Possessed Vaccum Cleaner

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This is not the way a vacuum cleaner is supposed to sound. It is not right.When you turn it on it has to warm up for a few min. When the clanking sound stops,and it is the deep roaring sound that warms your down to your toes starts up and does not stop.

Why I do not get another one is beyond me, but when I am in any store that sells vacuum cleaners that hums instead a growling and clanking noise ,I cannot buy one. Not because of monetary ( about 75% of the time that is why) I stand and stare at the new shiny mentally healthy, physically able to suck the paint out of my carpet( that sounds kinda bad) and then I walk away.

Why you ask?

It is because the damn thing is possessed. It works when it wants to, and usually only when you are sucking up a sock or a cord is when it hums happily like a normal machine. But when you pull it out it goes right bad to borderline shrieking at you. And I am convinced it is fine when I am in the store.

Never mind the burning rubber smell. We cover that up with the smelly powder. Which is flammable BTW.

Never mind it skips around the actual sucking bits of flotsam from the carpet and you have to go over the same area three times to get that stupid piece of lint up.

I have friends that are screaming at me to buy new *insert half ass broken thing here* but until it is actually broken I just cannot justify buying something to replace the one that just doesn't run as fast or well or good.

Some days I would love to open up wide to a therapist and figure out exactly what is going on in my head. Maybe that is what make this OK; I acknowledge that I am nuts.

Ants

This teeming white and red pile of insects was a fire any colony that moved in my truck. It started out with one or two, then I opened the passenger door and the floor was crawling. On one hand they were cleaning up every single cracker crumb my child has dropped, one the other hand they are known to swarm.
Allot of poison and the comfortable feeling that all the evil bugs living in the panels of my truck were dead.

I was so wrong. They moved under the driver seat into a shoe.My daughter's shoe. I need that shoe!!

I don't want to drive my truck.

My Garden Pictures

Before and After Livingroom

I should have taken a picture of nikki throwing her toys everywhere. It would add to the realism considering I really try to keep things picked up but my mind ignores things on its own. I really did not see the *insert whatever I forgot here*
It's a self defense so I do not wind up in jail for maiming my family members. But they are actually not walking on it with their nasty boots, I was shocked.

Carpet!!!

I finally got new carpet!!! Well, new to me but not new to the planet. I was not under any circumstances paying $800 to carpet 250 square feet and it would be another month before it could be installed. One small living room and a tiny hallway and I did not even pick out the carpet that I wanted. Kiss my ass, I will paint the plywood floors before I cough up that money.

I randomly checked the want ads over the last three months and found two incredible deals. The first one was a solid oak futon with the mattress and a cover for $200. I priced them in April. The frame alone would have been four hundred and another three to four hundred for the mattress. Now I have a place to sleep when Nikki is needy and I actually have room to breathe.

Then I found the ad for carpet and padding for $150. The carpet needed some cleaning, according to the seller. So I went to check it out and it was in a NICE neighborhood. The carpet was the REAL cotton/mix thread and soft and plush and in incredible shape. The padding was not even dusty. Oh yeah buddy, this is coming home with me. We loaded on the truck, it hung over the cab and off the tailgate and I drove 25 mph home with my hazards on. I was not going to risk anything flying out and the carpet ran the gas mileage down that it would be pointless to hurry home.

So we got it in today, we rented a stretcher, bought the tack strips.
I think the hardest part was making sure threshold plates gripped the carpet. But we saved $600. I looked at independents that will install carpet and they all wanted $500 or more. Nope nope nope.

It was hard and hot and god awful tiring. But now I know how to install carpet, so that adds to one more thing on my " I must learn" list.

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Update on the kitchen-- Plaster of Paris sucks up paint. Where one quart would have painted three walls, one plaster of Paris textured wall will use the entire quart. I bought the paint before I saw the h*me Depot commercial with the primer mixed in with the paint.

Garden Update-- So far we have picked 23 freezer quart bags of green beans. I have another 10 bags waiting to be picked. This will practically cover our green beans intake for the year. I just need someone to teach me how to can the things and I will be so much better off. And spiced peaches.

Tomorrow I am going to learn to use the arc welder so I can make my silverware people!!

Nikki is doing really good. She has weaned herself from milk. She gets very agitated when you try and make her drink it. She knows the letter A and O on sight and can make the sounds. She tries to dress herself. Can open and get into the car by herself. Feeds the cat and puts her bowl where it belongs. Opens the fridge to get her yogurt out and then gets a spoon out of the drawer and sits down with it with her little box I made her.
When she is done eating she tells you she is done, goes to the garbage can, scraps her plate off and then puts it in the sink. She is not even two yet!!
My family is pushing me to have another child and I know I will go from being a mom to a crazy lady. So aside from her older brother and a hell of an accident, she will be the only child Donald and I have together. Which on some levels is disappointing but on a practical (money. clothes, food, SANITY) level, it is a good thing.
Having a child almost destroyed us, having another one will obliterate this relationship.

Swirlie

My swirls needed poka dots. I am having a hard time finishing the cabinets on the top because he is nagging me to finish them.

Female thinking right?...hahaha

The beginning of a fun filled week....

For the first time in ten years DJ calls for me to pick him up from his mothers at nine pm. No matter what drinking, drama, fighting, or cops have been there he has never called. EVER.

I go get him(20 miles one way), now I am geared up for a fight because she has been known to fly off the handle and knocked the crap out of someone but I have about four inches and 30 pounds on her. 10 years ago I would have fought her but I have learned in a decade to think first and then respond. Starsha calls it 10,10,10 thinking. 10 min, 10 months, 10 years. Basically is jail worth it? Nope. No matter what jail is not worth one hit (or several) I can get my point across other ways.

She is railing on him on the porch. I walked up, and ask what is going on. She tells me that DJ's girlfriend has not left yet and he wanted to spend the evening at her house (20 feet away) but DJ did not wash and flea dip the dogs earlier that day. So he was not allowed to go back and see her before she left for seven weeks.

History: He has been in love with her since he was nine and she finally agreed to date him. Seven years later. She is very very shy. Very. So they have been dating for three weeks and since his mother found out they were dating he has a curfew even though they were at her house with both her parents up. Before they dated, DJ would come home at 11pm, midnight, 230am and his mom never said a word.

So DJ is at a breaking point because he tried to asked (beg) his mom to give him just another hour, 30 min, 10 min. She told him flat out "I don't give a f*** how you feel"
That is worse than hitting him. Or grounding him for a month. To completely disreguard his feelings will break him faster than anything and he takes forever to recover from it.

She told me that she felt he was running from his responsibilities, I agreed but I made sure she understood two things. 1) This was not going to happen again. 2) We are not stealing your son, you will come get him tomarrow when you get off. You will talk to him. You will take him home with you.

They needed a cooling off period before DJ told her that he did not want to live with her anymore. He would regret the words and we would wind up in court (for the 28th time) I know she raised her other two, but they did not have the choice to call the other parent because they both told Donald that they did not want to live here anymore or see him. So no, the other two had to learn to live with their mom without another parent they might be able to go to when things got bad. So she could say whatever she wanted to them.

DJ has that option but we will not be abused anymore. He wants to live with her and by god, he is going to live with her. Until he tells us that he wants to live here then he is going to have deal with his choice.

Tonight should be fun, either she will not show up, or she will show up and say the wrong thing and Donald will fly off the handle. I have a feeling that he is going to be inside while we are outside talking...yelling.

What she doesn't get is that DJ actually loves this girl. He has not spoke of any other girl but her since she moved next door. It is poetic sad. And I know that you must never ever say anything bad about her and don't try and keep them separated.

DJ's mom told me a month ago that he is her baby and she will not have any girl in his life because she will be a complete bitch to her. I knew once she said that, that things would go downhill for her and her son. People have tried telling her to back off and she won't.

I am going to sit back and watch the show.