Frustration

I was going to make a post about my frustration with Cameron and being responsible about her schoolwork. But then Luke got home from school and totally changed my focus. So same topic, different subject.

"Luke decided to use the bathroom all over the walls and floor today. When I figured out it was him, he said it was an 'accident.' He helped Mr. W, our custodian, clean it up. Please discuss with him. Thanks."

Almost made it through the school year.....

New house in Austin!

I went to Austin last week and spent 2 days house shopping. I saw 13 houses the first day, which I narrowed down to 2 finalists. The second day, I went back to those 2 and we decided to make an offer on one. It was a great house with a pool - but it wasn't the 'favorite'. Luckily, we didn't come to an agreement, so we moved on to the next one. This is the one that I just loved when I walked into it. We made an offer on it, and it was accepted.

There was some drama involved, but ultimately we are happy with how it worked out. Cass and the kids didn't go to Austin, so they haven't even laid eyes on it!

(These photos are different than the ones on FB. These were on the realtor.com listing.)

We are going to try to move pretty soon after closing. That should put it around mid to late June.

The girls are taking EOG (end of grade) tests this week. Only 3.5 weeks left!

WCMS Idol

Cameron's school had a program last night that's their take on American Idol. They held tryouts last week. I don't know how many kids tried out, but Cameron was 1 of 17 kids picked to be in the show. The kids loved it, and the school raised money for the drama/chorus department from it.

Cameron is on the far left end

2 things: 1) Cameron is totally going to make me take her to try out for American Idol one day. If she does, I'm going to wear a disguise. 2) It has taken me 3 hours (THREE HOURS!) 4 hours (FOUR HOURS NOW! because the last one failed) to upload these video clips. Blogger = FAIL.

What was a good high school memory?

So I sought out the good ol' blog prompt generator today - and it threw this one out there. What was a good high school memory?

Since our class reunion is coming up next month, I thought this was timely. I've got lots of memories of high school, and most all of them are good. Believe it or not. But there is just something special about the 2 years that we spent together at MSMS. That was just on a whole new level apart from everything else.

My MSMS friends are the closest friends I have. Even though we've been apart for years, that time that we spent together in Columbus bonded us in a completely unique way. I can come into contact with any one of them who I haven't seen in years, and it's just like we saw each other yesterday.

There's only one other group of friends who I feel the same way about, and they are the people from NVIDIA. But I digress....

I don't have many specific memories of MSMS. There is the one of meeting Cass in line to have our school IDs made the first day of classes. (He doesn't recall this, of course :)

I remember carrying around the hundreds of books that the teachers issued to us on the first days of classes. And totally freaking out about it.

I remember that chicken sandwiches were the only food from the cafeteria that I actually liked to eat. And you could also buy them at the Blue Goose.

I remember going out to the train tressel during the first few on-campus weekends of the first year. That lost my interest pretty quickly.

I remember riding back and forth from Indianola with Lacy. And she liked to play Poison on her tape deck.

And sometimes I would catch a ride with Mike Mosley.

I remember how difficult it was to sit through Mrs. Richardson's T/Th AP English class. and stay awake I switched to Honors English senior year so I could have that class on MWF instead.

I remember going back a few days early senior year to do Emissary stuff. It was weird with all those new juniors around.

I remember staying on the phone for hours and hours talking to random people. And then random people became a few junior boys. And then specifically one boy. Between that and Alice and her boyfriend - I know our phone line never got a rest.

I remember the reading smoking room in the library. We spent most of our study hours in there. Because the boys could be in there with us.

I remember doing the Mentorship program second semester of senior year. I got to go to Starkville 1 day a week. And my mentor took me to Bulldog Deli. And then my mentor turned out to be a total jackass.

I was apparently having a phase where I loved black, because my MSMS class ring has a black onyx stone in it.

Then after we graduated and went to MSMS MSU, I remember the parties at Pannell's trailer.

What do you remember?

For Marcus

I rarely blog anymore. It almost seems like blogging has become obsolete in favor of Facebook. Facebook is easy, everybody is on there. Blogging now feels like standing up and giving a speech to an empty room.

But this is for Marcus. :) He is the most faithful blogger. And he wants more blogging.

So here is a sort of random, rambling update blog post.

We very nearly sold our house in Dallas. It looked like the perfect deal. We got within 48 hrs of closing - and then it collapsed. Our buyers were also selling their house. They had a problem with the survey of their house, and a solution could not be found. I have to say that it smells a little fishy to me that a solution couldn't be found - but that's what happened and it caused a domino effect. So we get to pay that mortgage some more. Yay!

(Note to everyone: Do not fall for the lure of buying a ginormous house. I know you may want the space for the family, but it is so not worth it. Just send the kids outside if you need to. :)

We do have hopes of an offer today. If they don't run for the hills crying after they see the info on the utilities that I sent to them.

We went to visit Blake in Charleston, SC this weekend. I got to see his kids for the first time (they're 4 yrs old!), and we had a really nice visit. Then we left Charleston and went to the MSU basketball game in Columbia, SC on Saturday night. It wasn't as cool as a game at The Hump, but the kids really enjoyed it. And we got the win.

No, Blake won't be able to come to the reunion in April. He has to work.

I loved watching the Olympics. I'm now convinced that I can snowboard, and I may have to give it a try next time we go. (stop laughing)

I'm excited about the reunion in April. It seems to be shaping up here lately, as far as attendance. I'm not looking forward to the drive to get there. Or back. But it will be fun. Must order beer.

I don't like it when people have to swing out to turn when driving.

I am so ready to BE in Austin. But I am NOT ready for the process of moving. It is so exhausting.

The Great iPhone Heist

Cameron has been begging us for a long time to get her a cell phone. We resisted for a long time, but we finally decided to give her my old iPhone when I upgraded to a new iPhone 3GS. After going back and forth with the cell phone plan person at Best Buy, we finally got it sorted out - she keeps the cheap plan (for the old phone) and I am now paying the 'new' rates. We also added unlimited texting so we wouldn't ever be sorry we didn't. She doesn't use it to talk much at all, and she mainly texts a couple of girls (one from Texas) and Granddaddy.

Anyway, Tuesday of this week - the iPhone went missing at school. They aren't allowed to have their phones visible or audible at school, but they are allowed to have them there. Cameron keeps hers inside her tote bag, in a snap pocket - and she takes the bag with her everywhere she goes. So when it went missing during 3rd period, I knew that someone had to have gone INSIDE her bag and remove it from the small pocket. That was disturbing to me.

Near the end of the day, a young man named R came up to Cameron and told her that he had seen another young man J with her phone. R asked him about it, and J told him that the phone was his. R recognized it as Cameron's - and honestly after she dropped it into the toilet and we had to recover keyboard functionality with alcohol, the screen has definite identifiable characteristics now. So R tells Cameron, and she immediately confronts J. He, of course, claims that he 'found' it and that he intended to return it to her. He gives her the phone back, but the case and earphones (which we had bought on Saturday) are gone.

The phone went missing during 3rd period (during which J sits right by Cameron), J ended up with it, and he made no attempt to return it to her or turn it into the office. I'm glad she got the phone back, but I thought the principal needed to know. On the surface this incident doesn't seem like a big thing, but I wanted J to know that even if you're being stupid and do something serious, people will call you on it.

I contacted the principal yesterday morning. By the end of the day, Cameron had been called into the office. Today I get an email from the principal that J admitted to taking it, he's being punished, and his parents have agreed to replace the earphones. Wow. That's pretty efficient.

I just hope that J learns the lesson that I intended.

Secret button

So we had a great start to the New Year. We got up on January 1st, and Cass convinced me to go to the gym with him. I decided I wanted to have the last few Glee songs on my phone that I downloaded from iTunes, so I plugged my phone in to sync before we left. Well, the girls have loaded up their iPods, and thus our iTunes, with a bunch of ridiculous apps. Every time I sync my phone, I end up with a bunch of stray apps that came from them. This time it was a Scene It? Twilight game that was bogging down my sync. It took nearly 45 minutes to stop the sync, remove the app, and re-sync. Frustration.

Then we go down to the garage, and I notice that a car door has been left open. The car is dead. I mean, it was dead, dead - even when we put the key in, not even a clickity click. So Cass says put it in neutral and let it roll out beside his car (which is parked outside the garage). Easier said than done. You can't just shift the gear when the car is dead, dead. FRUSTRATION.

So Cass pulls out the iPhone and googles. He discovers the secret gear shift release button above the P on the gear shift. It requires a screw driver to pop off the secret panel that conceals the secret button. But once you can press it, you can shift away.

We got it cranked, drove around a while, and still went to the gym. After all the frustrations. Woo hoo!