U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi!

Actually, the spelling on the sign was UGLI, as in UGLI Fruit.

I'd never heard of it and yes, I bought one so we could try it.

It was various colors and felt like the skin was loose, like those easy to peel *Little Cuties.*

 They smell like faintly like a tangerine when you are peeling them.

They are supposed to be a (multi) cross between a tangerine, orange and grapefruit.  The sign said they taste sweet like an orange but are bigger, obviously.

We did not find it to be that sweet.  It was certainly edible, but you could taste the grapefruit in it, for sure.  Since I'm not a big grapefruit fan, well, I won't be buying another one of these.

Happy Birthday, Mawmaw!

A few days ago Mawmaw turned a spry 85!

We celebrated over the weekend so hubby would be home.  We took her out to her favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch and made her a cake.

We were trying to figure out what to get her for a present because pretty much anything you give her she crams in her closet or dresser and won't use it, even if it's something she's said she'd love to have.  She always wants to 'save it for when I need it.'

My idea?

We bought her a beta fish!  I figured she COULDN'T put it up in the closet, it would give her a sense of taking care of something and hopefully some joy in watching him.

She named him Red.  :)

So far she seems to really like him, I've heard her in there talking to him a couple of times, so, hey, I guess he provided some more company for her, too.

Happy Birthday, Mawmaw!

Troop, Attention!

This is another one of those changes I was talking about before.

We are forming a brand new Boy Scout Troop.

We had a huge group of boys that we took over to a Troop when they moved up and I think we over whelmed them.  We more than doubled their current Troop size, to give you an idea.

Anyway, the area only had one Troop for this end of several counties, so now there will be two.

It's a lot of work but we're hoping the boys will have a great time and learn a lot, too.  As an adult, I think it's pretty neat that my son will be able to (hopefully) look back one day as an adult and say:

Yeah, Troop ##, it's going strong and I was one of the founding Scout members!





Almost every family has had at least one adult step up and agree to get trained and hold either a committee or troop position.  Wonderful!  A bunch of us were already in the process of being approved as merit badge counselors (which can be utilized by any Scout in the area, yay!) so that's going well, too.

The biggest hurdle was getting a sponsoring organization and that's done.
The next hurdle was filling our necessary committee positions - done.
Then filling the Troop positions - done.

Now we have to plan our calendar for the boys and start fund raising to purchase gear.  There is a great flea market near here that I've already bought some stuff from, so I'm hoping we'll be able to outfit the troop well in not too long.

I've got to take my uniform to the Scout shop soon and get them to help me.  I'll now officially hold my previous position with the Pack as a den leader but I'll hold a committee position with the Troop, too.  I'm guessing I use the Troop stuff on my shirt (?) but I'm not sure.  Good thing the experts are there and so nice!  :)

We remember

God Bless You All

Pet sitting failure

We have friends who have gone away for the long weekend.  They asked us to come over to take care of their animals.  Dogs, cats and chickens.

They had just put their younger chicks in with their older flock of one rooster and three hens.

Thursday and Friday went fine.  Yesterday morning when I got there their one white hen (one of the younger group) had been attacked.  I'm guessing someone pulled a feather out, they saw the blood against the white feathers and went after her.  It wasn't too bad.

I pulled her out along with two of the other younger hens and put her back in the pen that the younger group was in before integration.  I ran to the hardware store and bought blu-kote, came back and made her a tie dyed chicken, gave them fresh food and added some electrolytes to their water.  We checked the rest of them and they were fine.

I left a message for them saying I was so sorry about the one hen because it's their son's favorite (OF COURSE!) and I thought it would be fine, but if not, I'll get him another one.

I went back over last night and she was up and walking around.  I saw her drinking and, other than being purple and missing feathers, seemed OK.

The boys and I went over there this morning after church.

All three younger hens were dead.  An opossum broke into the pen the younger hens had been kept in and killed all three of them.  Actually, I'm guessing maybe it was a momma and babies because they did eat pretty much everything except the bones and feathers.

Ugh.  Why NOW?  Seriously!  We cleaned everything up and made sure the other pen was extra secure.  I'm so tempted to go spend the night out there the next two nights until they get back!

Just call me Mrs. Mommy

I'm going to be home schooling my youngest next year.

There, I said it.

Still petrified, but I said it.  lol

To try and keep this less than six billion pages, I'll sum the situation up by saying we know where we should be moving to next and we have a rough idea of when.  That area does not require kindergarten and enrolls by birth date when entering school for the first time.  Their kindergarten cut off is a full month later than it is here.

That means that if we lived there already, youngest would be starting kindergarten in Sept.  Here, he misses the cut off date by about two weeks.  It also means that if we get there when we think we will, they will enroll him in first grade because kindergarten isn't required.  Clear as mud, right?

I asked them to screen him for early admission for kindergarten (a whopping 10 days early for the cut off date) because I think he's ready and he would LOVE to be in school.  We are up there volunteering all the time and everyone has made comments on how he needs to be in school.  Well, they denied him.  They said he didn't test well enough but, IMO, their scoring was EXTREMELY harsh and unfair.

For instance:
On lower case letters he missed a few (r and k give him trouble).  They marked him as not being able to identify lower case letters.

They marked him as not being able to write his name because the lady thought it wasn't neat enough (and this REALLY ticks me off because everyone at church, the library, Scouts and others at the school can read it just fine) and he reversed his N.  So kindergarteners should have perfect hand writing and never mess up any letters?  My older kids were still doing that in second grade!

They marked him as not being able to pick out the numbers 1-10 because he mixed up 6 and 9.

On and on.

Pretty much they said he couldn't do anything.

Talk about make a Mama mad!

After talking to some of the teachers and staff, the truth, I think, is that the classes were getting full with kids who did meet the deadline, they weren't about to hire another teacher and so they denied the early entrance kids using this grading as their justification.  They should have just said that, though, not tried to make it out like these kids (I know of 3 others that were denied, too) have no skills or knowledge!

I won't let anyone enroll him in first grade right off, that's not fair to him and setting him up for failure.  So.  Home schooling it is.

I am terrified I'll mess up the foundation of his education, to be honest.  I have no idea how to teach a child to read!

I'm spending a lot of time researching right now.  I know it's supposedly easy once you get going, but from out here it sure looks complicated and hard.

My plan right now is to home school for just the one year, but I know enough to know not to say for sure because God has a plan and I'm excited to see it happen.  :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Sorry I've been MIA.  You know how life can get sometimes.

I'm going to be having several posts about things that are changing around here.  They aren't anything horrible and I know my Lord has a plan, they are just really time consuming right now as I adjust.

I guess I'll start with the one from today.  I got a call that my blood work from last week was all fine except my thyroid is under-active.  They are putting me on something for it.  She told me the name over the phone but I forgot it already.  I'll pick it up later today.

So now  I get to add:
Pick up med
Research under-active thyroid to my To Do List

lol

Hubby's turn

Last night at dinner middle son was practicing his states.  They have to memorize them  in alphabetical order and be able to label a US map correctly.

Mawmaw says to DH:  Well, I have a question.

DH:  OK

Mawmaw:  We still own Japan, right?

(I grabbed my glass and raised it up to hide my face.  SO glad it's his turn this time!)

DH:  No, we don't own Japan, Mawmaw.

Mawmaw:  When did we sell it?

DH:  We never owned it.

Mawmaw:  But we whooped them in the war, right?  So we owned Japan.  That's the way it works.  You lose the war, you lose your country.

DH:  No, that's not the way it works.

Mawmaw:  Well, it was when the war ended.  They must have changed the rules sometime recently.



She was a young adult when WWII ended.  I have no idea where she got that idea or why she never realized it was wrong.  I can tell you that I don't think she really believes DH, though!  lol

Would you like fries with that?

Last night as I'm in the middle of cooking dinner Mawmaw comes in the kitchen.

Mawmaw:  TINA!

Me:  Yes?

Mawmaw:  I'm putting in my order for dinner right now.

Me:  Fine, as long as it's spaghetti, because that's what we're having.

Mawmaw:  OK!  :)   (walks off)


LOL.  Sometimes it's very entertaining around here.

Update on my little buddy in the burn ward

Thank you for the prayers for my little buddy.

He's still in the hospital but there's a decent possibility that he'll be going home tomorrow.  He ended up with a pretty bad lung infection and a fever of over 103 degrees for a couple of days so they've been treating him for that, too, along with the burns.  The doctors' best guess is that it was something that was dormant in his lungs for a while (probably from a previous illness) and with the burn knocking his resistance down it allowed it to flare up.  Thank God he was in the children's hospital already so he got instant, great care for it.  He's off the IV completely now, even for fluids.

My kids REALLY want him to come home.  They aren't allowed to visit him in the hospital and, while they know I don't lie to them and that they can trust me, they REALLY REALLY want to see him for themselves so they can know he's OK and going to be just fine.

That would be a neat trick

Last night Mawmaw tells me that when we get back home she's going to buy herself a new bed.

"I'm going to give the bed I have now to (oldest child's name).  He's going to be moving into his own room, so this will give him a bed for his new room."

OK - side note:  She bought the bed (which consists of metal bed frame, box spring and mattress that weighs 999 pounds) she currently has USED from some guy for $50 about 20 years ago.  She didn't know this guy, she heard about him from another patient at the dialysis clinic that her husband used.  So, um, ICK.  And she has some incontinence issues......so, Double Ick.

In other words - no way is this mattress being given to oldest child.

But, that's not the best part of this story.

The best part is the part where she's decided that oldest child is going to be moving into his own room.

We have a three bedroom house.

Hubby and I have a room.
The kids have a room.
She has a room.

WHERE is this other magical bedroom going to come from????

I really don't think he'd appreciate his 'new' bed being the bathtub!