Shuffle

I thought it might be fun to put my mp3 player on shuffle and see what type of music I was currently listening to. Here they are in order to how they were played during my scrapbook time this afternoon. I think by reading this list you can get a big insight to MIchelle the HuMan! Yeah, I am just a mixed up bundle of mess.

1. Even the nights were better--Air Supply (don't judge)
2. Love Bits--Def Leppard
3. Our House---Madness
4. Oh, what a beautiful morning---Gordan McRae
5. One night in Bangkok--Murray Head
6. Splash Mountain Medley---splash mt WDW
7. I am the Walrus---The Beatles
8. No Sugar tonight/New Mother Nature--the Guess who
9. Good Morning---Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds.
10. If you think I don't need you---Elvis Presley
11. From this moment on---Tommy Rall and Ann Miller
12. Mr. Blue Sky---ELO
13. Kiss--Prince
14. Spies like us---Paul McCartney
15. Hallelujah --Bon Jovi
16. Set adrift of memory bliss---PM Dawn
17. Gansta---BBD (oh yeah, love them)
18. Paperback writer---The Beatles
19. Wanderlust---Paul McCartney
20. Paradise City---GNR
21. Amazing---Aerosmith
22. All those years ago---George Harrison
23. I me mine--The Beatles
24. The Enchanted Tiki Room (1971 version)---WDW
25. Porcupine Pie---The Wiggles
26. Living in the sunslight---Tiny Tim
27. Wanted Dead or Alive (live)--Bon JOvi
28. Just got back--Cheap Trick
29. PSSOM--Def Lep (live, acoustic)
30. Universe of Energy---EPCOT
31. Everybody---BSB
32. I dig a pony (anthology)--The Beatles
33. Nobody's Fool---Cinderella
34. Wonderful Tonight---Clapton
35. You got me runnin'---Def Lep
36. I love this town---Bon Jovi
37. You're Sixteen---Ringo
38. SexyBack---JT
39. Run Riot---Def Lep
40. Zero to Hero---Hercules soundtrack
41. You outta know---Alanis
42. Wannabe---The Spice Girls
43. My prerogative--Bobby Brown
44. High n' Dry (Saturday NIght)---Def Lep
45. Over at the Frankenstein place--Rocky HOrror
46. The Time---Black Eyed Peas
47. I left my hat in Haiti---Fred Astaire
48. Watching the Wheels---John Lennon
49. Me and Bobby McGee--Janis Joplin
50. County Bear Jamboree---WDW
51. Dear Prudence---The Beatles
52. Super Trooper---Abba
53. Who's crying now---Journey
54. Come on Eileen---Dexy's Midnight runners
55. Over the rainbow---Isreal IZ Kamakawiwo'ole
56. Let me roll it---Paul McCartney
56. Patience---GNR
57. She's out of my life---MJ
58. 2 Legit 2 Quit--Hammer
59. Land of confusion---Genesis
60. Vienna Calling--Falco
I have over 4000 songs on here, so that is all for now.

Xanadu

Don't judge me because I like Xanadu. No siree bob, don't you dare. Yes, I know Xanadu has been laughed at for years and years and years. Basically, since the day it was released, but think not about the crappy storyline, or that one dude's bad acting...think about the movie.

The movie is an artistic wonder from the get-go. It has some wonderful paintings and that was just the first attraction for me and thrilling animation from Don Bluth. The second is a man that you may never have heard of Gene Kelly. He did a little song and dancing in his younger years, nothing to write home about but that is what he did. In this movie, he only dances twice and once on roller skates, he had to be 70 something when this movie was made. He even danced around Olivia Newton-John and made it appear that she could dance, but Gene was good at that trick (in that past life). This was his last movie by the way.

Kenny Ortega (High School Musical fame) was the choreographer...and I think he did a great job!!!

Then there is the soundtrack, even if Jeff Lynne won't admit it, the music is brilliant. ELO, the Tubes, Gene and Olivia. A perfect score for the fantasy film, set on roller skates.

I am writing this because I bought the movie years ago and watched it many times and then it disappeared. Where was it? I could not find it, I last remembered watching it on the way to Mason Ohio and Great Wolf Lodge. I figured that I dropped it out of the truck while traveling. NO I DID NOT, I found it yesterday, in a computer manual that I never even knew that I opened. I was gathering stuff to get rid of our stupid Celeron computer and there it was in the manual. I have watched it 3 times today. I have missed it so.

The greatest part to me is the ending...Gene Kelly "Drum Dreams" on roller skates. Then Olivia comes in and does a WOWING rendition of "Fool Country" and "First Stage out of this Town" and then "Xanadu".

As a child, my favorite part was after FSOTT (first stage out of this town) the music tempo changes and Xanadu starts, Olivia starts walking up the stage in this silver lame' dress, with her hair in a glitter corn roll type hairdo. I LOVE this part!!!!!

Guys, it's not a great movie plot-wise, as I stated but if you want a visually appealing movie, with great music and Gene Kelly, yeah this one is for you.

Strange things are happening

To borrow a line from the great movie Toy Story, this is my life today. We are closing a chapter. A chapter that has been a part of life for so long, I am not sure how to do things without it. It is hard to change course when you have done something for so long. For seven years Trevor has been dealing with his eye issues. It started when he was little and he was watching tv and John noticed his eye floating all over the place. We go to an eye doctor in Paducah and they say that they cannot help us and send us to a specialist in Carp Girardeau, MO who scares us to death by telling us that he will go blind in that eye if he does not have surgery. She even schedules it for the next week. We can't do that with a $2500 deductible...NO WAY....I start seeking options. I mention at church for them to pray for us because we did not know what we were going to do. A member is with the Lion's Club and he says that they may help us. My friend Rhonda told me this was a great avenue to pursue so off we go. This guys name is Tom and he said we had lots of options, the first being to go see their doctor in Louisville, KY at the Lions Club Eye Clinic. They would even sponsor Trevor to help out with the cost, because our insurance was so bad. So off we go....when we first met Dr. Paul Rychwalski, I thought, he is so young. I had done research on him and supposedly he is VERY good, but I expected him to be older. All he does is deal with people with children and their eye disabilities and diseases. It was a very comforting environment. It did not take Dr. Paul and his assistant long to determine that Trevor had a binocular vision disability and Amblyopia strabismus (lazy eye and misalignment). He would never be cured and would need therapy. I asked about the blindness and surgery and he said "Trevor is not a candidate for surgery because of what he is facing...not at this time" He immediately put us on a harsh (yes harsh) therapy of eye patching. Eye patching is a nightmare to parents. The child does NOT want to wear the patch, doesn't understand why they have to wear the patch and because you are patching the good eye, there is NO depth perception and the vision is whacked up. Who wants to go through that? Especially for 6 hours per day? WOW!!! We did it though (thanks to the preschool teachers who helped us out on this), and returned after 6 weeks, with good progress. It was GREAT progress actually, Dr. Rychwalski was proud of Trevor and said he could tell we were patching. He prescribed more patching.....

Our life over the next few years has been full of patching and an eye drops...Atropine. It was a scary thing to do because I have heard that it can damage the good eye. Also, it allows more sunlight to enter the eye so that it can cause cataracts and other vision issues. You are putting a chemical in the good eye to blur it so the bad eye has to do the focusing. I actually hated the atropine, but Trevor tended to prefer it. Mainly, because his friends had NO idea that there was "something wrong with him". We have had to be very careful with the atropine because we go to theme parks a lot, he plays outside sports and he is a boy and they like the outdoors. I still don't know when we will be able to tell if he has damage because of the sun.

Trevor has gone to the eye doctor every 6 weeks or so for almost 7 years. Because we knew he would never be cured, that we were just getting him to the best that we could get him, our goal was set kind of low....20/50 with visual aids. That means he can read the 20/50 line with the glasses on his face. It has been a back and forth emotional journey....20/70 at the worst and 20/30 at the best. Dr Rychwalski had been so pleased with his results and our determination to help Trevor the best that we could, he let us start seeing a local doctor in 2005. Dr Jeff Taylor. He has been a little bit of wonderful for us as well. He has taken Trevor's goal on as his own. When Trevor was not doing well, he too would get upset about it. When Trevor did well, he was just as excited as we were. I have recommended him to everyone that I know looking for an ophthalmologist because he is so wonderful. He has taken Trevor's concerns to heart as if Trevor were an adult, and this speaks volumes to me. He has been wonderful with my little boy.

Dr Taylor said it was coming, he has warned us for a long time...around the age of 8 Trevor's eye would stop growing and there would be nothing else that we could do. Here we are, age 8 and Dr. Taylor wanted him so badly (right on with us) to read that 20/30 line (that was sort of a secret goal)....Trevor could not do it. We went to the dr last Friday and he said "stop using the drops." This is it the end...20/50 is the best Trevor is going to do. Yes, it is the goal, he will be able to drive a car, it is just bittersweet. There is nothing else we can do to make it better. Trevor really knows no life outside of eye therapy. It is going to be strange all his life we had to put the patch on or drop the drops.

Let me explain his life...He has had to cover up an eye that sees perfectly. Therefore, his vision has been a constant blurry out of alignment mess for almost 7 years. He has never seen a baseball coming at him as his teammates have, he has never read a book like other people, he has never watched tv where he didn't angle his head to be able to see better. I am so proud of the things he has accomplished under these circumstances, he is a great student, he is a very good baseball player (when his bad eye will work like it is supposed to), he is not afraid to try new things, and doesn't know the meaning of "I can't see so I won't do it". He gets out there and tries and most times, he succeeds.

Now that we are at the end, we have to make sure that we have not damaged that good eye. That poor eye has been through a lot over the last 7 years as well. It has had to turn itself off, be covered up and blurred so it could not see a thing. Have we damaged it under all this therapy? Actually that is a possibility. We have finished with all therapy! A hard concept for me to grasp. Trevor is having no issues there. Now we go back in 4 weeks to see if the good eye is ok. To make sure there is no damage. Are we finished going to the eye doctor all the time? We don't know yet. Is this eye going to be ok? We don't know yet. Will he ever need eye surgery on the bad eye? We don't know yet. But I will tell you, it will be nice to not have to go to the eye doctor every other month, it will be nice not to have to use eye drops, it will be nice not to have to put on an eye patch, it will be very nice to see how he hits a baseball using NO therapy. I think I look forward to that...yes I know I do. Now that the good eye will be able to use the depth perception that it has...he may really have a great season.

Trevor has been great through all of this. Yes, he has screamed and cried and ran away from me because I had to do stuff to his eyes, but gosh Trevor it's over. I am proud of you for being such a good boy at the eye doctor all these years, I shall miss playing eye spy with you while we wait for Dr. Taylor. I shall miss playing jeopardy with you in the waiting room. I shall miss buying you a hamburger because you have been such a good boy. I shall miss the nurse saying "why do you never want a sucker?" to you. But I am glad that you will be able to drive a car one day and your mama won't have to drive you and your girlfriend on dates. Yes, that part makes me happy. I don't want to be toting you around when you are 50, I am glad that you will be able to drive and you can tote me around.

Thanks to the doctors who have helped us over the years...Especially to Dr Paul Rychwalski, who was willing to try hard to make my babies life better without putting him under the knife. Thank you for all that you and Dr Taylor have done for my little boy.

Ocean boneless

It has got to be the best fish that I have ever put in my mouth. I have only found it at one restaurant, the Country Crossroads in Hardin. I started eating it as a senior in high school and John and I have been there many times as well. There were times that we would come home from Little Rock and that would be one of the first things we did (that and drink a sundrop).


Over the years that fish has been a favorite....there was a bad time when the restaurant closed. I never knew for sure why, but it did. John and I tried many restaurants at the lakes looking for our ocean boneless, but no one had it. It was a thrill to hear it was reopening...our only hope was that they kept the ocean boneless. They had changed some things, do the decor, but it needed that....and they brought you a plate of hush puppies and cheese sauce! That's was new and exciting! Yummy as well! There it was on the menu, OCEAN BONELESS. The cost was more than before, but I promise you, the taste is worth every penny. It says exactly the same. They did improve their dinner salad (it used to be just lettuce) and the white beans hanger always been good. So we are going to the Country Crossroads this weekend...maybe I will take a photo for you. It'd need worth the time, effort and money for you to drive yourself over to Hardin and pig out on this tasty, yummy treat.

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Happiness at Ole Miss

About 5 years ago, John asked me to go see a UK game with him at a little school called Ole Miss. No, I had never been there, never thought of going there and really did not want to go to the game, but he said, "I will take you shopping after the game." Well, that is the way to my heart, so off I went to this little game. It was ok I guess, I remember NONE of the game. What I remember is going to Wal-mart. And in Wal-mart was this little machine that I had wanted for a LONG LONG time, well, not that long because it had not been out that long, but long enough in my eyes. It was a scrapbook machine that would cut out die-cut letters and shapes with the touch of a button. You would buy cartridges and put them in the machine and you would expand the base of what the machine could do. WOW!!! It would be great for someone like me...but alas when they came out they were like $300 and that was NOT going to happen for me. I would watch the infomercial and dream of the day that I might have one...dream a long shot dream is what I did. Well, we are just basically killing time in this Wal-mart, picked up a Yoda bubble bath and a few other things and there on an end cap was this machine, the CRICUT!!! Oh, it was lovely, I went to pet the box and drool over the instructions (this was the first one that I had seen in real life). And low and behold on the corner of the box was a clearance sticker! Now mind you, these machines were still NEW, I mean they were a hot item with the scrapbook world....so this was like finding a gold necklace in the bottom of a shoe box. It was only $145!!!! Less than 1/2 what I had priced them for. No brainier, it was going home with me today!!!!!!!!


Well, here we are all these years later, you have not failed me in any way. I still use you often, never traded you in or dissed you in any way. You have proved worth every bit of the $145 that I paid for you and have saved me more than that in die-cuts alone. I thank you for being so loyal, true and all mine. Thank you, Wal-mart near the campus of Ole Miss for giving me such a great gift. Thank you Provo Craft for making such a great product. My first generation of cricut is still amazing!!!!

Florida 2010

Florida 2010

I was a tad nervous about this whole trip…problems at work, Grandpa sick, and a timeshare. We had never booked a timeshare. I read the reviews online and some were good, a free great, and many BAD ones. I had already decided that I would throw a fit if needed. When we approached the resort exit, it was easy to tell that it was NOT in the tourist district…PLUS 1 for the Tiki’s. It was 8 miles from I 4 and 6 miles from the Disney West gate. NICE! We had a brand new super Target and 2 Publix and not a lot of tourists.

The resort looked inviting on the outside, you had the little Tiki Gods holding up the sign and very landscaped lawns. When I entered the lobby, it was spread out and open. This was a tad confusing, I went to the “check-in” desk but because I was with a timeshare I had to go to an additional check-in desk. I got my room key and the girl sent me down the counter to our “resort guide”. She wanted to get me Disney tickets cheap. All I had to do was listen to a vacation club talk. NOPE!!! I am not doing what I said. “I own the timeshare, I am in and don’t need anything else” She continued to offer me more things for 1 hour or 30 minutes of my time and I said, “NO, I am going to my room” and that was the end. It was not as high pressured as I expected.

We drove around to our unit the 1200 unit that I had read good reviews about online. Our room was 12331F. We opened the door and were knocked out by a very FISHY smell. YUCK! I got out the air freshener fast! We had one bedroom, one bath, a pullout sofa, a kitchen, a dining room, and laundry. We also had a bonus foyer, which was nice to store stuff. The room was clean (YAY) and stocked well. There was a vacuum, dishes, laundry detergent, dish detergent, a dishwasher; a living room….it was nice.

Everything in the unit worked fine except the front AV jacks on the tv, but we could plug the Wii into the back AV jacks. There were NOT enough blankets supplied and the sheets for the couch are NOT fitted so they do not stay on well. I will bring sheets next time.

Now for the water park…well, it was NOT what I expected. The site says “five water slides”, I assumed they were “water slides” because it did not say anything about being Kiddie slides. They were kiddie slides L. And the site said that there was a wave pool. The wave pool was one corner of a pool and it just had jets L. Not fun! The lobby pool was nice. Zero gravity pool, hot tub and very uncrowded! This is where we spent pool time. We never ventured onto the tennis courts, basketball courts or the golf course….NO TIME!!

What did we do? Monday is was Disney….well, EPCOT to be exact. EPCOT is the favorite park so it was a no brainer. We did our touring plan and had a marvelous day. We first fast passed Soarin’ then rode Test Track, Mission Space, Universe of Energy and then back to Soarin. Here we saw the Heath gang. Our baseball coach, Steve Shelby (my touring plan buddy) and all their families. It was fun to sit next to Steve on Soarin’. This was in the first hour! We fast passed Soarin again, rode Living with the Land and then headed over to Journey into imagination and the Living Seas. After that, we could relax a bit and just take it easy. We decided to eat. Hannah and I ate at Sunshine Seasons (my favorite ala cart place at WDW) and the boys ate at Electric Umbrella. My salad was superb as always. I always get the salad grown at EPCOT and the tuna salad…YUMMY! Hannah always gets the chicken leg and mashed potatoes.

After lunch, we headed over to World Showcase. Trevor was going to do a Kidcot mask because he has never done one (have no idea why). We got over to France and entered the Kidcot station and low and behold who was there but Mark and Grant Eyer. We spent a little time with the guys and joined up with Heidi and waited for Marie. After that, Mark decided to kill my son J and then we had to get back to ride Soarin again. This was designed as a break for my family who don’t really like the countries, they only go to humor me. After that, we started where we left off….France. As we approached America, the Kool and the Gang concert was about to start. ………… Yeah, we watched it…our kids were bored to death, but we knew all the words. It was very cool and I got great photos of drunken ladies dancing in the aisles and with the band.

When Kool was over we once again trekked on through the countries…..not much happened until Mexico where we got to eat some very good tacos. Well, it depends on who you ask. I thought they were good Hannah hated them.

We ended the day by the boys watching Illuminations and the girls running back to do Test Track one more time! It was an amazing ride and worth the running across the park that Hannah and I did to get there.

DAYTONA

Once everyone got moving we got into the car and headed over to Daytona. It was a nice quiet ride across I 4. And it was quiet in Daytona. We got on A1A and headed down the strip. It was nice to look around at everything as we have not been able to go to Daytona since 2005. We found the hotel that John and I stayed in on our honeymoon, and low and behold it is STILL a dump!!! We found a real gem on the strip, something that was NOT there the last time we were there….Sloppy Joe’s. Now, this takes us back to Key West. Yep, we ate there. I had the famous Sloppy Joe….yummy and I had to school my daughter on who “Papa” was. She had never heard of Hemingway. What are the schools teaching children, no Hemingway? That is an issue for later. We traveled back to Orlando and a good nights sleep, tomorrow is Universal Studios.

Universal Studios

Well, I was a bit nervous about this too. I remember last time we went to Universal is was roller coasters and I don't do coasters. Not at all, but I was excited that Trevor would get to see Harry Potter. That is exciting anyway because that part of the park just opened in June so Trevor would be one of the first people to go there.

It was very easy to get him a pass for the lines. I just went to guest service and they took care of him quickly. That is always nice. It did not matter in most instances. I had read that Spiderman was one of the greatest rides on the planet, so we headed there first. WOW!!!WOW!!!WOW!!! This was a little bit of wonderful. It is a simulator, part 3-D, part live action, part animation, all thrills! It had real flames, real water, Spidey would talk to us like he was in the car with us. What is happening is you get in this car and are traveling through town. Spiderman is with you and Doc Oct grabs your car and shakes you trying to kill you. What happens next is that a bunch of villains begin to bother your car and Spidey has to save you. And succeed he does.

Next we just walked about a bit and saw a place to eat lunch. We got the all you can eat package and planned to take advantage of it. We stopped for the first meal in the cartoon type restaurant. It was just OK! We did get this large bottle of coke that we could refill and that was very nice.

WE kept walking and around a bend we saw this giant castle. Yep, that's it HOgwarts. It was so lovely. I have always loved castles so it was exciting in that aspect but that is about all. As you are walking around towards the castles you enter Hogsmeade. It is like a throw back to olden times and I loved it instantly. The town was snow covered and a snowman greeted you as you entered the city gates. WE went inside Honeydukes, and it was sort of cool. The kids liked it but they knew what all the stuff was and I did not. There were butterbeer carts everywhere but I have no idea what that is at this point in time. No, I have not ever read the books and never cared to. There was the HOgwarts train and a conductor standing outside. The kids had their photo made in front of it and it was very cool. We sent John over to the Dragon's Challenge because I heard it was fun for roller coaster folks. So we went into Diagon Alley to watch John on the coaster. We did not know if he was on fire or ice, but I am telling you I was scared. I knew that the coasters were 12 inches apart from each other when you were in the middle of the ride and the riders were upside down. John got a little woozy...not good. But then we climbed the hill and headed to Hogwarts. I wanted so badly to go inside this castle and here we go. We showed Trevor's pass and they let us right in. We climbed some stairs and got into the ride line. OH MY GOSH, this ride was the best thing I have ever done. I had no idea what any of it meant. I have since studied Harry and read the books so now I know that Argog, the dementors, and he who must not be named. It was so good, that we got back in line to ride it again. We got right back in line and got on the ride within minutes. It was just as thrilling the second time and actually I wanted to ride it again, but John got sick. Very sick!!! While we were waiting for him to get better we rode the Flight of the Hippogriph. That was a family friendly coaster and not bad at all for someone like me that doses not like coasters.

We took at break and ate lunch in Dr Seuss, this was way better than the last place that we ate.

After lunch we headed to Poseidon. I have no idea what movie this is from but the show was very interesting. I enjoyed it.

After this we headed back to Harry. The wait was 80 minutes but we got right on. After that we headed to the old Universal. WE did the Twister, which is just like it was in 97 and a bit dated. We did the Simpsons (I hated it but everyone else liked it), Men in Black (we did this twice it was so fun), Jaws (I loved Trevor's reaction), ET (just as cool as I remember), and we ate dinner. That's all for today folks.

The next morning Grandpa called with problems but we decided we could not get home in time so we carried on waiting for news on him. We rode the Harry Potter ride again (I think 2 or 3 more times), the Nick show (nice), Shrek (nice except that you have to stand). I met Lucy and Ricky and Marliyn Monroe while everyone else did the Terminator show. We rode the spiderman a couple more times and I think that we did the DR Suess train this day too. All in all, Universal was great and hooked me on the HP bandwagon.

We left Fl early before we were scheduled because we felt we needed to get home for Grandpa, but it was a great trip and I want to go again.

Facts of life

It is a fact that as you finish the last load of laundry, you will sit down and magically a ton of dirty clothes will appear.

It is a fact that you will run out of dental floss just as you need it the most.

It is a fact that as much as I love het and support her, sarah palin will insert her foot into her mouth.

It is a fact that boys will laugh at toot jokes.

It is a fact that I am on Team Jasper.

It is a fact that my internet is out on most days.

It is a fact that I want to get published and run for public office.

It is a fact that Joe at Olive Garden is a terrible grumpy server.

It is a fact that coca cola cake is yummy.

It is a fact that I want Huckabee to run in 2012.

It is a fact that I hate mold.

It its a fact that I will never run pout of facts.

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