“Little Rain Drops Falling”

First. Lets get the recipe out here:

mix in heavy bottom pan:
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
4 tablespoons cocoa
bring to a hard boil and boil for 1 minute-stir constantly

Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. stir well, then pour over 8 cups of puffed wheat. Mix thoroughly and press into a greased 9×13 pan.

Ok. The last time I made this My granny had stopped in, I showed her my bucket full of nummy cocoa covered puffed wheat – and asked her to help me.

See the part of the recipe that says “ bring to a hard boil and boil for 1 minute-stir constantly”? Yea – apparently that is really important. The longer it boils the better it will “set” in the pan. But, as it is a sugar based liquid, you have to stir it to make sure it does not burn. So. next time, I will stir it with the big long wooden spoon – becuase dammit, that stuff gets hot! – for a minute and a half!

I.CAN.Do.This!

Once more, I made puffed wheat squares, and once again, they came out FAIL.

Don’t get me wrong! They taste wonderful! (Maybe too wonderful – they are half gone already – and most of that half was ME!) The problem is, I cannot make then STAY TOGETHER. you know, as a square. Right now they are in a Tupperware container, and you need to use a spoon to get them into a bowl.

WHY? Why can I not make these? What on earth am I doing wrong!!

I do, although I will admit that it was a long long long time before I signed up for it. And I will also admit that it makes me a bit uncomfortable to have my Real Name out there, on the world wide interwebs, especially now that people from the blogging world are friending me, as opposed to just family and friends.

With the information I have on facebook, a “bad” person would be able to figure out just about anything they wanted about me, and then some, and that makes me uncomfortable. To that end, we recently installed a top of the line security system – which has its downfalls, but that can be a later post! We also enrolled the kids in a class called stranger danger. Our new Stranger Danger rule is this : If the person has NOT been in our house and had coffee with us, the child may NOT get into the vehicle.

Back to facebook – what are your favorite applications? I love love love Pull Tabs. LOVE THEM. I play big bucks lotto – but only to trade my daily BBL tickets for Pull Tab tokens. It is, in fact,. fast becoming an addiction!

Leave me a comment, tell me your favorite application so that i can give it a try!

A Maybe Solution:

I think, the answer to this problem, might be very simple, if a bit deceptive.

Why does sister have to know brother and his family moved into dads? Can’t we just not tell her? The move in is apparently temporary – though I believe they will be there much longer than dad thinks, but, BUT, sister rarely goes home to dads, not for lack of want, but because she hasn’t got the transportation.

Can we just not tell her whats going on?

This, it seems, is out game plan to avoid hurt feelings. And? I’m pretty for it!

You can read part one and two here and here.

So. With no job and a 1000 payment on his vehicle looming, and an eviction notice, My father invited my brother, his child, and his girlfriend to move in.

This will cause some serious issues between my dad and my sister, my brother and my sister, and unfortunately, me and my sister.

Dad, brother and Sister can work out their own problems, but where do I stand?

The line of safety is So small right now, so slight.

I understand why my father is helping Brother and Co. out, I really do. I do not agree with it, I think they need to:
1. get rid of that monstrosity of a truck and buy something cheaper – both payment wise and on gas.
and
2. fall.

I really really thing that dad always catching them is the reason they still cannot stand on two feet. That maybe it is time for THEM to have to face the consequences of their foolish ways. I mean, I have told them, Dad has told them, EVERYONE has told them what they are doing wrong and how to fix it, but they ignore us. They eat out constantly, they buy things, expensive things instead of paying bills, they are absolutely stupid with money.

But once again, dad is swooping in and saving their hides, and while I disagree with it, I understand it.

(you need to understand that while they are living at my fathers they will not be paying rent, or for the groceries they eat or the power/water etc. they use. In fact, they will expect my father to babysit so they can go out for a night drinking and partying – and he will do it too)(this would be the same man who has NEVER babysat my children. Not once)

But my sister? She will not understand why once again brother is getting the helping hand – especially as it comes SO soon after my father refused her request of TAPE.

And I will be in the middle. I do not want to side with either of them, (though if I HAD to choose, it would be my sister). If I side with dad and defend or even accept his actions, Sister will be mad at me. If I side with Sister, I will make my dad unhappy.

I don’t want that!

I just. I just want my brother to grow up. My sister to continue on the path she is on, and for my father to treat us all – including the grandkids – equally.

But, just like winning the lottery, I don’t have a chance in hell of that happening!

For part one, see here.

Part Two : The Brother

My Brother. The baby of the family (sister is eldest) has made his own bad decisions, starting with dropping out of school, not having jobs yet moving out, renting a place and not paying any of his bills.

My dad was stuck with an almost four thousand dollar bill when m,y brother ditched his apartment a few years back. I was called in to clean the place out – cus I have nothing better to do, you know?

Then my brother got his on again off again girlfriend pregnant – she is also a high school drop out, though I am pleased to say she JUST got her GED last week. We all hoped that they would grow up and see that bills need to be paid, rent needs to be paid, groceries need to be paid BEFORE they spend money on stupid things like hundred dollar purses and five thousand dollar lift kits for his truck.

oy. That truck. Brother got a job on the rigs, which pays VERY VERY well, and promptly bought a 40,000 truck. Except, he screwed up at work and got fired and was left with a 1000 payment every two weeks on said truck.

Have I mentioned they got pregnant again? While homeless? And Jobless? Cus they did.

And I can understand why my dad is helping them out, he does not want to see his grandchild homeless, yaknow? But of the three of us kids, he has had to help brother out the most. Time and time again brother has gotten a job only to screw it up, and the whole time he HAS a job he is not paying bills and rent and stuff.

He just got evicted. He and his two year old daughter and his six month pregnant girlfriend.

And that, dear interwebs is where the troubled part of this story begins.

I’m SO troubled right now.

There is so much back story to explain so that this makes sense, that it would fill up half the interwebs should I type it out, but trust me, I am troubled.

We shall do this in parts.

Part one : The Sister.

You see, for years my sister has made some very bad choices int he way of men, and with each new man – the last one lasted six years, I’m not saying she is easy – far from it, but with each new relationship, she gets into more and more money problems.

My dad usually helped her out in the way of buying her groceries and etc.

Well, my sister has finally seen the light, she kicked her boyfriend out and is moving in with a friend. Her rent will be less AND her room mate will not only make sure they are both paying the bills, but that sister eats on a regular basis.

This is a GOOD thing. A very good thing.

So my sister called dad and asked him to drop off a roll of packing tape when he was in the city, he refused. Flat out refused.

Which is fine in itself, he owes her nothing, he has helped her out plenty of times, and should not feel like he has to help her out again, yaknow?

But I kind of feel that sister should be rewarded with praise or hell, even packing tape for making a good decision for the first time in YEARS.

Sigh

but I do plan on catching a nap somewhere in there.

At the top of my list for today is building a better template for this place. The black is depressing. I want something pretty, colorful, and bright!

On the home front, hubs is just about out of clean shirts so tossing some clothes in the washer might be a good plan! I plan as well, to work ont he main shoe closet, If I have to deal with its mess one more day I will go insane. The winter boots and coats need to be removed, the floors need to be cleaned and my flip flops need to be brought out. I guess the kids can have *some* room.

And somewhere in there, I need to find time to paint my nails. Preferably AFTER the dishes are done! last time I painted my nails then did the dishes, the polish was chipping the very first day1

I am So tired of the weather right now, and I feel SO guilty complaining about it because So many other people are dealing with floods and tornadoes and etc. But dammit! Its mid June, is ONE NICE DAY too much to ask for? Is it?

I have been growing my nails out for a few weeks now, and they look great. Except they are now *too* long, and every time I try to file, cut or trim them *just a little bit* I screw up in one way or another and end up cutting them off completely.

I am bound and determined to wake up tomorrow so that Hubs can sleep in. It’s Fathers Day. I suck So bad at getting up, and not becuase I stay up too late, I just..need ..sleep. But tomorrow? I am getting up. I swear! Not like the other year when I screamed at him to deal with the freaking kids while I went back to sleep, and forgot it was fathers day at all - until I called my dad to wish HIM one.. I So suck.

I’m waiting on a recipe to be e-mailed to me from my Stepmother – not the evil variety- I want to make puffed wheat squares, I love them so, but do not have the recipe. Her arm is broken rather badly, so she is going to wait until she can get someone to type it out for her – totally understandable!

I am hoping to find Super Swing Golf for the Wii on Ebay. We rented it, and it goes back tomorrow, and it was SO MUCH FUN! I hated the part where I lost every freaking time, but I loved the part where we all gathered as a family and played it )