Random Grace Strikes Again

Well, it's been an emotional day. We finally have a settlement. The papers and the checks are all signed. The checks are sitting in our lawyers account to be sure they clear before they are put into our accounts. We actually settled for less than our lawyer and the mediator thought we should have gotten, but we just want it done with. We do not want to sue them or go to court.

Prophets class is having a "celebrate spring break" pizza party for lunch tomorrow. I volunteered to send in scotcheroos (Prophet's fav) for the party. I just finished them 30 minutes ago. I'll have to get up early tomorrow morning to cut the boogers, as they are torture to cut into squares once they've set up.

Tomorrow is my Smart Guy's 35th birthday. We're going over to Mom and Dad's to go out to dinner at Famous Dave's. For those that don't know, that's a BBQ restaurant. For all you southerners that doubt the quality of any kind of BBQ made in the midwest, I don't blame you a bit. But this place is awesome. It's a different style than my fav place in Birmingham, which was The Full Moon. They had awesome baked beans, with a very rich dark brown sauce and a vinegar based cole-slaw that was awesome piled on top on the sandwich. Okay, so I'm getting a little homesick for AL thinking about it. Hopefully Famous Dave's will satisfy Smart Guys craving for really good pork tomorrow night. The kids and I are staying the rest of the weekend and Smart Guy is coming back to get us on Monday.

We leave for Nashville, TN on Tuesday afternoon to head to Cleanin' Cuz's house until Saturday. We haven't been there since last February and I'm really looking forward to going. When we lived in AL, we saw each other every couple months between us stopping for the night on the way to IL to visit, girls' weekends, and everyone coming to our place for the occasional visit. It's funny, as kids Cleanin' Cuz and I fought alot, but as adults I love her dearly and cherish her a friend and cousin. They have two kids. The oldest is June. She's five and her and Bee are both about to bust with anticipation over seeing one another. Bee has been packing for two weeks. The other morning, when we all tried to brush our teeth after breakfast, all of our toothbrushes were gone. I couldn't figure out where they were to save my life. All the sudden I had a thought and asked Bee if she had packed them. She had. She is one prepared little girl. June is also looking forward to Bee's visit. Cleanin' Cuz says she's been laying out Bee's bed on her bedroom floor for awhile now. I love that they know each other well enough to look forward to visits. I remember growing up and not likeing my third cousins because Cleanin' Cuz and I thought they were a bunch of snots when we got together for our once a year Christmas gathering of the entire clan.

I talked to Ruby today. Little Miss (the baby) slept for six hours straight last night... a record. Unfortunately Ruby had an old friend over with her kids last night and after they got all the kids to bed, they stayed up and talked until 1 am. Little Miss of course woke up less than two hours after Ruby had gone to bed. Ruby says, oh well, at least they got in a good child-free visit. Maybe now that we've got this settlement I can get my train ticket and go see them for a few days.

Speaking of.... now I can go get my passport applied for and then hopefully when that's back I can get out to see my Inkling. (sound possesive... oh well...sometimes I just feel that way). It's killing me because they weren't home this evening when I tried to call and tell her what we settled for. UGH!

Have I ever mentioned that my mom's kinda, sorta a hippie kind of person. If her profession weren't enough to tell you that, her favorite shoes are Birkies and my parents have owned two different Volkswagon campers, both complete with pop-up camp tops. That's what I grew up camping in. My spot was up in the pop-up. Anyway, growing up we spent much time in "the healthfood store" as my brother and I called it. There was a small one close to us and a much larger and better one a little further away. I can remember going when I was a kid and getting my soy ice cream treats and sitting on the front steps outside eating it while Mom and Dad finished shopping. I can also vividly remember the smell of the place. A combination of fresh-baked whole grain breads, vitamins, teas, and all the bulk stuff in bins. No matter how often I walk into "the healthfood store", whereever it may be, they all smell exactly the same and for myself, it is the ultimate in relaxing and comforting. I don't shop their real often myself. Between the fact that they are usually outrageously expensive and the growing availability of healthy and organic stuff in your mainstream storms, and the fact that it's in an inconvenient spot. I do have a problem with my conscious though when I buy that stuff at Walmart instead of giving the little guys they money, but when I can get a box of Kashi cereal for $2.45 or so at Wally World and they have it almost five bucks at "the healthfood store", it's really hard on the budget to give it to the little man. Anyway, I had to go in the other day with all three kids. I usually do it when they're all in school or when I'm doing my grocery shopping in the evening without them. I had to laugh because when we walked into the store, the very first thing they all said was "This place smells like Grannie's house." Told ya she was a hippie. Her house even smells healthy. By the way, if I ever find out that any of you have fed your children whole-wheat, carob-chip cookies, I will turn you in to the proper authorities. Our mother fed them to us and they are NOT a substitute for chocolate-chip cookies. They are nasty things...yes we were tortured as children. Nobody at school would ever swap with us when we had those nasty things. (I love you Mom)

Smart Guy and Bee had a father/child party at her school this evening. It was a wild-west theme. The kids had made cowboy hats and vests for themselves earlier in the week and they made their daddies hats during the party.

I got my haircut this evening. It looks good... now if only I could get rid of all these stinkin' zits. I look like I'm 14 again.

It's raining here. Actually it's storming. I'm watching the lightening and listening to the thunder as I type. I think I've mentioned before that I love a good storm. When Katrina came thru when we lived in AL, I was giddy. Yah, I know stupid, but me nevertheless. I used to love it when it stormed while I was at school as a kid. I have a secret ambition to be one of those crazy nut cases that drive around chasing tornadoes. I think they're nuts, but I so totally understand the high they get from it all.

We went out to dinner tonight. Rarely do we do this, so it's always a special treat. I have a half of a chicken-salad croissant waiting for me for lunch tomorrow afternoon. It's calling my name right now though, so it may not make it until tomorrow. D.K. and his appetite have pretty much outgrown the kid menus at most restaurants. He ended up helping Prophet finish his dinner. The child is gonna eat us out of house and home when he's a teenager. I've never seen two young boys eat so much. The other night I made a 9 X 13 casserole dish (a double recipe) of Bisquick's cheeseburger pie for dinner. It was gone! We have five people in our family, and I only had a small piece. The boys each had at least four good-sized helpings. Bee had three herself. They're a bunch of piglets!

Well, I've rambled long enough... time for bed... hopefully this will post tonight! Probably won't get on here tomorrow because of my schedule... so I'll be back Saturday sometime most likely. Good night!

*once again this won't post tonight, so we'll try again in the morning.