The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

1.) Do you think there is anything wrong with a seemingly happily married woman/mother to visit various online friends of the opposite sex without her husband?

2.) Can a man and a woman, married or single, have a strictly platonic friendship? (This would not refer to someone that you'd known since grade school or grew up with.)

Currently I am dealing with some issues on this subject with my sister. She is preparing to make yet another trip to visit a male online 'friend'. I am in no way suggesting she's doing anything wrong or immoral, but I'm having a hard time justifying it, probably because I can't imagine doing it myself. I'd love to have some feedback!

Yes, it's over! Overall it was a fantastic success and an absolutely beautiful day. There were several 'incidents', some started on Friday--I plan to share as soon as I get a much needed slumber.

Thanks to all you swell people for your congratulations. I promise pics as soon as the disc is ready--none of mine of my sister's turned out very well. Our church has beautiful, 100 year old stained glass windows, they're gorgeous but don't make for the best picture taking conditions--unless you have a very high quality camera--which I don't, lol.

And surrogate...*ahem* bite your tongue, let's not even joke about grandchildren...yet! lol

Well, the day's almost here! I can't believe it, and, I can't believe that most everything is done. Of course, tomorrow is the big day as far as decorating and the rehearsal goes--the whole bottom of this shindig could fall out!

The bride and groom are nervous wrecks, it's a bit comical and endearing in the same instance. The Mother of the bride is nervous too, she's worried there's not enough plates for the reception, that no one will show up, that too many people will show up, that the bride will trip on her way down the aisle...need I go on? heh, I didn't think so. I will have to say that I am just a little proud of myself though, it's really shaping up to be a pretty nice little affair. I've shopped 'til I wanted to drop to find the bargains--and succeeded. I'll also admit it's been a lot of fun! When I was a little girl I wanted to be a wedding planner, and that was before the term 'wedding planner' was hip. I used to take the JC Penny catalog, back in the day when they carried bridal wear, and plan out complete weddings. I'd fill out the mock attire for the entire wedding party--I spent hours doing this. It's kind of fun to be doing it for real.

I must sleep now for tomorrow will be a very long day. I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to post any pics but will atleast post one of my daughter--I fear I will look like death on a cracker by the time the ceremony is over, lol.

Wish us luck :)

Have you ever watched pro beach volleyball? Especially the females? I spent some time channel surfing yesterday afternoon and was mesmerized with the bodies on these ladies. The customary attire is a teeny-tiny bikini. These women are not girlie-girls, they are jumping and diving as if their life depended on it. I saw all four of them take some pretty nasty falls--nearly naked. The last time I fell in sand it hurt, but these chicks just bounce right back up!

And then there are their bodies...odd in a way. They are all thin and toned but most all of them had some chunky regions. Ironically even in the chunky tundra I couldn't spot one ounce of cellulite. Bitches. I also noticed that none of them were particularly well endowed in the bust area. Guess having all that atlethic ability needed to jump and spike the ball comes with a price, huh?

As someone who's lived her entire life in a landlocked region, I wonder are all the female beach volleyball enthusiasts built like this? And how does anyone ever get used to being sweat-soaked and covered with sand? Any input from you beachcombers would be nice :)

After nearly 10 years a suspect has finally been arrested in the Jonbenet Ramsey murder case...amazing. I remember watching the interviews with her parents and thinking, "they look like your average upper-middle class couple,why would either of them want to kill their daughter?" Then there was the talk of their older son, Burke, possibly having committed the crime out of jealousy due to his sister's pagent fame and attention. Neither of those scenario's quite felt right to me, but if not them, who? No forced entry, so little evidence, all combined to make this what seemed like an un-solvable case. But...

...perhaps not. The details I have are sketchy but I plan to investigate further on my break. I did hear one lawyer comment that he felt good about the fact that Patsy Ramsey knew they were close to an arrest before she died. Too bad she didn't live to look the man in the eye and tell him just how much he'd taken away from her; her beloved daughter, her life in general, the happiness of home and family, and the trust of so many skeptical friends and family members. Sad.

Anxious to hear his side of the story, maybe the same demon voices that commanded Andrea Yates to drown 5 defenseless children was in communication with him too?

Yep, 12 days until the big event...my daughter's wedding. I am just centimeters away from complete lunatic status! My sister and I went shopping today for my dress and my niece's dress--she's the only attendant along with a flower girl, who's wearing a white dress. My sister and niece were in Atlanta this past weekend and found nada. It doesn't help that my niece wears a size 3 junior dress--they're near impossible to find off the rack. We found a little shop in Knoxville that carries consignment and overstock new formal wear and luckily they had a ton of small sizes in the color range we were looking for. I never dreamed that lavendar or violet would be so hard to find, I'd expected tons of Spring & Summer selections to be on clearance--but nooooooo!

I must admit this is a fun process in many ways, I just wish I hadn't been sick for so long. We're throwing everything together here at the last minute, not that, that is such a bad thing--I've been called a procrastinator before! I'm really not, I just work better under pressure, heh.

Stay tuned for more updates...

I'm not the most technical tool in the shed so I'd like it very much if someone could explain to me what a (non blog visit) is on the 'visit' page? Are these people that are using the 'invisible' feature? Are these folks just dropping by to see if I've fixed my ridiculous header--or lack therof? Or what?

I'd love to know!

Last Wed. my niece got her drivers permit. It was a day I thought would never come, because my niece is an only child, a very guarded only child. I had very real concerns my sister wouldn't be able to 'cut the cord'. I'm proud to say that she did and that my niece passed the written exam only missing one question. The later fact is not surprising, she's ranked #1 in her sophomore class and most likely will graduate in that same spot if not far behind. My children aren't even in the same race with her academically speaking. I'm not the least bit jealous of that fact, she's earned everything she's got. My sister had the time and resources to be able to virtually 'tutor' her from day one and I admire that. Ironically now my niece is tutoring her Mom with her college math courses--my sister recently went back to school.

Last Thursday my niece and my sister decided to take a little joyride over to our Grandmother's home to show her the new permit. I'm really not sure how much my niece had been driving, I only know my sister told me that they had been letting her drive around town. By the time I got my learner's permit I was driving all over town--alone. Things were just different back then and I was the oldest, blah, blah, blah. The ride was uneventful right up to the point where they'd arrived at my Grandmother's apartment. My neice was making a right hand turn at a low speed when the passenger side tire blew like a rocket! Now this has been a fear of mine my entire driving career. And I have to say that even after more than 25 years of driving experience the fear still haunts me. My sister says the car lunged to the left with great force, my niece was doing all she could to bring the car under control. She jumped the curb in front of my Grandmother's home, side-swipped a small tree then came to rest against the side of the neighboring apartment! She HIT the apartment! Luckily they were not traveling at a high rate of speed so damage to the apartment was minimal. The car is not damaged terribly but enough to more than likely total it. The real damage was to my niece's psyche. She was hysterical--she thought her Mother was hurt(thankfully she wasn't). They were both extremely lucky and I'm happy to say my niece has driven since the accident and seems to be handling things well.

In a general overview you'd think my sister and my niece have a charmed life, and in some respects they do. But how quickly things can happen to make you realize just how precious life is. I know my sister has looked down on me for various choices and decisions I've made in my life and I must admit there have been times when I have envied her but neither of us are perfect, we don't have perfect children, or husband's or lives.  We must both realize we have to cherish these imprefections and live each day like it was our last.

I'm sure there will come a time when we can all look back with a laugh and say, "ya remember Katie got her permit on Wednesday and totaled the car on Thursday!" And is that same moment realize how truly lucky we really are.

The hubby and I are on the downhill swing to becoming 'Emptynesters'! We're down to the last two...I can't focus on that for too long because I start to get all sad. Yes, the first sentence of this post would lead you to believe I'm excited about them all finally being gone, right? Right. Don't get me wrong there's a huge whole other side to this, but 7 people in a house, 5 of which are teenagers, which also happen to be step-siblings, is a recipe for disaster. Words can't describe how bad some times were. Trying to feed them almost required an additional part-time job, and the faint hope of everyon e being happy at the same time was two of the worst.

There have been a lot of fun times though. The four of us remaining were laughing about that this afternoon at lunch. But I realized somethig this afternoon--normally in every family the youngest child is always a little more 'spoiled' than all the rest. All of my kids are spoiled, I'll admit I've failed and given in way more often than I should have. But the youngest two are/will be a little different. I realized why this afternoon: By the time the youngest are teenagers we've damn near seen/heard it all--we're worn out! I had 3 of the  best liars in the Free World living with us at one time--yes the older 3. Between them I've heard every line there is, and what they didn't come up with themselves,  I probably had already told my parents at their age in order to get to go and do what I wanted. Believe me I love my children dearly, all of them but I just don't have the fight in me I once did.

I'm very proud of the older kids, they're all successfully doing what they want to be doing, from getting a higher educat ion to enlisting in the military. So, even though I made them all pretty rotten, they've not turned out too bad! But...

...I adore time with my husband and I am really looking forward to it just being the two of us--for the first time. That's the way things go when you create a make shift Brady Bunch.

By nature I am not a cheap person, in fact more often than not I am slightly careless with money. My Father would say I'm very careless! He is cheap. I pay my bills, I have a savings account that gets a deposit every month and I donate something to charities on a regular basis--so ethically speaking, I handle my financially responsibilities. However I do not go out of my way to save every penny I can at every expenditure...my Father does. In fact he lives for it! Once when I was moving he walked around dumbfounded at all the pennies just lying on the floor. I have nothing against the penny, it's a fine piece of currency, I just don't go out of my way to keep up with every one of them. He would pick up each one he found, shake his head and say "72 more of those and I'll have a dollar." Nickles, dimes and quarters--ya I'll always pick those up, but sorry Daddy the penny is hardly worth the physical labor to bend over.

My dear 'ol Dad never drinks anything but water when eating out. Now there's nothing wrong with that, many times I want water but I don't order it just because it's free. I'll be the first to admit that $2, or there about, is highway robbery for a Coke even if it is free refils. Let's face it, you can buy a 2-liter bottle for a buck--how often would you drink 4 liters of soda at any meal? My husband's ex-wife was on the water bandwagon too. She always made my step-sons order it when eating out. My theory on this one is, "If I can't afford to have a glass of iced tea or a Coke while dining out, I probably should be eating at home." I particularly love the people who order water with extra lemon then proceed to make their "own" lemonade at the table! *El Cheapo Alert*

Establishing the fact that I am not cheap, there is one practice that makes me crazy. That would be the charge banks add when using their ATM's. Back in the day before debit cards and such you could only use your 'cash card' at your own bank--not very convenient, but free. These days using your debit card at another bank costs anywhere from $1.50-$2.00 (these are fees in my area.) Hello...this is my money I'm having to pay to withdraw. I'm sorry I am unwilling to do that unless I absolutely have to. I have a checking account at a bank with numerous branches,  but not as many as I'd like. I've found one that has locations in 4 surrounding counties--I'm thinking a change might be in order! I realize that there must be some cost for the networking of these machines, but come on 2 smackerooni's per person? Plus, I don't pay a fee when I pay the tab at a restaurant or Wal-Mart with my debit card--why is that? Why should I pay one at the ATM?

And yes, my Father pointed out this valuable tid-bit of info several years back. It's one of the few money grubbing philosophies of his I agree with.