Thanksgiving prep

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
Today I start the prep work.
I remember being a kid and just being in awe of the amazing spread of food that was put out by Mom and my Aunts. I wondered how in the world it all got made and how they made it so very yummy.
Now I am the mom.
Unfortunately we don't have any family within 200 miles of us, so it's just us.
But I still put out one hell of a meal.
Grilled/smoked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade mashed potato rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple tart, and apple butter muffins.
I am the one doing the work, with the occasional help of my 15 year old daughter. 
    and I love it
      every minute of it
        I can't wait

life

sometimes life just sucks
actually, scrap that, sometimes we do things that simply makes our lives more difficult than they need to be
then when it's time to pay the bill, it hurts, bad

wild fire season?

I am originally from Wisconsin. I am a cheesehead, born and raised.
Where I am from we don't really have to worry about wild fires. 
Buildings catch fire in WI, but not so much the landscape. At least not to my knowledge.


Then we moved west.
We first lived in Jackpot, NV and I woke one morning and could smell smoke. I searched the house and found nothing. So I looked outside and lo and behold I saw this:

I made a frantic call to my father in law and asked him if the hills were really on fire or if I was just imagining it.
He laughed at me and said, yup, the hills are on fire, but not to worry the BLM will be here soon if it gets too close to town.
Now, distance is deceiving here in the west. What looks to be only a hop skip and a jump away is actually miles away, and the fire I could see from my back yard was about 15 miles from town.
So what did my curious self do? I jumped in the truck and drove around to get pictures:

It only took about 2 days for the BLM to show up and start fighting the fires. They camped on the lawn of the school in town, and amazingly enough, I felt a lot better knowing they were there. 


We are now in Utah and we still have wild fire season. I feel lucky to be living in a town, in a subdivision, thats far enough removed from the "wild" that the fires are something we watch at night and we don't worry about our property being damaged.
But others aren't always so lucky.

Public school

Band ~ $25                   Drivers Ed ~ $105               Honors Lang Arts ~ $6
Dance ~ $5                   Foods and fitness ~ $30   Textbook fee ~ $40
Science ~ $5                Health Ed ~ $10                   Handbook ~ $9
Activity card ~ $35     Yearbook ~ $47


That is the breakdown of my daughters sophomore year of high school.
$317 worth of fees for a public school, and yes, we pay property tax.
Thankfully we were able to set up a monthly payment plan. 
$42 a month for the duration of the school year.


and this does not include the $18 for her school pictures, the trip to St George with band in October, the $460 (not including spending money) we still have to pay for her trip to the Holiday Bowl in December, and the trip in May (?) to the Heritage Festival (band trip).


I'm kind of glad today that we only have one child going into high school this year.

oops

OK, so I have fallen off the wagon
I was fulling intending to continue getting on the treadmill at least every other day, but go figure, my laziness has won the day, repeatedly


I'll get there, sooner or later


Today I have the joy of registering my older two kids for school
Abby is a sophomore in high school this year, and who woulda thunk that public school would have registration fees upwards of $100
Oh well, we do what we gotta do, right?


This is the first year that we have to go to the school to register Will. He starts 3rd grade this year.


Once all of that is done we will be coming home and making jambalaya for dinner and then going to a band boosters meeting for Abby

hmmmm

I didn't get on the treadmill at all today, and yes I feel a bit guilty about that. I just wasn't feeling well.


I will make up for it though, possibly tomorrow.


This evening I managed to royally piss off my daughter.
She's 15 and dating a boy who treats her like shit. This is the third or fourth time they have dated, and after the last break up (which she swore would be the last) I told her if she get back together with him she would be grounded.
I didn't ground her, but I'm also not dealing with him.
She has to work her high school bands lemonade booth this evening at the county fair and she asked me if I would give him a ride as well so he could hang out.
I told her no.
There is no way I will encourage the relationship. 
It's poison to her. 
He is poison to her.
I will not encourage it, and I will not tolerate it.

Easy day

I'm not getting on the treadmill today.
Today I will rest.
Instead I will be spending my day doing domestic stuff.
I have some crocheting I want to do, and some ironing that needs to be done. I also plan on making some cupcakes with my 8 year old son (hopefully he will want to help)


and tonight we will be having breakfast for dinner

Something

Is better than nothing right?


I did get on the tread mill again this morning
On Monday it took me 36.5 minutes to do 2 miles, and I was only on the tread mill for a total of 45 minutes.


This morning I got the 2 miles done in 33 minutes and did a full hour.
I made a point of doing 3 miles at the least.
Obviously I am not running, yet. I have to work my way up to that, and its good so far (3 days in)
Tomorrow I will rest, maybe do some yoga, and we will see what I can accomplish on Friday morning.


Today I will be running out with the kids, and rehoming our Sock Monkey friend.

Sock Monkey! the real deal and some hats

I have posted before that I am crafty, and I have still been crocheting away.
I went nuts making some sock monkey hats, and even an actual Sock Monkey
here they are....

aren't they cute?

I must be out of my mind....

yesterday at work one of the ladies asked me if I would be willing to run a 10K with her.

Now, keep in mind, I'm 35, I'm a mom of 4, and I am 65 pounds over weight.

What did I say to her when she asked me? Sure I will.

I said what?

Yup, I told her that I would, indeed, run a 10k with her in October.

I must be out of my mind.

The race is Saturday October 8, 2001. It starts and ends at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT.

It's called the Love Your Body 6k/10k and it's for women only.

Today being August 2, I only have (according to my Google countdown) 66 days to get into 10k shape.

So I'm going to start looking for a beginners 10k training program (maybe)

I used to run, I used to run all the time. I had no choice I was in the Army, but when I left the Army I was foolish enough to say I was never running again unless I was being chased (and depending on who was chasing me I wouldn't run too fast, or not at all). Now here I am, 11 years later, 2 more kids, and 65 pounds overweight.

I can do this.

Right?

Work

I work

I have a job outside of the home that buys groceries for my family and helps pay a bill or two.

I like working.....no, that's not quite right, I love working.

I like being a part of a team, I enjoy feeling useful

What I like most about my job is that it's important

Yeah there are a lot of people who hate the very sight of me

What I do forces them to remember a tragic, horrible, day in our nations history. I make them nervous, hell, I make 'em take off their shoes in public, that's uncomfortable and gross.

Many people are polite, some are nice and appreciative and thank me for what I do.

Others hate me, I have been called names (thief, liar, pervert, asshole, even pedophile)

I don't care about the hate, or the names, I interact with those people for maybe 3minutes out of my day. It doesn't hurt my feelings, it doesn't make me rethink my priorities, or my job, or even my politics.

What hurts me is the way I am treated by those that I work with.

I can't say those that I work for, because those that are above me in the hierarchy aren't my actual employers, its this nation that employs me.

I'm treated as less than the next person.

See, I only work part time and in the last six months or so I have been told, repeatedly (and in a much more tactful way than what I am writing) that I am just there as a filler.

I am only there to fill in the spaces between the more important, that is full time, employees.

Really?

I got the same training.

I do the same job.

(in many cases I do the job better, yeah tootin' my own horn, you sayin' you wouldn't?)

I have the same responsibilities, and I can suffer the same consequences as the full time employees if I don't meet those responsibilities.

I have been recognized for high performance, yet I am still just a filler.

I have had people above me in the "chain" ask me questions about equipment we use because I have taken my own time to research it, to make myself more knowledgeable. But I am just a filler.

It saddens me to sit here at home and be disheartened at the very thought of having to go to work.

I used to love going to work.

I get to work and I don't want to go out and do the job, and it's not the job itself, its those I work with.

So now I am left to either just deal with it, accept that I am just half of what the guy next to me is, or look for something else.

I'm looking