Topic: Family Business
Not much to say, took the last of the 
herbs out of my garden yesterday & spent a bunch of time with mr 7 while doing that, he found some interesting plants & was playing with the seed pods from them while I was bundling the sprigs of herbs together to hang up to dry & telling me a very imaginative story about the pods being planets & a big piece of quartz I found in the garden & brought back to the house being an asteroid coming to crush the planets, I thought it was very imaginative, 16 upon hearing it said it sounded suspiciously like something he watched on tv- who knows, I was entertained & that's the fun part. Mr7 is so absorbed in tv & his own stuff, running around, building with his magnetix or his fisher price castle pieces, he rarely just sits & talks to me, even about imaginary storys & even with a lot of encouragement from me. Part of the situation is that miss 16 is often monopolizing the conversation, yesterday she was home sick though & we'd 
had about enough of each other by 5 pm which is when I was out pulling the herbs & getting them bundled up, the chives I cut up with scissors & froze, the others are drying on my nice hutch I put together this summer. Note the cat sleeping in the Bowl.
Today miss 10 is home sick, mostly sick of going to school I think, that & sick of seeing her older sister stay home sick, I'm of the belief that the occasional Mental Health day at home is not a bad thing in the least- I especially like that it allows me to interact with just 1 kid at a time for awhile, Miss 10 & I had a nice talk in bed this morning, (she crawled into bed with me as soon as her siblings got on the bus) She's not like her sister, she's more like her father, a fatalistic attitude & the take on life that it sucks, oh well, get over it, that's tough to take at age 10 & I try to talk to her about trying not to be so hardcore & harsh about her take on life. Yesterday we wrote an email to her dad as he had emailed her, she'd started one as a reply to his most recent previous email back in september but she wrote 1 sentence & then put it away so when she told me she had a new email from her dad I offered to type & she could just dictate it to me, which is what we did & it worked out ok, Not too sure how her dad will like that though, I'm sure he'd prefer to hear from her direct with out my intervention, I'd prefer not to intervene but she's a procrastinator so to get something out to him I felt it was better for me to help & get it done than to have her keep putting it off. She gets especially funky about the whole dad thing, 7 was a baby & 16 was a stepchild who says she hated him & was glad to see him go when he left in 2000, Miss 10 was 4 & remembers good times from back when we did all live together & She definitley loves her dad still where 7 doesn't remember him & 16 rememb
ers him all too well, 10 idolizes him however.
Miss 10 & I went out today to the stores to get milk & a few other neccessities, bread, broccoli, forks from the dollar store, (when 12 forks stays 12 forks for 6 months then I will stop buying forks for 3 for a dollar) we did pretty well considering 10 is a compulsive shopper & has a really hard time not asking for everything in the store. I did get pop tarts & candy corn at her request but mostly because the kids needed something to snack on & I have these cute halloween bowls around the house & like to have something in them so we were in cahoots on getting the candy corn.
Back to work tommorow, a whopping 22 hours in 2 days, I'm dedicated to doing my overtime on Sunday & Fridays now so that I can be home to help with homework (the first report cards were released last week & were less than impressive!) 10 & 7 both need to buckle down if I can be here by 845 on Mondays & Thursdays then we
might be able to get their grades up Miss 16 did great she got 3 as & a b, her highschool does things differently, they only take 4 classes per semester, she's got English, History, Drawing & Sculpture for her 4 classes until the end of January & so while english & history are fairly hard classes the 2 art classes seem like they'd be a walk in the park. She doesn't think so though & thinks I'm mean for saying they are easy classes. I've loved my kids from babyhood on & enjoyed every minute of it but I will be glad just the same when they're all old enough to just do their homework with out argument, help or anything from me. There are too many holes in my own - homeschooled- education for me to be much help in many circumstances.
10 today I'm afraid I'm raising a pack of night owls like myself) both 10 & 7 helped me make them 7 likes to flip the pancakes & 10 likes mixing them & breaking the eggs especially. Then we began making our craft project a halloween banner with pieces of that foam sheeting stuff, I'd made one out of construction paper back when 7 was a baby & I didn't have any money for floam & actually had to have an argument with the ex to get the construction paper! We cut out ghosts, harlequin masks, jackolanterns & Witches hats & decorated them with mettalic pens, glitter & more foam. eventually they'll be strung on colored pipe clea
ners & hung on a wall, like this halloween one that 7 & 10 made in addition to the ones we were all making. They put theirs together for something to do while 16 & I were decorating more in depth, it gave them a feeling of getting something acomplished, they hate that I wouldn't put up the others because I want the glue to dry completley so I don't end up with parts of floam candy corns & pumpkins all over the floor under where I put the banner.
et took less than 15 minutes for me, inexperienced novice that I am, to finish- it looks lovely, the whole arm sticks up higher than the old one, every time I go out there & see it it looks funny to me, but I'll get used to it, I'm not unhappy with the quality, compared to the 50+ year old one which was there it's shiny, feels strong (though I fully expect mr 7 to NOT sit on this one- he's been listening to his sisters & I bitch about him breaking the old one since the problem began back in June & is heartily sick of the whole thing. 
eather is supposed to co-operate next week & be over 70 all week again (YAY) & we'll be watching a scary movie on video tonight, Skeleton Key, not sure if I'll like it, I probably will, I used to love slasher type movies of the friday the 13th variety but after my brother died I lost interest (we used to watch them together) Ann told me through IM it was more the suspense type of movie though so should be good. Last night I rented Walk the Line, on the advice of a co-worker (the same one I was discussing the sink with- he & I have worked on the same teams off & on for 4 years- since he started there, about a year after me) I'm a rock & roll fan all the way, can't stand country music (though I always had some respect for Johnny Cash) & neither can W, my co-worker, but he said he started watching it to be polite to his father who wanted to see it & ended up really liking it so he recommended it to me, I liked it too-- 16 was dubious but sat down & watched it & loved it- more so than I did actually. 
him sat on the kitchen sink's water faucet over the summer, I patched it up, taped it up for awhile but it's been getting worse & worse, the metal ripped through where it was stressed & the hole kept getting bigger, The whole faucet broke off last night Needless to say I was not pleased, why do these things happen on the week I don't get paid? Luckily that's what credit cards are for! So when I left work I headed to the stores to get a faucet, I'd been pricing faucets in Lowes & Home Depot for weeks & they were all pretty expensive, the cheapest was over 40 bucks. This morning though, while I was telling a co-worker about the faucet breaking right off last night he told me he'd had to replace the one in his new (to him) house this summer & said that Walmart had them for less than $30. got that, some socks (I'm a barefoot person & hate socks, but since I heat alternatively I have to have socks in cold weather, its the first truly cold day of the season today & I haven't bought socks in 2 years for myself so when I went to put some on this morning I found they all had holes in them!) & Some metallic paint pens for the kids & my craft project this weekend. Then I went home, feeling better for being away from the toxic atmosphere at my work (The really insulting part is that they make out like it's such a great job & that it pays SO well & is such fun) So the same co-worker who told me about getting a cheaper faucet at Walmart & my boss both told me that all I had to do was turn off the water, unhook the tubes which feed the water, unscrew the connectors under the sink, pull the old faucet out & put the new faucet in & tighten everything really well, but not too much. The instructions confirmed it, turn off the water, take out the old, put in the new.
No one mentioned that the old one has been there since 1959 & the hot water base's nut would be so corroded & rusted that I wouldn't be able to get it to budge, or that the water shut offs under the sink would be useless & so I'd have to turn off the water at the main source in the basement! I spent 4 hours pulling & tugging on an adjustable wrench (all I would need, I was assured) most of a can of wd40 (& man do I wish I had that stupid little straw that came with it!) & then a set of vice grips (always my tool of last resort & usualy it works) I did, with the vice grips get the cold water bolt loose but the hot water pipe is not moving an inch & I'm starting to chip pieces of metal off it, stripping the squared off parts of the nut which will make it even harder in the long run. I broke the hot water pipe under the sink off at the join, the cement holding it together was dried out & the whole thing just snapped, I have an aching back & I'm now intimately aquainted with the underside of my sink & all the stuff I keep in the adjoining cupboards, I've got mouse turds & wd40 in my hair & rust flakes in my eyes ears & cleavage & I can't take a shower because it's still in pieces & I can't turn the water back on. To her credit, miss 16, while not standing over me the whole time did come every time I called her with out complaint to bring me water to drink, the vice grips, the step stool to support my back, towels to lie on to support my back more, a rag & my socket set (none are deep enough) we went out & got pipe cement & a new joiner for the hot water pipe & they're back together nice & tight but since the shutoff valve under the sink does nothing I still can't turn the water back on. 16 has a friend who's a guy who she's going to ask to come by tommorow & see if he can loosen the nut, he works on cars she says so he should be able to get it loose (I don't doubt that, my ex was really good at that sort of thing & he worked on cars most of the time we were together) I don't actually need someone to do the whole job- just take that stupid nut off, I'm confident I can put the faucet in, if I could just get past that first step- taking the old one out! 
, but it could, if it can happen in Amish country it can happen here. Of course, if they keep daring Iran, Nuclear Winter will happen to us all. here, there, everywhere! yeah, I got up on the way wrong side of the bed this morning- I know. Doing 20thousand dishes this morning because 16 is sick & didn't do them yesterday didn't help either. at least I have a pretty view while I"m washing the dishes! 
, finaly cut miss 10's hair & since while I was cutting, 
t though, I'm usualy sorry after I go to a hairdressers & have a haircut myself, the last time I did was back in 2004 & it was so awful I haven't even had it cut since then, I've taken to trimming the ends myself to keep them healthy & that's it. I don't cut hair often, when I was pregnant with miss 10 I went to cosmetology school & then, since I was having her & keeping us all fed & housed was more important than getting my cosmetology liscence (we didn't have the fee to do the test) I never did anything with it, then, the next year in 1997 we moved down here to Virginia & I found out that while MA requires 1000 hours of school VA requires 1500 & we never had the money for me to go complete those 500 hours. I went to school for cosmetology because it seemed like a good job, reasonably well paying, different stuff all the time & becuase my Grandmother wanted me to, she's always said she'd like for me to be
able to do her hair & nails so she wouldn't need to go out & have it done if she didn't want to & we lived with her at that point so it seemed like a good idea. I found while in school that my personality is not really suited to this, that I'm not very outgoing & talkative & that it was rather stressful cutting peoples hair & being expected to make smalltalk. I did like the work, mixing colors, doing the hair cuts, rolling the perms, that part is pretty fun but after a few years of being out of it I didn't have any real call to go back to it (the student loan payments which I'm still paying off today - because while my ex & I were together we did not have the money to pay on them- are something of a rebuke though) anyway, it was fun doing 3 haircuts last night! 
(slept too late to call it breakfast) & have been messing around on here since then, Yesterday I went meme hunting so you can expect to see new ones, I'm going to attempt to keep it to 1 a week though becuase I consider them cheating in a way, though this stream of conciousness stuff isn't much better reading really. Well, the song that used to motivate me to go out & take a walk in the woods when I was a homeschooled teenager, reading in my bed all day every day, is playing from my computer telling me I need to get out & do something before my life is over like water under a bridge, I guess it's time to weed whack the front yard!
myself a fairly lenient parent, I am easygoing on room cleanliness, bedtimes & TV viewing. I do require my 16 year old's help in watching her siblings while I'm at work & on my work days I do ask her to feed them, keep the laundry moving from laundry basket, to washer to dryer (I fold it all, always) & do the dishes on my work days also. I pay her, I don't ask her to watch her sibs for free, I don't pay her a lot but at least it's something, most people I know who are oldest siblings (myself included) did not get paid for watching their younger brothers & sisters. 
ut going at all) Next thing I hear is that the driving friend is staying overnight, not a big deal, they're pretty quiet, I bitch if they're not & she's lost the privledge of having friends over for weeks & months previously because of not being quiet so she's pretty respectful about that, when the friend arrived I said, since it was quarter past 10 & I'm a little caffeineated & probably won't be able to fall asleep at 11 anyway, that she could stay out until 11 if she wanted. Well, as usual, nothings ever quite enough. 
minutes after she's left the house, she's calling me & asking me if she can stay out until midnight. No, she can't. She then procedes to argue with me about why am I always such a bitch, never let her do what she wants, etc, etc, etc, the usual 16 year old rant, I remember it from when I was 16 myself, (& 15, 17 & 18 too) 15 minutes later (early I might add- just what I want, more of her!) she stomps in the house, tries to kill me with her eyes & marches upstairs, 2 minutes later she's back in response to my question about where's the other girl? Oh, she's still staying the night, she'll be here at midnight when her own, regular curfew at home is! 
1993, who was on his way to work in Roanoke & never arrived, he was like, 50 or so at the time & neither he or the car turned up, they just assumed that he'd just left his live in girlfriend & gone somewhere else, though he didn't take anything but his wallet & lunch for work. They found him & his car on a hillside, in 2002, he had gone off the side of the road, over the cliff & into trees & no one, looking over the side of the cliff could see the car. from where the body was they said he survived the crash but was pretty messed up, he got out of the car but was unable to get to the road & died in the woods by the car, 9 years to find him! That's what it's like here though, I think of it all the time, driving to & from work, going places with the kids- down to Roanoke on the occasional shopping trip, going to Chrissies house, there are crosses & other handmade memorials on many many curves where people have lost their lives & I seriously don't want to be making a memorial to my kid on one of them. 
s & Far Away, by Led Zeppelin, walking in the rain with my walkman (it seemed, for awhile if it was raining & I was walking this song would come on the radio- of course, in Mass you just have to turn the radio on & spin the dial & most any song you can think of comes on some station or annother- they have SO many up there! Here in Virginia, there's 2 stations I like & 6 I tolerate, I have 10 presets & not enough radio stations to fill them here!) 
alibu with about 4 other people in the car, we were on our way back to where he lived to take him back & 'never see him again' & this song came on the radio, she turned it up & of course, no one went home never to be seen again! (man, were WE sappy!)
specially ironic since I was homeschooled & didn't actually go to school!) from the time I got up in the morning until I 
n here, there's nothing little about me!) The old guys are the worst. Old people in general seem to have a lot of trouble taking instruction from a woman & I actually had an old geezer say to me after I instructed to put his tv back on channel 3 & press the correct mode button on the remote- restoring his picture & his abillity to change chans- 'I hate it when a woman is smarter than me' & hung up on me. that happened within my first year there & I still remember it. 
l, I can't fold laundry until it's all dry & I'm blogging right now.