L-E-T-S-G-O Let's Go! Let's Go!

Sorry, just the cheerleader in me coming out again. Well, I feel a little bit more with it than I did earlier when I posted. Still a little spongy between the ears, but better. My back has popped several times with the slightest movement and it's actually feeling better, too. Maybe that sadistic twerp from Helga's House Of Pain knew what he was doing after all.

I slept most of the afternoon away, getting in the most comfortable position I could find. The only times I woke up was when the phone rang. The first time it was my mother wanting to know if I wanted the Angel Food or not. It's this program where you can get a whole bunch of food for $25 and it's all new food, not second hand, dented in cans and such. I've never done it because frankly I've felt that we just don't eat the kind of food they offer. Like breaded chicken tenders and boxed dinners. Hot Pockets, frozen desserts and french fries. But, this time they were offering skinless chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, and chicken leg quarters. All things which we do eat, so I went ahead and ordered it. The only other thing I remember is a can of soup. We'll see if it's worth it.

The second time the phone rang it was Mike. I can't quite remember what he wanted. I think he was just checking in on me to ask how I was feeling. He picked his bike up on his way home from work then drove Shael home on it and took off again on his own. There's an 80% chance of rain tonight so I told him not to stray too far. The last two times he's gone out on the bike, it has rained on him. Poetic justice for me because both times I wanted to go with him but he wouldn't wait on me.

After Mike called, I felt a little more alert so I sat up in bed and read for a little bit. When I heard him get home with Shael I went outside to greet them. It felt so nice out, so calm and warm. I decided I'd take a little walk around the yard and up and down the driveway a bit to maybe work out some of those stiff muscles. I ended up grabbing my camera and taking a few pictures of things I love about this place. Like our long driveway and the red honeysuckle bush that attracts all sorts of butterflies and hummingbirds. Some of my flowers that I've planted and some that were already here when I got here. The blackberries that I plan on making me some extra cash this summer. Last year I gave about 6 gallons of them away and kept a half gallon myself. Only for the person who I gave them to to have her freezer go out and lost every one of the berries. It broke my heart to think of all those SIX GALLONS of berries I so lovingly watered each and every day to coax them into maximum size and sweetness ruined by a broke down deep freeze. Not this year. I've already started watering them, until the rain started, but I'm keeping an eye on them and they are bursting with blooms, which will turn into berries. Some of them are already starting to grow little hard green nubs. Last year they were huge berries, like two inches long and 2-1/2 inches in circumference. I love taking care of them and even love picking them amid all the prickly thorns and mosquitoes. I pick them early in the morning before the dew even has time to dry. That's pretty early in July. But this year instead of giving them away, I'm going to sell them by the quart. I think that I can use my Mom's beauty shop as an avenue of selling them.

I just got back from getting on to the neighbor girl for throwing rocks at Shael. This isn't the first time this has happened. But, this is the first time I've gone at actually scolded the girl. She was scared to death of me and I felt kind of weird being the mean lady next door. But I have had it with her! She's about 8 years old, heck, way old enough to know better than to throw rocks at people. One hit Shael right in the boob and she came in the house crying her eyes out. Owie. That had to hurt. Shael said they were down the hill and I wouldn't catch them on foot, so I got in my car and took off. Boy, they (she was with another kid who looked to be about Shael's age but is really 15) were making tracks, they knew that if I caught up to them they'd had it. Oh, yeah, I drove my car right up behind them, then pulled out around them and stopped right in front of them so they had to stop or go around me. The boy was trying to go around me and the girl was thinking about it until I flew out of my car (as fast as my back would allow me) and called out her name. Her eyes were huge and she was mostly scared I was going to call her Grandma Dean and tell on her. You know what her defense was? "I wasn't throwing them as hard as I could!" I couldn't believe she just said that. I told her she shouldn't even be throwing them at all, no matter how hard. Not at people, anyway. Intentionally at people. Little brat. And that boy definitely should know better at FIFTEEN FRIGGIN YEARS OLD! I told her if it happened again I was going to come over and switch her myself, then I was going to call her Grandma Dean and her Dad. Oooh, the fear in her eyes. I didn't even look at the boy, so I don't know what his reaction to me was. Not a very good first impression of me, but I don't care. He is living with the girl's Grandma Dean for I don't know how long. It's not even really her Grandma. At least her Grandma Dean knows me well enough to know that I'm not some mean old nasty lady next door who over protects her tattle tale daughter. I don't know how many times Shael has come home crying because this little girl has done something intentionally mean to hurt her. Shael never does anything to defend herself because #1. she feels that since the little girl is younger than her she can't do anything to her, and #2 she doesn't have a mean bone in her body and would never do anything to anybody even in self defense. She would just take it and go home crying. Bless her heart, she gets that from me. So, because of that, she always gets bullied, even by kids younger than her. Which infuriates me! I detest a bully. I think that's why Shael prefers the company of small children than kids closer to her own age because she will always let others walk all over her. I sometimes wish she had a little bit more of her Daddy in her where that is concerned. The one thing about parenting that Mike and I never agreed on was the fact of taking up for one's self and fighting. I never wanted my kid's to fight, because I was afraid that they would be the one to throw the first punch. Mike wanted his kids to know how to take up for themselves. I guess we don't have to worry about it with Shael, she wouldn't throw the second punch. She'd just take it and take it and take it. Sometimes I'm glad we only could have one child. The second one might have come out a scrapper like it's Daddy (or even worse, like his Uncle Chevy! lol) and then where would I be?

I'm off here to go start supper. I wanted to wait a while so the chicken breasts wouldn't be dry as cardboard when Mike got home. The last time I made them, Mike and I got involved in a quickie that lasted a little longer than I expected and the chicken breasts got so over cooked they were so dry I could hardly swallow them. Ha! Won't have to worry about that this time, now will I?