Skylar Woods? I think he found a new career...

We have all been itching to go camping now that the weather is nice. Between Keith’s weekend work schedule and Sky’s Kung-Fu tournaments, we decided on Memorial Day weekend. It’s not easy to get a site that weekend since we waited so long to book. We had to go with a new campground that is a bit further away but Keith booked a shady spot and the whole place looks pretty cool. There’s a lake with a swimming beach, hiking trails, mountain bike trails and a skatepark near. We are all very excited now that a date’s been set…granted a long time away when we’ve been dying for a vacation but we’ll survive.

It is supposed to get cooler and rainy starting tomorrow so we took advantage of the warm, nice day and went to the driving range with Keith. He loaned us a set of clubs and a junior set for Skylar. None of us has even attempted to hit a golf ball outside of miniature golf and Tiger Woods video games but it wasn’t so bad…for Sky. He was the only one hitting them past the 50 yd flag with good form and actually getting some loft. I was topping them, if I was even able to hit the thing to begin with. I would say I did 4 OK shots out of maybe 30 tries. Yeah, pretty bad but it was a lot of fun and I know I just need some practice then I can try out a Par 3 course. Skylar was aiming for the ball pick-up guy but he warned Keith to "please don't hit the geese". There is a clinic going on weekend after next so I’m going to take Sky out there too and see if we can improve our games a bit. Even if I borrow clubs, I definitely need gloves…my hands are all tore up.

God says: NO MORE FANGS!

In the world of orthodontics, I had my 6 month adjustment on Monday. I got a fun powerchain for the bottom teeth, which is supposed to close the gaps that have formed between my canines, laterals and first bicuspids. I also got elastics. Oh yay! Sarcasm aside, they aren’t that bad but they do hurt and are a slight pain in the ass to keep changing when I eat. They are from canine to canine. This, of course, has brought down my remaining “fang” canine enough that it doesn’t look like a fang anymore. It just needs to be pushed back into its proper position but one step at a time. My elastics are the stylish “Mountain Gorilla”, only meaning the size of the rubber bands…which, to be technical, is really freaking small. I was in a lot of pain this time. Mau handed me a vicodin to shut up my bitching and I still woke up in pain every hour that night. After 5 days, I am fairly pain free and back to enjoying my gummi bears in peace.

I thought I would get paid but I forgot I was on the monthly payment plan recently unfortunately. Not sure why but not much I can do about it. Since we have no money left after paying the government and other important bills, we decided to do something semi-free today (meaning the insanely high cost of gas). This is also due to Mau taking Friday night off to recover from his 4 tooth extractions so he was actually up at a decent hour of the day. We took the bikes to Lunken airport and rode around. It was really nice out and a good ride.

I was very impressed with Mau’s bravery about his major dental work. You wouldn’t have been able to drag me in there for a million dollars with novocaine only. Oh hell no! I went with him so he wouldn’t have to drive home and to sign the credit card for the costly payment. He came out looking dazed and puffy but alright otherwise. He only slept for a few hours then was back up with a vicodin and good to go. He’s actually been able to eat more than before the extractions since he was in such pain then. He seems happier now even while trying to quit smoking :P

Sky missed the honor roll again by getting one S+ (C+) but the rest were As and Bs. Little smarty pants. He can also tell you the complete story of how Jesus died and came back. This is not our doing. He’s been going to church with Mary Jo lately. This week he got invited to a kid’s thing at a friend’s church and I heard he spouted it off like a pro while the other kids were like “huh?” so I told Mary Jo “Now doesn’t that just figure the son of the Pagans knows more about Christianity than the kids that have been going to church all their lives?”. I think it’s more to do with showing off and if he was forced to go, he would not pay attention I’m sure.

Can the house rock anymore?

We had another good round of storms 2 days ago…more siren blowers. The lightning was most spectacular. The one storm had dropped a tornado near Indy but didn’t do anything nearly that cool once it reached us. Other than that, it’s been in the low 80’s and really nice. We really did skip spring. I was moving the winter coats aside to bring up shorts and tank tops. It was snowing like 2 weeks ago and now it’s 80. Weird. I suppose spring will make another appearance before summer settles in for good.

Vicki’s mom wasn’t doing Easter this year so we went over to Mary Jo’s daughter’s house for a BBQ. Boy, Milton can cook it up. We hung out for awhile then, right before we decided to take off, his relatives with the gold teeth (I didn’t catch names, sorry) came by with some super yummy dessert then Mau had to wait a bit to drive home. Mau attended with only 3 hours sleep from work the night before but was pleased with his decision to get up for it.

When the house is a-rockin...

We are barely into Spring and we have already had 2 good thunderstorms and a mediocre one. Just to make Dementia jealous, I will let her know they have blown the tornado sirens for both the big ones…I know the policy changed recently so they sound them when there is a thunderstorm warning while under a tornado watch but it sure makes you flip on the news to make certain.

Yesterday was the most recent big one. I hadn’t seen hail in a while. It was only about pea-sized but it was still cool. It was super warm so once the first one passed, we decided to head to Clifton to pay the rent, grab some ethnic food and be social for a bit. I also figured it would be a good area to hock some of Skylar’s candy bars he’s selling to help fund his Kung-Fu trip to Baltimore this summer. I should have brought more with us because it turned out to be a hotbed of candy bar lovin’ fools. Faris (I know I’m spelling it wrong, I always do.) wanted more than I brought. We’ll have to take more up there in a few days since I didn’t even get to Edr0 before I ran out.

I hate tax time and I have been so stressed out over it, I have tried not to mention it in my blog. I am happy to report that they are done…not sent off, but done. They have been in a rough draught for 2 months but when you owe, what’s the point in rushing things? Also, a lengthy delay in my checks (what else is new?) prevented us from being able to pay the hefty fee until now. And by hefty I mean HEFTY. It sucks. I’d rather take the money and go on a vacation to Portland…yeah, it’s that much.

Sky getting some words of wisdom from Shi Fu after receiving his gold belt... 

Who can do it? Mr. Gold Belt can!

Skylar survived the grueling 6 hour test to be promoted to the next belt rank in his Kung-Fu school. He has worked very hard to achieve this and is rightly proud of himself. He had to finish his short staff as part of the test so he can now run a weapon at tournaments as well as an open hand form and fighting.