Yes, I'm Still Here!

Hey All,

Just a note to let you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...I am thoroughly disgusted with Blogger right now, because I changed the template here on accident, and it won't let me change it back. Apparently I can only change to one offered BY Blogger without getting some kind of funky ":bx" error. I don't want one offered by blogger, I want my Christmas template back! *pout*

So part of the reason I haven't been posting here is that I told myself I wouldn't until I could get it back the way I wanted it (so much for that, "cuz here I am). But in my defense, I didn't know it would be OVER A MONTH and still not fixed...

Another reason is because of my schedule. All three of you who come here regularly are somewhat familiar with my screwy schedule which was bad enough to begin with. Now it's even worse...The woman who was putting the boy on the bus for us, with her boy, in the mornings, got a job. Bad. Her husband does car repossessions so is home in the morning, and offered to continue putting the boys on the bus of a morning. Good. He had a court date that Hunny knew about (but didn't bother to tell me about) one morning at like 10 am, so when we walked down to their house, no one was home. Bad. I was supposed to be at work at 11, the bus comes at 12:15. Worse. No one we usually call to watch him (and there aren't many - and most of then are "kids") was available, so I called work & said I'd be late. Definitely Not Good. Apparently, whatever Bob (not his real name) went to court for wasn't good, cuz they kept him. Very, very, very Not Good. So I went to one of my bosses and had my schedule swapped around so I now work (week one) from 1-9 M, T, Th, & F (which is only 7.5 hours per day because apparently I HAVE to take a lunch) and 9-1 on that Saturday. Then I work (week two) 1-9 M, 3-9 T, 1-9 W, 1-9 TH, 1-9 F, and 9-7 on Sat. Can you see where that might mess with a person..? And it's not like I'm that hard to confuse anymore to begin with...

So, in an effort to somewhat catch folks up, here goes -

School is going great. My boy loves it, and is apparently thrilled with his new found ability to read! He also has a (possibly unhealthy?) love of numbers. Everythings about the numbers. He's always been one to ask questions, and never the easily answered one, either. School is giving him even more fodder for the old question mill...He did get an award for "Excellence in Listening" about a week ago. He got called up in front of the whole school & presented with a T-shirt. Granted, it looks like half the school got them but still...

 

I didn't get to go, because of course it was at 2:00 in the afternoon and I had to WORK. But, Hunny was still on vacation and he DID get to go, which is awesome, as he will more than likely have to miss many events like this as our boy grows up...

Then there's Karate...not so good. I like the idea of my boy having outside interests so to speak, and Karate, or martial arts, is a good one to have. But when he's done in Dec, he's done at this one. I have come to the determination that he isn't going to Karate so much as he's going to a money pit...Here, I'll let you decide:

Base fee for the class from April to December: $995.00
Karate Gi & assorted necessaries: $150.00 more
Each time he gets a patch, another $3 to $4 a piece - and he gets a couple every other week or so
Each time he advances to a new level, and requires a new belt: $30.00 - he's on his fourth
Any time they have "extra-curricular" activities: anywhere from $40 (to spend the night for a Halloween party at their new building) to $250 (for a DAY CAMP - ONE DAY -  teaching swordsmanship)

Is it just me?

Next up, we have added a new family member. NO I DIDN'T HAVE ANOTHER KID! Curses on you for even thinking it! I'm a GRANDMA for Goddess' sake!

About two weeks ago I was minding my own business at work, when everyone started acting all "gooey" - everyone up to and including the BIG boss. And her twin sister, who is the head of another department in our company. Of course I had to know what was going on...apparently of our techs got back to the shop and found a kitten in his MOTOR COMPARTMENT. Yeah, you read that right. The little thing had climbed up in the engine compartment, probably in an attempt to get warm, and found itself transported from Goddess knows where to our back lot. It seemed the tech was going to take it and "drop it off" somewhere, and the Big Dogs weren't having it. But they also couldn't HAVE it - the kitten that is. So guess who piped up and volunteered..? Yep you guessed it - me. Now I've talked about my boy and his ability to know things he shouldn't, and to arrange fate to suit his purposes before. For two weeks prior to this, he had been on a "Mom can we get a cat?" kick. Go figger, he got his cat...

So without further ado, may I present Jingles....

 

Surprisingly, for having been a stray, he is very affectionate & loving. He is a bit skittish - if you walk towards him he runs - but he'll curl up in your lap and purr the day away. When the boy falls asleep on the couch, he gets up behind his head and goes to sleep until I motivate upstairs. It's funny, it was too small to even tell the sex when I brought it home, but has shot up since. I believe we have a boy, although at some point in the (hopefully) not too distant future, "he" will become "it." He looks surprisingly like one of out last cats, originally named Bridget, which somehow morphed into "Pudding Pop" - don't ask, because I have no answer...

Pretty eerie, huh..? They actually could be related...We found Pudd at Hunny's Mom & Dad's house, stuck in their apple tree, about 6 or 7 years ago. They said she had been running around the neighborhood, and they were afraid she was going to get run over - but they weren't willing to take her in...so we did. She was also teeny tiny when we got her. We waited and waited for her to reach the weight requirement to get her spayed, and after a year and a half, at 8 lbs she just barely made it. As you can see, she apparent;y wasn't done growing at 18 months, because she ended up at about 30 lbs, and about 3 foot long from tip of nose to end of tail...

Ok, I'm outta time, gotta go get ready to put my nose back to the grindstone....I'm not gonna say I'll try to do better here, because every time I say (type?) that, I end up not posting for forever...but, well, yanno!

See ya laterzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!