Christmas

We had a good Christmas. Gathered with family, ate way too much, opened presents, played cards. Good times!

Since guru got a nice bonus this year, we were able to get some things we need for our new place. We got the girls their bunk beds, so now they don't have to share a queen bed anymore (now that bed belongs to our son). They were really excited to finally get them. We have been talking about getting them bunk beds for a long time now.

We also got some new couches for our extra living room:




Probably after the beginning of the year, we will be shopping for a new computer desk and new t.v. armoire for our bedroom (right now, we're using rubbermaid tubs since our old rickety one got thrown out)...classy!

If we have enough left after those purchases, we may look into getting an HDTV. We'll see. I really want one. More than guru does. So, I guess we should leave him some of his bonus money to buy something he really wants. *Sigh*

How was your Christmas?

What's up?

Well, today, I finally got the last of our things out of our old apartment. It has been a slow process. I have a few more things I need to get put away here at the new place still though. That will be done by the end of the week (hopefully). Next step will be shopping for the furniture we need. Our problem there is finding time to do that, since guru has been having to work super late every night lately. If he doesn't have any obligations at church, he has to stay at work late. I am hoping that we will be able to go out this Saturday and do some shopping.

We are planning a New Year's Eve party here at our new place. I'll probably make up some yummy "balls of meat" and some other snacks and ask everyone to bring their favorite games. We did this a couple of years ago when we were still in our house, and it was a good time. Hopefully it will be just as fun this year.

Other than that, I am officially all done with my Christmas shopping and wrapping (well, guru still needs to get his dad's gift, and I suppose I'll wrap that for him). I even got some gifts wrapped up and mailed to my young cousins in Virginia, since they won't be able to make it in for Christmas.

So, that's what's new with me. Oh, and I also switched over my blogger to the new blogger thingy. At least I think it worked. I'm not completely sure. We shall see!

Good Weekend!

Friday night, the kids and I went over to my dad's to help him put up his Christmas tree. Our family Christmas gathering is always at his house, so he HAS to have a tree. Then, I helped him wrap some Christmas presents. This is a nice change for him. My mom used to do all of the shopping and wrapping and since she passed away he has just given us money for Christmas. Even the kids. So, at least he took the time to go shopping and pick out gifts himself this year.

Saturday afternoon, we picked up G and Trin's oldest boy and took him with our kids to my grandparents' church where they were having a children's Christmas party. We dropped them off and headed out to guru's work holiday party.

The party was fun! It started out at Dave and Buster's for drinks and appetizers and a corporate challenge. Then we headed off to Stoney River for a brief presentation on how the company is doing by the big boss, and more appetizers and more drinks and then dinner. The menu was awesome! I got a coffee cured filet (no, it didn't taste like coffee) topped with crab cakes and guru got prime rib, both with a huge side of yummy garlic mashed potatoes. We also got started with a salad (guru did not partake of that option) and then, of course, dessert was very delectable as well.

After the dinner was over, a lot of people went home, but some of us stayed and hung around the bar area and chatted. I have met a few of guru's coworkers before, but it was nice to be able to meet (almost) everyone in his office and their spouses or significant others and put faces with names I hear so much about.

Sunday, guru and I got up and got ready for church all by ourselves since G and Trin kept the kiddos overnight and dropped them off at our church for us on their way to theirs. After church, we took home the daughter of a friend of mine who's brother is in the hospital (my friend's brother, not the daughter). We took the kids to the McDonalds playplace to eat lunch and burn off some energy. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours. Then we came home and my friend came and got her daughter.

After they left, we headed over to Alex's house for homemade pizza and to put together a gingerbread house. (Is it still standing, Alex?) The kids had fun drawing on the doors and windows in icing and sticking on all the candies. His wife and I had a difficult time getting the thing to stay up. It kept collapsing.

Overall a good weekend! We definately need more like it!

Doctor Appointment

I went to the Doctor's this morning for my overall health check-up with my new family Dr. I had a complete physical done earlier in the year with blood work and everything, But since I have issues with a couple of things, like my terrible acid reflux, he wanted to see me to go over everything.

So, since I can't even miss one day of my Prilosec or I will be suffering from extreme reflux by evening, he wants me to go in for an endoscopy. That, of course, was not a surprise to me. I figured he would want me to. And while I do want to find out what the problem is and fix it if possible, I just cringe at the thought! The Dr's office is scheduling it and will call me to let me know when and where.

He also mentioned that my blood work from earlier in the year (that I was told everything came back normal on) showed that my white blood count was a bit low. He said it could have been because I was sick at the time or something incorrect in the lab, but he wanted to take more blood and test it again. So, I got more blood drawn today. Hopefully it will come back normal. I tend to worry about things like this.

On another note, one of my friends told me they thought I should use one of my Christmas picture "outtakes" as my card photo:



Yes, my son is licking his sister's face. He was pretending he was a puppy! It would be pretty funny and a pretty accurate portrayal of my kids, but I think I'll go with the first choice. :)

Second Attempt

I tried again last week to get a good picture of the kids for our Christmas card. I took about 40 pictures, but got only a few worth using. Here are the 3 finalists...





One of these will be on our card. What do you think?

Another Year Older

Well, my birthday was yesterday. I woke up to breakfast in bed of waffles and cinnamon rolls and apple juice. Then, I got presents! First was this cute little purse from Old Navy:



I had made a list a couple of weeks ago per guru's request of a few things that I would like. The purse was one of them. As a bonus, I also got a matching checkbook/wallet that my oldest daughter picked out. My younger daughter picked me out a nice basket of "goodies" made up of lotions and shower gel and things of that sort. So cute!

Then, my dad took the girls overnight. Then we took the boy to my grandmas and headed up to the Polaris area. Guru had some gift certificates for the movie theatre up there that we needed to use. First we stopped for dinner then went to a movie. Then it was back to pick up the boy. On the way home, we stopped and checked out the Picktown Lights.

All in all, it was a good day. After church today, we met my dad and my grandparents for lunch and came home. My son and I got a good nap this afternoon too! (Even though, I should have been moving boxes around and unpacking! Oh, well!)

New Bed?

Last night, I was sitting here blogging and looked over and saw that my sleepy son had found a comfy spot to go to sleep:



Then, just now, I looked over and saw this:


Who needs a big boy bed when you have a trampoline?

Scatterbrained!

Yep, that's me! Yesterday, I missed dental appointments for my younger daughter and myself. It was just for a regular cleaning, but it totally slipped my mind! I even had it written down in my planner AND on my calendar on the fridge. I guess it doesn't really do any good to keep a planner if you don't look at it! So, I had to reschedule, and they didn't have 2 appointments on the same day and same time anytime soon, so I had to schedule my daughter for one day and me for the next! What a pain!

Then, tonight, I completely forgot that I was supposed to take my younger daughter to cheerleading practice. Have I mentioned that I'm the assistant coach of her squad?! Sheesh! After a phone call reminder that I was supposed to be there, we made it there, with 15 minutes to spare. Seriously, where is my freaking brain? I am so annoyed with myself for all of my forgetfulness!

Ok, moving on... I got the pictures of our tree put on the computer now, so in case you're interested, here it is:



I don't know if our ceilings are higher in the new apartment, or if I just notice it more because the room the tree is in is so much bigger, but the tree looks so short and small! I think this gives me a good excuse...er...reason to go out after Christmas and try to find a taller, bigger tree at a discount for next year, right? And maybe some more ornaments too (looking back at the picture on here, it looks kind of bare, so a bigger tree would look even more bare).

And our stockings hung by the chimney (fireplace) with care:



So, now, if I can just get all of these boxes unpacked and everything put away, I'll be doing good.

Moved

Well, for the most part at least. We still have a few things at the other place that we need to move over. I've been taking my time this week by moving over one van load a day. Just today, I got all of the boxes we've brought in so far put up. Then, I went back over and brought another load over so there are now more boxes sitting in my living room. More for me to do tomorrow.

We still don't have our internet hooked up. There was a problem with our phone line and we had to have the phone company come out and fix that today, so now we have our phone set up, only 5 days late! We are currently borrowing a neighbors unsecured network, which is how I am able to post this now.

I did manage to get my christmas tree up this weekend. I took some pics, but I can't post them until our computer is hooked up (using the laptop right now). But, that's what I've been doing this week. I still have a lot more to do before I can finally settle in completely. We also need some new furniture for our added living room, a new computer desk, a new t.v. armoire for our bedroom (our old one didn't survive the move) and a bunk bed for the girls. My goal is to be done by Christmas! Here's to hoping guru's year end bonus is a nice one! We shall see.

Chaos!

Our home is in complete chaos right now! We are moving in 2 days and I have been packing like crazy! This is what our table looks like (and has been this way for the past week!):



The storage room is all in boxes too:



Last night, I packed up the girls' room. There was a pencil box left on their dresser, and this morning I went down to find this:



I packed up my son's room last week. That was pretty much a waste of time because, today, it looks like this:



Actually, it looks worse than it really is. Once I get all of his toys packed back into the toy box, it won't be near as bad. That is the downfall of trying to pack with kids in the house. They just go right behind me and unpack things. This happens with cleaning too. I hate spending my time cleaning a room just to walk out for 2 minutes, then turn around and go back in the room I just cleaned and find it in disarray! That just frustrates me to no end.

Anyway, it is supposed to be snowing Friday so that should make for an interesting move. Hopefully we will get it all done quickly and I can get my Christmas tree up this weekend!

Out of hand?

No pun intended. (Ok, maybe a little.) Has this whole thing with Clay Aiken and Kelly Ripa gone a bit extreme? I see Kelly's point, but is she blowing it a bit out of proportion? I also think that the whole thing with Rosie O'Donnell thinking that Kelly's remark (about not knowing where Clay's hand has been) was homophobic is just absurd! I don't think it had anything at all to do with that. I believe that it was truly just about germs. Your thoughts?

Stupid Acid Reflux!

Good grief! I miss one day of my Prilosec and by bed time, I am feeling the pain! Something is not right with me. This is not normal! I have a Doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks with my new family Doc. to assess my overall health. I'll definately be bringing this up. I have brought it up in the past. My previous Dr. said that it should definately be checked into if the problem doesn't go away.

It has been going on for years now. It seems to have only gotten worse with each baby I have had. I fear I will soon have to have an endoscopy to figure out what is causing my problems. Just the thought of having a camera shoved down my throat to view my stomach makes me sqirm! Ugh!

That is the main reason I am even up at this hour blogging. I cannot lay down. I can literally feel the acid sitting in my esophagus. It is horrible! It's bad enough when I am sitting up, let alone if I attempt to lay down. Anyway, I guess I will go give a try to sleeping propped up on pillows. I did that a lot when I was pregnant.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was a good one. I made a corn casserole, green bean casserole, and my friend's recipe for sweet potato casserole. The sweet potatoes turned out awesome, if I do say so myself! I think I'm going to have to make that again for Christmas!

Two of my dad's sisters and their familes weren't able to make it to town this week, so we only had 22 people there (including two very cute little babies). However, they are both supposed to be coming into town next week, so we should get to see them then.

Tomorrow, neither guru nor myself have any responsibilities at church, so we may or may not sleep in. Maybe we'll make it to one of the services. Too bad this day "off" didn't come next Sunday, since we can start moving next Friday and will probably be busy with that all weekend. But, since we both need to be there next week, we'll have to take a break from moving Sunday morning.

Anyway, I'm still keeping myself busy getting ready for this move. I am anxious to get moved and settled. Usually, I get my Christmas tree and all the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I have to wait. I'm getting ansy!

I also realize, it has been quite a while since I've posted any pictures on here. So, I will try to do that sometime soon. That is if anyone cares to see. I don't know if anyone even visits here anymore other than guru, but that's ok. I still visit all my reads. Well, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Upward!

Well, it's Upward time again! Last night was meet the coach night. Practices start next week. I know last year I said that I was not going to coach again this year. Well, I kept my promise...almost. (Check out the last sentence in that post!)

I waited it out, even though they were announcing over and over how much they needed coaches. I decided that I would wait one more week, and if they were still in need of coaches, I would volunteer. I waited the week and by then, all the head coach positions had been filled.

However, I agreed to help my friend (Alex's wife) as her assistant coach. At least I won't be coaching alone again like I did the past two years!

Other than that, I will be attempting a new recipe for Thanksgiving. I usually make the sweet potatoes, so this year, I've decided to make it interesting! I'm getting a recipe from my friend A for her mom's sweet potato casserole that is apparently awesome! I hope I can do it justice. I'm also making a corn casserole and green bean casserole. Now I'm hungry! Just two more days!!!

OSU vs. Michigan

'Nuff said!

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bummed!

My oldest daughter came in earlier and told me she looked in the window of the new townhouse we are supposed to be moving to and that the new carpet they laid in there is gray! WHAT?! The rest of the apartment has a tan color scheme. There are a few different color schemes they use here and usually gray carpet goes with a darker countertop and tile.

I am kind of bummin' right now cause to me, gray and tan don't really go together. The walls in all the apartments are tan. All of our furniture and our bedding go with tan and clash with gray. I know they just replaced the carpet, so at least it is brand new. I don't know if I should call and see if they would be willing to switch it out for tan, or just let it go and deal with it.

I don't know how the carpet is going to look with the tan tiles and countertops in there. I don't want to seem too demanding to the people who work in the office, especially since my brother works here and they know that I'm his sister! What would you do?

Shopping

I met up with my good friend Sweetiepie on Saturday for lunch and some shopping. We had a wonderful lunch at Spageddies and then hit the stores! We shopped at Toys R Us, Big Lots (shut up, name brands @ closeout prices), Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels, Old Navy, EB Games, and Marshalls.

After a full afternoon of shopping, we found ourselves hungry again around 7:30 p.m., so we headed to CiCi's for a cheap pizza buffet dinner. Mmm, Italian food twice in one day! Good thing I remembered my Prilosec that morning!

After dinner, we headed back to her house and hung out for about an hour filling in her hubby on all we did and all the great deals we found. It was a fun day! I'm definately looking forward to doing it again soon!!

Making a Move

We are preparing to move to a bigger townhouse here in our complex. We have been on a waiting list for quite a while now, and they finally have one available for us. We are able to move December 1st. I am excited that we should be all moved and settled in by Christmas!

I've been doing a lot of work around here the last few days trying to get everything clean and organized. I've made some excellent progress but there is still a lot to do! Most of the work has been the laundry/storage/play room. But it's pretty much ready to go now! I'm sure I will be throwing a ton of stuff out. When we moved from our house into here, I threw away many huge trash bags and boxes of stuff. I expect I'll be doing the same thing this time, only maybe not to the same extent.

I am really excited about having more cabinet space in the kitchen and a pantry. Not to mention we'll be able to fit more than one person in the kitchen at a time comfortably! We'll also be getting an extra bedroom and full bathroom in the new place. Yea!

Elections

Tomorrow is election day! And I couldn't be happier! I am so sick of seeing all of the "trash talk" commercials on t.v. and hearing them on the radio. And if I get one more freaking recorded phone call from a Senator or Laura Bush, I'm likely to reach through the phone and punch them in their recorded throat!!!! (In Jesus' name, of course!) :)

Trick or Treat

Well, we ended up going trick or treating in the rain. We headed over to Alex's house and his wife and I took the kids out with umbrellas. We only circled around to one end of the street and back the other side to their house. After that, we decided to go inside for a while since it was raining pretty good by that time.

A little while later, the rain had stopped...just in time for guru and Alex to take their turn out with the kids. When they got back, we had fun raiding their candy and discussing which candy bars are the best (Snickers is totally the best, Alex! Gotta have nuts in the candy bar!), and how Milky Ways are the retarded cousin of Snickers. Good times.


(Yummy goodness in all sizes!)

Stupid Rain!

What the dealio with all this rain? It's October, not April! We are supposed to go trick or treating tonight. The kids are determined to go, even in the rain! There is no rain date for trick or treat here, so I guess we could just go and take umbrellas. It's not like we'll melt or anything. Plus, if the rain deters a lot of people from going out, then hey, more candy for me...er...my kids.

I don't know. I would hate for their cute little costumes to go to waste! It starts in less than an hour, so I need to think of something quick-like.

Stitches

This morning, after guru had left for work and the girls were already at the bus stop, I was in my kitchen making a sippy cup for my son when my front door opens. Hmm...wonder who forgot something, I thought. It was my middle daughter saying that my oldest had fallen at the bus stop and was bleeding.

So, I slip on some shoes and run out of the door in my shorts and t-shirt, hair not yet brushed, in 40 degree weather to find out what happened. I see my daugher walking toward me down the sidewalk, crying and holding her face with one hand and her mangled glasses in the other.

I take her inside and clean up all the shed blood and find out she was playing balance beam on the curb and her foot slipped. She had her hands in the pockets of her coat and she couldn't get them out in time to catch herself before faceplanting into the concrete. Her glasses dug into the side of her face leaving a nice slash next to her left eye.

It looked pretty bad, I could see several layers under her skin, and the cut was gaping. I figured she may need a stitch or two for it. So, I called around and the Children's urgent care didn't open until 3 pm. I wasn't about to head downtown and wait 8 hours in the Children's hospital ER, so I found an urgent care close to home and took her in.

Sure enough, she ended up with 7 stitches in her pretty little face! She was not happy about that at all! She screamed and squirmed when they gave her the shots to numb her face. I had to hold her arms down while the nurse held her head still. Once the numbing was taken care of, she was all good.

I continued to hold her hands and watch as the Doctor stitched her up. I actually remained very cool through the whole thing. I'm impressed with myself. How is it that I can handle all the blood and watch a Dr. put stitches in my baby's face, but I can't handle throw-up? I don't know.

Anyway, I would post before and after pictures, but I took them with my new camera phone, and we don't have the proper equipment to transfer pictures from phone to computer.

Lazy Day

Well, the family and I took a trip to the hospital last night to visit trin and G's new little man! He is so cute and looks so much like his big brother!

Today, my son and I just hung out at home all day. We even took a nap together this afternoon. That was nice! Tonight the kids and I are just gonna veg out and watch t.v. Guru is working late and I'm not sure when exactly he will get home. He works almost an hour away and he is still at work, so the kids will be in bed when he gets here. Pretty lazy and uneventful day here today.

I was hoping to take my kiddos to a Fall festival tomorrow night. We went last year and it was fun. There's free food and free candy, so it's all good! I am supposed to be singing with our church's worship choir this Sunday and our usual Wednesday practice got pushed to tomorrow, so if we go, it will only be for about an hour before we have to leave for the church for my practice. Boo!

Updates

I almost forgot to post about the double date Saturday night. It went pretty well. However, there is not going to be a second date. My friend just can't get past the fact that she had absolutely zero attraction to him. And I don't blame her. The guy seemed nice enough, but I really don't think their personalities match either. She's really outgoing and bubbly and he's kind of withdrawn. He has 2 parrots that are like his kids (and he likes to talk about them a lot) and she is not a bird person in the slightest. So she has already communicated with him that she is not interested in going out again, and he responded well.

Moving on...

I ended up having A's kids all day yesterday. So there were 5 kids 6 and under in my house all day long. Then when my girls got home from school, I had 7 kids 9 and under. Dinner time was fun. :) It really wasn't bad though. All the kids did really well. They played nicely and watched some cartoons and the youngest one is the only one I was actually able to get down for a nap.

Around 8:00 pm, I took A's kids up to visit their new baby brother. He's so cute! He looks exactly like 3/4 of her other kids. Her oldest daughter is the oddball...she looks more like her mommy while all the others look like their dad.

He weighed in at 8lbs 1oz and 19 inches long. I got to hold him and watch them give him his first bath in the nursery and smell his little newborn head! Almost makes me want to have another one.....almost!

Sometime today, I'll get to go back to the hospital and see my new nephew. And while I'm there, I'll stop back in and see A and her new baby.

Baby Day!

Well, today is the day! My brother and SIL are going to be meeting their newest addition. I'm really excited for them!

On top of that, my friend A is headed to the hospital right now as well. She was already scheduled to be induced today at 10 am, assuming the Dr. thought she was ready when she went in this morning for her last appointment. (She was due on the 19th!) When she went in this morning she found out she is at 3 cm's. So she just dropped off her 4 other kids here and is on her way to the hospital. She is super excited, because usually, it takes her forever to get to 4 cm's and then it goes really fast. So, she is hoping that with a little help from the pitocin, she'll be meeting baby #5 very shortly.

Well, that leaves me with 5 kids ranging from age 6 down to 17 months. We'll be fine though, they are good kids. Right now, they are all playing very quietly. The 2 oldest ones are watching Doodlebops and the others are playing Mr. Potato Head!

I may be taking them to another friend of A's for the afternoon, or possibly keeping them here. I don't know for sure yet. It depends on if the other friend is still willing to help out. If not, I'll take the kids up later today to meet their new little brother.

Wish me luck today, I should be pretty busy!

Saturday

This afternoon, I am taking my girls to a birthday party at friends 2B made. That should be really fun for them. I wish they had places like this when I was a kid. Basically all we had was Chuck E. Cheese or the skating rink. But that's a different story.

After that, guru and I are going out on a double date with a single mom friend of mine. She met a guy on eHarmony and I told her that the first time she meets him shoudn't be by herself. Anyway, she's having mixed feelings about this guy as it is. She says he has a great personality and they seem to have a lot in common and with just talking to him, she would definately be interested in him. But looking at his pictures, she is not attracted to him at all. He's a bit overweight with below average looks. She feels like God my be trying to teach her to not be so superficial.

There are a few other things that concern her about the guy too, like his job and his ex-wife. But she's going to give it a try. At least after meeting him in person, she should have a better idea if she thinks it is even worth pursuing further. She'll be able to say that she just didn't feel a connection with him in person....or possibly the other way around. Who knows.

I'll make sure to report how the date goes!

Kinda Bummed

We were supposed to be going to the Pumpkin Show tonight. Weather.com is showing a 100% chance of rain tonight starting at 7pm (which is about when we'd get there). That really puts a damper on our plans (no pun intended).

I guess we still have through Saturday to go if we really want to. The only thing is that if we don't go tonight, we will miss the parade of bands. The parade usually consists of a bunch of high school bands from across Ohio, but tonight they are welcoming The Best Damn Band In The Land! So we would have to miss that!

I guess that's not such a huge deal to guru though, since he gets to go see them at "the shoe" on Saturday!

Update

Well, I went back to the Dr. yesterday. He didn't end up doing another strep test. But, he did give me a stronger antibiotic. He said if I keep having problems with this, I may have to go see an ENT Dr. and talk about getting my tonsils out! I'm 26 years old! Isn't this something they usually do to kids? My oldest daughter had hers out when she was 6.

I have never been put under anesthesia for anything before. I really don't want to have to have them removed, but if it will keep me from getting strep throat so often, I may just have to do it!

Anyway, my friend A got sent home, no baby yet! Right now she is scheduled to be induced next Monday if she hasn't had the baby by then. That would actually make it convienient for me though if she waits until Monday, cause then I could make one trip to the hospital on Tuesday to see her and my new nephew!

I think it's back!

I think I have strep throat AGAIN! GRRR! My throat started feeling kind of icky on Friday. It didn't really hurt too bad, but it kinda felt like I may be starting to lose my voice or something.

Throughout the day, however, it really started to hurt. Yesterday and today were very bad. I was supposed to be on my church's praise team this morning, and ended up not even being able to go to church at all. (Same thing last time I had this a couple of weeks ago, I missed being on PT. Maybe God is trying to tell me something??)

Anyway, I will be calling the Dr. tomorrow to try to get in. I will have to endure another strep test, but if that's what I've got again, at least I'll know and can get on some meds to get rid of it. This time I want it to stay far, FAR away!

On another note, my friend A called a little while ago and said that she is in labor! This is baby #5 for her. Please pray for a quick and easy labor for her and a healthy baby!!

4 Day Weekends

My daughters have two 4 day weekends in a row. They have early dismissal today from school and are off tomorrow and Friday. Same thing next week.

Tomorrow is Fair day and I am not sure why they are off this Friday. Next Thursday is parent-teacher conferences and next Friday is Cota day. So, they are excited to have short weeks and long weekends two weeks in a row. I am going to have to come up with some fun activities for us to do while they're off to (hopfully) avoid them fighting the whole time.

Looks like I will have to take a trip to Michaels and pick up some crafts for them to make for Christmas presents!

Small Group

A couple of weeks ago, while on our retreat, my small group decided we needed to start meeting regularly again. Over the summer, our schedules were just too busy to coordinate get-togethers. So, now that school is back in and our lives are getting back into routines, we started scheduling time again.

Most of the small groups at our church meet once a week. We are not quite able to pull that off yet, so we are attempting every other Monday night. Last night was the kick off. We met at Panera and ate dinner together and just chatted away and laughed and had a good time. When Panera closed at 9:00, we weren't ready to call it a night just yet, so we walked next door to TGI Friday's and sat around giggling some more for another hour.

Next time we meet, we will be discussing what Bible study we want to start on next. We took this first week just to get together and have a good time before we started in on a study. I always have such a good time with these ladies. They are so laid back and fun to be around.

I really hope we are able to keep up with meeting like this. It is so refreshing to me to be able to be around other adults like that, since my days generally consist of hanging out with a 2 year old. (Not that I am complaining! He's the bestest 2 year old around and I love being home with him!)

The thing is, my group wants to start planning get aways more often too. More than the once a year we go to Beth Moore. They are talking about an actual get away next summer where we go somewhere for like 4-5 days! I would LOVE that, but I just don't think it is doable for me. I mean, we didn't even go on a family vacation this year (not even a weekend trip) because we couldn't afford to. So, I don't think I can swing a girls trip in there just for me before even doing a family vacation. That doesn't seem fair.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I may just have to stick to our annual conference get away for now.

Two Lunches

Today, my daughters' school is having their annual fall cookout. This is a day where parents can come eat lunch with their kids (actually, we can do that anyday) and they are, well, cooking out. They are having hot dogs and such.

Well, neither of my girls wanted hot dogs, but rather wanted me to bring them food. My oldest eats from 11:00-11:45. She wants me to bring her Wendy's. So, I will be stopping off to pick her up some lunch and then heading to the school to try to find a parking spot in the tiny parking lot, then finding my daughter to eat lunch with her.

Then, I have to go back out and pick up Arby's for my younger daughter and go back, find another parking spot, and find my younger daughter for her lunch starting at 12:30. All the while, I will be lugging around my 2 year old as well.

The note that was sent home said that if it rains, they will have the cookout tomorrow instead. I hope it doesn't get rained out today because I did not send any lunch or lunch money with the girls today. If it is, they will be able to "charge" their lunch and I can pay it later, so no big deal.

**UPDATE**
I called the school and it has been postponed until tomorrow due to the weather. I guess they will get their fast food lunches tomorrow!

Better

While I am still not 100%, I am feeling much, much better today! I am still very tired, but that could just be cause I haven't really done much for the past week. I need to get out and move around a little, maybe that will wake me up some.

I was able to get some fall decorations up yesterday. I need to find my door hangy thing so I can hang my wreath on the front door. I always end up losing them and buying new ones. Fortunately they are really cheap! I will probably pick one up today because I don't feel like rummaging through the millions of boxes in the basement looking for the one from last year. It is probably in with the Christmas stuff, which happens to be burried right now.

So, to sum up, I'm feeling better and now I'm off to run some errands and do some shopping! Have a good day!

Yep, It's Strep!

I woke up feeling even worse yesterday morning. I decided I should probably go into the Doctor. I was running a fever of 102.4 at the Doc's office. He did a strep test (yuck, I hate those! Those long q-tip looking things they scrape your throat with...ew). He came back in the exam room and said that it was strep.

He prescribed me an antibiotic. I spent the entire afternoon sleeping. Last night was terrible. I woke up soaked in sweat, but couldn't take the covers off because I would freeze! I hate not being able to get comfortable.

Tylenol hasn't seemed to be cutting it for me either. I take it and I'm still in terrible pain and running a fever. Guru picked me up some Ibuprofin. I took some of that a little while ago, and for the first time in the past couple of days, I'm not in incredible pain. Thank God for that! Well, I'm off to rest some more. Hopefully I will be feeling much better tomorrow!

Ow!

I have come down with something overnight. Yesterday I was fine. Right before bed, I noticed my throat starting to hurt a little bit. I had a difficult time getting comfortable last night, and tossed and turned all night. All the while, my throat started hurting more and more.

This morning, it was terrible! I took a couple of Tylenol and it started feeling a bit better. Now that the meds have worn off, not only is my sore throat back worse than this morning, but it's accompanied by body aches. My neck, shoulders, and arms feel so sore! I think I have a fever, too!

I hate being sick. I take vitamins every day! I think I'm going to be upping my vitamin C for a little while. It seems I end up getting strep throat at least once a year! I really, really hope that this isn't strep!

Time for some more Tylenol! OW!

Analogies and Metaphors

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.....

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.


2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.


3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.


4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.


5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.


6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.


7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.


8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.


9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.


10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.


11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.


12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.


13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.


14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.


15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.


16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.


17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.


18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.


19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.


20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.


21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.


22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.


23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.


24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.


25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Fun Time Away

Well we were a bit later getting out of town than we expected to. But not too late. We got to our hotel and checked in around 4:45. We headed up to our room and decided that we really didn't have time to go eat at a restaurant before getting over to the Civic Center by 6:00, when the doors opened. So we ended up just ordering room service.

We were within walking distance from where we needed to go. Right across the street from our hotel was a mall. We actually ended up just walking through the mall to get to the conference (since it was raining). We ended up sitting in the upper level, but we had a great view and we weren't surrounded by too many people, so it was actually more comfortable than being down on the floor. We decided to come back and sit in the same seats on Saturday too.

Beth was great as usual. She is so animated when she speaks that she just draws you in to what she is saying and is quite funny as well. Travis Cottrell and his praise team were awesome too. No Mandisa this time though. :(

After the conference was over around noon on Saturday, we (the 5 of us from our small group plus one of the ladies' sister) headed out to get some lunch at an Italian place called Gratzi. It was very yummy. Then we dropped our things off in our hotel room and hit the mall. We spent several hours just walking around and shopping! It was so much fun, even though I only purchased a couple of things. After shopping, we headed back to our hotel to decide what we wanted to do for dinner. We heard as we were walking back in the hotel that there was a manager's reception for all guests every night from 5:30 to 7:30. It was already about 7:00 but we went down to check it out.

They have different hors d'oeuvres every night. That night they had a spinach dip (very good, and not e coli infested) with chips and these little slices of bread with cream cheese and salmon on them. Apparently they had little sandwiches before we got down there too, but they were gone. They also had free cocktails and soft drinks. All free for guests! After that, we headed back to the room and snacked on wheat thins, and dark chocolate kit kats and called it dinner. We also played a game called Dirty Minds that one of the ladies bought at the mall. Very funny game! We also did facials and scrubbed our feet and did our nails. One of the ladies in the group sells Arbonne, so we got to use the goods.

Sunday we slept in and went down to a free breakfast. They had a bar set up with scrambled eggs, hash browns, French toast, biscuits, sausage gravy, and grits. They also had an entire bar of different kinds of fruits. They had cereals, any kind of juice you could want, soft drinks, tea, and coffee. AND a cook to order omelet bar. They had all the fresh ingredients out and you could just tell the lady what you wanted in it and she made it right there in front of you. She also served freshly made pancakes, and bacon and sausage. We were all completely stuffed!!

We requested a late check out for 1:00. After our breakfast settled, 3 of us headed down to check out the hot tub for a while. We got down there and the hot tub was WAY too hot. We joked that the jets weren't' even on, it was just boiling. We couldn't even get in it. We were able to get in the heated pool though.

After hanging out, chatting in the pool for a while, we headed back up to the room to get showers and packed up. We headed out at 1:00. We ended up stopping for an early dinner/late lunch at Red Lobster. After that it was on home to our families! (Me to my poor sick baby!)

It was such a fun weekend hanging out with the girls. Lots of fun and laughter. It is so great to have such a wonderful group of friends. I feel so comfortable with all of them and feel like I can tell them anything, and truly be myself with them and they don't judge me. And, they all feel the same way. We are going to try to start meeting again regularly. It is difficult for us to try to meet every week, so we have it on the calendar to meet 2 Monday evenings in October.

Weekend Getaway

Well, in about 30 minutes, I should be on my way out of town. As I mentioned yesterday, I am headed to a Beth Moore Conference. It is always a spiritually uplifting time of praise and worship. I am looking forward to it.

I am also looking forward to the R & R I plan on getting. It will be a nice change of pace for me to be able to go and only be responsible for myself....That is always nice!

So, wish me safe travel and a good time! I should be back home sometime on Sunday. Let's just hope the place isn't in total disarray when I return.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'm looking forward to... The new season of Grey's Anatomy. Starts tonight! Yea! Going to a Beth Moore conference this weekend. I love her. My small group is staying an extra night just to relax! Shopping! Swimming at the hotel. Relaxing in the hot tub. Slumber party with my girlfriends. (Will there be pillow fights in our underwear? I don't know!) More shopping!! Chatting and catching up with my small group ladies. Not being responsible for anyone but myself for 2 days! No poopie diapers! Did I mention shopping? Getting back home to hug my babies! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thanks, A.W.F.I.

I saw your post the other day about my hair. Thank you. I have been trying to comment on your blog as well, but it doesn't go through. Perhaps for the same reason you can't comment here??

I got an honest response from Oz on Sunday too (about my hair). He said he didn't like it in my pictures on here. But, he said in person, he liked it. I think maybe the pictures make it look more drastic than it really is. I don't know.

Finally Friday!

I went to Trin's mom and got my hair cut today. Not drastically. Just a little off the ends to help it lay flatter when I straighten it. It has been flipping up at the ends, even when I use the flat iron, from the way it was cut last time. It will probably still flip up some because I didn't want her to chop all my hair off, but it should help. I also asked for a few chunky blonde highlights on top. She came back out with two bowls of color. She said, "I mixed up some blonde and some red for ya."

I generally trust her with my hair and let her do what she thinks will look good. So, I said "go for it". Here is the finished product.





What do you think?

Sleepy Days!

It has been rainy here for the past couple of days. I get so sleepy when it rains! Why is that? Is it just me? I have such a hard time getting out of bed on mornings that it's raining. Ok, I have a hard time getting out of bed any morning, but rainy mornings are worse!

I never seem to be able to completely wake up on rainy days. I just feel so groggy and tired all day. Can't seem to get my butt movin'.

I know the rain is good, we need rain. But, I am SO looking forward to some dryer, cooler (yet sunny), Fall days!


Rain, rain go away!!

More Long Days

Yesterday morning, I got a call from my grandma. She said she was in the E.R. She woke up with chest pains, shortness of breath, and tightening in her throat. She has apparently been experiencing some chest pains lately and was already scheduled for a stress test next Monday. So, when whe woke up like that yesterday, she thought she should go get it checked out.

They ran some tests and told her that things looked pretty good, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observations. They said that if the bloodwork they did later in the day came back ok too, that she may be able to go home even that evening.

However, not too long later, the nurse came back in and said that the Cardiologist wanted to do a heart cath. to be safe since the tightness in her throat wasn't going away. I was in the room with her when they told her that, and I got an uneasy feeling because of what happened to my grandfather just last year.

It also worries me that if something were to happen to her before my grandfather...I don't know what we'd do. He is not capable of taking care of himself full time. He has the beginning stages of alzheimer's and has tons of meds he has to take everyday and he relies on her to give them to him. (I had to sort out all of them for him last night, fun!) If she were to go before him, I honestly wouldn't expect him to make it another year.

Anyway, my friend A watched my son for me this morning so I could go sit with my grandfather while my grandma was having the procedure. (Thanks, A!) Everything turned out good. There were no complications and they didn't find anything concerning. No blockages or anything. Praise God! They think it may be a problem with her stomach. She'll be having that checked into further.

So, she was able to come home this afternoon! She wanted to stop and eat lunch at their favorite place. So I picked up my son then we ate and I took them both home.

Man, I could definately live without this added stress! But, I'm just glad she's alright!

In case you were wondering: Besides the whole memory loss thing (which has been building for years) my grandfather is doing SO much better. He had a difficult year and we almost lost him more than once. He was using a walker and was on oxygen for a while as well. Now, by looking at him, you'd never be able to tell. He's just made a wonderful recovery! No more walker (just his old cane that he's used for years) and no more oxygen tank.

I LOVE The Fall!

This is my absolute favorite time of the year!! The weather is perfect. I just love being able to open up all the windows and let the fresh air flow through the house. It's just so relaxing! All Summer and all Winter are spent closed up inside because of the heat or the cold. You can't have the windows open when it's 100 degrees or 30 degrees outside. Spring is nice, but usually rainy and yucky outside. But Autumn is the best! It is usually the time of year when I am the least depressed.

There are just so many fun things to do in the Fall. Like going apple picking and going to the pumpkin patch. Dressing up for Halloween and getting all kinds of candy (thank goodness I have kids to do that for me). I love going to the pumpkin show every year. Harvest festivals at different churches, hay rides, bonfires. Not to mention the colorful trees. I love it!

Autumn, the best season of them all, seems to go by the quickest. Is it because it's such a great time and I'm having so much fun that it just seems to slip by? Or could it be that usually October is about all the Fall we get? Usually, here in good ole' Ohio, it stays pretty warm through to the end of September. This year, so far has been a nice change, we're acutally experiencing some not so hot weather here right now. Then by November, it starts getting really cold out.

And that is when my depression usually kicks in full force! I'm pretty sure I suffer from SAD. It's dark when I get up in the mornings and dark again by 6:00 p.m. It just feels like the days pass by so fast. I hate it when it's all snowy and slushy and slippery on the roads. Trying to lug kids and groceries and whatever else through snow and ice is never fun.

If it were up to me, we would have October weather from September 1st through December 23rd. Then we could have a nice white christmas and it could be cold through the rest of the year. Just no more snow!

Oh well, at least I just got my Effexor dosage upped! Maybe it'll be fully kicked in by the time stupid winter comes!

Inconsiderate Neighbors

As you know, we live in an apartment. That means that our "yard" is shared with lots of other people. Well, we recently got some new neighbors right next door. They have a dog. A big dog. There is a rule in our community that if you have a dog, you must pick up after it when it does it's business. Great rule! Excellent rule! I LOVE that rule! The new neighbors, however, don't seem to care about said rule.

I have seen the lady out walking around with her dog on several occasions. Did she have a plastic bag or a pooper-scooper with her? NOOOO! And, since they are right next door that means that a lot of this dog's "business" is pretty much right outside our back door. Right where our kids play! Can you guess what's next? Yep, my kids end up stepping in it!

The girls were out back on Saturday playing and some of their friends from down the street came down to play and between the 5 kids out there, there were at least 3 different times that one or another of them stepped in dog poo!!

I mean, SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, clean up after your freaking dogs!!!! It's one thing if you have your own yard and you don't clean up after your dog, but when you have to share a yard with other people and you know that lots of kids frequently play in the grass...that's a WHOLE other story! It's just plain rude and inconsiderate to not pick it up immediately!

On top of that, we had some more new neighbors move into the building behind us. They rent a garage that is in front of our building. They have Harley's. Loud Harley's. Sounds like huge trucks that have had their mufflers fall off Harley's! When do these neighbors like to ride their loud bikes? After 10:00 p.m. Every. Single. Night!!!

They don't just start 'em up and leave either. Oh, no! They turn them on, rev them up, and let them "warm up" for about 20 minutes before they leave. So we have to sit here and listen to them for that time every night. It's even worse now that we've turned off our air conditioner and opened the windows. Of course we close our son's windows at night, but even with them closed, the bikes are extremely loud (and practically right under his windows!)

Are you kidding me? Do you have absolutely NO consideration for other people? Are you so self obsorbed that you don't give a flying freak that people may be trying to sleep at that time. Have you not noticed all the children that live in this community that may, I don't know, have to get up for school in the morning and that you might just be interrupting their sleep?

COME ON PEOPLE! GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR REARS! OPEN YOUR EYES! YOU'RE DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!

Movie anyone?

Apparently if you've seen more than 85 of these ... you have no life. I guess I have no life, cause I've seen exactly 85. How many have you seen?

*(UPDATED: I looked back and realized that I accidentally left 2 movies checked from the person who sent this to me that I hadn't actually seen. I fixed it. I guess I still have no life though at 85.)

There are 168 movies :)

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
( ) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane

Total: 3

( ) The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan: The Legend of Ron Burgandy(the freakin best!)
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
(x) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
(x) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total: 9

(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
(x) Scary Movie 2
(x) Scary Movie 3
(x) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp

Total: 19

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
(x) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch

Total: 26

(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (new one)
(x) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
(x) Robots

Total: 32

(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) KING KONG

Total: 38

(x) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
(x) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris (the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie?)
(x) Dumb & Dumber
(x) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(x) Flubber

Total:44

(x) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) The Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole Ten Yards

Total: 48

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
(x) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
(x) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask

Total: 55

( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Identity
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total: 59

( ) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
(x) My Bosses Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
( ) Frailty
( ) War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2

Total: 65

( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total: 70

( ) X-Men
( ) X2
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Others
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
(x) Cruel Intentions 2
(x) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2

Total: 79

(x) Swimfan
( ) Miracle
(x) Old School
(x) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf's Tribe
(x) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin

Total: 85

Happy Belated!

My 2nd Blogiversary was August 14th! How could I have not remembered? I could have had a party, a cake, balloons, maybe even pony rides! But no, I didn't even think about it. Actually, I don't think I remembered my 1st one either. Oh well, not that big of a deal. But, man, it sure doesn't seem like it's been 2 years since I started this thing!!

Vanilla Frosty!

Has anyone else tried one of these?



What do you think? I think they are pretty good. I'll usually pick chocolate over vanilla on most things. While I wouldn't say I like the vanilla better than the chocolate frosty, I would say that I probably like them both about the same. So, I guess now it will just be a matter of my mood at the time to determine which I would choose. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, as I am really bad at making these kinds of life-altering decisions.

And they're off!

They got off to a good start to the year today. They both got up and ate breakfast, got dressed, brushed their hair and teeth and were ready to head out the door about 40 minutes early! They stood on the porch for most of that time, just waiting for when they could head down to their bus stop!

I hope this will last. I know last year, there were several days when they were racing against the clock to make it to the bus on time. I know it was probably just the excitement of the first day back, but a mom can hope, right?

Two More Days!

Today and tomorrow, then the girls will be back in school. My younger daughter is going into 1st grade, so she will be starting full days at school. I ask her if she is excited about going to school all day, and she says she isn't. She doesn't want to go all day. She's worried she will be bored.

I have assured her that she will not be bored, but will have a lot of things to do and learn and the day will fly by. I told her she may even have an extra recess too. That got her attention. Her Kindergarten teacher told us that she would often rush through her work so that she could play. I hope she will slow down a bit this year and work more carefully.

It was kind of funny getting that report from her teacher since all of our older daughter's teachers have always given a completely opposite report on her. She is more of a perfectionist. She takes her time on her work and would often end up spending time during her recesses catching up on her work that she did not complete in class. She gets upset if, when she is coloring, she gets out of the lines even a little. Her handwriting has always been, by far, the best of her classmates, but it's because she takes her time and has to have every letter perfect. If it doesn't look good to her, she will erase it and do it over.

It is interesting to see their individual personalities. It will be interesting to see how our son does when he gets to school. Maybe he'll be a good mixture of both!

Anyway, we went on one last adventure yesterday before school starts on Thursday. Thanks to a friend of mine who works for Children's Hospital and is able to get day passes, we spent the day at Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark. We had a blast! The only thing that bugged me was the inconsistancy of the workers. They rotated stations probably every half hour. To go down the tunnel slides, you had to be at least 48 inches tall. We went up the steps and even my younger daughter was able to go down each slide. The 4th time up, they had switched workers and the new guy measured my younger daughter against the stick and she was just under the height limit. He said he couldn't let her go down the slides because she was too short. GRRR! So it just depended on who was manning the slides as to whether she could go down them or not. That was kind of frustrating.

There were a different set of slides that you lay on this mat on your stomach and go through a tunnel and come out at the end and go down this steep hill. That one only required you to be 42 inches tall, so she was able to do those with no issues. She had a blast on those slides. So did I! It was a fun day and we all slept well last night too.

Who's Cool!?

Just chillin' like a villian!

Done!

Well, yesterday was a long day, but we got all of our school shopping done. We bought all the supplies from their lists even the bookbags with wheels that they wanted. They were a little more expensive than the other ones, but will be worth it for them. I know last year, my older daughter had so much stuff to carry to and from school. Her bookbag was always so heavy. I wish they had those when I was in school!

We also bought shoes and a ton of clothes for them. After all that shopping, I went grocery shopping and also filled up the gas tank in my van. After all was said and done, a lot of money was spent. But it was all stuff we needed and I got some really good deals. For all that was purchased, it really wasn't all that much!

It was the first time we were able to buy all their school supplies and clothes all in one day (and not have to spread it out over several paychecks) and know that it wasn't going to possibly set us behind on our other bills. What a great feeling! Who knows, it could be the last time, too. If we ever buy another house or have to pay more for our rent, then we may not have that freedom in the future. We shall see, I guess. (I hate being a pessimist!)

Nonetheless, it was a fun day of shopping. My oldest daughter said she hoped that she didn't have to go shopping again for the rest of the year. I guess I wore her out.

School Shopping

Well, it's that time again. Time to go back to school shopping. Guru gets paid tomorrow, so I will be hitting the stores. Between the two girls, I need to buy:

• 2 boxes of 24 ct. Crayola crayons


• 1 8X5 school box


• 1 pencil bag


• 1 pink eraser


• 1 pkg. cap erasers


• 1 pk. loose leaf, wide ruled paper


• 1 spiral notebook


• 3 large boxes of tissues


• 5 glue sticks


• 2 boxes of colored pencils


• 1 box broad tip markers


• 2 black dry erase markers


• 1 highlighter


• 1 set of water colors


• 1 box of #2 pencils


• 9 double pocket folders with clasps


• 2 pairs of scissors


• 1 roll of clear tape


• 1 box of gallon sized ziplock bags


• 1 roll of paper towels


• 1 container of disinfecting wipes


• 1 black, blue or red pen

On top of all that, they need new bookbags. They both want ones with wheels. Then of course new shoes and clothes.

So, I'm thinking of making a day of it and taking the kids to breakfast and then hitting the stores. Should be fun.

Life Lessons

So we got a new American Girl catalogue in the mail the other day. My oldest daughter will take that thing everywhere she goes. She spends every spare minute looking in that thing and writing down in her notebook all the items she wants. She will put down how much everything costs and add it all up. She is constantly changing her mind on what she actually wants to buy.

I heard her downstairs a little bit ago complaining that she wants all this stuff, but she can't afford it all. To which, of course, I say..."welcome to the real world, honey!"

The Weekend

Well, this weekend went pretty well. Friday evening, guru picked up his mom and brought her over for dinner. (She doesn't have a car.) I made lasagna and garlic crescent rolls and brownies iced with chocolate frosting for dessert, yum! It was a nice dinner then she gave the kids some gifts, since she hasn't seen them in a while. We sat and chatted for a little while then dropped her back off at her house.

After dropping his mom back off at her house, we headed to a movie. We saw John Tucker Must Die. It was pretty good. There were several humorous parts and it definately didn't hurt to have to look at this for an hour and a half:



Then Saturday we watched the first disc of the first season of Doogie Howser. Then guru finished up all of his schoolwork for this quarter and is done until January.

Sunday was pretty relaxing as well. I let guru take a nap and took all the kids to the pool. For some reason, we have several parents in our neighborhood that let their kids go to the pool without supervision. They are supposed to be at least 12 years old to go without a parent, but there was a group of about 5 boys there that were all under 12. They were goofing around and jumping into the shallow end and my oldest daughter got knocked in the head with the lifesaving device that they were playing with in the pool (which, btw, is supposed to be for emergencies only). I told them that they weren't supposed to be playing with that in the pool, but they didn't listen to me.

Then we came home and watched the 2nd disc to Doogie Howser and then The Family Stone. It was just o.k. Our oldest daughter fell off her bike and hit her face on the pavement. She scratched up her cheek and arm and bent her glasses pretty good. I think she needs a face mask for her helmet! :)

Free Cones

Yesterday afternoon, my daughters came inside from riding their bikes out front. They were each holding a blue sheet of paper. The excitedly showed them to me proudly proclaiming that they got a coupon for a free ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.

At our old house, the girls got several of these coupons from cops that would stop and hand them out to kids they saw wearing their helmets while riding their bikes. (We had a cop that lived behind us and would frequently drive past our house on the way out of the neighborhood).

Since we moved, over a year ago, the girls had not received any of these coupons even though they ALWAYS wear their helmets when they ride their bikes. I figured they must not do that sort of thing where we live now. We were pleasantly surprised when they got them yesterday.

So, last night, we decided to go out and drop some books back off at the library and mail a netflix movie back....and stop at DQ. The girls each enjoyed a free (not-so) small cone and guru and I got blizzards. I decided on the caramel chip cheesequake flavor. I'll tell ya what, I was not impressed. It sounded and looked so good. It was not so much.

It had lots of big flakes of chocolate but very few bites of caramel or cheesecake. It wasn't terrible, however definately not my favorite. I still like the banana cream pie flavor the best. I noticed that they also had yet another new flavor of moolatte. Mint mocha, YUM! I totally should have got that, except it was like 9:30 p.m. so I suppose it is best that I did not. I still haven't tried the hazelnut moolatte.

Ok, now I am craving DQ again, so I better just post this and move on to another subject.

Kids, Kids, Kids!

They're everywhere! The past couple of days, my house has been flooded with kids. There are, of course, my own three, then two little girls from our neighborhood that my girls play with every day, and I am watching a friend's daughter. On top of that, there is a little boy from down the street that hangs around my oldest daughter quite a bit. He was here yesterday and ended up staying for dinner.

He isn't here (yet) this morning, but all the others are. The neighborhood girls were here before 10:00 this morning to play and my friend dropped her daughter off just before 10:30. I fed them all cereal. I'll tell you what, I think they would all eat all day long if I'd let them! One or another of them is constantly asking for something to eat or drink.

Do you know how many juice pouches I've passed out over the past few days? I've also volunteered myself to keep the neighbor girls overnight tonight so that their parents can get some packing done. They are moving next weekend. Not far away, but the girls won't be able to play together very often anymore. I feel really bad for them because the girls literally play together every day, pretty much all day long. I don't know what my girls are going to do once they move.

Anyway, I better go make sure no one is sneeking any food out of the kitchen!

Oh, for cryin' out loud!

I think that crayola marker was some sort of possessed magic marker!! The spots that I thought I got out of the couch yesterday are reappearing! I am also finding new markings that I didn't notice yesterday. Maybe they are multiplying!

I don't know what I'm going to get it off the walls with, unless I repaint. But if I do that, I'll just end up repainting every week! ARGH!

Sick of it!!

No matter how hard I try to keep any sort of writing utensil out of my son's reach, he always seems to get his hands on one! The girls left out some crayola markers earlier and I didn't realize it (we've had the "discussion" on many occasions that they need to put their things away when they're finished using them, and keep their markers and crayons out of their brother's reach).

They did not follow directions and I went downstairs a few minutes ago there was brown marker on the couch in 3 different places, all over the wall in at least 4 different places! I am getting so sick of this! This kid is driving me nuts with his obsession with writing on things! At least it wasn't a permanent marker (this time!).

I used the magic eraser on the wall and when it dried, all the markings showed back up. I am hoping that I can get it all out of the couch with resolve spot magic.

This is really getting OLD! Here are some lovely pictures of my mess:






Oh, and the purple and orange you see in a couple of those pics are from previous "art work" that I hadn't yet cleaned up. Sheesh! I don't know why I even bother cleaning it off, he'll just do it again! Oh, and that picture by the door was taken AFTER my first attempt with the magic eraser! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

I gots nothin'!

I really don't mean for my posts to be so far between, but I've really got nothing worthy of blogging about. Things have been rather uneventful around here lately. I guess that's not such a bad thing.

Yesterday I took the kids to play at the park for a little while. We watched Hocus Pocus last night. We got it through Netflix. It was ok. I had never seen it before and the girls liked it.

Today I took the little man to get a much needed hair cut. His hair grows so stinking fast! He just got it cut less than 2 months ago, but it was already in his eyes again! (No, guru, you're not going to start buzzing his head like yours!)

See? Pretty boring, but that's all I've got right now. It wasn't really even worth typing out, but I did it anyway because it has been since Friday that I last posted anything. Well, there's 30 seconds of your day you can't get back!

Eyewitness

Well, I witnessed an accident this afternoon. I was right behind this minivan taxi going through a green light. The van was in the intersection, when this lady, also in a minivan, decided she had time to turn left in front of him. She SO did NOT! He slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve to avoid hitting her, but he ended up clipping the rear of her van and pulling her bumper partially off.

I saw the whole thing happen, so I stuck around to give a statement to the police. I know that if it had been me involved in the accident (which would have been very possible had I left a few seconds earlier), I would have wanted to have someone who saw it stick around to let the police know that it wasn't my fault. Since it was the back of that lady's vehicle and the front of the taxi guy's, they may have thought it was his fault.

What boggles my mind is that the lady had 4 small children in her van as well as another adult woman. One of the little girls was sitting in that right rear seat and if she had been just a second slower, or if he hadn't swerved, the taxi van would have hit right where that little girl was sitting!! As it was, that window right next to that girl shattered completely off the van! What would make her think she had time to make that turn? Why would she even take that chance with her kids in the back? It's crazy, I say, CRAZY!!!

While I was sitting there waiting for the police to arrive (which was like 20 flippin' minutes, btw!), I snapped some pictures with my phone. Here is the lady's van:

Did you poop, AGAIN?!

Not too much going on today. I got woken up this morning by the little man who was standing by my bed saying "ow, mommy, tummy hurt" along with a very strong smell of poo! MMMM, what a way to start the day!

I got up and ended up having to put him in the tub. It was all up his belly, on his t-shirt, on the carpet under where he was standing, even between his little toes! EW!

I have had several more of those messy diapers to deal with today as well. It has not been fun. Especially for him. I feel so bad when I have to change him because his little bum is so red and sore and he just cries and says "ow". So, I gave him another bath tonight and put some desitin on him (which I haven't had to use in quite some time now).

So, I didn't even leave the house today. The girls had some friends over playing for a while and they went outside to play. Then they ended up going to the pool with their friends. Their grandfather is staying with them this summer and watches them while their parents are at work. He will take my girls with him when he takes his granddaughters. I will often take them when I take my girls. So, it's nice to let them be able to go swimming sometimes without having to go myself, and chase the boy around the whole time.

Sad thing is, those little girls are moving at the end of this month. The girls just had another friend, that they often played with, move last month. Also, a little girl that my younger daughter played with a lot just moved this week. So there really aren't that many more kids around that they can play with. We have had several neighbors move in recently, but none of them have kids. Hopefully we will be able to get some new neighbors soon that have some little girls!

Restroom Signs

Friends don't let friends take home ugly men.
Women's restroom
Starboard, Dewey Beach, DE

Beauty is only a light switch away.
Perkins Library
Duke University, Durham, NC

If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of progress? Congress!
Men's Restroom
The House of Representatives, Washington DC

You're too good for him.
Sign over mirror in Women's restroom
Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills, CA.

No wonder you always go home alone.
Sign over mirror in Men's restroom
Ed Debevic's, Beverly Hills, CA

A Woman's Rule of Thumb: If it has tires or testicles, You're going to have trouble with it.
Women's restroom
Dick's Last Resort, Dallas, TX

A Man's Rule of Thumb: If it has tires or tits, It's gonna cost you.
Men's room
Dick's Last Resort, Dallas, TX

TGIF!

Well, our VBS is finally over. It was a fun, but tiring week. It was from 6-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday nights. I spent the evenings co-teaching music. The other lady did most of the talking, which was absolutely fine by me. I was just there to help show the movements (signs) to the songs. Except last night, the song we learned had a little rap in the middle of it, and she couldn't get the timing down with the first group, so I was put on the spot to do the rap for the rest of the groups. I felt like a major dork, but that's ok.

It is a fun job to do, but it does get a little repetitious. We teach the same songs to all the groups of kids, so we are doing the same songs over and over all evening. Tonight there is a pool party from 8-10 p.m. The girls really want to go, but it has been raining and I am worn out. So, I don't know if we will end up going or not.

It has been a yucky week here in central OH as far as the weather. It has rained a lot this week. Yesterday, we wanted to get out of the house, so I took the kids to play at McDonalds. The little man found a little girl to play with. He is in this hitting phase right now (which, btw, is getting really old!). He started out by hitting her and she cried. Then I made him appologise to her. Next think I knew, he was holding her hand and leading her around, trying to get her to go up in the tunnels with him. Oh, man, what am I in for with this kid?!!


(How you doin'?)

Then, today, we met up with trin and her little guy for a little while at the pool. After that, I had some grocery shopping to do. I've still got another store to go to after guru gets home, if he ever finishes up with the project he's working on today. He is usually home by 6:00, but here it is, well after that time, and he is still at work (about an hour away) with no end in sight to this project.

I wish I could just hop into bed and not get up until Monday!

Sunnin' and Singin'

I mentioned in my last post our church's VBS started this week. It kicked off Sunday evening. I watched the DVD and learned the music and movents on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I pretty much got them down. I was very proud of myself. The kids are doing awesome with them as well.

We spent this afternoon at the pool with some friends. The girls all had a great time. And I ended up chasing the boy around the whole time, as usual. I've been reminded this summer how UN-fun it is to take a 2 year old to the pool. He is in a very independant stage and thinks he is invincible. AAAAAHHHHH!

But he did stop for a few seconds (and I mean, literally, a few seconds) to soak up some sun.


I barely had time to grab my phone to take this picture before he was done and ready to go run around the pool some more. (I know it's not safe to run around the pool, but try to tell that to a 2 year old!)



Then it was time to come home, get showers, and head back out to VBS. I'll tell you what, for not knowing these songs a couple of days ago, I have heard them enough the past 2 nights to make me sick of them. There are still 3 more nights to go!!! That's ok. It really is fun. And the kids all seem to be having such a good time learning them.

Well, that's about all I've got for ya today, except to ask you to say a prayer for our friend OZ who was in a motorcycle accident last night.

Yard Sale and VBS

Yesterday, I called a good friend of mine to see if she wanted me to come and help her paint her spare bedroom (since I have some recent experience in painting). She is also a single mom trying to get her house ready to sell. She was getting ready for a big yard sale that she is having today and tomorrow, so I offered to come and help her set up.

I stopped by and grabbed some lunch for all of us and took it over to her house. She had her daughter and 2 of her nieces with her, and I had all 3 of my kids with me as well. We all ate on the floor in her living room and then we got to work, while the kids played.

She has TONS of toys she was getting rid of. Lots of it was still in it's original packaging. Stuff that her daughter has received as gifts that she never played with. She also had some clothes that her daughter had outgrown. I picked out some nice ones for my girls. (Her daughter is younger than my oldest, but is just as tall and a bit bigger).

She also used to sell AVON and had a bunch of products that she had stocked up on and wanted to get rid of. She was going to have an entire table set up just for her AVON. I snagged a few things from there as well. I got some Anew Retroactive cream that is normally about $25 and some Anew Cinical that is normally $32 for just $5 a piece. (For preventative measures at this point.)

Then I came home to drop the kids off with guru and make a quick dinner before heading back out to church to help decorate for our VBS that starts this Sunday. I am co-teaching the music. The music always has movements to go along with the songs. I have only watched the dvd with the music and movement instructions one time. I have to watch that a few times between today and tomorrow and learn it all. EEK! Nothing procrastination, huh?

We did get a lot done though. As always, our church is decked out. I helped out my friend (the same one that's having the yard sale) decorate her room for the Kindergarten group. It will also be my youngest daughter's group. The theme is Arctic Edge. The rooms are supposed to be the Big Bear Lodge rooms. We were going for a log cabin feel. This is how it looked when I left at 11:30 last night:


(The door)


(The room)

Yes, that is a blow up moose head above the "fireplace".



I didn't get a picture of it, but someone brought in an actual deer head and hung it on the wall in the foyer. I'll take more pictures during the week and post them. It should be a blast!

So, I've been keeping busy. Next week is going to be LOOOONG. VBS goes all next week from 6-9 p.m. I should be sufficiently worn out!

(BTW, pray for my blog friend Suzy today, she will be having baby Eli today!!)