Can you ever forgive me . . . . .

Let's just say that I have been waaaay less than diligent on my blogging. This spring has held many changes and duties in the Athena household. Not so much the parents, but the kids.

Here we go:

Bubba - Has completed his first year of high school, drivers ed and now has a job. The job is the weirdest part for me. I can handle the girlfriends, the kissing, the driving . . . but the job has me spinning into the reality that he is truly growing up.

Jubee - Has completed her last year of elementary and is ready to move on to Jr High, her school put on a wonderful play and she is now looking forward to a quiet summer alone! She is taking her first plane ride on July 1. She has always wanted to spend time in California with my grandparents, not sure why I haven't made that happen until now. She will fly to LA where my aunt will pick her up. I will drive to CA a week or so later and pick her up

I'm extremely grateful for how well my kids do in anything they attempt. They are both wonderful students and generally decent teenagers.

I'll do my best diligence in keeping you updated.

Broken Home . . . .

I have very mixed feelings about Mel Gibson's pending divorce. I'm saddened for what his family will go through, yet elated with my new possibility. I've had a mega-crush on this man for a long long long long long time. When I read the news just after getting home I literally gasped and covered my mouth in surprise. When I told my family the news Bubba thew his fists in the air yelled out "Yeah! Two Christmas's".

I'll be sure to let you all know when I move.

I think it's rubbing off . . . . .

They had to move the vending machine at work. Two guys are in there working on it. I was in the break room getting more water (bleh). I look at the gross floor where the machine usually sits and guess what I found! I told them that if they weren't going to snag it I would! $0.70!

Sisterly Love . . . . .

Last December while waiting for a dinner date I spent some time at Eris' house. She was studiously working and hole punching a bunch of stuff. She broke the hole-puncher and handed it to me to fix. As no good deed goes unpunished, the puncher exploded little round paper pieces all over me. I giggled and then started throwing them all over her office not once, but three times. Then she took a handful and threw them in my car!

At dinner that night she neurotically played with sugar packets, making patterns and driving everyone nuts with her behavior. Little did everyone know, she was taking them to stuff into all the nooks and crannies of my car. Grrrr.

Since that night my coworkers and I have been saving punches. Knowing this had to be timed correctly, because she was staying at my house for the weekend the end of February, the opportunity hit me Friday afternoon that that was the night. The guys play poker once a month and the girls hang out at another house, this time the girls were at Eris's.

I left my purse in her office on purpose so that I could make the deposit just before I left. I had linked a bunch of her paperclips together (little ones and big ones together in the same link) earlier in the evening and staked out the perfect spot to leave my little gifts.

She found the gift 30 seconds too early. She returned the favor with "tripping" into the back seat of my car and throwing them all over me and the front of the car, I had a hard time getting my seatbelt hooked up since it was jam packed with punches! I thought that I ended up with the raw end of the deal, but it only took $2.25 and ten minutes at the car wash to get it cleaned up. Pretty sure her kids and animals will be dragging them through the house for a while!

BTW - I found more sugar packets while vacuuming out my car! Love you too Eris!

Every Vote Counts . . . . .

Pretty sure if you counted them right now, I would get Mother of the Year.

Jubee has decided that she wants to run for 7th grade class officer. The schools that end up at the Jr High each vote in two students from their elementary. She called on Eris, who has ran for office in the past, but we had to get moving if we wanted to get FIVE posters thought up, supplies purchased, and actually created tonight. Shopped, pulled all the craft stuff out, made and all cleaned up in three and a half hours.

If you know a 6th grader at her school please tell them to vote for her!

See if you can find the penguin on each poster!

I heart Utah . . . . .

Utah decided to change it's tax rates mid-stream last year. Screwed a lot of people. Needless to say, we owe the state more than we got in a refund from the Feds. Conveniently I have a box of checks that I only use to send lunch money to school with the kids. Sending the state about a dozen checks that all add up to the amount due is going to turn my frown upside down. Guess it's my way of breaking a plate.

Day One . . . . .

From Ogden to Las Vegas it took 6 hours, we only stopped once in Beaver. We made a quick stop at the holy land (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) to see if any shopping was available, only the gift store was open, not much there. It was a weird sensation driving into LVMS knowing that we weren't spending the entire weekend camping there, feels like something is missing. Then back on the road.

The accommodations at Chez Bell are more than acceptable. We were greeted at the door by the sir and madam of the establishment along with their trusty canine Tuff. Too bad Lily didn't join us, she and Tuff would have had a ball! We had a wonderful sit down dinner of spaghetti, salad, fresh asparagus and french bread. We sat around the table for about two hours chatting.

Once dinner was done and cleaned up we shared pictures and chatted some more. Then came the relaxation session in the spa. A balmy 92 degrees for about 30 minutes will relax anyone!

Yes kids, you were talked about, bragged about and shown off; missed a little too. Sorry no pictures yet, hope to get some tomorrow.

D-Rock insists that we are out the door by 6, that's AM not PM, so we are off to bed.

PS - Dog Lovers - Message and hugs were given, they are very excited that you are going.

Twinkle Twinkle . . . . .

We live in a very cozy house of only 1,600 square feet. Three bedrooms and 1.75 baths for four humans, two dogs and a cat can be tight at times. Bubba has always had his own floor, the basement. D-Rock and I have always wanted to move down stairs but had just never made it a priority, until it kept me up ALL night Thursday two weeks ago. The next day I sent Bubba a message to pack his stuff, he was moving in one week, he was excited since he would then have the largest bedroom in the house!

I was apprehensive on whether or not the move would really happen. Thursday hit and stuff started to move but could we really pull it off in one weekend? We didn't move the beds but did have to clean under them. I'm glad I have two big strong guys around so they could handle the desks and dressers that needed transplanting.

After all was said and done we were moved and sleeping in our new basement hide-a-way Saturday night. There are so many differences between the old and new rooms. They are geographically as far apart as they could get in our house. The old room was bright, stark white, light carpet, small closet, three big windows, a TV and a soft mushy cozy bed. The new room is dark, has 70's wood paneling, forest green carpet, double the closet, one eensie weensie window, no TV and a hard bed stuck against the wall. I was more than a little worried about the transition.

Last night was the best night. See, when Bubba was little D-Rock put up glow-in-the-dark stars and planets on the ceiling in the basement bedroom, they are still there. As we crawled into bed and turned off the lights they were shining so brightly that we just laid there, cuddled up, and looking at the stars. D-Rock even found the little dipper, he doesn't think he installed a big dipper. It was very serene and even though I missed my nightly sleep helpers I slept extremely well.

Why did we wait so long. I never want to change it.

Who ya gonna call . . . . .

the FAA? Bubba and I horse around quite a bit. He hits, I hit, he kicks, I kick. Friday night he kicked me HARD, I mean hahahaaard, and not with his toes, with his heel. I am now sporting an incredible bruise the size and shape of South America. It keeps growing and growing down my shin. I'm not savvy enough with the camera to get a shot of this bodacious bruise but if I see you I will be proud to hike up the pant leg and show it off.

Sunday Bubba, Tay, Randa and I stopped by the Buddhist church to see Numi and Zeus. I showed the bruise proudly. Bubba maintains the story that I fell down the stairs, I would have a bruise on the back side and not the front if this was the case.

Anywho, he stated that he was going to turn me into the FAA. Numi and I started laughing out loud. The he said the CPA, more laughter. I said how about DCFS? He has decided that the FAA stands for Fisical Abusees Anonymous. I then proceeded to explain that physical starts with a P.

He still maintains that it's FAA. I've said many times before and I'm sure many more to come, he is the dumbest smart kid I know. I wouldn't trade him for the world.

Eeeeew . . . . .

I hate feet. I don't like to look at them, rub them or smell them. They are super ugly, however, mine are completely adorable.

Bubba's are no exception. A month ago Numismatist saw just how "not attractive" his feet are, toes in particular. She came up with the word Toeliosis (toe-lee-o-sis) which is a condition in where the appendages that protrude from the foot are less than desirable. This condition generally doesn't improve, however, can temporarily worsen at times.

Bubba has had an extreme break out of Toeliosis. He jammed and possibly broke the second toe on his left foot on a floor threshold while chasing and screaming "get out of the house" at Jubee as she was leaving yesterday. Due to this outbreak he had to wear his camo slippers to school, I'm pretty sure he will have to sit on the bench for his basketball game on Saturday and more than likely his nail is going to fall off. Karma's a female dog.

What kind of fun names do you have for feet/toes?

It took a year . . . . .

D-Rock knows that I have always wanted to jump out of a plane. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea, so for Valentine's Day last year he gave me a gift certificate to iFly. For those of you not familiar, iFly is an indoor skydiving experience here in O-town. This attraction is in the same building as Fat Cat's arcade, bowling alley, and pool hall and I hadn't taken the time to go redeem my Valentine's gift, until today. It's not cheap and I wouldn't fork out the money for someone else to join me.

A close family friend was having a b-day party for her son at Fat Cat's. I decided to take the voucher "just in case". As the party crew was starting to bowl, my Lobster and I decided to run upstairs and check out the iFly. Soon we were joined by the b-day boy's father. After watching for about five minutes I left the two and went to the counter to get a flight time. Next thing I know the father AND mother of the b-day boy signed up too! Ugh, we had to wait four hours!

We returned for our training and found that the mother couldn't fly, cast on broken arm. Her daughter stepped in. As we were sitting in the training room all of a sudden here comes Jubee. WTF? Come to find out the mother that couldn't go decided that since she had missed Jubee's b-day she would treat her to this.

Well, after the training we went . . . . .

It's not hard, but not easy. Does that make sense?

Thanks D-Rock, I love you!

p.s. A special shout-out to Numi and Zeus for sharing this with us, especially Numi for the pictures.

I know, I know . . . . .

Phew, the holidays are over. If I'm gonna have a melt-down it's generally in the month of December, always has been, always will be. Here is my list of why:

1. Generally seems to break the bank.

2. My family, his family, their family, this family and that family. Does it ever stop?

3. Staying up ALL night long more than once in a week.

4. F-ing Christmas cards.

5. You are expected to be nice to everyone.

In light of this I decided to make some changes. Here they are:

1. No credit cards, only cash, didn't overspend.

2. Made sure everyone saw who they wanted.

3. Spent the weekend in between the two "all nighters" being a complete slug.

4. Enjoyed the ones received, not going to fret about not sending ours out, see #2.

5. If you are dumb, I shouldn't have to be nice.

As for the new year . . . I will report again in a few days.