What Do You Do With A Crappy Day?

Do you ever have one of those days that no matter what you do, it just doesn't work out? That is today for me.

I went to find a shop in town, but when I got to the address the shop wasn't there.

 I went to get a book for M at the used book store since Books-A-Million didn't have it. No luck there.

I went to fill up the propane tank because the gas store has it on sale on Wednesdays. That sale only lasted through summer.

I tried to renew Mr. C's audiobook through the library's online service, but the server didn't recognize my account number.

I'm working on a project (that will remain nameless because it will probably turn out to be a complete and total failure) and I couldn't make any headway today.

By the the time the kids got home I needed a boost. Thankfully Sonic is still having their half-price creamslush sale. I am a cherry creamslushaholic! Thank you Sonic for the one bright spot in an otherwise crappy day.

Marvelous Cake

M likes to decorate cakes. Awhile back we bought her some cake decorating supplies to play around with. Yesterday I wanted a cake so I bought a mix and a tub of icing. Of course M wanted to make it and decorate it herself. Even though the icing wasn't the kind for piping, she did a good job drawing flowers and birds on it. It's hard to see because it's all in chocolate. It tasted wonderful too!

What a lucky mom I am to have such a marvelous daughter!

Weekend Visit

Hubby & his dad

Hubby's parents were in town for the weekend. Even though we didn't do much we had a good time just visiting. I always get stressed out about what we'll eat and what we'll do when people come to visit. This time I just didn't worry about it.

5 Points Area Jim 'N Nicks

We went to the Big City for lunch one day. I know Jim 'N Nick's is a chain, but it is amazingly good! M and I both had a pulled pork sandwich. Hubby and his parents each had a potato with pulled pork filling. Mr. C had the spare ribs. Yummy!!! I have to mention our waiter. He was very charming and probably all of about 12 years old. (Honestly, the older I get the younger everyone else seems.)

This weekend I offered Mr. C $20 if he could shoot the squirrel that gets in my bird feeder with his bow and arrow. To all you animaltarians (animal humanitarians?) there is no way that he could hit a moving target, on purpose. Plus his arrows are blunt, so they wouldn't do any real damage. But that didn't keep him from trying for hours on Sunday.

And even though it was anti-social, and probably extremely rude, I watched the Colts game on Sunday. Sometime during the first quarter, Hubby and his parents decided to watch too. They aren't football fans, so we had to explain some about first downs and other rules. I didn't think the Colts played that great this week. Somehow they pulled off the win though. Go Colts!

Things Growing in My Backyard

Even though it is officially Fall I have quite a few things still growing out back. It helps that it has been in the 90s since I don't know when. It is supposed to drop into the 80s by next week and I'm looking forward to it!

Here are some pictures I took this morning. Sometimes my camera focuses on the background instead of what I'm trying to take a picture of.

These are calla lily seeds. I'm going to try to plant them. First they need to sprout in wet paper towels, then move to sprouting soil, and finally can be planted, if they make it that far.

This is my white rose that stayed white. I tried to get all the flowers out back to be white because I like the way they look in the twilight--they seem to glow. This is the only rose that wasn't turned a color.

These are my miniature pink roses. They were white when I bought them, but apparently were cross-pollinated. Still pretty, just not white.

This is my jasmine. It stops blooming in July, but keeps growing. I cut it back to about 2-3 feet every November. It does have white flowers that give off the sweetest fragrance.

This is a stubborn rose bush that I cut down, but didn't pull out of the ground. It put off a few dark red blooms this spring (last year it bloomed profusely in white) and then seemed to die off. Shortly after that it began growing like crazy but didn't produce blooms. I looked it up and found out that roses are grafted onto a rose root. When they don't get flowers it's because the grafted on part has died and the root is growing on its own--and won't ever produce flowers. That's why I cut it down. I guess I need to pull it up. Or...maybe I could figure out how to graft another rose onto it? Have to look into it.

This is a rose that I inherited with this house. I also think it is the culprit turning all my other roses colors.

So ends your tour of my back flower garden. The impatiens out front are struggling through the heat and I've already put some pansies out in my window boxes. I'm making sure to give them plenty of water in this heat wave, and so far they are surviving. Now I'm off to clean the house and get mentally prepared for a weekend with the in-laws. ETA: 8 hours.

High Flying, For About 15 Minutes

We took the model airplane out this weekend. It got about 15 minutes of flight time before being crashed beyond hope.

Mr. C checks the controls, while Hubby makes sure everything is working.

Getting ready to launch it into the air

And it's off! Look at the top of the photo.

This was the best of five flights

After it couldn't fly, they drove it around like a car.

We may be able to buy some replacement parts--not for the first time--and get it up in the air again.

I can't resist mentioning the Colts win last night. It was the first game we've been able to watch this year. I'm so glad they showed everyone they can play a running game. And that  Brandon Jacobs? What a jerk! Go Colts!

Come on a Field Trip With Us

We went to see Vulcan in the Big City this weekend. Vulcan is one of those things you always see towering over the skyline, but don't think about actually going to. For a mythology lesson on Vulcan, you can read this. Note at the very bottom of the article it references the cast iron statue. This statue weighs more than 21 Honda Accords.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade. You don't have to pay to just walk around outside. There is a charge for riding up the statue and going in the visitor center. We didn't pay. I think it's $6 a person.

There were great views of the city from on top of Red Mountain. What a small "Big" city!

This is a map of the city and surrounding area. The different colors represent the mineral deposits in the ground. The skinny, red line is the iron ore that runs through Red Mountain. The dirt on the mountain is actually a deep red. Not the orange red that is common here in the south.

This is a view to the south (away from downtown). If you're familiar with the area then you would recognize Hoover, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, and Mountain Brook.

Hope you enjoyed our little field trip and if you're ever in the area then you can check it out yourself.

Project is Completed

The ceramic tile is completely finished. Here are some during and after pictures.

Some difficult cuts in the laundry room.



Hubby thought I should paint the laundry room while it was cleared out. What a *!#@ good idea, just what I wanted to do! 



Under the stove

Remember the picture from Amazing Job #3? I was standing where the register is in the pantry.

Kitchen and breakfast nook

Hallway into the laundry room

Including the girls bathroom, we have laid about 500 square feet of tile. We have enough to do our bathroom too, but not sure if that's going happen or not.

Amazing Job #3



Me: Waiting for Amazing Job #3 to come along & tackling a little remodel



This is my final post in this mini-series looking back at the best jobs I've had. I have to skip over our time in South Carolina. M says that SC wasn't even an exit on the interstate of our lives, just a rest stop. Pretty accurate.

When we moved to our current home I was very belligerent about it. I still have a hard time saying where we live. It sounds like the punchline to a Jeff Foxworthy joke: You might be a redneck if, you live in ... As part of my protest I refused to get my teaching license here. Every other state we lived in I had dutifully filled out forms, paid fees, forwarded transcripts, and submitted fingerprints. Not happening this time.



After a few months of being home, I decided to apply for a teacher's aid position. Less stress and no license required. I didn't get the job. However, a few months later I received a phone call from a principal. She had a three month maternity leave for a 5th grade teacher and wanted me to come in for an interview. I had never heard of the school, but agreed. (She heard of me from the aid position I applied for at another school.) I was very impressed at my interview. Up until this point, I had been so disappointed in the schools here. They encouraged the children to check out early daily, didn't assign much homework, and didn't foster an atmosphere of learning as far as I could see. The school where I interviewed, and ultimately went to work, was different. I could tell right away that the principal, reading coach, and teachers were passionate about education. How refreshing! I transferred Mr. C over before I heard if I had the job or not.

In addition to the 5th grade assignment there was a 3rd grade maternity leave, so I spent the whole spring semester at that school. As with my other amazing jobs, the parent involvement was phenomenal. And anyone who has taught can tell you what a difference it makes when parents are actively involved. Furthermore, even though I was "only" a sub, the faculty embraced me and made me feel like a full-time teacher. I had so much support, without even having to ask for it.



The common thread shared by all these jobs is that I didn't go looking for them. They found me. I am not advocating sitting around on your butt, watching soaps and eating bon bons, and the perfect job will come knocking on your door. I have just had the good fortune that when I am simply living my life and not being overly concerned about working, amazing jobs have come into my life.  

Amazing Job #2

Simply Gorgeous

After I left my first amazing job, I spent two years being a full-time stay-at-home mom. This was right after Mr. C was born, the girls were both in school, and we had just moved to Tennessee--six hours from all our family. I probably could have gone right back to work, but even in hindsight I wouldn't change a thing about this time off. This was when I was a room mom and organized holiday parties at school; cooking cute cupcakes and filling treat bags with all kinds of goodies. I also helped lead two Girl Scout troops, taught Sunday School, spent every Friday eating lunch at school with the girls, and was a team mom for the soccer teams. When Mr. C turned two, one of my mom friends asked if I was going to put him in preschool. I hadn't thought about it, plus without me working we didn't have the income for it.

A couple of weeks before school started I received a phone call from the director of the preschool. The abridged version of the conversation went as follows. I hear you used to teach kindergarten. Me: yes... We have an opening for a 4 year olds teacher. Would you be interested? Me: Sure. When would you like me to come in for an interview? I don't think you understand. I'm offering you the job. Me: (thinking) Wow, you don't even know me. (Out loud) That's great! 

I began teaching part-time and Mr. C started going to preschool. I learned that most of the teachers in the public schools, with kids, had taught at the preschool while their kids were young. It was sort of the fast-track for getting back into teaching, for those who had stayed home for a few years with their kids. Perfect for me. The plan at that time was to teach part-time until Mr. C started kindergarten and then go back to full-time in elementary.

This job was amazing because the hours were so perfect for our family. Once again, the pay was not great. It allowed Mr. C to get out and socialize and gave me a little spending cash, that's about it. Like Amazing Job #1, the families and staff I worked with were wonderful. It was actually a bigger school than the one where I taught kindergarten, so it was a little more impersonal. Still, it was easy to form relationships. And those relationships are very important for landing teaching jobs, no matter what anyone says. It's usually about who you know. Remember the mom who wondered if Mr. C was going to preschool? She was the music and PE teacher there. She was also the mom of S's best friend.

I think things would have gone off without a hitch if we hadn't moved again. As it is, we moved to South Carolina when Mr. C was 4 1/2. It was the middle of the third year of my teaching with the preschool. If we had stayed I am confident that I would have gone back to teaching elementary school the following year. How can I be so sure? The summer after we moved to South Carolina I was called by the Personnel Director of the schools back in Tennessee. He wanted to talk to me about a job. I actually drove back and met with him and a principal. They offered me a 2nd grade classroom, but wanted me there in eleven days. It was a tough decision, but I turned it down. Hubby's job was in South Carolina and he made over twice what I would make as a teacher. No way for him to turn down his job so we could move back. So I passed on it, and our family stayed in South Carolina. Still, my heart aches when I think about living in Tennessee and that I held that chance in my hand and let it go. Tennessee was the happiest place we've lived. Home.

Amazing Job #1

This post is not about Mr. C, but everyone loves to see pictures of the kiddos. According to the comment on my last post I sound defeated about my future. To counteract that, this week I'm going to write about the three best jobs I've ever had. There is a recurring theme, so pay attention, there may be a quiz. haha

A year after graduating from college--a year spent substitute teaching--I received a phone call from a principal. It was late August and school had already started in the town where we lived at the time. I wasn't expecting to be hired that late in the year. The principal introduced himself and told me about his school--a small, private Catholic school 25 miles away, across the state line. He mentioned the salary--about half what public school teachers made. On the phone I had all kinds of excuses not to take the job. Where did you get my name? I asked. The career center at your university. I don't have a license to teach in your state, I argued. You'll pass the test, I've seen your grades. I'm not Catholic, I protested. Neither was I until a couple of years ago, but I'm not looking to convert anyone right now. Damn! I thought. I'm running out of excuses. Just come in for an interview, he said.

The interview, which was to last about 30 minutes, was almost 3 hours long. I felt like I had come home. School started in a week and I was ready when the little guys arrived. Actually, several straggled in during the days leading up to the beginning of the school year, just to meet the new teacher.

 It wasn't just the students at that school. You became a part of their entire family. Without asking I had needs met that I didn't even know were needs. One father made a heavy-duty wooden holder for my construction paper. Anyone who has taught little kids knows what a pain construction paper can be when you need the color on the bottom of the stack. Without even asking I was presented with a wonderful system for storing the colors separately. It sounds small, but it was huge. There were numerous other things they did for me over the years I taught kindergarten at the school.

The staff was another reason that my experience at this school was so wonderful. They were more than just collegues, they were family. There was just such an easiness (is that even a word?) in our interactions with one another. I don't remember any drama. How refreshing!

If Hubby hadn't taken a job 6 hours away, I would probably still be there today. Sure the money sucked and there wasn't any prestige, but it was just such a good fit for me. Last spring I googled the local paper from where that school is. I realized the first class I taught was graduating. I found a picture of 8 girls in formal wear, representing the court from some spring dance. Five of the girls were mine. They were beautiful--very mature and poised, ready for their futures. I had to smile, thinking I had some small part in preparing them for that future.

And that was my first, and most, amazing job.

Life Goes On

I haven't had anything interesting to write about lately. Plus, it's just been one of those gray weeks (emotionally, not the weather).

I went to the community college to see about transferring classes and starting on a program. Unfortunately a bachelor's degree doesn't automatically get you into a community college. There are only two classes that I would need to take as a prerequisite, but I would also have to take the ACT. That for me is a deal-breaker. Not only am I not sure if I could pass it, I really don't want to go take it with a bunch of high school kids. However, the fact that I'm writing about it means I'm still thinking about it. 

If I did go through all the motions this is what the schedule for my future education would be. Fall 2011: Math 101 (I tested out originally but the CC wants it on a transcript or take the class), Spring 2012: Physics, June 2012: apply to the program and maybe get accepted, Fall 2012: begin 2 1/2 year program, December 2014: graduate with an AAS degree.

I don't usually ask for feedback, but what do you think? Comment below, email me at frontporchcocktails@gmail.com, or my other email, if you know it. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I'm officially retired. Sounds better than unemployed.

Labor Day

Hubby took advantage of the Labor Day holiday to get a lot of work done on the floor. Our original plan was to finish by Labor Day. It looks like it will be Wednesday or Thursday. Still, not too bad. Hubby actually could have worked the three day weekend for overtime, all employees were given that option. It was tempting, but we really needed him here.

I was thinking about my own work-life. I have been fortunate to never "have" to work. So my attitude toward working is different than someone who is the breadwinner in a family. When I work, I feel productive and part of the bigger society. But I also feel guilty that I may be taking away a job that someone else "needs" in order to provide for a family. When I'm not working, I feel like a lazy leech, who is not pulling her own weight. It's a no-win situation for me.

I was also thinking about the economy this weekend. All the news is gloom and doom. Around here things are picking up, and some of our neighbors never even experienced a downturn. It can be a great national ecomony, with the stock market going up and all, but if you're out of work, then your personal economic outlook is horrible. Same thing if the nation is falling on hard times, but you've got more overtime than you know what to do with. It is really such a personal, case-by-case issue.

I hope that all those out there looking for work find it soon. And maybe next Labor Day more people will will be celebrating a day off work, instead of another day of searching for a job.

Rural Studio

I had posted yesterday about S's bad experience at school, but then deleted it. It reeked of the negativity I'm determined to keep out of this blog. However, I did have a link to information about the Rural Studio which some people may find interesting. Here it is. And thanks to MAWG, here is a link to more information about the Rural Studio. I'm not sure if S will eventually go into architecture, but it is what has her attention for now. And she's about 99% sure that she'll be at Auburn next year.

Happy Birthday Hubby

Hubby enjoying ice cream on Ocracoke during vacation

Today is Hubby's birthday. It is always surprising when he has one. You know how you always forget to change the date at the beginning of the month or year because it sneaks up on you when you're not ready? Well, that is what happens to Hubby's birthday each year. It's probably the same with anyone who has a birthday on a 1st.

No special plans. I've made a cheesecake--from a box--and we'll probably head out to the Mexican restaurant. He's been working late. This is good. For about a year and half there was no overtime allowed at work. It's back to running full capacity now. Even better news is that temporary workers have been hired back (in the 100s), bonuses will be paid out this year (although not as big as in the past), promotions are being made (they had been on hold since 2008), and Hubby has permission to hire 2 workers from outside the plant to fill positions (they had been strictly hiring within or leaving positions unfilled). Most of the good news is due to this and the fact that people are buying cars again.

We drove the 2011 Odyssey around all last weekend. The one we had was fully loaded, so they could check for any potential problems prior to mass production. My favorite feature on it is the blind-spot indicator. When a car drives into your blind-spot the indicator comes on next to the rearview mirror on that side of the car. What a great safety feature! Our "funny" happened when we plugged M's iPod in and told the voice activated system "Playlist". She responded with "Temperature Down". We did get the temperature figured out and listened to the iPod.

Even with all the cool features on the Odyssey, our family decided we're perfectly happy with our Swagger Wagon. Call us traitors, say we bite the hand that feeds us, but we are a Toyota family and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Luckily for us, there are lots of loyal Honda customers out there! Thank you to all of them.