As a traveling notary, signing agent I get calls to do notary assignments and have about 4 hours to plan for the appointment.   Such being the case Friday afternoon, I had a call to do a signing in Posey that evening. Called my parents to see if they would take the boys for me if Brian wasn't home earlier enough to stay with them, called to borrower to set the time and get directions. Borrower said they expected to be at their cabin by 5 and would call me when they got there so I could head over, instead of me sitting infront of their cabin waiting.  By 6:30 no one had called so I called the signing company that contacted me and left a message that the borrowers had not called, no one was answering the phone at the cabin, etc. Even called the loan company and left a message there with the same information. The borrowers called around 8pm, too late for me to drive over there and do the signing (each signing takes approximately 2 hours, plus drive time).  I got a call from the signing company Saturday morning, (they didn't ge the message I left Friday night), told them what had happened, they called the loan company, etc, etc.  Heard nothing from anyone over the weekend, then this morning while I was at school with Cole the signing company called me twice and emailed once wanting to know what happened, the loan company was pissed that the signing didn't take place.  The borrowers are now back in Bakersfield so they found another notary there to take  care of it. But what pisses me off is that the signing company and the loan company think I'm a complete idiot for not doing the signing over the weekend.  Majority of these documents are date sensitive, and that's why I didn't "just do" the signing on Saturday. These documents turned out to not be date sensitive, so I could have done the signing, if someone would have just phoned and told me that.  So now I'm out the $75 for the signing, plus all the paper and ink I used to print the documents. I asked the signing company for a partial payment for my time, they told me they had to check with the manager and find out the procedure for these things.  B.S. - at least $40 is acceptable for my time to just print the documents and read everything to make sure it's all there.  When these things happen it makes me wonder why I bother doing loan signings, I'm not going to get rich from them, and they are few and far between up here, but if I'm ever back in town then it would be more beneficial and I could still service the mountain communities.

But on a funny note, the borrowers had friends up to their cabin for the weekend and these friends got lost - so they stopped at my parents house for directions and to use the phone - coincidence you think?

Thanks for letting me blow some steam, one of these days I'll figure out how to let stuff like this just roll off my back and move on to the next thing (I hope)!!

I finally decided that today was the day that the house had to get cleaned. I was going to start upstairs in the boys bedrooms, then come downstairs and send the  boys upstairs (safety gates are a blessing in a 2 story house).  I cleaned the toy room, knocked down spider webs, sorted some things for donation, took down my quilt hanging on the wall to wash it. And then, half way through vacuuming the boys bedroom my gosh darned vacuum cleaner quit. It just stopped running. I checked the plug, made sure I hadn't tripped a breaker or anything like that. Then decided that I had burnt the motor on the thing. So I called my mom, laughing b/c just last week she bought a new very expensive vacuum cleaner and I had been thinking of teasing my hubby about buying one for me (we only have carpet in the boys bedrooms & rugs downstairs - there isn't alot of vacuuming in our house). So my mom very happily & graciously (are those words to use when vacuuming your house?) brings her new expensive vacuum up to my house, I thought I was getting the old yucky one to borrow for awhile.  So I called hubby and told him what had happened, after a few under-his-breath 4 letter words he laughed at it too, but told me I couldn't buy a new vacuum cleaner yet (he didn't want me buying this vacuum cleaner 5 years ago when we moved into this house, he thought our old one was still good - but he isn't the one that vacuums, I AM!)  So it's the end of the day, or almost anyway, I have a Tupperware party at 4pm so my day is done basically, and I called hubby to get tortillas for dinner b/c the boys ate the last three for a snack after their naps, and he asked me if he could get tortillas at the vacuum cleaner store. He thought he was going to have to buy me a new one today, after telling me I couldn't buy a new one  - what's the reasoning behind that, dear daddy's who read these blogs?  The house is cleaned for another week, and I'll resort to using my little dirt devil hand vacuum for any spot cleaning until I find something new.  Bye bye for now, time to shop in the Tupperware catalog, I wonder if they have vacuum cleaners?!!!

Is anyone interested in forming a Moms club (Dads welcome too)?  The one I've been involved with meets weekly at someone's house or park or place of enjoyment for the kids (zoo trips, museum, etc.), then the last week of the month they have a business meeting and set up the next month's activities.  I don't know if it's policy to meet weekly or that's just what this group wanted, there is a website for the organization, momsclub.org , so far it doesn't have one listed for the Bakersfield area, the closest is in Porterville.   Just a thought!

I decided to re-organize some of our summer & winter items and try to find more space for things we use daily or weekly. Yeah right, it just isn't happening the way I wanted. I bought the vacuum storage bags - twin size blankets & bedspreads do not fit into the medium size bags and then I tore one with my fingernail. I ended up still using tupperware boxes and put things in the bags that we haven't used in over a year or seasonal decoration blankets, etc.  It's not organized like I thought it would be but I supposed it's better. Of course I do have a larger pile for the goodwill stores than when I started.  We just have too much stuff and too little of a house for it all to go in.  I started boxes for the boys with keepsake stuff that I had stored in my cedar chest, that freed up some room in the chest so I could put the blankets we use on our beds every winter in there (the thought process was they would be handy for sleep overs also to make a pallet on the floor).  I decided I need about 4 more of the large bags to take care of the winter snow gear, one for each person, maybe then that box wouldn't be such a mess. Has anyone tried putting shoes in those bags, wonder if that will work or not?  My attempts have only made more work for me in the long run and while standing on the ladder getting into closets I've noticed spider webs have formed these pretty little hammocks all over the place - more work to be done!

Tyler's gotten into something in the kitchen, better go check on him.

I posted earlier that our school up here let's the new kinder's go to two weeks of school at the end of the current school year, just to get their feet wet. Now it's down to 4 days and only 2 hours at that. They can't ride the school bus so Mom has to drive the 10 miles round trip to take them to school then come back in two hours and pick them up. At this point I'm saying to just skip the whole thing and just wait til real school starts in August.  But the more I think about it the more upset I get. I'm just about ready to transfer to another school and suffer the debt of driving off the mountain every day so Cole can have a bigger school and more opportunities (such as PE).  Am I blowing this out of porportion?  As a school board member I'm still not informed about what's going on at the school and that should raise a few eyebrows.

So.... do I let Cole go to school next week for 4 days or just wait?

Are y'all warming up down there? It's showing 84 up here, and that's warm for us. The house is closed up and ceiling fans are on in every room plus a small desk fan in the boys room to keep them cool. Time to start letting them take naps downstairs again, that 2nd story just gets too warm for their little bodies to handle.

Go ahead, I give permission for someone to say something smark-alecky about the weather.  I miss b-town for the convenience of shopping and doctor's, but not the summer heat!  But y'all can come join us for a weekend up here, there's the Hot Springs Resort where you can swim in the naturally heated pools, have lunch at the deli, or just drive around and enjoy the quietness and coolness.

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Can we post out of town activities, family related events (like family fun days, not an actual family members only event) and such? 

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Our first soccer game last week was a bit of an eye opener.  We knew where the games were being played, but other than that we didn't know anything. So we packed the truck the night before (we were heading for the beach after the game) and was ready to leave the house by 7:00 am the next morning. Since my boys get car sick we stopped in Ducor to get them a donut and some milk. 

So their hour soccer session is 1/2 practice and 1/2 scrimmage. There are no real positions, just a bunch of little kids running after a ball, no score keeping and no penalties.  But they do take a water break about every 15 minutes so the kids don't get too hot.   My son, being the comedian that he is decided after running around for awhile that he would stand next to another kid at the goal and talk. It was quit comical to watch him try and convince the other kid that he should run after the ball and Cole would stand there and guard the goal.  It was fun to watch, but I did hear a few of the parents really pushing their kids to play like an adult would - block that ball, kick it harder, get it away from the other team, stuff like that. I'm competitive, but even I was able to hold my mouth and just let my son run with the ball and have fun.  Of course when he learned we would be practicing at home he decided it wasn't that much fun, but that's his normal take on the whole idea of practicing so I'm not too concerned.  So we'll do this routine again this weekend, the skip the Memorial Day weekend, then back at it for the next 6 weekends.  Could someone tell the weather guy that this mountain family doesn't adapt well to the high temperatures and please keep it cooler for the summer?!!!

to this website. I'm supposed to be studying for my real estate exam, but I'm on here reading posts instead. I studied for awhile, took one practice exam, changed two loads of laundry, finally ate some lunch at 2:30, and now I'm back here because I don't want to do anything else. My mom has my boys, I suppose I should go pick them up, hopefully they took naps today and are in better moods then when she left with them this morning. I have a pile of filing and organizing stuff on my bed that needs to be put away, dh is off work tomorrow so I probably won't get anything done as far as cleaning.  Oh well, I'll eventually get it all done, except the schooling, I only have 3 1/2 weeks before my term is up and then I have to take my state exam.  I'm outta here folks!!

Does anyone have their child enrolled in the Bakersfield Brigade soccer league, specifically the Mini Brigades?  We start soccer this coming Saturday at Liberty Park, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts about the program. The uniforms were supposed to be ready for pick up between 5/7 & 5/9, now they won't be available until Friday 5/9, so I have to make a special trip to town just for this uniform, hubby was going to pick up the uniform tomorrow. I haven't heard from any coaches or anyone from the league other than an email letting me know when to pick up the uniform and where.  Should I be concerned?