My Newest Neighbor

I thought I would share pictures of my neighbor. He is short with a Bald head. But, man is he Beautiful. I just love to stare at him every chance I get. He is very shy. So some of the pictures I took are from very far away. Had he know I was going to make him famous I think he would have come a little closer.

My kind of Distraction

I have nothing to say after these. Just wow.

How Does this Work?

I have ranted before about or child support system here in my state but now I even have a bigger question. how does the foster care program work? The reason I ask this question is because my daughters father and his wife now have a foster daughter. AGH.
So, I went to the website for the requirements to be a foster parent to see how this happened.

Here is what it says:

You must:
live in Anoka County
be at least 21-years-old, financially stable and responsible (but do not have to pay support)
have appropriate sleeping space (make own daughter sleep on couch when she visits)
There must be enough bedrooms for everyone.
Foster children can share a bedroom with a child of the same sex, if the room is large enough. (own child unable to share room with foster child)
They cannot share a bedroom with an adult or a child of the opposite sex.
complete an application for foster care
allow Anoka County to complete a criminal history background check on all household members who are 13-years-old or older
live in a home or apartment that meets fire safety code
abide by a “No Corporal Punishment” rule
be available to transport children to visitations and medical appointments
provide the County with three personal references
participate in a home study that includes interviews with all household members (tell own child it was there fault the first time they did not get a child because they were not there for interview(stepmother said))
attend on-going training (12 hours annually for each adult in the household)

You may:
be single or married
rent or own your home
already have children in your home (have own child just can not take care of)
work full- or part-time, depending on the foster child’s age and needs

I understand that there are children out there that need people to help take care of them but when I hear I can not work I am blind and so on and so forth from him and then learn that he is more than capable of taking on a foster child and being a parent there I just wonder HOW? The thing that hurts the most is how Britt feels that she is being asked over just to watch the foster kid. And now they are telling her that this child is calling them mom and dad and that they plan on adopting this child. I feel so bad for my daughter. Yes I know I do not have to let her go over and see him but I have always made it her choice. She wants to see her father. Not live with him but visiting him is fine she says. She goes because she knows that she will be coming home soon.

Rambling about stuff on my mind

I recently had a comment posted that me laugh. "My mom uses a billion dollar satellite to find Tupperware in the woods." That is so true. I now am addicted to this finding of the Tupperware. All I want to do when I get home from work is go out and search for it. Is that not sad.

I have decided to look at the school calender to see how many days my kids are home during the 180 day they are to be in school. not by me keeping them home but of school being either released early or no school at all. Calendered 1/2 days are 4 days for both. And none school days are 20 for Britt. And 21 for little man. Now this does not include day that the Basketball team goes to the state Tournament or days that are not on the calender. Now, I have learned that if my child is there for 1/2 the day it counts as a full day. Now to the school it was important to close for half the day this week so people could go watch Basketball. But, If I wanted to take my child out for a family vacation it would be considered an unexcused absence. HUH. Does this seem right. The biggest thing going for the school is Basketball. Do they have a drama club and arts programs? Heck, no. I shocked Britt's teacher last fall when I told him I could care less about her grade in Phy Ed.( He is the Basketball coach. LOL) I said as long as she participates that is all that matters to me. Because sports are not her strong point. And she needed academics for school. If the kids need to leave early for a sporting event they participate in the are free to go but it it has to do with anything other than sports you hear all about it. Blah!!!!!
I am shocked that the whole town does not shut down for sports. Really.

Now, my girlfriend and I are going to have a garage sale this spring and I told Britt to go through her clothing in her room. She brought me 3 I repeat 3 bags of clothes. Holy moly. Now I do not enter her room for stress reasons. I will blow the top off the house if I enter that room and she know this. There fore I made it her job to go through her clothing. Now I am on to little mans clothing. And then it is my dreaded closet. Now I have lost a lot of weigh. But I can not get rid of my so called fat clothes. I have a rational though why. Because if I were to gain weight back I will not have to but new clothing. Well, that is just not flying with the One handed wonder. I have begun to go through my stuff and have given some to a good friend that I know. She loves them all. Then, there is my array of Tee-shirts. Now I no longer hold a office job. So I were Tees to work all the time and Jeans. I love Jeans. I have to have at least 10-15 pairs of jeans and guess what I want more. LOL. then I am off to the One handed wonders clothing. Now he hates to admit that he has out grown pants but it is time to find out what fits and what does not fit. Wish me luck on this venture.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all. Please remember it is not all about the candy.

Injury

So, now I am on the injury list. I do not know what I did but I have been having pains in my left arm now for 2 1/2 days. Reluctantly I went to the doctor . ( with the One Handed Wonder I have spent enough time and money at the doctor and the bill still keep coming and the money is not coming as fast and the bills). So, I go and sit in the Same Day Clinic and wait......and wait ....and WAIT. Until 2 hours have pasted and here I am now seeing the doctor. And what does she think is wrong. I have and inflamed tendon or muscle. So, she gives me Steroids for the inflammation and pain meds for the pain ( of course I can not take them when I work so what good are they.)And if things do not get better I will have to see a physical therapist to see if they can help with the reduction of swelling. Great?!? Now, I will continue to go to work and did not ask to be on light duty. Duh, I am to stubborn to ask for that. I am hoping by Monday I will be feeling better. I have decided to see if I can get in Friday with my regular doctor and have a follow up done and see what she says.

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Now and update on our Geocaching. Wow, what a Rush you get. We had or First to Find and have hopefully made some new friends along the way. The kids wanted to go again today but with the snow we got I did not think it would be any fun for them. We are planning to do our own hide soon. We are still working on learning all the ins and outs of this. Before we know it we will be experts.

Here is Britt and Little man with our first find in Geocaching. She was the one who located it first.This is our second find. Hidden by our hopefully new friends Team Candy Cane. And here we are at the location of our First To Find. The blond boy is Britt's Friend David.

We call him friend she calls him Boyfriend. Yuck!!! Please I want my little girl back who loved to play with dolls and wants nothing to do with BOYS. YUCK!?! I know to young for a boy friend that should be a topic soon. But, needles to say we have him hooked on Geocaching to now.

Family Time

So, I was able to find a GPS unit very cheap and the kids and I have been searching for the treasures for about a week now. We have been having a good time with this and there are so many to find in our area. And here people thought there is nothing to do here. LOL We have people from the cities come up to Geocach. I even read one guy was here from Mississippi on Business and drove up from the cities to geocach here. The kids reaaly enjoy doing this. Plus they get to learn stuff as they go.

Today we have around 10 that we are going to try and find since we all have the day off. And we are going to try for our first FTF. (first to find). We have others that may be joining us along the way.

Contest Winner is......

"I am so Confused? By Rod

That was very fitting since Walter is a Die hard Vikings fan. He had to display the gifts he received from me becaus he said to me "I would appreciate any gift you give me."

So Rod send me an email through my link and I will send out your gift to you.

Charish

Update

Jim goes back to Work on Monday. After his long time off for recovery of a broken arm he finally gets to go to work. YEAH. I am so excited.

I loved that you all Assumed I had $600.00.

Contest ends to night at Midnight. Have Fun. Be creative.

Update

Question??????

If you had $600.00 and it was not accounted for in your earning. Such as paychecks and other moneys that youget for your bills what would you do with it? What would you purchase?
This is money that you were not expecting to get? What would you do? Use your imagination.
Thanks
Charish

Contest Time

Ok I need your help. Please give this photo a name.

A winner will be the one with the best name. Deadline is March 15th.
I have for the winner a Bathe treat. I will name the winner and they can contact me via my email with there mailing address.
Good luck and be creative.
Charish

Weekend in Review

Lets see I started my weekend with Friday going to the doctor for a physical. Yeah..... Guess what I had to buck up and get a shot. The nurse says "where do you want it?" I kindly reply, "duh, I don't". OK, so I worked through the shot issue and got it like the good mom that I am. (little man was there to witness this event) Then, Saturday morning arrived and I could not move my whole left arm. Plus, I had gone into my neck. I had many loads of Laundry to finish. I knew this was going to be a long weekend. Needless to say I really did not move if I did not have to. Sunday was calm and peaceful. Until I realize that it was Daylight savings and I was actually a hour off with everything I did.
Brittany went to spend her weekend with her father. And is feeling more and more reluctant to go again. She is having issues with the step mom. She was told she was there to entertain there Foster child, that kind of hit a cord with her. So, we will see if she will go when they call again.
Michael (AKA little man) kept his room clean all weekend. And had been begging me to get him fish for his small tank. So, I made a deal with him as long as his room stays clean he can have fish. But, when he does not clean up after him self is when I get to Flush them down the toilet. He agree. So, after work today I pick him up two Neon's and Two Glass Fish. He can not tear himself away from them.
There is your update.


Watch for contest coming soon.

The Search For New Help

I spent all my time after work yesterday looking for a new washing machine. Mine decided it was time to retire with out notice. Without even finishing its job. So, I then had the job of going out and interviewing New washing machines.
I began with one that has done this job in that past and was looking for employment elsewhere. He was not very old and still worked hard and the pay desire was decent. After reviewing his application with my partner we decided that he was not suited for this job because we were worried that he might quit soon after hire due to his age and we did not know if he could handle our work load.
We thought we should maybe look in the assistance of some Headhunters. We stared with some online searches that really got us nowhere, so we decided we needed to meet face to face. We began with a rep. from small local place but found his prices for the type of help we were looking for were way out of our budget. Then, we decided to look at some more well known Headhunters. We started with the Menards Group. They are close to were the work will need to be done and the prices were in our range.
After, further review I decided to check out a few others before I made my final decision. My next interview was with the Sears Outlet people. They had what I was looking for and there prices were just what I could afford to pay. But, I could not make a decision with out checking out all my other options. My next stop was at Homedepot. Very nice but still out of my price range. The last place to check was Bestbuy. Wow, they had one potential employee that would have made my life so much easier. He could handle 25 bathe towels at a time. That is triple what my retiree could do. But the cost exceeded the means. (oh, this is a major want)
After, a phone conference with my partner we decided that Sears was the winner and that would be using them for my new hire. I went back told him he had the job and would be starting as soon as he got to his place of employment. Needles to say he has arrived and is working at a steady pace to get caught up with all the work the retiree failed to finish.
( I hope you enjoyed my animated tale about locating a New Washing Machine. I felt it would be more interesting to read a tale verses hey my washer crapped out and I had to buy a new one. )

Read Across America Day

Today was Read Across America Day.

Michael's class was celebrating Dr. Suess.

So, the kids were invited to dress up or wear a funny hat.

So, we decided to make a cool shirt.

Here it is.

Now do not forget to read to your kids they will never forget it.

Charish