Is It Too Much To Ask? Probably!

Dear Mother Nature,

I love you! The past few nights you have delivered some kick ass sleeping weather. It was cool enough to snuggle under my favorite blankets with my boys, but leave the windows open just enough to let in a nice breeze. Just the way I like it! I can not stand when it's too hot to sleep!

By the way, so you don't think I'm some cheating tramp, "my boys' refers to my Beatles blanket.



What I meant to sat these past few nights, and days....

Dear Mother Nature,

What the hell, you moody bitch?!? Hot, cold, hot, cold, and then rain! And the rain either cools things down too much or makes the air so heavy that I feel like I'm drowning when I try to breathe! It is summer.

S-U-M-M-E-R

Got that?

Summer is supposed to be hot!

We got our pool passes last week. We were too busy to hit the pool over the weekend, but now that we're home and available to go to the pool, it's not warm enough. I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit on the side wrapped in a towel while my kids turn blue in the pool!

We don't have AC, so it will be tough at first, but we do have enough fans to assist in the cooling process. I'll adjust. But please adjust yourself so we can go out and enjoy the summer!




Of course, that is only what I meant to say! Last time I complained about the weather, we got screwed. Big time! Last summer was sucky, so I said "We better have a decent snow storm to make up for it". I just wanted 1 day where no one had to go anywhere and we could stay home and play in the snow. 1 day!

We ended up with Snowmageddon. Schools were closed for a week, the husband couldn't get to work for most of that week as well, and the shoveling... my God, it didn't end!!!


I'm gonna shut my trap now before we end up with a hot summer of epic proportions!

Vampire, Buzzes, and Woodies

I'm sparkling!

Mainly because I've been nominated for Prom Queen by the Mommyologist (please vote for me!). But the other reason is because I thought I would be all cute and use the fancy lotion.

The lotion with glitter in it.

It was Friday that I put the glitter on. It is now Tuesday. I have taken numerous showers over the weekend and the glitter is still there!!!

Since I'm all sparkly, does that mean I'm turning into a vampire or something? Doesn't one of the Twilight people sparkle? I'm not a Twilight fan. It's just what I've heard.

Speaking of Twilight... check this shit out!


I stopped at Burger King the other night for dinner.

It was hot, I was lazy, and I didn't want to cook. I know it's not healthy. Back off!!

As I'm waiting in the drive thru line I'm checking out the ads on the menus. I see Twilight, hoping beyond hope that its just a promo and not a toy in the kids meals. Maybe a game or some collectible glasses or something. With lead, like McDonald's!

I get home to discover this in the kids bags...

A friggin rubber Twilight charm bracelet! The rubber smells funky and feels like jelly bracelets or jelly shoes. Please tell me you know what those are? At least pretend!

And what the hell is that brown thing supposed to be?!?


Now I realize that there's a lot of Twilight fans out there. I am not mocking you. I'm just saying I have no desire what so ever to see the movies or read the books. I also don't think it's a movie I want my 8 year old daughter to see. From what I understand, there's no sex, just maybe a kiss or 2. Nothing wildly inappropriate. But that doesn't make it a kids movie. Therefore items related to the movie should not be in a kids meal from a fast food joint!

What the hell Burger King?!?


And further more, what the hell is my 4 year old son supposed to do with it?!? His dad was anything but happy seeing his son parade around with a vampire bracelet!


Isn't Toy Story 3 out? Can't we get some Buzzes and Woodies up in here?!

Great! Now my rant sounds like porn!

Sparkling and Nominations

Well I'll be damned! I'm all a-glow!

I am one of the 5 nominees for the Mommyologist's Mom Sexy Prom!!! I never get nominated for this kind of shit! Probably because I never cared about it before. But I do now. I love this whole Mom sexy thing. And dammit, I am Mom sexy. Even if I'm the only one who thinks it (husband excluded), I will shout it from the rooftops!

If you missed me getting all dolled up, you can check out this post. Go ahead, I'll wait. Just don't oogle too much.


So what does it mean now that I'm a nominee? It means I have to beg and plead and kiss some major ass to get you to vote for me.

Do you take bribes?

Do I need to stand on my head and perform circus tricks?

I'll do whatever it takes for you to vote for me.

Maybe... a girl has to have standards, you know!


Voting starts today and goes until Friday, July 2. You can vote once a day.


Please and thank you!

Prom - Take 2

I have a confession to make.


I didn't go to my Senior Prom
long story

I remember hearing that it wasn't all that fun anyway. I'd like to think that was because I wasn't there, but I know that's not true. In high school, I was just there. I wasn't voted most popular or most beautiful. Hell, the only pictures of me in the yearbooks are the school pictures where you're forced to sit in the gym while a creepy photographer snaps away. There might be a few stage crew pictures with me in them. Assuming we showed up! The good girl image is a front at times.

But I am making up for that right here and now. I decided to attend the Mommyologists Mom Sexy Prom.



The prom doesn't start until Friday night, but I am cutting it a little close. That's the story of my life - way too early or just barely making it!


I had this whole outfit picked out and ready to go. And then I hit a road block. A major one! My key accessory is no where near ready yet! I so badly wanted to wear my long black and slinky dress with the spaghetti straps. My own pair of "do me" shoes compliment it nicely. And I was going to throw a shawl on just in case it gets chilly. But, you see, I am making this shawl. Topaz in color with gold flecks. It's not ready to go yet. But that's ok. I'm wearing that outfit when I go see the Phantom of the Opera in a few months. I better be done by then.

So you see my dilemma - nothing to wear!!! I started tearing apart my closet, noticing a boatload of crap that needs pitched, when there it was. One of my favorite dresses I forgot I had! We had a winner! And it goes with my "do me" shoes. Bonus!!!

Need a close up of my rockin shoes? Here ya go!!!

I would like to take a minute to point out that I did in fact do some chores while rockin my dress. I vacuumed upstairs and put away yet another load of laundry. But I couldn't do it in my shoes. I love them to death, but I'll be damned if I can walk in them without tripping!


Now that I have my outfit picked out, my make-up on and a relatively clean house, I can turn my focus to finding a date.

On second thought, I think stag is the way to go. Less stress. I'll have more fun if I just mingle with the other ladies while I grab a few drinks, because those are legal at this prom!

Maybe some of the other ladies know of an awesome after-prom party. Preferably one with a pool. I am quite proud to say I bought a new bathing suit that I am in love with. A low cut, brown and flowery tankini. Low cut and flowers - definitely not something I would even have considered a year ago!

After the conversation I had with the husband last weekend, I will admit I did try on a little bikini. If it wasn't so damn hard to tie, I would have bought it, too!!


So who has a pool?!

Memories

Memories - they can be a tricky thing. We collect them throughout our lives. Some are good. Some are bad. Sometimes we wish we could remember more, while other times we choose to forget.


Memories seem to have a way of creeping in when you least expect. It could be a place, a gesture, or sometimes a song that triggers memories.


For me, it was a place. A church.


I am not a regular church goer. I usually go for Christmas or for occasions such as weddings and funerals. It's not because I don't believe in God. I honestly do not know where I stand on that subject, but that discussion is for another time.


I was at a church last week - a Greek church. I was there with my kids and some friends for their annual Greek fest. We had parked across the street at the mall and took the shuttle up to the church. While we were waiting for the shuttle to return when we were ready to return to our cars, my friend asked if the kids had seen the inside of the church. We had walked through the lobby on our way to the restrooms, but that was as far as we got. I thought it would be something they would like to see, so I walked them in.


Once through the lobby, I stopped. I could not go any further. The church was gorgeous, as many are, but the sight of the apostles brought me to tears. This church was all to similar to the last Greek church I was in.


The last time was in January of this year. I was in this particular church for the purpose of a funeral. The funeral of a friend. My friend, Marie, had lost her battle to pancreatic cancer.


We were not the closest of friends. Our girls were, and still are, good friends. We both worked together to help within the school. There were many other people that knew her better than I, but working together so many times, I considered her my friend.


It has been almost 6 months since her passing. Her youngest daughter is in my Brownie troop. At first I thought seeing her and her dad would be a difficult thing. I lost a parent and I understood how hard it can be. It was not as difficult as I expected. Even when her daughter would say she couldn't participate in the Mother's Day craft because she didn't have a mom anymore.


I thought I had come to the point of acceptance. I have my own personal beliefs as to why she left this world when she did. That doesn't mean I understand, but I can accept.


Quite regularly, I drive by her resting place. I do not shed tears, but I do whisper a hello. Her memories and the memories of that day come rushing back, but I accept. Why did the same memories come rushing back in that church and almost bring me to my knees?

I Feel So Sexy

You can read about our trip to the amusement park over at All You Need is Love.

SupahMommy put the post-it link up early, so if you're reading this Monday night, just wait til the morning, k? Thanks!

Please save the sunscreen lectures.
I bathed in that crap before we left!

Again, save the lecture!

I reapplied so many times I'm surprised we have any left!

Finally, I get my son to go in the big pool voluntarily and I come home looking like a freaking lobster! Thank goodness it's supposed to rain for a few days. I'll just throw on their suits and send them outside.


Seriously, where's my damn aloe?!?!


While I go look for it, go check out

Monday Minute - Read This You Must

Ah Ian, new button you have.

Play I must.

1 - Have you ever had any feelings towards one of your teachers back in the day?

Oh, Pablo, you made Chemistry so fun!

No, his name wasn't really Pablo. It was Mr. Urban. He was the McDreamy of Science!

I believe it was junior year in high school. We had this teacher, Sweaty Teddy, for Chemistry. I honestly don't remember what his real name was. Well, not his last name anyway. He was way past due for retirement and it showed. We had a stellar class and he obviously didn't give a damn about controlling them us. Other than me and a few good friends, it was a mix of football players and the "bad kids". Pennies were thrown at the board, books were known to fly across the room, and I believe there was a fire on more than one occasion. Since it was a Chemistry class, let's go with fire being a learning experience.

Sweaty Teddy was finally pushed over the edge into retirement and in came sub #1. Since we were an out of control class already, sub #2 quickly entered the class. I guess third time's a charm because in came sub #3 close behind.

Sub #3 was Pablo. A young, dark hair, built man. The fact that he let us get away with practically everything made him every high school girl's dream. I believe every test was open book. And if it wasn't, he surely didn't stop us when we pulled them out!

Enough rambling. I obviously had a crush on Pablo. By the way, I have no clue where we came up with that name!



2 - What's the most embarrassing thing that happened while at work?

I worked at Burger King back in high school with my best friend, Traci. Something always happened when the 2 of us were together - good and bad. In fact, we're still like that!

As I'm typing this I'm on the phone with her and neither one of us can think of anything embarrassing. We can however come up with some pretty funny ones of us working together. But that's not what was asked, so no stories today. Ha ha!

3 - When was the last time you crapped yourself?

When I was a baby - back when it was ok for me to do that kinda thing. I have done some stupid things in my life and some embarrassing things, but that is not one of them. Thank goodness!


4 - What is one thing you have always kept a secret and why have you kept this a secret for so long?

If I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore, now would it?!


and finally...


5 - What's your best advice for us habitual coffee drinkers as to not have to poop right after drinking it?

Maybe it's time to cut back on the coffee!

Thank god I'm typing and not talking directly to the question asker because that answer would not come out without a laugh. Do you know how much coffee I can drink? It's almost embarrassing!

Maybe you should just eat some bananas or some cheese!

I could never be a therapist and I may have OCD!

These revelations came to me last night as I was watching the OCD Project on VH1. I admit that I watch Intervention, Hoarders, and the like. They're like a car crash - you just have to look! So I figured this show might be interesting.

I only watched 2 episodes last night so I don't know the whole story behind each patient, but here what I do know. Arine has a fear of contracting diseases (HIV?) if she touches dirty things. In order to try and overcome this fear, she must face it by doing things like shaking hands and sticking her finger in a puddle of God knows what in a gutter. I'm not sure on the shaking hands thing, but the puddle... that's gross. I don't care who you are!

But what really got me was the toilet.

Arine had to spend some quality time with her mom and a therapist joined them on their excursion. Their destination - going out for tea and scones. It sounds like a lovely time to me, but here's the kicker... Arine couldn't start to eat her scone until it was contaminated.

They could have just dropped it on the floor or something, but no, they had to take their food into the bathroom! The scones were then rubbed all over the toilet seat! Then they returned tot he table and she was ok with eating them because she was now removed from the nasty situation. Really?!? Because Arine felt "removed" the returned tot he bathroom and proceeded to rub their scones on the inside of the toilet! What. the. fuck?!?!? As they were doing this, Arine's mom pointed out the dried pee inside the bowl! And then the therapist accidentally dropped her scone in the blue water in the bowl! And if that's not gross enough, they ate the fucking scone that was in the water!!!

In understand facing your fears by doing something extreme so the everyday stuff won't seem so bad, but you have go to be fucking kidding me!!! I don't even want to think about the nasties inside a toilet! I won't touch anything that falls into my toilet at home that I know I clean, let alone in a public uni-sex bathroom!

Maybe I'm a little OCD, too!!!

There's another girl on there who is obsessed with being clean. Someone took her laundry out of the dryer and put it into her basket. She freaked out because someone touched her stuff and it was not dirtier than before she washed it. I must say her fit was rather impressive. She put my son's fits to shame. He's 4 and can throw some pretty good ones.

As I'm watching this I'm screaming at her from my couch to "Shut up and just deal with it!!!".

And that is why I could never be a therapist. I don't do well with bullshit!

Just Nod If You Can Hear Me

HELLO!!!!

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?!?!?

Kidding! I know someone is out there.

Right?

RIGHT?!?

Anyyell, welcome to Jules Out Loud. I'm Jules. That's not my real name, but I'm sure you already figured that out if you saw my profile or the little About Me box over there to the right. That's just the name I go by on here.

I know lots of people who partake in Friday Follow so if you're a little confused, let me explain. My other blog, All You Need is Love, is where I've been hanging out for close to a year now. I guess I need to figure out some sort of blog-o-versary or something. But back to this place...

I started this blog about a week ago. This is my personal place. My family doesn't know about it. I really wouldn't mind too much if one of them stumbled onto this blog, but I would prefer they didn't. I almost feel guilty when I don't talk about my kids over there. And I try to keep that place clean. I don't cuss like a sailor or anything, but sometimes things just slip out.

I really don't have too much to show off here yet. Like I said I just started this blog last week. You can read my Welcome page - it sums up why Jules Out Loud started.

I keep telling myself blogging is not a number's game, but I love to have people around who read what I have to say. Hopefully there's someone out there who can relate to what I have to say. If you decide you like my place and are sticking around, let me know down below in the comments. I will stop over and visit your place, too!


Thanks for stopping by!

Second Guessing - A Slippery Situation

I think there comes a time in every one's life where we second guess a decision we made. Kind of like the decision BP made to not shell out the money to install a shut off valve.

Yes I'm going there. I realize that this topic has been talked to death, but I came across something that really set me off.

I was killing some time on Twitter when I saw a tweet from @BPglobalPR. I didn't quite understand the tweet so I clicked on the link included. This is the article I was redirected to.

More Dirty Details From My BP Mole

The article paints "a grim picture of the conditions for both workers and wildlife at Louisiana's Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge."


After I read that article, I clicked on another...

"We Don't Need This on Camera": BP's Crappy Cleanup Job

Do I really need to explain this one? Too few workers trying to clean up too much land. Barely working I might add. Warning: the pictures are a little graphic in this one.


Now, I am taking these articles with a grain of salt. For all I know they were written by people who are making this out to be worse than it really is to get a story. But don't think for a second that I am not aware of how massive this problem is. I do realize there are things being done to remedy the problem. But what really pisses me off is that the oil is still spilling out into the ocean!

How has someone not figured out a way to stop that shit?!? I know Obama is down there checking the situation out and hopefully formulating a plan. I don't know, maybe he still has some hope left in him. I don't have nearly as much as I used to. And I am referring to him and the oil on that. I know he had quite a mess to clean up coming into office, and apparently here's yet another, but come on man. Get your shit together!!!

I'm not ashamed to say I voted for the man yet but I expected a lot more by this point. What I'm really starting to have a problem with is that he appears to be taking after W when it comes to disasters. It took how long for W to help out those effected by Katrina? Too long. This is looking like the same thing, just a different man with a different problem. While the problems may be different, they both had an effect on people and on the wildlife. And they will both take years and years to recover from.


What are your thoughts?

I'm So Excited

The husband has a new job!!!

That means there's a good chance I will get him back!

He has worked so hard for so long, but the past few weeks... well, I wasn't sure how much more I could take!

No I wouldn't walk out. I already said the other day that I take my marriage vows seriously. What I was ready to do was stop biting my tongue. Let me back up and explain.

The husband is a DBA (data base analyst). He holds the senior position and with that comes being on-call 24 hours. If something breaks at the office, his phone goes crazy and he has to get on his computer to try and fix it. Luckily issues like this could be done from home. Unfortunately those issues sometimes came in the middle of the night. When something broke it had to be fixed ASAP. Quite often work would take away from family time, but he would try to find other ways to make it up to all of us.

A few weeks ago the big boss created a new position. One that the husband drooled over, so naturally he took him up on the challenge. The interview process was making a web page. I'm not sure what the requirements were but I know specific elements had to be included. The time frame was 3 weeks so the husband was working around the clock. Literally. Monday was the deadline and Sunday he pulled damn close to an all nighter.

I felt bad he had all this extra work and I did my best to occupy the kids so he could work in peace. But at the same time, I felt like a single mom. Here I was taking one to school and doing all the at-home stuff with the other one in tow. We would pick the husband up from work and as soon as we were home he was off to work. So there I was, making dinner, helping with homework, trying to load the dishwasher, and Lord knows what other miscellany chore. But the point is, it was me. Just me doing all that stuff.

Hopefully all of this will change, or at least calm down a bit. I know he'll still work at home because he almost always has a side project or 2 going on, but hopefully after the kids go to bed we can lay on the couch, and you know...



Watch crappy tv! What the hell were you thinking?!? Get your mind out of the gutter!


If you have something to get off your chest, go check out Shell and link up with Pour Your Heart Out.

Quit Bugging Me

I have this post up in my head. I've been mentally working on it for a few days now. I really want to post it, but I am just too tired to try and write anything that really comes from my heart. Instead I'll bitch about my stupid neighbor and the ants.

I don't know what my deal was Sunday night, but I couldn't fall asleep to save my life! I was tired, I could feel it. I just couldn't get comfy. I laid in every position known to man! I finally fell asleep around 1am. Knowing my alarms (yes, more than 1) would go off in 4 hours, I knew Monday would be a rough day.

Around 2am, my neighbor came home. We live in a duplex so there's great potential to hear every single move one makes. Now this neighbor has his work car and his personal vehicle. His personal vehicle is this monster of a truck. Why do the short men always drive the biggest things?!?

Back to me point... like us, they have a parking pad in front of their house along with a driveway. For some reason he likes to park the truck in the parking pad and the car in the driveway. Since that was not the location of said vehicles when he came home at 2am, he felt the need to switch the cars around. I have no idea what he hit, but I do know it wasn't our car. I hear a huge bang and wham! Awake was me! Again I have to go through yet another 1/2 hour of tossing and turning to get comfy and fall back asleep.

Yes Monday sucked!

But wait, it gets worse!


My only goal for the day was cleaning out the kids' Duplo table. Someone broke the top of it in a fit of rage (not me) and I finally convinced the little people to let me throw it out. But first I needed to sort through whatever crap they threw in the side pockets other than the Duplos. Which they are too old for anyway!!

I get the piece of crap table all cleaned out and just when I'm ready to vacuum, I see movement from the corner of my eye. Ants! Mother effing ants!!! Why am I so pissed about this? I'll tell you.

They have already been spotted in the kitchen around the back door. Not a lot, but you know when there's 1, more will come. Kind of like "if you build it they will come", although I don't what exactly I built! So we caulked the hole we thought they may be coming from. Ok, hot glue is more like it, but it's close enough. I bought ant spray and sprayed the shit out of the the doorway and surrounding walls. After the kids were asleep of course. Safety first!

A week later the bastards were milling around the front door and the closet in the teeny tiny hallway by the front door. I pulled out the vacuum, sucked those buggers up and then proceeded to spray the crap out of that door.

And now they're coming in the side window?!? Do we have ant crack in this house that I don't know about? Are they coming here for their fix?!?

Again, I killed them and I also Mr. Cleaned the window sill and surrounding walls. I spray the outside of the window, but I wasn't comfortable spraying the inside of the house on that part of the room. The kids play by that window all the time.

Each time there's not a lot of ants. A dozen or so, maybe less. But still... they are NOT welcome here!!! So help me God, this is a war I WILL win!


By the way, I tweeted about my frustration over these pesky things and this is the response I get...

Are you ashamed by ants invading your home?
Check out this page.
http://snipurl.com/v9z76?=mja0

Go ahead, click the link. I think it's rather funny. If you don't want to, here's the gist of it.

An at home solution to getting rid of ants - Mix Borax, sugar and water in a little container with some holes poked in it. It will kill the ants, but make sure you keep it away from pets because its poisonous.

Hello! I mentioned my kids in my tweet. If it's not safe for pets, it surely isn't safe for kids. I would rather spray some areas and have them out of the house for a bit then leave traps like this throughout my house. My son is 4. Do you know what 4 year olds get into when they think no one is looking? Everything!!! Thanks, but no thanks!

As a side note, I have not seen anymore ants in the house. That's a good thing because my kids are about to learn some not so nice words if I see those fuckers again!

For Better or Worse

Today is one of those days where the husband pisses me off.

You see, he currently does not have his license, so that means if he needs to go somewhere, I have to drive. This is why we get up at the butt crack of dawn. We have to leave the house by 6:30 in order to get him to work and GG to school on time. During the summer, we're not quite as rushed, but we still try to leave around the same time to avoid the worst of rush hour traffic.

If things don't go as planned, than someone is late. Today was one of those days.

We were sitting in traffic coming up on one of the more congest4ed intersections. It doesn't seem to matter what time of day you try to go through his particular intersection - it is always congested. Today we sat. And sat and sat and sat. Through 4 or 5 green lights. One perk to having smart phones is being able to look up traffic stats. It didn't say why we were sitting there, but we could see where the heaviest traffic ended.

Finally I was able to pull close enough tot eh intersection and turn up a side street. Once we figured out where to get back onto the main road, it was smooth sailing. But since we were pushed back time wise, that meant we hit heavier than normal traffic on the way back home.

Of course GG was late for school. Thankfully it was only by a few minutes. And it's the last day of school, so I'm not overly concerned.

What this all boils down to is the fact that I hate driving the husband to work every day. It wouldn't be a big deal if he worked closer to home. It's a 30 mile trip on way. That's a lot of driving in one day!

The reason for him losing his license is not a story I'm going to delve into at the moment. That's an entire post in itself. But I will say there were many rough times before that incident. I know some people have wondered why I didn't leave and trust me, the thought did cross my mind. Have you ever really paid attention to the wedding vows? In sickness and health; for better or worse. Marriage takes work and if you're not willing to put in the work, than why bother. We have worked through a lot of things and things are better now.

Even though I get pissed on days like today, I'm still willing to suck it up and continue working.

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to my newest endeavor! I'm always busy doing something so it seemed only fitting to throw another blog in the mix!

I started blogging over at All You Need is Love. The original purpose of that blog was to keep friends and family who don't live nearby updated on my family. That's mainly what I do, but like most new bloggers, I quickly discovered there's much more to blogging than telling about what you did over the weekend.

As time went on, I discovered that there's a lot more I want to say. I wouldn't post it over at my other blog for various reasons. There were times when I was trying to writ a post, but I had to watch how much information went into it. There were some things that some people weren't supposed to know about. And these people read my blog way more than I first realized.

There were also times where I wanted to phrase things a certain way, but held back. I don't swear a lot, but sometimes a good F-bomb really expresses how you truly feel!

The title "Living Out Loud" is a result of the issues from my other blog. And Jules, well, that's me. I am a huge Beatles fan, although I'm sure you would never guess that if you've seen my other blog name like All You Need is Love! Hey Jude is one of my favorite songs. It was written for John Lennon's son, Julian, when his parents were going through a divorce. Julian was often called Jules, but that didn't sound right in the song according to Paul McCartney. Hence, Jude.

But I prefer Jules. Quite often it is or is in my screen name for various places on the web. For example, I'm _MamaJules_ on Twitter.

I'm hoping that this blog is a good on "paper" as it looks in my head!

Thanks for stopping by!


Oh, and for now, please excuse the mess - crappy design, lack of buttons, etc. I'm working on it. I'm sure I could have it done by now if I wasn't so damn picky!


Until next time...