the woods behind our house, and tells me that while he sat at the base of a tree where the woods end at the back of the cemetery beside our house, three twenty-something boys he'd never seen before walked up on him. chubs was with him and probably startled them, and then they were more startled to see corey, who just stood up, nodded at the boys and walked on to the house. he walked past the white jeep they'd driven up into the cemetery... all the way up the asphalt drive, off the end of it and into the grass...

  he said they appeared to be walking into the woods. he wasn't sure, though and obviously, he didn't stick around to find out. and... he didn't tell me this stuff til about 3 hours after the whole thing happened, so it was too late to give tommy a call. i mean, that part of the woods doesn't belong to us or even to my dad, but when people we don't know are up there fooling around? well, it's pretty unsettling.

  the next day, i saw two boys and a girl, they appeared to be about 12-14 years old walking down the road, away from town, with a little black dog i recognized from the neighbor's house. i knew the one girl was about the age of that neighbor's daughter, but i'd never seen her out walking by herself that way, and knowing they didn't have any sons, it was again, unnerving. corey said he thought he'd seen those same kids climbing a tree out in pap's field.

  when mom and dad stopped by last night, i told them all this stuff and let them know that we needed to make sure that we keep each other informed about new folks we see around. too many strange people and odd happenings going on all of a sudden. makes me sooo nervous. lots less comfortable with leaving my doors open even in broad daylight.

  and how sad is that?

okay then. that pretty much catches you up. for anyone who by chance is still checking here, yes, i am still (obviously) alive. just quite a bit more easily tired some days; spending more time with school stuff, small room-redos and various headaches.

hopefully, i can get back to at least posting a little more regularly. maybe one day i'll even learn to keep to one topic per post.

then again....

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