Apr 12th 2006

Love this face!

Unfortunately Me

Google "unfortunately [your name]" and post the results. :)

PS I'm bored. We have two separate viruses floating around our house. I have the 2nd one.

Unfortunately Camille proves to be more resourceful than he expected.
I don't really appreciate being underestimated!

A comparison of these two monster storms shows that, unfortunately, Camille was no Katrina.
Don't be knocking my hurricane!! Okay. I'll admit I'm a dork. I actually read that link. Camille had higher force winds but Katrina was much bigger. Camille USED to be the measuring stick by which all storms were measured.

Unfortunately, Camille was found in that wilderness
Um. Scary.

Unfortunately, Camille's parents have been released from galactic prison, and Camille is not very happy to see them, despite their claims of being reformed.
Can you blame me?

Unfortunately, Camille passed away on June 4, 2006.
Sad. :(

Unfortunately Camille is among a minority of students participating in these tutorials who approached tutorials in this way from the beginning.
Ya. I'm brilliant

Unfortunately, Camille is such a selfish, moody cow we're more likely to side with them than egg her on.
Whoa! RUDE!!

Interview Mommy

If you do this repost with your child's name and answers & let me know you did it! (I got this off facebook).

Leah - 3 years 3 months old

1. What is something mom always says to you?
"mommies always come back"

2. What makes mom happy?
"when you're being home"

3. What makes mom sad?
"when I'm sleeping" (hahahahaha)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"she bites me" (what?? LOLOL)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
"just like me"

6. How old is your mom?
"33" (I can't believe she knows that!)

7. How tall is your mom?
"this tall" (with hand gesture)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"play candyland" (um. no.)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"go to the store and do work"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
"going to the store" (huh.)

11. What is your mom really good at?
"playing candyland and playing hungry hippos"

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"chutes and ladders"

13. What does your mom do for a job?
"go to the store"

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
"salad"

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
"hugging me"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
"backyardigans"

17. What do you and your mom do together?
"school"

18. How are you and your mom the same?
"one. two. two eyes. daddy has one two too"

19. How are you and your mom different?
"cause we are friends"

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
"cause I love you!"

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
"he loves us"

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
"to the chinese place" (yummy)

Drew's Job

Drew just got cut off work.

The Railroad Post

I'm eating chocolate mousse again.

Sigh.

Mousse

I am eating this while I type this post.

Feel free to hate me for a minute or two.



Chocolate Mousse:

4 ounces (115 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
2 large eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream

Garnish: (optional)
Whipped Cream
Fresh Raspberries
Shaved Chocolate

In a medium-sized stainless steel bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Then whisk in the two egg yolks. Refrigerate.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), whip the two egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add two tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form, yet the whites are still glossy and not dry. Set aside.

In another bowl, whip the heavy cream, remaining one tablespoon sugar, and vanilla extract until soft peaks form.

Remove the chocolate mixture from the refrigerator, and stir a couple of spoonfuls of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, and then fold the remaining whites into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly. Fold in the whipped cream.

Spoon the chocolate mousse into six individual serving dishes or glasses. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Can serve with additional whipped cream, fresh raspberries and/or shaved chocolate.

Makes 6 servings.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateMousse.html

This is mine. Right now:

Mya

When I posted before they still hadn't decided about my newest niece's name. It's Mya.

TOTALLY my idea. Woohoo! Actually I suggested it as a middle name but then they decided they liked it so much they switched the names - so now it's her first name.

Anyway - here's a new picture of her!

Another Niece!!

18" and 4 lbs 12 oz - she made her debut a little early (not due until March 15th) She's doing well though. She was having some trouble stabilizing her blood sugar last night. But hopefully all is well now. I haven't heard any more. Her mommy is still deciding between Angelina and Alexia - she wanted to hold her and study her and decide.


If you are keeping track, yes - that's one in December, one in January, and one in February. And I hear there's another due in August.

Guest Posting

I haven't been posting much here but yesterday I posted all kinds on Deanna's blog!

She brought two baby boys into the world yesterday!

Congratulations Deanna!!!!!

Drew's Card

On Drew's card for tomorrow:

You are the one
whose hand has always
slipped into mine when words just weren't enough...

You are the one
who has been by my side
whenever skies looked dark...

You are the one
who knows me deep down-
who has cried with me
and laughed with me
and shared things with me
that no one else would understand...

You are the one
who loves me...
the only one who could ever be
the other half of my soul.

Drew's Schedule

The Railroad

So. If you read that whole other Railroad post (linked above) heaven bless you. I know it's a bit painful. I'm just trying to get through this so I don't have to edit myself so much! lol

Drew's Schedule - and I use the word Schedule VERY loosely...

He rides trains from Point A (home) to Point B. Back and forth. Right?

So we're home. He can check a website and watch a train list and a list for his board and watch when it'll be his turn to go out.

Now you'd think this could be regulated but there are so many trains, and so many people, and so just... MUCH involved that it's a miracle they estimate as well as they do. So sometimes that site is fairly accurate and sometimes he'll get called way early or way late.

On the site next to the train time it says "tentative" - when it is closer it says "prompted" and that's when you know for sure what time but generally that is just minutes for your "call" comes.

From the moment his phone rings he has 90 minutes until he has to be on his train. So generally he leaves the house an hour after his phone rings & that gives him time to do his paperwork, etc before he gets on the train.

Taking the train from Point A to Point B takes anywhere from 3-12 hours.

At Point B they have to rest for 8 hours (they get a hotel room for each trip). After the 8 hours watching the website begins again. They rarely get called out right after 8 hours. Normally it's 10-15. If they are there longer than 16 hours than they get paid a certain amount of money per hour. So the railroad tries to get them out of there before that.

Then they get on a train to go from Point B back to Point A. Again - 3-12 hours.

And once they are home they are only required to give them 10 hours rest - but generally it's 20-24 hours.

So if you add that up he is gone anywhere from 16 hours (rarely is it that short) to a couple days.

But in general he is home every other day.

Thus is my life. So if you know me and say "Will you be at ______?" and it's two weeks away. Forgive me if I can't give you a definite answer. I'll know if I'm coming the day before or that day! LOL

Actually, I still keep something scheduled for Leah. We have:

Monday: Movie Monday
Tuesday: Preschool (Homeschool)
Wednesday: Dance Class
Thursday: Preschool (Homeschool)
Friday: Library Day (We get books. Attend story hour and do a craft)
Saturday: Play games (just some undivided "Yes, I'll play Candyland with you." time)
Sunday: Church (which she LOVES)

This way she has some very regular things about her life even though daddy comes and goes so much.

And sometime he's with us and sometimes he's not!

Luckily I'm also a spontaneous person so this Railroad life is not a big deal to me. I know a few very scheduled people who think it sounds like a nightmare! lol

That's my life!

Edited to add - okay. That's SUPPOSED to be my life. This last year he has worked with such irregularity it hasn't been . But it looks like it's back this way again now! And honestly I miss having my best friend around all the time. Sigh.

Happy Sigh

Edited to add.... June 2006

Quiet, Please!

Me - vacuuming the kitchen floor with the little swiffer vacuum thing

Leah - eating cookies

Leah: Mommy! I need some QUIET!

Me: Well, I need to clean the floor. You'll live.

**I finish.

Leah: Whew. That's better.

Gee Thanks. My NONstop talking three year old. We could all use some quiet!

LOL

The Railroad

So my husband works on the railroad as a conductor. I don't talk about it a lot on my blog because of the jargon. It's hard to stop and explain all the words that are used in railroad talk.

So I'm going to start this post. (11/29/08) And every time I want to tell a story about the railroad I can link to this post and add to it if I need to.

So here's some basics:

On each train (these are all freight trains) there is an engineer and a conductor. The engineer drives the train and the conductor does everything else. Trains break down or have things go wrong frequently so sometimes the conductor doesn't have to do much & sometimes it's a LOT of work. If nothing goes wrong between point A & point B then all he has to do is mostly paperwork. When things do go wrong on a train (which I only minimally understand lol) Drew often has to walk the entire train. Sometimes they are two miles long one way, etc. It's a big deal when there's a foot of snow on the ground. LOL

So now that I want to think of vocabulary I'm having a hard time. (Oh, and don't ask me why. I do NOT know why they use some of these terms!)

High Ball - "let's high ball!" means "let's leave now". (Silly. I know.)

Engineer - drives the train

Conductor - in charge of the train itself

Local - these men are also conductors and engineers but they work within one local train yard. In Drew's job he travels back & forth between to towns. He works with two local crews - one on each end.

Bumped - This requires some pre-explanation...

The railroaders are divided by seniority & "craft" (whether engineer or conductor or local). It takes more seniority to be an engineer.

So whenever they "cut the boards".... crap. See how hard this is??

Cut the boards - sigh.

Boards - okay - the boards are split by location and craft. So there is a Rawlins Conductor Board, Cheyenne Board, etc. And the same for the engineers.

There is also an "Extra Board" for each local and craft. This extra board is used if - for example - a conductor calls in sick (which is called "laying off". UGH.) then a conductor from the "extra board" is called to take his turn.

Turn - your spot on the board.

If you are still reading this - heaven bless you.

So he has a turn. He's a on board.

Okay so whenever they cut the boards you can "bump" into a board you have seniority on. Bump just means you take a spot - and sent there are only a certain number of spots you "bump" someone off the board. So you can bump or be bumped. lol

Laying off - is just calling in sick

What the world traditionally calls "getting laid off" is called "cut off" on the railroad - I think because your turn is literally CUT from the board.

Okay. That's a good start right? I can always add to this when I get going.

*******************

This last year has been a mess with the railroad.

Because of the way seniority works - the first few years you work for the RR are gonna be hard as you go on and off the boards based on how busy they are. We were expecting this and during the summer/fall - which is traditionally the busiest time - you prepare for winter - which is the slowest.

Anyway, this last summer there were floods, mudslides, derailments - and just as the railroad is recovering from all of that? The economy tanks. Awesome.

So Drew only worked about half of last year - just on & off.

We've survived and done okay. We have more debt than we started the year with and that was certainly not my plan. lol

So hopefully this year will be better!

Can you believe I started this post last November???

oops. lol