TP'ing Is So Old School

When I was in middle school and high school tp'ing was the thing to do. If you woke up with your house done you knew you'd arrived. Been accepted.

I was taken tp'ing for birthday parties, on a date, and with a group from church in the church van!

As I was in college tp'ing was changing. Ever been forked? Or signed? The plastic fork thing is hilarious. I've heard it takes a while to clean up though. And the signs? That one I don't like. I've seen a yard with a hundred real estate for sale signs in it. To me that's more like stealing. And that would be so hard to get taken care of! Imagine either returning them to the realtors or having to call them all to say you have them.

But this?
This had me laughing. Okay, cackling. Election day was over and since this house is right by the polling place for our community I'm sure they didn't have to go far to pick the signs up. I know it was still a bunch to pick up, but it would just involve picking and pitching in the trash can.

Luckily they left it up for two days so everyone could enjoy it:)

Sonic

We have a love of Sonic in this here house. It was a very rare treat before the wonderful incredible thing called Happy Hour came into being. I usually go twice a week. Diet Dr Pepper with cherry and easy ice? It's a little sip of heaven. I treat the girls to it every Monday because of voice lessons right after school.

In our last five or six visits we haven't gotten very good service. Now, we don't just go to this one because it's close, but because it's the best. Something has changed though. I've waited up to 20 minutes for four drinks.

And Monday this happened.

A cup with a hole in it. Because we were in a hurry to get to voice I told her to cover it with her finger. But soon that wasn't holding it in. So she attached her mouth to it. It was very hard to drive when I was laughing so hard.

Then she decided to just drink it one drop at a time.I was crying at this point. Sadly we went last night for dinner. Just three Wacky Packs and a drink. I placed the order four times and when it was repeated, it was wrong. Every. Single. Time. The last time I asked for her to repeat it she didn't. I pushed the button to make sure it was right, but she didn't reply before the food came. Of course when the food came it was wrong, and only one of the three drinks they brought was right. We'd ordered four drinks. The car hop left the straws and took the drinks back. He came back six minutes later with three drinks. All once again wrong. He left more straws and took the drinks back. Then the manager came with three drinks. Two of them were right. He left a handful of straws and took the wrong one back. I was so mad but could not stop laughing because at this point I was holding 12 straws and three were already in use! When the manager came back the last time all the drinks were correct and I handed him 12 straws before he tried to hand me one more. We were now in a hurry to get to church and I had to get away from that place. As I backed out I realized I hadn't paid. In the five times someone came to my window they never asked for money.

I felt no need to pull back in and bring that up.

I think we'll be taking a break from Sonic. And I'll be making a phone call to a 1-866 number.

Have any of you ever had service so bad you stopped going to a favorite place? I can't be the only one!

Family Grown

One of my favorite parts about going to my in-laws is stopping by the family farm store. As we pulled onto the street I saw it. This sign must have been done just for me.Tomatoes? No stinking way.

Squash? Yes please.

Cucumbers? They were for pickling, so no. Pickles are just a sad sad way to get a nice cucumber drunk.

Eggplant? Never again.

Peaches? Those we get somewhere else.

Purple Hull Peas? Yes, yes, yes!!!I waited until I was checking out to decide if I would be getting a watermelon. Sadly because I found family made and labeled Barbecue Sauce and Picante Sauce I was out of money.

Even more sadly, Shawn threw away the cute Picante Sauce jar I wanted to save and display on a shelf in the kitchen. Guess I'll have to drive 4 hours to get another one.I did however buy one of the medium size Athena cantaloupes. I also sent a picture of the sign with the name to my friend Athena and asked if she knew she had a cantaloupe named after her. She replied something about her 'melons' that I won't share on here:) These lovelies found their way into my cart. They were used for an Enchilada Soup from the Mitchell's Angels cookbook that I'm selling again. How's that for advertising??And hello there. I bought three pounds. It wasn't enough. We all fought over who would get the last bite.

And I fry it in oil after coating it with half flour, half cornmeal. Any other way is just wrong. Just plain wrong.Purple Hull Peas. I never knew if I'd like these or not until I just broke down and tried them. The girls love to hull them so I buy some unhulled for us and some hulled for my grandmother. I found a recipe that involves bacon grease so now of course we love them.

Bacon grease makes everything better.I love this place. I wish we had one close to us.It was started by Uncle Chester. He was my father-in-laws uncle. One of the originals of the family. I knew him for many years before he died and there just wasn't a nicer guy.He was the world record holder for largest watermelon in the Guinness World Records Book one year. This fake watermelon just reminds us of our families one year of fame:) We got more than 15 seconds.So I left with raw sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, the squash, okra, cantaloupe, peas, some new potatoes, and barbecue and picante sauce. Most of it family grown. We feasted like kings for several nights.

I can't wait until our next trip!

11 miles

Saturday morning my alarm went of at 4:53.

I hate regular times.

I was actually excited to head out for 11 miles because the week before the 6 I did had been rough. I've been having some shoe problems (I will never again leave the original running store) and I finally had the right ones. Plus the weather here has finally started to cool down. After having a migraine at mile 8 of a 9.5 miler a few weeks before, I needed redemption. I decided (since I'm a doctor) that the reason for the migraine was my electrolytes were low. That much sweat without proper hydration really wasn't smart. I'm not a Gatorade drinker but this Friday night I had one right before bed, some for breakfast, and the rest after the run. I should get paid for my medical services because I might be on to something.

We were running around a local lake and as we got up on the dam the sun was just rising.

It was bee-you-tea-full. We went out 5.5 miles and turned around and went back. That gorgeous sun? Well, it was in my face for the last part.

Good thing it was pretty to start with or I might have been mad.

It's A Campout!

Just walking up to this building at our church you might think people were just hanging around the building talking....until you see the tents in the background.Also the list of considerations on the door is a bit confusing. And then you see it. The list of hopeful parents with their children's names and grade they'll be entering next year. Yep, it's open transfer day!! Well, actually open transfer day is Wednesday, September 1st.

Since our school district is less than a square mile we should be a small school. We were when I was a student. Now because it's 'the' school to be in, we are almost 70% transfer. We are a big school, but you still get a small town feel. Teachers don't come to start off at a small school and go bigger, they come and stay. McKinley has one that's been there 24 years. I had three that taught over 30 years there.

The only way to get in as a transfer student is to come to open transfer day, fill out the paperwork, and hope the grade your child will be in next year has an opening. So it makes sense to try and be the first person to get your name on the list for that grade. The doors open on the 1st at 7:30 a.m. About 7 years ago parents would get in line at 6 in the morning. But each year they get earlier and earlier. This year, 6 days early. The tents were new about 3 years ago. The school has no guidelines about it, and no control over what happens until they open the doors that morning, so the list of considerations, some camper wrote and posted.

The lady in this picture looked a little older to me...when someone asked her how old her children were she said her older 3 were grown and gone, but the two boys they'd just adopted from Haiti were in elementary. How precious is that? Although the school has no guidelines, they are nice enough to provide port-a-potties. I hope this lady is on the right side of those! I wonder if our local stores are out of tents....I do like the colors:DI am so thankful for my address at this point! We are a few of the coveted in district owners. Who needs a tent?? This dad just pulled out his sleeping bag at night and climbed into the back of his truck on his cot. Hope there's no rain in the forecast.As I walked away I was so proud of our school. This is what people are doing to get in. I'll be back every day to take more pictures. I'm loving this!