Blondes Provide More Fun

Everybody loves a good blonde joke, right? You have to admit there are some really funny ones out there.
Like....

Why were there 6 bullet holes in a mirror?
A blonde tried to commit suicide!

But in the DysFUNctional home, we are blessed with our very own blonde. And she provides daily humor for all of us!
Shelbie is smart. She makes excellent grades in school. But she's also a tiny bit of an airhead.
The other day on the way to her ortho appointment, she had me and John cracking up. First of all, I guess I was talking about the other kids to John and didn't mention Shelbie, and she burst out with "What am I, fried chicken???"

Then, she was telling us that at school, all of the students in her class had to do a project in which they write a word for each letter of their name. Like this:

C: captivating
Y: youthful
N: nice
D: delightful
Y: young

You know, totally modest stuff. So, Shelbie is working on hers and asks her friends, "What should I put for 'I'?" One of her friends suggested "intelligent" and Shelbie replied.........

"How do you spell that?"

Disclaimer: this was blogged with Shelbie's knowledge & full permission. In fact last night she asked "Did you blog about me yet???"

Monday Mish-Mash (I just made that up. heh)

It's the Weekend Wrap-Up, Meat-Free/Meatless Monday, Back to School post!
Wheeeee!



Weekend Wrap-Up~~
We went camping this weekend at a Springs located in a State Park. We really enjoyed ourselves. We saw turtles, fish, and deer up close & personal.
The highlight: Elayna saw shooting stars for the first time ever. This place is way out in the woods and you can see so many stars, it's truly amazing. We laid on the dock and watched the sky on Saturday night after dinner. She saw four shooting stars. She was thrilled!
The low-light: I had about 10 years taken off of my life on Saturday afternoon. I won't say the name of the backwoods hillbilly redneck town, we'll just call it ScaryLand. We went to the Super Walmart at ScaryLand to pick up a few things for our cook-out. We've been there before and it never fails to shock and disgust. We've seen people who literally look like they just walked out of a freak show, people whose parents HAVE to be brother and sister, and a man in the women's bathroom. So needless to say, we're cautious about going there. Halfway there, I turn around and look at Elayna, and realize she's wearing nothing but her swimsuit. Fantastic! A cute young girl in a swimsuit at the Super WalMart of ScaryLand. It's too late to turn around. So, we're rushing around, grabbing the things we need, and I turn around and don't see Elayna ANYWHERE. I said, "Where's Layna?" and STILL she did not appear. I swear my heart jumped into my throat. I just knew that a ScaryMan from ScaryLand had stolen my bathing-suit-clad baby. Thank GOD, she was just behind John the entire time! My heart still hasn't quite returned to its normal rate.





Meatless/Meat-Free Monday:
Did you remember to try a day without meat? Tonight we're having bean & cheese burritos with sour cream and salsa, and corn on the side. And, it's day 17 Meat-Free for me!




Back to School:
Today, I had two 3rd graders, one 8th grader, and one 11th grader start school. Old lady say WHAT? I swear I just blinked and this just happened! Don't.Blink. Shockingly, Miss Queen of Organization didn't remember to get fresh batteries for the real camera. *eyeroll* So I present to you, crappy cell phone Back to School pics!

Shelbie...13 going on 21. *gulp*

Andrew, a little nervous!

Elayna, with crazy eyes...(excuse the vacuum cord)

I have the coolest, Rocker Chick 3rd grader in the whole school. I LOVE her style!

my 3rd graders =)

(Tim was back with his Dad so I have no 11th grader pictures! But I talked to him and he had a good first day.)

ONE MORE THING!
Please pray For Ezra tomorrow.

How was your weekend?
Have a great week!

Friday = Fragments, Freewrite, Family, Free, Fun, Friends...and maybe some other "F" Words!

It's that time of week again, the time in which we dump our brains! My poor brain is small and gets full quickly. I need to dump it often. So I love Friday Fragments & Friday's Freewrite!

* So, there is this awesome blog called Boob Emancipation. Which may or may not feature pictures of ta-tas. Some of whose may or may not be mine. I'm just saying.
And I may or may not have a girl-crush on Why Mom Drinks Rum, too. She's the beautifulness.

* My friend just told me that she and some friends were eating pizza together. Friend 1 says, "Ow, I bit myself!" Friend 2 says, "Where?"
Dum dum dum!

* Tonight's Free Friday Concert is the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock Tribute. I'm thinking it's going to be verrrry interesting! Contact high, anyone?

* And then, it's camping for the weekend at the Springs. One last weekend of fun before school starts on Monday!

* My oldest child, Tim, will officially be a Junior in High School on Monday. How did that happen? Shelbie will be in the 8th grade (her last year of middle school!), and Elayna & Andrew will both enter the 3rd grade. (Andrew should be going into the 4th grade, but was held back a year when he was living with his bio-"mother". Don't even get me started on that whole story. Grr!) It's kinda cool to have 2 kids in the same grade. But Senior Year is going to kick our asses!

* Today marks 2 weeks of vegetarianism for me!

There. My brain is officially dumped. Now I'm off to read blogs so that I can refill it!

Have a great weekend!

Be sure and enter the Piggy Paints Giveaway!

Windows Wide Open

I'm going to tell you something about myself. It takes a lot to get me down. It doesn't take much to piss me off, but it takes a lot to really get me down. I can usually laugh things off, or put things in perspective. But sometimes, when life is really smacking me around, I can only keep getting up so many times, before I just lie there and curl up in the fetal position.

And that's pretty much where I was at last Thursday. It had been a rough month, and Thursday was really just the tip of the iceberg. The last straw, if you will.

But...I somehow managed to keep myself focused. To fight off the darkness. And keep myself out of the fetal position. Instead, I focused on the positive things, and the things that I am thankful for.

And I like to think that maybe that's why things have totally, completely turned around since then.

We got some wonderful news on Friday. You see, my husband lost his job in July. But he will be starting a better job, with excellent benefits and potential for advancement, on August 31st. And, his unemployment compensation finally started coming in on Friday. Just in time for back-to-school shopping!

We got some things fixed in our broken house on Friday. And although unfortunately it looks like we got a bad deal on this house, we have the ability to get out of the contract, and some great leads on even better houses.

We had a great weekend. Relaxing, and spending time together. And I even had a rare visit from my very best friend in the whole world, Danielle. She happened to be nearby and came to visit. I was so thrilled to see her!

When these problems initially started, Danielle said to me, "When God closes a door, He opens a window. In the end, you're going to be better off and so glad that all of this happened." And you know what? I'm already seeing how correct she is.

And most importantly of all, my family is healthy, happy, and together. For that, I am most thankful.

Weekend Wrap-Up & Stuff

On Thursday, things were very stressful in our world. Although things were considerably looking up by Friday, we were still feeling the stress. John and I decided that floating down a river would be a great stress reliever.

So, we went to Ichetucknee Springs. We pitched our tent at the campsite, rented our tubes, and commenced to floating. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We saw fish, of course; turtles; and two wild hogs!

Once we got back to camp, a storm came. Not just an ordinary Florida summer storm...a torrential downpour. But it was all good, because the campground has a tavern, with two gamerooms. I actually beat John at Air Hockey! Well, the first time anyway. We won't discuss the other two times. I may or may not have gotten my drink on at the tavern. Let's just say that a drink called Orange Dream tastes exactly like Orange Dreamsicles. OMWord.

Fortunately, they also serve food, since grilling was not an option. And we were very lucky to only have a tiny amount of water in our tent; some peoples' tents flooded. It turned out to be a great night!

Now we're back to reality, but refreshed and with a better outlook. The kids are home too, which makes me a happy Mama.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Don't forget today is Meatless/Meat Free Monday! We are having pizza because I don't feel like cooking. Meatless pizza, of course! And I am at day 10 of eating no meat. So far, so good!

~*~*~*~*~*~

One of my blog friends, Jesica, is battling cancer and got some very bad news last week. I can't even begin to imagine what she and her family are going through. Please visit her, offer support, and prayers, good thoughts, whatever you have to offer. Jesica's Journey

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit....

...it's finally FRIDAY!!

Helloooo, Friday! I am happy to see you, my friend.

I've actually had a great week at work. BUT, I need a rest. Life has been kicking my ass this week.

And, can I just tell you how much I really love Friday Fragments/Freewrites posts? I love doing them and I love reading others'. There's just something fun about the bits of thoughts, events, or funny things that end up in these types of posts. Thanks, Mrs 4444 and Sara!

§ Have you ever stepped back and looked at something that was annoying you or stressing you, and just burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all? I don't mean the big stuff - and I have the big stuff going on right now! - but the little stuff that is really so ridiculous when you think about it? Sometimes you just have to laugh.

§ I haven't eaten any meat in a week! And I haven't missed it at all, yet. My plan was just to slowly stop eating meat, but I haven't even wanted it so far. I'm looking forward to trying some new things this weekend as well.

§ This is the last week that the girls will spend with their Dad this summer. They'll come home Sunday and then go back to visiting their dad every other weekend. I am SO glad it's over! This was our first summer alternating weeks, and it has been hard. I have missed them SO much! One day this past week, we saw Tim & Elayna at the grocery store, and she squeezed me SO tight! I so wanted to bring her home right then. I miss them!

On the down side, Tim will go back to being with me only five days out of every two weeks (I get him every other Thursday and keep him until Monday). So, I will see a little less of him. But we'll still visit him at work often, since he works at the supermarket just down the road from us and we're there all the time.

And Andrew is still in the Keys. I wish I were there!
Overall, the summer has flown by, and I can't believe it's nearly over.

§ Stay tuned! I'm going to be doing two giveaways in the very near future. You don't want to miss them!

§ There are a few new blogs in my left sidebar....not new to me but new to the Blogosphere and they're pretty awesome - check them out!

Have a great weekend! See you on Twitter!

for more Freewrites & Fragments, visit Ordinary & Awesome and Half Past Kissin' Time.

Thanksgiving Thursday ~ it's raining and my head is exploding.......

You know how they say, when it rains it pours? Well, it's raining where I live. Literally, and figuratively. I won't bore you with every detail, but last week we had a torrential downpour. Every time it rains a lot, our carport floods, which is a hot mess. But this time, it got better. The flood ventured INSIDE the house. We got that cleaned up, and now we're having floods coming from the inside. In short, our plumbing is screwed. Basically, my house, my precious 50+ year old house that I love so much, is falling apart. Literally.
That, among other things, is causing me a significant amount of stress. So as a way of getting my focus where it needs to be, I'm doing a Thanksgiving Thursday.

~*~ I'm very thankful to have a job. And things have greatly improved here at work recently. I have wonderful co-workers who are like family. In this economy, I'd be (at least a little) thankful for ANY job, so the fact that I really love my job is even better.

~*~ I'm thankful for my kids. They are super smart and intuitive. They know I love them, and they love their Mama. And truly, they are great kids. That's not just Mama talking, I get a lot of compliments on my children. They are awesome. I have a special relationship with each of them, and I know that no matter what happens, we'll always have that bond.

~*~ I'm thankful for my friends. More than words can say.

~*~ I'm thankful that my parents are still in good health. They are aging but are very blessed to be healthy and relatively active.

~*~ I'm so very thankful for my husband. He is so good to me, and makes even the most stressful situations better. He is my very best friend. If ever two people were meant to be together, the two of us were. We just fit.

Okay. I just got a text from my husband that our A/C is literally burning up. And my head will now explode in 3....2....1........

One Day a Week, Cut Out Meat!

I want to say right off the bat, in the spirit of Blogging with Integrity, that I have NOT been asked to post this, and am not receiving compensation of any sort for this. It's just one of my soapboxes. =)

For about a year now, my family and I have had "Meatless Monday" nearly every week. It was actually suggested to me by a vegan friend, as a way of improving our health and the planet's health. If every family in America cut out meat just one day a week, it would make a big difference in the demand for meat in this country, on the enviroment, and world hunger.

The Meatless Monday site is a website with great resources for recipes and information about cutting out meat for one day per week. There are also reviews, articles, & other information to help get started having a meat-free day.

When we started, we didn't know anything about the Meatless Monday website. But it still wasn't hard to come up with a meatless meal just one day per week.

As some of you know, I recently made the decision to go vegetarian. However, my family's diet will stay the same, unless they decide on their own to go vegetarian. But let me tell you, my kids LOVE having Meatless Monday. If I forget, they are quick to remind me. If something happens that we can't observe MM, they make sure we have another Meatless day that week.

There's also another movement called Meat Free Monday. This website has a great explanation of the environmental reasons to eliminate meat at least once per week. It explains how reducing our meat intake can help eliminate world hunger and reduce pollution. It's about animals, but it's also about so much more than that.

I really hope that you will join me in having Meatless/Meat-Free Monday! It's a fun way to add variety to your menu and your mealtime, a great lesson for your children, good for your health, and a big help to the environment.

Bits of Brilliance ~ RTT

I haven't done this in a while, and the time is right for a Random Tuesday Thoughts post!

Random Thought #1: I put this quote up on my Facebook Wall over the weekend:
"Three things cannot be long hidden: The Sun, The Moon and the Truth."~Buddha
My brilliant friend Renee posted this bit of wisdom afterwards: "by truth he meant the crazy ;)".
See? Brilliant. And so relevant to my life at this time! Renee blogs over at Whatever Dude, but not nearly enough. Renee, you have to blog more and share your brilliance with the rest of the world. Being pregnant and having 3 boys is no excuse!


Speaking of crazy, Random Thought #2: My current favorite song line is from a country song by Billy Currington. "God is great, beer is good....and people are crazy." Brilliant!
(yeah, I'm dealing with a lot of crazy in my life right now. And unfortunately, it's not the good kind of crazy.)

Random Thought #3: My youngest daughter, Elayna, who is 8 years old, loves to read SO much. I love it! She's a bookworm like her Mama. I recently purchased a book light for her which she had been begging for. Then this weekend, she said to me, "Mommy, I wish books were waterproof so I could take them into the bath with me." So, I introduced her to the fine art of reading in the tub without getting your book wet. Like mother, like daughter! She is going to be brilliant, I'm sure of it.

Random Thought #4: At the Free Friday concert this weekend, we saw Caitlin Eadie perform. This girl is brilliant because she is incredibly friendly to her audience. She let the little kids come up on stage and dance with her, which made a huge impression on Elayna and my friend's daughter, Savanna! And the teenage boys who were with us were quite impressed as well, buying her CD's and getting her autograph. This girl has a bright future ahead of her! She impressed everyone from young kids to parents. Brilliant!

(NOT brilliant - my camera's batteries died so all I have are crappy cell phone pics. *sigh*)


Savanna dancing with Caitlin

Savanna and Elayna dancing with Caitlin

Savanna and Elayna

Caitlin dancing with the girls

Visit The Unmom for more Random Tuesday Thoughts,

& have a great Tuesday!

No More Eating Things With Eyes (except taters...)

Quick weekend post -

I've made a big, life-changing decision this weekend. I'm going to transition to a vegetarian diet.

I need all the help I can get! So if you are a vegetarian, or just have good tips or recipes....I'd really appreciate your help!

And if you're interested in the reasons behind my decision, feel free to email me. I plan to blog about it but I'm not sure how soon I'll get to it. There are so many good reasons to go vegetarian though, besides the obvious. I can't believe I am 36 years old and was totally unaware of so many things.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Friday Fragments/Freewrites 8.7.09

It's so nice to be back to the blogging routine! It's Friday and that means it's time for Friday Fragments/Freewrites.

~ We're going camping at the beach this weekend! We've been wanting to do this all summer and we're finally going. The only negative is that Tim has to work and can't go. I am SO bummed that he will miss out!

~ Last week we met with an in-home child care provider. We were looking for after-school care for Andrew & Elayna so that I can get more than 3-4 hours of sleep this coming school year. My friend Heather also came, she was looking for child care for her daughter Savanna. We were SO impressed with this provider! She has been in child care for over 15 years, has education in Special Needs children, and seems very committed to her work. She is also a vegetarian and serves only vegetarian food. The kids will be exposed to a different culture and I'm really excited about that. I think she'll be particularly good for Andrew. Elayna came with us to meet her and is very excited about going there after school.

~ Tonight we are going yet again to the Free Friday Concert, and the performer is Caitlin Eadie. She is a young country singer who grew up near our town, and she has opened for Tim McGraw and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others! I think it's going to be a great show.

~ This week I discovered that one of the bloggers I follow, lives in my town! It's Manic Mother, and her sweet son Ezra has cancer. Their buttons are in my sidebar.

I am so excited to find her. Hopefully we will get to meet up at some point. I still have NEVER met another blogger friend in person! Is there anyone else reading who lives in or near Gainesville, Florida? (I think it's pretty obvious that I live near there, by now.)

~ The foster mama and her kittens got spayed/neutered on Wednesday and will be at Petsmart all weekend. One of my nurse friends is probably going to adopt the black & white girl. The mama is a sweet, pretty calico and her two boy kittens are orange. Hopefully they will find good homes this weekend!

~ This just made me laugh, so I had to share it with y'all! It actually looks just like our orange foster kittens.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

On Purpose

Since I sometimes read blogs at work, I get a lot of people looking over my shoulder. They'll see pictures and say, "Oh, who is that?" and I explain that it's a blog.
And of course, they often say, "A what?"
And I either explain, or blow it off, because some people just don't get it, and won't get it.
(and how rude is it to look over my shoulder and ask about what I'm looking at? Ugh!)
Last night, one of the repeat offenders did it again. She saw a picture of a baby and asked who it was, and I told her it's a blog. Her response was, "It's so CUTE that you do that! Read all about other people's lives."
Cute? I tried to explain to her that the blogger is blogging for that purpose...for other people to read it. But...she just doesn't get it.
I think people either get it or they don't. Those who have to ask "What is the purpose of blogging?", will never get it.
I have been a bookworm since I learned to read. And I became a writer around the same time. I was always making up stories in my head, or mentally recording what was going on around me. I wrote many stories and poems when I was younger (and wish I'd never stopped). So when I discovered blogging, it was a natural thing for me.
My blog is my place on the web. My internet home. I decorate it in a way that makes me happy. I talk about things that make me happy or interest me. I put things in my sidebar that mean something to me.
It's an outlet to talk about things that confuse me, anger me, amuse me, or just interest me.
My blog is also my soapbox. I talk about things that I want others to know about. There are so many issues that people are not aware of, such as Premarin mares, and puppy mills. I feel like if just a few people learn about these things from my blog, make changes in their lives, and maybe tell a few others....I've made a difference. And that means the world to me.
I blog about pet rescue and pet fostering, and even had one of our foster kittens adopted by a blog reader!
My blog is one of the places that I record our memories. I do Weekend Wrap-Ups, write about the funny things the kids say and do, post pictures of the fun times, and the ordinary times.
And through my blog, I've made friends. Friends who have laughed with me, supported me, lifted me up, prayed for me, and commiserated with me. People who have my back.
I blog to vent, to laugh, to learn, to relate, to inform. I like to think that I have something to give, and I most definitely receive so much from blogging (both writing and reading).
The purpose of blogging is so many things for me. I put a lot of myself into it, and get so much out of it.
It's so much more than "cute".

Under Construction - On My Way Back - Location Change

That pretty much sums it up!

The blog is under construction. I still need to tweak a few things but....what do you think so far?

I'll be back very soon.

And....you can now find me at www.PuttingtheFUNinDysFUNctional.com ! If you come here, you'll be redirected, but this URL is so much more fun!