Night Out

I spent last night at the American Legion Post and a great time. I dropped the girls at Tyler and Tessa's for the sleepover. Cheryl said they were up until midnight-except for Maggie. She's always the first to crash.
Anyways, after I dropped off the girls, we went to the post. Don was the cook for the night. The Steak Fry is a pretty good deal. For $11, you get a delmonico steak, baked potato, salad and veggie. They also have chicken, ribs, burgers and salmon. I sat with some friends and at various times I headed out to the cookhouse where Don was working. The Post had a DJ for enterainment. He was great. He played all kinds of music and any requests.
After I ate I just sat and listened to music. We danced and sang along. Don came out after he was finished cooking. It was a good time.
I still woke up at 7AM. Boy, I wish I could sleep in.
Cheryl will drop the girls off later. I guess the kids still have things to do after breakfast. I have to get ready for work. That will be my last Friday night out for a while. Football starts next Friday night. I usually take the girls to the home games. This year I am part of the Blue Team. The Post provides a color guard for all of the home games. This year I am in it. I'm looking forward to it.

Child Free

Here I go again. Friday morning at 5:30 waiting for my coffee before I go to work. I was suppose to work 9-5 today but no one was sched. to work the green's rack. I was the lucky one. I like working 6-2. Getting off at 2PM is nice. It's the getting up around 5AM that is the killer. Last night I was watching the Olympics. I knew I had to get some sleep but I really wanted to see the swimming. Maggie had a friend over and they were downstairs playing the Wii. I hope they went to bed at a decent time. The girls are spending the night at Tyler and Tessa's house. They are the ones with the hot tub. That means I'll be child free!! It doesn't happen very often. Usually only one is gone. Most times I have an extra one here.
Don cooks tonight at the legion. I was planning to go with Tracy and Al but they are going to a bluegrass festival. Tracy forgot that Al had already made plans. That's OK. I'll enjoy my childfree evening by myself and share my childfree night with Don. That means the History Channel on the bedroom TV.

Happy Birthday Mary

Happy Birthday to my Mary. I remember I was in Alabama in the Army when you were born. Your Mom called and said she was on the way to the hospital. It was very early in the morning. I waited around all day for a call. Late that night I called Nannie. She said your Mom was home and no baby. The next night Grampy called and said you had arrived. Your name was Mary Elizabeth. I was excited but I thought your name was going to be Mary Eileen. I talked to Nannie later and she said your name was Mary Eileen and you were the prettiest baby in the world.
A couple of days later your Mom called and yelled at me. Evidently she had given birth to me or should I say you with my personality and good looks.
I talked to you all of the time while I was in Alabama.Your Mom would hold the phone for you while I talked. You were almost three weeks old before I got to see you. It was worth the wait.
When I had my Maggie, you and you Mom were the first to come visit. She looked like you. She still does.
Anyways, have a wonderful birthday.
(I didn't call you Mamie this time!!)

Orders

Today I had to write the produce order. It was a two day order as we do not get a truck on Wednesday. I wrote my first order last week and this was my 2nd one. Although I was offered the assistant produce manager job over a year ago, I didn't actually take over the position until just recently. The last step was to start ordering. I ordered once before my vacation. I was off a week then I came back for two days then wrote the first one. It isn't that difficult. The previous assistant was in the position for over 1and 1/2 years. He used to stress out about everything he ordered. Today I wrote two orders, called in credits and went to a meeting. A fairly productive day considering how slow business has been.

Fall

I know it is August but the weather person on Channel 3 said it was fall like weather today. She's right. It is in the mid 60's and isn't suppose to get much warmer. That's OK with me. As long as it doesn't rain any more.
Today I have to be to work at 6:30. I have an order to write. All of our grapes ar going on sale this week-.99/lb.
That will make customers happy. I am getting tired of listening to people complain about prices. I only put it out on the sales floor. I don't set prices. I love when they tell me that Walmart is cheaper. Go to Walmart then. These are usually people with a full shopping cart. Go figure. Oh well. I have to get ready for work.
On a side note, I love my new coffee pot. It has an automatic setting so I can make it the night before and it is ready when I get up. That's assuming I remember to make it the night before.

Calculators

Yesterday the girls and I finished school supply shopping. Maggie needed a new scientific calculator. She doesn't know what happened to the one she had last year. I am not happy about that. In the letter I got from the middle school, it was suggested I might buy her a graphing calculator for her Algebra 1 class. Are you kidding me?! Do you really think I am going to spend over $100 for a calculator for my 12 year old? We weren't allowed to use calculators in school. The $15 dollar calculator that I bought her says it is good for middle school math including algebra and geometry. That's what we will stick with. When she gets into algebra 2 and physics then I'll get her the graphing calculator but for now, she can use the middle school one. It kills me to pay $15 for a calculator when I can go to Dollar Tree and get on for a buck. Oh well, only the semi-best for my baby!!

A couple of friends of mine dropped off some clothes for the girls. I always say yes if asked if I want handme downs. With three girls, the clothes are bound to fit one of them. Allie hit the jackpot this time. She got some really nice shirts. Maggie did OK too. My girls like hand me downs. It doesn't bother them at all. I try to pass on stuff from my girls but usually by the time Chrissy is done with them, they aren't worth passing on. Allie is actually hardest on clothes. She plays harder than the other two, especially when she was little.
I'll have to get socks and underwear for everyone and probably some new shorts. When you start school on the 25th of August, you have to wear summer things. Chrissy is on the second floor and it is always hot up there. Shortsleeves all year for her but she'll keep a sweatshirt just in case. That's what the other two did.

Crazy Weather

August always brings crazy weather around here. We have had some pretty awesome thunderstorms the last couple of days. Wednesday the tornado sirens went off sround 3AM. Don and I didn't here them because we had our bedroom door closed and the a.c. on. Allie had a friend over so Don and I had Maddie in the room with us. When the a.c. is on I can't hear anything.
Yesterday afternoon it got dark and then the skies opened up. When it stopped a beautiful rainbow filled the sky! Thirty minutes later the rains came again along with thunder and lightning. Don was planning to sell his pies at the Farmer's Market but the weather put a stop on those plans. Maybe next week.

Wii Bowling

Chrissy and I bowled tonight on the Wii. I won all three games. I know you might think I'm beating up on my precious baby but when we first got the Wii, Chrissy beat everyone. She beat Don everytime they bowled. One night she beat him 4 games in a row! Chrissy isn't feeling well and tonight she came home from VBS after only an hour because she felt sick. Maggie and Allie are spending the night at a friend's house so Chrissy and I bowled. We also played golf and she beat me two games to one. She was feeling better then I guess.
Maddie keeps watching the front door. She is waiting for the girls to come home. I told her to go to bed and the girls will be back tomorrow. She just lies on the back of the couch watching the front door. Too bad she wasn't that vigilant the other night. Maybe my bike wouldn't have been stolen.

Pictures

I figured out how to 1. Get my pictures out of my camera and load them on the computer and
2. Put them on my blog.
I have more things to learn about the picture thing but it's a start. Please enjoy the pictures from Old Fashion Days of Don and the girls. We all had loads of fun this weekend.

Our Hero

Here is the OFD watermelon eating champ in the Adult division! We are so very proud. He won 5 years ago. He hasn't competed since because of the throat cancer and a lack of upper teeth. This year he was ready. He ate 6 slices in 30 seconds.

The Girls vs. The Greased Pole

Here are the three girls after trying to climb the greased pole. I tried to get a picture of Maggie on the pole but everytime I went to snap the picture, she would slide out of the frame!!

Allie's Turn

Here's Allie trying to go up the greased pole. She was the first on to actually climb the pole and not just jump up and grab the pole. She didn't win this year either but again she was close.

Chrissy and the Greased Pole

Here is my Chrissy on the greased pole. Notice the tongue out for concentration and balance. She didn't win but she was the cutest.

Kite Flying

OFD games are off to a good start. Maggie, Allie and Chrissy each took first place in their age groups in the kite flying competition. You have to be the first to let all of your string out or be the highest one at the end of a minute and a half. Chrissy and her only competitor were both on the ground when time was up. The had 30 seconds more and Chrissy was up and flying. Allie had her string all out in about 30 seconds! There was just the right amount a wind and with Allie's speed, her kite just took off. Maggie got all of her string out too but she wasn't going to compete. She was up all night with a belly ache. I was up all night with her. She finally threw up at 4AM and then fell a sleep. I fell asleep too! Maggie and Allie won last year too. They all have nice plaques to hang on the wall.
Right now they are upstairs giving the kittens flea baths. The pet parade is at 1pm. Yhey have baby doll clothes to dress the kittens. Later this afternoon is the greased pole and watermelon eating contests. Results will be posted later

August

The countdown begins. 24 more days until school begins. Maggie was sitting here beside me while I was checking my mail. When I logged on to blog, she was still sitting here. As soon as I started, she says "I can't watch this" and went back up stairs. It's not that I don't enjoy having my children home all day. During the school year the house schedule becomes more structured. Dinner time and bedtimes are created and are more enforceable. I have never been a real stickler for bed times. Usually the girls are in bed by 9PM. If I have trouble getting them up in the morning, I have them go to bed a little earlier. Soccer practice interferes with dinner. They always seem to have practice at 6PM. I don't want them to eat too much before practice and 7 or 7:30 is a little late.

Old Fashion Days started last night. Our front porch was full of people watching the parade. We did get the downstairs cleaned and sparkley before everyone got there. The girls sold a few bottles of water to my friends even though I had a cooler of cold drinks available. They also sold a couple of cups of Kool-Aid. It wasn't a very profitable night but maybe they will do better as the weekend goes on. Tonight on Main Street are the Bed Races. You need a team of 5 adults. 1 rides and the other 4 push. Last year was the first time they had them and it was a riot. Tonight I hope there will be a few more teams. They added the bed races for the adults because most of the games are geared to the kids. The adults also have horseshoes and of course, cornhole. The horseshoes are serious competition. They have classes of competitors. The have horseshoe pits at the county fairgrounds and teams play there all of the time. Cornhole is really big around here. To me it is just a version of beanbag toss. but some people take it very seriously. At the American Legion Post we have Cornhole tournements nearly every weekend during the winter.