Coming home tomorrow!

What is it about a funeral that brings all the relatives out of the wood works?? It's like cockroaches that sense a dropped crumb on the floor. lol Ok, so maybe that's a little bit of a weird analogy considering the occasion and all, but still...

I attended my great-grandma's funeral in AR today, and apparently, I have even MORE relatives that I never knew existed. lol It's interesting meeting people for the very first time and finding out that they're your 2nd cousin, and that their mom played with your mom way back in the day....

Maybe not so weird since we're in Arkansas and all...but that's a different story for a different day. lol

I did take some pictures of the internment (Am I the ONLY one who doesn't think that's a bit strange??) and the gravestones of my grandpa and such, so I'll post those when I get home tomorrow night.

For now, I am dealing with an EXTREMELY sick 6 month old who won't allow me to get more than 2 feet from him. Look at me...using a baby as an excuse!

Ok, ok. I admit it. My ass is too lazy to go outside in the FREEZING-ass cold to get my camera cord. So there.

Goodnight all . :-)

My great-grandma

Pearl Ashley (January 10, 1916 - November 26, 2008)

Pearl Ashley, age 92, died November 26, 2008 in Hot Spring County Medical Center. She was born in Antioch Community on January 10, 1916 to William Thomas Hall and Iva Garrett Hall and lived in Antioch her entire life.

She married Freeman Ashley on September 11, 1937 and associated with Caddo Valley congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She was a farm wife and loved flowers, gardening, animals, her family, and lively music.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; two brothers, Clyde Hall and an infant brother; two sons, Kenneth Ashley and Carl Ashley; a granddaughter, Candy Ashley; a sister, Verna Beason and a great-grandson, Alex Larimore.

She is survived by one daughter, Mildred Galindo of Antioch, AR; a son, Doyle Ashley of Antioch, AR; four granddaughters, Lisa Porterfield of Friendship, AR; Becky Roy of Benton, AR; Trish Cook and Phyllis Bricker both of the Houston, TX area; six great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; a daughter-in-law, Judy Ashley of Malvern, AR and a sister-in-law, Effie Seward of Antioch, AR.

Funeral services are scheduled for 1:00p.m. Tuesday, December 2, 2008, in the chapel of Atkinson Funeral Home by David Overturf.

Visitation will be held from 5:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. on Monday, December 1, 2008 at the funeral home.

Interment will be in Upper Antioch Cemetery. Pallbearers are Bobby Crabb, Philip Crabb, Darren Young, Arvin Booy, Leonard Hodges, and Joe Pence.

I will be leaving Houston in the morning and will be coming back some time on Wednesday. I, as always, will have my phone. Feel free to text or call me....it's a 7 hour drive....boring.

Laziness

I just figured out how retarded I am....either that or just really, really lazy.

I decided I was going to get all fancy and change my template to something Christmas-y. Then I figured out that by copy/pasting the new template code in, I would lose all my widgets...and that I would have to add them again one by one.

I couldn't figure out how NOT to do that!

So I decided not to do it at all. :-)

I am HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After FIVE LONGGGGGGGG weeks stuck in Fairfax-freaking-VA, I am HOME! Yay!

Let's just say I like the people I worked with up there, but Fairfax? Don't bother. It's about 15 miles outside of DC, so the traffic is horrendous! Yes, worse than Houston. Nobody drives over 55...EVER...even if you could get up to that speed. Most of the time it's slower...

It's cold as hell up there...cold as hell? That makes no sense...well anyways, I'm still going to use the metaphor. lol But anything that motivates me to suck down a cigarette in 2 minutes flat, must be a strong motivator indeed. Yeah..that damn cold. I swear I didn't stop shivering the whole time I was there!

Ryan grew like a weed up there too. I'll post pics later when I have more time. He now rolls all over the place, scoots (yep..scoots..As in he sees something he wants, and he scoots over to it), eats 2nd foods (just the fruits and veggies, but he'll eat the 2nd foods portion sizes), is getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth (yeah....), is a pro at holding onto and chewing on toys, and is teething (I can feel a couple of nubs now, and he still drools like crazy!).

But for now...I need to finish unpacking...sigh.

Hotel Fire

Even that phrase sends shivers up my spine. So many people in one place...there's huge potential for mass destruction. Unfortunately, I got to experience a little of it.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to find that one of our reps here in VA was left behind at the hotel by accident. So, of course, being the nice person (i.e. pushover) that I am, I drove him to the office.

When I got back, I pulled up to find EIGHT fire trucks blocking all the entrances to our hotel, firemen running around, water hoses out, and water and smoke everywhere. Keep in mind, when I took Pat to the office, I left Ryan with my friend Jen and her 6 1/2 month old in our hotel room.

I couldn't get into the hotel parking lot, so I parked on the street, ran around trying to find Jen and the babies...only to find that they weren't outside. Yeah...they were still in the room.

So...I freaked out. Hardcore. I yelled at the fireman who was closest to me. Apparently yelled so much and so loud that they called the cops on me. lol I think the cop was just there to make sure I didn't start swinging, but basically I was yelling at the fireman that Jen has arthritis and can't physically carry both babies out. They kept saying that she was safe on the first floor because the fire was on the third floor. Bullshit. I have issues with that statement. But they also wouldn't let me go in to get her and the babies. So...she's safe to stay, but I'm not safe to go to the same room and come right back out???? Whatever.

Basically, the fireman backed off and told me that they had the fire contained and that they would be rolling out as soon as they got the all-clear. He promised me that if they weren't done in 5 minutes, that he would go in and get Jen and the babies. Well, 2 minutes later they got the all-clear, so I got to go back in.

Sheesh. It wasn't even that bad of a fire, but imagine pulling up on a place where your baby is, and it's on fire, there are 8 fire trucks, and it's obvious that fire hoses are inside the building...yeah.

Update from VA

So I'm in the wonderful city of Fairfax, VA. *Wonderful* is definitely stretching it a bit. Between the retarded right lanes that aren't really lanes, but ones that you can drive in at some times of the day and not others and the retarded drivers who refuse to merge into your lane (EVEN THOUGH you give them space) until there are EIGHT car lengths in between you and the car ahead, it gets a *bit* frustrating.

At least traffic is the same as Houston during rush hour. It takes roughly half an hour to do a 5 mile drive here. It's all the damn traffic going to and from Washington DC.

It looks like I'll be here another 3 weeks for sure. We hired a new admin up here on Friday and I get to train her to be just like me. *guffaw*

At least I think Derek is going to let me fire the slut-bag, unprofessional, dense, spoiled-brat OTHER chick. lol Yeeeahhhh....she drives me insane.

There's also another admin here too, but I like her ok, even though she doesn't seem to do much here....I still haven't quite figured out what, exactly, she does here for them. lol

I love the managers I'm working with too. There are a total of 4 offices here, so there's a LOT of people running around. It's going to take me FOREVER to figure out who's who.

Apparently, I'm a godsend. Or so Premal and Derek say. I'm guessing their businesses have been suffering with the retard admins they've been stuck with. lol

I also get to play spy. hee hee. I'm *secretly* here to evaluate the other admins, and within one day I was ready to fire Ms. Slut-Bag. Seriously. So far, I've been stuck with her, but Derek says that if I'm happy with the new admin, that I can fire Ms. Slut-Bag as soon as she's ready to take her place. :-)

I don't get much of a chance to jump online, so I'll try to update again as soon as I can. :-) I also need to get new batteries for my camera, but I'm going to do some sight seeing in DC next weekend. So, I'll try to post pics ASAP. :-)

Tôi không hiểu.

Yeah...that means "I don't understand" in Vietnamese.

For SOME reason, my husband has decided he's going to learn to speak the language just so he can understand what the guys next to him at work are saying. Not to be able to speak back to them...just so he can listen in. Weird. lol

I saw him on his computer earlier just staring off into space with his headphones on. I asked what he was doing, and he said learning Vietnamese...see above reason why...

A few minutes later, after noticing more staring and apparent lack of doing...well...anything, I asked if he was going to at least write something down, take notes, at least pretend he was learning something.

His response? (This BLOWS my friggin mind.) It was, "Why? This is easy." WHAT!!???!! EASY?? Are you freaking kidding me?????

I can tell you exactly how difficult it is to learn a freaking new language, especially to have a WORKING, actual speaking knowledge of it! I took 6 damn years of Spanish, and 1 of French, and, yes, I can read a lot of both. But SPEAK it??? HEEELLL no! And that was after YEARS of actually studying it! Not just listening to some phrases on the computer and then knowing what the hell is going on!!

Ughh. Men. Well, maybe just my husband. But I swear my brain twisted into a knot and combusted into flames at the exact instant he uttered, "This is easy."