"This is the closest encounter I have ever had with any creature. The son of a ***** actually hit me in the elbow. That's too **** close." Trapper, Mountain Monsters Kentucky Hellhound episode...

Kate is off to a weekend of softball with Viv. Bubs & I just hangin'.

Activities Banquet.

Katie was named to the Junior High Academic All Conference 1st Team and rec'd The Glimmer Girl Smile Award.

"This whole episode could have happened in 1990."---tonights Catfish

I seriously just want to hire this guy as my live-in hairdresser!

....kevin has started packing his lunch for work....katie went to a meeting about starting a golf team at school....

kj has been doing laundry & chores....and I have been eating my weight in homemade cheese cake!

my weekend at work was switched, so will get some extra weekends off...have to find time to get Katie shopping for vacation clothes....because it is getting ever closer! meanwhile, I have bought myself enough new clothes for 2 lengthy vacations....

watched new episodes of Swamp People and Long Island Medium and Catfish. filled and emptied dishwasher, started laundry. still unseasonably cold....back to sweatpants and hoodies again....

uh huh

just got up and fed the dogs, shut the windows 'cause man it is cold in here! washed my face, brushed my teeth, took my vitamins, spent 4 minutes on facebook...and already time to go to work. (sigh)

came home from work on a rainy rainy rainy stormy day....

and together made the decision to go buy food our kids would eat....(or more accurately, can prepare by themselves when mom takes a lengthy after work nap or stares off into space for untold amounts of time....), Katie accompanied us....ate at Hardees, then to Hy-Vee where we dropped a couple hundred, then to ShopKo where I found new Adidas sandels and purple sunglasses and Katie got a new shirt for vacation. also treated Mr Bubba to new undies and socks! oh happy day! Kevin & I AGAIN looked at patio furniture at Orshelins....think we have it picked out. just haven't paid the money to the man yet. and Mr Danny is here to hang with the Bubs. people on facebook are blaming the barometric pressure for headaches...maybe that is the deal with my ears. have been doing the wax ear drops for several days, it feels like I am underwater....can barely hear, everything is far away.

had a simply wonderful mothers day with a family bbq.....

Mom, John, Brenda, Koren, Cody, Ian, Kevin, KJ, Katie, & I.....then Koren & Cody & Ian went with us to visit Grandpa Lije & Great Grandma Marie. you know, once upon a time, I would've been horrified that my daughter would have to clean my kitchen to bake cookies. and that she would have to ask me kindly to take my barky dogs outside so they wouldn't wake up her adorable just-fell-asleep baby. but I don't have much vanity these days, just have to roll with the flow and be grateful she will bring my grandson here to see me. and that she isn't calling Hoarders to come clean my house out. I am not the mom I want to be. just don't have the energy to work hard enough to keep my job and then come home and clean my house enough to be more than livable. I am not the woman I once was....but I am glad to be a woman with 3 wonderful children and a beautiful grandson and a husband that puts up with my declining mental abilities and that I could share my day with my sister who couldn't be with her kids today and my mother spending her first mothers day as a widow, and my brother, who just brightens up any occasion!

Koren made homemade from scratch New York cheesecake and mini fruit pizzas.