Eating, eating, eating...my three favorite things

One of the most difficult parts of living where I do is the lack of dining options. There are a couple of cute sandwich shops, and a good basic Chinese place, and a decent Mexican place...and lots of fast food. And that is it. No places for steak or non-fast food burgers. Nothing new or out of the ordinary. Not even a casual dining chain.no great place for chips and queso, breakfast, cheese fries, dessert or any of the things that I love to splurge on occasionally. No chance for three cheese dip at Qdoba, or something decadently chocolatey at Applebees, or bagels at Einsteins, or iced green tea at Panera...or anything at Panera, or a non-fat mocha from Starbucks. Or cheese fries at Outback, with their incredible ranch dressing. Or anything really that could be considered a good place to eat for a date. I'm not even sure there are restaurants in town that have tablecloths. There might be one....I can't remember now. I should probably stop with the whining....someday I will live somewhere else, and I will have my pick of places to eat out. And I will appreciate it--you better believe I will!

It's raining again.

Our yard is flooding again.

Andy's computer blew up and died last night, just as he was starting to work on a freelance project. So we had to order a new one.

I'm just waiting for things to stop breaking. Or the house to collapse on top of us. Whichever happens first.

Spring break has sprung..hopefully spring isn't too far behind

It's finally spring break time. Woohoo! I went to the library today and got my very own library card. Well...sort of got it. They wouldn't let me have it. They have to mail it to me. I also went to Wal-Mart to try and buy some free weights and an elastic stretchy band...but Wal-Mart didn't have an elastic stretchy band. Apparently good health isn't real hot here in the sticks. I'll be in Indy Friday, so I'll try Target.

Speaking of Wal-Mart....I spent 45 minutes attempting to find bathroom scales in that blasted store. I asked several different employees where to go, and none of them could help me. They sent me to four or five different places (housewares, the pharmacy, exercise equipment, diapers...okay, not diapers) and none were to be found. Andy informed me later that they are by the space heaters in the home improvement section. Huh? Why?

Also, yesterday, I found mold in our house. Ew. Yuck. Mold. But I fixed it (with the advice of a trusty neighbor). I fancy myself Superwoman.

Rip Van Winkle Here

After all the house drama of Wednesday, and the long week of school, I was plumb tuckered out. On Thursday, I laid down at 6:30 to take a short nap, and didn't wake up until my alarm went off Friday morning. Andy informed me that he tried to wake me up, but I wouldn't listen. Apparently I was just that tired. Crazy.

I'm thankful I'm not Noah

For the past two days, we have had some seriously intense rain. Seriously intense. The river is swollen (near flood stages) and the ground can't handle the water that is coming down. Yesterday I had a two hour flood delay because we were under a level two emergency. A flood delay. Yup. Things sure are different here in the southern part of the state.

But the rain didn't just cause problems elsewhere...it caused problems here. Definite problems here. In the wee hours of yesterday as I was having my quiet time, I could hear clanging and water flowing, and I had no idea what it was. I woke Andy up and he listened to it as well. He thought it might be the vent on the roof, so he went to check it out. Before dawn. In the rain. With a rake and a dinky flashlight. It wasn't on the roof, or in the attic.

Later he discovered it was coming from our crawlspace. That was under 10 inches of water. So he bought a sump pump and set it up and it sort of worked, but definitely wasn't going to fix the problem. So he spent most of the evening trying to figure out how to fix the problem. At this point, we had no heat. The heat went off around noon, when we realized that there was most assuredly water rising through the ducts and were we to continue to heat our house, it would become a steam room. Or a swimming pool. And our homeowners insurance spent two hours fiddling around before telling us they wouldn't do anything.

Finally, right around 8 pm we start to make some progress. We left a message with a neighbor (a friend from church who happens to work for a company that specializes in repairing natural chaos damage in homes). Andy went to buy space heaters to give our house some semblance of warmth. And some dear friends from church stopped by to see how we were and if they could help in any way. It was so lovely just to have them there for a bit. I felt much calmer (and a bit slap happier) after they left. Soon after that, the other man called back with the start of a solution, and told Andy he'd stop by today and take a look at it. He is pretty sure we won't need to call someone, that we can fix the problem ourselves. So now, it's time for another day of school....and I'm exhausted. But my house isn't flooded, and the space heaters worked well enough...so for that I am thankful :)

Bindi the jungle girl

So it's been a hoppin' Tuesday night at this house. We ate dinner, watched Bindi the Jungle Girl, and somehow both fell asleep for well over an hour. Well before 7 pm. I know, I know....we're living the wild life these days. I know you're jealous.

This, however, isn't about that. Or about anything, really. Except, of course, about Bindi the Jungle Girl. Oh Bindi, how we loved your father, the dear departed Crocodile Hunter. We mourned for him a bit tonight, as we watched the two of you on your adventures. We giggled at your jokes, noted your cuteness, and so loved your song and dance about kangaroos. We did wonder, however, how you found four grown men to sing and dance as your back-up singers. What possesses a man to decide that he should sing and dance with a 7-year-old about kangaroos?

And how do I sign up?

Just kidding.

Leprechaun Day

Last Friday, my super cutie grade ones set their very own home-built Leprechaun traps throughout our classroom. We had a variety of traps, with a lot of different bait, and they were sure they were going to catch one. This morning they arrived and our classroom was a disaster! Traps had been moved, flipped over, gold had been removed, desks were tipped over and papers were all over the floor. The class was flabbergasted.

And then they saw it.

A note from THE LEPRECHAUN in green on the blackboard.

He wrote:
You tried to trap me
but I got away
Enjoy your gold
and have a Happy Leprechaun Day!

And he left them a present--gold covered chocolates on Mrs. Cook's desk.

Now if that wasn't the best first 15 minutes of those kids' school careers, I surely don't know what is.