A Beautiful Day - so much going on!

This has been a busy week! I have been finishing up items for my niece Natosha's baby shower on Saturday- I will take some photos and post them in another post - I've finally gotten most of that done and just waiting for her dad to come and pick it all up tomorrow.

I got a call from school on Tuesday telling me that Alex had been in an altercation with another student and was getting 5 days out of school suspension- lets just say I was NOT happy about this at all- and I hope he grows and matures soon!

Then I found out my niece Katie who has been staying with her sister Amber down in the Albany area is leaving the beginning of June to go back with her mother in Texas, so I paid for a ticket to fly her up here for the next several day to visit with all of us before she leaves. She's 17 now- and I think was only 11 or 12 the last time she was up here. I booked her flight I "thought" for today- when Amber and her arrived at the airport and gave them the printed e-ticket- the agent looked at then and said -- "your flight was yesterday" -- they were like WHAT?!!?- Neither of them caught that I'd made the mistake when booking it and I of course didn't either. Thankfully- we live in a very little town and the flight coming here was actually empty so they told her it was ok they would just switch the date. So, she was the only one on the little 8 seater plane coming here - besides the pilot of course- she was a little nervous- she's flown a lot, but I "forgot" to mention to her how small the plane was lol - I think she thought she was going to antartica or something- maybe flying around the mountains of Alaska- thankfully the flight was only about an hour long! All is well- she got her safe and it's good to see her!

Megan was supposed to go on her senior trip to NYC this weekend, but has decided not to go- she's got a really sore back for the past few days again, which I think is starting to feel a little better, but she didn't think it would be much fun to go walking around a ton- plus, she doesn't really like to be with people for long periods of time - so in the end, it probably worked out for the best that she didn't go.

The fishing trip that wasn't

Last week sometime, my father told Alex that they, along with my Uncle Ron ( my mom's brother in law) would go fishing today. Alex loves to do anything with his grandfather so he was pretty excited about it the past few days. During the night last night, I woke up a few times and noticed Alex was still up playing games on the computer- I woke up at 4:30 AM and he was still awake- I mentioned the fishing trip and asked him if he didn't think he should get to bed? I never really got an answer, but I think he went shortly there after.

At 7AM the alarm went off to get Alex up to go fishing- because he takes about an hour at least to get ready and my dad had said somewhere arounf 8 or 9 they would leave. Well, after trying for about 30-35 minutes of getting him up and him not budging, I got tired of it and told him either he gets up, or I'm not coming back into his room again - he just wouldn't go. (you have to take into consideration it's a constant battle every weekday to get this kid out the door to school and by the end of the week, I'm wiped out from it). Well he didn't get up, so I called my mother, told her I was giving up on him and going back to bed myself. It would be a lesson learned for him. If he wanted to go - he should get up.

Well, my father left to go fishing and Alex finally got up about 30 minutes or so after he left- if that- it wasn't very long- and of course was incredibly mad at me that  "I" didn't get him up to go fishing- well, one, he is 15 years old- he should be getting himself up to go fishing AND to school- but I DID try to get him up- he's been angry with me all day because he didn't get to go fishing with his grandpa and now I feel guilty for that because it's a day for the two of them they won't ever get back together and had I tried harder, I could have gotten him up. Worse part is, I don't think he's learned a thing from today other than mom is mean and didn't get him up to go fishing!!


PS- HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT ROSIE!

4.0 - not to shabby

FINALLY got my final grades for my first semester back at school in 20 years- 4.0 it is! Couldn't ask for anything better- other than that fact I LOVED each of my classes and completely enjoyed the learning experience. I can't wait for next semester to begin- thinking I should have taken a summer class- but time will fly by this summer with getting Megan ready for college as well.

I haven't received anything official in the mail yet- only what's been posted online- but I got an A in each class- I don't know if I will get something that tells me the actual number grade to the class or not. I know I had a 98 in Business Math- and the rest weren't far behind- everything was over a 95 I believe.

Yupp- I'm grinning from ear to ear- so happy!

How to follow other blogs- for Aunt Lori

Log into your blog

you should be on your dashboard


instead of clicking on new post to write on the blog, click on layout

once on the layout page,  you will see add a gadget- click on that

a pop up window will open up
scroll down until you see where it says blog list - it's about the 8-10th item down the list I'd say- click it

this will bring up another window that says configure your blog list

click on add a blog to your list

type in the URL- for instance the URL to my blog is



http://www.lifewithavalleyview.blogspot.com/



click add



then to add another listing such as dad's blog-

click on add to list and add in the URL to dads blog which is

http://the-old-curmudgeon.blogspot.com/



and keep repeating until you are done.



The URL to Rosie's blog is

http://beenthinkinboutthings.blogspot.com/



and Joanna's is

http://billyjo971.blogspot.com/



when done, click on save

You now should have the list of blogs saved.

go to your blog page and view it-  and you should now see the list of blogs on the right hand side of the page that you just added- when the people update the blogs, you will be able to see they have been updated right from your own page- it will say something like updated 6 hours ago or something like that.

Let me know if you get it to work!

The day has come and gone!

Today went by really fast- I woke up around 7 AM and enjoyed the morning playing my games on Facebook and not so patiently stalking my online class area looking for my grades - which of course I still don't have!
Alex was supposed to go get his hair cut and portrait taken today- but typical Alex - " I don't want to today" - I didn't feel like arguing with him- it wasn't worth it- he'll get it done when he feels like it.

Meg was filling out paper work for college yesterday and you have to submit a photo to be used on the college ID- whatever happened to them taking a photo once on campus, I have no idea- but this lead to Megan needing to have her hair cut- which she's been wanting to do anyways. After her hair cut, instead of just using the digital camera to take a photo, Meg thought we should get a portrait taken- well- it's only $9 at WalMart- so who cares- if that makes her happy- so be it- (even though we just had senior portraits in the fall) - so off to Walmart we went to have it done- quick, easy and we were out in about 10 minutes- couldn't have been any faster.

Next stop was the vision center right in WalMart. Megan has been seeing the same eye doctor there for a few years now. She has perfect 20/20 vision, but the muscles in her eyes don't work correctly- he refers to her as having a eighty year old persons eyes - basically when she watches to much TV, reads to long, computer, and so on, everything goes out of focus for her and it's blurry- so, things don't work exactly as they should. She had a pair of glasses that had a "crutch" in them as the eye doctor called it to help with this, but after several months, it was no longer working. For the past few months, he's had her trying to do eye exercises to strengthen the muscles, but they give her terrible headaches and make her eyes twitch terribly at times. On the visit today, he fitted her for another pair of glasses with another "crutch" in them- but basically told her, there really isn't a lot to be done for her unfortunately- there is no operation to fix the muscles and she doesn't require glasses for vision- her eyes are almost a mystery as to why they are the way they are. We will wait a few months and see how she does with these glasses and until after she goes to see the neurologist in June and go from there to a specialist if we need to.

After this, we came home and I supervised hubby planting the rest of the flowers in the new flower bed in front of our deck. We need to get about 5 or 6 more to finish it up- hopefully I'll do that in the next day or two. Ben has worked really hard at the flower bed and it looks great.

Been doing laundry and picking up the house because Meg has a friend coming home with her tonight after bowling to spend the night. They are supposed to work on their senior scrapbook- but I don't know how much she will get done!

This day has just flown by and I'm headed to bed really soon!

The Missing WalMart Bag

When Ben went to town yesterday, I asked him to stop at WalMart and pick up a cord that Alex needed to allow him to use his TV as a monitor to his computer, instead of the monitor. He came home with the cord, but when Alex hooked it up after school, he had picture only and no sound. I called WalMArt and asked them if we needed a different cord or what? They said, we needed an additional cord and it was $6 ( we already spent $20 on the first one). I told the guy working that my daughter was coming in to town and asked if he'd hold the cord at the counter so she could just pick it up. He agreed.

Megan was going out with her friends to the bowling alley, so I asked her to stop by WalMart and get it which she happily did. She then continued on to JoAnn Fabrics across the streeet and got herself a tote to put scrapbooking things in and then to the movie rental place. She placed all these items into the trunk when she went to the bowling alley.

Once again, Ben had to go to town to get some things to finish planting flowers around the deck tomorrow. I asked him to take my set of keys and stop by the bowling alley and grab Alex's cord-then he wouldn't have to wait for Meg to get home to hook things up. He agreed, so he comes back home with the cord about 8:00 PM.

About 9:30 PM Megan calls me on her cell phone and says almost in hysterics- "MOM!!! MOM!! Someone stole the cord- someone stole the WALMART BAG!!!!!" - I played it up a little bit asking her what she was talking about- and she reminded me how she went to WalMart, got the cord and so on- and now it was JUST GONE!!! But everything else was there and she had Dustin and Nick searching the car- under the seats everything and couldn't find it- by this time, I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks- she didn't quite get it and kept saying NO MOM you don't understand it's GONE_ someone broke into the car! I finally got out that it was ok that I had it- the only part she heard was "it's ok" - and she was still in hysterics saying NO MOM, it's NOT OK.. they STOLE IT!!! -I said MEG- I  HAVE IT IT'S OK!!! - Then she real calmly says- what?? you HAVE it? How'd you get it? and in the same breath she says DAD CAME TO TOWN DIDN'T HE?!!?!? - I started laughing again and said yes and she turns to the guys and tells them and  they start laughing as well- somehow poor Meg didn't find the humor in this AT ALL.
Never did I think she would do anything with the items until getting home - and I even wondered if she would remember that she had gotten the cord. Well, she figured she'd take the stuff out of the trunk there at the Bowling Alley instead of at home in the dark. I did feel badly for her but in the end, it was still REALLY funy and she laughed about it once she got home too.I don't think this is one we will forget for a while.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to my mom Nora Lawton- as I've gotten older, these "holidays" seem more like a great way to sucker people into paying for over priced greeting cards and candy- which I refuse to do anymore. When I was younger- up until a few years ago even, I always bought a gift for every holiday imaginable- sent flowers, bought cards, or something- but now, I hope that my mother ( and others in my life ) know that I love them 365 days of the year- it doesn't take a holiday to have to tell me that I love someone.

As I tell my kids, everyday is Mother's Day, and Father's Day and so on- I don't expect or want a gift- having them as my children 365 days a year is gift enough. I don't need a national day to be recognized. Trust me, I'm recognized quite enough- hundreds of times a day I hear the word mom from my kids- that's all I need. I'm thankful to have them- lucky to be their mom and although we have our ups and downs and disagreements like any other family, I wouldn't trade them for the world. They make everyday worth it.

Just as I know I was a pain in the butt growing up sometimes to my mother- things have changed since I became a mom and grew up some I guess. My mom and I enjoy each other's company going shopping and doing things that women do and we talk everyday on the phone. Living across the driveway from them, we are able to sit on the deck and talk with each other and watch nature at it's finest. Life is good, I love my mom and have learned to appreciate my mom as times gone on.

Be sure to tell your parental figure how much you love them while you can- not just today on Mother's Day, but everyday.

Made it through another year

Yesterday ( since it's after midnight now ) was my wedding anniversary- I'm happy to say we've made it through some really rough times - although it's not always easy, we both hang in there. Today we decided to go for a drive and ended up going to the Casino up on the reservation in Hogansburg. Neither of us had ever been and it's only about a 45 minute drive. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and that was enough for both of us- we didn't win anything- well, what little we did win at one point or another we lost again. We spent about $40 between the two of us and had a really good time. We only played the penny and nickel machines- but there were quite a few to choose from. I wouldn't want to be addicted to this- you could drop some serious cash in a matter of moments- they have $1, $5, $10 and so on machines- just before we walked out the door hubby had one $1 bill left in his pocket and dropped it in the machine and pulled the handle- nothing- zilch- nadda- but the $1 gone in a pull of the handle lol- all in all it was a really fun day though- something out of the ordinary we don't normally do.

On Saturday ( May 1st), Ben and Alex went to Gouverneur to his nephew Roger's wedding. He married Brandy finally. They had a really great time up there- it's been about 3 years since Alex has seen some of the relatives up that way, so he was really happy to have everyone in one place. I didn't go because I've been battling throat issues all week and didn't feel up to it. Thankfully the antibiotics are kicking in though and starting to feel a lot better.

On Saturday Megan took her grandma( my mom) to see Little Shop of Horrors at the school- both said it was an amazing play put on by the kids at school and they really enjoyed themselves.

So, we had a pretty busy weekend - but one enjoyed by all it seems- hope you all had a great one too- this is my last 10 days or so of college- hard to believe the semester is winding down already- but will be nice to enjoy the summer- I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some geneology work with my father and hopefully finding my long lost great Aunt's Burial place!!