Hate Me All You Want, But Leave My Kids Alone

Someone hates me so much they don’t speak to me or Pool Boy. Nor does anyone in their family. It’s not a fun thing to have happen to you, but what’s done is done. Without going into details, I was forced to do something I didn’t want to do because of a subpoena. I was in the middle of an ugly situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I’m over it, but I really have to get this one more thing off my chest.

Dear People Who Shall Be Nameless -

I’ve tried to be nice, be pleasant, whatever. But after Saturday night, I’m done. No longer will I waste one ounce of energy speaking your name, thinking about our situation, or worrying about how I’m going to be nice to you. I’m above your shananigans. Saturday night, when you intentionally chose to drag my kid (and my friend’s kid) into the mess, you stooped to a new low that I had no idea you were capable of. Now two innocent children know just how vicious you can be. When my son asked what he did wrong to be treated like that, how was I to respond? You can hate me all you want, but when it comes to treating my kid like shit, that’s when I get downright angry.

You have proven yourselves to be the evil that everyone said you always have been, but I was too blind to see it back when we were friends. After the past few years, and especially after the past few days, I fully understand what they meant. When you are scum enough to go out of your way to be mean to an innocent child, it’s hard to tell what else you are capable of.

So this is my official good-bye. You are out of my life and my thoughts for good.

green3

Ohhhhhhk......lahoma!

Congrats to 3 on his theatrical debut this weekend!

I'm proud of you, dude. I'm proud of the fact that you do not have one ounce of stage fright. I'm proud of the many hours of practice you've done for the show. I'm proud of how dedicated you are to doing a good job.

She's a WINNER!

Congrats to Titus 2 Heart, the winner of my Dave Ramsey book!

I had a total of 185 comments for that prize, which is amazing. Personally, I think every single person should read this book so the rest of you should find a way to get your hands on a copy. All of you should live like no one else so you can LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!

Not a Napkin Guy

Me: For God sakes, Green, use a napkin. You've got catsup all over your face.

Green: I'm not really a "napkin" kind of a guy.

Life With Pool Boy

Lots of blog posts tonight. I'm sitting here watching the boys swim and so I'm catching up on tons of things - including blogging!



Luvthebearcats tagged me for this meme about me and Pool Boy.

1. We’ve been married for 14 years. Prior to that we dated for 7 years. Yes, we’ve been together 21 years.

2. We are both graduates of Iowa State University. Go Cyclones!

3. This one time, in high school, he was sitting in study hall with a group of guys. I went up to him and he said, “Here, have a seat”. I went to sit down and he pulled the chair away from me and I crashed to the floor. Everyone who was everyone in that school laughed at me. And for some unknown reason I still married him. Back then, I just laughed and got up. If it happened today, I’d totally kick his ass.

4. When he married me, I had about $10.00. He had about $10,000. I was a spender and he was a saver. Now it’s totally the opposite.

5. We both like NASCAR, but I don’t think we’re white trash. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

6. We both hold a public office. I’m on the school board and he’s on the city council.

7. He comes from a very religious, follow-the-bible-to-the-word family. They pray and then pray some more. My family is Catholic. We drink and be merry! We both dropped our religions and just go to the church near our home now. (Chase, I’m your woman for advice!)

8. We have two boys. We think our family is just perfect!

If you want to particpate in this meme, go ahead. Knock yourself out. I've gotta get back to my laundry.

There's No Place Like Greece, er... I Mean Home

I love Iowa. I really do. But we are certainly not known for our crystal clear lakes.

First, let me tell you that my parents live on an Iowa lake in a gorgeous house. Second, I'll tell you that my mom just got back from Greece. Third, when she returned home I got an email from her that said, "There's no place like home."

Now hold on there mom. That might be a bit much. Let's compare your Greece pictures to your lake pictures, shall we?


I now present the ocean mom swam in while in Greece:

And now here is the water off their dock:


















See a difference? Ok, so now here is a picture of a beach in Greece:
















And now here is a picture of mom and dad's beach, taken this morning:

















You're right mom. There's no place like home...I guess.

Life of a Public Official

It's not easy folks. Do I do what I believe is right even if it will make some people mad or do I keep my mouth shut and let things go on as they have always have been? People elected me to make sure the school was run correctly. I promised them I would do that.

I read a quote last night that was perfect me and has become my new personal "theme". It's especially fitting in my current situation.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Dr. Seuss

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway - LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!!

It's here! My freebie giveaway as part of the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway! The hint I gave you earlier was that this item could totally change your life. So here it is:

Can you imagine a life without any payments at all? No car payments, no house payments, no general debt payments. Oh, the life you could have!

Yes, Dave Ramsey's theory on being debt free can totally change your life if you follow his guidelines. Pool Boy and I are only in our first month and we already monitor our money more closely and can tell a difference in our bank balance. We can't wait to send all of our "leftover" money at the end of this month toward our debt. This isn't an easy plan. There's no magic theory into getting out of debt - only hard work on your part.

As Dave says, our plan is to live like no one else so that we can live like no one else.

Do you also want to live like no one else? Then leave me a comment below! Each person who leaves a comment will be put into my drawing. On Friday, one commenter will be drawn and I will ship the Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, to YOU...for FREE!

You don't have to have a blog in order to join in on the fun. Just leave me a note giving me a hint as to who you are, or email me separately to let me know who you are: thegreen3atgmaildotcom.

Visit Rocks in My Dryer for links to more free giveaways!

Still on Vacation

We're enjoying our vacation, but at some point this whole "waking up at 9:30AM" thing will have to come to an end. On Monday morning, to be precise. Speaking of Monday, I'll be participating in The Dog Days of Summer Bloggity Giveaway. I'll be giving away something for FREE! I won't tell you exactly what it is, but I'll give you a hint: This item could totally change your life! This contest will be open to non-bloggers as well so MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK ON MONDAY!

In the meantime, just to prove to Iowa Mom that I do, in fact, participate on family activities rather than just sit behind the camera, here's a picture of me and the boys at one of our favorite Okoboji (that's ok-oh-BO-gee) breakfast joints.

This Ain't Your Parents' Okoboji

So here we are at Okoboji. For those of you outside of Iowa, it’s our primary lake destinatation in our state. Okoboji is kind of like an “antique” summer vacation destination.

• All of the resorts are straight out of the 50s with even the same décor.


• The amusement park has a wooden roller coaster that is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.


• Many of the homes were built by big money families. The Swanson (note, Swanson TV dinners) family built one of the larger, older homes on the lake.

And that’s how people like it. Classic Okoboji.

Original Manhatten Beach Resort

This trip, however, did not feel like Okoboji. Instead of staying in a old rustic cottage, we stayed at Bridges Bay Resort. It’s a brand new condo complex where the rooms are owned by private individuals. The owners can put their units into a rental program for poor folks like The Green 3s can stay. The resort has sand volleyball courts, a workout room, and best of all, an indoor water park just the right size for families with young kids.

Our room was not exactly a condo – it was a hotel-type room. But someone actually paid 239,000 to own this room which I think is totally crazy. Anyhoo, it worked out well for us because we got to stay for a WAY cheaper rate than the classic resorts charge and we received a bunch of free passes to local attractions. It was brand new, very fancy and VERY nice. We had a lot of excellent family bonding time. We got to bring Buster with us. We had fun.

But it wasn’t the old Okoboji that we know and love.

This is the new generation’s Okoboji.

Last Minute Vacation

Funny how one minute you are planning a trip to Kansas City, and then you get in the car and it heads to Okoboji.

DVR Polish Control Trans-Atlantic

I figure I type roughly 1000 words a day. Ok, really I have no clue but I know it’s a lot. And I have to tell ya…I have about had it with the spell checker and the auto-correct features.

A sentence that I believe I’m typing in as this:

Thank you for your continued patronage.

It comes out as this:

Flower mayonnaise World Series mauve.

As you can imagine, that causes a few problems. With all the words I type every day (and I’m starting think it’s more like 50,000) you can see where this would be a problem. If I type 50,000 words a day and I have to retype every sentence three times before I get it right, that means I’m typing 150,000 words a day. So at 50 WPM, I believe that calculates out to 50 hours per day of typing. No wonder I’m always so damn tired.

That's all fine and good, but you won't believe this next thing. Read carefully because what I tell you can make you rich: Tornado bird CNN recipe because bookmark check Bon Jovi!

I'll Give This One a "Whoa" and a "I Don't Think So!"

Thanks, Toni. Today you made me take a second glance and say WTF?

Before proceeding, check out softcup.

Back? K.

And did you say to yourself WTF???

Here are my issues with this:

Like a tampon isn’t bad enough. Who wants to deal with this mess?

Issue 1: Clean sex? Hey, that’s my monthly “vacation”! I ain’t giving that up.

Issue 2: I’m concerned about removal steps. How the heck do you remove that thing without making a huge, gross mess? C’mon. It says I can leave it in for 12 hours. Twelve hours of menstrual period built up and sitting in a cup. Grossed out? So am I. And now I’ve got to fetch the thing out of there and somehow dispose of it without spilling. The instructions say “you may want to remove it in the shower in case of spillage.” Yeah, I bet.

Issue 3: The website has some testimonials. One from a nudist. Apparently nothing screams I AM HAVING MY PERIOD than wearing your swimsuit bottoms on a nudist beach. So ok, this is the only situation where I see this would come in handy. Ok, so I promise next time I am on a nudist beach during my period, I will wear one of these.

Hi I have been using INSTEAD® for about 4 years now and I love it. I am a nudist and no one at the resort knows when it's my time of the month. No string hanging out like I see on other women or wearing the bathing suit bottoms for the pad. My boyfriend never even knows. I think you should promote you product in the nudist's resorts. I think a lot of woman would give them a try!

Issue 4: No freakin way will I ever try this.

Issue 5: How many pervs are going to arrive at my blog because of the words I’ve had to use in this post?

Your thoughts, please.

Oh, Danny!

My mom and her sister are off to Grease today.

I mean Grease.

No, wait! I mean GREECE.

Happy Fourth of July!

While celebrating on Wednesday, make sure to take a moment to consider what others have given up so that we CAN celebrate this day!

Millionaires Really Are Next Door

Do you think the typical millionaire lives like Donald Trump or Paris Hilton? Think again. A majority of millionaires save most of the money they make, buy their clothes at the local mall or at Target, don’t carry Coach purses, and drive cars that are at least two years old. It’s just simple math:

Save Money = You have more money

Spend Money = You don’t have as much money

Here’s an interesting article.

Welcome To My World

I'm in the software support business. My brothers are both in IT. My father is in the software business. I suppose that means we are a family of nerds. And we think this kind of stuff is hilarious...

http://chroniclesofgeorge.nanc.com/

A Debt-Free Story

Once upon a time there was a handsome young man. He was a very hard worker and saved every penny he made.

Once upon a time there was a gorgeous hottie, who spent every penny she ever made, and then some.

They met and fell in love.

After the man graduated from college and got his first teaching job for $14,000 per year, man and hottie bought a brand new car for $18,000. Later that year, they married.

Thirteen years and two children later, hottie suddenly had a financial awakening. “Hmmm,” she thought. “We have considerable savings, considerable investments, but we’ve been making payments on at least one item (on average of 4-5 items) since before we were even married. This isn’t how I want to live.”

Hottie then got hooked on Dave Ramsey. Hottie sat man down one evening and they went through every dollar that came in vs. every dollar that went out for one month. Mysteriously there was a very large sum of money that went unaccounted for each month. Where was the money going?

They got it all their figures plugged into a spreadsheet and figured out the amount they could put toward debt each month. Calculations show that if they work hard on their plan, they can be 100% debt-free (yes, even their home) in 3 or 4 years.

Each of them thought in their heads what they could do with all that money after everything was paid off. They smiled at each other and lived happily ever after.

Here's the Proof

Those of you who know me IRL probably want proof that I did indeed go camping. Here you go...

Pool Boy and Buster enjoying the camping experience. Ok, maybe not so much. Pool Boy despises camping but was a trooper for the trip.