Other than being on day 3 of a migraine...I'm good! I can ignore the migraine for long periods of time but every now and then it gets to me. This too shall pass.

I was the lucky one to discover another dead hamster today. Yes, poor Jacques Von Hamsterveel passed on to the great hamster playground in the sky some time after midnight last night (that's the last I saw of him before I went to bed and he was moving around his cage then) while nibbling on his seed log (his stiff little body was laying beside it). My daughter heard me as she got up. I looked in his cage and so sweetly uttered, "NO! Oh shit!" (nice mouth) Then I started crying and she came in and petted him and cried. Nice way to start the day...hearing your mother curse and petting a dead hamster.


Jacques Von Hamsterveel


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My daughter dodged a bullet today. I had to talk to her principal today. She has missed a lot of school this year...but that wouldn't have been a big problem. She has missed school before and it didn't impact her grades becuz she was always good at making up work and keeping up. But this time, this year, she didn't make up her work and turn it in. So, I went in to talk to the principal about her odds of making it into 8th grade next year. He said that since she did so well on her achievement tests the call is up to me. We talked about summer school and passing on vs. staying behind. The counselor sat in with us. So, here is what I decided and they agreed with me: She does summer school (which, to my chagrin, is only 2 weeks long!) AND she goes on to 8th grade with the stipulation that if she has too many absences and her grades stink she will NOT move on to 9th grade the next year. I really would hate that to happen but it puts the responsibility in her lap. And Cyber school is not an option for her.

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Here is something my daughter shared with me I thought some of you might get a kick out of:



Hope you all have a good day! I've taken enuff migraine medicine to put down a horse...elephant...something big!



(check out my other blog: "Whatever Blows Your Skirt Up"...I have some interesting things posted there)

I was watching American Idol tonight and my favorite contestant, David Cook, chose to sing one of my favorite Collective Soul songs..."The World I Know".



There is a street in the interior of the neighborhood that has 'starter' houses on it. You know, the small 2 and 3 bedroom/1 bathroom homes that young couples just starting out will buy for their first home. It is sad becuz 3 of them have gone into bank foreclosure becuz of so many lost jobs.

Here is the irony...the headlines read that Habitat for Humanity can benefit from bank foreclosures. So, H4H can pick up these homes for next to nothing, do whatever fix ups are needed and some 'deserving' family will take it over. I am not saying that the family doesn't deserve it...but...there WAS a family that THOT they deserved it...they had a steady income and saw a future...that was yanked out from under them. It is like the poor family that loses a child in some freak accident and donates their child's organs to another child so that the other child can live. The irony of it all.

Sometimes it seems like the universe is just one big spinning wheel of fortune.

"Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on.

I drink myself of new found pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why
I don't know why

Are we listening
To hymns of offering?
Have we eyes to see
That love is gathering?

All the words that I've been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding
Into one...into one

So I walk up on high
And step to the edge
To see my world below

And I laugh at myself
As the tears roll down
Cuz it's the world I know
It's the world I know"

~ Collective Soul

I may be putting the double whammy on this...I THINK...dare I say it? I THINK I just may have found THE HOUSE!!!! It isn't a two story house BUT it is LOVELY! AND, I won't have to leave my neighborhood...it is a block away from the schools so I won't have to worry so much about Bethany getting to and from school when I get a job. It has the sunroom I have wanted...two large bedrooms in the finished basement that my kids have always wanted (teens need their own space, you know!), an office upstairs that Troy has wanted...an extra room for the library/computer room for everyone else, large kitchen, diningroom, large livingroom and large family room with a working fireplace. And the people that owned it was an older couple that was VERY particular about everything being just perfect. The woman loved to garden so there is lots of flowers and plants...I just love it! The price is a wee bit high for the house and area but the realtor thinks we should be able to talk them down a little. More into our comfort zone.

Troy still has to see it and he and TJ are in Cleveland for a few days on a school field trip. So, he won't see it until Friday morning. I hope he loves it! There is also rec room area in the basement so he has room for his pool table. Everybody wins! These ppl had a really great drainage system put in so that the basement won't leak. YIPPEE! The sunroom is so LARGE! and it is one of those all year round sunrooms. Not some cheap add on.

Cross your fingers and your toes for me!

*********************************funny side note:
Our realtor makes herbal soaps. She has her own online business: www.livingsimplysoap.com I told her I was on my own during the day for a few days and was going to pamper myself a bit and go to my beauty parlor and have my hair permed and cut. So, she brought me some soap she made. I laughed when I looked at it. She has a name for each of her soaps. The one she brought me is called "Heather". I told her then about my blog and what I call myself. She thought that was the weirdest thing that she should pick out her "heather" soap to give me! I tried it...is my skin soft! It is has olive oil, Oatmeal, and shea butter in it and it smells to die for! I love Tanya!

When she got out to show me this house we looked at today, she looked around and commented on how much she loves the neighborhood...yards so neat and tidy...ppl out walking and walking their dogs...chatting in friendly clumps. I just smiled and said, "This is my neighborhood! I live just a few blocks that way!" She looked at me and said, "Why do you want to leave?!" Frankly, I don't. I just want my own home. Guess I'll have to have her and her husband over for dinner after we get settled...OH! Listen to me...I've already bought the house and moved in!

Pretty Rubble had a post where she wanted us to mention things that bring us joy. Funny thing...I was out in the backyard with the camera today. I don't have a great zoom lens on it so I did my best.





This is a birdhouse my husband's youngest brother made for us. We noticed a bird using it this year.



I happened to be able to click a picture of it going into the house. It doesn't show too well in the picture but it is bluish. I am not sure what kind of bird it is...my dad is the bird expert.

We have lots of birds this year...the cardinal family, the blue jay family, the sparrow minions, the robins, the grackles...I've seen a couple of yellow birds (not sure what you call them either). Then there is Scrawny (who is pregnant! YIKES!) and the bunny family. I will miss this place in many ways.

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On the HOUSE front....our realtor sent me a 'new listing'. I was not amused. I know she probably thot that I would find it interesting. The two story house we wrote bid papers up for then I changed my mind...I didn't want to make those monthly payments AND have to shoulder the expense for fixing it up...they dropped the price. Only by $13,000. I sent her back an email that said, "no one else wants to fix it up, either. Still not low enuff for me." If it is meant that we should have that house...then the house will not sell and it will go into corporate receivership and THEN we can afford it. I'm not holding my breath

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It turns out the boy my daughter has taken quite a liking to (and I do believe she spent some 'time' with him at Kings Island yesterday when the 7th and 8th grade band and chorus went for the day ) has an older brother that shoots the car commercial videos for American Idol. This is what my son wants to do...only on a grander scale. Bethany says, "So, I guess you should be nice to Scott (her crush), huh?" I told her that SHE needs to be nice to Scott...and maybe she could connect HIS brother with HER brother...and so on and so on....

And now...I will alternately enjoy the sunshine and watch the Cleveland Cavaliers get stomped on by the Celts. Oh the HUMANITY!