The Best Party Ever

Big Princess said those words and I knew we had done it right. For her to tell us it was the best party she'd ever had considering only 2 of her friends were there (the rest was family & family friends)tells me she felt treasured and loved.

Big daddy and I discussed how different Big Princess' graduation was from our own. Neither of us had a party or gifts. Big daddy's family moved out of town the next day leaving him to live in his coach's garage. My mother had just dis-owned me for the first time and was pretending I didn't exsist so no one showed for my graduation.

While I don't think we were living vicarously thru our daughter, we both knew we wanted something different from what we had experienced. I'm pretty sure we accomplished it, she felt special and knew we are so very proud of her accomplishments.

Congratulations Big Princess!
Love, Mom & Dad

79 Boys & Big Princess

Big Princess called and said her college called.
"I didn't get into any of my residence hall choices."
Well, what did you get in to?
"If I take honors religion I can get in to my 3rd choice since all the honors students are housed together."
And if you don't want to take honors religion? Then where will you live?
"They said I'd be in Johnson Hall."
That's funny, we looked at several residence halls and I don't recall a Johnson Hall.

I immediately pull up the website and click Women's residence halls. Nothing comes up. That's odd I think. So I click on map of the campus. There it is by the baseball fields. I click on it and up comes the description:

This residence hall houses approximately 80 men with suite baths. Many students enjoy the relaxed environment and community for which this dorm in known.

Big Princess, I think you should give me the name and number of the person who called. I'd better double check this and you should probably expect to take honors religion.

Inlaws from Heaven

My inlaws arrived last night while I was at church with the kids. There were no calls demanding we come home imediately like I would expect from my family. We had a nice chat, shared some pictures and went to bed on time. You know me, my schedule means everything to me. This morning went smoothly everyone got up as usual and out of the house on time.

The only downside? They pretty much like to chain smoke and they are doing it in our house. My husband wouldn't dream of asking them to take it outside. Even though I have a canopy and chairs for them. But we long ago agreed to let each of us deal with our own parents.

They are all ready asking the girls what they would like to do. They seem amused by little princess' rambling stories and they like cats so they aren't freaking out over 5 cats trying to sleep on their suitecase. They've offered to take Big Princess to work tonight. They totally wanted to know everything about her mission trip (this from non-christains).

I'm thinking this is going to be a very smooth visit from the inlaws. Don't get me going about my mother and brother. They don't arrive until Saturday night.

Mother From Hell

I can't believe I was looking forward to seeing my mother. Yeah, I knew I'd have to put up with her alcoholic good for nothing husband but I was still looking forward to it.

But every time I talk to her I get more pissed off. Some things never change, my mother is one of them.

She asked that my husband and I not offer them alcohol because they had both stopped drinking. Well, I've heard this one about 10 times. He stopped after each of the 3 or 4 DUI's, after the conviction for attempted murder, after he was diagnoised with diabetes, etc. My brother told me he got busted again around Christmas right in front of his subdivision and lost his license for 90 days and that's what's behind this latest round of non drinking.

I was like, Hello? Mother? You know we don't drink. We don't keep beer in the fridge, I have a bottle of kaluah I've had for years under the sink. But we maybe have drinks out with friends twice a year. And the party is at our Church, we weren't even thinking of serving alcohol.

Her latest, she hopes I don't have too much scheduled because they want to go to Sea World. They can't come earlier because they have to attend someone else's graduation. I kinda thought she was gonna take the girls but no. I told her graduation doesn't start until 7:30 pm but Big Princess had to attend rehersal that afternoon. "Well, it's not like I have to go to that," she said. Instantly telling me she wasn't taking her granddaughters.

Big princess has her heart set on a family dinner at a restaurant she has always wanted to eat at, The Boiling Pot. Its a fondue restaurant so it ought to be fun. I already know its expensive. The only time we can pull this off would be Sat. evening. I asked my mother what time they expected to arrive. "Well, there's just no way to know," then she proceeded to tell me how expensive that would be. I told don't worry we're buying.

And hey, Big Princess only graduates high school once. We've had to deny her a letter jacket, a class ring, and many other things due to lack of funds. I don't want her to remember her graduation with a family dinner at McDonald's.

If my mother doesn't get with it, she will push all four of us farther away than we already are (if you think a 20 hr drive is far).

Golf Tournaments in the country

My company puts on an annual golf tournament in honor of an employee that died. I guess he died five or so years ago since this was the 5th annual. He apparently was some high up guy and his family doesn't need the money. We actually raise the money to scholarships to TX A&M. This year brought in approx. $20,000.

The various chores involved in putting this event on are divided up amongst various people in the company. My boss was incharge of registration, keeping a list of everyone playing and paying. Trust me this is a big job as the actual income was $30,000+. I also know because in the middle of it she handed it off to me. I've never even played golf let alone put a tournament together. I was spending a couple hours a day on this thing. So even coming in on the tail end, I probably put in 20 hours.

There was some squabbles amongst women as they usually is when you have 3 women with control issues on one project. Most of it was talking smack about them behind their backs.

Well, I'd like to kick the person who decided to have this thing on a Monday with a tee time of 7 am. I have to drive an hour to get there and was supposed to be there by 6:30 am. I over-sleep about once every two years but wouldn't you know it, Monday was my day. I awoke at 5:15 am instead of 4:30 am. Talk about freaking out!

Thank goodness I had already packed the car and had my clothes laid out and I showered the night before. I had my pastor's middle daughter spend the night to do my hair. She can do the most beautiful french braids. And I wanted to look good, after all I would be meeting many company people for the first time. (First impressions are very important) She quickly did my hair and I arrived only 35 minutes late. Not too bad.

The morning was very chilly and caught us all off guard but the afternoon was perfect. I don't think there has been a more perfect day all year.

The first set of golfers came back around 12 as the next group was registering. It was crowded and I was trying to help everyone check in quickly. So I didn't recognize a couple of people, what can I say.

A. I'm bad with names
B. Some of these people I'd only met once
C. It's hard to recognize people in unfamiliar surroundings
D. These men had some of the SKINNIEST WHITEST LEGS I've ever seen. It was blinding!

I did manage to convince a couple of guys to buy my lunch and a beer. I promised I would recognize them after the bonding event of sharing beer.

Calling all Super hero's...

Don't you hate it when you're the smartest anything?

You don't have anyone to help you when you get stuck. I'm the guru of Microsoft Word here. Even the IT department looks to me when someone has a Word problem.

You haven't heard from me for a week due to travel and the "BIG" project. I finished the "BIG" project at 2 pm Friday (it was due by 5 pm). It wouldn't email to my boss just 4 hours away. IT just laughed, you'll never get it sent, it's too big, just burn a cd and mail it, they all had worthless advice. I wanted it in my boss' hands prior to the 5 pm deadline.

I double zipped it (it can be done) and finally got that baby to fit thru the birth canal we call email at 3:30 pm. I started calling Houston, no answer, apparently they all come in at the butt crack of 5 am so they can leave at 3 pm. Not a single soul was left to tell me if my baby made it unscathed. I would have to wait for Monday.

I still felt tremendous relief that it was done and gone to its daddy. I wouldn't have to come in yet again this weekend. Over-time pay is sweet but it gets old working 11 hr days.

I arrive this morning to "your file will not print". What? I didn't think to try and print it. After all, its a first draft, we'll make 50 changes before it needs to be printed. All the footnotes and hyper-links work (I checked those).

I try from my end and in the words of Napoleon Dynamite, Heck No, it won't print. I try this and I try that, I search the internet for some other poor soul who has encountered this same problem and fixed it. Nothing.

When you're the expert, who do you call?

Super Heros, I can't print. Come quickly.

My Fault

I'm finally back in town from the boonies. You know its bad when you don't even have any bars on your cell phone. I'm totally beat.

I want to write about my visit to the Mormon Temple and the return of fire-flies after a 10 year absence. I also have to tell you about the things that happened while out and about for the company. Being a girl certainly does have its advantages, especially if you know how to work what your momma gave ya...

Were you disappointed?

I’ve got one of those counter things that tell me how many people check out my “diary”. It’s a good thing to, because no one ever leaves a comment. I average about 200 people a month. I don’t have any idea how this stacks up in the blogging world. I’d have to imagine I’m small potatoes (more like the eye of the potato). My stuff is just my life and thoughts. I’m not terribly exciting or thought provoking.

I have a hard time believing that anyone could find me (so to speak) in this vast space. I have only given the site to 1 person (who needed a laugh) and Big Princess stumbled onto it (actually she was obsessed with finding me).

I tend to forget that when I leave comments on other blogs that my site info gets attached. So when I check out my stats and which search engines are finding me, sometimes I’m being found from leaving comments elsewhere. For the most part its pretty dull stuff but... I do read one extremely risqué blog (sorry, no plug) and occasionally comment on it.

So I have to wonder what those people thought when they followed the risqué stuff to my blog. They must have been so disappointed. I’m sure they were hoping for more than they found.

Sorry...

Don't answer that phone

What a day! I've been screaming busy at work all day. Meetings and people vying for pieces of my time and expertise. I shouldn’t do it but I keep answering my phone even though I’m meeting with someone in my office but I’m the only one in the department today and I feel like I have to catch the calls. Its 10 am.

“Hello”

“Is this Mrs. Queen, Big Princess’ mother?”

“Yes”

“This is Mr. Principal from your daughter’s high school.”

My heart drops into my stomach. I’ve never been called by the principal in 13 years Big Princess has been in school. My first thought is that there has been an accident.

“Yes, I’m sorry to have to tell you this but (I’m still thinking the worst) Big Princess has been picked up by the campus police.”

“Oh dear, where was she?”

“She was across the street at the Taco Hut.”

“May I please speak with her?”

Big Princess says hello with all the gusto of a dead man walking. I mention that we’ll discuss this when I get home (and I might have said a couple of other things). I get the principal back on the phone:

“Sir, what are the consequences of her actions?”

‘Well, usually I suspend them but since I’ve been able to talk to you and the fact that she’s never been in my office before… I’ll have to think about this.”

I’m a little ticked off but mostly amused by how afraid I know Big Princess is going to be all day until I see her. I can picture her wringing her hands and saying over and over, “My Mom’s gonna kill me!”

Yeah, I’m gonna have to put on a stern face and have the “I’m disappointed in you” speech. But hey, she wasn’t smoking or doing drugs or having sex in the parking lot. She was hungry and skipped 1st period for tacos. There are worse things an 18 year old high school senior with 3 weeks of school left could be doing.

3 pm my office, the phone rings.

“Hello”

“Is this Mrs. Queen, little princess’ mother?”

“Yes”

“This is Mrs. 5th Grade Teacher from your daughter’s school.”

Oh no, here we go again!

Troubleshooter has good aim

Ha! There’s nothing like a TV news expose to get immediate change.

Have you ever been driving down the highway behind a gravel truck and had rocks showering your hood and windshield? There’s not much you can do, slow down? Change lanes?

I’ve had rocks bounce over the car directly behind the truck and hit my car. I’ve been hit from a different lane. My last new vehicle got two large chips in the windshield in the first month I had it. I resorted to driving side roads to avoid more damage.

There is a rock quarry pretty much covering the whole length of my commute with several entrances. So I’m dodging gravel trucks all the time. I knew there was a law in Virginia some 14 years ago that required trucks to have tarps covering their loads. This went into place after several people were severely injured by debris from uncovered loads. I’ve lived in Texas for the last 12 years and have never heard of Texas having this law, until yesterday.

Thank you Jaie Avila!

WOAI ran a Troubleshooter’s story on how you can get trucking companies to pay for your windshield even if they have a sign on the back of the truck stating they are not responsible. The story also mentions, IT’S THE LAW to have your load covered.

Today less than 12 hours after the story ran, I see all trucks on my stretch of road have tarps on them today. Let’s see how long this trend lasts.