As you know Sydney was elected Student Council President last year.  A very big deal considering she was was only a 6th grader!  She did many awesome things during her tenure but one of the best was getting the school to offer a salad bar every day to the Middle School.  Something that had previously only been done twice a week.  It was something she took on with the enthusiasm that only Sydney can.  And so when she had accomplished her goal we decided that it might make a news worthy story…and you know what, it was!  We contacted the local paper, she was interviewed last May just before school was out, and the story finally ran this week!  We are so proud of her.  Here is the story, if you click on it you can read it full size.

Kinsey went to a friends sweet 16 birthday party tonight.  The party was held at a house in a part of the county that I am not very familiar with.  Its fairly rural and not well lit.  On our way to drop her off we ran into another parent taking their daughter and he offered to take K with him so we didn’t have to go out.  And so when it came time to head to the party to pick K and her friend up I had to google map the house for directions.  I ended up pulling over thinking I had gone too far and calling onstar for assistance.  Onstar (we were in Todd’s SUV) then led us (Todd, Sydney, Tatie and I) into the neighborhood we needed and right into the drive way.

We called K and told her we were there and to come on out.  And then we waited.  Do you ever get that feeling… you know the feeling when you just know you are not in the right place?  Well just as I was getting that feeling a car pulled up to the corner of the road.  I could see it sitting there in my rear view mirror for a minute…just idling.   And then it turned and pulled along the road in front of the same house we were at and stopped.  I thought, “Oh, we are in the right place, someone else is here to pick up their kid.”

And thats when the phone rang and K said, “MOM! You are are at the wrong house! We are in the drive way and you are not here!”  We got the right house number and I put the car in reverse.  When I got almost all the way out into the road the car that had been sitting there on the curb swerved out and blared its horn!  Well its dark and I am in a big car compared to their little silver sedan so I just ignored it and finished backing out.  But as I finished backing out and put the car into drive the car tries to pull around on the right side!  But backs off quickly when I cut off the route and straighten out and begin to drive.  And thats when it started tailing us.  TAILING US! Not KIDDING!

The idiot rode my bumper to the stop sign where there were no street signs and I guess left!  I was trying really hard to read mailbox numbers as I drove but they were hard to make out … not to mention with the added stress of being tailed!  I got to another stop sign and realized that I had turned the wrong way, so I circled back around to where I made the last turn.  All the while this car was about a foot from my bumper!

I got back to the stop sign again and this time turned right and there were Kinsey and her friend waiting for us in the drive way.  I pulled in and got out of the car and noticed that my stalker was watching me from the street corner I had just turned from!  Just sitting there idling!  I barked at the girls to get in the car quickly while I stood in front of my SUV headlights and glared at the waiting car on the corner.

After everyone was in, K said, “Is that car following us?”  Indeed it was!  I backed out of the drive way and went back the way I came, this time passing the car at the corner going the opposite direction.   I had the opportunity to glance in the car.  It was a woman, maybe mid 30’s/early 40’s holding a lit up cell phone.  I gave her my ‘you are crazy look’ and drove on my way…

Well as we round corner to get the the main road who do you think is stopped there watching us again!!!   To have driven all the way around the circle in time to beat us to the intersection coming the other direction… CREEPY!

Well that is where our story ends. Our stalker just sat there and waited until we drove out of sight.

But as we thought about it on the way home her story must have been something like this…

I got home from a lovely night out with the girls (probably had a few) and when I pull up to my house there is this big black creepy SUV sitting in my driveway!!!  Well I don’t waste any time I call my girlfriend and ask her what to do!  She tells me to go see if I know who it is!  But just as I am pulling up the SUV starts backing out of the drive way!  I knew it was creepy!  So I tailed it!  No way this guy is robbing my neighborhood, I am going to show him we are watching!

The guy is sure driving awfully slow, and keeps slowing down every time he gets to a mail box.  I bet he is looking for another house to rob!

OH NO!  There are young girls out in that drive way and he just kid napped them!!!!  I am calling the police!  Oh crap… they see me I better race to the intersection so I can get there licence plate number in case they come back!

________________________

And so friends and neighbors, if tomorrow I get a knock at the door from the cops wanting to question me about my whereabouts from the night before… you will know why.  It will be because I was stalked my some maniac road rager for accidentally pulling in the wrong driveway and some mentally challenged lady tried to catch a wouldbe kidnapper.  Oy.  Oh what a night.

P.S. Kinsey had a great time at the party.

P.S.S Thank you Onstar. not.

P.S.S.S Do you think I would have gotten the same reaction had I been in my volvo?

P.S.S.S.S I am glad Todd was with me, If I had been by myself I probably would have mouthed off at her and gotten shot.

P.S.S.S.S.S If cops do knock on my door I am going to have trouble speaking for laughing so hard!

P.S.S.S.S.S.S Appearently the girls think it would be pretty amusing to see their Mom cuffed.  O_O

P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S They say it would make a good personal narrative for school!  Is that all I am to them??? Story fodder???

P.S.S.S.S.S.S.S.S I am going to bed… ! need a nap! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For her first project for 9th grade this year, the freshman class was asked to create a video slide show and answer this question… Who are you?

Kinsey did an AWESOME JOB on hers!

And this pops up in the video but I had to share it again because I think it is so funny. I found this video on Todd’s computer and asked K about it and she said that it was from when she discovered that Dad’s computer had a webcam. Hahahaha!

Its been a great start to the new school year!  This last week I…

Made popcorn balls.  And when I poured that gooey goodness over the popcorn I swear it smelled like my childhood.  I realized that I had never made them for Tatie.  I made them a few times for Kinsey and Sydney and they weren’t fans, so I stopped making them a very long time ago.  But guess what!  Tatie LOVES them!  YEAH!

I found a mysterious foot print on my garage ceiling. (*sings Lionel Richie song*)

Turns out it wasn’t a foot print at all!  Who knew?  Dad knew.  He came down and diagnosed the problem as a leaky shower drain.  never fear though… Moldy footprint has been taken care of!

My bestie said…”um.. Ma’am I hate to tell you this but you have a big hole in your ceiling.”   Hahahaha I love her.  But the mold has been eradicated!  YEAH!

Here is K decked out in her new South gear.  She is so darn cute and OLD now that she is a big high schooler!  And yes you can call her a freshman now, she has accepted her fate.  Though I personally miss my “post eighth grader”.

And finally, cool story.  So Todd and I were driving to Florence to go to a business lunch with our Congressman and visit great Grandma And Grandpa last Friday.  As we are driving I see this semi coming down the road on the other side of the interstate carrying a HUGE wing!  Like an airplane wing!  it was MASSIVE!  A little while later here comes another one down the road.  Todd says, “Hey thats not a wing those are windmill propeller blades! I bet we see a third one here in a minute!”   Well we drove another hour and no third propeller blade showed up.  I figured it must have hit the road earlier than we got there and we missed it.  :(

Well, the next morning I had to take Kinsey to a highway clean up fundraiser in LaGrange at 8:30 in the morning.  I dropped her off and headed back to I-71 for home.  And what do I pull in behind?????  The 3rd propeller!!!  What are the odds of that!  I tried to take a picture of it as I drove (safe…not).  Its not a very clear one as the following vans kept straddling the center line so I couldn’t get a better view.   But still, not something you see every day around here thats for sure!

A couple of months ago Tatie went to work with Todd and the guys in the department made a radio show intro and exit for her!  It was so sweet of them to do.  I decided that there wasn’t any better day to premiere the “Tatum Show” than on her first day of 5th grade.  So I rushed her home and wouldn’t let her tell me anything about her day until we got in the house and I sat her in front of the computer.  She didn’t even realize I was taping her until the end of the video.  So here she is telling us all about her first day of 5th grade.

Todd and I just got home from a business trip. And discovered that one of K’s friends who had spent the day with us had recorded her singing and posted it on Facebook. I had to share the awesomeness.

This year we had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Upper Peninsula (The UP) of Michigan and see my cousin Brian get married!  It was such an amazing trip.  My Aunt and Uncle charted a bus for all of us to go.  We had so much fun!

First there was the bus trip…

Then a Rehearsal Dinner and playing in Lake Superior!

Then they took us in a sunset cruise to see the painted rocks!

And the lovely couple was wed…

And we danced the night away.

In total we waded in 3 great lakes (Michigan, Heron, & Superior).  Ate miner food (Pasties=Yuck!).  Bought Syd Moose pants. And had a wonderful time!  Oh and here is a video of me singing Ave Maria at the wedding!

If you want to see the rest of the pics click here.

Walking through TJMax today with Tatie.

Tatie: Mom my feet hurt.

Me: Are you okay honey?

Tatie: Yeah, I can stand it …. I can stand anything.

*long pause*

Tatie: Well, anything but lava.

I love that of all the places she could draw a line,  she draws it at LAVA!  hahahaha!  My daughter is awesome!

Todd is on another business trip this week.  I took him to the airport bright and early Sunday morning (8am) to board a plane for Madison, Wisconsin.   What’s in Madison you ask?  A PR conference for the farming industry and… fungal ants.   When he got off the plane he was disappointed to find that he had no suitcase!  They had lost his bag.

His bag did finally show up on Monday morning though.  And why did it get lost?  TSA found the brand new Niagara spray starch he packed to be suspicious looking.  So they stole it and then proceeded to not put his bag on the plane once they took it (even though according to the time stamp they had time to do just that).   Spray starch, really?  I mean I can see if  it was in his carry on, but it was packed away.  Are there new regulations on things that go in your checked bag now that I wasn’t aware of?  Did they take one look at the can and say to themselves, “Nothing says terrorist like stiff white dress shirts!”

Lets take a moment to examine the can for clues that might help us out.

Clues that might lead one to think Terrorist:

1. Right off the bat I see the word Niagara.  Which as you know is in Canada.  And all terrorists come from Canada!

2. The shape of the bottle might suggest to the mind gas canister.  Like your grandma’s oxygen, or those helium tanks clowns use for balloon animals!  Scary.

3. The word “Fuerte” appears on the label in bold lettering.  This is obviously not an English word!

4.  The rainbow slash across the label is so obviously un-American.  Its an automatic red flag!

5. And finally just the very essence of starch is suspecious!  Just read the constitution!

And so my fellow Americans.  Its so obvious that TSA was right here.  Spray Starch is indeed a threat to national security.  Even more so than than my Biore face wash they stole last year.  I solute you!

We are so excited to be going to Marquette, MI this weekend for my cousin Brian’s wedding!  Okay, so I am excited about the wedding.  Not so much the travel distance.  My Aunt has rented a charter bus and is driving us all the 14 hour bus trip up there.  O_O  But we are excited none the less.  Though I have to say we were all hoping Bri would have tied the knot in Annapolis instead.  Annapolis is so beautiful this time of year!  But what can you do.

So I was checking up on the weather in Marquette, which is at the tippy top of of your middle finger if you were wondering.  And on my little weather bug app I downloaded the weeks forecast.   For us here in KY is will be 90’s all week.  Fry an egg humid 90’s.  Yuck.  So I was rather looking forward to seeing what lake front Marquette had to offer for our wedding weekend.  And I laughed so hard when I read it, I had to take a screen cap to show you!

I love the repeat of “very warm” for both the 59 degree evening temp and the 74 degree Thursday temp!  LOL  If thats “very warm” I wonder what they would call our temps here?