The end of an era... guess I'm "Smart" now

Here is my old cell phone. (*tear)

You see the liquid looking stuff swimming around in the inside??  Yeah... that would be cranberry juice.

Yesterday morning, I tossed my old cell on the passenger seat beside me. Normal every day occurrence.

I placed my morning cranberry juice in the cup holder. (What?! I'm a teacher. I don't pee all day... gotta keep the bladder infections away one way or another.)

I head down the curvy road to work.

(Did I mention curvy??)

Yeah... so I head around a curve and my cell phone slides across my seat and plunk into my juice it goes.

I seriously froze. I looked at my cell phone with bubbles coming up from it and I froze. All I could think was, "I'm in my cute white sundress ...and that cranberry juice it red ...and I don't want that on me... and I don't want have anything to dry it off with ...and OH MY GOSH!! MY PHONE!!"

I then pulled it out holding it above the cup juice dripping from it.  I couldn't believe that I had stopped to think about what I was going to do which made my phone more of a goner.

...but it forced me into a decision that I was dragging my feet on.
I purchased a "smart" phone almost 6 weeks ago.

My goal was to lower my payment... but I had technical difficulty and the company had to keep sending me new SIM cards.  After 4 attempts, I gave up on it. I carried around my "dumb" phone to make calls on and carried my new phone for all of the other cool features.

I guess you could say it allowed me to ease myself into it.

But yesterday... the "easing in" ended abruptly.

I'm still recovering from the undecided change, but I'm happy to report that my new phone pairs to my new car... so I won't be leaving it in my seat for it to find my cranberry juice.

Update on the A/C

So... about $500, three HVAC companies(4 service calls), and a week later and my a/c is fixed.
*knock on wood* *fingers crossed* etc. etc.

The last company (who just so happens repairs things for my school) found that it was NOT the capacitor (yes, I did pay for a new one a week ago) and it was NOT the breaker (yes, I did pay for a new one less than a week ago) and it was NOT my wiring. (Thank goodness I did NOT have to pay for that!!)

It was a bad fan motor...
a bad fan motor that would stop the fan from running... which would not be pulling energy from the capacitor... which would heat up the wiring... which would trip my breaker.

You see... the other 2 companies were at my house and gone in less than a half an hour.  The fixed what they thought had to be the problem... even though they BOTH admitted to the fact that they really couldn't find the source.

And, yes, I did have to pay for that "service".

Thankfully the last guy actually listened to me when I told him that it would run for about an hour before it flipped the breaker. He did all of his diagnostic checks like the other 2 had... but then he sat and waited. He told me he wouldn't charge me extra for the time because he wanted to solve the problem.

So he sat... in 100+ weather... waiting.... and it paid off.
The fan stopped... the capacitor was still going.
He jumped up and pulled the breaker. (before I would need a new capacitor again.)

I'm thankful that it's fixed.
I'm thankful I found someone who actually took the time to find the problem.
I just wish that could have happened a week (and about $400) ago

Everything is funny as long as it happens to someone else

I was a walking "Funniest Home Video" this week... too bad I don't have a video camera on me 24/7.

Let's do a quick recap of this week...

Tuesday night Sam wanted a yogurt before bed.  He took one or two bites and said it tasted funny.  We had had take out and I told the boys to put all of their trash into the brown paper sack that the take out came in.

Fast forward to Wed. morning - It's trash day. It's time for us to leave when I remember this little tid bit. So, I  scoop up the paper take-out bag, put it on my hip and then I grab my bag, my coat, my purse. I drop my stuff off in the car and I make it to the outside trashcan. Right after I drop it in, I realize I have gunk on my hand. "What in the world??" It takes a few minutes for my brain to process that the gunk on my hand went with the soured yogurt that had busted through the brown paper sack and was now running down my side - all over my pants and shoe. Cussing under my breath, I made it back through the house only to find yogurt drips in multiple places on my carpet that had leaked on the way out. Ten minutes later, I left my house again... I was redressed, but I'm pretty sure I reeked of sour dairy. Blech.

Friday - I did a quick stop at the bank before heading to a movie with my friends. I don't ever seem to park at the bank drive thru where I can successfully reach the bank tube. Which, in turn, causes me to hang halfway out of my car window to just get the tube back into the little slot. So, as I'm doing this (hanging out my car window), I am also trying to close the tube.  Don't ask me how I managed to do it, but I closed/smashed the palm of my hand in the tube. Again, it took a few seconds for my brain to process what was happening. By the time that I did, I was in pain and couldn't manage to get the tube back open. I was slinging the tube around and trying to open the clasp all in one. I'm sure it was only seconds, but the pain in my hand made it feel like hours. I'm sure if the bank tellers were watching they got a good kick out of me and were probably saying, "dumb a**."

Saturday - The boys are done with their basketball games. I have in my hands - my purse, my camera bag, Sam's basketball shoes, a book bag, and my Sonic drink. (What can I say... I'm a mom.) I'm looking for my keys. I go to grab them with the hand that is holding the Sonic drink. I feel the lid begin to slip. My first reaction is to jump back. The cup falls to the ground, busts open, and covers me in slushy. This time, my brain reacted fast enough... but it still didn't save me.  I did feel though that I could be considered a member of "Glee". (See pic below if you don't watch the show)

yeah... I don't think I will go trying anything death defying this week... doesn't seem like the odds are in my favor.  However, if you would like to follow me around with a camera, chances are you'd get some good footage. :)

How a stress ball can cause you stress

You see these??

yeah. They are homemade stress balls.
They sell them at my boys school as a fund raiser.

Kids are stressed... I guess they need stress balls, right?
I mean, what's the harm.
Little balloon. Little flour. No biggie, right?

Sure... it's all good.
That is until your son decides to (instead of squeezing the stress ball) stretches the stress ball.

Did you know that stress balls, that are stretched too far, explode? sending flour all over the black interior of your new car??
Yep.
It's true.

Needless to say... I need something a little more than a stress ball right now

Cleaning can be dangerous to your health

First off, I have to tell you I am now officially addicted to Pinterest.
Be it new recipes, styles, funny sayings... I love them!!
But I have also found things for my home.

One thing I found was how to clean my microwave.
Half cup water and a half cup vinegar
Bring to a rolling boil
Easily wipe microwave clean.

Simple enough... right??

Well... if you have been reading me for any length of time, you know I can make even simple things go crazy wrong.

Yeah... this would be one of those times...
I put my water/vinegar mixture in a pyrex dish and put it in to boil...
It started bubbling.
I stopped it and started to wipe. (Normal right??  Just wait)

I then found a still stuck spot...
So I figured, "Eh... I'll just let it microwave a little longer."


What happened next, I would have never saw coming!!

I reset the time.
Stood there staring at it...
I know, I know... a watched pot never boils....
No... actually I realized that I hadn't unloaded my dishwasher yet.
So, I turned and walked away.

Suddenly... BOOM!
My microwave door flew open and scalding hot water spew out all over my floor.
Not kidding.

Not gonna lie... I screamed and a little cuss word might have slipped out.
I peaked around the microwave door sure that the pyrex bowl was going to be in a million little pieces... but it wasn't... and it was dry.
Dry, I tell you!!

I didn't understand how my kitchen floor could be wet and the bowl was dry???
So... of course, I Googled it. (yeah.. I Google everything!)

Here's what I found:
Boiling hot water needs somewhere for bubbles to form, and sometimes in a smooth container(like Pyrex) it can superheat. Then as soon as the liquid is disturbed, it can suddenly explode in a rush of steam.

The worst thing you can do is heat water in a microwave twice, because the first heating will clear out any tiny bubbles, meaning the second time through will be more likely to superheat it.


So... there you have it.
I made water explode! 
I wonder... how dangerous is sitting on your couch eating bonbons?  Cause obviously cleaning is too dangerous for me. :)

I are a teacher

Tomorrow is my boys' birthday party...

good thing caught this before the guests arrived!!

Oh, yeah... and I teach kids for a living.

Don't Label me

Maybe I should take someone with me when I go shopping...
I mean, I'm not really not a great shopper.

I get frustrated if I'm out looking for a certain something and all of my finds make me have major flashbacks to styles I don't care to relive.

So, when I do find something that I find cute, I want to wear it the very next day!

But normally when I do find that cute something, I'm shopping by myself and there is always that little hint of doubt that tells me that my cute find is only cute in my brain.

That is how I felt when I bought this dress.

I got it at Target... it was on the sale rack (even better) and I was tickled with my find!

The next morning, when I showed my sons, Colby just raved. (Yes, they are my fashion consultants, don't judge... 5 & 7 year old boys are brutally honest!)

Then I cut off the tags ... and that is when I saw this:

Yeah... I freakin' bought a maternity dress!!

I didn't have time to change... so I wore it (being MORE than a little self conscious!)

I got raves on it all day.

Finally at then end of the day, I asked my friend Laura (because she,too, is brutally honest) if she thought it looked like a maternity dress.

"No. It's so cute! Why?"
"Because it is!!!!!"

Laura had a good laugh and then had to go down the hall sharing my stupidity.

yeah...Maybe I should take someone with me when I go shopping...

I might have frost bite by the morning

I finally have air!!!

For those of you that need the back story...
My fan belt to my ac in my car decided to go. It being a 12 year old car that will soon be put to rest, I chose not to have it fixed.

Then... in attempts to try to conserve on my energy bill, I didn't turn on my air conditioner until Memorial Day weekend... and then it didn't work. :(

I waited two days in the smoldering heat only to find out that it was the compressor.

A few days after that, I found out that it was under warranty (yea!) but the model was discontinued, so I still had to pay. (boo!)

You don't realize until you don't have air how draining it is not to have it.

I was tired all the time. (Mainly because I tossed and turned at night because I was so flippin' hot!)

I was constantly covered in a layer of sweat and that sweaty, sticky feeling never went away.
I would take cold showers to cool down, only to step out of the shower and be completely drenched with sweat again in minutes.

...and my attitude!
Seriously! All of the other teachers were like, "Oh, doesn't the sunshine feel wonderful today?" And I would be like, "How long till we go inside?"

They so did not understand! Until I finally said, This is the only reprieve I get all day! Here at school! Please. please. PLEASE! can we go inside??!!!"

Today, the compressor finally came in and was installed.
I drove home in my hotter than hell car... but when I arrived home...Ahhhhh... wonderfully beautiful, comforting, relaxing air!

Yeah... I'm gonna sleep good tonight!

A night to remember??

Last night I hosted our school's staff Christmas party.
I planned for everything.
I made sure there was plenty of room for all the food that everyone was bringing.
I made sure I gathered all the dust bunnies and sent them packing.
I thought I had dusted every nook and cranny. (I found a spot this morning that I missed~Uggh!~I'm sure others saw it as well.~double Uggh!)
(Yesterday at school everyone gave me a hard time about how they were expecting to see a clean house. ~Ha Ha. I laughed with them. Why wouldn't my house be clean?~Maybe they have seen my desk...)

The time came for everyone to start arriving. My friend Laura and her husband had arrived a little early to help out. I immediately put Laura to work making the brownies she hadn't made yet...(yeah...we had some sort of deal worked out there.)

As other people started to arrive, I repeatedly had to clarify that "No. This isn't my boyfriend and/or husband. This is Laura's husband, Bill. You have all met him before." (Thanks Bill for having a good sense of humor about all that.)

Then suddenly, my house went black.
I can't even remember what I was doing at the time. I think I might have been finding tongs to serve meat with. All I know is I was completely embarrassed. (Thankfully the blackness of night was a good cover for the red blushing across my face.) "Oh this is a quick fix. Sorry everyone. "

Yet, it wasn't. I unflipped and reflipped every breaker.
Nothing.
I called the electric company.
Can I tell you how much I hate automated systems?
There are times when you need to go hysterical on someone and have a human response.
This was one of those times.

I still had guests arriving.
Some of them actually went into my neighbor's house because "There wouldn't be a party in the dark house."

Thankfully, I had an over abundance of candles.
(I know as a female, I am supposed to loooove candles. But I don't really...but my ex-husband did. I actually haven't burned a candle since he moved out. )
So, Laura went to work lighting and placing all the candles throughout my house.

Everyone seemed to take the outage in stride. People ate and joked. I heard many times, "If you didn't want to dust...."
Ha. Ha. Funny. Funny.
I, being calm and cool on the outside, was freaking out on the inside.

Finally the electric company called me back.
Electrical Man (EC) - "Ma'am, you have power going to your house."
Me: "No, I don't...I am sitting in the dark."
EC: "Did you try flipping off and on the breakers?"
Me: "yep"
EC: "Even the main breaker?"
Me: "I don't have a main breaker."
EC: "Every house has a main breaker."
He directed me outside my house to the main breaker.
Tadah! Lights! Electricity. YEAH!

That should have ended the excitement chagrin for the night, right?
WRONG.
I couldn't seem to get back into the party spirit.

I tried to quickly make and finish the brownies and dip that were headed to the oven when the power went out. I got cornered by a co-worker who decided to unload on me about her marital problems. Everyone else sat in my living room and laughed and joked.

I joined them (finally) when the contest began.~We had an Ugly Christmas shirt/sweater contest.
I thought for sure I would win...or at least come in second.
I didn't get one vote, not even a pity vote.
And to make it even worse, I had a fellow teacher ask to have my shirt (if I was going to throw it away)because she actually liked it. (That's way worse than not getting any votes!!!)

I'm telling you - it really was ugly!

~I, mean, check out the picture!~

We had a white elephant gift exchange that produced a bowling ball, edible body gel, amongst other "unwanted" items.

I ended up with a candle....have I mentioned that I'm not all that fond of candles...and yet have an overabundance of them??? Guess I'll add it to my collection for the next blackout.

Overall, everyone said how much fun they had and thanked me for hosting it at my house...so why do I feel like this is a night that I don't want to remember?

Things I would rather NOT do on a Saturday night

There are a lot of things I enjoy doing on a Saturday night...this list is NOT that list.

Scraping bubble gum from the inside of my dryer.

Yes, one of my children successful left gum in their pants pockets. This, in turn, plastered it on the inside of my dryer.
Let me tell you...Using peanut butter on the gum that is stuck inside your dryer does nothing but makes your dryer greasy.

What??!! Peanut butter works on hair and clothes...why not on the inside of the dryer?

So...a back ache and an hour later, I successfully have removed both the bubble gum and the peanut butter.

Another reason why I should hire someone to do my laundry....as if the list wasn't long enough already!

Texting Faux Pas

I have to give a little background knowledge before I start this blog.

Background: My ex is looking to buy a house. In fact, he took our boys with him yesterday to go house hunting. The guy I am dating found a new place to live and after much crunching of numbers decided to move in there.

So here I am at home, alone. I decided to text Spencer. I flip open my phone and text "So...have you moved into your new house yet? wish I was there..."

A few minutes later I receive this text, "Why do you wish you were here? No, I'm not moving in tonight, haven't even put down an offer."

I was like What??!! Then I scroll back up...it is from my ex.
I go to my sent box...yep, sure enough I sent it to him.
I start laughing.
I'm sure I'm not the first one to make a texting faux pas, but what are the chances??

Found: 33 white woman...answers to the name of Dawn

Okay...so here it goes. I promised you I would tell you about getting lost.
Let me start out by saying that I am horrible with verbal directions! Write it down for me and I will look at it 50 times before I arrive there. Take me there and I will be able to get there 10 years from now.

With that being said, Spencer and I went shopping at the outlet mall in San Marcos. This mall is HUGE! It has 140 outlet stores! With that being said, we parked and started to walk to stores. However, it was a chilly night for (what I would consider) Texas standards, and so, in turn, we kept having to move the truck so we wouldn't freeze. (okay we really weren't going to freeze...but who wants to walk around when its cold...really?)
Well...we had been looking for the Polo store and again we needed to move the truck (this was about the 5th time). So, Spencer said why don't you go on to the Polo store and I'll move the truck and meet you there. We asked for directions. The sales lady told us it was about 5 stores down. (See...this is where everything went horribly wrong) When the sales lady said 5 stores down, I thought she meant to the south. She was meaning across the street and 5 stores to the east. (I told you - this place is HUGE!)
Somehow, Spencer knew what she meant...I did not(even though at the time I didn't know, I didn't know)
So, Spencer says, "I'll meet you there."
"Okay." I head 5 stores to the south. No Polo store. I walk back, thinking I missed it. No Polo Store. I walk back south again going farther than 5 stores. No Polo store.

I reach into my purse to call Spencer to tell him that sales woman did not know what she was talking about. No phone....I then remember that after the last call I made, I had laid it in the console of Spencer's truck.

I panic! I don't know any one's phone #'s any more - they are all programed into my phone. I don't know the last names of the people we are staying with. I can't find Polo and I have NO idea where Spencer (my only transportation) is!

I started by going back to stand in front of the store where we asked for directions. (This is what my Mom always told us to do as kids.) I can honestly I was too panicky - I didn't stand there for long. I then went walked across the street (east) and down a few stores (south) and asked for directions to Polo again. "Oh. you're close, but you're not there yet. Go back (north) and then to the left (east)" As I came sprinting out of that store I see Spencer headed back to where he last left me. I hollered at him.
"Where have you been??? Why didn't you answer your phone or my texts?" he asked.
"I was lost...and I forgot my phone in your truck."

Needless to say, we weren't in the mood to shop after that. I can honestly say that I have lost my child before and I was scared...but nothing like I was when I was lost and didn't feel like I had any way of finding someone I knew.

Henry David Thoreau said, "Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."
I understand myself completely now...I don't like to be lost!!!

People can be so...so...SO nice

Tonight I quickly ran into the grocery store with the boys. They both need snacks for their Valentine's Day parties and I knew this week would be hectic, so I decided to get it out of the way.
Of course, things can never be that simple for me. We get in there and I start to realize, "Oh I don't have this, and I need to grab that..." $65 later we are finished.
We head out to the car. I begin to dig around for my keys...Where are my keys??!!
I peek inside the window. There they are... in the ignition - A terrible habit I have, mind you...which is why I ALWAYS keep a spare set in my purse. I begin to dig. Nothing. I then remember I had switched purses before going out the other night and had faithfully transferred the spare key. UUGGGHHH!!!!
I pull out my cell and call my ex in-laws knowing they have a key. My ex says he will bring it, but it might be a while. The boys are beginning to complain that they are cold. All along, while I am trying to juggle keeping the boys safe in a parking lot and being frustrated at myself, a couple next to me loads their groceries into their car. After I get off the phone with my ex, I tell the boys that I guess we will go sit inside where it is warm.
As I turn my grocery cart around and head back to the store with the boys, the gentleman from the car beside me comes running up from behind. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he asks. "No. We'll be fine. We have someone coming to bring us a key."
"Can I drive somewhere to go pick up that spare key for you? Really! I don't mind."
"Thanks for the offer, but he will be here soon."

I know it shouldn't seem so strange to me that a person would be willing to help another person out...but this man had no idea where he might be having to drive to get this key and he definitely didn't know me from Adam...yet he was willing.
Maybe he could hear the frustration (or desperation) in my voice...maybe I looked like I really did need to be rescued...whatever the reason, it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling that there really are good folks still out there.

Godzilla Attacks

I was having one of those days today - you know the ones where little things seem overly irritating. Now don't go all "Oh... PMS"ing on me. Sorry... not time of the month! I'm back to not sleeping well and it seems to be making me a bit on the edgy side.

So, tonight when we arrived home around 8:45, I rushed Colby off to take a bath. He chose to use my tub. "Fine." I say, gritting my teeth. "Just get clean...and hurry!" I realize it is past the time he should be in bed and a bath would just push the time back further.

After about five minutes, I decide to go check on him and push to rush him a bit more. There he is standing outside of the tub.

Me: What are you doing?? (finger... pushing. on. the. last. button.)
Colby: Uh...something is stuck.
Me: What? What do you mean something is stuck?
(Colby points at a small plastic dinosaur lodged in between the sliding shower doors.)
Me: How in the world did that get in there???
Colby: All I did was set the dinosaur on the edge of the tub and... he just crawled in there.
Me(gritting my teeth): Son. That toy is plastic. There is NO way it could have crawled in there!

(You know... on Godzilla's off nights of tormenting small Japanese towns, he comes into homes and with his high degree of physical strength and dexterity he wiggles in between shower doors and forgets about his highly technical powers such as his red spiral atomic breath, nuclear pulse, magnetic powers, and even the ability to fly. He resorts to getting lodged - like any respectable lizard would do.)

Colby just stands there and shrugs his shoulders.

I'm thinking...On a normal night, I might have burst out laughing at his comment.
Really? Does he think I would truly believe that excuse??


So, for the next 20 minutes, I work to get this stupid little plastic dinosaur out from between my shower doors. Trust me. It was by NO means an easy task!

(Godzilla's dorsal plates glowed ominously, and then he released a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. Or that might have been me attempting NOT to cuss.)



In the end, I end up derailing my shower door which gave me just enough room to wiggle my fingers in between the doors to pull Godzilla out and throw him in the trash (Even with being an adept fighter underwater as he is on land, Godzilla could not breech the walls of the metal trash can.)
...that'll teach him to go crawling in between my shower doors!!

I remember why I DON'T have a dog

This weekend I took on the task of dog-sitting for a friend of mine. She assured me that he was a perfectly well behaved dog and pretty much does nothing but lie around the house. Early in my marriage to Robbie, we had two labs. So I thought, "Hey I've done this before...I can do it again." So I agreed...Even though I was a little hesitant. I wasn't hesitant about my children being around the dog, or my house being destroyed(even though I JUST had the carpets cleaned). I just had this uneasy feeling.


I realized what that uneasy feeling was all about today...

I let Buddy (the dog) out to use the restroom when we go home from church. Then Colby (not knowing I had already let Buddy out once) let him out again. This time, since Buddy didn't have any pressing business to get done, caught the smell of something in the woods and was off. I saw this all happen, but couldn't react fast enough.

We spent the next half hour screaming Buddy's name to no avail. My mind was spinning with what I was going to tell my friend when she came to retrieve her dog. My stomach was sick as I remembered the times (yes, that is plural - TIMES) we lost our dogs due to some interesting smell in the woods. This is when I also remembered why I currently do NOT have a dog. It is stressful enough for me to keep up with my children and their every move, much less to have to do it with an animal also.

After several prayers and some time to think, I remembered what we would do when our dogs ran off in the woods. We would go driving down the road and call out their names until we found them. So, I loaded the boys up and the three of us shouted Buddy's name. We found him! Not more than 100 feet from my house. He was laying in a stream too hot and tired to even come to me. (Obviously more excitement than this city dog normally gets in a day.) I hesitantly allowed his muddy body to get into my car. (Cause heaven knows, I wasn't going to trust him to get back to my house on his own!)

Buddy is now securely attached to his cable out back...and don't expect me to dog-sit for anyone else ANYTIME soon...because I remember why I don't have a dog!

Ants...Ants EVERYWHERE

This week we started summer school and our theme is insects. I decided to start off with the topic of ants. On Monday, we put out plates that had: honey, cake with icing, and Doritos. We wanted to see what would attract ants the most. In the beginning the honey attracted the most - but just little small ants. By later in the day, the cake was covered with larger ants. No ants ever decided to touch the Doritos. (makes you wonder why???)

My experiments are NOT why I am making this post...this post has to do with my ant farm I had INTENDED to have. Last weekend I purchased a gel "space-aged" ant farm. The advantage is that you are able to see all of the tunnels and the ants inside the tunnels. My next intention was to catch some of the ants from my Monday experiment.

With the help of my students, we started licking our fingers to pick up the ants (as suggested on the gel ant farm pamphlet - I know, I know...just shake your head, cause I am now- lol). This worked great to pick up the ants. The problem was every time we opened the ant farm to put one in, 2 more would crawl out. In the end, we had caught and KEPT about 6 ants. I sent my students home with the task of catching and bringing in more ants.

On Tuesday, I had one boy bring in ants. These ants were much bigger and what I always call "tree ants" because that is where I see them. I told him I didn't think these ants would tunnel, BUT since only three of our ants from Monday were still alive and kicking. I decided to place them in. BIG mistake!! The small ants, I guess, had decided that this was now their home and did NOT like the tree ants invading their space. A lovely war went down between the two sets and in the end only 2 tree ants survived. A great lesson learned, I guess... just not the one I was hoping for.

Wednesday... we mourned the lives given in battle - Just kidding - it was rainy and so we couldn't collect any more ants that day. I also let the two reigning champions loose. :)

By Thursday, I was pretty desperate to have some ant specimen. So, once again, we put out cake and icing to attract the bigger ants. This time we just picked up the whole plate and put ants, cake, and all into a bucket with a lid. The trick then came down to how to get them out of the bucket and into the gel farm. After school, my friend, Laura had the suggestion of freezing them. We placed them into the freezer for 2 minutes. This worked perfectly!! We easily took out the plate and the cake and poured the ants (about a dozen of them) into the gel farm. It was exciting to see them "unthaw" and begin exploring their new home.

On Friday morning, I was excited for my students to come and see the dozen ants we had collected. All of the ants were balled together. (I guess the air conditioner was set a little low :{ ) I placed them in the window sill to warm them up. Within a half hour, we could see movement. We were SO excited!!! That is until we noticed the movement was on the OUTSIDE of the ant farm. Those smart little ants had found the air holes and had crawled right out!

Who said I wanted to have an ant farm anyways!!???

Not AGAIN :(

I never cease to amaze myself! Tonight, I was innocently doing laundry...you know thought it might be nice to wear clean clothes to the Onerepublic Concert I am going to tomorrow night. Washing all goes well. Then it comes to drying time. I throw my clothes into the dryer. Decide I can't remember when the last time it was that I changed the lint filter...and here is when "disaster" struck.

I had an ink pen on the top of the dryer and as I pulled the filter out, the ink pen fell in. (I have one of those shoots that is on top of the dryer.) I was like, "You've GOT to be kidding me! I don't have time for this!" So, I proceeded to remove the whole back of the dryer - which consisted of like 20 screws, only to find, once inside, more screws. I continued to remove screws...the only problem was parts weren't loosing up. So, I decide I better go look up a manual to help me out before I majorly screw something up. Yeah, let me tell you, I couldn't find a single one online that I didn't have to buy.

So I typed in my problem. Only solution I found was..."run dryer, fish missing item out when it comes through shoot outside. If item is too large, may make a clunking sound when hitting inside fan. If sound is heard, take apart dryer."

I had to laugh! For all the technology I can get my hands on, and this is the solution I find for something falling down my lint shoot! So... I went back upstairs and put back the million screws back into the dryer and I am hoping for the best - to NOT hear a "clunking" sound because heaven knows I am NOT going to find that ink pen coming through my shoot outside. LOL

I'm capable...really I am!

Since I have become recently single again, I have found myself doing a LOT of "handyman" jobs around my house. I guess, I should preface with the fact that I have always done these kinds of things - growing up my mom never labeled jobs as having a gender and throughout my marriage I have always been the "mechanical" one.

So, with that being said, I have felt very inapt in the last couple of weeks. My first BIG handyman job came in the form of my hot water heater not doing its job. I thought, "Hey I've changed out an element before, no biggie." Somehow in the draining, the changing, and the refilling, I missed the gasket that keeps the element from leaking. In turn, I had to call in male assistance. From whom I got a shaking of his head, as the solution was a simple one. Even though he was more than happy to help, I felt more than ridiculous.

My next flub came today. I came home from my reunion weekend to find my grass had grown majorly over the weekend. I had remembered that my lawnmower had run kind of rough the last time I used it, so I thought - "I bet ya that sucker needs some oil to lubricate the motor." I read on the side the max amount of oil that should be added. I added about 3/4 of that amount. In my mind I was thinking, "If a little bit of oil, does a good job...than a little bit more will do a GREAT job!" Boy, was I WRONG!!!!

I started the mower and smoke went everywhere!! I called for male assistance again. I was told to siphon the oil out with whatever I had available - I had a straw - lol. Let me just tell you, I am one of those very trusting people that if you told me to pick my nose and rub the boogers on something to make it run better - I, trusting that you were a good friend and wouldn't turn me wrong, would probably do it. Maybe... not my best quality. So... here I am siphoning with a straw. As I am squatting in front of my mower my neighbor, Johnny, calls to me, "Dawn, you having problems?" "Just a few" I reply.

So here comes Johnny. Johnny is a retired fellow from Georgia. His grandkids play with my boys. His southern drawl is overly noticeable. I tell him what my problem is. He tells me, "Don't worry Darlin' this will be a quick fix." I laugh now because I now know what the future will hold. He rolls my lawnmower over and starts draining the extra oil out. Then he checks the dipstick. "Darlin' how much oil DID you put in here?" he asks. All I could do is shrug. He continues to drain the oil. After he has done this procedure several times, he pulls out the dipstick and says, "See this line here - the oil needs to stay BELOW that." I nod...thinking how many times I have read a dipstick and know exactly where the oil should hit. Johnny then starts the mower - black smoke and oil spew EVERYWHERE! He then removes the muffler and pours more oil out, and then he removes the air filter which is dripping with oil. He cleans the muffler and tells me I will need a new filter. I agree to go buy one. Now Johnny looks at me and says, "Darlin' next time you want to add oil...just call me." I smile and nod.

So 2 hours after I originally started... I have a new filter on my mower, the right amount of oil in it, and the knowledge to know better next time that...Too much of a good thing, is not always a good thing. Thanks Johnny!!!