Breaking the Toilet? Seriously?

For three nights in a row there have been disturbances on my street. This makes me very angry. And last week, someone broke into the house next door. It's vacant and up for sale, oh joy. Last night some moron was laying on their horn at 3am until a woman went outside and, sounding like an angry mom, put and end to it. Tonight some drunk vagrants were smashing a toilet in the alley. Seriously? A toilet? Luckily I have large, male neighbors who just happened to be out in their garage at the time. They put a stop to it, but not before crazy drunken toilet vandal made off with his newly acquired toilet seat. Ew.

And Hubs wonders why having a big hulking dog is such a good idea?

Today the kiddos and I got to enjoy the lovely weather at the park. Rollerblades, a football, a skateboard and a conveniently placed ice cream man. Really, does it get any better than that?

Happy Birthday, I Smashed the Car!

Yes, that's what I said to Hubs on Tuesday when I came home for lunch. Well, maybe "smash" is a bit strong. I scraped the car. On another car. In front of the kids' school. Yeah, could it be more embarrassing?? 15 years I've been driving and I've never done this before!
Allow me to state my case (because it's MY blog, damnit) There was a truck double parked, and a parking spot to the left of it. I *thought* I had enough space to get past the truck and pull into the spot. Not so, said the law of physics (or whichever one says something about two bodies not being able to occupy the same space)
So it was the parent of a kid in Belly's class... of course. Whose wife knows me. Of course. So the guy is super nice - and I was trying desperately to send ESP messages like, We're in front of a church, you can't get mad, come on, what would Jesus do?
Thankfully, the only thing that happened is his turn signal stopped working. Yeah well probably because I pulled the light housing away from the body of the car (details, details) but that it won't be hard to fix. Of course I said we'd pay for the housing or wiring or whatever it needs. How? Am going to sell a kidney, that's how. I only need one, right?
So, on Hubs birthday, HE spent an hour making ME feel better and telling me it's no big deal. My car has a tiny dent by the back door, but it seems pretty awful to me.

And let's not forget the embarrassment factor here. Yes, the new head of the annual fundraiser committee at the school (yes, moi) is spreading goodwill by smashing up cars in front. Ah, good times.

Not Fit For This

Yesterday I went to take the ICTS (or some other acronym from hell) basic skills test. It's a 5 hour test. Five hours. What the hell is testing me for that long going to prove? That I can sit still? Well, I can't.
Thankfully, I was done in 3.5 hours, but STILL. There were so many reading selections, I found myself eager to get to the math portion. And I really dislike math. Then I found out that the math portion was NOTHING like the practice test. So there I am, my eyes crossing from this marathon testing session, and trying to find the flaw in a sample algebraic equation. It's a good thing I'm proficient in other areas, because I'm sue I blew that one.
But now the test is over, and out of the way. Only thing left to do now is, well, actually return to school.
*gulp*

Thank you!!!!

Look at what my awesome friend did for me!!!!!!! The middle is a quilt square that Golden Boy made in school a looong time ago. Me, being the non-domestic diva that I am, cannot quilt to save my life. Once, I opened up a sewing machine box and even with the instructions I couldn’t discern which part went where. Anyway, my friend Jeannette makes quilts, and she offered to make one for me using Daimean’s piece as the center square. The pic absolutely doesn’t do justice to the quilt, but I had to post it!

Thank you, Jeanette!!

ADD, ICTS and other Acronyms

This is the second time I've attempted to take the ICTS practice test. The first time, I got through the instructions before the noise in the house made me give up. This time I answered 5 whole questions before realizing that I couldn't focus on the content due to small people doing things that small people do. Now, I'd like to totally blame this on the small people, I really would, but I know I can't. Simply stated, I have the attention span of a mosquito.
I've long known that my ADD is at odds with my OCD. (Yes, I took too many psychology classes, AND I read Psychology Today, so I can self diagnose with the best of 'em) Like yesterday, I suddenly decided I no longer liked the artificial acrylic covering my nails, so I spent 45 minutes tearing them from my fragile fingertips. Now I have tender nailbeds and really horrid looking nails, but no matter, because I've suddenly got to clean the ceiling fan.

iContent

Today was a beautiful day in the 'hood. So I spent some time outside watching the kiddos ride their bikes down our lovely tree lined street. Of course I had my iPod stuck to my ears, what, was I going to listen to the kids scream at each other while racing?? So, in an effort to retain my inner peace, I was listening to Mozart. Low enough so I could still hear the randomness around me, of course. But instead of random noise, I thought I heard something .... different. So off went the headphones for an audio investigation and to my delight, it was birds I was hearing :)
I never noticed birds much before we moved into this house. Now they're all over the place. Cardinals, blue jays, and some little things that sing their hearts out all day. And so, I stood there, smiling, because all is right in my world tonight.

11 Years

The card attached to these gorgeous flowers that came to me at work today read:
"11 years, that's all? I can do another 11 standing on my head."

Ah, yes, I do love that man of mine :)