A litte bit of this and a little bit of that.

Did you happen to catch Oprah today? I'm definitely going to try to get with the de-cluttering program... I need it! This afternoon, I even sent Ben into THE BLACK HOLE (a.k.a. his room) for 10 minutes armed with his 2 bags. He actually did pretty well, came up with more to give away than I would've thought. I need to get in there and grow his room up a little... get rid of some of his little boy toys, but he's my last little one and it makes me sad. He'll be 11 in less than 2 weeks! How is that possible?

Let's see, what else has been going on? Last night I made this for dinner & it was absolutely DELICIOUS! Michael brought the leftovers to work for lunch. Tonight is taco salad... taco salad is for days when I can't bring myself to make the effort to think of anything else to make. It's easy & everyone likes it. I actually just prep the meat & fixin's & everyone puts there own salad together the way they like it. Easy, peasy!

Saturday night we went to watch the US Women's Nat'l Soccer Team play at Tampa Stadium. These are Jordan's heroes. She follows this team pretty closely & her greatest dream is to play with them one day. Here are Jordan & Michael right after they let us into the stadium. This is the one picture I took before the batteries in my good camera died (AARGH!)

Here's a little video of the team warming up taken with my smaller camera I always keep in my purse, just in case...

See how they are running back & forth? Away from the crowd, then towards them again? I sent Michael & Jordan down closer to the sideline to get a picture of her with the team. This is what they came back with...

I guess they couldn't wait for the team to turn around. This is why I take most of the pictures in our family. But the game was exciting & we won! :)


In other news, Megan went to a concert over the weekend & got to meet the lead singer for the Plain White Ts. (you know, the Hey there Delilah guy). Here she is with her friend, Jana Cabeza. Actually, that's not her real name, but I've known (of) her for 4 years & thought it really was her name until about 6 months ago. (It was a duh Mom! moment)

I've only met 2 "celebrities" in my life. One was really famous and is a really funny story I'll save for later, the other was a celebrity in our world... Jeff Tweedy, lead singer for one of our favorite bands, Wilco, but no one ever seems to know who that is.

Anyway, I need to go get my no brainer dinner going, but thought I'd check in & say a little more than "hi."

Ho hum.

Hope to get back to the blog later today. Seems like anything I've had to say the last few days is either too monotonous to write about or would require too much explanation... thinking...thinking...

Dummy.

So tonight I'm supposed to video tape Jordan's high school soccer game for the coach. This morning I got out the camcorder to make sure it's charged (it isn't) but the charger isn't in the bag (of course, remember my organizational skills?). Anyway, I remembered where I had last charged the darn thing so I go the basket under the TV and VIOLA! there is a Sony charger in there. I was so proud of myself! I went to plug it in, but the "male" part of the charger wouldn't fit into the "female" part of the camcorder... AAAARGH!!!!

Surprisingly, I actually have a bin full of chargers & cords, most of which are in ziploc bags & labeled with what they belong to. I checked there, nothing for the Sony.

So I spent about an hour tearing the house apart (sound familiar?) looking for the damn thing. No luck. The contents of my junk drawer are strewn all over my kitchen. (I really need to sort through it all, but that ain't happening today). My various camera cases (from my film cameras) are strewn all over my bed. (I guess they go right back to the cabinet before Michael gets home).

I'm really at my wit's end. So I go back to the kitchen and decide to try out the charger one more time... guess what?! I found another "female" hole on the camcorder & it fit perfectly!

Now time to find the mini DVDs to fit in the darn thing. Hmmmm... wish me luck!

Poinsettias

Anyone here who knows me IRL and would like to buy a Poinsettia (or two or three or fifty) for $9 a pop, please let me know. Jordan's team is doing a fundraiser & we are supposed to sell 50 of these things... Michael works in an office with 2 other guys & I stay at home so I'm really not sure how I'm going to do this.

Aaargh!

You know I don't get political on here. I did my part & voted, but I was really just ready for the whole thing to be over... I prayed that whoever got the job (and I have no idea why anyone would even WANT it at this point) will be able to fix things around here. I really hate polictical ads and I was really looking forward to getting away from all that negativity.

It never occurred to me that those darn ads are all over my DVR! Aargh!

Better late than never.

As promised, here are a few pictures of my vampire on Halloween. The teeth bothered him & the wig wouldn't fit his big 'ole head but Michael did a great job on his makeup.

And here's a picture of Mom & I at the park in Illinois after our drive on Sunday, see the pretty trees...

I'm home.

I got home Monday night from Grandma's funeral in Illinois. I'm so glad we went, but I really missed Michael & the kids so much, I was so glad to be home. Mom sprained her knee the day before we left which added a challenge to the trip of dealing with a wheelchair & both of our carry-ons in the airports (the plane changing in Atlanta was particularly, um, challenging, to say the least).

Grandma lived in a small town just outside of Peoria. I've only been back to visit one time since we moved to Florida when I was 11, and that was with Michael & the kids in 2000. Although thankfully Grandma came to visit Mom every year, out of mom's 1 brother & 3 sisters and my 5 surviving cousins (one died in a car accident several years ago) and all their spouses & kids, I only know one cousin & her family fairly well. Plus, both Grandma & Grandpa both came from large families, so there were loads of my mom's aunts, uncles and cousins there as well. You get the point, LOTS of unfamiliar family. It's kind of an odd dynamic.

Even though I knew Grandma pretty well from her visits, I usually saw her when she was on a vacation so I didn't see her in "her element" very often, but I heard so much what a hard-working, independent woman she was. The pastor at her service said she had a "servant's soul" and while some people might think that may be derogatory to say, I thought it was so fitting for her. She had such a strong faith in God, but she didn't preach it so much as live it every day. She was really the most unassuming woman I've ever met, never wanting to be the center of attention, but getting things done behind the scenes. I'm very proud to be her granddaughter.

The service on Saturday was beautiful. My fave cousin's daughter sang a really lovely rendition of Amazing Grace (that girl can SING... a talent that clearly missed my side of the family). The weather at the cemetary was perfect, unseasonably warm for them, just like a Florida fall for me. After the lunch at the church, my mom's siblings & spouses sat on my aunt's porch & told some wonderful stories. I was the only one of my generation there for most of the time, so I just sat back and listened. You learn a lot that way.

Sunday, Mom & I took a drive out to the farm outside of town where she grew up and did a little tour of her old haunts, then we went to my aunt's house and sorted through some of Grandma's old pictures. Although I think of Illinois as being very flat, the area where Mom grew up is pretty hilly & although I was told the folliage was past its' peak, to this Florida girl it was really beautiful. It was a really nice day.

Michael held the fort down here really well. He even had some delicious homemade pumkin chili waiting when I got home... that HE found the recipe for on the internet. He took Ben trick-or-treating and even did the vampire make-up. I'll post some pictures later.

I'm so glad to be HOME!!!