Mobil Blogging is a FAIL

It appears I can type but no photos.
I can't seem to figure it out even after watching the Mobil Blogging for Idiots tutorial.
And I have an important job- Scary isn't it?

Blogging from the road

It is official-
I just got the word that all of the Fooseberry campers will be on the road at 8am Friday.
Hahahahaha!!!
Let me correct that. Our GOAL is 8am!
When you have 4 families with a total of 8 adults and 7 children most being 6 and under anything can happen. Some are newly potty trained, some are just pains in the ass (Oh those would be mine) and we will all need coffee so the time I am afraid might be a soft estimate.
I just found an option to post text or photos from my cell phone to the blog. I was about to test run it but my crap battery is dead so tomorrow if you see a random post of something it will be me testing this out.
Not that I want to work while on vacation but I guarantee I will want to share the great fun or disaster that is sure to happen while we are away. I may just post about where we all end up camping on Friday night of July 4th weekend with no reservations. This is going to be interesting.

We are running for the boarder

So mama's stress level has escalated to an all time high, as you can see from the photo, I am a bit loopy. Today we had a great time at a birthday party at the Pond but we got to talking about our up coming camping trip with my cousin who is also going. He says they are leaving early with no plan in place. Just get on the road and figure it out. Well the thought intrigues me and then I start to think-We haven't done that since before the kids came. Earl and I would go to CT in my 71 Volkswagen Beetle and just find a place to stay when we got there. We loved going to VW car shows and camping out.
It is not like we can't survive - we have a 30 foot camper full to the gills with supplies for the week so it is far from Earl and I and a cooler of beer in a VW. So I just called Mr. Fooseberry and told him to be ready we are leaving Friday.
WooHoo-You would think I was one of the Sandwich 6 leaving on a cross country expedition but when you have 2 kids and a ton of responsibilities - Fly by the seat of your pants is all but gone.
I am not sure the link will work but read the story about the Sandwich 6 in the Enterprise. It is great.
So our non-plan is that we will be packed and ready Thursday night and from Friday on .....
Sorry we can't come to the phone anymore. Don't leave a message we don't care until next week.

Gotta Love Craig's List

Let me explain this a little.
Mr. Fooseberry drives an old lady-180,000 miles and still rolling. We love her. We also don't want to piss her off as she needs to tow our camper all the way to Maine next Saturday.
He has been having problems with the drivers seat leaning and not in a good Gangsta lean sort of way. When I drive I need to tuck my backpack behind my right shoulder so I can sit up straight.
So his birthday is coming up and I am always listening and trying to produce gifts he wants but maybe won't expect. This is difficult because he can be a pain in the ass but that is another post.
Anyway-I start searching for replacement seats at low cost. Right, I know.
By the way as I type this I am starting to smell cat pee- on with my story.
So he plans to strip the whole seat down and weld the broken parts while I go off Cape. I have planned a secret trip to purchase 2 seats for Big Daddy.
I meet this man in Lakeville and he loads them from his trunk to the back of my SUV. I pay and leave happy as a lark- He will never expect this!!!
We are just merging onto the highway when the wind starts to circulate the cat piss smell all thru the car.
WTF!!!
I am now in bumper to bumper traffic trying to get back onto the Cape on a Friday at 4pm and I am trapped in cat hell.
When I finally get home Olivia can hardly control herself about A PRESENT< A PRESENT< A PRESENT. I am trying to calm her as I really need to drive directly to the dump with them.



The good news of the story is that he had already planned on stripping the seats down to the frame to weld so he stripped the cat piss one out on his tailgate and threw the pad and cover directly in a pile for the dump.
Once he stripped the one from his truck he found it broken in 3 places-top and bottom. He did have to weld the new seat in a small place but it was a great improvement over his old mess.
He worked all day on the old girl- New oil, Transmission service and a seat that is almost as good as new so we hope she Thanks us by taking us on a great vacation Saturday.

Check out this Mother of the Year

FORT SMITH, Ark. – A mother who drank 13 beers before a psychological evaluation failed to recover custody of her three young children despite claiming she wasn't drunk because she "can drink like a fish." The woman wanted to get the children back from her husband's stepmother.

The Arkansas Court of Appeals rejected her Wednesday, citing addictions, frequent absences and criminal activity to support her habits. It said the woman made no meaningful efforts to restructure her life.

The children are ages 6, 4 and 4. The state took custody in 2007 when the woman's mother said she could no longer care for the children. Human Services workers later won an order declaring the children's mother unfit and want to see the children adopted.

Shark Tooth no more

I have been calling Olivia Shark Tooth for weeks now as her Big Teeth are coming in behind the baby teeth. I was thinking nature would take it's course and push them out but that was not happening. A Mother at dance that is an orthodontist told me she needs to get them out to allow the big teeth to move forward but she was not having it. I kept reminding her to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
After seeing her actually get 1 of the teeth to lay down it is so loose I decided those babies are coming out today. I quickly made this Tooth fairy bag after seeing one online. It took longer than I thought as I haven't been sewing in months but I am happy with the end result and so is she.
After about 15 minutes of drama the teeth basically fell out-with a little Mama assistance.
Now she is too excited to tell everyone at sports camp tomorrow that she has no teeth.
For some reason the less teeth you have the bigger smile you have!!
While I was sewing both girls start needing to cut and destroy paper and material.
The bad part happens when Olivia yells out " Ava-Don't cut your hair!"
I ran to her to find a small little curl lying on the floor. Luckily I was able to get to her before she had a haircut like Mommy's.

11 Days and Counting

POINT SEBAGO

Today was not exactly one of my best days. Lately it sucks around here so I thought it would be a perfect time to focus on leaving this place for another. I really didn't realize how soon it was coming up.

WOOO-HOO!!! 11 days........Oh Shit 11 days. We are not ready. I just decided that I am packing some clean clothes, a couple of books and the peanut butter and fluff from the pantry and we are going. We pay a good chunk to stay here for the week and a lot is included. You really only need money for things like meals, entertainment or extra stuff like pirate booze cruises and such.
I don't need that. I need the sun on my skin, no phone and I can pretend to be my own pirate if I bring my own booze.
We have a great set up where we cook outside and I plan on bringing a ton of firewood. Last year we were still battling at bedtime so most nights I was stuck going to bed with her to get her to sleep. This year I want to spend some nights by the fire. No wait, I almost forgot I need $10 for BINGO. This was a great time last year and Ramona is unable to come so I am sure to win this year. Mama needs some gas money to get us Home.
This weather crap better stop because this was how we spent every day. I think it rained a bit but we always were able to get back to the beach.
We are leaving July 4th so we will be checking in just in time for the Carnival and Fireworks.
My family and I need this vacation desperately.
All the crap that worries us will still be here when we get back and it can wait.

A Strange Request on Craig's List

I found this post on Craigs List under WANTED. I thought it was cute and an interesting idea. If you are interested in sending a card from wherever you are I will post the address at the end.


Here is my crazy request.......... My son is turning 10 on July 17th. I am asking people from all over the world to send him a birthday card. He is so special to me and I thought how cool would it be for him to have a stack of cards from people all over the world wishing him a Happy Birthday! I can only imagine how excited that would make him! PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM NOT ASKING FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN SIMPLY A CARD! If this is something you want to help me accomplish please respond and I will email you his info. Thank you so much and God Bless!

Trevor Kesner

3711 Oakwood Rd.

Pine Bluff, AR 71603

For all You Smarty Pants

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Happy Father's Day

He doesn't like to be spoken of on the Internet but hey it's Father's Day.
It has been a busy weekend for Dad. Friday night he took Olivia to a Dad and Me party at The Children's Museum in Mashpee. It was supposed to have rockets, catapults and sling shots as well as a moon bounce, pizza party and Chad's ice cream. It sounded like she spent an hour in the Moon bounce but they had a great time and that was all I cared about.
Saturday he woke up early and took Ava to Grampa's house where they worked with a Back hoe and took out a bunch of stumps. Real boy work for our little tough girl. As our close friends know we have been working hard on controlling Ava's temper and being a good girl and she is doing excellent. Dad did not want to return her to the baby store without a receipt like usual.
Today I was awoken by the two of them right in my face "Mom-Wake up. It's Faddah's Day! You need to make the breakfast for Dad. He needs it in bed."
Where they got this idea I do not know. My husband is an old fashion guy. He eats his meals at the table. I can eat while driving, walking, at the table or on the couch-not him. How to break it to them that Dad isn't really interested in breakfast in bed was hard but eventually he rolled out of bed and ended up cooking his own breakfast. That was more like it. This man loves breakfast and I do not so I let him whip up his own eggs, it is easier that way.
I got a call a short time ago that he is headed to the Chinese Buffet with his girls and they will stop by with tea for me shortly. It is almost like Mother's Day too-I like that.
It was sort of like Father's Weekend with all the Dad activities that took place around here. It was quite nice.

Where to begin?

I think I may have to start writing things on my hand because yesterday before all the Margaritas I had some fantastic ideas to post on the Blog.
Now, not so much....
I will fulfill a promise I made to a friend late in the night but we will get back to that later. A hint-Do you know any single ladies????
Yesterday was a family cookout that changed to a Dirty Thirty adult only party after dark. I am lucky enough to have family living with me that were willing to take over the Mom duties while Mr. Fooseberry and I partied down.
The family was sweet. Each was given a letter in her name and they made a list of descriptions and stories about her life that most of us didn't know. I thought this was a great and hysterical idea. It ended with her Dad that brought tears to most of our eyes.
The family rented some Margarita machines which flowed late into the night. I am not sure how expensive they were but I thought they were a great idea. Luckily there are no photos of me but a few text messages went out after midnight that I would like to retract. Christian turned out to be a terrific host and always had your drink refilled. He also made a killing on tips. I may have just bought his first car last night.
I am happy to say age was not a factor even when the jello shots came out as you can see.
It was a great time and it involved some much needed time with my friends. I think I ran my mouth about having a tiki torch party again so I am going to have to live up to my word and have a gathering. I need to start collecting some recipes as parties=cooking in my book.

P.S. I reconnected with a friend who is single and I promised to plead his case on the World Wide Web. Are you looking for a SWM that owns a car, has a job and owns a house(I think he does anyway)?? He is in his 30's and available so email me if you want a hook up.
Me may just kill me for this !!

I am the Lunch Lady today

Disconnected

Ever notice how disconnected all of us are now?
I am not a computer person at all. I can't answer what system I have, what mega byte I use or even how to use most functions on a computer. I stumble thru with my couple of fingers and I have to watch myself type. I am not a tech person.
Yesterday I watched a news program about how many million percent text messaging has gone up. I am a victim of that too.
I am on Facebook, Myspace(rarely),Blogger and Gmail.
I have been known to be text messaging, IMing and Blogging all at the same time. I admit I have contact on my Blog and Facebook with family from far which I find really cool. We may not talk or keep in good direct contact but you can see what I am doing and I can see what you are doing.
It is sort of like a Christmas card letter of the 50's but you get an update daily or weekly.
The question is What happens to the human factor? Can you have a normal conversation with a real live person? On one hand this is good for me as I have social anxiety and I can have friends but not put myself out there too much. On the other hand-I don't have to put myself out there so much. It is a double edged sword.
I also think it is weird when I see a person I haven't seen in a while yet they know all about my life and how I have been doing. I was recently talking to someone who has never seen or read my Blog and she asked me "Are you honest when you write?" I was kind of surprised-" Why wouldn't I be honest?" I am actually more honest here I think than in real life. I mean I don't talk about everything in my life-Mr FB isn't too hot about being on the Blog-but I say what I want. It is my space to do that.
Why I am writing so deep and not about birthday parties and cupcakes I am not sure but again it is my space so I can do that.

Debbie Downer says RAIN

The weather lady just did me in. Not that I was racing around today anyway. I have loaded the dishwasher and cleaned out the fridge of the funkies. Now I am hear typing away. She just showed the weather until Tuesday of rain, rain and more rain. Some days less of a chance than others but still looks like shit.
I am off to the store to pick up some stuff not exactly good weather friendly but maybe a good idea will come to mind.

Rose Update

They are opening!!

Chapter 3,679

I am beginning to see the problem-It has taken me 2 days to blog about my weekend as I have that much to blah, blah, blah about.
After the Dance recital we headed right to a birthday party after picking up Ava. Above is Ava fishing in a pretend pond for crabs, squid and sharks. She would not try the slide with the rest of the kids until I helped her learn how to climb up the ladder side and then she was off, cutting and pushing to get her turn before the bigger kids.


Obviously Olivia wasn't too tired to get crazy on the slide-still in her dance clothes as she wasn't about to miss out just because she didn't bring her bathing suit.
After the party we decided to let someone else cook our dinner because Mom had nothing ready and needed to let someone else do the dishes. We hit Seafood Sam's where Ava and Dad shared Calamari and Scallops. She will eat anything.
I thought a little tourist time would be fun so we walked Main Street and stopped at Ghelfi's for some gummy worms. It was a Supersized weekend but excellent and ended with a great Berry family night.

Dance, Dance, Dance

As you can tell she HATES Dance-Hahahahaha!!! She was not going until I started to unpack the costumes and then she was a giggly mess. I think she thought it was just dance class. On the way home I had to hear all about how cool it was on stage. This photo is just her hamming it up in the class waiting until it was her turn to go on stage. This is the costume for "Wait a minute Mr Postman" There was a lot of hip shaking that I think Daddy was a bit taken aback by but I had to point out she put more into it than most. Don't blame the dance teacher-blame Fergie.

This was a magician number and it was too cute. I am still singing " Do you believe in magic " around the house while she is giving me the "MOM-quit it" lecture. Saturday morning was dress rehearsal where we were allowed to take video and photos. So some of the photos contain teachers and no props as it was a practice run. After each girl tapped on the hat with her cane and left the stage the next dance was with tiny baby ballerinas dressed as bunnies and they all came walking out of the door in the top hat. It was priceless.

The finale was a Ho Down type dance with a funky tone so she was told to wear knee socks that matched her hot pink shirt. Perfect chance to wear these High School Musical striped ones she got from Nana. They all cranked it up with funky hair pieces and more make up during the actual dance recital. It was great.
Most of the family went and cheered her on. She did a great job and we are already talking about next year. Ava may even be in it by then.

Where to begin?

As I had said a few days ago this was going to be a rough weekend. As it turns out, I even had a birthday party which I had forgotten about added to the list.

Let's start from Friday

We packed my car like we were leaving for the week. Chelsea and I brought everything we could think we might need. We were survivors!!

Well it was far from a Safari to survive the weekend for some people. We planned in out and had people coming at all different times and a few of us could stay the whole time. As it turned out we even had some surprise team members join us at the last minute thanks to Kim.

It was definitely not what we were expecting. We learned at the last minute we would be camping right on the edge of the track. That way you could be cheering people on even if you were "off duty" and someone else was walking. Chelsea and I baked up some stuff and made a few more dollars selling baked goodies to people walking by. Another team was offering a full Italian meal for $5-salad, pasta and a cannoli-WOOT!

I forgot to mention how many high school and under groups were involved. We had a very "spirited" group next to us that we later found out were 11-12 years old. We lost most of the walkers when the Slip and Slide came out and about midnight when all the Redbull was wearing off people started ducking off into tents for the night. I myself hit the hay from about 12:30am until 3:45. Chelsea woke me just in time for Joe to show up for the 4-8am shift. I soon noticed how few people were still walking. I think once the " I can stay up all night with my friends" thing wore off most kids just couldn't hang. Joe and I dipped out for a D&D run when they opened at 5:30 and I was surprised to come back and find people packing up and leaving. When the main desk opened I asked what was up? She said the morning entertainment cancelled and this was typical after it rained. "People just go-You know when it is rainy." Well it rained I will give you that but at 5:30 the previous night for a few minutes and then clear all night so I was surprised to hear that. I guess they just didn't care. She said they try to get people to stay but when the entertainment wasn't there anymore people just left. I saw a few agitated adults just wanting to get out of there. I have to admit I don't know how 1 or 2 adults can handle 20 12 year olds on their own.

All in all - I feel proud to have been a part of this - Maybe not so impressed with how it was done. I guess this is part of my last post. Maybe I set my expectations too high-I just thought we committed to walk all night continuously and it was just kind of brushed off and not taken as seriously as we had.

Olivia was able to come help us get set up and walk the first hr or so. I am glad. We tried to explain why we were there and how important it was. She told me she knew that already Mom. Mrs. Nilson already told me-She is doing it too. One upped by the Kindergarten teacher-She is the best. She also once explained why her husband was having a knee replacement and that is hysterical when repeated back to you from a 5 year old.

I am also proud to say our little team earned $865(I believe) and that is all that matters. We had fun although I feel old, out of shape and still exhausted-but would do it again!!

I will continue the rest of the fabulous weekend posts tomorrow I am off to bed.

Future Fergies of the world

RELAY!!!

We are loaded up and heading out!!
Thank You to all that donated and we are still able to accept donations up until August 31st.
We have raised about $800 so far and will be selling goodies at the walk. From what I am told the track runs among the camp sites and people are offering wares to earn even more. I am bringing the Berry's Bags in hopes of selling some and donating the profits to our team also.
BTW Joe I have a crockpot full of homemade meatballs!!!
See you there and hope the rain holds off.

Tomorrow is Olivia's dance recital practice and then the big day is Sunday. I am so excited. She tried on both dance outfits to make sure we have all the accessories. She looked great.
Once I get in some sleep I will be posting, posting, posting with all the news.
I need a laptop to do live feed-Any donations?

American Cancer Society-Relay for Life

It is tomorrow. We set up in the afternoon but it all begins at 6pm. We have a small team of determined people that will be walking on the track from 6pm until noon on Saturday. Some people are coming before work and some are showing up in the middle of the night after work so we can fulfill our obligation to have at least 1 member walking throughout the night.
So come out and support us. There will be entertainment and food all along the track. We are setting up our camper and selling cupcakes (Of course) and other sweet treats to keep people sugared up thru the night. If you are awake 2am will be Twister.
Hope to see you there and pray we are walking under the moon and stars not thunder showers.
Barnstable County Fairgrounds Rt 151 - BRING COFFEE!!

Roses

When I lived with my girlfriends about 10 years ago I bought a few rose bushes at this little corner nursery in New Bedford. I think I paid $10 a pot and they were already about 2 ft tall and in bloom. I knew nothing about growing roses. Soon after they were chewed to death by Japanese beetles. I powdered the leaves and hung some bags and was able to somewhat control them . I loved them because I could cut the large blooms and put them on the table.

When I bought this house I really wanted to try again. I bought some cheap climbers at Home Depot but they are 4 dead stumps now. There was 1 by my front door that was a mile tall whip. I started cutting it back to the ground. I found 1 growing out of the foundation. I think I may have bought the third, I can't even remember. This past Fall I moved the other 2 next to the whip and decided the front garden would be a good rose garden. It gets good sun most of the day so I bought some rose spray to control fungus and bugs and have treated them once or twice. I am under attack again. I have cut off some buds that are being eaten away but I have hope.

This is what is going on now. The whip is now more of a bush but it is producing groups of buds. I do not know what type it is, maybe someone out there does.

Mental Breakdown

I had intended to post all this sunshine and butterflies about my day but I am a pressure cooker and I am about to burst so I am going to expel some here and then it will be back to regular posting.
I am done-not like suicidal done-just done.
I do not want to do things anymore because I think I should, have to or am supposed to.
I want to get rid of the guilt if I don't do it.
I want to get rid of the need to do it right.
I want to say I can't do it.
I want to do what I want to do.
I want to rid myself of the clutter-both physical and mental.
I want to get rid of feeling like crap about myself, my life and my skills as a Mother.
I want to disconnect.
I already feel better as I have unfortunately vented on the people that are close to me and now dumped it on you. I now have the huge task of trying to change some if not all of these things. Have I just added to the problem by making a list and adding to the work load that I just bitched so heavily about? Yes I believe I have.
I have gotten to the point where the stress level is preventing me from sleeping and we all know how much sleep I get as it is. I have made commitments for the weekend and I just want to walk away from them. I am at the end of my rope.
I want to simplify my life.
I want to help my children blossom.
I want to have more positive and less negative in my life.
I want to work less and play more.
I want to enjoy my life.
I want to be happy.

My new favorite Blog

www.cakejournal.com

This Blog is awesome. She explains how to do some of the prettiest decorating of cakes and cupcakes. Although I should not eat these things I do like to make them for people I care about.
Our family like most celebrated with food. So the way to a persons heart is thru their stomach-either by way of beef stew, cakes or peanut butter balls - I love it all.
I linked to it so you can see her tips too. Check her out.

10,000 Views

I started doing this thinking I was talking to myself in an empty room. I do that - Talk. Mostly to myself but sometimes an unlucky person is around and forced to listen to me blab. I though this would be a way of purging all that chatter but no, I am still a blabber. Blah, Blah, Blah...
Some of my page views are by mistake as people are searching for info on Crack and they find me droning on and on about how Sugar is my crack. I am sure they get disappointed to be looking for the real thing and stumble upon my juvenile candy corn blog. Oh well, Real Crack is Whack- so get off it.
The point to my post is this. I never expected it to be more than a place I would write and a few friends would read. Below is today's Site meter and I am approaching 10,000 views.
Who will be the 10,000th shopper at Fooseberry World??? Will it be you? Maybe you will win a prize-maybe not.
In any event - I just wanted to say Thanks for reading and making this fun.
To celebrate my blabbing - post a comment, Say Hi! and don't be a Lurker.
More important come back soon.