This one was inspired by Josh. I asked my family where people gather to chat, and he said, “On the bus!” So I figured that would be a good place to gather. Maybe we can Road Trip to DM’s Apple Orchard and B&B. I also figured a school bus is kind of uncomfortable, we look for luxury in our Pull Up requirements, so I hired this bus.
What are your plans for the week? Any good road trips planned?
Rudeness will earn you a boot out the door, and you’ll have to Thumb It the rest of the way.
Us Girls..Our Views 
Popcorn!! Popcorn-popcorn-popcorn!! That’s what I’m doing this week. The boys were supposed to turn them in all last week, and this week, I expect my den leaders to be emailing me their spreadsheets and getting all the money to me so I can turn in our order. I was not really looking forward to this – I was going to have to do it all by hand. And then one of the moms in my den stepped up and said that she’d help me with spreadsheets. My artistic brain has a block against Excel – I can enter stuff, I can make simple spreadsheets, but when it comes to linking them together? Nightmare. So she created this awesome file where you put the boy’s name in, and it copies over to a main Den page. Then I can copy that onto a different file, which then transfers onto the main pack page. It’s awesome, and I owe her big time!
Our boys are doing AWESOME this year. With only two dens checking in so far, we are more than 3/4 of the way to the Pack’s goal for the year. One of our boys sold $2200 worth of popcorn!! Josh is up to almost $600, and he’s got one more order coming in tomorrow, we hope.
Aside from that, it’s same old, same old… bill paying day is tomorrow (gak), chores, the usual. At least we don’t have a den or pack meeting this week, so on Tuesday, we’ll be carving pumpkins and making the seeds. Yum.
OK, so! I’m starting the week with a bang over here.
First, I got into yet another internet fight and quit another website. Great news for my work schedule! This time it was over whether food stamps should be allowed to be used for custom-made $38 birthday cakes. You can imagine my position on that! But of course I was accused of wanting people to STARVE. It doesn’t matter how clear your words are – I reiterated many times that I do NOT have a problem with food stamps or food stamp recipients. Only with regulations that allow LUXURY purchases. There are too many people who are just above the food stamp threshold who are lucky to afford a home-baked cake. But apparently if you’re on food stamps, you need to buy a $38 cake in order for your child to feel “normal.” Why, that cake could be his only birthday present – how can SKL be so mean, taking candy from a baby? She’s cold and heartless! Not only that, she is the lady in line who looks at my grocery cart and casts me dirty looks because my food choices disgust her! Down down SKL! OK, so I am paraphrasing a bit. It got uglier when I countered with the fact that far from wanting peole to starve, I have donated more for needy families than most people on the board. Apparently that was the most arrogant, nasty thing any human has ever said. I agree that I should not have said it (even though it’s true); I said so on the thread; I apologized twice; and I stopped engaging in the conversation. But that wasn’t enough. People still felt the need to keep bashing. So I’m done with that.
Obviously the only decent people in the world are those who think handouts should be limitless, who are suspicious of taxpayers, who assume that welfare fraud is always justified and recipients are always both angelic and downtrodden. And the best part of it is when they preach how wrong it is to be judgmental. Because you never know what’s really going on in that person’s life and heart. Of course this does not apply to people who disagree with limitations on food stamp purchases. Go ahead and judge the SKLs of the world all you like. And then pat yourself on the back. Group hug! Group hug!
SO. Glad that is over. Next on the agenda: condemnation from the partner-boss. Why isn’t this done?! You forgot about it, didn’t you?! Why don’t you do anything?! How could you?! So what if it isn’t due until Wednesday, it should already be done! So what if you had other stuff to do! Why is that 100-spreadsheet (with thousands of links) project taking you so long?! You’re killing me! I promised you’d be done last Wednesday! Make it happen! How dare you think you’re going to read to your kids at bedtime! Bla, bla, bla. (Same shit, different day.)
Tomorrow (Monday) I have a 9am meeting for which I have to wear a suit, and then spend the day in the office. Frick. I hate days like that. HATE. (Feels good to say that today.)
Oh, and then my sister is having marital woes again. One week before my parents’ anniversary party, for which she of course is doing most of the work. Hopefully it cools down a bit by then.
Well, since things can only go up from here, I’m optimistic about the coming week. I hope everyone else is having fun!
Cake mix: $2.50. Tub of frosting: $2.50. Various decorations: $5 (including candles). Total price of cake: $10. The joy on a kid’s face when he realized that mommy MADE a cake (and maybe his only gift) for him? Priceless. Problem solved. Sheesh. People can really be idiots, can’t they?
I know – my mom (or later, siblings) always baked our birthday cakes. It is special! Sometimes my mom made homemade frosting too. Never had any decorations other than simple candles (which we re-used). So what? It tasted good! The only time I got a store-bought cake was when my mom was in the hospital after having my monster-sized brother. It was a small cake off the shelf. That felt like luxury to me.
Since I don’t bake for various reasons, I do buy an off-the-shelf cake for my kids. I’ve never done a personalized birthday cake, though. Unless you count the sheet cake I did for my kids’ homecoming party, which happened to be on Miss E’s 1st birthday. I don’t actually know what that cost. But the point is, that’s not what food stamps are for. Food stamps are to make sure kids get nutrition, and that’s not what they are getting if their parents are using the benefit for $38 custom cakes instead.
Here’s a funny. One of the people with a sob story on the food stamp thread mentioned on another thread how she just threw away a bunch of wine coolers that were taking up too much space in her fridge. Oh, poor me, I’m barely scraping by, but I can buy alcohol to the point where it’s taking up too much space? And then toss it in the garbage? . . . What am I not understanding?
Honestly, when I see someone in the grocery store paying with food stamps (in the rare event I even notice), I just assume they are buying food and need some help. I don’t check out what’s in their cart. I have better things to do – like stop my kids from acting like monsters. But at the same time, seeing page after page of why I should feel sorry for people because they “feel” judged for their above-average purchases/lifestyle is irritating. But I’m keeping quiet (over there anyway, LOL).
We have a busy week ahead of us and after that it only gets busier! Between work, Trin’s babysitting classes, Joy’s Scentsy party, bowling and Halloween it’ll be run run run and then next week basketball starts!!!! So, still run run run! Trinity’s excited for it though 🙂 I completely just lost my train of thought, so I’ll take that as my cue to go to bed! Have a great Monday everyone!
Speaking of run, run, run….don’t forget about our 5k on Saturday. Bright and early. So far the weather says low of 34 on Saturday. So as long as its not windy, we should be good to go! The socks are awesome! Can’t wait to see what everyone looks like 🙂
I just got up and looked outside. FOG like crazy. So now I’m monitoring the news channel websites and sticking close to my phone and radio. Wouldn’t surprise me if they called a Late Start. Although at this point, they shouldn’t, since the buses leave the barn in less than a half hour. But they’ve done it before, so I wouldn’t put it past them.
fshew and dang. Fshew: no late start. Dang, now I have nothing to complain about!
We carved pumpkins yesterday, I guess I should say that I carved the pumpkins yesterday. Hunter colored on his and made all sorts of holes in it with that one tool you use to trace the patterns. But I have a blister on my finger this morning! They really should make those tools bigger. They are so tiny! I got so many hand cramps using those stupid things.
Hunter is staying overnight at our friend’s house on Saturday while we go out for halloween. We are a little nervous about that. I know he’ll be fine going there, because he loves them and has so much fun. But I’m not sure how he will do with going to bed there and staying overnight.
Alright everyone enjoy your week!! ugh I hate mondays!
I completely agree with you on the size of those stupid little tools. Even the expensive ones from Martha Stewart are tiny and cheap! I can’t tell you how many of those little saws I’ve bent and broken.
And good luck with Hunter and his sleepover… My advice is to have a back-up plan. ‘Course that could be because my 8-year old STILL doesn’t like sleepovers…
Boy, Monday’s sure do stink don’t they?! I could have used one more day off. Jason took today off, smart thinking. I know my job isn’t typically hard, but it has been trying lately. My little one has been going through an emotional stage. Whining, crying, pouting, complaining…which is so not like her. At home too, so we’re not sure what’s going on here. I’ll manage, it’s what I do! 😉
Our trip up north was great, with some not so great moments. A memorable vacation to say the least. Our first hiking trip and Jason goes ankle deep in MUD, like that orange nasty mud. He leans over to wash them off, and the camera falls out of the backpack pocket! Put it in rice all night, and that fixed it somewhat. The next day, it falls out of his pocket in the one little pool of water, of course! And of course, both him and bailey fall in the ice cold water, just ankle deep, but still! We jumped rocks more than we hiked. I was VERY cautious of what rocks I jumped to, they were not! It was fun though.
We didn’t do half the things we wanted to, there’s so much to do! You really need a full week up there. All in all, we had a fantastic time and can’t wait to go back!
We have a busy week also. School conferences, Tuesday. Joy’s Scentsy party Thursday, and our 5k run/walk Saturday. Then after that we have our end of the season party with the baseball team at the bowling alley.
Enjoy your Monday, if that’s possible!
So, I feel like I’m jumping into the conversation here….but you asked about road trips…
I’m contemplating taking a road trip with a GF 11/5-11/13 to New Hampshire. Yes, we’ll probably miss their peak for Fall but, NE…in the fall!? If I can just work past the guilt to say ‘yes! yes! yes!’. Already got the time off work. What to do, what to do…?
Please feel free to join in the conversation any time you like. We love that here.
If you already have the time off, DO IT!!!!!!!!! That would be fun and it’ll be worth it!
New Hampshire is a must! It is beautiful up there. Especially up in the White Mountains.
I need help guys. I’m not working on the “Sweet Tooth Fix” tab and I need to know how to organize some of these things. Should I put Soups~Salads, Casseroles ~Main Dishes or what? How would you like them to be?
I would put the main dishes in one and then soups/salads in another. Although soups/salads could be considered sides…
I know. It’s hard. I was thinking “Main Dishes” and “Sides” but then I get lost. We then have soups, crock pot meals, salads and casseroles. HELP! It’s kind of nice to see the slow cooker and crock pot meals up front so you know what you’re looking for.
And then we have Breakfast and lunch’s.
How many tabs can you have? I think soups could go with crock pot meals, and salads can go with side dishes. I do think crock pot meals should have it’s own.
This week is going to be non-stop for me. Today I had a school conference for my youngest. She made all As & Bs. She was so proud of herself! Then she had a dentist appointment and she came out of there with no cavities and flying colors. Not bad for a kid who 50% sweet stuff! Tuesday we have a Scout Halloween party. Wednesday & Thursday I have to make fire starters and go grocery shopping for my Leader Camp training this weekend. Friday we are going to try to decorate outside for Halloween. Saturday I attend an all day Camp Training from 8am until 9pm. Sunday I REST!!!!
let me know when to expect the bus, so I can have the coffee on when you arrive.
And apple pie?
actually we have an apple bar recipe w/ a power sugar drizzle frosting that really rocks (goes great w/ coffee) it’s just your basic apple pie recipe, but instead of putting it in a round pie pan, you put it on a cookie sheet and top w/ the frosting..plus it has zero calories (now I’m starting to sound like our president) 😉 later- DM